posted by Alita Spink, Schools and Learning Support Officer, Schools and Learning

Welcome to the Angus Third Sector Collaborative Spring Magazine.

Please see attached document.  Spring 2017

posted by Margaret Thompson, Library Assistant, Arbroath High School

Match Reports – Week Beginning 20^th March 2017

Angus Schools Cross Country
Congratulations to all pupils who took part in the Angus Schools Cross Country. There were a total of 57 Arbroath High School pupils who ran in the event at Monikie Country Park on Tuesday 21^st of March 2017. Special mention to Isla Whitton who won the S1 Girls, Demi Kelbie who came second in the S3 Girls, Adam McIntosh who came second in the Senior Boys and Elliot Burns who came third in the Senior Boys. There were also team successes for the Senior Boys who won gold, S1 Girls who won silver, and S3 Boys and Senior Girls who won bronze.

Cricket
Congratulations also go out to Megan McColl, Zoe Rennie and Abbie Hogg who have all been selected to represent the U17 Scotland Squad for Cricket. The girls attended the National Cricket Academy at Mary Erskine School during the Easter holidays and cricket matches will commence in July.  Megan McColl was also been named as ‘Most Improved Player 2016’ for the U17 Scotland Team where she was awarded a trophy at regional training.

Pictured are (left to right) : Megan McColl, Zoe Rennie and Abbie Hogg.

Table Tennis
Well done to Zoe Rennie who represented Arbroath High School at the Scottish Cup Table Tennis Finals. Zoe finished 8^th in the U14 girls.

posted by Alita Spink, Schools and Learning Support Officer, Schools and Learning

Perpetrators of hate crime focus on victimising individuals on the basis of actual or presumed sexual orientation, gender or transgender identity, disability, race or religion. The spectrum of hate crime is wide in nature and includes physical and emotional abuse and harassment, name calling, bullying and violence, and its impact on victims and communities should not be underestimated.

Police Scotland are running a Hate Crime Awareness campaign to communicate to the public that hate crime is a serious crime and to encourage the public to report incidents should they occur.

Our key messages are:

• Tackling hate crime is a key priority for Police Scotland.
• We treat victims and witnesses of hate crime with fairness, dignity and respect.
• We recognise that hate crime is underreported. We are working to improve confidence in, and access to, Police Scotland and our Criminal Justice partners.
• If you are targeting someone, we want you to STOP IT. If not it won’t be long before you become our target.
• If you know someone that is being targeted REPORT IT. Together we can make a difference.
• Preventing/stopping hate crime is everyone’s responsibility. If you are aware hate crime is happening, report it by contacting Crimestoppers.
• Being different isn’t a crime, but somebody victimising you is.
• If you would like support to report, you can attend one of our third party reporting centres. A full list can be found on the Police Scotland website. You can also report by contacting Crimestoppers.

posted by Alita Spink, Schools and Learning Support Officer, Schools and Learning

We have Suicide Alertness For Everyone Training (safeTALK) scheduled for:

Tuesday 2 May 2017 (1pm – 5pm) in Forfar

This training is open to everyone (employees, employers and members of the public in Angus). 

safeTALK is designed to be an introductory course for anyone interested in learning to be suicide aware.  Can you recognise the signs of someone at risk of suicide?  Would you know what to say to a colleague, student, family member or contact with thoughts of suicide?  Most persons with thoughts of suicide go unrecognised – even though most are, directly or indirectly, requesting help.  Without safeTALK training, these invitations to help are too rarely accepted, or even noticed.  In only a few hours, you will learn how to recognise these invitations and provide practical help to persons with thoughts of suicide.  Expect to leave safeTALK more willing and able to perform an important helping role for persons with thoughts of suicide.  safeTALK is a training session for everyone in the community – no prior knowledge is required.

Aim of Training:  To enable participants to recognise and engage people who might be having thoughts of suicide and to connect them with community resources trained in suicide intervention.

Learning outcomes:  By the end of this course participants will:

•          Be aware that people at risk of suicide are often not given help due to cultural myths and misinformation
•          Recognise when a person might be having thoughts of suicide
•          Engage that person in direct and open talk about suicide
•          Move quickly to connect them with someone trained in suicide intervention who can review the risk and develop a plan to reduce the risk of harm or death.

Please see attachment for further information about safeTALK.  Outline of safeTALK training

To book, please email suicideprevention@angus.gov.uk with the attached registration form.   safeTALK Registration Form

Places will be allocated on a first come first served basis.  This session is free of charge to participants and will be funded by the Suicide Prevention Collaborative for Angus. 

posted by Sylvia Cranston, Physical Education Lead Officer, Schools and Learning

As you may well be aware the  Benchmark documents for all curriculum areas other than Literacy and English and Numeracy and Mathematics were published recently on the National Improvement Hub. Please see links below:

https://education.gov.scot/improvement/Documents/HWBPhysicalEducationBenchmarksPDF.pdf
https://education.gov.scot/improvement/Documents/HWBFoodHealthBenchmarksPDF.pdf

The Physical Education exemplification video clips are now live on the National Improvement Hub.  Please see the link below:

https://education.gov.scot/improvement/hwb7-pe-exemplification-bge

I would appreciate you share this with colleagues.

posted by Rhonda McFarlane, Funding Officer, Chief Executive’s Department

Attached is the latest issue of the Funding Alert Newsletter. The Newsletter features funding opportunities to have featured on the Grants 4 Schools website over the last two weeks.  This issue contains 14 pages of the latest funding opportunities for your school.

Highlights include:

• Grants of up to £2,000 available for school environmental projects.
• Grants of up to £10,000 available to improve football facilities in schools.
• Grants of £600 available for schools to promote the teaching of Physics.
• Grants of up to £1,000 available for a wide range of projects in schools such as outdoor classrooms, learning zones, library equipment, nurture rooms and playground improvements, etc.  .

For further information on these and other funding opportunities available to your school, please see the attached Newsletter.  Funding Alert 23rd March 2017