Conference on equality and diversity

On the 25^th of February we – Ellie Alexander and Jessica Kerr –, two sixth years and Ms Jordan attended a youth conference in Glasgow at the Scottish Youth Theatre. The conference’s aim was to promote equality and diversity through peer learning throughout Scottish Schools. We made our way through to Glasgow on the 8:30am train excited about what the day was going to entail. At 10:00am we were welcomed to the event – this included the agenda and vision of the day. An extremely inspiring speech was then made by a pupil who attends Kyle Academy from the South Ayrshire. He spoke about his personal experiences and the schools experiences in tackling the issues of inequality and promoting diversity throughout their school and community.

After the welcome, we made our way to the first activity. This was the ‘Cinderella’ workshop. This was about rights being denied then deeper into that – barriers to learning. The workshop was led by four fourth year boys. Firstly they spoke about their school’s visions and values and how they have improved them over the last few years. Within the workshop, we took part in two separate activities. The first was the barriers to learning. The boys spoke for a little while about what things could be barriers to learning under the four categories – personal, social, physical and emotional. We were given numerous statements with a barrier to learning on them and we had to put them into the correct category. For us we found this a beneficial task as it make us think about things that could be stopping our peers’ learning that had never crossed our minds before. After that, we had to draw our own barriers to learning. It was interesting to see everyone’s different barriers and how they cope with them. We then moved onto the second activity which was to do with rights being denied. This is where Cinderella came into it; we had to decide the rights she had been denied in her story. The boys gave us sheets and we had to mark next to all the rights which she had been deprived of. It was peculiar to think about Cinderella in that  context, but it was 100% accurate!

The second workshop we went to that Alex and Alice also both came to, was the Mentors in Violence Prevention Programme – MVP. All four of us found this session extremely interesting. It started with an exercise where we shut our eyes imagining the woman we loved most being attacked – horrible. The leaders told us then to close our eyes again and imagine the same scenario but with someone standing watching, not intervening to help this woman. The strong message behind this exercise is silence is the biggest violence, it is possible to help people just by shouting “GET OFF!” or if necessary calling the police. The workshop split into males and females, while we were moved to the males to give a girls perspective and two boys went over to the girls group for the same   reason. In the groups we discussed different types of violence, we then focused into one – pornographic pictures. The special MVP leaders of the group informally but thoroughly talked through what we could do in the situation. This was extremely beneficial for us as we had our eyes opened entirely about consequences of our own actions on other people’s lives. We were very inspired by the MVP presentation and it has resulted in us trying to get a MVP group started at CCHS.

Lunch was then provided for us and we all chatted excitedly about the day so far. After lunch we were all separated into different coloured groups. In this we were met with other pupils from different schools. We had to deal with an issue in society today and create a 2 minute presentation on how it can be tackled in the schools and communities.

Overall, the day was full of information to bring back to school. We got ideas from other schools on things we could do to promote our visions and values and to make our school, on the whole, more equal and diverse. It was an extremely beneficial day out and we would like to thank Ms Jordan for taking us through and Mrs MacKinnon for letting us miss a day of school to attend!

By Ellie Alexander 4K1 and Jessica Kerr 4K2

Food for Life celebration at the Scottish Parliament

 Scotland’s real food heroes were celebrated at a recent parliamentary reception to recognize those working behind the scenes in schools and communities across Scotland to improve our food culture.  Staff and pupils from CCHS were there, celebrating  the success of the school over the past two years with the Food for Life Scotland programme.  Ministers spoke in glowing terms of the work carried out by Currie Community High School.

Laura Stewart, Director of Soil Association Scotland said:  “Food for Life Scotland is working to ensure more people can access fresh, healthy, tasty food, and increase local, seasonal and organic ingredients and, in turn, helping our natural world to thrive. Our aim to ensure 'good food for all' and these Food for Life champions are working hard behind the scenes to make this a reality.”

At the event our pupils and staff presented to around 200 guests, including ministers and MSPs, and were interviewed live by STV!  Currie is the only mainland secondary school to have been awarded the Bronze Food for Life Catering Award, serving food that is better for pupils and better for the planet.   Currie CHS has been selected as a “pathfinder” school in Edinburgh to develop four key action areas for food: Culture, Catering, Curriculum and Community.   

 

Our pupil team in one of the committe rooms at the Parliament

Speaking front of around 200 delegates

 On the 3^rd February, after school, three 3^rd year pupils (Mairi Mitchell, Katie MacBeth, Abigail Odetayo) and one 2^nd year pupil (Gregor Menzies) went to the Scottish Parliament accompanied by Mr Pache, Mrs MacKinnon, Miss Stuart, Ms Avery and Julie and Anne (from the Dolphin Café). This was to celebrate the Food for Life Award and schools serving fresh healthy food for pupils.

When we arrived we learnt about the bees that are kept at the parliament and how they are monitored. We then got to taste some lovely food that was made for us. The recipes were designed by a committee of people who work in school cafes across Scotland. The food included Carrot and Coconut curry, lentils in filo pastry, less beef beef burgers and beetroot and chocolate muffins and much more. After we got to listen to amazing talks given to us by schools across the country who had Food for Life Awards. We also gave a talk about the wonderful things our school has done to promote Food for Life and our hopes for achieving the Silver award and we are thankful to everyone who made it possible.

By Abigail Odetayo

The school teams, with Scottish Ministers. Our pupils are at the back!

Mr Pache and Mairi Mitchell being interviewed live on TV!

With our MSP in the debating chamber

In one of the 'think pods' 

John Byrne Award Entry

I recently took part in the John Byrne Award, reaching the final ten places.  Our brief was to produce a creative piece in response to two stimuli: an Oxfam briefing paper and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation paper, both dealing with the themes of poverty and wealth.  I  decided to build on my creative writing skills and wrote a poem entitled ‘What Is’.

I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of the whole project but meeting Peter Capaldi and John Byrne at the Awards Ceremony was definitely a highlight.  I would encourage anyone to really think about entering as it is a very rewarding experience and I gained a huge amount of experience and confidence from it!

‘What Is’

Poverty: the state of being extremely poor.

Poverty: the state of being inferior in quality or insufficient in amount.

Poverty: the burning pit of hunger at the bottom of your stomach that grates the insides into a thousand screaming mouths.

Poverty: the roof over your head a cool sweep of stars that welcome your plight and send it out into the void, unheard.

Poverty: the filthy black liquid oozing from the tap, a regular sight you have come to crave.

Poverty: the lack of sufficient contraceptives, leaving the life of a young girl in the hands of a nation who do not see any other way.

Poverty: the opposite of wealth.

Wealth: the choice of cereals becoming a game in the morning.

Wealth: the plush new blanket matching the curtains very well, thank you.

Wealth: the heat of the water on your back as you scrub the day away.

Wealth: the comfort gained from a single touch.

Wealth: the lies and corruption from the politicians snatching the tax from innocent workers.

Wealth: an ‘abundance’ of knowledge.

Knowledge: a saviour.

Knowledge: a pathway into the most fruitful wonders imaginable.

Knowledge: a key to power, and passage to happiness.

Happiness: improving, sustaining, accomplishing.

Happiness: a product of empathy, a partner of humanity, an integral aspect of love.

Wealth: love, knowledge, happiness.

Elaine O’Donnell, 6K2

Whole-School Visions and Values

Since the appointment of Mrs MacKinnon as Head Teacher of Currie Community High School many significant changes have been introduced. There have been much stricter school uniform rules introduced in terms of school dress code, and also punctuality and attendance to school.  This has resulted in almost an entire sixth year wearing blazers every day to school, and is just one of the many recent changes to Currie Community High School.

On the week beginning 17 November, in one of their weekly study periods, S6 students were asked to go about the task of contributing to a short piece of writing in any format that would be used to promote and advertise the school’s key values.  Other schools, such as Royal High School and Firrhill High School, have recently undertaken the same process and produced a mission statement type summary of what they believe are their vision for the school and the key values they hold as a secondary school.  I, along with the rest of my year group, was responsible for     coming up with ideas for our own vision and values statement, based on ideas from a whole-school exercise done earlier in the year.  The four groups assigned to this task each have two pieces they submitted to be Currie Community High School’s statement.

The best out of the many submissions was decided by a vote within the school in December and submissions chosen by voters will have the glory of having contributed in a very significant way to the values which underpin the life and work of the school for many years to come.

Fraser Munro, 6K3

CCHS Visions & Values

Following the whole school ballot we are delighted to announce the new Vision and Values of our school.

Our Vision Statement:

‘DON’T LIMIT YOUR CHALLENGES, 

CHALLENGE YOUR LIMITS’.

Our Values:

Confidence

· To perform to the best of your ability

· To seize every important opportunity

· To try something new

· To accept others and yourself

· To be enthusiastic and motivated to learn

Unity

· Supportive to others

· Unified commitment to improvement

· Appreciating achievements of all kinds

Respect

· Those around you

· Differences

· Yourself

· The Environment

Responsible

· For freedom of expression

· Being safe and making good choices

· Your own actions

· For participating in the life and work of our community

 Initiative

· Mistakes are okay as long as you learn from them

· Achieve your own goals through developing skills for life, learning and work

· Show determination, resilience and ambition

Equality

· Accept all aspects of social and cultural life regardless of personal belief while developing your own beliefs and values

· Treat others as you would wish to be treated

· Show care towards those who may need help

The BFG takes over CCHS

All our S3 pupils had three days off timetable at the end of last term to take part in a cross-curricular learning project.  They went to see the show of Roald Dahl's classic novel the BFG at the Lyceum Theatre and then came up with their own creative responses based on three themes; That's not Fair, Visions and Values, and Taking on Giants.  Each group had to generate their own ideas and then work together to see the project to fruition, often with limited resources. Groups performed their presentations to parents and other guests at the end of the third day.

One group created an art installation in the corridor outside Art & Design, inspired in part by Martin Luther King's speech ' I have a dream'. Half of the corridor was poorly lit, with art work and slogans respresenting the nightmarish reality some people face in their daily lives. The other half was brightly lit and highlighted the group's wishes and dreams for an ideal world of equality and justice for all.

Another group used a news report format to look at the lives of asylum seekers coming to the UK to seek safety, and highlighted the inequality between food and water resources of people living in different countries around the world.

Another group tackled giant multi-national food companies, often encouraging us to buy food that is bad for us.  The group showed the difference between this type of food and drink and healthy alternatives made with local or ethically traded produce. Everyone was given a taste of the dishes they'd been creating over the 3 days, and was encouraged to think about their own shopping and eating habits.

One group chose to tell the story of Malala Yousafzai, the girl from Pakistan who was shot by the Taliban for campaiging for the right to education and who recently was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Whilst the pupils were working on their installation, Taliban fighters killed 141 children and teachers in a school in Pakistan, showing the vital and urgent need to protect everyone's right to an education.

One group chose to tackle the 'That's not fair' theme by creating a Wheel of (Mis)/Fortune game show to illustrate the inequalities between rich and poor in this country.  The wheel could land on education, health care, Christmas or life expectancy, and in each case the likely scenario was acted out for both a rich, fortunate contestant and a poor, unfortunate contestant.

It was a very thought-provoking event, and so inspiring to see what the pupils had come up with in only 3 days. Well done to all our S3s!

Cooking up a treat

The S3 xl group harvested some of our school veg recently and made some delicious snacks.

Some of our school-grown beetroot and brilliant multi-coloured carrots!

Preparing the beetroot

Grating carrots to go in the muffins

The beetroot pancake on the left was amazingly sweet - with no added sugar!

Carrot muffins ready to go in the oven

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Currie Apple Fest October 22nd

We had a fantastic Currie Apple Fest on Wednesday, celebrating the coming of autumn and all the different local varieties of apples in season at the moment. 

Pupils have been cooking apple-based dishes in Health & Food Technology classes all week, including apple and cinnamon scones, apple crumble and Normandy apple flan.

The Dolphin Café served up a fantastic special menu including curried apple soup, Normandy apple chicken, cheese and apple strudel and toffee apples which all went down a treat with pupils and staff alike.

 

The foyer was busy with pupils visiting the different stalls and trying out the competitions. Lynsey Pearson in S6 created the highest apple stack at a very impressive 28cm, ably assisted by Mr Walton. Other stacks to be specially commended were Mr Banks (29.5cm but it fell down straight away), Ross Bryce S4 at 26.5cm and Mairi Mitchell S3 at 25cm.

 

 

The winning team....

