East Ayrshire Dance Festival – YDance

June 22, 2011 S. Bullock Leave a comment

Young dancers put on a great performance for 200 family and friends at the East Ayrshire Dance Festival in Kilmarnock Academy last week. Y Dance, in partnership with the Council’s Active Schools and Creative Minds teams, organised the show starring budding dancers from schools and community groups across East Ayrshire. The youngsters dazzled the audience with lively hip hop, jazz and contemporary dance routines.

http://www.east-ayrshire.gov.uk/corpres/news/showNews.asp?p=4809

South Lanarkshire Council reports that as part of Strathclyde University’s Annual Scottish Space School, NASA astronaut Alvin Drew and rocket scientist Amber Gell visited Uddingston Grammar. They treated 5th year pupils to an in-depth presentation about their work at NASA and gave hints and tips about how to become a scientist, engineer or astronaut.

Alvin, who has just returned from the last ever Discovery Shuttle trip to space, showed footage from on board and gave a detailed account of his extraordinary time on the Space Station. The session was followed by question and answers before Alvin and Amber had a more informal discussion with a small number of pupils from Uddingston Grammar and Holy Cross High.

An exciting competition will give primary school children the chance to set the scene for a new adventure by award-winning Scottish children’s author Lari Don. The Edinburgh-based author will launch the competition on Thursday 23 June, alongside the third book in her popular First Aid for Fairies fantasy series, Storm Singing and Other Tangled Tasks. Children are invited to suggest the perfect real-life Scottish location to be used in the fourth, and final book of the First Aid for Fairies series. The winner’s setting will be incorporated into the thrilling series finale, where it could be visited by one of the fabled beast stars of the adventures (including a centaur, a selkie, a fairy and a dragon). Pupils from James Gillespie’s Primary will celebrate the joint book and competition launch by creating artwork depicting some of their favourite scenes from the first two books First Aid for Fairies series.

Entrants are asked to come up with a location and describe why it is special in no more than 250 words. As well as having their location used in the final book, the winner will also get signed copies of all the books in the series and a special author visit to their class. The deadline for entry is Friday 23 September.

More information about the First Aid for Fairies series and Set the Scene Competition can be found on www.discoverkelpies.co.uk <http://www.discoverkelpies.co.uk> from Thursday 23 June.

Uncategorized

Partnership for Learning Award – Cathkin Community Nursery

June 17, 2011 S. Bullock Leave a comment

Creative Scotland was delighted to present the Partnership for Learning Award to Cathkin Community Nursery yesterday, 14 June 2011, at the Scottish Education Awards. The awards celebrate the hard work and success which takes place in Scottish education.

The partnership for Learning category recognises the partnerships within the education sector that work together to make an outstanding contribution to children and young people’s learning through Curriculum for Excellence

Creativity plays a vital role in the development of Scotland’s learners; it stimulates imagination and innovation whilst building confidence, co-operation and focus. We are working closely with Learning and Teaching Scotland to deliver the Education and the Arts, Culture and Creativity Action Plan which aims to provide exciting learning experiences to ignite children’s imaginations and develop their creative skills.

Joan Parr, Portfolio Manager for Education, Learning and Young People, Creative Scotland, said; ‘Creative Scotland is delighted to support the Partnership for Learning award. We believe that creativity is an essential skill for learning, life and work and we are committed to working with partners to ensure that arts and creativity are embedded into education and to delivering the Scottish Government’s education, arts culture and creativity action plan’.

Liz Merson, Head Teacher at Cathkin Community Nursery, said; ‘It’s a community nursery but it’s a community without walls. There are no barriers to getting involved’

Drama, Music

Creativity in abundance at the Scottish Education Awards

June 17, 2011 S. Bullock Leave a comment

The Scottish Education Award winners were announced this week. Top schools and teaching professionals from across Scotland received their prestigious awards at a ceremony at the Hilton Hotel on 14 June. All three education ministers attended the awards and the Education Secretary Michael Russell congratulated the winners.

Notably all three Finalists in the Probationary Teacher of the Year category appeared to have Creativity at the core of their work with young people – drawing upon the strengths of drama, visual art, singing and heritage to empower and enthuse their pupils.

http://www.engageforeducation.org/2011/06/scottish-education-award-winners-announced/<http://www.engageforeducation.org/2011/06/scottish-education-award-winners-announced/>

Languages and Literacy

Grampian Children’s Book Award awarded by S1-3 in schools across Moray, Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire

June 17, 2011 S. Bullock Leave a comment

Grampian Children’s Book Award goes jointly to The Enemy and Grass. It’s a librarian’s dream to see so many children showing their enthusiasm for reading. There were more than 500 young people in the audience to hear who had won this year’s Grampian Children’s Book Award.

