http://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/46852.html
SQA announces that school pupils and college students from across Midlothian took their place alongside the great and good of contemporary Scottish art at The Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh in recognition of their work as part of a community art competition, organised in partnership by SQA and Midlothian Council.
The Midlothian Art Challenge encouraged primary and secondary school pupils and college students to take ownership of one of the 25 meeting rooms named after famous Scots at SQA’s new offices at Shawfair Business Park and create a piece of art inspired by that individual.
SQA’s new offices at Shawfair Business Park will open later this year.
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.
There are now 30 creativity filled Glow Groups listed on the Creativity Portal – stacked with resources for drama teachers, literacy, social studies and the moving image. Use the broad sweep search tools on the front page of the Creativity Portal to access a broad range of creative partners, online resources and case studies relating to your own field of expertise.
More of Scotland on film to view online http://www.nls.uk/news
Fans of films about Scotland can enjoy dozens of hours of footage that has been newly digitised by the National Library of Scotland. Over 120 films are available for the first time through the online catalogue of the Scottish Screen Archive. Lasting from under a minute to almost an hour, the films range from silent black and white non-fiction film to a colourful set of three ‘film poems’ with piano accompaniment.
The website is also now searchable on the Creativity Portal within Articles and Links.
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’
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/>
The National Records of Scotland (NRS) has launched its 2011-2012 programme of free workshops and Glow Meet sessions for primary and secondary schools.
New topics include ‘Tartan: a Chequered Tale’, ‘Witches on Trial’ and ‘Scottish Census Records’. Senior secondary students may be interested in ‘Study Skills – using primary sources’, and new sessions that support Higher History topics: The Wars of Independence, 1286-1328, The Age of Reformation, 1542-1603, and Migration and Empire, 1830-1939.
Full details of the Schools Programme and the booking form are available on the NRS education website.
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.
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/
Glow Blogs uses cookies to enhance your experience on our service. By using this service or closing this message you consent to our use of those cookies. Please read our Cookie Policy.