Kathryn MacLeod

The music calendar in the Western Isles is usually packed year-round, with live music spilling out of pubs, arts centres, and festival tents – but it all fell silent in the wake of the national lockdown.

Elisabeth Gifford fell in love with the Isle of Harris after spotting a photo of a white holiday cottage in a newspaper’s small ads nearly 20 years ago...

I’m a Rubhach who grew up with a view of Bayble Island, but—a bit like the man in charge of the country I now live in—I’ve got family connections to the other side of Broad Bay.

After three months of lockdown learning, staff and pupils across Scotland are enjoying a well-deserved break during their summer holidays – and enjoying it with the knowledge that schools will be returning as normal in August.

Scottish Apprenticeship Week, held this year from 2nd – 6th March, is an annual celebration of the diversity which makes work-based learning beneficial for individuals, employers, and the economy.

What can a baby teach us about empathy? For local school pupils taking part in the Roots of Empathy programme, the answer is everything from empathy to emotional resilience and even responsible citizenship.

There’s a big question currently on pupils’ minds at Sgoil Uibhist a Tuath in North Uist: why are the local stickleback fish losing their spines?

Families gathering around the kitchen table to conduct science experiments might not be what immediately comes to mind when you think of homework, but homework has looked a bit different for pupils at Sgoil Bhaile a’ Mhanaich in Benbecula recently, and it’s all thanks to the school’s family learning programme.

From crofting to kayaking, the pupils at Daliburgh School in South Uist have been making the most of their island environment to supplement their classroom learning experience.

Dìleab: Air a Chuan (Legacy: On the Ocean) is part of a larger project that emphasizes culture, connection, and community in the Outer Hebrides. But one of the Sgoil Lionacleit performances during the recent Dìleab concert at Celtic Connections in January had more than a community connection – it had a direct family link, too.

From Duolingo to Dìleab, and Twitter trends to national headlines, the Gaelic world has been buzzing in recent months.

For the young people on stage at the New Auditorium, it was a unique experience. On January 17, they performed for hundreds of people at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, and another 3000 online, as part of Dìleab: Air a’ Chuan (Legacy: On the Ocean) at Celtic Connections, celebrating the islands’ rich connection with the waters which surround them.

Care Day, the national celebration of care- experienced young people, takes place each February across Scotland, falling this year on 21 February. And in the Western Isles, Care Day will be extra special, with the launch of a brand-new young people’s hub in Stornoway Town Hall.