The vet charity for pets in need is calling on dogs and their owners across Edinburgh to get their walking gear on this month and take part in its virtual walkathon.
Taking place throughout the whole of October, PDSA is asking dog owners to walk their pooches 48 miles to raise vital funds for the charity’s 48 Pet Hospitals across the country – including its Edinburgh PDSA Pet Hospital.
All dogs who join #TeamPDSA and take part in the challenge will receive a limited-edition dog bandana and those who raise over £100 will receive a well-earned medal for completing the Walkathon.
“Whether it’s 1.5 miles a day or a longer walk once a week, this is a great chance to set yourself and your furry family member a challenge,” explains PDSA Fundraising Manager Anna Hawkins.
“We all know the importance of walking our dogs, and autumn is a beautiful time to appreciate the great outdoors with your four-legged friends!
“Not only that, but every step you take, and every mile you tick off, you’ll be helping PDSA treat hundreds of thousands of pets in need whose owners who have nowhere else to turn.”
The team at Edinburgh PDSA Pet Hospital saw more than 8,600 pets in 2022, carrying out over 900 surgical operations, 2,300+ x-rays and 1,000+ ultrasounds.
This is the charity’s second annual October Walkathon. Last year, participants raised more than £20,000 for PDSA.
“If you are looking for more of a challenge for your fit, healthy and energetic pooch, you can always test yourself and walk 100 miles for PDSA,” adds Anna.
“And you don’t need to be a dog owner to get involved. Whether you are an animal-lover, pet owner or want to do something in memory of your pet, all ages and abilities are encouraged to get involved!”
Work to embed film and screen education within the Scottish schools’ curriculum took a step forward today with the launch of new funding from Screen Scotland.
Available to early years, primary and secondary schools, the new Schools Screen Education Fund has been created to support programmes of work with the potential to develop increased understanding of the potential of screen education and support the provision of screen education and the new curriculum in a school setting.
Schools can apply for grants up to £5000 to test an element of the draft Film and Screen curriculum with classes from Early Years to S3, or to design and deliver screen education projects for schools.
Also going live today, is Screen Scotland’s refreshed Screen Education Fund which offers grants of between £500 – £20,000 to projects that support the provision of screen education in a variety of formal, informal and non-formal settings – schools, colleges, universities, cinemas, film festivals, libraries, media access centres and Local Authorities – aimed at developing increased understanding of the potential of screen education.
Fi Milligan-Rennie, Head of Education – Screen at Screen Scotland said: “Developing Film and Screen as an expressive art focuses on enabling pupils to make a film, rather than solely study the history or theory of film.
“This is core to Screen Scotland’s work to widen participation in film and screen production, cultivate a skilled screen workforce and develop the screen professionals needed to carry forward Scotland’s film culture.
“At the same time, the values and benefits of film and screen education reach far beyond careers. Engagement in film and screen activity strengthens fusion skills, supports attainment in other subjects and improves health and wellbeing. Film and Screen is the dominant language of our culture and Screen Scotland is committed to ensuring the democracy of opportunity to learn that language.”
The launch took place in tandem with Screen Scotland’s Screen Educators in Residence Programme. Over the past months, Screen Educators have been deep at work in primary and secondary schools in Argyll and Bute, Dundee, Edinburgh, Inverness and Shetland, testing the draft curriculum; trialling new learning and hands-on opportunities to develop students understanding, appreciation and practical knowledge of film and screen production.
Brits have on average £24,500 in savings account, after putting away £260 every month
UK savers say that their average interest rate is 3.3%, 1.95% below the Bank of England’s rate
Despite this, only 23% of savers have switched accounts in the last year to capitalise on better interest rates
7 out of 10 brits (71%) feel that banks profits are too high
Smart money app Plum is calling out banks for profiteering from high interest rates and not passing interest back onto savers.
Despite recent hikes in the Bank of England’s base interest rate, which currently stands at 5.25%, many UK banks have been slow to adjust their savings account rates accordingly. This has left consumers feeling short changed and struggling to make the most of their money.
New research from Plum shows that the average UK saver is putting away £260 in savings each month, with a total of £24,500 in their savings accounts. In addition, the research found that the average Brit is getting 3.3% interest on their savings account, 1.95% under the base rate. This means that on average, customers are losing out on £478 in interest per year1, equating to a hefty £17 billion across UK savers2.
