The Tale o' the Glasgow Girls
Internal practice
Duration
ongoing - launched on World Refugee Day 2020
Reason it was developed
The 'Tale o' the Glasgow Girls' learning and activities resource is a follow up to the suite of information packs, created by the EIS in November of 2019, to welcome young people from migrant and refugee families into Scottish schools. ‘The Tale o’ the Glasgow Girls’ is a narrative poem written in Scots dialect by former EAL Teacher at Drumchapel High School and career-long EIS member, Euan Girvan, who worked with the 'Glasgow Girls' both as their teacher and their ‘campaign manager’ as they fought to highlight the poor treatment of asylum seekers and against dawn raids and the detention of children.
Activities
Aimed at P6-S3 pupils, the resource includes learning activities for pupils including Reading and Writing, Art activities and learning about the Scots dialect in which the poem is written. The poem tells the story of how the Glasgow Girls were formed by seven schoolgirls when one of their friends - an asylum-seeker - and her family were detained. It describes how they organised a community campaign against Home Office dawn raids and child detention, that received national and international attention. The resource features vibrant illustrations commissioned from Glasgow-based artist Jamie Squire.
Results
This resource is intended to help teachers by providing some attractive learning materials for their pupils to work on during Refugee Week and all year round. It reflects the commitment that the EIS has to anti-racist education and to supporting and including young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds.