All posts by Mr Varty

Literacy

Developing Independent Writing

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Philip Harrison – English

Independent writing skills are useful in any subject, but especially in English. To develop these skills in S1 I decided to use group work strategies to encourage learners to construct their own understanding of a novel. I hoped this would enable them to work with greater independence when it came to writing an essay. They would own their work and rely much less on writing frames and teacher support.

I was confident to encourage their independent writing because I was had read some of their work from P7. These essays demonstrated that they were already capable of extended writing with support. So I devised a series of lessons which would replace teacher support with peer support. They planned their own essays and searched for quotations to support their ideas. Then they wrote up their essays individually with minimal teacher support. The results were good and this will be good preparation for critical writing throughout the junior phase.

Continue reading Developing Independent Writing →

Responsibility of All, Self-Reflection, Skills, Vision and Leadership

Senior Phase Benchmarking Tool (SPBT) Workshop

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John Slavin – PTC Mathematics

Catherine Kerr PTC Science gave a presentation on the new Senior Phase Benchmarking Tool on the 6th December in St. Margaret’s Academy. The new SPBT will be used in place of the STACs which recorded the SQA results.

There are several major differences in the two systems. The new SPBT will have 7 categories, four national and three local ones.

The overall presentation is much more visual than STACs. The home page shows the dashboard which has the four national measures, based on the national priorities. It is called a dashboard to emphasise the interconnectedness of the measures.

Continue reading Senior Phase Benchmarking Tool (SPBT) Workshop →

Self-Reflection, Skills, Teaching Pedagogy, This is our Faith

CREDL PgCert Qualification (Religious Education by Distance Learning )

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Jane Laurie – Biology/Science Teacher

After finishing my PGDE in 2011, I decided that my studying days weren’t over yet and I applied for the CREDL course at the. CREDL is a Post Graduate certificate in Religious Education that is completed by distance learning. It allows practitioners to teach RE in Catholic schools.

What the Course Entailed

The CREDL course was completed online and involved a great deal of discussion with the tutors at the University of Glasgow. There were two modules and each was made up of 8 sections. These sections included a plethora of interesting questions and readings to be completed. At the end of each section I was asked to choose two questions and discuss my opinions via email with my tutor. Initially I thought this was going to be intimidating, as I was opening myself up to a very qualified university tutor, however it was completely the opposite, it gave me the chance to reflect on what my opinions and values actually are.  Continue reading CREDL PgCert Qualification (Religious Education by Distance Learning ) →

Interdisciplinary learning, Skills

Science in Industry

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Collette MacAllister – Chemistry Teacher

Having worked in the semiconductor industry for 18 years prior to joining the teaching profession, I was keen to share my experiences not only with my own pupils but with fellow teachers and pupils out with my own classes. When chatting to two of the Physics teachers they mentioned that semiconductors was a topic within the Higher Physics course and asked if I would mind sharing my experience in this industry with their pupils and with them.

In the classroom the pupils learn about the device Physics (specifically n-channel enhanced MOSFET ) whereas my experience was in the manufacturing of many integrated circuit devices. I aimed to complement the theory taught in the class room to make this microscopic topic tangible and allow the pupils to see its real life application.

The pupils were keen to hear about the extensive travelling around the world that this line in work had taken me : from the UK, through mainland Europe ( France, Austria, Germany, Luxembourg to name but a few), through the US (from Washington State to Arizona) to Asia. Continue reading Science in Industry →

Responsibility of All, Self-Reflection, Skills, Teaching Pedagogy

Developing Independent Learning Skills

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Keith Varty – Biology/Science Teacher  

During the recent  staff meeting I organised a short CPD workshop to support Learning and Teaching of the Senior Phase.   This workshop focussed on Developing Independent Learning Skills and aimed to share strategies that help the young people of St. Margaret’s Academy become  independent learners.  Although I knew that I foster these skills in the young people in my classes, I did not feel like an expert.  As a result, I decided that during this workshop staff would have the opportunity to work independently through this PowerPoint presentation before having the opportunity to discuss any questions that arose. 

