Wigtown Primary Passport scheme

Wigtown Primary headteacher Stewart Anderson is a lifelong supporter of the Scots language, and has been instrumental in creating a reading incentive scheme which encourages the use of Scots language. Known as the Wigtown Passport, the scheme involves the children from Nursery to Primary 7 with the wider 'book' community - the library, the Dumfries and Galloway Literature Development Officer Davie Kelly, the Wigtown Book Festival, various children's authors and the local newspaper. The children have to complete a series of tasks to achieve different award levels. These range from joining the library to sending a review of an author event to the Galloway Gazette. The school created lists of suggested reading books and for each award level a certain number of books need to be read. From the start Scots language texts are among the 'required' reading. The children are encouraged to write in Scots, indeed by Primary 7 they have to write a review in Scots. The use of Scots is backed up by teachers using Scots in the classroom and the school having a series of posters in Scots around the school corridors. Even the Passport scheme logo contains Scots words. Mr Anderson pointed out that the positive benefits have surpassed expectations, "an unexpected bonus has been an improvement in writing skills".