The ‘Squeasy Peasey’ team from Ullapool High School has won the European Business Game (EBG). Their proposed reusable baby food pouch company impressed the judges at the international final in the Faroe Islands on Friday (5 July).
http://www.highland.gov.uk/yourcouncil/news/newsreleases/2013/July/2013-07-09-07.htm

The team represented the whole of Scotland after winning the national final in April. The international final was a particularly tough competition with some great ideas from each of the participating countries.

It was the team’s innovative product and detailed proposal that saw them win the award. Their business pitch included market research, a three-year financial plan, and multi-lingual baby-food recipe videos on YouTube. The Czech Republic’s entry – a car wheel-changing device – came a very close second.

Award created in honour of social reformer Robert Owen.
A new award recognising inspirational educators has been announced by Education Secretary Michael Russell.

The Robert Owen Award will recognise ground breaking and inspirational innovation in Education. The first winner will be announced later this year.

Mr Russell made the announcement while speaking to international delegates at The Utopian Studies Society’s European conference at New Lanark, the village where Owen provided security, education and decent living conditions for the mill workers and their families.

The award also recognises that this is the 200th anniversary of the publication of Owen’s seminal book “A New View of Society”.

Mr Russell said:

“In New Lanark child labour was ended; a sickness fund was established; a crèche for working mothers was developed and a comprehensive system of education was provided. Robert Owen saw education as being essential to the human experience.

“Modern Scotland embraces that view – we see education as a societal good as well as an individual one. It remains central to our values and to our very sense of ourselves.

“Owen challenged the status quo, he looked at how to engage and inspire people through education as he realised that it was the most important foundation in life.

“The Robert Owen Award will reward outstanding commitment to Scottish education, it will recognise creativity and it will exemplify why so many countries in Europe look on with interest on all that we have achieved in improving the prospects for our young people.

“Like Owen, we believe that we have a duty to provide education and that we all pay the price if we do not meet that responsibility.

“Yet until Scotland gains full control of its own finances, until we develop our own system of welfare, benefits and taxation, we will continue to be at the mercy of decisions taken remotely that limit our ability to do the best we can.

“For me, the independence debate is about the powers we need to tackle the deep-rooted challenges that face us – challenges like child poverty and gaps in educational attainment that have never been adequately tackled.

“Those are the issues that Robert Owen started to tackle and it is a debate which starts with the question; What kind of Scotland do we want to live in?”

Royal Mail is running an amazing national art competition for primary school pupils to design stamps for Christmas 2013.

http://www.royalmail.com/stamps-design-competition-2013

Two lucky winners will see their designs on one of the 1st or one of the 2nd Class Christmas stamps from this year’s range.

The competition theme is ‘what does the Christmas season mean to you?’ and so the children can design an image that best describes what the festive holiday period means to them.  Competition entries must be received by 19 July 2013.

24 June, 15.45 http://bit.ly/142PY3w

Children’s Services (Quality Improvement) are delighted to announce a series of Glow meet sessions to share practice around Shetland schools. Join Pat Brown, Headteacher at Mossbank/Olnafirth, who will share ideas about using philosophy in the primary-school classroom as a valuable approach to Higher Order Thinking Skills.