Category: West Granton

In the Frame: Free documentary-making course with Screen Education Edinbugh

In the Frame is a free programme for people living in North Edinburgh to learn documentary filmmaking and make their own short film.  

Running from 20th September 2021 to March 2022, the programme will amplify the voices of local people and capture snapshots of life in the community by providing a platform to express themselves through a series of short documentaries.    

Participants will learn each stage of documentary filmmaking, from an introduction to the genre via watching films, to learning the key skills in camera, sound, directing, editing, and interview techniques. We will also cover the ethics of documentary and support learners to use these skills to devise and produce a short film. 

Many films used as case studies will come from the Pilton Video/SEE archive, which reveal some of the hopes and issues that matter most to the community in North Edinburgh over the past 40 years.   

No previous film experience is required and In the Frame is open to people living in North Edinburgh (Crewe, Drylaw, East Pilton, Granton, Pennywell, Muirhouse, Royston, Salvesen, Telford, Wardieburn, Waterfront and West Pilton). 

The programme will take place on Tuesday evenings for adults (aged 19 and over) and Wednesday evenings for young people (aged 14 to 18) with films shot throughout November and December and editing in January & February, with the film’s receiving their premiere on the big screen in March.  

The programme is funded by Inspiring Scotland’s Creative Communities Programme which is funded jointly by the Scottish Government’s Culture and Justice directorates and aims to extend opportunities for people to take part in creative endeavours throughout their lives. 

To find out more and to take part, please complete our short form here and the team will be in touch. 

Scran Academy shortlisted for industry award

Scran Academy is celebrating after being shortlisted for a leading UK industry Award. This week, Scran was announced as a Finalist in the Apprenticeship and Skills category of the Public Sector Catering Awards and the recognition will see the youth-led organisation appear at the Ceremony in London later this year.

Scran Academy’s initial focus was to use the innovative food social enterprise to help young people from North Edinburgh to overcome their learning and life barriers and lead more meaningful lives.

Scran’s community-based school uses food to support learners disengaged from mainstream school to access qualifications and work. Despite being less than four years old, they have grown and scaled their impact to support thousands of people throughout the pandemic and city wide.

This includes the creation of the youth-led Scran Café based at the Comely Bank NHS Centre, which creates a welcoming, relaxing and safe haven for as many as 100 frontline NHS workers and clinical trainees on a daily basis.

Last year Scran also launched the Scran Van, a food truck that provides free healthy food to children and families across the city to combat hunger and increase positive youth activities.

All of these food initiatives puts employability skills, job opportunities and personal development for youth at the heart of what they do.

This award nomination comes as this ground-breaking social venture seeks to empower hundreds more young people with the skills and confidence to lead in the hospitality industry.

At the same time the programme will take a significant bite out of the poverty-related barriers, life challenges and injustices the young people face on a daily basis – being care-experienced, disengaged from mainstream school, at risk of homelessness, unemployed or suffering from poor mental health.

Nominee and Founder of Scran Academy and social entrepreneur, John Loughton BEM, said: “This nomination is a real vote of confidence in our community work and a recognition in the power of food to change lives.

“Will Bain and his team work magic at Scran to ensure food is positive for all people, not just those that can afford it. At Scran we do hand-ups, not just hand-outs and young people go on to change their own lives once they realise people believe in them.

“Scran’s story shows is that if we support local community organisations that are run with passion and authenticity, we can develop creative solutions to social inequality. It also shows that unlike the stereotypes so often in the media, young people make a real and positive contribution to society and your postcode does not have to be your destiny.”

Voluntary Sector Forum to meet next week

Forth and Inverleith Voluntary Sector Forum will meet on Tuesday 20 July at 1pm via Zoom

Join Zoom Meeting:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84802007045?pwd=WmU3REQrL2ZNa3NEVDg4Zlp3TkVGdz09

Meeting ID: 848 0200 7045

Passcode: 991758

We will use this following agenda to guide our discussion:

1 Welcome and Introductions

2 Pilton Community Health Project and ASH Scotland present on new work addressing smoking rates in areas of deprivation (see below)

3 Evaluating Third Sector contribution to LIP priority 3 – tackling poverty and inequality

4 LOG Update

5 Training Opportunities for third sector (EVOC)

6 Member update

Smoking-Information-DocumentDownload

Hope to see you there,

KATE BARRETT

EVOC Development Worker – Community Planning

Attempted murder in West Pilton: police renew appeal

A renewed appeal has been made to trace the movements of a vehicle believed to be linked to an attempted murder in West Pilton.

