Category Archives: Opportunities

ACHIEVING THE CURRICULUM FOR EXCELLENCE THROUGH DANCE

With around 40 years experience and an SQA Visiting Assessor between them – the YDance Dance Specialists – Anna, Yvonne and Laura – are fully trained to support you in achieving the outcomes as laid out in the Curriculum for Excellence.

We are here to support Nursery, Primary and Secondary teachers – regardless of your dance experience. Our next CPD Training Days are coming up in November so check out the website www.ydance.org for what’s on offer.

BOOKINGS
If you’d like to make a booking please email cpd@ydance.org or call the office on 0141 552 7712


Millennium Youth Camp 2014

Applications for the fifth international Millennium Youth Camp have begun.

The 2014 Millennium Youth Camp will be held during 3–11 June 2014 in the Greater Helsinki area in Finland. The one week camp takes place in Finland every summer and is organised by the Technology Academy Finland, the Finnish Science Education Centre LUMA (University of Helsinki) and Aalto University.

The camp offers young people from across Europe, aged between 16-19, who are interested in mathematics, the natural sciences and technology, an opportunity to learn more about Finnish expertise and top level research in these areas.  It’s also a great opportunity to meet other young people who share similar interests.

Click here for more information.

Lantra Scotland Secondary School Awards

Launched in 2012 by Lantra Scotland, with sponsorship from Royal Highland and Agriculture Society of Scotland (RHASS), the new Lantra Scotland Secondary School Awards are aimed at any secondary school delivering an environmental, aquaculture or land based project.

Lantra Scotland are seeking nominations from schools participating in, for example, creating a school garden, working in a community woodland, working on a food and drink project or any other project or activity involving pupils in horticulture, forestry, aquaculture, agriculture or environmental works.  Closing date for nominations is Friday 8th November 2013.

Click here for more information.

Twig on Glow – volunteers needed for video editing pilot

Following the success of the Twig Summer Challenge, Twig On Glow are looking for classes who would like to try out our video editing tool. Twig Studio is a new online video editor that allows students to make films from scratch, using high quality clips as well as their own footage, voiceover and music.
A pilot of a new and improved version of the editing tool will start at the end of October and Twig are looking for Scottish schools to participate. The pilot will be suitable for students from P5 to S6.
If you think your class would be interested in taking part, or for more information, please contact Alex,amorgan@twig-world.com

Teenage Girls, Physical Activity and Self-Esteem

Below you will find a course descriptor for the Teenage Girls, Physical Activity and Self-Esteem training course which has evaluated well over the last year and is designed to support staff to feel more confident around encouraging teenage girls to be more active.

Course descriptor

We are now offering interested and experienced training practitioners the opportunity to participate in a Training for Trainers course to enable others to deliver this course.

The Training for Trainers Course will be held at the Playfield Institute, Stratheden Hospital on Tuedsay 19th and Wednesday 20th November 2013.

Participants must be able to commit to both days.  Applicants will be required to complete a short questionnaire about their previous training experience. (See below)

Teenage Girls T4T application form (2)

Young Scot – Money for Life Challenge funding opportunity

Applications opening soon for the Money for Life Challenge

Do you work with young people who have ideas about how to improve money management skills in their communities? Are you looking for funding to support young single parents, young people with disabilities, young carers, and other vulnerable groups? Young Scot are offering £500 grants as part of the Money for Life Challenge.

What’s on offer?

There are 50 grants of £500 available in Scotland through the Money for Life Challenge. This includes:

·         £300 for your organisation to cover staff costs

·         £200 for the team to help run their project

The Challenge is open to teams of young people aged 16-24 in work-based learning, adult community learning, training organisations, and further education, and is designed to help young people tackle money management issues, for example around poverty or welfare reform, in relevant ways.

How does it work?

·         In collaboration with a project sponsor, teams of young people design their own project around issues that affect them. Last year’s teams addressed a wide range of topics, from camping on a budget to raising awareness of the hazards of payday lenders.

·         As a project sponsor, your role is to help your team of young people identify a money management need in their community and help them develop their project plan.

·         Each organisation can submit up to five projects to maximise impact and funding.

·         Young Scot can provide a number of resources to support your project, including examples of successful projects, guidance on how to run your project, and dedicated application support.

Why get involved?

The Money for Life Challenge can fit into existing equalities and inclusion programmes, helping empower young people to develop the practical skills they need to navigate the changing financial landscape. Challenge participants often find that their projects have given them the boost they needed to be able to get a job or progress onto education or training. Feedback from the last two years shows that young people felt they had gained:

·         confidence in their own abilities

·         leadership, communication, and teamwork skills

·         business and project management skills

·         money management skills

What next?

