Category: Community Posts

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Learning at Home with Troqueer Primary School, Dumfries and Galloway

by Cathy Mackenzie, Acting Depute Head Teacher and P6/7 Class Teacher

This video demonstrates Troqueer Primary School’s approach to using Microsoft Teams to support learning at home. Troqueer Primary School have used Microsoft Teams alongside other communication methods, such as our school website and the ‘ConnectUs’ school app, to support children to learn at home. A sustainable model was developed in which the school, which has 10 classes and a Nursery class, was split into 3 large cohort teams with groups of teachers supporting learners. The Nursery staff support learners through their Learning Journals app.

 

Every week staff work together to create a weekly learning grid for each cohort Teams group across P1-P3, P4-P5 and P6-P7. This has enabled collaborative working across the school whilst also taking account of the varied roles staff are undertaking, including supporting childcare in hubs. We have made use of other Office365features, including Microsoft Forms, within some of the learning grids. The weekly learning grids encourage children to take part in activities that support wellbeing, life-skills and independence alongside their curricular tasks. A group of staff have collaborated to create whole school interdisciplinary learning activities that are progressive and engaging, linked to a theme of habitats, followed by food. A whole-school learning context was adopted to help families that might have children learning at home across different age groups to learn together. These grids are posted on the school app, website and Microsoft Teams. Children are encouraged to share their learning or ask questions about their work on the weekly learning grid channel on Microsoft Teams.

Wellbeing and supporting interaction between learners and staff has been a major focus of our approach. We have created a range of welcome videos which are frequently shared on our school app and Microsoft Teams. We have also developed other videos to enable learners to see their teachers, such as story videos for younger learners and a series of ‘Around the World’ videos for P4-P7. The playground blether channel enables learners to chat online in a safe environment which is monitored by staff. There are several live chats each week and we are starting to include the use of audio features for these. Children can come along to these to take part in fun discussion tasks, quizzes and other activities with their teachers and peers.

 

 

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Our Lady’s RC Primary School – Engaging Parents and Learners

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Our Lady’s R.C. Primary School in Dundee, the prospect of delivering remote learning was a little frightening for some of us, but with a positive mindset and some sharing of skills and knowledge, our staff have risen to the challenge!

Most class teachers have opted to set up a Microsoft Team which allows them to have daily contact with their learners through chat and the uploading of files/tasks/activities for the day. Teams also allows the children to share what they have been working on with their teacher and the rest of their classmates, as well as receiving some feedback on their efforts from all participants.

Within teams, some teachers have set up instructional videos to help their learners navigate through the different sections of Teams, whilst others have contained their learners to using just the files and general sections. One of our teachers has even set up a ‘Playground’ channel where the children can chat and have fun with each other!

Other teachers have chosen to set up Twitter accounts specifically for their classes onto which they upload tasks and activities each day. This is a super platform for the children to share their learning and experiences. We can also retweet this to our whole school account, which allows our whole school family to share the learning and achievements.

Two teachers have opted to use a GLOW Group which the children are loving. They can share their tasks and fun things they have been doing throughout the day, as well as chatting with their classmates.

Regardless of the platform chosen, the big message is that the children are receiving some form of learning via their teacher and contact is being maintained. Children are being challenged daily with Literacy, Numeracy and H&WB tasks being uploaded, including links to a range of website and videos. There has also been a big emphasis on personal and research- based projects which the children are enjoying.

One very important message that Our Lady’s is trying to convey is that of family learning; exploring things together, completing tasks together, completing research together.

As well as our class platforms, we have enhanced our use of Twitter through our school account to connect with our families. Through this, we have been able to direct parents to resources/sources of support. This has tied in nicely with our efforts to create small resources ‘banks’ within our community, where we are providing jotters, pencils and other learning materials to support our learners during this time. Connecting via social media has allowed us to receive updates on demand and respond to this by replenishing when required.

In addition, we have updated and developed our school website to keep our current and future families informed and up to date on all aspects of our school and community. In particular, we have developed a support hub on the website, with Covid updates, support channels and materials / resources to support home learning. The learning resources / links area has been designed particularly for families looking for extra activities above the set learning. Our families have found it useful to find all this information in one place. We Tweet when we add updates / new information to the website.

It is our hope that digital learning methods and platforms will allow us to continue with maintaining contact and some form of learning with our families until we can all be together again.

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CALL Scotland’s Shirley Lawson shines the spotlight on iPad Accessibility

The iPad is a popular, cool portable tablet which is commonly used to watch videos, play games and for social media.  In recent days, the use of this device has been increased to include more use of FaceTime and Zoom for keeping in touch with family and friends.  But what about for educational purposes?  The iPad has a range of very good in-built accessibility features that can support young people with additional support needs who will currently be at home accessing Google Classroom or One Note Class Notebook for school work their teachers have set for them.

