Category Archives: Secondary schools

Events, Music, Opportunities, Secondary schools

‘Off the Record’ Youth Music Seminar (14-25)

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Born To Be Wide is pleased to announce its second Off The Record day, following the successful launch in October 2013. The event will take place on Saturday 8 February at Kirkcaldy’s Adam Smith Theatre, and features workshops for young musicians and those interested in working in the music business.

Supported by the Scottish Government’s Youth Music Initiative (YMI), which is administered by Creative Scotland, Off The Record is open to anyone aged between 14-25, with key industry figures providing essential advise on subjects including recording, releasing, promotion and organising/getting gigs.

Delivered in partnership with Fife Cultural Trust, speakers at the Kirkcaldy event include:
Ally McCrae (BBC Radio One), Olaf Furniss (Born To Be Wide Director/The Scotsman),Michael Lambert (Born To Be Wide Director/artist manager), Lloyd Meredith (Olive Grove Records/Peenko Blog), Fielding Hope (DJ & booker, Nice’N’Sleazy), Tallah Brash (musician & booker, Electric Circus), Stuart Stenhouse (EmuBands) and Garry Boyle (The Depot Studios).

Admission is two pounds [including lunch] and tickets must be bought in advance fromwww.offtherecord.me or in person from the Adam Smith box office. A parental consent form is also required from attendees under the age of 18 and can be downloaded from the website.

Also included in the price is a free release worth £25, via Scotland’s leading digital distribution company EmuBands. This covers Amazon, iTunes, Spotify and most other online stores and streaming services.

For more information click here.

Competition, Literacy and English, Primary schools, Secondary schools

Commonwealth Essay Competition 2014

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The Commonwealth Essay Competition is the world’s oldest and largest international writing competition.

Run by the Royal Commonwealth Society since 1883, the competition is open to all young people who come from or live in a Commonwealth country or territory.

Entries for 2014 should be on the theme ‘Team Commonwealth’ and will be judged in two categories – junior (under 14 years old) and senior (14-18 years old).

All pieces of writing must be in English but can be submitted in a variety of formats, for example a poem, letter, script or essay.

Suggested titles include: You’re one of us now; What makes a good team?; and How can sport build peace in troubled communities?

Full details are available on the Royal Commonwealth Society website.

The deadline for entries is 1 May 2014.

Competition, Creative practitioners, Creativity, Curriculum for Excellence, Drama, Glasgow2014, Literacy and English, Primary schools, Secondary schools, Technologies

BBC Commonwealth Film making competition

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School story competition – promoting your school, community and Commonwealth values (extended deadline: 21 February 2014).

The BBC are looking for 3 schools – 1 in the UK and 2 from other Commonwealth countries who will make a film with the help of a TV crew, which best reflects the Commonwealth values and shares what it means to be a global citizen.

Winning schools will have their films featured on the BBC Commonwealth Class website www.bbc.co.uk/commonwealthclass.

Creative Partners, Curriculum for Excellence, Funding, Music, Opportunities, Primary schools, Secondary schools

Awards for Young Musicians

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AYM believes that young people deserve the chance to fulfil their musical potential.
We help outstanding young instrumentalists in any genre with annual Awards from
£200 to £2000. Our funding is flexible: we want to help young musicians excel and
so we can support most major musical costs.
Receiving an Award is just the start of your journey with AYM – we do all we can to
help each young musician to flourish and grow.
Visit our website
http://www.a-y-m.org.uk/

Follow us on
Twitter: @AwardsAYM
Facebook: awardsforyoungmusicians
Creativity, Curriculum for Excellence, Dance, Drama, Music, Opportunities, Primary schools, Secondary schools

Youth Music Theatre UK – auditions

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Throughout January and February, Youth Music Theatre UK, the UK’s national music theatre company for young people (aged 11 – 21), will be heading to 24 cities across the UK looking for talented young performers and musicians to star in their new body of music theatre this summer. Now in their 10th year, they will be performing nine brand new shows right across the UK from London to Belfast as well as at the Aberdeen International Youth Festival in summer 2014.

