Agenda item

The Convener advised the Committee as to a number of good news stories as follows –

·         Your Voice Matters

Aberdeen Communities Youth Worker Sara Duncan was approached by the Chief Executive of the Scottish Youth Parliament to see if Aberdeen would be interested in hosting an event. The event was for Matthew Barzun, the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom to talk to young people and hear their views around certain issues in America.  The event itself was organised by, Members of the Scottish Youth Parliament for Aberdeen.

On 17 October 2014, thirty five young people attended the event at the Credo Centre, John Street. All participated in a question and answer session with the Ambassador. Aberdeen’s two MSYPs thought it was a fantastic opportunity to be involved in and the feedback they and all the others gave about the event had all been very positive.

·         Sport

On Friday, 28 November 2014, Aberdeen Sports Village successfully defended its ‘Regional Gym of the Year (Scotland)’ title at the National Fitness Awards. This was the second consecutive time that Aberdeen Sports Village had been shortlisted as finalists in the National Fitness Awards in two categories – Regional Gym of the Year (Scotland) and Local Authority/Leisure Trust Gym of the Year.

·         Scottish School’s Secondary Road Race Championships

On Saturday, 8 November 2014, a team of three boys from Harlaw Academy won the Scottish Schools’ Secondary Road Race Championships (over 16).  The team trophy was based on the school with the highest placed group of three runners - Callum Simmons (2nd), Matthew Kilner (9th) and Mark Quinn (19th) ensured the national trophy came north.

·         Conversations about Learning for Sustainability

Hazlehead Academy was recently recognised as a participating school in the Education Scotland UNESCO Report which features select schools across Scotland.  The case study of the sustainable development and global citizenship practices in Hazlehead Academy highlighted their sustainability approaches leading to a number of positive outcomes including:

·         Enhanced learning

·         Enhanced reputation of school

·         Improved community spirit and engagement.

The report was also being shared with the international delegates attending the UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.

·         School Self Evaluation

Hanover Primary had had a self-evaluation tool they developed be validated as a piece of good practice by external inspectors through the Joint Inspection. Hanover Street Primary through using an action research approach had developed a colour coded Shanarri Wheel to measure the 8 wellbeing indicators using a five point scale. The Shanarri Wheel was a self-evaluation tool for use with children at an individual, classroom and whole school level. It had been designed to be simple to use and understand.  It was a solution focused approach which encouraged collaborative working between individuals and practitioners.

The information gathered for the classroom would be reviewed on a termly basis to assess any curriculum based strategies that had been implemented. Whole school information would be reviewed periodically through working groups with pupils, staff and parents and also on an annual basis to highlight effective intervention and to target any further identified school improvements.