Carbisdale S3 Project

I attended this years Carbisdale project which involves all the S3 pupils being out of school in the north of Scotland for 8 days completing a range of different activities. As it was my first year, I went up for only half the time but spent a most enjoyable few days hillwalking (x 2) at Inchnadamph and a two day hike to Croik. It was a great opportunity to meet many other teachers, most of whom I didn't know prior to going up.

S1 Projects Group Leader

Having gone for an S1 Tutor job earlier in the year, one of the issues I had was limited experience with this age group as I only teach S3 and above. I was given responsibility for a first year class during S1 Projects week to enable me to get leadership experience in this area. This involved initially meeting the group on the first morning which gave me the opportunity to establish expected levels of behaviour and to talk the pupils through the itinerary for the week.

The remainder of the week was relatively straightforward as the pupils had the opportunity to participate in a range of activities including surfing, scuba diving, rock climbing, hillwalking and sailing. My main role was to do the register in the morning and alert the head of S1 if there were any absentees, ensure the pupils were safely bussed to activities, inform the leader of the activities of any health problems which may affect them and ensure the pupils were safely returned and all accounted for at the end of the day.

Overall, a big succes and a chance to work with an age group I otherwise wouldn't get to.

Yorkshire Dales Geography Trip - April 2010

I was asked to support this years Yorkshire Dales Geography Trip and accompanied twenty S3 pupils and three colleagues. Having never been involved in the organisation of an extended school trip, this was a good opportunity to experience the amount of planning involved without taking on full responsibility. The main thing I discovered was the need to work together as colleagues and for everyone to do even the most menial tasks at times, to ensure the pupils are kept occupied at all times as boredom or restlessness can cause behavioural issues and the need to be aware of possible unforseen circumstances e.g. flat tyres!

Athletics coach

During the summer term, I have been placed in charge of selection of the Over-17 athletics team. This involves assessing the boys during athletics training and putting together a competitive team for a number of meetings against other independent teams.

Higher Business Management Training Event

I attended an excellent CPD training event on Tuesday focusing on the delivery of Higher Business Management. This was in response to an area of improvement we identified for our department.

The main things I took from the course were:

• Identification of areas of the course to focus on during revision
• A more targeted homework policy
• Focus on command words and tactics and strategies to help pupils

Overall, an excellent day and hopefully will bear fruit in the final exams.

Success at Young Enterprise Lothian Awards

Tonight marked the end of my inaugural year as a Link Teacher with Young Enterprise and culminated in the award show at SMC.

Our team, YESMC, having experienced a year of trials and tribulations, brought everything together and delivered an excellent presentation. I was astounded at their professionalism, poise and calmness and were a credit to themselves, Mrs Burt and I and the school. As well as pride, I was left with a feeling of regret of what we could have achieved had the team gelled sooner. Many of the team felt the same way and it would have been nice to have a member of next years team there tonight to see the quality of ideas and presentations our next group will be up against.

Unfortunately, despite all their hard work towards the end of the project, it did not transfer into prizes although Olivia Strong did win the Best Managing Director.

The event was a huge success and it has left me feeling fully energised and ready to implement lots of new ideas for 2011-2012.

CPD

This term I am looking to take on a couple of new tasks at SMC, with support from my Head of House, with the goal of developing my CV. Although neither are too arduous in terms of workload, both will give me an opportunity to not only develop my own skills but also the chance to get to know my registration class better:

Commendations

My Head of House has given me responsibility for collating, recording and issuing commendations received by my registration class. This has given me the chance to focus on positive elements of my relationship with the class rather than continually enforcing rules such as lateness, absence letters etc.

Attainment Coaching

Following on from a project I helped pilot in St Ninians, I have asked and gained permission to begin a small Attainment Coaching project with three pupils who have indicated they may leave at the end of the academic year. The focus will be on support and encouragement to ensure that should they indeed leave, they will do so with the best possible results. I plan to have initial meetings with the pupils over the next week and focus on their prelim results and their goals for the future.

Development & CPD in Term 1

Having now completed my first term at Stewart's Melville, I felt it a good time to take stock of what I have accomplished during this time.

Wrote the Intermediate 2 Business Management Prelim paper

This was something I hadn't yet done and I felt it was an important experience to get. As I had several years experience teaching Business Management and I was teaching the only class at this level, I felt writing the Int 2 paper would be a good starting point.