Despite savers being able to gain higher interest rates by switching, the majority of savers (77%) hadn’t done this. They cited similar rates between banks (28%) and liking their current banks (30%) as the biggest barriers, even though 71% of people felt that banks profits were too high.
The biggest motivator for saving was for an emergency fund (49%), with holidays coming in second (44%). Saving up to buy a house or for home improvements was the biggest motivator for people under 45 (47%) and for the 55-64 age bracket, saving for retirement was their biggest priority (51%).
In July this year, the FCA set out a 14-point action plan to ensure banks and building societies are passing on interest rate rises to savers appropriately, with those that fail to justify their pricing decisions by the end of 2023 set to face robust action from the FCA.
Victor Trokoudes, Founder and CEO of Plum, said: “While banks have been quick to increase interest rates on loans and mortgages, they have been sluggish in boosting interest rates on savings accounts.
“We are in the midst of a cost-of-living-crisis and consumers are continuing to face financial pressures. So it’s really disappointing to see that many banks are not passing more of this money back onto customers, effectively devaluing their hard earned savings.
“While the FCA has pledged to take action against this behaviour by the end of 2023, it’s by no means a silver bullet. Borrowers are paying more while savers see minimal benefits, highlighting that the business models of the major banks are inherently misaligned with the interests of their customers.
“The Bank of England has raised rates 14 times since December 2021, and they are expected to remain high. That’s why it’s so important that the public know that they don’t need to stand for this and allow banks to take their deposits for granted. We’ll be offering a new service that better reflects these base rate changes so their money can work harder.”
Plum, which has already helped people to set aside £2bn, is launching a new product that allows people to earn higher returns that are more closely aligned to the Bank of England base rate
Craigies Farm is super excited to announce that we have not one, but TWO fang-tastic new Halloween events to enjoy this spooky season at Craigies!
In addition to our popular pumpkin patch, we will have a daytime event for younger children, the Spooky Tunnels, plus a scarier nighttime event for older children and adults, the terrifying Tunnels of Terror!
During the day, the ‘Spooky Tunnels’ will offer little frights tailored for younger visitors and those with additional needs. Meet a cast of colourful characters, play scarily good games and hear tales from our spooky storytellers.
As night falls, the fear factor rises, turning the Spooky Tunnels into the ‘Tunnels of Terror’ – perfect for older kids and adults. Expect creepy costumed characters roaming the fields, and a series of immersive themed tunnels – PLUS, we are also adding a brand new after-dark illuminated experience, offering boo-tiful photo opportunities!
SCOTTISH AMBULANCE SERVICE: ‘LIVES ARE BEING PUT AT RISK‘
The Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) has received more than 200 malicious hoax calls so far this year.37 of these were in the NHS Lothian area.
Between January and August, a total of 219 malicious calls were received compared to 191 over the entire 2022.
In 2021, there were 220 for the entire year and since 2017, there have been 2620 hoax calls.
This year’s malicious calls resulted in 236 vehicles being allocated, with crews spending 130 hours at these calls – an average of 33 minutes for each call.
In one of the calls, a person claimed they had been stabbed, only for the crew to arrive and find no sign of any patient.
Earlier this year, a woman was also fined £210 for making hoax calls to SAS, after calling ambulances when she did not require them.
Michael Dickson, SAS Chief Executive, said: “Anyone who calls 999 without a genuine need is putting lives at risk by diverting crews that could be needed to respond to a life-threatening incident.
“We work with the police to report malicious, or nuisance callers and encourage the public to help us. Hoax calls are no joke.”
The Greater Glasgow and Clyde area experienced the highest number of hoax calls (87), responsible for almost 40% of calls and 40 hours lost that are needed to respond to the public in need.
The Lothian region had the second highest number of calls at 37 and 24 hours wasted, while Lanarkshire had 22, wasting 13 hours.
Health Board*
Total number of calls
Total resource service time (minutes)
Avg. resource service time
Ayrshire & Arran
18
594:03
33:00
Borders
4
87:48
21:57
Dumfries and Galloway
3
137:23
45:48
Fife
6
179:33
29:56
Forth Valley
6
242:00
40:20
Grampian
14
390:12
27:52
Greater Glasgow and Clyde
87
2431:53
27:57
Highland
15
449:16
29:57
Lanarkshire
22
817:53
37:11
Lothian
37
1457:10
39:23
Tayside
20
864:52
43:15
Western Isles
1
11:52
11:52
*Health boards with no data have not been included.
The board of trustee is delighted to invite you to the Granton:Hub AGM 2023 in Madelvic house on the 27th of September from 18:30 – 20:30.
Granton:Hub AGM will be chaired by Shaeron Averbuch, who will give an overview of Granton:Hub activities over the past period [August 2022 to July 2023]. The Hub treasurer, Romain Viguier, will present the accounts and the Hub members will proceed with election and re-election of officers.
Following the AGM, we will present a selection of projects, to highlight the diversity of activities being developed at Granton:Hub and inspire new ones. You will hear from the Closing the Gap project, from Art in Granton programme, and from the adventurous Iron Age Log-boat crossing of the Firth of Forth.
You will have opportunities to network, meet other members and users of the Hub’s facilities and tell us what you would like to see happening in Granton:Hub.
A new residency for musical theatre writers, composers, and lyricists from the UK, India and the United States
Presented by Cove Park and Dundee Rep Theatre in partnership with Capital Theatres, Citizens Theatre, Macrobert Arts Centre, National Centre for the Performing Arts – Mumbai, National Theatre of Scotland, Octopus Theatricals – New York City, Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh, and Traverse Theatre.
Associate partners include A Play, A Pie and a Pint, Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Playwrights’ Studio Scotland and Tron Theatre.
With their rich and varied expertise, the partners will work with Cove Park and Dundee Rep and play a valuable role in this project. Providing mentoring, support and feedback as required during the residency, they will help enrich the writers’ experience. All partners are committed to developing the musical theatre landscape, both in Scotland and further afield.
The residency has been devised by Andrew Panton, Artistic Director of Dundee Rep Theatre, and will include facilitated sessions with Dramaturg Jeanie O’Hare (formerly Director of New Work Development at The Public Theater), Music Supervisor Nigel Lilley (Next to Normal at Donmar Warehouse, Caroline, or Change on Broadway), Donna Lynn Hilton, Artistic Director of Goodspeed Musicals and David Greig, Artistic Director of Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh.
The programme also includes networking opportunities and workshop sessions, in-person and digital, with industry professionals including writers, composers, producers, directors, and other theatre practitioners – such as Tony® Award-winning director John Doyle, Tony® and Grammy® Award-winning producer Mara Isaacs, Tony® Award-winning producer Rashad V. Chambers, and more.
Applications to take part in this residency are being accepted from UK-based teams of up to three collaborators who have a musical theatre idea in need of development and would benefit from the residency experience to take it to the next stage in its creation.
To apply, individuals or teams must be based in the UK – Cove Park and Dundee Rep are particularly interested in receiving applications from teams based in Scotland. The participating artists from India and the United States will be selected separately through nominations via international partners.
Projects providing practical help to support people tackle the growing risks posed by online crime will share a £500,000 fund aimed at ensuring a digitally secure and resilient Scotland.
Organisations including Scottish Union Learning and Community Enterprise, will use the money to provide workshops aimed at tackling scams and internet safety, deliver training to upskill under-represented groups into careers within cyber security and provide digital advice in different languages.
The projects will be targeted at specific groups, including disabled people and those with specific learning needs, minority ethnic groups, people living in areas of social deprivation or in rural or remote communities and those for whom English is not their first language.
Since 2019- 20 cyber crimes (crimes committed using the internet) have risen with an estimated 14,890 cyber-crimes recorded by Police Scotland in in 2022-23 almost twice the level in 2019-20 (7,710). This £500,000 fund is part of £1.16 million invested by the Scottish Government in 2023-24 to improve preparedness to withstand, defend against, manage, and recover quickly from cyber incidents.
Justice and Home Affairs Secretary Angela Constance said: “Cybercrime such as fraud and data theft can have a devastating impact on people, communities and businesses.
“The Scottish Government is committed to building cyber resilience within all our communities and this funding will enable many more people across the country keep themselves safe and secure when going online by supporting them to gain practical knowledge and skills to recognise and avoid cyber-attacks.
“We will also continue to work closely with Police Scotland and the National Cyber Security Centre to ensure Scotland’s public sector is resilient to cyber threats.“
Views are being sought on whether to continue the Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) legislation beyond the current term which ends next April, and the level at which it should be set.