I then provided a demonstration of how I make use of the virtual learning platform that is Edmodo, to  give pupils more responsibility for their learning.  This involvedshowing staff how I:

  • Share topical science news articles and videos
  • Share Smartboard presentations used in class
  • Publisce deadlines
  • Create quizzes to consolidate learning
  • Set an array of homework acticities from which pupils chose their focus
  • Provide feedback on homeworks and assessments
  • Support learners outwith the classroom
  • Share research tasks with the class for peer-assessment Continue reading Developing Independent Learning Skills →
Numeracy, Responsibility of All, Self-Reflection, Skills, Teaching Pedagogy, Uncategorized

The Mathematical Association Secondary Education Mathematics Conference

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Bronagh  McKeown – Mathematics Teacher

On Saturday 14th September four members of the maths department attended ‘The Mathematical Association Secondary Education Mathematics Conference’ held in Stirling University (www.m-a.org.uk).  The day consisted of a keynote address by Peter Ransom and then the opportunity to visit four different workshops of our own choice.    Below is a summary of the workshops I attended:

Workshop 1

This workshop was entitled ‘A Square Meal’ by Adam McBride and it was both informative and entertaining (bonus!).  The focus was on investigating Magic Squares (a square in which every row, column and diagonal have the same total).  He showed lots of cool tricks that can be investigated by pupils and the algebra behind it all which could be investigated and discussed with high ability pupils.  I found it very interesting and hope to be able to find a way to incorporate some of it into my lessons. Continue reading The Mathematical Association Secondary Education Mathematics Conference →

Literacy, Responsibility of All, Skills, Uncategorized, Vision and Leadership

Literacy Development and Debating

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Lauren McMahon – Faculty of Language and Communication

For the last four years, I have been working as a Literacy Development Officer within West Lothian Council. This has provided me with a wealth of Professional Development Opportunities which have impacted both on my own practice and that of my colleagues.

I embarked on this development as literacy is core to every child’s education and I was interested in exploring ways in which this could be improved at an authority level in order to improve the learning experience for all.

A major aspect of this post has involved the wider development of debating across West Lothian. I have, for the last four years, run the West Lothian Speaks! Debating competition which is aimed at encouraging S1 and S2 pupils to learn debating skills and develop their confidence. St Margaret’s has participated in this competition each year and is the current holder of the shield. This has impacted on St Margaret’s as I believe that by raising the profile of debating early, pupils are more encouraged to join the school debating club which is highly beneficial to developing their literacy skills. Last year, I launched the West Lothian Public Speaking Competition, aimed at S3, in which 8 West Lothian Schools participated. A member of staff within my department assisted in preparing the pupils for this competition which also contributed towards her CPD. Continue reading Literacy Development and Debating →

Self-Reflection, Skills, Vision and Leadership

Internal Verification

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Anne Keenan (Health and Technology) and Laura Watson (Science Department)

Internal verification is a huge aspect of the new CfE qualifications. Over the last year we have become very familiar with the process of internal verification through teaching Skills for Work: Laboratory Science and Skills for Work: Early Education and Childcare. Both of these courses are internally assessed and require the assessors and verifiers to have a sound understanding of the assessment procedure to enable the internal verification to be carried out accordingly.

The key to this process running smoothly is for the assessor and verifier to have an agreed and shared understanding of the standards that must be reached in order to ensure the candidates’ evidence meets the assessment requirements.

It is the role of the assessor and verifier to discuss and record (SQA guidelines) the agreed assessment, any amendments and an in-depth discuss to ensure the candidates’ evidence meets the assessment standard.

Internal verification provides us as teachers with the responsibility of ensuring standards are met, allowing ourselves to draw on our professional judgement in deciding whether candidates evidence meets the set requirements, enabling them to gain the overall qualification.

Numeracy, Responsibility of All, Self-Reflection, Teaching Pedagogy, Uncategorized

Maths – Good Practice

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The lesson was the last in a series of lesson in preparation for a Level F test and so the confidence of the pupils was the focus. Pupils had written their own questions in a previous lesson, perhaps ones they thought were challenging,  and after vetting the questions I handed them back and ensured the pupils were experts in their questions. They then moved around the room sharing their question with other pupils and if anyone was stuck they were able to show them how to do the question.

Responsibility of All, Self-Reflection, Teaching Pedagogy, Vision and Leadership

Science – Good Practice

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Keith Varty – Biology/Science Teacher

When you watch this video you will observe a Science lesson where S2 pupils were actively engaged in learning about cell biology, specifically microscopy and cell structures.  This lesson began with sharing the learning intentions, both visually and verbally, in the form of questions to allow pupils to recognise what their specific targets for successful learning would be.

Afterwards, the lesson progresses to the identification and description of parts of animal and plant cells and shows how I used an innovative approach to Smartboard use and Show Me Boards. This approach captivated pupils and  focused them on their learning, whilst ensuring that they were actively engaged in activities that would allow formative assessment of the knowledge and understanding, which they had developed during the course of the topic.

Continue reading Science – Good Practice →