posted by Allan Lindsay, Digital Academy Manager, Young Scot

VentureJam 2017: Calling all hipsters, hackers and hustlers (and everyone in between)!

We’re looking for groups of up to 5 young people to take part in VentureJam 2017.

VentureJam is a unique opportunity for 40 young people in Scotland. Young Scot and Glasgow City of Science and Innovation are running a weekend ‘Jam’ that will see teams of young people developing fresh ideas that embrace the digital world to solve real world challenges. Throughout the Jam you will have access to a team of inspirational mentors from the world of television, gaming, product design and 3D animation as well as legal experts and environmental gurus. Young Scot will be there to guide you through the creative process.

At this Year’s VentureJam weekend we’ll give you the tools to develop and design a new idea that could change the future of energy in Scotland, and change people’s lives!

Every day, us humans chew our way through more than a million terajoules of energy. That’s equivalent to all 7.5 billion of us boiling 70 kettles of water every hour, around the clock! We need to stop our energy guzzling ways but…how do we ensure ‘the lights stay on’?

With access to a team of inspirational mentors, your team will:

• Learn about the biggest challenges facing humanity – the future of energy.
• Immerse yourself about the latest energy-saving innovations (from heated cycle lanes that melt snow in the winter to electricity generating dance floors!)
• Explore radical new business models to make your idea go global; learning from creative young companies like Uber, AirBnB, Netflix that have changed the way we travel, sleep, and watch TV!

As well as pitching your idea to top investors at Venturefest Scotland 2017, the national innovation summit; the overall winning team will enjoy a once in a life time opportunity to quiz one of the top innovators in Scotland about how he became one of the world’s most successful inventors & Games developers, Chris Van Der Kuyl of Minecraft fame!

Sign up now and tell us why you want to be part of VentureJam 2017! Places are limited. Applications will close on 16^th July.

When/Where is VentureJam Taking Place?

VentureJam is taking place from 18 – 20 August 2017 at Glasgow Science Centre, 50 Pacific Quay, Glasgow G51 1EA. Please ensure you are available at the following times:

• Celebratory Launch Night: Friday 18 August (6-8.30pm)
• Jam Activity: Saturday 19 August (10am – 4pm) and Sunday 20 August (10am – 2pm)

VentureJam is the official youth strand for Venturefest Scotland 2017 – a major new innovation summit for Scotland. All young people taking part in the weekend will get the chance to pitch their best ideas from the Jam weekend to top innovators and investors at Venturefest, ‘Dragon’s Den’ style. Will your team create the next big thing?

Before the event itself you will have the opportunity to attend a “Perfect Your Pitch” session.

Who Can Apply? VentureJam is open to groups of approximately five people or you can apply as an individual. We are looking for a diverse, lively group of young people aged 14-20 from across Scotland with a range of interests from the arts and music (the hipsters!) to science and gaming (the hackers!) as well as wannabe entrepreneurs (the hustlers!).

Whatever your thing, we want you to get excited about working in teams to create new ideas (products, games or even interactive art installations) and reimagine the possibilities of how we live our lives and our relationship with energy.

If this is you, we’d love to hear more about why you’d like to attend VentureJam.

Other Important Information VentureJam will reimburse all reasonable travels costs on receiving valid travel receipts for people/teams attending the event. Some travel tickets can be booked by Young Scot in advance. Please let us know if you will need your travel costs reimbursed to be able to attend VentureJam.

We will provide food/refreshments during the sessions, and we may consider providing accommodation for those coming from longer than 1.5hours away on a case by case basis. To attend VentureJam 2017, apply here. Alternatively you can either send in a video, voice recorded application or speak to us over the phone. Please email these to codesign@young.scot

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 available to schools.

Funding Alert 25th May 2017

Highlights include:

– Funding for schools to run outdoor activities for disadvantaged children.

– Grants of up to £3,000 available for STEM projects in Schools run on partnership with a professional scientist or engineer. – Funding of up to £6,000 available to develop Japanese studies and projects in schools.

– Funding available to schools for music making activities aimed at children and young people in challenging circumstances

For further information on these and other funding opportunities available to your school, please see the attached Newsletter.