A Scottish Government report on the operation and effect of MUP in its first five years, an Interim Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment and a report on public attitudes to the policy have also been published.
These papers assess the success of the measure so far and look at the future impact on health and industry sectors if it is continued and the potential effects of different minimum price levels.
This builds on Ministerial engagement with business and health stakeholders which has taken place throughout the summer.
Drugs and Alcohol Policy Minister Elena Whitham said: The recent rise in alcohol-specific deaths highlights the need for more to be done to tackle alcohol-related harm.
“Our world-leading Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) policy is one of the measures we know can make a difference. Recent research estimated it has saved hundreds of lives, likely averted hundreds of alcohol-attributable hospital admissions each year – and also contributed to reducing health inequalities. It is one of a range of measures we have in place across prevention and treatment services to reduce alcohol harm.
“We believe the proposals set out in this consultation strike a reasonable balance between public health benefits and any effects on the alcoholic drinks market and subsequent impact on consumers, but we want to hear from all sides and urge everyone to take the time to respond.”
This week will see maths-related activities taking place across the country in the annual Maths Week Scotland programme. The theme of this year’s programme, which is coordinated by National Museums Scotland and funded by the Scottish Government, is Maths in Motion.
Maths Week Scotland: 25 September to 1 October 2023
mathsweek.scot
@mathsweekscot
Maths Week Scotland combines in-person events from Orkney to the Scottish Borders – in a mix of schools programming and public activities in museums, libraries and galleries – with a range of online events, resources and workshops.
The Maths in Motion theme has a huge variety of applications, as the programme shows, with diverse topics ranging from the maths of money to ceilidh dancing, and from nautical navigation to maths in football.
The Scottish Mathematical Council have created a series of football-themed films for of football-themed films for Maths Week Scotland, in conjunction with the Scottish Football Association and featuring the Hearts Women’s team, the Scottish Football Museum and Rugby Park, the home of Kilmarnock Football Club.
The films cover topics as diverse as predicting the outcome of penalty kicks, travel logistics, how to calculate how many people can get through the turnstiles in time for kick-off and the mathematics of the curve on a free kick.
The National Museum of Scotland will host a pop-up exhibition from the Open University entitled Maths in Motion: Pendulums and Patterns, maths-themed Magic Carpet sessions for pre-schoolers, object handling in the Grand Gallery and a maths-themed trail inspired by Dolly the Sheep.
Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth said: “The Scottish Government is proud to support Maths Week Scotland’s delivery of yet another amazing range of activities to promote the important merits of maths in everyday life.
“We are determined to do everything we can to inspire the next generation of people to engage with maths and the events and workshops on offer will play an important role in doing exactly that.”
Maths Week Scotland coordinator Ailsa Brien said: “We’re delighted to launch Maths Week Scotland in its seventh consecutive year.
“Maths in Motion is a theme which invites a wide range of interpretations and so we’re thrilled to see such a creative and diverse programme of activities and events, which I’m sure will inspire and engage a wide range of audiences.”
Maths Week Scotland is supporting a host of classroom activities for schools across the country, encouraging innovation and participation.
Activity packs are available to download from the Maths Week Scotland website, with ideas of how to celebrate and enjoy the week for everyone from early years to secondary school pupils.
Meanwhile, the daily Maths Week Scotland challenges will return, with accompanying BBC Bitesize learning videos setting out how to tackle them.
Support has also been provided to Scottish museums and galleries to integrate more maths into their programming during the week-long event.
Maths Week Scotland and National Museums Scotland will support maths activities taking place in: The Museum on the Mound, Auchindrain Township Museum, The Scottish Maritime Museum, The Burrell Collection, Sumerlee Museum of Scottish Industrial Life, Surgeons’ Hall Museum, The Scottish Fisheries Museum, National Galleries of Scotland and The Great Tapestry of Scotland.
Over 20 libraries are also taking part in Maths Week Scotland, with activities including Maths-themed Bookbug sessions, crafts and LEGO.
Maths Week Scotland has a supporting year-round programme for schools, families, adults and community groups.
This is part of an ongoing drive to transform Scotland into a maths-positive nation through raising the profile of maths and encouraging enthusiasm for maths across the country.
National Museums Scotland is working with a wide range of organisations and collaborators to support and deliver Maths Week Scotland activity across Scotland. For a full list of contributors and to view the whole programme, visit:
