Category: North Edinburgh News

Working it Out with Tomorrow’s People

A free training programme in Muirhouse is looking for new participants.

If you are aged 16 – 24, unemployed, not in education or training and keen to learn new skills, meet new people and gain new experiences then please get in touch.

The Working It Out programme runs for 16 weeks and offers a range of activities and challenges that allow you to develop personal skills, volunteer in your own community, improve your job prospects and offer information and access to further education and training. Participants are supported throughout the programme and for up to 12 months after and all expenses are paid for the duration of the 16 week course.

Working it Out is run by Tomorrow’s People, based in North Edinburgh Arts Centre. If you are interested in making a positive change in your life, increasing your skills to help you get a job, or interested in getting back into education, then please contact Andrew or Heather on 07989669019 or e-mail aaldous@tomorrows-people.co.uk

Fireworks night passes off peacefully

Bonfire, Wester Drylaw Place

It’s the busiest time of year for the emergency services, but last night’s 5 November celebrations passed off relatively peacefully in Edinburgh and the Lothians.

Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service received around 400 calls over 24 hours, a figure slightly down on previous years. Crews attended 140 bonfires across the force area and extinguished 78 of these.

Sadly, police had to come to the rescue of firefighters who came under attack while carrying out their duties at two separate incidents.

Bonfire, Muirhouse Green

 

 

Local author to launch debut crime novel

Local author Marianne Wheelaghan (pictured above) is launching her debut crime novel, Food of Ghosts, on Thursday. Marianne, who also runs a successful B&B, was a volunteer helper at a NENgage social media session in Stockbridge Library last month, and she’s delighted to share her latest news with NEN readers:
“I’m launching my debut crime novel, Food of Ghosts, on 8 November at Blackwell’s Bookshop, South Bridge (6.30pm). The event is FREE but ticketed, the tickets are available from the front desk. What will happen on the 8th: there will be a strong Pacific theme and I’ll say why I set my first thriller on a small coral atoll as far away as you can get from Scotland before coming back again!
“There will be bubbly and the opportunity to ask questions – as well as the chance to win a signed copy of the book. Food of Ghosts is my second novel, the first being the best-selling novel, The Blue Suitcase, which is based on my mother’s true-life story and tells the remarkable story of a teenage girl growing up in Nazi Germany.”
A tempting appetizer!

Celebrating Career Academies success at RHS

Nine Edinburgh schools have been taking part in Career Academies, a UK wide initiative that brings together the world of business and education to deliver an inspirational programme that includes mentoring, ‘guru lectures’ and internships.

The Royal High School in Barnton hosted an event to celebrate local achievements to date and to give all involved an opportunity to come together to share their experiences. Friday’s event brought together 86 S5/6 students involved in Career Academies, together with their 86 Partners in Business (PiBs) and inspirational Scottish mountaineer Jamie Andrew gave the keynote address.

Career Academy students follow a rigorous two-year enrichment programme alongside their school curriculum, which aims to help them progress to higher education or the world of work from a much more informed, inspired and confident base.

The targeted group of students are those that have been identified as having the potential to secure a place in higher education or employment with the support of a business mentor.  They begin in 5th year at school, aged 16, studying two to three Highers, and are likely to lack informal networks but have great potential.

Career Academies forms part of the city-wide strategy, the Edinburgh Guarantee, to help pupils move into work or education following secondary school.

Councillor Paul Godzik, Education Convener, said: “Career Academies is already proving to provide an invaluable opportunity to some of our pupils.  By giving them the confidence they need to take those first steps in the right direction we are increasing their chances of going on to do something they want once they finish school.  I would like to thank all the businesses and mentors for their involvement to date and to encourage other local businesses to get involved.”

Mark McFall, Managing Director of Change Recruitment, said, “Our aim in supporting career Academies UK was to make a difference to young people’s lives and provide them with an insight into the working environment.  What we probably didn’t expect was the impact on our business and our own people.  The students made a genuine contribution and also brought something different to the working environment that had a profound effect on all of us.  We now have so many more people within the business keen to play a part in supporting these terrific young people.”

Josh McLeish, an S6 pupil at Tynecastle High School, said: “I have found the Career Academies UK experience extremely helpful and beneficial over the past year. My internship over the summer was fantastic and has helped me gain valuable experience in the workplace which is normally very difficult to obtain. The people I worked with were brilliant and very helpful.  Not only was the internship great but so is having a mentor who helps me out and points me in the right direction.”

Anne Wexelstein, Career Academies UK Manager for Scotland, commented: “In the current economic climate, it’s vital that opportunities like this are on offer to young people to help them make the transition from school into the word of work.  The vast majority of us are in greater need of the right pre conditions and introductions with which to find our way to work.  We would like to say a big thank you to all the people who are making our partnership with Edinburgh City Council, its schools and the Capital’s employers such a great success. ”

Three of the nine schools involved have completed their first year and six new schools embarked on the scheme in August.

Businesses who have participated in Career Academies to date represented at the Royal High School conference include: AK Stoddart, BNY Mellon, BT, Cairn Energy, Capital Solutions, Citi Bank, Clydesdale Bank, Davidson Chalmers, DHL, Diageo, City of Edinburgh Council, Edutrain, Ernst & Young, Franklin Templeton, Hotel Missoni, JP Morgan, Lloyds Banking Group, Logica, Penna Right Management, Royal Bank of Scotland, RSM Tenon, Santander, Scottish Gas, Scottish Government, Scottish Widows, Sopra Group, The Big Partnership, The Scottish Government, The Witchery, Transport Scotland, Visit Scotland, Yorkshire Bank and Tree of Knowledge.

 

Accredited transport training at PEP

Pilton Equalities Project (PEP) is offering accredited transport training courses next month.

PEP is registered with the Community Transport Association funded through the City of Edinburgh Council and recognised as the community transport operator for the North Edinburgh quadrant. We are a partner of the Edinburgh Community Transport Operators Group (ECTOG)  – PEP, Dove Transport, SEAG, LCTS, & Handicabs.

PATS stands for Passenger Assistants Training Scheme, and has been developed for those people who undertake the role of passenger assistant (also known as escorts). The PATS programme is relevant for passenger assistants working in cars, minicabs, taxis, minibuses, large buses and coaches.

PATS is open to any organisation that employs, uses or supplies passenger assistants. An organisation does not have to be a member of the MiDAS training scheme to use the Passenger Assistant Training Scheme, and the training is also open to any organisation that uses volunteers as passenger assistants.

Limited places are available for the training, which takes place on

Wednesday 12 December at PEP in West Pilton Park.

MiDAS is the nationally recognised Minibus Driver Awareness training Scheme, organised by the Community Transport Association U.K. (CTA) which promotes a nationally recognised standard for the assessment and training of minibus drivers. It is a membership based scheme that is designed to enhance minibus driving standards and promote the safer operation of minibuses,

It comprises low cost classroom-based training, plus an on-road driving assessment, as well as optional Passenger Assistance training (PAT’s) for drivers who will be transporting passengers with disabilities

Criteria: (a) Aged over 21 years and (b) held a full Driving Licence for 2 years.

The MIDAS training course takes place on Thursday 13 December.

Interested? Contact PEP trainers Theodora or Brian on 315 4466 or email

theopepequalities@hotmail.co.uk or brianpeopequalities@hotmail.co.uk for further information.

Community celebrates rapid rise of Blackhall Athletic

Broughton High School was the venue for a reception to mark the formation of a new local football club last night. It’s been a meteoric rise – six months ago Blackhall Athletic didn’t exist, but now has teams playing in three football leagues!  

Club chairman John Adams explained: “Blackhall Athletic really came about through conversations in the pub! A number of parents were talking in the Blackhall Lounge – their kids were members of a team but the boys were not always getting a game. Everyone agreed that it was important that the kids get a chance to enjoy taking part in sport, no matter their abilities. It was from those conversations that the idea for the club was born”.

John (pictured above) is retired, but remains very active within the community and he was ‘coerced’ into helping parents set up a new football team for boys from Blackhall and the surrounding neighbourhoods. In August, just months later, Blackhall Athletic had three teams playing league football.

That’s a cause for celebration and last night parents, coaches and players got together at Blackhall Athletic’s Broughton High School home to say thanks to the people who made it all possible – Carey, Peri, Blackhall Sports Committee, Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnership and Craigleith Blackhall Community Council have all showed their support for the new club through sponsorship.

John added: “We’ve received tremendous support from a number of sources. To make a success of something like this you really need two things – money and dedicated people to volunteer their support. It’s been quite  lot of hard work but we have both in place and we’re now able to offer young people the opportunity to come along and get involved, enjoy a game of organised football whatever your skill level. We will never be results driven – Blackhall Athletic is very much a community football club, all about sporting endeavour and playing the game in the right spirit. Everything is set up for the boys now – we have good coaches and the facilities here at Broughton are first class.”

Robert Ure (pictured below) is the Active Schools coordinator based at Broughton High School’s Sports hub. He told guests: “Blackhall Athletic is the first club to be launched from the hub here so this is a very exciting time. We are delighted to host Blackhall Athletic, and I’m delighted they have made their home here at Broughton. Our aim is to offer sporting activities for everyone – we provide a wide range of sporting opportunities with lots of different options, from dance to rugby and everything in between, so come along and give it a try!”

Blackhall Athletics has two Under Tens teams and an Under Thirteen squad side too. Given their meteoric rise, don’t rule out more teams and age groups being added to that list some time soon!

 

Community planters wanted!

The Centipede needs you!

Muirhouse Centipede project is planning a community bulb planting weekend on 9 and 10 November and they could do with a hand – or preferably a lot of hands! The group has no less than 9000 spring bulbs to plant on Muirhouse Avenue!

In partnership with North Edinburgh Arts Centre and the City of Edinburgh Council, the Centipede Project will be holding two ‘drop-in’ (that’s people and bulbs!) sessions on Friday 9 November from 1 – 3pm and again on Saturday 10 November from 10am – 2pm.

Working with local artist Natalie Taylor, come along and help plant some of the 9,000 bulbs including snow drops and dwarf narcissi, that will emerge as a bulb ‘painting’ in the spring!

Hot drinks and biscuits will be available for everyone who joins in, and groups from Craigroyston Primary School, Oaklands School and Muirhouse Millennium Centre have already signed up to kick off the project on 9 November.

Help make Muirhouse Avenue look stunning in springtime!

For further information call North Edinburgh Arts on 315 2151 or visit www.northedinburgharts.co.uk

Pilrig Park pupils at the cutting edge!

Pilrig Park School has opened The Salon, a dedicated hairdressing training facility which will act as a base for pupils hoping to gain entry to college or an apprenticeship when they leave school.

Opening the new salon yesterday, top city hairdresser Charlie Miller said: “It gives me great pleasure to open Pilrig Park School’s hair salon. As educators it is important to give young talent recognition,  encouragement and opportunity in the areas in which they shine. This salon will  inspire some of the pupils to be hairdressers and, just as importantly, give  them the tuition on how to look after their own hair and appearance which will  be a vital part of them presenting themselves to the world when they leave  school. I would like to wish the school and the pupils all the best with The  Salon.”

The Salon is part of the development of Senior Phase in Curriculum for  Excellence where choices are built around skills for life and skills for  work. This new facility will be used to teach hairdressing skills,  which is just one of many options open to the pupils including a variety of  trades and, from next year, a working café teaching skills as part of a small  business operation.

Ellen Muir, Head Teacher at Pilrig Park School, said: “There has to be  relevance to what our pupils are doing. Courses must make an impact on them and  how they take their place in society when they leave school. Salon  skills are hugely popular and we have had interest in the course from learners  at other city schools. We hope that in the future we may be in a  position for other schools to access our Salon for training too. We are absolutely delighted that Charlie Miller was here to open our  Salon and we are extremely proud of what has been achieved so far.”

Councillor David Key, Vice-Convener for Education, Children and Families  Committee, said: “Opening this salon within Pilrig Park School will make a big  difference to its pupils. Vocational training opportunities are an  important element of our Curriculum and I would like to wish the school and the  city’s future hairdressers the best of luck with this new endeavour.”

Kimberly Smith, an S4 pupil at Pilrig Park School, said: “I started the  hairdressing course this year and I absolutely love it. I was  always interested in hairdressing but didn’t really know how I could get into it  as I don’t know any hairdressers and it’s really popular so it’s hard to get a  trainee position. Now I am learning all about it and I hope to be  able to do it full-time when I finish school.”

The school has worked with many partners and other schools on its hair and  beauty training over the past four years, which has included pupils working on  theatre productions at The Festival Theatre. Pupils will now get  similar training in their own school environment. Younger learners  will also use the salon as part of the Health and Wellbeing curriculum and  certification is built around this.

NEN: the joy of stats

In the interests of openness and transparency (and because it’s quite easy to do), we’re delighted to break down the NEN’s online figures for October.

Last month we welcomed 10 381 visitors to our blog, marginally up on September (10 307) and our best ever figure. Our October figure last year was just  2 262 so we can confidently say that we are going the right way! (I knew my arithmetic ‘O’ Level would come in handy sometime!)

The average number of visits per day was 335, slightly down on September’s 344 (which was our best ever).

Our busiest days were Thursday 11th with 697 visits and Tuesday 30th, when the blog received 672 visitors.

Our most-read stories in October were: Body found on Silverknowes Beach (391), the  Muirhouse Barriers issue (151) and Welcome to Muirhouse (126), about the forthcoming photo exhibition.

See there you have it – some fascinating stats from the NEN … come on, wake up!

There are still a couple of places available at tonight’s NENgage social media workshop in Stockbridge Library at 5.45pm. You’ll never find statistics boring again!