Adventure, challenge, fun – all words associated with Scouting. At the start of 2016 Chief Scout Bear Grylls challenged Cub Sections the length and breadth of the country to celebrate ‘The Wildest Birthday Ever’ for the Centenary of Cub Scouts – and 11th Broughton St Mary’s Cubs definitely rose to the challenge! Continue reading Cubs go wild for centenary birthday celebrations!
A new law which makes it illegal to smoke in a vehicle carrying anyone under 18 comes into force tomorrow.
Edinburgh Leisure is launching a new pre-school class, ‘Jump and Dive’ designed specifically for 3-5 year olds. Continue reading Jump into self-confidence
As the implication of the EU referendum result sinks in and we try to work out what it means, children in Edinburgh showed us what it’s all about with a giant Hokey Cokey sung in one of the most popular languages of Europe! Continue reading In, Out; In, Out: even the kids are confused!
Free fun for children this weekend
Imaginate – Edinburgh’s international children’s festival – opens tomorrow (Saturday) with a special Family Fringe weekend at the National Museum of Scotland featuring free performances and drop-in activities all day including live music, storytelling, hands-on arts and more! Continue reading IMAGINATE festival opens with free Fringe weekend
Your story could be seen in the Museum of Childhood!
Sainsburys are running a Christmas story competition, open to all Edinburgh schoolchildren. We would love as many children as possible to take part!
The story must be no more than 500 words telling us your “Christmas Memories”.
The competition closes on Friday 18 December and all entries can be submitted to any Sainsburys in Edinburgh.
The competition will be judged by a colleague from Sainsburys and a representative from the City of Edinburgh council. The winning entries will then be displayed in the Museum of Childhood.
Remember to include your name, age and address or telephone number. Good luck!
The fabulous Edinburgh Gang Show is back!
Over 250 young people from Scouting and Girlguiding will swap their camping gear and the outdoor life for the glitz and glamour of the theatre world when the annual Gang Show returns to the capital next week. Continue reading Gearing up for The Gang Show
A few minutes of physical activity aids health and boosts performance
The Education and Health Secretaries have written to all primary schools in Scotland to encourage them to implement daily physical exercise as part of the school routine, through the roll out of the Daily Mile or other initiatives. Continue reading Primary kids get set for Daily Mile
Study reveals growing popularity of using books with very young children
Hundreds more parents and carers in Scotland are using books to play, read to and engage with their very young children, according to a major Scottish Government-funded study carried about by ScotCen Social Research.
Growing Up in Scotland (GUS) – which has followed the lives of two groups of children from across Scotland for the last 10 years – shows a significant increase in the number of parents and carers who use books when engaging with their children at the age of 10 months.
Extensive research has highlighted the positive impact of reading to children in their pre-school years. Previously published GUS data has shown that children who are frequently read to in the first year of life score higher in assessments of cognitive ability at age 3-4.
The PlayTalkRead campaign was launched by the Scottish Government in 2009. It aims to encourage parents and carers to play, talk and read with their children from birth to boost their development and learning. The campaign uses advertising and social media and provides free items to support parents with the website receiving more than 130,000 visits in 2014-15. The roadshow features three buses which travel across Scotland delivering face-to-face sessions to parents and carers, offering them advice and support.
The Scottish Government-funded scheme Bookbug, which promotes reading to children, including babies, launched in 2010.
A new paper published to the mark the 10th birthday of the landmark GUS study shows that the number of parents and carers using books when their child was 10 months old grew from 66% before the launch of Bookbug to 69% after the start of the scheme – the equivalent of more than 1700 babies being read to every year.
It will be published at an event at Edinburgh University tomorrow.
Children’s Minister Aileen Campbell said: “Improving literacy in our children and young people is a key priority for this Government and we know that learning begins long before school.
“Therefore it is extremely heartening to learn that hundreds more parents and carers across Scotland have embraced the crucial role books can play in helping children to develop and acquire important pre-school skills and attributes such as speaking, a sense of curiosity and a life-long love of books.
“In June this year we committed a further £2.7 million for pre-school programmes to improve literacy in children. This included the record-breaking PlayTalkRead campaign – whose website and outreach buses attracted 160,000 visits in 2014 and book gifting scheme Bookbug. We are also piloting plans to make every child in Scotland a member of their local library.
“Such valuable work, combined with the good progress reflected in the GUS report, leaves me in no doubt that the number of parents and carers using books to give their children the best start in life, will only continue to grow.”
‘Tackling Inequalities in the Early Years: Key Messages from 10 years of the Growing Up in Scotland study’ will be published in full on Tuesday, October 6.
Woman rescued from icy water off Gypsy Brae following boys’ prompt action
Officers in Edinburgh have commended the actions of five 11 and 12 year-old boys after they saved a woman’s life.
Last Sunday, at around 4.30pm, a woman entered the very cold waters at Gypsy Brae and started to swim out towards Fife, despite advice from Wacka Ceesay (11), Andrew Bell (11), Tyler Jay Anderson (12), Aleks Czernecki (12) and Kian McGee (11) not to do so.
When the boys were unable to persuade the woman against swimming, one of the lads raised the alarm with an adult and asked for the Coastguard be called.
Police and Coastguard arrived and the boys were able to identify the area where the woman was and provided footage of the woman entering the water to assist the emergency team.
The woman was rescued from the water and taken for treatment and is now recovering from her ordeal.
The boys were very helpful to police and they were taken for a tour of Drylaw Police Station as a reward – officers then took them home and praised them in front of their parents.
The boys told police that they knew what to do due to what they learned at The Risk Factory, a Police Scotland-sponsored interactive safety centre. The Edinburgh-based initiative is sponsored by local authorities and emergency services in the Lothians area, and is available to all local children in Primary 7.
Police Sergeant John Brock said: “This incident could have quite easily had a tragic ending. Due to the swift and conscientious actions of these boys a woman’s life was saved. Police Scotland commends them for their bravery and quick thinking. Thank you to these five boys for demonstrating outstanding community spirit.”
