After school Professional Learning Activities and materials
Session 2017-2018
Up and coming PLAs
How young people’s participation in schools impacts on attainment and achievement.
Wednesday 13th of June
Michael and Kim from WOSDEC will be running a workshop to build on the initial Reading Group discussion from the 16th of May. It will allow participants to share approaches for exploring learner participation and different ways, as individual teachers and as a school, that we can utilise the resources that are available.
Time: 3:10-4:00 Venue: Please note this PLA will take place in the School Library
All welcome as always.
You can find the original reading material on the Professional Reading Group page (16th of May) and other connected materials, if you wish to do further reading, on the Pupil Voice page.
Closing the Wellbeing Gap
Wednesday 9th of May
Kevin Mullarkey, from Integrated Children's Service, will present this PLA as we consider how improving the health and wellbeing of our young people can help us close the Attainment Gap.
Time: 3:10-4:00
Venue: Conference Room
All welcome as always.
The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework
Wednesday 21st March Time: 3:10-4:15 Venue: Conference Room
All welcome as always.
Brian Kegan from SCQF will discuss the role of the Framework in promoting and supporting lifelong learning in Scotland. Through the Framework learners, employers and employees can find out about all mainstream qualifications in Scotland and plan future learning. Therefore, this PLA will provide us with a better understanding of the many different pathways for our young people.
Sharing Learning and Practice
Wednesday 7th February Short presentations will be made by colleagues on Peer Assessment, Nurture, Positive Mind-set and Reading for pleasure. During these presentations, staff will briefly share what they have learned as part of their Master’s Degree programme and from their research and reading. The short presentations will be focused on how each teacher's study and findings can impact positively on classroom practice.
Steven Dickie will discuss ‘Effective peer assessment’ and whether specific groupings of pupils impacts the quality of peer assessment. Robert Burns will present how ‘Nurture based practices’ within the classroom have a positive impact on pupil attainment and achievement. Michael Wilkie will discuss ‘Creating a reading culture’ – how reading for pleasure supports attainment and achievement across the curriculum. And finally Jason Milligan will present on promoting ‘Growth mind-set’ in pupils, based on Carol Dweck’s theories on growth mind-set.
Time: 3:10-4:00 Venue: TBC
Insight Monday 11th December
John Hand will be in school (conference room) to meet with staff. See email to check what sessions are available throughout the day.
LGBTI issues
Tracy McDermott will be presenting this P.L.A. on Wednesday 6th of December. Tracy was responsible for leading the recent Authority in-services on LGBTI issues that so many staff had expressed an interest in attending. Date: Wednesday 6 December 2017 Time: After school Venue: Conference Room
Insight into INSIGHT On Wednesday the 25th of October John Hand will present a P.L.A. on INSIGHT. Although this PL.A. will be specifically tailored for ‘Curriculum Leaders’ and those aspiring to become Curriculum Leaders, as always we have an open invitation to all staff. Date: Wednesday 25 October 2017 Time: After school Venue: TBC (location depends on number of participants)
Numeracy
The PLA will take colleagues through the methods of teaching the different numeracy strategies to help bring consistency to our pupils. Examples of level 3 work (and levels below) will be shown along with examples as to how these numeracy strategies are taught in the Maths department. Date: Wednesday 4 October 2017 Time: After school Venue: Conference Room
Google Classroom is a platform developed by Google for schools that aims to simplify creating, distributing and grading assignments in a paperless way. It allows teachers to share resources such as PowerPoints, notes, video links, and web links, issue homework, and create a class calendar.
In an effort to help teachers, Brian Nelson will deliver a PLA on this. He will have the 16 Chrome books available to allow the session to be as interactive as possible. Date: Wednesday 13 September 2017 Time: After school Venue: Conference Room
Session 2016-2017
Wednesday 14 June 2017 For those staff involved in this year’s Professional Update, there will be a PLA in the conference room after school on Wednesday. It will begin at 3.10pm and shouldn’t last more than 30 minutes.