The decision is a popular one and children from schools across the north- east greet the news with screams and cheers of approval. It’s refreshing to see books produce such passion.

This is the seventh annual award open to voters in S1-3 in schools across Moray, Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire. The youngsters have voted two books into joint first position – Catherine MacPhail’s Grass and Charlie Higson’s The Enemy.

MacPhail is there and signs copies of her book afterwards: “I’m absolutely over the moon. I can’t explain it – I am so chuffed,” she says, as a long line of teenagers queue up clutching copies of Grass.

Twelve-year-old Adam Mair from Buckie High in Banffshire is glad that both books are sharing joint first place. “I liked The Enemy because I like a good horror book. Grass was different from what I normally read – I usually read more science fiction and it was more reality-based, so I found it interesting.”

Chloe Johnston, 13, from Meldrum Academy in Inverurie, has enjoyed an afternoon listening to extracts from the six shortlisted titles. “It was a really good atmosphere and a good experience. I read every day. I think this competition introduces kids to other books they might not otherwise have read,” says Chloe.

A committee of librarians runs the event and children at schools across the region vote for the winner. The other four books that made it to the shortlist of six were Angel Cake by Cathy Cassidy, Wasted by Nicola Morgan, Running Wild by Michael Morpurgo and The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.

Drama, Technologies

New Glow Cookbook added: Testing the Waters: Schools and Museums Working Together

June 16, 2011 S. Bullock Leave a comment

A new Glow cookbook from West Dunbartonshire has been added to the articles and links section of the Creativity Portal.

In it we are taken along the journey of Clydebank Museum and a local primary school who embarked upon a highly creative and inspiring project using Glow to expand the possibilities of pupils’ learning.

Visit the Cookbook or search for this and similar resources on the Creativity Portal itself:

http://cookbooks.glowscotland.org.uk/blog/2011/05/25/testing-the-waters-schools-and-museums-working-together/

Developing the Young Workforce, Music

NATIONWIDE MUSIC COMPETITION FOR YOUNG PEOPLE TO FIND NEXT BRIT THING

June 16, 2011 S. Bullock Leave a comment

Young people aged 11-19 from Great Britain and Northern Ireland are being encouraged to register for Next BRIT Thing – a major new nationwide music competition backed by the UK music industry and The Government.

The competition is a major cross-curricular learning opportunity from Government and the music industry with wide appeal, enabling 11-19 year olds to develop their creative talents, confidence and skills.] Young people entering Next BRIT Thing will also have access to high-quality tutorials and resources to help them improve their skills, develop confidence and explore careers in the creative industries.

Next BRIT Thing is looking for young musicians in any genre to share their performances, compete in online charts and perform live. There are separate categories for both pop and classical music, with an additional award for composition.

Next BRIT Thing is open to all 11-19 year olds whether in formal education or not. It offers entrants a raft of prizes and money-can’t-buy opportunities, including the chance to perform in front of thousands and exclusive support and guidance from musicians and songwriters.

The lucky winners – to be chosen by Take That star Gary Barlow and a team of influential artists and music industry executives – will be crowned Next BRIT Thing and receive a unique award.

The Next BRIT Thing website at www.nextbritthing.com is already open for registration. From September 2011, entrants can submit video and audio of their performances to be assessed by their peers as a weekly chart. The most popular entries each week will progress to regional finals in November 2011, culminating in a national final early in 2012.

Uncategorized

Enterprise and Partnership Opportunities

June 16, 2011 S. Bullock Leave a comment

The Enterprise Practitioners Association welcomes individuals from across education, and employers, who are interested in enterprising practice. It aims to bring together educators alongside partners in the public, private and third sector who have an interest in both education and skills development. This new association will be running a series of CPD events. The first is on 27 August in Edinburgh, for programme details visit: http://events.scotlandscolleges.ac.uk/events/show/4003
Web site:– http://epa.e.scotcol.ac.uk/ <http://epa.e.scotcol.ac.uk/>
Twitter:– @EPAScot

News, opportunities, research and strategy relating to creative teaching and learning in Scotland