Detectives in Edinburgh have renewed an appeal for information as enquiries continue into the attempted murder of a man in North Edinburgh.

The 34-year-old man was found seriously injured in a common stairwell at West Pilton Grove around 5pm on Friday, 18 June.

He was taken to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh for treatment.

Extensive enquiries are ongoing and officers are particularly keen to identify the movements of a dark blue Volkswagen Golf GTI which is believed to be linked to the incident and was later found on fire in the city later on the Friday evening.

Detective Inspector Alison MacDonald said: “We would be particularly keen to speak to anyone who may have seen the vehicle in the Granton, Newhaven or Drylaw areas leading up to Friday, 18 June.

“Enquiries have established the car was driven in those areas leading up to that date, as well as in Gorgie and Sheriffhall, before it was later found burnt out near Shawfair Railway Station.

A dark blue Volkswagen Golf GTI was seen driving at speed in the Drylaw area before the incident and a similar vehicle was then seen being driven erratically Sheriffhall Roundabout around 5.30pm on Friday 18 June.

“It is possible that the vehicle may have been parked up in one of those areas prior to the incident. If you believe you may have seen the car in the lead-up to Friday, 18 June but have not seen it since then please get in touch.

“Extensive enquiries are ongoing to establish the circumstances surrounding this incident and anyone with any information can call 101, quoting incident 2690 of 18 June or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.”

Scottish Ensemble & Social Bite serve up Sound Bites

Scottish Ensemble (SE) and Social Bite are teaming up this summer to spread the joy of shared food and live music with new collaboration Sound Bites.

Based on the notion that these simple pleasures are at the heart of peoples’ lives as social beings, Sound Bites connects the worlds of food and music with a themed picnic box available for audience members to enjoy during upcoming performances as part of month-long outdoor festival Live at No.40.

Scottish Ensemble will bring to life Vivaldi’s iconic masterpiece, The Four Seasons, as audiences enjoy a bespoke picnic of handmade goodies sprinkled with a touch of the Four Seasons by Scottish charity and social enterprise Social Bite. Each picnic basket will contain a duo of tasty baguettes with two different fillings, and depending on dietary preference, a selection of pies, frittatas, sausage rolls, salads and even some of Social Bite’s famous brownie bites.

In solidarity with the Social Bite cause to end homelessness and in keeping with its reputation for thinking outside the (picnic) box, 10% of ticket sales for Scottish Ensemble performances are being donated to Social Bite and its work helping and supporting some of the most vulnerable individuals and communities across Scotland and the UK.

Taking place from the 3 July to 1 August 2021, Live at No.40. will unfold at Scottish Opera’s Production Studio car park at 40 Edington Street, Glasgow. Joined by Scottish Opera and Citizens Theatre in a specially created outdoor theatre, Scottish Ensemble will perform four concerts over two days, accompanied by Scottish charity and social enterprise Social Bite.

At a time when the country is cautiously celebrating new beginnings, Vivaldi’s works of art speaks poignantly to disruption and the inevitability of change with piercing precision. By bringing audiences together, not only for possible the first live performance in over a year, but to ‘break bread’ with fellow music lovers, friends and family, SE and Social Bite mark an important milestone during a turbulent time. 

William Norris, Interim Chief Executive at Scottish Ensemble, said: “One of the things we’ve all missed in the last year has been sharing. Sharing time with friends. Sharing experiences. Sharing food. Sharing music.

“Our Sound Bites performances of Vivaldi’s ever-green Four Seasons promise to provide all of the above, but also share a portion of everyone’s ticket purchase with our partners in this project, Social Bite, who do incredibly important work in tackling homelessness.

“We’re really excited to be partnering with them on this project which marks our return to live performance in a characteristically different way.”

Co-founder and CEO of Social Bite, Josh LittleJohn MBE said: “This collaboration will not only be a brilliant celebration of enjoying food, drink and music together, something we’ve all missed over the past year, it’s also an opportunity to bring about real positive change.

“This fantastic event will deliver funding to our innovative programmes that support people out of homelessness and help them to build independent lives.

“We hope everyone who joins us at Sound Bites enjoys the performance, along with our delicious picnics – specifically crafted for this event by our talented kitchen staff of which 1/3 have come from a background of homelessness.

Thank you for your support and for joining us in our mission to ensure everyone has a safe place to call home.”

AGM invite from Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden

Dear Friend of Granton Castle Walled Garden,

We will be holding our AGM via Zoom on Wednesday 26th May from 5:30 – 6.30pm.

It is open to everyone who would like an update on the progress of the charity.

If you would like to attend, please email grantongarden@gmail.com and we will send you the Zoom link the day before. 

If you would like to have a say in what goes on and be able to vote, we would ask you to become a member, which is free and can be done by filling out the attached form (below) and returning it to us via email, post or in-person. 

Membership-Form-FGCWGDownload

We look forward to seeing you if you can make it!

All the best,

Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden 

Website grantoncastlewalledgarden.wordpress.com/ 

Postal Address:

Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden

c/o Social Bite Village, 23 West Shore Road

Edinburgh, EH5 1QB.

GMB Scotland press for proper employment status for 2,800 HM Coastguard rescue workers

GMB Scotland is pressing for proper employment status for more than 2,800 HM Coastguard rescue workers based at 310 rescue stations around the UK.  About 900 of these workers are based in 116 rescue stations around the coast of mainland Scotland and the Islands. 

The duties of HM Coastguard rescue workers include help rescue people trapped on the coast, for example on cliffs, stuck in mud or in the water, search for missing people, report and deal with pollution and other hazards and help emergency services and local authorities during emergencies, for example flooding.  

These HM Coastguard rescue workers can be called out at any time of the day or night so they work irregular hours. They may have to work in hazardous situations for long hours and may have to carry out physically demanding tasks. 

HM Coastguard rescue worker can have other employment. Required skills include: first aid, water rescue, map work, search techniques, communications and skills needed in for local area, for example rope rescue, mud rescue etc. 

GMB Scotland is demanding that their status as workers is properly recognised and the work they do is properly valued and recognised.

Like for other recent high profile workers in irregular employment across the UK the union is prepared to litigate to obtain justice for these brave men and women. 

Numbers of HM Coastguard rescue workers on irregular hours by Areas across the UK 

Area 1 Scotland & Orkney Islands 137 
Area 2 North Scotland 126 
Area 3 East Scotland 97 
Area 4 Inner Clyde to River Tay and East Scottish Border 134 
Area 5 North East England 122 
Area 6 East of England (Yorkshire, Humberside & Lincolnshire) 134 
Area 7 East Anglia 155 
Area 8 South East England 152 
Area 9 : Southern England including Isle of Wight 202 
Area 10 : South West England 175 
Area 11 : Cornwall including Isles of Scilly 162 
Area 12 : North Devon including Severn Estuary 176 
Area 13 : South East Wales to Mid-Wales 203 
Area 14 : North West Wales 162 
Area 15 : Great Orme to West Scottish Border including the Lakes 152 
Area 16 : Solway to Firth of Clyde including Northern Ireland 190 
Area 17 : Kintyre to Mull, Isle of Arran and Inner Hebrides 159 
Area 18 : Loch Linnhe to Outer Hebrides including Skye & the Small Isles 160 

 Gary Smith, GMB Scotland Secretary, said: “These 2,800 brave men and women who work in all weathers to rescue people and save lives are denied even the most basic rights of respect and recognition by their employer HM Coastguard. 

