Job opportunity with Pilton Community Health Project

Childcare Development Manager

Full time @£27032 plus 6% employer contribution to pension scheme.  Fixed term contract for 6 months.

Deadline:  midday Monday 20th February

Pilton Community Health Project is looking for an enthusiastic and motivated childcare expert who is ready for the challenge of leading the development of our childcare services. 

The successful candidate will be dedicated to the provision of affordable, high quality childcare and understand the childcare business.  S/he will be an experienced childcare practitioner with strong business sense. 

For a job pack please call 0131 551 1671 or email admin@pchp.org.uk

Or download the job pack here http://pchp.org.uk/get-involved/job-opportunities-0

Completed application forms MUST reach us by midday on Monday 20th February to be considered.  Late applications will NOT be accepted.

Pilton Community Health Project is an equal opportunities employer.

Anita Aggarwal

Community Development Manager

PIlton Community Health Project

73 Boswall Parkway, Edinburgh, EH5 2PW

0131 551 1671

anitaaggarwal@pchp.org.uk

www.pchp.org.uk

Like us on Facebook for regular updates www.facebook.com/PiltonCommunityHealthProject

Adult learning classes at Craigroyston

Happy New Year!

Our adult learning classes begin next week and we still have spaces available for some courses. Please spread the word! Starting from Monday 23 January for an 8 week term. 

We also have  FREE WalkingTuesday mornings 10.15-11.15am free walkers group to encourage people to become more active. They will be gentle walks building up into longer sessions. These start from Tuesday 24th January. Just come to the school for 10am.  Wear waterproofs and good waterproof shoes and bring a bottle of water.

Plus a drawing class on Monday afternoons, Scottish History through Novels on a Wednesday afternoon and Mindfulness on Thursday afternoons and a New year, New You class on Saturday mornings to help make 2017 your best year ever!

Courses cost £48 for the 8 weeks (£24 for senior citizens and £15 for people receiving concessions)

All the best

Fiona Henderson

Fiona Henderson|Community Access to Schools Development (North) |Craigroyston Community High School, 67 Pennywell Road, Edinburgh, EH4 4NL | Tel 0131 477 7801 | or Tel 0131 538 7285 | Fiona.Henderson@craigroyston.edin.sch.uk |www.craigroyston.edin.sch.ukcommunity@craigroyston.edin.sch.uk

£1.5 million childcare boost for deprived areas

Money for more nursery teachers and graduates in deprived areas

More teachers and graduates are to be recruited for nurseries in deprived areas in Scotland through a £1.5 million investment to expand early learning and childcare, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has announced. An extra 435 graduates will be in place by 2018, with every local authority area set to increase their nursery staff numbers.

Edinburgh will get an extra twenty graduates under the initiative – either a teacher with early years expertise or a graduate practitioner with the BA Childhood Practice award.

The funding is the first step towards realising the commitment to ensure nurseries in the most deprived areas benefit from an additional graduate by 2018 – either a teacher with early years expertise or a graduate practitioner with the BA Childhood Practice award.

Making the announcement while visiting the nursery at Gorebridge Primary School, the First Minister said: “Increasing the number of teachers and graduates in nurseries is absolutely crucial to tackling the attainment gap right from the start of a child’s education.

“We all recognise the importance of high quality early learning and childcare to the development of our young people, and access to the right staff with the right expertise is key to this.

“By providing the best possible start in life we can ensure our young people develop the skills and confidence they need to reach their full potential, we know this is particularly true for children who face the greatest disadvantage.

“That is why, as part of this commitment, we are investing £1.5 million in 2017-18 to train additional teachers and graduates. By targeting these additional resources in Scotland’s most disadvantaged areas we can improve attainment and make sure every child born in Scotland has an equal chance to succeed, regardless of their background.”

Minister for Childcare and Early Years Mark McDonald (above) said: “This is an extremely exciting time for early learning and childcare as we take forward the most significant expansion ever seen in Scotland – almost doubling free provision to 1140 hours by 2020.

“During this expansion our priority is to ensure quality remains at the heart of the program and a diverse, highly skilled workforce is key to achieving this.

“We will work closely with local authorities to deliver this commitment in a way which maximises the number of children who will benefit.”

The announcement has been welcomed by local politicians, who say the increased free provision to 1140 hours by 2020 will have a positive impact for families across Edinburgh.

SNP MSP for Edinburgh Northern and Leith, Ben Macpherson said: “This new funding is very welcome news for Edinburgh, helping to ensure that more children in our most deprived communities are able to benefit from specialised childcare and high quality early years learning. 

“The Scottish Government is committed to closing the attainment gap, and targeting funding in this way, as well as expanding the guaranteed free childcare provision to 1140 hours by 2020, is important in making this happen, and to ensure that every child across Edinburgh gets an equal start in life. 

“The 20 new graduates or teachers that will be joining our workforce in Edinburgh will help improve childcare provision in our communities, and I look forward to seeing the Scottish Government continue to invest in our children’s futures.”

 City of Edinburgh Council’s Vice-Convenor of Education, Children and Families, Cathy Fullerton said: “I would like to thank the Scottish Government for their continued commitment to improving the lives of our children. These 20 new posts will give children from deprived communities, such as my own ward, a better start to life.”

 

 

 

Lessons from ‘The Long Night’: why we must all stand up to bigotry

‘To honour the dead and to warn the living’

In a speech at a reception held for the Holocaust Education Trust at Westminster last night, Sajid Javid MP reflected on the modern-day relevance of Ernst Bornstein’s memoir of life and death in the Nazi labour camps:

In Danny’s forward to The Long Night, he makes the point that with every Holocaust story you learn something new. Each time a survivor shares their memories you gain another perspective on what happened. And whenever you hear from someone who was actually there, you’re reminded once again of the human lives that lie behind the cold, hard statistics of the Shoah.

As an MP and a minister I’ve been privileged to meet with several men and women who lived through the Holocaust. I’ve had the honour of hearing their testimony first-hand.

Thanks to Karen and everyone at the Holocaust Educational Trust (HET), 100,000 young people a year can say the same. And, thanks to the government-backed Lessons From Auschwitz project, thousands of schoolchildren and teachers are able to visit the most notorious of death camps every year.

I myself accompanied a group from my constituency back in 2011, soon after I first became an MP. And it was one of the most emotional, moving experiences I’ve ever had.

But it’s now more than 70 years since the camps were liberated. Time, inevitably, takes its toll on the brave, strong men and women who survived the Third Reich. That’s why it’s never been more important to listen to them and to learn from them now.

And it’s also why I’m so pleased to see this new, English edition of Ernst Bornstein’s incredible story. Not just because it’s an amazing piece of writing, which undoubtedly it is. But because The Long Night contains a number of lessons that all of us would do well to reflect on, both today and in the future.

The first is the way the full horror of the Holocaust unfolds only slowly.

It creeps up on you.

The first time Bornstein encounters Nazi soldiers they’re chatting to civilians and handing chocolates to children.

The first labour camp is relatively humane.

But as the book goes on, the situation grows gradually worse.

Conditions deteriorate.

Rations decline.

Brutality increases.

Death – initially a rare occurrence that provokes great shock – becomes routine.

And, almost before you know it, you’re reading this horrific, vivid, deeply disturbing account of the death marches.

It’s a reminder that the Holocaust did not begin in the gas chambers. The Holocaust began when anti-Semitism was legitimised. It began when hatred and bigotry were allowed to grow without challenge. When low-level violence and discrimination against Jews was tolerated and then encouraged. And that’s a lesson that’s so important today.

Last year the Community Security Trust reported an alarming increase in anti-Semitic incidents. In the summer there was a worrying spike in levels of hate crime more generally.

It’s easy to dismiss, and say they are just some isolated cases. But the Holocaust shows the danger of letting intolerance take root. Of normalising bigotry.

Left unchecked, hatred quickly snowballs and can lead to truly horrific acts.

But it’s not enough to simply tell ourselves that we disapprove. We have to stand up and take action.

Which brings me to the second lesson I took from the Long Night.

We often look at the Holocaust through the stories of individual survivors and victims. But this book reminds us that it’s not just the victims who were people. The perpetrators were too.

Too often, they’re dismissed as some vast, faceless machine. Doing so diminishes their individual guilt. And that’s not something Bornstein allows.

