Classes 5 and 6 have been learning 'The State Song' as part of their 'Road Trip USA' Project. 
Only the second day and Class 5 were ready for their first audio recording. Enjoy!

Today, it was the turn of Class 3 to have an audio recording of the second song that is accompanying the project in Aberbargoed Primary School. 

We are currently in the middle of a two-week project with Classes 7 and 8 in Aberbargoed Primary School - Year 4, 5 and 6 (P5, 6 and 7). It has been both a pleasure and a privilege to witness the progression in learning - attitudes, skills and knowledge.

A website has been set up specifically to capture the essence of the project - providing a place for children, parents and staff to access materials, share experiences, evidence children in action and capture the learning, reflections and connections of all involved. 

We were fortunate enough to spend a day on Skomer Island (Pembrokeshire) last week. It was an amazing experience and we would highly recommend a trip there if you visit the area or live nearby. The wardens and volunteer staff are incredibly friendly, knowledgeable and available to answer any questions and point out the best places to see certain wildlife. 

If you can make use of our short video in your school/setting, please feel free to download it. The puffin landed right next to us - a real treat as 20,000 of the 22,000 puffins on the island had decided to migrate the day before we arrived!

For more information about Skomer Island and the The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales, visit this website. http://www.welshwildlife.org/skomer-skokholm/skomer/ 

If you would like to read more about our visit Skomer Island and have a look at some of our photos, please visit our 'A Peak A Week' page. 

Our friends and colleagues in Clackmannanshire and Stirling may or may not be aware that the current council has, with reluctance, been unable to renew their invitation for us to run ‘Designing for Learning’ courses in the next session.

However, after receiving a number of enquiries, we wish to make it clear that we are still available to design and facilitate events for schools and settings who feel they would continue to benefit from our training - both as individual establishments and as part of collaborative clusters/learning communities.

We have experienced a fantastic six years working alongside educators and leaders in both local authorities and it is our heartfelt desire to maintain progress and the professional relationships we have nurtured.

We are already looking forward to working with those who contacted us on our last visit and are also in discussion with others who are proactively exploring alternative funding options. We will keep people informed of future developments and opportunities as they occur.
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Finally, we would like to wish all Scottish educators an enjoyable summer vacation, which, we believe, begins this week!
Lynne and Andrew

A privilege to be invited along to the RSA Creative Collaboration/NAHT event in Cardiff Bay this afternoon. Keynote by Processor Graham Donaldson, schools sharing practice in a #speedlearning carousel...and sweets handed out by Andrew, of course! If anyone is interested in downloading our 'Big Picture' overview of 'A Curriculum for Wales' (127-ish pages on 2 sides), visit our 'Training Events in Wales' page. It seemed popular today. 😀

The RSA Creative Collaboration - Education in Wales conference will take place tomorrow (Thursday 23rd June 2016) in the Pierhead Building, Cardiff Bay . 

We are delighted to be both attending and participating in this event. The afternoon will include schools sharing their practice and innovations, along with a keynote speech by Professor Graham Donaldson. We are excited about the potential and direction of education in Wales.

As Single Steps Learning, we will have a display table and be able to talk to delegates about 'Designing for Learning'. Information about our services will be available to take away, along with a 2-page 'aide memoire' of 'Successful Futures' by Donaldson, 2015. As busy teachers and leaders, we would always read new documents, guidance and reports - however we knew the benefit of reducing this to one sheet holding all the key points for future reference. If you are attending the event, come and say hello...and request a copy. 

And, as always, we will have sweets available. :-) 

We spent part of today updating our website. The webpage Inspire 2016 has now been created and we are busy collecting and adding content that 'inspires' us. Any suggestions of other books, apps, websites, images etc? We are always looking for new ideas and avenues to explore.