{"id":7119,"date":"2026-08-31T09:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T08:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotslanguageawards\/?p=7119"},"modified":"2026-08-31T09:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T08:04:09","slug":"scots-language-awards-2026-banff-academy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotslanguageawards\/scots-language-awards-2026-banff-academy\/","title":{"rendered":"Scots Language Awards 2026: Banff Academy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Weel duin tae Banff Academy wha hae bin nominatit in Scots School o the Year in the Scots Language Awards. Vote now!<\/a><\/p>\n

The 2026 Scots Language Awards tak place on Saturday 19th September at the iconic Discovery Centre, home of the RRS Discovery Ship (1pm). Reserve yer ticket here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The awards will be a daytime event this year, making them as inclusive and accessible to as many award nominees from across Scotland as possible. <\/p>\n

We askit Jamie Fairbairn o Banff Academy thae speirins. <\/p>\n

Tell us aboot yersel or yer ootfit.<\/strong>
\nBanff Academy is a rural secondary skweel up on e Moray coast in Aiberdeenshire. In oor area, the census tells us at aboot 73% o fowk in e area hae 'ony' Scots, an aboot 40-50% o oor bairns and their faimlies are spikkers o Doric.<\/p>\n

Whit wis it got ye involvit wi the Scots leid?<\/strong>
\nWe noticed that mony bairns were spikkin Doric in e corridoors, on e sport parks an in e denner queues, and thocht that it wid be grand gien they could eese their Scots skills in lessons an classes, as weel as fer spikkin tae freens an faimlie. Fae 2014 we've offert e Scots Language Award tae bairns, an nummers have skyrocketed.<\/p>\n

Why dae ye feel it is important tae use Scots in everyday life?<\/strong>
\nScots maks up a muckle pairt o the identity o the bairns at the skweel, an the wider community aboot it, an fowk hae great affection fer their mither tongue, an are affa prood o it, despite e bias an sometime prejudice fowk hae gotten. Encouragin an heezin up Scots at skweel validates the bairns that spikk Scots, an gies a haan tae bairns wantin tae learn mair aboot it. It helps bairns express their literacy, an some bairns wi dyslexia hae said they like nae bein telt aff fer spellin wirds wrang, an screeve mair nor they wid in English. Ess gies them confidence in ither pairts o the skweel as weel.<\/p>\n

Dae ye hae a favourite Scots phrase or saying?<\/strong>
\nAye. In response tae the question Fit Like? (How are you), I've heard fowk say 'Kneipin on like a coo on a bike! (pressin on like a cow on a bicycle). Ye can imagine the coo, legs up, wheechin doon a hill on a bike!<\/p>\n

Is there a Scots speaker who inspires you?<\/strong>
\nAye, the great Billy Kay. And there's a local gadgie Dougie Hay, fa jist spiks the wye he spiks ivry day o his life, an that's the wye o't.<\/p>\n

Do you hear Scots spoken regularly in your local area? Have you noticed any changes over time?<\/strong>
\nAye, in shops, cafes or danderin aboot, ye aye hear Doric bein spoken hereaboots. Bairns dinna eese aa the aal words that their grandparents eese, like yerdit for dirty. Noo they tend tae eese a word like clartit mair, but ye aye lug intil a wheen o Scots even amon the bairns.<\/p>\n

Ony particlar career heighlichts<\/strong>
\nWe stairted wi 7 bairns studyin Scots, an as the bairns voted wi their feet ower time nummers grew. Syne we introduced Scots as pairt of the mandatory language choice in S3, tae study either Scots or French, an mony bairns chose Scots. Nummer increased to a hecht o 180 bairns studyin Scots ilka year, aa year. We piloted a project tae train teachers in Scots fae the Open Uni an Education Scotland, an noo hae 8 teachers trained up athort the skweel. Efterhaan, Project based learnin came in, an their teacher introduced projects aboot traivlin fowk, an the link atween Scots an Nature, leadin tae a buik cried Wirds o Banff – also up fer an award!<\/p>\n

Wha’s yer plans fir the days aheid?<\/strong>
\nHaud gyaan wi Scots at Banff Academy. As a model fer studyin Scots at skweel, we have stairted spikkin tae the cooncil aboot foo tae spread guid practice across Aiberdeenshire, and the country, an we continue tae contribute tae trainin o teachers across the laand.<\/p>\n

Read more about Banff Academy<\/a>
\nhttps:\/\/www.banffacademy.co.uk\/<\/a>
\nFacebook: https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BanffAcademyBXA\/?locale=en_GB<\/a>
\nX \/ Twitter: @
\nInstagram: @
\nTikTok: @<\/p>\n

The Scots Language Awards are in Dundee on the 19th September at 1pm. There wull be some grand entertainmint includin a recitals fae Yvonne Tait an Hugh Macmillan alang wi musical performances fae Iona Fyfe and Scott Gardiner.<\/p>\n

To attend the Scots Language Awards there are a few tickets remaining. Click here to reserve your tickets<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Join Elfie Picket Theatre for the Scots language nicht BLETHER, fur a nicht o music, poetry and stories aa celebratin Scots Leid & culture. We hae twa special guests jynin us and a wee open mic. Leadin us intae a big Dundee Fringe Ceilidh! Startin at 6pm, tickets \u00a310.<\/p>\n

If you would like to support Hands Up for Trad in their work with Scottish language please consider donating here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Weel duin tae Banff Academy wha hae bin nominatit in Scots School o the Year in the Scots Language Awards. Vote now! The 2026 Scots Language Awards tak place on Saturday 19th September at the iconic Discovery Centre, home of the RRS Discovery Ship (1pm). Reserve yer ticket here. The awards will be a daytime […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7120,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nominee-2026","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotslanguageawards\/files\/2026\/08\/c3f1bf88-acfd-4f05-960a-ec866a85a6f3.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phaZzh-1QP","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotslanguageawards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotslanguageawards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotslanguageawards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotslanguageawards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotslanguageawards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7119"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotslanguageawards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7121,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotslanguageawards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7119\/revisions\/7121"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotslanguageawards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotslanguageawards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotslanguageawards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/scotslanguageawards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}