Glow Scotland

October 12th, 2011

The Place2Be in Action

Jennifer McDougall

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: ASN, Enquire, Place2Be
 : Categories Events, Glow, Glow Meet, Health and Wellbeing, Pupils, Supported Learning

Once again Glowing Thursdays is delighted to welcome back The Place2Be. This time there will be an opportunity for pupils and school staff to listen to Edinburgh pupils’ views on how The Place2Be and other strategies (such as circle times, mentoring, and talking to friends) helps them cope with the worries in their lives so they can get the most out of their education.

Hosted by The Place2Be, (a school based counselling service providing support to over 58,000 children), in partnership with Enquire, the Scottish Advice Service for Additional Support for Learning.

Find out more about Place2Be and Enquire on their websites.

We hope that you can sign up and join us in Glow TV to find out more about these important organisations and how they might be of benefit to staff and pupils in your school! Sign up in Glow TV.

September 21st, 2011

SLF Extra - Assessing Dyslexia, online toolkit for all teachers

Karen-Ann McSwiggan

Comments: Comments Off Tags:  : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, Early Years, Health and Wellbeing, Pupils, Supported Learning

Pamela Deponio is Programme Director of post graduate awards in Additional Support for Learning, at the Institute for Education, Teaching and Leadership, Moray House School of Education, Edinburgh University. She is a well respected leader in the field of research and study of specific learning difficulties: Dyslexia and has published books and articles in this area. Today she delivered a seminar at SLF 2011 on ‘Assessing Dyslexia’, online toolkit for all teachers.

A groundbreaking online resource - the ‘Assessing Dyslexia’ toolkit - was launched in June 2010 and has since been widely disseminated. It can be found at www.frameworkforinclusion.org.

Click on the Glow Radio to listen to Pamela’s introduction to the seminar.

Pamela gave the background to the creation of the resource which should have a big impact on the difficulty schools and local authorities face getting to grips with identifying Dyslexia and how to best support children. She stressed the need for identification to be made as early as possible.

She took us into the resource itself and demonstrated how it can operate at 3 different levels depending on the level of knowledge of the teacher who is using it. The resource offers a pathway based on Curriculum for Excellence levels and stages of learning that all teachers can follow to ensure that appropriate assessment and support are in place for learners they are concerned with. There is then a wealth of materials available from starting the process, what to look for, factors to consider, planning and responding, reporting and support resources available.

Click on the Glow Radio to listen to why the audience had come along to the seminar.

The resource sets out to demystify Dyslxia, to encourage teachers to be confident in beginning to access. Pamela pointed out that in Curriculum for Excellence every teacher will now be a teacher of literacy and the toolkit provides an opportunity for all teachers to further their professional development in this area. The Support for Learning Teacher in a school is unlikely to become involved with a child until the class teacher has flagged up that there is an area of concern.

Although already in use, teachers can make the resource even more useful by providing samples of work to illustrate how dyslexia affects children in the classroom and what can be done to alleviate their difficulties. The team are looking for feedback and samples of pupil work from teachers at this address: [email protected]

You will also catch the Glow TV interview with Pamela Deponio by clicking here where you will be asked to log in with your Glow username and password.

Or on this link from Vimeo:

September 14th, 2011

Additional Support for Learning: What do you need to know?

Jennifer McDougall

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: additional support needs, Enquire
 : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, Events, Glow, Glow Meet, Pupils, Supported Learning, Uncategorized

This Glowing Thursday will provide an opportunity to find out more about the additional support for learning framework and legislation, the advice and information Enquire can offer schools and the types of issues parents raise with the Enquire helpline. Enquire is the Scottish advice service for additional support for learning.

Enquire want to cover the issues you have questions about so please let them know in advance the topics you’re interested in advance the topics you’re interested in or just join us at 3.45pm on Thursday 15th September to find out more - Glowing Thursdays - Additional Support for Learning: What do you need to know?

Register for Glow TV today and then sign up for all the events that you want to view!! Register for Glow TV and then Sign Up for this event

December 10th, 2010

Figurenotes Conference

Julia Fenby

Comments: Comments Off Tags:  : Categories Co-Create, Curriculum for Excellence, Early Years, Expressive Arts, Health and Wellbeing, Supported Learning, Technologies

Last week, Glasgow City Hall’s Old Fruitmarket venue was packed with teachers, educators, musicians and policy makers wanting to find out more about Figurenotes, a simple music notation system that uses colours and symbols instead of notes.

The Figurenotes conference was organized by Drake Music Scotland, the Scottish partner in an international network of music educators using Figurenotes to make music making accessible to a range of user groups including SEN music, Early Years and those with Autistic Spectrum disorder.

‘Making music should be a basic human right – Figurenotes is helping to place the joy and delight of making music in reach of all.’

