Director of Children and Families Gillian Tee

A regular update from Gillian Tee, the Director of Children and Families, on recent meetings, visits and events.

In this update we hear about the new report from the Commission for Developing Scotland’s Young Workforce, Craigmount High’s success with the Donald Dewar Memorial Debate Award, the measures taken to address corporate parenting, Liberton High’s new tennis court and reports from recent sports events and committee meetings.

The Commission for Developing Scotland’s Young Workforce

This Commission chaired by Sir Ian Wood, has published a report on how Scotland’s system of vocational education could be significantly enhanced. The recommendations include reducing youth employment by 40 percent.

Since the Edinburgh Guarantee was launched two and a half years ago it has supported over 1,000 young people into employment training or further education. More than one in every hundred full-time equivalent employees in the Council is now an apprentice. This is having a really positive effect, making a difference to young people at a critical point in their lives. This year’s most recent figures for sustained positive destinations are continuing to rise and are now at 91.4 percent, the highest level ever.

Craigmount High wins the Donald Dewar Memorial Debate Award

My congratulations to the two winners – Michael Davidson and Liam Stewart – from Craigmount High School. They fought off intense competition from young people from schools across Scotland after debating whether historic debt between Commonwealth countries should be written off.

Paolozzi Prize ceremony

This was a fabulous celebration of young people’s art work across the city.  The standard was better than ever and I enjoyed being part of this glittering event at the Scottish National Gallery.  There were nominations by art teachers from 13 secondary schools and three special schools with winners in three main categories:

• Overcoming Barriers
• Talent and Creativity
• New Directions

With an overall winner of the Paolozzi Prize. There was also fabulous music from Firrhill High School, Royal High School and the Edinburgh Jazz Ensemble.

The overall winner of the Paolozzi Prize was Kathryn Russell, an S5 pupil from Holy Rood High School. Well done to all those who were nominated and to the worthy winners of each category.

Games @ The Hub

I was delighted to present the awards at the Games at the Hub. This event celebrated ten years of Active Schools and also the build up to the Commonwealth Games.

It was a fantastic accomplishment to see over 80 primary schools with 1,400 P6 pupils representing a Commonwealth country and competing in 12 sports. Again, a remarkable achievement for all involved.

This is a great demonstration of sport in our city and the close partnership working we have with so many volunteers, including coaches and senior pupils, who helped make this event so successful.

Interscholastic event

Yet another successful event to promote health and wellbeing was held on 2 and 3 June at Meadowbank Sport Centre.

Over 2,000 pupils from 72 of our primary schools participated in the annual Interscholastic event. Each school represented a country and paraded around the track with their flag to rapturous applause before starting the athletics competition.

Broughton Cluster achieve School of Co-operation status and Cluster recognition

The Broughton Cluster began working on this initiative in October 2012.  They have fully embraced the co-operative principles and values and have successfully piloted what was outlined for it to achieve in partnership with Co-operative Education Trust Scotland (CETS).

The event on Wednesday 18 June was a way for the pupils representing the Cluster to come to the City Chambers and present on what they have been doing.  The high school and the feeder primaries all sent two pupils, who delivered excellent presentations to the Council Leader Andrew Burns.

The Cluster has achieved this award by successfully developing their values and principles across the Cluster. The focus for this initiative has been on Pupil Voice. The success in achieving the Cluster award has come from the dedication of the head teachers and staff in building on current good practice. A positive and innovative approach in the Cluster has been the creation of a Co-operative Learning Council, where two P6 pupils from each primary school and two S1 pupils from the high school meet twice per term to discuss Cluster issues.

Having evaluated what worked within the Broughton Cluster and its associated primary schools, we will look to see how we can further develop co-operative community links with a wider range of partners. The focus will be on engaging pupils through pupil councils to ensure pupil and teacher participation is actively driving forward the principle and values in creating a School of Co-operation.

Liberton tennis courts

The official opening for the newly-refurbished tennis courts at Liberton High School was well attended by the local community.  This facility, alongside the bike trail (ed: read about the launch of the bike trail), will encourage more children and young people in the area to become more active and will be an important resource in the local community.

Read more about Liberton High’s new tennis court in our news centre.

Education, Children and Families Committee

At the Education, Children and Families Committee chaired by the Convener Councillor Paul Godzik a wide range of reports were discussed.  Many of these were progress reports or annual updates from previous Committees. The Committee also considered further actions to tackle rising rolls as well as approving implementation of the new management structures to help boost Community access to school facilities.  Updates were provided on the Food for Life pilot programme, designed to improve schools meals, and the Committee heard details of the Small Steps awareness campaign which seeks to improve energy efficiency in our schools.

Read the full report from the Education, Children and Families Committee on Bright Futures.

Launch of Corporate Parenting Action Plan-Refresh

The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 received Royal Assent on 27 March 2014. This is one of the most significant pieces of legislation affecting children, young people and their families since the Children (Scotland) Act 1995.

One aspect of the act focuses on ‘corporate parents’, extending the list of public bodies with “corporate parenting responsibilities” and placing new duties on us as “corporate parents” to collaborate and plan to strengthen support and improve outcomes for looked after children and young people.

The launch demonstrated Edinburgh’s strong position, as we have had a corporate parenting plan in place since 2012 and many of its objectives have already been achieved. The new legislation gives us the opportunity to move this agenda forward.  We have already extended our partnership working, through extensive consultation with young people and our staff, and we have refreshed the six themes of the plan to ensure continuous improvements for looked after children.

