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Community ServiceA sense of being part of the wider community is a key issue in the education of boys at Merchiston. How this is achieved is always under development, but central to this has been the Community Service Programme, which has been integral to the Lower Sixth experience at Merchiston for a number of years. Through this programme our senior students are afforded the opportunity to gain experience of working with people and organisations outwith the Merchiston School environment.
The school works in partnership with The Place2be, offering support to younger children from another part of Edinburgh.
GAP years are popular for boys between school and university and often have a 'service' theme. Recent examples include: Conservation work in Mexico, Teaching in Thailand and working with Murabitan Muslim Community, South Africa. |
As an example of this students have been involved with Saint Catherine's Homeless Project in the city, where they have helped prepare and serve meals and deliver goods from our Harvest Festival. Students also engage with the elderly in our community through visits to a local retirement home. Pupils have involved themselves in a number of gardening projects: for example, one such project helped develop the facilities of a retirement home for ex-servicemen and another provided valuable help in constructing a walkway for a garden in Firhill Day Centre. A long-standing project has been with Braidburn School (formerly Greysmill) where two or three of our students spend time helping the pupils, who have a range of learning difficulties, in class and with other activities. In recent years we have developed ties with some of our local primary schools and our students have offered some classroom support, ranging from Christmas card making to helping with Maths. Boys can also take part in overseas community project trips such as our Millennium 3 Project Group to Fiji.
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