Category Archives: Scottish Borders

Local Authority and College CLN Collaboration in the Borders

A joint event between the Scottish Borders Council and Borders College CLNs’ was held on Thursday 25th April with the aim of building links across the college and local authority networks. Participants came from Primary, Secondary, FE and HE.  Phil Orr, Borders College Creative Catalyst and Susanne Batchelor, Scottish Borders Council Creative Learning Manager led this initial session. The first part of the morning was spent looking at creativity in education, locally, nationally and internationally through film clips and presentations.

During the second part of the morning participants worked in groups to generate ideas using the ‘Ideas Trail’ toolkit, developed by UXL Ltd. Each group were given a question about Creativity and were asked to come up with 50 ideas.

  1. How do we create different spaces/environments for creative teaching and learning?
  2. How do we engage partners in creative teaching and learning?
  3. How do we assess/measure/capture creativity of students?
  4. How do we improve the way we teach to further develop creativity in our learners?

The ideas were then narrowed down during group discussions and two ‘Red Hot’ ideas were selected and presented. A general discussion was then held around the next steps and how to continue to develop the network.

Some comments from discussions:

“The creative process is a specialist term which needs an agreed definition so we all know what we’re talking about.”

“I love everything about teaching creatively but I’m really concerned about what exactly to write in my planning folder when my HT (and others I’m sure) expect teachers’ plans to detail every session to the nth degree. Looking forward to discussing it further with others.”

“Listening to like minded people – encouraged that teachers too could share the vision for change.”

“Thinking about my own teaching and that I do teach creatively but there is always room to improve and build on.”

“Networking, learning a strategy for starting creative thinking processes in my class and in other education groups of which I am a part.”

Discussion of where to go from here and take it back into the work place to develop. Opportunity to share ideas of how to overcome difficulties and promote ideas further”

“Continue to teach creatively and look to improve it, also to try to encourage colleagues to be open to creativity”

NEXT STEPS:

From the ideas generated and from the feedback received, the next steps for the partnership CLNs from Scottish Borders Council and Borders College are:

  • To continue the innovation conversation in schools and college through further planned joint sessions and CPD
  • To implement some of the Red Hot ideas through pilots on schools and college
  • To develop materials and use processes to allow the sharing of good practice and the continued development of creativity in teaching and learning in the Borders Region.

Scottish Borders Cultural Ambassador wins GTCS Professional Recognition Award for Creative Learning

Sarah Gulliver-Goodal, Cultural Ambassador for Scottish Borders CLN, was recently awarded the GTCS professional recognition award for Creative Learning. Here she writes about the process of applying for professional recognition and what the award means to her.

“Going for Professional Recognition in Creativity was a huge decision and a long term personal commitment. The first step was very deliberately looking at my own practice and my place within school by evaluating and reflecting on my work. I felt able to go ahead once I was based in one primary school rather than travelling between schools, even though I do have three distinct roles within the school: Art CST, Nursery Teacher and PT cover teaching in P1.

Art and creativity within the primary school is very important to me and I wanted to be part of a change that would see creativity/ arts being a key aspect of learning across the curriculum at every stage. Professional recognition for me included cpd training, professional reading, gallery visits and leading a whole school creative arts project over 12 months which culminated in an exhibition in our local town hall. I benefitted from networking with visual artists, sculptors, sound artists and other professionals working in the Heritage Hub, in SBC planning and at Historic Scotland. Following the project work and the public exhibition the children are much more aware of their own creativity and they have more confidence in the quality of their own work. Staff readily use my expertise both within formal art sessions and informally as a resource for practical help.

Using reflection and evaluation of my work at each stage of the project has benefitted me as an individual and as a teacher. My planning and assessments are more focused now, I’m more aware of actively involving pupils in their learning and of working with pupils in new ways.

Professional recognition has been a very valuable learning tool for me not just a one-off cpd session but a way of working from now on.

The certificate presentation ceremony hosted by the GTCS at the Scottish Parliament was inspirational in itself and it was lovely to be supported in this by my Head Teacher, Maggie Norman. I love my work and get a lot of personal satisfaction back from the extra effort; it felt really good to receive recognition.”

Sarah Gulliver-Goodall

Cultural Ambassador, Scottish Borders Creative Learning Network

To read Scottish Borders CLN blog click here

National Creative Learning Network at SLF 2012

National Creative Learning Network at SLF 2012

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.

  • Creative Learners, Creative Thinkers, Creative Careers (Edinburgh)
  • Showcasing Fife’s Creative Learning Network (Fife)
  • What’s the Past got to do with us? (Aberdeenshire)

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:

  • Arts and Culture as a Catalyst for Learning: The Aberdeen Arts Across Learning Festival (Aberdeen City)
  • Inspiring Creativity, Highland’s Creativity Conference (Highland)
  • Supporting Drama through Literacy – Learners with Mild to Severe and Complex Needs (Dumfries & Galloway)
  • Challenging Creativity Creatively (Edinburgh)
  • The Big Drum Experiment (Scottish Borders)
  • Little Rabbit: drama for early years (Angus)
  • Teachers Realising their Creative Potential (Aberdeen City)
  • Write a Song in 30 Minutes (Stirling)

To view the full Education Showcase programme click here

The NCLN consists of the 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

NCLN at SLF 2012

Members of the NCLN are contributing to this year’s Scottish Learning Festival – ‘Creative Learning…Creative Thinking’ – in a number of ways, whether presenting on creative initiatives or sharing Creative Learning Network news. The programme includes the following:

Seminar Programme

Creative Learners, Creative Thinkers, Creative Careers – Modern Apprentices and Student Councillor, Edinburgh

Showcasing Fife’s Creative Learning Network ­– Michelle Sweeney, Fife

What’s the Past got to do with us? – David Atherton, Aberdeenshire

Visit the SLF website to view the full seminar programme

Education Showcase

Arts and Culture as a Catalyst for Learning: The Aberdeen Arts Across Learning Festival – Jacky Hardare, Aberdeen City

Inspiring Creativity – Amy McLeod, Highland

Supporting Drama through Literacy – Learners with Mild to Severe and Complex Needs – Lesley Sloan, Dumfries & Galloway

Challenging Creativity Creatively – Linda Lees, Edinburgh

The Big Drum Experiment ­– Susanne Batchelor, Scottish Borders

Little Rabbit – Pauline Meikleham, Angus

Teachers Realising their Creative Potential – Jacky Hardacre, Aberdeen

Write a Song in 30 Minutes – Marco Rea, Stirling

To view the full Education Showcase programme click here

Creative Teviot & Liddesdale

As part of the Scottish Borders 2011-12 CLN fund we held a ‘Creativity’ day with Cultural Ambassadors, partners and pupils in the Teviot and Liddesdale Learning Community (Hawick area).

The event included three main themes

  • An evaluation of creative projects in the previous year
  • The role of the CLN, Cultural Ambassadors and partners
  • Future plans for championing creative learning across the learning community

The discussions from the day were captured in the following animation

http://vimeo.com/39619613

During the morning Simone Russell gave an animation workshop to S2 pupils from Hawick High School. Simone and the pupils then worked with the rest of the group to animate their conversations.

Jane Gaze (Historic Scotland), Judith Murray (Cultural Ambassador, Hawick High School) and S2 pupils

New community music project inspired by St Abb’s Head

Local communities across the Scottish Borders will join forces at Eyemouth Primary School on 14 November as part of a new community project celebrating nature, heritage and music in the area.

The St Abb’s Head Music Project is a collaboration between the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO), the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) and Scottish Borders Council Youth Music Initiative. Over the past five months, school pupils and local residents have been working with composer Howard Moody and SCO musicians to write music inspired by the land and seascape around the popular St Abb’s Head National Nature Reserve and St Abb’s Head Voluntary Marine Reserve.

45 pupils from Eyemouth and Coldingham Primary Schools and members of both the Eyemouth Fishermen’s Choir and Mission Crew have created songs based on the NTS site.

The project is part of a wider programme in which Howard Moody has been commissioned to write a new piece for the SCO that celebrates the significance of St Abb’s Head. His as-yet-untitled work will be informed by the creative work of both the children and the choirs from in and around Eyemouth.

The commission will be premiered as part of the SCO’s annual summer tour to the South of Scotland in May 2012, with performances in Duns (24 May) and Galashiels (25 May).

Work began in May with the pupils visiting the site to record sounds of the area: from these recordings they created ‘Sonic Postcards’, with contemporary music organisation Sound and Music. These postcards combine recorded sounds with words to create a ‘sound postcard’ of the area. Using the Sonic Postcards as a starting point, the pupils and Howard Moody have written songs together inspired by the site.
The Fishermen’s Choir and Mission Crew have also been hard at work rehearsing a new song written especially for them by Howard Moody. The song, Waimie Carr, is based on the rock of the same name in St Abb’s Bay and was created following a discussion Howard had with keen local historian Rennie Weatherhead about the area.

The new works will be performed at an informal gathering of parents and members of the community at Eyemouth Primary School on 14 November, accompanied by an ensemble of SCO musicians.

SCO Connect Project Officer Kirsten Hunter said: “Being part of the process of bringing together the two ends of the age spectrum in this intergenerational project has been an inspiration for SCO Connect. It has been wonderful project to be involved in, and the pupils and choirs have created some fantastic music. This is the first time we have worked with the National Trust for Scotland and it has been a real collaboration and sharing of ideas between the two national organisations. The support the project has received from Scottish Borders Arts Development Team has been tremendous and greatly appreciated.”

Sandra Morrison, Learning Manager NTS added, “Working together on the St Abbs project, it is clear that the SCO and NTS have developed a first-rate partnership.  Add to that the support of a forward-thinking local authority, Scottish Borders Council, and the collaboration blossoms into something very special. For the NTS we have found a new and creative way to raise awareness of the uniqueness of St Abbs, with its coastal and marine nature reserves.  Using music as a means to share our knowledge of this wonderful place and to encourage others to enjoy it and support our work has been invigorating.  Watching the different generations coming together to share their experiences has been incredibly rewarding and I am really looking forward to hearing Howard Moody’s composition next year, when we again have another opportunity to talk about St Abbs and all it has to offer us as humans, as well as the birds and wildlife”.

Councillor Graham Garvie, Executive Member for Culture, Sport and Community Learning at Scottish Borders Council, said: “We are very grateful to Creative Scotland’s Youth Music Initiative for funding which has enabled local pupils to be involved in this unique project.  It is very exciting that they are working with renowned composer Howard Moody and the SCO musicians to produce a piece of music that SCO will take on tour with them.”