Creativity Portal News Feed

Catherine Wheels Theatre Company – News for Schools, Autumn 2015

Mon, 14 Sep 2015 09:24:29 +0000

Celebrating!

Thank you all of you who visited us at the Edinburgh Fringe at Summerhall this summer. We enjoyed a sold-out run of The Voice Thief and added a Primary Times Children’s Choice Award to our office wall!

World-class Theatre in your school this spring?

A highlight of our year is always when we perform to children in their own schools in Scotland. Our in-school production for spring term 2016 is The Story of a Little Gentleman, adapted from the much-loved Swedish children’s book by Barbro Lindgren, this production is a moving and humorous story about loneliness and the power of friendship.

Little Gentleman – Info for Schools 2016

Directed by Gill Robertson.

Suitable for P1-3 Touring February – April 2015 (70 performances available)

This production is specially adapted for school halls, is quick to set up and dismantle. Running time 50 mins. Maximum audience 120.

Cost = £350 + VAT (discounts apply when booking more than one performance)

Please see attached for full booking information.

Visits to the theatre this term?

Magic Sho

A new show about a rabbit who never misses a trick and a magician who sometimes forgets to say the magic word. Created by Shona Reppe, directed by Gill Robertson and Ian Cameron.

Suitable for P1-3 Monday 5^th October at 1:30pm, Platform (Glasgow)

Thursday 19^th & Fri 20^th November at 1.30pm, Traverse Theatre (Edinburgh)

Magic Sho is touring throughout Scotland with family performances also in Stirling, Paisley, Hawick, Musselburgh, Greenock, St Andrews, Giffnock, Aberdeen, Inverness and Cumnock.

White is a playful show for very young children and is a perfect first-time theatre experience, returning to the Traverse Theatre Edinburgh this Christmas..

Created by Andy Manley and Ian Cameron. Designed by Shona Reppe.

Suitable for Nursery (or aged 2-4 years)

12^th- 24^th December, Traverse Theatre Edinburgh.

Click here for more information

Catherine Wheels Theatre Company is a multi-award winning company, based near Edinburgh, creating theatre especially for children. Since 1999, we have performed all over the world, including Broadway and Sydney Opera House but love most when we can perform at home. For more information on our theatre for schools, please contact anna@catherinewheels.co.uk

Catherine Wheels Theatre Company

Tel: +44 (0)131 653 5255

www.catherinewheels.co.uk

www.facebook.com/CatherineWheelsCompany

RSNO Young Ambassadors needed – 16-18 years – from every Local Authority

Wed, 09 Sep 2015 11:53:23 +0000

As an RSNO Young Ambassador youRSNO Young Ambassador you

can attend concerts for free and meet the

musicians and conductors. You

will also be on an advisory board to

discuss how the RSNO engages young

people in orchestral music and debate

current, relevant issues for the RSNO.

You don’t need to play an instrument

to take part in this scheme – we’re

looking for anyone who’s passionate

about making a difference to the

music scene in Scotland.

If you’re interested in becoming an

RSNO Young Ambassador, visit

www.

rsno.org.uk/young-ambassadors

to find out more and to download an

application form.

Closing date is

Thursday 17 September 2015.

You must be available for the interview

and induction day in Glasgow on

Saturday 19 September 2015

and

for a special project on

Saturday 3 and

Sunday 4 October 2015

RSNO Application Form 15-16

Young Amb Takeover 2016-web

Scranalogue – the Scran Blog

Thu, 03 Sep 2015 11:28:32 +0000

Scranalogue is the new home for rolling news, features, updates on Scran collections, learning and teaching materials and insights into our outreach activities.

September | this month find out about

The Ian Landles Archive, an oral history collection from Scottish Borders Council Archive Service, featuring fantastic material about the First World War, the old Borders railway and the suffragettes. #clickhear #IanLandlesArchive
Scran’s work with Skills for the Futuretrainees on The Scotsman Collections, a rich seam of social history on Scran.
New Pathfinders about Scotland’s historic propertiesin English and Gaelic, developed in partnership with Historic Scotland.

Visit our blog to find out more.

We hope that you enjoy your visit to Scranalogue. We welcome your feedback – you can comment on individual blog posts or contact us directly by clicking on the Scranalogue contact link. Look out for regular Scranalogue updates via Twitter | follow us

Best wishes from the Scran Team

Scran – culture, heritage, learning | web www.scran.ac.uk | blog www.scran.ac.uk/blog | twitter @scranlife | email scran@scran.ac.uk

Creative Competitions for School Food Day

Tue, 01 Sep 2015 10:05:25 +0000

Education Scotland is working in collaboration with a number of organisations to co-ordinate activities to celebrate Scotland’s Year of Food and Drink 2015.

You will find all of the currently active competitions on this page. Find out what’s on offer and submit your entry.

School Food Day

School Food Day 2015 is on September 23 and it’s the perfect time to celebrate Scotland’s natural larder.

Get your school involved by making a food pledge. You could:

Join the 12 noon lunch crunch by encouraging everyone to eat an apple at noon;
Hold a Scottish food festival;
Invite parents to school for lunch;
Run a food tasting challenge and try a Scottish food you’ve never had before.

Scottish Product Competition

Encourage learners to put their entrepreneurial skills to the test by designing a healthy new product that would increase the uptake of school meals.

The product must include at least one Scottish food or drink ingredient and be backed by an innovative advertising campaign.

Schools should submit their entries to foodforthought@educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk by 23 September 2015.

Initial ideas should fit on one A4 sheet. These will be shortlisted by a team of judges, with up to 10 schools chosen to participate in a final event on December 4 at Brakes Scottish headquarters at Newhouse, North Lanarkshire.

Pupils participating in the final event will receive a support pack, and costs of transport ot the final venue will be covered.

Scottish School Meal Recipe Competition

This competition aims to promote pupils’ creativity and cooking skills by encouraging them to devise a recipe featuring Scottish produce that could be added to the school meals menu.

Recipes should include a combination of healthy ingredients, including at least one item of Scottish food or drink.

Pupils should research the the main food standards for school meal provision in Scotland, and they are advised to consult school cooks when planning their recipes.

Entries should be sent to foodforthought@educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk by 23 September 2015. Winners will be notified by December 4.

Local Provenance Poster Competition

Pupils are being encouraged to think about where our food comes from by creating posters that highlight Scottish produce.

The aim is to boost understanding of local provenance as well as the skills involved in the processing and production of traditional products including milk, potatoes and fish.

Entries should be sent to The Optima, 58 Robertson Street, Glasgow, G2 8DU or foodforthought@educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk by 23 September 2015. Winners will be notified by December 4.

Posters should be A4 or A3, landscape or portrait, with the entrant’s name, school, class and school telephone number on the back.

Download details of all the competitions

PDF file: Food and health – Competitions 2015 (982 KB)

Spectacular A grade results for dance students at Eden Court

Mon, 31 Aug 2015 10:28:44 +0000

This week, Eden Court have revealed another year of consistently high exam results from their trio of SQA drama and dance courses, and have been earmarked as an exemplar of best practice by the Scottish Qualification Authority.

Supported by Highland Council and Highlife Highland, Eden Court CREATIVE provides tuition in National 5 Drama, Higher Drama and Higher Dance courses for students whose schools often can’t provide these qualifications. All of the classes, assessments and performances take place over weekends and holidays to fit around regular schooling, and students can attend from all corners of the Highlands; so participation requires a lot of dedication and the results seem to speak for themselves!

Among the 35 students who took one the courses in 2014-15, the theatre has announced a 100% pass rate, with at least 21 students achieving an ‘A’. This shows even further improvement on the results in 2013-14, which also returned a 100% pass rate and saw 12 ‘A’ grades from the 28 student intake.

The Higher Dance students did particularly well, with all six students achieving ‘A’ grades, and the results are being noticed in wider circles. SQA recently contacted Eden Court CREATIVE to request video footage of Higher Dance classes to use as an exemplar of best practice throughout Scotland.

Lucy McGlennon, Eden Court CREATIVE Manager said:

Our SQA courses are going from strength to strength, each year we are seeing more students taking part and their work continues to improve. We work hard to provide the best learning opportunities we can for these disciplines, which some students wouldn’t have access to otherwise and it’s wonderful to see those opportunities being recognised – we’re all incredibly proud of our students and the work they’ve produced!

The 2015-16 session started during the summer holidays and this year received the highest number of successful applications to date, all three courses are at full capacity. Details for next year’s courses are published by Eden Court CREATIVE in December and anyone interested in receiving further information is encouraged to email creative@eden-court.co.uk.

Aged 15-25 in the Renfrewshire area? Creative Industries Programme

Wed, 26 Aug 2015 13:15:34 +0000

RSNO Paisley Takeover

Interested in a career in the arts or creative industries? Aged 15 – 25 and live or study in the Renfrewshire area? Then this is for you!

Takeover is an intensive employability programme open to anyone living or studying in the Renfrewshire area aged 15 – 25 years. This project is being run as part of the Paisley City of Culture 2021 Bid.

We’re looking for around 60 young people to work across the departments of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO) to produce a public concert as part of The Spree festival.

Opportunities will exist across all aspects of the organisation. For those over 18 there are places available in marketing, development, learning and engagement, artistic planning, presentation & operations, conducting and performing as a musician in the orchestra.

School pupils can apply to learning & engagement, conducting and as a musician in the orchestra.

For more information on the types of roles within the RSNO, please see our Careers Booklet.

The opportunity to participate is free but you must be available on the dates outlined below.

To participate, please download, complete and return an application form to natalie.weir@renfrewshire.gov.uk or post to:

RSNO Paisley Takeover

Town Centres Events and Projects Team

Renfrewshire House

Cotton Street

Paisley

PA1 1JB

Application forms can be downloaded from the RSNO website: http://www.rsno.org.uk/engage/paisley-takeover/

Key dates for Paisley Takeover 2015 for school pupils:

What	Date	Who	Venue
Closing date for applications	31 August	All applicants	n/a
Interview date	25 Aug & 3 Sep	All applicants	Renfrewshire House
Induction morning – TBC	5 September	All participants	Paisley Grammar
Concert	12 & 13 October	All participants	Paisley Town Hall
Learning and Engagementworkshops	5 – 9 October &12-15 October	Only those involved in the L&E department	Schools across Paisley& The Spiegeltent at The Spree
Musician rehearsals	26 September, 3 & 10 October	Only those who are playing in the orchestra	Paisley Abbey

Download the PDF here: RSNO Paisley Takeover

Travelling Gallery is touring Scotland – Turner Prize Winners

Fri, 21 Aug 2015 14:40:31 +0000

EYES ON THE PRIZE

Touring Scotland in the Travelling Gallery from 21^st August – December 2015

This year will be the first year the prestigious Turner Prize, award by the Tate Gallery will take place in Scotland when it will be hosted by the Tramway art space in Glasgow from October to January. To complement this event the Travelling Gallery is delighted to bring to you this exhibition which includes art from a selection of the Scottish artists who have been past Turner Prize winners and nominees.

Artists included in the exhibition are: Christine Borland with Brody Condon, Martin Boyce, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Douglas Gordon, Callum Innes, Jim Lambie, Ciara Phillips, David Shrigley, and Lucy Skaer. Many of the artists in this exhibition have exhibited previously in the Travelling Gallery, albeit some time ago and before their Turner nominations, so it has been a great pleasure to work with them again and exhibit new or recent work.

Travelling Gallery Curator Alison Chisholm said “We have a great line-up of some of the most successful contemporary artists to come from Scotland in this exhibition and we are really looking forward to taking it on tour”.

The Travelling Gallery is a mobile contemporary art gallery, custom-built in a big, beautiful bus. The gallery is supported by Creative Scotland, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the Museums and Arts Division of the City of Edinburgh Council. The EYES ON THE PRIZE exhibition has been curated specifically for this unique space, and will travel the length and breadth of Scotland, visiting schools, high streets, community centres, and many other venues on the way. Travelling Gallery staff are always available to give formal, and not so formal, presentations on the exhibition at every stop.

The Travelling Gallery is fresh from its recent partnership with V&A Dundee. The Design In Motion exhibition displayed the work of 7 Scottish designers who use digital technology to explore new ways of working. The tour was a great success and resulted in the Travelling Gallery’s first visit to London where it parked outside the V&A Museum in South Kensington.

The Design In Motion exhibition came with a new temporary livery for the Travelling Gallery – who have now commissioned artist Mike Inglis to design a stunning new look for the mobile gallery – The Ark Camps. Mike Inglis will be giving a talk about his new design when the Travelling Gallery visits Custom House in Leith on Thursday 27^th August as part of LeithLate 2015.

The Travelling Gallery will tour EYES ON THE PRIZE to schools and community venues in the following areas:

22-28 August Edinburgh
1-4 September Glasgow
7 -18 September Highlands
21-25 September Orkney Isles
28 Sept – 2 October Highlands
5 October Nairn
6-9 October Moray
19-23 October East Dunbartonshire
26-30 October South Ayrshire
2-6 November Perth and Kinross
9-12 November North Ayrshire
16-20 November Dumfries and Galloway
23-27 November West Lothian and Stirling
30 Nov – 5 December Glasgow

During the Edinburgh Art Festival the Travelling Gallery will be visiting the following venues:

22 August City Art Centre, Edinburgh 11-5
25 August Collective Gallery, Calton Hill, Edinburgh 11-6
26 August George Street, Edinburgh 11-5
27 August Custom House, Leith – A LeithLate 2015 event 12-6
28 August Modern 2, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art 10-6

Ten Pieces for Secondary Schools is launching

Tue, 18 Aug 2015 09:17:16 +0000

As you may know already, last year BBC Music and Learning created a ground-breaking initiative designed to open up the world of classical music in a fresh and exciting way to a generation of children and inspire their creativity. Ten Pieces is the BBC’s biggest investment in music education and was launched last autumn with a spectacular cinematic film for Primary school children introducing them to 10 pieces of classical music.

After such a huge success in more than 11,000 primary schools, we will be ready with another set of Ten Pieces for secondary schools in the new academic year. The new repertoire is really exciting for the 11-14 age-group and there are many ways that students can respond creatively to these ten pieces.

The BBC is collaborating with more than 250 Ten Pieces Champions across the UK, including Music Education Hubs and Music Services, Bridges, local orchestras, film, dance and other arts organisations all working with schools to deliver music and arts education.

Starting with special screenings in cinemas across the country and ending with a major celebratory event in Summer 2016 – Ten Pieces Secondary will open up the world of classical music to children and encourage them to develop their own creative responses to the pieces through music, dance, performance poetry, coding, or digital art.

The new Ten Pieces film will be shown in cinemas from 5th October. It will feature performances of all the Ten Pieces by the BBC Philharmonic, alongside presentation from the likes of actor Christopher Eccleston, Radio 1 DJ Clara Amfo, rapper & comedian Doc Brown, singer Pixie Lott, ex-footballer Dion Dublin, poet & author Lemn Sissay, star of “Wolfblood” Bobby Lockwood and TV presenters James May & Naomi Wilkinson. You can sign up here to see the film at the cinema, but please make sure to book your free seats asap to avoid disappointment.

The BBC will also be providing a free DVD for every secondary school – which you can order now – as well as lesson plans, downloadable audio files of the repertoire (including backing tracks), arrangements of the pieces for mixed ability groups, inspirational masterclass films, composer profiles, Ten Pieces Extra films (exploring the music and the living composers in more depth), cross-curricular resources, music tech resources and performance guides. There’s more to explore here, and the resources will start to appear on the website over the course of the summer, and will all be in place by 1^st September.

It would be great to have you and your students on board for the very exciting second phase of the Ten Pieces project!

If you require any further information please contact me directly or the Ten Pieces team at tenpieces@bbc.co.uk

National Youth Dance Company of Scotland Auditions

Mon, 17 Aug 2015 14:36:25 +0000

We’re holding auditions on Saturday 26 September for the 2015/2016 National Youth Dance Company of Scotland.

We’re seeking exceptional contemporary dancers aged 16 – 21 either from or living in Scotland.

The new Company will work with Anna Kenrick (YDance Artistic Director) to create a new contemporary dance piece to be toured in venues nationally and internationally.

Download an application from the YDance website now and submit to us before the deadline on Friday 11 September.

Starcatchers’ Creative Skills Programme 2015/2016

Mon, 17 Aug 2015 13:07:12 +0000

Starcatchers is delighted to announce that online registration is open for Creative Skills Training for Early Years Practitioners (including, nursery workers, childminders and play workers), for our 2015-16 programme across seven local authorities: Aberdeen; Dundee; East Lothian; Edinburgh; Fife; Inverclyde; South Lanarkshire.

This programme delivers a range of theoretical and practical training sessions and covers a range of art forms, building creative confidence and enabling practitioners to integrate knowledge and skills gained into their practice. We support Early Years practitioners to design and lead their own activities while emphasising a playful, child-led approach to arts and creativity.

For further information and to register online, please go to http://www.starcatchers.org.uk/creative-skills

Following the success of the pilot programme, which ran from 2013-1015 (evidenced through an independent evaluation undertaken by Really Useful Knowledge), funded by Creative Scotland and the Scottish Government, we are delighted that the Scottish Government has funded this innovative training for 2015/2016.

Please contact Bethany Whiteside, Creative Skills Co-ordinator on 0131 290 2560/bethany@starcatchers.org.uk for further information

Easter Holiday Courses 2014

Thu, 13 Feb 2014 11:56:29 +0000

Good theatre is good storytelling. Spend three days with LYT looking at stories, past and present, from around the world. Then weave together some of your own in order to create a unique performance.

8-10 April 10am – 5pm

Cost: £100

For more information please contact John Glancy, LYT Producer, jglancy@lyceum.org.uk

Why we should study Sir Walter Scott in schools

Thu, 17 Sep 2015 10:48:19 +0000

Teachers & Librarians

On Saturday 6 June 2015 the Association of Scottish Literary Studies hosted a Conference on Sir Walter Scott in Schools. I left convinced that not only should his work be studied more in schools, but it is eminently possible to teach it without breaking the budget, banging your head against a wall, or boring the bairns to death.

Sir Walter Scott is not a writer who is widely studied in our schools. It seems to be past time to change this. But why should we teach SWS?

Sir Walter Scott is world-famous and celebrated

His monument in Edinburgh is the tallest dedicated to a writer on the planet. Waverley Station in Edinburgh is the only station in the world to be named for a novel, and that novel was, of course, written by Scott. Surely every Scottish citizen should leave school understanding the impact this writer had on our capital city?

His influence on popular culture goes further than we think

The writer James Robertson recently identified a whole host of places named to celebrate Scott's books – from the names of pubs and beverages, to place names and boat names and the name of a Scottish Premiership football team. Scott's influence extends far and wide in the naming of places and products: for instance, the town of Ivanhoe in Texas; Baillie Nicol Jarvie Old Scotch Whisky or The Antiquary Bar in Edinburgh. Every major town and city in Scotland has streets named after his works or characters. It is therefore likely that you will find a link which the weans or bairns you teach will appreciate.

Scott helped to keep Scots alive as a written form at a time when the fates were conspiring against it

Scott invented the historical novel

We have the great man to thank for a genre which, while it may dismay historical purists, brings history to life for an avid readership. Private Peaceful, The Book Thief, Bring Up the Bodies and Gone With the Wind exist because of his work. And he was a Scot. Our weans need to know this. Which leads me to my next point…

Scott is part of the canon of our literature

That Scott is not studied should be a cause for amazement if not consternation. What other nation ignores its literary superstars? When will we stop cringing and begin to celebrate our achievements as a nation and a people? Surely Sir Walter Scott is the birth right of our bairns as much as Shakespeare or Burns is?

He wrote in Scots

He helped to keep our language alive as a written form at a time when the fates were conspiring against it. He recorded the Border Ballads for posterity and contributed some lively text in Scots of his very own.

How to get started with Scott

So, how are you to introduce Sir Walter Scott to your class, now I have convinced you?

Use the ballads

For years I taught Sir Patrick Spens and The Twa Corbies without appreciating or crediting the role Sir Walter Scott played in preserving them for us. Bairns love ballads: their rhythm, their rhyme, their tragedy and their often gory nature. The texts can be accessed here, along with lots of other useful information.

Use extracts

James Robertson has pointed out that Rob Roy is a particularly good source, but any of Scott’s novels set in Scotland could be used in the same way.

The extract selected by Robertson at the conference is from chapter 10 and begins, ‘While we paced easily forward, by a road which conducted us…’ As he pointed out, this extract goes on to give a fair summation, in Scots, of the issues surrounding independence, which has obvious resonance and relevance to today’s learners.

There are other possibilities. The section in Chapter 2 beginning, “Ah! it’s a brave kirk – nane o yere whig-maleeries and curliewurlies…” in which Fairservice extols the virtues and explores the history of Glasgow Cathedral, would be a super stimulus to descriptive writing in Scots about other landmark buildings. Of course, it is worth exploring for ‘whig-maleeries and curliewurlies’ alone!

Chapter 9 has a wonderful metaphor: ‘his craig wad ken the weight o his hurdies if they could get haud o Rob,' which translates as, 'his neck would know the weight of his buttocks'! If, like me, your mind goes blank when you are looking to illustrate this technique in class, this would be worth having up your sleeve.

The section in Chapter 14 beginning, ‘“Vera true, kinswoman,” said the Bailie…’ gives, in less than a paragraph, a nice wee insight into ‘language an…claes’ and the differences between Highland and Glasgow at the time. This could be a good way into discussions about language variation and/or fashions in dress.

Of course, Scott’s short stories, the most famous of which is an extract in itself, could stand alone for study. You could download the abrigit Wandering Willie’s Tale from the Scuil wab.

Use alternative versions

There are all kinds of abridged versions on the market, if you want to go further than using extracts as mentioned above. Perhaps even better are the new epitomes – David Purdie has adapted Ivanhoe and Heart of Midlothian; Jenni Calder Waverley. These are shorter versions, cut down for a modern audience, with the punctuation altered as well as the word-count. Fewer commas than Walter Scott used might just help your learners to enjoy these texts more.

Use a modern novel to springboard pupils into the more challenging Scott

Compare with other texts

Including Scott in your study of other texts might be the best option for you and your learners. Jane Austen and he were contemporaries who knew and admired each other’s work. Details of what they said about each other can be found here. With Advanced Higher candidates it might be worth exploring Scott’s assertion that ‘That young lady had a talent for describing the involvements and feelings and characters of ordinary life…but the exquisite touch, which renders ordinary commonplace things and characters interesting, from the truth of the description and the sentiment, is denied to me.’

James Robertson, as well as suggesting the above, has identified numerous similarities between Heart of Midlothian and The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell. Again, this might be of interest to Advanced Higher candidates for specialist studies. But younger or less able learners might access the O’Farrell novel and use that as a springboard into the more challenging Scott.

Aspects of Scott could be studied alongside many another text. Waverley is essentially a quest. Comparison could be made to any other tale in this genre. I think The Gruffalo in Scots might be a perfect way in!

Use expressive arts

Bairns, of all ages, love drama. Why not explore Scott’s very dramatic texts through this medium? Rose Johnston’s Lochinvar Drama Workshop materials are sitting in the Resources section of the Scots Blether on GLOW http://bit.ly/scotsblether to get you started.

Check out our other blogs on Scots in Schools.

Image Credit: David Monniaux on Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 Unported.

Author Diane Anderson

Author Bio

Diane Anderson is one of Education Scotland's Scots Language Co-ordinators.

Scots in Schools Reading Activities

Website section Learning

Blog landing page summary Sir Walter Scott is a literary giant of our fair land, so why does his work scarcely make an appearance in the curriculum? Education Scotland's Diane Anderson explores how we can get around the difficulties posed by Scott's work and make his texts accessible for study.

Words for Waterloo: A Collaborative Poem by New Abbey Pupils

Wed, 30 Sep 2015 09:18:30 +0000

Teachers & Librarians

What better way to celebrate a historical landmark than to write a poem? In this Live Literature-supported project, poet Hugh Bryden pitched in to help New Abbey Primary School pupils compose a poem to celebrate the Waterloo Monument. Anna Johnson, who organised the five-week project, tells us more in this blog.

The Waterloo Monument stands on a hill overlooking New Abbey in South West Scotland and is a key landmark in the Nith Estuary National Scenic Area (NSA). The bicentenary of the Battle of Waterloo in June 2015 was a wonderful opportunity for all 38 pupils in the school to find out more about the tower and share their new knowledge with others through poetry.

Dumfries and Galloway Council works with local communities in the three NSA’s in the region to help people get to know and enjoy these designated landscapes. Building on previous projects undertaken in the NSAs, we enlisted poet Hugh Bryden to help pupils develop their historical research and experience of visiting the monument into creative writing.

The project was building towards something very special. We knew that Prussian and Belgian soldiers fought alongside the British at Waterloo, including men from Gifhorn, a German town that is twinned with Dumfries. A delegation from Gifhorn was visiting New Abbey in early June to lay a wreath at the Monument, and they planned to visit the school. We decided to make this visit a focus of the project and were excited to be performing individual and class work for the delegation!

During an afternoon with Hugh, the pupils were introduced to artists’ books and pamphlets produced by his Roncadora Press. Each pupil was asked to keep a short sensory diary during their visit to the Monument, to touch, smell and listen as well as look and record the details and write how they felt to be at the Monument.

On a wet, muddy May morning the whole school made its way up the steep, stepped path to the top of the hill. Quite a challenge for some of the younger pupils - but perfect ground conditions for remembering the Battle of Waterloo!

On his next visit, Hugh worked separately with the junior and senior class, discussing the information they had gathered on site and the historical research undertaken about the battle. The class sessions were divided into two tasks, with pupils involved in creating some printing and individual writing. The younger pupils produced textural monotypes of a stone so that they could build them into a collage of the monument. The older pupils created monotype prints of the tower using drawings and photographs.

The young ones were then asked to refer to their diaries and write three lines about being at the Monument and how they felt. The older ones were asked to use their research about the battle and write three lines that told us something about the place and the feelings of a soldier.

The collaborative poem was created by stitching all three-line stanzas together. The contemporary and historical writing was used alternately in the poem to create an echo/contrast in time.

All the pupils’ draft stanzas were later emailed to Hugh, giving him time to assess the content and organise a running order, and on his final visit he worked with both classes, editing lines and working with particular pupils to fill in gaps in the poem. Agreement was also reached following discussion on the layout of the pamphlet and the illustrations for the cover.

If there had been more time we would have loved to introduce a repeat couplet or chorus (perhaps in French or German) to introduce more rhythm to the poem!

The project took place over five weeks and included four half-day sessions with the poet/illustrator, one of which was studio-based to prepare and assemble the booklets. Two of the half-day sessions were supported by Live Literature.

The culmination of the project was the Waterloo Celebrations for the Gifhorn delegation and other invited guests. The pupils proudly showed the visitors their work and what they had learned about the Battle of Waterloo. A wonderful concert followed in which the pupils recited their poems; sang songs in German, French and Scottish; and tested their guests’ knowledge in a special edition of ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire - The Battle of Waterloo Edition’!

The poetry pamphlet was given to the visitors as a memento, and extra copies were requested to take back to Germany for the ‘Dumfries Friends’ group.

When the children were asked at the end of the summer term what had gone well in the school and what needed improvement all the children unanimously and enthusiastically agreed the Waterloo celebrations were their favourite event of the year!

For more information on applying for Live Literature support for events, click here.

Credit for Waterloo Monument image: Walter Baxter on Geograph under Creative Commons 2.0

Author Anna Johnson

Author Bio

Anna Johnson is a National Scenic Area Officer with Dumfries and Galloway Council.

Poetry in the Classroom Creative Writing

Website section Learning

Blog landing page summary Poetry and history collide in one Live Literature-supported project, in which poet Hugh Dryden helped New Abbey Primary School pupils compose a poem to celebrate the Waterloo Monument.

Image gallery

5 Wyes tae Yaise Scots in Secondary Inglis Clesses, an Ootbye

Mon, 21 Sep 2015 11:35:27 +0000

Teachers & Librarians

Yer bairns his aw learnt a Scots poem ilka year in Januar at the verra least faan they were in Primary Schuil. Foo can ye bigg ontae that in the muckle schuil?

Vocabulary

At Education Scotland we hiv regional lists o a hunner key wirds in Scots: Scots Blether vocabulary lists. They are sortit intae pairts o speech. Yaise these fann yer teachin adjectives or fitivver. Gaur the bairns tae ‘ower lairn’ grammar bi daein it inno baith Inglis an Scots. Mair o fit ye teach micht haud. Giein them an interest in wirds will gang a lang wye tae raxin their vocabulary.

Spikkin and Listenin

Scots Language Radio is a graan resource fir the classroom. Wi eichteen episodes, an anither ane ilka month, there’s a wheen o topics an plinty varieties o Scots spikkers tae yaise fir listenin activities. There is a log o fit is in episodes 11 -15, an coontin, ono The Blether Scots Language Radio Log. Fae Orcadians claikin aboot kye tae Moray loons newsin aboot ghaists, there are links tae mony interestin topics. There are wyes intae mony subject areas byse Inglis an aw: Music, Food an Health, Social Subjects an Religious an Moral Education bein the maist easy seen.

There’s a wheen o wyes tae gie bairns the confidence tae scrieve in Scots

Readin

There’s mair tae Scots nor jist poetry, as ye ken. Scots can be yaised tae compliment the maist Inglis o texts an aw. Teacher Adam McNaughton’s Oor Hamlet, a poetic adaptation of Hamlet in Scots, shows fit can be daen. Hae yer bairns mak a similar adaptation fir the text ye’re studyin, or dae it fir them yersel. Ye’ll fin mair topic an text relatit resources ono The Scots Blether. Fitivver yer subject, ye’ll can yaise Scots texts in some wye.

Writin

There’s a wheen o wyes tae gie bairns the confidence tae scrieve in Scots. Lookin tae ither writers fir models is aye a guid idea. Sir Walter Scott (Heart of Midlothian) pit naethin bit some o the dialogue inno Scots; Grassic Gibbon (Sunset Song) yaised Scots wirds an syntax in a maistly Inglis prose; Anne Donovan (Gone Are the Leaves) files switches codes fir different pynts o view; James Andrew Begg (The Man’s the Gowd) scrieves a braid bit easy-read Scots fir near aw; An Matthew Fitt (The Eejits by Roald Dahl) aften owersetts weel-kennt tales. Yer bairns can dae ony or aw o this. Ye’ll fin a sample lesson on aw o this ono The Scots Blether.

Inter-Disciplinary Learning

Keen Tae Ken Yir Kin is a rare Education Scotland scheme tae gaur bairns think aboot their ain leid an wirk wi them thit his a different variety o Scots. It’s an eicht-lesson programme thit ettles tae gie a shape tae exchanges atween twa clesses in different airts. There is a wheen o Social Studies, Technology, an Health an Well Being, as weel as Literacy an Language, wirk tae be daen. Mair details are onno The Scots Blether. Contact Bruce Eunson or me fir mair support wi this project.

Gin yer a teacher in Scotland ye will hae access tae The Blether on GLOW. Gin ye hae difficulties, email me an we'll get ye sorted.

To read this blog in English, click here

Author Diane Anderson

Author Bio

Diane Anderson is pairt o the Scots Language Co-ordinators Team at Education Scotland.

Scots in Schools

Website section Learning

Blog landing page summary For spikkers o Scots, Diane Anderson of Education Scotland has translatit her blog post intae Scots tae gie ye the best o both worlds! Find oot how ye can yaise Scots tae gie yer learners a leg up in a wide range o curricular areas.

5 Ways to Use Scots in Secondary School, and Beyond

Mon, 21 Sep 2015 10:34:50 +0000

Teachers & Librarians

The pupils you teach have all learned a Scots poem at least, every year in January, when they were in Primary School. How can you build on that in the big school?

Vocabulary

At Education Scotland we have regional lists of a hundred key words in Scots: Scots Blether vocabulary lists. They are divided into parts of speech. Use these when you teach adjectives and so on. Help the learners to ‘over learn’ grammar by teaching it in both Scots and English. More of what you teach might stick. Giving learners an interest in words will really help to stretch their vocabulary.

From Orcadians conversing about cows to guys from Moray gossiping about ghosts, there are links to many interesting topics

Speaking and Listening

Scots Language Radio is a wonderful classroom resource. With eighteen episodes and a new one added each month, there is a variety of topics and plenty of regional Scots voices to use for listening activities. There is a log of the contents of episodes 11-15 and counting on the Blether Scots Language Radio Log. From Orcadians conversing about cows to guys from Moray gossiping about ghosts, there are links to many interesting topics. There are also routes into many subject areas apart from English: Music, Food and Health, Social Subjects and Religious and Moral Education being the most obvious.

Reading

Scots can be used in activities to support texts you are studying and can help to make these texts more accessible. Teacher Adam McNaughton’s Oor Hamlet, a poetic adaptation of Hamlet in Scots, demonstrates what is possible. Have your learners create a similar adaptation of a text you are studying, or do it for them yourself! You will find more topic- and text-related resources on The Scots Blether. Whatever your subject, you will be able to use Scots texts somehow.

Writing

There is a whole range of ways to give learners the confidence to write in Scots. Looking to other writers as models is always a good idea. Sir Walter Scott (Heart of Midlothian) used Scots for select dialogue only, Grassic Gibbon (Sunset Song) used Scots vocabulary and syntax in a prose which is mainly English, Anne Donovan (Gone Are the Leaves) switches codes for different points of view at times, James Andrew Begg (The Man’s the Gowd) writes nearly entirely in a broad yet easily accessible Scots, and Matthew Fitt (The Eejits by Roald Dahl) often translates well-known classics. Your learners can do any or all of this. You will find a sample lesson on this on The Scots Blether.

There is a whole range of ways to give learners the confidence to write in Scots

Inter-Disciplinary Learning

Keen Tae Ken Yir Kin is a super Education Scotland scheme to encourage learners to think about their own language and work with those who have a different variety of Scots. It is an eight-lesson programme that aims to give structure to exchanges between two classes in different geographical areas. The scheme includes a great deal of work involving Social Subjects, Technology and Health and Well Being, as well as Literacy and Language. Further details are on The Scots Blether. Contact Bruce.Eunson@educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk or Diane.Anderson@educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk for more support with this project.

If you are a teacher in Scotland you will have access to The Blether on GLOW. If you have difficulties, email Diane.Anderson@educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk

To read this blog in Scots, click here.

Author Diane Anderson

Author Bio

Diane Anderson is a Scots Language Co-ordinator with Education Scotland.

Scots in Schools

Website section Learning

Blog landing page summary Education Scotland's Diane Anderson gives some invaluable tips and resources to help you embed Scots into the secondary curriculum.

