Pupils at Trinity High School have been honoured for their hard work and volunteering.
For the local youngsters were honoured at the Saltire Awards, as part of the seventh year that youth volunteering awards have been held in South Lanarkshire.
The Saltire Awards are a new volunteering recognition programme designed for young people aged 12 to 25 who are engaged in volunteering in Scotland. The awards are supported by the Scottish Government and replaced the MV Awards from April 1 last year.
The awards mirror the previous MV Awards, retaining the 50, 100 and 200 hour awards with the addition of a Challenge award for one-off tasters or events, new certificates for 10, 25 and 500 hours of volunteering and finally the Summit award which is a nominated award. Recipients of the Summit award are decided by a panel of Saltire Ambassadors made up of young people who have already achieved their 200 hour certificate.
At the presentation, Trinity pupil Amy Sinclair said: “Trinity High School, Support for Learning Department, offers young people with a learning difficulty, in both the primary and secondary sector, the opportunity to work with a sixth year volunteer.
“The sixth year is linked to a pupil who has an identified learning difficulty and initially will support the pupil with basic tasks like, using their homework diary and getting their bag organised.
“The sixth year befriends the pupil and finds out what subjects they are worried about and then supports them in these classes.
“Some pupils have basic literacy difficulties and find reading and spelling a struggle. The sixth years would support them using specific computer software specially designed to raise attainment in literacy and numeracy. I was very interested in this as I didn’t know that these programmes even existed. Whilst monitoring my pupil, it became clear to me that these programmes provide not only knowledge in a fun way but also gave the pupils more confidence.
“Sixth years who were thinking of teaching found this to be a real eye opener and would be invaluable to them in the future. I myself am going through career choices and looking at courses and future job possibilities and discovered to my surprise a love for teaching. I enjoyed helping improve- well not only improve- but motivating- younger pupils- so that they know that with a little bit of time and hard work they can achieve their goals.
“Other facilities that the Support for Learning Department provide in my school, with help from the sixth years, is the lunch time homework club. This gives the opportunity to any pupil from S1 – S4 who needs a hand with homework or class work. They will be supported by the range of expertise provided by the sixth years who have went though it all before. This also gives the sixth year’s time to discuss certain things and support each other, which ultimately leads to us being able to give the pupil the best support possible.
“Many of the sixth years have developed a new found taste for helping people and have now moved on to different tasks such as cadets, volunteering in charity shops, providing support in primary schools and volunteering to assist with young carers.
“I myself personally know how much work the staff in the Support for Learning Department do to help these pupils. I think that their work is unrecognised throughout the school, as before I went into the department I had no idea that there were such a range of resources on offer. I am happy that I have helped make a contribution to this programme and I hope many others will do so too, when they become sixth years.”
Trinity High School Challenge awards were presented to: Declan Cairney, Megan McSalley, Rachel Barr, Laura Shaw, Caitlin McLaren, Anna Cowan, Kayleigh Friel, Michelle Collins, Jo Tara Scanlan and Lauren Hyland.
Ten hour awards went to: Charlotte Wylie, Megan Smith, Morgan Polockus, Laura Smith, Caitlin Brodie, Teji Sunny, Danielle McGeady, Lauren Mullan, Kimberley Gallagher, Darren Hampson and Laura Kane.
Twenty-five hour awards went to: Rachel Murdoch, Danielle Gillespie, Ross McKenna, Aaron Smith and April Robertson.
Fifty hour awards went to: Emma O’Neill, Celine Smith, Erin Gillies and Morgan McGregor.
One hundred hour awards went to: Megan Morcombe, Mairi McLaughlin, Amy Sinclair, Meagan Caldwell, Kirsty Hunt, Anthony Friel and Nicole Flynn.
A two hundred hour award was given to Sarah Olulode.
