The Scots Language Coordinator at Education Scotland and Education Specialist at Scots Language Centre have compiled the following list of 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) Research St Andrew

• Have a look at Visit Scotland’s page (written in English) about St Andrew and the Scottish flag;
• read about the different variations in Scots Language Centre’s feature, ‘St Andrew - what’s in a name?’ which you can read in English or Scots (by selecting, ‘View site in Scots’); or
• watch the ‘St Andrew - Scotland's Patron Saint’ video here.  

Learners can create their own webpage, blog or leaflet about St Andrew and the saltire, using Scots.

2) Research your local area

Using this resource from Education Scotland, take an interdisciplinary approach by looking at Scotland's place names.

• Children and young people could find out what their school’s Scots or Gaelic name means in English, or explore the place-names of their surrounding area.
• A fun task to do with learners is to get them to create a map of their local area, using the Scots names for landmarks.
• Learners in the Senior Phase could be challenged further by completing one of the activities from the Association of Scottish Literatures’ resource, ‘The Place Names of Scotland’.

Why not share your local area writings with a partner school through a Keen tae Ken yir Kin partnership?

3) Share a Scots saying

The Scots Language Centre website celebrates diversity in Scotland on St Andrew’s day with their frequently shared image featuring the saying ‘We are aw Jock Tamson’s bairns’ - find it here.

Following initial discussion of the phrase and the image, learners can create an illustrated poster or postcard featuring their own Scots phrase or one that they have heard from a friend or family member, such as ‘Whit’s fir ye will no go by ye’, ‘Up tae high doh’ or ‘Mony a mickle mak a muckle’. Why not set this as a homework task to engage parents in St Andrew’s Day celebrations?

4) Read some poetry from Scotland’s Makar

Delve into the range of poems from Kathleen Jamie, our makar, on the Scottish Poetry Library’s website.  The following poems are notable for their use of Scots:

Shoestring

What the Clyde said, after COP26

A Woman’s A Woman

The Republic of Fife

5) Keek through a wee windae

Wee Windaes, a website from National library of Scotland, features digitised older Scots texts. The Lairnin Kist features a range of teaching and learning resources for Primary and Secondary school children, for example:

• A writing activity for Primary children, inspired by the writing of Allan Ramsay
• Group discussion activities for Primary and Secondary children, inspired by the writing of Alexander Wilson
• A storytelling activity aimed at children in the upper Primary stage.

If you are new to Scots – and the history of Scots – why not begin with Education Scotland’s video, the animated history of the Scots Language?