What could be useful?

If you learn better when you can hear what you are reading or writing, features like Speak Screen, Speak Selection, Typing Feedback and Predictive Text can help by adding an auditory component to text.

Use Speak Selection to highlight the specific range of text you want to hear or activate Speak Screen by flicking down from the top of the screen with two fingers to have all the content on pages read back to you. This action can be tricky for some so you can now turn on the new Speech Controller which provides a Speak Under Finger feature for more precise control.

 

With Speak Selection and Speak Screen options, highlighted words, sentences or words within each sentence are read aloud which greatly enhances the reading experience for someone with literacy challenges and negates the need for them to solely focus on decoding the words.  And with Typing Feedback activated, each letter you type on the keyboard is spoken aloud as well. You can also use Predictive Text, which suggests word options that you can listen to and choose from to get help with spelling.

 

Reading a website

Craig, age 10, is an avid collector of fossils and he likes to look up information on the web but finds some websites can have an overwhelming amount of information displayed erratically in side bars and quotes making the body of the text hard to access.

On the left hand side of the URL address bar there are two AAs which will give you the option to Show Reader View.  Once his teacher showed him how to use Reader view he had a whole new reading experience; he loved the clear interface and combined with Speak Selection or Speak Screen was able to access information independently.  It should be noted that not every website offers this Reader view; it will depend how text heavy the site is.

 

Normal web view                                                                               Using Reader View

 

 

 

Another good accessibility feature is aimed at people who experience visual discomfort or stress when reading text on a screen.  Switching on Colour Filters gives an inbuilt colour ‘overlay’ for the iPad screen which will remain for whatever application you are in until you switch it off.

Open the Settings app, then tap Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Colour Filters. You’ll see three examples of colour spaces to help you select an option that fits your needs. Swipe left or right on the examples to find a filter that works best for you.

 

CALL Scotland have a great infographic on the above accessibility features and many others too which will support someone with dyslexia / literacy challenges.  You can download it for free from our website:  Using the iPad to support dyslexia

What about young people with more complex physical disabilities? What accessibility features are offered?  I worked last term with a young girl with Cerebral Palsy who had restricted movements with her upper limbs but was not keen on getting the Pupil Support Assistant to do everything for her.  She wanted to put the volume up and down, to use Speak Screen and to be able to take a screen shot but each of these actions required fine motor skills which she did not have.

By activating Assistive Touch in Settings and adding in the required functions she was then able to independently carry out the actions by touching the icon on the screen with her knuckle. She was delighted!

CALL Scotland can provide Professional Learning to any teachers who want to learn more about the accessibility features of the iPad to support their pupils with additional support needs.  Please contact Shirley.lawson@ed.ac.uk to discuss your training requirements.

I have only mentioned a handful in this blog but this website is well worth a look to find out all of  Apple’s accessibility features. The use of assistive technology can be life changing for pupils with additional support needs and we need to raise awareness of what is possible on all devices.

For more information you can visit CALL Scotland’s website https://www.callscotland.org.uk/Home/ and you can also sign up for their newsletter here: https://www.callscotland.org.uk/newsletter/

Other links that may be of interest:

CALL Scotland Are your learning resources accessible?

Edinburgh University Making the most of inclusive technology during Covid-19

 

 

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West Lothian Early Years Learners Blog

Our ELC blog was set up to support and maintain relationships with our children and families while spending time at home.  It is vibrant and updated daily to provide opportunities for children to be curious, creative and inquiring.   

We offer a variety of: 

  • Activity Ideas  
  • Daily Challenges 
  • Useful Websites  
  • Useful Apps 
  • YouTube links to support learning 
  • COVID-19 Support Resources for Children 

During this time, Digital Technologies have been the core to learning with ELC staff sharing ideas and activities to their families through the use of Sway, Twitter and Microsoft Teams, embracing a sense of community across West Lothian.  

 

You may also be interested in previous blog posts sharing practice from primary 1 and ELC digital learners:

https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/glowblogs/digilearn/2020/05/21/p1-transition-support-strathburn-primary-aberdeenshire/

https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/glowblogs/digilearn/2020/05/22/flipgrid-in-the-remote-p1-classroom-riverbank-school-aberdeen-city/

https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/glowblogs/digilearn/2019/12/11/early-years-digital-learners-at-bathgate-early-years-centre/

https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/glowblogs/digilearn/2019/12/11/staff-digital-skills-development-at-bathgate-early-years-centre/

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Let’s all “Meet” up – in a virtual learning environment

Our school community are, on the whole, fairly confident and upbeat just now. To understand why I receive such positive views from across the parents, pupils and staff, I have to give a bit of background “pre-Covid”. Argyll and Bute Council have a great IT Team that have been promoting the use of G-Suite (Google Apps through Glow) for a few years now. We in Oban High School had a number of really enthusiastic staff who saw the potential of Google, ran with the training and led peer CLPL.

