Today I am using Cyber Cafe to teach a P6 class more about internet security. We will be looking at how to keep ourselves safe from anyone who has malintent in anyway. I want to encourage the pupils to use the internet without fear and without identifying themselves by givng away too much information. Earlier I tried to see if there were any good sites where the pupils could build themselves a suitable avatar to use when posting. I found one called doppelme which seems safe and I include my avatar for your amusement.


I was wondering if anyone has used avatars for pupils in school instead of using either their real image or none at all. Not using any seems a bit boring and as long as the pupils are not identified it adds a bit when you read their work or see their efforts on-line. After attending a course by Ollie Bray on internet safety I have become much more mindful but want to temper it with the pupils having the ability ,through the use of an avatar, to personalise their presentations. I supppose that if they choose a (suitable!) psuedonym to fit their avatar that should be OK. Or, has Ollie made me paranoid and just use pictures instead?

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It is always a chore to get my son Lewis to do his homework, especially repetative things like times tables and spelling. I’m always on the look out for things that excite him, take the pressure off me as a grouch and let us both enjoy homework with pleasure. I was pointed in the direction of tutpup by one of my colleagues, Dale Armatage, who, like me has a young family. This resource is for addition, subtraction,multiplication, division, algebra and spelling. It reminds me of World Maths Day as pupils play against one another to answer questions against the clock. It’s great on the interactive whiteboard, just watch them go! Another couple of sites are A Maths Dictionary For Kids and Maths Whack ‘Em Booster, both highly interactive and fun. The maths dictionary is great and I know I’ve mentioned it before but I rate the stuff done by Jenny Eather very highly. Her writing for fun is a teacher’s dream resource to aid writing in class. Her other site, Rainforest Maths has had to be taken off line as it was being ripped off by commercial developers. That has always been a concern, all of the sites above are free to use and hats off to the developers altruism. Merchant bankers and the so called money men could learn a wee lesson here about helping others before helping yourself. If you use these sites please use the feedback to let the developers know how much you appreciate their efforts. Better still get your kids to do it……

    Duncansby Head near John O’Groats                        

 I’ve just spent the weekend going round Mid and North Wales supporting my son Johnny and his friend Steven who are cycling from Land’s End to John O’Groats, (over 600 miles). My wife and I set up camp for them and carried their luggage to allow them some respite in their efforts. In the three days we were able to help they managed 82 miles, 79 miles and a huge 92 miles on the Sunday before ending up in a camp site near Clitheroe. We managed to get them a site with a bar, swimming pool and jacuzzi to help rest their weary bones. It was really uplifting to see the support they got from complete strangers. In one pub someone put a hat round and the locals donated £35.00 from their beer money to help their venture. (Sick Kids in Edinburgh) I know that today they are headed for Wanlockhead from Carlisle. A fair old slog. I will be setting out on Saturday with two of my other sons to lend support and boost morale by taking all of their luggage for the last push from Carbisdale to John O’Groats. I hope I can instil a sense of adventure and challenge into my three youngest boys so they can get out and about and explore this fine country of ours. They chose a new tent this year and we went off to our annual fishing trip to Glencoe. A tent that I can now stand up in, a luxury. This was the first experience for Harris, his older brother is an old hand now. I loved the excitement Harris had catching crabs and the wild excitement catching his first real fish. He won the title of Kingfisher which he retains until the next time. All fish and crabs were returned unharmed but confused. The exception being the fine mackerel that Lewis fought with, it was barbequed and washed down with a fine Wychwood ale by me! By the way, the campsite we use at Invercoe has the midge eaters fitted all around the site. What a difference, you can actually sit outside without being eaten alive. Bliss. They empty the dead midges into a large glass tube at reception every day, some 7 million of them so far this season. No sympathy from me for these little blighters. I hope to get them up there again before Autumn kicks in properly, we might even get two dry days strung together!

