- May 15th, 2012
Euroquiz success
- nickmorgan
- Comments: none
Yesterday the national finals of the Euroquiz 2012 competition were held in the Scottish Parliament Debating Chamber in Edinburgh. Congratulations to St Mary’s Primary School, Duntocher, West Dunbartonshire, whose team won this year’s event; and well done to all the teams of Primary 6 pupils from around Scotland who took part in the regional heats and in the finals. The knowledge displayed by the students, and their skills in information retrieval, were very impressive for all of us who saw them in action at the various stages of the competition.
The event was recorded by Scottish Parliament TV, and the archive video footage is now available for viewers on their website.
The Euroquiz competition has been organised annually by the Scottish European Educational Trust for some years, and continues to attract mass participation and enhance learning about aspects of the European Union.
- May 14th, 2012
‘Youth Radiothon’ @ Pulse Radio 98.4, East Renfrewshire
- kmayer
- Comments: none
Did you ever want to be on air and run your own radio show? This is your chance: East Renfrewshire Council in conjunction with Pulse Radio 98.4 will celebrate young peoples’ engagement and voice by inviting pupils and youth clubs from the 12 to 14 June to participate in a Youth Radiothon.
Here is how you can join the event:
You will need a group of pupils or young people (maximum per group is 5) who would like to host a 45 minute radio show. Each group will be required to come up with content for their show. They could chat about things that are going on in your school, or talk about their interests and hobbies, or discuss issues that they feel strongly about. If you need any assistance compiling the content of the show Zoe Nisbet (Partnership Development Officer, East Renfrewshire council) will visit your school or organisation and talk to you before the event. We would also require the young people to come up with a short ‘play list’ of around 6 songs that would be played during their show on the Radiothon.
All schools and organisations taking part will receive a certificate for their participation in this event, as will the individual young people. There will be different categories of awards to be won for the radio shows. We will be approaching different sponsors regarding this event and are more likely to gain sponsorship if we have a diverse and wide array of participation.
If you are interested in this initiative please email Zoe Nisbet: Zoe.Nisbet@eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk
- May 14th, 2012
Be a part of a sustainable schools documentary
- imenzies
- Comments: none
With a month to go there is still time to take part in the inaugural documentary entitled “The UK’s Best Sustainable Schools”.
This film is being produced by Cycling4SEEd who will be visiting (by bicycle and other sustainable means of travel) schools from Lands End to John O’Groats and capturing on film the freshest ideas, the best practice, the most exciting plans and hopefully even the most exciting results of sustainability in schools.
Cycling4SEEd cannot visit every school in the country but there are still ways for you and your schools to be part of this very important film to encourage all schools to take up sustainability:
- Develop a student-led 6-minute video about sustainability in your school which may be included in the final documentary and premiered in London on July 11th at SEEd’s Sustainable Schools Conference – details at www.se-ed.co.uk/cycling4seed.
- Enter the student competition to make a 60 second commercial to promote the documentary and encourage other schools and students to become more sustainable. The awards ceremony for the commercial will also be held in London on July 11th and the winning commercial will be shown at the premier of the documentary.
For details of how to get involved in any of these activities, please visit the SEED website at www.se-ed.org-uk. You can also follow the story of Cycling4SEEd’s journey along the backbone of the UK as they visit schools, hear stories, see sustainable projects and share ideas.
For all your enquiries, please email admin@se-ed.org.uk.
- May 4th, 2012
Global Citizenship and Film
- nickmorgan
- Comments: none
A few very different opportunities for teachers to reflect on how to use film viewings and film-making as a tool for supporting global citizenship education:
With a good fit to current work in schools around Games Legacy and the Olympics, the Edinburgh Filmhouse has a schools-only showing of the African film ‘Town of Runners’ on Monday 28th May. This showing has been organised by Take One Action film festival, a charity which promotes the different perspectives offered by films from developing countries. The film tells the story of two Ethiopian girls struggling to become athletes in a town which has a history of producing great distance runners, and is reviewed in the Guardian.
Take One Action is also seeking secondary schools to participate in its Young Heroes action project between June and December 2012. It’s a residential and follow-on screening project for young people aged 15-21 and their educators or youth workers, and builds their capacity to consider global issues and use film to encourage wider debate.
Thirdly, the Northern Lights project aims to create Scotland’s first ever mass participation documentary, an innovative way to build a movie about contemporary Scotland. Basically it will be composed, and edited into a final feature-length film, from videos made by people all over the country and contributed to a common pool of rich material. Read this blog post for more detail and weblinks.
- May 4th, 2012
Citizenship included in SQA skills for learning, life and work framework
- imenzies
- Comments: none
SQA has developed a new framework of broad, generic skills. The Skills for Learning, Skills for Life and Skills for Work framework is derived from Building the Curriculum 4.
The framework outlines definitions of the five broad areas of generic skills that are essential for qualification development.
Dowload Skills for Learning, Skills for Life and Skills for Work Framework
The five broad areas are:
- Literacy
- Numeracy
- Health and wellbeing
- Employability, enterprise and citizenship
- Thinking skills
This new skills framework is being used in the development of qualifications that support Curriculum for Excellence. It will also assist with the design of assessment and learning and teaching methods. These skills sit alongside knowledge, understanding and subject based skills.
For more info see http://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/45395.html
- May 1st, 2012
Finland to make more time for citizenship and sustainability
- imenzies
- Comments: none
Finland, a country which is renowned for having one of the world’s best performing education systems, has developed proposals to strengthen the teaching of citizenship education and the position of environmental education and collaboration between the subjects.
It is proposed that environmental studies would be taught in year-classes 1–6 as an integrated subject comprising the areas of biology, geography, physics, chemistry and health education, including the viewpoint of sustainable development. In year-classes 7–9 of basic education, the teaching would be divided into separate subjects similarly to today.
Cross-curricular themes would be implemented in year-classes 7–9, with a reservation of 1 weekly lesson per year. This proposal aims to improve the integrity of education and to increase cooperation between subjects to give better possibilities of responding to topical educational challenges, including those of life management, teaching of good manners, democracy education, entrepreneurial education, internationality and sustainable development in teaching and to provide better opportunities for using such methods as drama in teaching.
For more information visit: http://www.minedu.fi/OPM/Julkaisut/2012/Tulevaisuuden_perusopetus.html?lang=en
- May 1st, 2012
The healthy way to get to school – Travelling Green.
- imenzies
- Comments: none
Travelling Green is a complete six-week programme aimed at P5 level; it comes with lesson plans and wall charts. It gives children and their parents the skills and confidence to walk to school. Walking to school is good for children’s development as well and their physical and mental health. Travelling Green has strong Health and Wellbeing Curriculum links covering topics like for example; the circulatory and respiratory systems.
For more information, see link below;
Recent research has shown that children who do Travelling Green are generally more physically active than children who do not. Increasing children’s daily physical activity is essential for tackling the obesity epidemic, one of the key challenges facing Scotland’s population as described in Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer’s annual report. We need to make active modes of travel children’s first choice and make physical activity an everyday habit for Scottish children.
It has been shown that active children become active adults. Physical activity has recently been made a national indicator in Scotland. Walking to school is an excellent everyday opportunity for children to get the recommended amount of physical activity which is vital for maintaining their health and wellbeing. In addition, active children do better at school. When asked children want to be more physically active and they want to travel actively to school. Travelling Green is a resource that increases children’s physical activity in small manageable steps.
The resource was popular with teachers; they gave the following feedback;
“Well thought out and children benefited from it, many changed their route and started walking together in groups”.
“Easy to use with lots of additional resources and support materials”
“Good resource, making cross-curricular links”.
The Travelling Green resources were developed in partnership by West Dunbartonshire Council and are available for free to all Scottish schools.
There are also free Travelling Green flipcharts for interactive whiteboards available from Promethean Planet (see included step by step guide). We also include a guide for the Travelling Green resources and a flyer to circulate to your schools.
To get the resources sent to your school contact;
cecilia.oram@sustrans.org.uk 0131 346 9777
- May 1st, 2012
Teachers gain Professional Recognition in Global Citizenship
- imenzies
- Comments: none
Teachers from across Glasgow were awarded Professional Recognition by the General Teaching Council for Scotland in Education for Global Citizenship.
The 24 teachers were awarded their certificates at a partnership event organised by GTC Scotland, Glasgow City Council and the West of Scotland Development Education Centre (WOSDEC). The event took place at Glasgow City Chambers on 25 April.
Habib Malik, Scottish Director of Islamic Relief and the Burns Humanitarian Award winner 2010 spoke about his experience of Global Citizenship and there were short presentations by the Chief Executive of the GTC Scotland, Anthony Finn, and Maureen McKenna Executive Director of Education at Glasgow City Council.
Professional Recognition, which is managed by GTC Scotland, provides teachers with an opportunity to gain recognition for particular expertise they may have and display in their teaching. Areas recognised previously include the Scots Language and Mentoring, Sustainable Education and Enterprise. So far 758 teachers across Scotland have received this professional award, bringing considerable benefits to their own professional development but also to the learning of their pupils and of their colleagues.
For more information about the event see the GTCS website
Click here to find out more about professional recognition in global citizenship, sustainable development education and outdoor learning.
- April 30th, 2012
Global Awareness and Community Showcase Event, East Renfrewshire
- kmayer
- Comments: none
Woodfarm High School will host this year’s global citizenship event in East Renfrewshire and invites members of their local community to see the diverse and inspirational work undertaking in schools across the local authority.
The programme includes music and dance performances as well as a variety of Fair Trade food and jewellery stalls, henna tattoos drawing and a plant sale.
Event details:
Woodfarm High School
Wednesday, 23 May
Time: 4 – 6pm
- April 30th, 2012
Global Citizenship – teacher achievement
- nickmorgan
- Comments: none
Teachers are adept at finding effective and innovative ways to support student learning, and I often see great examples of this for various aspects of global citizenship. Here in Scotland there’s a system run by the General Teaching Council Scotland by which teachers can get Professional Recognition for excellent practice.
Last week a celebratory event was held in Glasgow at which local teachers received their Award certificates for their achievements in education for global citizenship. It was a pleasure to talk to the teachers involved, and see the displays of material about school partnerships with sub-Saharan Africa, e-twinning projects, Comenius school partnerships in Europe, and much more. Congratulations to all involved.
Ten of those teachers are also involved in the ‘Global Storylines’ project led by WOSDEC (West of Scotland Development Education Centre), Glasgow City Council and the University of Strathclyde. This uses the Storylines approach to get pupils to develop stories around themes such as conflict, sustainability and food. A dissemination event to be held at Strathclyde University later this week will share some of the experience gained from this project with a wider group of teachers.
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