On Friday 27th January our Assembly theme was Citizenship with a particular focus on our Pupil Eco Group's recent and planned actions in school. We were delighted to welcome Kirstin Unger from the Parent Eco Group, who works so hard to improve our school grounds, planting with pupils and greening our playground so beautifully. Kirstin explained very clearly and engagingly how to take part in the annual RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch at the weekend. We look forward to hearing how many pupils took part and which birds were spotted.
Kirstin encourages participation in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch
The Pupil Eco Group agreed with Kirstin's suggestion at a recent joint Parent and Pupil Eco Group meeting to organise regular collections for loose play. Michael and Catie encouraged everyone to bring in pine cones next week. Faye encouraged classes to use the online Travel Tracker to record journeys to school and Ali reminded P6C that his class is on Litter Duty next week. We were excited to announce that Sciennes is one of ten schools to be selected for a new Eco Schools eTwinning project and we will find out more next month.
Barack Obama promoted Global Citizenship throughout his presidency and has now handed the mic to a new generation. The Obama Foundation http://www.obama.org has been set up to focus on developing the next generation of citizens and we aim to help all our children become Responsible Citizens.
We welcomed Lesley and Lorna to tell everyone about a new Scripture Union lunchtime club for P6/P7 starting after the February break.
Lorna and Lesley launch new SU Club
Our Sports Captains celebrated pupil achievements and promoted the JGHS Appeal for small toys and pencil cases. P6 Digital Leaders were congratulated on setting up a new lunchtime iPad Coding Club and P7 Digital Leaders for helping P1 in the Digital Learning Centre.
Ms Anstruther has asked for donations of dressing up clothes to help us continue to address 1 in 5 Child Poverty. Pupils Bella and Emma came up with this great idea to help include everyone in dressing up days.
Classes will be learning about digital safety this month and we wished Happy Chinese New Year to all our families celebrating.
What a superb return visit to Sciennes on Wednesday 7th December2016 from WE, again arranged for us by Schools Co-ordinator Harriet Morgan.
In June 2016, Jacob, a Speaker and Facilitator from WE Free the Children, worked with half of
our (then P6) pupils and it was a superb and inspirational day,
providing a wealth of opportunities for our children to embrace pupil
leadership. Wednesday 7th December 2016 marked a welcome return visit from the
charity, where two Speakers and Facilitators, Frankie and Chloe, kindly accommodated the remaining
half of our P7 pupils.
P5, P6 and P7 pupils were invited to a special assembly at 9am and then
half the P7 year group took part in WE workshops
throughout the day, while Ms Sellar led the remaining pupils in a
repeat of her excellent Global Goals workshop, focusing on Gender
Equality.
The format of the workshops fitted ideally with our aims to develop pupil-led social action as part of the Junior Award Scheme for Schools:
Team Building/Issues Module – exploring prevalent issues in society, and globally to build confidence,
identify leadership skills and also get pupils thinking about issues
they care about. Reflective Module - enabling pupils to think how they can use their skills for
issues that are important to them. Action Planning - putting pen to paper to create a
tangible action plan for children to develop and put into practice.
What
a wonderful, highly inspirational and motivational day which we are certain will have impressed the visiting VIPs, Anne,
Kate and Alison, as
much as it did the children and staff. Frankie
and Chloe skilfully led the children through complex issues, channeling
their ideas and thoughts very effectively and giving them a strong sense of empowerment to make a difference. We are very grateful that WE has
been able to accommodate our entire year group of 97 P7 pupils who now
have a shared experience that we will use not only to assist them with
taking on social action themselves, but also cascading what they have learned to others
in school. The feedback from the children evidenced how deeply they had
thought about the issues raised and how positively they had responded to the
session. Our
P5 and P6 pupils who also attended the Assembly with P7 in the
morning have been equally positive and the visit was a huge help in
taking forward our engagement with WE as a school. The WE pack of learning resources is superb (which includes many UNCRC-linked,Curriculum for Excellence specific materials) and P5 pupils have already begun using the 'WE Won't Rest' Homelessness Section. We are very fortunate to have established a working relationship with this dynamic, pro-activecharity, which has such a strong focus on pupils taking the lead, firmly rooted in the UNCRC and the Global Goals for Sustainable Development.
Frankie's P5-P7 Assembly - "Be the Change"
Special visitor from The Queen’s Trust, Alison and Kate Likely, UK
Director of WE
Craig Kielburger founded WE Free the Children aged 11 with his brother in Canada in 1995 and it is now an international charity and youth movement.
Iqbal Masih's story inspired Craig Kielburger to establish WE Free the Children.
Chloe and Frankie inspired and empowered P7 to be change makers.
Getting to know you and establishing respectful interaction.
Trust exercises
Issues Pictionary
Pictionary issues included litter, hunger,
dirty water, homelessness and child labour.
Great to see the classes getting on so well in mixed Pictionary Teams.
This group 'blew Chloe's mind' with their great ideas for social action.
Quality co-operation in planning their campaigns.
Each Dream Team was made up of pupils from all three P7 classes.
Presenting ideas for making a difference
Global Goal 5 - Gender Equality
Ms Sellar capably led the remaining half of the group in her innovative workshops designed to familiarise pupils
with the Sustainable Development Goals, and in particular Goal
5 Gender Equality.
Firstly, pupils in mixed teams from each class considered the Global
Goals, decided which three were most important to them and explained
why.
In the afternoon session, they were then asked to list as many jobs as
they could, categorise them into male and female occupations on Post-Its
and display these. Their ideas were discussed with the whole group and
pupils naturally began to recognise and realise many stereotypes in
their initial attitudes.
Pupils explored how phrases such a "Act like a man" and "Be ladylike" can limit people.
Ms Sellar explained how Global Goal 5, Gender Equality, is a fundamental
goal in achieving the other goals and showed the pupils this
thought-provoking video, "Like A Girl":
Pupils were asked to pledge actions they will take to support gender equality.
"I pledge to let people be who they want to be."
"I promise I'll include everyone whatever their gender is."
"I promise to try to make the world a better place. Even if I fail I will try again."
"I pledge to make the Global Goals a reality."
About WE
WE is an
international charity and educational partner that believes in a world
where all young people are free to achieve their fullest potential as
change-makers. Over the last 20 years, WE has grown into
an international movement supporting youth empowerment through
educational service-learning initiatives in North America and the United
Kingdom, and a holistic and sustainable international development
model. It is supported by the Queen's Trust, the UN, Virgin Atlantic and
has many international supporters - Malala, Desmond Tutu, Prince
Harry, Oprah will give a flavour. Their model is 'children helping
children' and they promote pupil
leadership and taking action, here and abroad. The scheme began in
Canada, initiated by one of the CEOs when he was 12, and is a social
enterprise
endeavour.
For more information about WE, visit their website.
The 'WE' programme fits extremely well with our well established Junior Awards
Scheme Scotland (JASS) programme in P6 and P7 where pupils are asked to
take their own action to achieve a 'Me and My World' element. JASS is a
children's version of The Duke of Edinburgh Award, and the idea for it
actually came from Sciennes! It is now adopted throughout Edinburgh and
beyond so has been retitled Junior Award Scheme for Schools.
The Junior Award Scheme Schools
(JASS) is an accredited learning programme, celebrating wider
achievement, for young people (P6-S2). Sciennes and Tollcross Primary
Schools have been implementing this scheme since we piloted it in 2009. The concept emerged from a discussion during a Sciennes P7 visit
to Lagganlia between Alice Brown, Gael Logan and Barry Hewitt who came
up with the idea to set up a 'Duke of Edinburgh' style award scheme for
upper primary pupils. The scheme has since been developed into a city
wide programme.
There are three levels (bronze, silver and gold), each requiring a
higher degree of commitment. Each level also includes four sections to
be completed:
My interest - a hobby or interest
Get Active, Stay Active - involvement in a sport or physical activity
Me and My World - a community or environmental project
Adventure - a teamwork challenge through involvement in an outdoor activity (e.g Benmore and Lagganlia)
Sciennes helped develop an online version - eJASS.
WE also fits well with our Unicef Rights Respecting Schools programme. We have recently achieved Level One and our next
steps are to continue to extend knowledge of UNCRC and to expand
global citizenship. The WE programme will assist us with that. We
have highlighted the relevance of the Global Goals for Sustainable
Development since their launch in September 2015 and the programme also
supports this extremely well, as well as our involvement in the #iwillcampaign, promoting pupil social action.
On Friday 20th January we were delighted to welcome back Former Pupils Jamie Underwood, Li-Sian Song and James Stewart, who are now in S6 at James Gillespie's High School and preparing for a visit to twinned schools in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa in February. They have asked pupils to donate pencil cases, toys, games and clothes which can be handed into the School Office until Friday 2nd February.
Mr Howie gave an inspirational presentation on how Elizabeth Eckford, one of the Arkansas Little Rock Nine, successfully managed her emotions and response to the extreme prejudice and racist hostility she endured in 1957, just for going to school. Her remarkable dignity is an example to us all and linked very effectively to school use of 'Emotions Talk' as a support for pupils in managing their emotions. Mr Howie encouraged everyone to learn not only from role models in history but also from people around us in how we manage our emotions and stand up for what we value. We all certainly look to Mr Howie to inspire and encourage us with his engaging and deeply thought-provoking presentations, taking powerful lessons we can all learn from History and relating them to our school.
We thanked Sciennes' parent, Mr Colin Sim, who as well as recently securing £5500 for digital learning through funding applications also secured a grant of £2000 from South Central Edinburgh Neighbourhood Partnership to enhance our school grounds. There is great interest from the children in the willow structures currently being installed in the playground by Gus and his team from 'Earth Calling'.
On Friday 13th January we learned about the extraordinary life of Dr Martin Luther King Junior and how his peaceful actions and brave dedication to equal rights for all led to change. We asked pupils what they could do in 2017 to make change happen and make a difference for others. Last term, P7 pupil Nicky raised almost £500 with his Save the Children Christmas Jumper campaign and P6 pupil Catherine spoke at Assembly to explain how she is being sponsored to donate a length of hair to the Little Princess Trust to help a child suffering hair loss due to cancer treatment.
We celebrated Sciennes' parent, Mr Colin Sim, who took action to make a huge difference to learning and teaching for our pupils by submitting two grant funding applications for the school. One to Aviva Life Assurance was awarded £500 and one to the OneFamily Foundation was awarded an incredible £5000! Thank you to all the Sciennes Family for voting. The money will be used to purchase a year group set of iPads.
