Scotland’s Enterprising Schools is very proud to welcome Lorraine Ross to the team! Lorraine is our new Development Officer and will be working with us, Education Scotland and a number of our other partners to create resources, lesson plans and more to help embed enterprise activity in schools across Scotland.

We thought we’d take the chance to you find out more about Lorraine, her new role and the future of Scotland’s Enterprising Schools…

What is your role with Scotland’s Enterprising Schools (SES)?

I am a Development Officer. My role is to work in collaboration with Education Scotland, Skills Development Scotland and colleagues at Scotland’s Enterprising Schools to develop online enterprise education resources at each age and stage of the curriculum that are integrated with subject topics. These resources will be contextualised and mapped to Curriculum for Excellence and aligned with Building the Curriculum 4 and Developing the Young Workforce Career Education Standard.

What did you do previously and why did you decide to join the SES team?

I was originally a teacher of drama before catching the enterprise bug! As I was an Enterprise and Employability officer for 1 secondary school, 7 primary schools, 2 nurseries and 2 additional support needs establishments within Glasgow. My role was to deliver and facilitate entrepreneurial learning experiences for all learners and to support colleagues with appropriate CPD. My most recent post was as Principal Teacher of Enterprise, Employability and Wider Achievement at Lourdes Secondary.

I decided to join the SES team as I think they are an excellent resource and point of contact for every school taking forward an enterprising approach to learning and teaching. I myself as a teacher have used the online resource detailing SES partners to create highly effective partnerships across the school and subject areas. It is an exciting time to join with lots of new resources and materials in the pipeline.

Why do you think enterprise is such an important part of education?

It’s incredibly important in developing the successful learners, effective contributors, responsible citizens and confident individuals that our society needs. Schools and other learning environments are tasked with preparing our children and young people to play their part in a world that is rapidly changing. Preparing them for jobs that don’t even exist yet! We have to ensure that our young people are equipped with the skills and attributes needed to face some of these challenges. They need to have that ‘Can Do’ attitude. I believe that enterprise in education does this and leads to improving outcomes for all.

What do you hope to achieve with SES?

I hope to engage positively with schools and provide materials, resources and events that will help support practitioners in actively embedding enterprise in the curriculum and in their daily approach to learning and teaching, to develop and encourage that ‘Can Do’ mind-set and attitude in all our children and young people.

Our partners at SKapade Studios are now offering their Social Media & Online Safety Workshop to secondary schools.

This one-day, interactive course looks at the benefits, risks and dangers that social media and the internet can pose to young people, and plans to educate them to use these platforms correctly.

Full course outline, here.

For more information about how your school can get involved, please contact:

Steven Galloni

T: 01389 742804

M: 07469 711561

On the afternoon of Wednesday 6 July, Starley Hall marked the end of the school year with their annual ‘End of Year Celebration’.

These events continue to be very successful and have been very well attended by young people, their families, staff, and a host of adults linked to the school and this year was no exception

This was an opportunity to visit the Starley Hall site, meet the staff and see some of the many developments that have taken place over the last academic year. Most importantly it was an opportunity to see some of the work carried out in the education programme and to celebrate the achievements of the young people in a fun way. Jim Morrison, DHT, delivered a moving speech and presented several young people with awards including Simon Fraser who was voted by staff and fellow pupils as student of the year. Simon was successful based on his progress and effort, contribution to community projects, awards and achievements.  According to his teachers and peers Simon has improved in confidence, enjoys school and is making plans for the future.

Other students shared their successful Hospitality and Enterprise projects including homemade jam, cakes and beauty products, jewellery and art work. Callum Craighead was proud to talk about his impressive prints that were selling exceptionally well and with good reason.

Lunch – a buffet barbecue – was hosted by the students and an ice cream van proved very popular Students and staff also enjoyed a number of fun activities, such as the Bucking Bronco, Sumo Wrestling, Bungee Run and team games on the Sports Pitch.

