The Carnoustie High School STEM club led by Dr K Mustard have been up and running now since January. The club have tackled a diverse range of exciting projects including purifying their own DNA, hatching brine shrimps, building monorail trains, constructing steam powered boats and creating fruit batteries!

The dedication and enthusiasm of the club members recently paid off when they were announced winners of the prestigious Junior Saltire Competition 2015.  This competition was open to all primary and secondary schools across Scotland. It was funded by the Scottish government and managed by Skills Development Scotland (SDS) in partnership with SCDI’s Young Engineers and Science Clubs Scotland. Working in teams of four, pupils had to design and construct a floating energy converter. The CHS STEM club team ‘The super Scientists’ (Ragnall Simmons, Maya O’Connor, Hamish Bartle and Glen Byars) were short-listed as finalists from a selection of over 200 schools. They were invited to test their device at the FLOwave research facility at Edinburgh University before being announced the S1-S3 Scottish Junior Saltire Winner 2015. Fergus Ewing MSP, Minister for Business, Energy and Tourism and Dr Heather Reid OBE presented our pupils with £600 and the Junior Saltire medal at an awards ceremony held at Glasgow Science Centre.

Photo : Proud winners of Junior Saltire Medal and £600

From L to R, Neve Walker, Imogen Crozier, K. Mustard, Kirsten Ireland, Fergus Ewing MSP, Glen Byars, Heather Reid OBE, Ragnall Simmons, Maya O’Connor.

posted by Pauline Stephen, Head of Schools & Learning

Some of you might remember that we started work on looking at our values last year as we came together as a People Directorate.  A task that stemmed from this original work was to explore what our core business is, what we are all here to do.  The focus of this commitment is to the children and young people of Angus as we anticipate changes to working arrangements following the health and social care integration.     Here is what a group of us have come up with so far:

Our Commitment to the Children and Young People of Angus

Our job is to help you grow safely and happily.  We will listen to you and hear what you have to say.  If things go wrong, we will help you.  We will support you to make a difference.

This is a first attempt.  Does this  truly reflect our shared core purpose and aspirations for our children and young people?  It’s really important that we get your input.  Please leave your suggestions in the comment boxes.

posted by Alita Spink, Schools and Learning Support Officer

As term resumes for the 2015/16 academic year, 190 Scottish secondary schools are preparing to take part in the Youth & Philanthropy Initiative. Over the next year over 20,000 students will take collective responsibility for directing a total of £570,000 to small, local charities through YPI.

YPI Scotland is an active citizenship programme that raises awareness amongst young people about philanthropy and their local community. Each participating school, each year, is responsible for directing a £3000 YPI Grant to a local charity through a unique programme of team work, research and competition. YPI Scotland is about creativity and passion, leaving the four walls of the classroom behind and supporting the issues young people care most about.

The programme itself is delivered as a core feature of the school curriculum across a full school year group with flexibility from school to school. To date, YPI has been recognised in 12 HMIE reports with specific reference made to the programmes ability to develop wider achievement, enrich the life of the school, and support employability skill development. The Wood Foundation launched YPI Scotland in 2008. Since then the number of participating schools has rapidly increased. If you’d like to learn more please visit the website.

posted by Andy Garnett, Active Schools Lead Coordinator

The charity TCCL (Tayside Children with Cancer and Leukaemia) are looking to build on the success of their 2015 fundraiser in schools across Tayside, the Monster March, and increase the number of schools registering to take part in 2016. The ‘Monster March’ is a great way to get active and raise money for a good cause at the same time. The charity are fundraising to set up a holiday lodge in St Andrews for the use of children, and families, who are going through treatment. This includes Angus children and is intended to provide somewhere within an hour drive of the hospital that these families can go for a worry free holiday to spend time as a family during such a stressful period. The charity is hoping that an annual Monster March will help towards raising the money required and that getting children involved in helping other local children in need will raise their awareness of their ability to make a real difference to others in their local area.

The ‘March’ element can be down to the individual school and could be a parade/walk in the school grounds to be held on a day in March of the school’s choosing. This time the organisers, ‘Along Came Kirsty CIC’ who manage the fundraiser on behalf of the TCCL Lodge, are keen to expand on this opportunity for a more physical event or ‘march’. For more information about the TCCL Lodge including the Monster March, or for registration information, please got to www.tccl-lodge.co.uk or email fiona@alongcamekirsty.co.uk.

by Alita Spink, Schools and Learning Support Officer

     
The Thrive team in Scotland is supporting the 2015 Children of Prisoners Europe, June campaign ’Not my crime, still my sentence’ which seeks to help inform and raise awareness of the rights and needs of children separated from a parent in prison. Thrive is especially supportive of the campaign focus on ‘the child, their wellbeing and the bond with their parent, in whatever form this may be’ as this is reflective of the Five to Thrive attachment approach used by the project.

Thrive works with children who are separated from a parent through imprisonment and are impacted by difficult life circumstances. Thrive would like to contribute to a wider understanding of the difficulties faced by these children along with the scale of this issue.

Recently, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons for Scotland, David Strang published the 2014 inspection report on HMP Perth. The report highlighted the Thrive service as an area of good practice and recommended that the Children’s Visits Scheme should be further developed.

Did you know that?

• There are an estimated 27,000 children in Scotland affected by parental imprisonment. This estimate means that more children in Scotland will experience parental imprisonment over the course of a year than divorce.
• Around 60% of the prison population has dependent children. In the Scottish Prison Service’s prisoner survey 2013, 63% of those taking part had children.
• Only 5% of children stay in the family home when their mother goes to prison.
• During their time at school, 7% of children will experience their father’s imprisonment.
• Children affected by parental imprisonment are up to 3 times more likely to develop mental health issues when compared with their peers.
• On a more local level, on average over 114 children per month visit HMP Perth and are affected on a daily basis by difficulties surrounding their parent’s imprisonment.

You can find out more about the COPE campaign here http://www.notmycrimestillmysentence.org/ or follow them on twitter @NetworkCope.