All posts by K. Mayer

Films: Striving for Better!

This series of films captures the thoughts, journeys and emotions of the athletes Libby Clegg, Michael Jamieson, Jessica Ennis, Lizzie Armistead and others as a testimony of their endeavour, determination, discipline and persistence often against all the odds.

The films allow the audience to look behind the scenes to discover what drives these athletes to be the very best they can be.

Small testimonies of the greatness that lies dormant within every human being!

Free Games venues map for schools

The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) have created a venues map showing information about engineering challenges associated with preparing for the Commonwealth Games and also tells the stories of the engineers involved.

This map  explores the engineering and design challenges faced in creating some of the venues including the Hydro, Emirates Arena, the Velodrome and the Athletes’ Village.

The map explains how engineers have tried to ensure the 2014 Games are the most sustainable and green games ever, organised safe, secure, reliable and accessible transport and the measures taken to protect wildlife and plant species during the engineering and building work.

It also contains links to relevant websites, ‘Did you know?’ facts and activity ideas for all age ranges and can be used as a teaching resource for numerous curricular areas including Social Studies, Numeracy, ICT, Science and Technologies.

To order printed copies of the map for your class, please complete the form on SurveyMonkey website.

Commonwealth Games Success

Just over half way through the biggest multi sporting event every hosted in Scotland the atmosphere in Glasgow as well as other Games and cultural venues is electric and the excitement has reached the hearts and minds of people across all walks of life.
With five exciting competition days still ahead, Team Scotland have already surpassed their previous record of 33 medals won at the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh in 1986. Some wonderful moments have resulted from the Scottish success with the men’s gymnastics team winning silver, Libby Clegg become the first Scottish track and field athlete to win Gold for over 20 years, Erraid Davies becoming the youngest competitor ever to win a medal and of course the look of disbelief on Ross Murdoch’s face after having won Gold in the 200m breaststroke.
Game On Scotland is particularly delighted for judo gold medallists Louise and Kimberley Renicks, who participated in the our Athlete Visits programme, fitting in a number of school appearances in between training sessions prior to the Games to inspire young people across Scotland. Thank you to both of them!

Many records have been broken over the last 6 days and Game On Scotland is delighted to say that we ourselves have surpassed many of our own targets and expectations after engaging schools, learners and teachers across the world in wider range of learning opportunities connection with over 1 million learners. Our website is the most successful free standing website produced by Education Scotland, receiving over 1.25 million views from over 200,000 unique users since its launch in 2013. It also saw 4,300 people register for regular updates and an estimated 100,000 downloads of teaching materials equating to 1 in every 2 visitors to the site downloading free educational resources.

In the new session Game On Scotland will continue provide opportunities to engage learners by continuing with our athlete visits programme, sharing of case studies, awarding Game On Plaques and offing a number of Glow Meet sessions for learners to speak to those at the heart of the Games.
We hope you enjoyed the Games so far and benefitted from the wider range of offers available through Game on Scotland. We would be delighted to hear some of your stories around the Games, comments you would like
 to pass on or suggestions to make. 

If you wish to find out about the latest opportunities around Game On Scotland make sure you register with us to receive our regular e-updates.

News update: Glasgow 2014

Céilidh Còmhla
Tonight (Thursday 3rd July), 6pm – 8pm
Barras Art and Design, 54 Calton Entry, Glasgow, G40 2SB
FREE

Gather with Scotland’s refugee communities to re-imagine the traditional Scottish Céilidh and discover what ‘welcome’ means in Scotland today, with music, dance and song. Please see attached flyer for more details.

To reserve your place please contact suzi.simpson@scottishrefugeecouncil.org.uk  / 0141 223 7939

Dance opportunity for young people in the North East

Aberdeen International Youth Festival are looking to recruit young people from across the North-East, with varying levels of experience, who will work with internationally renowned choreographer and community dance leader Royston Maldoom, former Artistic Director of Scottish Dance Theatre Tamara McLorg, and selected Scottish dance artists. You will then work intensively for a fortnight to create a new dance piece and perform at His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen. You’ll also be part of a commissioned documentary film.
Must be available on July 7 to 11, and July 14 to 20, 2014. Performances are on 20 July at 5pm and 7.30pm.
The deadline to sign up is today (Thursday 3 July). .

