Book Week Scotland Assemblies

On Friday 27th November 2015, Sciennes' Patron of Reading - celebrated author Janis Mackay - presented at both P1-3 and P4-7 Scottish Book Week Assemblies. Thank you to Ms Bethan Owen for leading our school wide Book Week celebrations with Janis so successfully:

P3 WORKSHOPS

P5-7 BOOK LAUNCH- "Wild Song"

JANIS AT ASSEMBLIES

MEET THE AUTHOR BOOK SIGNING

There will be an opportunity to meet Janis and buy signed copies of her books at a special discounted price for Sciennes' families between 11am and 12.30pm on Friday 27^{th November}

Sciennes' Pupil Council thanked everyone for supporting City of Edinburgh's 1:5 Child Poverty Awareness project throughout Scottish Book Week by donating preloved, much loved and gift condition books to a child via Foodbank and other organisations.

Please note that the project has been extended at Sciennes and we will still be collecting donated books until Wednesday 2nd December. We hope to see you at the Winter Fair on Saturday 28th November 12pm-3pm. Coming along? Could your child select a favourite, high quality book to bring to gift to a child in need?

Sciennes P4-7 Scottish Book Week Assembly 27.11.15 from SciennesPS
 

Article 28  The right to learn
Article 26 The right to have help if you are poor or in need
Article 27 The right to have a good enough standard of living

Kid President's Awesome Global Goals Pep Talk

On Friday 20th November, Universal Children's Day, on the anniversary of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child, our P2-P7 pupils thoroughly enjoyed listening to Kid President's 'Pep Talk to the World' on the Global Goals.

Last week at the P4-7 Assembly, Mr Howie shared the story of Samantha Smith, the Little Ambassador, as an example of how we can make simple acts to bring about change. Kid President (Robby Novak) began making films with his family (writer and director Brad Montague) and publishing them online, based on the belief that children have ideas worth listening to. The charming and amusing musings quickly set the Internet alight and led Robby to meet the real President, Barack Obama. The insirational pep talk to the world below - urging people to think of the world as 'one big cool table' where everyone is invited and everyone has enough - truly captured our pupils' imaginations.

"This is a call to action to people all over the world. Sure, there’s lots of work to do, but there’s lots of awesome people out there in the world like you. This video was created and shown the night before world leaders met in New York on September 25 to announce the new Global Goals intended to tackle the most urgent issues of our time - poverty, inequality and more. People came together in over 100 countries to demonstrate their shared vision for a better future – from Australia to India, South Africa to Brazil – millions are taking action around the world."
Kid President 


 


If the Global Goals are going to work - they need everyone to know about them. You can't fight for your rights if you don't know what they are. You can't convince world leaders to do what needs to be done if you don't know what you are convincing them to do. If they are famous they won't be forgotten. Tell everyone.

1:5 Hungry for Books - Gift a Child a Preloved Book during Scottish Book Week

Sciennes' Pupil Council is leading a 'Hungry for Books' campaign, launched at House Assemblies on Universal Children's Day 20th November and taking place ONLY throughout Book Week Scotland from Monday 23rd November to Friday 27th November. We have been asking our pupils how they can make simple acts to bring about change and highlighting the Global Goals at our Assemblies.

Sciennes Primary School is proud to be one of six schools in Edinburgh working with Pattie Santelices (City of Edinburgh Principal Officer Mental Health and Well Being) and committed to raising awareness of children in poverty.

The aims of the project are:
* To highlight the scale and impact of 1:5 child poverty.
* To explore cultural and structural explanations of child poverty.
* To consider the costs associated with the school day at Sciennes
* To reflect on how we can make education fairer and equitable for all 



Last year, P3 pupils successfully organised a whole school Harvest appeal leading our school community to donate food items generously to Foodbank. This year, we are asking everyone to feed minds by donating at least one 'preloved', much loved, quality children's book which will then be redistributed by Foodbank and other organisations.

Sciennes is one of six school hubs for the city - Central Hub - and our Pupil Council members will work with volunteer Librarians to help collect and deliver donated books.

Hungry for Books 23^rd – 27^th November ‘Gift a child a pre-loved book’

Did you know that 1:5 children live in poverty or have at some time in their lives? This is shocking to us in Sciennes’ Pupil Council. And we want to help. So we have decided to do a book collection. Please give a child in poverty a book to pass the time and make them feel like an ordinary child. And try to think how many hours are really in a day when you don’t have the money to buy expensive video games and other things. So please bring a book for the book bank.

