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February 2015 CA Publicity Poster 16
Childcare Academy Standard Information
Audrey O’Neill
Training Administrator, North Edinburgh Childcare
0131 311 6931
www.northedinburghchildcare.co.uk
Edinburgh College has been shortlisted for three prestigious marketing awards, recognising achievements in marketing courses, catering for students’ needs and communicating with staff.
The College Development Network (CDN) Marketing Awards 2015 – which take place next Wednesday (25 February) – are designed to recognise and celebrate the excellent marketing and communication practice taking place in colleges across Scotland.
The college is shortlisted for the following awards:
Edinburgh College interim principal Elaine McMahon said: “Being shortlisted for these awards is a great achievement and our staff deserve huge congratulations. It’s fantastic to see the creative work put into supporting, encouraging and communicating with students and staff being recognised in this way.
“The Creative Industries Employability Day was a fine example of the focus college staff put upon preparing students for working life in a competitive market and was so successful that the event will run again in February.
“The nomination for the staff conference is a welcome credit for the work done to build a sense of community in the still newly merged Edinburgh College.
“It is also satisfying to see that the work of our marketing and communications staff to promote the range of courses on offer at the college has been recognised. Their hard work led to a highly successful open day and the college meeting student recruitment targets for the year.”
Last year, Edinburgh College achieved a silver award in the Internal Communications category and bronze in the Event category in the CDN Marketing Awards 2014.
Former teacher Annette Bruton is unanimous choice
Edinburgh College is delighted to announce Annette Bruton as its new principal, to lead it into a thriving future and ensure more people can change their lives through education. She will lead the ambitious long-term growth of the college as it develops new opportunities for students, staff and businesses to excel, supporting a prosperous economy.
East Lothian-born Annette, currently chief executive of the Care Inspectorate, has extensive experience and expertise in education, originally training and working as a geography teacher, and later moving into learning support and special educational needs.
She joined HM Inspectorate of Education in 2001 and became its chief executive in 2005. In 2009, she took up the role of director of Education, Culture and Sport at Aberdeen City Council, where she worked until joining the Care Inspectorate in 2012. As chief executive of the Care Inspectorate, Annette oversaw the successful merger of three organisations into a single body.
The college Board appointed Annette as principal at its meeting yesterday (Tuesday 10 February), following a rigorous recruitment process. She will take over from interim principal Dr Elaine McMahon and will be in post before the start of the next academic year.
Ian McKay, chair of the Board of Edinburgh College, said: “Annette was the unanimous choice of the Board to become the new principal and we’re delighted she accepted the role.
“She has had a highly distinguished career in public service as well as extensive expertise and experience in education. Throughout the selection process she proved her strategic understanding, her sound judgement and her commitment to promoting lifelong learning.
“As a former teacher she has great empathy for the needs of students and staff, and the importance of ensuring they are all supported to succeed throughout their education and professional lives.
“I’m certain that she will provide excellent leadership to steer the college throughout the next crucial period of its development, and I’m very much looking forward to working with her.”
Annette said: “I am honoured to take up this post and look forward to meeting new colleagues, both staff and students.
“Edinburgh College plays a pivotal role in the life of the capital and well beyond. Its links with schools, universities and employers give real meaning to lifelong learning and empower thousands of students with new skills each year.
“Having dedicated most of my career to education at all levels, I look forward to making a further contribution to providing high-quality learning and the opportunities that gives to the whole community and the economy of our region.”
Edinburgh College interim principal Elaine McMahon added: “Since the merger, Edinburgh College has taken significant steps forward and I am delighted that Annette will take the college on this exciting new journey; she is an outstanding choice.
“In my time here it’s been an absolute privilege to fulfil the role of interim principal, and Annette will find that she’s working with extremely talented people who are committed to giving our students an amazing education.”
Edinburgh College formed in October 2012 following the merger of three Edinburgh further education colleges. It is now more than two years into a five-year change programme, with ambitious plans to grow by 20 per cent by 2017 and create more opportunities for people to engage in further and higher education. It aims for every student to achieve a positive destination, and to develop a college culture that creates educators for the future.
£100 million to help drive up standards in poorer communities
A new Scottish Attainment Challenge, backed by an Attainment Scotland Fund of more than £100 million over four years, has been announced by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. The Challenge aims to drive forward improvements on educational outcomes in Scotland’s most disadvantaged communities.
The four-year Attainment Scotland Fund will be targeted initially at schools in the local authorities with the biggest concentrations of households in deprived areas. It will focus on improving literacy, numeracy, health and wellbeing in primary schools in these areas, with the clear objective being to give all primary-school age pupils – regardless of background – the best start in life.
The Scottish Attainment Challenge will draw on the experience of the London Challenge which helped transform school performance in the city, and other international experiences.
