Category Archives: RMPS

Health and Wellbeing, Professional Development Workshop, Professional Learning, RMPS, Skills

Youth and Philanthropy Initiative

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YPI

I recently attended the Youth and Philanthropy Initiative (YPI) Showcase Event at Perth Concert Hall which brought together over 1000 pupils, teachers and charity representatives to share the experiences of being involved in YPI over the past year. YPI involves young people researching local charities in their community which they will raise awareness of and if successful in their winning presentation, can go on to secure £3000 for their chosen charity. This is a fantastic way for pupils to achieve in wider areas of school life and dedicate their time to issues of social concern. The pupils showcasing work from other schools highlighted their improved confidence, communication, team working and presentation skills and overall sense of enthusiasm from taking part in YPI which shows how well it connects to the skills for learning, life and work in Building the Curriculum 4 as well as across the four contexts for learning in Building the Curriculum 3.

I am hoping this will have a significant impact on Inveralmond over the coming year as part of senior phase wider opportunities. Hopefully this time next year we will have our own pupils showcasing their winning work at the event!

Sarah Kerr

RMPS

National 5 RMPS Team Leader Question Paper Standardisation event

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This was a three day event to set the standard for marking the National 5 RMPS question paper and to prepare support materials, script commentaries and training for markers using the RM Assessor e-marking system. Part of the standardisation process involved marking and selecting practice, qualification and seeded scripts for markers, and setting the national standard based on discussion and marking between team leaders, the senior team leader and principal assessor.

This event has provided me for the past two years with further insight into the expected national standard for National 5 level and allows me to update courses each year and feedback to my department and how best to implement National 5 RMPS units. It has also helped me to rigorously apply the national SQA standard and assist other markers and colleagues with how to apply mark schemes, monitor progress and assess explanation, description and evaluation answers.

CPD Sessions, Geography, History, Literacy, Modern Studies, Numeracy, RMPS, Self-Reflection, Skills, Teaching Pedagogy

SERA/WERA Conference – Edinburgh 2014

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As part of my MSc I have recently presented findings from my research at the SERA/WERA (Scottish Educational Research Association/World Educational Research Association) conference held in Edinburgh this November. It was a rather nerve-wracking build up creating an academic poster to present to academics from across the world (USA, Taiwan, Norway, Iceland, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and over 40 other countries) and with a few glitches along the way I eventually managed to get everything brought together in the poster below. Continue reading SERA/WERA Conference – Edinburgh 2014 →

CPD Sessions, Geography, History, Modern Studies, RMPS, Skills, Teaching Pedagogy

MSc in Educational Research: Use of iPads to Develop Higher Order Thinking Skills

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Over the last three years I have been undertaking an MSc in Educational Leadership at the University of Stirling. This culminated recently with my final submitted piece of work on how iPads can be used effectively within Social Subjects to support pupils’ development of higher order thinking skills (taken from Anderson et al’s 2001 reworking of Bloom’s Taxonomy). This project was run within the Social Subjects faculty and from the intervention, which was incorporated in to the S3 curriculum, there were several interesting findings. Firstly, pupils were less confident in their use of iPads and associated software than we as teachers perhaps assume and it was interesting to note that the majority of pupils reported increasingly levels of confidence with the use of mobile technology to enhance learning. Secondly, pupils were more capable of discussing and identifying how they can apply knowledge and skills across the discrete subject areas and this aided us in moving past the “but this is Maths/English/insert random subject” type of response to a more holistic view of learning.

Continue reading MSc in Educational Research: Use of iPads to Develop Higher Order Thinking Skills →

RMPS, Teacher Posts

RME National Engagement Event – Friday 31st October

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This event was aimed at stimulating forward thinking approaches to the key areas of development from the RME Impact Report issued by Education Scotland in 2013. Time was given to evaluate the aims, strengths and areas of development within the Impact Report and space to engage in dialogue with others about how best to move RME forward in schools. The workshops provided were a useful process of self-evaluation about how to measure the impact of RME in our own settings. I attended a workshop about engaging with RME in the senior phase as a non-timetabled option in S5 and S6 which I will hopefully take forward in discussion with colleagues and senior management. This event has made me think about the opportunities we currently have for wider achievement in the school and the explicit links that could be made to RME particularly with senior students. It was useful to engage in discussion about the purpose and impact of RME with a range of practitioners from primary and secondary, principal teachers, deputes and head teachers.