It’s a Good Time to Collaborate – event on 29 May 2019 for education practitioners in Forth Valley and West Lothian Regional Improvement Collaborative

It’s a Good Time to Collaborate

Event held on 29 May 2019 in Inchyra Grange, Grangemouth, for education practitioners in Forth Valley and West Lothian Regional Improvement Collaborative

Aims of the Event

The purpose of this event was to bring together practitioners from every school and educational establishment in Clackmannanshire, Falkirk, Stirling and West Lothian. This was to provide an opportunity for participants to find out more about the progress of the RIC, new projects and opportunities that are being developed with a focus on the emerging agenda of empowerment and equity in Scottish Education. This was an opportunity to engage with colleagues in a collaborative way, working together and learning about the progress being made to close the attainment gap.

Opening address

FV & WL RIC Lead:  Dr Elaine Cook, Depute Chief Executive Officer, West Lothian

Thanks to pupils from Larbert High School for creating this video

Click on the following link for the PowerPoint presentation giving an overview of the day Overview-of-the-day-29-May-2019

Workshops

Numeracy – Research based interventions to close the poverty related attainment gap – the FV & WL RIC Numeracy Leads (Peter Valentine, West Lothian, and Lynne McBain, Clackmannanshire) share the rationale and content of the RIC Numeracy plan including the new RIC Numeracy Academy. A carousel showcasing some of the numeracy interventions which practitioners could be trained in for example, using manipulatives in the senior phase;  the RIC Rekenrek project; the power of effective number talks.

Thanks to pupils from Larbert High School for creating this video

Click on the following link for the Numeracy PowerPoint presentation Numeracy-1

Literacy – The FV and WL RIC Literacy team share the work of each of the sub group projects and consult practitioners to identify next steps. A carousel of project initiatives to engage with will be on offer: ELCC vocabulary and sharing the QA framework; The RIC CLPL pack on moderating reading for early to fourth level; sharing the programme and examples of practitioner enquiry into developing a reading culture network; using HGIOS 4 toolkit to evaluate and reflect on current reading practice and next steps into accreditation.

Thanks to pupils from Larbert High School for creating this video

Click on the following link for the Literacy Early Vocabulary PowerPoint Presentation Literacy-Early-Vocabulary

Click on the following link for the Literacy Building a Reading Culture PowerPoint presentation Literacy-Building-a-Reading-Culture-1

Click on the following link for the Literacy Champions PowerPoint presentation Literacy-champions

Performance Analysis – Lead: Michael Davies (West Lothian) -this workshop shared the structure and work of the Regional Performance Team. Additionally sharing some examples of best practice around use of data and performance information within each Local Authority. The key aim of the group is to develop the use of data analysis, focusing on data for improvement, by practitioners at all levels across the Collaborative. There were also be opportunities for Practitioners to discuss and share current challenges and opportunities that they face around use of data. Gathering views on the day will shape the work of the Regional Group, especially their input into the CLPL plan. Topics that will be highlighted:  Tracking & Monitoring; Standardised Assessment results data (eg.SNSA); BGE Benchmarking Tool; Insight (Senior Phase Benchmarking Tool);  Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation; Additional Support Needs

Click on the following link for the Performance & Improvement PowerPoint presentation by Michael Davis RIC-Performance-Improvement

CLPL – Lead: Stefan Wyroslawski (Stirling) – why is a CLPL programme essential for schools?  What are the challenges and opportunities raised by andragogy and heutagogy? How can we leverage expertise in our regional collaborative and in what ways can we facilitate the co-creation of sustainable regional CLPL opportunities? How will we know when we have been successful? In this workshop we shared the 2019-2020 FV&WL RIC programme and co-created responses to these questions which will inform our future planning.  We investigated the questions above and collectively take responsibility for moving the vision forward. 

Thanks to pupils from Larbert High School for creating this video

Click on the following link for the CLPL PowerPoint presentation CLPL-workshop

Early Learning & Childcare – Lead: Judy Edwards (Stirling) – this workshop shared the work of the ELCC group, showcasing some examples of good practice and highlighting next steps.  Opportunities to hear examples of good practice across the Collaborative including the work of the 2 centres of innovation in our collaborative.  The 4 examples of good practice are: CENTRE OF INNOVATION – Building the Ambition at Bowhouse Early Learning and Childcare in Falkirk; CENTRE OF INNOVATION – ‘Wee Scones Cafe’ at Menstrie Nursery Class in Clackmannanshire; Literacy – led by Stirling Council; Language is fun Together (LIFT) and the development of a self-evaluation tool to support this work; Bedtime Story initiative at Croftamie Nursery; Phonological Awareness Programme; It’s a Good Time to be Two – led by West Lothian Council.

Thanks to pupils from Larbert High School for creating this video.

Click on the following link for the Early Years PowerPoint presentation Early-Years

Developing the Curriculum – Lead: Stefan Wyroslawski (Stirling) – a curriculum is designed to help children and young people gain the knowledge, skills and attributes needed for life in the 21st century, including skills for learning, life and work.  In this workshop we considered the opportunities we have as a regional collaborative to co-create content-rich learning experiences and curricular pathways. How can we enhance outcomes for our young people?  Discussions centred around the BGE as well as the senior phase.  We also took into account our unique setting in Forth Valley & West Lothian, considering what we can do to take responsibility for curriculum development in our contexts, with input from regional our colleges and university. 

Click on the following link for the Curriculum Development PowerPoint presentation Curriculum-Development

Teacher agency: what is it … and [importantly] how do we develop it?