It is a privilege to visit Starley Hall and talk to staff and students about the variety of Enterprise projects they have going on year in and year out.

Earlier this week, Scotland’s Enterprising Schools had the privilege of attending the Glasgow Children’s University graduation ceremony and witnessing first-hand the impact of this incredible organisation.

The families and friends of the graduates from schools across Glasgow filled the University of Strathclyde’s Barony Hall as the children were capped by Principal Professor Sir Jim McDonald in a formal graduation ceremony.

Children’s University recognises achievement and celebrates learning that takes place outside of normal school hours. Children aged 7 to 14 (and 5 and 6 year olds with their families) gain credits for taking part in activities such as after-school clubs, drama groups, sports teams or learning experiences at museums, parks and community centres.

Children’s University believes that learning need not be purely academic and that it can be about building practical and personal skills.

The young graduands (now graduates!) received bronze, silver and gold awards and certificates for completing their respective levels of extracurricular activity.

Upon joining CU, children are given a Passport to Learning which they use to collect credits for participating in specific activities. Children can ‘travel’ with their Passport to Learning to a wide range of CU Learning Destinations where they build up their credits, and receive CU awards and certificates in recognition of their commitment to learning, their perseverance and their achievements outside school.

Glasgow Children’s University was the first local Children’s University centre to be established in Scotland under the umbrella of Children’s University Trust Scotland.  It is managed by the University of Strathclyde in partnership with Glasgow City Council, member schools and other organisations.

YOUTH ENTERPRISE ACCESS INITIATIVE

Are You Aged Between 14 – 25 Years Old?

Are you looking for practical training to become an entrepreneur, go back to college/university or get back to employment?

Do you have some business ideas that you will like to transform into successful and sustainable enterprise?

Do you want to start your business but are unsure of the right legal form?

Do you have some business ideas but want information on financial grants available?

Do you wish to launch economic activities that can positively impact your community?

Do you want practical information on different types of enterprises and their characteristics?

Do you want to understand Social Entrepreneurship?

THEN THIS IS FOR YOU!

Feel free to attend the workshop:

“BUILD YOUR OWN BUSINESS”

on Saturday 11^th June 2016 from 1pm to 04pm

at the Townhead Village Hall

Youth Enterprise Access Initiative is a new project funded by the Young Start programme and supported by partner organisations that will help young people during 15 months in some of the poorest and disadvantaged areas and communities of Edinburgh and Glasgow to develop their skills and confidence through free enterprise workshops/training, fun and learning activities. This project is free of charge and open to anyone.

Just contact AfricAlba by Email at: info@africalba.org 

Feel also free to call us on: 079 60 01 34 28

AfricAlba is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO) that aims to be a platform for reflections and actions taken to address the major challenges of social and economic development of poor people, and deprived and disadvantaged communities in Scotland based on education, enterprise, employment and sport. AfricAlba is registered with the charity number SC046451.

AfricAlba provides information and advice with the aim of improving people confidence and raising their self-esteem thus enabling them to cope with global economic competition and challenges.

AfricAlba focuses on addressing the challenges of building better futures, empowering people, improving lives and transforming aspiration within the disadvantaged and ethnic minority community groups in Scotland.

AfricAlba membership is free and open to anyone who lives in Scotland, and its services are also open to anyone.

For more information just contact AfricAlba

By Email at: info@africalba.org

Do visit us on: www.africalba.org

Feel also free to call us on: 079 60 01 34 28

“We all have talents, ideas and the ability to innovate. It’s never been easier to get started.”

– Michael Hayes, Add Jam Founder

Last night marked the launch of the inaugural RookieOven Academy as the home of Glasgow’s tech community welcomed a group of ambitious young people looking to further their abilities in digital.

The RookieOven Academy is for 16-18 year olds of Glasgow wanting to flex their entrepreneurial muscles and, over the next six weeks, participants will team up to develop a digital product/business concept from scratch.

