It’s a pleasure to announce that Luca La Monica is back again this year, following his presentation at the Festival of Learning 2025. Luca is currently undertaking pHD research and is back sharing more of his research. What to expect in this Session? This session introduces a unit of work Read more
STARME member Gillian Dunsmuir is currently undertaking a Farmington Institute Research Scholarship with a focus on ‘Raising Attainment and Closing the Gap in Senior Phase RMPS’. Expanding on her insights from the Festival of Learning, Gillian aims to produce a practical Teacher Toolkit based on effective learning and teaching approaches in RMPS classrooms across Scotland. To make this a valuable, national resource, she would love to hear from as many colleagues as possible! Share your effective strategies and good practice via the survey below. All strategies shared will be fully credited. The survey is accepting responses until the 12th of December.
Sarah Blair’s excellent presentation on “Increasing Engagement in the BGE,” outlined strategies she uses at Lasswade High School to make RMPS engaging for pupils. Her core aim is to foster keen learners and increase potential uptake in the senior phase by addressing questions about the subject’s relevancy. This is achieved Read more
A useful session for: providing pupil feedback; supporting the PRD process; and aspiring middle leaders. Benefits include: improving teacher-pupil relationships; encouraging self-reflection and independence; celebrating successes; and reducing workload. This model can be applied not only to the BGE & Senior Phase in RME & RMPS, but in many facets within school and life, such as behaviour management; mental health; and parenting!
This session aims to give share some experiences about how to successfully introduce SQA certificate Philosophy classes secondary schools. This will include suggestions on how to give pupils the best chance of attaining and addressing some worries that schools (or teachers) might have, such as whether philosophy will cannibalise RMPS and whether there’s a pathway from Higher Philosophy to Advanced Higher RMPS.
Our existing S1 course focused on “feeding facts” and testing memory, so I designed two new units: a first which broke critical thinking down into 5 BGE-friendly basic questions (with tie-ins to the signposting language of senior-phase analysis) and a second which applied and assessed these skills with respect to 7 world faiths. An innovative method for classifying religions was developed.
The STARME Festival of Learning featured Gillian Dunsmuir’s keynote address on maximizing attainment in Senior Phase RMPS. Gillian, a teacher at Stewarton Academy, shared practical tips for success with senior phase RMPS classes. She has a strong passion for sharing good practice and holds Professional Recognition from the GTCS in Assessment and Practitioner Enquiry.