Minutes of meeting held on Friday, 23rd June 2006
We looked at some of the latest news items and 'letters to centres' (available at www.sqa.org.uk). Access 1 Independent Living units were discussed, from the perspective of how they work and a recent increase in the number of them. Access 3 PSE changes are due in August 2007, and urgent improvements have been made to the NABs for Access 3 Social Subjects.
Attendees were encouraged to attend the talk by Pete Wells at SETT (September 20-21). ("Try at least one of his sensory stories before you let pupils loose on them! They do come with an info sheet on how they ought to be dealt with as sensory stories although they stand up well as fun stuff for all"). Among other ideas and tools, Pete uses Chroma Key. Other resources highlighted included those at Priory Woods (Inclusive Technology). Here you can access a range of resources to do online or to download. Investigate further and you will find a lot more than just ICT stuff - there are instructions on how to make your own switch videos amongst others. BBC Jam, Assist-It and Lexion were also promoted.
We discussed the fact that Support Codes are not passed on to employers. There was strong feeling that this was not helpful and affected the currency of qualifications.
One attendee informed the group that Access 3 Home Economics is being rewritten (content, word, and assessment no longer watered down from Intermediate 1). There was an offer of help in re-writing the Access 3 Home Economics NABs.
We discussed poor examples of assessment items requiring pupils to evaluate. We felt that it is important to encourage and require evaluation. Alternatives to a written response could be via photos, voice recordings, video (Photostory 3 can be used for making a video diary; Digital Blue camera (from TAG) is a video creator) etc. Trials have taken place of SQA papers scanned onto computer so that questions can be listened to and answers typed in and listened to.
There is continuing concern that SSDN will miss out independent schools, and it was felt that SCIS should be approached in order to find out their position on the matter. SSDN developments will be outlined at the SETT conference in September.
We discussed the ‘notional’ 40 hours teaching and learning per unit. Cross-curricular teaching and refering to relevant teaching and learning during S1 and 2 were creative ways of justifying timeslots in S3 and 4.
When discussing appropriate Home Economic units, we were informed that Hospitality units are more practical based rather that those which 'fall under' Food Technology.
The Understanding Standards website has useful guidance for Access Core Skills. Other resources were endorsed at Check The Map (This site has links to a number of free resources).
Attendees were encouraged to attend the talk by Pete Wells at SETT (September 20-21). ("Try at least one of his sensory stories before you let pupils loose on them! They do come with an info sheet on how they ought to be dealt with as sensory stories although they stand up well as fun stuff for all"). Among other ideas and tools, Pete uses Chroma Key. Other resources highlighted included those at Priory Woods (Inclusive Technology). Here you can access a range of resources to do online or to download. Investigate further and you will find a lot more than just ICT stuff - there are instructions on how to make your own switch videos amongst others. BBC Jam, Assist-It and Lexion were also promoted.
We discussed the fact that Support Codes are not passed on to employers. There was strong feeling that this was not helpful and affected the currency of qualifications.
One attendee informed the group that Access 3 Home Economics is being rewritten (content, word, and assessment no longer watered down from Intermediate 1). There was an offer of help in re-writing the Access 3 Home Economics NABs.
We discussed poor examples of assessment items requiring pupils to evaluate. We felt that it is important to encourage and require evaluation. Alternatives to a written response could be via photos, voice recordings, video (Photostory 3 can be used for making a video diary; Digital Blue camera (from TAG) is a video creator) etc. Trials have taken place of SQA papers scanned onto computer so that questions can be listened to and answers typed in and listened to.
There is continuing concern that SSDN will miss out independent schools, and it was felt that SCIS should be approached in order to find out their position on the matter. SSDN developments will be outlined at the SETT conference in September.
We discussed the ‘notional’ 40 hours teaching and learning per unit. Cross-curricular teaching and refering to relevant teaching and learning during S1 and 2 were creative ways of justifying timeslots in S3 and 4.
When discussing appropriate Home Economic units, we were informed that Hospitality units are more practical based rather that those which 'fall under' Food Technology.
The Understanding Standards website has useful guidance for Access Core Skills. Other resources were endorsed at Check The Map (This site has links to a number of free resources).
posted by David Noble at Sunday, June 25, 2006
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