Registration for this year’s Scottish Learning Festival (SLF) is now open.  SLF 2016 will focus on promoting excellence and equity for all through the key themes of:

• school leadership and school improvement

• assessing children’s progress and parental engagement

• teacher professionalism

There are a number of seminars exploring how these themes can be addressed through learning for sustainability. These seminars include:

Wednesday 21st September 2016

Learning for sustainability, leadership and school improvement
Ian Menzies, Education Scotland
Focusing on key drivers from the National Improvement Framework, including leadership, teacher professionalism and parental engagement, this seminar will explore how one school has developed a whole school approach to learning for sustainability as an integral part of their school improvement process. Seminar Code: D2E

Global learning partnerships: Inspiring today’s global citizens through career-long professional development, Georgea Hughes, The Wood Foundation
Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire education teams share their experience of global learning partnerships; showcasing examples of partnership working and interdisciplinary practices which support and encourage young people to become thinkers, questioners, challengers and responders in a globally sustainable way. Seminar Code: D2C

Outdoor learning and Curriculum for Excellence
Daniel Moncrieff, FSC Scotland
Outdoor learning is increasingly being used as a powerful tool across all subject areas in Scotland, and in both primary and secondary schools. Our charity provided outdoor learning experiences for over 165,000 people last year, and during this seminar we will explore some of the different ways we work with schools to raise attainment in literacy, numeracy and other curriculum areas through residentials and day visits. The focus of the discussion will be on activities teachers can utilise to access outdoor learning environments and make these learning experiences as powerful as possible. Seminar Code: M1A

Outdoor learning – a whole school approach to raising attainment
Jenny Watson, Middleton Park School, Aberdeen
We will share our effective outdoor experiences to promote excellence and equality for all. Our outdoor learning has successfully raised attainment across the school and has been pivotal in our journey to excellence. Our sector leading approach to embedding the principles of GIRFEC in our outdoor learning
have been commended by HMI. Seminar Code: M1D

The James Maxton and WW1 project: a collaboration between teachers and archivists
Michael Gallacher, Glasgow City Archives
The seminar explores the lessons from the James Maxton and WW1 project, a collaboration between archivists, and primary and secondary teachers from Glasgow, supported by Education Scotland. It examines how partnerships create resources to enrich learning outcomes, empower teachers and engage pupils with unique, interdisciplinary sources of evidence. Seminar Code: K3B

A smorgasbord of support for practical food education
Lorna Aitken, Education Scotland
Join us at the table to discuss current ingredients within food education in Scotland. From self evaluation and support around whole school engagement with Better Eating, Better Learning to assessing pupil progress in practical food experiences, we will aim to fuel your learning with inspiration from colleagues across Scotland. Seminar Code: D2B

GIRFEC through eco-schools co-curricular participation
Dugald MacGilp, Keep Scotland Beautiful
This seminar draws on the experience of three school clusters in raising attainment through co-curricular participation. We will hear from students, teachers and education research staff about successfully achieving GIRFEC through participation. There will be the opportunity for attendees to discuss their experiences and to learn about the refreshed Eco-Schools programme. Seminar Code: B1D

Our 5Rights: Digital rights of children and young people
Scotland’s 5Rights Youth Commission
Young Scot, Scottish Government and 5Rights introduce Scotland’s 5Rights Youth Commission – a diverse group of young people passionate about their rights online. We will hear from them what their ‘5Rights’ mean to them, and how children and young people can be empowered to access technology creatively, knowledgeably, and fearlessly. Seminar Code:C2A

Thursday 22nd September 2016

Throwing out the plastic; constructing an environment which supports the development of high quality creative play, Catriona Gill, Craigentinny Primary School, Edinburgh
This practitioner enquiry used high quality self-evaluation to make deep and sustainable improvements to practice with real benefits for learners. The enquiry explored the effect of changes made to the nursery environment in order to cultivate creativity and develop opportunities for free flow play. Seminar Code:D1F

Rights made real: Rights-based learning in action
Christine Creaney, South Lanarkshire Council
South Lanarkshire Council’s fully accredited Rights-based learning model – Making Rights Real – has been embraced by both primary and secondary schools within and beyond the authority as a practical and effective conduit to achieving equity for all, improving school ethos and deepening engagement with
parents and the wider community. Seminar Code:B1G

Recognising and realising young people’s rights in youth work (resource)
Nicola Sykes, Education Scotland
This seminar will provide an introduction to the Recognising and Realising Children’s Rights resource for youth workers. The passing of the Children and Young People’s Act (Scotland) 2014 places further duties on Scottish Ministers and public organisations in relation to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). This important legislation, enshrines in the education system enhanced duties in relation to the UNCRC. Recognising and realising children’s rights permeates the essence of youth work. The new resource supports youth work practitioners knowledge and understanding and invites reflection on how young people’s rights are realised in policies and practice. Seminar Code:A2H

Walking back in time
Donald Macdonald, Sustrans
Every local community has a story to tell. From the Romans, to Victorians and WW2’s Home Front, there is a story children can use to put their learning in context. This outdoor learning project uses active travel to engage children in learning and discover more about the place they live. Seminar Code:K3H

You can view the full conference programme here .

