What World Do You Want to See By 2030?

Sciennes Global Goals Week 22.9.17 from Sciennes Primary School

On Friday 22nd September we celebrated Global Goals Week with a look at what action is already taking place at Sciennes Primary to support the Sustainable Development Global Goals (SDGs). We invited the  children to design their own Global Goals glasses to reflect the world they want to see by 2030 and asked them to think about which actions they could take this year to be Global #Goalkeepers. We asked pupils to take their Global Goals glasses home and ask their families if they are aware of the Sustainable Development Goals. Which of the Global Goals does your family support and why?

Global Goals Glasses

Our three P3 classes are taking action on SDG1, SDG2 and SDG3 by leading a whole school Harvest Appeal in support of the charity 'Send A Cow to Africa' and a speaker will address both Assemblies next week.


The Kid's Guide to Send a Cow from Send a Cow on Vimeo.

This week, in Scottish Climate Week, P7 have been taking action on SDG13 (Climate Action) by presenting 17 000 consultation responses to the Scottish Government's forthcoming Climate Bill with Stop Climate Chaos Scotland and Friends of the Earth. Eco Schools Scotland invited Faye, Sorley and Lucy to participate as a direct result of P7A's work on air pollution last year with Mr Hutchison, Mr McKenna, Ms Christie and SEPA. The pupils cycled to Parliament from school to hand over the responses to Roseanna Cunningham, Cabinet Secretary for the Environment.

Faye, Sorley and Lucy told everyone about their visit to Parliament with Stop Climate Chaos Scotland

Newly elected P6 Junior Road Safety Officers (JRSOs) Lyall, Essie and Anna shared details about their invitation to a training session at City Chambers, designed to support them in their lead role this year. Lyall explained that there had been workshops and one was on air quality, as a direct result of P7A's involvement with SEPA last year. Essie updated everyone on the Hands Up Scotland Travel Survey they organised and that baseline information has been added to our Living Streets Travel Tracker. Anna shared that the JRSOs will work with classes to help them use the Travel Tracker again this year to track active travel.

Supporting the world's plan for sustainable development using the Global Goals will help us all stand up for rights and P7C pupils this week articulately explained their understanding of the UNCRC to the Minister for Young People, Mark MacDonald, at a special celebratory event arranged by Together Scotland. Many thanks to Juliet Harris and Liz Millerfield for organising a very special 'picnic' lunch for the children, in recognition of all their hard work with artists Joanna, Yonnie and Lyver in creating fabulous UNCRC artwork on panels destined for the Scottish Parliament.

P7C pupils meet Mark MacDonald MSP at Together Scotland offices in Rosebery House

There was recognition for Ms MacKintosh in successfully leading engagement with Maths Week Scotland and for Ms Christie in leading a uniquely innovative and adventurous programme of cycling for P6.

P4A showed their wonderful 'Resilience Role Model' posters and Anjalie in P4 was also congratulated on her terrific Mindset poster.

We reminded pupils that to stay safe they should come back into the School Office if the person coming to collect them up is delayed.

We look forward to hearing pupils' ideas for being part of the Global Goals plan, making a difference at Sciennes, in the local community and beyond.

Global Goals House Assemblies 15.9.17

Sciennes Global Goals House Assembly 15.9.17 from Sciennes Primary School

On Friday 15th September 2017 we held our first House Assemblies of the new session for P2-P7 and welcomed P2 pupils to their first ever House Assembly for Grange, Lauder, Sienna and Tantallon.

In November 2015 Sciennes achieved a Bronze Award and in May 2016, Sciennes achieved a Silver (Level One) "Rights Respecting School" award. We are working towards Gold accreditation (Level Two), achievable within three years of Silver. Our journey so far has been recorded on our Rights Respecting Sciennes Timeline. We asked pupils what it means to be a UNCRC Rights Respecting School and reminded them this includes being a Global Citizen, respecting other people's rights.

We first introduced our pupils to the United Nations' Global Goals for Sustainable Development when they were launched in September 2015. By 2030 these aim to:

End extreme poverty
Fight inequality & injustice
Fix climate change





On September 25th 2015, 193 world leaders committed to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs.) Two years on, we watched a rap to help us understand all the goals better.




2018 is the Year of Young People and we asked the children to think about and share their ideas for being #Goalkeepers, like Malala, Barack Obama and Bill and Melinda Gates. What world do they want to see by 2030?




'The World's Largest Lesson Part Three' has a food theme this year and we will be exploring this and other relevant Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) throughout the year. P3 will again be leading a whole school Harvest Appeal. Last year they successfully led donations to a local Foodbank charity and this year they are supporting the Send a Cow to Africa charity.



15th September is the International Day for Democracy. Congratulations to our newly elected Pupil Council members who will be the voice of their classmates throughout the year and will also be our Rights Respecting Schools Ambassadors. The results of the ECO Rep elections were also announced for each House.

Article 12

You have the right to an opinion and for it to be listened to and taken seriously.

Article 29

The right to education which develops your personality, respect for others’ rights and the environment.

World's Largest Lesson Returns 18th September

http://worldslargestlesson.globalgoals.org

Gearing up for our third year at Sciennes Primary learning and teaching about the 17 Sustainable Development Global Goals. 

Tell everyone

Get creative

Take action

ECO Schools Fourth Green Flag! and Earth Day Assembly 21.4.17

Fourth Green ECO Schools Green Flag! Well done Team Sciennes!

PUPIL ECO TEAM
P4 Bethan, Catie, Isla
P5 Jim, Nina, Sophie
P6 Michael. Faye, Ali
P7 Evelyn, Caitlin, Laura
JRSOs Amelia, Josh and Declan

Sciennes Earth Day Green Flag Assembly 21.4.17 from Sciennes Primary School

On Friday 21st April at the P4-7 Assembly we reflected on 'Earth Day' (22nd April) and watched a video "Man Vs Earth" to help us think about issues affecting the planet and how we can work together to make a difference.




We looked back at our ECO Schools journey since 2008 and what pupils, staff and parents have achieved together. Addressing issues facing the planet is not just the responsibility of the ECO Pupil and Parent Groups and our JRSOs. Each of us has a responsibility, individually and as part of the school community.

In the last few years we have been working towards our Fourth Green Flag, focusing on Litter, School Grounds and Active Travel. We were delighted to be able to announce today that Sciennes has just been awarded our Fourth Eco Schools Green Flag which Mr Hutchison unfurled ceremoniously during Assembly. Miss Gallagher, Mr Hutchison and Mrs Dickson have led the Pupil ECO Team extremely well throughout the year. We congratulated and thanked everyone throughout school who has contributed to Sciennes receiving this prestigious award. Well done Team Sciennes! Particular thanks to Phoebe Cochrane, Kirstin Unger, Laura Bird, Corinne Kirk and all the parents who support the ECO work of the school and commendation to the indomitable spirit and relentless enthusiasm of our wonderful Business Manager, Angela Christie, always a key driver in all things ECO.

We have already begun to plan how we can achieve our Fifth Green Flag, taking on two new ECO topics + Litter and continuing our focus on the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Global Goals.

Caspar, Jay and Henry spoke about their fundraising plans for the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) Appeal for Yemen and we reminded everyone about Pedal on Parliament, taking place on Earth Day, Saturday 22nd April.

Tremendous achievement and we thank Stephen Harland, Education Support Officer Keep Scotland Beautiful -Eco-Schools Scotland, Kerr McConnell, Education and Learning Co-oridinator and all at Eco-Schools for their support and encouragement. Read their kind report below:

Article 29

You have the right to education which develops your personality, respect for others’ rights and the environment.

Mapping Global Goals to UNCRC

https://www.unicef.org/agenda2030/files/SDG-CRC_mapping_FINAL.pdf

#globalgoalsweek Assembly 23.9.16

Sciennes Primary Global Goals Week Assembly 23.9.16 from Sciennes Primary School
 

On Friday 23rd September 2016 at the P4-7 Assembly we reflected on the messages of Global Goals Week and how we can plan to take action together on the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. Last year our main focus was on Goal 1 No Poverty and Goal 11 Reduced Inequalities. We also explored Goal 13 Climate Change and Goal 5 Gender Equality.




Pupils had been asked by The Children and Young People's Commissioner for Scotland, Tam Baillie, what they would wish for if he gave them a magic wand. He explained that their wishes were 'promises' already in place in the UNCRC. We looked at some of the children's suggestions and how the Global Goals for Sustainable Development can help achieve their wishes:




Each of our Pupil Groups - Pupil Council, Eco Group, JRSOs, P7 Captains and Digital Leaders - is making plans for the year and classes were encouraged to share their ideas with their Class Reps so that we can work together in school to take action.

P4 and P7 pupils Alba and Samara gave extraordinary performances on piano. Samara practises for many hours every day and Laila told us how she has worked hard to achieve so many Tae Kwon Do medals.

Mylo and Christopher confidently introduced our brand new iTeach Digital Leaders programme and explained how to get involved.

http://www.iteach-uk.com/dl/DigitalLeaderVideo(Primary).mp4

We celebrated lots of individual pupil achievements, including a recent win for P6 Team at Boroughmuir RFC and Pedal for Scotland medals for siblings Sam, Lizzy and Quinn.

Celebrating Wider Achievement in P6 and P7

 Junior Award Scheme for Schools (JASS) - October until May annually

Pupils in P6 and P7 will soon be introduced to Bronze and Silver JASS.
http://www.jasschools.org.uk/

http://jassawardsciennes.blogspot.co.uk/


At Sciennes we seek to recognise and celebrate our pupils' wider achievements as Successful Learners, Confident Individuals, Effective Contributors and Responsible Citizens.


JASS AWARDS in P6 and P7
We aim to allocate about six months to the Junior Award Scheme Scotland (JASS) awards at Bronze (P6) and Silver (P7) Levels and we include as many holidays within that time as possible - from the October holiday through to the Easter holiday - to help pupils achieve their goals. Towards the end of May and in early June, pupils will be asked to give a short 5 minute talk explaining how they have achieved either 8 (Bronze) or 12 (Silver) hours in each of the four categories: Get Active, Stay Active; Adventure; My Interests; Me and My World.  They will also update their online eJASS account with details of their activities. Certificates and badges will be issued before the end of term. JGHS offers Gold accreditation (18 hours in each category), achievable by the end of S2, and many of our former pupils have progressed to achieve a Duke of Edinburgh Award.


GET ACTIVE, STAY ACTIVE
Our pupils take part in so many sporting activities throughout the year that many can achieve the minimum hours in a few weeks! Walking, scooting and cycling to school can also count.


ADVENTURE
Most of our pupils will easily achieve the minimum 8 (Bronze) or 12 (Silver) Adventure award at Benmore or Lagganlia and those who do not attend can take part in adventurous local trips and activities that can count towards the JASS award, including hillwalking, kayaking, rollerblading, climbing, horseriding, cycling or walking trips in the outdoors.


ME AND MY INTERESTS
Any hobby or interest or skill (other than sport) such as learning about Science or History, sewing, calligraphy, learning or practising a musical instrument, reading, language learning, photography or computer programming for example, can count towards achieving the 8 (P6 Bronze) or 12 (P7 Silver) Me and My Interests award.


ME AND MY WORLD 
Me and My World Ideas:

Making a Difference to Others - in school, at home, in your community, locally, nationally, globally
Throughout the year, our pupils will have opportunities to volunteer to support local, national and global charities and campaigns: e.g. Food Bank, Fairtrade, Comic Relief, as well as taking part in school fundraising events at school such as the Christmas and Summer Fairs. Participation in these events counts towards the 'Me and My World' JASS award, but the award does not need to involve fundraising. Making a difference at home and in the community, by helping neighbours or gardening or clearing litter or supporting national or international campaigns can also be part of the award. Many of our pupils take part in Earth Calling after school club and might take part in local campaigns or present research about environmental issues and the Global Goals for Sustainable Development. Pupils might consider preparing and delivering a talk about a charitable or environmental organisation or deciding to give their time in some way to help others.

Global Goals One Year On

Sciennes Global Goals House Assembly 16.9.16 from Sciennes Primary School

On Friday 16th September 2016 we held our first House Assemblies of the new session for P2-P7 and welcomed P2 pupils to their first ever House Assembly.

In May 2016, Sciennes became a Level One "Rights Respecting School" and we have already begun our journey towards Level Two accreditation. Our journey so far has been recorded on our Rights Respecting Sciennes blog. We reminded pupils what it means to be a Rights Respecting School and that it includes being a Global Citizen. We first introduced our pupils to the United Nations' Global Goals for Sustainable Development when they were launched last year in September 2015. By 2030 these aim to:

End extreme poverty
Fight inequality & injustice
Fix climate change




On September 25th 2015, 193 world leaders committed to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs.) One year on, we watched a rap to help us understand all the goals better.


We thought about what we have already done in school to be Global Citizens. For example, last year the whole school took part in a City of Edinburgh pilot project to raise awareness of 1 in 5 Child Poverty (SDG1), P3 led a whole school project to raise money for 9 playgrounds for Syrian refugees (SDG10), P6 took part in Gender Equality workshops (SDG5) and our ECO Group campaigns took action on Climate Change (SDG15) and promoted Sustainable Consumption (SDG12).

We watched an animation written by Sir Ken Robinson, 'The World's Largest Lesson Part Two' which gave us ideas of what we might do next to help make a better world.


The World's Largest Lesson 2016 - with thanks to Sir Ken Robinson and Emma Watson from World's Largest Lesson on Vimeo.

Congratulations to our newly elected Pupil Council members who will be the voice of their classmates throughout the year and will also be our Rights Respecting Schools Ambassadors.

Article 29

The right to education which develops your personality, respect for others’ rights and the environment.

Rapping the Global Goals

We are sure this rap song featuring the 17 Sustainable Development Global Goals (SDGs) from Flocabulary will really help children to understand and engage.


#telleveryone

Website - http://www.Flocabulary.com

 

Article 42 All adults and children should know about the UNCRC

WE Free The Children

We are very excited and looking forward to welcoming Free the Children to Sciennes on Wednesday 15th June to embrace the pupil leadership opportunities their programme provides for taking action.

Free the Children

Free The Children 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, Free The Children 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 Free the Children, visit their website.

The 'Free the Children' programme will fit 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)

http://jassawardsciennes.blogspot.co.uk/

Sciennes helped develop an online version - eJASS.


Free the Children will also fit in 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 Free the Children programme will assist us with that. We have highlighted the relevance of the Global Goals for Sustainable Development since their launch in September and the programme also supports that well.

A Rose By Any Other Name...

 "Education (SDG 4) underpins all of the other SDGs"

Reflecting on the Emergence of the UN Sustainable Development Goals:
A Call for Action in Scotland
May East (UNITAR Fellow)
Rehema M. White (University of St Andrews, Learning for Sustainability Scotland)

At Sciennes, we have found that children, particularly younger children, find the term "Global Goals" easier to begin to understand and have benefited from accessing the excellent "Tell Everyone" and "World's Largest Lesson" resources to help share the message. However, we will try to take note of the recently published document [see link below] which calls for use of the term "Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) rather than the term "Global Goals":

http://learningforsustainabilityscotland.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/ReflectionSDGsScotland_15April2016.pdf

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.

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!

Global Goals: World's Largest Lesson 25.09.15

On Friday 25th September at the P4-7 Assembly we marked the United Nations' adoption of the Global Goals for Sustainable Development with the 'World's Largest Lesson':

End extreme poverty
Fight inequality & injustice
Fix climate change

Throughout the year, we will help our pupils understand and support the Global Goals and the Articles of the United Nations' Convention for the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) by linking them to our curriculum.

Sciennes Global Goals Assembly 25.9.15 from SciennesPS





The Worlds Largest Lesson Introduced by Malala Yousafzai from World's Largest Lesson on Vimeo.
 

Introduction to RRSA and Global Goals 11.09.15

On Friday 11th September we held our first House Assemblies of the new session for P2-P7 and welcomed P2 pupils to their first House Assembly.

This year Sciennes is beginning a school wide project to become a "Rights Respecting School" which links with the United Nations Global Goals, begun in 2000, to:

End extreme poverty
Fight inequality & injustice
Fix climate change
 
On September 25th 2015, 193 world leaders will commit to the Global Goals for Sustainable Development. Much has been achieved in the last fifteen years, and 2015 is the halfway point towards achieving the Goals by 2030. Our House Assemblies introduced these projects to our pupils.

Sciennes House Assembly 11.9.15 from SciennesPS