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from EduBlether
On this Episode of EduBlether we discuss the very large and complex issue of Nurture and Inclusion with James Kidd. James is passionate about Inclusion and Nurture, and his rich and varied experiences across different schools and local authorities make him a perfect person to have a discussion with about the vast themes explored in this episode.
Listen: https://soundcloud.com/edublether/episode-22-nurture-and-inclusion-an-edublether-with-james-kidd
Glasgow City Council Employability Support Team have an effective school-college partnership. The programme currently supports over 1000 young people and provides support to ensure that all young people are supported toward a career pathway.
There are two strands:
SCQF Levels 1-3
SCQF Levels 4-7
Links have been developed with the local colleges to provide a wide range of different courses and levels in order to showcase the wide range of career pathways. Open days and information evenings help to involve parents/carers in the decision making process. Extensive recruitment policy has been extended this year to include further meet the expert evenings for young people and their parents/carers. The recruitment is reviewed, evaluated and modified to ensure the information provided allows young people to choose an option that suits their career pathway.
They currently have successful partnerships with:
Glasgow Kelvin College
Glasgow Clyde College
City of Glasgow College
RSBI Blindcraft
All of the courses have support in place to ensure that every young person has the opportunity to have a successful outcome. There is an online application process that is supported by the school and helps to match young people to a course that suits their career pathway.
Some key points:
Linked programme with East Dunbartonshire and East Renfrewshire.
College has a rigorous attendance management procedures to ensure that young people are able to achieve a successful outcome on the course. There is a wide range of courses and levels, currently SCQF 1-7. This provides an inclusive programme and promotes an ethos that every young person has the opportunity to experience college at an early stage. There is an online portal which provides school with a support and tracking mechanism to ensure that young people are progressing during the programme. Schools and college partners have worked together to ensure that the reporting tool is relevant for both school and college. Learner journeys are reported each year to promote the positive links between school and college.
Courses have extensive ASN support and a range of the options are designed to effectively showcase college as a potential career pathway and to aid transition from school to further education. Taster sessions are used to ensure that they have the correct match of young person and course. The opportunity to experience what is involved has helped to improve the course outcomes.
Schools have harmonised their timetabling to ensure that young people have the programme as an option in their subject choice selection. The majority of the courses take place on Tuesday and Thursday afternoon however some courses have extended timetables and this allows for a varied range of options.
Transport is arranged for the young person and most choose public transport which is subsidised by the programme. This encourages independent travel and ensures that cost of travel is not a factor when young people are deciding on their participation.
Some key statistics from the previous cohort:
1080 young people participating in the programme
7 different providers
96% sustained a positive destination
The programme will continue to work with schools and colleges to provide young people with a wide range of senior phase options.
Some comments about the programme:
“I like it because it is “hands on and specialising in various areas of computing”
Senior Phase Student
“Course designed to prepare student for the construction industry. Learning split between the workshop and the classroom”
Lecturer
“I am developing new skills every day”
Senior Phase Student
“I enjoyed this because I was able to learn to cook lots of different dishes that I had not cooked before”
Senior Phase Student
“All Glasgow Colleges are fully committed to delivering Glasgow’s Senior Phase School/College programme. We will create new opportunities for all young people to embed high quality work-related learning in their curriculum with progression to further learning, training or work. Whatever your gender, background or level these programmes offer a learning experience that may inspire you to develop new skills for the changing world of work.”
Eric Brownlie
Assistant Principal Quality and Performance
Glasgow Clyde College
Parkhill Secondary School in Glasgow has developed an exciting and innovative approach to preparing young people with additional support needs for the world of work. In partnership with colleges and employers the school has established their own Enterprise Academy that provides pupils with work-based learning opportunities and industry relevant qualifications.
Access the outline of the programme here:
The following film clips outline the format, experiences and impact of the Academy programme :
The school has used the Career Education Standard to reflect on the progress made in delivering against the expectations set out within the standard: Parkhill Sec School, CES self-evaluation
“All of the programmes featured in this publication by the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning share valuable experiences and lessons. They reflect a view of effective learning families whereby each child is a member of a family, and within a learning family every member is a lifelong learner. Among disadvantaged families and communities in particular, a family literacy and learning approach is more likely to break the intergenerational cycle of low education and literacy skills..” (Elfert and Hanermann 2014)
http://uil.unesco.org/fileadmin/keydocuments/Literacy/en/learning-families.pdf
from Shirley Lawson
On 31 October the Scottish Government published Guidance on “Planning improvements for disabled pupils’ access to education” which “describes the requirements the Act places on education authorities and schools to work to improve the education of disabled learners and to help ensure that they are properly included in, and able to benefit fully from, their school education.”
The Guidance contains two appendices that refer specifically to measures that local authorities should take to improve the accessibility of school ICT and computers. It covers things like installing the Scottish computer voices; having text-to-speech software available; providing access to control panels so that students with disabilities can make adjustments to enable access; etc. The document is available here: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2014/10/8011.
Now that the guidance is published, it will be helpful to get a snapshot of how accessible school computers are across the country, and what might need to be done to improve the accessibility of ICT used in schools.
Please help by completing the survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/accessICT.
Thank you very much.
from Shirley Lawson
1. Praise Gives Power; Criticism Kills
A dyslexic person needs to have confidence to learn and overcome their difficulties. Because they have experienced failure, deep down they don’t believe they are capable of learning.
Re-establish self-confidence.
Provide the opportunity to succeed.
Give praise for small achievements.
2. Don’t ask a dyslexic to read aloud
Words are likely to be misread or skipped, causing embarrassment.
3. Don’t punish a dyslexic for forgetting things like books or sports kit
Offer positive strategies such as having one place to put things away.
4. Don’t call a dyslexic lazy
Dyslexics have to work harder to produce a smaller amount.
Dyslexics have difficulty staying focused when reading, writing or listening.
5. Expect less written work
A dyslexic may be verbally bright but struggle to put ideas into writing.
Allow a dyslexic more time for reading, listening and understanding.
6. Prepare a printout of homework and stick it in their book
Provide numbered steps, e.g. 1. Do this. 2. Do that etc.
7. Do not expect a dyslexic to copy text from a board or book
Give a printout. Suggest they highlight key areas and draw thumbnail pictures in the margin to represent the most important points.
Physical handwriting is torture for most dyslexics. Word processors make life much easier. Allow them to use the Spell checker and help with grammar and punctuation so that you can see the quality of the content.
9. Discuss an activity to make sure it is understood
Visualising the activity or linking it to a funny action may help dyslexics remember.
10. Give the opportunity to answer questions orally
Dyslexics can often demonstrate their understanding with a spoken answer but are unable with to put those ideas in writing.
All credit to the Nessy website for these useful tips. You can find further information and support for Teachers, Parents/Carers and students on this site.
from Shirley Lawson
CALL Scotland are running an ICT and Literacy Seminar on Wednesday 10th December, 9.30am-1pm.
This FREE event will explore how technology can be used to support learners with additional support needs in assessment of literacy skills. They will look at tools and techniques such as text-to-speech software for accessing reading texts, and for writing, such as spellcheckers, word prediction and speech recognition.
This will be a really worthwhile session to attend either in person or via webinar (details to sign up on the link above). I can feedback to all afterwards as I will be going.
from Shirley Lawson
Many students have difficulty reading text. If they are using a computer they can have support to do this using Ivona MiniReader.
Ivona MiniReader is a free simple text reader which adds a floating toolbar on the screen and can read out text from almost any program – Adobe Reader, Microsoft Word, Google Docs, web pages etc.. MiniReader can use the free Scottish voice Heather and Stuart and most other voices on your computer.
This should be in the Applications Folder on all school computers: PCs, Thin Clients, laptops and netbooks. If it is not, please log a call with ITServiceDesk@eastlothian.gov.uk to request it. It can be installed remotely.
Remind students to bring in headphones!
from Shirley Lawson
The shortlisted titles for this year’s Scottish Children’s Book Awards were announced on August 28th by the Scottish Book Trust. The Book Awards scheme encourages children in schools throughout Scotland to read a selection of the best Scottish children’s books of the past year and to vote for their favourite in three age categories, Bookbug Readers (3 – 7), Younger Readers (8 – 11) and Older Readers (12 – 16). Here are this year’s shortlisted titles:
Bookbug Readers
Younger Readers
Older Readers
CALL Scotland has produced accessible versions of the shortlisted books to allow children with print disabilities (which make it hard for them to access a standard book) to take part in the scheme. Read Allan Wilson’s excellent blog here for full details.
from Shirley Lawson
Do you have a student in your class whose native language is not English and you are looking for resources, ideas, classroom support strategies? I thought it was worth reminding people of Janet Storey’s excellent resources and weblinks on the EAL Google site.
https://sites.google.com/a/edubuzz.org/english-as-an-additional-language/