Category Archives: Self-Reflection

Interdisciplinary learning, Responsibility of All, Self-Reflection, This is our Faith, Uncategorized, Vision and Leadership

R.E. Inset Day

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Frank Quinn – Principal Teacher R.E. Department

As part of the school’s plan in implementing “Shining the Light” and “This is Our Faith” (T.I.O.F.), it was decided that some time should be spent looking at part of the document “T.I.O.F.” by the whole staff during an Inset day.  The school believes the way forward with “T.I.O.F.” and the school’s Religious Education programme is to approach it as a whole-school responsibility, like Literacy, Numeracy and H&WB.  Each department should be aware where there are opportunities for them to contribute to the R.E. in the school.

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Interdisciplinary learning, Self-Reflection

Enquiry into Professional Practice

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Sue Weir – PE teacher

I have just completed my first year in a Masters in Enquiring into professional practice at Stirling University. This has been an enjoyable and really worthwhile experience. Over the past year I have been researching educational practice such as reflective practice, active learning and interdisciplinary learning. Having the opportunity to read up to date journal articles has been excellent for me as a professional but also being able to contribute towards my department’s progress.

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Self-Reflection, Vision and Leadership

Using data analysis for targeted intervention, mentoring and raising attainment

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John Slavin Faculty Leader Raising Attainment

My recent CPD has included working with Seemis and TMR (our data management system) to exact data entered by teachers, analyse this and use the results for targeted intervention. By manipulating the data, pupils who are underachieving can be identified and targeted. A monitoring programme has been devised and teachers were invited to participate in delivering this to the S4 pupils. The course I am currently undertaking at Stirling University is in Coaching and Mentoring and the programme for our pupils is based largely around the major themes from this.

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Self-Reflection, Teaching Pedagogy, Vision and Leadership

Stirling, SQA and SSERC CPD Supporting Science Improvements

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Catherine Kerr Faculty Leader Science

My recent CPD activities have included starting an MSc in Leadership at Stirling University, attending SQA workshops for national qualifications, attending the Secondary Science Education Research Centre and becoming a writer for a Biology eTextbook. In addition to this I am completing a course in Coaching & Mentoring and trialling the online Edmodo resource with my Higher classes. This invaluable professional learning journey has had a positive impact not only on my own practice but also on colleagues and pupils within my faculty.

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

Diabetes Workshop

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Helen Powley, P.E. Department

This was a very informative CPD experience. We have many pupils in the school who have diabetes and we must be aware of their needs. The CPD went through the two differnt types of diabetes and how these can be controlled. Examples of the different pieces of equipment were there for staff to look at and try! The main message I took form the session was that it  is important for staff, parents and medical staff to work together to ensure the wellbeing of the pupil. NHS staff were keen to point out that staff and parents must contact them if they need support. There are a huge number of pupils in the lothian who have diabetes and few nurses, so if support is required we must ask.

If pupils are going away on a school trip I recommend that a meeting set up with parents, and if required NHS staff to ensure that the correct plan and resources are in place for the duration of a trip. For example, medication may need to be changed for a sports activity trip. Continue reading Diabetes Workshop →

Self-Reflection, Teaching Pedagogy, Vision and Leadership

Working Together for Better Science Learning – a Cluster Approach to CPD

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St Margaret’s Academy Science department has been approached by SSERC to develop the transition process in science. The rationale and outline of this programme: “Working Together for Better Science Learning – a Cluster Approach to CPD programme” can be downloaded here. Myself and colleague Keith Varty along with one of our primary colleagues Jennifer Currie were invited along to the first workshop of the Armadale cluster to see how this works and if it is something that we would be interested in leading across our cluster. Each cluster primary school had sent at least two representatives to this event and Armadale Academy also had members of the science department there to help support their primary colleagues in the science tasks carried out during the workshop.

