Category Archives: Subjects and Themes

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.

Social Studies

My Place Photography Competition and new website

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Happy New Year! Happy new website!

The Scottish Civic Trust enters 2014 with a fresh new look on our website www.scottishcivictrust.org.uk with a dedicated area for the My Place Photography Competition click HERE to view now.

The My Place Photography microsite has lots of new features for all of your My Place Photography Competition entries.

There is a new member’s area for schools and teachers with a multiple image upload facility that automatically resizes your photographs, so no need to crop or cut before you submit.

Click HERE to register as a new member

Our resources section has lots of hints tips and help sheets on how to use the site and on how take make great photography.

Click HERE to view our competition resources

My Place Photography Competition is open to all school age children in Scotland; it is FREE to take part in and is a great way of getting out and about with young people, getting into your local cities, towns and villages and exploring your very own built environments through photography.

Click HERE for more information on the My Place Photography Competition

The competition closes on Friday 31 January so make sure to register and upload images as soon as they are ready.
Happy snapping from all at Scottish Civic Trust

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.

Social Studies

The Scottish Civic Trust My Place Photography Competition 2013-2014 is now OPEN FOR ENTRY

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What is the My Place Photography Competition?

Now in their ninth year the Scottish Civic Trust My Place Photography Competition is a heritage photographic competition for young people of school age in Scotland. It is aimed at encouraging young people to explore their built environments in a creative way using photography as means of investigation and creative expression.

The My Place Photography Competition is part of Scotland’s contribution to European Heritage Days, and links into the International Heritage Photographic Experience run out of Barcelona and to the Council of Europe. The project is supported by the Historic Scotland and the 2014 competition is supported by The Lighthouse and Architecture + Design Scotland.

Who can enter?
All young people in Scotland are eligible to enter.
Entrants should be of either primary school age or secondary school age.
Entries should be made by a group leader or teacher on behalf of their students.

All entries are recognised with a certificate and will be placed in an online gallery, displayed in a public exhibition at The Lighthouse, Scotland’s Centre for Design and Architecture.
Two winners will be selected by a panel of judges and these will go on to represent Scotland in a worldwide exhibition and catalogue.

How can you take part?

Entries must be made by 31 January 2014

Share the message


If you would like to help promote the My Place Photography Competition with your colleagues and networks here are a few things you can do:

  • share out this email by forwarding to your networks
  • send an invitation out to sign up for the SCT eBulletin HERE
  • join the Scottish Civic Trust online on Facebook and Twitter

Languages and Literacy

Inspired? Get writing! Creative Writing Competition 2013/14 – Closing date 17 January

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National Galleries of Scotland

·         There are 5 categories:

·         Under 12 years

·         12 – 14 years

·         15-18 years

·         Adults prose

·         Adults poetry

Write a poem or piece of prose inspired by one of the works in the collections of the National Galleries of Scotland. As a guide, pieces should not be more that about 1,000 words in length. Images of many of the works can be accessed through the NGS website www.nationalgalleries.org in the section ‘ONLINE COLLECTIONS’.

Entries should be typed, double spaced for prose and in a clear font. An entry form should be completed, giving your name and the required details as the last page of the attachment, and sent to inspired@esuscotland.org.uk.  Entries should be submitted by Friday 17 January 2014. Results of the competition will be announced by Thursday 17 April 2014.

Health and Wellbeing, Music

Big Big Sing – Song Writing Competition

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Write a Commonwealth Games song! Big Big Sing is a nationwide celebration of singing that will inspire thousands of people to get singing in the lead up to and during Games Time.  As part of this project, Big Big Sing is running an exciting songwriting competition open to Primary and Secondary School pupils in Scotland.

Big Big Sing invites pupils to write a song inspired by the Commonwealth Games, pupils can work individually or as a class to write a song between three and five minutes in length.  With the games just around the corner there’s no shortage of inspiration for budding songwriters!

Dance, Drama, Music, Religious and Moral Education, Social Studies

Show Racism the Red Card’s Anti-Racism/Anti-Sectarianism Creative Competition

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2013/2014 marks the 10th anniversary of the annual Show Racism the Red Card’s Anti-Racism/Anti-Sectarianism Creative Competition in Scotland. The Creative Competition is an integral part of the Show Racism the Red Card’s work in Scotland and has become a central feature in the calendar with almost one in five of Scotland’s schools having participated in the competition.  Entries are welcome from both individuals as well as class groups and the closing date for all entries is Friday 31st January 2014.

To enter, school and college students must develop a piece of creative work that gets across loud and clear the important message that racism and/or sectarianism is not welcome in Scotland.  This could be artwork, poetry, a short story, creative writing, music, a dance/drama performance, research project or multimedia presentation.

Competition winners will be invited to a star-studded award ceremony at Hampden Park in March, attended by the elite of Scottish football, to receive public acclaim for their work and receive their prizes.

For further information please visit the Show Racism website.

Drama, Languages and Literacy

Puppetry Workshop for teachers – linked to War Horse

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29 January, 4.30 pm

http://bit.ly/1ifTdum (Glow log-in required)

Join us for this exciting behind the scenes look at puppetery as teachers work with Finn Caldwell who is one of the original War Horse puppeteers. Finn has directed the puppetry for productions of War Horse in the West End and in Australia.  He has also just directed the puppetry in The Light Princess at the National Theatre and is directing a children’s puppetry show called Elephantom in The Shed.

For full details of these and other events, please log in to Glow and view the current schedule (Glow log-in and password required).

Sciences

Astrobiology Summer Academy 13th-16th July 2014

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An opportunity for biology and physics teachers to explore curiosity and ‘what if’ questions to creatively unlock the field of astrobiology.

The Astrobiology Summer Academy is a four day CPD programme (Sunday to Wednesday) for Biology AND Physics teachers to learn about the science of Astrobiology and work with researchers and lecturers to develop CfE lesson plans for topics such as ‘extremophiles’ (CfE Higher Biology) and ‘life in the Universe’ (SCN-3-06a, SCN 4-06a). There are 20 places available for teachers and you can register your interest at www.astrobiologyacademy.org