Seeking to build a collaborative culture that will support teachers in Falkirk, Stirling, Clackmannanshire and West Lothian Council areas to focus learning and teaching on practice that will improve outcomes for children and help close the socio-economic attainment gap
The latest Newsletter for Autumn 2019 is available now to read here.
Find out more about what’s happening within the Forth Valley and West Lothian Regional Improvement Collaborative.
There’s a spotlight on Career Long Professional Learning (and you can download the latest CLPL programme here); and you can find out about the latest developments within the Literacy Workstream, Numeracy Workstream, and Early Learning and Childcare Workstream.
The FVWL RIC are very pleased to have been given the opportunity to pilot a Reading Schools initiative with The Scottish Booktrust. Check out #ScotReadingSchools on twitter for more information and to see some of the creative practice going on to develop a reading culture across our region.
Find out a little information about we started last year above. If you would like to find out more or to get involved this session, please get in touch!
If you are a Clackmannanshire, Stirling or West Lothian colleague please sign up using the form below.
This course is designed for Headteachers and Depute Headteachers in Primary and Secondary centres. We are working on CLPL opportunities for Early Years and CLD colleagues in the future.
Intentions and success criteria of the course:
-Recognising the crucial role of Headteachers to support and enable their staff in the use of digital technologies.
-Equipping Headteachers and Depute Headteachers to use digital tools to support efficient workflow and reduce workload for staff.
-Develop understanding of strategies to further embed use of digital technologies that support learning and teaching.
-Increase awareness of digital solutions which could be applied in schools to reduce workload and increase workflow, making use of online collaborative platforms.
This will be one of a sequence of four sessions held over the school year specifically for school leaders in FV&WL RIC. These sessions are designed to be sequential and each will build on the previous session. There will be a session in each term, but each session will be duplicated within that term so that you will be able to choose the date which suits you best in each term.
Meetings take place from 4-5.30pm at schools on rotation within the collaborative.
The dates are as follows: Autumn Term – choose either Tuesday 10 September OR Thursday 12 September Winter Term – choose either Wednesday 30 October OR Wednesday 6 November Spring Term – choose either Tuesday 11 February OR Thursday 13 February Summer Term – choose either Thursday 23 April OR Wednesday 29 April
Please bring with you a device e.g. tablet / laptop / iPad and have the Microsoft Teams app installed on the device you use or, if using a laptop, via web browser if you choose. Participants will be given access to a Microsoft Teams area. Please ensure you are able to log into your Glow account.
This course would be suitable for Primary and Secondary practitioners who lead/support the digital journey across their school.
This progression of 4 sessions will build practitioner digital skills by:
improving own digital skills using online collaborative platforms as Professional Learning Communities
improving colleagues’ Digital Skills by looking at ways to involve staff in an online PLC, for a real life practical application
exploring how we can use the collaboration skills we’ve learned to enhance and support Learning and Teaching. What’s the potential impact for our learners?
exploring how Digital Solutions, including Glow, can help us engage and collaborate with parents/carers or the wider global community
It was the great automotive engineer Caractacus Potts who said, “Teamwork makes the dream work,” but in the 21st Century, what does teamwork even look like? How can we embed collaboration across the curriculum to support and enhance Learning and Teaching in our schools? Indeed, how do we prepare our learners for life, learning and work in an increasingly digital global community?
There is an expectation that participants will set goals for their own school and work towards them between sessions. Participants will also collaborate and support each other in meeting their goals.
Camelon Education Centre, 2-4pm, 10/10/19, 12/12/19, 30/01/20 and 19/03/20 – participants are expected to attend all 4 sessions.
Early Childhood Education – Where Life Takes Shape with Prof Ferres Laevers
5th November 2019 in Albert Halls, Stirling
Target audience: practitioners working with children 3-6 years
Details about how to sign up will be shared in September. 200 places will be available in total and will be open to Clackmannanshire, Falkirk, Stirling and West Lothian. In the spirit of collaboration and building strong future partnerships we are also offering seats to our cousins from other regions. If you are interested in attending and you come from a different region please make contact with your collaborative.
Participants should be prepared to share the learning from this course with colleagues who are unable to attend. Waiting lists are not open yet so hold your horses but watch this space!
We are also hoping to live stream the event through our new YouTube channel which is under development as we speak.
HGIOS 4 and HGIOELC QIs
2.3 Learning, Teaching and Assessment
3.1 Wellbeing
3.2 Securing Children’s Progress
Aim
Participants will:
• Explore the emotional needs of young and how these are best met within an enabling environment.
• Learn how to identify children’s learning behaviours: curiosity, exploration, investigation, problem solve and to think creatively.
• Examine the features of high quality play to allow deep level learning to take place.
• Work with the Leuven Scales as a means of measuring quality.
Content
A full-day conference comprising 7 parts including: environments; power of experiential adult style; monitoring quality
Prof Ferre Lavers and Julie Moon will provide direct teaching with aspects of group work and tasks.
The Care Inspectorate has developed this improvement support
resource on behalf of the Scottish Government. It is important to try
and ensure that providers and other stakeholders understand the criteria
of an indoor/outdoor setting to help with expansion plans and for those
who are looking to make improvements in their setting. The resource is
a tool to be used in conjunction with Space to Grow, Out to Play, My
World Outdoors and the Practice Note: Early Learning and Childcare:
Delivering High Quality Play and Learning Environments Outdoors
Toolkit aims
The Toolkit aims are to:
• increase the number of children and teenagers
with access to loose parts play as part of their
daily lives
• increase adults’ confidence in introducing loose
parts play within play, early learning and childcare,
education, care, health, environmental and
community settings
• raise awareness of the value of loose parts to
children’s play
• provide practical guidance about loose parts play
to those who work with children and young people
of all ages
The Scottish Children and Families Transitions Position Statement recognises the value of working together with children and their families, positive relationships, positive continuity, learning, play and wellbeing. It seeks to inform and support the further development of local policy and transitions practice. This approach acknowledges that each learning community, setting and school will be working from a different starting point in their improvement journey.
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.
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 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.”
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.
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The latest Newsletter for Autumn 2019 is available now to read here.
