2025-2026: A Year of Activity
The Franco-Scottish Society has enjoyed an active year. More detail can be found here and you can access our annual accounts and report as submitted to OSCR here. You can also access our most recent Bulletin (No. 97 December 2025) here.
- There are now six branches – those in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Perth and St Andrews were joined by the new Stirling branch. Each of these has put on a full programme and provided financial support to enhance the experience of learners of French. More information can be found on the website’s branch pages.
- Lorna Milne, our president, was a guest at the State Banquet for President Macron at Windsor Castle in July 2025 – our current Bulletin contains a full report.
- Our Bulletin editor, Gerry Toner, was a guest at the 700th anniversary celebrations in September for the Ferme des Écossais at Grisy-Suisnes, south of Paris, purchased by the Bishop of Moray to provide support to Scottish students at the Sorbonne.
- In October, the Society held a highly successful conference to celebrate the 130th anniversary of its founding. This conference, Franco-Scottish Relations in Trade, Business and Work, focused on the importance of Franco-Scottish relations for our prosperity today and tomorrow. The programme can be found here and a full report here.
- The Society has been pursuing the case for language learning through various channels. Following the conference, the president wrote an article for The Herald on 6 November 2025 and an op-ed for the Times Educational Supplement, calling for a national strategy for languages in Scotland. This was followed by a letter from business leaders and academics to all political parties in Scotland as they prepared for the election this spring.
- The Society contributed to funding the annual The Future of French en Écosse conference which has led among other things to the founding of an Association for teachers of French in Scotland.
- We again provided financial support to two major programmes open to all schools: the French Film Festival’s Schools Programme and the Institut’s Concours de la Francophonie.
Through the year we have worked closely with the Institut Français d’Écosse in Edinburgh, the Alliance Française in Glasgow and the Consulat général de France in Edinburgh. We thank them and the National Library of Scotland and the sponsors of our 130th anniversary conference.
Looking ahead to 2026-2027
We are currently working up our plans for 2026-2027.
We will be marking some major events. The French presidential elections are scheduled for April 2027: we plan to have a national speaker who will speak to each branch and cast an expert eye over the political context in which this crucial election will be held. Four months later on 2 July the Tour de France racers after the Grand Départ from Edinburgh will head through Midlothian, the Scottish Borders and Dumfries and Galloway towards Carlisle. We will be marking this major sporting event.
All six branches are planning full branch programmes for the new session. In particular, we will be celebrating the 80th anniversary of the foundation of our Perth Branch in 1947; this was a successor to a committee set up during World War 2 to support the locally based Free French forces.
Beyond these activities, we will continue our support for the learning of French.
Nationally, we have already committed funding towards two major programmes for schools across Scotland: the Learning Programme of the French Film Festival UK and the Concours de la Francophonie organised by the Institut français. Our branches will continue to offer financial support to schools seeking to enrich the experience of learning French through providing learners opportunities to extend and apply their learning in real life in France.
We will work with others in seeking to ensure that national policy on language learning (including, of course, French) is fully implemented and resourced and we look forward to the outcomes of the current review of Curriculum for Excellence and refreshed guidelines for the teaching of languages in primary and secondary schools. The election of a new Parliament and the establishment of a new Government provide opportunities to promote the value of language learning for all in a global world and multicultural society. We welcome the opening of the Erasmus+ programme in January 2027 to schools and other organisations in Scotland.