They’re holding four auditions dates in Scotland: Sat 15 Feb – Glasgow (Scottish Youth Theatre), Sun 16 Feb – Edinburgh (The Studio at the Festival Theatre), Mon 17 Feb – Inverness (Spectrum Centre), Tue 18 Feb – Aberdeen (Danscentre).

For more information, download the flyers below:

Performer Audtions Flyer

Musician Auditions Flyer

Creative practitioners, Primary schools, Scotland Colleges, Secondary schools

The Research Emporium of Dangerous Ideas

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Friday 13 June 2014
City of Glasgow College

It’s 2024.  Imagine your research results and recommendations or hypothesis have become policy and practice.  What changes have taken place as a result of your research?  What difference to education has your research made?  Whatever your level and scale of research, as long as it is related to shaping the future of education, you are invited to present your future vision at the Research Emporium of Dangerous Ideas.

What’s involved?
You will present your vision supported by theory/research in 7 minutes – the choice of how you present is up to you.  Participants and Merchants of Danger at the Emporium will be able to ‘buy’ into the research they think will have impact on educational change, and support that research further.  This may take various forms, not necessarily monetary.

What do I do next?

Please email Kelly Fitzpatrick with a 200 word synopsis of your research and implication for future policy and practice by Friday 28 February 2014.  We are looking for research that spans diverse areas of education and welcomes work in progress.

CPD, Creative practitioners, Curriculum for Excellence, Health and Wellbeing, Opportunities, Outdoor learning, Primary schools, Scotland Colleges, Secondary schools

Without Walls: The Outdoor Classroom

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16-18 June 2014

Never tried outdoor learning?  College Development Network, John Muir Award, The Outward Bound Trust and Youth Scotland invite you to break out into the most exhilarating, imaginative, thought-provoking environment that you will ever experience.  Challenge yourself to think differently about outdoor learning, the curriculum and what it takes to develop the outdoor classroom.

What’s on offer:

3 days, 2 nights at The Well Road Centre, Moffat, where you will experience a range of outdoor learning experiences and consider how you can build your own outdoor learning class.

Who it is for:
Priority will be given to those who do not have experience of outdoor learning.  In keeping with the philosophy of The Emporium of Dangerous Ideas, we will be looking for a mix of participants from education providers.

Cost:
£100 per person – covers accommodation, food and outdoor learning experiences.

How to apply:

Please email Kelly Fitzpatrick with a short piece (200 words) describing what you would hope to get out of this residential, and clarifying what your role and work setting is by Friday 14 February 2014.

CPD, Creative practitioners, Opportunities, Primary schools, Scotland Colleges, Secondary schools

The Emporium of Dangerous Ideas

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For the past two years College Development Network has curated the Festival of Dangerous Ideas – a festival aimed at re-establishing the importance of ideas as agents of change in education – shifting the axis of what is possible in education.

The festival has been highly successful, but we didn’t think that ‘festival’ with its connotations of celebration and one off events really reflected what we are trying to do.

We have decided to develop the festival into an Emporium of Dangerous Ideas – purveying the finest danger in education.  In fact there will be many emporia where the focus will be on selling, exchanging and creating the education of the future.  Events will be happening across the country, developed and facilitated by a range of partners, but always with the aim of challenging what exists and thinking about how it could be.

Dangerous Conversations

Fancy hosting a ‘dangerous conversation’ in an exciting location between the 9th and 18th June?

As part of the Emporium of Dangerous Ideas 2014, would you be willing to help organise a conversation about the future of Scottish education in an unusual, exciting or challenging environment? It could be talking timetabling on a train through the Highlands; or debating classroom layout round a campfire; maybe creativity in a castle or lecturing on a mountain peak?  The only requirement is that you give partners the chance to talk, think and engage in a space which takes them away from their desks/classrooms.

Building on the success of previous Philosophy Cafes, and Creative Learning Network’s Creative Conversations series, we are eager to continue to promote the importance of creative debate and conversation about the future of education.