Monday 5 June 2017
Unleashing Classroom Leadership, will explore the concept of teachers as leaders of classroom practice. Fearghal Kelly, SCEL's Lead Specialist for Teacher Leadership, will explore the concept of teachers as leaders of classroom practice and he will look at practical approaches to developing leadership as classroom teachers.
Wednesday 8 February 2017 Helen Murdoch will present a workshop on Using Powerpoint in the Classroom, suitable for all levels from complete beginners to staff looking to enhance their skills using the software. The tutorial will take you through the basics e.g. inserting new slides, adding graphics, animating a presentation etc. to more advanced features e.g. inserting hyperlinks, using the master slide, inserting action buttons etc.
Wednesday 9 November 2016
The next PLA is on ‘Developing Scotland’s Young Work force’. This will be presented by Sharon McLean with contributions from staff from Careers Scotland and Skills Development Scotland. Further information to follow.
Wednesday 12 October 2016 - Using INSIGHT This PLA, delivered by Kenny Slowey, will take place in C103. It will start at 3.10pm.
Wednesday 14 September 2016 - Professional Enquiry
This PLA is aimed at staff who are interested in learning more about undertaking professional enquiry, Charlaine Simpson, the GTCS' Senior Education Officer for Research and Professional Learning, will outline the why, what and how of practitioner enquiry and discuss how it can be used as a powerful professional learning tool.
Note: the handout Charlaine distributed was from her presentation (slides 13 and 36)
Session 2015-2016
(forthcoming/most recent first)
Wednesday 1 June 2016 - Coaching and Mentoring
Led by Ian Fraser
Friday 3 June 2016 - Professional Update (new date) Period 5. Please see Bryson if you'd like to attend so he knows to provide cover if required. This PLA is aimed primarily at staff who are to be signed off this year or perhaps are retiring and wish to bring forward their ‘signing off’ to allow they them to go on supply. However, as always all staff are welcome.
Wednesday 4 May 2016 - Self Harm/Teenage Mental Health Issues
The PLA aims to give an overview of ‘The What’,’ The Why’, ‘The Myths’ and most importantly ‘How to help’. Alan Cresswell will be delivering this PLA.
Wednesday 24 February 2016 - Living Life to the Full (Staff Welfare)
Living Life to the Full is a life skills course based on the principles of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) which aims to provide high quality, practical and user-friendly training in life skills. The PLA will be delivered by Lyndsay Malley and will provide an overview of how CBT can be used to tackle and respond to issues/demands which we all meet in our everyday lives at home and at school. We will look at the session “ Why does everything always go wrong?” which aims to help you spot and learn how to change negative or stressful thinking patterns.
For more further information on the Living Life to the Full programme, see http://www.llttf.com
Wednesday 4 November 2015 - Recruitment
This session will be presented by Andrea Reid from SLC and will run from 3:10-4:00pm. Andrea will focus on the application and interview process for teaching posts in South Lanarkshire. The session is targeted at colleagues interested in applying for any position in the authority over the next few years.
Wed 7 October 2015 - Insight Benchmarking tool
The next after school Professional Learning Activity will be on the new ‘Insight’ online benchmarking tool, designed to bring about improvements in pupil attainment in the senior phase. Kenny Slowey will support staff in navigating their way round this new resource, providing all staff the opportunity to continue to address ‘Bridging the attainment gap’ agenda.
Wed 2 September 2015 - Bridging the Attainment Gap
Starting at 3.10pm in the conference room and finishing at 4pm prompt. The focus of this C.P.D. will on ‘Bridging the Attainment Gap. Bryson McGinlay will be looking at a number of practical teaching strategies to support departments and teachers to improve the attainment of all pupils but with the particular emphasis on boys, but on the lower attaining pupils in general.
After school Professional Learning Activities and materials
Session 2017-2018
Up and coming PLAs
How young people’s participation in schools impacts on attainment and achievement.