I am very proud that our plan is also being used as a model of good practice by the Looked After National Forum to share with other local authorities.

Corporate Parenting Member Officer Group

This group – chaired by Cathy Fullerton, the Vice Convener of Education, Children and Families – heard the progress being made in Edinburgh towards improving outcomes for looked after children and young people.

The report from Economic Development showed how targeted support focusing on looked after young people has improved their positive destinations.

There was further positive progress outlined by Tommy George, the Young People and Community Manager, who spoke about how the free Edinburgh Leisure card for looked after children and young people had resulted in over 14,000 visits to facilities and how they had worked with over 700 young people. They have now set a target of engaging with 1,000 young people over the coming year.  This is an ambitious target as we have 1,400 looked after children and young people in the city, but I am confident they will achieve this.

Education, Children and Families Policy Development and Review Sub Committee – 16 June 2014

There were two main aspects to this sub committee.  The first part, Payments to Third Parties, was a presentation by Ricky Dover (Principal Officer for Commissioned Services) and Lynne Porteous (Acting Head of Planning and Performance) setting out the process for taking forward a re-design of the grants programme in partnership with third sector partner organisations.  It was agreed to establish a short life working group to take this forward.

The second part of the meeting was on Neighbourhood Working.  This allowed officers to explain the work they have been developing over the last few years.  This presentation focused on the very positive examples of joined-up practice at local level.

The Total Craigroyston initiative started a couple of years ago in the Craigroyston area and some of the innovative practice that they have developed was outlined at the meeting. More recently, the Council Management Team asked BOLD to take forward a pilot in Wester Hailes designed to build on existing good integrated practice in order to test new approaches, which could be rolled out to other parts of the city.

Sean Bell, Practice Team Manager in South West Edinburgh, and Sheila Paton, head teacher of Wester Hailes Education Centre, talked about some of the work they were doing to work more closely with partners and families.  This was well received by the Committee and a high level of discussion took place afterwards, discussing the benefits of this approach.

Summer holidays

Friday 27 June marked the end of the school year.  I want to take the opportunity to say a heartfelt thanks to our Headteachers, teachers and all our staff working in schools for the wonderful job they do for the children of Edinburgh and in taking our schools from strength to strength.  Public satisfaction with schools continues to improve year on year.  It is good to see that the work of our schools is publicly recognised and appreciated.

I wish everyone taking a holiday over the summer an excellent, well deserved, restful break.

Thanks also to those who are ‘holding the fort’ and I hope your holidays are not too far away!

This week we brought you a report from the launch of Green Pencil Award 2014, news of Davidson Mains Primary’s film making foray as they made a Movie in a Day and a piece on Wester Hailes Education’s on-going partnership with a South African high school.

In other news…

Homework club and support for children affected by HIV or Hepatitis C

Positive Help offers a free homework club service to children and young people aged 5-18, who are affected by HIV or Hepatitis C.  This can be in the immediate or extended family.  The child is matched up with a trained volunteer who will meet with them straight from school once a week to support them with their homework.

The child or young person will be matched with a suitable volunteer to provide support around literacy, numeracy, and computer skills.  The mentor will meet with them once a week to help them with their homework and then go out for a meal afterwards.

To use this service the child or young person needs to be aged between 5 and 18 and affected by HIV or Hepatitis C. The service is open to those living in Edinburgh and the Lothians.

If you are interested in knowing more or getting a child or young person involved in the Homework Club please contact Tam on 0131 225 4766  or tam@positivehelpedinburgh.co.uk.

Read more about the Positive Help Homework Club.

Thumbs up from Firrhill’s French visitor

Tom Darval, a visiting student from France, commented that “Firrhill is paradise” after a recent two week placement at the high school.

Read the full story at Firrhill High.

This week we brought you the news of our consultation on 20 mph speed zones, the fantastic enterprise programmes at Craigmount High, a report from Live Literature events pairing authors with primary classes, a note of a new choir for kinship carers that is open to new members and an overview of how our young people are engaging with the referendum.

In other news…

Health 4 U encourages girls to take part in PE

Ten of our secondary schools have been piloting the Health 4 U programme, which encourages S3 girls to take part in PE by using single-sex classes and tailored activities such as yoga, body balance and combat fitness sessions.

This is the second programme used in our schools to encourage girls to get active, along with Fit for Girls.

Read all about the success of Health 4 U, and the reasoning behind the project, on the Evening News.

Film stars of Craigroyston High

Three pupils from Craigroyston High School have had their short film ‘No Show’ selected to be shown at the Vancouver International Film Festival at the end of this month.

Anne Kristenson, Ewa Jacon and Marie Seno created the film, which tells the story of a teenager dealing with adversity.

The film was supported by Screen Education Edinburgh and was shown at their special event at the Filmhouse earlier this year (read our report from the event).

Read more about the film stars of Craigroyston High on The Evening News.

Janna’s incredible achievement

Congratulations to Janna Hussain from Firrhill High, who completed a Nuffield Research Placement over the summer.

The Nuffield Foundation is a charitable trust that seeks “advancement of social well-being” through numerous routes, such as funding research and providing research placements to students.

These research placements give students the opportunity to work alongside professional scientists and mathematicians. Find out more about Nuffield Research Placements on their website.

Read more about Janna’s success at Firrhill High.

This week we brought you news of Edinburgh students’ momentous experience at the referendum count and our director’s update featuring news of the recent Children and Families Leaders’ Event, cycle training, summer play scheme and digital learning.