We aim to have ‘dangerous conversation’ events across the whole of the country, and we would be delighted if you could host one in an exciting location in your area.

All we ask is that you feedback on the debate, and send some pictures which will be collated into an overall presentation of all of the thoughts, questions and images from across Scotland.

Key questions that are likely to be covered are:

  • What will Scottish education look like in the year 2024?
  • What is creativity, and what does it mean for us now?
  • What is the creative space, and how can it best be used?
  • What is the creative lecture, and what is the creative lecturer?
  • What is creative learning and what is the creative learning provider?

All we want you to do is sign up as a host, and pitch us the exciting location that will really inspire debate, get people thinking and talking creatively. We hope your event will be arranged and supported through partnerships; however, small amounts of money could be made available if lack of funding is prohibitive. Please include a brief outline of any such requirements you might have.

Please email Karen Lawson your ideas by Friday 14 February 2014.

CPD, Creative practitioners, Primary schools, Scotland Colleges, Secondary schools

Radio Edutalk – Professional learning for teachers channel

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Radio Edutalk (http://edutalk.cc) is an online radio station and free professional learning resource, organised by teachers David Noble and John Johnston. There are no costs to listeners and shows can be streamed, downloaded or subscribed to anytime, anywhere via most web-enabled devices, including mobile phones and tablet PCs. Shows are broadcast every Wednesday and Thursday evenings at http://www.edutalk.cc/listen.

A series of international education keynotes begins on the ‘Professional learning for teachers’ channel on Thursday 13 February (http://www.edutalk.info/upcoming). These online radio shows feature excellent content, delivered by acclaimed speakers from across the education world. Listeners are able to interact with each speaker via email or Twitter.

A new ‘Professional learning for teachers’ channel has been launched on Radio Edutalk (http://bit.ly/17WB5Sf). Fortnightly online radio shows feature teachers who, having conducted practitioner enquiry and other forms of research into teaching, learning and education, have improved teaching and learning, and pupil attainment and achievement.

For your diary:

·         Thursday 13 February, 6.45 pm – Gerd Leonhard: Futurist in Human Futures, Media, Content, Publishing & Entertainment, Telecommunications and ICT,  Marketing, Branding, Advertising & Communications, Culture & Creative Industries, Energy, and Environment and Sustainability.

·         Thursday 20 February, 7.45 pm – Clare Bryden, Teacher of English at Oban High School.

·         Thursday 6 March, 7.45 pm – Bonnie Stewart and course participants in Communications in Education at the University of Prince Edward Island, Canada. ‘Considering Networked Communications for Educators’.

·         Thursday 13 March, 7.30 pm – Professor Paul Kirschner, Welten Institute, Open University Netherlands. ‘Urban Legends in Education: What does good science say?

CPD, Creative practitioners, Curriculum for Excellence, Education Scotland, Health and Wellbeing, Outdoor learning, Science, Secondary schools

Supporting Outdoor Learning in Secondary Schools (event)

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Saturday 1 March 2014, 9.30 am – 4.00 pm

St Joseph’s Academy, Kilmarnock

In the revised GTCS Standards for Career Long Professional Learning teachers are required to ‘understand and develop the most appropriate contexts for learning including outdoor learningand be able to apply appropriate pedagogies for these environments’. This event aims to support this and build confidence and capacity in the delivery of outdoor learning in secondary schools in particular within Broad General Education (S1-S3).

This is a free event open to secondary teachers in Scotland – in particular those who are starting out on their outdoor learning journey and wish to develop their confidence in taking the curriculum outdoors. There is an expectation that those who attend this event will be willing to share their learning with colleagues in their establishment.

Registering for this event: If you wish to attend this event please register online byWednesday 19 February @ https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VSCB9NP

Early registration is advised as this event is likely to be very popular. Workshop choices will be sent out mid-February.

If you would like further information about this event please contact: Fiona Cruickshanks, Development Officer, Outdoor Learning Fiona.Cruickshanks@educationscotland.gov.uk