- Drumbrae Leisure Centre getting a summer makeover
- Fringe Schools Posters Competition 2016
- Tynecastle Nursery School
- Historic Environment Scotland fund open now
- Craigroyston Pupils get work experience at Hopetoun
Drumbrae Leisure Centre is getting a well-deserved £1 million plus refurbishment during summer 2016 and will be closing its doors from 10pm on Friday, 17 June, with an estimated re-opening date of 3 October.
During the refurbishment, an alternative fitness class timetable will be happening, using other Edinburgh Leisure centres across the city and customers looking to swim can choose between Ainslie Park Leisure Centre, Dalry and Glenogle Swim Centres.
Updates on the refurbishment are available on a dedicated webpage on the Edinburgh Leisure website.
The winners of the 2016 Edinburgh Festival Fringe Schools Posters Competiton will be announced by the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society’s Chief Executive Shona McCarthy, Virgin Money’s Andrew Nicholson and The Beano cartoonist Nigel Parkinson at a special prize-giving ceremony and exhibition launch at Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh, hosted by comedian Susan Morrison.
Presentations will be made by Chief Executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society
Shona McCarthy to the overall winner and two runners up.
A special exhibition featuring the poster designs of the overall winner, two overall runners up,14 regional winners and 154 shortlisted entries will run at Dynamic Earth, a new venue for the exhibition, from today until 29 August 2016 when the festival ends. Entry is free of charge.
The Fringe Schools Poster Competition supported by Virgin Money is one of Scotland’s longest-running outreach projects. It was first launched in 1980. It’s open to all five to sixteen year olds in Scotland and entrants are asked to create a poster design reflecting their interpretation of the Fringe.
Every year, the winning design becomes the official poster for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and used on a range of merchandise available in the Fringe shop and online.
The council plans to replace Tynecastle Nursery School but these plans are being affected by Heart of Midlothian FC who are redeveloping tieir main stand.
The present nursery building is very poor and near the end of its life and so a £1.2 million replacement is needed. But the land on which the nursery school is currently built is now required by the football club for their new stand.
Hearts have declared that they will stay in their home ground at Tynecastle for the long term and they need to increase capacity to 20,000 so that it can host European games.
The plans also involve a building leased to Hearts which was formerly an Adult Training Centre and which is now worth an estimated £260,000.
The end result of the discussions with Hearts is that new permanent nursery facility will be provided by Hearts to the council’s specifications and will then be leased to the council for a nominal rent. The cost to the council will be £500,000 less than it would have been and they will be able to rent a space for a temporary nursery at a rent of £1.
As part of the overall package public realm will be improved at McLeod Street.
The Education committee meets later this morning to discuss the proposals.
Historic Environment Scotland have £10 million available to historic communities across Scotland. The funding is for local authorities who wish to invest in their historic environment and stimulating economic growth at the same time.
This is the seventh time the funding has been on offer meaning that HES have contributed £45 million to over 56 projects across Scotland.
Dr David Mitchell, Acting Chief Executive for Historic Environment Scotland, said: “Our investments the length and breadth of Scotland both support and inspire people and communities to utilise their heritage for the future. What we aim to do is to facilitate decision making at a local level with funding allocated to priority projects which have a key focus on the wider contribution that the historic environment brings to communities – with benefits ranging from helping to breathe life back into high streets, providing employment opportunities or acting as a tourism driver.
“Since we launched Conservation Area Regeneration Scheme (CARS), many towns and villages across Scotland have benefited from this funding, from Orkney to the Borders.
“Releasing another round of £10 million funding will give more areas than ever before the opportunity to benefit from this investment.”
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[mc4wp_form id=”169103″]Hopetoun Estate in West Lothian is providing young students with the opportunity to put learning into practice as part of the Estate’s outreach programme that aims to support ‘hands on’ learning in outdoor spaces.
Ten students from Craigroyston Community High School, working towards National 4 Landscape Gardening (Rural Skills), took part in a two-day session, which focused on building practical skills.
Building on what the young people had been taught in school, the S5 and S6 pupils worked with Hopetoun Estate staff to replace broken slabs, re-tension wire fences, repair gates, fences and path edges and clean a blocked field drain outlet.
Aiming to build on the pupils’ employability skills, teachers and the Hopetoun Estate team worked in partnership to pass on practical skills, instill confidence and showcase the value of team working.
It is hoped that through the combination of classroom learning and practical experience, the students will gain the skills and the qualifications to secure employment once they leave school.
Commenting on the experience, Patricia McLeod, Craigroyston Community High School teacher said: “The Hopetoun Estate team are really encouraging, approachable and knowledgeable. The students really valued the experience and I know would welcome the chance to return to this beautiful and welcoming estate.”
Hopetoun Estate provides numerous opportunities for students to visit the estate to learn about food, farming and rural life including working with the Royal Highland Education Trust, a charity that aims to show children where their food comes from.
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