Author: Y. McBlain

November 2024 LfS Update

  • Register here for our Falkirk Carbon Ready Classroom training for upper primary pupils between 9.15 and 2.45 pm on Thursday 28th November. This training is provided by Keep Scotland Beautiful colleagues and supports class teachers to work with their upper primary children to build a Carbon Ready Classroom(CRC) and become climate-informed together. The CRC experience can contribute to your school’s Eco Schools journey and supports upper primary teachers and their classes with this vital aspect of Learning for Sustainability.  The teacher support materials for this will be shared in advance of the training. Keep Scotland Beautiful are also offering a teacher training session for CRC Primary on Tuesday 5th November at 4pm, which teachers may want to attend if they missed our session in August. This is the Teams link to join the meeting: Click to join CRC Primary teacher training Tuesday 5th November 4pm.

 

  • Eco Schools Journey – The Eco school process has been simplified to make it less bureaucratic and more pupil-led. We cancelled our online Eco-schools training sessions for children and young people in October/November due to lack of uptake, but our Keep Scotland Beautiful colleagues will contact schools directly regarding alternative dates. A new Eco School Support channel has been created in our Falkirk Learning for Sustainability Team.

The new national Education Scotland LfS site is now live – this comprehensive resource is a key action within the LfS Action Plan Target 2030: A Movement for Change (launched June 2023). It supports practitioners by highlighting what LfS is, through the voices of learners and educators. Explore the landing page and resources here:

🔗 Learning for Sustainability Landing Page

🔗 Advice and Guidance

🔗 Professional Learning

🔗 Sharing Practice

We were delighted to see video from a number of our early years settings within these resources. Click here to watch Glenburn ELCC’s inspirational “Get messy and make mudpies” video. Well done all for sharing this brilliant work. Further examples of powerful LfS practice are being sought, so please contact LfS@educationscotland.gov.scot. if you have work that could inspire others.

  • Unfortunately, there is no Falkirk Social Enterprise Academy Dragon’s Den event this year but SarahRogerson@socialenteprise.academy can still be contacted regarding support for your social enterprise journey.
  • Secondary School Global Social Leaders membership – more information here about this interactive, project-based learning programme where students, aged 11-18, work in teams to design and deliver a social action project. Students will connect with others across the world to learn from each other’s social action journeys through live virtual sessions and student-led, self-paced activities that encourage autonomy and agency. The programme is designed to support problem-solving, communication, creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration, enabling students to adapt and thrive in life and the future world of work

And finally, we are asking all schools and centres to complete our first Falkirk Learning for Sustainability audit between October and December of this year. Yvonne McBlain will email head teachers and managers directly with the links to the staff and learner Microsoft Forms. The audit is designed to establish what LfS looks like in our schools and centres and how we can support you better. We have kept the questions as concise and purposeful as possible and will be very grateful for your responses.

LitterLotto League Launched by Falkirk Waste Services!

 

In May this year, Falkirk Council formed an exciting new partnership with LitterLotto (Peasy), giving individuals the opportunity to win cash prizes whilst keeping our community clean.  To complement this, we will be launching a secondary school litter league from November 2024.

The concept of this partnership revolves around incentivising the binning of litter on school grounds, and beyond, to promote a behavioural change and help keep our local communities clean and tidy.  The litter league will enable Falkirk Council secondary schools to compete against each other to bin the most litter in order to win prizes for pupils and the schools themselves!  Pupils can download the LitterLotto app on a smartphone, which will be linked to the school, and using the app’s camera function they can begin to photograph themselves binning litter and raise their school up the league standings.

Every month, the pupil who has binned the most litter in each secondary school will receive a £20 Scotland Loves Local gift card. Additionally, the top performing school at the end of each term will receive £200!

To ensure that the size of the school does not provide major advantages or disadvantages in relation to the term and overall prizes, we will be calculating this based on the number of entries/school roll.

To launch LitterLotto, Ross Guthrie, Falkirk Council Waste Services Education officer hopes to visit schools in November to explain how this initiative works to young people.

