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 Plan is - ‘All children will be literate by the end of Primary 6, unless they have identified specific learning difficulties or severe and complex needs’. This is quite a target, but I believe it is also a target our children are entitled to. We have a good basis to achieve this in East Lothian, we already have children who start school reading and our levels of literacy are very good - but there are still some who struggle. We need to make sure all who can achieve functional literacy … do.

The purpose of the conference was to invite representatives from many sectors and areas of the community including schools, parents, support services, adult literacy, police, employers and to consider what literacy means to each of us. Having a shared understanding of what it is to be literate from 0-adulthood is key to understanding our roles in developing literacy. Another key objective of the day was to look at our services and to build a greater understanding of our roles, looking to see where we can work more strategically and perhaps more effectively to ensure literacy for all happens.

The morning started with an inspirational talk from Mathew Fitt celebrating the Scots language. He focused on the increase in confidence shown, particularly in boys, when they were able to work and speak in the language from home and not the ‘English’ normally expected in schools. His talk resonated with my own childhood where Scots was felt to be slang and was definitely discouraged to such an extent that it is quite alien to me now. Matthew’s books and translations in Scots can be found at itchy-coo publications and are well worth a look.

The rest of the morning consisted of two workshops. The first involved discussion about ‘What is a literate child’ from 0 to adulthood. Groups worked to consider what literacy looks like at different stages of life - 0-2, 3-5, 6-8 ……. 25+. What evidence is there and how do we know. This was really interesting, the perspectives of different sectors brought a real richness to the discussion.

The second workshop concentrated on auditing what we currently do to support literacy and how we can move forward and improve. This brought to the fore the wide range of services and supports in place but also encouraged us to think creatively and to look for opportunities to develop further strategies - to ‘think out the box’.

The draft statements and initial findings from the day are published below. Thoughts and comments are welcome. Now the real work begins! This feedback and all the information gathered will be key in informing the emerging East Lothian literacy strategy. The key will be continuing to develop this strategy with the very good links developed with support from this conference.

East Lothian Target Literacy Conference - Workshop 1 notes

East Lothian Target Literacy Conference - Workshop 2 notes

Tonight I attended the Internet safety presentation at Dunbar Grammar, led by Ollie Bray and PC Gunn. Like many of the parents, school staff and other folks there, I thought I knew about the Internet and social networking sites, both the positives and the dangers. I came away from the talk thinking that I don’t know as much as I thought or as much as I need to know. This doesn’t just mean something to me as a teacher and manager of ICT in East Lothian, but as a mum. My children are still young, I can still monitor what they are exposed to but how can I keep up with their use of technology and how can I support them to understand the implications of publishing online? One of the slides in the presentation was in text speak, used by our children every day, and I didn’t understand it! I need to take PC Gunn’s advice and download text speak hints and tips online. Will I be completely out of touch by the time my children are of ‘Bebo’ age? I hope not - not if I can do something about it. But it will take a conscious effort to keep up to date, to talk to my children about what they do online - to educate.

What struck me tonight was how important this information was not only for parents, but for teachers and for pupils. Our need to raise awareness is vital to true digital literacy. The next step for East Lothian needs to be working with headteachers and other staff in schools to have a clearer understanding of issues and to support education on safety online. We need to keep our knowledge as up to date and relevant as possible and we need to work with partner agencies such as community police to move forward. We also need to keep a balanced view and remember the importance of online resources for learning.
There was a plea at the end of the session to ’spread the word’ about these events. This is my attempt to spread the word. These events are worth two hours out of your day.

To find out more, visit the website: http://edubuzz.org/blogs/internetsafety/

The School Evaluation visits are drawing to a close this term. The focus for the visits has been the school’s work with the community and developing partnerships. Dunbar Grammar have come up with an innovative initiative for next session. The school have identified that some pupils in S6 struggle to write a personal statement for university (they may have the grades but may not have the broad experiences). In response, the school are developing opportunities for S6 pupils to work flexibly within the community, including the associated cluster Primary schools. Schools, businesses, members of the community can identify (advertise) work needing to be done and pupils can apply for the posts. Applications will be submitted and interviews scheduled for successful applicants. This is a win/win initiative:

For the pupils - developing effective application forms, interview techniques, links with the community and experience for writing those personal statements.

For the schools - developing community links and developing a service.

For the community - developing links with schools and fostering positive relationships with young people.

It will be interesting to see the impact this has next session on the S6 pupils and on the work of the cluster schools. It is something I am keen to follow through and report on next session.

