Plenary, 07 Nov 2007
Meeting date: Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Official Report
433KB pdf
Time for Reflection
Good afternoon. The first item of business this afternoon is time for reflection. Our time for reflection leader is Marian Docherty, who is the headteacher of St David's high school in Dalkeith.
Marian Docherty (St David's High School, Dalkeith):
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. It is my pleasure to talk to you about a project we have been involved in for the past few years. We call it working for our world, or WOW.
St David's high school welcomes pupils from across the world. That is one reason why we wanted to work with Bangalore in India. There is an amazing organisation there called the Association of People with Disability, or APD. It works with disabled young people in the poorest slums in Bangalore. It offers education, adapts housing and runs training courses that lead to real jobs.
Why did we decide to work with APD? First, we claim to be a Catholic school, based on gospel values. We should show that in how we serve other people. When our pupils heard about APD, they were very keen to get involved, so we set up the WOW project four years ago. Pupils of all ages manage the project and this is what we have done.
We raised a lot of money through sporting events, pop idol contests, ceilidhs, leg waxing and staff pantomimes. We then got support from someone with serious money, Sir Tom Farmer. He agreed to match pound for pound what we raised for APD in 2005. We raised £20,000. He got a shock, but he kept his promise. With that £40,000, APD set up a year-long vocational course and took its education programmes to 150 villages. Our pupils at St David's are very proud of that achievement.
We now study Indian themes in subjects such as music, geography and religious education. We are also learning from Bangalore about how to conserve our environment in Dalkeith. We have set up a videoconferencing centre in the school and have had several video links with Bangalore. That means that our pupils living in Mayfield or Penicuik can plan events with students in India.
Perhaps the most memorable part of the project so far has been our trips to India. Senior pupils and staff have visited Bangalore twice and have seen the difference that the WOW project has made to real people. Our pupils have said that the visits have changed their lives. We have seen our pupils gain confidence through running committees, preparing business plans and organising conferences. We have also had a lot of fun. This is an exciting time for Scotland, as we welcome people from across the world to our communities. I hope that the WOW project in St David's has helped our pupils to respect and value other cultures and to become good future citizens of Scotland.