The Best Teen and Children's Fiction We've Read This Summer

Tue, 15 Sep 2015 10:21:02 +0000

Teachers & Librarians

Asking For It, Louise O'Neill (14+)

Emma O’Donovan is the typical Mean Girl. She is beautiful, popular and always the centre of attention. She is also jealous, narcissistic and the queen of putdowns and snide remarks. One Saturday night Emma is at a party with her friends and a group of local athletes whom her small Irish hometown treat like heroes. Emma wears a revealing dress. She flirts. She drinks. She takes drugs. She blacks out.

When she wakes up on her doorstep disorientated and in pain Emma can’t remember what happened the night before. Then photos of her being assaulted and raped by a group of boys from the party go viral on social media.

Based loosely on the Steubenville High School rape case, Asking For It chillingly recounts the attitudes of Emma’s family, friends, and community when the rape case becomes national news. Her sexual history and the way she dresses are discussed on TV, respected members of the community openly support the boys who attacked her, she is called a slut by girls she went to school with, and her parents just want to sweep it all away. Perhaps most harrowing of all, Emma herself isn’t entirely sure that she isn’t to blame.

Louise O’Neill’s writing is honest and brutal, showing how far we still have to go when there are those who question, when a rape occurs, whether or not the victim was ‘Asking for It’.

Emma Lamont, Schools Events Co-ordinator

Fire Colour One, Jenny Valentine (12+)

I've been a huge fan of Jenny Valentine ever since her award-winning debut Finding Violet Park, and this novel doesn't disappoint. The story is told by Iris, who is lost and unhappy in her new life in London without her best friend, Thurston. When her long-absent father, Ernest, gets in touch to say that he is dying, Iris's mother doesn't waste time arranging a trip to see him, hoping to get her hands on his valuable art collection. But Ernest has something else in mind: he wants to see Iris and tell her the truth about what's happened in the last decade.

Fire Colour One is full of rich characters who will capture your imagination. From Iris' comically materialistic mother and vacuous stepfather, to the endearing double act of Ernest and Iris herself, you'll have no trouble getting lost in these people and their back story. Jenny Valentine is a master storyteller and structures the story skilfully, only giving us Iris' mother's side of the story for half the book before Ernest gets the floor. This book stands up as an example of why adults feel compelled to read YA: it's a reminder to us of life's continuing lesson that things are often much, much more complicated than they seem.

Chris Leslie, Schools Resource Developer

The Blitz Next Door, Cathy Forde (8-11)

An eerie and bittersweet adventure story that is based in modern time but reflects upon the history of the Clydebank Blitz of 1941. Pete moves to a new house in Clydebank and pretty much straight away, he hears a young girl crying next door and music coming from the house beside his own. The only problem is, there is no house next door - their house is the last on the street. What if something such a bombing blitz can be so horrific that it leaves ghostly imprints on modern society; haunting memories reverberating throughout time, spectres of war?

Does Pete have the courage to step into the past to solve a mystery that's over seventy years old? Find out in this wonderfully written, mysterious and spooky novel that brings details of the Second World War to life for eight- to eleven-year-old readers.

Miriam Morris, Schools Programme Administrator

It's About Love, Steven Camden (14+)

Luke is determined to make some kind of a fresh start. Enrolled in a film studies course at college, he's set on getting his head down and immersing himself in the medium that's closest to his heart. But he hasn't reckoned with meeting people who are going to shake up his life and make him face his demons. And he especially isn't prepared for the past catching up with him.

This is Steven Camden's second novel, and it's a convincingly drawn portrait of the uncertainty of teenage years, seen through the eyes of a complex and likeable protagonist. We're always hyper aware of Luke's troubled past hovering in the background of his new venture, and we desperately want things to work out for him and the rest of the characters. Definitely read this one if you love getting to the heart of a character and trying to unpack their personality.

Chris Leslie, Schools Resource Developer

Check out some of our other book recommendations blogs.

Book Recommendations

Website section Learning

Blog landing page summary Our schools team have had their heads buried in some fantastic fiction over the summer. Find out what's been top of our reading lists!

How to Film a Great Scene for Robert Louis Stevenson Day

Tue, 08 Sep 2015 09:27:23 +0000

Teachers & Librarians

This year's Robert Louis Stevenson Day will take place on Friday 13 November, and as usual Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature Trust are going to be laying on a fantastic programme of events and opportunities for young and old to celebrate the life of the great man.

Edinburgh City of Literature Trust are inviting pupils to film a scene from one of Stevenson's books for their drama competition

This year's theme will be Stevenson on Stage and Screen, and Edinburgh City of Literature Trust are inviting pupils across the city to act out a well-known scene from one of Stevenson's books, film it and submit it to their drama competition.

Putting together a filmed production is always great fun, and thanks to the prevalence of camera phones and free editing software it's within easy reach for many of us. So how do you get started, and what important points do you need to bear in mind? We're going to draw from our fantastic learning resource from writer Cat Hepburn and give you Cat's top tips in condensed form below.

Get inspired by the work of others

The landscape of TV and cinema is awash with fantastic, creative visual storytelling. Check out the YouTube channel Every Frame a Painting, where the styles of different directors are analysed and celebrated. Your pupils can mine their favourite movies to see how different directors approach similar set pieces like conversations and fight scenes: the Lord of the Rings movies are full of great cinematography, as are Chris Nolan's Batman movies. And even if just for your own perusal, we can't resist a mention of the beautiful cinematography in Breaking Bad.

Pick the right scene

Picking an effective scene is crucial: ideally you want one where there's some kind of conflict, where a character wants something and is struggling to get it. Tension is a great ingredient too. Remember that conversation scenes can be just as gripping, if not more so, than full-on action scenes. That’s why the City of Literature Trust have chosen the transformation scene from The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde as the focus for their drama competition – it’s brim-full of dramatic potential, as it focusses on establishing two recognisable and distinct sides of the same man within a short space of time. Have a look at this 1930’s Rouben Mamoulian original for inspiration – it shows you what is possible even without any modern high-tech special effects.

Make good use of dialogue

Dialogue is a great storytelling device, but the trick is to use it efficiently and effectively. Remember you've now got visuals, so you've got a second way of conveying information to the audience. It's better if you can show them how a character is feeling through the character's actions rather than their dialogue. Don't be tempted to simply reproduce the dialogue from the book verbatim: think about what you can cut out and show through visuals instead.

Dialogue is a great storytelling device, but the trick is to use it efficiently and effectively

Arrange your scene effectively

Think carefully about how you place your actors, scenery and props. The positioning of actors relative to each other can be instrumental in conveying the balance of power between them.

Storyboard

Before you storyboard, it's helpful to know about the effects of using different camera angles: check out pages 7 and 8 of Cat's resource to find out more!

Storyboards are a really useful tool to plan your scene. In each square of your storyboard, you draw what the camera will see and write what action is taking place underneath. Storyboards don't have to be works of art: stickmen and simple drawings will do the job just fine.

Film!

And now it's on to filming! You might want to use more than one camera, if possible, so you can capture things from a variety of angles.

Editing

Most types of editing software are pretty intuitive. Windows Movie Maker and IMovie are two hugely popular programmes for PC and Mac. Depending on your school's restrictions, you can also use YouTube's free movie editor, with lots of free music available to enhance your scene. WeVideo is another great option, with a free version available.

So what are you waiting for? Get in the director's chair and make it happen: Stevenson's books are full of memorable scenes just waiting to be reimagined. Head on over to Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature Trust's website to find out more about their drama competition. Best of luck!

Image credit: Jay Wennington on Unsplash under Creative Commons Zero.

technology media Creative Writing

Website section Learning

Blog landing page summary Edinburgh of City of Literature are running a drama competition for this year's Robert Louis Stevenson Day on November 13. Check out these indispensable film making tips to help get started!

Enter the SCBA Book Trailer Competition!

Mon, 07 Sep 2015 09:19:07 +0000

Teachers & Librarians

The wait is over, and you can finally take part in the 2016 Scottish Children’s Book Awards! With the announcement of an exciting shortlist composed of established authors and new faces, there’s plenty for you and your pupils to get stuck into as you read the books, discuss them and vote for your favourites.

But taking part can be much more than simply reading, discussing and voting. If you want to challenge your pupils’ analytical and writing skills while having great fun to boot, you can enter the SCBA book trailer competition.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with book trailers, don’t worry! Book trailers are much the same as movie trailers: a ‘teaser’ for a book designed to capture its atmosphere and characters and reveal just enough of the plot to entice potential readers. The really good news is that we’ve got all the teaching resources you could possibly need to enter.

Taking part [in the SCBAS] can be much more than simply reading, discussing and voting

It’s always invaluable to hear from those who have already entered, and so we asked teacher Joanne Havinden of Elgin Academy to share her experiences of entering last year. Joanne’s pupils Anais Bliaunt, Morven Cumming and Ben Reid won the competition last year with their trailer for Gill Arbuthnott’s book Dark Spell. You can see this trailer, plus all the trailers from Elgin Academy, on this YouTube playlist.

Creating trailers for the Scottish Children’s Book Awards

We really enjoyed creating the trailers for the Older Readers Category books!

The class had studied a film unit on The Shawshank Redemption just before they began working on the trailers, so they were familiar with the different camera angles and the concepts of symbolism in film. They spent time watching some book trailers, deciding what worked well in a trailer, storyboarding and thinking about the themes they wanted to convey and how they were going to actually film their trailers.

The class mentioned that they found Scottish Book Trust’s How To Create a Book Trailer video series very helpful! After watching these, they shared ideas in their groups and thought about the structure of their trailers. They tried to think of specific scenes from their books which would serve the trailer best, and then began thinking more abstractly, considering how to incorporate themes into the trailer and making it more symbolic rather than literal. They noted key points, images and text from their chosen book that might work well in capturing the theme and atmosphere in their trailers.

[The students] were able to start thinking in quite sophisticated ways about the books they had read

Filming the trailers

After lots of planning the pupils began filming using their iPhones/iPods (deeming the school cameras too “old fashioned”!) and uploading the raw footage to the school computer. They sourced sound effects from the internet or created their own and sourced music to go with the trailers.

If you’re looking for music and sound effects on the internet, try Freesound for sound effects and SoundCloud for music. YouTube also has a large range of free tracks and footage available, although you have to use YouTube’s video editor if you want to get access to this content.

The pupils thought carefully about their locations, choosing the places which would best portray the themes and atmosphere of their chosen book.

Challenges

Book trailers are a challenging task, and the pupils had a few hurdles to get over. They used the editing software SerifMoviePlus, which is a really good programme but they encountered lots of problems with lagging because the iPhone footage was of such a high quality.

Also, the pupils re-shot a lot of footage, determined to get the correct camera angles to suit the scene. They experimented with a lot of different shots before they could achieve the effects they wanted.

The best things about the project

The class applied the knowledge from their film studies unit and were able to start thinking in quite sophisticated ways about the books they had read. They worked tremendously well in their groups because they knew that the trailers had to be completed by a certain date and that they were going to be up against stiff competition from other schools. They were all really proud of what they achieved.

Image credit: Cropped and resized image by Daniel Nanescu on Splitshire

Author Joanne Havinden

Author Bio

Joanne Havinden is an English teacher at Elgin Academy.

book trailers technology Scottish Children's Book Awards

Website section Learning

Blog landing page summary Book trailers are a fantastic way to promote critical reading skills and reading for pleasure. Why not enhance your participation in this year's Scottish Children's Book Awards by getting your pupils to enter our book trailer competition?

Comic Con at James Young High School library

Fri, 04 Sep 2015 10:04:57 +0000

Teachers & Librarians

Comics have always been something I’ve loved. Perhaps because of my dyspraxia, I adore illustrations that tell stories. As a kid I devoured Asterix (though I missed a lot of the word jokes) and my Grandad would keep the daily comics from his newspaper for me – Calvin and Hobbes still makes me laugh. Over my time at the school I’ve found pupils are increasingly requesting comics – usually DC or Marvel. As a result I decided to run a comic club this year (shadowing the Stan Lee Excelsior Award as part of it) and the pupils were keen to have a comic con as one of their activities.