Under-15 B's Hockey Team

I have been given responsibility for the above team which involves taking training every Tuesday during games period. I work closely with a colleague, a science technician, who has a number of years hockey experience. We established a routine whereby I take the group for a warm up and then we split the group in two - my colleague does the more specialised routines and I run basic skill routines. We then finish with a game. I am trying to hand more responsibility to the pupils e.g. taking the register, organising teams and resources for the game etc. We are scheduled to play a number of friendly matches in Term 2 and I am hoping this extra responsibility will develop a greater team spirit between the players.

Young Enterprise

Initially I expected to take over the running of the YE club from a colleague and organise it on my own. However, the colleague who has run the club for a number of years has chosen to stay on which has been a great support to myself. This year the decision was made to run the group with Sixth Year pupils as there was a feeling that it was too difficult for Fourth Years to balance a full timetable of subjects and prelims. It has been a difficult year as I have got used to some of the issues involved in running a YE club at SMC. The pupils have many competing extra -curricular activities, pressure to achieve good academic results in S6 and the stress of applying for university. As a result, the YE group have not always been able to fully commit to the project and this is something my colleague and I have discussed to try and work on for next year. In Term 2, the YE group will be putting together a final report and attending the final which will be held at SMC.

Cross Country Club

I work with a colleague in helping to run the above club. The role is mainly administrative and providing transport and support for the pupils. There are approximately 12-14 boys in the group and during the first term, they represented SMC at a variety of events throughout Edinburgh. We also took them to the Scottish Schools Cross Country championships at Falkirk. During the second term, there may be the opportunity of taking the boys to an event in Glasgow. I am also looking into the possibility of setting up a Cross Country club on a Friday after school.

Sixth Year Study Room Supervision

I was given responsibility for supervising the Sixth Year Study Room two periods a week which involves ensuring that all the pupils using the Study Room are provided with a quiet, calm environment to use.

Lunchtime Supervision

I also do lunchtime supervision once a week which involves monitoring an area of the grounds and ensuring there are no issues.

Provision of lunchtime revision sessions for NAB resits

I have organised and delivered revision sessions for any pupils who need support for NAB resits. This has been done during my lunch breaks and for both Business Management and Economics pupils.

Participation in National Poetry Day

I was asked by an English teacher to read a poetry in the library as part of National Poetry Day. This was to be read in front of pupils to encourage them to read. I read "Prophets at Home" by Rudyard Kipling.

Provided support for Physics department trip to Camera Obscura

S2 Business Management - European Union Debates

I recently joined a Debating Club in Glasgow, organised by a former European Debating Champion. Although I have had an interest in public speaking for a long time, this was my first foray into official debating and in my first session, I learned the basics of debating and a simple way to prepare a 5 minute debate in 5 minutes.

My S2 Business Management class are currently working on the European Union and have been researching the costs and benefits of being part of the EU from a business perspective. As a strong believer in the responsibilities we have as Business Education to teach the softer skills of business e.g. communication skills, teamwork, I decided to use the skills I had learned in the debating club in the class.

The class were divided into pairs and either had to research positive aspects of joining the EU or negative aspects. Everyone had to prepare a 2 minute speech with an introduction, 2 or 3 valid points and a summary.

Although not a full bloodied debate with interjections, the debates were a great success and the pupils really got into it. Tables were set up to replicate a real debate and many of the pupils linked what we were doing with what they watched in the Election Leadership Debates. Some of the points raised, either as positives or negatives, were very thought provoking and the pupils in the audience asked some very probing questions. At the end, a poll was taken amongst the class to see which team had most convinced them.

As well as developing a greater understanding of the pro's and con's of the European Union, the pupils gained more confidence and experience in speaking in front of their peers which will only help them going forward.

My Johari Window

Arena (known to self and others) complex, independent, proud, self-conscious	Blind Spot (known only to others) calm, caring, confident, dependable, energetic, friendly, giving, idealistic, intelligent, knowledgeable, logical, mature, observant, organised, reflective, self-assertive, sensible, sentimental, trustworthy, witty
Façade (known only to self) helpful, powerful	Unknown (known to nobody) able, accepting, adaptable, bold, brave, cheerful, clever, dignified, extroverted, happy, ingenious, introverted, kind, loving, modest, nervous, patient, quiet, relaxed, religious, responsive, searching, shy, silly, spontaneous, sympathetic, tense, warm, wise

Dominant Traits

77% of people think that Robbie's Window 1 is confident
55% of people think that Robbie's Window 1 is friendly
55% of people think that Robbie's Window 1 is reflective
55% of people think that Robbie's Window 1 is trustworthy

