We have been developing some training videos which you can use, either just to watch on your own, or with your class in a kind of on-line team teaching situation. As I write we have three weeks of lessons, with each week containing a video for days one to four.
There is also one training video for children in P6/7, which is a spelling investigation. It comes with a pack of activities. We will continue to add a few more to this group.
If you would like access to these, let me know, and I’ll add you to the shared drive.
Over the next two terms, we will be running weekly training sessions on areas of literacy for Highland Council staff. These sessions will include;
Wraparound Spelling
Morphological Spelling
Assessing spelling and planning for change
Phonics from the beginning and as an intervention
Organising the learning and teaching of reading
Assessing reading and planning for change
Planning for change in writing
Developing independence in writing
The use of benchmarks across the curriculum
There is no need to register for these training sessions through the CPD calendar. To access the training, copy and paste the link given into your chrome browser. No register will be taken, so you must record this in your own CPD log. A google form will be sent out a couple of weeks after training to assess the impact training and how we can support you further.
We are pleased to be able to give you information about this year’s Primary competition, which is now going ahead after having been postponed last year.
The theme will be: “It is a terrible thing to be bursting with a secret you can’t tell” from Young Art and Old Hector by Neil Gunn
As usual the chosen quote can be interpreted in any way the pupils wish and entries can be in the form of a short story or a poem. The actual words of the quote do not have to be used in the entry. For a short story the word limit is 500 words and for a poem 40 lines. The competition is open to pupils in P5-P7.
Below is a competition entry form, a copy of the rules, a Primary poster and the poster with details for every age group, for your convenience. Entry forms, rules and all the information about the competition is now on the High Life Highland website, www.highlifehighland.com/neilgunn. The closing date for entries is Friday 04 March 2022 and the lead judge is James Robertson.
We look forward to being inundated with entries from your pupils for Highland Schools’ own writing competition!
Every year we put together a reading challenge to encourage children to read.
This year’s challenge is the Book Badge Collection.
There are eight book badges to be earned:
The Night Owl
The Early Bird
The Weekend Warrior
The Professor
The Bite-sized Bookworm
The Marathon
Librarian
The Seven-day Stretch
Every time that a child fulfils the requirements of a badge, they get a badge to stick onto their record sheet. Each well-earned badge can be celebrated with a certificate.
Just a reminder that everything you need for getting started with emerging literacy in P1 can be found on this site!
There are a lot of support materials here, so a good way to get orientated is the Where to Begin Guide, which also has links to short training videos
Support networks
For practitioners in Highland, there will be some support networks offered throughout the session, led by teachers along with speech and language therapists and occupational therapists
Dates will be on the CPD calendar and on Digital Schools in a few days time
The Talk for Writing trainer will be conducting training on the inset days on the 13th and 14th of September.
This training is for Highland Council staff only.
On the 13th of September, she will be working with teachers who would like to receive initial training or a refresher session in the Talk for Writing process.
On the 14th of September, she will be working with teachers who have already started using the Talk for Writing process and would like to deepen their understanding.
There will be a cost of around £35 per person, but this will depend on how many people attend. Please ask your line manager for permission before applying for this course through Highland Council’s CPD page.
It would be helpful to have all applications registered by next week.
The code and resources will be sent out prior to training to all those who have registered.
Emerging Literacy is Highland Council’s developmentally appropriate approach to literacy in P1 and beyond.
P1 teachers are supported through networks through the year to implement differentiated teaching and learning in literacy.
This hour-long course is to help teachers new to the approach, or who want to refresh their knowledge, to get started in August. It will cover the model behind the approach, and how it is put into practice in phonological awareness, phonics and pre-handwriting learning.
Are you interested in learning more about the new PM Benchmark Literacy Assessment 2? Julian Duncan a trainer for PM Benchmark will run training on the 15th and 18th of March 2021.
The training is suitable for School Managers, ASN teachers and class teachers.
It equips teachers with accurate and robust assessment tools to identify students’ instructional or independent reading levels. The resource offers a complete literacy assessment, allowing teachers to conduct reading records to effectively capture students’ progress in reading fluency, retelling abilities and comprehension within and beyond the text.
When Monday 15th March at 15:30 to 16:30
Thursday 18th March at 15:30 to 16:30
To access the training link, please sign in through CPD.
We know how busy you all are, so we are continuing to put together some resources that may help.
We now have Poetry Packs 3 and 4 ready to go! Poetry Pack 3 is based on ‘Street Talk’ by J.K Annand and Poetry Pack 4 is based on ‘The Hill We Climb’ by Amanda Gorman. Both poems have a Scottish connection…read on to find out more!
HIGHLAND LITERACY 