In other news…

Young carers event for professionals next Friday

Photo courtesy of WikiCommons

Abigail Jackson, Project Manager of Broomhouse Young Carers, invites everyone who works with young carers to a special event on 3 October 2014.

If you are a professional working with young people, then come along to our information event from 1.30-3.30pm at The Faith Mission, Gilmerton Road.

It is an opportunity for you as a professional to network, to familiarise yourself with the work of the young carers projects and to understand how the Getting it Right for Every Child approach is part of the process when identifying young carers and supporting them in schools, healthcare settings and within the community.

Forthview Primary to be visited by a dragon!

A very special visitor is coming to Forthview Primary on 29 September. Lari Don, Forthview’s Patron of Reading, is doing a tour of Scotland in her dragon-mobile at the end of the month to celebrate the new covers of her ‘Fabled Beasts’ series and is coming to visit the school!

On the visit she will take a few photographs in the playground and chat about dragon stories and adventure books with one or two P5-7 classes.

Lari Don with primary pupils

Lari became Forthview’s Patron of Reading in May, when she ran workshops for every stage, which parents were also invited to attend. Since then, she has been in regular contact with the school.

Before Lari arrives in her dragon she will be visiting on 22 September, when she will give P2s and P3s a sneak preview of a very new picture book called The Tale of Tam Linn and share some Viking stories with P5/P6s.

A full day of workshops with Lari is planned for the 6 November, so it’s clear that she is taking her role as Patron of Reading very seriously!

And finally… A great journey to the Great Wall

Firrhill High pupil Kira Clark was one of only 65 pupils from across Scotland to take part in an immersion trip to China this summer, organised by the Confucius Institute.

Read Kira’s report from her trip at Firrhill High’s website.

This week we brought you news of the launch of a poetry collection by Forthview Primary, a report about the charity single to be released by Holy Rood RC High to help the homeless across the world, an invitation to the Success in the City event for those working in the early years and a note of our success in our re-assessment for Customer Service Excellence.

In other news…

A report from the Forthview Primary book launch

On Monday we reported, in anticipation, on the launch of Forthview Primary’s World War 1-inspired poetry collection Stolen Lives.

Now, Evelyn Love-Gajardo, Literacy Development Officer, reports from Tuesday’s launch event.

Pupils and parents from Forthview Primary and invited guests gathered at the Festival Theatre on 30 September for the launch of the school’s poetry collection Stolen Lives, inspired by a visit to the theatre to see War Horse earlier in the year. The event, hosted by Cerin Richardson, Education Manager of the Festival Theatre, was attended by P4-7 pupils, as well as pupils from Broughton High School.

It was an added bonus for the young poets to hear nine of their poems read aloud by three actors appearing in the production of Regeneration, which is currently running at the King’s Theatre. The readings were followed by a performance of songs from the time of World War 1 by P6 and 7.The event ended with a reception in the Lafayette Theatre Bar, which all the children enjoyed.

Earlier that same morning, four pupils from the school and their head teacher, Eileen Littlewood, went to Edinburgh Castle where the book was officially launched, thanks to Historic Scotland.

The children have asked that some of the profit made from the book sales, published by Whitewater Publishing and illustrated with the help of students from the Edinburgh College of Art, will be donated to Poppy Scotland.

Copies of the book can be bought from Forthview Primary for £7.99.

Watch the video below to find out more about the book and hear some of the pupils’ work. You can also read more about Stolen Lives in our news centre.

Reflections from Krakow: live on air

Pupils from Firrhill High recently visited Auschwitz-Birkenau. Following the trip they were interviewed about their experiences at the concentration camp for the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland radio show.

Read about Firrhill’s visit to Krakow and listen to the broadcast at Firrhill High.

Edinburgh’s Christmas plans announced

The plans for Edinburgh’s Christmas have been announced, with shows and activities for families in the festive season. This year, Edinburgh families get extra value, with a 20% discount if you have an EH postcode and special family tickets available.

Events on offer this year include:

• Stickman, a stade adaptation of the hugely-popular Julia Donaldson book.
• Santa Land in East Princes Street Gardens with the Christmas Tree Maze, Santa Train and Santa’s Grotto, as seen in 2013, and some new affordable family attractions priced between £1 and £4.
• An ice rink on the East Princes Street Gardens terrace and a double decker carousel

Read about Edinburgh’s Christmas on the Council’s news blog.

Councillor Godzik on tackling rising school rolls

Councill Paul Godzik

With the increasing birth rate, new housing developments and increased entitlements in early years, the issue of rising school rolls is complex and poses a real challenge.

In a post on the Council’s news blog, Councillor Paul Godzik, the Convener for Education, explains the measures we are taking to address this.

Read Councillor Godzik on rising school rolls on the Council’s news blog.

This week we brought you another update on the winners of the Children and Families Achievement Award for improving literacy outcomes.

In other news…

Councillor Godzik addresses budget challenges

Councill Paul Godzik

Education Convener, Councillor Paul Godzik, recently wrote a piece for the Evening News in response to the theme of ‘Opportunities for all to achieve their potential’ in which he discusses Edinburgh schools and the budget challenges faced by Children and Families.

Read Councillor Godzik’s article in our news blog.

Firrhill High remember the Armistice with  a fundraising assembly

Last Friday, Firrhill High School held special assemblies to remember the end of World War 1. At the assemblies, they displayed handmade poppies, created by pupils in S1 and S2.

Afterwards, the poppies were sold to raise funds for Erskine, a charity that provides care services, support and care homes for Scotland’s veterans of war.

