Pupils explore life of the poets

The Abbotsford Trust and Burgh Primary School, '¨Galashiels have been working on a project exploring Sir Walter Scott's famous home.
Aiden McMullen and Aimee Blair acted as tour guides for the rest of their class as Burgh Primary pupils visit Abbotsford House (pictured with the Walter Scott bust in the library)

Burgh Primary School P5/6 classes using the education centre at Abbotsford House.Aiden McMullen and Aimee Blair acted as tour guides for the rest of their class as Burgh Primary pupils visit Abbotsford House (pictured with the Walter Scott bust in the library)

Burgh Primary School P5/6 classes using the education centre at Abbotsford House.
Aiden McMullen and Aimee Blair acted as tour guides for the rest of their class as Burgh Primary pupils visit Abbotsford House (pictured with the Walter Scott bust in the library) Burgh Primary School P5/6 classes using the education centre at Abbotsford House.

Primary 6 pupils have recently visited Abbotsford to try out three different sessions from the Abbotsford Schools Programme.

Pupils explored the historic house and wrote poems based on the treasures that Sir Walter Scott collected, and met Mrs Oakley, a visitor from Scott’s day with lots of weird and wonderful traditional tales to share.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

They also discovered Sir Walter’s life and work in the visitor centre exhibition and created drawings of the house and its grotesque clay gargoyles.

Pupils then used what they discovered and learned back in the classroom to create a timeline of Scott’s life, where they also investigated differences between life then and now using a range of primary sources.

Pupils also created interactive games, thought about planning and budgeting for a visit too Abbotsford, identified French vocabulary ti describe some of the artefacts in the house and wrote their own evaluation reports reflecting on their visits.

At the end of the project, parents and Primary 5 pupils were invited to Abbotsford to find out more.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The audience were treated to a dramatic performance with pupils playing the voices of Scott’s objects and bringing them to life.

The project came about at the suggestion of the National Centre for Languages Confucius Institute for Scotland’s Schools, which aims to create a business link with local schools.

Meanwhile, an exhibition focusing on Scott’s role as a reviewer of other famous authors’ books opens on Saturday, April 2.

The show, “Rave Reviewer: Scott on Frankenstein, Emma and Childe Harold”, will tell the story of his interaction with some of the most famous literature of the early nineteenth century - the works of Mary Shelley, Jane Austen and Lord Byron.

Related topics: