Tag: Craigroyston Community High School

Local schools in contest to find new generation of investors

Girls from eleven Edinburgh and East Lothian schools are battling it out with rivals from across Scotland in a contest to prove they can be the next stars of the investment industry. 

The students are among over 70 teams from 48 schools taking part in the Growing Future Assets Competition, designed to nurture a future generation of female investment experts. 

The contest, which aims to introduce senior girls to the world of investment and its range of careers, sees the teenagers vying to spot the next big investment opportunity.  And it has ignited fierce competition this year with entries up by 300%.

 Those taking part include teams from: Balerno Community, Craigmount, Craigroyston Community, Holy Rood RC and Forrester High Schools plus independent schools George Heriots, George Watson’s College, Edinburgh and Loretto School in Musselburgh; Knox Academy, Haddington and North Berwick and Preston Lodge High Schools in East Lothian. 

The soaring popularity of the contest is down to the enthusiasm of the teenagers, willingness of teachers to embrace extra-curricular activities and outstanding support from investment management professionals who are helping to mentor the schoolgirls. 

Financial educators Future Asset are challenging a total of 320 girls, divided into teams of 13-18-year-olds to research, analyse and pitch a company they think will be a great long-term investment. 

The youngsters are paired with a mentor from an investment company to provide advice, inspiration and career insights and have the chance to attend online masterclasses as they develop an understanding that good investing focuses on a company’s long-term prospects, profits and sustainability.

This year more than 80 investment mentors from 28 firms have stepped up to counsel the young women. 

Ashley-Jane Kyle, CFA, Investment Analyst at Walter Scott & Partners Limited and Investment Mentor for the competition says: “Not only have I thoroughly enjoyed being an Investment Mentor as part of the competition, but I have also been so impressed with the students’ enthusiasm and effort put in to their investment reports and pitches.

“I think this is a great way to break the barrier that often puts girls off from considering investment management as a career as it allows them to experience in quite a real way what it’s like to research and invest in businesses. It also gives them an opportunity to develop valuable skills which they will be able to use throughout their careers.” 

Experts from journalism and business are also advising the teenagers: Executive and Voice Coach Susan Room is helping to boost their skills and confidence with online masterclasses in Mindset, Body Language, Speech and Voice, while author, broadcaster and financial journalist Iona Bain, who launched the contest in September, is on hand to explain how they can invest their way to a better future. 

Now in its third year, the competition features a senior contest for years S5 and S6 and a junior challenge for S3 and S4.  The teams of three to six girls will present their case in a research report and three-minute elevator pitch by November 30. The top teams will then deliver an extended pitch to judges at the final in March next year. 

At stake is: £1000 for the winning senior school and £200-worth of vouchers of the students’ choice for each team member; £800 for the best junior school and £150-worth of vouchers each.  Senior and junior runners-up receive £500 and £100 of vouchers and £400 and £75 of vouchers, respectively. 

Helen Bradley, Future Asset programme manager, says: “We are overwhelmed by the enthusiasm shown by the schools, the teachers and all the investment experts who have come forward to mentor the teams. 

“We weren’t sure what the response would be from schools then at the beginning of September, when the competition launched, we just watched in amazement at the huge influx of registrations. We put out a call for additional mentors and that was answered enthusiastically by experts already in the industry. 

“We’re also hugely impressed by the commitment shown by teachers who have really responded to this extra-curricular opportunity for their students – especially when they have already faced such a difficult period and increase in their own workload over the last 18 months.” 

Future Asset believes that being female should never be seen as a barrier to progressing in a chosen career.  

Their goal is to enable girls in the senior phase of high school to learn how investment can change the world for the better, gain valuable, transferable skills and consider the benefits of possible future careers.

They organise conferences and workshops for girls across Scotland.

For more information visit https://www.futureasset.org.uk/ 

Vaguely Craigy: local High School launches new school magazine

Congratulations to pupils at Craigroyston Community High School, who have produced the first edition of a new school magazine.

It’s good to see the school magazine make a welcome return: way back in the mists of time the School’s ‘Commune’ newsletter was the forerunner of what became the NEN, your very own North Edinburgh News!

vaguely-craigy-issue-1Download

Free ‘nearly new’ school uniforms at Fresh Start this morning

Today and tomorrow at FRESH START Ferry Road Drive

Pirniehall, St David’s, Craigroyston and Forthview Primary Schools

Craigroyston Community High School

subject to availability

Free ‘nearly new’ school uniforms at Fresh Start event next week

Fresh Start and @EdinUniformBank are running a free ‘nearly new’ school uniform drop in for families in need of help with school uniforms on Wed 11th & Thurs 12th August at Fresh Start Pantry, 28 Ferry Rd Drive, EH4 4BR.

PLEASE NOTE: This event is ONLY for families at Forthview, Craigroyston, Pirniehall & St David’s Primaries and Craigroyston High School. We will not have uniform available for other schools.

Numbers will be limited due to Covid restrictions & uniform is subject to availability.