The first tranche of funding will see £20 million made available this year to support children and young people in a number of Scotland’s most disadvantaged communities to achieve their potential.
This year’s initial funding was announced in the Deputy First Minister’s budget last week.
Complementing the Scottish Government’s existing work to address attainment inequality, schools in these areas will benefit from greater access to expertise and resources – such as additional teachers, materials for classrooms or resource to develop new out of school activities.
National and local partners will work together to identify the specific work that can be implemented successfully in classrooms and which will have a significant impact on the attainment of children from deprived communities.
A bespoke improvement plan, appropriate to local circumstances, will be agreed for each school or cluster of schools. This will include an agreement to gather, in a proportionate way, the data that will be required to measure the impact of the interventions supported.
Announcing the fund during a visit to Dundee, the First Minister said: “Education is both key to the future of Scotland’s children and an investment in the future of Scotland’s economic health. We know school education in Scotland is getting better, with record exam results and a record number of school leavers in work, education or training.
“While we are proud of what has been achieved, we have long recognised attainment as being an important area where improvement is needed and initiatives such as our Raising Attainment For All Programme are already starting to make a positive impact.
“But we know that much more needs to be done as too many of our young people have life chances narrowed by circumstances out of their control. The establishment of the Scottish Attainment Challenge, backed by the Attainment Scotland Fund, signals how strongly we are committed to righting that wrong.
“As I have seen today in Dundee, great things are already happening in schools across Scotland. By providing greater access to funding, expertise and resources, schools will have more opportunity to offer the creative and innovative teaching that helps our young people succeed.
“It is important we learn not just from good practice here in Scotland, but also from elsewhere in the UK and overseas, to find ways of working that have the greatest impact. I have been particularly impressed with the results of the London Challenge in transforming school performance in that city and so, while not all of it will be appropriate to Scottish circumstances, we will draw heavily on it in developing our own Attainment Challenge.
“We must do all we can within the powers and resources we have to narrow the gap and drive up standards at all levels. We want each child to enjoy an education that encourages them to be the best they can be and it is imperative they are given the tools now that will help them unlock the door to a successful future.”
Broughton S2 group looks at local democracy
As S2 pupils at Broughton High School we undertook an inter-disciplinary learning (IDL) course as part of our S2 elective subject choice called ‘Power to the Pupils’ which was run by Callum and Stephan from Community Learning & Development (CLD).
The course – called Power to the Pupils – has been great as it has had a local focus which has allowed us to gather and identify issues that directly affect us as young people growing in the north Edinburgh area. We had great debates and positive discussion and of course great fun as well deciding which were there most important topics that we could address!
Our top issues were:
Since coming to ‘power to the pupils’ we have been involved in some trips out to places like the City Chambers (above)and the ‘main cooncil headquarters’ where we learned about democracy, how decisions are made and who makes them on our behalf.
We even got to meet a real councillor – Nigel Bagshaw, who represents the Green Party in this area (Inverleith ward) in Edinburgh. He was really great! He listened to our concerns and he also gave us some fantastic advice on how we could take our issues forward. We also saw lots of famous people in some of the paintings that are hanging on the walls in the council building.
After visiting the city chambers we realised we should lobby on a more local level so we had a visit to the local Neighbourhood Partnership office based in North Edinburgh (above).
We raised several concerns that we had identified as being important to us. Negative stereotypes of young people, dog fouling in public spaces were just a couple of subjects we raised. The staff were great they listened all our questions and gave us some really positive feedback. They agreed that they were very important issues that needed tackling and gave us brilliant advice on methods to take our campaigns forward which was good.
We have learned some great new techniques and various methods to make our voices heard. Having the opportunity to access politicians with our issues by lobbying council officials as well as on a more local level with the North Edinburgh Neighbourhood Partnership has been fantastic and we all hope we have influenced them in a positive way.
The course has allowed us to learn new skills which will help us in the future there has also been lots of great discussion, debates which was interesting and above all it was great fun!
Here are some quotes from members of our group:
“The stuff we have learned will be useful in the future” – Harry Hunter S2
“Visiting the city chambers was really interesting it is a very old building with lots of traditions and history” – Simran Singh(S2)
“We hope we can make a difference and change people’s opinions of young people” – Chloe Carr (S2)
“It has been an amazing course and interesting” – Gabriella Borges (S2)
“I have made new friends as well as learnt some new skills” – Kyle Crooks (S2)
Power to the Pupils!
Positive Inspection Report for Learning Community around Craigroyston Community High School
The ‘Learning Community’ surrounding Craigroyston High School was inspected by Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Education at the same time as the High School and also received a very positive report.