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

Tayside Council on Alcohol young person service currently has capacity for new referrals in to our one to one service in Angus. This project supports children and young people affected by their own or someone else’s substance misuse, using a holistic approach to explore how this impacts on their health and wellbeing.

What you need to know;

• We offer one to one support for any young person between the ages of 10-25 years living in Angus
• We have no waiting time at this point and can offer a service to anyone in Angus within 2 weeks
• Our service can offer a range of brief interventions; this may involve a one off session offering information or a 4 week programme to cover advice/education
• Long term interventions can also be offered following assessment in our brief interventions.

Attached is the referral form for your information. Initial Contact – Referral Form

Please return any completed referrals to kate.wood@alcoholtayside.com

posted by Louise Kirby, YMI Coordinator, Schools & Learning

Secondary pupils from across Angus join together to perform in front of a live audience. A night not to be missed!  Held at Coast Nightclub in Arbroath on Tuesday 13th June 2017, from 7.00pm.

Angus Council’s YMI Annual Rock Fest provides a platform for bands/soloists to prepare & perform in a professional and safe environment, encouraging young people to build their confidence and experience in performing to a live audience.

There will be various genres of music from bands, duos and soloists.

Schools taking part are Arbroath Academy, Websters High, Montrose Academy and guests from Harris Academy in Dundee and previous Arbroath Academy pupil.

Line up includes:

Holy Houston (Montrose Academy)
Kirsty Macfarlane (Montrose Academy)
Katie Nicoll (Websters High School)
Red (Guest previously from Arbroath Academy)
Nuclear Jam (Arbroath Academy)
Ellie Prouse (Arbroath Academy)
Holly Maxwell (Arbroath Academy)
Eve Warden & Emily Sunter (Harris Academy, Dundee)

Tickets they can be booked free of charge on the Eventbrite website ‘Rock Fest 2017’

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/rock-fest-2017-tickets-33623469703?aff=es2

posted by Carol Lyon, Schools & Learning Support Officer (STEM), Schools and Learning

Please see email below from Kirsty McFaul, Senior Education Officer Technologies, Education Scotland.

As you know BT is committed to a programme of Tech Literacy projects, including the Barefoot Computing project for Primary Schools, which has been nominated for Digital Skills and Inclusion Initiative of the Year.

It’s part of the UK Digital Leaders 100 Club (DL100) that recognises the 100 companies and causes leading the way in the UK’s digital future.

More than 500 organisations were nominated for DL100 this year.

The Barefoot Computing Project helps primary school teachers get confident with the computational thinking concepts that underpin tech literacy through free teaching materials and face-to-face workshops led by trained volunteers.

Computational thinking provides the building blocks of the digital world – like logic, sequencing, abstraction and programming. In an era shaped by tech, these are the core abilities kids need to actively shape their futures.

To date, the Barefoot Computing Project has helped equip, empower and inspire over 39,000 teachers and 1.1 million primary pupils with computing.

A public vote to decide the rankings opens on the 10th May, and closes at 17:00 (BST) on 2nd June. This will determine where Barefoot places against the other 10 organisations in our category.

Voting only takes a few seconds, and it’s a great way to show the world our great work supporting tech literacy. So please boost our nomination by casting your vote.

To vote please visit:  http://www.digileaders100.com/vote/digital-skills-or-inclusion-initiative-of-the-year/

Kirsty McFaul | Senior Education Officer | Education Scotland | Foghlam Alba

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

Grounds for Learning
Raising attainment through outdoor learning and play in Scotland 
May 2017

A selection of lessons for developing numeracy:

Early Years:
Is it bigger or smaller? – click here
Get into shapes – click here
More ideas – series 1 and series 2

Primary
How do you measure a tree or school building? – click here
Data Handling Outside – click here
Getting to Grips with equations –click here
Estimation and measure – through the Olympics  – click here
More ideas here and here

Secondary
How fast is that car? (Speed, distance, time) – click here
Orienteering (grid, speed and direction) – click here
More ideas here

Training

A sample of our training courses:

Professional Accreditation – This is aimed at education professionals or school grounds designers who wish to deliver projects for customers in schools and nurseries. You will have two years experience of training teachers or educators; or two years of landscape design to be considered for this programme. As an LTL Accredited Professional, you will benefit from contacts and resources to help you as well as opportunity to tender for work with GfL/LTL. Enquire here

