School Improvement Partnership Programme Midlothian

Lasswade High School North Berwick High School Ross High School East Lothian Council & Midlothian Council

CfE Personal Support in our Schools Role of Personal Support Entitlement in Raising Attainment and Closing the Gap Three Schools looking at how we support ALL learners to raise achievement & attainment Individual Implementation Programmes shared across Working Groups Tutor Time, Personal Support Programmes, Pastoral Guidance Personal Learning Planning, Coaching & Mentor Programmes, Learner Conversations Dweck’s Growth Mindset & Hattie’s Visible Learning Finance to Support Implementation (ICT tbc), Professional Development and INSET.

Research Pupil Questionnaires Pupil Focus Groups (Space Unlimited) Staff Professional Opinion Working Group Meetings Professional Reading Sharing best-practice visits Headteacher & SLT Meetings Use of Visible Learning Personal Support Programmes.

Next Steps: Where are we going? INSET Programme – April 2015 Sharing Best Practice from implementation Learner Conversations as focus Assessment Capable Leaners Passionate & Inspired Teachers OSIRIS – Visible Learning Gregor Townsend – Growth Mindset in Sport Full Implementation & Evaluation.

School Improvement Partnership Programme Knox Academy Newbattle High School St David’s High School Aim: To bridge the gaps and address inequality by improving learners’ experiences across our three partnership schools Midlothian

Context The School Improvement Planning Partnership has offered an exciting opportunity to engage in professional sharing and dialogue within and across our three schools Through discussion, we identified learners’ experiences and professional engagement of staff as the core means of improving outcomes for all learners, thereby addressing inequality and closing the gap

Our Shared Outcomes Improved Learners' Experiences more active, stimulating and creative learning experiences a fairer and more respectful learning community improved performance - attainment, achievement and positive destinations improved sense of self-esteem and responsibility of learners more positive and happy learning environments Greater Professional Engagement and Distributed Leadership development of enquiry and research skills increased opportunities for leadership across staff more collaboration within and across project schools stronger professional ethos

What have we done? Staff made clear that they would value the opportunity to visit other partner schools We used some of our budget to pay for cover to allow this to happen Three ‘Sharing Good Practice’ visits took place in November and December 2014.

It was really good to meet teachers from different schools and different subjects who had many of the same interests. We often don’t get very much opportunity to observe other lessons, so it was great to have the time to do this, and probably more importantly, to discuss the lessons we observed with other teachers. There were many interesting and useful discussions going on throughout the day, which were both motivating and inspiring. I made several changes following the visit to St. David’s and I found the visit really motivating.

Next Steps We have planned and organised a conference which will take place at Queen Margaret University on Monday 18 May This will further build on the theme of improving learners’ experiences in order to close the gap and will provide workshop opportunities for all teaching staff to share good practice and build networks within and across our three schools

Discussion Question What strategies are there to ensure learners benefit as a result of staff professional learning?

HW: Join our list to share ideas Due on: Mon How could we use a ‘visible learning’ approach to close the gap in S1 History? ClassworkDate:________ Aims:MUST: raise attainment in key skills of -writing essay paragraphs -judging significance in History SHOULD: ‘close the gap’ between pupils with different levels of poverty Activate knowledge: 1.List what you know about visible learning 2.Share with your group...

HW: Join our list to share ideas Due on: Mon How could we use a ‘visible learning’ approach to close the gap in S1 History? ClassworkDate:________ Aims:MUST: raise attainment in key skills of -writing essay paragraphs -judging significance in History SHOULD: ‘close the gap’ between pupils with different levels of poverty Activate knowledge: 1.List what you know about visible learning 2.Share with your group...

HW: Join our list to share ideas Due on: Mon How could we use a ‘visible learning’ approach to close the gap in S1 History? ClassworkDate:________ Aims:MUST: raise attainment in key skills of -writing essay paragraphs -judging significance in History SHOULD: ‘close the gap’ between pupils with different levels of poverty Visible learning?? 1.‘know thy impact’ 2.Share it with students 3.Use it to inform next steps

Who & how? ClassworkDate:________ Subjects: S1 class of mixed ability. Not analysed separately according to poverty levels- the school in general has a high level of poverty. taught x2 / week in lessons of 50 minutes. Measurement; qualitative questions to judge students’ ability to reflect on their learning- repeated at the end of the unit baseline and a follow up test on the key skill of writing paragraphs Parents asked for their feedback at start and end