See photos from their armistice assemblies on their website.

Every Family’s Right Conference

The Every Family’s Right Conference took place on 6 October 2014. Over 100 people attended, including professionals from children’s and adults’ services. The programme was introduced by Andrew Burns with Aileen Campbell the Minister for Children and Young People as a keynote speaker.

The event promoted Family Group Conferencing as an approach to citizens’ rights  across Children & Families and Health & Social Care.

The conference looked at what was happening across Scotland, other parts of the UK and the world to help make Family Group Conference a better experience for families

The conference considered the challenges facing professionals in trying to improve outcomes for children and young people.

All of this work is aimed at helping to reduce the number of young people who are looked after or looked after and accommodated. This goal is in line with the Scottish Government’s and our own target.

For more information contact FamilyGroupDecisionMaking@edinburgh.gov.uk

Read more about Family Group Conferencing in previous posts.

 And finally… congratulations to Rory!

Last weekend, Corstorphine Primary School pupil Rory Hall was part of the Scotland team that won the bronze medal at the National Development Grades for gymnastics in Birmingham.

At nine years old he was competing at the youngest age at which a child can in the competition, which is an incredible achievement. Well done Rory!

On 18 November Firrhill High School held their first ever Diversity Day to help raise awareness of the terrible consequences of bigotry and to encourage diversity and inclusion.

The day was a great success and featured workshops, delivered by external partners as well as their own student ambassadors, and an inspirational talk from Holocaust survivor Harry Bibring.

The architect of and event manager for this special event was Sheila Watson, art teacher at Firrhill High, who was inspired by her visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp with with senior students Iona Wilkie and Calum Brickell. This visit was part of the Holocaust Educational Trust’s Lessons from Auschwitz project.

Sheila reports on the event for us here.

The scene was set on the stage of the assembly hall at Firrhill High, where 70 handmade willow lanterns glowed with messages of hope for the future, to symbolise the 70 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. The aim of the event was to show our young folk what can happen when racism and other prejudices go unchecked and to encourage diversity, inclusion, tolerance, empathy and understanding of others.

The highlight of Diversity Day was the presentation from Harry Bibring, a Holocaust survivor, to 300 S3 students and 50 members of the local community. Harry ‘played a blinder’, sharing his personal testimony with passion, drama and emotion.

A warm welcome was extended to our friends from Braidburn School, who enthusiastically took part in the day alongside their Firrhill peers. Harry particularly chose to speak to this age group as he was their very age when he had to flee Austria from the Nazis as part of the Kindertransport.

Harry Bibring (centre) is joined by Diversity Day organiser Sheila Watson and a regular visitor to Firrhill High, Holocaust survivor Stephan Brent, who helped plant the school’s Anne Frank memorial tree and opened the school’s Anne Frank exhibition.

A reflection diary was given to all S3 students to record their thoughts, feelings and ideas during the day. Diversity Day was a whole-day event with eight external workshop providers and two in-house workshops delivering two sessions to every S3 student at Firrhill. The outside providers were

• Show Racism the Red Card
• See Me
• True Colours
• LGBT Youth
• Scottish Autism
• Jim Moser of CMS lawyers
• Waverley Care
• Holocaust Educational Trust.

The in-house workkshops were delivered by our very own Anne Frank ambassadors and our two ‘Lessons from Auschwitz ambassadors.

Inspiration, encouragement and unstinting support for the event came from Diana Dodd, Principal Officer Equalities, and Martin Hutchison, Senior Community Learning and Development Officer.

Harry, who is 88 years young, spoke for two hours(!) and you could have heard a pin drop in the assembly hall. Ian Cowie, parent of a former Firrhill pupil, is creating a Diversity Day film which will have its grand premiere in the new year. There will be a link available on the Firrhill High website in due course.

I also arranged for Harry to share his testimony with Portobello High on Monday 17 November and Drummond Community High School on Wednesday 19 November. Whew! This is not uncommon for Harry, who speaks to 60 schools around Britain each year, devoting his retirement to raising awareness and understanding of the Holocaust and its modern day lessons, in order to help create a safer, better future.

Contact Sheila Watson at sheila.watson@firrhill.edin.sch.uk if you are interested in setting up your own Diversity Day or for further details.

Read about Firrhill High’s Anne Frank exhibition and Anne Frank memorial tree in previous posts on Bright Futures.

You can also read about work to tackle racism and promote diversity in schools using the ‘racism’ tag.

Click on the photos below to enlarge.

This week we brought you resources for the forthcoming Safer Internet Day, courtesy of our Digital Learning Team, an update from Family Solutions on how the service is getting on after being established for a year, news of the savings we have made without compromising services in foster care and a report from the DanceQuest event that saw pupils take to the stage with their own carefully cherographed creations.

In other news…

Have you sent your nomination for the Scottish Education Awards?

The deadline for nominations for this year’s Scottish Education Awards is Monday 16 February 2015.

The awards, which celebrate the achievements of schools and teachers across Scotland, have attracted hundreds of nominations so far, but many more schools and individuals are worthy of acknowledgment.

Last year, Tollcross Primary and the Literacies for Employability East programme were named as finalists at the Scottish Education Awards 2014.

Firrhill High’s Diversity Day film launch

Harry Bibring, Holocaust survivor

Firrhill High School’s Diversity Day film will be launched at a special premiere on Thursday 12 February at Oxgangs Library.