All Percentages

able (0%) accepting (0%) adaptable (0%) bold (0%) brave (0%) calm (11%) caring (11%) cheerful (0%) clever (0%) complex (33%) confident (77%) dependable (11%) dignified (0%) energetic (22%) extroverted (0%) friendly (55%) giving (11%) happy (0%) helpful (0%) idealistic (33%) independent (33%) ingenious (0%) intelligent (11%) introverted (0%) kind (0%) knowledgeable (22%) logical (11%) loving (0%) mature (11%) modest (0%) nervous (0%) observant (11%) organised (33%) patient (0%) powerful (0%) proud (11%) quiet (0%) reflective (55%) relaxed (0%) religious (0%) responsive (0%) searching (0%) self-assertive (33%) self-conscious (11%) sensible (11%) sentimental (11%) shy (0%) silly (0%) spontaneous (0%) sympathetic (0%) tense (0%) trustworthy (55%) warm (0%) wise (0%) witty (11%)

Created by the Interactive Johari Window on 21.4.2010, using data from 9 respondents.
You can make your own Johari Window, or view Robbie's Window 1's full data.

S2 Business Management Dragon's Den Final

The final of the S2 Business Management Dragon's Den Final was held on Wednesday 24 March. Three teams won the right to represent their classes at the final which we held in the lecture theatre in front of all three classes - approximately 100 people.

I had invited four "Dragons" from the local business community who I had established links with through the visits with the Higher Business Management pupils to the East Renfrewshire Chamber of Commerce. As well as two local business people, there was someone from Business Gateway and a local entrepreneur who had started his first business at 13.

I think it is imperative that as a Business Education department we establish close links with the business community to make our subject "come to life" for the pupils. It also helps create a good image of the school. The use of the Dragons gave the end of the project a high degree of professionalism and feedback from everyone was highly positive.

Cross Curricular Work - S2 BM and Video Editing

As part of the Dragon's Den project I am doing with my S2 Business Management class, we spent a while looking at the promotion element of the marketing mix. The pupils came up with various different forms of advertising including billboards and magazine adverts and were also given the task of identifying a celebrity and event (e.g. TV programme, sporting event) which they would use to endorse their product.

I wanted to take the idea a bit further this year so spoke to the Computing PT about asking the Video Editing class to get involved in creating TV adverts with the class. The Video Editing class is made up of seniors and they were all very happy to participate. Each Dragon's Den group were allocated two of the Video Editing class who met with their group during lunch time to shoot the TV advert. They then had to go away and were given a two week deadline of preparing a finished advert for the teams to use in their final presentations.

I feel this is great evidence of cross curricular work as well as meeting many of the elements of Curriculum for Excellence.

Pupil evaluation

I created a post-Prelim survey for my S4 Business Management and S4 Administration class to gauge the general feeling of how the pupils felt they have done in their exam. I used www.polldaddy.com to create the on-line survey which pupils were able to fill out confidentially. I have posted some of the results for the pupils to read on the relevant pages of the blog and intend to do another analysis of my Higher pupils next week.

As I have 2 classes in S3 Admin and S3 Business Management, my aim would be to use this analysis to improve upon my teaching for next year. I believe using the pupils feedback is essential for good quality reflection of my teaching practice and a way of ensuring continual professional development.

Teaching Blogging to Primary teachers

I was asked by a Primary colleague who is also doing the same PGCE course as me if I could spend some time showing her how to set up a blog for her to use with her Primary 6 pupils. I invited her to the school and spent an hour showing her how to set up a basic blog, change the layout, create and edit posts, attach videos and links and also how to set up and embed learning games using www.classtools.net.

We talked over different ideas for how she can use the blog to promote the learning and teaching she does in the class with the pupils and their parents. I have suggested we meet up in the future when she has the basic blog up and running to develop it further. Her blog address www.misstimoney.blogspot.com

Starting an online business magazine

One of my Higher Business Management pupils told me a couple of months ago that she liked the idea of possibly editing a newspaper in the future. It just so happened that at that point I was looking at ways to start some sort of pupil-led online Business Magazine to encourage participation from pupils outside of the classroom. Talking it through with the pupil, we identified several pupils in S2 Business Management who we thought could take on the role of reporters with the senior pupil being responsible for setting deadlines, editing work and getting the project up and running.

