About our education sessions
What's covered
The educational aims and outcomes of our sessions are substantially the same across our internal visits to parliament, digital sessions and external visits to schools.
If your group does not match the curriculum levels below, let us know and we’ll discuss specific requirements closer to the time of your session:
Primary
Suitable for CfE level 2 / P5, 6 and 7
- An introduction to your Scottish Parliament
- Decision making for Scotland
- What Parliament does
- Who represents me & having my voice heard
Secondary
BGE / Citizenship
Suitable for S1-3 or general citizenship learning
- Get involved!
- Decision making for Scotland
- The purpose of Parliament
- Who represents me & having my voice heard
National 5 Modern Studies
A session focusing on how the Scottish Parliament holds the Scottish Government to account through FMQs, using illustrative video clips. It covers:
- Representation of the people of Scotland
- Distinction between Parliament and Government
- Parliamentary scrutiny of the Scottish Government and First Minister
Higher Modern Studies
A session focusing on the Parliamentary Committees and their work, particularly their role in legislative scrutiny, using illustrative video clips. It covers:
- Representation of the people of Scotland
- Distinction between Parliament and Government
- The importance of Parliamentary Committees - how they inform themselves & hold the Government to account
FMQs sessions (visits only)
The FMQs session will include the relevant content for your class, as above, plus a section setting context for watching FMQs.
Non-Scottish schools from UK and Ireland
We recommend a digital session for education content, and contact Visitor Services if you are looking to arrange a visit to the Scottish Parliament. We do not have content tailored to non-Scottish curriculums.
Non-Scottish schools from outside UK and Ireland
Please contact Visitor Services if you are looking to arrange a visit to the Scottish Parliament.
Other options for visiting the Scottish Parliament
You can also visit the Scottish Parliament independently, for tours or to watch business in the Debating Chamber or Committees through Visitor Services, or by contacting your 8 MSPs.
If we need to cancel
In case of staff absences, we may need to cancel depending on the impact on our staffing levels.
We will always try our best to make sure your visit goes ahead. This may mean we have to make changes to the advertised programme.
If we need to cancel, we will give you as much notice of this as possible.
If you need to cancel
If you need to cancel or want to rearrange your visit, please give us as much notice as possible.
If your visit is cancelled (by you or by us), we will try to rearrange an alternative date for either an in person visit in Holyrood, an outward session at your school, or a digital session.
As we are a working Parliament, the use of the building for Parliamentary business takes precedence over all education bookings and we reserve the right to relocate, postpone or cancel the education session when required by Parliamentary business.
Enquiries
If you are not making a booking today but have a query or would like more information about our sessions or resources, please email us at education.services@parliament.scot.
Bookings
Bookings are open from February to June 2024 – use our online form to request an education session