Aberdeen City’s Curriculum Support Team

At the end of April 2008 a number of representatives from Aberdeen schools attended the launch event for the Curriculum for Excellence Technologies outcomes.

In order to share their experiences with as many colleagues as possible, those who attended the event have each been asked to add a comment to this post, to give a summary of what they learned from the event.

If you’re a regular visitor to this Blog, you’ll have noticed that there hasn’t been a lot happening here of late - there have been no new posts for a while.

If you are in an Aberdeen school, and you want to share something with members of the Curriculum Support team and/or colleagues in other schools, you can be given Author access to this Blog, which will allow you to write your own posts.

If you would like to get Author access, please send me an email - ajones@aberdeencity.gov.uk, stating your name, job title and school.

The Blog currently has an average of 3 to 4 unique visits each day, and I’m sure this figure will rise once we start getting new posts added to the site on a regular basis.

Thanks.

Increasing physical activity in the classroom can increase the attention levels of students.

The ‘moving towards excellence’ team found that a brief spell of exercise within the classroom could significantly improve children’s ability to pay attention. A series of psychological tests showed that children were better able to ‘stay on task’ if they had received a burst of exercise earlier in the day. The ‘excellence’ team comprise Curriculum Support Physical Education Health and Wellbeing [of Aberdeen City Council Education Department] and researchers from the University of Aberdeen. This ground breaking research is the first of its kind and provides exciting new evidence that suggests exercise is not only beneficial for physical health but might also help young children reach their full academic potential.

The research team is embarking on further research to gain a greater understanding of how exercise influences mental performance. It is anticipated that this research will lead to a much greater appreciation of the role that Physical Education (and physical activity in general) has to play in the wider curriculum. Instead of viewing PE as ‘yet another subject on the syllabus’ this research suggests that it might underpin learning in all subjects. If used appropriately PE is not only a valuable tool for teaching children physical co-ordination but can also have knock-on academic benefits. Physical activity heightens children’s ability to pay attention and is likely to help the children acquire skills such as literacy and numeracy.

If you are interested in learning more about our previous and current projects please contact me.

The Children’s Mutual is offering a free booklet - created in conjunction with educational consultants, BEAM 1, and awarded a pfeg Quality Mark 2, Making Sense of Money contains a number of fun games intended for parents or teachers to play with children.

The games are aimed primarily at children between 4 and 8 years old. However, there are also suggestions for easy adjustments to each game which means they can suit a wider age range too. A set of teachers’ notes is also available.

For your free copy of Making Sense of Money, please call Children’s Mutual on 01892 775302, email msom@thechildrensmutual.co.uk or click here for a link to the website.

If you haven’t done so already, why not take a few minutes now to look at Online Interactive Learning, or OIL for short, which is the Council’s new e-learning system?

With OIL you can enrol free of charge on a wide range of online courses, which you can study from any internet-connected computer, at a time that suits you and at your own pace.

Online courses currently on offer include:
Conflict Skills and Techniques
Decision Making
Facilitation Skills
Making Objectives Happen
Managing Yourself
Mentoring Skills
Persuading with Numbers
Trust and Motivation
Working in Teams

You can also use OIL to view the details of all of the face to face courses which are currently on offer to schools through the CPD Directory, and within the next couple of months we are hoping to begin using OIL for taking online bookings for all of our face to face courses. This will mean you will no longer have to fill in any forms to apply to attend a course - just log in to OIL, click a button, and you’re signed up!

To access OIL you’ll need your unique username and your initial password, which you’ll be asked to change to your own secret password once you log in for the first time. You can obtain your username and password from your CPD Coordinator or your School Administrator, or alternatively you can email me - ajones@aberdeencity.gov.uk

Log in to OIL now at www.acc-oil.net

The draft experiences and outcomes for literacy, English and Gàidhlig will be released on Thursday 21 February on the Curriculum for Excellence website.

http://www.curriculumforexcellencescotland.gov.uk

They are also releasing guidance on literacy across the curriculum which emphasises the role of all practitioners involved with children and young people in promoting the development of literacy skills.

Vivienne

Many schools I know already use resources from www.sparklebox.co.uk but for those of you out there who have not paid this website a visit I would recommend it!!

There are loads of FREE downloadable resources which cover nearly every curricular area.

For middle and upper stages of the primary school click on sparklebox2 (or key stage 2) for some fantastic literacy and numeracy downloads (many with an active learning approach!!)

They also seem to update this site quite frequently (particularly good for celebration days e.g Chinese new Year, Pancake Day etc) so it is well worth putting into your favourites and revisiting it once in a while.

Let me know what you think.

Vivienne

I have received a letter from a company called Crocodile Clips which is offering free online whiteboard resources. The letter suggests that there are - over 700 simulations offering a wide range of simulations, animations and models across secondary school science and mathematics with excellent graphics. Click here to locate this free resource.

The Reading Bus is currently writing its own high quality book of Doric Verse. The Editorial Committee have selected 47 poems with the “scrievers” coming from all over Scotland.

Renowned artist, Bob Dewar, was commissioned to illustrate the poems and has delivered 59 vibrant illustrations. The Reading Bus Team would like to share these fantastic originals with a wider audience before they are returned to the artist.

An exhibition of illustrations is being held on Wednesday 27th February from 1pm - 5pm in The Reading Bus Office in Kittybrewster School, Great Northern Road, Aberdeen. We are delighted that Bob Dewar will be coming along and anyone wishing to attend should RSVP by email at
doric@aberdeen-education.org.uk or telephone the office on 01224 524007.

A proposed date of Thursday 11th September has been set for the official launch of the book at Fyvie Castle. A glittering event is being planned that will celebrate the culture and heritage of the North-East of Scotland.

In addition a comprehensive series of learning experiences to complement the book is being developed by The Reading Bus Team with their cross-agency partners. These innovative approaches use a variety of tools including storytelling, film animation, broadcasting, dramatisation and film making. These activities will be available in September across schools and communities together with a series of “training” sessions for staff.

The Reading Bus Team hope to see many of you at the art exhibition on 27th February.

The above course is running as a twilight on Wednesday 20th February.

So far there have been over 80 applications for this course (which is great!) and in order for us to accomodate all of you then we have changed the venue to Curl Aberdeen.

If you haven’t yet applied but would like to attend please complete the application form in the CPD directory.

Those of you that have applied should receive confirmation shortly.