Scott Lavery\’s Enterprise Blog

It has been a while since I last gave an update on my work in Wallyford. All classes are now using the WHY question where relevant and discussion with both staff and pupils has shown this to be successful in improving motivation.

Since returning after the October break, I have been working closely with the Primary 1-4 classes in the school to focus on how children can take ownership for their learning through the use of Learning Goals. From p2-4, the focus has been on writing and supporting the chidlren to find ways of closing the gap. In Primary 1, the goals set have been more generic in their use. I have to admit that I was apprehensive about working with this age group but have been pleasantly surprised by the level of engagement and understanding taking place.

Our next step was to relate these goals to the 4 capacities of Curriculum for Excellence. As a staff, we discussed how to help the children understand what it actually means to be a Successful Learner, Confident Individual, Responsible Citizen and Effective Contributor. To do this, we decided that each class would personalise the various bullet points so they are able to made sense to them. So far, we have looked at Successful Learners and Confident Individuals and their interpretation makes sense to both the classs and the staff. This will then allow us to relate their learning goals to one or more of the 4 capacities and discover how this helps them to develop their learning.

I have included a copy of the posters produced already by the classes to demonstrate the level of engagement from the young people.

cfe-capacities-p1.doc

I am really enjoying the opportunity to help develop teaching and learning in the school and would like to thank the staff for their support with this. It has been a real team effort to get to where we are now.

I have been working alongside the staff and children in the various classes at Whitecraig Primary School for the past four weeks looking at how we can join the main agendas together to improve teaching and learning. As in Wallyford, I have been focusing on consistency across the school and mirroring in the various classes how to use the WHY question when introducing a lesson. This has proved successful in giving the children some relevance to certain lessons and has helped them, in some cases, to set their own success criteria.

We have also been introducing learning goals across the school with a focus on writing from Primary 3 upwards. The goals being set are designed to help the children to identify an area of work that will allow them to move forward with their writing. The classes used work in their jotters to help them identify their next steps.

Our next step is to look at the four capacities of Curriculum for Excellence and put these into more ‘child friendly’ language. The school have started to use ‘Curriculum Passports’ which give the children the opportunity to comment on their learning and identify how they have been a Successful Learner, Confident Individual, etc. Further information on how this is devleoping will be posted in due course.

Over the past two weeks, I have been involved in delivering a number of CPD opportunities for staff. This ranged from working with a number of nursery teachers from across the authority looking at how enterprise fits into their settings to delivering training to all probationers in East Lothian. What has impressed me the most is the understanding staff now have and how they see enterprise as being part of their practice and not an add on.

I have been keen to stress to staff that we build on existing practice in our schools and develop strategies around this. This approach is working well and the feedback from all the training carried out has been very positive. Enteprising approaches are now well embedded in our schools and it is hoped that these will continue in the years ahead.

I have been very pleased with the response to the work I have been carrying out in relation to joining the agendas. A number of new schools have expressed an interest in the programme and I have been involved in preliminary meetings with them.
At St Gabriels, I have met with the staff to discuss the programme and am waiting to confirm dates to go in and work alongside staff on areas which they see they would want to develop.
Both East Linton and Dirleton are also looking for input and I have organised dates to meet with the staff there to discuss how we can move this forward. Further details on all these projects will be posted on the blog in due course.

I had a very interesting session with the staff at Whitecraig Primary yesterday.  The head teacher had asked me to work alongside staff in school to identify ways of developing teaching and learning in consulation with the children.  This work will mirror what I am carrying out at Wallyford. 

Yesterday was about the staff refecting on their own practice and identifying changes that they felt needed to happen to promote quality teaching and learning.  The staff were very reflective in their ideas and it was pleasing to them that they had the backing of the management team in implementing this.  The next step is for the teachers themselves to take a risk and ask the children what they think of the classroom environment and involve them in this process of change.

I spent the morning in 3 different classes at Wallyford Primary School on Monday.  This was my first session focusing on developing teaching and learning in line with the major educational agendas.  I was developing learning intentions (What) and asking pupils to explore the relevance of the lession (Why) whilst setting their own success criteria (How).

Initailly, I worked with Primary 7 who were planning an imaginative story.  The children showed they had a good understanding of learning intentions and success criteria and it was evident that the class teacher had spent a great deal of time in class using these to improve learning in her class.  The pupils themselves set their own learning intention for the lesson and I then focused on why they needed to plan to help them see the relevance of their learning.  We then went on to develop the success criteria and the children took full responsibility for this and used them in order to check their plans.