Comic cons cover far more than just comic books, often taking in wider geek culture including anything from The Muppets to Marvel, but we decided that for this first year Scottish comics would be our focus. A team of three pupils, English teacher Stephen Toman and myself hatched a plan - a full day of comic fun in the library for 42 pupils. As we hadn’t been done this type of thing before there were lots of unknowns - would anyone even want to come except us?

As we hadn’t been done this type of thing before there were lots of unknowns - would anyone even want to come except us?

It turns out that pupils did indeed want to come but, as is usual for teenagers, they were worryingly slow signing up. In the end I could have sold another dozen tickets but I didn’t know that until the day before! On the day itself every pupil was given a pass (colour coded to match photo permissions) and I issued a wee information pack beforehand which included the programme, cosplay and general rules - after all rules still apply even if you are dressed as a god.

The pupils organising felt a big part of comic con experience was cosplay so the opportunity was given for dressing up and prizes were awarded for the best costume. This proved to be very popular and nearly all of the pupils attending dressed up. We also ran a comic book stall at lunch - shopping was also felt to be key - that gave them a chance to pick up some cheap back issue comics that we had ordered from ebay and checked for appropriateness before selling.

Staffing was much easier. Stephen and I were there all day and I pulled in teacher comic book fans to help with various bits including cosplay checks at the start and a Q&A panel. I also got the library monitors to help with set up and staging along with the three comic club members.

Finding speakers wasn’t as hard as I feared as Stephen has a couple of friends working within the comic industry – James McCulloch who writes the comic City of Lost Souls (it’s very adult so he talked about the history of Scottish comics and how he got into it) and Jess Byrne who is an illustrator with her own webcomic, The God Stone. Jess did live a drawing based on pupil suggestions and shared her experiences of illustration. I was also lucky enough to get support from Scottish Book Trust to invite Metaphrog (John Chalmers and Sandra Marrs) who shared their process and influences and got the pupils creating their own characters. The afternoon session then took this further as pupils tried writing their own comic book with Stephen’s help.

The day was a huge success - words like 'epic', 'fantabulous' and 'inspired' were all over our evaluation sheets, as were calls to do it again. One of the S6 helpers even got paid work from the contacts she made. Though I think my favourite bit of feedback was a pupil bemoaning the fact they’d missed it saying ‘they didn’t think it was going to be so good’!

Author Kateri Wilson

Author Bio

Kateri Wilson is the school librarian at James Young High School in West Lothian.

comics and graphic novels Illustration Creative Writing

Website section Learning

Blog landing page summary School librarian Kateri Wilson tells us how she celebrated comics with her pupils in a fun-filled day

Image gallery

SCBA: Ready to Register?

Wed, 02 Sep 2015 09:14:49 +0000

Teachers & Librarians

This year’s Scottish Children's Book Awards shortlisted titles have been announced and there’s something there for every reader: tales of magic, horror, history, adventure, diversity and politics. Why not see for yourself? You can check out the shortlisted titles here and if you're ready to register, you can do so here, but if you'd like to know a bit more about the awards, then read on...

The Scottish Children’s Book Awards have been run by Scottish Book Trust since 2006. Winners are chosen exclusively by children across Scotland and are announced in March. There are three shortlisted titles in three separate age categories: 3-7 years (Bookbug readers), 8-11 years and 12-16 years. All those taking part read the shortlisted titles and vote for their favourite by 5 February 2016. It’s incredibly easy to register and vote and we keep in touch with you throughout the process to give some help and top tips. Just follow the steps below and you can’t go wrong:

Why should I take part?

We understand that starting a new school term can be pretty hectic. You may feel overwhelmed; after all, not only have you to adhere to the syllabus but there are so many extra-curricular projects that you would love to do also. Here are some things to consider about the Scottish Children’s Book Awards and why this award is a great project to run in a school year:

The awards celebrate contemporary Scottish children’s fiction. Our panel members have narrowed down the best in contemporary Scottish fiction so that you don’t have to. Better still, we have also refined these titles into three suitable age categories.
The awards are not curriculum based. It’s non-prescriptive and it’s all about reading for pleasure. This may entice any reluctant readers and it’s also great for attainment and sense of achievement.
There are resources to accompany each shortlisted title and there are plenty of activities to do around the books. You can even enter the Review Competition or Book Trailer Competition.
The awards operate on a ‘one-pupil-one-vote’ system, so every vote really counts! Therefore, students play a significant role in decision-making, their opinion matters and, at the end, their voice becomes part of a national chorus and national vote.
It can build or strengthen relationships between school departments. English classes can work closely with the library department and, often, the resource activities that accompany the shortlisted titles encourage you to work collectively with other departments such as music, physical education, science and technology.
In the autumn of 2015, every P1 pupil in Scotland will receive a Family Bag that includes the three shortlisted picture books in the SCBA Bookbug Readers category. Although these are for the children to take home, you can use them in class as part of the awards before gifting them to the children to share with their family and friends.
You can also run Shared Reading projects with these packs. A Shared Reading scheme is a great way of getting P5-7 pupils involved in reading books to P1-3 pupils – a great way to inspire reluctant readers.
If you register before Friday 18 September, you will automatically be entered into a prize draw with a chance to win copies of the three shortlisted books in the age category you have registred to take part in.
It's fun! It's the prefect springboard for book discussion and book groups and to create a bit of a buzz around your school or library.
We are always here. You can get in touch with any queries at any time, just contact miriam.morris@scottishbooktrust.com.

SCBA Scottish Children's Book Awards Register

Website section Learning

Blog landing page summary Find out why you should be registering to take part in this year's Scottish Children's Book Awards

6 Resources for Teaching Different Scots Dialects

Tue, 01 Sep 2015 12:32:01 +0000

Teachers & Librarians

Scots language can find a place within even the most mass-marketed of commercial products: the Disney film.

Jock, one of the delightful dogs in Disney’s Lady and the Tramp, makes his entrance to the film with a bone in his mouth, singing contentedly (or as best he can with a bone in his mouth), “With a bonnie, bonnie bone that Ah buried fur ma own, in ma bonnie, bonnie bank in the backyard...”. He uses a fine bit of Scots vocabulary in his next scene when he says to Lady, “Tis a bonnie, braw, bricht day the day...” Jock is a fine and easy introduction to Scots language. This character trait is used again, now by Disney & Pixar, in the computer animation Brave. The adventure features a character with a distinctly Doric tongue, who at one point exclaims “It's jist nae fair makin us ficht for the hand o the quine that disnae want any bit o it, ken?”

Scots language can find a place within even the most mass-marketed of commercial products: the Disney film

Move away from the cartoons and into the real, living, breathing Scotland of today and you will encounter interesting regional variations of Scots language. Dialects from Shetland and Orkney, Glasgow and Edinburgh often have their own specific pronounciations of the most common words and are rich in new and unique vocabulary which is sometimes specific to that one region or area.

In many cases, local supporters of Scots language collect and catalogue the words which are commonly used in their area. Have a look at the website of Shetland For Wirds to see how a group of local volunteers celebrate and share the Scots spoken on their islands.

Shetlandic, the branch of Scots spoken on the Shetland Isles, has a long history of local language contributing to and being shaped by local habits. See the learners in Whalsay Secondary School discuss their relationship with the art of knitting:

Perhaps the most well-known of all the dialects of Scots is the Doric spoken predominantly around the North East of Scotland, particularly Aberdeen. The best place to see written Doric and find texts suitable for a variety of school ages is the University of Aberdeen’s ‘Elphinstone Kist.’ A good short and snappy poem with great humour is Holiday Lament by Les Wheeler. You’ll learn lots of Doric classics on this trip to the moon:

In between Shetland and Aberdeen lies Orkney, and another fantastic source of vocabulary and unique Scots pronunciation. Find no fewer than nine superb poems on this page of the Orkney Heritage Society website. Written as part of 2010’s Year o Orkney Dialect. The poetry explores themes of ‘Home’, ‘Humour’, ‘Land’ and ‘Sea’ and is written by a variety of different ages, including primary and secondary pupils.

You don’t need to only look to smaller, specific websites for such examples. National websites like the National Library of Scotland’s Scottish Screen Archive has news clips of people in Shetland and Orkney from years gone by, as well as great examples of people speaking in Doric. The Scottish Poetry Library has many regional varieties of Scots, such as the East Central Scots spoken in and around Edinburgh. See Angela Blacklock-Brown’s Haute, hot cuisine for a delicious description of particular Scottish snacks.

The Scottish Government has stated that all dialects are equally valid and that each individual dialect and its distinctive identity needs to be preserved

All of the websites mentioned in this blog not only contain the text itself (and often spoken recordings of each too) but are also supported by lesson plans and activities. That is again the case for the Education Scotland website, where you can find inspiring examples of Scots dialects, such as those spoken in West Central Scotland and Glasgow. See A Dug, A Dug by Billy Keys as he explores the familiar situation of ‘pester power’.

The Scottish Government has stated categorically that all dialects are equally valid and that each individual dialect and its distinctive identity needs to be preserved. The SQA Scots Language Award is tailor made for schools and learners studying their local dialect and excelling in their specific regional variety. From exam level to Early Years, such an approach can often be the key to unlocking the potential so many students across the country have when Scots language is incorporated into the classroom. Hopefully these resources provide you with inspiration and ideas: you can contact Education Scotland for more advice in embedding Scots language in your classroom practice!

Image credit: modified image by alegri/alegriphotos.com under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

Author Bruce Eunson

Author Bio

Bruce Eunson is a Scots Language Co-ordinator at Education Scotland.

Scots in Schools

Website section Learning

Blog landing page summary Education Scotland's Bruce Eunson offers some great resources for teaching the different varieties of Scots which appear across the country, with a keen focus on Shetlandic, Doric and Orcadian dialects in particular.

Words and Music

Tue, 21 Jan 2014 14:53:28 +0000

A two-day conference for musicians and music workers at all stages of their career.

Whether you are a music student, an early-career musician, professional player, or a music industry worker, you share many issues of common interest. Packed with practical tips, networking opportunities and evening showcases, Words and Music will inspire, educate and entertain musicians and workers across all genres.

For more information please visit the website http://www.horsecross.co.uk/whats-on/words-and-music or like the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/wordsandmusicperth

I HEART SCOTLAND

Fri, 28 Mar 2014 13:28:14 +0000

The Travelling Gallery’s Spring 2014 exhibition, I HEART SCOTLAND, is a solo show and takes a refreshing look at how contemporary artist Rachel Maclean, has chosen to explore her ideas about Scottish national identity.

Issues around power, culture, politics and history are raised together with romanticism and folktales – all through Rachel’s ingenious use of costume performance, digital photography, film and installation.

By means of dark humour and remarkable technical skills, Rachel offers insightful and shrewd observations on these and other significant themes, creating a complex and surreal vision of modern Scotland in what is certainly an important year for people to ponder its future.

The I HEART SCOTLAND exhibition includes work that was commissioned, published and produced by Edinburgh Printmakers Workshop for her very successful exhibition there during the 2013 Edinburgh Art Festival.

