Our up and coming PLAs (2024-2025)
PAST PLAs
Wednesday 20 March 2024 3:10-4:00pm (A101)
Developmental Language Disorder. Join Lisa McGleish a 4th year student speech and language therapist to find out how to best support children within your classrooms with DLD.
Wednesday 1 November 2023 3:10-4:00pm (School Library)
All welcome
We are delighted that Scottish Head Teacher, Clare Harker, the co-author of chapter 8 of the book “Social Justice Re-Examined” will be joining us to talk about her school’s antiracist journey as well as her own. The chapter is entitled “Educate and act for antiracism”.
Social Justice article PRG Nov 23
As well as reading the chapter in advance, you may wish to watch this YouTube clip before attending:
In this 12-minute video, our PRG guest, Clare Harker, reflects on her anti-racist journey and her racial identity development as a white person in Scotland.
Wednesday 4 October 2023 3:10-4:10 (A101)
Anti-Racism in Education
This session will be delivered by Global Citizen Education Scotland founder Nuzhat Uthmani who is a co-chair of the Scottish Government’s Diversity in the Teaching Profession and Education Workforce subgroup. This is a subgroup of the Anti-Racism in Education Programme. Nuzhat is also the chair of the EIS Anti-Racism subcommittee. Over the course of the PLA, Nuzhat will lead staff in a session that will help to embed an understanding of the impact and extent of racism in Scotland. She will provide guidance around challenging racism and ways to diversify resources to promote an inclusive and diverse school environment.
Recent Herald interview with Nuzhat Uthmani
INSIGHT
Wednesday 20 September 2023 3:10-4:10
Venue: C103
2022-2023
Guest Speaker – Dr Roisin Coll, University of Glasgow
Wednesday 1 February 2023 3:15-4:15 (A101)
This event will be followed several weeks later with a meeting of the school’s Professional Reading Group who will be discussing Dr Coll’s journal article ‘Hospitality to difference’ (link below).
Hospitality to difference: LGBT, religious education and the Catholic school
Dr Coll is currently Director of the St Andrew’s Foundation for Catholic Teacher Education. The Foundation is central to the work of the University and is responsible for providing teachers for Catholic schools across Scotland. Working in close partnership with the Scottish Government, the General Teaching Council of Scotland and the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, she has an oversight of the education of all aspiring Catholic teachers across the country. Roisin is also the author of a range of articles, book chapters and a book on the discipline of Religious Education in the Catholic school sector.
PLA 5 – 22 February 2023 3:15-4:15 (venue TBC)
Formative Assessment of Summative Assessments
This PLA is for PTs and will be led by Leigh Naismith, PT Maths
PLA 4 – 25 January 2023 3:15-4:15 (venue TBC)
Literacy and Numeracy
This PLA will be delivered by Jac Nelson (PT Literacy) and Jen Yates (PT Numeracy). All are staff welcome to attend.
PLA 3 – 5 October 2022 3:15-4:15 (A101)
Lifelines training
This PLA is aimed at the staff involved with Staged Interventions will be hosted by Marie Clare Allen (SLC Education Psychologist). There is a short questionnaire to complete beforehand, issued by K. Slowey.
PLA 2 – 5 October 2022 3:00–4:00 (C105)
Digital Literacy – Educational communication using social media
This PLA will be delivered by Craig Miller in Computing. Further Digital PLAs to follow:
| Date | Event |
| Wednesday 5th October | Social Media for Education
|
| Wednesday 9th November | Google Education 1 – Google Drive for collaboration |
| Wednesday 14th December | Google Education 2 – Creating homework’s using Forms & Docs |
| Wednesday 18th January | Google Education 3 – Providing smart feedback using G-suite |
| Wednesday 29th February | Google Education 4 – Creating media for your Google Classroom |
| Wednesday 22nd March | Google Education 5 – Using Google Accessibility features |
PLA 1 – 14 September 2022
A101 3:10-4:00pm
- signpost useful resources and websites
- introduce strategies to support EAL pupils
- raise awareness of SLC policy
Past PLAs for 2021-2022
PLA 9 – Professional Update
May 2022
Online 3:10-4:00pm
This session will support staff being ‘signed off’ by the GTCS in 2022, to confirm their 5 years of Professional Update. However, the PLA is open to all teachers to attend if they wish.