Diversity Day took place on 18 November 2014 when Holocaust survivor, Harry Bibring gave his moving testimony to the S3 year group and special guests. Read about the Diversity Day in a previous post.

The film, produced by former Firrhill parent Ian Cowie,  includes interviews and workshop footage and will be used as a tool to help promote inclusion and tolerance.

Mrs Watson, art teacher who created and organised Diversity Day, has planned an exciting red carpet film premiere, complete with entertainment by the Maid of the Forth Stompers and a ‘red and glitzy’ dress code, however remaining central to this event is the very serious message of our need to learn from minority groups and from the Holocaust and to be active in “keeping the memory alive” and celebrate diversity.

 Read more about Firrhill’s work on diversity on Bright Futures.

Firrhill High’s Sheila Watson, founder and manager of the Diversity Day project

On Thursday 12 February 2015 Firrhill High School launched their Diversity Day film at Oxgangs Library. Members of the community attended the event, which went off in style with a red carpet, jazz band and awards.

Diversity Day took place on 18 November 2014 to promote tolerance, tackle bigotry and celebrate diversity. Read about Diversity Day and other inclusion events at Firrhill in previous posts on diversity at Firrhill. You can watch the Diversity Day film on the bottom of this page.

Sheila Watson, art teacher and founder and event manager of the Diversity Day project, reports from the event.

Firrhill High School’s Diversity Day film launch took place on Thursday 12 February to rapturous acclaim from all our guests. We invited 60 members of the local community including all our Diversity Day team from last November.

Our theme for Diversity Day is one of inclusion, respect and tolerance with an awareness that we need to learn from minority groups and from the Holocaust remaining active in ‘keeping the memory alive.’

The film is moving and uplifting, seeing our young folk speak about the day really gives you hope for the future. The subject matter is extremely serious, but we thought that after all the effort which went into making the film, we would have some fun and pizzazz with our launch. We had a four-piece jazz band and a red carpet with papparazzi capturing everyone’s good sides(!) and Oscars for Ian Cowie, who directed the film, and Mairi, an S6 pupil who interviewed our headlining guest speaker Harry Bibring, a Holocaust survivor, on Diversity Day.

Mairi with her Oscar!

Jim Moser from CMS lawyers spoke on Harry’s behalf when he introduced our film and Holocaust survivor Stephan Brent also reflected on his experiences. At the end of the evening we had a toast to our next Diversity Day! It has been suggested we send our film and commemorative book to the Scottish Education Secretary and that we might even be eligible for a national award!

We are in the process of looking for funding for a run of Diversity Day DVDs and copies of our commemorative book for local community groups and VIP guests – any brainwaves would be really appreciated.

I have heard from Iain Stewart of Interfaith Association that Firrhill has been chosen to host Edinburgh Schools Holocaust Memorial Day 2016. We will be given a budget to arrange speakers from all over the world, possibly from Serbia and Rwanda.

I am full of energy, hope and inspiration for the year ahead and will continue to spearhead our Holocaust initiative here at Firrhill High School. I would urge you all to watch this amazing film for yourselves.

Diversity Day commemorative books can now be viewed at Oxgangs Library and the Firrhill High School library. There will also be a commemorative book making its way around our local schools, community groups, retirement homes and local churches. Please contact sheila.watson@firrhill.edin.sch.uk if you wish to book a slot for the book to be made available for a  visit to your organisation.

This week we brought you a

• reminder for Children and Families staff about the Achievement Awards deadline
• report on the end of term concerts by the Youth Music Initiative.

In other news…

Children and Families project highly commended in national business awards

Back in April we reported that we had been nominated for a CIR Business Continuity Award for our work on the Children and Families Significant Occurrence Procedure.

We are delighted to announce that we were highly commended for the Incident Management Award!

Read more about the CIR Business Continuity Awards on their website.

Currie High gets charged up at the museum

Earlier this month, pupils from Currie Community High School visited the National Museum of Scotland to learn about science and engineering as part 0f the museum’s Get Energised programme.

Get Energised gives secondary school pupils hands-on experience of science and engineering, through workshops, conferences and experiments, with a focus on renewable energy and creating

The programme is now in its second year and, following demand from teachers, it has opened up to S1 and S2 pupils to encourage them to take science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) related subjects at National Qualification level.

Irene Somerville, physics teacher at Currie High, said

At Currie Community High School we are embedding Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths into our broad general education so workshops like today, funded by the ScottishPower Foundation, are invaluable to developing our future engineers.

Find out more about Get Energised and forthcoming events for schools on the National Museum of Scotland website.

Going for gold with Firrhill High and St. Joseph’s Primary

Firrhill High School and St. Joseph’s RC Primary are among 82 schools across Scotland to be credited with a Gold School Sports Award from Sportscotland.

The Sportscotland review panel met last month and the schools awards were confirmed until the end of session  2016/17.

Read the list of Gold-awarded Schools at Sportscotland.

Robots, rockets and royalty for P7 girls

National Women in Engineering Day took place on 23 June to help encourage girls to get involved in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects and look to careers in engineering and technical fields that have been traditional regarded as male domains.

To mark the occasion, a large group of P7 girls from schools across the city visited Selex ES for a special day of hands-on activities that included working with robots, rockets and circuit boards.

The girls were visited by Princes Charles, who has been advocating the pursuit of engineering as a career for some time.

Read the full story about the girls’ engineering experience in The Evening News.

Follow the hash tag #nwed for more stories from National Women in Engineering Day.

Firrhill High School has been recognised with a prestigious national award for innovation and achievement in delivering physical education and extra-curricular sport.

