Category Archives: Literacy and English

Design a book cover competition for schools

The Design a Book Cover Competition is an exciting opportunity to showcase your pupils’ creative skills whilst encouraging them to engage with books and reading.  It’s open to all primary schools and it’s easy to take part.  There are two entry categories: P1 – P3 and P4 – P7 and there are prizes to be won for your school and pupils.  The closing date is Monday 3 July 2013.

Full details and the Entry Pack can be found on the competition website or by emailing michelle.mcleod@bailliegifford.com

International Literacy Day – Glow TV Friday 6 September

Remember to mark International Literacy Day and join us on Glow to celebrate literacy for all ages.

We are asking all those working in literacy in Scotland with children, young people and adults to come together through Glow to celebrate with storytelling, film and creativity.  We want to learn from each other and share our literacy practices so we are asking those who are more familiar with Glow to invite other learning groups to celebrate with them.

After the summer we will be showing you on Glow how to make our origami owl, offering some ideas for creative literacy and ways to get involved in the event.

Click here for information and resources.

Authors Live – Tony Robinson, 6 June 11.00 am

Authors Live is stepping back in time with renowned popular historian, actor and author, Tony Robinson, to discover the strange secrets hidden in our Weird World of Wonders. Join us as we march through time with the Romans, Greeks and Egyptians and find out what made us Britons British. It’s history, but not as you know it!

To find out more and sign up for this event click here.
After watching the live webstream in the morning why not join us for an interactive question and answer session with Tony Robinson at 1.30 pm http://bit.ly/13kLxyI

Scottish Book Trust – Treasures

This year’s annual campaign is Treasures, which is currently running on the Scottish Book Trust website.  Stories submitted by the deadline of 31 July 2013 will be considered for inclusion in the Treasures book, thousands of copies of which will be distributed during Book Week Scotland – 25 November to 1 December 2013.

Together resource packs for schools and adult learning tutors are also available, which can be found in the resources section of the website.  http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/reading/treasures/resources

Scottish Learning Festival 2013

Registration is now open for this year’s Scottish Learning Festival (SLF), which takes place on Wednesday 25 and Thursday 26 September in the SECC, Glasgow.

The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning will give the opening address to SLF.

In addition, there will be the keynotes from the following international renowned speakers:

  • Prof Andy Hargreaves, Thomas Moore Brennan Chair, Lynch School of Education, University of Boston;
  • Dr Avis Glaze, Edu-quest International Inc. and former Chief Student Achievement Officer of Ontario; and
  • Dr Pasi Sahlberg, Director General, Centre for International Mobility and Cooperation, Finland.

As well as round table discussions led by:

  • Prof Petra Wend; and
  • Dr Bill Maxwell and partners.

The full programme of keynotes and seminars along with details of the range of additional activities are available on the SLF website.

Seminars which may be of interest

The M Factor

Finding their Voice: Engaging teenagers with poetry and debate through rap and performance

3-18 Curriculum Impact Reviews: Creativity 3-18

Launch of Education Scotland’s Building Capacity for Continuous Improvement strategy

Global Citizenship – Bringing It All Together

Learning experiences through Glow – Partnership working

Moving image education: Screening Shorts

Expressive arts: What’s on the third horizon?

English language class arts exhibition project: East Kilbride

Short & sweet: Short films as a route to developing modern foreign languages

Look, Capture, Create

Curious and creative learners from across Scotland have been exploring the importance and beauty of Scottish Biodiversity through Scottish designer/illustrator Johanna Basford’s exhibition ‘Wonderlands’ via Glow TV. This interdisciplinary learning experience has been developed in partnership with Dundee Contemporary Arts and is being supported by Sarah Derrick, Head of Education at DCA and Anna Rossvoll, Emerging Technologies Development Officer with Education Scotland.

Look Capture Create outline for educators

Johanna Basford is an ink evangelist who creates beautifully intricate hand drawn designs using black ink. ‘Wonderlands’ is her first solo exhibition and it is proving to be a magical context for creative learning through expressive arts, science, mathematics and languages.

Before the project went live learners were invited to join the Look, Capture, Create Glow group by submitting an InkyME! The response was astounding. Currently there are  InkyMEs exhibiting from Burravoe, Carron, Clackmannan, Hythehill, Lochgelly West, Lincluden, St Andrews and St Patricks primary schools.  The InkyMEs have even travelled to Dundee to attend the first live Glow TV event ‘Wondertales’ at Dundee Contemporary Arts on 13th May.

‘Wondertales’ encouraged learners to look at the intricacy of Johanna’s designs and to capture the detail in words to create a Wondertale!  Wendy Woolfson, an incredibly talented storyteller led the event, creating breath taking stories based on three of Johanna’s wallpaper designs. She then went on to create a collaborative tale as learners submitted their ideas live during the event. You can watch Wendy in action here.

This use of an exhibition as a form of text truly captured the imagination of learners and they have submitted incredible  Wondertales to the Glow wiki.  Learners are taking the  time to read each other’s work and leave comments. It would be lovely if you could do the same. (Glow username and password required)

Keep up to date with the Look, Capture, Create Glow blog and the next Look, Capture, Create Glow TV event will take place at Dundee Botanical Gardens at 10am on the 4th June.

Post taken from Education Scotland’s Learning blog written by A.Rossvoll

21st Century fairytales sought to celebrate golden anniversary

To mark the 50th anniversary of the National Trust for Scotland’s care of Craigievar Castle – the conservation charity has teamed up with the Press and Journal, Aberdeenshire Writer in Residence Deborah Leslie and the Friends of Craigievar Castle to launch the Craigievar Creative Writing competition. Entries are invited from school pupils in 2 categories P6 – P7 for Junior Category and S1 to S6 for Senior Category, and all stories must be 500 words and suitable for children under ten years of age.

The winning entry will be chosen by Aberdeenshire’s Deborah Leslie the celebrated author of children’s tales such as the ‘Fyvie Castle Witch Trials’,  and the top 2 stories will be performed by Deborah at Craigievar Castle on the 7 and 8 September at a special Family Fairytale Castle day.

To find out more information including How to Enter, Facts about Craigievar, take a virtual tour of the castle to help inspire you and the terms and conditions for entry visit

http://www.nts.org.uk/learn/events_writing.php or to discuss the competition please contact Dr Alison Burke – ABurke@nts.org.uk or 0844 493 2161.

Look, Capture, Create – Inky Adventures, 21 May 10.00 am

Week 2 of the Look, Capture, Create project coincides with ‘Walk to School Week’ and ‘Scottish Biodiversity week’. This Glow TV broadcast gives learners the opportunity to journey on an inky adventure with the Scottish illustrator/designer Johanna Basford to learn about her art techniques, what inspires her designs and her success commercially. Visit the Glow group here.

Click here to sign up for this event (glow username required)

Look, Capture, Create – Wondertales

13 May, 10.00 am

The ‘Look, capture, create’ interdisciplinary learning experience takes place over 4 weeks and is aimed at second level learners. It comprises of 4 Glow TV broadcasts and a set of supporting learning experiences which will be shared via the Look Capture, Create Glow group.

Click here to sign up for this event (glow username required)