Category Archives: Languages and Literacy

Colleges, Community Learning and Development, Languages and Literacy, Primary, Secondary, THIS IS A TEST

Flash Fiction Writing Competition 2014

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The Special Collections Centre is home to the University’s historic collections of books, manuscripts, archives and photographs.

For the third year running the Special Collections Centre is running a Flash Fiction Competition for Book Week Scotland. Get inspired by four fabulous images from the rare books and archives collections and send in your 500-word short story. Prizes to be won for both children and adult categories! For more details, visit the Flash Fiction 2014 tab on the Book Week Scotland page.

http://abdn.ac.uk/library/about/special/book-week-scotland/

Languages and Literacy, Sciences

Design a River Creature Competition – British Council

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Win a trip to Totally Thames with Rivers of the World
Enter your primary school into our ‘Design a River Creature’ competition
The prize

We will pay for the winning team to take part in the Totally Thames season of events and enjoy lots of fun activities including a student workshop at the British Council and a visit to the Tower Bridge Experience.
What do I need to do?

Using the Rivers of the World education pack as a resource, ask students to work in groups of five to create an art work and an accompanying piece of creative writing. It can be based on a real or imaginary creature from an overseas country and river ecosystem.

Who can enter?

Primary Schools Years 4 & 5 (5 and 6 in Scotland)

Closing date: 12 noon, 27 June 2014.

Find out more and apply:

http://britishcouncil.cmail1.com/t/r-i-xdjgud-l-t/

The Rivers of the World education pack contains high quality, river themed cross-curricular lesson ideas. As well as a supporting resource for this competition, the pack can be used as a stand-alone resource or collaboratively with a partner school.
Languages and Literacy

The Edinburgh International Book Festival – where fantastic facts meet fascinating fiction

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The Edinburgh International Book Festival has over 60 inspiring author events for school pupils of all ages. Running from 18-26 August, the programme features the best writers and illustrators for young people and covers a host of subjects relevant to the curriculum, from the Vikings to the First World War.  A transport fund is available to help schools meet the cost of taking their pupils to the Festival, and every child who attends an event will receive a £2 book voucher to spend in the Festival’s bookshops. There is also a series of Continuing Professional Development events for education professionals. Further information and full programme listings can be found on the Book Festival website and in the brochure.

Website: https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/education/baillie-gifford-schools-programme

Brochure: https://d3v4sx4i2y2qe1.cloudfront.net/cdnstatic/36f2615d6cbe2efd637c5808f8a5ebdf5d9425ed/uploads/programme_pdfs/2014_schools_brochure.pdf

Languages and Literacy, Social Studies

The Society of William Wallace – competition for Glasgow schools

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https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/glowblogs/eslb/2014/04/23/the-society-of-william-wallace-competition-for-glasgow-schools/

Calling all schools in Glasgow City Council! The Society of William Wallace has been successful in securing a new Wallace Monument at the esplanade of Glasgow Cathedral. The monument will be erected in June of this year. We would like to invite pupils to write a short poem which will be inscribed on the monument. The poem must be 20 words or less and should consider the contribution of William Wallace.

This competition will run from 1 May to 14 June for all schools in Glasgow City Council. We are encouraging all schools to run their own competition and send the winning entry from each school to this address: surge2gether@ntlworld.com by no later than 14 June.

Entries will be judged by a prestigious panel and the winner announced on 30 June.

Languages and Literacy, Religious and Moral Education, Social Studies

Shape the Future competition – creative change

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Schools should be aware of the upcoming second Shape the Future competition which will be launched on the 28 April 2014 across the UK. The competition will be open to all UK schools and will ask young people (aged 11-16) to outline and present on their priorities for improving the lives of women and girls worldwide. Following a judging panel, the winning pupils will be invited to attend and present their ideas at a global summit hosted by the Prime Minister in July.

The themes of this short group project fit into subjects across the curriculum, including Modern Studies, RME, Geography, History, English and PSE as well as lending itself to a context for inter-disciplinary learning.  A dedicated ‘Shape the Future’ website will provide teachers with a range of resources to guide pupils through the competition.

Education Scotland has provided a Learning Journey considering aspects of gender equality which will be a helpful resource to schools.  Last year Promoting  Diversity and Equality: Developing Responsible Citizens in 20th century brought to the fore exemplars of good practice and resources to assist in taking forward approaches to diversity and equality.

On 7 May Game On Scotland and Education Scotland  have organised a conference for Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games: Promoting Equality and Diversity it will reflect on the three core values of the Commonwealth Games Federation, humanity, equality and destiny.  The conference will provide delegates with a speakers and workshops focused on values education in a global context as well as the inclusion of all.

Drama, Languages and Literacy, Social Studies

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.

Languages and Literacy, Social Studies

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.

Developing the Young Workforce, Languages and Literacy

imPRESS Scottish School Media Awards

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Creative pupils invited to ‘impress’ at the Scottish School Media Awards

Pupils attending Scotland’s secondary schools are being encouraged to submit their print or online ‘newspaper’ for the Scottish School Media Awards, with the best of the entries from Scotland’s young creative talent being revealed at a ceremony in Edinburgh on Friday 13 June.

The awards aim to encourage young people into careers in publishing and the creative industries, and are of particular interest to pupils who have an interest in writing, photography, design and business, giving them a unique opportunity to demonstrate their organisational skills, team work and creative flair, while gaining hands-on experience in managing a project from start to finish.

There are 14 categories, from outstanding features to the most exceptional finished magazine or newspaper. Pupils have until Wednesday 30 April to submit their entries, with the imPRESS judging panel looking for projects that have evidence of strong content and commercial thinking.

For more information and to register visit www.impressscotland.co.uk.

Languages and Literacy

Novel Idea for Gaelic Speaking Children – First Authors Live event to be held for Gaelic Pupils

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A spotlight is to be turned on the Gaelic language as part of a free book event on Thursday 23 January, which will be broadcast live over the internet to Gaelic-speaking pupils across Scotland as part of the Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme.

BBC presenter Derek Macintosh will host the event, and novelist, playwright and theatre artist Catriona Lexy Campbell will perform three stories from the Scottish Children’s Book Awards Bookbug Readers shortlist; Paper Dolls, Jumblebum and What’s the Time Mr Wolf?

The free Authors Live event, run by Scottish Book Trust and BBC Scotland Learning is suitable for children aged 3-7 and will be streamed live from the BBC Scotland Learning website on Thursday 23 January at 11 am. Pupils can tune in to watch it in the comfort of their classroom, library or computer suite.

All the events are available to watch again at www.bbc.co.uk/authorslive and http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/learning/authors-live/on-demand.