How Loudoun Academy pupils helped make Dean Castle accessible to an international audience

With International Youth Day taking place on 12 August, it feels like the perfect time to look back on a project that took place earlier this year that focused on work by young people from Ayrshire. Established to raise awareness on a number of challenges faced by young people around the world it is also a day that celebrates meaningful participation, collaboration, knowledge sharing and international partnership. These themes are reflected in this project, which brought people together to learn from each other and create something with a lasting impact.

The Project

As part of their Scottish Language Employability Award pupils from Loudoun Academy’s S5 and S6 Travel and Tourism class worked alongside Ayrshire360 to create a French-language guide for Dean Castle. What started as class project became something bigger - a partnership and an opportunity for young people to work on a live brief with a real organisation to create something that will open up Ayrshire’s history to visitors. 

The real work begins

Nominated students visited Dean Castle and met with the Senior Marketing Assistant Clare Garcia Wilson and Museums Assistant, Jennifer Herrera. Here the students were briefed about branding and Ayrshire360's expectations for the visitor guide.

The next step was a visit from the whole class so that everyone involved could experience the castle for firsthand. The pupils explored the grounds, toured the castle and carried out research using the Future Museum website.

For the final leaflet the class choose museum displays, objects linked to France. 

A Little Something Extra

A lovely additional resource the class provided was a pronunciation guide for staff, to give them a bit more confidence when speaking with French visitors and handing out the materials. It might sound like a small thing, but it was a thoughtful way to break down barriers and make people feel welcome.

What went into the Leaflet 

When the class shared their work, it was really impressive. Clare who consulted on the leaflet even learned a few things, including some of the differences between English and French etiquette, such as the fact that days of the week aren't written using capital letters in French.

There were challenges which the children handled well, one being that, during the project East Ayrshire Leisure had become Ayrshire 360. There was a completely new brand, new colours, new fonts and a new visual style. Clare and Jennifer were on hand to support with the changes and Clare even delivered a Canva workshop to share hints and tips for the whole class. The workshop focused on how marketing teams approach design and showed how simple changes to spacing, fonts and layout can transform a document and make it feel more professional.

Silver Award

The pupils work went on to receive a Silver award as part of the Scottish Language Employability Award, giving them an accreditation that they can add to their CVs and proudly take forward into future careers.

The Partnership

Speaking at the leaflet presentation, Development Officer Lindsay Jess said, “Scotland has a long history of people travelling and settling across the world, taking pieces of Scottish culture with them wherever they go. In return, it's important that we make our own stories and heritage accessible to visitors coming to Ayrshire today. Many of those visitors may have Scottish roots themselves and are keen to learn more about their family history and heritage, so it's important that we help make that journey easier.

This project marks the beginning of what we hope will be a fantastic partnership. The pupils work has been invaluable in helping to break down language barriers, and making our heritage more accessible. We're keen to build on this with future classes, not just at Dean Castle but across other venues and languages. Projects like this benefit everyone involved and show the positive difference young people can make in their communities.”

Highlights

The highlight of this project was that there was a genuine need for this resource that could make our heritage more accessible and local young people stepped up and delivered it. International Youth Day celebrates the creativity, innovation and ambition that young people bring to their communities and this project is a brilliant example of exactly that.