Markku Kaikkonen and Kaarlo Uusitalo, Figurenotes creators

Presentations from inspiring teachers like Annona Thornton from Lilybank school, made evident the powerful impact the system has for children and young people – they find it easy to use and can quickly achieve and make progress, which in turn helps build confidence, motivation and communication skills. Figurenotes not only supports one to one teaching, it also allows differentiation within shared group activity.

Drake has been trialling Figurenotes Software with 40 people, and is using their feedback to develop the software before rolling it out nationally to Scotland’s music educators in 2011. Information on the software and a Figurenotes Resource pack will be available early next term.

In the iCompose session, Conference delegates had an opportunity to try out Figurenotes, creating short compositions which were played back to them by professional musicians from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Drake Music Scotland is working in partnership with Scottish Chamber Orchestra on the iCompose competition, which this year includes a Special Needs Category. For more information on the competition and how to enter visit www.icompose.org

Drake Music Scotland is one of ten Scottish arts organisations awarded funding to deliver a Co-Create project for Glow.

December 10th, 2010

SHINE – A creative music Co-Create project

Julia Fenby

Comments: 2 Comments » Tags:  : Categories Co-Create, Curriculum for Excellence, Expressive Arts, Glow, Health and Wellbeing, Literacy, Mathematics, Supported Learning, Technologies, West Dunbartonshire

Through Co-Create, Drake Music Scotland is working in partnership with West Dunbartonshire Council and Kilpatrick Secondary School on SHINE, a project which is shedding light on the artistic process, unpacking resources and sharing experiences and performances via Glow.

Using new Soundbeam 5 technology and the Figurenotes notation system, pupils are taking part in creative music making sessions which are designed to be fully accessible for Kilpatrick School’s pupils with Additional Support Needs.

Drake Associate Musician Matilda Brown is visiting the school every Wednesday to make music more accessible across the school. Pupils are learning new skills and creating their own compositions and teachers are being trained in using the music technology. Throughout this academic year, pupils and staff will be sharing their learning through Glow.

During the project, the Glow Group will be developed by project participants, and it will then be opened up nationally so that teachers across Scotland can see what can be achieved with resources such as Soundbeam 5 and Figurenotes. Drake will highlight best practice in the creative use of this valuable technology and enable discussions to take place to develop this on a national level.

The SHINE project supports the Experiences and Outcomes for the Expressive Arts, (Music) Literacy and Numeracy and Health and Wellbeing across the curriculum. It also upholds the progression principles of the Curriculum for Excellence, in particular, challenge and enjoyment, relevance and coherence.

Co-Create is funded through a partnership between Learning and Teaching Scotland and the Creative Scotland National Lottery Fund.

Image credit: Colin Dickson

December 6th, 2010

Traditional and Gaelic arts and language with Féis Rois

Julia Fenby

Comments: Comments Off Tags:  : Categories Aberdeenshire, Co-Create, Curriculum for Excellence, Expressive Arts, Glow, Health and Wellbeing, Highland, Literacy, Supported Learning, Technologies

Féis Rois is an arts organisation based in Dingwall which enables people of all ages to access, participate in and enjoy the traditional and Gaelic arts and language through a diverse programme of shared activities in Ross and Cromarty, across Scotland and beyond.

For their Co-Create project, Fèis Rois is bringing together P5-6 pupils from two Aberdeenshire primary schools and two Highland special education units for pupils with complex additional support needs. Pupils will participate in the traditional arts (storytelling, music, song and dance) and new media and technology, sharing their learning through Glow.

The project started this term with workshops taking place in each of the schools. P5/6 Pupils in Aberdeenshire have been working with a traditional storyteller, Ruth Kirkpatrick, to learn about the art of telling stories and the history behind traditional tales. The classes have been working on the stories Ruth has taught them outwith the scheduled time to make story plates and sticks. Musicians Findlay Napier and Angus Lyon will be working with the class to create their own compositions and songs around the stories they have been working on. The pupils in Highland are working with Fèis Rois to learn about traditional music and the art of song writing. Applegrove school have been using their class topics as stimulus for creating songs and the pupils have been introduced to and taught about a different instrument each week. Both schools have been working with musician and song writer, Jim Hunter and Rachael Duff from Fèis Rois and will be joined by musician Colin Mclean next week.

The two groups, including pupils, teachers and support staff, will keep video diaries and interact with each other throughout the project using Glow tools. As the project develops, videos of pupils’ work, together with images and creative writing compositions will be put up onto the project Glow group which can be found within the Co-Create group. The Fèis Rois Group is currently under development, and will be made available nationally when the project is complete in early 2011.

Throughout the project, pupils will be exposed to traditional Scottish culture, they will have the opportunity to enjoy performances by professional artists and performers, and they will develop new skills, creating and performing their own work for others. The project supports implementation of Curriculum for Excellence – it has a particular focus on the Expressive Arts, with Health and Wellbeing and Literacy experiences and outcomes.

Co-Create is funded through a partnership between Learning and Teaching Scotland and the Creative Scotland National Lottery Fund.