ENGAGING children and young people in education can be tough at the best of times and the years lost to Covid have made it even more essential and challenging.
Sadly there’s no magic wand to turn every student into the successful learner, confident individual, and effective contributor envisaged by Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence.
Having said that, magic can help.
That’s because it’s superb for teaching core skills and subjects like arithmetic and science.
Back in 2010 I co-founded Edinburgh International Festival to provide world-class entertainment for audiences – and to train the next generation of stage magicians through our annual Magic School programme.
This showed us how much young people loved to learn magic tricks, and how readily they then absorbed the maths and science behind them.
Since then our Magic School headmaster, professional magician Gary James, has also been running Magic School on the Road, which provides workshops for primary schools in areas of multiple deprivation.
It works wonders, with even the shyest coming out of their shells and getting involved. And they are soon off in the playground doing the tricks for their friends – and explaining the maths and the natural forces involved.
Magic is also great because it’s performance and performance is the bedrock of presentation. It’s about having the confidence to stand in front of other people to present an idea. You have an idea in your head and want to put in their heads. Persuasion.
All these things are fundamental to the Curriculum for Excellence. What’s more, research by the likes of psychologist Professor Richard Wiseman shows that the creativity in magic makes a very effective mechanism to help young people learn.
During lockdown I wanted to help other families by creating lessons for home learning. My 11-year-old daughter Olivia and I created more than 50 fun YouTube sessions where she performed a magic trick and I used my background as a former physicist to explain the science and maths.
Out of all this has come something new, Virtual Magic School – a fresh way for teachers to offer students an enjoyable, absorbing way to develop core skills including literacy and numeracy.
What’s so exciting about it is that it uses the latest choose-your-own-adventure technology to make the experience as immersive as possible. The schools trials went well and the backing we’ve had from the Scottish Government, from Baillie Gifford and Kiran’s Trust (which supports creative expression in young people) is a huge vote of confidence.
We’ll be using this year’s MagicFest (December 17-31) as a launchpad, inviting teachers and schools to sign up for free access to Virtual Magic at a moment when stage shows and other events will be raising the profile of magic across the country.
Then hopefully in 2023 some of your children will be coming home able to impress you with a new trick and then really wow you by explaining the science that makes the magic work.
For more about MagicFest https://magicfest.co.uk
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