St Andrew’s Day 2015 – Seven educational ways to celebrate!
As St Andrew’s Day 2015 approaches, many schools will be thinking about how best to incorporate
Studying Scotland in lessons. Scotland’s national day on November 30 is a great opportunity to
capitalise on learners’ curiosity about their country – especially in the areas of expressive arts,
literacy and social studies.
Why not use St Andrew’s Day as a way of encouraging some deeper learning about Scotland?
There’s always the usual colourful day of fun with Saltires and tartan, but many practitioners are
now seeing that the exploration of Scottish culture and history can provide a rich context for this,
and are planning programmes of learning that will take in our national day at the end of the month.
The Scots language co-ordinators at Education Scotland have put together the following list of seven
suggestions for meaningful learning about Scotland during November. There is a range of fun,
exciting activities here, all of which will deepen and enhance learners’ knowledge of Scotland.
1) Explore the brand new Scots Language hub area on the Education Scotland website. Watch the
animated history of the Scots Language, explore 100 Key Words in your local variety of Scots, or
browse Celebrating Scotland’s Scientists and enter the competition to write a biography of
Alexander Fleming in Scots.
http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/learningandteaching/curriculumareas/languages/scotslangua
ge/index.asp
Or why not learn some Gaelic with your youngsters? There’s a wealth of information on Gaelic
language and culture within the new 1+2 Languages resource, Go! Gaelic (http://go-gaelic.scot/).
2) Have you used the Education Scotland Studying Scotland website? This extensive resource is
packed with a wealth of material on Scotland’s history, culture, and our place in the world. A
favourite resource of ours is the material on Scotland’s place names in the Contexts for Study
section – why not find out what your school’s Scots or Gaelic name means in English, or explore the
placenames of your surrounding area?
http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/studyingscotland/resourcesforlearning/learning/Contextsfors
tudy/index.asp
3) Learn one of Scotland’s songs. Lyrics, notation, and audio files to over a hundred songs including
Coulter’s Candy, Tha bean agam, tha taigh agam, and the Freedom Come All Ye are all available
on the Scotland’s Songs area of the Education Scotland website. There are songs for every age
group.
•
St Andrew’s Day Schools Challenge: choose a Scottish song, record yourself (or your class)
singing it and upload it to the Scots Learners' Site on Glow for everyone to enjoy!
http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/scotlandssongs/index.asp
4) Read some Scottish poetry in Gaelic, Scots or English. The Scottish Poetry Library advocates
poetry from Scotland, and the rest of the world. The library has a great website featuring a broad
range of Scottish poems and background materials, including much of the Scottish poetry that is
specified for National Five English. Meanwhile, Education Scotland’s extensive Scots poetry resource
The Kist is aimed at learners working at second and third levels.
•
St Andrew’s Day Schools Challenge: learn a Scottish poem off by heart (either or your own
or with your class) and recite it in front of an audience. You could record it and upload it to
the Scots Learners' Site on Glow.
http://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/
http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/resources/k/kistscotslanguage/introduction.asp
5) The Scottish Book Trust promotes books and reading in Scotland, and has a great affinity with
Scottish languages, literature, and culture. Check out their book lists, and a range of other materials
to support reading and literacy - including blogs, competitions and resources.
•
St Andrew’s Day Schools Challenge: choose a Scottish picture book and read it to a group of
younger learners. Think about how to make your voice interesting as well as how to get your
audience to join in with bits of the story. You might even be able to think of a fun activity
that you could do that goes with the book. See the Junior Scots Ambassadors tile on the
Scots Learners' Site on Glow for more details and to share your learning.
http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/
6) Scots Hoose is the Scots language website for schools from author, poet and translator Matthew
Fitt. Here, you can find great tips and activities for writing in Scots, as well as sections on learning,
reading and singing in Scots.
•
St Andrew’s Day Schools Challenge: write a paragraph in Scots about yourself. You could
include: a description of what you look like some information about your family and/or pets
you might have what you like about school or anything else you think might interest your
reader. Remember to upload it and share it on the Scots Learners' Site on Glow.
http://www.scotshoose.com/
7) Finally, The National Library of Scotland has an engaging Scots Language learning site featuring
one of Scotland’s best kent cartoon characters, Oor Wullie. Oor Wullie’s Guide Tae Scots Language
features activities, poems and sangs, and an interactive audio map.
http://digital.nls.uk/oor-wullie/
•
St Andrew’s Day Schools Challenge: create your own Oor Wullie comic strip using the
information on the website to help you. Share your learning on the Scots Learners' Site on
Glow.