What our clients have said about us
Historic Environment Scotland
Award winning Junior Tour Guides
We have worked in partnership with Illuminate for a number of years to deliver successful learning initiatives across Scotland, in particular our award winning Junior Tour Guides scheme. This has enabled us to work creatively to develop innovative programmes to equip our young people with the skills and confidence required to become ambassadors for their local heritage.
The students were engaged and enthusiastic from the start and the feedback was excellent.
Our working relationship with you and your team at Illuminate is so very supportive of our aims as well as being one from which the Imagining History programme can draw learning from as we move forward.”
The children have higher expectations of what they themselves can achieve
The Junior Tour Guides Project for Trinity House Maritime Museum has provided such a unique and enormously engaging opportunity for our P6 and P7 children to learn about a part of history that has been fundamental in shaping the community in which they live.
The project is inherently interdisciplinary in nature, unpacking experiences and outcomes across social studies, the expressive arts, literacy and health and wellbeing whilst embodying the four CfE capacities.
Over the years, our children have developed confidence, pride and a wealth of knowledge throughout the course of the project. There is a visible change in how they see and value their community and themselves. They develop pride in both.
The Junior Tour Guides Project is only this successful because of the excellent relationships we have built up with Nicola, Karen and Calum and the professionalism and joy they bring to the start of each new group. They know our school, the fact that we have around 60% of children with additional support needs and that it often requires a flexible approach that many outside learning providers can not automatically provide. They instil such excitement and enthusiasm for every aspect of the project that every child feels like their contribution makes a difference to the overall outcome.
Our parents have been quite overwhelmed on launch day and have said that they could not believe how knowledgeably and confidently their own child could speak about the museum, the artefacts and the history of their community of Leith.
In short, the Junior Tour Guides Project raises everyone’s expectations of what is possible to achieve in this very active, meaningful and relevant way of learning and, importantly, the children have higher expectations of what they themselves can achieve.”
Karen manages to bring out the best in each pupil
The activities and tasks that Karen introduces to the pupils are developed over a series of sessions and are definitely Curriculum for Excellence in action. Former pupils have all commented that it is through their work with Karen that their listening and talking skills were successfully developed. As a teacher, that success has then carried over into the classroom through personal talks, group discussion and interaction with visitors and guests. After only a short time, Karen manages to bring out the best in each pupil and they are eager to perform. We couldn’t do this without her!
Building confidence and teaching dramatic strategies
“Illuminate are ideal partners for Castleview Primary School, giving annual support to our Craigmillar Castle Junior Tour Guides. The Illuminate Team help the children to be performance ready, building confidence and teaching dramatic strategies. The childrens’ performances received the highest commendation from HMIE during our Inspection. The Illuminate partnership allows us to deliver Curriculum for Excellence at the highest level.
New and fresh approach to customer care training with lots of exciting and informative activities in a relaxed environment. Karen was encouraging and supportive.
Illuminate UK has worked with Rosslyn Chapel for 10 years to build an enduring and rewarding Junior Tour Guides programme that has made a real difference to children in the local community giving them a unique opportunity not only to develop their drama and communication skills and connect with their local heritage, but also to gain confidence and discover more about themselves in the process. We are so proud to have the Junior Tour Guides as ambassadors to share the Rosslyn Chapel story every year.
Superb workshop covering all aspects of working life for children in the mill. Particularly liked the link with [20th century] child workers which was discussed at the end of the workshop. Would highly recommend!
The children absolutely loved it.
They really enjoyed the drama workshop and I was amazed by how they all moved in to character and spoke to the lady running the activity as if she was the character she was portraying. Everyone learned something because all learning styles were catered for — brilliant!”
The work and partnership with Illuminate is invaluable to the school
Illuminate have been working with Pilrig Park School over a number of years and have contributed greatly to the pupil’s engagement and enjoyment to areas of the curriculum. I have been fortunate to have recently been involved with a group of pupils on a Planters project in conjunction with Trinity House. The benefit of being able to visit the House with Nicola has been invaluable to this group of children; having hands on experience of the artefacts and listening to the historical accounts come to life through Nicola’s engaging stories. The accepting and empathetic attitude expressed by the company towards the pupils is paramount to this group of children feeling safe and secure as they work in school and in unfamiliar environments. The work and partnership with Illuminate is invaluable to the school as we have been able to access Trinity House and have school visits from Illuminate with a great degree of flexibility on their part.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss a project, then please get in touch.