A dedicated Renfrew teacher has earned a top award for her efforts educating pupils on sustainability and making a difference in the community.
Seonaid Forrester, a biology and science teacher at Renfrew High School, was highly commended in the Practitioner category at the Learning for Sustainability awards.
The Education Scotland Learning for Sustainability awards, held in partnership with the Daily Record, recognise the amazing achievements of Scotland’s people and the settings, schools and communities that have demonstrated passion and commitment to building a socially-just sustainable and equitable world.
Seonaid leads a wide variety of learning activities and programmes which are starting to embed a deeper understanding of the global development goals across the school and with learners.
There is now a commitment to every lesson in the school focusing on a global development goal in some way.
The projects also have a strong emphasis on giving learners the opportunity to take action and learners are being encouraged to make a positive difference to their community.
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Seonaid explained: "The award was for the work I do embedding sustainability into our curriculum. Young people have learned about sustainability goals and the lessons have a particular focus on the actions young people can take to improve the world around them relating to the climate or poverty or hunger or equality.
"Young people have a voice and should be empowered to help shape the world around them.
"They should have the skills and confidence to make a difference and learning for sustainability provides a framework for them to do that.
"They are currently working on a COP26 challenge that allows them to think of a solution to a problem that will be discussed at the conference relating to the five themes of COP26.
"This allows them to actively work together and showcase their ideas.
"The world around us is changing and the way we live and the jobs our young people will do will be different to what to did in the past. In order to fix the problems that have been created we need to educate and empower our young people so they are prepared for the world of work which focuses on being more sustainable.
"There are so many things people can do but one thing at a time is a great start. As this should be a long term change the options could be switching your diet to more plant based; walking or taking the bike/bus/train on a journey you'd normally take the car; buy less fast fashion and more recycled items. Whatever fits in and can be changed long term for individuals would be best."
Nominations for the six categories - which includes winners and highly commended awards - closed on 12 September and were for recognition across the following areas:
Community Learning and Development Award, Educational Supporter Award, Leadership Award, Practitioner Award, Youth Award and Learning Community Award. The winners were announced by the Daily Record last week.
Congratulating the participants and winners, HMI chief inspector and chief executive of Education Scotland Gayle Gorman said: "It is right to celebrate the hard work and success taking place in Scottish education.
"The Learning for Sustainability Awards have given us an opportunity to celebrate the amazing determination and effort that takes place throughout the year, but especially in this past year.
“More than ever, our education professionals and learners have been inspirational in their efforts to ensure every child receives their entitlement to Learning for Sustainability so as to help build a socially-just, sustainable and equitable society.
“The eyes of the world are on Scotland just now and everyone nominated deserves to be a Learning for Sustainability ambassador for our country. Education Scotland would like to congratulate all the individuals, schools and communities nominated for their invaluable work.”
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