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Each weekly session will have a different theme and guest speaker; on this first night, participants heard all about ‘Creative Thinking’ from Add Jam cofounder Chris Sloey who shared his ideas process and the importance of embracing your interests/hobbies.

Future sessions will focus on things like ‘Business Models’ and ‘Digital Marketing’ in the lead up to the final night when participants have the opportunity to pitch their ideas to a panel of experts and investors Dragon’s Den-style.

Formative tasks and group exercises, alongside expert mentoring, help the participants get their creativity flowing, and the groups were able to come up with some amazing ideas even on this very first night together; litter-picking drones, study apps, tourist information apps and more. Following this initial ideas process, the participants have now formed three teams with three totally unique and exciting ideas that they will be pursuing going forward.

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With the first, successful Academy session in the books, it will be exciting to see how these digital entrepreneurs of the future develop over the coming weeks.

Bonhill Primary School have shared with us a presentation highlighting all of the amazing, enterprising activity going on at their school.

The following presentation showcases all of the incredible work that goes on at Bonhill in an effort to embed enterprise and employability throughout the entire school.

From their Fairtrade tuck shop to their enterprise company and beyond, Bonhill is an exemplar of what it means to be an enterprising school.

Take a look at the presentation and see if there are any ideas you could use:

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One of the ambitions of  Scotland CAN DO is “to achieve an education system with entrepreneurship and innovation at its core.” This ambition does not begin with secondary, or even primary schools – early learners can get involved too!

Scotland’s Enterprising Schools is a new resource available for educational practitioners to inspire enterprising and entrepreneurial learning across the curriculum.  The resource was developed in partnership with Education Scotland and the Scottish Government and was launched at the Scottish Learning Festival in September last year.  Key features include:

• Practitioners have the opportunity to join the professional learning network where they can take part in discussions about enterprise education and collaborate with colleagues to share ideas and resources.
• A professional reflection tool helps practitioners gauge where their establishment is on its enterprise journey and will support the self-evaluation process.
• The resources and ideas highlighted will be very useful when curriculum planning and will help schools/early learning and childcare settings embed Building the Curriculum 4 and Developing the Young Workforce agendas as part of their improvement plans.

Any number of practitioners can join the professional learning community and members of the network will receive an “Enterprising Schools Proud Member” badge for use on your website.

Scotland’s Enterprising Schools was developed to encourage educational practitioners, from early years through and beyond senior phase, to develop a holistic approach to enterprise and entrepreneurial thinking. This is achieved by providing a platform to recognise settings for their work in this area.

Our first Early Years case study came from Ardnahoe Nursery School in Toryglen, Glasgow. The full case study is available on our website and highlights how the project came about, how it developed and all the skills the children learned along the way – click here!

This is just one example of enterprise in early learning and childcare and we are keen to hear from more settings about the great work taking place across Scotland.  Are your children involved in exciting, enterprising activities? Then please contact Heather Hughes – (Head of Programme) who will be happy to discuss how you can get involved.

Need help getting started? Our Partner page is full of organisations willing to help you on your way to developing a CAN DO spirit, making learning more enterprising and entrepreneurial.

To keep in touch with Scotland’s Enterprising Schools, you can join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

The Scottish National Party has pledged its support to Scotland’s Enterprising Schools, in its manifesto ahead of the 2016 Scottish Parliament election.

In a section entitled ‘Transforming Scotland’s productivity’, the current government’s manifesto states:

“We will also continue to support the delivery of the ‘Scotland’s Enterprising Schools’ project to enable all schools to develop a values-based entrepreneurial culture amongst Scotland’s young people.”

The mission of Scotland’s Enterprising Schools is to contribute to this transformation by supporting education practitioners to align with the CAN DO spirit to make their learning more enterprising and entrepreneurial, helping young people develop skills for learning, life and work.

Full manifesto can be found here: http://www.snp.org/manifesto