The inspection looked at services provided by Community Learning and Development and partners in the voluntary and public sector . Areas highlighted were:
Inspectors particularly noted the range and strength of partnership work. The full report can be found at:
http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/
and a link will be put on the Total Craigroyston blog.
I tell you, you wait ages and ages for a positive report to come along and then two come along at once! Congratulations, again!
Confident Computing Course at Craigroyston
Whether you are an absolute beginner or you just want to brush up on your computing skills, this course will give you the skills you need to progress to the next level! There will be a focus on Excel and how to improve the way you use Excel as a database or for keeping records or creating reports.
Where: Craigroyston Community High School
When: Wednesday mornings, 10.30am – 12.30pm, starting now.
More info: www.joininedinburgh.org/activity/6501/ or call 0131 477 7801
Interested in finding other Adult Education classes? Take a look at www.joininedinburgh.org/craigroyston
Craigroyston Celebrates ‘Very Good’ Inspection
All at Craigroyston Community High School were delighted to read their recently published Inspection report.
The school was inspected by Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Schools in November 2014. The Inspection found the following key strengths:
The Inspectors also noted that they found innovative practice at the school in partnership working and the school’s approach to developing a curriculum that focusses on employment. This innovative will be shared across Scotland as highly effective practice.
The full report can be read on the school’s website
www.craigroyston.edin.sch.uk
and at www.educationscotland.gov.uk
or click on links below
Minister welcomes increase in provisional entries for Highers
Education Secretary Angela Constance called in at Craigroyston Community High School this morning and welcomed news that a record number of students will be sitting Highers this year.
Ms Constance was welcomed to Craigroyston by senior students Donna Cheyne, Joe Dudgeon, John Gallacher and Rebecca Morton before meeting staff and pupils to hear about the progress being made in introducing new qualifications as part of Curriculum for Excellence.
The introduction of new qualifications is progressing well, with provisional entries for Highers indicating a record high number will be sat this year.
The figure, which follows on from last year’s record number of passes at Higher, was welcomed by the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning during her Craigroyston visit.
New Highers have been introduced this year, alongside the existing Higher qualifications for this year only. School departments are able to use this flexibility to phase in the new qualifications in the way that best serves the interests of the pupils. From the 2015/6 school year onwards, all pupils will be studying the new Highers.
The total figure of 217,976 provisional Higher entries this year (across S5 and S6, and including both new and existing Highers) is five per cent up on the corresponding figure from this time last year. This figure comprises 120,557 provisional entries for new Highers, and 97,419 provisional entries for existing Highers.
Ms Constance said: “The ongoing reform of our education system is preparing our young people for the world of work and further and higher education. Scottish education now offers more flexible learning opportunities for our young people and new National qualifications, which were introduced at the beginning of the 2013/14 school year, are now well established.
“In August last year we saw a substantial increase in the number of both Higher entries and Higher passes. I am very pleased that we are again seeing a substantial interest in provisional entries for Higher. It is very positive to see greater numbers of young people aspiring to higher levels of qualifications in our schools.
“This shows that ambition, more than ever, is alive and well in classrooms across Scotland, in no small part thanks to the work of teachers who continue to do an excellent job. This bodes well for Scotland’s economic future.
“We know from provisional entry data from the Scottish Qualifications Authority that significant numbers of those pupils taking Highers this year have been studying the new Highers. We listened to schools who requested flexibility, and we acted. I have seen today how schools are making good use of this flexibility, to phase in the new qualifications in a sensible way.”
Edinburgh Rugby’s Game On project has now been running for two years and the project is now beginning to expand and seeks new partners to work alongside.
Game On aims to help young people aged 16 to 19 who are not currently in employment, education or training to find their way in life, to get into a training programme, find a job or apprenticeship or return to education.
The participants will learn new skills both on and off the field; on the field participants will take part in introductory rugby sessions at BT Murrayfield Stadium, the home of Edinburgh Rugby and the Scotland team. Throughout the rugby sessions the core values of Scottish Rugby will form the backbone of the content, aiming to instil the values of Respect, Leadership, Achievement, Engagement & Enjoyment.
Our expertise are the values of the sport, both on and off the field. Encouraging teamwork, confidence, increased activity and the benefits of living a healthy lifestyle (both physically and mentally).
Some of the topics cover throughout our sessions are:
Meeting the professional players who play for the team is also a very inspiring experience for the young people.
If you feel that working with Edinburgh Rugby would benefit your programme, in any way from one off sessions to weekly sessions please get in touch, we can come to you or use our magnificent home at BT Murrayfield stadium.
Mark Coull (Edinburgh Rugby – Game On Project Development Officer)
Telephone 0131 346 5076 | Mob: 079 682 505 30 | Mark.Coull@edinburghrugby.org |
www.edinburghrugby.org
