Balfron High School

Background

This six-week project was designed by two probationer teachers who wanted to help S2 pupils develop skills through making connections in their learning. Lessons were prepared using the four capacities, the principles of curriculum design and some of the draft experiences and outcomes in literacy and numeracy.

Over 80% of the teachers in Balfron High School are trained in co-operative learning, which led to a strong emphasis on pedagogy in this programme. As responsibility has been the theme of the year for the whole school, the pupils involved presented their achievements at assemblies to demonstrate how they had taken responsibility for their own learning.

The S5 student who filmed the programme is hoping to study film and media studies in the future. This project provided him with an opportunity to develop skills for work in an authentic situation.

Connections in learning

For six weeks we worked in the same teams in PE and design and technology. We learned all about basketball and the different roles people play in a team. Our teachers put us into teams but we chose who would be the coach, captain, statistics manager and so on. In our design and technology class, we had to design and produce a team magazine. The layout and colour schemes had to suit the names we had chosen for our teams. Although each group worked on the magazine together, each of us was responsible for our own page.

Over the weeks we gathered statistics and other kinds of information for the magazine. It was great fun choosing how all of this was going to be presented. Our design and technology teacher showed us how to use desktop publishing software which is usually just for his fifth year class. Sometimes our PE teacher joined in the design and technology lessons and a fifth year boy filmed us while we were working.  His film was part of our presentation to year group assemblies. We also had an award ceremony for the team which achieved the highest standard of teamwork in PE and technology. 

We really enjoyed working in this way and it helped us in other subjects like maths and English. The best bit was making so many decisions ourselves in PE and choosing the design of the layout for our magazines (2C1).

Planning documents: