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Thursday 16 February 2006 |
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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 Send
me your stories In
the news
As well as fulfilling his janitorial duties Mr Edgar (a keen sportsman) has always encouraged pupils to develop their sporting potential. For many years he has been very involved with the school football teams and has trained the school cross-country team for interscholastic events. Over his thirty-seven year
career he's witnessed many changes within education ...from
blackboards to interactive whiteboards! Most recently he's seen the amalgamation
of Hunters Tryst and Comiston into Pentland Primary.
Youngedinburgh - Action in Partnership Councillors welcomed and endorsed the
launch of the strategy for 2006-2010 and agreed further reports on the
involvement of young people from student councils in local community
planning; the further development of ‘Just Ask’, the Council’s
consumer advocacy service for young people; and the development of a
Council employment strategy for young people. For
more, click here. Allan Wells attended Liberton High School from 1964 - 1968 and during his time there, developed an interest in athletics which started him on the road that led to Olympic glory at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Students at Liberton now have access to state-of-the art facilities in their new games hall. The new hall can be used for a wide variety of sports including badminton, basketball, volleyball and indoor hockey and includes changing facilities, PE staff base and a kitchen. Outside school hours local community groups will be able to use the facilities. What
do they do? The ACRT was launched in April 2003 aiming to improve the quality and co-ordination of Reviews for children accommodated by the City of Edinburgh Council. The ACRT, comprising of an experienced staff group of a Senior Reviewing Officer, four reviewing officers and administrative support is located in the Service Development (Social Work Services) area of the department. The reviewing officers provide an independent chair for over 800 reviews per year for children placed in residential schools, residential units (including secure accommodation) and with foster carers. Young people, their families, carers, social workers, teachers, health staff and other professionals who attend reviews will all come into contact with the ACRT. The multi-disciplinary review meeting is structured to ensure a robust examination and review of the young persons care plan takes place and ensures their needs are being fully met. In addition to providing an independent chair of the review meetings, the ACRT also provide minutes and co-ordinate subsequent reviews. For further information on the work of the ACRT or to obtain an copy of the latest Annual Report please contact Jill Guthrie, Senior Reviewing Officer on 0131 553 8441 or email jill.guthrie@edinburgh.gov.uk Ronnie is retiring!
There will be an opportunity to have a chat, buffet some, drink some and dance some on the evening of Friday 16 June 2006 at Carrickvale Golf Club - more details later – all welcome!" If you would like to join Ronnie in his celebrations or would like more info, please contact Lynne Brown, Sighthill Primary School She hopes to hear from lots of former colleagues!! Success
stories Laura has lived with her foster carers Margaret and Sid Forrest since she was 6 years old. She was encouraged by her carers and developed an interest in dance from an early age, travelling nationwide to compete very successfully in many competitions for which she has been awarded numerous trophies. On leaving school, Laura successfully auditioned for the Dance For All Theatre school. This was quite an achievement in itself as only a small number of selected students are accepted each year. Having now completed her
studies at Jewel and Esk College, Laura is now involved in teaching
others to dance in her community. Well done Laura!
Dean
Park reads for the future
Dean Park Primary School P7's recently took part in a competition, jointly organised by Scottish Power and Friends of the Earth, called Read for the Future. The sponsored challenge aimed to get primary 7 pupils switching off their televisions and computers and taking up reading in the hopes of improving literacy and encouraging energy efficiency. Money raised went to the Friends of the Earth - Scotland Green Home campaign. Dean Park children embraced this challenge and on the second week in January they learned that they had raised the most money in Edinburgh. As a result they won an S Cube worth £500. Alison McKean Head of Environment at Scottish Power and Stuart Hay from Friends of the Earth presented the P7's with their S Cube on 31 Jan. An S Cube explores renewable energy sources and how wind, wave and solar power energy is produced. The children gained more than just the S Cube, a love of reading was fostered that week as well as an awareness of the work of Scottish Power and Friends of the Earth.
She was very impressed and has asked that the young people get back in touch with her to discuss difficulties facing disabled teenagers. For
your information Remember that New Year's Resolution you made to become more active? Whether you have started making stairclimbing a habit, or your good intentions are starting to wane, the new motivational posters which have just gone up in Wellington Court may give you ideas on how to set yourself a new challenge and take your stairclimbing, and therefore your health, to the next level. You can monitor your improving health and fitness with the stairclimbing calorie calculator at http://stairclimbing.cheu.gov.hk/text/eng/calorie.asp So if you decide to join, challenge your colleagues
and take on a group from another section or floor! www.bhf.org.uk/thinkfit/index.asp?secondlevel= Look out for further information on
work–based health promoting activities over the coming months. If you
would like to know more or offer your suggestions, contact Michelle
Rogers michelle.rogers@educ.edin.gov.uk
or Barbara Schilling, barbara.schilling@educ.edin.gov.uk 'Masterchef' comes to
Clovenstone With the links between diet and health clearly established, this beginner’s masterclass will focus on 101 tips to help improve cooking skills and diet. Henderson’s will give tips on sauces, herbs, spices, pastas – which wines to choose – and how to make tasty, inexpensive and nourishing meals for all the family. This is a rare opportunity to learn from top professionals ending the sessions with a healthy lunch. The class is free and suitable for beginners but places are limited. To book a place on the course, please contact Agnes or Anne on 458 5959. This session is being offered by the West Edinburgh Community Learning Partnership as part of their successful Saturday Morning Programme of learning opportunities for local people. For further information, please contact George Williamson on 453 4561 or Christine Vincenti on 458 5959.