Around the same time we built a new school and added a Promethean Board to every classroom and gave every teacher an iPad, which they were trained to use alongside the Google Apps. This led to an explosion of online learning via Google Classroom.

The necessity to use the new technology and Google apps, along with regular training, ensured some of our staff were ready for the next step on our journey: live learning and teaching between two schools. As I lead both Oban and Tiree High Schools, it was fairly easy to merge the timetables to allow for the delivery of live lessons to and from each school. This increased the level of subject choice available to senior pupils and ensured effective leadership across the sea; consistent curriculum development and a wealth of shared CLPL.

Admin; Art; Biology; Business Management; Computing; Computer Games Design; Geography; Music Technology; Physics; and PE. Yes, PE! Theses subjects have all been delivered between our schools as part of the merged timetable or, as in the case of PE, to cover a staffing issue.

How does it work? Well, the experience gained by staff in Oban as a result of the introduction of the new technology and mainstream use of G-Suite certainly helped reduce much apprehension. All our teachers were used to setting up and using Google Classrooms (GCs), how to uploading assignments, marking work and conversing through GCs. Colleagues were used to creating Google Docs, Slides or Sheets and to saving and organising onto Google Drive. The only add-on was the move to live learning through Google Meet.

The  “new normal” our teachers faced was that some of the children’s smiling faces were now on a screen; their voices on a speaker. A class is still a class though. The exposition, the tasks, the Q&A and the plenaries are all shared experiences. When doing group work, the Tiree pupils can join an Oban group on the screen using a smaller speaker or vice versa. When they wish to ask a question, the teacher responds one-to-one over their headset. The cameras and screens allow the teacher to see every child in their (expanded) class at all times.

Concern with anything new is natural; safeguarding is a must. To begin with, we only used this with S4-6 classes. No class can exceed its SNCT maximum. IT support is on tap; a line manager is only a call away in the event of a behavioural issue; the office for a medical issue. We have now expanded this across the whole school at our teachers’ request.

What makes it work?

  • Investment by the Local Authority.
  • A core of experienced staff, keen to support colleagues and provide on-going training.
  • The purchase of good cameras, teacher headsets and pupil speakers to capture the whole class “look and feel” to make the pupils in the remote location feel genuinely part of the class.
  • The consistent and coherent use of one software suite of Apps: Google or Microsoft,
  • A safeguarding protocol to give confidence to staff engaging in live delivery.
  • Pupil buy-in – achieved by capturing the essence and experience of being in a larger traditional class environment, leading to an increased feeling of belonging to that class.

Learning and teaching from home has proved remarkably similar to what we already deliver, with the caveat that it has still been a very steep learning curve. The key difference is the need for safeguarding guidance to both staff and pupils; and a relaxation of accepted norms. We must be professional at all times in the way in which we interact with our pupils; we must have support in place for when the rules are not followed and we must keep stressing  that we’re all in a “class” when on online… but we also have to accept our four-legged friends may still appear on screen at times.

Equity for children? A recurring theme in this discussion but just as important for our staff. If there is not a device available or there are not enough devices in the home, every child, and every member of staff, is given an iPad, Chromebook and/or data Dongle. IT support is available to ensure every child can access the devices; teachers take children through getting onto Glow, Google Classroom or how to use any of the Apps. Each child is in a Clan (House system) and a pastoral team member liaises weekly with every vulnerable family or any pupil or parent who asks for help. We do Welfare and Engagement checks weekly. Those not engaging receive a call or a visit to the house where we offer pastoral, IT or curricular support for those who are reluctant to ask but need support; whether online, over the phone or on the door step – two meters distant. We’re here to help.

Delivering a virtual learning experience is not easy for anyone but it will get easier. As each day goes by we learn from our experiences and accept that change is good; or at least necessary. The “new normal” of remote learning in the future will not be new; just normal: the normality a consequence of us investing in both technology; from supporting and training our colleagues; and from teaching our children well in whatever manner we can. It works now; it will work even better with practice.

All support materials are uploaded and shared on the school website below,

http://www.obanhigh.argyll-bute.sch.uk/

 

 

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Microsoft Whiteboard

This is a blog post about how you can use Microsoft Whiteboard with Teams.  (https://whiteboard.microsoft.com/) This video shows some of you the choices that you currently have for using Microsoft Whiteboard. There are two options main options, firstly to share a Whiteboard from a Teams meeting and secondly to create a Whiteboard and then share … Continue reading Microsoft Whiteboard →

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