In this epic elimination show, thousands of 14 to 18 year olds will compete in a series of challenges that could take place anywhere in the world as they are coached by celebrity mentors.

They’ll need passion, personality and confidence to succeed. Week on week they’ll be put through their paces to test every aspect of their communication skills. As this competition nears its nail-biting and dramatic conclusion only one competitor will win the title of Britain’s Best Young Speaker.

To get involved initially applicants are invited to upload a one minute speech to our website.
THE CLOSING DATE FOR APPLICATIONS IS AUGUST 1^st 2008.

The BBC are hoping to receive responses from applicants that wouldn’t necessarily take part in a competition of this nature and therefore it is vital that the information is distributed far and wide.

If you have any queries or would like any further info then please visit www.bbc.co.uk/speaker , or you can email speaker@bbc.co.uk or call 0161 244 3570.

At the Early Years Head Teacher’s meeting today, we evaluated our use of Learning Stories in the Early Years to record children’s achievements. The Learning Stories were introduced in East Lothian two years ago, the purpose to involve children in making decisions about their learning, to record achievements and show the progress made.

The use of Learning Stories has not been introduced without some resistance. They involve recording children’s progress through the use of photographs, paintings, drawings and sticking them in to a folder and working with the children individually to record learning in the form of ‘I can …’ statements. Finding the time, organisation, tracking and expense have all been raised as challenges. However, two years on and the picture is very positive. No headteacher questioned their use today - only used the opportunity to share ideas and to come to some agreed principles to develop them further. Notes from the discussion and how we move forward can be viewed:

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The training sessions will be led by Ollie Bray (Depute Head at Musselburgh Grammar School) and PC David Gunn from Lothian and Borders Police. Both Mr Bray and Mr Gunn are accredited Ambassadors of the Child Exploitation Online Protection Agency (CEOP).

The training session has already been piloted within the Musselburgh Cluster and received positive response from over 200 parents. The content of the evening includes background information on new technologies and information about computers and mobile phones and the law. But the main part of the presentation involves Mr Bray taking the parents into some ‘real’ social networking spaces that young people use. This includes Habba Hotel, Teenspot, MSN Instant Messenger and Bebo. The session also gives advice on how you can protect your home computer and advice on on-line gaming.

Everybody who attends the training will have access to a comprehensive on-line handout.

The sessions will be held at:

·       Preston Lodge High- 3 June 2008
·       Ross High - 10 June 2008
·       Dunbar Grammar - 11 June 2008
·       Knox Academy - 18 June 2008
·       North Berwick High - 24 June 2008

All training sessions will take place between 7 - 9pm.

Ollie Bray, Depute Head at Musselburgh Grammar School, says:
‘This is a very exciting time for East Lothian to be leading the way in Internet Training for staff, parents, families and pupils.  We are going to use the feedback we gain from these sessions to inform good practice nationally through the Scottish Learning Festival.’

These evenings will start promptly at 7pm and have a limited availability. If you have any queries or you would like to book a place on one of these sessions, please email Tess Watson, (Acting Education Support Officer) at twatson@eastlothian.gov.uk or log onto http:edubuzz.org/blogs/internetsafety

Today, Stenton Primary held a Curriculum for Excellence assembly for Parents. The aim was to raise awareness of the new curriculum and to explain, in the words of the children, what it means in practice. In the last few weeks as I have attended events as the new outcomes and experiences are release, I have heard terms such as vague or woolly being used to describe Curriculum for Excellence. However, today in Stenton Primary, I could see it in action and I could see it taking shape. It is ultimately about good practice, about making learning fun, about enterprising approaches to learning but it is still about rigour and progression and having high standards and expectations of our children.

Today, the acting Head Teacher of Stenton, Helen Gillanders gave parents an overview before making way for the experts in learning - the children. They then went on to use real and current examples of their learning to exemplify what Curriculum for Excellence means to them.

Planning

Using mind maps to plan collaboratively with the teacher and then to plan how they are going to learn what they have identified.

Learning Walls

To display what is learned, built on the planning. A space to display learning in a very visual and dynamic way.

Active Learning

Exemplification of project work to explain what Active Learning means to them. Being actively involved in learning. motivated and working with confidence and independence.

Assessment

Describing how assessment is still key to measuring progress but how it can be done in a fun way, and as part of their learning.

Parents were then encouraged to stay, to look around the classrooms and to watch the children learn. The children then showed how they used Activote and Interactive whiteboards for learning in an interactive way. They used Presentations to present their learning.

If you are looking for confident individuals, effective contributors, responsible citizens and successful learners, then here they are.