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I visited in Edinburgh on Monday, as part of our Democracy in Action programmes, due to broadcast in March. The idea is that there will be an hour's worth of programmes about , and another hour with 20 minutes each devoted to the particular situations in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Our 20 minutes are being directed by , a senior broadcast journalist here at ´óÏó´«Ã½ Scotland. What you'll see are four films, each five minutes long, focussing on a different aspect of how democracy affects young people in Scotland.

The young people that we interviewed today were full of articulate views about how they believed politicians perceived them, the issues that would engage them, and what they thought of our current crop of MPs and MSPs! Thanks to Miss Arnold and Mr McDonald at Liberton for arranging the visit and allowing us to film with their students.

We're returning to in Glasgow to film this week for the same programmes. We did a bit of the groundwork for the films at Shawlands few weeks back, and we're sure that they will give us as much enthusiasm and strong opinions as they did on their first visit. It was the input of the pupils at Shawlands that shaped the way the production of the programmes has developed, so a big thanks to Mr Donnelly and Mrs Grant for both our visits there.

The programmes are aimed at students (post S4), but we hope that they are interesting and flexible enough that other groups of learners can use them too â€" because they are only five minutes long they can be use to provoke debate or to illustrate an issue in a lesson without stopping active learning. They'll live in our Learning Zone after broadcast too. I'll blog with details when we have a confirmed slot for their transmission; I know they'll be really useful to teachers and learners alike.

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Comments

I really hope you enjoyed your visit to Liberton High School. It is a fantastically vibrant school with a committed staff and great students. The headteacher, Donald McDonald is a great friend and has been a real mentor to me on my own leadership journey.
OllieBray
Sat Feb 14 19:08:20 2009