Social Enterprise – Learning for Sustainability in Falkirk

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 5^th 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 5^th 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.

The Scottish Development in Education Centres (DECs) have created an excellent new Anti-Racist Education Support website for practitioners and teachers in all education sectors. You will find tools, workshops and ideas to build an anti-racist curriculum here.
The DECS have also 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
Education Scotland’s new webpage on Children’s Rights is now available Children’s rights in Scotland | Resource Themes | Education Scotland

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.

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:

Lifelong learning groups timetabled each Friday
Three young enterprise teams programme groups working towards their SCQF level 3 qualification
Running a “Cosy Cafe”
Developing links with community organisations such as Cunningham Care Home and D2 Art Studio
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.