I found and interesting quote that made me think again about the purpose of schools. We are so wrapped up in so many initiatives and the sheer pressure of ‘managing’ a school that sometimes we lose sight of what is really important. The following quote from Anthony Seldon sums it up.

“This is about helping children become themselves. What is a school if it isn’t helping people find what they want to do? I don’t just mean careers. I mean teaching how to sing, dance, paint, act, write poetry, play tennis, play the guitar. We’d be a better, more harmonious society if people had these interests developed when they were young. But they don’t. That’s a cause of depression. And the things I’m talking about: children need them here [in school], but the more deprived the background, the less the infrastructure at home, the greater the need. If schools aren’t going to do these things, who is?” (Anthony Seldon,)

If we get the Curriculum for Excellence right we might just help achieve the above. Even if you don’t agree with Seldon’s politics his site is worth a look. Anyone who has enough brass neck to introduce happiness classes to 14-16 year olds has to be interesting!

 I’ve always had a bee in my bunnet  about sharing information between organisations and individuals and rail against the excuses as to why things can’t be done or made as difficult as possible. Edinburgh University are working to try to promote the sharing of training, experiences and knowledge. Go to their site about promoting knowledge and register youself and your school. Read the blurb and make your own mind up. If you want to sign up contact e.king@ed.ac.uk.

If you have any autistic pupils in your school you need to be aware of the new publication coming out from the Scottish Government called The Autism Toolbox. It will offer advice on the following:

Guidance for schools: the toolbox in practice

This section will offer sets of guidance on a range of topics, including

• Recognising ASD
• Strengths and challenges of an autism profile
• Assessment
• Impact on teaching and learning
• Classroom organisation / strategies
• Differentiation - principles and practicalities
• Individualised educational planning
• Social curriculum (skills / life skills)
• Pupils involvement in all matters which affect them
• Whole school approaches / understanding
• Transitions
• Bullying and playground management
• Pupil passports
• Recognising wider achievement
• Sharing interesting practice
• Networking for autism

Keep checking the site and download this resource for staff and parents.

 I have the pleasure to head up a Musselburgh Cluster project about money. All of the Musselburgh schools will be delivering the money outcomes from a Curriculum for Excellence at the same time and publishing the body of work for all to see at http://musselburghclustermaths.wikispaces.com/

The work will encompass all stages from Nursery to S3 at Musselburgh Grammar School. The project has a variety of purposes. We will have exemplars of planning formats, suggested lines of development for teaching staff, ways of assessing and tracking pupil work and publishing pupil work in a variety of formats. It will be very interesting to see a complete body of work across the schools that shows the progression as pupils move through nursery to secondary and how their grasp of money is developed. 

I have, however, one problem. The group are trying to find a Virtual Bank where pupils can set up bank accounts/credit cards, make purchases and keep an on-line account safely. I have had a quick search through a variety of search engines and can’t find one. Any ideas or pointers would be greatly appreciated.

I heard the term casual pets for the first time on radio yesterday. It refers to any creature you feed in your garden such as birds, hedgehogs etc. Here at Pinkie we are blessed with a huge enclosed playing area that is refuge to many birds I would like to think of as our casual pets. Yesterday I counted in excess of 50 curlews and as many oyster catchers working our playing fields for worms, leatherjackets and any other small invertebrates. We have some noisy visitors over from Scandinavia who are steadily denuding our rowan trees of their berries and also working the fields, these fieldfares are fascinating in their behaviour, they seem to claim a tree and squabble like mad with their mates over the berries. But our pride of place must go to our resident hen harriers, we have a breeding pair somewhere on our premises who make spectacular watching. The male is a pale grey colour, the female, who is larger, is browny with a barred tail. During breeding the male provides the meals, he calls to her as he nears the nest, she leaves and pursues him, turns updside down in mid-flight and grabs the vole/bird as she flies underneath him. During the winter months she ambushes our feral pigeons as they leave our doocot and devours them alive. Who needs the Serengeti when you have this stuff right on your doorstep! In addition, we have visiting roe deer and foxes, who lie up in our bramble patches and help keep our rabbits in control.