Having been subjected first hand to a probing interview by one of the team's roving reporters and read a couple of their first articles, I am confident this is a project which will develop and provide all involved with some great skills that they can take forward in their schooling - teamworking, working to deadlines, communication skills etc. I have given full editorial responsibility to the group and act only as a contact should they wish any help or support.

The group aim to get their magazine link placed on the school website and hope to develop a strong and loyal readership.

Marketing Business Class at ERCC

I took 8 pupils from my Higher Business Management class to a Business Master Class hosted by the East Renfrewshire Chamber of Commerce. The guest speaker was Graeme Lindsay, one of Scotland's leading marketing experts with nearly 20 years of experience. His CV contains companies liked Tennents, Scottish Courage and Glenmorangie and he led the global marketing activity for brands such as Glenmorangie, Ardbeg and Glen Moray. Recently he has been working as the Marketing Director for Whyte & Mackay.

It was a really interesting evening and hopefully gave some of the pupils a greater insight into one of the main units we study in Higher Business Management. This is the reason I have tried to establish close links with the ERCC as it enables me to introduce pupils to "real" business people and gives them an opportunity to use the theoretical learning from the classroom into conversation.

PGC in Developing Leadership and Learning

I am currently finishing my tasks in preparation for the next seminar of the above course. Over the last couple of months, I have been looking at the following:

• What is leadership and management? What are the differences and the similarities? Does leadership in education differ from leadership in other organisations? In which way?
• What is meant by theoretical knowledge and what place does it have in practice? What are the key characteristics of theory?
• The six models of leadership and management

1. Formal
2. Collegial
3. Political
4. Subjective
5. Ambiguity
6. Cultural

• I was responsible for reading up on Political and Subjective models of leadership and management and to prepare a short briefing for my colleagues next week. I had to look at the features of the two methods, their advantages and their disadvantages.
• How the McCrone Agreement facilitates a collegial approach within schools and what barriers it creates.
• To finish, I have to write a 300 word assessment on the key issues in defining leadership in schools.

The course itself is hard work and with NABs, Prelims, ongoing homework and reports to write, it can be difficult at times to fit in the required reading and assessments. However, it is giving me a real insight into different methods of leadership and learning within an educational setting and providing me with greatly enhanced theoretical knowledge that I am able to put in practice on a daily basis.

Visit to Strathclyde Business School

Last week I took three pupils from the school to the Strathclyde Business School for the inaugural meeting of the Scottish Junior Business School Board. The University are keen to develop closer links with schools throughout the West of Scotland, not simply to increase their numbers although this is a consideration, but also to educate young people in what they do and also to get feedback on what young people considering going to university want. Strathclyde University face competition not only from other Scottish universities but also the rising number of universities worldwide.

The meeting consisted of pupils from various schools being split up into groups facilitated by final year students studying a variety of business subjects e.g. Languages and Business, and they spent the morning considering what business means to them.

My role was primarily as observer as the University staff were keen to allow the pupils the opportunity to express their opinions openly. I sat with the Dean of Strathclyde Business School, Susan Hart, and various other University and school staff and discussed how we could develop closer links.

It was a very useful meeting, the first of three throughout the year. Hopefully it will give the pupils a greater insight into what the University does so they can go back and speak to other pupils in school. It will also give me more knowledge of the courses available to ensure pupils who previously hadn't considered business, thinking it simply about "making money", know what they can do with a qualification in business.

S5 - Video interviews

A few weeks ago, I delivered a lesson on CVs to a group of eleven S5 pupils who are doing a mixture of college and school based around vocational skills.

Today, I gave them a sheet with some simple interview questions on it based around their dream job e.g. what attracted you to this job, what is your greatest strength, tell me about yourself etc. They then had to take the role of interviewer or interviewee and the interview itself was videoed. Initially they were slightly apprehensive but soon got into the spirit of the lesson. The main focus of the lesson came last when they had to watch each interview back on the screen and write down two things that each interviewee did well and one thing they could work on.

What came out was how observent the group were. They picked up on nervous habits people had like scratching their shoulder or playing with their hair and how that would come across in an interview situation. They were also very positive to each other, identifying people who spoke clearly and who made good eye contact.

Feedback from pupils afterwards was very positive and they all felt it had been a useful activity for them in the future.

