Angus MacRury’s Weblog

We have decided to abandon the traditional Friday routine which was. Finish stuff that you couldn’t do/wouldn’t do Monday-Thursday. Go to assembly to listen to the HT drone on about schools rules and other boring stuff, go on to Golden time which was always cut short in order to get lunches out onto the buses before they went away without half the kids. (happens often).

What we have moved to is ACtivE ACE Friday.
What is this all about, I don’t really know as it is evolving every week into a bigger and more successful animal. The children are all here, with no absences so far. They are brought to the school hall put into groups and set 4 challenges or tasks, these have to be completed with the help of a member of staff and parent volunteers.
Week One. Outside. Games. Making the school name from Newspaper. Designing and chalking a team badge on the playground, making friendship bracelets, decorating a tree in the grounds. Having Fun.

Week Two. Through the week designing posters baking making up pricelists for a table top sale/ coffee morning run bt the pupils. Again in groups on the day. Setting up selling balancing monies, seving drinks, bartering prices, painting faces. Having Fun.

Week 3
Outside. 4 House groups taking charg of growing beds, removing the old plants digging and turning the soil. Working as a team, Planning their new beds, working with parents. Group on 40 minute walk through the Stubble fields near the school gaining a knowledge of place and agriculture as they walk. Group being blindfolded and being led through a small forest of trees with only a piece of string to aid them. Identifying hazards and objects on the way.Having Fun.

Week four.
This week, At Barns Ness Shoreline with Victor Lough from the Ranger Service looking at the Geography and Geology of this part of East Lothian. Exploration of the high part of the beach for fossils and evidence of the past. Looking at the three rock types.
Having Fun.

Week Five
Walking up the Lammermuirs (3 miles in total) to a secluded Glen for a Teddy Bears Picnic.Picnic/ treasures hidden at various locations on walk. Walking through Innerwick Farm, Meeting the farmer Dorothy. We are visiting the farm in the Springtime. Having Fun
Week 6.
Maths Roadshow for whole school. Having Fun.
Week 7
 Outside Painting designing our raised beds, planting for Winter/Spring.
Parent helpers. We have 10-14 parents who are helping us on a daily and weekly basis for all of these activities.
Pupils are currently working on suggested themes for October to Christmas.
We meet weekly to plan the activities and we are linking the activities closely to Healthy Schools, Enterprise, Creativity, All four Capacities in ACfE. There are also all the links with Language Maths Science. But the most important thing is that the learning is fun.  

A colleague today came up with this quote:

 “A Secondary Teacher teachers their subject whereas a Primary Teacher teaches children.”

As we sat and discussed the truth in this I reflected on a visit  over two days from two QIO’s this Tuesday and Wednesday. One of the QIO’s was very interested in the information for mathematics we send to the Grammar school and whether we thought our information was acted upon reliably and that the pupils continued the Maths programme based on the judgement of the Primary school teacher. This is a huge question and one that within our Cluster we have been trying to answer for a number of years. In previous years we have visited the Grammar and the teachers’ have observed us teaching here. We have developed an outline agreement of the ways certain things should be taught. This session we have Primary Teachers visiting the Grammar after school to focus on the delivery of maths using interactive whiteboards.  Will all this mean that our judgements from Primary will be regarded as reliable, I am confident we are getting there.

The classroom visits provided the teachers with a good insight to how we both teach maths so differently and yet, it is the same subject. I still think we teach it in a better way that is more aligned to Assessment is for Learning and for that matter A Curriculum for Excellence. But that is only my opinion. What I don’t question is the superior knowledge that Maths teachers have about their subject, and maybe that is part of the problem. Primary teachers are not experts in all the subjects they teach and at times are learning one step ahead of their pupils, one thing is certain Primary teachers are becoming more confident at judging the ability and performance of their pupils especially at point of transfer.