Kenny Slowey will take participants through the guidance needed to complete the CLPL section including evaluations.
https://www.gtcs.org.uk/professional-update/
PLA 8 – Career Education and Embedding Skills
Wednesday 16 March 2022
Online 3:00-4:00pm
This will be online and will be hosted by Scott Robison, Education Executive in Skills Development Scotland.
SASB CES Skills 16th March 2022 slides
SASB CES Skills 16th March 2022 Menti
PLA 7 – Using Microsoft Excel for Tracking and Monitoring
Wednesday 23 February 2022
In-person 3:00-4:00pm
This PLA is aimed at beginners and will look at formatting cells, filtering, freeze frames, conditional formatting and basic formulae. This will be a hands on workshop in the Computing Department so please let Kenny Slowey know if you wish to attend.
PLA 6 and Launch of the Professional Reading Group for this session: POSTPONED – TO BE RESCHEDULED
Our Guest Speaker is Chief Inspector Colin Convery, of the national Partnerships, Preventions and Community Wellbeing division, who will speak about Children’s Rights and how they can be incorporated by Policing in Scotland.
Wednesday 9 February 2022
Online 3:00-4:00pm
Colin Convery has recommended an article for us to read and discuss at a later date. You can access this from the link below or open the document as a PDF for ease of printing.
Entrenching children s participation through UNCRC Incorporation in Scotland
PLA 5 – Pathfinder Project
PLA 4 – What makes a Reading School community and how do we get there?
The Scottish Book Trust are running a PLA for us, via Teams, on Wednesday 3rd November, around Reading Schools and the science to back Reading for Pleasure as both a key component and priority of Covid school recovery plans and for long term academic and health and wellbeing benefit. We are applying for Reading Schools accreditation this session, at Silver level, demonstrating our whole-school commitment to Reading for Pleasure.
PLA 3 – Digital Tools through Glow Workshop
This PLA will provide staff with the opportunity to undertake some hands on training in using a range of Digital Tools provided through Glow.
Wednesday 27th October, 3:00-4:00pm
PLA 1 – The Professional update process
The focus will be for staff who should have signed off in June 2021 but for whom this was delayed due to the pandemic.
Wednesday 15th September, 3:10pm via the Staff Development Google Classroom
Past PLAs (2020-2021)
Live Stream Lesson CPD session
A PLA will be held on Wednesday 10th March, starting at 3:10pm and finishing at 4:00pm. G McIntosh and C Miller will deliver a session for us, sharing their live-streaming lesson tips and techniques.
GTCS Professional Update and the sign-off process
A PLA will be held on Wednesday 16th September, starting at 3.10pm and finishing at around 4.00pm.
Whilst all staff are welcome to attend, it is likely to be of most use to colleagues who have not been through the PU sign-off process before and were due to undertake this in session 2019-20 or are due to go through it this session, 2020-21.
Past PLAs (2019-2020)
Monday 9th & Thursday 12th March 2020
On Monday and Thursday, a short PLA will be delivered in the Street via the big screen on Using Google Classroom in the Street. Several staff members will demonstrate how they use Google Classroom. The PLA will start at 3.15pm on Monday and if you can’t make that session, it is repeated on Thursday at 4pm.
As always, all staff are welcome and we expect the PLA to last about 40 minutes.
Wednesday 29th January 2020
Tom Morrison from Wesleyan Financial Services will deliver a PLA for us around teachers’ financial wellbeing. The seminar will focus on:
- Scottish Teachers’ Pension Scheme changes
- When you can retire
- Your choices at retirement, including Winding Down and phased retirement
- How and when to apply for your pension scheme benefits
- Choices regarding your lump sum
- How to boost your retirement benefits
- How your retirement income will be taxed
- Income and Inheritance Tax
- We can also talk about mortgages, savings & investments and income protection plans
The PLA will be held in the Conference room and will start, as usual, at 3:10pm.
