Inside my Classroom with Laura Cleland

This episode is an Inside My Classroom with Laura Cleland. Laura has been an RMPS teacher since 2001 and a Principal Teacher since 2007. We talk about her long-term journey in a one-school town and why she believes you have to be a little bold to lead a successful department. We discuss the S1 Integrated Social Subjects trial currently happening in her school. This is a fascinating look at a 5-period-a-week model where RME gets equal weighting to History, Geography, and Modern Studies to reduce the amount of transitions for their S1 pupils. Laura shares her method for senior phase success: Memory Mondays. We talk about how this simple, consistent retrieval ritual led to her department's best-ever National 5 results. If you are looking to boost attainment and retention, this is a must-listen. We also talk about making the BGE curriculum relevant for pupils. Laura explains her Cosmetic Roulette lesson for Animal Ethics - a brilliant way to make moral issues relevant by looking at the products already sitting in the pupils' own bags. Beyond the "Big Questions," we delve into the diverse range of the department, including their Early Learning and Child Care course. Laura proves that an RMPS department can be the home for everything from high-level Metaphysics to practical vocational skills like play based learning and first aid. In the introduction, I share some of the amazing feedback from our last episode with Jamie Woodhouse on Sentientism.It’s been incredible to hear how many of you are already weaving these worldviews into your class notes! Finally, I mention my brand new Ethics in Sport unit now available on TES. It covers everything from doping to gender in sport; the first lesson is completely free to download. There is a charge for all 10 units to help support the running costs of the podcast and website. As always, please keep in touch! Join the great discussion on social media @learningRMPS or reach out at [email protected].