Long Term Courses:
Developing a Whole School Approach to Outdoor Learning – this new programme for 2017/18 will support a school or cluster of schools to develop a whole school approach to outdoor learning and learning for sustainability. Through a series of training inputs and facilitated collegiate sessions, your whole staff team will develop the confidence, skills and resources required to transform your pupils experiences. More information here

Lead Teacher in Outdoor Learning – this proven training programme supports teachers to lead curricular learning in school grounds and local greenspace. Using the mantra “don’t do more, do different’, we consider literacy, numeracy, science and health and wellbeing outcomes from the CfE. In addition, the programme expects participants to share learning in their school. Book your place here

Nurturing Nature (Early Years)
Developed from our long term programme, this course works collaboratively with educators, children and parents. It will transform relationships between everyone involved, and deliver real health and wellbeing benefits to the children who participate. Read more and book here

Day or half day Courses
Taking Learning Outdoors – this inspiring and engaging single day course is ideal for schools who want to support less confident staff in using school grounds as part of their practice. We only have a couple of spaces available for the August in-service days, so do book quickly.

We have Literacy Outdoors and Meaningful Maths INSET days, ideal for supporting Attainment Challenge outcomes. Evidence and guidance confirms that pupils are more motivated and engaged when learning outdoors, and that some of our numeracy and literacy outcomes are best taught in the contexts outside of classroom walls.

Playtime Revolution – is a programme that will transform break time in your school. Either run by GfL Staff or self-led by schools, this course was written to support the Good School Playground Guide. You can read more about it here and find the resources here

Project news

Learning in Local Greenspace
Across Scotland, 100 schools will receive support for two years to make more use of local green space for outdoor learning as part of this project. The use of local space reduces time, cost and complexity, as well as embedding a sense of ‘place’ for learners, empowering them to affect and care for their local environment. If you are a school in West Lothian (particularly) or Fife, and score in the lowest 20% SMID, we would really like to hear from you – mrobinson@ltl.org.uk and 01786 465 934

Polli:Nation
This project is now in full swing, with hundreds of schools having surveyed their grounds and now making changes to make them more pollinator friendly. There are a huge number of resources on the website – do have a browse and be inspired by what learning is going on across the UK.

Outdoor Classroom Day
Yesterday over 1m children in the UK were outdoors, learning and playing in the outdoors for Outdoor Classroom Day. You can find out more about the project here and be inspired by some of the images and practice on Twitter.

Funding Ideas

Pupil Equity Fund
We have a number of schools who are using their PEF funding to access our training and consultancy, or for improving the outdoor environment of their school. In some local authorities this is being co-ordinated, so that a number of schools can access our long term courses together such as Lead Teacher in Outdoor Learning. If you are interested in this, please call Alison Motion or Matt Robinson on 01786 465 934.

Local School Nature Grants
The first round of our Local School Nature Grants has concluded, and was very oversubscribed. Please do apply again, or for the first time as our ongoing rounds have more money available and fewer applicants.

The grants are a combination of equipment/resources and training for staff, with a simple application form and process. More information and apply here.

School Funding for Environmental Projects

Schools and local community groups can apply for funding of up to £2,000 through the Greggs Foundation. The closing date for applications is the 24th June 2017. More information here

The type of activities that could be funded include for example:

A growing project in a local primary school
A group of volunteers who completed litter picking exercises in their local parks or along a local riverbank
Clearing an area of wasteland in an area of high social need to create a community garden; etc.

Staff news

A big thank you to Juno Hollyhock and Lorna Sloan who we have said goodbye to us this month. Lorna has worked with many of you in Early Years has headed off to join John Muir Trust and East Ayrshire education. Juno has moved on after 5 years of leading LTL through challenging times, and leaves our organisation and team in a much stronger place. Thank you to both of you.

Carley Sefton has been appointed as our new CEO, based in Winchester in the LTL offices. Carley will be up in Scotland regularly from August on, as she leads our teams in the next chapter of the adventure.

Gordon Maclean joins us as Early Years and Parenting Officer. Based in central Scotland, Gordon will lead our ongoing Nurturing Nature programme, some Local Schools Nature Grants work and ongoing training and consultancy work.