Kibble Admin

On Friday 12 November as the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) drew to a close, young people at Kibble held their own special COP26 Conference just a few miles along the road.

The Kibble COP26 Conference was organised by senior pupils at Goudie Academy and was a platform to discuss with senior staff how we can champion climate change across Kibble.

The event took place at the Gannochy Centre for Expressive Arts and each of the invited guests were warmly welcomed with teas and coffee served in a reusable plastic mug with environmental designs handcrafted by pupils. On the day’s busy agenda were questions around reducing food waste, improved recycling, sustainable transport, renewable energy use and methods for energy reduction. The conference was the amalgamation of months of hard work by pupils who are actively working towards their Eco Schools Award. To commence the conference pupils played a poignant video they had created in the classroom which showed the impact of climate change on our world, and the actions of our young people to help in the fight against it. This included them proudly walking and waving banners in the COP26 Youth March alongside thousands of others making their voice heard.  

Each young person had a set list of questions to ask staff and there was great energy and enthusiasm in the room as we discussed electric vehicles, composting food waste, solar energy and ideas to reduce food waste. One young person impressed us with his extremely in-depth knowledge of cars and how hybrid vehicles operate, whilst another shared a story of turning off all the appliances in her house… including even the fridge freezer! After the conference reached a close, we agreed that this would just be the start and we would meet monthly to agree actions and next steps to continue this momentum.

Before pupils excitedly headed off for lunch to chat about the event and their incredible achievements, they proudly showed staff their COP26 timeline with dates of world leaders’ arrivals, climate marches, press cuttings, photos and messages of hope for the future.

We look forward to coordinating our approach and making a difference to our planet at an individual, organisational, cultural and collective level with others across the globe. Together, we can make a difference!

This Halloween, Kibble’s campus was transformed into a terrifying Transylvania as young people decorated houses, made their way through the spooky Halloween Trail and pinned their hopes for the future in the Paisley Halloween Festival.

On Thursday 28 October, young people left no ‘tombstone’ unturned as they dressed their houses in the scariest decorations that would’ve left Frankenstein quaking in his boots. Prizes were awarded for the scariest, funniest and homemade decorations and the competition was fierce! As judges made their way round the houses, they were entertained by dancing zombies, scenes from The Shining, smouldering cauldrons, headless teddies, haunted dolls and even Pennywise hiding behind a tree. There was so much fun and excitement with young people planning and coordinating costumes, props and accessories for a number of weeks. Among the costumes we had scary dinosaurs, superheroes, black cats, zombies with petrifying make up and the witches from Hocus Pocus.

It was thanks to Aldi In Cardonald who, for the second year running, kindly donated 25 pumpkins to the children and young people at Kibble to help decorate the houses.

Under the cloak of night, it was time to make for the Haunted Halloween Trail. This was certainly not for the feint hearted. In their groups, young people tentatively followed the trail featuring terrifying props, haunting music, atmospheric smoke, dramatic lighting effects… and lots of unexpected surprises along the way! The trail hosted cackling witches, haunted pirates, scary clowns and zombies that appeared from pumpkin patches, within tunnels and hiding behind the spooky props. It’s fair to say that the children and young people were far braver than the staff who were left screaming like banshees.

After all the excitement of the trail, Carol in our home economics class was serving up delicious hot dogs and hot chocolates whilst stories were shared of what part of the trail was the most frightening and who had the best costume. The buzz around Kibble was magical and it was an evening to make lots of fun, happy memories among friends. The Halloween event was the brainchild of the education team, and what an event it was! But of course, every opportunity is a chance to learn and the many props that lined the trail were created by pupils in our expressive arts department and contributed to a range of qualifications.

Just a short broomstick journey away at Forest View, our primary years campus, children enjoyed pumpkin carving and had a very special Halloween party with lots of party games and prizes to be won. There was event Halloween themed numeracy and literacy lessons to bring some fun and magic within the classroom.  

Young people also got involved in their year’s Paisley Halloween Festival themed ‘Out of This World’. Visitors came from all over to visit the historic centre where there was a host of activities and spooky installations, including a huge purple alien emerging from Paisley Town Hall. In front the abbey was a 16-foot spacecraft installation, Earthship 1, which featured inspiring artwork and messages of hope for the future from young people across Renfrewshire. For Kibble’s young people, their creations were aligned to the environment, their hopes and dreams as well as messages calling for adults to consider care experienced young people in their decision making. This was in the shadow of COP26, the world climate conference happening in Glasgow, and our ongoing commitment to Keep the Promise and improve the life chances for care experience people across Scotland.

As part of the festival Kibble young people also designed artwork inspired by renowned artist Keith Haring, which was projected on the side of the Town Hall.

The next big event on the Kibble calendar is Christmas time and the plans are already in full swing to make this another special event to remember. Happy Halloween one and all!