The Youth and Philanthropy Initiative (YPI) is a secondary school programme aiming to involve young people in current social issues, local charities and grant-making.

Auchinleck Academy has been involved in the YPI programme for the past few years and this project is for fourth year pupils to participate in order to develop team-working and leadership skills.

The winners from last year were Laura Borthwick, Christie Allan, Heather Morrison, Scott Weir and Lucy Hutton earning £3,000 for their chosen charity – Garden Leave.

Fourth year pupils are given a day off timetable every few months for them to work on their project. So far, they have had two YPI days and have already chose their charity. Their task now is to work on their presentation and do their research to provide an impressive performance for their year group and a few teachers who will be judges of the day.

For this year we hope S4 pupils will achieve their best and work their hardest to become responsible citizens, successful learners, confident individuals and effective contributors.