If you have any enquiries, please contact wasteservices@falkirk.gov.uk

September 2024 LfS Updates

  1. Eco Schools Journey – a new Eco School Support channel has been created in our Falkirk Learning for Sustainability Team (join code h7cr6l2). The Eco school process has been simplified to make it less bureaucratic and more pupil-led. Keep Scotland Beautiful will facilitate 2 online Eco-schools training sessions for children and young people between 1.30 – 2.30 pm on Thursdays 31st October and 14th November (your group need to attend both). Contact Yvonne McBlain by Monday 10th October to sign your class or Eco-group up and receive the links for these meetings.
  2. Our first Falkirk Carbon Ready Classroom training for teachers took place last week (a new collaboration with Keep Scotland Beautiful).  This training was provided to support class teachers of upper primary children who want to build a Carbon Ready Classroom(CRC) and become climate-informed together. The CRC experience can contribute to your school’s Eco Schools journey and supports upper primary teachers and their classes with this vital aspect of Learning for Sustainability.  The teacher support materials are in a CRC folder within the Eco Schools channel of our Falkirk LfS Team. Our CRC children’s training day is Thursday 28th November between 9.15 and 2.45 pm. Please email Yvonne McBlain by Monday 18th November to register your class for participation or to request another training session for staff.
  3. We are glad that our very own Falkirk LfS Peer mentor (and RMPS Teacher) Samantha Wilson-McCaw from Braes HS will continue in her role this term. Samantha is happy to engage with schools and staff who have LfS as an improvement priority this year.
  4. Our Falkirk Learning for Sustainability blog has been refreshed over the summer here. This is our space for sharing and celebrating good practice and valuable ideas relating to LfS so please email Yvonne to add a post about your work.
  5. News from Education Scotland LfS Team – The DECS have updated their Climate Justice through Human Rights education resource. It can be accessed through the resources section of our website, and directly: ttps://wosdec.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/ECJ-T5.pdf
  6. Education Scotland’s new webpage on Children’s Rights is available Children’s rights in Scotland | Resource Themes | Education Scotland
  7. Social Enterprise Academy support opportunities – 26.9.24 teacher information session on Preparing for an SEA Dragon’s Den PLUS Understanding Social Enterprise – 18.9.24, 4- 5 pm – both online. Practitioners should register by emailing SarahRogerson@socialenteprise.academy
  8. Secondary School Global Social Leaders membership – more information here about this interactive, project-based learning programme where students, aged 11-18, work in teams to design and deliver a social action project. Students will connect with others across the world to learn from each other’s social action journeys through live virtual sessions and student-led, self-paced activities that encourage autonomy and agency. The programme is designed to support problem-solving, communication, creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration, enabling students to adapt and thrive in life and the future world of work
  9. Falkirk Secondary Schools Climate Summit takes place in Braes HS on 18th This event was organised by young people in Braes and Falkirk High Schools and delegates from each secondary school have been invited to attend. Yvonne contacted cluster chairpeople to invite primary pupil representation, but this does not appear feasible this year. We look forward to their involvement next time.
  10. John Muir Award – Information about changes to the running of the award: The John Muir Trust is redesigning and improving the John Muir Award – aiming to launch in 2025. Updates on progress through the autumn and winter via website and Award e-Bulletin. Due to the current challenging financial environment the Trust is making the following changes to how they run the John Muir Award:
    • No new Proposal Forms for the Award are being accepted at this time.
    • Any Proposal Forms that have already been received by the Trust will be reviewed and registered, providing Award Criteria can be met and the Awards are intended to be completed by 1st September 2024.
    • Upon Award completion, where registered participants have achieved the Award Criteria, electronic certificates in PDF format will replace hard copy certificate

11. The Scottish Government  have released this information and this toolkit to support Scotland’s Climate Week and climate action across the country:

Scotland’s Climate Week, held annually since 2016, brings together communities and organisations across the country to support climate action. This year, Climate Week will take place from 23 – 29 September. The focus of the week is on sharing “Stories for Change”, and we’ve created a toolkit for early learners, schools and caregivers, to get involved in this fantastic opportunity.