The sportscotland Gold School Sport Award was presented to staff and pupils at the school on Tuesday 8 September.

St. Joseph’s RC Primary also attained the Gold School Sport Award – their report will follow tomorrow.

Ros Nixon, Communications Officer at Firrhill High, tells us more.

The award is a national initiative that is designed to encourage schools to continuously improve the quality and quantity of physical education and school sport opportunities. It also encourages sporting links between schools and their communities.

Firrhill High is the first Edinburgh secondary school to gain the award.  Across Scotland, there are currently

• 82 gold Schools
• 181 silver
• 65 bronze.

Stewart Harris, Chief Executive of sportscotland said:

I would like to congratulate all of the staff and pupils at Firrhill High School for putting quality physical education and school sport at the heart of the school. They should be proud of this fantastic achievement.

We are building a world-class sporting system for everyone, and a crucial part of that is putting young people at the centre of our efforts.  Working with our partners in local authorities and governing bodies of sport, we are creating closer links between physical education, school sport and club sport, which benefits young people by providing more and better opportunities to take part in sport.

Mr McClellan, Acting Head Teacher, commented:

This award is a testament to the hard work and commitment of everyone in the school community, particularly the PE staff, active schools staff, other teachers and parents who are involved in providing and promoting opportunities for sport and physical education in Firrhill High School.

We are very pleased to be receiving the award, particularly because it recognises the high level of involvement of pupils at Firrhill in sport and physical education during the school week and beyond.

Within Firrhill, sport, and physical education, play an important role in assisting our pupils to achieve success and develop positive relationships.  We hope that this will support our pupils to pursue a lifelong commitment to improved health and continued physical activity.

To achieve a bronze or silver sportscotland School Sport Award, schools self assess their current practice. However, to gain gold status an extensive external assessment is also carried out by an independent panel of experts.

Throughout the assessment process schools are encouraged to reflect on current practice and focus on continual improvement.

A wide variety of events took place in school libraries across the city last week as staff and students celebrated Book Week Scotland. Lindsay Nealon at St Thomas of Aquin’s organised quizzes for S1 – S3 on Scottish books and facts, as well as a display put together by the S1-3 Book Group and staff nominated their favourite Scottish reads.

Trinity took the opportunity to launch their ‘Reading Riots’ with secondary students and pupils at the feeder primaries talking about the books they had read, instead of writing about them. Coloured wrist bands have been issued to highlight the genres of books people are reading e.g. red for love stories, which they hope will stimulate conversations about reading. Splash events will also be taking place in the library with speed dating books and reading contests.

Shauna Dickson at Firrhill organised a Scholastic Book Fair as well as a Book Swap for staff and students which was open during the S1 Parents’ Evening. Librarians have also been handing out the free copies of the Scottish Book Trust book of short stories ‘ Journeys’.

Lauren Thow at Portobello created three sets of activities for staff to deliver during Key Adult Time for Book Week Scotland, which staff could choose depending on the abilities/interests of their groups, while S6 Library Prefects wrote and delivered a book themed quiz in the Library at lunchtime – rounds included superheroes, pictures, animals and literature and general knowledge. These resourceful seniors also donned white coats, acting as ‘book doctors, handing out ‘reading prescriptions’ recommending books or a certain amount of reading per day/week during break time in the library.

Click the image to enlarge

At the start of the month we reported on the launch of Winter Windows, an exhibition of the best festive artwork by pupils from our primary, secondary and special schools that lights up Princes Street Gardens during Edinburgh’s Christmas.

Lorna MacDonald, Principal Officer of Creative Learning, tells us more about Winter Windows.

For the second year, we have run the Winter Windows competition and the winning designs show talent and creativity. The winning young people came to the launch of the exhibition on 25 November and their designs will be on display until 4 January, but the inspiration will continue beyond the festive season.

I was delighted to work with Ruth Fisher, of Edinburgh’s Christmas, again to plan this wonderful competition, which showcases some of our young people’s artwork in an incredible location: lighting up a walkway near Santa Land and the National Gallery in East Princes Street Gardens!

Thanks to our generous sponsors, Scottish Gas and Shelter, we were able to increase the number of winning windows from 16 to 25 this year. The schools across the city didn’t disappoint either with more than a 300% increase in schools applying this year and close to 300 entries for the judges to select the wining designs from. Tough decisions, but when you visit yourself we are confident you’ll agree they are amazing and inspiring.

The launch event on 25 November took place in the lecture theatre of the National Gallery of Scotland. Dr Patricia Allerston, Deputy Director & Chief Curator of the gallery, shook hands with every winner and handed them their certificate to mark their achievement. Councllor Frank Ross spoke with praise for the young people’s creativity in art and design, as well as thanking the teachers for their valuable input.

The launch event was a super celebration, but far from an ending, as it inspired the young people, their parents, friends and teachers attending to continue creating and working to express themselves through art and design and other art forms across the curriculum. One high school teacher felt that since winning, her student has come out of her shell and the teacher hopes she will go on to even greater thing in the future. The winner herself said:

I was really surprised and amazed that I was one of the winners of the competition! I was so very proud to see my Christmas bird design enlarged and lit up for everyone to see. I felt so important when I went up on stage to receive my certificate. Mum and Dad took loads of photos of me and my design and have been sending them to all our friends. Taking part in the competition has helped me become more confident and has shown me I could go on to specialise in art and design. It’s been a great experience and has helped me believe in myself and shown me that, with hard work, anything is possible!