Today we received the final copy of our HMIe follow through report on the Inspection of the school in 2006. A copy will go home with every child. As a staff we were very pleased with the findings of the inspection team and feel it gives a very fair and balanced view. I include it here for your interest and comment.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION & CHILDREN’S SERVICES

PROGRESS REPORT ON PINKIE ST PETER’S PRIMARY SCHOOL

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education (HMIe) published a report on the inspection of Pinkie St Peter’s Primary School in January 2006.  The school, in partnership with the Local Authority, prepared an action plan indicating how they would address the main findings of the report.

The school, in partnership with the local authority, prepared an action plan indicating how they would address the main points for action in the report.  Progress on the action plan has been regularly monitored and evaluated by an officer of the local authority.  This report evaluates the extent to which the school is continuing to improve the quality of its work and the progress made in responding to the main points for action.

Point for action 1:

·        Continue to improve overall quality of teaching

Good progress has been made.

Assessment strategies are well established in all classes.  They are making a positive impact on attainment.  The school has made a good start to the introduction of the new national initiative ‘A Curriculum for Excellence’.

An independent evaluation of the quality of enterprising approaches learning and teaching rated the school as very good to excellent. Active learning is evident in early years classes. Plans are in place to extend this to all classes in session 2007/8

Staff have attended a range of professional development courses on formative assessment and learning and teaching.  They have incorporated some of the recommended approaches into their own classroom practice and shared the impact of the changes with colleagues.

The headteacher and depute headteacher have established links with local businesses, organisations and Queen Margaret University. There is a wide range of extra curricular activities. The depute headteacher has continued to develop health education, eco schools and international education.  These partnerships provide excellent contexts for learning and promoting wider achievement.

Senior staff have monitored the introduction and quality of teaching approaches through classroom observation and discussion with staff. There is a collegiate approach to changes in teaching strategies across the whole school.

Point for action 2:

·        Further improve the overall quality of learning, addressing issues of pace and challenge, particularly for higher achieving pupils.

Good progress has been made.

The senior management team (SMT) used classroom observation and team teaching to work with classes to enhance pace and challenge.

There is an extensive evaluation and testing programme. Baseline assessment in P1 is informing discussions between senior managers and teachers on their forward planning to ensure an appropriate level of support and challenge for pupils.  Overall teachers’ expectations for pupils’ work and pace of learning have improved. Setting is in place in some classes. Teachers target support to ensure children are progressing appropriately.  Learning support teachers have identified higher achieving pupils and appropriate strategies that will improve the pace of their learning.

The school has developed an effective system for monitoring, evaluating and supporting children with additional needs. There is close liaison between outside agencies, support for learning teachers and class teachers. Children are well supported.

Teachers share next steps in learning with children as part of the formative assessment strategies. Children are aware of the specific criteria for reading, writing and maths. Core programme target sheets for mathematics are included in children’s jotters and clearly displayed in classes. Children have learning targets, assess their progress and are becoming more independent learners.

A programme for personal writing has been developed and children now work to higher standards. Progression of reading skills has been developed for all levels. This has led to better pace of learning and consistency at all stages.

Action Point 3

Ensure that pupils from the Support Base are effectively included in mainstream classes.

Very good progress has been made.

The Support Base is now called the Learning Zone. It is used as a whole school resource as well as providing an excellent base for those children with severe and complex needs. All Learning Zone children are involved in whole school activities.

Mainstream children access the Learning Zone as part of integration, working alongside Learning Zone children and others from mainstream. Pupils and staff from the Learning Zone are timetabled to support children in class where appropriate. These timetables are sophisticated but well managed and clearly support the needs of the small number of very vulnerable children. Teachers across the school have benefited from partnership with the Learning Zone.  They have introduced an increased range of teaching approaches.

