Blogging IT

Buggy Buddy books in action
One week ago today, we held a target literacy conference in East Lothian. Literacy is a key focus for the authority and this conference was the starting point for building a coherent strategy to ensure all our children are literate. One of the key outcomes of our Service Improvement [...]

An invite at the Teaching and Learning group yesterday led me to St Gabriel’s primary in Prestonpans today to hear the feedback from an Active Learning pilot that has been taking place in some of our schools. The pilot has involved bringing learning through play, currently evident in nursery education, to primary 1. [...]

Last week I spent a couple of days at the BETT conference in Olympia, London. The conference is the largest Education technology conference in the UK and is big!  I remember walking into the main hall several years ago - the first time I visited and thought - how do I manage to get round [...]

I attended  the East Lothian Celebrating Success event today.  The event takes place every 2 years and gives schools the opportunity to show the excellent work they have been doing and share ideas. The theme this year was A Curriculum for Excellence and the schools were to demonstrate something for at least one of the [...]

This is my ‘better late than never’ blog about SETT (or the Scottish Learning Festival as it has been rebadged)! My impressions of the conference was that it was very professional and well organised.  In the past it has been - as I understand it- the little brother of BETT, but I feel the seminars [...]

We had the chance to meet with our Glow mentors today at the Scottish Learning Festival (SETT)  Having had the chance to ‘absorb’ the atmosphere and learn of the progress made with Glow, it was interesting to hear the views of the mentors in East Lothian and begin to explore the way forward.  As though [...]

Well, I’ve heard a few negative things over recent weeks about ‘Glow’ the new name for SSDN.  I did finally manage to open the promotional film to introduce it and I don’t think in all honesty it will win any oscars!  However, one of my mentors today remarked that there are worse things to be [...]

The end of another week draws in.  A particularly long week for me - the first full week in 8 … I really was a part timer!  Thanks to Dave for showing me around Technorati …. I know this is probably ‘old technology’ already for anyone reading for this, but better late than never!  What [...]

Curriculum for Excellence – Kathleen RobertsonBackgroundNational debate led to the curriculum review and ultimately to a Curriculum for Excellence.  The Values, Purposes and Principles of Curriculum for Excellence mirror those of Early Years.
Current positionTo look at the 3 to 15 curriculum - bringing 3-5 and 5-14 together to ensure a smooth transition.  ICT is an [...]

Early Years centres from across the authority attended the Folio afternoon at Musselburgh Race course.  The aim of the folio session is to enable centres to share the good work they do using technology in the nursery environment and to learn from each other.  The afternoon was quite informal and lighthearted, as is the way [...]