Visit the Journey to Excellence website to see examples of Scottish education using Promoting Innovative Practice and Transformative Change, a strategic thinking toolkit for change projects.
http://www.journeytoexcellence.org.uk/resourcesandcpd/openingupthefuture/index.asp
It’s my Future is a song created by children, young people and adult learners to express their views on how learning needs to change to fulfil their aspirations. It demonstrates what exciting modern learning can look like. Education Scotland wants to hear from children and young people across Scotland about their hopes and aspirations for the future. On Tuesday 4 December at 11am Education Scotland will host a national event at Inveralmond Community High School. The event, led by young people, will help shape future developments in learning and teaching. A Glow TV session will enable children and young people to speak directly to Craig Munro, one of Education Scotland’s strategic directors, and share their views about learning and teaching.
Glow Meet – 4 December 11.00 am http://glo.li/U9VVXA
The Art of Hosting – 9.30 am and 4.30 pm on 6 December 2012
http://www.cldstandardscouncil.org.uk/News_Events/News/The_Art_of_Hosting
As part of our Ideas Academy – developing dialogue, debate and conversation that encourage us to lead, think and act beyond boundaries; being creative, provocative, inspiring and motivating – we are delighted to bring the Art of Hosting to Glasgow on 6 December. The Art of Hosting Meaningful Conversations is a response to a world that is becoming increasingly complex and fragmented, where true solutions and innovations lie not in one leader or viewpoint, but in the larger picture of collective intelligence and wise sustainable action.
Find out more on the CLD Standard Council website.
Live UnLtd, InspirEngage International and Xing Education launched Create Your Career, offering 11–16 year-olds across the UK the opportunity to start their own social enterprise. Successful applicants receive up to £500 kick-start funding, a free place at an InspirEngage Skills Bootcamp and access to support. The deadline for applications is 10 December.
Get Scotland Dancing aims to encourage more people to get active and participate in dance. The 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and 2014 Commonwealth Games, provide an unparalleled opportunity to raise the profile of dance as a creative, participative and physical artform. In support of this Scottish Government policy, Creative Scotland will invest £1.5 million across a four year period, creating an inclusive celebration of dance across Scotland, linking into the wider UK and marking Scotland’s place in the world.
Working with Scotland’s key dance organisations, Get Scotland Dancing will bring together professional and amateur dancers of all ages to dance in public spaces in our towns, villages and cities – bringing dance to the people and people to dance. We want to strengthen opportunities to participate in dance and create a lasting legacy for communities throughout Scotland.
This summer thousands of people across the UK, from professional to amateur dancers, young and old were involved in Big Dance 2012, the UK’s biggest celebration of dance as part of the push to Get Scotland Dancing.
Link to the film.
Working in partnership with VOCAL (the association for culture and leisure managers in Scotland) and the Scottish Government, Education Scotland has now published a final version of How good is our culture and sport? A quality improvement framework for culture and sport provision.
The aim of this publication is to support continuous improvement among the range of organisations that provide services and activities for culture and sport in local areas.
While the principal target and user of the framework is the local authority, it is recommended that local authorities work with others, for example service-providing organisations, including those involved as community planning partners on self-evaluation using the framework. By using it, all of these organisations will be able evaluate their strengths and areas for improvement in providing culture and sport and also the impact of that provision on their communities.
The guidance is centred on using self-evaluation as a key driver for continuous improvement. It defines what self-evaluation for improvement is about, and notes that ‘evidence shows there is a strong link between robust self-evaluation, led by effective leadership and management, and the development of the capacity for further improvement’.
Scottish Borders Council’s Arts Development team has recently helped secure funding for an exciting puppet theatre event for the Borders.
Ruffled Feathers, a community arts group based in Selkirk, has recently been awarded an ‘Awards for all’ grant from the National Lottery. The money will be used to run preparatory workshops for children and young people in advance of a fantastic pop-up puppet theatre event ‘Windows to the future’ next year in Galashiels.
The pop-up puppet theatres will be staged in four empty shop windows and people will see rod and shadow puppets, animation and scenery and audio soundtracks portraying the drama, humour and everyday high-street life starting at 1900 and leading to a visionary ‘Saturday of the future’ window.