So far, touring mainly to Secondary schools, we have visited venues accross Angus, Edinburgh, Midlothian and the Highlands where the installation has stimulated lots of discussion and created quite a buzz of excitement amongst pupils and teachers alike. Look at our website to see where we will be for the next leg of the tour…

THIS LAND – 2013 Autumn Tour

Thu, 27 Mar 2014 12:50:12 +0000

To coincide with the Year of Natural Scotland, the Autumn 2013 exhibition in the Travelling Gallery brought together the work of a range International artists, both well-extablished and up-and-coming; chosen for their fascination with aspects of the Scottish landscape. The gallery contained a collection of artworks to captivate, resonate and inform – initiating lots of observations and discussion from all different ages and abilities. There were 5 main artists exhibiting: Henry Coombes, Andy Holden, Hannah Imlach,Michael Reisch and Iain Sarjeant. The exhibition was accompanied by a complementary programme, which included the Beta Band music video ‘ Inner Meet Me’ by John Maclean and ‘ Wish You Were Here’, a series of 16 postcards by Francis Davies as well as a selection of artist books and sketchbooks by recent graduates.

Areas visited by the gallery with THIS LAND included Shetland, South Ayrshire, Renfrewshire, Lewis, Harris and the Uists and the Highlands.

For further information check out our website

Monday 16th and Tuesday 17th December, 10am A…

Wed, 27 Nov 2013 17:45:03 +0000

Filmhouse Schools Screenings of Disney’s classic Jungle Book are a treat for all ages and this year schools can Sing-along.

Sing-a-long with Mowgli and Baloo

Monday 16th and Tuesday 17th December, 10am

A treat for all ages Disney’s classic The Jungle Book is even more fun when you can join in with those toe-tapping tunes. Loosely based upon the tales of Rudyard Kipling the story follows a boy called Mowgli who is found as a baby and raised in the jungle by wolves. When he is ten Bagheera the Pather decides that Mowgli must go to the human village where he will be safe from Shere Khan the Tiger. But Mowgli, who doesn’t want to be sent to the human village, runs away from Bagheera and meets up with the fun-loving Baloo the Bear.

Monday 16th December – a rare chance to see this film on the big screen. Perfect for all ages. Tickets are £2.60 each, teachers free.

Tuesday 17th December – a very special Sing-along screening of The Jungle Book for you and your class to join in with. The words will be projected along with the film. Tickets are £3.50 each, teachers free.

78 mins and suitable for all ages. To book tickets for either screening please contact our Duty Manager on 0131 228 2688 or email. admin@filmhousecinema.com.

Aberdeen Movie Makers Group

Wed, 27 Nov 2013 17:24:58 +0000

Aberdeen’s Belmont Picturehouse is starting a a filmmaking group for 13-16 year olds, from the start of December. MOVIE MAKERS will meet every Saturday from December to May and will examine classic film techniques used by great filmmakers from around the world, and from throughout film history, giving young filmmakers the knowledge and skill to make a short film that will be shown at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in June 2013.

No filmmaking experience is necessary but we are looking for really enthusiastic, committed individuals who love cinema. MOVIE MAKERS is FREE, so if you are interested and would like more information on how to book your place, please contact Paul Foy at paul.f@picturehouses.co.uk.

Three Sisters Blog 3

Sat, 13 Sep 2014 10:58:56 +0000

Week 2 –(Days 6 – 11)

We’ve made lots of progress with the play this week and it’s taking a great shape. On Monday we started working from the beginning of Act 2, but skipped over the blocking of Natasha’s transformation sequence until Wednesday, although we did chat through it with the cast. We worked a bit of comedy into Carnalachie and Dorbie fumbling around in the dark before their entrance in order to provide a bit of light relief from the heaviness of Act 1 but we’ll have to keep looking at this as rehearsals go on because we don’t want it to be too slapstick. A reference to a ‘onesie’, which was cut last week, has been put back into the script so that this piece of dialogue has a stronger reference to ‘future’.

On Tuesday we went back over some the blocking that we worked with yesterday to consolidate it and play with a few other options. Then we continued working on with Act 2. We started to become conscious that we haven’t been using the stairs all that much in the blocking up to now and, as using them will provide some interesting levels on stage, we started to factor them into the scenes a bit more. The movements in the second half of this Act are quite complicated in terms of making sense of the text making the various different conversations within the group work. This meant that we had to work through each page of the script quite slowly but we ended the day with a basic shape that makes sense for us to come back to on Wednesday. As a company we tried to get to grips with what the stylised look of the play would be exactly and now all have a good idea of this to take forward into next week when we start looking at the play again from the top in more detail.

Wednesday saw us consolidating and tidying up the blocking for Act 2 before we loosely choreographed Natasha’s transformation sequence at the end of Act 1. This allowed us to then run Act 1 & 2 together in full without stopping so we could get an idea what the running time would roughly be and, more importantly at this point, see what it looked like altogether and if there were any parts of the basic blocking that needed to be reworked. Everyone felt the run went really well for the first time we had done it and that it was looking good. We spent the rest of the afternoon working the scene where Doctor MacGillivery gets a bit of a party going. As Sylvester can play the spoons we had been looking for a place to work this into the play and, having found the perfect moment, we went back to choreograph and block this scene properly to some rehearsal music.

On Thursday we started working with the blocking of Act 3, which was slightly less complicated than the previous Acts as there are less instances with all the cast on stage at the same time. Saying this however, there’s more coming and going on stage and, as we aren’t changing the set to a bedroom for this Act as is scripted, it meant that some of the stage directions were no longer practical, meaning we either had to change them slightly or cut some of them. John joined us for rehearsals too and made a few more minor cuts and tweaks to Act 3 as he was watching it and we were working on it.

After playing with a few more blocking options for parts of Act 3 on Friday, we were able to run the whole Act straight through to get a sense on it as a whole. As we need to establish that Act 3 is set in the early hours of the morning we decided that Olive and Renee should be wearing their night things, covered by a shawl type item, in order to help visually establish this for the audience. Not only this, but it would make more sense for these two characters not to be dressed at this time in their own home.

For the last few hours on Friday we were able to start blocking Act 4 and managed to get quite a way through it. So that we could finish the week having blocked the entire play we had a rehearsal on Saturday afternoon this week where we blocked the remainder of Act 4 and looked at the movements for the set change into this Act. Again, as we did with Natasha’s transformation sequence earlier in the week, we loosely marked it and worked out who could move which items of the set from a practical point of view (which cast members are available and don’t have a costume change, who can physically life things etc.). We will be able to look at this in more detail later on but for now it allows us to run Acts 3 and 4 together to look at the fluidity of it.

All in all we are in good shape for the middle of the rehearsal period and, now that we’ve blocked the entire play, we can really see the character and relationship arcs growing throughout the play. Getting to the end of the play this week has allowed us to see clear time passing between each Act and be able to compare the character dynamics in the very beginning of the play to how they are left at the very end.

Three Sisters Blog 2

Mon, 08 Sep 2014 09:06:12 +0000

Day 3

– We started the day with a discussion about how much time passes between each Act, as this will have an impact on the development of characters and their relationships with each other – in particular with Maddy and McShane’s relationship.
– There was some debate over the use of the word ‘Ballroom’ in Act 3. The original Chekhov play references there being a ballroom in the house, however the house in John Byrne’s version is less grand than in the original. The very word ‘ballroom’ comes with grand connotations so we thought about changing it to something else. We couldn’t settle on anything so we decided to stick with it for now and see how we could play it.
– We then went on to table read Acts 3 & 4 before John, Andy and Beth made some very minor cuts to feedback to the cast.
– After lunch we re-read Acts 3 and 4 but this time with some improvised movement, as we had done yesterday with Acts 1 and 2. This proved to be incredibly useful as we could begin to see the impact of the ending of the play already.
– Andy and Charlotte then pinned down the set, entrances and exits and what furniture we would need, along with where it should be placed on the set.
– Everything is now in place for us to start blocking the play tomorrow!

Day 4

– We talked the cast through the mark up and all the entrances and exits – where they lead in the world of the play.
– We then started to block the play from the very beginning of the text. (There will be some stylised atmospheric movement set to music to open the show but we will come back to this in later rehearsals.)
– The configuration of blocking of the 3 sisters was played with quite a lot when we began so that we could settle on the most appropriate and interesting opening ‘picture’ for the play. We’ll continue to play around with this as rehearsals go on.
– We added a line for Maloney to say on his first entrance. It was simply written that he enters the room but this looked strange. We went back to have a look how this was written in the original Chekhov version and adapted Soleni’s line there to fit our Maloney character.
– We played around with Carnalachie’s entrance with the Birthday cake in order to explore how it could make the biggest impact and interruption to the bubbling argument between the 3 sisters.
– It was decided that the record player won’t actually play anything, as is written in the script. Ross and Andy are keen not to have to place the time so explicitly and the Beatles song would pin the time down even to a year.
– We blocked up to page 8 today.

Day 5

– We picked up where we left off today and worked from page 8 in blocking the play. We also started to explore the moments where we could establish the stylised movements. As the play is written in quite a naturalistic way but we are wanting to stylise it, we have to find these moments and work on them in such a way to make everything work together and ‘look’ a particular way in order to create the atmosphere we want to achieve.
– There are moments in Act 1 where we are holding a moment (many times an awkward moment) in silence and stillness before then using the next line to break this and jolt the scene back into action again. This seems to be working really nicely in stylising the piece.
– We moved the chaise lounge more into the stage space and facing out to the audience, as opposed to laying across the stage left wall. The horseshoe formation of the furniture we had originally was looking quite contrived and forcing the actors to retreat to the edges of the set. By moving the chaise lounge more into the space we allow for more interesting blocking. This meant that we had to play with the configuration of the picture of the 3 sisters at the very top of the play some more with the new formation of furniture.
– The Beatles song playing on the record player that we cut yesterday remains cut but we are now thinking that it might be nice to have it play a nursery rhyme or something to show the Doctor still thinks of Renee as a little girl.
– We blocked to the end of Act 1.

It has been a very busy week in the rehearsal room this week but things are already looking great now that we have the play on its feet. Next week we’ll be continuing to block the rest of the play in this way and I’ll check in towards the end of the week to let you know how we’re getting on………..

Three Sisters Blog 1

Wed, 03 Sep 2014 12:55:38 +0000

Beth Morton Assistant Director of Three Sisters will be blogging about the rehearsal process. Be sure to keep checking back for weekly updates

Three Sisters rehearsals are now underway and our cast and creative team have got off to very busy but great start……as assistant director I’ll be keeping you updated with what’s going on in our rehearsal room for the next few weeks so make sure you watch this space.

Day 1

-After an informal ‘meet & greet’ session for the whole cast, crew, and creative team to get to know each other over a coffee we immediately got to work with a first read through of the script. The stage management team, production manager, John Byrne (writer), Andy Arnold (director), Me (assistant director) and our 10 strong cast gathered around a rather large table to listen to the play for the very first time. Andy also talked about his overall vision for the piece and the stylised way that he is looking forward to exploring throughout the rehearsal process. We also talked briefly and initially about our ideas for the characters and accents but these are things that will grow and develop as the rehearsals go on.

- The design team then joined us and we looked at the set design with Charlotte Lane, who is designing the set with John Byrne, and she talked us through her model box, which is a scaled down model of the stage and set that we’ll be playing on. John Byrne then took us through his sketches for the costume designs and explained his thinking behind them.

- After timing the play during the read through we decided that it was a bit long and could benefit from some re-working. The cast were released early and the rest of the afternoon saw Andy and I sitting down with John to re-work and make cuts to Act 1 of the play. The three of us also spent some time making some tweaks to the set design with Charlotte.

Day 2

- Andy, John, Charlotte and myself looked at and discussed the new model box that now included the tweaks we had discussed yesterday before the cast arrived for rehearsals.

- The cast arrived and first of all Andy went through the changes that we had made to Act 1 with John yesterday. We reflected on these changes then as a group and the cast shared their thoughts on them too. This resulted in some of the lines that had been cut being put back into the script as the discussions with the cast pointed out that some lines were useful for developing a character or their relationship with another character. Other lines were added back in as they were important in setting the scene.

