Archive for the 'Parental Involvement' Category

Ormiston Primary Enjoy a Bedtime Story - Live from Australia

How could you make a bedtime story into a must-see event for parents? Ormiston Primary School found that one way was to have it read live from Australia - using a web videoconference.

The event was attended by a horde of pyjama-clad children, who enjoyed hot chocolate while they listened to the story and watched pictures from the book appear on screen. Large numbers of parents wanted to make sure they didn’t miss out, and also squeezed into the classroom. The story was read by a teacher from Ormiston State School in Queensland Australia, which has linked with Ormiston Primary to develop reading by use of a web site where book reviews and recommendations can be shared by pupils. You can read more, and see some more photos, over on the Ormiston school site.

WHAT YOU THINK MATTERS: ADDITIONAL SUPPORT FOR LEARNING

February 5, 2009
6:00 pmto7:30 pm
February 18, 2009
6:00 pmto7:30 pm

In June 2008, Common Ground Mediation consulted with parents and carers about how well we are doing in meeting the educational needs of children and young people with additional support needs in East Lothian.

The views of parents and carers informed the report ‘Evaluation of implementation of the Additional Support for Learning (Scotland) Act’.

You can read the full report of the audit at: http://edubuzz.org/blogs/supportforall/a… or contact Lisa Shine on 01 620 827167 to arrange for a copy of the report to be sent out to you. 2004′

The next stage of this consultation process is to invite parents and carers to tell us what you think are the main areas that we need to improve on and what actions need to be prioritised.

So if you are a parent or carer of a child or young person who receives or needs extra help with learning, we want to hear your views. Please come along to one of these consultation sessions:

Thursday 5th Feb, 6.00 - 7.30pm in Conference Room 1,
John Muir House, Haddington

OR
Weds 18th Feb, 6.00 - 7.30pm in Lounge Room,
Brunton Hall, Musselburgh

If you would like to attend, please contact Morag Steven, Common Ground Mediation on 0131 664 9324 or 07760 486 465 or email: morag@commongroundmediation.co.uk

It would also be helpful to give us any other information you feel we should know including any access, dietary or other requirements prior to the event. If you can’t manage to attend but would still like to have your views included please contact Morag Steven on the number above.

Download “What you think matters” flyer for parents and carers (4.4MB, MS Word)

Download booking forms for interpretation and translation

Law P7’s Loch Insh blog: 100 comments in 3 days

Snow at Loch Insh

Law Primary’s P7 students have been blogging from Loch Insh Watersports and Outdoor Centre this week.

They’ve made good use of digital photos, audio and video to tell the story. Again this has proved very popular with those back home, with plenty of comments from Mums, Dads, brothers, sisters and even dogs. Experience is showing this works well not just for keeping those at home in touch with what the group are learning, but is also a good way to let those in earlier years get a good idea of what the excursion is all about, as we see in this comment from P6C.

P6C were having a look at all your photos, videos and podcasts yesterday and they are mightily impressed - they’re already looking forward to their visit next year.

“Parents” blog: A place to share conversations between Parent Councils?

Parents blog screenshot

Could an edubuzz blog potentially be a place where all East Lothian Parent Councils - and Parent Forum members - get involved with what’s happening across the county?

Some time ago we set up the “Parents” blog (http://edubuzz.org/blogs/parents) to support consultation on the draft Parental Involvement strategy (20 pages, pdf, 800KB).

Now that the Parent Councils are up and running, meetings are now taking place of the East Lothian Association of Parent Councils. That raised issues of communications between the individual councils.

  • How do Parent Councils keep in touch with what other councils are doing?
  • Where can you find links to East Lothian Parent Council web sites?
  • Where can you find updates on what’s happening county-wide, such as the Association meetings?

Our current plan is to use the Parents blog as a place to share this information, and hopefully promote the integration of all parents into East Lothian’s leading networked education community. If you’d like to contribute to the site, please get in touch and we’ll help get you started.

Polish Parent Helps with EAL at The Burgh Primary

Story timeOver at SupportForAll, the blog about support for learners in East Lothian, you can read about how a Polish parent is helping in the classroom at Musselburgh’s Burgh Primary.

She doesn’t have much English herself, but is able to read Polish from bilingual books to a pupil who doesn’t speak English.

We purchased bilingual story books and the mum read the Polish version and I was able to echo in English. When she heard the story in Polish, my P1 pupil was really excited and the rest of the class were fascinated. Now that they are a regular event the other children also enjoy these sessions and are beginning to predict what I am going to say based on what has been read and they are able to pick out some Polish words if they are repeated a lot within the story.