Events – Student Voice

SCIAF

P1030685 The girls before the bake sale!

Who are they?

SCIAF are the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund. They are the official aid agency of the Catholic Church in Scotland. They are inspired by Gospel, guided by Catholic social teaching, reach out with love to global neighbours in need regardless of gender, class, race and religion. They are strongly driven by their values of dignity, empowerment, solidarity and hope.

Their vision

A world without poverty, where the poorest of the poor can survive by equipping them with the tools and teach them the valuable skills they need in life. With their values they believe that in caring for the whole person, including emotional, spiritual wellbeing, political voice, culture and community life, as well as how they support themselves and their families. They want to help people to be in control of their life and be able to provide for themselves and their families, learn skills, live in peaceful communities with power over decision which may affect them so they know their full potential. SCIAF work with local organizations and charities overseas so people who need the help the most will get it first. And closer to home they inspire schools, public and parishes to all work together to build a better future for all, especially those who need it. They want to help the poorest of the poor to thrive.

Real gifts

Real gifts are a great way of giving an ethical gift that makes a difference in the world for people, their lives and communities. When we buy a real gift we are providing something that is of vital importance to families that live in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The idea behind SCIAF’s real gifts is for people to support the charities work in poor countries around the world by making donations instead of buying a present for a relative or friend that may end up being unwanted. SCIAF real gifts provides lots of essential items from school books and farming tools to chickens and goats. They even provide a water lifeline to help farmers keep their crops alive.

What we are doing to help

We have held a bake sale in school to help raise funds so we can buy real gifts for those who need them most. As a school we can help buy smaller items like seeds, books, blankets, tools, farm animals and a shelter for a family. We could put the money all together and buy something bigger for a community or we could buy lots of little gifts to help those in need.

Barely anything left! What a successful bake sale!

How did we really help?

Through our bake sale we raised £106.20. A lot more than we had anticipated. Using the money that we raised, we purchased real gifts from SCIAF. This included chickens, warm blankets and emergency water supplies among many other things. It is important to remember that the bake sales we hold are not for nothing. Sure, it’s great to be able to purchase some home baked goods. However, your money is having a big impact on the lives of those less fortunate than us. We’d like to thank everyone for the donations given.

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The letters received to confirm the purchases.

By Maddison Mayhew, Rebecca Crossan and Rebecca Williamson

Books come to life with Enterprise sculptures.

In 2011 ten beautiful sculptures made from books mysteriously appeared at libraries and cultural institutions across Edinburgh. The sculptures came with a simple message: ‘a library is so much more than a building full of books… a book is so much more than pages full of words… in support of books, libraries, words, ideas’. To this day, no one knows how they arrived and the identity of the sculptor remains a secret. the-tiger-who-came-to-tea

The book sculptures traveled around the country in the Gifted exhibition. This was designed as a tribute to the presence and vitality of libraries and arts institutions in Edinburgh and across Scotland, and to the generosity of the anonymous artist’s gesture. The sculptures were also intended as a gift to the communities which supported such places. the-hobbit

In response to this 1st year Enterprise pupils created their own book sculptures based on a favourite childhood, or current book. Work began by deciding on key characters and events within their book and through initial research and creative thinking pupils began to create paper sculptures suing paper mache. They created a scene or character from the book and used text from their chosen book as the final layer. The book sculptures were displayed in the Enterprise exhibition and Tidelines book exhibition at the Harbour Arts Centre in Irvine.

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Thank you to Mrs Bell and her enterprise pupils.

The Book sculptures are currently on display in the library for everyone to see.

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Meet the Groups: Chess Club

Since beginning the Leadership course at the start of the year Megan Copeland has shared her enthusiasm for Chess by running a Chess club every Monday Lunchtime. Recently she has started a mini-tournament within the club to encourage the members to meet new people and improve their skills. Although she has not competed recently, Megan has been crowned U18 champion at both the girls and overall section of the Ayrshire wide competition. Her love of Chess began as she was taught to play chess by her dad when she was aged 7. When discussing the chess club she was shocked to realise that this means she has been playing chess for 10 years!While many people play chess to relax Megan enjoys the tactical side of the game as well as the competitive element and wishes to pass this down to other members of the club. From beginners just learning the rules of the game to the more experienced players the chess club provides a place to have fun and meet new people while developing your skills.

The chess club runs every Monday in the Library. All pupils aged 1st to 3rd year are welcome no matter their ability.

Why Anti-Bullying matters.

What does the word bullying mean to you?

To some people it is their life. That is not even remotely acceptable in this day and age. People of all ages suffer from different types of bullying. For example there is cyber bullying which is on computers and social media. Social media is great for keeping in contact with people but when it is used wrongly it can damage people’s lives creating lasting mental trauma. Another type of bullying is physical bullying which can mean that a victim could be punched, kicked, slapped or even worse leave the victim with physical and emotional scars. In the future bullying victims can find it hard to trust people, especially in the unfortunate cases where a person has been bullied by one member of their friend group who has then convinced others to do the same. There are only a few main types of bullying but in this school we want to ensure that none of these actions are taking place to any pupil. That’s the what we want to achieve as Anti-Bullying ambassadors in this school. Our aim is to become a role model for other schools to follow.

Alfie Anderson S5, Anti-Bullying Ambassador

After selecting our Anti-bullying ambassadors last year we embarked on expanding the programme by providing training to the volunteers. This included team building exercises and problem solving workshops as well as discussions about different types of bullying and its effects. One of the most hard hitting exercises required pupils to write a list of all that a child needed to grow up healthy, a list which normally included practical elements like clothing or eduction and then more subjective terms such as love, confidence and friendship, and then were prompted to acknowledge how bullying could damage, or in some cases completely remove these from a child’s life. The workshop concluded by watching a video presentation about what advice the Anti-Bullying ambassadors should give to those who approach them. After which the volunteers were ready to go out into the school and local community and spread the message about bullying!

This week at year group assemblies the work of the anti-bullying ambassadors was shared with the rest of the school community. In a short presentation from various teachers who make up the anti- bullying committee the effects of bullying and what you can do to counter-act this was explained. A video by Marcus Butler, a popular Youtuber, was used to highlight how bullying can effect everyone. Following this the Anti-Bullying ambassadors were presented with wristbands and badges so that they can be identified within the school as someone who can be approached should someone be struggling with bullying or wish to report an incident of bullying.

Some sites to visit for more information on Bullying:

http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Bullying/Pages/Bullyinghome.aspx

https://www.childline.org.uk/info-advice/bullying-abuse-safety/types-bullying/bullying/

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/child-abuse-and-neglect/bullying-and-cyberbullying/

Marcus Butler’s Experience with Bullying:

Halloween Charity Fundraiser

On Friday 28th October 6th year pupils raised £263 for the Brightest Star Charity. To celebrate Halloween the pupils came into school in fancy dress and donated £3 to the chosen charity so that this annual event would help support bereaved families across Scotland.

For more information about the Brightest Star Charity please visit http://www.brighteststar.org.uk