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

One World Show!

This lunchtime we had an amazing One World Show in the assembly hall. Over 180 pupils and staff came to watch. There was an exhibition of art work from all years S1 to S6. 

S3 mirror and clock designs made out of recycled materials

Senior fashion designs inspired by the natural world

S4 corsets inspired by nature and made using recycled materials

S4-S6 eco architecture. Sustainability focussed and nature-inspired....

John and Jenna were our comperes for the event

Two S1 classes had African dance lessons in PE today, alongside live drumming, and some brave volunteers gave a public performance of the Kpanlogo dance from Ghana that they'd learnt

Elaine O'Donnell read her powerful poem 'What is?' that she submitted for the John Byrne Award competition

The Junior Drama club did short sketches they'd developed on the theme 'Its Not Fair!'

More from the Junior Drama club

The Fair Trade group did a presentation on why Fair Trade matters

Pupils modelled some amazing fashion designs inspired by our world and nature, created for Higher and Advanced Higher. 

Many thanks to everyone involved in making it a fantastic event!

Holocaust Memorial Day

Holocaust Memorial Day was commemorated at school today with a very powerful assembly for all S5 and S6 pupils, put together by pupils and staff. Holocaust Memorial Day is a chance to remember the millions who were killed during the Holocaust and also all those whose lives have been lost or marked by genocide since then and to this day.The theme of this year is ‘Keep the memory alive”.

 

Sophia Purcell and Robbie Forbes spoke movingly about their recent trip to Auschwitz. Haris Brder gave a very powerful speech about his own family’s experience of the recent Bosnian conflict.  Rachel Birrell read out a prize-winning poem she had written in P7 for Holocaust Memorial Day ‘Because we were Jews’.  Catherine Park and Lynsey Pearson gave accomplished performances on the piano, and Anna Schmidt sang an unaccompanied version of ‘Tears in Heaven’.

We had also had two visiting speakers, facilitated by the Edinburgh Interfaith Association. Irina Winfield spoke movingly of her great grandmother’s experiences in the 1915 Armenian Genocide and a music producer from Rwanda, Patrick, sang a powerful song in his own language of hopes for peace after the genocide in Rwanda in 1994.

At the end of the assembly, everyone lifted up an image of a burning candle in silent commemoration and remembrance.

“A light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.”

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

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!

Standing up for human rights

Today at break and lunch the Amnesty International group started their first campaign to stand up for human rights. Senior prefects gave up one of their human rights to show everyone else what it would be like - they gave up their identity. Pupils found at more in core RME lessons this week.   The group hopes to get the whole school involved sometime after Christmas, look out for more information! The group meets every Monday at 1pm in RME2, new members always welcome.

FairAchiever Award

Great news – the school has just been awarded ‘FairAchiever’ Award by the Fair Trade Foundation!

This is in recognition of all the work that we have done over the last three years to teach and research Fair Trade issues as well as providing opportunities for pupils to take action to promote Fair Trade. Pupils have sold snacks in school, served Fair Trade teas and coffees at community events and many other initiatives. Thanks to all the pupils and staff who have helped!