APPROACH TO COMMUNITY SERVICE/CHARITIES

Community Service

A sense of being part of the wider community is a key issue in the education of boys at Merchiston. How this is achieved is always under development, but central to this has been the Community Service Programme, which has been integral to the Lower Sixth experience at Merchiston for a number of years. Through this programme our senior students are afforded the opportunity to gain experience of working with people and organisations outwith the Merchiston School environment.

As an example of this students have been involved with Saint Catherine's Homeless Project in the city, where they have helped prepare and serve meals and deliver goods from our Harvest Festival. Students also engage with the elderly in our community through visits to a local retirement home. Pupils have involved themselves in a number of gardening projects: for example, one such project helped develop the facilities of a retirement home for ex-servicemen and another provided valuable help in constructing a walkway for a garden in Firhill Day Centre. A long-standing project has been with Braidburn School (formerly Greysmill) where two or three of our students spend time helping the pupils, who have a range of learning difficulties, in class and with other activities. In recent years we have developed ties with some of our local primary schools and our students have offered some classroom support, ranging from Christmas card making to helping with Maths.

We are always looking to expand our Community Service Programme, which, although somewhat restricted due to the nature of our school day, nonetheless provides an excellent opportunity for the students to gain invaluable skills and experiences of a variety of working and living situations which they would, in all probability, otherwise not experience.

Charity

It is extremely important for our pupils to gain some understanding of the world in which we live, a world where two thirds of the population live in poverty. Our boys live in a very comfortable world and, without imposing a sense of guilt, we encourage them to see where our privileged status and resources can help improve the situation of others. Charitable giving, both of time and money, has therefore been key to our understanding of human activity, driven by the Christian ideal of 'love your neighbour'.

How this is achieved is through a variety of fund raising events, such as the Charity Ball, sponsored walks and the like, and also our weekly offering collected at the Sunday act of worship. Boys, parents and visitors can be most generous in their giving and we are able to raise between £90 to £400 at the weekly Sunday Service. This money is given to a variety of charities both here and abroad.

Our longstanding contact abroad has been with a Leprosarium in India, Saint Luke's, in the Southern tip of India, through a former pupil who spent part of his gap year there. Here, up to three hundred men, women and children live and work, both lepers and the children of lepers. We have raised funds for 8 feed days and sponsor two children through their education. Connected with this is our involvement with a Handicapped Boys’ Home, in the same district, and we have similarly sent funds to help with their work.

On a yearly basis we support a number of organisations with fund giving, such as the Sick Kids Edinburgh, Cancer Research, Saint Catherine's Homeless Project, Rock Trust, Sightsavers International, UNICEF, Shelter, and the Malcolm Sargent Cancer Fund for Children. We also give to many others as funds permit.

Our charitable giving, like our Community Service, is central to the ethos of our School. We do not do these things for publicity, nor for personal gain, but as a reflection of our values born out of the Christian faith, but values which are common to all humanity.