Stories in
the Land Phase 2 (2014)
Phase 2 of Stories in the Land has focused on the refinement and development
of the Droving Storyline written by Sallie Harkness in April 2013. This
original Storyline, set in 1745 and destination Crieff, has now been translated
into Gaelic and has been trialled in Gaelic Medium classes in both Oban and
Edinburgh. The Storyline has also being revised to take the story into the 19th
century with destination Falkirk, and this version has been piloted by two schools
in the central belt of Scotland – Moray Primary School in Grangemouth and
Kinnaird Primary School in Larbert.
All participating schools have enriched the
pupils’ experiences of droving with input from local people. Importantly they have
been able to run the droving project with only a small amount of outside
funding, which they felt was well within the scope of school budgets. The
Gaelic medium class at Rockfield Primary school in Oban even managed to
organise their own drove with ten feisty highland cattle. This was filmed by
BBC Alba for their evening news programme.
The Droving Storyline has been received
enthusiastically by teachers.
“The Drovers Storyline is wonderful, it has everything
you need to set the scene and keep the Storyline going throughout the
topic. It fits with history, geography and Scottish-based outcomes in Curriculum
for Excellence and we used it to cover all our language outcomes for the
term. The children loved this approach and were hooked from hearing the
first part of the story.”
“The children were motivated by the characters and produced good descriptive writing about the lives of Rob and Angus. They also enjoyed developing the story and writing endings for the cliffhanger stories such as the loss of the cows in the fog or crossing a flooded river.”
“There are excellent opportunities for children to work on their own initiative. The children lead this topic, using their ideas and developing the Storyline. Every time you do it with a different class, it will go a different way and this is part of the beauty of it!”
“The children were motivated by the characters and produced good descriptive writing about the lives of Rob and Angus. They also enjoyed developing the story and writing endings for the cliffhanger stories such as the loss of the cows in the fog or crossing a flooded river.”
“There are excellent opportunities for children to work on their own initiative. The children lead this topic, using their ideas and developing the Storyline. Every time you do it with a different class, it will go a different way and this is part of the beauty of it!”
Stories in the Land: working with St
Johns RC Academy in Perth in May/June 2014
Most recently the 1745 version of the
Storyline was used by two P4 classes at St John’s Primary School in Perth.
Additional support came from the Living Communities programme funded by the
Gannochy Trust and Perth & Kinross Council
The project started with a series of outdoor workshops which were set
within the context of the daily lives of the drovers. Typically these sessions
would involve three facilitators and the day would begin by establishing a
drover’s camp which was intended to represent overnight stops known as
‘stances’ used by the drovers. Local plants were harvested and a fire was lit
using flints or a bow drill under the expert eye of Alastair Davidson of Ar Tir
(Our Land). This was followed by bannock and butter-making (and eating!) and included
storytelling/story-making, singing and crafting with storytellers Alasdair
Taylor and Claire Hewitt.
It took each group of St John’s P4 pupils a matter of minutes to walk
from their school to the camp in a clump of trees beside the River Tay, yet on
both occasions the atmosphere was completely different from the classroom.
Pupils spent a whole day at the camp, gaining insight into the daily
lives of the drovers. They foraged for edible plants, learned to make a camp
fire with a bow drill, baked bannocks and made butter. A bush craft expert
passed on the skill of string-making, and they created ‘felt feet’ out of sheep
fleece.
Discussion of the drovers’ superstitions and their faith in the magical
properties of the Rowan tree was followed by singing songs and listening to
stories round the camp fire as the drovers did two hundred years ago.
After lunch, pupils dispersed into small groups and created their own
stories, which they shared with their classmates around the fire.
“The drover's camp was amazing.
Even though we were barely five minutes walk from the school, it felt like we
were in the middle of nowhere. The children had a great day, co-operating with
each other to make rope, using imagination to tell tales and having the freedom
to explore their surroundings.” Teacher
“All the activities were fabulous,
really exciting and different. It was a great way to get them to develop their
own stories.” Learning support worker
“When Hennie [storyteller] was
telling some stories, they were about trees and a rowan tree, and we passed a rowan tree when we came out
from school, and she started leaning on a rowan tree outside the camp, and then
it felt like she was the person in the story!” Pupil
“It feels like you're in the old time.” Pupil
“Sometimes I walk in my garden barefooted to help me
remember... just to feel like what the drovers felt.” Pupil
“It felt like we were John Morrison… and Angus and Rob
and Fergus” [key characters in the
Droving Storyline]. Pupil
“I thought it was really good baking
the food because you got to eat it at the end.” Pupil
“I liked picking the flowers. We
got told about what flowers were dangerous and what ones weren’t.” Pupil
Travelling Tales – celebrating the Stories in the Land project
Reflecting on what has been learnt and
sharing new perspectives is an important part of Storyline. Towards the end of
the St John’s RC Academy droving topic, the two groups of pupils travelled to
Crieff, the drovers’ destination centuries ago, to share stories inspired by
the drovers with pupils at Crieff Primary and St Dominics RC Primary Schools.
They split into small groups and told the stories they had devised together,
bringing the narrative alive with actions and pictures.
“It was exciting to tell our stories to other
children.” Pupil,
St John’s RC Academy
“When we were doing our stories, we did practise them
and we thought we didn't practise enough, but when we got to St Dominics, we
remembered them!” Pupil, St John’s RC Academy
“It’s a nice way of passing it on to the other school,
and a good culmination. They knew from when they started that they were doing
it for this, and when they do something for a reason they always do it much
better. One of the things that’s been very good for them about this is getting
them speaking. A lot of our children have English as an additional language.” Teacher, St John’s RC
Primary School
Primary 4 classes at St Dominics PS and
Crieff PS will be using the Droving Storyline in the autumn term 2014, to
coincide with the Drovers Tryst Festival held in Crieff every year.
Full versions of all Storylines with
additional support material including guidance for teachers, will be available
in August, on the RSGS website. www.rsgs.org/excitinglearning
