The National Creative Learning Network (NCLN) is a community of practice which has a leadership role in championing and advocating creativity in both formal and informal learning contexts. The Network is well represented at this year’s SLF, with members from local authorities across Scotland leading workshops and seminars throughout the two days of the festival.

Seminar Programme: Find out about the benefits of being involved in a Creative Learning Network at Fife’s CLN Showcase seminar. Or, find out what being creative means to Edinburgh’s young apprentices in the Creative Learners, Creative Thinkers, Creative Careers session. Visit the SLF website to view the full seminar programme.

Education Showcase: The Showcase programme features demonstrations, experiments, drama and music making with NCLN contributions from a number of authorities. To view the Education Showcase programme click here.

Creative Learning Networks: The NCLN consists of the group of coordinators who lead each local authority’s Creative Learning Network. Visit the Creativity Portal to find out who your local Creative Learning Network contact is: http://bit.ly/Creative_Learning_Contacts.

Find out more about the Creative Learning Networks by watching one of the short films on the Creativity Portal: http://bit.ly/CLN_Creativity_Portal.

Invitation

To celebrate the Year of Creative Scotland, leading artists from all disciplines have been invited to deliver artistic engagement workshops with children at the Creative Scotland stall during the Scottish Learning Festival.

The Creative Scotland stall in hall 3 intends to engage, inspire and inform. The programme of activities demonstrates the many powerful and positive impacts of working creatively to deliver Curriculum for Excellence and offers an opportunity to discuss the work and partnerships with artists experienced in working in education.

The attached schedule details the times, dates and activities of the artists. Please drop in and see excellent artistic engagement in action.

The Scottish Learning Festival is open for visitors on Wednesday, September 19^th from 9am-5pm and on Thursday, September 20^th from 9am -4pm. For further details about the Scottish Learning Festival and to register, please visit http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/slf/index.asp

If you have any questions about the Cultural Village programme please contact Elisabeth at

Creativity at work films are now available on the Creativity Portal. So far these include eight interviews with scientists, designers, a space exploration engineer, an architect, a ballet dancer, a cameraman and a baker on how creativity is vital to their work and what that process feels like. The films demonstrate how professionals generate ideas, formulate questions, improvise, make connections and allow ideas to evolve. This is a useful cross-curricular resource, with a focus on careers and skills for life.  It is perfect support for any design challenge, poster competition, or creative problem that you may be offering your learners, as well as supporting careers and pathways across all subjects.

http://creativityportal.org.uk/?q=creativity+at+work

Visit the Creativity Portal to view 13 examples of how teachers and community learning staff have used creative teaching in the classroom and community setting to deliver Curriculum for Excellence. From games design to storytelling, whole school strategy to pizza boxes these are small moments of creative inspiration that can be used to inform practitioners’ own work.  They provide CPD in how to take the challenges that Curriculum for Excellence poses and run with them.  The Creativity in the Classroom films are available now on the Creativity Portal.

http://creativityportal.org.uk/?q=creativity+in+the+classroom&c=%2Cvideos

Log on to the Creativity Portal to find 21 very short creative thinking exercises for use with whole groups of young people in the classroom or community setting.  These are great warm up/warm down/filler activities that develop creative thinking skills and can be used as a one off exercise or one a day for several weeks. Get your pupils and young people developing their creative skills right now!

The Creativity Toybox films are available now on the Creativity Portal: http://creativityportal.org.uk/?q=&t=,creativity-toybox

Playday is asking anyone aged 5 to 18 years old to tell them about play and free time in the Playday online survey. Encourage children and young people to take part and help to build a picture of what play and free time is like for children and young people across the UK. Playday is the national day for play, a celebration of children’s right to play and a campaign that raises awareness about the importance of play in children’s lives. The survey is also available as a document to print off and Playday has also created slips to give out to publicise the survey at an event or in your setting.

http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/newsandevents/educationnews/2012/educational/august/news_tcm4729824.asp
http://www.playday.org.uk/playday_campaigns/playday_2012_get_out_and_play/playday_2012_survey.aspx

Education Scotland, in association with Scotland’s Colleges <http://www.scotlandscolleges.ac.uk/> , is presenting this national conference on how well colleges and schools develop learners’ essential skills, building upon their prior experiences and preparing them for further learning or employment opportunities. The keynote speakers will be Michael Russell MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Education, and Ian McMillan CBE, Director of CBI Scotland. With Curriculum for Excellence as the focal point, the conference workshops will explore planning, and learning and teaching approaches to develop and recognise learners’ essential skills.

http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/newsandevents/events/2012/eventgeneral_tcm4727005.asp

Education Scotland has recently published a practical guide to support the development of the key messages surrounding Building the Curriculum 4: Skills for Learning, Life and Work. It will provide teachers and other practitioners with support to help them ensure that skills development is an integral part of learning throughout the broad general education stage of Curriculum for Excellence.

http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/resources/s/skillsinpractice/introduction.asp?strReferringChannel=educationscotland&strReferringPageID=tcm:4-615801-64

Creativity as a Thinking Skill –

http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/resources/s/skillsinpracticethinkingskills/creativity.asp

Peploe art exhibition at St Andrews Museum, 24 August, 11.10 – Two curators will take you behind the scenes at the museum. They will talk about the work of the Scottish colourist painter, Samuel Peploe.

British Council Scotland announces that the final countdown has begun towards the historic Edinburgh International Culture Summit <http://britishcouncil.us2.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=f93e948a279d85ee60e587244&id=56afe9666a&e=861265b16b>  on August 13-14. The first ever event of its kind, the Summit will bring together Ministers of Culture and other representatives from more than 40 countries around the world to debate the power of culture to act as a bridge between nations. The British Council is one of four partners making this groundbreaking event happen, together with the Scottish Government, the UK Government and the Edinburgh International Festival.

http://www.eics2012.com/