Hamish Croft, P7 member of Sciennes Pupil Council 


1:5 children living in poverty leave school unable to read well. These children are also less likely to have books in the home and read for pleasure. During Book Week we are seeking donations of high quality children’s books which our Pupil Council will then redistribute to children in need through Foodbank.
I would also like families in school, who would welcome an opportunity to select some books, to please contact me directly. I can assure you of my utmost discretion and confidentiality.

Alison Noble, Headteacher

Sciennes House Assembly 20.11.15 from SciennesPS

Article 28  The right to learn

Call to Action

On Friday 30th October at the P4-7 Assembly, Mr Howie first introduced to pupils the idea that they can become or can support change makers. He explained that on the previous weekend (24th October) many of the UNESCO landmark sites around the world, including Edinburgh Castle, were lit up by blue lights to mark the 70th anniversary of the United Nations. (Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is also 70 this year.) Mr Howie explained the background to the United Nations and Unicef and why they were set up. 193 countries have signed the United Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) but Mr Howie asked our pupils if they believed that all children actually have these rights around the world. He then asked our pupils how they felt about not all children having their rights respected and to think about what they could do (see slideshow below).

Happy Birthday UN at 70 Sciennes P4-7 Assembly 30.11.15 from SciennesPS

Simple Acts

On Friday 13th November, Mr Forrest Howie led a powerful and thought provoking P4-7 Assembly to help the children think about how they could take simple acts to bring about change. He explored inspirational examples, telling stories about Malala Yousafzai and Samantha Smith as well as George Clooney's recent visit to Rose Street's Social Bite Social Enterprise cafe. He also gave us historical examples of Martin Luther King's campaign for civil rights and Emmeline Pankhurst's campaign for Votes for Women and made us think how we can encourage and support change makers, as well as be change makers ourselves by taking simple acts, such as writing letters, like Samantha Smith did in the 1980s.

Food for thought, and Mr Howie's Assemblies continue to take us all forward in recognising and realising rights. House Assemblies on 20th November will feature Unicef's OutRight campaign and continue our focus on the Global Goals

Taking Action from SciennesPS

Rights Without Responsibilities?

The next step for Sciennes in achieving Level One of the Rights Respecting Schools Award is to establish class charters based on the UNCRC. Semantics is all, and below is some clarification and guidance about using rights based language:

Appendix 2. Clarifying rights, respect and responsibilities in the UNICEF UK Rights Respecting School Award (RRSA)
In August 2011 UNICEF UK released new guidance for class and school charters.

"Why have we recommended this change?
We want to ensure that the RRSA community is faithful to the general principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The CRC applies to all children and they are the designated rights-holders. Adults such as parents, teachers, local and central government are duty-bearers. Rights are unconditional; they are therefore not dependent upon a responsibility and cannot be taken away, earned or used as a reward. Because they are universal, however, children and adults should be encouraged to show rights-respecting behaviours. In this way individual children can both enjoy their own rights and respect the rights of others.

We want all the adults, children and young people in rights respecting schools to understand the nature of rights as inalienable, universal, unconditional, inherent and indivisible. Rights do not come with responsibilities attached. It may be possible to refer to responsibilities if you can ensure that everybody understands that children are not the duty-bearers and that the rights are not a reward for the fulfilment of a responsibility.

What is different?
Our custom and practice was to recommend that schools established a negotiated agreement which focused on children’s rights and their responsibility to behave and speak in a way which respected that right. Over time we have come to see this as a risk. By linking rights and responsibilities so closely it may lead to a fundamental misunderstanding.

The new guidance has been developed to strengthen the school ethos by incorporating the role of the duty-bearers. Our new charters are negotiated agreements which identify the rights-respecting attitudes and actions of children and adults and the language has shifted from responsibility to respect.

[...] We recommend that before you next revise your charters you provide staff training and ensure that the whole school moves to ‘rights-respecting actions or attitudes’ and ‘respect for rights’; rather than only coupling the word ‘right’ with ‘responsibility’. Constant repetition may distort the balance and have the unintended consequence that adults and children believe that access to rights is dependent on ‘responsible’or ‘good’ behaviour. Of course we want children to grow up to be ‘responsible citizens’ who behave in a way that respects the rights of others; and a school ethos of mutual respect certainly supports this."