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Responsibility of All, Self-Reflection, Vision and Leadership

Assessment and Moderation – Key Messages

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IS Day presentation by Catherine Kerr (PTC Science)

To be honest I’m not really an expert on the subject. As a starting point I walked about the school asking staff what their understanding of Assessment and Moderation was. The responses were really interesting as the teachers that I put on the spot (mainly un-promoted staff) all had very similar understandings, concerns, and misconceptions. My Assessment and Moderation presentation therefore focussed on the teachers at St. Margaret’s point of view and my hope was that it would build on what was already known as well as clarify some of the key messages from educational policy and best practice.

The information provided came from several sources including the Education Scotland website which provides lots of current information on Assessment and Moderation. In addition I accessed the National Assessment Resource (NAR). As a database I think the NAR is a bit of a let down but the search facility is useful. I searched for ‘sharing the standards’, which brought up different authorities examples of moderation some of which were excellent and used throughout my presentation. All of the information I thought staff might find useful has been placed in a ring binder for each curricular area.

Further useful links include:

Responsibility of All, Self-Reflection, Vision and Leadership

Health and wellbeing – Themes Workshop

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David Downham and Nick Torsney, P.E. Department

This workshop aspired to raise the issue of a whole school responsibility for health and wellbeing and looked at identifying a hot topic, theme or issue that affects the school.  As a group we selected one of the building blocks of health and well being that would help us focus on and try to raise awareness of or tackle the issue.   We then broke up into smaller groups to discuss strategies that individuals, departments and the whole school could adopt to help with this.

The building block identified was Respect which falls under the title of Relationships and Friendships.  This would cover a range of issues including inappropriate uniform, litter, eating habits, correct use of equipment/areas and punctuality.

After the workshop we will work towards bring together all the information and report it back to the staff before putting some of the strategies in place as well as identifying all experiences and outcomes covered.  The feedback from the staff was very positive and suggested that more time would have been useful in the workshop.  The accompanying PowerPoint for this workshop can be located here.

Responsibility of All, Self-Reflection, Teaching Pedagogy, This is our Faith, Vision and Leadership

Health and wellbeing – Values Workshop

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Frank Quinn – Principal Teacher R.E. Department

This workshop combined several areas for development within the school: continuing work started by the Chaplaincy team on the school mission statement, highlighting some key values stressed in “This is our Faith” and the Experiences and Outcomes of Health & Wellbeing.

We wanted to raise awareness of the key values which lie at the heart of our School Mission Statement and which emanate through all areas of the school, especially the relationships between staff and the young people and between colleagues. The first part of the workshop, the scenario, was set up to encourage discussion over professional methods and the values which staff demonstrate. The second part of the workshop raised the awareness for all staff of the values expected of them as part of the St Margaret’s community.

The PowerPoint used in this workshop can be accessed here whilst the Mission Statement of St. Margaret’s Academy can be accessed here.

Responsibility of All, Self-Reflection, Teaching Pedagogy, This is our Faith, Uncategorized, Vision and Leadership

Using Positive Rewards and Praise Workshop

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Karyn Reilly and Sonia Ryan (English Department) delivered a workshop on Using Positive Rewards and Praise which aimed to share the wide range of systems and strategies that departments and faculties within St Margaret’s Academy use to celebrate success and reward pupils.  This workshop provided staff with an opportunity to collate ideas of ongoing practice in individual classrooms whilst allowing staff to reflect through discourse surrounding the idea of ‘praise’ and ‘reward’ and its impact on pupils.  The Powerpoint used in this workshop can be located here.

This workshop stemmed from Karyn and Sonia’s working group which aspires to further develop the positive reward system in the school.  Karyn describes their work as

“We are trying to come up with a whole school approach to reward all pupils.  We went round most departments to see what they were doing and what individual teachers were doing; we aim to use some of their good practice in the whole school system. We now need to collate all the thoughts and information we collected on Tuesday and use it to help us develop it.”

The image gallery below shows the responses that staff produced to set questions after a period of time discussing these questions.  Larger images can be obtained by clicking on each image.