Performances will start when shops open and finish when they close, with rolling looped five minute performances throughout the day. The changes in shops, transport and people will give shoppers, visitors, shopkeepers and participants a quirky but very real sense of place with added moments of visual intrigue and wonder. There will also be a surprise ‘street performance’ element that will create what Ruffled Feathers hopes will be an amazing and memorable day in Galashiels.
Councillor Vicky Davidson, Executive Member for Culture, Sport and Community Learning, explained: “The involvement and support of our Arts Development team has helped Ruffled Feathers shape up their exciting project and put together a funding bid. I watched some of their puppet making at a workshop during the recent WASPS art studios open day in Selkirk and it looked great fun for kids and adults alike. The plans for pop-up puppet theatre performances in shop windows will bring colour and fun to the centre of Galashiels but will also give young people a lot of creative enjoyment leading up to the events.”
Ruffled Feathers is encouraging young people from 6-16 years and supportive volunteers to sign up for out-of-school workshops which will involve puppet making, mask making, story development, animation, public performance, set building and more. The workshops will be run by experienced and inspirational artists from the Borders and further afield, local volunteers and, with the support of the council, will prepare for the ‘Windows to the future’ event on the last Saturday of the Easter holidays next year.
How you can get involved:
The free workshops will be run after school on two to three week days and a number of weekends at a central Galashiels venue from November through to March next year. Ruffled Feathers is also looking for enthusiastic people with an interest in arts, crafts and, even better, puppets and some experience of working with young people.
You can contact Ruffled Feathers via the email below or visit Moondogs café or the library in Galashiels to find out more details about times and dates, the project itself including ways of contributing memories and images for research.
For more information:
Email: ruffledfeatherspuppets@gmail.co.uk
Website: www.ruffledfeatherspuppets.co.uk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ruffledfeatherspuppets – ‘Events’.
Do you know a truly creative practitioner, someone who develops truly creative teaching and learning experiences?
You can nominate them now for the Creative Scotland Awards 2012. There is also a Community Arts Award for those working in community settings.
In partnership with the Daily Record, we’re looking for nominations to the Creative Scotland Awards – a celebratory spotlight on the cultural success stories of 2012, and a chance to raise awareness of these stories amongst the people of Scotland.
Find out more and make a nomination…
We pay tribute to two of Scotland’s freshest and most creative young minds, celebrating their achievements at both primary and secondary school levels in Scotland, marking their creative efforts in the education system.
Which event or piece of work went beyond the front row and right into the hearts and homes of the local community? We celebrate a succesful artistic endeavour which has impacted the lives of people in the community.
Working in partnership with Heart of Midlothian and Hibernian Football Clubs ‘Xpress Yourself’ is a short film making programme targeting young people aged 12-19 in the City of Edinburgh, with priority given to those resident in areas of deprivation.
Free taster workshops will take place at Tynecastle and Easter Road, giving participants the opportunity to write, shoot and act, giving them a taste of the filmmaking process.
From these taster sessions the most interested young people will move forward to form core filmmaking groups based at each club, with intensive training and support provided by Screen Education Edinburgh to enable the young people to produce short films.
The taster workshops are being held on Friday 5th October between 1.30pm and 4.30pm at Easter Road Stadium and Friday 12th October between 1.30pm and 4.30pm at Tynecastle Stadium.
Bus fares will be reimbursed to the young people and snacks will be provided.
Young people interested are encouraged to contact Sarah Drummond at Screen Education Edinburgh to register their interest – sarah@screen-ed.org or 07827 292 379
Cashback for Creativity (formally Creative Identities) is Creative Scotland’s programme that provides young people across Scotland with access to high quality dance, film and music activities, funded by the Scottish Government’s CashBack for Communities programme which reinvests the proceeds of crime back into communities to benefit Scotland’s young people.
For further information, please contact sarah@screen-ed.org (Sarah Drummond), or call 07827 292 379, or visithttp://www.screen-ed.org.
CSV Make a Difference Day is the UK’s biggest day of volunteering, and provides opportunities for thousands of people to volunteer every year in activities across the country. This year the campaign is highlighting the different skills people can use to volunteer. From professional skills such as web design, marketing or accountancy to a personal passion for photography, gardening or beauty therapy – everyone can do something to help others.
