Health and Enterprise – a winning combination!
Overview
Skateboarding skills. Click to enlarge.
Ruth Doctor teaches at Northmuir Primary School in Angus. Last year she was looking for a new enterprise activity for the P5 classes to undertake. Discussing this with the Enterprise Development Officer in the authority, she was very taken with the suggestion that the pupils could take on the planning and organisation of Health Week.
This cookbook looks at how the P5s used a Glow Group to inform other classes about Health Week, to share learning resources they’d created, to display photos of the Health Week activities and to evaluate the project.
The Ingredients section explains how the Glow Group was created and customised. Video clips in the Recipe section show how to replicate some of the key features.
Context
In undertaking Health Week as an enterprise activity, Ruth wanted pupils to take as much responsibility as possible for its organisation – for example, emailing potential activity leaders, speaking to the active schools co-ordinator, drawing up timetables of events and creating folders of work for other classes to get involved in.
While Glow had been used to some degree to support Health Week previously, Ruth was very keen last year to take full advantage of the collaborative environment. Her aim was that the Health Week Glow Group would build anticipation of the event, stimulate activities and discussions, and encourage reflection and feedback afterwards.
News…
On the Noticeboard page, P5 pupils used the News web part to post items of interest to other classes. These announcements made staff and pupils aware of the planning that was taking place and the activities that would take place during Health Week, such as cross-country, tennis and hip-hop dancing.
Resources created by P5. Click to enlarge.
Learning resources….
In a Documents web part pupils uploaded resources they’d created. These ranged from activity sheets, to homework tasks, to certificates. Pupils in other classes were able to download any tasks they’d been set, while members of staff were able to take advantage of a range of colourful certificates to print out and award to their pupils.
Photo Galleries. Click to enlarge.
Photo galleries …
During Health Week, a large number of photos of the different activities were taken. On the Photo Galleries page, a number of separate Picture Library web parts were added, so that each could store the images for a specific event, such as archery, tae kwon-do or skateboarding. In the following weeks, pupils were keen to view the photos and add comments and captions.
Feedback….
P5 project evaluations. Click to enlarge.
Pupils throughout the school have added their views to the Discussions board on the ‘Have Your Say’ page. They’ve commented on what they enjoyed, why they think the school holds a Health Week, and about what they feel they can do to improve their own health.
A survey has also been used to gather feedback, gaining over 140 responses. Pupils have been very positive and commented about additional activities they would like to see included next time.
On the Documents page, an additional web part was added into which the P5 pupils could upload their evaluations of the project. This web part is a custom list, which allows pupils to see only what they’ve uploaded and not the work of others. Ruth and her stage partner, as Administrators of the Glow Group, were able to see the files uploaded by all of the P5s and add their comments. Pupils could respond to these comments, but again could view only what was relevant to themselves.
Ruth Doctor gives a tour of the ‘Health Week’ Glow Group
Curriculum for Excellence Experiences and Outcomes
Through the Health Week project, P5 pupils engaged with a range of Curriculum for Excellence Experiences and Outcomes. These include:
HWB 2-13a: Through contributing my views, time and talents, I play a part in bringing about positive change in my school and wider community.
SOC 2-22a: By experiencing the setting up and running of a business, I can collaborate in making choices relating to the different roles and responsibilities and have evaluated its success.
TCH 2-04a: I explore and experiment with the features and functions of computer technology and I can use what I learn to support and enhance my learning in different contexts.
TCH 2-04b: I can create, capture and manipulate sounds, text and images to communicate experiences, ideas and information in creative and engaging ways.
Ingredients
Ruth created the Glow Group on the Northmuir Primary School site. She and her stage partner had Administrator rights and their pupils were Contributors. Other staff and pupils in the school were given Reader with Discussions rights. The Glow Group was customised by:
- renaming pages and adding new ones;
- closing any unwanted web parts on the default pages;
- adding Text Editor web parts to display information;
- adding Picture Library web parts to display photos;
- creating a custom list web part for the project evaluations.
Recipe
The video clips below show how to replicate the ideas used in the Health Week Glow Group. Information about custom lists, including how to save and reuse them, is also available in a helpsheet.
* how to add, edit or remove pages
* how to move, close or rename web parts
* how to add the Text Editor to display text and images
* how to create a new Picture Library web part
* how to compress images before uploading to Glow
* how to upload images to a Picture Library
* how to change the view of a Picture Library web part
* how to create a custom list
* how to modify item-level permissions on a custom list
* how to set permissions on individual web parts
Impact
Tae Kwon-do class. Click to enlarge.
Health Week was clearly a big success as can be seen in the photos in the Glow Group (see Ruth’s video tour above) and in the pupils’ feedback on the discussion boards:
I enjoyed the Skate park. It was really fun. It was so much fun I decided to get my own skateboard. The tae kwon do and CPR were really good too.
I enjoyed doing the fruit tasting session, what you had to do was stand at a table and when Fiona said so you can taste all the different fruits/ vegetables. I also enjoyed watching the P6s doing their skating on rollerblades and trying to go up the ramps, that was fun too, and I really can’t wait until Wednesday so that the P5s can get a shot on rollerblades or skate boards.
Warming up! Click to enlarge.
The activity I enjoyed most was all of them because they made me keep fit and understand how much you should take care of your body and eat very healthy. I would recommend Health Week to other schools to help them eat healthy and stay fit.
Ruth felt that the Glow Group worked well in supporting the week, providing classes throughout the school with information, resources and an opportunity to provide feedback.
The two P5 classes worked very effectively together in co-operative learning groups, developing an awareness of audience in planning the news to publicise and the resources they created.
Ruth Doctor talks about the impact of using Glow to support Health Week
Ruth is already looking ahead to next year’s Health Week, planning how the Glow Group will be built up over the month preceding the event, with news about discussions with the headteacher and activity schools coordinators being made available to classes throughout the school.
Photo credits (used in the Recipe video clips): IDS photos, ECI Photography