He paints a vivid picture of named kapos and “block elders”. Of specific SS men and camp guards. Each with their own character, their own face, and their own story.

Then there are the bystanders. Passengers on comfortable trains who turn their faces away. The farmer who refuses to offer sanctuary, or even a scrap of food, to fleeing prisoners.

And the crowds of worshippers who file out of church on Sunday morning and studiously ignore the column of human misery that’s marching right past them. Supposedly good Christian men and women who, in Bornstein’s words: “Calmly surveyed our misery and, with hardened hearts, observed us like statisticians contemplating criminals.”

The Holocaust would not have happened were it not for a few evil individuals. But it could not have happened without millions of ordinary men and women choosing to look the other way.

Remembering the complicity of the bystander is particularly important right now. Because the blunt truth is that hate crime is not committed and permitted by some faceless “other”. It’s down to people. People just like you and me.

I’ve talked before about the insidious way anti-Semitism has made a comeback in politics and polite society. But if our only reaction is to tell ourselves how awful it is, then we’re not just failing the victims.We’re failing in a fundamental moral duty to society.

We have to call out bigotry and racism whenever we see it and wherever we see it.

We have to object when a line is crossed from legitimate debate to smears and abuse.

We have to push back when people lazily reach for glib comparisons that belittle what happened, calling those we disagree with “Nazis” or claiming someone’s actions are “just like the Holocaust”.

Ultimately, we must be prepared to do that most un-British of things – we have to make a scene.

Maybe that’ll be in private.

Maybe in the media.

Maybe on Twitter.

In fact it could be anywhere: the top deck of a bus or right here in Parliament.

What’s certain is that if we don’t speak out against hatred and anti-Semitism it will become normalised.

It will become part of everyday life.

And once that happens, the consequences once again will be tragic.

But I’m hopeful. I look around this room and I see people who are willing and able to take a stand. I see organisations like the Holocaust Educational Trust spreading the word. I see the HET’s ambassadors, amazing young people who have volunteered to make sure survivors’ stories are shared with their peers.

It reminds me that most people are fundamentally good at heart, even if they need a little nudge now and then.

That’s why the third message I took from Bornstein’s testimony is a message of hope.

First, in the fact that throughout his time in the camps and in years that followed, Bornstein simply refused to be beaten. He was determined to fight on. To see justice done. To ensure that the crimes committed against his family were not forgotten.

That, in itself, I find very inspiring. But I’m also struck by the many acts of kindness he describes.

The nameless farm girl who offers a starving Bornstein some bread.

Meister Hermann, the electrician who takes Bornstein under his wing.

The fellow inmate at Flossenberg who risks his own life to save the author from certain death.

Together, they show that even in the darkest, longest of nights, light can shine through – but only if we choose to let it.

There’s a small Holocaust memorial established by Ernst Bornstein, I think it’s in Dachau. The inscription simply reads: “To honour the dead and to warn the living.”

The Long Night does exactly that.

Noemie, I can’t thank you enough for bringing your father’s words to a new audience and to a new generation.

I know it wasn’t easy.

But as first-hand memories of the Holocaust begin to fade, his painful testimony becomes more important than ever.

And it’s more important than ever that we heed his warning and learn from it.

That’s why I’m so proud to be overseeing work on the new national Holocaust memorial and learning centre, to be built just a short walk from where we are right now.

It will help ensure that the people of this country never forget the horrors of the past, and remind us all of the need to resist bigotry in all its forms.

Dr Enrst Israel Bornstein was strong enough to survive years of abuse at the hands of racists and anti-Semites. Surely, in 2017, we can be strong enough to stand up and speak out in the face of such hatred?

Holocaust Memorial Day is marked each year on 27th January, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. The theme for 2017 is How can life go on?

Ben Macpherson: Scotland must choose it’s own path if all attempts to compromise are rejected

Tuesday’s statement by the Prime Minister’s made it clear the UK is heading for an ‘economically disastrous hard Brexit’, according to local MSP Ben Macpherson. He said Scotland voted overwhelming to remain in the EU – with Edinburgh voting 74% to Remain – and the Scottish Government is doing all it can to make sure the Tories cannot ignore and act against Scotland’s interests. Continue reading Ben Macpherson: Scotland must choose it’s own path if all attempts to compromise are rejected

Edinburgh Writer Receives a 2017 New Writers Award

A writer from Edinburgh has come one step closer to having his work published, after being named the recipient of a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award 2017.

