ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) classes start at West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre next month. For further information call into the Centre in West Pilton Grove or call 551 3194.
Tag: learning
The Prentice Centre’s guid fur a laugh!
With two free fun courses starting in October, The Prentice Centre in Granton Mains is the place to be for fans of Scottish culture this autumn …
‘Guid fer a Laugh’ takes a seriously funny look at Scottish comedy over the years. The course starts on Tuesday 6 October from 6 -8pm and runs for ten weeks (and maybe more if there are calls for an encore!)
A bit more highbrow (but only a wee bit!) is ‘An Introduction to the History of Scottish Theatre’. This free ten-week course starts on Monday 5 October from 1.30 – 3.30pm and includes theatre visits.
Both courses are free. To book your place or for further information call The Prentice Centre on 552 0485.
A pure cornucopia of Scottish culture, so it is!
Love to learn: adult education programme launched
Programme offers something for everyone
Drawing for Graphic Novels, Wall Building, Decluttering your Home, Paint a Scene at the Lyceum Theatre and Criminology are just some of the new courses being offered in the City of Edinburgh Council’s Adult Education Programme.
With hundreds of day, evening and weekend courses available for adults aged 16 and over, the programme really has something for everyone.
So if you’re looking to learn something new, brush up on your skills, meet new people or improve your job prospects then check out the courses which can be booked NOW! Booking on line is the best way to secure a place on your chosen course.
Among the numerous classes being offered are art, crafts, creative writing history, computing, cookery, health and fitness, languages, music, drama, walks and talks and much more.
Councillor Cathy Fullerton, Vice-Convener for Education, Children and Families, said: “The amount of classes and subject matter on offer this year is absolutely fantastic. It’s a really varied and interesting programme which has been designed by our adult education team to meet the needs of people of all ages and abilities.
“Learning should always be enjoyable, and we hope these courses will inspire people to learn something new or more in-depth. Taking up a class can help people develop confidence and keep mentally and physically active as well as acquiring new skills.
“Research shows that people who are in lifelong learning are more likely to be employed, to remain in work and to be involved in their communities. It truly is about learning for life and it’s never too late to start.
“Plenty of flexibility is built into the programme as to where and when people can study, with opportunities to take classes at different schools and community centres across the city and they can also be a stepping stone on to further education or indeed into a new career.”
A full list of Adult Education Programme classes are available online or by phoning 0131 556 7978 to get a brochure or pick one up from your local library, community centre or GP surgery. Classes can still be booked by post, phone or in person as well as online.
Also on offer are Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) courses at Higher and Unit levels, run by Edinburgh College. Many other classes are held all over Edinburgh in schools and community centres.
You can find full details at www.joininedinburgh.org/enrol/
Local learners on a high!
Local young people short-listed for learners award
Late last year I spent time with a bright and enthusiastic group of young adults at Royston Wardieburn Community Centre to plan a piece of work. Their mission? To choose a subject of relevance to young people, research and then write an article on that subject for North Edinburgh News.
The group has now produced their article (see below) – and all their hard work is to be recognised too!
Community Learning & Development tutor Karen Riddell, who supported the group during the project, explained: “They really were a vibrant group of young people with strong opinions and it was great to see them engage with the topic and undertake the various activities related to building their skills and putting the article together.
“The group was nominated for an Edinburgh Adult Learners Achievement Award and I’m delighted to say that they have been short-listed for an award in the Young Adults Category.”
The Tomorrow’s People team will learn their fate at an event at the City Chambers on 20 May. Fingers crossed for you, guys – and here’s your article …
LEGAL HIGHS: Is It Worth It?
Local young people speak out against ‘legal highs’
We are a group of young people from Pilton who have just spent 16 weeks on the Tomorrow’s People employability programme. Part of our course helped us brush up on our literacy and critical thinking skills through a weekly CLD Practical Journalism course held at Royston Wardieburn Community Centre.
Dave Pickering, the editor at the North Edinburgh News, very kindly gave us the opportunity to write an article for his paper, so after much debate we decided to research and write about Legal Highs.
We compiled a local survey and found out that most of the young people who responded to the survey had either used Legal Highs or knew someone who had. The main reasons cited were: they were easy to get, friends were trying them, they’re cheap – at least half the price of illegal drugs, they give you a really good high, taking them gives you something to do, boredom and peer pressure.
Even although a high percentage of young people surveyed had used them without any serious long term consequences, we did find out that at least 68 people died last year as a direct result of using them, so they are not quite as harmless as some people think.
We found that their name made them quite misleading and people thought it meant they were pretty safe to use. The truth is that drugs councilors now advise their clients to stick to their heroin as legal highs are even more dangerous, burning the skin as it is injected and causing blistering and serious infection.
