School closures may mean fun in the snow for Scotland’s children, but the reality is that pupils could be in danger of falling behind as the bad weather looks set to continue.

However a number of Scottish local authorities are reaching out to their pupils using innovative teaching methods – despite their schools being closed.

Education Secretary Michael Russell praised these activities saying:

“Heavy snow and ice is making life difficult across the country and some School closures are unavoidable. That’s why I’d like to highlight some of the good work of our local authorities in ensuring that their pupils can keep learning even when they can’t physically get to school.”

Aberdeenshire Council have arranged a series of innovative activities on literacy, numeracy and science through Glow. The SNOW Glow initiative is available for Primary pupils to log into remotely and has creative writing, photographs and outdoor activities as part of it.  

During last winter’s heavy snow Anna Rossvoll, CfE & Glow Officer created a special group which allowed teachers to post links and tasks for pupils to explore from home. This year the M2C News Snow Special Edition” Glow Group continues with a variety of tasks including: Creating a snow journal, Art in the snow, The Snow depth challenge, Winter comic books & many more.

The Education Secretary also highlighted the efforts of West Lothian Schools saying: 

“In West Lothian, headteachers have been arranging for updated Glow pages and posting work for pupils, with particularly good examples at Carrondean Primary School and St Margaret’s Academy.

He urged local authorities, schools and parents to embrace Glow and other remote learning opportunities and what they can offer for pupils who are unable to attend their local school.

The Logging Pupils into Glow cookbook provides guidance on getting started with Glow and how to reset a pupils Glow password, with a fantastic step-by-step video demonstrating how to do this.  Click here to learn more on Re-setting Glow passwords

Plus don’t miss our exclusive blog from Anna on the creation of the original winter Glow group.

Glow cannot be accessed by members of the public without a password.