Glow Scotland

May 28th, 2012

Learning Stories - An Education Scotland Identified Good Practice Event

Jennifer McDougall

Comments: none Tags: Tags: Learning Stories, Ormiston Primary
 : Categories CPD, East Lothian, Glow TV, Pupils

Join us in Glow Tv on Wednesday 30th May for an exciting insight into a new way of reporting in a school. In Ormiston Primary School every child has a journal called a Learning Story containing photographs, video links and comments from parents, children and teaching staff. These Learning Stories have become integral to the life of learning at Ormiston Primary School and have replaced the end of term report card.

These colourful and detailed books help children to share purposefully their learning with their families and helps to give the families more depth of knowledge of how they can support their child at home. They also give the school the opportunity to find out what children are learning at home which forms a rich picture of all the achievements for each child.

During this Glow Meet headteacher Helen Gardyne and her pupils will share their journey of development with their Learning Stories and this will hopefully inspire you on your own journey and to reflect on the nature of reporting on children’s learning.

Sign up and join us in Glow TV for this inspiring CPD opportunity.

October 3rd, 2011

Modern Studies Conference - Live from East Lothian

Jennifer McDougall

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: BBC, Brian Taylor, Higher, modern studies, Musselburgh Grammar, Susan Deacon
 : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, East Lothian, Events, Glow, Glow Meet, Social Studies

Join us live from Musselburgh Grammar School on Friday 7th October from 9.45am to take part in the ‘Higher Modern Studies Conference East Lothian 2011‘. The conference will have speakers presenting on Health and Wealth and also the impact of the media on politics.

We already have Susan Deacon, former Scottish Cabinet Minister and Brian Taylor, BBC Scotland Political Editor as speakers at this event. Susan from 9.45 - 10.45 and then Brian will be speaking at 11am. The full programme is still being finalised so join us on Friday for an exciting morning.

Sign up and join us in Glow TV!

April 4th, 2011

Question Time in East Lothian

Jennifer McDougall

Comments: 1 Comment Tags: Tags: Musselburgh Grammar, Question Time
 : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, East Lothian, Glow Meet, Pupils, Social Studies

As the Scottish Parliamentary Elections are fast approaching, a secondary school in East Lothian is joining in the political debate and will be sharing this opportunity with other schools throughout Scotland.

On Friday 8th April from 10 - 11am Musselburgh Grammar School will be hosting its own Question Time event to allow senior pupils to put pressing questions to PPCs and find out about the policies of the different political parties.
The panel consists of Iain Gray, Kenny MacAskill, Robin Harper, Derek Brownlee and former pupil Aidan Simpson who is standing for the SSP.

Why not sign up and join the senior pupils at Musselburgh Grammar and have an opportunity to ask questions yourself?!

Sign up and join us on Friday 8th April.

March 8th, 2010

Breaker Glow Meet with author Annemarie Allan

Dawn Adams

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: Annemarie Allan, author, Breaker
 : Categories East Lothian, Events, Glow Meet, Literacy, Pupils, Uncategorized

11th March, 1.45pm - 2.45pm

Join author Annemarie Allan in Glow Meet to find out more about Breaker, an undersea adventure.

‘Tom and Beth are not happy when they move to North Berwick and find themselves facing a rainy, windswept beach, a house that’s falling apart and a school full or strangers. When they meet Professor Macblain, with his weird and wonderful inventions, little do they know that he has a secret: not only is he a thief, but he has stolen the one thing that can save the Firth of Forth from environmental catastrophe.’

Find out what inspires Annemarie to write, delve in to the wonderful world of sealife in North Berwick and ask her questions. Explore a range of themes such as family, making friends and moving to a new place. Find out more about living by the sea, green energy, science and the environment.

Law Primary will be joining Annemarie at the Scottish Seabird Centre to get some insight into being an author, writing skills and the wonderful book Breaker which is set in North Berwick where they go to school.

This Glow Meet is aimed at pupils from P4 - P7 and is being run in partnership with the Scottish Seabird Centre and Floris Books.