One winner was from Braidburn Special School, where staff used creative approaches to help the deaf and blind pupil create a design. This winning student said afterwards:

I liked going outside to be close to my window, I could feel the excitement, it made me very happy.

Do go and visit the Winter Windows to be inspired yourself!

The pupil artists that have their designs on display are:

Primary school

• Ruari Follows –  Blackhall
• Emi Brownhall – St Mary’s Leith
• Frankie Walters – Sighthill
• Eve Bradshaw – Bonaly
• Elsie Poole- St John’s RC
• Emily Stewart – East Craig’s
• Leanne Miller – Fox Covert
• Krzystof Nawrocki – The Royal High
• Kitty Styles – Wardie
• Jordan Fenton – Echline
• David Puchir – Liberton
• Bobbi Baillie – Preston Street
• Rebecca Dobbie – Hermitage Park
• Emily Boulton – Stockbridge
• Helaina Young – Granton
• Yousuf Malik – Nether Currie

High school

• Zoe Ferguson – Portobello
• Karen Grant – Firrhill
• Olive Walker – James Gillespie’s
• Chira Eng Nooi – Castlebrae
• Maja Wojcik – Queensferry
• Amelia Dziedzic – Tynecastle

Special school

• Vicky Kamara – Braidburn School
• Ashley Spiers – Panmure St Ann’s
• Owen McPhail – Prospect Bank School

Photo by Ian Cowie

On 28 January, Firrhill High School hosted Edinburgh’s Holocaust Memorial Day 2016, an event that sought to remember the millions murdered in genocides across the globe, to honour the survivors and  to provide a chance to learn from these atrocities. 

A photo gallery from the event is available below.

Sheila Watson, the event organiser and art teacher at Firrhill High, reports from the evening.

Fifty four world flags, including Israel, Scotland, Poland, Germany, Ukraine and Japan, fluttered softly in the chill January evening air in the concourse at Firrhill High School. It was Thursday 28 January and our good army neighbours the 3^rd Rifles had raised the flags for Edinburgh Schools Holocaust Memorial Day 2016. A day to remember the six million people who lost their lives for no other reason than that they were Jewish.

The event was hosted at Firrhill High School in partnership with Edinburgh Interfaith Association.

The stage was atmospherically lit and filled with an installation of shoes, vintage suitcases and old family photos, symbolising the personal possessions stolen from the prisoners as they entered the concentration and extermination camps.

A main aim of the evening was to really involve the audience in both thought and action.

Folk were invited to leave messages of hope for the future on three silver birch trees of remembrance. Silver birch trees were used because they grew around Auschwitz-Birkenau and many are still there today.

Each printed programme contained the name of a particular victim of the Holocaust including date and place of birth and death. Everyone attending was encouraged to research more about their given name from links provided to Yad Vashem UK’s Guardian of the Memory project. We hope that everyone will go on to remember their own victims every Holocaust Memorial Day hereafter.

Holocaust survivor Zigi Shipper was our headline speaker. He shared his incredible testimony with a packed audience of 350. His story of life in the Łódź ghetto, being separated from his grandparents and being imprisoned in Auschwitz-Birkenau, surviving a death march  and later finding his mother again after the war is truly remarkable. It is humbling that a man who has experienced the unimaginable is so positive. He hasn’t got a bad bone in his body and certainly doesn’t carry hatred in his heart and instead brings a message of hope to young and old alike.

In 20 years’ time, survivors like Zigi will no longer be with us; their words will continue to be shared but the force of hearing his testimony first-hand cannot be conveyed.

Mukesh Kapila, an advocate of human rights and Professor of Global Health and Humanitarian Affairs at the University of Manchester, and Rabbi Stephen Fuchs also spoke eloquently and movingly at the event. We also had pupil performers and speakers including flautists, singers, a pianist and a clarsach player. We heard from our two Lessons from Auschwitz ambassadors, Koren and Iseabal, who spoke of their feelings after their visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau, and from Reuben in S2 who spoke powerfully about his grandad’s experiences during the Holocaust. Our most profoundly disabled pupil, Hannah Pierce in S1, bravely recited a Holocaust poem. Pupils and invited guests, including Holocaust survivor Stephan Brent and second generation Holocaust survivor Maria Chamberlain, lit candles to remember those who died.

Klezmer Kollectif played Jewish music at start and end of evening.

Edinburgh Schools Holocaust Memorial Day 2016 was managed by myself, Sheila Watson. Although primarily an art teacher, I am also lead teacher for Firrhill’s Holocaust Initiative and was inspired by my two recent visits to Auschwitz-Birkenau.  Not everyone will be presented with the opportunity to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau, so there is a particular onus on us, who have visited the sites, to make sure that future generations learn about the atrocities that unfolded, not only in these camps but throughout the Holocaust. A lack of humanity was in abundance during the Holocaust – sadly, the current refugee crisis demonstrates it still prevails.

Let us finish with Zigi’s own words

Whatever you do, don’t hate. Hate will ruin your life.

Photos and further information

Read more about Firrhill High’s diversity projects or previous Holocaust Memorial Day events.

Click on the images below to enlarge. All photos are by Ian Cowie.

Over the next week Jude Salmon, Active Schools Manager, will be running through the nominees for the club category of the Active Schools Awards.

This post covers the nominees for club of the year.

See all announced nominees for the Active Schools Awards on Bright Futures.

The City of Edinburgh Basketball Club

The City of Edinburgh Basketball Club is an amazing community club that works so hard in the North East Neighbourhood.  It work with children from P1 to S6.