East Renfrewshire Chamber of Commerce Business Masterclass

Tonight I took 4 pupils from my Higher Business Management class to the above event in a hotel in Giffnock. The ERCC invite schools from around East Renfrewshire and we attended tonights session. The evening consisted of the following:

6.00pm-6.30pm Tea & coffee

6.30pm - 7.00pm Speed networking

7.00pm-7.30pm Buffet supper

7.30pm-8.00pm Main Speaker

8.00pm-8.30pm Question and answer session

The main speaker was from MediaCo UK Ltd on the subject of using the internet to raise the profile of your business. The pupils were able to relate what we had studied in Marketing during the last month to what the main speaker was talking about. They also had the opportunity to speak to someone from Business Gateway on how businesses could get support to start a business and someone from the voluntary sector on how they have been impacted on by the global downturn.

This was the first time pupils had been to this and all felt it was a really worthwhile event - I think they liked the fact that they could see what we discussed in class was not an abstract concept but real life. All of them have signed up for the next Business Masterclass and the Chairman of the ERCC commented that they were the first school to go up and thank the main speaker and the ERCC without prompting from their teacher.

S5 - Lessons on CVs

I was asked to deliver a lesson to a group of eleven S5 pupils who are doing a mixture of college and school based around vocational skills. As many of these pupils may soon be in the market for finding employment, I chose to deliver a lesson on writing CVs.

Using my previous recruitment experience, I talked them through the purpose of a CV and how employers would use it to decide who to interview and as the basis for interview questions. We looked at developing strong personal statements and I showed them the layout of a good CV.

We didn't have time to finish it but the class seemed enthusiastic and I have offered to have a look at any CV they finish at home. I plan to do a second lesson with the class later in the year and the class have asked to do interview skills.

CPD - “Improving The Curriculum Through Self Evaluation”

I attended the second of two CPD sessions with Jacqui MacDonald which focused on evaluating curricular development. We looked at how to use HGIOS as a method of evaluating our departmental curriculum and how we would get feedback to improve areas.

One thing I have done as a result of this session is introduce Class Representatives in my S2-S3 Administration and Business Management classes.

PG Certificate in Developing Leadership & Learning (Education)

I have just found out that I have been successful in my application to do the above qualification at University of Glasgow. The first course focuses on Developing as a Leader and will cover the nature and role of leadership in school and use theoretical perspectives to appraise and improve practice.

The aim is that by the end of this course, through a mixture of self study and seminars, I will have the opportunity to develop my awareness of my own leadership potential as well as a chance to explore the nature of leadership in teaching.

Work Experience

I am also working on a Work Experience project. I have been allocated a class by Kenny O'Donnell, the PT of Development, and my role is to monitor the return of various forms including Parental Consent forms. A spreadsheet has been developed to record when the forms are return. The pupils go out on work experience on the 9 November and any pupils who fail to return the forms may fail to get a placement.

To try and ensure the pupils are as prepared as possible, I spoke to one of the DHTs and took the class into one of the ICT rooms to work on the necessary website. I have also visited the class on a couple of occasions to reiterate the need to get the forms back.

In the week before the October holiday, I plan to target individuals to ensure everyone gets the chance to go on work experience.

All pupils who were in the class I was monitoring managed to get their work experience and parental signature letters back on time and will hopefully have had a worthwhile experience.

Trip - Students & Teachers of Economics Annual Scottish Conference

I have organised a trip for 10 pupils in my Higher Business Management class and myself to attend the above conference on November 9. Despite it being a simple trip into Glasgow, it has still involved quite a lot of organising.

Initially, I had to choose 10 pupils to go - they had to write a short piece detailing why the wanted to go. Next, I had to complete a request form for the Head Teacher and a risk assessment form. One of the office secretaries is currently preparing the Parental Consent letters and researching travel firms for me to use. I also have a form to complete to get financial support from the school. When this is complete, I will speak to the pupils about how much the day will cost and issue parental consent forms.

Although not a large scale trip, it is still a good introduction to organising something of this sort.

The trip passed off without any issues. The buses arrived on time and during the event, the pupils were very well behaved. We had a last minute change to the people going but this caused minimum disruption. Although the content of the conference was perhaps not specifically suited to what we need at St Ninian's, it was still a very well worth visit.

Attainment Coaching

I have signed up to take part in an attainment coaching project this year and have been allocated two pupils. The project is aimed at supporting S5 pupils who are undertaking a lot of highers and my role will be to offer guidance and help to my allocated pupils to ensure they achieve the best results they can during this year.