And finally, we hope to have your support with our first Falkirk LfS audit between October and December of this year. The audit is designed to establish what LfS looks like in our schools and centres and how we can support you better. We’ll keep it short and snappy but thought you’d like to know it was on its way.

Secondary Schools Energy Reduction Competition

Sharing the energy reduction challenge

Between October 2024 and March 2025 Falkirk Secondary Schools will compete to see which school can reduce their gas and electricity use the most. This competition will be led by a group of young people in each school who will be supported by a teacher and other staff members.

Prizes:

  • The school which reduces their unit usage most will receive £2000
  • For second place it’s £1000
  • And for third place £500
  • There will be other prizes
  • Prizes will be awarded at a ceremony in May/June 2025

The challenge to reduce carbon emissions and energy units/costs was issued by the Falkirk Council Place Services Extended Management Team. Our Falkirk Council Climate Change team are working with Children’s Services Learning for Sustainability colleagues to support schools with their efforts to reduce energy use.

Scroll down to explore the support which is available to staff and pupils taking part.

The Climate Change team support for young people and their adult:

  • We have created this guidance for the competition lead teacher or person in each school.
  • We will lead an information session for lead staff members on 17th September 4 – 5 pm via Microsoft Teams. (Lead staff members should sign up via CPD Manager code LfS 6-25).
  • Each school can have one remote or in-person lesson for their class or group of young people (just email climatechange@falkirk.gov.uk with 3 potential dates and times). 
  • We will provide access to a platform where you can access past, present and real time information about each schools’ energy use.
  • This webpage will include the leader board information and monthly energy use reports for each school. 
  • We are happy to offer advice and support at any point via email climatechange@falkirk.gov.uk .

SSI Learning for Sustainability & Digital Learning Team Support – what’s available?

This project fits beautifully with our Falkirk Learning for Sustainability Framework bundle 1 – exploring sustainable practices. Yvonne McBlain can support pupil voice or eco groups and staff members who lead this challenge. She can help them to plan & document this learning if needed and has created this interdisciplinary starter plan which captures the learning and skill development young people could gain from their participation.

Our digital learning team have created this document. to help with digital campaigning also.

Victoria Primary 6/7 S’mores and Hot Cocoa

Primary 6/7 children from Victoria PS took part in the Falkirk Social Enterprise Dragon’s Den event in November 2023. They pitched their social enterprise idea so well, that they won seed funding of £100 from the dragons. They wrote this blog post to tell everyone about their achievement.

We used the seed funding to organise an event in December for parents, carers and pupils in our school.  This took place at Christmas time, and we made and sold gingerbread men and candy cane gifts. We even had edible reindeer with twiglet antlers to give away free! Our food was so popular that we raised around £400. After the Christmas event we went around all classes to find out how to make our next event better. Some children told us to have a bigger choice of treats and to have more things that were free.

We decided to donate the money we made from these events to a charity called Victim Support Scotland (VSS).  We chose this charity because our school has been vandalised and VSS help anyone who has been affected by crime.

 

We took the advice of our fellow pupils then worked with primary 7M to organise more activities for our next event at Easter. We made Easter themed treats this time including cookie s’mores. We made sure that we had Halal food available and organised boxes so that those who were fasting for Ramadan would enjoy theirs at the right time. We sold hot chocolate, tea, coffee and cold drinks. Lots of our customers wanted water to drink and we had to keep going to get more to meet this demand. This was only one of the problems we had to solve, Another was not getting too stressed when long queues formed.  At this event we also held a raffle, and sold second hand books.

Our final event will take place on the second last day of term. We will make s’mores and cocoa for primary 7 parents and carers and primary 5, 6 and 7 pupils.

What have we learned from doing this social enterprise work?

  1. Counting and using money
  2. Responsibility
  3. Kindness
  4. Confidence in speaking to people
  5. Resilience (we learned from our mistakes to make the events get better each time)
  6. Problem-solving

How do we feel about getting a social enterprise award?

  • We feel good.
  • We feel proud that we have a Social Enterprise Award plaque in our school reception.
  • We loved using some of our earnings to treat our class to a Dominos pizza.