Recognising and Realising Rights at Sciennes 13.11.15

Rights Respecting Sciennes CPD 13.11.15 from SciennesPS

On Friday 13th November we held our first session for staff to:

•Raise awareness and develop knowledge and understanding of the Rights Respecting Schools Award and the UNCRC

•Self- evaluate our current practice in light of the UNCRC

Thank you to Paul McWatt (Education Scotland's Inclusion and Equalities Education
Officer) for providing us with such a strong lead in developing our approaches to
Rights Based Learning.

Recognition of Commitment Certificate Awarded

We are delighted to announce that we have been awarded a 'Recognition of Commitment' (ROC) certificate from Unicef; the initial staging post in our journey to becoming a Rights Respecting School. We are one of the first schools in Scotland to begin using Unicef's brand new RRS logo.

Thank you to Gerry McMurtie (Senior Professional Advisor Scotland), and Jen Drummond (Strategic Lead for RRSA in City of Edinburgh and Development Officer for Mental Health and Wellbeing) for their assistance in enabling us to announce at our first staff CPD session that we had met the standard for the ROC.

OutRight House Assemblies 20th November

OutRight celebrates the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. It takes place on the anniversary of the Convention on 20th November. In 2015, the focus is on promoting and protecting children’s rights in humanitarian emergencies around the world. Pupils at Unicef UK’s Rights Respecting Schools are encouraged to advocate for the rights of children and young people affected by humanitarian crises, build their knowledge and understanding of children’s rights, and raise their voice and views on rights with their school community and key decision-makers. Our involvement will also help our school towards meeting RRSA’s Standard D, empowering children to become active citizens and learners.

Scotland's Climate Change March: Meadows November 28th 12pm

Some members of our community might be interested in supporting the upcoming Friends of the Earth Scotland Climate Change march at the Meadows November 28th 12pm. 


"Show your colours for climate, justice & jobs.

Join the worldwide movement marching for a better future.
Ahead of the UN climate change negotiations in Paris,
we’ll stand up for people affected by rising global temperatures
and demand that world leaders agree an ambitious deal.

A low carbon society will create green jobs, improve our transport and food systems and protect our land, air and water.
Scotland needs to show its colours in Paris and beyond
with strong action on climate change.

Wear your brightest colours as Scotland marches on this weekend of global action.

Everyone is encouraged to attend so please invite your friends, families and followers.

The march is organised by Stop Climate Chaos Scotland (SCCS), a diverse coalition of organisations in Scotland campaigning together on climate change. Coalition members include environment, faith and international development organisations, trade and student unions and community groups.

To have a fun and successful march, we are relying on volunteers to help us steward. Could you help us on the day? For more information send an email to Paul - paul@stopclimatechaosscotland.org

Find out more at www.scotlandsclimatemarch.org
Join the conversation on Twitter using #ScotClimateMarch

Sustainable Development Global Goal 13

Global Goals on LfS Blog

 

Thank you to Education Scotland's Learning for Sustainability team for the Sciennes' mention on their GlowScotland blog published on November 3, 2015 in: 

 

More ways to learn about the Global Goals

Global Citizenship, Health and Wellbeing and Learning for Sustainability. Tags: #LfS, Children's Rights, Interdisciplinary learning
@EdScotLfS

 

In the week that the Scottish Government joins UNICEF in launching the World’s Largest Lesson, more schools have been sharing their learning around the Global Goals. One such school is Sciennes Primary School in Edinburgh, who have been blogging about their journey to become a ‘Rights Respecting School’. Click here to find out how learners have been raising the profile of Goal 1 – No Poverty and Goal 10 – Reduced Inequalities. Keep up the good work Sciennes learners and bloggers!

Raising Parental Awareness

This session, we have begun a whole school initiative to become a 'Rights Respecting School.' You may already be aware that Curriculum for Excellence, Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) and How Good Is Our School (HGIOS) are constructed in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). We are aiming to achieve Level One accreditation in Unicef's 'Rights Respecting Schools Award' (RRSA) by January 2017 and part of this process involves raising awareness of the UNCRC and the RRSA throughout our whole school community.


The children are learning about the UNCRC in Assemblies and in class and you can find out more about this initiative by following this Rights Respecting blog:
http://sciennesrrs.blogspot.co.uk


Please feel welcome to contact us if you have any comments or questions.


Thank you
Sciennes Senior Leadership Team