Luke\’s RMPS Blog

An idea being floated at the moment in our ‘faculty’ is integration. Its becoming a bit of a dirty word in some respects as all members of staff are worried about the negative effects it would have on learning and teaching.
At first, I have to admit, I was quite excited about the prospect of working more closely with other departments, sharing ideas and developing new materials etc. However, the more I reflect on integration I find myself becoming somewhat unsettled. I think, deep down, I’m a traditionalist when it comes to education. I see education as being a journey which allows the learner to specialise in a particular field as they develop interests and show particular flare in different areas.
In the primary years, non-specialist teachers help pupils learn via a project based approach whereby pupils’ touch on issues such as science, history, geography and religion in a topic, for example ‘Ancient Rome’. As pupils progress in High School they begin to develop skills learnt in the primary sector but are propelled further by subject specialist teachers who have a passion for their subject area. This is not to say no links are made between subjects; for example both History and RMPS at Knox address the Civil Rights Movement. However, the emphasis is very different. History looks at the key figures, analyses and weighs up the evidence. RMPS, conversely, looks at the spiritual nature of protest and the immorality of segregation.
I guess I’m worried about potentially diluting the learners’ experience and presenting a shallow, stretched and restricted overview on some really interesting and, of course, complex subjects areas. I love what I do, I love my subject and, at the end of the day, is it wrong that I’m not really turned on by ox bow lakes?

Today I had the opportunity of facilitating a Buddhism lesson to a class of P4 pupils at Gullane Primary School. I thoroughly enjoyed all aspects of my visit, especially the enthusiasm of pupils. The secondary sector has so much to learn from primary schools, especially concerning developments relating to A Curriculum For Excellence; for example, the implementation of Critical Skills in the classroom as a learning tool.

The lesson I facilitated was on ‘Interconnectedness’. Each pupil had to pass a piece of string to another pupil who had a similar feature/characteristic as him or her. Eventually every pupil was holding the string, creating a massive web across the classroom. I developed this idea of interconnectedness by using a clip from the Lion King to promote discussion about the ‘circle of life’ and our responsibility to all living creatures. This was concluded through a visual display detailing the early life of Siddhartha Gautama.

As well as facilitating the lesson I was able to observe a P5 poetry lesson. Pupils wrote personal poems on a colour of their choice and then made a pod cast of their work to put on the P5 learning Blog. This activity was excellent, not only in developing core IT skills but in developing pupils’ confidence in terms of oral presentation. Keep up the good work Gullane!

This week in the department we have been celebrating Chinese New Year - the Year of the Pig. This has been a great opportunity for us to build links with the school’s Chinese teacher. Pupils have been finding out more about Chinese culture and have even had the opportunity to try making some traditional Chinese recipes. Again, I feel such practice demonstrates just how effectively the cross-curricular emphasis of A Curriculum for Excellence can operate in schools. Three subjects, across faculties working together > needless to say I’m excited about further developments.