The ASL Schools Conference will offer CPD in areas of language and literature for teachers of English, for BGE, National 5, Higher, and Advanced Higher. The presentations will cover refreshed specified Scottish Set Texts for drama, poetry, and short stories, in English and Scots.

Please note, this event is aimed at teachers and teachers-in-training, specifically those who are or are likely to be delivering the English curriculum in Scotland.

Programme

9:45 Coffee and Registration
10:15 Welcome
10:30–11:05 Donald S. Murray's play Sequamur (Ian Brown)
11:05–11:40 Four Scottish short stories (Gina Lyle)
11:40–12:00 Tea and coffee
12:00–12:35 The poetry of Kathleen Jamie (Peter Mackay)
12:35–13:00 Young Writers Awards
13:00–14:00 Lunch
14:00–14:05 A teaching resource for John Buchan's short story collection A Queer Warld (Bob Hume)
14:05–14:40 The National 5 Scottish poetry collection (Alan Riach)
14:40–15:15 Glasgow University resources for the refreshed Scottish Set Texts (Corey Gibson)
15:15–15:20 Break
15:20–16:00 Meet the writer: David Greig will speak about his play Yellow Moon
16:00 End of conference

Videos of these presentations will be uploaded at a later date to our YouTube channel. Although free printed resources and class sets can only be provided to those who attend in person, we will endeavour to make these materials available as free downloads from our website after the conference.

Ian Brown has written widely on Scottish drama, as well as being a playwright and former Arts Council Drama Director.

Corey Gibson is Lecturer in Twentieth-Century Scottish Literature at the University of Glasgow.

David Greig is a novelist and an award-winning playwright and theatre director.

Bob Hume is former Principal Teacher of English at Biggar High School, and editor of A Queer Warld: four short stories by John Buchan.

Gina Lyle is an Associate Lecturer in English Studies at the University of York. Her research centres on contemporary Scottish fiction.

Peter Mackay is the current Scottish Makar, and is a Senior Lecturer in Literature in the School of English at the University of St Andrews.

Alan Riach is a poet and Professor of Scottish Literature at the University of Glasgow.

ASL gratefully acknowledges the support of the Scottish Government towards this conference.

ASL Schools Conference 2025