The application deadline is 22 November. Register your interest by contacting Allyson Doby (allysond@youngscot.org) or phoning 0131 313 2488. For more information, visit https://www.moneyforlifechallenge.org.uk/.

Now in its third year, the Money for Life Challenge was created by Lloyds Bank. Young Scot and College Development Network are working in partnership to deliver the Challenge in Scotland.

Dangerous June 2014

The Festival of Dangerous Ideas 2013 was delivered over nine days in June, with 30 CPD events offered in eight different geographical locations, in partnership with 12 organisations, which were free to anyone who was interested in the future of education.  Please view the animated summary.

Plans are already underway for next year – please put ‘dangerous June’ in your diary for 2014!

Key themes will be:

  • Small nations, big ideas for education
  • Games for learning
  • Businesses doing it for themselves: If the trend is for businesses to offer their own degrees, academies and training, what does that say about state funded education?
  • Enterprising, entrepreneurial or excluded: What skills do young people really need?
  • Engaging learners: do lecturers and teachers have the required youth work skills?
  • Research: dangerous ideas from theory to practice.

Interested in holding an event as part of the festival? Visit the website and complete the Event Submission Form.

Got a dangerous idea you want to share? Get involved via FacebookTwitterblog andLinkedIn.

National Poetry Day

Scottish Poetry Library have announced National Poetry Day will take place on Thursday 3 October 2013.

The theme for this year is ‘Water’, and they are delighted to be working in partnership with Scottish Water to provide a great range of teaching resources to support.

Online resources are now available free on www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/learn and include:

·         a set of teaching notes for each poem

·         a pdf poster of each poem (doubles as a larger print text) to download and print

·         a pdf poster to advertise National Poetry Day

Scottish Water’s updated education materials, including a range of activity-based modules all about water for early, first, second, third and fourth level are now available free onwww.scottishwater.co.uk/education

Ideas and Sketchbook Development workshop

2 day workshop title ‘Idea and sketchbook development’ at the Off the Rails Arthouse in Ladybank, Fife onMondays October 7th and 14th, 9.00am – 3.00pm.

One of the most important aspects of a students’ portfolio is demonstrating their potential and their commitment to art outside of the classroom. Working on self motivated ideas is a really important indication of this potential and commitment.

For this reason and following the success of our first workshop in July, Portfolio Oomph is running a second‘Ideas and sketchbook development workshop’ at Off the Rails Arthouse in Ladybank especially for school pupils wanting to apply to art college this year.

Participants will learn how to generate and explore individual ideas through the creative process in your sketchbook. Looking at research, development and introducing you to some exciting new artists. Ideal for those students applying to art college next year or those who want to add to their higher or advanced higher portfolio. A sketchbook and some materials will be provided.

Portfolio Oomph was established in 2012 by artist and lecturer Julie Read who has worked at F.E and H.E. for 17 years and has interviewed 100s of candidates for Edinburgh College of Art first year.

‘I enjoyed the relaxed but proactive atmosphere, learning new techniques and the tutor support when feeling stuck. I feel quite excited to take what I’ve learnt here further and do more workshops. I would definitely recommend Portfolio Oomph.’ Margaret Hume (workshop participant, July 2013)

‘Looking at different techniques and being in good creative company were the highlights of the workshop, as was working in the open, relaxing and stimulating atmosphere. The workshops were a great kickstart and I have had a couple of productive days this week. A mentoring workshop on a regular basis would be excellent. Zoe Darbyshire (workshop participant, July 2013)

NOTE: Portfolio Oomph provides links to useful creative industries websites, examples of artists and designers working in the industry, active blog and social media that informs and challenges concepts and ideas surrounding the creative arena, FAQ’s on the art college application process and development of portfolios. Our affordable downloadable products include eBooks and eCourses that take students through the process of creating and developing a portfolio and guidance through the UCAS application process.

http://www.portfolio-oomph.com/sketchbooks/sketchbook-workshop2/

Edinburgh International Book Festival / ScottishPower – Calling All Writers Of The Future

A search is on to find the school with the most creative minds.  The annual Story Generator competition is a national writing competition which invites young people across Scotland to collaborate and create their own stories.

The school that has written the best book will win a collection of books from the Edinburgh International Book Festival, with a printed copy of their Storybird online book included. The Pupil who devises the best page wins a Kindle which will come loaded with their own online book.

To find out more and to register your school, visit www.storybird.com/scottishpower