I met with them both on Friday and as it was the first meeting, I discussed the aim of the project and the pupils have been given a couple of tasks to do for our next meeting:

• They have been asked to complete an Average Week form. I explained to them that they should tell the truth as there is no benefit in them pretending to use the computer 30 minutes a night or only going out on a Saturday night if this isn't true. The next stage is to use that information to create a realistic study timetable that allows them to combine social time and work time.

• They have also been asked to speak to their respective teachers to get dates for NAB's etc. and to find out what the teacher thinks of their progress so far. I have also asked them to consider what they think they are capable of achieving this year. The next stage is to look at study priorities based on how the pupils are doing and which subjects they enjoy.

• They have also been asked to complete a Strengths and Weaknesses form. The next stage is that together, we can look at opportunities for them to maintain their strengths and work on their weaknesses and identify any potential threats to them achieving good grades this year.

We have agreed to meet again after the October break to discuss progress and start setting targets with the pupils.

Meeting 2 (23 October 2009)

I met with both the pupils today:

• Discussed their progress in each subject and asked them to rank them in order of how much study they do on each and what priority they give each subject. This will enable us to formulate a study plan which ensures they give enough good quality study to each subject.
• Set each pupil 2 subject related targets to discuss with their class teacher.
• Discussed their strengths and weaknesses and any upcoming NABs.

Our target for the next meeting is to use the information collated so far to put together a study timetable.

CPD - Preparing for SMT

Although I don't yet have a promoted position, I approached one of the Depute Heads and expressed my interest in this CPD opportunity because I felt that it was wise to take a long term view towards preparing for a career in teaching. The Depute was encouraging, so I am now attending six after school sessions during the course of the year.

The workshops are facilitated by the Head Teacher and without being specific, the first session looked at our motivation for being there. We started to look at the role of the Head Teacher within a school and the challenges that a role in management can create. One area I am keen to look at is how to get people to work with you to introduce change in a teaching environment when they may not wish to do so and how to prepare for the greater jump from classroom teacher to Faculty Head, rather than Principal Teacher.

Meeting 2

In todays meeting, we looked at how to structure interview questions to ensure that in a pressurised situations with time constraints, we are able to put across our answers in a constructive, concise fashion. The discussion highlighted the difficulty in doing this.

Meeting 3

In todays meeting, we discussed the role of self-evaluation within departments and the need to create a culture to support this. We looked at ways we could do this through observations, departmental learning & teaching frameworks and setting expectations of staff. We also looked at the role of the Depute Head in the school and their role in providing a link between departments and the Senior Management Team.

Meeting 4

During the final meeting, we discussed how best to structure your learning and development to provide you with the necessary skills to help you gain promotion. There was no clear answer but a combination of in-school development, external courses and qualifications were encouraged. The Head Teacher reiterated his point that the most important thing to remember is the classroom teaching.

Delivery of blogging CPD

Today I delivered an hours CPD for teachers at St Ninian's on how to use blogs to benefit the teaching and learning in their classroom.

Blogging is something I have been doing since my days at Hamilton Grammar and I have kept this going at St Ninian's. It was good to be able to pass on my knowledge and hopefully others may benefit. The areas I covered included:

• How to create a blog page
• How to create and amend gadgets
• How to change templates
• How to link blog pages together
• How to post
• How to add pictures and videos
• How to authorise other contributors

Although this just scratched the surface of the potential of blogs, it enables those present to set up and start using blogs. One teacher in particular found the CPD very useful as she is working with a group of pupils to move the St Ninian's newsletter onto a blog and I have offered follow up CPD for her to develop the blog further.

Pupil Support

Since joining St Ninian's High School, I have spent time working in the Behaviour Support base at the school. Initially, this was supervising pupils who had been put in the base and helping them with their work.

Since the end of last year, I have been working with one pupil in particular who is returning to school on a part-time basis having spent a considerable period absent due to a severe medical condition. As well as time at the school, the pupil spends time with another organisation where they receive day education.

With the initial support of the Head of Behaviour Support and a Deputy Head, I have established an excellent rapport with this pupil. Initially, it was difficult to get the pupil to achieve any tasks without almost complete support but they have now moved to a point where they can work independently. I provide full written feedback to the Head of Behaviour Support on how each lesson goes.