Marjory Cook

Old friends from Craigroyston and the world of running will be deeply saddened by the death of Marjory Cook.

Marjory was a long-standing member, and former Welfare Officer, of Edinburgh AC and a hugely committed athletics official. Without people like Marjory our sport simply couldn’t operate.

She was also, in my younger days, while teaching at Craigroyston, the Head Cook there. She was indeed Mrs Cook the cook and she brought the same warm, encouraging, smiling approach to her work at Craigie as she did to athletics.

Her death has come as a great shock. I was with her (at a Zoom meeting) on Wednesday evening.She’ll be hugely missed by all who knew her.

Alex Wood

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

Mentor scheme to improve life chances for young people

A £19.4 million Scottish Government fund will support a six year mentoring programme to help young people reach their full potential.

MCR Pathways charity will roll out its successful Young Scottish Talent mentoring programme and social enterprise and charity Columba 1400 will expand its values-based Leadership Academy for Young People, working in partnership to improve education outcomes, career opportunities and life chances.

A network of volunteer mentors – drawn from business, civic society and the wider public – will offer tailored support to young people through schools as lockdown eases. They will be trained to develop strong relationships that are at the heart of the programme and key to helping young people achieve their full potential.

The programme will be delivered in partnership with local authorities that wish to participate and will be part of the Scottish Government’s Young Person’s Guarantee, to provide long term support where it is needed most.

Education Secretary John Swinney said: “Our young people have endured an extremely challenging 12 months coping with the disruption to school life caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. For some young people, this period has impacted them disproportionality, which is why we have introduced the young person’s guarantee.

“Improving the education and life chances of all our children and young people is the defining mission of this government, which is why we are funding this mentoring support package that will enable young people to reach their full potential.”

Marie Clare Tully, Chief Executive of Columba 1400, said: ‘We are delighted that the Scottish Government is enabling Columba 1400 to deepen the reach and impact of our Leadership Academies.

“We can now welcome more of Scotland’s impressive young people on a shared journey to explore their own values, and values-based leadership.

“The core values of Scotland’s young people will be crucial in ensuring that our communities thrive post COVID-19. Columba 1400 is honoured to play a part in creating the conditions for change – enabling Scotland’s young people to transform their schools, their communities and the future of Scotland.”

Graeme McEwan, Chief Executive of MCR Pathways, said: “We are absolutely delighted that the Scottish Government is supporting the expansion of the Young Scottish Talent mentoring programme to thousands more inspiring young people across the country. This recognises the transformational impact of mentoring and the key role it will play in post-Covid recovery in our schools and local communities.

“We look forward to partnering with our local authorities and schools to work with volunteer mentors across the country to help our young people find, grow and use their talents and be all they can be.”

The ambition of the Young Person’s Guarantee is that, within two years, every person aged between 16 and 24 will have the opportunity to study; take up an apprenticeship, job or work experience; or participate in formal volunteering.

MCR Pathways is currently operating in 72 schools across 12 local authorities. Young Edinburgh Talent has been running in Craigroyston Community High School since 2019 and in 2020 the programme was extended to 9 schools across the capital.

This proposal would see it increase to potentially 300 schools over a 6 year period.

Goodbye, Mr. MacKenzie: Craigie’s inspirational Headteacher has died

We are extremely saddened to learn that Hugh Mackenzie, former Headteacher of Craigroyston Community High School, has passed away after a short illness (write Craigroyston Community High School).

Hugh served as Headteacher from 1972-1993 and during that time, he was a true inspiration to both staff and pupils.

Hugh was determined to ensure that school was a place to nurture, care for and encourage the pupils as well as guiding them through their academic qualifications.

Hugh was a unique man who led Craigroyston on amazing journeys, always believing dreams could be achieved. Former pupils will undoubtedly have fond memories of the annual Craigie Field Trips around the UK as well as Craigie goes to Europe in 1992.

Our deepest condolences and thoughts go out to Hugh’s wife, Joyce as well as Callum, Kirsty and the grandchildren. You’ll be forever remembered, Mr Mackenzie – rest in peace.

Alex Wood, who taught at Craigroyston and has since returned as an adult educaton tutor, wrote of Hugh:

“I started at Craigroyston in August 1973. I could not have been directed to a better place to learn how to teach. Hugh MacKenzie, the headteacher, was inspiring, committed to comprehensive education, a believer that, given the right conditions, everyone could learn.

“He occasionally wore a suit – made of blue denim. A shirt and tie were for special occasions, but a polo-neck sweater and CND badge were more normal. We learned quickly and we learned well. We reinvented the curriculum for that new age as we went along. The committed, the imaginative and the humorous survived. Fortunately, I was one of them.

“I would go onto have a friendship with Hugh long after my time at Craigroyston, a friendship that continued up until his sudden passing. Hugh’s passions were golf, jazz & rugby & I could write a book about the stories he has told me & the ones I’ve learnt over the years from his friends, colleagues & family.”