Category: LTA

Rewilding Education: how ecology can be a critical lens for system change

Rewilding education: how ecology can be a critical lens for system change

Tuesday 13th February 2024, 4.30-6pm

Microsoft Teams meeting

 Book here – http://bit.ly/3Nq3tq8

Ecology is the study of organisms and how they interact with the environment around them. In post-pandemic education, we are increasingly aware of the social and professional relationships between teachers, other colleagues, pupils, leaders, parents, and authorities. Not only these but the relationships between people and the ‘natural’ and constructed learning environments of home, school, community spaces, and the outdoors. ‘Rewilding’ is a conservation term but is now entering the language of business, referring to efforts to restore an ecosystem to a state where it can more naturally evolve, and where different species can co-exist.  

In this online session, we will explore the concepts and metaphors of ecology and discuss how an understanding of complex ecosystems can help us to better manage and steer change in our own education work.  

We will hear from the host speakers as they discuss their own interactions with these ideas, coupled with different images and graphics as food for thought. Participants will have the opportunity to complete voluntary interactive tasks, engage in Q&A, and share their own ideas. 

This event may be of interest to educational leaders or those involved in Learning for Sustainability in your local authorities.

Multiply: Training Opportunity for Practitioners

I’d like to alert you to an exciting training offer delivered by Workers’ Education Association (WEA), aimed at practitioners entitled Supporting Learners’ Numeracy. I have attached details of the learning topics which will be covered in this 10-week programme.

The programme covers some fantastic and relevant topics which you may find of huge benefit to yourself and your practice, such as Maths Anxiety and Growth Mindset to name a few.

The Supporting Learners’ Numeracy workshops each last about 2 hours and are delivered with a tutor via Teams or Zoom, starting in February 2024. These will be delivered over a 10-week period. It is not a requirement to attend all sessions, but instead you can ‘drop in’ to the sessions you prefer. All course teaching and learning materials and resources will be shared via Canvas.

Please complete this form to register your interest in the training and to highlight the date which would be most suitable for you to attend. Training is free of charge, as all costs are covered by Multiply.

For more info please contact multiply@scotborders.gov.uk

For schools with nurseries – Play on Pedals practitioner training

Thanks to ongoing support from Cycling Scotland, we will be offering two free Play on Pedals training courses before Christmas, with an opportunity to then either be loaned a fleet of PoP bikes, or to set up a loan share agreement with another nearby early years setting for a fleet of PoP bikes. https://www.cycling.scot/what-we-do/training/play-on-pedals

Courses will be ran on the following dates;

  • Tuesday 12th December, Melrose PS, 0900-1700, 8x spaces
  • Thursday 14th December, Duns PS, 0900-1700, 8x spaces

Please can you let me know the name and email of any interested practitioners you have, and what date/s they are able to attend (only 1x day required, but flexibility on what date is helpful). Places will initially be issued to those settings who do not currently have trained PoP practitioners, then opened up to settings who already have PoP capability.

PLEASE NOTE – due to issues previously with candidates not turning up for training courses, there will be a £50 charge for any setting which books a training place and subsequently does not send a practitioner on the day. Demand is always high for these courses, with waiting lists in place, so it’s simply not acceptable to book a space and then not turn up to the training course without reasonable cause.

Any questions, please get in touch.

Gordon Smith (Outdoor Education Officer)

Gordon.Smith@scotborders.gov.uk

 

STEM Professional Learning Survey

Dear colleague

Help shape the future of STEM professional learning by completing our online survey. The survey should take 7 mins to complete and will close on Monday 18 Dec 2023.

Education Scotland is inviting practitioners across Scotland to complete our latest Annual STEM (sciences, technologies, engineering and mathematics) Professional Learning Survey. The information you provide will help to improve access to high-quality STEM professional learning across Scotland. This year’s survey is especially important as it will help us measure the overall impact of the STEM Strategy since it was launched in 2017. It will also inform the development of the next phase of national support for STEM, beyond the lifetime of the current strategy.

Who should complete this survey?

Separate surveys have been developed for specific sectors. You should only complete one of the surveys below.

Practitioners in early learning and childcare, primary, additional support needs, secondary (all subject areas, including those not normally associated with STEM) are invited to complete this survey:

https://forms.office.com/e/Vr7pw5fAx3

School-based technical support staff are invited to complete this survey:

https://forms.office.com/e/dJGEZaQ8GL

Community learning and development practitioners are invited to complete this survey:

https://forms.office.com/e/V6Bctm5NBH

Did you know?

  • The findings from all previous STEM surveys are available on Education Scotland’s National Improvement Hub:https://education.gov.scot/improvement/learning-resources/a-summary-of-stem-resources/
  • Survey responses have shaped decisions about the £4.5 million of STEM grant funding that has been allocated by Education Scotland since 2018 – benefitting over 80,000 practitioners in ELC, schools and CLD sectors.
  • Education Scotland has shared the anonymised survey findings widely with many STEM providers (colleges, universities, science centres, STEM organisations) to help them plan and shape their professional learning offer to meet the needs of practitioners.

Please take a few minutes to complete the STEM survey. Your response will enable a wide range of STEM organisations get their professional learning offer right for you and your setting. The survey data will also support our efforts to make Scotland a leading #STEMnation.

Laura McCafferty

National Education Officer for Raising Aspirations in Science/STEM Education (RAiSE)

@RAiSEScotland