Find out more
To sign up for this Glow Meet click here to visit the Glow group.

June 30th, 2009

How are others using Glow?

Lorna Arbuckle

Comments: Comments Off Tags:  : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, East Dunbartonshire, East Lothian, Events, Glow Chat, Glow Groups, Glow Meet, National Groups, Outdoor Learning, Pupils, Shetland Islands, West Lothian

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 ?

May 28th, 2009

Glow Enhances Body Building!

J Jelly

Comments: 1 Comment Tags: Tags: biology, Generation Science, Glow, health, primary, science
 : Categories Dumfries and Galloway, East Lothian, Glow Groups, South Lanarkshire, Stirling, Uncategorized

A pilot Glow Group has been set up at national level to enhance the experience of a visit from Generation Science’s outreach show - Body Builders. Schools that have access to Glow and have booked a Body Builders Show from Generation Science in the next few weeks are able to use the Glow Group to extend the value of the visit.

The show scenario has four characters visiting the doctor:
Timmy Hawkes, a skater with bone trouble
Kevin Shearer, an out of breath football hero
Rome Zeglobe, an itchy explorer
Don Pupi Panti, a chef extraordinaire with flatulence

Through the very humorous interviews, the pupil audience gains a good understanding of body systems, general health, anatomy, and how to act in a responsible way regarding personal health. The Glow Group enables schools involved to follow up the visit by pupils’ responding to the patients requests for advice, by staff uploading pictures from the visits or posting further work related to the health topics.
It is hoped that teachers will give feedback on whether they feel the Glow Group gave extra value to the visit. This will help the Glow Team and Generation Science plan for next year’s shows.
Generation Science brings shows and workshops into schools to make the learning of science simple and fun. The website has details of all the shows, a downloadable programme and teachers’ notes. These back up the science covered in the shows with the Curriculum for Excellence links for teachers and with follow on experiments for pupils. The shows run from January to June each year. In 2008, 66000 children got to see a show!
If you have had Generation Science visits this year, please leave some feedback about it here and what you would want from Glow in supporting future visits.

March 4th, 2009

Primary children meet the creator of the Gruffalo

Tina Stevens

Comments: 2 Comments » Tags:  : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, East Dunbartonshire, East Lothian, Events, Glow Groups, Local authorities, Renfrewshire

On 24 February I was lucky enought to be invited along to Lairdsland primary where Julia Donaldson - author of many children’s books including ‘the Gruffalo’ - was visiting. Julia had been invited as part of a project set up by Anne Louise Nicholson of St. James’s primary school in Renfrewshire and Lynne Lewis from Athelstaneford primary school in East Lothian.

The project involved children from Renfrewshire, East Lothian and East Dunbartonshire joining together to work on a whole range of activities based around some of Julia’s books.

The 5 schools got together through GLOW meet and each school performed part of “The Smartest Giant in Town” for each other as a puppet show.

After reading “Charlie Cook’s Favourite Book”, each of the 5 schools investigated a genre that features in the book and during another GLOW meet session told the other schools all about their genre.

The children also took part in ‘The Book Factor’ where they chose their favourite Julia Donaldson book. The winner was ‘Stickman’ and this was the story that Julia read during her visit after receiving her certificate from the children.

As well as reading Julia answered questions and also got the children to sing along to a new song ‘Funny Face’ where they got to make lots of funny faces at one another!

Julia was wonderful with all of the children and used the Glow technology to engage with as many of them as possible during her visit.

It was a fantastic morning and my thanks go to Anne Louise, Lynne and Laura for their invitation.

March 3rd, 2009

Dyslexia Support Service in East Lothian gets Glowing

Karen-Ann McSwiggan

Comments: 9 Comments » Tags: Tags: additional support needs, Dyslexia
 : Categories East Lothian, Glow Groups

I spent a great morning with Hilery Williams recently looking at setting up a Glow Group across East Lothian for the Dyslexia Support Service there. Hilery has great ideas for building links for staff and encouraging their collaboration. It will be a great way for her to publicise the service further. The service provides:

• Consultation with class/subject and support for learning teachers
• Training for staff
• Advice on identification and assessment
• Advice on appropriate strategies, programmes and resources
• Small group/individual tuition where appropriate
• Advice and support for pupils in transition

The Glow Group will allow teachers to download information, find out about current research and initiatives and take part in discussions with each other across the authority. Current thinking from Hilery is that the Glow Group will be divided up into the following sections:

• DSS Info
• Resources
• Dyslexia Friendly Schools’ Pledge
• Dyslexia at Transition
• Dyslexia Forum

If you’re in East Lothian watch out for this super Glow Group appearing in the next month or so and hopefully we can persuade Hilery to agree to share this at a National Level.

February 9th, 2009

Percy the Puffin’s Homecoming

mbrown

Comments: 7 Comments » Tags: Tags: Birds, early years, literacy Glow meet
 : Categories East Lothian, Events

Emily Dodd, Education Officer for the Scottish Seabird Centre, will tell the story of Percy the Puffin and his homecoming to early years pupils, in Glow meet. You can join her while she tells this story in her classroom, in N. Berwick. If you are an early years practitioner, not just in East Lothian, who would like to take part in this national event, go to the Early Years National Glow Group and join us in Glow meet.

The story is a whole class activity and ideal for introducing pupils in nursery classes to Glow. Look out for news in Glow and join us on the morning of Wednesday the 18^th of March. Come into Glow to hear more about Percy’s homecoming and adventures in the Firth of Forth. Further details about Percy and other stories can be found in the Scottish Seabird Centre website:

http://www.seabird.org/education-nursery.asp

Teachers will need a projector, web camera and computer, with marrratech software (a whiteboard can also be useful). If you are a new user in Glow more information about using Glow meet can be found at:

http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/glowscotland/trainingmaterials/index.asp

If you are an early years practitioner and intend to take part in this Glow meet event, you can also ask questions in the Early Years National Glow Group. Ask questions in ‘Discussions’. Alternatively you can ask for support from a local Glow mentor. Further support is available from your Local Authority and at National Level. Find out more about Glow in your Local Area at:

http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/glowscotland/localauthorities/index.asp

This Glow meet will be facilitated by Martin Brown and Stuart Oliphant from the LTS Glow team. For further information contact [email protected].

January 30th, 2009

St Martin’s Primary School

mbrown

Comments: 1 Comment Tags: Tags: community art, Glow Groups, nursery school
 : Categories East Lothian, Local authorities

I was warmly welcomed at St Martin’s RC Primary and Nursery School, in Tranent, today.

Dave Gilmour, the East Lothian Council Key Contact for Glow, and I were helping a small group of primary and nursery teachers get to grips with Glow. It was informal and informative. I was really impressed with their ‘have a go’ attitude and the way they very quickly came up with questions about Glow groups and how to use them for different teaching and learning purposes. It was clear to me that while quite a few of the group were trying Glow (hands on) for the first time, they would not be slow in trying it out with children in their classes.

I spoke with Christine Muir, a nursery teacher. I showed her some basic tools or web parts, how to create a Glow group and how to add members to the group. She promised to create a Glow group for her nursery classes. I assured her she cannot break Glow and look forward to seeing her ideas for using Glow for whole class teaching. I am sure she will develop some of the ideas we talked about: using the National Site and content for teaching literacy eg Bo Bear, using Glow meet offline with pupils to record speaking and acting etc and sharing digital images of pupil work from her Glow group.

It would also be great if nursery teachers in ELC could develop Glow groups for outdoor learning, eg Forest Schools projects, and share these links in the National site in the National Parks and Outdoor Learning National Glow Group. I know teachers in ELC have a wealth of experience in this area. If they record what they do outside in Glow groups, then pupils can bring their learning back indoors and enjoy sharing the experience even more.

It was great to visit St Martin’s RC Primary School and great to work with such positive teachers. The fantastic pictures above are by Frank Carty: seen on the walls surrounding the school.