Committee
Education and Skills Committee 05 June 2019
05 Jun 2019 · S5 · Education and Skills Committee
Item of business
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Inquiry
Susan Boyd
Watch on SPTV
I am currently a primary teacher at Breadalbane academy, in Aberfeldy, but I have over 40 years of experience of working with children and was formerly a principal teacher of early years in Highland. I studied science at the University of St Andrews, and I got into primary teaching specifically to promote science through providing greater and quality experiences of it in early years and primary education. I am really pleased to report that I have seen a lot of wonderful practice, particularly in early years. When I was in Highland, I had the opportunity to support a small cluster of nurseries and 33 principal teachers in a new programme that Highland rolled out and ran for five years until, sadly, budgetary cuts changed that perspective. In those five years, we gave absolutely essential support to early years practitioners who were not qualified teachers and who had very varied experiences in science, technology, engineering and maths. I had the good fortune to work with a range of practitioners to develop the Highland science programme, which is now available on glow and is a really big tool in providing support from early years through to secondary level. My work with Breadalbane academy over the past four years has involved trying to develop a STEM hub within our community school. That has been particularly successful—last year, we were finalists in the Education Scotland STEM awards—and we are promoting the development of STEM through STEM ambassadors in secondary schools, through STEM prefects in primary schools and through developing practitioner knowledge from early years right through primary and into secondary education by having STEM drop-ins.
In the same item of business
The Convener
SNP
Agenda item 2 is the committee’s inquiry into STEM in early years. I welcome to the committee Susan Boyd, a primary school teacher; Elisabeth Kelly, a princi...
Elisabeth Kelly
My name is Elisabeth Kelly. I am a principal teacher for early years in Midlothian Council, and my role is primarily to support, challenge and help to improv...
Susan Boyd
I am currently a primary teacher at Breadalbane academy, in Aberfeldy, but I have over 40 years of experience of working with children and was formerly a pri...
Dr Emma Woodham (Glasgow Science Centre)
I am the STEM learning manager at Glasgow Science Centre, and my role involves managing our multifaceted learning team. At Glasgow Science Centre, we are pas...
Ian Menzies (Education Scotland)
Good morning. I am a senior education officer at Education Scotland. I lead on the sciences curriculum and on learning for sustainability, and I am responsib...
Andrew Bruce (Scottish Government)
Good morning. I am a civil servant in the learning directorate at the Scottish Government. The division that I lead was responsible for developing the origin...
The Convener
SNP
Thank you. We have quite a big panel this morning. When you want to respond to a question from the committee, please indicate that to me or the clerks and we...
Liz Smith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con)
Con
Mr Menzies, I wonder if I could ask you about Education Scotland’s overall strategy on the STEM subjects. You have pinpointed some examples of what you consi...
Ian Menzies
Sure. One of the big features in the STEM strategy is teacher confidence. We have heard that from some of the other panellists already. Education Scotland is...
Liz Smith
Con
I am sure that all of that work is immensely encouraging. I want to draw your attention to some of the comments that have been made to us by STEM profession...
Ian Menzies
Obviously, there is an opportunity to promote that competence within teacher training. For us, it is about the whole journey of a professional from the momen...
Liz Smith
Con
On that theme, are specific issues being raised by teacher training colleges and the GTCS? Is there a problem with the knowledge that is being taught on STEM...
Ian Menzies
The issue is really just people going into teacher training without a background in, or experience of, science. There is a big job to be done. There is an op...
Liz Smith
Con
I have one final question—
The Convener
SNP
I think that Ms Kelly wants to come in on that point, before we move on.
Liz Smith
Con
Apologies.
Elisabeth Kelly
Most of the practitioners that we work with in early learning and childcare do not go through the initial teacher education programme; they come from many ot...
Liz Smith
Con
Thank you. My last question is for Susan Boyd. A couple of years ago—and more recently—the Royal Society of Chemistry commented that it would like to see a d...
Susan Boyd
That would be lovely, and I would totally welcome it. I will deviate slightly from the question that you asked, but I hope that this relates to it. I am hap...
Liz Smith
Con
Thank you.
Ross Greer (West Scotland) (Green)
Green
Ian Menzies mentioned some of the survey results on the confidence of practitioners. Roughly 43 per cent of early years practitioners and 63 per cent of prim...
Ian Menzies
We do. That is one of the reasons why we took forward the work on the annual STEM practitioner survey and the provider survey. We published those results las...
Ross Greer
Green
I am interested in the balance between initial teacher education and continuous development. I accept that we have just been talking about early years practi...
Ian Menzies
The value of the data that is coming from the STEM surveys is really important. Teachers have told us that their top priority across all sectors by a long sh...
Ross Greer
Green
I would be interested in Susan Boyd’s perspective on the balance. Have you seen any change over the past few decades in the balance between what is covered i...
Susan Boyd
My experience is that a lot of IT work is going on in the early years centres. In our survey in the school that I am currently in, we identified things that ...
Ross Greer
Green
I have a final question on early years practitioners for Elisabeth Kelly. I am thinking about balance again. How much emphasis should we put on equipping ear...
Elisabeth Kelly
It is probably a matter of a mixture of both, but the early years practitioners are the people on the ground every day with the children, and they are the on...
Ross Greer
Green
Yes—absolutely. Thank you.
Johann Lamont (Glasgow) (Lab)
Lab
My question, which is probably mainly for Education Scotland and the Scottish Government, is specifically about how realistically we can deliver the theoreti...