Edinburgh School Sports – The Himalayan Centre for Arts and Culture – Moby on display – National Trust for Scotland sailing to Leith! – Central Library tonight
More than 1,000 Edinburgh primary school pupils will be competing in one of the largest ever school sports events in the capital.
The P6 pupils are taking part in the Games @ THE HUB event at Forrester High School Community Sports Hub on Wednesday 12 June 2013. The Edinburgh Reporter was at Forrester only this morning and what a wonderful modern building it is!
Clyde, the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games mascot, will also be making an appearance at the beginning of the day to welcome all the pupils.
This is the first event of its kind delivered by Active Schools and its purpose is to promote sport participation in the build-up toGlasgow 2014.
The pupils will be competing in 10 different sports which include hockey, football, rugby, basketball, netball, gymnastics, cricket, volleyball, boccia, and tennis.
In addition to the pupils taking part, over 50 volunteers from the Young Ambassador programme – which is delivered by sportscotland in partnership with the Youth Sport Trust – and school sports leaders from across the city will be lending a hand to ensure everything runs smoothly on the day.
Jodi McGinty, a platinum Young Ambassador and torch bearer for the Olympics, will be presenting the shields to the winning teams. Jodi is also on the Young People’s Sport Panel, which is led by sportscotland in partnership with Young Scot.
One of the events is the Paralympic Sport Boccia which 10 of the teams will be trying out. Boccia is related to bowls and was originally designed to be played by people with cerebral palsy but now includes athletes with other disabilities.
Primary schools will be sending teams of 10 pupils in P6, both boys and girls, to take part in a competitive session in the morning and then a participative event in the afternoon. These sessions will be run by Children & Families’ Sports Development Officers, National Governing Bodies and local community clubs.
Active Schools hope this will be the start of an annual event. Each year, primary schools across the city will be able to take part in the competitive session of each sport where the winner will be presented with a shield.
Councillor Cathy Fullerton, Vice Convener for Education, said: “Glasgow 2014 presents us with a fantastic opportunity to promote a variety of sports across the Capital and this event is a great way of promoting this.
“I’m going along on the day to see everyone taking part and am delighted that so many primary school pupils are getting the opportunity to experience Games @ THE HUB. The facilities at Forrester/St Augustine’s are second to none and I know everyone will have a great time.
“Hopefully many of the children will be inspired to take up some of the sports outside of school and I want to thank everyone involved especially all the volunteers.”
Jacqueline Lynn, sportscotland’s Head of School and Community Sport, said: “The Games @ THE HUB event is sure to be an action-packed day of sport and physical activity and it will by wonderful to see so many pupils taking part.
“We are committed at sportscotland to increasing the opportunities for children and young people to participate in school sport, and significant progress is being made through our Active Schools Network and Community Sport Hub initiative.
“The Active Schools team in Edinburgh has done an excellent job in organising this event and we commend them for their efforts.”
***
This afternoon The Edinburgh Reporter has been invited along to the ground breaking ceremony at the Himalaya Centre on Great Junction Street.
Dr Suresh Chalise (HE Nepalese Ambassador to the UK), Mr Humza Yousaf (MSP, Minister for External Affairs & International Development), Mark Lazarowicz (MP for Edinburgh North & Leith), Adam McVey (Councillor Leith Ward), Chas Booth (Councillor Leith Ward) and a variety of VIP special guests will also attend.
Mrs Sunita Poddar, Honorary Consul General of Nepal in Scotland, will present the key to the property prior to the ground breaking ceremony to the special guests with photographs taken of the event. After the ceremony the guests will be invited to view and tour the property.
The centre received a substantial grant from The Scottish Government’s Climate Challenge Fund earlier this year.
Himalayan Centre Edinburgh Ltd’s Leith Community Climate Change project will support a community initiative to establish a low-carbon, sustainable centre for arts and culture, repurposing a disused B-listed building in Great Junction Street, Leith. Energy efficient measures will be installed when the building is renovated, while the second year of the project will see a Community Engagement Officer and five Climate Champions focusing on a community climate initiative. This initiative will work with local people to reduce the carbon footprint of their daily lives. £255,837
Their website explains:-“The Himalayan Centre for Arts and Culture will be a new, vibrant and exciting venue in the heart of Leith, where people can come together and share the rich cultural heritage of the many diverse communities in the area. The Himalayan Centre will be a faith-neutral, multicultural community asset, welcoming people from all backgrounds and ethnicity. It will provide a venue for performing and visual arts, cultural celebrations, a meeting point for local communities. With the help of an award from the Scottish Government’s Climate Challenge Fund, the Himalayan Centre seeks to be a model for energy efficiency and will promote strategies for low-carbon living.”
We hope to bring you photos and video later!
***
The skull of a sperm whale found beached on the banks of the River Forth is to go on permanent display at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh from tomorrow 7 June 2013.
The 40ft whale known affectionately as ‘Moby’ captured the heart of the nation after becoming disorientated and stranded while trying to swim inland.
Rescuers, including BP tugs and the pleasure boat Maid of the Forth, tried desperately to push him back out to sea. Unfortunately their efforts were in vain and sadly Moby beached and died on the foreshore at Airth on 31 March 1997 – the first sperm whale to be stranded in the Forth in over 200 years.
Following his death Moby’s skeleton was placed in the care of National Museums Scotland’s Natural Science collections, which is home to several million specimens, including one of the largest whale collections in the world.
Dr Andrew Kitchener, Principal Curator of Vertebrates, National Museums Scotland said:
‘Moby’s plight truly captured the heart of the nation and his skull is a dramatic and enticing specimen which represents the fantastic natural science collections we hold here’.
The one-and-a-half ton skull is displayed in the recently refurbished Grand Gallery at the National Museum of Scotland alongside other fascinating artifacts including the Cockcroft-Walton generator- developed at the University of Cambridge in the early 1930s to accomplish the first artificial splitting of the atom; a 4-metre long Tahitian feast bowl and a statue of James Watt which used to be in Westminster Abbey.
***
The National Trust for Scotland will sail into Leith on 7 June 2013, as the final port of call on their 60th anniversary celebration cruise.
Carrying 400 passengers as well as a clan of well-loved Scottish musicians and experts on history and nature, the liner Quest for Adventure will dock at Leith’s Cruise Liner Terminal marking the end of the diamond anniversary Celtic Connections cruise.
Cruise Director Elaine Bruges said:- “We are immensely proud to celebrate the success of the Trust’s cruises over all these years and delighted to be sailing into Scotland’s capital as our final port. For 60 years the cruises have provided invaluable funds for the Trust’s conservation work.
The National Trust for Scotland cruises first set sail in 1953, onboard TSS Lady Killarney. The Trust’s Gardens Committee organised the inaugural cruise in order to offer the charity’s members and supporters the chance to visit some of Scotland’s remote gardens that would otherwise ‘entail difficult and tedious journeys by road.’ Since then, the Trust have continued to run annual cruises to Scottish islands and coasts, and to other parts of Europe, such as Svalbard, Iceland, France and Russia.
Ms Bruges continues: “The greatest thing about our cruises is that they bring people from all over the world together. It’s that spirit which has kept them afloat for 60 years and that’s what I hope carries on into the next 60 years of sailing.”
This year’s Celtic Connections cruise travelled to the Isle of Man, Brittany, Normandy and Galicia to explore the Celtic heritage that links Scotland to the west coast of Europe. Passengers onboard journeyed from Barbados, the USA, Australia and Germany to join the cruise, as well as the UK and Ireland.
Travelling onboard the anniversary cruise was Professor Roger Crofts, founder of Scottish Natural Heritage, and writer and broadcaster Billy Kay, who has written extensively on the wine trading links between Scotland and France. In the evenings, passengers were entertained by husband and wife duo accordionist Wayne Robertson and violinist/fiddler Claire Telford, who first met when performing on a National Trust for Scotland cruise
***
Tonight at the Central Library at 7:00pm till 8:00pm. Local celebrity cookery writer Mary Contini talks to Pru Irvine about her her writing, and all things culinary. Ticket details here.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
