Click the link below to access the September 2018 Highland Emerging Literacy Update which includes:

• information on the October/ November Emerging Literacy Networks
• Allied Health Professionals (AHP) Advice Line
• Pencil Control Skills Toolkit.

The Concepts – Including Prepositions and Adjectives guidance sits as part of the Oral Language Toolkit. This will be added to periodically throughout the 2018/2019 session, and updates share through blog posts.

Concepts help children to become more effective communicators and comprehend the language used in day to day communication and across the curriculum. New concepts, like all vocabulary, needs to be supported through experiences where there the adult models the vocabulary, repeating and revisiting a new vocabulary in different ways. The guidance supports practitioners to introduce and consolidate new concepts in children’s oral language.

CLICK HERE – Concepts – Including Prepositions and Adjectives

Scottish Book Trust’s ‘Rebel‘ campaign (from before the summer) aimed to get people across Scotland writing. As part of the campaign they were looking for schools to reach out to their community to support the development of intergenerational work – a brilliant opportunity to weave together Literacy, Health & Wellbeing and Social Studies.

Scottish Book Trust have produced a resource for schools to support the development of intergenerational writing.

CLICK HERE – Intergenerational Writing Resource

Have you checked out the programme for NessBookFest 2018?

CLICK HERE to find out more and book

Ness Book Fest is back next month. Between Thursday 4th October and Sunday 7th October there are a number of book themed events for children, young people and adults advertised in this year’s programe.

There are some specific events geared to primary schools, secondary schools and weekend events for families.

CLICK HERE – events for schools and families

Today, Friday 14th September 2018, the 15th Neil Gunn Writing Competition officially launches for children, young people and adults.

This year’s competition is open to:

• Primary: P5-P7
• Secondary: S3-S6

There have been brilliant submissions from Highland primary and secondary schools over the years. For both the primary and secondary competition there is a key theme for the 2018/2019 competition. They are as follows:

Entries are due on Friday 8th March 2019. Before schools take part in the competition, check out the Rules for the Competition document below and access the entry forms for primary and secondary.

Whilst the competition is open to P5-P7 and S3-S6 there have been  lesson plan materials put together by Jenny Wilson, Literacy Development Officer, for children working within Early through to Second Levels in exploring the primary school theme as part of their learning and teaching. For those schools entering the competition at P5-P7 there is also biography information on Neil Gunn to use alongside the lesson plan.

CLICK HERE for further information

As part of the Scottish Government’s commitment to support the development of family learning, children in P1-P3 will receive the P1 Bookbug Family Pack and the P2 and P3 Read, Write, Count Family Packs which include books and family learning resources.

The packs will be delivered to schools between September and November; Scottish Book Trust recommends that packs are shared with families through family learning events during Book Week Scotland 2018: Monday 19^th November – Sunday 25^th November 2018. Schools are encouraged to make links with the Highland Library Service to support the gifting of the Read, Write, Count packs.

Please see the below information for P1 (Bookbug) and P2/ P3 (Read, Write, Count) teachers which includes links to classroom resources which support learning and teaching using the Bookbug and Read, Write, Count resources.

CLICK HERE: P1 Bookbug Pack Information  One copy of the P1 Teacher Pack will be sent to each school in September/ October. Copies of the P1 pupil packs will be delivered between October and November. All children will receive an English pack and children in Gaelic Medium will also receive a Gaelic pack. It is asked that schools count the number of packs on arrival, contacting carelearningadmin@highland.gov.uk if they require any further packs once the packs have arrived.

CLICK HERE: P2 and P3 Read, Write, Count Pack Information There is no teacher pack for the P2 or P3 Read, Write, Count bags. Copies of the pupil packs will be delivered between September and November. All children will receive an English pack and children in Gaelic Medium will also receive a Gaelic pack. It is asked that schools count the number of packs on arrival, contacting carelearningadmin@highland.gov.uk if they require any further packs once the packs have arrived.

Shared by Jenny Wilson, Literacy Development Officer, Highland Council

Jenny Wilson, Literacy Development Officer, has created two documents for First and Second Levels (CfE) to support practitioners in their short term planning of their literacy week. Practitioners may find the overviews useful when planning for listening and talking, reading and writing through the engagement with texts.

Author, Cressida Cowell, of the series ‘How to Train Your Dragon‘, will be on Authors Live on Wednesday 12th September, 11am – 11.40am.

In this event Cressida will encourage your pupils to have a lasting love of reading, writing and illustration by exploring her own experience of writing and illustrating her renowned children’s books.

Authors Live sessions can be watched live, or can be accessed in the Watch on Demand section of the Scottish Book Trust website.CLICK HERE – SIGN UP AUTHORS LIVE: CRESSIDA COWELL

Date: Wednesday 12th September
Time: 11am – 11.40am
Target Audience: P3 – P7

Please note that the link to watch is emailed to you manually by one of the Scottish Book Trust team. As this is not an automatic process, please sign up to watch as soon as you can so that they can get your link to you in plenty of time.

In 2016 Jackie Kay became the 3rd Scottish Makar. Accepting the appointment she said, “I hope to open up the conversations, the blethers, the arguments and celebrations that Scotland has with itself and with the rest of the world, using the voice of Poetry in its fine Scottish delivery.”

Jackie is going to read a selection of her own poems and talk about several Scottish writers including Neil Gunn, Nan Shepherd and others of her choosing. Jackie’s lecture is tied into the launch of the Neil Gunn 2018/2019 competition – more information will be shared with schools later this month.

Tickets are £7 for adults and £1 for children. Get tickets on:

EDEN COURT – Jackie Kay Lecture

The phoneme/ grapheme charts which sit as part of the ‘Reading – Teaching and Learning‘ page have been updated.

CLICK HERE to access the updated phoneme/grapheme charts