Kilgraston’s Head writing in TES about primary First Aid skills
TES carries a comment article extolling the virtues of First Aid teaching at senior school level, but asking if the country shouldn’t be trying to teach even younger pupils.
Kilgraston School’s Junior Years pupils learning vital First Aid techniques
Successful entry in international poetry competition
Perthshire girl, Anna G-H, has had poetry success in The Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2019 with her work ‘Celestial Acne’ - which tackled the issue of body image against the backdrop of astrological characters .
Judge Jackie Kay, the national poet laureate of Scotland (the Scots Makar), presented the young writer with her achievement during a smart ceremony in London’s Southbank Centre on 2 October.
“Meeting such an icon of the poetry-world was a huge honour,” said Anna, “having studied her work for an exam it was surreal to meet the actual author.”
Early enthusiast
A keen poet from a young age, Anna has entered other competitions, most recently receiving a commendation for the William Soutar Prize for her poem ‘Autumntide’.
As president of the Kilgraston Poetry Society Anna is a prolific poet who voraciously reads other lyricists. It is her ambition is to be a published poet, while going on to study languages at university.
Frequently inspired by the natural world, Anna is also an accomplished artist. For the Foyle Young Poets competition she won with a piece of work that marked a real departure from her characteristic style and content, which usually takes a more anthropomorphic approach.
“The planets’ surface reminded me of a teenage complexion and I wanted to celebrate that imperfection, looking at it through a prism of positivity.”
Positive influences
Anna’s grandfather made her rethink her perceptions of the ‘dermatology’ of the planets and see them in a whole new light: “His wisdom reassured me during a moment of teenage doubt about my appearance,” said Anna, “his belief in me gave me renewed confidence that anyone can be a giant of the universe.”
Anna discussed her poem with Jackie Kay, who vividly remembered judging the entry: “Jackie immediately remembered the name of my poem and its content as being truly unique. I was so flattered that out of all the thousands of entries mine stuck in her head.”
The event proved a rich-source of networking for Anna who has now set-up a ‘Poet’s Forum’ on which several of the young entrants now share their work and ideas.
Successful entries were selected from over 6,000 poets and over 11,000 poems by judges Raymond Antrobus and Jackie Kay. Writers aged 11-17, from 76 different countries and as far afield as Vietnam, Romania, Mexico and Japan, as well as the four corners of the UK submitted their work.
To read Anna’s entry, click here
Kilgraston School pupil, Anna G-H, during the Foyle Young Poets Award 2019 ceremony at London’s Southbank Centre, October 2019.
Business Women Scotland Awards nominee - Fiona Frew
The final nominee to be featured in our series about the Kilgraston School sponsored Business Women Scotland Awards, is Fiona Frew.
With a wealth of experience in Financial Services, Fiona joined Murphy Wealth last year as an Operations Manager. Murphy Wealth is a Glasgow-based wealth management advisory firm, that provides independent financial advice and creates wealth for businesses. Fiona was promoted within her first 3 months following the prominent impact she made to the firm and is now Murphy Wealth’s first female board director. Fiona has also been integral to the relationship her company has built with Business Women Scotland since partnering with the network. Her efforts were significantly reflected when she was asked to join the committee this year.
Fiona, like many of Kilgraston School’s students, loves all types of sport, especially football, and enjoys supporting charities through fundraising and volunteering. She has also recently joined the ‘Killie Striders’ Kilmarnock running club which keeps her active every week!
