Balfron Matters

1 November 2021

Weekly communication for staff

Dear colleagues,

Thanks for your help and support with the HWB week in addition to everything else. It was great to see so much activity. I hope that has inspired our young people to consider and work on each aspect of health that was delivered. Following reflection and feedback, the Active Girls Day will stand alone in future to reinforce the purpose of the day.

I have asked all Form Class Leaders to play an assembly on Monday (right). The focus is respect and is a response to feedback from some young people. I aim to use this as an opportunity to gather some information from pupils on how they have been treated and indeed, have treated others. It will be interesting to see the responses and critical that we follow up what we find. I will share the detail with you all first and welcome feedback and suggestions as to how we best move forward.

Neil Macquarrie and I enjoyed a positive visit to science for Open Doors last week. It was geat to see a strong theme of Retrieval Practice coming through and some excellent Google Classroom resources. If you get a chance to see or chat to the team about their work, grab it. There is some really interesting work going on. Also of note is Michelle's, Science Notice Board delivered through Padlet. Here is a video of our morning in visit in a minute

Congratulations to Neil who will take up post of 0.2 DHT (Lomond House) mid-November as Amanda moves to 0.8. Please join me in wishing him well in that post. Expressions of interest for the subsequent PT Health (0.2) will be invited this week.

Have a great week.

Elaine

This week at Balfron High School:

Whole school assembly

Monday 1st November - S5/6 Parents' Meeting

Wellbeing Wednesday nominations

Wednesday STEM Cafe

pmm-vafr-rbn (2021-10-26 at 00:09 GMT-7)

It's a time for review and change in Scotland

Options for Scotland’s future approach to assessment and qualifications have been published.

Renowned Professor Gordon Stobart, who was appointed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), considered approaches taken around the world as part of his work.

Possible options include:

the development of a Senior Phase qualification system based on a combination of teacher assessment and exams
the simplification of S4-5 assessment by “de-cluttering” the historical diet of exams
the increased use of online exam resources and oral presentations as an assessment format
the inclusion of pupils views in decisions around assessment
enhancing the role of vocational qualifications

Led by Professor Ken Muir, these suggestions are being considered as part of a wider conversation with learners, teachers, parents and others on how Scotland’s qualifications and assessment system can best evolve in line with the curriculum and society of today.

Welcoming Professor Stobart’s suggestions, Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said:

“The OECD have been crystal clear - Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) is the right approach for Scotland and is viewed internationally as an inspiring example of curriculum practice. Throughout the pandemic it delivered credible results for our children and young people in the face of exceptional circumstances.

“Our decision to cancel exams as a result of the pandemic rightly sparked a great deal of discussion about the best way to recognise learners’ achievements and how we continue to meet their needs. That is why we asked the OECD to undertake this vital work and I welcome this important contribution from Professor Stobart, which is informed by how other countries run an assessment process.

Upper secondary education in Scotland: a comparative perspective (Stobart)

L, T, A TM Oct 2021

Learning & Teaching Follow-up

What have they learned?
How do I know?

These are the two key questions we are reflecting on.

There has been great discussion across the school around ways to be sure about that.

If you would like a new class set of mini white boards please complete this request

Many thanks to the parent council who have provided funding for this.

Pupil Council

PC will run on Tuesday 2nd November in the Atrium as follows:

S3 - Tuesday period 1

S6 - Tuesday period 2

S4 - Tuesday period 3

S5 - Tuesday period 4

S1 - Tuesday period 5

S2 - Tuesday period 7

Agenda

Menu feedback
Plastic recycling
Year group items

Balfron Behaviour Stats from September 20th to October 29th – 6 school weeks.

It is always useful to look at the big picture so below is an overview of the merits and demerits so far. I have highlighted areas that are of interest. For consistency and fairness, please continue to use both merits and demerits as appropriate with all of your classes. Thank you for your continued support with this.

As there has been an increase in demerits, it is important that we target interventions at the individuals that are coming through. I will share the detailed data with you via email. Help for FCLs and PTs PS is much appreciated.

While the number of demerits is up, those noted for uniform was far less than I anticipated. As per our policy and in the interest of consistency, FCLs should note uniform demerits and send an orange slip to the office in order that a text can be generated home.

Behaviour Data October 29 2021.docx

CLPL Corner - Some resources to complement this week's Professional Discussion Group

Ten Questioning Strategies

Professional Discussion Group - Thursday lunchtime, Strathendrick Suite

We have all had input last week from LTA group on Questioning skills:

Have a listen to this short podcast (20 mins), where the hosts ask each other 'What makes a great question?'

Mike and Arthur, PE and Math teachers, discuss the similarities and differences between how they use questioning in their lessons.

It's a fun, informal blether where they ask each other some great questions, some of them we would all likely find tricky to answer.

So, in one sentence, what do you think makes a great question?

Come and share good practice and ideas around questioning skills and tools, a blether and a biscuit.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2MiWCA0JH8DqyhXCDZQsQ2

What Makes a Great Question?

Listen to this episode from TandTeaching on Spotify. EPISODE 2- Questioning in Your Classroom Grab a cup of tea and enjoy the discussion! In episode 2 of this education podcast we discuss the importance of questioning and how you pose great questions to your students. Join in the discussion or let us know if there's something you'd like us to talk about in the next episode by tweeting us at @tandteaching

open.spotify.com

If you don't want to listen and would prefer to read about great questioning skills, here is a good blog post:

https://teacherhead.com/2018/08/24/great-teaching-the-power-of-questioning/

Great Teaching: The Power of Questioning | teacherhead

In my Learning Rainforest and Evidence-informed practice CPD sessions, a core element is a focus on the power of questioning. In my view, good in-house CPD and feedback from lesson observation should put teachers’ capacity and confidence with questioning at the centre. In my experience, great questioning is the hallmark of a really effective teacher…

teacherhead.com