Last litter for long serving Councillor

Alex Glass, who has been the Labour Party representative in Greater Pollok for 13 years, but is not standing again in the local government election this week, told this website: ‘I had the pleasure of joining some parents, children and teachers at St Angela’s RC Primary School in Darnley on Friday 27 April, to perform one of my very last duties as a councillor – a litter pick-up.’

In the near future, the school will receive an important visit from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education(HMIE). To ensure that the inspection team gets the best impression of the school, everyone, including outgoing Councillor Glass, was in the grounds picking up bags and bags of litter.  Head Teacher, Brendan Duffy said: ‘The School’s Council has been fighting hard over the past few years to show the pride they have in St Angela’s by encouraging other parents to join the clean-up of the school grounds. We have also involved the children. The long term message appears to be getting through to them about keeping the school and the wider community clean by putting litter in the bin and not dropping it in the school grounds or on the street.’

The clean-up was organised by Tom Buik, Chair of the School’s Council who said: ‘We have a good community spirit in the school now. We want the inspectors from HMIE to see the pride we take in St Angela’s  by noticing how tidy the school grounds are as they arrive to carry out their inspection.’

The school has not been without its problems as Councillor Glass knows. He said: ‘Recently, teachers were having to place buckets under the constant drips of water coming from the roof. Fortunately, I was able to draw attention to the urgent nature of the repairs and work was completed relatively quickly.’

St Angela’s has been in the news over the past couple of years due to the change in the catchment area for St Ninian’s which is outside Glasgow but has had a long standing arrangement to take children from the Darnley area.

Recently, too, the school expanded to accommodate the growing number of children wishing to attend St Angela’s. Two additional classrooms are now located in portacabins in the playground. Commented Tom: ‘Hopefully the inspection will go well for everyone at St Angela’s. With this level of support from parents, children and teachers as well as our local councillor, it looks like the school is taking on all the challenges that it faces by getting everyone involved.’

On-the-ball schools ready to kick off May football tournament

Schoolchildren across Glasgow will have the chance to show off their footballing skills this May as part of a tournament that also brings them lessons in equality and understanding.
More than 500 primary seven youngsters will take part in A League for All Tournament at the Petershill Complex in Springburn.
Each school’s team of five will be drawn from a pool of 10 players, and organisers hope that linking the beautiful game to issues of race, gender, co-operation and competition will be an education for the children.
Tommy Breslin, of action group Show Racism the Red Card, said: ‘Football is a very important tool in helping tackle racism. We look at our football teams, they’re largely multicultural, multi ethnic, multi faith, multinational positive working environments and the fan base reflects that as well.
‘We’re delivering a lot of anti Islamophobia workshops in secondary schools in the Glasgow area, and the young people again are listening to us and the responses that are coming back are pretty positive. They’re questioning their assumptions, their attitudes and the peer pressure that’s put upon them.
‘Glasgow’s always been a very diverse society and I think that can only be a positive for the city.’
Besides SRRC, Glasgow City Council, Partick Thistle, the Scottish Refugee Council, the Jags Trust, the Scottish Fair Trade Forum and trade union Unison are backing the initiative.
Former Jags player Jim Duffy – now manager of Brechin City and a big supporter of community campaigns in football – wants to see teams work harder to reach out to potential fans from all backgrounds.
He said: ‘I think it’s long overdue that players get a bit more involved in the community, particularly the primary schools because they are still seen as role models – whether they like it or not. They go into the schools, the kids love it and I think eventually all the clubs will take part.’
Jim added: ‘We pride ourselves in being a diverse country, but it’s not all about that. For too long football clubs have just opened the doors and expected people to come to them, but these are changing days. They have to work harder and it is happening.
‘Unfortunately, as is the way with football, when there’s something negative it gets lots of publicity; when there’s something positive it gets little publicity, so we’ll chip away at it and

encourage more people to take part.’
The May tournament will precede Refugee Week Scotland, which takes place in June. The nine schools participating in A League for All are St Paul’s Primary, Blairdardie Primary, St Ninian’s Primary, Yoker Primary, Bankhead Primary, St Brendan’s Primary, Corpus Christi Primary, Garscadden Primary and Knightswood Primary.
Alison Burns, acting Principal, Knightswood Primary, said: ‘Obviously, football is going to be high on any 11-year-old’s list of priorities, so we feel that by teaching about racism, sexism, and sectarianism through football we’re going to capture their attention. They’re enthusiastic about participating in the programme and because football is played regularly within the school we think this will bring another aspect to our PE.’