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
In this update read about work which has been undertaken alongside partners across the FVWL Regional Improvement Collaborative (RIC) highlighting one or two particular actions the Education Scotland team members have been engaged in and drawing upon their national roles and engagements.
The FVWL Education Scotland Team involves staff with a range of expertise, combining their national remits with support for the FVWL RIC.
The Forth Valley and West Lothian Regional Improvement Collaborative (RIC) has set out its vision and
priorities. In this document each work stream provides a detailed overview of its aims, priorities and plans set out in short, medium and long term timescales for implementation.
The underpinning work streams are Improving Performance, and Career Long Professional Learning (CLPL), which support the work of the core priority work streams: Numeracy, Literacy and Early Learning and Child Care (ELC). New work streams have also been introduced this session: Health and Well-Being (H&WB), and Curriculum including STEM
(Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).
The RIC works in close partnership with colleagues in Community Learning and Development (whose plan is included in this document) and the RIC Educational Psychology team who are supporting the CLPL plan. The
RIC Education Scotland team have worked collaboratively with the RIC Strategic Board and the Connect workstream leads to develop an offer of support that ties with local authority and national plans.
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.
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
The lead planning team of the Forth Valley and West Lothian Regional Improvement Collaborative invites education practitioners within Forth Valley and West Lothian educational establishments to respond to a consultation and seeks views on the RIC Plan Phase 2. This will enable the ‘Ask and the Offer’ of the plan to be further developed taking into account our stakeholder views. We had originally invited responses to this consultation by Wednesday 19 December 2018 but this has been extended to Monday 14 January 2019
In line with the 2018 National Improvement Framework, a basket of measures will be used to assess progress of RIC priorities. This will provide a comprehensive and consistent approach with key performance indicators being tracked across the Forth Valley and West Lothian Improvement Collaborative in relation to the four key strategic priorities of the NIF.
In addition to the Measurement Plan, the Performance Team will consider key performance indicators from each Local Authority and establish a common set for the RIC to better inform areas for development.
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Click on the link below for the Forth Valley and West Lothian Regional Improvement Collaborative Education Scotland Team Update for February 2020.
The work stream plans for 2019-2020 for the Forth Valley & West Lothian Regional Improvement Collaborative are available at the link below:
