Tag Archives: Inclusion

Autistic Spectrum Disorders Training

Colette Brennan – PTC Pupil Support

Society and Education in particular is constantly evolving within Curriculum for Excellence. Teachers are now more than ever required to be not only subject specialists but also attuned to the individual needs of the class members through GIRFEC.  Ensuring that pupils experience a curriculum within the class setting which is accessible and relevant to their needs whilst setting appropriate attainment targets to ensure that potential is reached in the subject.

In order to enhance the provision that St Margaret’s Academy provides Laura Watson, Lorraine Shaw and I were asked to attend Autistic Spectrum Disorders Training with West Lothian Council. The Local Authority aim is for individual schools to have trained staff to assist and support classroom teachers in their work with individuals in this category. Continue reading Autistic Spectrum Disorders Training

Pupil Centred Learning – Chartered Teacher Professional Enquiry

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

Stirling, CERN, SQA and RRSA CPD Activities

My recent CPD activities have included completing the West Lothian Leadership course and have now started an MSc course in Educational Leadership at Stirling University. I have also undertaken marking for the SQA of both Standard Grade and Advanced Higher scripts. I have been leading the Rights Respecting Schools initiative within my school and have recently been appointed the Business Links development post holder within the school. Over the past year, I have also been trying to implement more use of technology in my teaching, by using facilities such as the PS3 and XBOX to enhance the learning of pupils. In addition I have recently been looking to use Edmodo with my classes such that more online resources have been available to them. I have also lead a recent foreign trip to CERN in Geneva, and undertaken the arrangement of the end of term shows within the school. Continue reading Stirling, CERN, SQA and RRSA CPD Activities

Pass the Parcel – AifL

Laura Williamson Modern Languages Department

I recently observed a colleague in the Modern Languages department using a rather novel and fun way of assessing pupils’ knowledge. The activity, as the name suggests consists of a box that is passed around the room while music plays. The box is filled with sentences to translate, when the music stops the pupil holding the box must open the box and pick out a random sentence to translate.  This activity works well because it is fun and the pupils do not realise they are practising their language work. It also helps the teacher avoid always picking the same pupils to answer whilst helping more shy pupils to be become more confident.

This is a great activity for revision and consolidation. The sentences can be of varying difficulty and tenses to suit all learners. The chosen phrase if translated unsuccessfully or answered incorrectly can then even be passed to other pupils, this promotes peer learning. This type of activity can be utilised in other subject areas by substituting the sentences with questions about specific topics.

Rights Respecting Schools Staff Workshop

Gerry Burns, Physics/Science Department

This workshop aimed to generate discussion of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) with staff to raise awareness of what it means.  This also allowed staff the CPD opportunity to gain an insight into the forthcoming RRSA project. In addition, this was used to test this activity before it is used with pupils.

From a selected number of articles printed on card from the UNCRC, staff were asked to pick the three most important articles relating to pupils within the school.  They were asked to discuss each and provide an insight into why they thought their selection was important.  The Specific instructions for these tasks can be found on the powerpoint located here.  The responses from this were collated from a plenary session at the end of the workshop.

On the whole, staff commented that they enjoyed this task and thought it was an effective way to generate discussion of the needs of the pupils within the school and also in a wider context for young people around the world.  For the most part, groups in each workshop picked different articles which again led to discussion of the thinking behind the selection.  Staff commented that they believed that this would be an effective tool to use with pupils to raise awareness of UNCRC and RRSA.

In the future pupils will undertake the same task in PSE or during a dedicated period.  This will also be used as a survey and the results collated to gauge the overall opinion of the pupils within the school.  An additional task will be undertaken whereby pupils will use the same articles to place them into the categories of rights (survival, protection, development and participation)