I then moved onto Primary 1 to introduce the concept to them.  The lesson was counting forward and backwards from 0 to 10.  I introduced the learning intention using a WHAT flashcard (which all classes across the school will have access to).  We then moved on to discuss WHY it was important that we learn to do this accurately.  I was surprised by how engaged the children were by this and also how they were able to suggest real life contexts for using their learning.  From this we discussed HOW they would know they had completed this successfully.  The pupils eventually came up with the idea of using their fingers to check accuracy.

In Primary 4, spelling was the focus lesson and gain, the children were able to decide upon reason for learing their spelling sounds.  Reference was also made to how this would benefit them in later life.  The pupils again set their own success criteria for the lesson.

All 3 classes demonstrated how impoirtant its is to ionvolve the children fully in the learning process and the need to give them opportunities to understand the relevance of what they are learning.  This area will be developed in all classes over the coming weeks so there is a consistent approrach across the school.

I was asked to showcase our work on ‘Joining the Agendas’ at the Learning Festival on Wednesday.  In order to make this relevant to the audience, I enlisted the help of staff at both Gullane Primary School and St Gabriel’s RC Primary School.  Both schools have demonstrated clear links within teaching and learning to the various key initiatives and were able to exemplify what is included in the programme. The display was well received and a number of staff from other local authorities have expressed an interest in finding out more about the work in our schools.

presentation-for-joining-the-agendas.ppt

I have attached the PowerPoint presentation sued on the day which contains an overview of the programme and also feedback from the pilot at Musselburgh Burgh Primary School which I ran last session.  Many thanks to Maureen Tremmel, Kathy McGrane and Elise Sutherland from Gullane and Kyley Brown and Margaret Ann McBean from St Gabriel’s for all their support over the past few weeks.

Following on from the successful pilot project last session at Musselburgh Burgh last session, I am now leading the Joining the Agendas workshop with the whole staff at Wallyford Primary School.  The idea behind this is to allow staff the opportunity to reflect on their practice and give support to them in relation to learning and teaching. 

The major thrust of the work is on joining the agendas (Curriculum for Excellence, Determined to Succeed and Assessment is for Learning) together so all learners can access this and the idea also underpins the fundamentals of good practice contained in our learning and teaching policy.

I have carried out the inital session with the whole staff group and it gave them the opportunity to share with each other how their classrooms are organsied but at the same time they were able to adapt ideas in light of what was shared.  It is important to stress that all staff working in the classrooms were involved in the process and not just the teachers themselves. 

A number of other schools have expressed an interest in this work and I will update the blog as more schools come on board.  I plan to share this with primary enterprise coordinators at our meeting on Tuesday 11 September.

I am now into the second year of my secondment and have a variety of challenges ahead.  the major focus for this year is on sustainability beyond 2008 and my role will be to support schools in developing this over the coming session.  There are a number of exciting projects happening over the coming year and I will be reflecting on this work as the year progresses.

I have now completed my pilot project at Musselburgh Burgh Primary School with a variety of staff ranging from the Support for Learning teacher to the probationer in Primary 1.  It was refreshing to work with such an open and receptive staff who were willing to look at new ideas and improve the quality of teaching and learning. 

As this was a pilot, I gave staff the opportunity to choose from a menu of tasks which I would work on in their classes.

school-workshop.doc

The school itself has a very enterprising outlook with a vision statement saying ‘Everything is Possible’.  This was reflected in the outlook of the children I was working with together with the staff themselves. For some staff the input was reassurance that their practice was already enterprising and they were giving the children the experience of taking ownership of their learning.  For others, it was an opportunity for them to develop their teaching and learning styles and give them additional strategies which complemented what they were already doing.

I feel I have made some impact on both the practice of the staff and the learning experience of the children involved.  The work has given the school a package which allows them to meet the needs of a number of key themes.  One issue I was aware of was the time implications and feel for this to be successful,  I would need to work over a prolonged period to measure proper impact.  Some of the techniques also need to be adopted across the school so there is a greater level of consistency.  This is something the school can build on next session.  I have asked the staff to evaluate how effective this has been and will post the findings on the blog in due course.