S@S Accelerate Programme

I have just completed a week working as a Mentor on the Business & Enterprise challenge at the S@S Accelerate at Strathclyde University. Having worked as a mentor a couple of years ago during my teacher training, it was something I wasn't sure about going back to as it is a more relaxed atmosphere than in the classroom - first name terms with the young people etc. However, despite my initial misgivings, the week was a great success. The challenges are aimed at pupils completing S4 & S5 and aims to give them an insight into University life and a taste of the career path they may have identified for themselves. There are a number of challenges other than Business, including Law, Engineering, Science, Education and Sport.

Day 1 began with the usual icebreakers to get the young people interacting as quickly as possible and was followed up by 'micro-challenges" - short 10 minute activities to encourage them to work together. The rest of the day then introduced them to the main focus of the week - a business challenge and debating. 

Business Challenge

• First of all the team were asked to design a team charter which covered their values as a team, how they would work together, how they would resolve conflict etc.
  
• They were then given the Summer Island Challenge - the develop a part of an island. 
  
• On the second day, the team looked at target markets and then were issued with the target market they would be appealing to. They were also allocated their part of the island at this stage.
  
• Members of each team were then involved in negotiating to get additional funding and benefits for their part of the island. Each team were given a list of priorities and they found this part very challenging - it wasn't about winning or losing but about getting the best deal. 
  
• The teams split into functional departments at this stage - Marketing, Finance, Sales and Product Development - with each department having a major role in the success of the overall challenge. 
  
• On the third day, the teams were broken up into their functional departments and worked on how they could ensure their part of the island was developed. 
  
• The teams brought together all their ideas and started to prepare the final pitch for delivery.
  
• On the final day, the teams had to deliver their pitch to a panel of four industry experts. The teams all presented in full business dress with the sales members delivering the pitch and the rest of the team available to answer any specific questions. 
  

Debate

• Initially the teams were introduced to the rules of debating. 
  
• We followed this up by having a debate on the pros and cons of people under 19 being compelled to do 50 hours community service.
  
• 2 members of the business challenge were then chosen and given time to prepare their argument that Business was the most important of the challenges taking place that week. 
  
• The final debate was held in the Debating Chamber at Strathclyde University. 
  

The young people also spent Wednesday afternoon in a Career & Industry afternoon where a range of people spoke about the respective challenges and the young people had the opportunity to ask questions.

The week finished with an awards ceremony in the Crawfurd Theatre at Jordanhill. All the pupils seemed to take a great amount from the week and the first S@S Accelerate programme was a great success. 

 

iMovie in the classroom

We are approaching the end of the Managing the Band integrated project I wrote for S2 Administration. To round things off, I thought the class could video interviews with each other about how they felt the project went. Obviously, we can't allow them to film each other and use it for public content but I hit on the idea of using finger puppets. I have spent the evening dabbling with iMovie on the Apple Mac and have managed to get a (rough) idea of what to do with it. I have created a short movie which outlines what the pupils have got to do and I have posted it on the S2 Administration site of this blog. This will be their source of information for the project. They can shoot the videos they want and over the summer, I can edit them and post them on the blog. 

I know we have a couple of Macs at school so I will try and get the pupils involved in the editing side of things next year. 

S@S Accelerate

During my teacher training, I spent a summer working as a Mentor at the S@S Summer Academy at the University of Strathclyde. The aim of the S@S Academy was to help pupils at the end of S3 re-engage with school to give them a positive year before they sat their exams. The role of the mentor was to offer a support to the young people and help them through a range of educational and challenging activities as well as assisting at a range of other activities such as basketball, dance and art. 

This year, I have been approached to identify S5 & S6 pupils who would be interested in a new project called S@S Accelerate. They have put together a range of 5-day challenges covering a variety of disciplines including Business, Enterprise and Law, Engineering and Science. I spoke to the Head Teacher to get authority to offer this to pupils and then worked with a couple of members of the Senior Management Team to ensure that pupils in S5 & 6 were informed of the course through assemblies. From this, I have a list of 15 pupils who I have provided information to, guided through the application process and organised letters confirming they are in full-time education. 

As well as being another interesting mini-project to coordinate, it has again given me an opportunity to liaise with the Senior Management team as well as getting to know Senior pupils who I have not met previously through my subject. It has also enabled me to maintain my links with the Summer Academy. I will be working at the S@S Accelerate project during the first week of the summer holidays.  

S1 Taster Lesson Surveys

I would appreciate if you could take 5 minutes to complete the two surveys below about your experiences at the S1 Business Studies Taster Lessons in March.

Just click on the links and fill in the questions.