Mainstream class teachers are involved in the formation of Individualised Educational Programmes and receive copies of Forward Plans for individual pupils. These plans are evaluated on a regular basis through liaison meetings for each planning block.

An excellent soft play room has been established and well resourced after the school secured funding from a local business.

Teachers and support staff were very committed to the support and integration of pupils from the Learning Zone.

Action Point 4

Improve the use made of the system of tracking pupils’ progress to ensure they consistently attain in line with their capabilities.

Good progress has been made.

This is linked to Action Point 2.

The school introduced additional tests and evaluations to provide more detailed analysis of pupil performance and trends at all stages. Staff plan next steps in learning and ensure that pupils made more appropriate progress. More effective systems for tracking pupil progress were now in place. Pupils’ performance was discussed regularly between teachers and promoted staff and this was helping to improve attainment. Teachers’ assessments were now used to monitor pupils’ progress against predicted levels. Staff used assessment information to inform action where pupils were not making the progress that their earlier attainment had indicated they should. Plans are now in place for staff, with support from SMT, to take ownership of predictions and monitoring of attainment levels.

Continuous Improvement

The school shows very good capacity for continuous improvement.  Levels of attainment continue to be good.

Staff have been engaging with A Curriculum for Excellence and have adopted a range of appropriate strategies to improve learning.  The Primary 1 & 2 teachers have incorporated more active learning into the pupils’ experiences. This has had an impact on their achievement.

The school has continued to develop the use of ICT across the curriculum.  There is a wide range of technology in use and pupils are motivated and engaged by the activities.  Some classes used animations, garage band, i-tunes and made i-movies.

The school has achieved level 1 accreditation as a Healthy School and a Bronze Eco-School Award and is currently building on this success.

Plans are in place to further develop active learning, learning teams, links with local businesses and to investigate underachievement of boys in the upper stages.

Working Groups have been established to take forward improvements in, for example, reading and mathematics.

The school has recently refurbished the school library and, after discussion with staff and pupils, invested in new resources that will interest pupils of all ages and boys in particular.

The school is well placed to sustain and build on its current levels of good practice.

Conclusion

Pinkie St Peter’s Primary School has made good progress overall in the points for action set out in the HMIe report and has continued to provide a high standard of education for its pupils.  The current Head Teacher took up his post in May 2007 and improvements have continued.  There is a strong basis for continued improvement.

Dear Santa,

I’m a very uncomplicated soul whose needs are simple, I like any whisky with a cork, a light hearted book, and if anyone feel really generous a new motorbike, but, mostly, a quiet stroll along a deserted beach then back to the requests of course!

In Pinkie we have a working group looking at all aspects of reading and trying to come up with ways of improving reading skills across the whole school. I have just received an inspection copy of a resource called Read Write Inc that re-introduces the pupils to synthetic phonics, which are widely recognised as being a crucial component of learning how to read. The link takes you to the 5-14 Special Focus page on LT Scotland website. If you haven’t been there before it is well worth a look. Part of the discussion we started was to look at current school resources and to try to enhance our provision by making better use of existing materials and re-discovering ways of teaching reading better and improving our level of pace. The catch 22 situation here is neatly summed up by a quote from William Glasser, “The faster you go, the more students you leave behind. It doesn’t matter how much or how fast you teach. The true measure is how much students have learned. “

Read write inc. stresses the importance of partner work to improve learning, very much formative assessment techiques, the emphasis being:

We Learn: (William Glasser)

• 10% of what we read
• 20% of what we see
• 30% of what we hear
• 50% of what we see and hear
• 70% of what we discuss with another person
• 85% of what we experience personally
• 95% of what we teach

By working together, pupils are taught to teach and support each other to read, comprehend, spell and write their own compositions which will then be able to be published on our collaborative writing wiki.

If we adopt this system I will keep a log of its use and how it impacts on our reading here.

Ending with another Glasser quote, “Effective teaching may be the hardest job there is”.

Says it all.