Simon Brown (above) is one of the 10 recipients of the coveted award, run by Scottish Book Trust in association with Creative Scotland. The awards provide a selection of talented, unpublished writers with financial support to enable them to concentrate on developing their work, as well as professional guidance to help them move towards publication.

Each of the 10 recipients will receive a £2,000 cash award and support tailored to their needs including mentoring from writers and industry professionals, training in public relations, social media and performance and the opportunity to showcase their work to publishers and agents. The awards also include a week-long retreat at Moniack Mhor. The retreat provides time, space and the freedom to create new work in idyllic surroundings.

Simon, a Library Assistant from the Southside of Edinburgh, has received a New Writers Award in the Fiction & Narrative Non Fiction category.

Simon was born and raised in the Highlands but now lives in Edinburgh. He’s currently working on his third novel, a story about people who work at the Department of Karmic Affairs, while sprucing up his second.  He has one publishing credit to his name – a story that appeared in 404 Ink – but will be working hard to improve that this year.

When he’s not writing he can be found working for the city libraries, where he occasionally has to sing at children, or mucking about with a sampler trying to make hip hop. He wrote his first story, The Hair, when he was six years old.  It was about hair. 

Commenting on the award, Simon said: “I’ve run out of places to pinch myself.  Thank you to Scottish Book Trust for giving me this incredible opportunity – I’m going to work so hard to justify the belief that has been shown in me.”

The three judging panels reviewed over 400 entries in total before selecting the final 10. This year’s judges included Don Paterson, Amy Liptrot and Pamela Butchart.

The full list of the 2017 New Writers Awardees is:

Fiction & Narrative Non Fiction 

Anna Stewart (Dundee)

Elisabeth Ingram Wallace (Glasgow)

Laura Morgan (North Sutherland)

Sally Huband (Shetland)

Simon Brown (Edinburgh)

Poetry

Ciara MacLaverty (Glasgow)

Lydia Harris (Orkney)

Molly Vogel (Glasgow)

Children’s and Young Adult Fiction

Christine Laurenson (Shetland)

Helen MacKenzie (Linlithgow)

Caitrin Armstrong, Head of Writer Development at Scottish Book Trust, said: “The New Writers Awards exist to support and nurture the talent and spirit out there in Scotland. We’re here to help the writers who might be bowing under the weight of their commitments or who just need some breathing space and encouragement to keep going. Our 2017 awardees have already produced some fantastic writing, and I can’t wait to see what they create over the next year.” 

Aly Barr, Head of Literature, Languages and Publishing, Creative Scotland, said: “The New Writers Awards continue to be both a strong indicator of the next big name in Scottish writing and a vital rung on the ladder for authors taking their first steps as professionals.” 

Many New Writers Award recipients go on to secure publishing deals. Upcoming 2017 publications from previous awardees include the much-anticipated Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (HarperCollins) by Gail Honeyman. 2016 publications from previous awardees include Claire Askew with This Changes Things published by Bloodaxe Books, Lucy Ribchester with The Amber Shadows published by Simon and Schuster, Martin MacInnes with Infinite Ground published by Atlantic Books and Helen Sedgwick with The Comet Seekers published by Harvill Secker. 2012 recipient Graeme Macrae Burnet was shortlisted for the 2016 Man Booker Prize for his second novel, His Bloody Project.

Picture: Rob McDougall

 

Tackling the scourge of food poverty

Sixteen projects across Scotland will share £350,000 to help families access fresh and healthy food, Communities Secretary Angela Constance has announced. It’s the second allocation of money from the £1 million Fair Food Fund which is already funding 20 projects. Continue reading Tackling the scourge of food poverty

Persevered: Journey’s end for happy Hibees!

Scottish Cup Trophy Tour hits the magic 114 target today!

2016 was a memorable year, with so many events of world importance. It was the remarkable twelve months when the impossible became possible. Brexit. Donald Trump becoming President of the USA. And Hibs winning the Scottish Cup! Continue reading Persevered: Journey’s end for happy Hibees!