The Glasgow Gurdwara – Community Celebrations

The Glasgow Gurdwara, Scotland’s premier Sikh centre, welcomes you to be a part of their Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games programme running in July. Please see invite attached for more details.Invitation Glasgow Sikh Community Welcomes Commonwealth Family

Assistive Technology

Glasgow 2014 aspires to make the XX Commonwealth Games experience as accessible and inclusive as possible. To help achieve this, various forms of assistive technology will be provided across many venues, including audio description commentary and hearing enhancement technology.

Find out what is available at each venue and how to book here.

The Queen’s Baton Relay

Residents of Moray will today, Thursday 3 July, welcome the Queen’s Baton as it travels through the local authority during its journey across the length and breadth of Scotland, with a range of extraordinary batonbearers preparing to take part in the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games’ Queen’s Baton Relay.

The Queen’s Baton will begin its journey through Moray in Buckie, and will travel across the full expanse of the local authority, passing through towns and villages including Cullen, Fochabers, Lossiemouth, Kinloss, Forres and Elgin. Tomorrow the baton will travel through Perth & Kinross, starting with a free community Breakfast in Rothes.

Find out where you can join in here.

The Digital Commonwealth Project

The ambition of the Digital Commonwealth project is to enhance the capacity of individuals and groups to use freely available mobile digital (and social) media tools and techniques to ensure their voices are heard in a saturated (and often commercially) motivated media landscape. The Digital Commonwealth team have been busy reporting on events around the Queen’s Baton Relay and will be doing some more work with communities throughout Scotland.

Find out more and visit the website here.

Special £10.00 ticket offer!

Glasgow’s Hampden Park welcomes 47 Olympic, Paralympic and World Champions this weekend for the prestigious IAAF Diamond League event, bringing together the best athletic field ever seen in Scotland. The event will guarantee to get your heart racing with show-stopping performances on the track and field.

As a Glasgow 2014 supporter you can take advantage of a fantastic £10.00 ticket offer! Watch the double Olympic and world champion Mo Farah return to the track along with the likes of Christine Ohuruogu, Greg Rutherford, Yohan Blake, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, David Rudisha and home favourites Eilidh Child, Eilish McColgan, Lynsey Sharp, Laura Muir and Chris O’Hare.

Get your tickets now here

Latest Commonwealth Games News

Queen’s Baton Relay

Today on day 13 the baton will be in Dundee and has already been spotted by Education Scotland staff (see below image).  

Find out more about the batons exciting journey around Scotland and where you can join in here.

 

 Festival Club Tickets

Tickets for the #Festival2014 Club are now on sale! This is your chance to party under the same roof as Team Scotland at Festival 2014’s official late night venue. We’ll have sets from Ibibio Sound Machine, Peatbog Faeries, The Treacherous Orchestra, Salsa Celtica, The Chills and more. Plus you can enjoy great DJs and treat yourself to a Festival 2014 Commonwealth cocktail!

Tickets available now from: http://www.glasgowconcerthalls.com/?s=festival+club?s=festival+club

Gift of the Games

Glasgow 2014 will share the first-hand thrill of world-class sport with 5000 of the most disadvantaged young people through a ground-breaking programme called Gift of the Games.

With just one month to go, Gift of the Games will ensure thousands of young people who otherwise may not have the opportunity, will now be part of an inspiring day out at Scotland’s biggest-ever sporting and cultural festival.

Young people from every local authority area in Scotland will experience the field-of-play action across a wide range of sports taking place throughout the Games, with transport and meals also provided. Games sponsors and Scotland’s business community are meeting the cost of Gift of the Games. The programme will be delivered through the grassroots network of Bauer Media’s charity, Cash For Kids. Bauer Media joins Glasgow 2014’s sponsor family as an Official Provider of Gift of the Games.

For more information please click here.

Glasgow Airport opportunity

Want to welcome the athletes as they arrive to Glasgow Airport?

Your group can be part of it! From 17 July until 22 July Glasgow Airport are looking for groups of children and young people to come in and give the athletes a warm Scottish welcome. If you are interested please email steven_marshall@glasgowairport.com  with details of your group, number of members, age groups and your availability.