Wednesday 4th December 2019 – Improving Gender Balance
Hannah Brown from Education Scotland will present her follow-up PLA on Improving Gender Balance. The first PLA looked at identifying our unconscious balance in schools and our classrooms. This session will explore practical changes that can be made to address gender imbalance.
https://education.gov.scot/improvement/Documents/gender-stereotyping-intro.pdf
https://education.gov.scot/improvement/learning-resources/improving-gender-balance-3-18
Wednesday 23 October: Launch Event: ‘Empowerment and Teachers as Agents of Change’
Guest
Speaker: Ken Muir, Chief Executive, GTCS
As Chief Executive of the GTCS, Ken is responsible for the management of its strategic direction, for the operational efficiency and performance of its functions and for the delivery of responsibilities and duties placed on it by statute or by Council decision. He is also the official correspondent of the Council in its dealings with:
- The Scottish Government and Scottish Parliament
- Employers and teachers
- Teacher Education Institutions
- Other public bodies within and outwith Scotland
- Members of the public
- The media
Empowered System diagram (Education Scotland)
Ken Muir’s presentation slides:
Blank coaching wheel template (GTCS)
http://www.gtcs.org.uk/web/FILES/the-standards/blank-coaching-wheel.pdf
References/further reading from Ken’s PLA:
https://education.gov.scot/improvement/learning-resources/an-empowered-system
https://education.gov.scot/Documents/National-thematic-inspection_readiness-for-empowerment.pdf
http://www.oecd.org/education/school/school-learning-organisation.pdf
Teacher Agency: An Ecological Approach by Mark Priestley et al (2015) – for an article by Mark Priestley on this, see https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/4573/7ce723a8788ad268928fcbfa57fe4e6b5ffc.pdf
Collaborative Professionalism: When Teaching Together Means Learning for All by Andy Hargreaves & Michael T O’Connor (2018) – for an article by Hargreaves & O’Connor on this, see http://www.andyhargreaves.com/uploads/5/2/9/2/5292616/seminar_series_274-april2018.pdf
Want to watch instead? To hear Andy Hargreaves talking about Collective Professionalism in a series of small clips, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BZCPnw8rGQ
Andy Hargreaves: The Ten Tenets of Collaborative Professionalism
Refreshing the narrative on Scotland’s curriculum:
http://www.gtcs.org.uk/News/teaching-scotland/80-refreshing-narrative-on-scotlands-curriculum.aspx
https://scotlandscurriculum.scot/
Future Shock by Alvin Toffler (1970)
Wednesday 2 October: ‘Autism’
Practical strategies to support Autistic children in class.
Presenters: Jacqueline Angell
Jane Muldoon and Dawn Connor, both Specialist Support Teachers (Early Years)
Wednesday 11 September:
Hannah Brown from Education Scotland will speak to staff on
‘ Improving Gender Balance and Equalities’
GTCS Webinar on Improving Gender Balance and Equalities
Session 2018-2019
Wednesday 19th June, 2019: Suicide Talk
Training on Suicide Talk provided by Len Northfield. 3.15-4.30pm
Len is a writer and a mental health professional.
Wednesday 12th June, 2019: Peer Mentoring Webinar
Wednesday 5th June, 2019: Children’s Mental Health
Following on from the recent Professional Reading Group discussion on promoting social and emotional well-being, a PLA has been scheduled for the 5th of June to allow staff to explore this further.
Catriona Robb, Teaching Fellow in Children’s Mental Health at the University of Strathclyde, will deliver the after school PLA for us. She will be focusing on supporting children’s mental health and the implications of this for school staff.
Tuesday 4th June, 2019: Presentation by Brian Costello from HeadStrong
Presentation to staff and parents/guardians, 6.30-7.30pm on mental health, changing how you think and how to empower yourself and young people.
Previous PLAs (2018-19)
Wednesday and Thursday 22- 23 May, 2019: Scotland’s Mental Health First Aid course
This two-day course was held in school and allowed staff involved to undertake the full course which was facilitated by Clair Burnette.
Wednesday 8th May, 2019: Courageous Leadership
Isabelle Boyd, former Assistant Chief Executive: Education, Youth and Communities for North Lanarkshire Council, delivered a presentation on encouraging senior leaders and aspiring leaders to demonstrate ‘courageous leadership’.
Tuesday 5th February, 2019: Restorative Practice
SLC’s Psychological Service provided a full afternoon’s PLA for Guidance staff.