- Once we had agreed on the changes to Act 1 we had a second read through but this time, instead of the cast sitting round the table to do it, they got on their feet and started to put some improvised movement into it. This was a very useful exercise in getting the cast to think about how they feel about and behave towards the other characters. Do they want to be near them? Do they not? Do they need to be stood near a certain character to be included in a particular conversation? There is an awful lot going on in Act 1 of this play and to see the actors on their feet reading the play makes it easier to make sense of what is actually happening, for both the actors and director.

- We then sat around the table again to re-read Act 2. After hearing it for a second time John, Andy and I again went away to make some cuts and changes to this Act.

- These changes were then passed onto and discussed with the cast, as they were for Act 1 and afterwards we, once again, read the updated version with the cast improvising some movements. This brought us to the end of day 2 and will leave day 3 to take a similar shape of reading and re-working / cutting the script.

- After rehearsals Andy and I had a brief discussion with the Stage Management team about what furniture we’d like to use in rehearsals and what we think the furniture that will be used in the show will look like.

Tron Ambassador and Partner Schools Scheme

Wed, 26 Mar 2014 12:17:26 +0000

Tron Participation run a host of schemes for schools and pupils to get involved in;

Tron Skillshops
Drama classes for pupils P1 – S6. Weekly workshops held at the Tron Theatre for participants to explore the art of theatre making.

Interested in joining in the Autumn then be sure to come along and see the work the present groups have been making.

S3-S6
Lost
10th-12th April 7.30pm

P4-P7 + S1-S2
But Why?!
13th JUne 7.30pm
14th June 2.30pm

Tron Ambassadors
The Tron Ambassadors scheme gives S4-S6 school pupils the chance to be behind the scenes of a
working theatre. It enables them to make a deeper connection with the Tron Theatre and
gain a better understanding of the industry.

We are recruiting new Ambassadors for the 2014/15 term.

Tron Ambassadors will –

•Meet 1-2 times per month at the Tron Theatre (after school weekday meetings)
•Take part in tasks and challenges out with allocated Ambassador meetings
•Keep in contact via email with Tron Drama Officer on related tasks and challenges
•Take part in a variety of theatre workshops/master classes
•Attend Tron Shows
• Host Tweet Meets within the Tron Theatre linked to Tron productions
• Promote the Tron to friends and family
• Blog, tweet and post about the Ambassadors scheme, Tron shows and events
•Work as a team to create a Front of House event at Tron Skillshops show

Does this sound like something you would like to be involved in? If so, email deborah.mcarthur@tron.co.uk to find out further information.

Partner Schools
This scheme allows Tron Participation to work closely with 2-3 schools each academic year and share our expertise. We work with schools within Glasgow and the surrounding local authorities.
The Partner schools programme is a mix of in school workshops, theatre trips and back stage tours. The partnership is hosted via Glow allowing us to keep in touch.

Would you be interested in being one of our partner schools for the 2014-15 academic year. If so contact Deborah on deborah.mcarthur@tron.co.uk

Tron Participation and National 4 / 5 Drama

Mon, 03 Feb 2014 15:07:49 +0000

Tron Participation have been busy pulling together an array of resources that can support the delivery of National 4/5 drama units. These resources are in the form of videos, images, interviews and much more. Be sure to check our Curriculum for Excellence and Virtual Learning Pages to find resources.

Tron participation will continue to upload resources in the coming months. If you have any questions or feedback regarding these materials please contact Deborah McArthur, Drama Officer on deborah.mcarthur@tron.co.uk

HIGHER DANCE TRAINING DAYS FOR SECONDARY TEACHERS

Thu, 11 Sep 2014 09:49:55 +0000

In December 2014 we’re running CPD Training Days for secondary school teachers delivering Higher Dance across Scotland.

This SQA qualification requires students to study 2 contrasting dance styles and choreography to achieve this national qualification. In December we are running the following CPD Training Days –

Course Component – Performance Jazz Dance
8 December 2014 (9.30am to 4pm)
£75 pp / discounts offered for multiple booking

Course Component – Performance Contemporary Dance
9 December 2014 (9.30am to 4pm)
£75 pp / discounts offered for multiple booking

Course Component – Performance Group Choreography
10 December 2014 (9.30am to 4pm)
£165 pp (includes a copy of Choreographic) / discounts offered for multiple booking

These sessions will be the last in 2014 and we will shortly be announcing Higher Dance CPD courses in May.

BOOK
To book a place on one of these CPD Training Days or to enquire please email cpd@ydance.org or call the office on 0141 552 7712.

STREETDANCE

Thu, 08 May 2014 09:54:58 +0000

Yes, that’s right! We’re inviting PE teachers to sign up for NPA Streetdance taking place Thursday 15 May.

This is an excellent CPD opportunity for all levels – from those who have never learned Streetdance to those who’d like to brush up on their existing skills.

Come join us at MAD Studio, Coatbridge from 9.30am – 4.00pm for a day of fun, learning and support to help you deliver the Curriculum for Excellence.

DETAILS

NPA Streetdance Unit
Thursday 15 May 2014
9.30am to 4pm
£75 per person
MAD Studios, 13 Main Street, Coatbridge, ML5 3AJ

Discounts are available for multiple bookings so please do take a look at our National 5 and New Higher CPD sessions coming up this month.

Email cpd@ydance.org or call the office on 0141 552 7712 to book your place.

CPD Training – Dance for Core PE

Wed, 09 Apr 2014 15:13:16 +0000

YDance are delivering CPD Training Days for secondary school teachers this June at a venue in Glasgow covering Dance for Core PE, National 4 PE (Dance) and National 5 PE (Dance).

DATES & COSTS

Dance for Core PE (S1 to S3)
2 June 2014
9.30am to 4pm
£70 per person

National 4 PE (Dance)
3 June 2014
9.30am to 12.30pm
£45

National 5 PE (Dance)
3 June 2014
1.30am to 4.30pm
£45 per person

DISCOUNTS

Discounts are available for those who book more than one CPD Training Day with YDance. For the full range of sessions please visit www.ydance.org.

BOOKINGS

All enquiries and bookings can be emailed to cpd@ydance.org or call the office on 0141 552 7712

CPD Training – Commonwealth Games

Mon, 07 Apr 2014 12:53:47 +0000

Due to the success of our Commonwealth Games CPD in 2013 we have decided to add an extra date – Tuesday 29 April 2014.

This CPD Training Day is open to nursery, primary and secondary school teachers and is designed to provide you with a fun and creative session to adapt for your own classroom.

Explore three different aspects of the Commonwealth Games through dance:

– Cultures & Traditions
– Ready, Set, Go! (creative dance tasks)
– Learn the Motto, Get Inspired!

Bookings

If you have any questions and/or you’d like to book a place on this CPD Training day please email cpd@ydance.org or call the office on 0141 552 7712. We’re more than happy to help with any queries and we also offer a discount to those who book more than one CPD Training Day with YDance – please visit www.ydance.org for more available dates.

When: 29 April 2014
Where: Glasgow
Cost: £70 per person (inc VAT)

MARCH CPD TRAINING DAYS FOR TEACHERS

Thu, 06 Feb 2014 13:53:47 +0000

It’s not long now until we deliver our CPD training days for nursery and primary teachers, beginning 5 March.
If you have considered using dance in the classroom but don’t know where to begin then these sessions could be ideal for you.
It’s not about turning you in to a dancer, or about how much dance experience you have. In fact, it’s all about your pupils and how these CPD sessions can give you ideas you can adapt to the needs of your own classroom.

If you are just starting out we’d recommend taking part in the Basic Components of Dance just to give you a better understanding of the basics. Then you can move on to Dance & Science, Dance in Numeracy, Dance & Stories or all three. It’s entirely up to you. Discounts are available for multiple bookings.

Give us a call on 0141 552 7712 to make an enquiry/book any of these sessions, or you can email victoria@ydance.org

Details of all our CPD are listed on our website www.ydance.org

NURSERY & LOWER PRIMARY

Basic Components of Dance
5 March 2014 (9.30am to 12.30pm)
@ a venue in Glasgow tbc – £40

Dance & Stories
5 March 2014 (1.30pm to 4.30pm)
@ a venue in Glasgow tbc – £40

UPPER PRIMARY

Basic Components of Dance
12 March (9.30am to 12.30pm)
@ a venue in Glasgow tbc – £40

Dance & Science (Making Science Physical)
12 March (1.30pm to 4.30pm)
@ a venue in Glasgow tbc – £40

Basic Components of Dance
19 March (9.30am to 12.30pm)
@ a venue in Glasgow tbc – £40

Dance & Numeracy (Let Numbers Dance off the Page)
19 March (1.30pm to 4.30pm)
@ a venue in Glasgow tbc – £40

CREATIVE LEARNING FOR PRIMARY TEACHERS / WHAT ABOUT DANCE?

Fri, 17 Jan 2014 10:17:02 +0000

CPD Sessions this March for primary school teachers

We’re back from the festive break and raring to go with another term of fun and active CPD sessions for primary school teachers starting this March. In these sessions you can expect to take part in creative tasks and come away with fresh new ideas which can be adapted by you to deliver the Curriculum for Excellence in your classroom.

The important thing to remember about our sessions is that it’s not about teaching you to dance. It’s about helping you deliver the curriculum for excellence to your pupils in a fun way which will help them remember. It’s all about creative learning.

TESTIMONIALS

Primary teachers who have come to our sessions in the past had this to say…

“I have learned lots of useful ideas to take forward into the classroom. Gained more confidence in how to deliver a dance lesson”
Primary Teacher at Auchinleck Primary School

“Great ideas that could be easily adapted…Fantastic Training”
Primary Teacher from East Ayrshire Council

“Useful to have loads of ideas which I could then develop according to class/ideas etc. Liked how you can use a traditional dance as a starting point”
Primary Teacher at St Andrew’s Primary School

“Lots of useful ideas to use in practice also very helpful ideas of how to differentiate for different abilities”
Primary Teacher at New Cumnock Primary

“Teaching dance 20 odd years. Still getting lots of inspiration and ideas that I will take away and use tomorrow”
PE Specialist at Linlithgow Primary School

DATES

Nursery & Lower Primary

Basic Components of Dance
5 March 2014 (9.30am to 12.30pm)
@ a venue in Glasgow tbc – £40

Dance & Stories
5 March 2014 (1.30pm to 4.30pm)
@ a venue in Glasgow tbc – £40

Upper Primary

Basic Components of Dance
12 March (9.30am to 12.30pm)
@ a venue in Glasgow tbc – £40

Dance & Science (Making Science Physical)
12 March (1.30pm to 4.30pm)
@ a venue in Glasgow tbc – £40

Basic Components of Dance
19 March (9.30am to 12.30pm)
@ a venue in Glasgow tbc – £40

Dance & Numeracy (Let Numbers Dance off the Page)
19 March (1.30pm to 4.30pm)
@ a venue in Glasgow tbc – £40

BOOKING

Bookings can be made easily through our online booking form via the website

Alternatively you can email victoria@ydance.org or call the office on 0141 552 7712.

DISCOUNT

Feel free to contact us at any time with any questions you may have – we offer discounts for multiple bookings.

We have a new website

Mon, 09 Dec 2013 17:07:29 +0000

We’ve been working hard behind the scenes for months now working on a new website and it’s here. Finally!

So pleased to now present all of our CPD opportunities for you teachers out there. Stop by www.ydance.org and take a look at what ‘Come To Us’ sessions we have on offer and also, what we can do for your school if you ‘Bring Us In’.

RSNO Engage for Schools

Fri, 25 Apr 2014 13:54:16 +0000

RSNO Engage for Schools most ambitious Scotland-wide orchestral music initiative to date: Brochures making their way to schools over the next month.