National Lottery Award Finalists

We are delighted to announce that Glasgow 2014 Legacy project Active East has been nominated for the National Lottery Award for Sport. The nomination recognises the work the project does using sport to raise the skills, confidence and wellbeing of young people throughout the east end of Glasgow. Active east have fostered fantastic collaboration among youth and sports organisations and made a difference to the lives of hundreds of young people. It would be great to have a Glasgow 2014 winner of this prestigious UK award, which is decided by public vote. Please vote for Active East and share the link with your friends and family.

Vote here before the 23 July and tweet your support @LottoGoodCauses using the hashtag is #NLAwards

More great seats have become available!

More great seats across a number of sports, including currently unavailable events, have been released. We’ve been able to reallocate these seats to sports fans now that we have final confirmation on the requirements of tour groups, participating nations and territories, sponsors and hospitality clients. We’ve also released a limited number of partial views seats for the Opening Ceremony, with views of the live action but not the big screen backdrop, priced at just £20.

Tickets can be purchased at the Glasgow 2014 Ticketing website or by calling 0800 458 2014 (freephone)

Please also note that reallocated seats will continue to be made available for public sale right up until Games Time so remember to keep checking the Ticketing website.

Follow Glasgow 2014 on Twitter for all the latest updates!

Pride House website

LEAP Sports are proud to be hosting a Pride House in Glasgow during the Commonwealth Games this summer. Located on Albion Street in the heart of the Merchant City, Pride House will play host to a range of sports, cultural and arts events which share as a common theme the vision of breaking down the social and personal barriers which discourage LGBT people across the country from participating in sports.

For full event schedule please visit Pride House website here

Healthier Scotland Cooking Bus at the Commonwealth Games

FREE SESSIONS FOR COMMUNITY GROUPS AND ORGANISATIONS

The Healthier Scotland Cooking Bus is offering FREE practical cooking sessions throughout the Commonwealth
Games to community groups and organisations.

SESSION INFORMATION
When are the sessions?
24 July – 3 August 2014.

Where are the sessions taking place?
The Healthier Scotland Cooking Bus will be located at Glasgow Green.

Access to the site will be free and non-ticketed, so in addition to your session on the Cooking Bus, you could access the other activities and events at Glasgow Green.
How many people can visit the Cooking Bus?
Each session accommodates up to 16 participants and will be tailored to your group or organisation’s needs.
How long do the sessions last?
Sessions are 1 hour and 30 minutes and take place at 10.45am each day.
Who can take part?
Sessions can be for any type and age range of local community group or organisation e.g. a group for the disabled, senior citizens or family group. There is an opportunity to involve parents andcarers also.
Do we need to provide any food?
No. We provide all the food and the aprons needed for your session, all we ask is that you arrive  promptly and ready to cook with us.
How do I book a session?
Contact Joanne Johnstone by email joanne@focusonfood.org or telephone 01422 383191 to book your session.

For more information please download the flyer:  CWG 2014 – Free Community Sessions Flyer

The Glasgow Games 2014 App

The St Joachim’s Glasgow Games 2104 app will get you out of the starting blocks and prepared for the XX Commonwealth Games being hosted in Glasgow.

The app contains a wealth of information on the history of current Commonwealth sports, competition schedules, venues, travel information and fascinating and useful facts on the participating nations and territories*.

Pupils from St Joachim’s Primary School in Glasgow, as part of a 2014 Legacy project, have researched and designed the content and this app allows you to find out everything you need to know about Glasgow 2014 at the tap of a button.

*Requires internet connection.

You can download the app from:

Google Play Store – Glasgow Games 2014 

App Store – Glasgow Games 2014

Commonwealth Games Legacy Week

Initiatives such as engineering, environment and educational projects delivering lasting benefits from Scotland hosting the Commonwealth Games will be celebrated during the second dedicated Legacy Week (9-13 June).

With less than 50 days to go and organisers confident of delivering the greatest ever Games, the nationwide focus on the Games’ wider benefits includes a Legacy 2014 Celebration Event at the Murrayfield Stadium (10 June).

