SQA Subject Blog - Scottish Studies and Scots Language BlogThis is a reminder about the ASLS Scottish Studies event ‘Scotland in Focus’, which will take place between 10.00 and 16.00 hrs on Saturday 7th November in the Fore Hall, Main Building, University of Glasgow.
We are delighted that such a variety of expert and well-known speakers will be sharing their ideas about flexible approaches to teaching Scotland in Focus, the mandatory …
As the results were released for all National Courses yesterday, it seems appropriate to reflect on the activity that went on over the first year of the Scots Language Award.
The Award launched last June, with a well-attended and well-received event, led by the Development Manager, Pauline Rodger.
Over the last 12 months we’ve undertaken quite a lot of activity to support teachers who have taken it on in the first year. We’ve spoken at events held by the Association for Scottish Literary Studies, one of which was based entirely on the Award.
We’ve produced Unit Assessment Support Packs for both Units at all levels, which can be viewed on our secure site by following this link: https://secure.sqa.org.uk/secure/Awards/Awards Feedback is always welcomed!
In April we verified the first batch of candidates. Much like verification of CfE Units, if you’re delivering Scots Language Units there’s a chance you’ll be called on for verification. The process is supportive, and ensures that teachers aren’t asking too much, or too little of their candidates.
One outcome of the verification is that we were able to exemplify some candidate evidence in Understanding Standards packs. These are for the Understanding and Communicating Units at SCQF levels 4 and 5.
We’ve also delivered CPD to teachers in South Lanarkshire council. This was a combined meeting with Diane Anderson, a Scots Language Co-ordinator at Education Scotland. We’ll get the materials used onto this blog in the near future – look out for them!
It’s been a busy year, with 2015-16 already shaping up to have a lot of activity on the Scots Language front. It’s important to note however, that the Award isn’t externally assessed – and so isn’t tied to an exam diet. This means that the end of the year isn’t necessarily the end of students’ efforts. Similarly, the Award doesn’t have to be taught from the beginning of a school year; one of the flexibilities which make the Award so interesting.
Here’s …
Welcome from the Scots Language team. We’ll be using this page to keep you updated about all things Scots, alongside the folks who run the Scottish Studies Award.
Our job managing the Award includes everything from contracting writers for Unit Assessments, to quality assurance, to dealing with centre queries, to speaking about the Award at events. The strength of the Award lies in its flexibility, and it’s something which makes it very easy to promote – learners at all levels will be able to take something away from the study of Scots Language.
We work on a broad spread of languages, encompassing Classical Greek, Gàidhlig, Gaelic (Learners) Gaelic Medium exams, German, Latin, and Urdu; and have had Scots in the portfolio for the past year. In that time there’s been a lot of varied activity, and Scots has kept us particularly busy. We were also involved in the Qualifications Design Team for Scots Language from its outset. We work with Education Scotland, and their team of Scots Language Co-ordinators.
Over the next wee while we’ll go into some more detail about specific features of the Award, and will keep you abreast of any events or milestones which we’re approaching. Please feel free to get in touch with us and suggest content, or leave feedback on what you’d like to hear more (or less!) of.
In the meantime, the webpage for the Award is a good starting point for anyone interested in finding out more. It’s available here: http://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/70056.html.
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All the latest news, information and updates relating to the Awards for Scottish Studies and Scots Language.