From May, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO) will provide the most comprehensive orchestra-led music access programme to primary and secondary schools across Scotland. In terms of scale and choice, RSNO Engage for Schools is the first of its kind in the UK, as education establishments can pick and choose the level of music education provision they require from over thirty options.

Headlining the new initiative, the RSNO launches a national composition competition, in partnership with the National Trust for Scotland, open to 12 to 18 year olds across the country. Notes From Scotland invites young composers to write a two-minute work for an instrumental trio, quartet or quintet. The theme for the first year’s Notes From Scotland is inspired by five National Trust locations around the country.

BAFTA, GRAMMY and Ivor Novello award-winning composer Craig Armstrong OBE, famed for his soundtracks to blockbusters such as Moulin Rouge!,Love Actually and The Great Gatsby, welcomed the move:

This is a fantastic idea to engage young people in composition and to bring them together with existing composers and musicians to pass on their knowledge and skills. I’m sure it will be an invaluable experience for all concerned.

RSNO Engage for Schools comprises four distinct sections; RSNO PLAY – performance-based workshops, RSNO CREATE – composition workshops, RSNO LISTEN – exploring musical concepts and appreciation, and RSNO WATCH – educational performances. Among the many available activities and workshops are conducting lessons, improvisation for beginners, samba workshops, instrumental coaching, digital composition sessions, an Instrument Petting Zoo (where children can play with orchestral instruments for the first time), and, from January 2015, a cross-Atlantic collaboration with US orchestras examining the music of American composers.

Last June the RSNO published the first ever careers booklet created by an orchestra, providing information on available courses and further education opportunities as well as case studies and insights into the workings of a modern professional symphony orchestra. The booklet is available from rsno.org.uk/engage.

Now the Orchestra will be providing work experience opportunities to fifty young people each year, where pupils will assume control of Scotland’s national orchestra over a two-day period, with a view to planning, producing and performing their own concert at the end of the placement.

RSNO Engage for Schools is devised to be fully integrated into the goals of the national Curriculum for Excellence (CfE), offering increased music education and learning provisions through new concerts for every level of CfE from age 3 to 18 years. It is intended that, in its first year, over fifty thousand young people in Scotland will benefit from engaging with some form of RSNO Engageactivity.

The RSNO Engage for Schools is part of the RSNO Engageinitiative, announced last year, which has led to a five-fold increase in the number of people enjoying music with Scotland’s national orchestra outside of its Season performances. A notable success story is the RSNO’s Young Ambassadors scheme, which invites young people aged 16 to 18 to help promote the live orchestral experience in their area. There is now at least one RSNO Young Ambassador for every local authority in Scotland, and the attendance of audience members under 26 years old has risen to 15% across Scotland and nearly 20% in Glasgow as a result.

RSNO Director of Learning and Engagement Jenn Minchin:

We’re very excited to be unveiling our new programme, RSNO Engage for Schools. Its development is geared towards providing the most valuable experience in terms of musical enjoyment and understanding, and provides a seamless integration with schools curriculum requirements at all levels. What’s more, it is available to every school across the country, and those who choose to engage with Scotland’s national orchestra can do so at the level of their choice. It promises to be the most ambitious learning and engagement drive of any performing arts organisation in the UK, and we are very much looking forward to sharing our love of music with many new enthusiasts.

For more information on RSNO Engage for Schools, contact the RSNO Engage Team on 0141 225 3574, email: engage@rsno.org.uk, or visit rsno.org.uk/engage.

Fresh Fruit: Coding our Generation

Fri, 12 Sep 2014 14:45:04 +0000

Fresh Fruit and PIergroup at The Fruitmarket Gallery

Fresh Fruit: Coding our Generation

Fridays 19 September – 10 October 2014, 2-4pm. 12 places.

In the context of GENERATION exhibitions celebrating 25 years of contemporary art in Scotland, make art with contemporary textiles collective Kalopsia. Explore connections between word, pattern and code using drawing, printmaking and collage. You will work collaboratively towards a final outcome, documenting work using digital media and time-lapse photography.

All sessions are free and take place at Old Saint Paul’s Church, 39 Jeffrey Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1DH. Materials and refreshments are provided.

Fresh Fruit is the peer-led youth group at The Fruitmarket Gallery

Here at Fresh Fruit we like to inspire and be inspired to express our artistic flavours in a number of different ways. Fresh Fruit is run by and for young people from the age of 16, based in and supported by The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh. We meet on Fridays from 2-4pm.

The Fruitmarket Gallery is an art gallery that brings the work of some of the world’s most important contemporary artists to Scotland. We recognise that art can change lives and we offer an intimate encounter with art for free.

At Fresh Fruit we make and discuss artwork, plan workshops with artists and get our work shown in public. Visit our blog for updates on recent work: http://freshfruituniverse.tumblr.com/

Join us to:

work directly with art, artists and peers in a relaxed gallery space
get support from professional artists to develop new art skills
design your own projects, with support from the Gallery
find out about careers and your next steps in the arts

The programme is free and we can support your travel costs from Edinburgh and the Lothians.

“Fresh Fruit is a chance to explore art in a non-judgemental environment. ” Annie Greiffenberg, 26

“Giving us the opportunity to extend into it, like adulthood, maturity, and taking on tasks on our own is very good.” Judah Johngrass, 18

Want to join us? Get in touch and tell us why you’d like to join Fresh Fruit: text or call 07527 927 916 or 0131 226 8186 or email caitlin@fruitmarket.co.uk.

Learning Through Exhibitions: Jim Lambie

Mon, 18 Aug 2014 14:49:08 +0000

Jim Lambie, Zobop (1999/2014). Photo: Ruth Clark

The Learning Through Exhibitions series helps schools and community groups to explore exhibitions before, during and after a visit to The Fruitmarket Gallery. They can also be used for arts activities at any time alongside our other resources documenting the exhibition. The series suggests ways to think with and through art and be inspired to make it. Creative Challenges are open-ended and adaptable to any age group.

Download Learning Through Exhibitions: Jim Lambie here http://fruitmarket.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Learning-Resource.pdf

Little Artists: Colour Poems

Mon, 11 Aug 2014 15:18:03 +0000

Little Artists Colour Poem

Little Artists are free activity sheets for families and primary school groups to enjoy the exhibition together. Available in the Gallery or at http://fruitmarket.co.uk/.

For the current Jim Lambie exhibition at The Fruitmarket Gallery, little artists have been writing and illustrating colour poems.

Blue is light
Blue is dark
Blue is vibrant
Blue is blue
Blue looks like the sky
Blue sounds like the tinkling of bells
Blue smells like the saltire sea
Blue tastes like air
Blue feels like velvet

Download Little Artists: Colour Poems: http://fruitmarket.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/JL_LittleArtists.pdf

Group visits are free and include an introduction to the exhibition.

Learning Resources: Tania Kovats, Oceans

Mon, 11 Aug 2014 14:56:54 +0000

Only Blue, Tania Kovats

The Learning Through Exhibitions series helps schools and community groups to explore exhibitions before, during and after a visit to The Fruitmarket Gallery. The series suggests ways to think with and through art and be inspired to make it. Creative Challenges are open-ended and adaptable to any age group. Download Learning Through Exhibitions, Tania Kovats: Oceans: http://fruitmarket.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Learning-Through-Exhibitions.pdf

Little Artists are free activity sheets for families and primary school groups to enjoy the exhibition together. Available in the Gallery or at www.fruitmarket.co.uk. Download Little Artists: Art Maps, accompanying the exhibition Tania Kovats: Oceans: http://fruitmarket.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Download-Little-Artists-Activity-Sheet.pdf

Group visits are free and include an introduction to the exhibition.

Fresh Fruit: we are looking for new members!

Mon, 11 Aug 2014 10:33:16 +0000

Fresh Fruit give a tour of the exhibition Jim Lambie at The Fruitmarket Gallery

Fresh Fruit: we’re looking for new members!

Here at Fresh Fruit we like to inspire and be inspired to express our artistic flavours in a number of different ways, and we‘re looking for new members! Fresh Fruit is run by and for young people from the age of 16, based in and supported by The Fruitmarket Gallery. We meet on Fridays from 2-4pm.

The programme is free and we can support your travel costs from Edinburgh and the Lothians.

Get in touch and tell us why you’d like to join Fresh Fruit: text or call 07527 927 916 or 0131 226 8186 or email caitlin@fruitmarket.co.uk.

Visit our blog for updates on recent work: http://freshfruituniverse.tumblr.com/

http://fruitmarket.co.uk/learning/fresh-fruit/

Exhibition: 290 Miles North

Thu, 05 Jun 2014 10:26:45 +0000

290 Miles North
11 – 13 June 2014

A collection of works inspired by Orkney, created during a residency by young artists in association with The Fruitmarket Gallery.

Join us for the opening night on Wednesday 11 June from 6-8pm, with readings by renowned storyteller David Campbell at 7.30pm. Refreshments served.

The exhibition takes place at Space Club, Argyle House, 37 Castle Terrace, Edinburgh EH1 2EL. Opening hours 11am-7pm. Free.

Organised by Fresh Fruit, The Fruitmarket Gallery’s programme by and for 16-25 year olds: http://fruitmarket.co.uk/learning/fresh-fruit/, artist Katie Schwab and Pier Arts Centre, Orkney.

In association with Somewhere To and Space Club.
This project is funded by Cairn Energy PLC.

Learning Preview at The Fruitmarket Gallery

Thu, 20 Feb 2014 14:07:15 +0000

Learning Preview at The Fruitmarket Gallery

Free event and drinks reception for teachers and community leaders

Friday 21 March 2014, 5-7pm.

Relax with a drink and tour of the exhibition Tania Kovats: Oceans at The Fruitmarket Gallery. Led by Learning Programme Manager Caitlin Page, this preview will help you plan your free visit to the Gallery and inspire ideas for wider learning around the exhibitions.

• Get a preview of the Gallery’s forthcoming exhibition programme
• Find out about the Gallery’s resources, suggesting creative activities inspired by each exhibition
• Discuss ways you can use the exhibitions with your groups

Suitable for teachers and community leaders interested in using the arts creatively with groups of all ages. Wine and soft drinks served.

Booking is essential.
To book call 0131 226 8181 or email bookshop@fruitmarket.co.uk

Youth Art Workshop: Drawing on Diaries

Tue, 07 Jan 2014 11:12:19 +0000

Louise Bourgeois Insomnia Drawing #10, 1994–95 Daros Collection, Switzerland. Photo: Christopher Burke, © The Easton Foundation/Licensed by DACS

A free one-day art workshop for 14-17 year olds

Tuesday 18 February 2014, 11am–5pm. 12 places available.

Inspired by the exhibition Louise Bourgeois: I Give Everything Away at The Fruitmarket Gallery, this workshop explores the autobiographical and the personal through drawing and sketchbook skills. Led by artist Juliana Capes, the day includes a visit to the exhibition Louise Bourgeois, A Woman Without Secrets at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, for inspiration on how to transform ideas into sculpture.

Suitable for teenagers who want to experiment with new approaches to making art and those who are interested in going to art college.

The workshop takes place at The Fruitmarket Gallery and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Modern One, 75 Belford Road, Edinburgh, EH4 3DR, where the workshop finishes at 5pm.

Materials, refreshments and travel to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art are provided. Participants will need to bring their own lunch.

To book a place call 0131 226 8181 or email bookshop@fruitmarket.co.uk

Little Artists at The Fruitmarket Gallery

Tue, 03 Dec 2013 12:05:28 +0000

Bedtime Drawing

Free activity sheets for families and primary school groups to enjoy the exhibition together. Available in the Gallery or at www.fruitmarket.co.uk.

Download Bedtime Drawings, accompanying the current exhibition Louise Bourgeois, I Give Everything Away: http://fruitmarket.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/LA.pdf