Reflecting on learning in Lawside Academy

Project summary

Lawside RC Academy is a very ordinary school situated within a Social Inclusion Partnership (SIP) area in Dundee. However, it does have a substantial number of pupils who are there through parental requests. It is seen locally as an improving school with a strong ethos of care and working together. Attainment is improving year on year; and in mathematics, the 5-14 levels achieved are well above the city average.

The group of boys who were the focus of this project were part of a ‘fast-track’ maths class who had been presented for Standard Grade examinations in S3. They all gained a Credit pass at 1 or 2. They then spent S4 and S5 preparing for Higher grade maths. Half of the group had already applied for university places for the following session and they were focused on attaining the required grades. The other half of the group had little or no idea of what they wanted to do post-school, although they all see the university route as most likely.

The purpose of this project was to give this group of pupils support to develop a ‘state of mind’ where the focus was on the learning achieved, the learning they wanted to achieve, how to achieve it, what help they needed, where to find that help and, when achieved, the next steps in their learning.

Case study extract

It was hoped that this project would provide this support by:

• allowing the pupils to discuss their achievements
• using the tracking and monitoring processes already in place in the school
• allowing the pupils to discuss their expectations
• allowing the pupils to discuss their difficulties.

It was originally thought that we might use a commercial package, but we felt that the timescale was too short for this. 

The teacher who led this project took the Higher maths class and was also available to support these pupils during their timetabled social education (SE) lesson, which gave approximately seven hours of contact each week. The group were already familiar with a range of formative assessment strategies, including writing learning logs, self and peer assessment, looking at marking schemes, open questions, wait time, think, pair and share and discussion.

Teacher’s comments 

Thinking time was lengthened by using strategies such as ‘write down three sentences to describe differentiation and why we use it’, and this would then lead to paired and group discussion before coming up with the most effective sentences. I was always part of a group discussion, as a member of the group and not leading it, unless there was a problem. 

As part of the self-assessment strategies, pupils completed grids which were topic-based and exam-based. This allowed pupils to traffic light for confidence in certain topics. 

Pair, share and square was the norm in the classroom. Pupils would always be discussing solutions and methods. Pupils generally sat at a double desk so that there was always an available seat beside each one. Pupils were then free to move around the class during discussion time to share ideas. 

[Learning logs] were useful as a reflection on learning, and provided good notes for later revision, because they are written in pupils’ own words and are easier to remember. These notes were also useful for the teacher because they gave an insight into how much each pupil had learned and so fed the planning of the next steps. It also highlighted any misconceptions that the pupil had about the topic and these could be discussed and dealt with earlier rather than later. 

During their SE time (and at other times available in class) the teacher and pupils discussed a range of statements and questions that related to study skills and preparation for summative assessments. 

Pupil comments 

‘We completed grids in maths to show our weak points and worked at them […] we used past paper questions to practise time management.’ 

‘Sharing methods and solutions with one another [was good].’ 

‘Sometimes I can get help by asking a friend […] but they don’t always understand why I can’t do it […] I get more help when I am the one who is explaining because I have to understand the problem before I explain the answer.’ 

Evaluation

Personal learning planning is an ongoing process so the benefits may not be clear until some time ahead. It is probable that this group had too short a time to make a real difference. However, the part of the group which remains in S6 will continue to look at personal learning planning with their guidance teachers and make meaningful progress towards planning successfully. It is difficult to measure progress in terms of attainment, but in using two ‘prelim’ exams there was a marked difference in the level of marks gained by the project group. (They performed better in the second prelim.) 

Next steps

The involvement of parents was limited due to the time factor, and this should have been one of our priorities. Also, school planners to record achievements and targets would have been useful. We intend to cover both of these areas in the next steps of the project, where working with S1 is the foundation of future work on personal learning planning. 

It is hoped we can gather 30 volunteers from the staff who will look at personal learning planning with S1 pupils. Each member of staff will have six pupils maximum in their remit. There will be contact with parents […] who will be able to help and will be encouraged to take a part in helping pupils to achieve their targets, and who will be involved on a much greater scale than before. We hope that S6 pupils who took part in this project will involve themselves in helping others in S1, by discussing, leading and making a difference. A peer education programme will be in place for S6 volunteers and they will work with our school educational psychologist on initial training before they go into junior classes to help and support pupils.

Contact details

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