Balfron Matters

13 September 2021

Weekly communication for staff

Dear colleagues,

Massive thanks to everyone who stepped up and helped out while I have been isolating. It has been much appreciated by the senior team. While working on-line has kept me in the loop and allowed me to contribute to meetings, I am delighted to be back healthy and in person this week. Thanks for your good wishes.

There is fantastic work going on in our school. I plan to use Balfron Matters as a link for sharing some of this and making it accessible to everyone. Please do share - what you are doing is great!

You will find the links in the CLPL Corner. You will also find lots of free CLPL opportunities.

Here is this week's edition of Balfron Matters.

Elaine

This week at Balfron High School:

S1 Team Building Days
Improvement Groups - 22/9/21

Improvement Groups

We will use staff meeting time to support improvement group activities as follows:

Wednesday 22 September: 3.45-4.45pm
Thursday 13 January: 3.45-4.45pm
Monday 7th March: 3.45-4.45pm

All teaching staff should contribute to at least one working group. Where possible every team should be represented in improvement groups in order that communication is strong and everyone's curricular context is represented. Some working groups will be short life, others core and will drive research based improvements.

Improvement Groups 2021-22 are:

Learning, Teaching & Assessment Digital Literacy Equity STEM

Behaviour /Relationships (SLWG) Health & Wellbeing LGBT Charter DYW

Please confirm your working group here

Balfron's Who's Who of leading Improvement and practice

Here are the 'go to' people for questions, suggestions and input on key areas. Many are supported by groups. To make this most helpful, I've just included the key people.

There are many other things going on, if you would like to add to the directory, please let me know.

Child Protection & Safeguarding Claire Appelquist

Curriculum & Timetable Amanda Short

Digital Lead Dougie Scott

DYW and Destinations Neil Cameron Ross Macintosh (Micro Tyco, YPI, Future Pathways)

Duke of Edinburgh (BAG Link) Shari Levine

Equity (PEF funding & Strategy) Fiona Fisher David Whiteford Jen Heslin

Health & Safety Phil Slavin

Health & wellbeing Neil Macquarrie

IDL Gordon MacKay

In-House CLPL Anna Barrie

Inter-House Programme Robbie Willison

Learning & Teaching Elaine Bannatyne

LGBT Charter Shari Levine Alistair Blair

Literacy Sheena Boyle

Moderation Lead (new) Michelle Skinner

Numeracy Debs Gormal

Positive Behaviour Claire Appelquist Clair Miller

Prefects Neil Macquarrie

Probationers Anna Barrie Amanda Short

School Improvement Elaine Bannatyne

SQA Phil Slavin

STEM BGE Mark Young Debs Gormal Roy Pearson Michelle Skinner

STEM Senior Phase Deb Gormal Mark Young Roy Pearson Michelle Skinner

Students Amanda Short Ross Macintosh

Tracking Phil Slavin

Tri-Learning Sheena Boyle

Quality Assurance 2021-22 - Classroom Visits

Term 1 Classroom Observations

Our observation pro forma is based on the HGIOS QI, 2.3

Features of highly effective practice are on page 2 along with challenge questions.

Classroom Observation 2.3 Learning, Teaching and Assessment.doc

Quality Assurance 2021-22

Open Doors Dates

I will be joined by a PT for Open Doors this session as follows:

5 October Expressive Arts with L McAllister

19 October English with G MacKay

28 October Science with N Macquarrie

1 November Social Subjects with S Boyle

9 November Health with M Skinner

19 November Maths with M Young

25 November Mod Languages with A Barrie

29 November Technologies with D Gormal

CLPL Corner

This week's suggested podcast is 4 Laws of Learning (and How To Follow Them) from the Cult of Pedagogy. This short podcast is only 20 minutes long. Definitely worth a listen, it will make perfect sense of what you already know podcast link. Reflecting on the research of Hattie and Marzano, Jennifer Gonzalez distills the key information that makes a difference in every lesson and explains why.

Building on the key messages from the podcast, this is a great graphic that reinforces the huge value low stakes testing (formative assessment as we know it) from @ImpactWales:

If we are using regular low stakes testing, our young people need to be safe to fail in your classroom. They need to understand that it is a healthy and positive part if the process.

Growth mindsets required.

'If the goal of teaching for understanding is to bridge the gap between I taught it and they learned it, that goal is far easier to accomplish if students want us to find the gap, if they are willing to share information about errors and misunderstandings - and far harder if they seek to prevent us from discovering them.'

Jeremy Denk

Sharing our practice - How encoding and retrieving research has influenced our Biology Revision Rooms

One of the silver linings that COVID and remote learning brought was the development of on-line revision rooms. Now they are here to stay to enhance learning and support study.

Take a look at this short screencast (5 mins) Biology Revision Rooms at Balfron High School.

Thanks to the Biology Team for sharing.

Professional Discussion Groups

Everyone wants to do a great job and everyone is working hard. Do you want to talk through the big issues or simply hear from others about what is working and what the research says?

Why not join our professional discussion groups. Interested?

Let Michelle Skinner know through this form

Screen Time and Mental Health - Free CLPL

Exclusive FREE event for teachers - 'Screen Time and Mental Health'

This event is online, FREE, and for Teachers only, on Tuesday 5 October, 4pm-5.15pm

Screen Time and Mental Health

Hear from one of the UK’s leading paediatricians Dr. Max Davie, author of The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health screen time guidance, as he offers an evidence-based practical guide to what problematic screen use is, what can be done about it, plus the positive impact screen time can have. Dr. Davie will also be answering your questions in a session facilitated by leading education professional Professor Barry Carpenter.

#ScotEd is a movement for teachers interested in #GreatTeaching4Scotland

On Saturday 18 September there is a totally free online event # ScotEd2 for teachers. You can access through Twitter @ScotEd2020 or Youtube.

The event is hosted by Principal Teachers Darren Leslie, host of the 'Becoming Educated' podcast, and Fiona Leadbeater of Oban High School (formerly Kirkintilloch High)