It provides week weekly sessions for ‘only girls allowed’ to ensure they keep their confidence high and continue participation no matter what level they play at.

The club focuses on training the under 14s and 16s in leadership skills, so that they can coach the under 8s and 10s.

Their mini hoops club has proved so successful with over 30 children from p1 to p3 coming along.

Many of the coaches also take afterschool clubs within the feeder primary schools from Portobello and Holyrood which supports clear pathways from school to club.

Boroughmuir Rugby Club

Boroughmuir Rugby Club has promoted rugby very positively in the Firrhill cluster, both in the primaries (Bonaly, Colinton, Pentland, Longstone and Oxgangs) at and at Firrhill High School. It engages with the school community, not just the schools but the army community too.

Without the club’s work there would be little or no rugby. Several years ago Firrhill High School had success in a national schools trophy and many pupils aspire to repeat this. Firrhill High staff acknowledge this achievement over many others and it is due to the work of the rugby club staff. The club supports its staff and pupils to build relationships and rapport to develop rugby positively.

Boroughmuir Blaze

Boroughmuir Blaze has helped ensure an integrated provision of basketball in the Boroughmuir cluster. The club has given support to make sure all sessions are covered: supplying replacement coaches when lead coaches are unavailable and extra coaches for additional sessions.

The South Edinburgh Primary School Basketball League provides a competitive experience for pupils who have enjoyed their after-school classes.

The club has also supported S1 and S2 clubs for boys and girls at Boroughmuir High School.

A wide variety of events took place in school libraries across the city last week as staff and students celebrated Book Week Scotland. Lindsay Nealon at St Thomas of Aquin’s organised quizzes for S1 – S3 on Scottish books and facts, as well as a display put together by the S1-3 Book Group and staff nominated their favourite Scottish reads.

Trinity took the opportunity to launch their ‘Reading Riots’ with secondary students and pupils at the feeder primaries talking about the books they had read, instead of writing about them. Coloured wrist bands have been issued to highlight the genres of books people are reading e.g. red for love stories, which they hope will stimulate conversations about reading. Splash events will also be taking place in the library with speed dating books and reading contests.

Shauna Dickson at Firrhill organised a Scholastic Book Fair as well as a Book Swap for staff and students which was open during the S1 Parents’ Evening. Librarians have also been handing out the free copies of the Scottish Book Trust book of short stories ‘ Journeys’.

Lauren Thow at Portobello created three sets of activities for staff to deliver during Key Adult Time for Book Week Scotland, which staff could choose depending on the abilities/interests of their groups, while S6 Library Prefects wrote and delivered a book themed quiz in the Library at lunchtime – rounds included superheroes, pictures, animals and literature and general knowledge. These resourceful seniors also donned white coats, acting as ‘book doctors, handing out ‘reading prescriptions’ recommending books or a certain amount of reading per day/week during break time in the library.

Lorna Macdonald, Principal Officer for Creative Learning, reports from the Scottish Career Ready graduation event, which saw S6 students from across the country gather with their mentors at Perth Concert Hall to celebrate completing the programme on 17 March 2016.

It was a heartwarming moment, seeing hundreds of young people from across Scotland graduate from Career Ready and know that each one had a mentor who had worked with them to develop their confidence and skills.

I clapped super loud for my mentee, Adele, as she stepped forward on the stage to receive her certificate and handshake along with others from Gracemount High School.

In autumn 2014 I signed up as a mentor in the Career Ready programme, along with colleagues in the council as well as many others from businesses across Edinburgh. We each met our mentees in their schools and embarked upon a journey with the young people as they went through S5 into S6. I was matched with Adele and we met regularly over the months to discuss her studies, challenges and dreams.

All mentees in the programme get a paid internship in the summer holiday between S5 and S6. The internships are designed to give the young people a chance to develop the skills they need to move forward to further study or work after leaving school. My mentee really blossomed during her internship and amazed us all (and herself!) at what she achieved.

Fourteen Edinburgh high schools had pupils graduating from Career Ready:

• Balerno
• Boroughmuir
• Castlebrae
• Craigroyston
• Drummond
• Firrhill
• Gracemount
• Holy Rood RC
• Leith Academy
• Portobello
• St Augustine’s RC
• St Thomas of Aquin’s RC
• The Royal High
• Wester Hailes Education Centre (WHEC)

In addition to recognising the more than 300 young people who completed the programme, the graduation awarded Ryan Thorne with the Sir Winfried Bischoff Award for Scotland. Ryan, a pupil at Glasgow’s Holyrood Secondary, has subsequently been shortlisted for a Young Scot Award.

David Chalmers from Holy Rood RC High was the Edinburgh winner for the Sir Winifred Bischoff Award and also achieved full-time employment with the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) as a result of his impressive work during his journey with Career Ready. David’s confidence really grew over the programme to the extent that he was asked by Career Ready to address a large gathering of potential business partners to promote their engagement in the programme, which he did to great acclaim and praise.

An Edinburgh teacher also came away with an award. Kristyna MacSween, Curriculum Leader at WHEC, was recognised as Scotland’s Santander Employability Champion 2016 for her excellent work in nurturing employability skills in her pupils.

Congratulations to all the Career Ready graduates I know that the teachers, parents and all the mentors wish them well and we look forward to hearing of how they each build on their success…onwards and upwards!

Find out about Career Ready at www.careerready.org.uk. 

See the social media highlights from the event on Career Ready UK’s Storify.