posted by Stuart Burns, Schools and Learning Support Officer, Schools and Learning

Dear colleagues

We’re delighted to announce the launch of this year’s Mother Tongue Other Tongue (MTOT) multilingual poetry competition and are thrilled to welcome the new Scots Makar, Jackie Kay, as the competition’s patron. As well as being the national poet of Scotland, Jackie is Professor of Creative Writing at Newcastle University and has received an MBE for her services to literature. Winners and highly commended entrants will be lucky enough to meet Jackie when she presents the awards at our celebration event in March 2017.

Whether pupils are learning a language at school, or whether they speak a native language at home, everyone can get involved in celebrating linguistic and cultural diversity through creative poetry writing as there are options to enter in either the Mother Tongue or Other Tongue category. Last year saw over 400 children participate in 36 different languages!

Once again, we are delighted to be able to offer FREE poetry workshops for primary and secondary teachers at four different venues across Scotland. Trying to emphasise the links between literacy and languages, these workshops are aimed at any class teacher who teaches Literacy, Gàidhlig, Scots, EAL and Modern Languages.

Teachers will work with Juliette Lee, poet and creative writer, for a half-day workshop to develop their own creativity, explore poetry and the impact of language we use. Teachers will leave inspired and able to take back some ideas and examples to work with their own pupils who will then submit their poems/rhymes/raps/songs into the MTOT competition.

Details of the workshops are as follows. Click on the appropriate workshop link below to register for the event:

• Saturday 24 September, 10.00 – 12.30; Dundee University, Dundee (deadline for registration Friday 16 September)
• Friday 30 September, 13.30 – 16.00; The Open University in Scotland, Edinburgh (deadline for registration Friday 23 September)
• Saturday 1 October, 10.00 – 12.30; Inverness College – UHI, Inverness (deadline for registration Friday 23 September)
• Saturday 8 October, 12.00 – 14.30; University of Strathclyde, Glasgow (deadline for registration Friday 30 September)

Teachers do not have to attend one of the workshops to register their school for the MTOT competition although the workshops are a fantastic opportunity to develop your skills in teaching poetry, languages and to gather ideas to take back into the classroom.  Due to he creative and interactive nature of these workshops, places are limited to 15 teachers at each venue, therefore we advise you to book your place early.

For more information about the competition visit the MTOT page on our website and register your school to take part.  Alternatively contact angela.de-britos@strath.ac.uk

Angela de Britos
Angela de Britos
Professional Development Officer
angela.de-britos@strath.ac.uk
T: 0141 444 8179
M: 07896 149 353