Wednesday 5th December, 2018: Timetabling
Jim Reid from SLC facilitated 4 sessions on different dates, attended by PTs and the SMT.
Wednesday 10th October, 2018: Insight
Wednesday 5th September, 2018: Welcome to GLOW
Time: 3:10-4:00
Venue: Please note this PLA will take place in ICT Rooms C103 and C104.
The first PLA this session was on GLOW and included advice on setting up your GLOW email and ironing out any uncertainty around the changeover. A quick demo on GLOW and the use of Google Classroom was also be delivered.
Our previous PLAs
Session 2017-2018
How young people’s participation in schools impacts on attainment and achievement.
Wednesday 13th of June
Michael and Kim from WOSDEC will be running a workshop to build on the initial Reading Group discussion from the 16th of May. It will allow participants to share approaches for exploring learner participation and different ways, as individual teachers and as a school, that we can utilise the resources that are available.
Kim’s Presentation
Time: 3:10-4:00
Venue: Please note this PLA will take place in the School Library
All welcome as always.
You can find the original reading material on the Professional Reading Group page (16th of May) and other connected materials, if you wish to do further reading, on the Pupil Voice page.
Closing the Wellbeing Gap
Wednesday 9th of May
Kevin Mullarkey, from Integrated Children’s Service, will present this PLA as we consider how improving the health and wellbeing of our young people can help us close the Attainment Gap.
Time: 3:10-4:00
Venue: Conference Room
All welcome as always.
The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework
Wednesday 21st March
Time: 3:10-4:15
Venue: Conference Room
All welcome as always.
Brian Kegan from SCQF will discuss the role of the Framework in promoting and supporting lifelong learning in Scotland.
Through the Framework learners, employers and employees can find out about all mainstream qualifications in Scotland and plan future learning. Therefore, this PLA will provide us with a better understanding of the many different pathways for our young people.
Sharing Learning and Practice
Wednesday 7th February
Short presentations will be made by colleagues on Peer Assessment, Nurture, Positive Mind-set and Reading for pleasure.
During these presentations, staff will briefly share what they have learned as part of their Master’s Degree programme and from their research and reading. The short presentations will be focused on how each teacher’s study and findings can impact positively on classroom practice.
Steven Dickie will discuss ‘Effective peer assessment’ and whether specific groupings of pupils impacts the quality of peer assessment. Robert Burns will present how ‘Nurture based practices’ within the classroom have a positive impact on pupil attainment and achievement. Michael Wilkie will discuss ‘Creating a reading culture’ – how reading for pleasure supports attainment and achievement across the curriculum. And finally Jason Milligan will present on promoting ‘Growth mind-set’ in pupils, based on Carol Dweck’s theories on growth mind-set.
Time: 3:10-4:00
Venue: TBC
Insight
Monday 11th December
John Hand will be in school (conference room) to meet with staff. See email to check what sessions are available throughout the day.
LGBTI issues
Tracy McDermott will be presenting this P.L.A. on Wednesday 6th of December. Tracy was responsible for leading the recent Authority in-services on LGBTI issues that so many staff had expressed an interest in attending.
Date: Wednesday 6 December 2017
Time: After school
Venue: Conference Room
Insight into INSIGHT
On Wednesday the 25th of October John Hand will present a P.L.A. on INSIGHT. Although this PL.A. will be specifically tailored for ‘Curriculum Leaders’ and those aspiring to become Curriculum Leaders, as always we have an open invitation to all staff.
Date: Wednesday 25 October 2017
Time: After school
Venue: TBC (location depends on number of participants)
Numeracy
The PLA will take colleagues through the methods of teaching the different numeracy strategies to help bring consistency to our pupils. Examples of level 3 work (and levels below) will be shown along with examples as to how these numeracy strategies are taught in the Maths department.
Date: Wednesday 4 October 2017
Time: After school
Venue: Conference Room
Google Classroom is a platform developed by Google for schools that aims to simplify creating, distributing and grading assignments in a paperless way. It allows teachers to share resources such as PowerPoints, notes, video links, and web links, issue homework, and create a class calendar.
In an effort to help teachers, Brian Nelson will deliver a PLA on this. He will have the 16 Chrome books available to allow the session to be as interactive as possible.