“Staff with over 30 years experience are being axed without the basic right of being represented by their Union. The HM Coastguard rescue workers risk their lives to help and save others but are treated worse than any other Government worker. Urgent action needs to be taken to show respect for these unsung heroes. 

“The union is prepared to litigate for these workers, so they can be properly recognised as part of the HM Coastguard rescue workforce and to ensure their basic employment rights are respected.” 

League tables don’t reflect our schools’ amazing work

A school feels ‘under attack’ when put at the bottom of a narrow-focused league table, says Craigroyston headteacher Shelley McLaren

Each year the release of newspaper school league tables for Scotland is a day I dread, and the publication of the 2021 results yesterday was no different. The language of the headlines – “Which school is the best in Scotland?” and “Scotland’s schools ranked best to worst” – is both incredibly damaging and demoralising for staff, pupils, parents and school communities across the country, not to mention the reputational harm it can cause for years to come (writes SHELLEY McLAREN).

The stories will continue today in the local news, where it feels like we need to put on our armour and prepare for attack. No matter how much we’ve done in all other parts of school life throughout the year, the focus to determine our worth and whether we are a “good” school seems to rest singlehandedly on the one measure of how many young people achieve five Highers in one sitting.

As a school, we pick up the pieces from this for months to come – only for it to come around again next year. It is not, of course, that we do not focus on trying to improve by the measure of five Highers, but, because of context and, indeed, probably our own vision and values, we will always be near the “bottom”.

Our main aims are educating our young people out of poverty and instilling in them the belief that no matter where you come from or the challenges you have faced in your life, you can still achieve your dreams and be the best you can be. University, a modern apprenticeship or a job are all given equal weighting; the most important thing is that the young person has achieved the best they can – and, believe me, every day we support, challenge, motivate, nurture and push high expectations to ensure this happens.

League tables aren’t fair on schools

I congratulate those top-performing schools where up to 86 per cent of young people have achieved the “gold standard” of five Highers. It is an incredible achievement and should be celebrated – but everything is about context, and schools should and need to be measured on so much more.

I am not shirking accountability or responsibility as a headteacher – the measure of five Highers is important – but if closing the attainment gap simply meant improving this one measure, and that determined whether we were a “good” or “bad” school, we would have used our Pupil Equity Fund (PEF) and Scottish Attainment Challenge funding very differently – and probably not made that many gains.

I could concentrate on the fact that 70 per cent of our young people live in SIMD (Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation) 1 and 2 or that 20 per cent of each cohort arrive at us with a reading age of 8 or below, or that nearly 40 per cent of our students are on free school meals. This would make it easy to excuse why we are one of the “worst” schools in the league table – but I won’t, because that is not what we base our views of children on.

What I will focus on is that, in 2020, nearly 95 per cent of our young people left school to go into a positive destination – above the national average of 93.3 per cent – and that last session 100 per cent of our young people in S4 achieved five or more national qualifications (nobody was “left behind”, regardless of any barrier) and that this year 23 of our young people (almost a third of the cohort) are heading off to universities across the country – the same group of young people who didn’t achieve five Highers in one sitting.

I implore you, please don’t judge our incredible young people or our amazing school, filled with dedicated, passionate staff, on this one measure of five Highers – know that we are doing everything possible to ensure that our students are given a gold-star service to prepare them to have the best life possible after school, with or without the achievement of the “gold standard”.

Are we one of the “worst” schools in the country? Of course we’re not – and I would vehemently challenge anyone who considers this to be the case.

Shelley McLaren is headteacher at Craigroyston Community High School

This article first appeared in TES

What does living in North Edinburgh mean to you?

Fresh Start, with the Edinburgh Health & Social Care Partnership, are running online events on 12th & 13th May to allow residents to discuss how our services can adapt to fit what matters to you, the people that live and work in the area!

Join the conversation on Wednesday 12th May, 1-2.30pm by registering here:

https://us02web.zoom.us/…/tZYsd…

Or Thursday 13th May, 7pm – 8.30pm, by registering here:

https://us02web.zoom.us/…/tZ0qcu…

Please share around your networks and get the conversation going!