School Fest 2014

School Fest 2014 is a new concept giving all UK schools the opportunity to participate in a national competition.

There is a category for Secondary Schools and one for Primary schools and all the submissions are entered online by the school, therefore all UK schools can participate no matter where their location, as there are no transport costs involved.

The majority of schools in the UK have pupils who participate in one or more of the following:-
An end of term show
A choir
An orchestra
An in house school talent competition
Talented musicians
Talented individual vocalists
Dance, drama and other performing arts groups

This is an opportunity for schools to show their skills in performing arts to a wide audience across the UK
School Fest is a great way to bring the school together in all performing arts whilst creating an environment in which pupils can gain confidence and develop skills in performance and multimedia resources by receiving independent feedback.

All schools that enter will receive written feedback on their entries from experienced industry professionals who have no contact with that region and are not familiar with the schools or any of the pupils.
Teachers and pupils will have the chance to represent the school by attending the regional and UK finals at one of the six live Talent Fest UK events but this is not obligatory.

There is no cost to the school to participate, however, Chase the Stage Events will ask schools to make all the pupils aware that they can attend any of the live Talent Fest UK festivals throughout the UK on an individual basis, if they are talented and wish to enter the National Competitions held on the day.

Download a copy of the School Fest Info Pack.

‘Meet’ Holly Cram, the Game On Ambassador: Thur, 30 Jan, 10am

‘Game On Scotland’ Special:

Holly Cram – the Game On Scotland Ambassador live on Glow

30 January, 10.00

Join here: http://bit.ly/1eDHCnt

Holly, a Scottish International Hockey player with over 140 caps, has join the Game On Scotland Team as official ambassador to assist schools in making the most of the exciting opportunities the 2014 Commonwealth Games offer young people.

Holly will tell you about her exciting career as a international hockey player and share some of her insights into what makes a successful team player. She will also answer any questions you always wanted to ask a top athlete!

See you all on Thursday! Game On!

Skills for Learning, Life and Work

Education Scotland has entered into dialogue with a range of stakeholders to highlight key issues surrounding skills for life, learning and work. As part of this we have been running a series of conversation days which allow key issues to be identified and discussed across sectors, and enable focussed action planning. We have also developed a skills blog where a range of useful resources and links can be found. The link below will direct you to the blog. Please browse the site and we would welcome both your comments and the sharing of your experiences of skills across the curriculum.

http://skillsconversations.wordpress.com/

Our first skills conversation day was held on September 5th in Loch Leven Community Campus, Kinross. The morning provided stimulating conversation pieces, and facilitated discussions among delegates to identify key issues for the afternoon session. Three issues were identified and taken forward to the ‘implemento’ table discussion in the afternoon, these were:

• Develop common language and understanding of skills
• Effectively plan for progression in the development of skills
• Ensure employers are fully engaged in young people’s learning

An outline of the range of discussions and subsequent actions can be found under the ‘skills conversation session 2’ using the link below.
http://skillsconversations.wordpress.com/2013/09/30/collated-feedback-and-actions-from-conversation-day-1/

Please feel free to leave comments as we would very much value your thoughts and ideas on the above points.
Further to this, the blog also contains a selection of presentations from each of the conversation pieces from a range of stakeholders from schools to Scottish Government.

Expressive Arts Support Materials for National Qualifications

Support materials for the following courses are now available on the Education Scotland NQ Course Materials pages(glow login required).

http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/nqcoursematerials/

Art & Design: National 3 and Higher
Music: National 3 and Higher
Music Technology: National 3 and Higher

The course materials have been prepared by teachers for teachers. They draw from three sources – course materials commissioned by Education Scotland, other support materials produced by teachers seconded to Education Scotland and course materials provided by teachers through their Education Authorities.

Further materials will be added as they become available.