News

Argyll and Bute Council's Policy Lead for Education has reassured young people in the area that they will get the credit they deserve for their studies, despite this year's exams being cancelled. Councillor Yvonne MacNeilly's statement comes after the Scottish Government made the annoucement earlier this week that, due to the outbreak of Coronavirus, there will be no academic exams this year.

The Scottish Government has announced a range of support that includes grants and rates relief for businesses in some of the sectors that are likely to be most affected. We, like all local authorities, are working with the Scottish Government on the detail of how this is adminstered. The Covid-19 information page on the Business Gateway website contains resources and  information that may be useful at this time. 

Pupils at Rothesay Joint Campus are top of the class when it comes to numbers, with the school’s primary four and five pupils being crowned Argyll and Bute’s Sumdog champions. Sumdog is Britain’s largest series of maths competitions and sees children battle it out against pupils in other schools to answer a series of questions over five days.

Argyll and Bute Council will be opening 10 of its school kitchens from Monday (23 March) to ensure that children who are entitled to free school meals can continue to receive those meals. The following kitchens will be open every weekday between 12 noon and 12.30pm so that a lunch can be collected for anyone entitled to a free school meal: Dunoon Grammar; Rothesay Joint Campus; Oban High; Hermitage Academy; Castlehill Primary; Lochgilphead Joint Campus; Tarbert Academy; Tiree High; Tobermory High; and Islay High.

In these unprecedented times, we would like to reassure you that we are working with our NHS partners to take all and any action we can to help local people and businesses. The council provides a huge range of services that people need every day. To help keep everyone healthy, we are reviewing how we deliver our services and are making changes where needed.

All LiveArgyll facilities will close at 5pm tonight (Wednesday 18 March) until further notice. This difficult decision has been taken in accordance with government advice and means that all planned programmes by LiveArgyll have also been suspended, and all events cancelled. For further information visit: liveargyll.co.uk/coronavirus-update/  

Pupils at Luing Primary School have been learning about how to create a sustainable future through the United Nations Global Goals. The Global Goalsaddress the global challenges everyone faces, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice. To coincide with this project,Dave Alsop from Seed for Life went along to the school to talk to the children about the vital work the charity does to help people in Malawi.

We are asking for the public’s views on four possible options to create a new walking, cycling and scooter path, linking Lochgilphead Front Green and the Crinan Canal. The public consultation, run by Argyll and Bute Council, will run from Monday 23 March to Sunday 5 April. You will be able to view the different options, and complete the consultation, online at www.argyll-bute.gov.uk/corran-path.

A group of pupils from Dunoon Grammar School beat off stiff competition from across the country to win the Apps for Good Scotland event for the fourth year in a row.  Apps for Good is an education scheme that is empowering young people to change the world with technology. The competition challenges pupils to work in teams to develop an enterprising technology product that will help to solve issues they care about. 

Pupils at Dunoon Grammar will be hosting a ‘Pop-up Mall’ next week to celebrate the end of their ‘Tenner Challenge’. The Tenner Challenge is a UK wide initiative where pupils receive £10 each and are tasked with making as much profit as possible. S2 pupils at Dunoon Grammar have been taking part in the scheme over the last few weeks and will be selling their products/services at a Pop-up Mall in the school forum on Friday 20 March. The event will take place from 10.45am until 11.45am and members of the public are welcome to attend.