Celebrating Character Development

On Wednesday Lenzie Academy Community Engagement (LACE) held its third annual Celebration of Character. It is, ( like Radio 4's "sorry I haven't a clue") the antidote to Prize Giving ceremonies, inasmuch as it is organised for the students by the students and staff play a very minimal role.

Any pupil with any kind of wider achievement award is invited to attend with their family to watch them being presented with that award in a formal ceremony. When I first took the position of Principal Teacher of Curriculum Support (wider achievement) in August 2017, I looked for ways that the formal curriculum could be supported and took our school values - (now summarised as ambition and inclusion) , to create an #iwill pledge with the Step up to Serve charity. This was that Lenzie Academy would encourage as many pupils as possible to work "with others and for others". The #iwill Scotland campaign is now overseen by Youthlink Scotland and we have recognised the move to the Power of Youth Charter through continuing to focus on our pledge in everything we do.

Having been joined by Caroline Shirreffs a youth development worker within EPower of Youth Charter through continuing to focus on our pledge in everything we do.

Having been joined by Caroline Shirreffs a youth development worker within EDC in 2018 we set to develop LACE from the very traditional base of S6 students volunteering in the community in their non class contact time. We used both Saltire Awards for volunteering and Youth Scotland's SCQF rated Youth Awards, as a way of cross accrediting much of the wider achievement that had heretofore been going on largely unrecognised. We did not invent the wheel of youth social action with LACE, but rather through our brand and hashtag, we gave it a momentum. This empowered young people to recognise, analyse and evaluate their own personal journeys towards developing their character within the school and wider community.

In 2018 we held a Big Lunch with the support of the Eden Project where our community partners and parents came together to share food before watching our young people being awarded, for the hours they had spent volunteering in school and in the local community. By 2019 the potential award winners were getting larger and the organisation of it becoming more complex and so we made the decision to move the ceremony to the end of August so that any senior pupils pupils who wanted to receive their awards could return to school before the demands of University, College or the world of work took up their time. We also decided to make it a weekday evening rather than a weekend day as the local festivals kept coinciding which, took both volunteers and their family away from being possible attendees. It was a small but very positive experience for everyone that came and we hoped this could become an annual event. However both the pandemic and personal tragedies prevented us from repeating the exercise until 2023.

By this time our development of wider achievement within the school had begun to take shape. We had experienced our first Platinum Youth Achievement award and were beginning to see a small but steady trickle of pupils moving from the easily accessible Dynamic Youth Award to the slightly more challenging Bronze Youth Achievement Award. However the Silver and Gold defeated us, as there were just too many challenges and too long a time commitment for our senior pupils to undertake them easily, alongside the increasing demands of their formal curriculum.

We had a small self selected group of S5 pupils who had decided to challenge themselves to work towards Platinum as they all were involved in youth groups in the community and had amassed thousands of volunteering hours between them. Caroline spent many hours discussing the way they could create their first challenge " The Personal Development Plan" over their summer holiday. This group were as keen as mustard and we branded them #The Personal Development Plan" over their summer holiday. This group were as keen as mustard and we branded them #TeamPlatinum , encouraging them to work together to reflect on their past achievements and their own individual short and long term goals. They created the format for the reprised 2023 Celebration of Character and it was a huge success, enjoyed by students and their families alike.

The interaction between the new S6 pupils and the gang of 4 S4 students ( who having compered, stage managed and catered at their Youth Philanthropy Initiative Grand Final in the previous May, were keen to continue those roles to a much wider audience) was a lovely experience. The maturity of the S6 enabled the S4 to grow into their roles, safe in the knowledge that Team Platinum had their back and could gently but firmly guide them away from being too outrageous in what they did and said.

The number and range of students attending was amazing and the opportunity for community networking in the early hospitality stage of the evening, meant that families could meet up with organisations with whom their child volunteered and the organisations could encourage more recruits; all whilst the "stage crew" were busy with their final touches to the presentation ceremony.

Those families that came were very supportive, encouraging and pleased to be at the event recognising the efforts their child had made to gain a wider achievement award. They also learned more about how LACE worked and as a result more students became interested in working towards even more awards over the following year.

2024's Ceremony of Character was an even greater success as more students who had left school returned to join those who had just started their wider achievement journey. Team Platinum returned to have their Saltire Summit Awards presented by our Special Guest James McEnaney from the Glasgow Herald. One of them is almost at the completion stage of the Platinum Youth Achievement award, but the revised format for Silver and Gold that was launched in August of this year, has meant that the others maybe able to evidence all of their hours of leadership and organisation over the past two years through the Gold Youth Achievement. The great thing about working with Youth Scotland's awards is that they can be achieved well into their 20s when the young person's school days are behind them so there is not the two term dash that many SQA courses force young people to undertake. As Caroline is an EDC youth development worker, that links into the school but does not only work within the school calendar, young people know that their wider achievement does not have to be a term time activity. Our partnership has been likened to the dynamic duo but I think its more equitable than that!

The new LACE events team is bigger and more diverse. Last year's events like the Big Scottish Breakfast (filmed by STV children's appeal), The Interhouse, inter-year Christmas Quiz, The Celebration of International Culture, the annual S3 YPI Grand Final and The Intergenerational Spring Fling (where members of Lenzie Old Parish dementia friendly singing group and Thursday games Club joined their "friends" from LACE in an afternoon tea with music); all had their movers and shakers and the LACE events team originates from them all.

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Each of these students chose a role to play in the Celebration of Character on Wednesday. Some of the more quiet student volunteers, worked extremely hard in the background, ensuring everyone had the correct certificates. They also acted very efficiently on the night, when students who arrived with their parents but had not previously intimated they were attending, were immediately added to the roll of honour and their certificate added to the pile so that the stage crew could incorporate them seamlessly into the presentation, without any of the audience, or even James on the stage, knowing this had been done! The hospitality crew were mainly junior students but were coordinated by two senior members of LACE events and have now not only gained their health and food hygiene certificates but have demonstrated those skills with a large audience. We were also able to add our Cafe LA'tte barista team to the mix and our YPI winning charity Cycling Without Age Scotland were there to encourage the community members of Lenzie to grow their ￡3000 starter check (donated by The Wood Foundation) to buy Lenzie our own trishaw. Last year's Executive Co-ordinator took this opportunity to deliver her Youth Achievement Award Presentation which was both informative and a pleasure to hear.

However, the greatest moments for Caroline and I were watching some of out students collecting their award from James on the stage, whilst their friends and family clapped, cheered and whooped. This positive experience for some young people is a moment that they will remember for a very long time, way after the certificate has been lost. Knowing that you have achieved something that took personal time and effort, required target setting and reflection, on what went well and what could have been improved, and then being able to celebrate that with other like minded and supportive people, is a memorable experience, which for some unfortunately, maybe one of the few positive outcomes that they will treasure.

Due to the vast improvements Youth Scotland has made to streamline their Youth Achievement awards we now have people from all year groups coming to see us in droves, to find out how they can start or progress on their wider achievement journey, to fully develop their character as a valuable and valued young person at Lenzie Academy. After all that is what our school values of ambition and inclusion are all about!