We would love to do more social enterprise next year when we are in primary 7. Thank you for reading this blog post about our award.

Social Enterprise Success for young people at Carrongrange High School

 

 

Young people in S 4 and 5 at Carrongrange HS received their Social Enterprise Academy(SEA) award at a glitzy ceremony in Edinburgh in June 2024. This builds on their 2023 Scotland’s Most Enterprising School Award and shows that enterprise is at the heart of the curriculum in Carrongrange. Young people and staff working across the school are involved in multiple enterprising experiences which include:

  1. Lifelong learning groups timetabled each Friday
  2. Three young enterprise teams programme groups working towards their SCQF level 3 qualification
  3. Running a “Cosy Cafe”
  4. Developing links with community organisations such as Cunningham Care Home and D2 Art Studio
  5. Forming a Makaton choir which has performed at Murrayfield Stadium

These experiences contribute to the ethos and life of the school and young people’s personal achievements – preparing them for life and work beyond school.

The social enterprise award preparations began when these various groups pulled together their various enterprises under the banner of “Caring Grange”.  A representative group of 11 young people delivered their pitch at the Falkirk Dragon’s Den event in November 2023. They received seed funding for the next phase of their fund raising in order to stage their Caring Grange event in February 2024. They were supported by their social enterprise adviser who was full of admiration for the variety and scope of their work.

Jamie is one of the young people who attended the SEA awards ceremony and has just moved into S6. He shared how busy it was in the Assembly Rooms venue on the day, and how the group set up their stall in the market place. He said that the group went on stage in front of around 500 people to receive their certificate and have their photo taken.

Although a representative group of young people were able to attend the Dragon’s Den and award ceremony, many senior phase young people were involved in the February Caring Grange event. It raised hundreds of pounds towards the cost of an electric, accessible school mini bus, whilst achieving its main purpose of bringing the wider community together,  and was so successful that it will become an annual event.

When asked how he felt about being part of the Caring Grange enterprise and what he’d learned, Jamie reported feeling good about the whole experience. He noted that he’d had to develop his selling, communication and money-handling skills. He also felt that he’d used his imagination and become part of his community. Mala is also in S6 and she also enjoyed the whole experience. She relished and was extremely good at her meeting and greeting role on the day of the Caring Grange event.

Exciting Partnership with Social Enterprise Academy

Social Enterprise Academy Scotland is a social enterprise organisation which “enables every young person to step up, realise their potential, and create the change they want to see in the world.”

Practitioners and senior leaders in Falkirk Children’s Services can get more information here and can also access professional learning offered in collaboration with Social Enterprise Academy (SEA) via CPD Manager.

Practitioners in some Falkirk schools have already signed up for support from SEA and will take part in our very first Falkirk SEA Dragon’s Den event on 4th November 2022 at Larbert High School. This event provides an opportunity for pupils to pitch a social enterprise idea to a panel of dragons in the hope of winning seed funding to support the growth of their social enterprise idea. These events can be incredibly inspiring for young people, to meet and network with likeminded peers, but also to engage in something they are truly passionate about and to have meaningful social or environmental impact.

SEA deliver pupil workshops to help school groups develop their enterprising ideas in preparation for the Dragon’s Den. The workshops are delivered by experienced facilitators, who are either social entrepreneurs in their own right, or have experience working within social enterprises. At this stage, the groups are expected to pitch their social enterprise ideas – meaning there is no need to have their social enterprise operational or established before the event. This support is all free to schools because it is fully funded by the Scottish Government and you can watch the promo video here from a recent Dragons’ Den in Glasgow. Click here to see SEA Getting Ready for the Falkirk Dragons Den PDF.

 

Creative Tools Which Teach Pupils about Biosecurity

Pupil power takes saving our seabirds to another level

Online education resources designed by school children launched by conservation project

RSPB Scotland is encouraging primary schoolteachers to inspire Scotland’s young nature conservationists to save our seabirds by signing up to a free education resource.