Date: Wednesday 13 September 2017
Time: After school
Venue: Conference Room
Session 2016-2017
Wednesday 14 June 2017
For those staff involved in this year’s Professional Update, there will be a PLA in the conference room after school on Wednesday. It will begin at 3.10pm and shouldn’t last more than 30 minutes.
Monday 5 June 2017
Unleashing Classroom Leadership, will explore the concept of teachers as leaders of classroom practice. Fearghal Kelly, SCEL’s Lead Specialist for Teacher Leadership, will explore the concept of teachers as leaders of classroom practice and he will look at practical approaches to developing leadership as classroom teachers.
Fearghal’s presentation
Fearghal’s blog post following the PLA:
What do we mean by leadership?
Wednesday 1 March 2017
Using Scholar
Wednesday 8 February 2017
Helen Murdoch will present a workshop on Using Powerpoint in the Classroom, suitable for all levels from complete beginners to staff looking to enhance their skills using the software.
The tutorial will take you through the basics e.g. inserting new slides, adding graphics, animating a presentation etc. to more advanced features e.g. inserting hyperlinks, using the master slide, inserting action buttons etc.
Wednesday 9 November 2016
The next PLA is on ‘Developing Scotland’s Young Work force’. This will be presented by Sharon McLean with contributions from staff from Careers Scotland and Skills Development Scotland. Further information to follow.
Wednesday 12 October 2016 – Using INSIGHT
This PLA, delivered by Kenny Slowey, will take place in C103. It will start at 3.10pm.
Wednesday 14 September 2016 – Professional Enquiry
This PLA is aimed at staff who are interested in learning more about undertaking professional enquiry, Charlaine Simpson, the GTCS’ Senior Education Officer for Research and Professional Learning, will outline the why, what and how of practitioner enquiry and discuss how it can be used as a powerful professional learning tool.
Charlaine’s presentation:
Note: the handout Charlaine distributed was from her presentation (slides 13 and 36)
Session 2015-2016
(forthcoming/most recent first)
Wednesday 1 June 2016 – Coaching and Mentoring
Led by Ian Fraser
Friday 3 June 2016 – Professional Update (new date)
Period 5. Please see Bryson if you’d like to attend so he knows to provide cover if required. This PLA is aimed primarily at staff who are to be signed off this year or perhaps are retiring and wish to bring forward their ‘signing off’ to allow they them to go on supply. However, as always all staff are welcome.
Wednesday 4 May 2016 – Self Harm/Teenage Mental Health Issues
The PLA aims to give an overview of ‘The What’,’ The Why’, ‘The Myths’ and most importantly ‘How to help’. Alan Cresswell will be delivering this PLA.
Wednesday 24 February 2016 – Living Life to the Full (Staff Welfare)
Living Life to the Full is a life skills course based on the principles of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) which aims to provide high quality, practical and user-friendly training in life skills. The PLA will be delivered by Lyndsay Malley and will provide an overview of how CBT can be used to tackle and respond to issues/demands which we all meet in our everyday lives at home and at school. We will look at the session “ Why does everything always go wrong?” which aims to help you spot and learn how to change negative or stressful thinking patterns.
For more further information on the Living Life to the Full programme, see http://www.llttf.com
Wednesday 4 November 2015 – Recruitment
This session will be presented by Andrea Reid from SLC and will run from 3:10-4:00pm. Andrea will focus on the application and interview process for teaching posts in South Lanarkshire. The session is targeted at colleagues interested in applying for any position in the authority over the next few years.
Wed 7 October 2015 – Insight Benchmarking tool
The next after school Professional Learning Activity will be on the new ‘Insight’ online benchmarking tool, designed to bring about improvements in pupil attainment in the senior phase. Kenny Slowey will support staff in navigating their way round this new resource, providing all staff the opportunity to continue to address ‘Bridging the attainment gap’ agenda.
Wed 2 September 2015 – Bridging the Attainment Gap
Starting at 3.10pm in the conference room and finishing at 4pm prompt. The focus of this C.P.D. will on ‘Bridging the Attainment Gap. Bryson McGinlay will be looking at a number of practical teaching strategies to support departments and teachers to improve the attainment of all pupils but with the particular emphasis on boys, but on the lower attaining pupils in general.
Professional Learning Activities and materials