Most people who completed the questionnaire had also tried illegal drugs and strongly felt that these were safer than Legal highs. As a group, we definitely agreed with that.
We also feel that the government are failing to make drug taking safer. No matter what you might feel about drugs, a lot of people from literally all walks of life use them and are going to continue to do so. David Cameron dodges the issue for fear of losing votes and insists that ‘What is in place is working’ despite the fact that over 2500 people died from drugs-related causes last year in the UK.
Is it not time to follow Portugal and make drugs a health issue rather than a criminal one so that people are offered more protection? In Portugal they found that de-criminalising it didn’t bring about any increase in the level of drug use by people and also that millions was saved on the essentially ineffectual enforcement of drug laws.
Across Europe clubs have drug-testing facilities so that people can test substances before they take them – surely that must offer people more protection than kidding on that ‘what is in place is working’!
A recent Home Office report that we looked at said that having tough drugs laws didn’t make any difference to the level of drug use but Home Secretary Teresa May had this part of the report removed and it was only found out about when Norman Baker revealed the findings after he resigned! This just goes to show that governments make useless drug laws to kid on they are in control of the problem when they’re really just doing it as a vote catcher.
Present policy bears no relation to the reality of people’s recreational drug use and it’s time for the government to introduce some new policies to protect its citizens and not put their own vote-catching first.
We need much better drug education to help us keep ourselves safe, and the obvious place for this to take place is in schools. We felt strongly that a peer to peer support programme in schools would help young people make informed choices about drug use and help keep them safer.
Our research found that young people felt there needed to be far more opportunities for young people in the work-place and much better affordable or subsidised recreational facilities to offer them the chance to experience other kinds of ‘legal highs’, their own ‘natural highs’ like ski-ing, skating, abseiling, snow-boarding, canoeing, dirt-biking, go-karting etc. Risk-taking is part of brain-development for young people and we need to offer them the opportunity to explore this in a safer environment.
Drugs become a problem when there is little else in the drug users lives. We found out that in an experiment, mice which were separated from other mice kept going back to drink the drug-laced water whereas mice that lived in groups didn’t. The experiment showed that lack of strong emotional bonds in your life can drive you to bond with legal highs or drugs instead.
They say it takes a community to bring up a child so that’s why it’s very important for us to work together to stop the reckless experimentation that can lead to addiction, to value the young people of Pilton and provide them with the support they need to keep their use of drugs and alcohol to an acceptable level and help them realise their potential.
It seems to us that one of the worst thing about legal highs is the hypocrisy of supposedly ‘respectable’ shop-keepers who are prepared to stock them in the full knowledge that people, especially young people, buy them to consume them. We feel a local campaign should be set up to stop these shops from selling them.
Good websites:
(1)Anyone’s Child; Families for Safer Drug Control – www.anyoneschild.org
(2) Release.org
Healthy interest grows in college community gardens
Edinburgh College community garden provides opportunities to adults with complex learning needs
Adults with complex learning needs are using one of Edinburgh College’s community gardens to develop their green fingers as well as social and education skills.
The students, who are all users of the adult day services at Fisherrow Community Centre’s Fisherrow Hub in Musselburgh, have been visiting the community garden at the college’s Milton Road Campus since May 2014. After spending the summer helping out weekly at the garden they registered for the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society’s (RCHS) Recognition of Individual Achievement in Horticulture Award (Caley Award), and are now working towards achieving this.
The award recognises the achievement and learning experience of individuals with complex learning needs in a garden environment. It encompasses a mix of seven core horticultural activities including cultivation, composting, plant-care and harvesting.
It is hoped that students who achieve the Caley Award will go on to a second level of the scheme, which is currently under development by RCHS.
The nine students have been split into two groups, and visit once a week for a few hours. Each group has their own growing space in the garden where they grow vegetables that they can take either back to Fisherrow to use in a cooking activity or home to share with their household.
The award also includes a personal learning plan, where students identify self-improvement goals such as improved timekeeping, teamwork or learning a social skill. Individuals progress at their own pace, encouraged and inspired by the achievement of others. Achievement is assessed through compiling a portfolio and recording of evidence, which are formally verified by the RCHS.
The Milton Road Community Garden was established in September 2012 to transform an area of previously unused land into a green space for staff, students and the local community to grow plants, vegetables and fruit. The project has been so successful that Edinburgh College now has a second community garden at the Sighthill Campus.
Colin Jeffrey, Fisherrow Hub manager, said: “The community garden at Edinburgh College has provided people who use the service at Fisherrow in Musselburgh an invaluable opportunity to undertake practical gardening tasks, which they are now learning and developing in order to undertake the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society Award, or Caley Award.
