You may remember that at Prizegiving in June 2007 we announced that for the foreseeable future our charity partner will be Place2Be. Over the course of the year, Place2Be has provided mentoring and counselling training for some of our Lower Sixth Formers, who have been visiting Balgreen Primary School on a weekly basis to mentor young children. Staff training has also been provided. An extension to this partnership will be the setting up of a base for Place2Be within Pringle for 2½ days of the week as of September 2008, and Place2Be staff will be visiting us from the beginning of the Summer Term. This whole venture is about further developing in our pupils a sense of emotional intelligence and emotional literacy. Naturally, I am overjoyed that our senior pupils are receiving plaudits for their work at Balgreen. We were delighted to welcome 80 young children from Balgreen to Merchiston for a fun afternoon in the last week of term, which was intended as a treat for them. What is so salutary is that the budgets at Balgreen do not stretch to funding reward outings and thus we were particularly pleased to provide this for the youngsters and have our senior pupils look after them for the afternoon. Alex Anderson and I attended a Place2Be Fundraising Dinner at the Macdonald Holyrood Hotel, Edinburgh, and Merchiston was mentioned in the Place2Be brochure as a partner and supporter.
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