Using Glow for Responsibilities and Achievements in Glencairn Primary

Overview

Glencairn P6 Glow Group

Robyn Moonie teaches P6 in Glencairn Primary in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire. She is a Glow Mentor for North Lanarkshire and began to use Glow with her previous P7 class last year. With her current class, P6, she has been using Glow since last August and has found it a purposeful way to extend learning in a new context. She wanted to use Glow to allow the pupils to have somewhere to be able to record achievement and that this was able to be done in a place where it could be seen by parents, staff and their peers. She decided to use a page of their class Glow Group to achieve this. This will be the first of 4 Cookbooks looking at Robyn’s P6 Glow Group. Other Cookbooks will look at using Glow to set out Learning Intentions and Curriculum for Excellence Outcomes; using Glow for Novel Study and Using Glow to enhance teaching and Learning of Maths in the classroom.

You will find the other Cookbooks here:

Using a Glow Group for Novel Study at Glencairn Primary School

Using web parts to share Learning Intentions and CfE Outcomes in P6 Glencairn Primary

Maths is Fun at Glencairn Primary School

In this cookbook, we will find out:
• What the Glencairn Primary P6 Glow Group looks like
• How a range of web parts have been used
• How to replicate it
• What the impact was

Context
Glencairn Primary school has a role of approximately 180 pupils, not including the role from the attached nursery school. Robyn received training as a Glow Mentor in Phase 2 of North Lanarkshire’s rollout in May 2009. She started with her P7 and Glow in the summer term of 2009 with joining some transition Glow Meets but since the start of the new term in August 2009 she has embedded Glow throughout the curriculum rather than it appearing as a one-off lesson for the pupils. She introduced them to Glow with some specific tasks in the group 2/3 times per week and it has grown from there.

Home Access has been enabled for the pupils in March of this year and P6 are trialling this for the rest of the school. Home Access has been sourced for the pupils by making sure they can access Glow if not at their own home then at friends/grandparents or other relatives. Robyn feels that Glow is helping with partnership with parents, where previously jotters went home to help with this and might not always have made it back into school, all information and progress can be shared through the class Glow Group. P6 are also acting as Glow Buddies in the school and introducing it to pupils in other classes to get them logged on to Glow, all of the pupils from P3 upwards have logged into Glow. Robyn is also involved in training all the staff in the school and has set up all of the Glow Groups on the school site. Other teachers are being influenced by the success of Robyn’s class in using Glow and as a policy within the school, all staff have access to the group. Robyn’s P6 group is also linked to from North Lanarkshire’s Glow Showcase Group with membership set for all staff in North Lanarkshire. Glow Development Officers, Scott Clark and Eileen Mallaghan regularly use Robyn’s Group for supporting staff from across the authority in developing their use of Glow.
In this cookbook, we will look at how Robyn set up the Responsibilities and Achievements page in her group.

Ingredients

Glencairn P6 Glow Group

What did Robyn need to do to give pupils access to be able to add their own announcements to the Responsibilities and Achievements page in the class Glow Group?
• A Class Glow Group for P6
• Set pupils with membership allowing Contributor access to the group
• Create a new page in the Glow Group
• A text editor web part to remind the pupils about the 4 Capacities
• 4 Announcements web parts covering the 4 Capacities available on the page
• Encouraging pupils to add their own announcements onto the page

What does the Responsibilities and Achievements page look like in the P6 Glow Group?

Links to Curriculum for Excellence

Building the Curriculum 3

In Building the Curriculum 3, the Curriculum for Excellence asks to consider how we encourage and celebrate wider achievement. “Everyone knows the importance of getting formal qualifications at school – but young people are involved in a wide range of activities and have other important achievements that many never hear about, for example in:
• youth work
• volunteering
• part-time employment
• hobbies and interests
• projects that they undertake across the curriculum and their participation in the life of the school
• helping care for a relative at home.
As a result, young people are developing important skills for learning, skills for life and skills for work that can be of real value to them as they grow up and when it comes to getting a job or going to college or university.
We want to make sure that young people get full recognition for all their achievements – not just their exam results.”

Robyn’s page in the group allows her to provide a space and a context for encouraging her pupils to be able to do this. There are also Outcomes related to Health and Wellbeing which are relevant to Robyn’s page:

Through contributing my views, time and talents, I play a part in bringing about positive change in my school and wider community.

As I explore the rights to which I and others are entitled, I am able to exercise these rights appropriately and accept the responsibilities that go with them. I show respect for the rights of others.

In the next section, we’ll take a look at the Glow Group and learn how to recreate elements within it.

Recipe

Responsibilities and Achievements Page

The videos below show how to recreate the elements within Robyn’s Responsibilities and Achievements page described in the video further up. Details are:

How to create a new page in a Glow Group

How to add a text editor web part and add information

How to create 4 Announcements web parts and bring these onto the page

Impact
Previously Robyn gave over a wall display in the classroom to celebrating achievement but felt this didn’t have the impact that Glow would help it to have. She also felt that by putting it onto Glow it gave the work a quality that could better value the children’s achievements and that would be there permanently for them to return to and reflect upon. As she says, “they are there permanently, they’re not removed. They will be able to look back at the end of Primary 6 and see the amount of work and the things they have achieved throughout the year.” She also feels that it is valuable as all children can record their achievements, not only more able learners but pupils able to record achievement in its widest sense, moving beyond the classroom is appropriate for this space in Glow. In the main, what is recorded comes from the pupils themselves, with Robyn prompting pupils at times to remind them to celebrate their success. It is motivating for the pupils as they are aware that others see what they are celebrating and they can therefore have ownership of their own success. They also become familiar with the language of Curriculum for Excellence. Parents are able to share in their children’s learning with the home access to the group.

The following videos will give you an idea of the impact of the page within the P6 class:

Robyn Moonie speaks about the Responsibilities and Achievements page

Michael, Emily and Caity speak about the Responsibilities and Achievements page

Head Teacher, Lorna Galbraith speaks about P6 using Glow at Glencairn

North Lanarkshire Glow Development Officers Eileen and Scott speak about Robyn’s Group

See the virtual Tour of the Whole Glow Group
Click below to see several videos comprising a virtual tour of the Glencairn Primary P6 Glow Group
Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Visit the other Glow Cookbooks on Glencairn Primary School:

Using a Glow Group for Novel Study at Glencairn Primary School

Using web parts to share Learning Intentions and CfE Outcomes in P6 Glencairn Primary

Maths is Fun at Glencairn Primary School

Using Glow for Responsibilities and Achievements in Glencairn Primary5.057