Category Archives: Achievement

Achievement, Assessment, Early years, Financial Education, Maths, Numeracy, Skills, Uncategorized, Workshops

East Lothian ‘Making Maths Matter’ Conference

making Maths Matter Logo‘Making Maths Matter’ is the East Lothian Numeracy and Mathematics Conference aimed at improving achievement in Numeracy and Mathematics and narrowing the attainment gap. The conference is being held at the Marine Hotel in North Berwick on Friday 13th March 2015.

Key speakers are Professor Louise Hayward from Glasgow University who will discuss ‘Narrowing the attainment gap’ and Carol Copstick from Education Scotland who will provide and overview of progress and achievement in Numeracy and Mathematics across Scotland. A variety of workshops will be led by practitioners, children and partners.

Videos of the event will be posted in due course. A full programme of the day can be downloaded: Making Maths Matter_Programme

Twitter: #makingmathsmatter

 

Achievement, Self-evaluation, Support

Glowing Thursday with HMIE

https://portal.glowscotland.org.uk/establishments/nationalsite/Glowing%20Potential/Lists/Pages/Glowing%20Thursdays.aspx

David Watt is Lead Inspector in HMIE with responsibility for additional support needs including education authority day special schools. Recently he was involved with the team responsible for the update report on success in meeting the additional support needs of specific groups and the report on mental health issues. He maintains a healthy interest in coffee, football and travel.

David will discuss approaches to improving quality of provision for those with additional support broadly across Supporting Learners and considering practice in special schools and units. He will also update colleagues about practices in taking forward Curriculum for Excellence, developments in inspection and review and direction of travel towards the new agency.

Sign up now and join us on Thursday 12th May from 4-5pm

Achievement, Active Learning, AifL, CPD, Ideas, Implementation, News, Research

Effective classroom strategies for closing the gap

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An interesting new report has been published by the Centre for Excellence and Outcomes in Children and Young People’s Services (C4EO) with the full title “Effective classroom strategies for closing the gap in educational achievement for children and young people living in poverty, including white working-class boys“.

The news release states:

Effective Classroom Strategies For Closing The Gap In Educational Achievement For Children And Young People Living In Poverty, Including White, Working Class Boys looked at the international research on “what works” in improving learning outcomes for children in poverty. The review focused on strategies and interventions to improve core literacy and numeracy across early-years, primary and secondary settings. It found that there are a number of approaches that can help. These include:

  • Improving the quality of teaching by coaching staff in specific teaching strategies;
  • Using evidence-based approaches, such as co-operative learning, structured and systematic approaches to teaching phonics and “learning to learn” strategies;
  • Whole-school improvement packages which address multiple elements of school provision; and
  • The use of well-specified, well-supported and well-implemented programmes incorporating extensive professional development.

Click here to download the full report.

Achievement, Active Learning, CPD, EduBuzz, ICT, Ideas

Class Blogging

I noticed that the Primary 1 Blog at Gullane Primary School was very active at the minute so I decided to get in touch with their teacher Mr Dagger to find out why they blogged…

What have you been doing?
I’ve been writing a class blog about things we’ve been up to in Primary 1.

In what ways does this relate to Curriculum for Excellence?
I think that the blog allows the children to share their success in school at home. Also I feel it covers ‘I enjoy exploring and using technologies to communicate with others within and beyond my place of learning’ (TCH 0-04a) quite nicely!

What were the reasons for doing this?
It’s a way to communicate to parents what their children have been doing in school. By looking at the blog with their parents the children are able to talk about what they have been learning about in school. Sometimes I write the posts with the children, so they are keen to look at the pictures at home. The blog also links to the children’s learning logs, which they take home every Friday. I often comment that a piece of learning a child has written about can be found on the blog.

What has happened as a result?
I’ve had a lot of positive feedback from parents. They enjoy using the blog to stimulate discussion at home about what their children have been doing. The comments left are brilliant to share with the class, and allow me to assess what the children have remembered about activities we have undertaken. This encourages them to ask their parents to look at the blog again and leave more comments!

What would you do differently next time?
I think it’s an ongoing, evolving process. Last year I had a separate page called Onion’s Patch which I had big plans for, but never got round to getting it up and running properly. I think I am going to try again this session. Also the class have been writing notes for my dog to read ever since I posted a picture of him in the snow. I was thinking about posting pictures of him with their work – to encourage independent, spontaneous writing in class, and engage more reluctant writers.

Thanks to Mr Dagger for sharing!

If you haven’t got a blog going with your class, perhaps it’s something to think about? You can sign up to eduBuzz here.

If you’d like to share your interesting practice go ahead and download the form…