Mearns Primary School Case Study
SCHOOL SPOTLIGHT
Mearns primary school
At Mearns Primary school, meta-skills are embedded throughout everything; from planning, to their Mearns Masters programme. Taking an approach where meta-skills are fundamental to young people’s learning, Mearns Primary school understands that these are skills for life, and that learners need to know what they are, and how they can develop them.
Overview of programme delivery
Through the Mearns Masters Programme – where there are Coders, Gastronomers, Campaigners, and Designers; meta-skills are fully embedded into Mearns Primary to ensure that young people have the opportunity to develop essential skills for later in life.
A key motivation for Megan Greer, Class Teacher, is delivering these skills and supporting learners in a way that will impact their future in a positive way. Having the meta-skills interlinked throughout all of the teaching – particularly in the context of Mearns Masters – has allowed the teaching staff to flourish and bring more to the Gen+ programme delivery, helping them to relate to the skills themselves.
Having grown their meta-skills delivery alongside the evolution of the Gen+ programme, Mearns Primary find that they now get more from the sessions with young people – without technological barriers or issues. The active participation and open dialogue encouraged by the content has allowed learners to engage more fully.
Student journey spotlight
Student Spotlight
“The Meta-Skills I’ve developed so far are Communication, Adaptability and Leadership. My favourite is Communication because I use it a lot at home with my parents, and seeing what chores I’ll help with and what games we’ll play as a family.
“We learned Makaton which was really fun because we performed it in front of the school.”
By embedding the Makaton learning into their PBL project on Scottish culture, the students learned the Makaton actions for Scottish songs and then displayed their learning to other young people within the school.
Testimonials
Analogue engagement showing skills in action.
Megan Greer, Principal Teacher
“As much as tech is great, and it’s an enhancement for them; sometimes the kids need to have that dialogue and the communication. When they’re sitting doing it themselves they aren’t having that, and with communication being a meta-skill, they weren’t as able to demonstrate that.”
Impacts and metrics
For their Primary residential trip, Mearns Primary altered their recording of pupil experiences and embedded the Gen+ meta-skills into this, using these in their reflections; and encouraging students to consider things such as how they communicate, whether they listen well, and how they were resilient. Using this throughout the year has meant there’s a consistency in language, and it has become more relatable for them. They have the language, and the knowledge around the language.
232 learners participating in Gen+
6staff members developing their own Meta-Skills in supporting learners
Lessons learned & advice
Megan sees the Gen+ programme as important for establishing a focus for meta-skills. By using one unit per term, it allows a real focus on each of the four featured meta-skills ahead of the learner’s transition to high school. By really highlighting these, it helps Mearns Primary emphasise their importance and support young people in their learning journey.
“By using these at appropriate times for learners, it’s far more important and valuable to them.”
Integration across the school
Through embedding Gen+ meta-skills into the Mearns Masters programme, Megan has seen some of her young people display significant growth, particularly around communication and leadership.
“One of the girls in particular, she’s quite a reserved person, she would often take a step back and take it all in, but I saw her – particularly after the residential trip – more able to step up as leader. She was able to say ‘I know I can do this, I can take charge and use my voice.”
While learners flourish through active participation, they’re seeing how meta-skills are applied in so many different angles.
Future plans & what’s next
For the first year, Mearns Primary School are working within a cluster approach in using Gen+, and Megan credits regular interaction across settings to keep on track, check in and make sure everyone’s accountable.
“We just need to make sure that everyone’s doing it as a collective. We’re all together, because at the end of the day, we want the best for these kids.”
Through supportive collaboration with Mearns Castle High School, Mearns Primary School have seen a real positive impact in terms of the overall consistency in approach to learning.
Interested in learning more about how Mearns Primary School implemented Gen+?
Contact us to schedule a chat with our team.