Tag Archives: CPD

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

The Mathematical Association Secondary Education Mathematics Conference

October 9, 2013 Mr Varty Leave a comment

Bronagh McKeown – Mathematics Teacher

On Saturday 14^th 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 →

Skills, Uncategorized

Science Cluster CPD – Working Together to Better Science Learning Part 2

October 3, 2013 Miss Watson 2 Comments

Laura Watson, Collette MacAllister, Scott Wood, Louise McAdam, Catherine Kerr and Keith Varty – Science Department

On Friday 20^th September members of the St Margaret’s Academy Science department ran a workshop which provided our primary colleagues with a variety of practical experiments which they could take back and introduce into some of their science work. There were three different practical stations set up during the workshop one for Chemistry, Biology and Physics. These stations lasted for approximately 20 minutes and provided ideas for work that could be used to cover 3 of the 2^nd level science E’s and O’s. These stations also showed how the pupils develop in this area when they carry out their 3^rd level work at St Margaret’s Academy. Continue reading Science Cluster CPD – Working Together to Better Science Learning Part 2 →

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

Literacy Development and Debating

June 12, 2013 Mr Varty Leave a comment

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

June 11, 2013 Mr Varty Leave a comment

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.

Health and wellbeing, Uncategorized

Health and Well-being INSET 7th May, 2013 ‘Unlearn Art’

June 10, 2013 Mrs Plenderleith Leave a comment

During the INSET afternoon on 7th May, I invited my colleagues in St. Margaret’s Academy to ‘Unlearn Art’. The invitation meant coming to the Art and Design department for the afternoon to spend what was to become real quality time, working together to produce artworks, with no preconceptions of what the outcomes were to be, not to worry about not being able to draw or paint and just simply enjoy being creative again, which for some meant not having lifted a paint brush since S2! What a wonderful afternoon. My creative colleagues were cross curricular, including staff from Science, Maths, English, French, TLC , and of course, Art and Design. I am tirelessly impressed with the variety of work produced by my pupils even when following the same instructions and Learning Intentions and my creative colleagues were no different. The individuality displayed was amazing, I was so impressed by the enthusiasm and total engagement, as each one threw themselves into their art work with total abandon! Fantastic, I couldn’t have wished for more. However all good things must come to an end but staff returned over the next few days to complete their art work which had become a source of pride and enjoyment for them, and rightly so. Thank you for sharing the Health and Well-being INSET with me and ‘Unlearning Art’. Hopefully we will be able to repeat the experience soon, but most definitely next year. I’m looking forward to it already. Take the time to peruse the gallery of artworks and comment as you please. Diane Continue reading Health and Well-being INSET 7th May, 2013 ‘Unlearn Art’ →

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

Science – Good Practice

May 15, 2013 Mr Varty Leave a comment

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 →

Literacy, Responsibility of All, Self-Reflection, Skills

Moderation and Assessment of Reading in St Margaret’s Cluster

March 14, 2013 Mr Varty Leave a comment

Mary Gibson – St Margaret’s Cluster Development Officer

On Tuesday 12^th February all primary staff from across St Margaret’s cluster, representatives from Cedarbank School and teachers from the English Department met to embark on the first of a two stage exercise to moderate and assess reading at Early, First, Second and Third level. Early and First level meetings took place in Howden St Andrew’s and St Nicholas’ primaries while Second and Third level staff worked in St Margaret’s Academy. The overall aim of this exercise was to establish a standard across the cluster of “secure” learning in one outcome.

The process involved using a template* to plan and deliver lessons to pupils who were secure at Lit1- 19a, Eng 1-19a, Eng 2-19a and Eng 3-19a. Passages were provided for selection according to the needs of the pupils involved. Continue reading Moderation and Assessment of Reading in St Margaret’s Cluster →

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

Pupil Centred Learning – Chartered Teacher Professional Enquiry

February 14, 2013 Mr Varty Leave a comment

Sally Cameron – Health & Technology Teacher

The Health and Technology staff, together with their pupils and parents, carried out a study into pupil centred learning approaches. We had identified that homework was being poorly completed by a number of pupils, was not being completed at all by some pupils and was doing little to promote learning. Research suggests that there is a substantial link between homework and attainment and our aim was to enhance the learning via the creation and implementation of a pupil-centred approach to homework in S2 H&T.

As partof the study we tried to answer 3 questions:
• Can a pupil-centred approach improve homework returns and quality?
• Can parental involvement in a pupil-centred approach improve the number and quality of homework returns?
• Will a pupil-centred approach to homework improve learning?

Teachers worked closely with their pupils to develop a new approach to homework. Over a period of eight weeks, the teachers provided pupils with opportunities to choose and complete several newly designed, fully inclusive, creative homework activities. Pupils, together with their parents, were asked to comment on, and sign, each completed homework task.

Continue reading Pupil Centred Learning – Chartered Teacher Professional Enquiry →

Self-Reflection, Skills, Teaching Pedagogy, Uncategorized, Vision and Leadership

University of Stirling Professional Enquiry

January 24, 2013 Miss Watson Leave a comment

Laura Watson – Biology/Science Teacher

Postgraduate certificate – Professional enquiry

Over the last year I have undertaken a postgraduate certificate carrying out a professional enquiry at the University of Stirling. The first module in this course looked at professionalism in practice and involved researching and critiquing different aspects of current educational policy. The second module involved enquiring into ideas within current educational policy such as interdisciplinary learning, active learning, outdoor learning and technology enhanced learning. Both modules required us to undertake self study tasks, reading educational literature and carrying out tasks to critique this. These self study tasks informed the tasks that were carried out on the taught days, which took place once a month. During these taught days the tasks that were carried out provided us with an opportunity to carry out discussions with other members of the cohort. Continue reading University of Stirling Professional Enquiry →

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