Professor Mark Priestley, Professor of Education, University of Stirling

“Modern curricula, such as Curriculum for Excellence, require teachers to be active curriculum makers. Recent discussions about empowering schools and teachers in Scotland have reinforced these expectations on teachers.
Such talk is premised, implicitly at least, on assumptions that teachers are able to be  agentic in their professional work, and the term ‘teacher agency’ has become commonplace. Nevertheless, teacher agency is often poorly
understood and weakly conceptualised. In this presentation, these issues are explored starting with an overview of an ecological understanding
of teacher agency as something which is achieved, rather than something innate to individuals. How teacher agency (in relation to curriculum
making) is achieved, focuses on three dimensions: 1) individual, including conceptual development about the curriculum; 2) cultural, for example, collective beliefs about the role of schools; and structural, for instance relational resources afforded by networks in schools.”

Click on the following link for the PowerPoint presentation by Mark Priestley Teacher-Agency-Mark-Priestley

Professional Collaboration

Professor Andy Hargreaves, Research Professor, Boston College.  Adviser in Education to the First Minister of Scotland

“The evidence for professional collaboration is now overwhelming. Teachers will do better and schools and their students will do better
if teachers and schools share ideas, support each other when they are facing a difficult challenge, and take collective responsibility for improvement and change. Whether teachers should collaborate is no longer an issue. The key question now is what are better and worse ways to collaborate? How
do leaders design collaboration? What do we know about the respective merits of professional learning communities, learning walks, or school networks, for example? How do school leaders take promising designs from one place and use them effectively in another? Scotland is at a key moment in really developing a strong culture of teaching that is inspiring, supportive and effective. Drawing on his new book about 5 different
designs of collaborative professionalism, Andy Hargreaves set out the possibilities and practicalities of designing collaboration so it is
productive for students and empowering for teachers.

Click on the following link for the Professional Collaboration PowerPoint presentation by Andy Hargreaves Professional-Collaboration-Andy-Hargreaves

Panel forum with key note speakers

Mr John Swinney, Deputy First Minister of Scotland, Cabinet Secretary for Education & Skills

Reflections

Dr Elaine Cook

Forth Valley & West Lothian Teacher Meeting

Forth Valley and West Lothian Primary and Early Years Head Teachers came together this morning in Livingston Football Stadium.

The event was opened by Donna McMaster, Head of Education in West Lothian who described West Lothian priorities and gave a strategic overview.

Michael Davis RIC Performance, explained how he had used data about each school to create groupings of schools and in these neighbourhood groups,  HTs discussed common issues and how they might work together.

The Winning Scotland Foundation work on Growth Mindset presentation provided exciting opportunities for schools to take part across the RIC in an accredited training opportunity for every school.

Greg Welsh, Senior Dev Officer, shone a spotlight on West Lothian’s approaches to Validated Self Evaluation and Michael Davis described WL approach to tracking and monitoring Primary attainment. This is the first of the RIC LA spotlight sessions. HT will have opportunities to hear spotlight sessions from Clackmannanshire, Falkirk and Stirling during the HT meetings hosted next session.

There was enthusiastic discussion within the HT neighbourhood groups, focusing on ‘Forward Thinking’: the Big Questions. Purpose; Planning; Contribution

Pledges were made and visits were planned!

National Induction Resource

This resource has been developed to support you in your induction to delivering ELC –whether that is funded ELC or ELC that families choose to purchase themselves. It has been developed specifically to support staff working in ELC centres rather than in childminding settings. It sets out how you can expect your employer to support you in your new role and includes links to the range of national resources which are available to support you. It has been developed collaboratively with the range of national organisations supporting the profession.

national induction resource

Building a Reading Culture

Our Reading Culture network  met yesterday for the fourth of our professional network events. We took the opportunity to consider the role of storytelling as part of pedagogy, to share progress in our classrooms so far and to consider our next steps.

 

        

 

Psychology and Numeracy Research 2019

The Four Educational Psychology Services of the FVWL Regional Collaborative have combined their research efforts to produce this ground breaking report on the psychological factors of numeracy.

We found a parallel with the national GIRFEC practice model and the Ecological System theory by Bronfenbrenner. The 94 factors were categorised into 20  clusters and then three categories.

Individual factors

individual factors combined into 8 cluster factors that relate to individuals

Intersubjective Factors

 Contextual factors

 

RECOMMENDATIONS

This meta-study finds that, given the complexity and multitude of factors that influence numeracy development and mathematical attainment, Councils, the Regional Collaborative and Scottish Government need to find ways of:

  1. promoting long term duration of teacher pupil relationships,
  2. promoting whole school consistency and beyond in the teaching of mathematics
  3. consider the impact that relationships and attachment style may have on pupils’ numeracy development
  4. ensure that teacher led innovations occur in a culture of learning, knowledge and research and with reference to the existing evidence base on effective interventions
  5. Encouraging parents to become more involved in contributing to the development of concepts skills and knowledge which are fundamental to math but not necessarily math specific such as risk-taking behaviour, metacognition, self-regulation and beliefs about intelligence and mastery.
  6. Actively encourage collective teacher efficacy in a context that promotes sustainability of improvement in evidence based ways.

This highlights the need for a cultural change with regard to numeracy education to include funding, employment and training arrangements that promote the long term relationship with staff and pupils in schools, effective mathematics teaching, and recognise the impact of relationships and attachment style on pupils’ numeracy development. Implementing improvement needs sustainability and implementation of improvement to be considered as important as the specific mathematic concepts and knowledge in encouraging children to learn maths.

Our final recommendation is that there is a need for debate about practice and improvement at a strategic and practice level within the Regional Collaborative and the four education authorities.