 

Congratulations also to Fatima Elhag in S6 who won the competition for the longest unbroken apple peel at 83cm, with John Boyle S4 in 2^nd place with 65cm and Adelaide Munro S3 in 3^rd with 55cm.

The apple dangling competition also proved hugely popular, with the first person to successfully take a bite with no hands winning a small prize, and their apple.

 

 

Ms Stuart and the rest of the HFT department were busy juicing apples for everyone to taste fresh apple juice, courtesy of Mr Harley’s mum’s apples. 
 

 

Pupils also had the chance to learn more about the wealth of local apple varieties available in the apple tasting stall.

Many thanks to Abundance Edinburgh who donated lots of apples for our event, Soil Association Scotland for their help and prize donations, and to all the pupils and staff who made the event happen, from designing posters to bringing in apples to running a stall at lunchtime.

We hope to use apples from our own school orchard for a similar event next year!

Food for Life—Currie Community High School continues apace with healthier food

Achieve

One year ago Currie CHS became the first mainland Scottish High School to have achieved the Food for Life (FFL) Catering Mark Bronze Standard for our Dolphin Café school kitchen.  One year on, work continues apace to provide healthier and more varied options for our enthusiastic and hungry pupils!

All Schools

The pilot project at Currie has been so successful that the City of Edinburgh Council has decided that all Edinburgh primary, special and high schools will aim for Bronze standard from October 2014.  This is a huge undertaking for the Council and one which has to be viewed as very positive step for the health and wellbeing of all pupils.  Locally sourced produce will benefit Scottish farms and food providers, animal and fish welfare is greatly improved which has a positive direct impact to our precious environment.

So what’s been happening in Currie of late and what are our plans for the future?  

Ambitious Project Group Meetings

Mairi Mitchell (S3), Matthew Day (S6 leaver) and Peter Sawkins (new S3 member) have been active throughout the past year and have contributed greatly during our regular Food for Life Café Project meetings.  Our meetings are enthusiastically attended by Amanda Stuart our superb Health & Food Technology Teacher, Julie Young, Cook Supervisor and Fiona Buckley, Area Field Trainer our willing and ideas packed catering staff, Joe Hind and Kirsten Leask our informative guides from the Soil Association, Laura Nisbet our Food & Health Development Officer who maintains very positive links to the centre and other schools, Ben Stewart our lead Depute and our initiator and leading light Environmental Projects Worker Rachel Avery.

Yummy Parent Evenings

Of late, Julie and Fiona have taken part in both new S1 and new S2 parents’ evenings with the provision of delicious tasters for parents for which feedback has been hugely positive.  S1 parents have responded positively to the groups suggestion that S1 pupils remain in school at lunchtimes from August to the September break and for the new S1 to sample the various dishes on offer.

Exciting House Assemblies

Mr Stewart successfully led three House Assemblies developed by the group.  He explained to all pupils the background to FFL and the potential impact on health, local business and the environment.  Julie and Fiona provided FFL tasters for pupils.  A giant carrot and a giant cow were in attendance to help promote the message. 

Healthy Vending!

We have installed a healthy vending machine in the main foyer which offers a healthier selection of milks, fruit, water and juices some of which are fair trade.

Busy Bees…………

Julie, Fiona and their team comprising Anne, Marion, Lisa and Jackie have carried out a huge amount of work over the past 12 months to ensure school food meets the Bronze Standard and are gradually moving the school towards Gold Standard.

Lovely Welcoming Furniture

New furniture and breakfast bars with high stools were successfully installed in the café last year.  One set of breakfast bars looks out over the gardens to the rear of the school where pupils can watch birds on our bird feeders.  Goldfinches are spotted regularly! 

Meeting important people!

Mairi Mitchell and Peter Sawkins recently met in Edinburgh with Richard Lochhead, Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment, to talk about their involvement with the project.

Going for Gold………………..

The school is not resting on its laurels, we intend to achieve Gold Standard later this year.  Gold Standard is achieved by meeting a minimum points scoring from a range of attainment options.  We will look to source more organic, free range and sustainably sourced fish, more ingredients from Scotland or elsewhere in the UK supplied from local farms thereby reducing food miles.  We are also looking to make healthy eating easier by reducing meat consumption, minimising salt and cutting plate waste.

For full details of how the standards are met please refer to the following link:

http://www.sacert.org/catering/standards/silverandgold