Trinity Academy – Project Summary, October 2010
Aim
Raise awareness of long term conditions (LTCs) and self management in a local secondary school and discuss the importance that access to local information can bring to support self management.
Background
Our aim evolved slightly as the project progressed. We had originally intended to distribute a questionnaire and identify information that could support the Access to Local Information to Support Self Management (ALISS) Engine. However, as we began to work more closely with the Group and the school, we realised the importance of raising the general awareness and understanding of long term conditions first was key in undertaking the groundwork, before encouraging pupils to access local information for the ALISS engine.
Creating a Lesson Plan
- Pupils have developed their own LTC Lesson Plan introducing LTCs and discussing potential implications for everyday life.
- Includes a story from the Long Term Conditions Alliance for Scotland (LTCAS) Personal Story and a carousel with 4 activities talking about LTCs and their impact.
- At the end, pupils are asked to answer some key questions to identify how much they have learned and will be asked to place stickers on an evaluation sheet, choosing which activity they learnt the most from and which one they most enjoyed.
- Numerous other learning activities could be developed, linked both to the Lesson Plan and to relevant Outcomes and Experiences within Curriculum for Excellence.
The lesson forms the basis for a ‘Comenius’ European Partnership Project called ‘Our Healthy Future’ which seeks to answer 3 Key Questions:
- How “healthy” is your future?
- What reasons can you identify?
- What can you do to solve the identified problems?
Further detail on the Comenius Project Framework is available (slides: Comenius: Our Healthy Future (ppt)) and (document Comenius: Our healthy future (doc)) here.
These pre-requisites fit in very well with ALISS’ aims and highlight the importance of self management in the future to come. The Group have trialled the lesson plan with second years and are currently piloting it with first years this autumn, with the hope of spreading it throughout the school next year.
The ALISS team have developed an exit strategy for this project due to conflicting priorities as more focus is needed on developing the ALISS Engine. However, it has been a very worthwhile exercise and could provide stimulus for teachers to explore activities in LTCs and self management in the future.
Connections
Learning Teaching Scotland (LTS)
- Liaising with Ian Ramsay, Health and Well-Being Team Leader and Rachel Barrie from the Education Department at Scottish Government to discuss potential spread of the lesson plan.
- Encouragement for the idea of publishing lesson plan on LTS website but schools and agencies in state of flux at the moment due to integration of the Curriculum for Excellence.
- Lesson plan will be shared on school website on completion and potentially on LTS in the future.
- Aims to discuss recommendations from an event hosted by the LTCAS in Nov 2009 which explored issues facing children and young people living with LTCs.
- A table highlighting the recommendations and offer to comment on contributions to each has been distributed by the SGHD Self Management Programme to identify connections between individual projects and work-streams.
- This table is now being circulated across the voluntary sector through LTCAS
- Reps from LTS, Education, LTCAS and the Self Management Programme at Scot Gov met to discuss how we could take these forward in Sep 2010.
- It has been suggested that a ‘Good Practice Statement’ be developed for schools to help reduce the stigma of LTCs in classrooms.
Awareness
- Karen Prophet, CfE Strategic Lead, City of Edinburgh Council has been made aware and updated regularly on project development by the headteacher from Trinity Academy.
- The Self Management Programme have contacted Dr. Alison McCallum (Director of Public Health and Public Policy at NHS) and Scottish Government Education colleagues, Jackie Brock and Colin Brown to keep them abreast of school developments.
Reflections
- Developed by the pupils at every stage and under a co-creation and social innovation umbrella
- Process has taken time but proved to be a very successful endeavour
- Result has been very worthwhile and an interesting approach to teaching and learning for both pupils and the headteacher. It has been a truly collaborative project.
- Positive feedback from the pupils suggest they have gained a lot from being a part of the project. It has improved their confidence and given them a chance to be involved in something that could really help their local community, themselves and their peers in the future.
- The lesson plan will be available from the school website in Spring 2011.