Wednesday 13th of June
Michael and Kim from WOSDEC will be running a workshop to build on the initial Reading Group discussion from the 16th of May. It will allow participants to share approaches for exploring learner participation and different ways, as individual teachers and as a school, that we can utilise the resources that are available.
Kim's Presentation
Time: 3:10-4:00
Venue: Please note this PLA will take place in the School Library
All welcome as always.
You can find the original reading material on the Professional Reading Group page (16th of May) and other connected materials, if you wish to do further reading, on the Pupil Voice page.
Closing the Wellbeing Gap
Wednesday 9th of May
Kevin Mullarkey, from Integrated Children's Service, will present this PLA as we consider how improving the health and wellbeing of our young people can help us close the Attainment Gap.
Time: 3:10-4:00
Venue: Conference Room
All welcome as always.
The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework
Wednesday 21st March
Time: 3:10-4:15
Venue: Conference Room
All welcome as always.
Brian Kegan from SCQF will discuss the role of the Framework in promoting and supporting lifelong learning in Scotland.
Through the Framework learners, employers and employees can find out about all mainstream qualifications in Scotland and plan future learning. Therefore, this PLA will provide us with a better understanding of the many different pathways for our young people.
Sharing Learning and Practice
Wednesday 7th February
Short presentations will be made by colleagues on Peer Assessment, Nurture, Positive Mind-set and Reading for pleasure.
During these presentations, staff will briefly share what they have learned as part of their Master’s Degree programme and from their research and reading. The short presentations will be focused on how each teacher's study and findings can impact positively on classroom practice.
Steven Dickie will discuss ‘Effective peer assessment’ and whether specific groupings of pupils impacts the quality of peer assessment. Robert Burns will present how ‘Nurture based practices’ within the classroom have a positive impact on pupil attainment and achievement. Michael Wilkie will discuss ‘Creating a reading culture’ – how reading for pleasure supports attainment and achievement across the curriculum. And finally Jason Milligan will present on promoting ‘Growth mind-set’ in pupils, based on Carol Dweck’s theories on growth mind-set.
Time: 3:10-4:00
Venue: TBC
Insight
Monday 11th December
John Hand will be in school (conference room) to meet with staff. See email to check what sessions are available throughout the day.
LGBTI issues
Tracy McDermott will be presenting this P.L.A. on Wednesday 6th of December. Tracy was responsible for leading the recent Authority in-services on LGBTI issues that so many staff had expressed an interest in attending.
Date: Wednesday 6 December 2017
Time: After school
Venue: Conference Room
Insight into INSIGHT
On Wednesday the 25th of October John Hand will present a P.L.A. on INSIGHT. Although this PL.A. will be specifically tailored for ‘Curriculum Leaders’ and those aspiring to become Curriculum Leaders, as always we have an open invitation to all staff.
Date: Wednesday 25 October 2017
Time: After school
Venue: TBC (location depends on number of participants)
Numeracy
The PLA will take colleagues through the methods of teaching the different numeracy strategies to help bring consistency to our pupils. Examples of level 3 work (and levels below) will be shown along with examples as to how these numeracy strategies are taught in the Maths department.
Date: Wednesday 4 October 2017
Time: After school
Venue: Conference Room
Google Classroom is a platform developed by Google for schools that aims to simplify creating, distributing and grading assignments in a paperless way. It allows teachers to share resources such as PowerPoints, notes, video links, and web links, issue homework, and create a class calendar.
In an effort to help teachers, Brian Nelson will deliver a PLA on this. He will have the 16 Chrome books available to allow the session to be as interactive as possible.
Date: Wednesday 13 September 2017
Time: After school
Venue: Conference Room
Session 2016-2017
Wednesday 14 June 2017
For those staff involved in this year’s Professional Update, there will be a PLA in the conference room after school on Wednesday. It will begin at 3.10pm and shouldn’t last more than 30 minutes.