150 people from across Scotland will join Cabinet Secretary for Commonwealth Games Shona Robison; Glasgow 2014 Chief Executive David Grevemberg; Michael Cavanagh, Commonwealth Games Scotland Chairman; and Glasgow City Council’s Councillor Archie Graham to celebrate the achievements of over 50 national Legacy programmes, plus the input from all local authorities in creating a sustainable legacy Scotland wide.

Compered by cyclist and broadcaster Mark Beaumont, the event will include a performance of the ‘Let The Games Begin’, the Glasgow Games’ single by East 40 benefitting one of the Games’ official charity partners, UNICEF.

Legacy Week is a partnership between the Scottish Government, Glasgow City Council and Glasgow 2014, ahead of the Queen’s Baton Relay arriving in Scotland on 14 June.

Cabinet Secretary for Commonwealth Games and Sport, Shona Robison, said: “The Scottish Government and partners are committed to delivering a positive and lasting legacy from hosting the Games.

“This Legacy Week is another opportunity to promote the successful work which is well underway across the country, ensuring that Glasgow 2014 is about much more than 11 days of scintillating sport, but a catalyst for regeneration and economic growth.

“Our ambition is now to turn a good legacy into a great legacy, securing Scotland’s reputation worldwide as one of the frontrunners in delivering nationwide benefits from hosting a major sporting event.”

David Grevemberg, Glasgow 2014 Chief Executive, said: “Glasgow 2014 and its Games Partners, Glasgow City Council and the Scottish Government, firmly believe that legacy doesn’t just happen to you, it happens by you getting involved and making things happen.
 
“The legacy of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games is already apparent and many people are benefitting from the Games by participating in a broad range of successful projects, some of which will be highlighted during this coming week.
 
“Our vision is to create a world-class stage for the elite athletes of the Commonwealth, generate enormous pride in Glasgow and Scotland, and leave a lasting legacy.”

Councillor Archie Graham, Executive Member for the Commonwealth Games at Glasgow City Council, said: “We are just a few weeks away from hosting the biggest sporting event ever to be held in Scotland.

“Legacy Week is a great opportunity for people to find out about the work we’re doing across the city to make sure there is a lasting benefit from the Games.
 
“Glasgow’s preparations for the Games have already left the city better off economically, environmentally and socially. 

“Many of our legacy ambitions have already been delivered such as jobs, apprenticeship and training places for our young people through the council’s ground-breaking £50 million Glasgow Guarantee. 

“All our venues have been built, opened and in use well in advance of the Games.
 
“We want to make sure no one is left behind and Legacy Week is an ideal opportunity to highlight what  communities and groups are doing to make sure they can make the most of this once in a lifetime opportunity.”

Mike Hooper, CEO, Commonwealth Games Federation, said: “The Commonwealth Games Federation is pleased to note the success of the Games Partners to date in ensuring a lasting legacy from Glasgow 2014.

“Indeed the CGF’s Co-ordination Commission has formally congratulated those involved and called it a ‘blueprint for future Games’ in its report on progress towards delivering an outstanding Commonwealth Games in Glasgow this summer.”

There are over 50 Legacy 2014 national programmes delivered by national partners and more than 70 supporting Legacy 2014 projects in place across Scotland, generating jobs and training opportunities, investing in new or upgraded community facilities, helping people to get more active, and inspiring fun learning opportunities and new global connections.

Glasgow City Council has its own legacy plan and suite of programmes to deliver a sustainable legacy at Glasgow level.

Community Sport Hubs, Game On Scotland, the official education programme for the Games, and the PE Disability Inclusion Training Programme are among those national programmes highlighted during the Murrayfield celebration event. Speakers will include: Scottish Enterprise’s 2014 Director Linda Murray; the founder of Street Soccer Scotland, David Duke; Clyde Gateway CEO, Ian Manson; and Young Scot Youth Legacy Ambassadors.

There are many ways in which people can still get involved in the legacy of the Games. Organisations can apply for Active Places Funding, Community Sport Hubs are available across the country, and people can take part in Games for Scotland and enjoy the events being hosted as part of the nationwide Culture 2014 programme.