Category Archives: Music

Glow TV – Scotland Sings – Celebrate Burns

24/01/2014 09:30-10:15

Join us live from the Glow TV Studio as we celebrate Burns with a feast of Scottish songs – and accompanying instruments.

Sing along with us and learn some new songs and some new Scots language as well!

You can also tell us what you are doing to celebrate Burns in your schools – we want to hear about all the exciting things you are doing.

So join us to sing and share in our Burns celebration!

Big Big Sing – Song Writing Competition

Write a Commonwealth Games song! Big Big Sing is a nationwide celebration of singing that will inspire thousands of people to get singing in the lead up to and during Games Time.  As part of this project, Big Big Sing is running an exciting songwriting competition open to Primary and Secondary School pupils in Scotland.

Big Big Sing invites pupils to write a song inspired by the Commonwealth Games, pupils can work individually or as a class to write a song between three and five minutes in length.  With the games just around the corner there’s no shortage of inspiration for budding songwriters!

For more information click here.

Glow TV – Puppetry Workshop for teachers – linked to War Horse

Join us for this exciting behind the scenes look at puppetery as teachers work with Finn Caldwell who is one of the original War Horse puppeteers. Finn has directed the puppetry for productions of War Horse in the West End and in Australia.  He has also just directed the puppetry in The Light Princess at the National Theatre and is directing a children’s puppetry show called Elephantom in The Shed.

For more information click here.

Get pupils excited about reading with Book Trailers

Creating Book Trailers is a fantastic way to enthuse your learners about reading and develop their critical skills. This year, Scottish Book Trust are running their first ever book trailer competition for the Scottish Children’s Book Awards, and have published a wealth of resources to help you get creative with trailers. Closing date for entries is 7 February.

Expressive Arts Conversation Day 1

The first Expressive Arts Conversation Day was held on 25 November 2013 at the Raploch Community Campus in Stirling. The event featured several stimulating practitioner inputs and lively discussion throughout.
The main themes we explored (identified during the morning session) were:
• developing appropriate expressive arts CPD
• providing appropriate support
• developing an effective model that balances creative space with skills development
• creating sustainable partnerships.
A second Expressive Arts Conversation Day is in the planning phase and we intend that it will probably take place in Inverness in February or early March to provide greater opportunity for our colleagues from further afield to attend. For more information, please read the blog post.

Resource Calendar (January 2014)

The events in this calendar are celebrations, awareness days and action weeks all covering topical issues relevant to schools. Each of the events includes details of websites and support materials to help plan activities for learners.
The January events include:
· World Religion Day (19 January)
· Martin Luther King Day (20 January)
· RSPB Big Schools’ Birdwatch (20 January – 14 February)
· Burns Night (25 January).
Click here for the calendar.

Are you mad about music? Are you 14-21?

Scottish Opera needs you!
Call for Connect Chorus auditions

We are looking for talented young singers to audition for our 2014/15 youth opera programme, Scottish Opera Connect, and we thought this might be of interest to you.

Connect is made up of two strands, Connect Chorus and Connect Orchestra, and is a unique programme which gives aspiring singers and musicians the chance to develop their knowledge, technique and skills with the help of Scotland’s top opera professionals. Unfortunately we don’t have any vacancies for Connect Orchestra at present so we’re just recruiting for Connect Chorus.

Interested in signing up? Application Deadline – Monday 16 December 2013

To become a member of Connect Chorus you must be aged between 14 and 21 years old, have some performance experience and be able to read music. Entry is by audition for our Summer Gateway Course (Tue 29 Jul to Sun 3 Aug 2014). This intensive, six-day programme explores opera through practical workshops and seminars and ends in a short performance for your family and friends. Upon completion of our Gateway week, the final Connect Chorus selections for 2014/15 will be made.

Simply download the application form and email your completed form toiona.jack@scottishopera.org.uk

Download the Connect Chorus application form
For full information about Connect, download the Connect flyer

The National Piping Centre Introduce the Highland Bagpipes

In the run up to St Andrew’s Day, join staff from the National Piping Centre, for this exciting glow meet. In this interactive presentation, they will introduce the pupils to the Highland Bagpipes. Pupils will discover a little of the history of the bagpipes in Scotland, and explore what each part of the instrument is used for. There will then be the opportunity to hear some music played on the bagpipes by world class pipers. The target audience is Primary 6 and 7.

Click here for more information.

Time to shine – Scotland’s first national arts strategy for young people launched

Time To Shine, Scotland’s arts strategy for young people aged 0–25, was launched on 8 November by Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs and Janet Archer, Chief Executive, Creative Scotland.

The strategy – which is centred around the three key themes of creating and sustaining engagement; nurturing potential and talent; and developing infrastructure and support – sets out a vision and key recommendations to enable Scotland’s children and young people to flourish and achieve, in and through the arts and creativity.

For more information click here.