Tag Archives: skills for work

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 →

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.

Skills, Teaching Pedagogy, Uncategorized

Skills for Work: Laboratory Science

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Laura Watson – Biology/Science Teacher

St Margaret’s Academy Science Department, this year, introduced a new course available for S5/6 pupils called Skills for Work: Laboratory Science. This is set at Intermediate 2 level and has been a huge success since introduced in June.

Skills for Work: Laboratory Science is designed to equip students with the necessary knowledge and skills which are required for employment in laboratory science

Throughout the course the students explore a variety and range of industries and services, and the career opportunities in science laboratories, in a local, national, and global setting. At this point in the course the students attended a work based placement at one of the local scientific companies which helped support the material they have been learning in the class and provided them with the opportunity to speak to people who work in a laboratory setting.

Continue reading Skills for Work: Laboratory Science →