For Primary 5 to 7 pupils

Primary Schools Tours

Get your pupils singing and moving while learning!

Our much-loved, annual Primary Schools Tour helps teachers all over Scotland deliver aspects of A Curriculum for Excellence, giving up to 100 of your P5-P7s the opportunity to be involved in a special performance day, during which our team of teaching artists help them stage their own all-singing, all-dancing 30-minute show.

In 2025 we will be bringing back The Tale o' Tam, which last toured in 2017.
The tour will run throughout the Spring and Summer terms, from 3 February to 27 June.

Each school that participates receives:

High quality teaching resources, including a teachers' support pack to help introduce the music and related activities.
A day-long workshop with a team of highly experienced arts education specialists and performers.
A 30 minute performance for family, friends and schoolmates to share.

What's been said about our past Primary Schools Tours...

‘The children had a wonderful and rich experience – developing and fine tuning their talent and then sharing it with their audience. The audience were blown away by the quality of the performance and short time span during which the performance was brought together.’
- Hottsbridge Primary School, Waterbeck

‘It was brilliant to see many of our pupils who struggle in other areas of the curriculum, particularly socially and emotionally, shine and experience success.’
- Blacklands Primary School, Kilwinning

Kindly supported by The David and June Gordon Memorial Trust, The Pear Tree Fund for Music, The W M Mann Foundation and Scottish Opera’s Education Angels

About The Tale o' Tam

Market Day is over in the town of Ayr and the farmer Tam o’ Shanter is making his way home with his faithful horse Meg. At first, Tam makes good progress but as the night grows darker, the rain falls and the wind howls and shrieks through the branches of the trees, he finds himself outside the church graveyard where he discovers, to his horror and amazement, a coven of witches dancing in the moonlight. Fearful but fascinated, Tam watches as the music whirls and skirls ever faster. But suddenly one of them spots Tam, and now he and Meg are racing for their lives…

Based on Robert Burns’ Tam o’ Shanter, this show is an exciting romp through his famous poem, commissioned in 2001 to re-introduce young people to the works of the celebrated Scottish poet.

The Tale o' Tam o' Shanter at Jordanhill Primary School. Scottish Opera 2017. Credit Sally Jubb.

How does it work?

1. Online Resources

Scottish Opera will provide online teaching resources for you to work through with your pupils in the run up to your performance date, including easy-to-follow audio and video teaching aids for the songs, alongside fun curriculum-based learning activities which can be carried out in class, assigned as homework tasks or used for assessment purposes. The project is designed to tie in directly to the experiences and outcomes of A Curriculum for Excellence, with a range of cross-curricular activities to enhance pupils’ learning experience.

2. The Workshop and Performance

On the morning of the workshop, our team of highly-skilled and motivated musicians, singers and drama specialists spend four hours working with pupils to rehearse and perform a 30-minute show. They bring a fantastic array of costumes with them to really bring the story to life and help pupils present the highest quality performance possible, for an audience of your choice.

For more information

The Tale o' Tam Primary Schools Tour costs £950 plus VAT.
Payment for the project will be requested in two instalments. £100 plus VAT will be requested on confirmation of booking, £850 plus VAT will be requested 1–2 weeks after the performance workshop day.

The Tale o' Tam Primary Schools Tour is currently fully booked - please get in touch to be added to our waiting list or to find out more information:

Millie Pink
Producer

0141 332 9559

Contact Education & Outreach