Pupils from Muirhead Community School and Marr College have been announced as the 2006 recipients of the Agnes Davies Awards for Citizenship. 

The annual awards were established following Councillor Davies’s death to commemorate her significant contribution to education that was made by her during her professional career as a teacher, a head teacher and later as a Councillor.

Councillor Pam Paterson, the Convener of the Council’s Lifelong Learning Committee invited the award winners to attend her Committee so that she could congratulate them in person.  Speaking about the recipients Councillor Paterson said:  “I would like to congratulate those pupils who have received a 2006 Agnes Davies Award for Citizenship.  The recipients have clearly demonstrated that young people care about others and are willing to donate their ideas, time, skills and energy to make a big difference to the lives of people much less fortunate than themselves.  They are a credit to their schools and their families.”

The Agnes Davies Awards for Citizenship are presented annually to individuals or groups of pupils who have contributed significantly to citizenship within their school or community.  There are two awards, one for primary pupils and one for secondary pupils. 

Pupils have to be nominated for an award and be able to demonstrate one or more of the following:

• Involvement in active participation in the life of their school.
• Involvement in environmental or community projects and activities.
• Involvement in voluntary work within the community. 

This year nominations were received from primary, secondary, special and community groups highlighting a wide range of activities and active involvement in promoting citizenship both locally, nationally and internationally.

An Education, Culture and Lifelong Learning  (ECCL) department team met to consider the 2006 entries and selected those who would receive an award.

The winner of the primary group award is Muirhead Community School for their work with Ayrshire Chernobyl Children’s Lifeline, a charity that was established to provide children affected by the disaster with vital medical and dental care.  The Ayrshire Chernobyl Children’s Lifeline enables children to visit Scotland where they can enjoy fresh air and eat uncontaminated food. 

The pupils at Muirhead Community School have established a permanent link with the visiting children from Belarus with this long term project being undertaken by the whole school, demonstrating a global approach to citizenship.  Every pupil made an active contribution to help make the Belarus children’s visit to Scotland a memorable one.

Pupils arranged a four day itinerary for the visitors from Belarus and developed it to cater for the needs of all the children while they were in South Ayrshire by:

• Collecting information on specific places of interest.
• Booking and paying for events.
• Arranging transport and permission slips.
• Considering time implication and risk assessment.
• Evaluating and changing activities as required.

The pupils at Muirhead Community School have also been awarded the Scottish Education Award for Active Citizenship in recognition of their work with children affected by the Chernobyl disaster.

Mhairi Cowan, an S4 pupil from Marr College, received the Secondary School group award for her considerable charity work with the Smiles Foundation.  The Foundation is a charity that works mainly in Romania and Armenia to help abandoned babies and gypsy children.  In addition they arrange delivery of food parcels and medical packages to assist those in need.

Mhairi has undertaken a number of fundraising activities to help the children of Romania and Armenia including:

• Organising a visit by the Romanian Children’s Choir.
• Helping to organise a ‘non uniform’ day at her school which raised £700.
• Setting up a stall in Marr College to raise funds.

Councillor Pam Paterson, Lifelong Learning Convener presented Mhairi Cowan, S4 pupil at Marr College with a plaque to mark her achievement.

Councillor Pam Paterson, Lifelong Learning Convener presented Jo-Anne Jackson (left), P7 Muirhead Community School and Victoria Campbell (right), P7 Muirhead Community School with a plaque to mark the achievement of their school.

November 2006