Incredible Inventors: Celebrating Digital Innovation

We are thrilled to announce that two talented students from Kirkhill Primary School have been recognised as Runners-Up in the recent #DigitalInventorsCompetition! Their innovative project earned them an invitation to the award ceremony in Glasgow this week, where they celebrated their achievements.

The Competition

Pupils were challenged to research common health and care challenges and come up with ideas that could be transformed into a digital health and care solution.

They designed a heated blanket to soothe the symptoms of Arthritis, and includes space for a medicated gel pad for topical treatment, and a digital chip to connect to an app for wireless control. It is designed to be made using recycled materials, and specifically targets the area of pain, using heat to improve symptoms and reduce the environmental impact of heating the whole house.

Kirkhill Primary School submitted designs from pupils across P6, and also had a second group receive a Special Recognition award for their invention too. This is an incredible achievement to all. Well done to everyone who entered, you are all superstars!

ELC Spotlight: Sharing Learning with Adobe Express

We are excited to share this beautiful example of how Winchburgh PS ELC have highlighted the amazing learning taking place, through the use of an Adobe Webpage.

The webpage brings together pictures, text, quotes and videos to show an incredibly detailed picture of the excitement and enthusiasm of our youngest learners.

See some lovely snippets of the webpage below, or click the link to view more.

Sharing The Learning: The Gruffalo


At Winchburgh ELC we have been exploring the Gruffalo story. Literacy was our focus, but the story has permeated through all of our learning and the children have taken it down many avenues

“We read the story in small groups and talked about how the characters might be feeling at certain points in the story. We asked our own questions to help us understand the story and made predictions about what might happen next.”

“After retelling the story using the spoons we decided to do some drama to recreate the story.”

Sharing the learning: The Gruffalo

Adobe Express is a creativity tool available to all learners (P4+) and staff through their GLOW accounts. It allows users to easily create videos, flyers, banners, and more with intuitive drag-and-drop functionality, making content creation accessible and fun for everyone.

To find out more about how to use Adobe Express, click this link, or sign up to one of the Live Educator training sessions.

Adobe-Express-for-Education-Info-GraphicDownload

If you have any examples of using Adobe Express to share the learning, please let us know at digitallearningteam@westlothian.org.uk

Celebrating Success with Seafield Primary

We are delighted to announce that Seafield Primary School have recently achieved their Digital Schools Award, recognising the dedication and innovative work of pupils, staff and the whole school community.

Pupils across the school use a range of digital devices to access digital tools and resources to support, enhance and share their learning, such as MS Learning Accelerators, online games for consolidation of learning, Seesaw for sharing, MS Teams for collaboration, Adobe Express for creativity and so much more.

The links below, showcase some of the fantastic ways Seafield staff and pupils have been using Digital Technology to support and enhance learning and teaching.

Digital technologies at seafield ps
Digital Award Application Sway

Accredited by Education Scotland, The Digital Schools Award Scotland is a national award to promote, recognise and encourage a whole school approach to the use of digital technology.

We know there are schools across West Lothian who are working towards their validation this session, so look out for more announcements soon!

Congratulations once again to Seafield PS! We can’t wait to see how you continue to use these skills.

Wildly Creative with Adobe Express and Five Sisters Zoo

Primary 6/7 pupils at Seafield Primary have been using their creativity skills and their new enthusiasm for Adobe Express, to create their entries for a competition with Five Sisters Zoo.

Their creations showcased their skills in using various creative elements, including images, videos, audio, voiceovers, background music, animations, and transitions. The result was a series of beautiful, professional-looking videos, about Red Pandas.

Adobe Express

Seafield PS have really enjoyed using Adobe Express to showcase learning across a range of topics in class, for individual projects and in champion roles across the school. Pupils have demonstrated dedication, enthusiasm, and incredible creativity in designing their projects. Staff have also praised the inclusivity Adobe Express offers, allowing pupils to participate in video creation without needing to be in front of the camera. We love seeing your fantastic creations—keep up the amazing work!

Celebrating Success with St John the Baptist


We are delighted to announce that St John the Baptist Primary School have recently achieved their Digital Schools Award, recognising the dedication and innovative work of pupils, staff and the whole school community.

Accredited by Education Scotland, The Digital Schools Award Scotland is a national award to promote, recognise and encourage a whole school approach to the use of digital technology.

West Lothian currently has 40 primary schools, 9 secondary schools, 1 ELC and 1 ASN school who have achieved this award. We know there are schools who are working towards their validation this session, so look out for more announcements soon!

Congratulations once again to St John the Baptist PS! We can’t wait to see how you continue to use these skills.

