The Bridge newsletter 2 180117

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Teachers from Carnmoney Primary School Share the Impact of the CPD Project Transition Training “Empowering teachers in our school to actively plan and deliver open-ended maths investigations that include all learners” “The CPD Transition Project training has greatly helped in developing the teaching and learning of literacy and numeracy within our school,” Mrs Tracy Morrissey, Numeracy Co-ordinator at Carnmoney Primary School explains. “The numeracy training led by Kathryn Taylor and Janet Goodall, has directly influenced our Numeracy Action Plan with Thinking and Talking Maths at its core,” she added. Mrs Morrissey said that the CPD Project training is being disseminated within Carnmoney PS through a series of staff meetings, the first of which outlined theory and practice, highlighting the importance of pupils’ mathematical language for problem solving and reasoning. “As a school we are now able to raise the profile of mathematical language in our classroom,” she explained. Mrs Morrissey added that Carnmoney Primary school is working to ensure commonality of maths language across the key stages, with curriculum planning being set aside to facilitate this collaborative effort. She said the biggest influence of the training had been in empowering Carnmoney PS teachers to actively plan and to deliver open-ended maths investigations that include all learners. that are listed in the curriculum for their specific age group, rather I have been challenging pupils to take numeracy as far as they can without limiting their success. My class have been online shopping, budgeting, measuring force and velocity, discussing pricing strategies and constantly evaluating their own success. It has maybe taken longer than a usual numeracy lesson, but these approaches have made my pupils so much more interested in mathematics as they see how it has a direct impact on their lives!” Mrs Caroline Phelan, a P7 teacher at the school attended the literacy strand of the training which has led to increased collaboration and the sharing of resources and differentiation practice within the school. Mrs Stephanie Kenny, P6 teacher at Carnmoney PS received the CPD Transition training during a cascading session. “I find that through teaching open-ended maths investigations we can focus on real life contexts and my pupils have ownership of how far they go to solve the problem. It’s encouraged greater mathematical dialogue and I can observe my pupils using a range of skills such as collecting, interpreting, organising and presenting information,” she said. Miss Janine Black, a P3 teacher at Carnmoney PS added: “As a teacher, I have become so aware of the importance of open-ended questioning within literacy. However, I did not apply these same thoughts to numeracy. Watching Dr Small’s video on how we question children within numeracy helped me to develop my questioning style. Asking the children to prove how they have reached an answer gives them the chance to explain their thinking and by asking a friend to back them up, shows the children another possible way of reaching the same answer.” She went on to say: “Dan Meyers’ Ted Talk on the importance of asking the shortest question and being less helpful when investigating was very inspiring, if not daunting and a challenge I look forward to when creating investigations in the future!” Mr. Pete Davies, a P4 teacher at Carnmoney PS commented: “Since discussing ways to integrate more open-ended maths talk and incorporate investigatory real life skills into the classroom, I have been focusing on ‘no-limits’ learning, where pupils are not constrained to numeracy concepts Pupils from Carnmoney Primary School enjoy their maths lesson. “ My class have been online shopping, budgeting, measuring force and velocity, discussing pricing strategies and constantly evaluating their own success. It has maybe taken longer than a usual numeracy lesson, but these approaches have made my pupils so much more interested in mathematics as they see how it has a direct impact on their lives! Mr Pete Davies, P4 teacher “ 6 - The Bridge
Transition Project Training in Practice The CPD Transition team were delighted to hear how colleagues attending the first two TPL Units have incorporated and adapted the strategies for their own context. Mrs Gillian Weir, Head of English at The Wallace High School, Lisburn tweeted the project@cpdproject to share the results of the day she attended the Thinking Skills training in October. Belfast Teachers and Pupils Create Digital Picture of Learning Needs A Belfast partnership of schools has created a new digital channel of communication to help track and support the learning needs of pupils as they move cross-phase. Forge Integrated Primary School, Millennium Integrated Primary School and Loughview Integrated Primary School have worked with Lagan College in the development of an innovative e-learning passport to help their P7 students to transfer. ‘I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the