posted by Louise Kirby, YMI Coordinator, Schools & Learning

Calum McIntyre, a Fèis Rois professional musician, worked with Southmuir Primary P4-7 on a traditional music and song project over a period of 5 weeks.  Classes explored traditional songs and learnt about the language as well as the stories behind the songs.  The aim of these projects is to increase young people’s awareness of music and culture across Scotland, the UK and the world and to give young people more opportunities to take part in enjoyable and quality music making.

Teacher quotes – The project is immersive and gets the children involved in all parts of the music making process.  Calum had a lovely rapport with the children and he was able to make sure everyone was included in the activities. He managed the children really well and supported those who needed it. The children enjoyed being there.  I would rate the opportunity 5/5 because it allowed our children to be creative and experience music in a fun way.

Pupil quotes – I understood the culture as it was explained in the song.  We made our own instruments out of recycled stuff. It was lots of fun.

6 schools across Angus received Fèis Rois projects (Strathmore, Isla, Borrowfield, Southesk, Southmuir and Tannadice).  They were delivered by a range of Fèis Rois professional facilitators Calum McIntyre, Maeve MacKinnon, Will Marshall and Sally Simpson.

This project was funded by Youth Music Initiative.  Photo credit Christian Gamauf

posted by Rhonda McFarlane, Funding Officer, Economic Development

• NURSERY SCHOOL TEACHERS: Apply now to attend a fully funded CPD workshop in the Czech Republic this June. Deadline for applications is 3 May 2019.

• QUALITY LABEL APPLICATIONS: The deadline for your project to be considered for this year’s eTwinning National Awards has been confirmed. Please submit your quality label application before 23 June.

• DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION COMPETITION: Remember to sign in to eTwinning Live to access ready-made activities and resources, and enter our competition by 7 May to win some goodies for your class.

• YOUR ETWINNING EXPERIENCE: Has it been positive or negative? Please do let us know. We ask you three questions in this short survey – estimated to take two minutes to complete.

For more information please click on the link below:

Nursery Teacher Training Opportunity

posted by Elaine Wilkie, Class Teacher, Whitehills Primary School

The International Sheepdog Trials are to be held 13th, 14th and 15th September 2019.

The event is being held at Shandford Farm, Brechin.  It is a big event involving Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland, with an estimated 3,000 people each day.

The committee would like to involve Angus school children.  They would like the children to design the front cover for the brochure.

The competition is open to primary school children from P3 up to P7.  The winner will receive a £50 voucher for Harbro plus free family entry to the trial.

All designs would need to be completed by the end of May.

posted by Education Support Officer, Schools & Learning

Nominations for the Tech4Good Awards are now open, with a closing date of 10 May. Please see information below. 

The BT Young Pioneer Award, open to 9-18 year olds, recognises young people who are doing amazing things with digital technology to solve problems they care about.  We’ve seen incredible innovations in past years – many involving Raspberry Pis. Last year’s winning Water Watcher was based on a Micro:Bit and is now in development with a water saving company. 

This year we are including £5000 for the winner to help them buy the tech they need to scale up their project, as well as a session with BT experts to help them develop their ideas. All of the finalists will receive tickets to explore Bletchley Park, the home of the WWII codebreakers.  More information and the online application form is at: https://www.tech4goodawards.com/enter-now/youngpioneer/

posted by Rhonda McFarlane, Funding Officer, Economic Development

Funding Alert Newsletter 25th April 2019
We are currently finalising the latest issue of the Funding Alert Newsletter.  This summarises the latest funding opportunities available to your school.

This will be emailed to you tomorrow morning ready to be downloaded.  This issue will contain 21 pages of funding news.

Highlights within the Newsletter will include:
(please note that these; and other funding opportunities can now be viewed on the Grants 4 Schools website)

Funding for Capital Projects in Secondary Schools and Sixth Form Colleges (UK)
From May 2019, secondary schools and colleges that have reached a level of excellence will be eligible to apply for a grant of up to £50,000 towards 50% of the cost of capital projects. Sixth form colleges are eligible to apply for up to £100,000. A total of around £1.75 million will be allocated each year to new build, refurbishment or equipment projects related to the teaching of science and technology or information or communications technology directly related to learning for projects involving libraries, languages, music or the arts. The funding will be made available through the Wolfson Foundation’s Secondary Education Programme.

Funding for Sensory Equipment for Schools that Cater for Pupils with Special Education Needs (UK)
SEN Schools can apply for grants of up to £5,000 to enable them to purchase a range of sensory equipment to help enhance the pupils’ experience at school. To be eligible schools need to cater for young people under the age of 19 who have a physical/ sensory/ learning disability. Schools that cater for socially disadvantaged children or mainstream schools for children with behavioural problems are unable to apply. The funding is being made available through the Lords Taverners, the UK’s leading youth cricket and disability sports charity. Schools are required to pay a self-help contribution of around 25% of the total cost of the package. There are no application deadlines and applications can be submitted at any time.

posted by Louise Kirby, YMI Coordinator, Children & Learning, Schools & Learning

Rebecca from Red Rock Music provided eight sessions in which young people had the opportunity to develop song writing and literacy through lyric writing, musical skills through keyboard and singing techniques in a constructive and supportive environment using keyboard and vocals.

Through group and individual activities young people had room to be creative in lyrical writing and music composition which bolstered their confidence and understanding of key components of song writing in popular music.   This project was funded by Youth Music Initiative.

By the end of the block, pupils had written their own original piece of music demonstrating their understanding of song.

Pupil feedback:

• “It was exciting as I thought it would be impossible to be able to write a song in the time.”
• “It’s amazing! It even helped us with our poems. We would like to have her back.”

Class Teacher feedback:

• “Promotes creativity, engagement and enthusiastic learners.”
• “The song writing that Rebecca did was inspiring. We did some poetry writing with the children too and the song writing input enhanced this. The children found the process much easier as a result. It enhanced the cooperation experienced by all children. It got them working with children they wouldn’t normally do so.”

Quote from Rebecca:

• “Thank you so much to the staff at Timmergreens for making me feel so welcome and for all the help and support. I really enjoyed being there and working with the children and teachers and would love to go back again! The children created amazing songs and it was lovely to hear them all perform them in the class and to record them”