Alasdair Allan, Minister for Learning, Science and Scotland’s Languages launched the #ThisIsLfS campaign this week, encouraging schools across Scotland to share their stories of what learning for sustainability means to them.

The announcement came as the Minster helped St. Aidan’s Primary School, Wishaw, unveil their sixth Eco Schools green flag. The learners displayed great confidence, knowledge and enthusiasm as they took Dr. Allan on a tour of their school building and grounds. They shared the many different ways they receive their entitlement to learning for sustainability.

P2/3 shared their learning on their whole class ‘Clyde in the Classroom’ topic, including an introduction to the “alevins” that had hatched in the special tank in the classroom. The children shared their knowledge of brown trout life cycles and displayed great care and attention in regulating the temperature and looking after the eggs. Dr. Allan commented on the potential of this project for furthering their knowledge of river ecology and care of the local environment.

In addition to the P2/3 class, Dr. Allan met representatives from a number of pupil groups including the Eco group, the Rights Respecting Schools group and the Fairtrade group. He was even treated to some home made carrot cake made from carrots recently harvested from the school’s raised beds. The children also spoke passionately about their links with Malawi and how much they had gained from their work in supporting and learning from their link school.

Dr. Allan said: “The Scottish Government supports every learner’s entitlement to learning for sustainability. We think it is a great way to learn and can help raise attainment and prepare young people for the world of work. For me, learning for sustainability is about learning for a better world. Education Scotland would like to hear what LfS means to you. You can share your pictures and stories and thoughts, using #ThisIsLfS. I look forward to seeing your responses. ”

Croftcroighn Primary School won the Learning for Sustainability (LfS) award at last year’s Scottish Education Awards. In this guest blog post, the Glasgow school share their story and encourage others to apply for this year’s award:

“We were delighted to win the Learning for Sustainability award at last year’s Scottish Education Awards.

We first decided to apply for the award to gain recognition for the excellent practice in Learning for Sustainability we feel we have established, not only in Croftcroighn School itself but across our wider campus and with various other partners.

We reflected upon Glasgow’s Growing Good Citizens diagram which provided us with a framework to work within and used the Reflection Tool: A whole school journey towards Learning for Sustainability to track and monitor our progress.

As a school we have undertaken a lot of work across many areas of Learning for Sustainability, this has included our extensive International Education programme We have gained our full International Schools Award from the British Council and received our plaque and flag. We have hosted many International visitors to the school from Namibia, Sweden, Dubai, Holland and Japan. We are currently involved in the Erasmus Plus project and have a social enterprise link with Malawi, working alongside a local secondary school.

We also have a thriving eco-committee in the school, which pupils, parents and the wider school community are involved in. We are currently working towards permanent green flag status.

Last session we were awarded a grant from Education Scotland which allowed us to undertake a whole school Food for Thought Project. This enabled us to raise awareness around the importance of healthy eating with both parents and pupils as well as developing a range of life skills. This has continued this session through the Love Food Hate Waste initiative we are involved in.

Another of our recent developments was to look at effectively taking our learning outdoors to develop pupil’s skills and understanding across the curriculum. This initiative was fully embraced by all staff and pupils and it now firmly embedded within the school and the wider campus as a whole. This included the development of a whole campus orchard.

It is important that our pupils learning takes place in a variety of contexts to make it meaningful for them and to develop their life skills, self-confidence and communication. On reflection many of the different initiatives we are involved in under Learning for Sustainability allows this to happen in a variety of ways and we were extremely proud to be shortlisted for the award. The judge’s visit was a very positive experience and they were keen to hear about all the work that was going on within the school.

A number of pupils represented the school at the award ceremony and celebration which was a wonderful experience for them and one which they thoroughly enjoyed. ”

There is still time to nominate in the LfS category for this year’s Scottish Education Awards. Nominations must be submitted by 12pm on Monday 15th February.

Thank you to Clare Fitzpatrick and Margaret McFadden from Croftcroighn School for sharing their story.