CPD project as it’s encouraged me to be much more creative in my classroom. My Year 9 pupils have produced some amazing personal writing using visual stimuli and Year 10 have been working on iMovies based on Heaney’s ‘Mid Term Break’,” Mrs Weir said. She added that the strategies could be adapted for use beyond KS3. Mrs Una Walters, Senior Leader and Head of AEN at Lagan College initiated the development of the interactive passport in Lagan College which started as a paper resource originally. “The e-learning passport was an idea that I had which built upon our transition work with enhancements for newcomer students and children with social and emotional needs,” Mrs Walters explained. Belfast partnership schools focus on making transition as smooth and positive as possible. “Whilst the project is aimed at KS3, I’ve taken some of the ideas and used them in my A Level classes, for example, Year 13 pupils have made character jars to help them explore Hawthorne’s use of symbolism in ‘The Scarlet Letter’,” she said. Mrs Weir has had a lot of interest from other teachers in the character jars, which are pictured on the front cover of ‘The Bridge’. “It’s been fantastic meeting colleagues from other schools and gleaning an insight into pupils’ experiences in Literacy at KS2. I’ve loved sharing good practice on twitter too!” “This new interactive feature enhances Lagan College’s already well-established transition programme. Feedback from students, parent and guardians has been significant in improving the passport which includes information on the curriculum and pastoral issues,” she said. “The input of primary students has enabled Lagan College to appreciate further what young people and their families require to make the move to ‘big school’ as smooth and as positive as possible, ” Mrs Walters added. The four schools have engaged in a number of other cross-phase initiatives also.Training has been led by Lagan College in the use of modelled language frameworks. Loughview IPS teacher, Mrs Jennifer Fuller (CPD link teacher) and Mrs Walker in her role as Numeracy co-ordinator, have collaborated on KS2 Functional Maths delivery and transferrable skills development cross-phase, using Dienies and Numicom to support Mental Maths development. Mrs Fuller explained that the partnership work had really broken down barriers between the primary and post-primary worlds. “We have created an avenue of communication that is open and honest. Being a reflective practitioner and helping each other to explore learning and teaching in a trusted colleague network has been of great benefit. This link ensures that students know there is a real and tangible link between their learning crossphase. Students can see that their learning is purposeful as they move on,” she said. “At the end of the first year of the Cross-Phase CPD Literacy and Numeracy Project, we noted that the CPD project had further enhanced the already excellent relationships and shared good practice which had previously existed between the schools in an informal manner,” Mrs Walters explained. Sharing on Twitter @cpdteam. “Lagan College is also sharing the Accelerated Reader programme with primary colleagues who in turn have happily supported a bespoke electronic transfer of KS2 data sharing and the provision of extended personal/creative writing pieces in order to benchmark students upon post-primary entry, which the children are immensely proud of,” Mrs Walters added. Mrs McNamee, Principal of Lagan College expressed her appreciation to all the staff from across the four schools involved in the partnership, who are working successfully together in this critical transition point in a child’s learning. “All aspects of our KS2/KS3 CPD project have proved extremely beneficial to date. We know this from staff self-evaluation, feedback and the number of teachers who have offered to open their classrooms for learning walks and sharing good practice sessions, as well as the pupil voice,” Mrs McNamee said. Junior pupils Zac and Ellie, The Wallace High School, Lisburn produced iMovies inspired by the CPD Project training. The Lagan College Principal also commented that her fellow Principals: Mr Watson (Forge IPS), Mr McKnight (Loughview IPS) and Mrs Mary Roulston (Millennium IPS) endorsed this comment. “We are delighted that Miss Colleen Haughian has also secured a place on the CPD Project’s Teacher Placement Bursary Scheme to undertake good practice building ‘Curriculum Bridges’ in conjunction with Forge IPS. We are also eagerly awaiting the arrival of Mr Sean Spillane, who will be taking up the opportunity to work on his three day placement, from Glencraig Primary here within Lagan’s English department in the New Year,” Mrs McNamee added. The Bridge - 7
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Page 3 and 4: Newcastle Schools’ Transition Par
Page 5: Teacher Placements Extending and En
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Page 13 and 14: Online Survey of Action Plans June
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