“This is a fantastic new opportunity for the involved individuals, which is developing their practical skills in horticulture as well as supporting skills development in other areas, geared towards individuals’ specific personal goals, included as part of the award.
“At Fisherrow, we are continuing to work with Edinburgh College, to further develop joint working initiatives and new opportunities for people accessing services from our resource and to work together on a partnership agreement, to establish this working relationship and continue to support our ethos of promoting meaningful, structured activities for the service users at Fisherrow in new, exciting and inclusive ways with other organisations.”
Severine Monvoisin, community garden coordinator at the college, said: “The Caley Award is about recognising achievement. Far more importantly, it also gives individuals with complex learning needs opportunities for learning new skills and achieving in an inclusive environment. The gardening activities and knowledge are a medium to progress in their life by increasing the social interaction with others, learning to express their feelings, developing a better understanding about the environment, increasing confidence and self-esteem, learning to work together, increasing their abilities.
“For all the garden’s participants, coming to the garden is strongly linked to improved emotional health: they learn and exchange views about the importance of healthy eating and healthy lifestyle, are active in an outdoor environment, build social contact in a safe and relaxed environment and, importantly, become part of a community.”
Benji’s coming to North Edinburgh!
Benji the PlayTalkRead bus is coming to North Edinburgh next week:
You can catch Benji at
West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre on MONDAY 9 March
Muirhouse Library on TUESDAY 10 March
Pennywell Road Shops THURSDAY 12 March
Don’t miss the bus!
Benji-Edinburgh-March-2015-Poster-Small
Talking Tech during National Digital Learning Week
Education Secretary Angela Constance has called on all Scottish schools to make the most of opportunities offered by digital learning, as National Digital Learning Week continues.
Ms Constance was speaking as she visited Mauricewood Primary School in Penicuik to see how technology is being used to support learning in the school.
National Digital Learning Week (2-6 March) highlights how learners and teachers are using digital technologies in schools across Scotland.
At Mauricewood, Ms Constance saw a presentation about ‘The Moscars’, a project where groups of pupils used technology to develop a short film. She also chatted to pupils who are using technology in a variety of ways to find out more about other countries and their cultures.
She said: “We want learners and teachers in Scotland to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by technology in order to raise attainment, ambition and opportunities for all. Technology is all around us and we want all of our schools to tap into its rich potential for learning.
“There’s exciting events going on every day throughout National Digital Learning Week and I am delighted to see some great examples for myself at Mauricewood.
“At Mauricewood and in other schools across Scotland, there’s great examples of technology being woven into day-to-day learning, bringing subjects to life and opening up opportunities for research, collaboration, communication and creativity.
“This week also marks the start of a National Digital Learning Community, where we want teachers and educators across Scotland to continue conversations and reflections about digital learning, and we want this conversation to continue long beyond this week of activity.”
Activities are ongoing throughout the week, including TeachMeets in a number of authorities for teachers to share good practice, practical innovations and personal insights in teaching with technology, GlowTV events and daily blog updates at
:https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/glowblogs/ndlf/
Conversation are also continuing all week on Twitter using the hashtag #digilearnscot.
A video message from Ms Constance, marking the start of Digital Learning Week, can be accessed at
It’s National Digital Learning Week
#DigiLearnScot
What’s it all about?
National Digital Learning Week is your chance to give digital technology a go and join the national debate on how digital tools can help transform the way pupils learn.
We are encouraging all schools to make a pledge to develop their digital practice in school. These will be shared on our blog. This could range from trying a blog for the first time to using augmented reality to make your walls come alive!
Find out more – click on the links below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cmVLUU43f8&feature=em-share_video_user
Education Scotland: CLD survey now open
Working with Scotland’s communities is a national study to find out more about the diverse range of paid workers and volunteers that provide community learning and development (CLD) across Scotland.
The online survey aimed at the organisations that employ these workers and volunteers is now open until Friday 10 April.
We know that community learning and development approaches are used by workers and volunteers with a variety of job titles in a range of different organisations in the community, voluntary and public sectors.
We want to hear from as many of these organisations as possible to build a current national picture of how many workers and volunteers there are, what they do, and what their training and development issues are.
Please be aware that we’re only looking for one response on behalf of each organisation or service.
The findings from the survey will be used to inform national community learning and development policy and planning.
Working with Scotland’s communities is being carried out by Education Scotland on behalf of theScottish Government, in partnership with the following national partners – Youthlink Scotland;The Scottish Community Development Centre (SCDC); The Workers Educational Association(WEA); The CLD Standards Council for Scotland; and CLD Managers Scotland.
For more information and to access the survey, please go to the Working with Scotland’s communities page on the Education Scotland website.
‘Outstanding’ new Principal for Edinburgh College
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.