St Andrew's Day: Scotland's National Day - Leaflet for schools and pre-schools with ideas for celebrating St Andrew's Day

Foreword
St Andrew's Day

30 November is the day for celebrating our Patron Saint, St Andrew.

It will be a wonderful opportunity for all of us to celebrate St Andrew's Day, Scotland's national day. This is also a chance for you to celebrate the success of your primary or secondary school, nursery, playgroup, or pre-school centre.

This leaflet provides a range of ideas for things to do and ways to get involved. Also, a Saltire flag is enclosed for use in your celebrations.

I hope that you all enjoy the day and that you take this opportunity to celebrate with the rest of Scotland.

Fiona Hyslop Signature

Fiona Hyslop MSP
Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning

Ideas for Experiences

Many schools and pre-schools across the country got in touch with us last year to tell us about the exciting activities and events that they arranged. Here are a few examples of the many ways that children and young people celebrated St Andrew's Day in 2007, from songs to Saltires. You might like to use some of these ideas to get you started. We're sure you will have many more!

Nurseries, playgroups and pre-school centres

Children in Law Nursery in Dundee ate a Scottish-themed snack and participated in Scottish music for songs and dancing, stories and poems, dressing up, and tartan and Saltire art and craft.

Park Nursery in Glasgow created a huge Loch Ness Monster from recycled junk. This was displayed with the Scottish flag in the playroom for parents and visitors to see. They also had Scottish stories, rhymes and music to celebrate the day, and ate Scottish snacks.

At Shawbridge Nursery in Glasgow, the school held a week-long multicultural celebration, reflecting the many different countries of origin of families of children at the nursery. Activities included Highland games, parents performing traditional Scots songs, eating Scottish food, learning Scottish Country dancing, making flags, building Scottish castles in sand and face painting.

At Tom Thumb Nursery in Edinburgh, the children went out and about in South Queensferry, taking photos and making a book. They read stories, learnt Scots words, danced, made flags, created thistle coasters, and sang (accompanied by a 'moothie'). They finished with a visit to Edinburgh Castle on St Andrew's Day.

Primary schools

Campie Primary School in East Lothian participated in a whole school activity entitled 'Proud to be a Scot: Proud to be a Citizen of the World'. The work celebrated the landscape, people, language and music of Scotland and Africa.

In Cauldeen Primary, Highland, work started before St Andrew's Day with tutors helping the pupils understand Scottish and Gaelic culture. P7 participated in whistle workshops, P5 and 6 took part in Bodhran workshops, P5 also learned Gaelic songs, and P3-7 all country danced enthusiastically. This hard work culminated in an international community concert.

At St Oswalds Primary, Glasgow, there was a whole day of celebrations with pupils going round different stations of Scottish food, designing tartan, a quiz, famous Scots, music, the life of St Andrew, designing graffiti bricks and Scottish games, all culminating in a mass ceilidh. Some of the pupils said "I love haggis", "what a great day" and "I liked learning the dances".

Baird Memorial Primary, St Helen's Primary and Condorrat Primary, in North Lanarkshire, celebrated St Andrew's Day together as part of their 'Condorrat Schools Together' anti-sectarian project. Pupils put on a concert for parents and special guests to showcase the activities they had been doing together, including Gaelic choir, Scottish poetry, dance and ICT research.

All 280 pupils at Kellands School, Aberdeenshire, were mixed up for the day, with older children helping the younger ones. They participated in activities such as shinty, highland games, designing a highland cow using recycled boxes and newspaper, learning songs, designing tartan and making an origami Loch Ness Monster. This helped children to develop their emerging Scottish identity and older children were encouraged to be responsible caring citizens.

Primary 5 pupils in Netherlee Primary, East Renfrewshire, hosted a 'Famous Scots' assembly to raise the profile of all our Scottish talents from sports to inventors. The school went to Edinburgh Castle on St Andrew's Day to conclude their Famous Scots topic.

Secondary schools

Fraserburgh Academy, Aberdeenshire, held a 'Celebrating Diversity Day' with themes including racial equality and anti-sectarianism. They involved local primary schools and celebrated the cultural diversity of their community.

Pupils in Lochend Community High, Glasgow, participated in activities across different departments including: the study of Scottish songs and music; a ceilidh; a quiz and discussion; study of Scottish scientists and engineers; artwork on Burns poetry and Saltire problem solving.

At St Columba's High School, Inverclyde, S1 pupils had a week-long cross-curricular project, with all lessons based around Scottish successes. The celebration on the final day included a mini Highland Games and a ceilidh.

Eighty-seven S2 pupils in Waid Academy, Fife, took part in a sponsored walk along the old pilgrim route from Guardbridge to St Andrew's Cathedral to raise funds for the Children's Hospice Association Scotland (CHAS).

Curriculum for Excellence

Planning your St Andrew's Day celebrations provides a great opportunity to put together activities that will help children and young people become successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors.

Curriculum for Excellence will help pupils develop a real appreciation of Scotland's development, culture and contribution to the rest of the world. But there is no need to wait for the new curriculum to be in place. There are all sorts of ways in which you can act now, to design learning activities that are truly interdisciplinary, helping pupils and staff develop their understanding of the world and Scotland's place in it.

There is so much to celebrate, from our heritage and history to our scenery and scientists. Now is the time for you to plan for your teaching and learning for St Andrew's Day, the year of Homecoming, and beyond.

Homecoming 2009

You might already know that 2009 is the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns and the Scottish Government is keen to mark this anniversary in a very special way. Homecoming Scotland 2009, launched by the First Minister Alex Salmond MSP, aims to motivate people of Scottish descent, as well as those who simply love Scotland, to come home and join us in an inspirational celebration of our culture, heritage and the many great contributions Scotland has given the world.

You may now like to start thinking about how your school or pre-school can contribute to this exciting agenda over the next academic year and beyond. The aims of the Homecoming are to:

celebrate Scotland's outstanding contributions to the world,
engage and mobilise the Scottish Diaspora, and
promote pride in Scots at home and abroad.

The Homecoming project is being delivered by EventScotland, which is part of VisitScotland, and schools and pre-schools clearly have a huge potential to contribute to these aims through Curriculum for Excellence. Learning and Teaching Scotland are providing support in terms of school resources, a Glow group and monitoring good practice amongst others.

To find out more about these activities and share your ideas and experiences about Homecoming, visit www.LTScotland.org.uk/homecoming.

We hope that Homecoming will not only be a resounding success, but something which will leave a real and beneficial legacy for young people and Scotland in years to come.

Spreading the word

Please let us know all the great things you are doing to celebrate St Andrew's Day, by filling in our online form at:
www.LTScotland.org.uk/standrewsday

or e-mailing us at:
standrewsday@ltscotland.org.uk

Why not share your celebrations with parents and your local community, or invite your local newspaper/radio station along to capture the event?