Kilgraston School - Business Women Scotland Awards nominee - Suzie McCafferty
Our next featured Business Women Scotland Awards finalist is Suzie McCafferty. Suzie is the CEO of Platinum Wave Franchising – a business consultancy firm that specializes in franchising. It helps entrepreneurs franchise their businesses all over the world and provides a full recruitment service to ensure they find the best staff and franchisees. Suzie has worked in franchising for very nearly 20 years now. Right after university, she opened a refillable ink cartridge shop in Edinburgh. Customers came in and asked if it was a franchise so often that Suzie decided to find out what a franchise was. Fast forward a few years of seriously hard work, taking advice, ignoring advice and Suzie had 70 franchisees in 6 countries from the Middle East to the Caribbean. Suzie offers her advice to Kilgraston School students:
1. What do you enjoy about your work?
Every day I work with very like-minded people with drive and ambition and an entrepreneurial spirit. This pretty much guarantees an element of excitement to each day because things happen at pace, people have great new ideas, or somebody comes to us for advice on a project that no-one has ever tried before. The great thing about franchising is that it involves every business sector you can think of and it can take you all over the world.
2. What are the biggest challenges that they face with their work?
I travel a lot, but I have a thirteen-month old daughter at home who doesn’t care one bit if Mummy has to get up at 4am for the first flight down to London – so handling a full day of meetings on 2 hours sleep is probably my biggest challenge right now! But, because I have such a great team, I’ve been able to reward myself with a four-day working week. It doesn’t always work out, but I’m determined to make sure I get the balance right between business and home life.
3. What advice would they give to high-school aged girls wanted to follow in their footsteps?
My advice to you is to be brave and believe in yourself - if you don’t believe you can do something there’s a good chance you’re right. You will make mistakes, but they are only a problem if you don’t learn something from them, so don’t be afraid to make them! Don’t let your age hold you back either – there are self-made billionaires out there still in their twenties. However, the most important thing is to find something you love doing, that excites you to want to get up every day and do. Why not take a look at franchising – it can be a wonderful way to have your own business and be your own boss? Of course, I would say that!
The award winner will be announced on Friday 8th November 2019.
Business Women Scotland Awards - meet Susan Harkins
Our series on the Business Women Scotland finalists continues with Susan Harkins. She heads up Business Gateway Edinburgh, and over the last 15 years she has led her team to support over 25,000 small businesses to start-up and grow. Susan has a passion for working with SMEs, and has a keen interest in Women Led Businesses, Digital and Social Enterprise.
Susan chairs the Business Gateway National Operational network, is founder of Women in Business Edinburgh network, a member of the Scottish Government Women in Business Action Group, regularly contributes to the Scottish Government Cross party groups on Women in Business and Social Enterprise and is an active member of Scottish Local Authority Economic Development (SLAED) Business Group. She studied her MBA at Edinburgh University and has a Business Counselling diploma.
1. Can you give us a brief description of your business?
Public Sector Business support and advice service. It’s a public service, and the inspiration came from the market failure, start-ups failing within first year of trading.
2. What do you enjoy about your work?
The people, I meet people from all different backgrounds aiming to start and grow their business it is inspiring and no one day is the same
3. What are the biggest work challenges you face?
Not enough time in the day!!
4. What advice would you give to high-school aged girls wanted to follow in their footsteps?
Be confident and strong, and most importantly be yourself.
The winners of this year’s Business Women Scotland will be announced on Friday 8th November.
Business Women Scotland- introducing our second finalist
The Business Women Scotland Awards is taking place this week and Kilgraston is delighted to be sponsoring the new Inspirational Woman category. In the run-up to the event, we’re looking at the nominees for this award and now we’re talking to Celia Hodson. She is a multi award-winning entrepreneur and 2018’s Entrepreneurial Scotland’s ‘Social Entrepreneur of the Year’ and was one of Saltire’s ‘Outstanding Women of Scotland 2019’. The mum-of-three set up Hey Girls in January 2018.
1. Tell us about Hey Girls:
I founded Hey Girls with the aim of eliminating period poverty in the UK. The social enterprise launched in January 2018 with a Buy One Give One business model, and has since donated over 6 million period products to people in need. Hey Girls has been listed in three major supermarkets, secured public sector contracts across Scotland, and run several high-profile campaigns to raise awareness of period poverty. Everything is driven by generating donations to alleviate poverty, but Hey Girls also operates to the highest environmental standards. Our products are plastic-free, sustainably-sourced, and biodegradable.
2. What impact does the organisation have?
Hey Girls actively supports other social enterprises and value-led businesses. We offer paid internships to women of colour, and are currently hiring mums returning to work. Our branding and packaging features real people who are part of the Hey Girls family – partners, employees, volunteers, and friends. Our education is trans-inclusive, and we work closely with our network of over 200 donation partners, partners to support marginalised women, refugee communities, and women of colour, to ensure that everyone has dignified access to high-quality products. No one should have to compromise their health and wellbeing.
3. What was your career path to setting up Hey Girls
I worked in social enterprise for over 15 years with roles including CEO of SSE Australia, Chief Executive of Journeys for Change, Chief Executive of the Suffolk Development Agency, Founder of the Eastern Enterprise Hub and Deputy Chief Executive of Social Enterprise UK.
Inspirational Woman Award Finalists
Kilgraston School is proud to be sponsoring the Inspirational Woman category at this year’s Business Women Scotland Awards.
This week, we are introducing you to the finalists and asking them some questions about their business and the challenges they face. So first up is Rosemary Eribé – founder and CEO of ERIBÉ Knitwear Ltd. Edinburgh born, Rosemary went to Hamburg for an apprenticeship in retail management and it was there, while selling natural fibre clothing, that she became interested in knowing how they were made. She returned to Scotland to obtain a first-class degree at the Scottish College of Textiles. After four years of intense training in print, weave and knitting and with the help of Graduate Enterprise, she started her business without funding, building it up slowly.
After 33 years, Rosemary still travels extensively, visiting customers in Japan, Australia, and around Europe, as well as looking after customers via Skype to reduce their carbon footprint. Eribé aims to be a plastic free business next year.
1. What was your first experience of the industry and how did you get to where you are?
After studying textile design in the Scottish Borders – I always knew I wanted to set up my own business. So, with that in mind I did a crash course in business for 6 months. As part of that I knitted my own new collection and used it to do market research. This was my very first experience of selling. I travelled to London on the overnight bus and tramped the streets of London to find my first customers. I managed to sell to a few retailers. It was a very hard learning curve. Customers don’t always want to pay. I learnt very quickly that the UK was a difficult market with a lot of competition. Most retailers could only place small orders. After doing more market research, I discovered that I could sell to larger customers overseas (first in the USA, then japan). It meant less paperwork and as a one man band, meant I could focus on design and delivery more easily.
2. What would you say is your greatest achievement so far?
One of the most memorable achievements for ERIBÉ was when we won the UKft Award and met Princess Anne. For us, as a small company, it felt as if we were recognised as a serious business. It put us on the map in the UK as a brand with a future. It helped my team and helped our customers too. We are forever grateful for those Awards.
3. What has been the greatest hurdle you have faced in your career and how did you overcome it?
A German distributor placed a large order with us and did not pay despite bank checks etc… Luckily, I only shipped out half the order as a precaution. The day after shipping I received a phone call from another supplier saying they had not been paid and were suspicious of this distributor. I borrowed money from a German friend to keep us afloat. The local newspaper did an article on our mishap and advertised the sale we did to sell everything off quickly.We lost a business year and had to work very hard to recover; all hardships and difficulties have only made us stronger.
4. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
When a serious problem arises: Look for an opportunity – whatever it is. Turn the problem into something positive.
5. What would be your advice to anyone looking to achieve a similar career to you?
Learn by doing and asking questions. Always do market research before starting or trying something out. Never give up, textiles is like being in a boat riding high on a wave and then slowly down again….and then up high once more…. Just like slow moving waves with a few storms inbetween. So you need perseverance and a determination to learn and to succeed. Life is never boring and always very interesting….and you meet so many wonderful people.
Never too young to press ahead with saving a life
Rebecca M, herself a long-term advocate of CPR (Cardiopulmonary resuscitation) techniques and an Order of St John Youth ambassador, conducted the session at the school under watchful eye of Mum, Susan, herself a registered CPR trainer and former Acute Coronary Care nurse.
“Children are fearless and quite able to conduct, or guide an adult through, resuscitation techniques,” said mum. She continued: “Something as technical as using a defibrillator, or accurate chest compression, or as simple as knowing whom to call, or the correct recovery position, can all be vital First Aid response tools children from six or seven are perfectly able to perform.”
Rebecca is passionate about caring for others and wants to become a Human Rights Lawyer: “She’s very determined!” comments Susan, “conducting First Aid training sessions at various Community Groups throughout Perthshire.”
During the last year, Rebecca has raised £650 for the Hebron Eye Hospital in Palestine, run by St John International, together with helping raise money for a new defibrillator to be installed at Kilgraston School.
A healthy attitude to life is very much part of the family ethos: five-year-old Elizabeth is already proficient in the art of correct First Aid procedure and dad, Ian, is an NHS Tayside consultant neurologist and a member of the Order of St John. “First Aid provision is on schools’ curriculum in Wales,” says the doctor, “but sadly not in Scotland.” He continued: “Having the correct practice equipment from St John has allowed us to reach-out to the Perth & Kinross community during the last couple of years and raise awareness of these vital skills.”
The practice of teaching CPR skills in schools was highlighted recently by Dr Ada Ezihe-Ejiofor, a consultant anaesthetist at Guys and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust in London. She pointed out that the UK’s survival rates and lack of First Aid education was very poor compared to European countries: “We are just next-door neighbours to these people. How is it that the Norwegians have a survival rate of one in four, when ours is only around seven? It’s because they have been teaching CPR in schools since 1961. The figures will only change once this becomes more than a one-off.”
If anyone may be interested in inviting St John Scotland to lead a session at their place of work, or other organisation with which they are involved, or would be interested in signing up as a volunteer in P&K, please contact St John Scotland on 0131 556 8711.
Pupils in Kilgraston School’s Junior Years learning valuable First Aid techniques from their classmate, Rebecca M
The autumn 2019 ‘Eco-schools’ feature in Independent School Parent magazine highlights Kilgraston
Independent School Parent magazine - autumn 2019, senior edition - examines the independent sector’s approach to this subject and finds that schools’ ‘global outlook’ - and a sense of responsibility for the world - is firmly embedded within their ethos, with young people proactively embracing the challenges.
Kilgraston pupils’ campaign to reduce ‘fast fashion’, single-use plastic and their research into declining bird populations is highlighted on page 20.
Community awareness at Kilgraston School
A career in accountancy? Women and Business programme continues at Kilgraston
Catriona Macdonald and Ashley Middlemass discussed with pupils the various routes into a career in accountancy and tax together with the options available once you had gained your qualification: “The world really does open up to you,” Miss Middlemass told girls, “once you’re a CA, there are endless possibilities.”
Girls learnt that it wasn’t necessary to study accountancy at university and, in fact, completing your CA exams was not at all dependent on having previously studied the subject: “I completed a Science degree at Dundee University,” said Miss Macdonald, “moving into accountancy represented a significant career change but one that I am very glad to have made.”
Pupils learnt about the progression through the industry and the support offered by governing body, the Institute of Chartered Accountants Scotland. Miss Middlemass told girls: “Whether you choose to stay in practice accountancy, within a specialist firm, or move to an industry that particularly interests you, for example retail or engineering, you will always have the support and network offered by ICAS.”
Summer internships, school-leaver programmes and graduate pathways were all discussed, with pupils asking many very well-informed questions: “It was clear to see that the girls have thought very carefully about their career and the opportunities available to them,” commented Miss Macdonald.
Relevant industry information and contact links were passed-out with several of the girls immediately exploring the various websites. Miss Middlemass, who studied Accounting and Finance at Edinburgh University, completed an eight-week summer internship with Saffery during her third year at university: “Having finished my studies I was asked to return to the firm to start a training contract and, after three years, am now a qualified Senior. I just love my job, there really is no such thing as a ‘typical day!'”
Kilgraston School would like to thank the ladies for giving up their time to join the pupils and delivering such an excellent presentation.