Monday 5 June 2017
Unleashing Classroom Leadership, will explore the concept of teachers as leaders of classroom practice. Fearghal Kelly, SCEL's Lead Specialist for Teacher Leadership, will explore the concept of teachers as leaders of classroom practice and he will look at practical approaches to developing leadership as classroom teachers.
Fearghal's presentation
Fearghal's blog post following the PLA:
What do we mean by leadership?
Wednesday 1 March 2017
Using Scholar
Wednesday 8 February 2017
Helen Murdoch will present a workshop on Using Powerpoint in the Classroom, suitable for all levels from complete beginners to staff looking to enhance their skills using the software.
The tutorial will take you through the basics e.g. inserting new slides, adding graphics, animating a presentation etc. to more advanced features e.g. inserting hyperlinks, using the master slide, inserting action buttons etc.
Wednesday 9 November 2016
The next PLA is on ‘Developing Scotland’s Young Work force’. This will be presented by Sharon McLean with contributions from staff from Careers Scotland and Skills Development Scotland. Further information to follow.
Wednesday 12 October 2016 - Using INSIGHT
This PLA, delivered by Kenny Slowey, will take place in C103. It will start at 3.10pm.
Wednesday 14 September 2016 - Professional Enquiry
This PLA is aimed at staff who are interested in learning more about undertaking professional enquiry, Charlaine Simpson, the GTCS' Senior Education Officer for Research and Professional Learning, will outline the why, what and how of practitioner enquiry and discuss how it can be used as a powerful professional learning tool.
Charlaine's presentation:
Note: the handout Charlaine distributed was from her presentation (slides 13 and 36)
Session 2015-2016
(forthcoming/most recent first)
Wednesday 1 June 2016 - Coaching and Mentoring
Led by Ian Fraser
Friday 3 June 2016 - Professional Update (new date)
Period 5. Please see Bryson if you'd like to attend so he knows to provide cover if required. This PLA is aimed primarily at staff who are to be signed off this year or perhaps are retiring and wish to bring forward their ‘signing off’ to allow they them to go on supply. However, as always all staff are welcome.
Wednesday 4 May 2016 - Self Harm/Teenage Mental Health Issues
The PLA aims to give an overview of ‘The What’,’ The Why’, ‘The Myths’ and most importantly ‘How to help’. Alan Cresswell will be delivering this PLA.
Wednesday 24 February 2016 - Living Life to the Full (Staff Welfare)
Living Life to the Full is a life skills course based on the principles of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) which aims to provide high quality, practical and user-friendly training in life skills. The PLA will be delivered by Lyndsay Malley and will provide an overview of how CBT can be used to tackle and respond to issues/demands which we all meet in our everyday lives at home and at school. We will look at the session “ Why does everything always go wrong?” which aims to help you spot and learn how to change negative or stressful thinking patterns.
For more further information on the Living Life to the Full programme, see http://www.llttf.com
Wednesday 4 November 2015 - Recruitment
This session will be presented by Andrea Reid from SLC and will run from 3:10-4:00pm. Andrea will focus on the application and interview process for teaching posts in South Lanarkshire. The session is targeted at colleagues interested in applying for any position in the authority over the next few years.
Wed 7 October 2015 - Insight Benchmarking tool
The next after school Professional Learning Activity will be on the new ‘Insight’ online benchmarking tool, designed to bring about improvements in pupil attainment in the senior phase. Kenny Slowey will support staff in navigating their way round this new resource, providing all staff the opportunity to continue to address ‘Bridging the attainment gap’ agenda.
Wed 2 September 2015 - Bridging the Attainment Gap
Starting at 3.10pm in the conference room and finishing at 4pm prompt. The focus of this C.P.D. will on ‘Bridging the Attainment Gap. Bryson McGinlay will be looking at a number of practical teaching strategies to support departments and teachers to improve the attainment of all pupils but with the particular emphasis on boys, but on the lower attaining pupils in general.