From the editor

Welcome back!

The summer break may have come to an end but this issue of Connected is jam-packed with news of exciting events to look forward to.

What better way to kick-start the 2009/10 session than by attending the Scottish Learning Festival on 23–24 September. An impressive panel of keynote speakers, including Fiona Hyslop MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, Professor Ferre Laevers, University of Leuven, Dr Frank Dick OBE and Professor Carol Dweck, Stanford University, will share inspiring accounts of how Curriculum for Excellence will pave the way for a relevant and engaging education for every child and young person in Scotland. Under the banner of 'Curriculum for Excellence: Making the Change', the Festival's 170 sessions and spotlight presentations will be brimming with useful advice.

Youth workers play a key role in the promotion of wellbeing among young people. In this issue, Connected spends a week in the shoes of Rachel Barr, youth worker at Portobello High School. Rachel provides a fascinating insight into the breadth of her work.

With more than 28,000 bilingual primary and secondary school children across Scotland, and a steadily growing number of pupils who speak English as a second language, teachers have been presented with the challenge of ensuring that these pupils are equipped with the literacy skills required to access the curriculum. This issue profiles the innovative approaches Scottish schools are adopting to meet this challenge.

With young people in Scotland growing up in an increasingly multicultural and global society, Curriculum for Excellence strives to help young people understand the world and Scotland's place in it. Initiatives, such as the introduction of eight Confucius classrooms across Scotland, are helping to make this a reality. The arrival of the first group of six teachers trained to teach Mandarin provides a welcome boost to the promotion of Chinese culture and language learning in Scottish schools in the year ahead and beyond.

To further support the implementation of the new curriculum, a Curriculum for Excellence newsletter will soon be launched.

We at Learning and Teaching Scotland hope this issue provides lots of motivation and inspiration for the new session. Please do share your views with us on the Connected website – in return the best comment will win a prize.

Denise Brock
Editor