Category: Sharing Learning

Celebrating Creativity & Coding at Howden St Andrew’s!

Pupils at Howden St Andrew’s recently explored the LEGO SPIKE Essential kits, using sensors, motors and block coding to design and create a range of carnival-themed games.

P4–6 pupils were excited to get started and quickly began exploring how the kits worked. Over the course of six weeks, they used the LEGO kits to design creations that could solve a problem, then used block coding to bring them to life.

They showed creativity and curiosity as they developed their ideas further, adapting and improving their projects to make them more interesting, unique and, in some cases, more complex.

As they became more confident, pupils started to experiment more with their code.

Instead of just following instructions, they have been taking ownership of their projects by:

  • adding their own triggers and movements
  • experimenting with sound effects
  • trying out more complex “if/then” style programming

🎡 Designing Their Own Carnival Games

This block’s big challenge has been building carnival‑themed games, and learners have risen to it with enthusiasm. Using what they’ve learned about:

  • motor rotations
  • sensors
  • speed control
  • angles
  • cause & effect in coding

…they’ve turned their LEGO kits into exciting, playable creations.

🏀 A Highlight: The LEGO Basketball Game

One standout project came from a pupil who designed a basketball‑throwing game entirely from scratch.

  • He coded the LEGO motor to throw the ball toward a hoop.
  • He used a sensor to detect when a goal was scored.
  • He added sound effects to celebrate successful shots.
  • He built his own reset mechanism so the motor rotated back into position.

He deepened his understanding of angles, discovering what a 90‑degree turn truly looks like in practice – how far the motor rotates, whether that angle generates enough force to throw the ball, and how to adjust it when it didn’t. This was maths‑in‑action at its best: experimenting, testing, refining, and making connections.

🔍 More Brilliant Thinking from the Groups

Other groups showed fantastic STEM thinking too:

  • One team explored motor rotations, discussing how far their mechanism needed to turn to make their game work smoothly.
  • Another group experimented with speed settings, predicting and testing how increasing speed affects the distance a ball would travel.

These moments captured the essence of the club: pupils thinking critically, applying real‑world STEM concepts, and discovering answers through hands‑on testing.

🌟 A Celebration of Skills, Curiosity & Teamwork

Across the block, learners have shown:

  • Resilience by trying again when things didn’t work
  • Collaboration by helping each other debug and improve
  • Leadership by taking ownership of their designs
  • Creativity by turning technical components into imaginative games

Well done to all! You’ve been superstars.

Pupil Voice & Leadership in Action: Letham & Riverside Learners Shape the Future of Digital Learning

Over the last few weeks, a group of enthusiastic pupils from Letham and Riverside Primary Schools have taken on an exciting leadership project exploring how digital technology is currently used in their schools and how it could be improved as they prepare for their move to the new Craigshill building.

Pupils then delivered a hybrid presentation, sharing their findings both in person to staff from the WL Equity Team and the WL Digital Learning Team, whilst simultaneously sharing via video link with Digital Leaders at Bankton Primary.

What They Wanted to Find Out

They developed a series of questions to explore the real experiences of learners and staff:

  • What does “digital” mean to you?
  • What’s going well digitally in our school?
  • What would you like to change or improve, digitally in our school?
  • How does your learning connect to real life, and how does technology support the curriculum?
  • Do we currently have the right materials to help us learn effectively?
  • Do teachers meet the needs of individual pupils and help you learn in different ways?
  • Are there good opportunities to use digital technology to support learning and the curriculum?

These questions opened up honest conversations about access, confidence, creativity, and the role technology plays in everyday learning.

What They Discovered

Across both schools, pupils found a strong appreciation for technology as a tool for research, learning, creativity, communication, and independence. They highlighted examples of digital tools being used well, such as for supporting writing with MS Accessibility tools, coding with Beebots and Scratch, boosting engagement with Kahoot, Blooket and Sumdog, and presenting ideas and learning with Adobe Express.

At the same time, pupils shared thoughtful ideas about how things could be even better. They talked about:

  • exploring more creativity tools to share learning
  • improving Wi-Fi access (which they will be pleased to hear, is in the process of being developed in all WL schools, and should be improved by the end of the year)
  • increased opportunities to explore new digital tools and apps to support learning

Their feedback showed how deeply young people understand the role technology plays in preparing them for life, further learning, and future careers.

This incredible opportunity has helped learners develop skills in communication, leadership, and teamwork, while also helping to help shape digital learning across the wider school community.

Well done everyone! What a fantastic achievement!

Mini Music Producers at Hawkhill Primary School

P5, 6 & 7 at Hawkhill Primary had a fantastically creative morning thanks to YMI (Youth Music Initiative) and Tinderbox Creative.

Pupils were introduced to a range of music genres and instruments through the Garageband app on iPads. They explored layering loops to create a song, which included drums, bass and a melody for musical interest. They learned how to duplicate, edit and add loops together to make their own songs, building their understanding of rhythm, pitch and dynamics.

Pupils were excited to share their creations with each other and could confidently explain their choices for their music, with their peers giving each other detailed and supportive feedback. Staff were impressed at the collaboration and communication skills being developed during this process too.

More feedback from staff included that they’d never heard the pupils so quiet and engaged. Classes are currently working on a STEM IDL focus so are excited to continue exploring how technology can support a range of industries.

Pupils used words such as ‘Amazing’, ‘Fantastic’ and ‘Inspiring’ to describe the session – they are excited to use their new skills again soon.

Thank you to Andra & Chris from Tinderbox for delivering such an engaging and fascinating session. We can’t wait to see how the pupils continue to develop these skills and hear their creations.

Sharing the Learning

Pupils from Hawkhill are also keen to develop their Young Leader skills and would love to support this learning at other primary schools. If anyone is interested in being involved in this, please reach out to the Digital Learning Team.

Exploring what the future might look like with SpheroBOLT

Primary 3 at Howden St. Andrew’s PS are the latest class to borrow the SpheroBOLT robots from the Digital Learning Team. Used as part of their Project Based Learning time, they explored the question, ‘What will the future look like?‘ and considered how technology might shape their future world.

From these discussions came lots of questions about robots and how they work. Learners developed early coding skills by giving the SpheroBOLT simple instructions and watching what happened next. They enjoyed trying out different commands, spotting mistakes and fixing them when things didn’t go to plan. By working together and having fun experimenting, pupils learned that coding is all about problem‑solving, teamwork and trying again.

Spotlight on: Profiling with My World of Work

At Williamston Primary, we’ve been working with pupils in Primary 4–7 to develop their skills in profiling and self-reflection using My World of Work.

Why Profiling Matters

Profiling encourages pupils to take ownership of their learning journey. By recording achievements and setting achievable goals, they can begin to see the connection between effort, progress, and success. It’s a powerful tool for developing skills for learning, life, and work.

What is My World of Work?

My World of Work has been designed by Skills Development Scotland, to help learners understand their strengths, set meaningful goals, and celebrate achievements in a way that builds confidence and prepares them for future learning. On the platform, learners can:

  • Explore their interests and skills
  • Understand different careers and pathways
  • Build a personal profile that grows with them through school and beyond

It supports pupils to develop self-awareness and ownership of learning.

My World of Work in action

Pupils are becoming more confident in talking about their learning and proud of their progress. Teachers have noticed richer conversations during learning reviews, and parents appreciate seeing detailed profiles that showcase effort and growth.

If you’d like more information about using My World of Work with your learners, or if you’ve used it and would like to share your successes, please get in touch with the Digital Learning Team.

Sharing Digital Innovation: Highlights from Our Staff Digital Network Meeting

Our latest Staff Digital Network meeting was all about practitioners sharing real classroom examples of how digital tools are enhancing learning and teaching. It was an inspiring evening filled with creativity, collaboration, and practical ideas to take back to schools.

Live from Blackburn PS: Coding Club in Action

We kicked off by joining the Digital Xtra Coding Club live at Blackburn Primary, where pupils from Blackburn and Murrayfield Primary showcased their work with the LEGO SPIKE Essentials kit. The girls spoke confidently about the skills they’ve been developing – collaboration, communication, and problem-solving – and wowed us with their latest creation: a pinball machine complete with lights and a motor to release the ball.

Promethean ActivSuite in Practice

Next, Sam from Riverside PS shared her experience using the new Promethean ActivSuite software. She highlighted the Whiteboard feature, describing it as the perfect balance between the inbuilt panel whiteboard and ActivInspire – simpler than Inspire, and it saves directly to the laptop. Sam demonstrated how she annotates images, resizes content while keeping annotations, and uses the spinner tool on her laptop to create lists in advance – currently for her Advent Calendar pupil recipient. A fantastic example of making interactive teaching more efficient.

Creative Expression with Adobe Express

We then had examples of pupils using Adobe Express to express themselves digitally, at Winchburgh PS, shared on behalf of Nicola. Highlights included:

  • Stunning displays featuring posters, artwork, and QR codes linking to webpages and videos.
  • Creative projects like Blitz-themed artwork, WWII recipe books, and P7 webpages to share learning with parents.
  • Use of Generative AI for mythical creature images, visually appealing posters on topics like Henry VIII and Spanish weather, and tools for data handling and worksheet creation. Pupils explored features such as QR code generation, layers, cropping, font editing, and image manipulation – building both technical and creative skills.

Microsoft Learning Accelerators

Phil from Carmondean PS gave a detailed overview of Microsoft Learning Accelerators, including Reflect, Reading Coach, Search Coach, and Speaker Coach. Feedback from pupils using Search Coach was particularly positive:

“It’s different from other search sites – it gives more relevant and reliable information and tips for online research.”

Promethean Panels in Early Learning

Finally, Dionne from St Mary’s Bathgate ELC shared how Promethean panels are supporting early learners through:

  • Staff modelling and collaborative drawing with split-screen.
  • Interactive activities using Top Marks, sharing home learning via Seesaw, and pupils presenting their work.
  • Practical tasks like Tesco online ordering for weekly snacks, making digital tools part of everyday learning.

Looking Ahead

This network meeting was a fantastic reminder of the creativity and innovation happening across our schools. Thank you again to everyone for coming along, and especially to those who shared.

If you’d like to share some of the ways you’ve been using digital to enhance learning and teaching in your class, please get in touch with the Digital Learning Team.

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

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