Survey 1

Survey 2

S1 Taster Lessons in Admin & Business Management

Taster Lessons have now been delivered to all 13 S1 classes in both Administration and Business Management. The feedback from pupils and staff alike seems positive and the next stage is to build on this during the S1 Options evening on 26 March.

Some areas that I identified to focus on in future include:

• Implications of different ability levels and time for Administration taster - for some pupils, conducting internet research and producing 4 slides in one period was too big a task. In future, I could look at having a template already in place and developing extension tasks for the more able pupils.
  

• Ensuring all staff are fully aware of changes to rooming. Although I had negotiated with the PT of another department, I had not personally informed staff in this department that their rooms were being used on the day. This is something I feel I would ensure happened in future. 

Overall all, the delivery of the project was a big success and hopefully leads to increased numbers next year.

Careers Convention

During my Probation year at Hamilton Grammar, I was heavily involved in the organisation of the Careers Convention and this is something I was hoping to do at St Ninians. However, other commitments and a heavier timetable meant I was unable to get involved but I asked if I could attend and help in any way. As a result, I was given the task of manning the Secondary Teaching stall with a colleague. 

Prior to the event starting, I printed off a variety of information from the most popular teaching colleges - Strathclyde, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Stirling. This enabled me to provide relevant and up-to-date information to pupils and parents alike on the entrance requirements for Secondary teaching. I was also able to provide first-hand experience of the probation system, the importance of gaining experience working with young people prior to interviews, how you apply for jobs and a general overview of the Secondary teaching profession.

Next year, one of my CPD aims is to get involved in the actual running of the event. 

Leadership project

Within the Business Studies department at St Ninian's, we have used a variety of different methods to introduce S1 pupils to Business Management and Administration before they make their option choices for S2. 

As part of my leadership project, I asked if I could organise this project this year. This has involved me doing the following:

• Putting our proposal to the Headteacher and gaining his permission
  
• Liaising directly with members of the Senior Management Team to ensure there is minimum disruption for rooms, please-takes etc. 
  
• Identifying and liaising with another department in the school to take the S1 classes from. 
  
• Liaising with members of my own department to ensure they are happy to take on extra classes and providing them with adequate facilities for the lessons. 
  
• Liaising with another department to ensure we have adequate rooms. 
  
• Creating lessons which are directly linked to the work we do in S2 to ensure pupils are given a realistic understanding what we cover in Business Studies.
  

Although I have had previous experience of this type of thing from my Probation year i.e. S1 Health Day and Careers Convention, it is still a daunting prospect when you have to do this within a relatively new school and your knowledge of staff and pupils is still limited. 

Blog development

I have been developing this blog over the course of the last year and experimenting with different additions to maximise the learning experience of my pupils. This has been a huge commitment but the sheer scale of the things available on the internet has made it worthwhile. 

Having set up a home blog page, I attached additional blog pages to it to cover all my classes and added a Study Skills and Careers blog. Some of the things I have utilised the blog for during the course of the year:

• Displaying pupil work 
  
• Recording work covered in class so absent pupils can catch up
  
• Recording pupil homework so it can be accessed at all times and when pupil is absent
  
• Providing links to useful websites
  

I have tried to ensure everything I use has a educational merit and enhances the pupils learning. Potentially, I would like to grow this into a resource which the pupils (and parents) use on a regular basis to know what we are doing in class, and to provide a platform for pupils work to be seen on a wider scale. 

There are several excellent bloggers out there - Kenny O'Donnells  Geography blog, Mr McGowan's Business Studies blog and Miss Bate's Italian blog have been really helpful sources and are well worth a look. 

Development of S2 Administration Unit

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been working on developing a unit of work for S2 Administration. With the prelims rapidly approaching, I wanted to produce a substantial unit of work which would be interesting and challenging for the pupils but would require minimal further development from the department.

To this end, I have developed a unit called "Managing the Band". The premise of the unit is that the pupils work individually through 18 different tasks all linked to the idea of managing a local band. The unit draws on many of the theoretical and practical skills required in Intermediate Administration and offers pupils a taster of S3 & S4. Each task consists of a small amount of theory work, class questions and a task based activity. Examples of the skills and theory covered include:

• E-mail
  
• Memos
  
• Letters
  
• Reprographics
  
• File management
  
• Basic formulae
  
• Online calendar
  
• Internet research
  

A colleague is producing homework questions to tie in with the developed unit. The structure of the work enables us to assess the pupils development across a wide range of skills and knowledge and should provide a good grounding should the pupil wish to continue in S3.