Turra show is a farmer’s dream.
With goats, steed, sheep and more.
Sheep and goats (baby) having a competition.

Yonder had tones and rows of trackers.
Caravan’s shops.
Many prises given.
Shops (food stands)

Gey busy and crowed.
Police surrounding the gates with dogs.

Waking up to whirling wind
whistling wildly
like the speed of light blowing across
the lovely clean white snow
laying across the lovely land
the wild wind pushing the car when I drove to
When I stepped out of my car door
my feet
instantly sunk into the snow
walking to the shop
my feet was as cold as ice
squeaking when walking
down the shop isle
Up and down
up and down
up and down
and up and down
until I reached the lovely clean silver like till
reflecting like a brand new mirror.

Pupils were asked to come up with as many Doric and Scots words as they could think of….

At the start of the project pupils were asked the following questions;

-What genre(s) do you enjoy reading the most?
-What are your hopes and fears for this project?
-What do you hope to achieve through participating in this project?

Some of the answers can be seen in word cloud form below;

-What genre(s) do you enjoy reading the most?

-What are your hopes and fears for this project?

-what do you hope to achieve through participating in this project?

Pupils were asked to gather family stories as part of an exploration of the role of oral stories in everyday life, the focus here is on narrative content over spelling and grammar. Here are some wonderful examples…

My mum grew up in King Edward with her mum, dad, brother, and sister. Her brother is 3 years older than her, and my aunt is 18 months younger. When my uncle was 16 years old, he got a motorbike an old Suzuki 50 cc.
He used to drive it up and down to the Quarry near there house and she would hop on the back with him and head off. One time down at the Quarry when she was 13 years old, she asked to have a shot of the bike. He showed her how to work it and said, “On you go!”
She instantly took off into a pile of stone and crashed the bike, it fell on her leg, and she lay in a heap with the still running motorcycle laying on top of her!
My Uncle was more concerned about the bike and took it from her and drove a circuit of the quarry to ensure it was fine before he went back to check on her…Typical older brother!
My mum was, however, unscathed by the incident.
She did eventually sustain an injury about 4 Months later when on a journey back to their house from the quarry they took a bend too fast and they both toppled off the bike, my mum broke her wrist, but my uncle was fine….and so was the Bike!

I was play fighting with my brother and mum started telling us to behave, it was raining outside and we were bored so we decided to play a prank on mum, Hanging trousers out my bedroom window while my mum was washing dishes and scared her, she run upstairs and seen I was joking, she was really angry, I said that it was my brother’s idea and don’t think she believed me much, she grounded the two of us for a week, It only lasted until next day as we were to noisy.
We still to this day bring this up and have a good laugh about it.
Thinking back it must have been scary but not sure why mum didn’t see there was no shoes at the bottom of the trousers. So yeah this always sticks in my mind and we still speak about it, probably done more but this is one I can look back and have a laugh about.

Interview-Granny Val
My Granny said the naughtiest thing she has ever done has done is she sprayed anti-dazzle spray on her dad’s glasses, don’t think he was very happy about that. Although even after that he still let her play golf and tennis. Granny loved playing tennis she still sometimes talks about how good she was. I haven’t seen her play before, so I take her word for it. As for golf she took me and my little cousin out to the range not that long ago, I gave her a turn and she was pretty good I must admit.
Granny went to Macduff high school; there she sang in the choir. When I found that out, I was so shocked she never told me about that. Don’t get me wrong she looks like a person that can sing really well, thinking about it now I remember when she used to sing to me and my brother when we were little.
At school she had a so-called ‘friend’, and that ‘friend’ would pick on this other girl for what she dressed like. One day granny got so sick of it she stood up for the girl and never talked to her ‘friend’ again.
Now back in those days granny and her classmates had way more respect for teachers than today, you probably know why. Granny was one of the good kids but surprisingly she wasn’t very smart, well so she said.
When she was in school, she helped in a little hairdresser’s shop, she would just help clean maybe was people’s hair stuff like that. But when she got older, she started to work at the golf club. She served food and drinks at the bar, she said she really liked it, she also said that she got some awesome stories from people.
I asked granny what her best memory was, she said the day her brother launched his boat out in Macduff, to be honest with you I didn’t even know her brother had a boat.

The naughtiest thing you had done as a child
One day my dad went to the shop. He had no money with him, so he stole a packet of fruit pastels how bad of him he had to put them back after though. My sister stole some of my mums make up box and put green eyeshadow all over her face it was very funny because when my parents woke up and made breakfast, they shouted on her and realized she had shiny dark green stuff on her face my mum recorded it and said “Thea what is that on your face “she replied saying “i don’t know” then it eventually got to “ Thea is that mummy’s green eye shadow” Thea then says “no” then my mum says “ tell mum the truth mummy doesn’t like liars” she answered saying “yes”. Then another thing my dad done was when he was like a teenager, he “drove round the flaggy” which is where he went speeding up main street in Fraserburgh then head to tail with other cars going round the flagpole and back down main street and sometimes was drifting round it but then one day it became a leisure center, and he was very sad because he was having fun doing that.

Pauline has now completed 2 sessions at Turriff Academy and has been warmly welcomed by staff and students

Session 1
During the first session introductions were given, Pauline performed 2 stories whilst pupils listened intently. Following on from this was a discussion around the origins and roles of oral storytelling within local culture. When pupils were asked ‘where do we get stories from?’ responses included film plots, the internet, google, newspapers, comics and ‘my granny’.

Session 2
The second session consisted of some further performances of stories by Pauline and a discussion around what is needed to create a oral story and how sometimes written language can create a barrier or a hurdle. pupils were encouraged to think of themselves as storytellers and were asked to come back with a story from a relative or other adult. Prompts were given to help with the homework including the following,

• “Can you tell me the naughtiest thing you did as a child or young adult?”
• “Tell me what it was like going to see a football match when you were younger. Was it different to how it is now? Were the chants different? What did the chants mean? Did you see anything interesting at the matches other than the game on the pitch?”
• “What was school like when you were younger? Did they still have the belt or other corporal punishment? Who was your least favourite (or favourite!) teacher and why? Are there any stories you can tell me about things that happened when you were at school?”
• Occupations “Tell me about your job. How is that job done now compared to how it was done when you first started working? Have things changed? Do you have any funny stories about things that happened to you while you were working?”
• “Do you have any stories about petty revenge?”
• “How did you get around when you were younger? Did you have far to go to get to school or your job or to meet your friends? How have things changed? Did anything happen to you when you were travelling around (whether just going to school or going far away on a trip) that would make a good story?”
• “Do you have any stories about food or drink? Food that I’d find disgusting? Things people don’t eat any more? Are there any foods that we take for granted that hadn’t been heard of when you were younger? Do you have any good stories about eating and drinking?”
• Technology! “We have so much technology to help us do everything today. How have things changed? Do you have any stories about old technology?”

Hello and welcome to the Turriff Academy Live Literature Project blog!

The purpose of this site is to document the learning, engagement and creative output of pupils working with fabulous storyteller Pauline Cordiner. Together we will explore the origins and traditions of storytelling and the nature and function of stories within the modern world. At the end of the project pupils will be encouraged to create their own story in their own choice of media for publication online.

This project is funded by Scottish Book Trust via the Author Residency programme.

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