Scots language at St Ninians Primary School Stirling 2002/2003

In 2002/2003 St Ninians Primary School children embarked on a remarkable project involving a collection of Scots words. Assistant headteacher Elaine Wyllie used her previous experience of encouraging Scots use at Kippen and Dunblane Primaries with a task linking home and school. After debate in the classroom about the words we use, the children brought Scots words used at home into school, compiled lists of words and ready reckoners around certain subjects. Business sponsorship enabled the children to then write letters to other schools around Scotland, asking them to send to St Ninians words used in their own areas. This activity took the project onto a national, cross-curricular level, as the children had to find out who to write to and how to decorate the envelopes to differentiate them from the rest of the mail a school normally receives. They had a fantastic response to this mailshot as hundreds of words flowed in from all around Scotland.
While this word collecting continued, the children decided to establish an adopt a word scheme. Within the school each child's family agreed to adopt a Scots word. This word would be 'looked after' by using it wherever possible and by having it written down and visible somewhere in the house. The children even created an adoption certificate. This word sponsorship then went national. The children wrote to Stirling councillors and all MSPs, asking them to each sponsor a word. All the councillors and 56 MSPs agreed to do this, a great achievement for the children.