Glow Scotland

Did you know that within the Sharing Practice page of the GlowScotland website, schools from across Scotland share their experiences of using Glow?

Log on and find out how pupils  from across Scotland watched leading scientists perform a bird autopsy beamed live into their classrooms from the Scottish Seabird Centre; or how Burravoe Primary School in Shetland used Glow to keep in touch with pupils when bad weather closed the school.

Read about how schools in East Dunbartonshire are using Glow in a project to ease the transition to secondary school, and how James Young school took a phased approach to the roll out of Glow to benefit learning and teaching.

In addition, practitioners from across Scotland, working with children at different ages and stages, share their experiences of using Glow.

Why not log on and see if you can benefit from any of these ideas and stories ?

Since the Shetland Learning Festival in October, I’ve been keeping in touch with Caroline Breyley, Head Teacher at Burravoe Primary School on Yell. Burravoe is a single teacher school with fourteen pupils from P1 to P7, and all the children love to get on Glow. They have a well-used school Glow site, including a tab for each of the class topics and a packed picture library. I’ve joined in a Glow Meet between the Burravoe children and a class in Dumfries and Galloway where everyone in the class had their own computer and contributed brilliantly, and I look forward to checking in on their site regularly to read the children’s stories and see who’s in the picture of the week.

This week Caroline let me know about the school’s ‘Snow Work’. Last week the school was closed for a few days after the heavy snow, but thanks to Glow the learning didn’t stop. The children were able to log in from home, see their tasks for the day and upload their work once it was finished. What a brilliant way of using Glow to keep in touch and keep learning going when the weather gets in the way!


Glow’s helping hand didn’t stop there though. When the school reopened, Elouise (P3) and her brother Jake (P1) were still unable to get into school, but managed to join in with the class through Glow Chat. While their dad helped Jake out with his contribution, Elouise chatted away with her friends and Ms Breyley easily and confidently, following everyone’s messages despite the speed of the conversation, and telling the story of how she had managed to cut herself – it was all Jake’s fault apparently!

Burravoe is a lovely example of a school where Glow has become part of everyday life for the children and the teacher, and it’s particularly lovely that even the primary one children are on and happily working with the Glow tools. While it’s true that this is a small school, which might make it easier to integrate Glow into whole-school life, the Burravoe model would work equally well with individual primary or secondary classes anywhere. It’s clear that it appeals to the children too, if their eagerness to work on a snow day is anything to go by!

Hot on the heels of the Orkney Learning Festival came the Shetland Islands Council two-day In Service event at Anderson High School in Lerwick. The event was well attended on both days, even with lying snow, high winds and ferry cancellations taking their toll. The Glow team ran two training events, one an introduction to Glow and the other a session for advanced users. Both were successful, and we were delighted to have the help of some of the Shetland Islands Glow Mentors, who assisted in the introductory session.

A real highlight of the sessions was seeing the work being done within the local authority, including collaboration between Nesting and Tingwall schools, who had arranged a joint trip to London earlier this year. They planned, discussed and documented the trip via a shared Glow Group, with impressive results.

Also impressive was the school Glow Group of Burravoe School, a fourteen-pupil primary. Each of the school’s projects has its own area on the group, as do each of the pupils. In addition, Glow’s being well used in the ICT department of Anderson High School, where they’re venturing into the world of Glow Learn.

All in all, Shetland seems to be embracing Glow, from small one-teacher establishments to large secondaries, with enthusiasm and imagination, and it’ll be great to see what the newly trained attendees who came to the In Service get up to now they’re back in school.

On 17 March, children from Primary 1 in Lairdsland Primary, East Dunbartonshire, linked with Olna Firth Primary in Shetland, 450 miles away, using Glow Meet – the videoconferencing tool.

This learning opportunity exemplifies how the switch on of Glow within local authorities links learning across the country. The pupils from each class worked together on a project, looking at the differences between urban and island life, and each class developed a PowerPoint presentation about both their schools. The teachers used an online map facility to show the children just how far away their new friends were.

Lairdsland teacher Laura Kerr said:

‘It was fantastic! The children got to ask about living on an island and made great comparisons to the way we live.

‘Since the event, I’ve used the opportunity to engage the children in learning about the geography of Scotland.’

The collaboration is set to continue as both schools have set up a Glow Group containing links to their home pages within their school sites. This has been made possible through Glow being available in both local authorities.

Find out more about Glow at Lairdsland Primary, Glow in East Dunbartonshire and Glow in the Shetland Islands.

In December last year, the Glow team visited Shetland to work with their Glow Mentors and Pioneers. The training will provide Mentors and Pioneers with the skills and knowledge to be able to support schools throughout the rollout of Glow across Shetland.

During the programme, Mentors discussed many ideas about how Glow can support and enhance learning and teaching and collaboration in Shetland as a remote authority. This was put into action with plans to link a school in Shetland with a school in East Dunbartonshire. They are also very excited about the potential of Glow for international communication.

Following the Glow training three schools in Shetland will participate in the local Glow pilot. There are also a number of suggestions for impromptu Glow Groups connected with specific projects. These include a Group to support a project linking primary schools in Shetland with a London school.