|
Thursday 20 October 2005 |
|
|
|
Welcome to the
This newsletter is published every two weeks for staff in the Children and Families Department. It is available online at the Edinburgh Grid for Learning at http://egfl.net In an effort to get to know our colleagues a little better, we have a section of the newsletter called 'What do they do?' This will feature a different group, centre or project in every issue. If you would like your work to be profiled, please send me a short article summing up what your department, section, project, or group does. If you want to fax me your piece, the number is 0131 469 3347 If you have any other items you wish to contribute, please call or send us your stories, pictures, info on new staff, celebrations, special events, news etc. You can email gayle.st.croix@educ.edin.gov.uk or call 0131 469 3429. Click here to read What do they do? In
the news A Scottish entrepreneur living in the United States is coming home to address the Edinburgh Conference on Friday 4 November. Steve Parkinson, President and Chief Executive Officer of CereMedix is hoping to inspire delegates to raise the aspirations of young people by talking about his experience being a Scottish entrepreneur with a global profile. Parkinson, a founding member of Globalscot, a network of influential ex-pat Scots, can be heard at this year's Conference. For more information, you can visit the website at www.theedinburghconference.edin.org To book your place, contact
Jackie on 0131 469 3095 or email jackie.mclachlan@educ.edin.gov.uk The initiative, known as 'Truancy Watch', was started on Tuesday 11 October with teams of police officers linking up with educational welfare officers to locate possible truants. They spent two days visiting shopping centres and other parts of the city. As a result 16 truants were found, all aged between 11 and 14, and returned to school. More inquiries will be carried out by the council's educational welfare officers on a further 17 youngsters who were found in the presence of adults. Truancy Watch is a joint initiative between Lothian and Borders Police and the City of Edinburgh Council's Education and Welfare Team and is a co-ordinated citywide attempt to tackle the problem. The scheme works with identification teams consisting of a police officer and an educational welfare officer patrolling locations in the city with the intention of identifying young people under the age of 16 - whether alone, in groups or in the company of an adult. If there is no reasonable excuse for the young person not to be at school they are then taken to a reception centre from where the enquiry team contact the appropriate school and/or parent.
Over £1200 was raised as pupils paid to ditch their dress code for the day. Wigs, pink faces and feather boas abounded (and that was just the staff!) as the whole school joined in the spirit of the day. The event was organised by Year Head Mrs Livingstone and the hard-working S6 Charities Committee.
They welcome any news items you may have relating to anti-racism events/news with young people and at all levels of Scottish football - please email to info@theredcardscotland
Please note that the server for this website may be down for maintenance, so if you can't reach it right away, please try at a later time.
The
Edinburgh
rugby development officer won the employee achievement category at the
ceremony in the Sheraton Grand Hotel on 6 October. He was
presented with his award by Allan Wilson MSP, Deputy Minister for Roddy's job involves him coaching
in our primary and
secondary schools and in 20 rugby clubs in the Roddy,
26, plays in the back-row for Heriot's and is a member of the
Key achievements include:
ACFAA has succeeded in establishing new ways of working with and involving older people and their carers. As well as forming OPEF, older people have established links with the Edinburgh Partnership, joined the Strategic Development Group for Older People and provided input for service reviews within the Council and NHS Lothian. Older people have also been involved in putting together the materials to generate awareness of the issues that are relevant to them. Projects include the ACFAA video, the Get Up and Go programme and awards and A Safer Edinburgh for Us All - an intergenerational debate on the fear of crime. OPEF members will also be instrumental in building on the previous success of the plan and setting the targets for the next five years. For further information on A City for All Ages please contact: A City for All Ages, 12 St Giles Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1PT Tel: 0131 469 3805, Email: acfaa@edinburgh.gov.uk, Web: www.edinburgh.gov.uk/acfaa Got a story to tell? If you would like more information, please contact Joanna Bremner on 0131 557 5724 or visit the website www.scottishstorytellingcentre.co.uk and click on the Tell a Story Day tab. What
do they do? At the new premises in Chester Street, young people can also access employment support, health advice and housing advice. There is a drop in centre located in the basement area, due to open this month. If you would like to know more about the Throughcare and Aftercare Team, please call 0131 240 6580 or pay them a visit at 10 Chester St, Edinburgh, EH3 7RA. Success
stories "I love meeting with
my friends and chatting." The idea of the project was for pupils from these very different communities to learn more about each other and each others' lives whilst exploring global issues at the cities' book fairs. Each group of teenagers prepared a presentation on a favourite national author; Gracemount choosing the Greenock writer for teenagers, Catherine MacPhail, to take to Stavanger and Iain Banks to "accompany" them to Gothenburg. Jayne Gregor, Michelle Letton and Kathryn Nye were the lucky
fifth years who, whilst in Stavanger, not only attended a Norwegian
poetry slam but also adjudicated at it! It was a fabulous project and a real cultural, social and intellectual challenge for these Edinburgh teenagers.
The awarded schools are the Children’s House Nursery, Cowgate Under 5’s Centre, Currie Community High, Echline Primary, Kaimes School, Kirkliston Nursery, Portobello High, St. Leonard’s Nursery, The Royal High Primary and Towerbank Primary. Pupils and teachers from all ten schools were present to accept their award and representatives from four of the schools presented their work to the assembled audience, which included the Lord Provost, Councillor Anderson and Councillor Rev Aitken. The Green Flag Award is the top level of achievement in the international Eco Schools programme. In Edinburgh, 130 schools are registered and 33 have been awarded Bronze Awards and 13 Silver Awards. The programme is designed so that environmental awareness becomes part of the ethos of the entire school community and to the best of their abilities, it is the pupils that take the lead with the work. If you would like to find out more, please call Jamie Pearson, Education officer on 469 5472 or e-mail jamie.pearson@edinburgh.gov.uk. You can also visit the website at www.ecoschoolsscotland.org
BT Service Desk info
BT is making an improvement to the way the BT Service Desk handles IT calls from schools, community centres and other children and families establishments. You can now use the touch tone feature on your phone to get straight through to the team best able to deal with your enquiry. When you call the desk on 0800 783 7158, you will greeted by a pre-recorded message asking you to either: press 1: to log a new call eg to report a fault press 2: to check progress of an outstanding fault or change.
You don't have to listen to the
pre-recorded, you can simply press the number to go straight
through to the service desk.
From time-to-time we may also place
a pre-recorded message before the menu options to advise you of
known service problems for example with internet access or
e-mail issues. If your call is about the issue on the message, you
will then know that you do not have to report it.
BT hopes this new feature will
offer you a quicker and more responsive service.
You are eligible to apply for the home computing scheme if you:
Home computing packs have been sent to the home addresses of all eligible staff. If you meet the above criteria but haven’t received a brochure pack and would like one, please contact bikepc@edinburgh.gov.uk. Missed the roadshows and want to find out more about the scheme? Visit the home computing website at www.lets-connect.co.uk/edinburgh. Have you already taken part in the scheme and need support or advice?For general support and software advice call the Let's Connect general support line on 0906 863 3416 (calls charged at 60p per minute). For advice on hardware and support call the Let's Connect warranty line on 0870 600 0435 (calls charged at national call rate).
For details of teaching vacancies in
Edinburgh please visit the following link: http://channel1.internal.egfl.net |
Upcoming
events Staff
development For
your information
Archive Issues
|