Designed by pupils for pupils, with the support of RSPB Scotland’s Education, Youth & Families team, the resources are all available in English, Gaelic and Welsh. They have been produced as part of the Biosecurity for LIFE project which is working to raise awareness of the threat of invasive predators to seabirds and put in place systems to prevent their accidental introduction to islands. Click here to watch a short video which explains this biosecurity threat.

The education resource pack is available here, and includes online modules including:

  • an online snakes and ladders style game created by pupils from Small Isles and Raasay Primary – the aim of of the game is to collect as many eggs as possibly whilst avoiding predators,
  • a module showing how pupils launch a campaign to share this important conservation story
  • a free physical board game designed by pupils from Small Isles Primary with the aim of eradicating rats from islands.

For more information on the six modules, visit http://www.biosecurityforlife.org.uk/educaton. Click here to read the full press release about how the resources were developed. The programme is easy to navigate and celebrates the creative ideas of children as a way to teach school pupils about biosecurity.. If you would like to sign up to this FREE programme, please fill in and return the request from attached to educationscotland@rspb.org.uk and we will get it sent out in the post. Please note, the board game is part of module 3 of the programme and there is a digital snakes and ladders game included as well. 

Bintastic names for Falkirk Council’s waste vehicles

Waste Services and Street Cleansing want to say a huge thank-you to all the schools that participated in our Name the Vehicle competition.

Thanks to the creativity from both High School and Primary pupils, we now have 24 vehicles with names such as:

  • The Trashinator
  • Binnie the Pooh
  • Bin Kardashian
  • Sweeping Beauty
  • Lightning McClean
  • Bindianna Jones

 

Our overall favourite was from Archie from St Margaret’s PS, who named one of the scarabs ‘Haggis, Sweeps and Tatties’. He is pictured below with Gordon Ross, from Falkirk Council.

Keep your eyes peeled for the rest of the vehicles when you see them!

 

It’s Time for Spring Clean 2022

Litter levels in Scotland are at their worst in a decade. Research from Keep Scotland Beautiful shows that 88% of Scots agree that litter is a problem across Scotland, and 70% are concerned about the problem in their area.

The Spring clean runs from the 21st  March to the 21st April 2022 and is the perfect opportunity to make a difference by picking up litter from your playground, beach, streets, parks and beyond.

We know young people feel strongly about caring for the environment and want to do something about the harmful effects of litter on their communities. Every action, however small, makes a difference. Just half an hour of picking up litter and disposing of it safely can help an area look cleaner and feel safer, and evidence shows it also prevents more litter being dropped.

45,000 people volunteered their time to do a litter pick during Spring Clean in 2019 and this year, we want to encourage as many schools as possible to take part!

Use the hashtags #SpringCleanFalkirk to showcase what you and your school are doing to get involved!

How to get involved:

Falkirk Council specific events

  • Organise a Clean Up. Register your litter pick at Rubbish & litter – Organising a local Clean Up | Falkirk Council with the reference ‘Spring Clean’ to support individuals, groups and schools with organising their own Clean Up activity. We will register your event with keep Scotland Beautiful so you don’t have to.
  • Create a Litter Prevention Action Plan. Sign up to our help session (date and time will be confirmed closer to event) to hear about previous schools’ experience with their Action Plans and what you need to do to create one.
  • Listen to our pre-recorded session. This session will be uploaded to the website closer to the event and will feature what specific actions are being done across Falkirk to tackle litter, flytipping and dog fouling.
  • Use hashtag #SpringCleanFalkirk or #CleanUpFalkirk for all Spring Clean activity.

  Keep Scotland Beautiful events:

  • Pledge the number of bags. As part of the #BigBagChallenge, fill out the pledge form (will be uploaded on website closer to the date), and pledge the bags you will collect.
  • Join a public event listed. The Clean Up Scotland map will have public facing events individuals can join.
  • Complete a survey in your community. If individuals can’t do a Clean Up then they can always help Keep Scotland Beautiful by gather data using the citizen science toolkit.
  • Tune in to the Litter and Waste live lessons. During the Spring Clean, Keep Scotland beautiful will be investigating about the harmful effects of litter on wildlife, why modern plastics are such a problem when disposed of incorrectly, and how litter dropped on land ends up in the sea.