Children at Banff Academy have recently teamed up with Claire Needler from the Elphinstone Institute at the University of Aberdeen and Dr Jamie Fairbairn from Banff to study the impact of learning through the Scots language. Pupils studying towards the national Scots Language Award have shown that being able to use the language of family and home in other contexts increases confidence and skills overall. Fairbairn explained to the press this week that this process needed to be investigated in a more systematic and thorough way and the present study would do that.

Fairbairn also said “Doric, or North-East Scots, is a regional dialect of the Scots language...Many of our students come from Doric speaking families and have grown up using the Scots language, however many have never had an opportunity to write it or use it in a more academic way. For some, it has had a quite transformative effect...it can boost their self-esteem which in turn has an impact on their wider achievement in school.”  Councillor Gillian Owen, chair of Aberdeenshire Council’s Education and Children’s Services Committee, commented that it was a welcome opportunity for children “...to learn about their mother tongue.”