Category Archives: Curriculum for Excellence

Fife’s Secret Song!

A practice session at St Margaret's PS 🙂

A flashmob of children from four Dunfermline primary schools performed a secret song they helped compose called ‘Fife goes Olympic’ today.

Around 170 primary 6 &7 youngsters gave unsuspecting shoppers at the Kingsgate Shopping Centre a big surprise when they performed their song for the first time ahead of the Olympic Torch Relay in Dunfermline.

The pupils from Cairneyhill, Duloch, St Margaret’s RC and St Leonards Primary Schools have been working together on the top secret project which was supported by the National Lottery through Creative Scotland and Fife Council under the ‘Summer of Song: Celebrating the Olympic Torch in Scotland’ banner.

The children wrote their very own Olympic Song for Fife during a songwriting process which was led by musicians from Edinburgh based charity, Fischy Music.

The charity worked with the children over the course of four weeks to compose their song and co-ordinate their special flashmob surprise. 

Fischy Music has worked directly with children for over 14 years and their resources, promoting emotional, social and spiritual wellbeing, are used in thousands of schools across the UK and beyond.  

Also helping to support the performance on the day were the Kingsgate Shopping Centre Management team and representatives from Queen Anne Singers and Dunfermline Choral Union.

Heather Gibson, Area Cultural Co-ordinator from Fife Council who lead the project said: “This really has been a top secret project as we wanted to make sure everyone got a big surprise!

We were delighted to receive funding from Creative Scotland and the council to make this project come to life. We also worked closely with the council’s Education Service who advised us on potential schools to develop the project with and also recommended the specialised skills Fischy Music could bring to this very exciting idea. 

I’d like to thank them, the children and staff from the schools involved, who really embraced this idea from the very beginning and who were delighted to be involved in making Fife Secret Song a reality.”

As a thank you to the hard work and dedication of the children, the staff, Fischy Music and Fife Council’s Cultural Partnerships Team to make this flashmob happen, please help us promote Fife’s Secret Song – ‘Fife Goes Olympic’ far and wide.  Tell everyone you know to go to www.youtube.com/Thefifecouncil to view Fife Council’s flashmob clip and also search Dunfermline Flashmob which Colin Weaver (parent) kindly put up of almost the full concert!  Get ‘sharing’, ‘blogging’ and ‘tweeting’!
 

National Poetry Day 2012: 4th October

This month it’s all about getting ahead with National Poetry Day 2012. 

National Poetry Day 2012- star theme

You’ll find postcard order forms, advance information on what teaching/activities resources you will find in the months to come – and a list of the poems to be featured on the postcards, so you can get ahead with planning. Bookmark this page!

Royal Conservatoire of Scotland- CPD

The Short Courses programme 2012/13 from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland is now available!

The Short Courses programme at the exists to support access to and participation in the wide range of performance and production arts specialisms here at the Conservatoire.  They also help widen participation by creating schemes, projects and partnerships to engage with communities of students less likely to take part.  Their short courses are designed to benefit all ages and stages of development, lifelong learners and also on-going professional development requirements in dance, drama, music, production, screen and teaching skills. 

Click Short Courses – Portfolio 12-13 to view the programme

Poetry CPD Sessions

June 15th

The Byre Theatre, St.Andrews

10am and 1.30pm

With St.Andrews being named a Winning Words Beacon town for the year 2012, The Byre Theatre is running two CPD sessions with a top poet this June.

Ryan Van Winkle, Poet in Residence at Edinburgh City Libraries, will be running two training sessions for primary and secondary teachers, focusing on how to bring poetry into the classroom via the Olympic Games and Sport.

 Click Winning Words CPD for all the details!

Music resource!

Musical Futures believes music learning works best when young people are making music, and when their existing passion for music is reflected and built upon in the classroom. As well as a website full of resources and news the site also offers the 2nd Edition Musical Futures teacher resource pack. Each chapter has its own section, many with additional audio, video and other materials. If you prefer, download the entire pack, or order a hard copy for free

Two fantastic film opportunities for young people!

What a fantastic and unique Film-Making scheme for your young people. We are looking for twenty 16-19 year olds to get involved in the Edinburgh International Film Festival and make a short film, which will be screened at the Filmhouse in August!

Click here for more details!

ALSO…

Are you aged between 16 – 25? Could you make a sci-fi film in just a few short days?  If you are up for the challenge you could get your film screened at EIFF this year! 

Click here for more details

 

Your future in the creative industries – a guide for young people

TALK BY STEWART SVAASAND: WEDNESDAY 25 JULY

–        5.00pm – 6.00pm

–        Church Hall (upstairs)

–        FREE

–        Age 14-21

A rare opportunity to be guided by a top professional TV and film director Stewart Svaasand.  Stewart’s work includes Hollyoaks, Missing, One Last Chance being shown later tonight and Waterloo Road Reunited.  Stewart will outline the challenges and opportunities in the creative industries – a not to be missed event for any young person determined to succeed in this field.

Social Studies- resources

National Records of Scotland (NRS) Schools Programme: bookings open for September 2012 – March 2013NRS education website.

The National Records of Scotland has launched its September 2012 – March 2013 programme of free workshops and Glow Meet sessions for primary and secondary schools. New topics include ‘What is the Census?’ and ‘Newhaven Families’.

Full details of the Schools Programme and the booking form are available on the