IoT in Schools – Data Literacy Project: Reflections from our Data Detectives


This week, pupils from Deans Primary and Boghall Primary presented their findings and reflections from their recent Internet of Things Data Literacy Project.

The project began a couple of months ago, with an introductory lesson delivered by Tommy Lawson from the University of Edinburgh, during which the pupils explored the sensors and the data collected from their learning environments. They then spent a few weeks using the sensors to help improve their learning environments, before presenting their findings.

Boghall Primary Update


Boghall pupils used the new Sound Sensors to explore the noise level in the hall over breakfast club and lunch times.

They are now planning on introducing music to the hall specifically during breakfast club, to see if it can help reduce the noise level. We wonder if different types of music will have a different effect?

Deans Primary Update

Deans pupils began by using the data to identify where the sensors are located.

” We were looking at the motion detector on one of the sensors, the motion was flat, so we thought it was in a cupboard but the light sensor was quite high. The light was mostly on at 7 and went off between half 8 or 9. We thought it might have been in the cleaners cupboard because it was on at different times from when we were in school.” – P7 Pupil

They have also been working with Cambridge University on a computing project, using the Microbits to create their own sensors, which they will then compare with the IoT sensors. We wonder if the data will be the same?

“The real challenge was trying to get the temperature to code, so if you put it in your hands it would heat up, and show the number, but it was quite tricky” – P7 Pupil

We are very impressed with the learning taking place with both of these schools, and we can’t wait to hear what else you find out from continuing this project. Well done all!

Creativity Unleashed with Adobe Express

This morning, P7/6 at Eastertoun Primary had a creative morning working with the Digital Team, exploring Adobe Express to share their learning from their digital research project this term, all about planets.
They began a few weeks ago by learning to use Microsoft Search Coach to identify accurate and reliable information online and exploring the filtering options to narrow their searches, and used Microsoft Whiteboard and Microsoft Assignments to collaborate and share their findings.

Today they used this knowledge and information to share their learning in their own, incredibly impressive, creative projects, with pupils choosing to create posters, animations, videos and even podcasts!

We are looking forward to seeing what else you can create over the next few months. Well done P6/7!

The Sky is the Limit with Adobe Express

Primary 7 at Southdale Primary School were recently visited by the Sky Up team as they explored the latest teacher-led resource from Sky Up – The Edit.

In the Fiction lessons, learners gain an understanding of the design process behind film trailers and an insight into the skills required to work in the TV, film and media industries. They work collaboratively to produce their own 30-second film trailer, unleashing their creativity and digital skills, with the help of Adobe Express.

A special event to showcase the final trailers will take place soon and we can’t wait to see them!

Sign up to Sky Up and register for The Edit to receive your free lesson guides and resources. Booking are also open to attend the Sky Up Academy Studios with your class.

Don’t forget that Adobe Express are also hosting Teacher Training and Live Lessons this term.

Savvy Searching in Eastertoun Primary

P7 Pupils at Eastertoun Primary School enjoyed exploring the Microsoft Search Coach tool this morning, to support them in finding accurate and reliable information online. Pupils confidently identified the benefits and importance of finding and using trustworthy websites, and enjoyed critically evaluating sites to assess their reliability.

“Using Search Coach can help you find trustworthy websites instead of ones with viruses or false information.”

P7 Pupil

Pupils then utilised their digital skills to collaborate online, sharing their learning through Teams and enhancing their understanding by using the Accessibility Tools built into Microsoft Edge.

By the end of the session, pupils were feeling proud of their achievements and excited to continue to explore other digital tools available to them.

“In Search Coach, you can filter by domain, country and timescale, to get accurate and up-to-date information.”

P7 Pupil

Data Detectives: Unveiling the Secrets of Our Classroom Environment

We had a great start to the relaunch of the Internet of Things project, in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh.
Thank you to P6 from Blackridge Primary, P5 and P6 from Livingston Village Primary, for joining us on this exciting project.

“CO2 was low until everyone came in the class.”
P5 pupil at Livingston Village PS

Pupils found the information and videos interesting and informative, and the sessions prompted fantastic discussions around the effects of environmental factors on learning.

“It really got the pupils thinking. Thank you”
P6 teacher

The sessions were designed to introduce the data sensors and encourage pupils to investigate their learning environment, by analysing the data.

The data sensors collect readings on the temperature, light level, CO2 level, motion and humidity of the classroom environment.

Thank you again to all our schools, staff and of course to Tommy & Antonia, for your involvement.


If you’d like to find out more about the project, please visit the Internet of Things in Schools website.

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