Burns Night celebrated traditionally on 25 January, is a time of great food, song and oracy. Across the night, formal gatherings can include speeches, poetry, recitations, and toasts to honour both guests and, of course, esteemed Scottish poet Robert Burns.

Robert Burns is considered Scotland’s national poet. He wrote primarily in Scots at a time when the Union of Crowns and shift to governance from London was diminishing its perceived importance as a language, in favour of English; and wrote of everyday life, informed by his strong interest in folk songs and legends. 

This history means that, for schools across the UK, Burns’ poetry presents an opportunity to reflect on how we teach students about language and dialect – their own and others. Are students in your school encouraged to be curious about language? Do they encounter a range of languages and dialects in contexts where they can build their understanding of both others’ and their own? Can students recognise and appreciate the full linguistic repertoire offered by the many languages and dialects spoken in UK schools, rather than the suggestion that there’s only one ‘right way’ to speak in school? 

Below, you’ll find three ideas for activities to explore with your students, connected to this theme. 

Connecting poetry with who we are

Burns’ poetry so strongly evokes his place and time that he has become strongly identified with Scotland, and Scottishness. How can poetry help your students explore the relationship between language, identity and community, to the benefit of their understanding of all three?

You might consider, in your classroom, poetry that reflects your students and the community around you. Are there any local writers, past or present, who use a local dialect or commonly spoken language? What about those who explore themes tied to your area’s geography, history or politics?

Sounding it out 

It’s commonplace in Scottish schools for Burns Night to be celebrated with singing, poetry recitals and competitions. It presents an opportunity for all students to engage with poetry written in Scots – an important part of our shared cultural heritage, and also a chance to explore differences between languages and dialects that they will encounter throughout their education – from language learning to the study of Chaucer and Shakespeare. 

You might consider introducing students to these traditions by reading or reciting some poetry – either as a class or in smaller groups. Students might like to record and compare their own efforts with the video and audio found in the resources below – how close can they get their pronunciation to the examples? What do the poems sound like translated into their own ways of speaking? 

You may want to follow up your work with Burns’ poetry by engaging with wider questions about why we have regional, race and class variations in the ways we speak in the UK. Students may be able to draw on their own knowledge of other languages and dialects, and you may wish to draw links to knowledge from across the curriculum (considering, for example, the influence of the Norman Conquest; the Vikings; the history of the Welsh Language; and the centralisation of power in London). 

Creating our own poetry 

Engaging with Burns’ poetry by writing their own gives students a creative opportunity to explore their own identities and community. Writing in their own way of speaking, as Burns did, provides a spark for conversations about how we use our voices across contexts, and the complex relationship between our language and identity. 

Consider two of Burns’ poems:

To a Mouse: 

“Wee, sleeket, cowran, tim’rous beastie…”

and

Address to a Haggis (traditionally recited at Burns’ Night):

“Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face…”

Probably (hopefully), mice aren’t such an everyday animal for most children now – but what creatures are? How might this exercise be designed to draw out conversations about what the ordinary and the everyday means to us? What is the equivalent dish to a haggis in your students’ homes and communities – what might be served at your school’s equivalent of Burns Night, and how would that dish be addressed in verse?