The Council has also commissioned as additional support for learning information helpline for parents and young people available from SNIP; tel: 0131 536 0583 or email: snip@btinternet.com
The programme is for 9 to 11 year olds and is broadcast every day between 4 and 6pm on BBC 7. The show offers children the chance to hear stories, take part in phone in competitions, listen to interviews and music and join in with quizzes. Between now and Friday 24 February, the show is running a nation-wide 'Sound Story' competition.
The competition is inspired by BBC Radio 4's Reith Lectures. For more details, please go to The Big Toe Radio Show's website at www.bbc.co.uk/bigtoe and click on 'The SOUND STORY competition' on the right hand side of the home page. There you will be able to download an A4 size poster about the competition and see a detailed list of the rules. You can listen to Big Toe on the website, on DAB digital radio, Freeview channel 78, Digital Satellite channel 881 or on Digital cable (Telewest Broadband channel 910/ntl home channel 866). Teenage Cancer Trust This is a charity dedicated to helping teenagers fight cancer and Lynne McNicoll would like to support them and hopes to raise £50,000 during 2006. Fundraising started with a charity event at her home in December 2005. £1400 was raised on the day. She intends to raise
funds in a variety of ways including quiz nights, black tie events,
musical concerts and also sporting events. As the Charity supports
teenagers she also thought it might be appropriate to seek ways of
directly involving them. For further information please check out her website www.lynneschallenge.co.uk and TCT website, www.teenagecancertrust.org for information on the wonderful work they are doing to help teenagers with cancer. We do hope you can help and look forward to hearing from you. Contact details for Lynne McNicoll: Tel: 0131 444 1655 – Mob: 07901 555352 – Email lynmax@aol.com
This fun competition, run by the BTHA
and the Trading Standards Institute is open to all Edinburgh
schools who have been very successful in previous years,
winning a number of national PlaySafe awards.
There are two age categories this year:
6-11yrs and 12-17yrs, with great prizes on offer to finalists plus £1000
worth of IT equipment available to the overall winning school.
For more information on how to enter this
fantastic, free competition and for some background reading about toy design and
safety, schools can check
out the British Toy & Hobby Association's website www.btha.co.uk
If you have any queries please contact
Lindsay Grant on 0131 469 5257.
back to top It will soon be a year since the establishment of Edinburgh’s Children and Families Department and we are well on our way to achieving our aim of providing integrated services to local communities. Some of the key people in managing these services are the Neighbourhood Teams and I spent a very interesting afternoon with them last week, finding out about their roles in the new Department. It was great to see them grappling head on with the challenges that now face them and doing so with humour and persistence. You will be pleased to know they all managed to get in a funding bid as well! It did strike me as wonderful that we now have a situation where senior staff from different professions are working together as colleagues, crossing professional boundaries with a great sense of having a common task of the care and nurture of all young people. Another area of work which reflects the Department’s forward thinking and commitment to young people is the work of the Youth Services Advisory Committee. As you will see in the news above, young people from across the city presented the Youngedinburgh Strategy Document to councillors at the Full Council meeting. The young people participated in the meeting and took questions from councillors about the strategy. The strategy aims to make Edinburgh Europe’s premier youth friendly city. Nowhere else in Scotland do young people get to break old conventions and have their voice heard at the heart of the decision making process. Life in Edinburgh is changing – it’s not always been easy change but I believe that it is changing the lives of many of our young people for the better. Cllr Rev Ewan Aitken Executive Member for Children and Families back to top Staff Benefits Great deal on computer software As part of the massive programme of work to restructure and refresh Council’s computers, servers and software applications, BT negotiated a deal with Microsoft for the software they are putting on the refreshed computers. At the same time, they negotiated this special deal so that Council staff could benefit personally. If you have a PC you can buy Microsoft® Office Professional Edition 2003 (Home Use Program) or Microsoft® Office XP Professional. Apple Mac users may choose from Microsoft® Office X for Mac (Home Use Program) or Microsoft® Office 2004 for Mac (Home Use Program) How to buy
You may order a single copy of that product to install and use on a home computer. You will then have the right to use the software in accordance with the Microsoft Home Use Programme terms and conditions. Please note that some products and language versions may not be available at the time you place an order. For up-to-date information on the availability of Home Use Program software, please visit http://microsoft.com/licensing. Need more information? If you have any questions regarding this offer before or after buying, please contact Microsoft direct using the contacts given on the website. Note this offer is not being handled by BT or the Council so all queries must be direct to Microsoft.
For details of teaching vacancies in
Edinburgh please visit the following link: http://channel1.internal.egfl.net |
What do they do?
Cllr Aitken writes...
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