Skip to content Skip to main navigation Skip to footer

Month: June 2025

Newtongrange Primary School Edinburgh

CommunityEducation

Newtongrange School Wins UNICEF UK Gold Award

Pupils at one Midlothian school have even more reason to celebrate the end of a successful academic year, having just been awarded the UNICEF UK Gold Award.

Newtongrange Primary School has been officially recognised for its achievement in putting the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child at the heart of its planning, policies and practice. Standing out as a school where children’s rights are learned, taught, practised, respected, protected and promoted, Newtongrange Primary School is now a shining example of a thriving Gold Rights Respecting School. 

To achieve this prestigious award, teachers and pupils worked collaboratively to compile a clear and robust action plan which covered a wide range of areas including teaching and learning about rights, ethos and relationships, participation, empowerment and action.

The school was then subject to an official visit from UNICEF UK Rights Respecting Schools assessors, during which pupils, staff, partners, parents and carers were invited to provide evidence of their progress and answer questions.

Feedback from the assessors was overwhelmingly positive; “Well done to the team at Newtongrange Primary School who have received their UNICEF UK Rights Respecting Schools Gold Award. Strengths include articulate children who know and understand their rights, explicit teaching of rights in the curriculum, highly visible rights, a strong culture of inclusivity and respect, and highly-valued pupil voice.” 

The Gold award marks the pinnacle of six years of hard work, with the school awarded Bronze back in 2019 and Silver in 2024. Commenting on reaching the Gold status, Head Teacher Mrs Cameron said; “We are delighted to be recognised for the hard work and commitment for being a Gold Rights Respecting School. We are very proud of the strengths highlighted by the team. We are also very proud of our learners who shared our work so confidently and articulately.” 

And the UNICEF award is not the only accolade the school has been celebrating recently, having been honoured with the SEIC Connector School Award, Core Reading Schools Award, Eco-Schools Green Flag Award, Digital Schools Award and Sports Scotland Award.

Determined not to rest on their laurels, the school will be working towards achieving the Play Pedagogy Award when classes return for the new term in August.

The new term will also see the school gear up for a series of special centenary celebrations featuring teachers and pupils from past and present. Activities commemorating 100 years of learning will culminate in a big birthday celebration on Wednesday 12th November, marking a golden year for this award-winning school.

Continue reading

Bronze Figurehead of Queen Unveiled at Royal Scots Monument

ArtCultureHistory

Bronze Figurehead of Queen Unveiled at Royal Scots Monument

Commemorating 373 years of Regimental service to Crown and Country

On Saturday 7 June 2025 HRH The Princess Royal, Patron of The Royal Scots Regimental Association, unveiled a bronze medallion containing a figurehead of Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II as a final addition to The Royal Scots Monument in Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh.  

The monument, originally unveiled on 26 July 1952, commemorates the service rendered by The Royal Scots (The Royal Regiment) to 16 monarchs from its founding in 1633 under a Royal Warrant from King Charles I until its amalgamation under Defence Review in 2006. The additional medallion marks the final monarch under whom the Regiment served.  

Her Royal Highness, accompanied by Councillor Robert Aldridge, the Right Honourable Lord Provost and Lord Lieutenant of Edinburgh, was met by the Chair of the Regimental Trustees, Brigadier (retd) George Lowder MBE, and by the Governor of Edinburgh Castle, Major General Robert Bruce CBE DSO.

The unveiling was attended by many former Royal Scots and their families as well as members of The Royal Scots Club and representatives of the City of Edinburgh Council.  A service of dedication was conducted by Reverend Dr Iain May, Chaplain to The Royal Scots Regimental Association.

In 2007 The Princess Royal, who was the Regiment’s Colonel in Chief from 1983 until 2006, had graciously unveiled an addition to the monument to mark the Regiment’s amalgamation, the final chapter in its history, and to acknowledge and commemorate the Regiment’s 373 years of proud and loyal service to Crown and Country.

After the unveiling, Her Royal Highness then spent time with former members of the Regiment before leaving for The Royal Scots Club in Abercromby Place, where The Princess Royal graciously took the salute at the Club’s annual ceremony of Beating Retreat.

Brigadier George Lowder, Chair of the Regimental Trustees, said: “The Royal Scots have always been, and continue to be, very proud of their long service to Crown and country which is commemorated on this monument.  Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the last Sovereign under whom the Regiment served, appointed HRH The Princess Royal to be Colonel in Chief of The Royal Scots (The Royal Regiment) in 1983.  We have been greatly honoured, therefore, that The Princess Royal, whose long and continued connection with the Regiment we cherish, has unveiled this final addition to our monument today.”.

Continue reading