December 2025
Pilrig Park School Achieves Gold Level in Visual Support Project
Pilrig Park School has proudly achieved Gold Level accreditation in the Visual Support Project (VSP), a recognition of its on-going commitment to inclusive communication across all aspects of school life.
This achievement reflects the ethos of the school, that the voice of every learner, verbal and non-verbal, is heard and valued.
November 2025
We are super excited to let everyone know that we also have two pupils whose artwork has been selected as winning entries as part of Edinburgh’s Christmas Winter Windows Art Competition 2025!!!!!
This festive and vibrant art exhibition showcases 24 winter window artwork designs by local school pupils, brightening West Princes Street Gardens as part of the Edinburgh’s Christmas celebrations! Following the Winter Windows Award Ceremony on Thursday 27th November at 4.30pm you will be able to view the winter windows throughout the festive season.
If you are able, please visit West Princes Street Gardens during this time and take a picture of yourselves with our winning entries and email these to Natalie. We will then share these photos in our December newsletter.
A huge congratulations to our two winners and to our Art Teacher Mrs Ferguson who is just bursting with pride!
Our proud pupils with their winning designs!
November 2025
We are absolutely delighted to let everyone know that FOR THE SECOND YEAR RUNNING one of our pupils is a winner of The City of Edinburgh Council and bus shelter advertising company JCDecaux artwork competition where pupils from all Edinburgh schools were invited to create designs to be showcased along Princes Street as digital posters in bus shelters.
The artwork will be displayed from 4th – 7th December (inclusive).
If you are able, please visit Princess Street during this time and take a picture of yourselves at the bus shelter and email these to Natalie. We will then share these photos in our December newsletter.
A huge congratulations to our winner – we are all SO proud!
We thought you would all enjoy this picture of our proud winner, his artwork and one very chuffed art teacher!!!
September 2025
We are delighted to announce that Pilrig Park School has been successful in its application to become a Digital School in Scotland. All the staff and pupils have worked so hard to achieve the Digital Schools Award Scotland. A huge congratulations goes to everyone for all their efforts and a special thanks goes to Mr Cuddy, our Digital Lead, for coordinating our application.
June 2025
Show Racism the Red Card Scotland Awards Ceremony 2025
We were absolutely delighted that we were shortlisted in ASN School Category and had a fabulous time at the awards ceremony at Hampden Park on the 3rd June.
Unfortunately we did not win but we did come third!
We are all very proud of the achievements of Red and Clyde Classes.
And here is the video we entered.
May 2025
Pilrig Park School Celebrates Silver Level Achievement in Visual Supports Project!
Pilrig Park School has reached an exciting milestone in its commitment to inclusive communication by achieving Silver Level in the Visual Supports Project (VSP), in collaboration with the Speech and Language team. This accomplishment highlights the school’s dedication to enhancing communication and learning through visual aids.
March 2025
Ms Sawyer and her Pupil Voice Gardening Groups have been successful once again!
All their hard work has paid off and the school has now achieved RHS Level 4 School Gardening Award.
Great job everyone!
March 2025
The Saroj Lal Award for Edinburgh Schools
At the City Chambers on 6th March 2025, Pilrig Park School was named the 2025 winner of The Saroj Lal Award for Edinburgh Schools in the category “Proud To Be Me”.
We are absolutely delighted to receive this very special award and it was lovely that two of our pupils and their families were able to join us.
As well as being overall winners in the Proud to be Me category, Miss Morrison and Mrs Ferguson were nominated in the staff category for their work in our Celebration of Culture whole-school project.
Thank you so much to Mrs Ali for all her efforts in the award application.
Edinburgh Magazine report
North Edinburgh News report
November 2024
Bus Shelter Art Competition
We are absolutely delighted to let everyone know that one of our pupils is a winner of The City of Edinburgh Council and bus shelter advertising company JCDecaux recent artwork competition where pupils from Edinburgh schools were invited to create designs to be showcased along Princes Street as digital posters in bus shelters.
These designs will also be transformed into e-cards for elected members to share. The artwork will be displayed for four days from 28 November to 1 December (inclusive).
If you are able, please visit Princess Street during this time and take a picture of yourselves at the bus shelter with the image above and email these to Natalie. We will then share these photos on Twitter.
A huge congratulations to our winner – we are all SO proud!
October 2024
Pilrig Park School is the winner of the Judge’s Special Commendation Prize for the Black History Month 2024 Competition for Edinburgh Schools!
October was Black History Month. Miss McLarty and Red Class worked very hard on an entry for the competition which was open to all S1 – S3 pupils across the city. Red Class submitted a poster as their entry. It included visuals which they use as one of their inclusive communication methods.
We were absolutely blown away to find out we had been selected for the Judge’s Special Commendation Prize by Lisa Williams who was the judge for the competition.
Everyone at Pilrig Park School is VERY proud of what Red Class have achieved! Well done!
September 2024
Celebrating Bronze Level Visual Support Project Award at Pilrig Park School!
We are thrilled to announce that we have been awarded the bronze level Visual Support Program award. An achievement that recognises our commitment to creating an inclusive communication environment for all our learners.
We are immensely proud of what our staff team have achieved and we thank our colleagues in Speech and Language Therapy for their tireless support throughout this process.
August 2024
Eco-Schools Scotland Green Flag Award!
We have just been informed that we have been awarded our first ever Green Flag!
We were commended for having a large inclusive Eco-Committee and for all our work on recycling and reducing food waste.
A massive Thank You! to Ms Wheat for all her hard work in putting this application together along with all the work of our dedicated Eco-Committee. We are so proud of what we have achieved!
June 2024
Ness Class have been working on Fairtrade issues in their Pupil Voice period. Their hard work now means that we are a FairAware school! Congratulations to Ness Class.
April 2024
Gold School Sport Award!
We have been awarded a sportscotland Gold School Sport Award for 2024-2026.
The Gold School Sport Award is recognition of our achievements in putting sport at the heart of the school’s planning, practice and ethos.
A massive Thank You! to Mr T for all his hard work in putting this application together. We are so proud of what we have achieved!
#SchoolSportAward @sportscotland
One of our former pupils sent a Pilrig Park School 2024 calendar to the STV News team. They are very happy with it.
We are delighted that our Festival of Kindness Fortnight made it into the ELATE Newsletter. Check our pages 7 and 8! Very well done to everyone involved!
Members of our Pupil Voice Groups are delighted to show off our banner and certificate to show our success on achieving the second stage of the Rights Respecting Schools Award, Silver: Rights Aware!
Rights Aware!
Fabulous news! Pilrig Park School has now achieved Rights Respecting Schools Silver Level!
Thanks to all the hard work of Ms Kirkwood, Ms Karefylakis and the Pupil Voice Steering Groups it is with immense pride that we are delighted to let everyone know that Pilrig Park School has met the standard for UNICEF UK’s Rights Respecting Schools Award at Silver: Rights Aware! The report we received detailed a high commitment and passion by staff for advocating for the rights of all the young people in their care. The School Values tree that greets visitors to the school gives pupils a voice to say which articles they have learned about and are important to them. Furthermore, there was clear evidence that our young people have been actively involved in affecting change through sharing their views, needs and wants. We are really looking forward to receiving our banner and certificate and will be sharing some photos of our proud pupils with these as soon as they arrive.
Now the work begins to achieve GOLD!!!
Playground Wall Mural
What a brilliant time the pupils had painting their mural with The Bells. Massive thanks to Rachel and Cornelius who have very kindly donated their time to help us achieve this. Many thanks also to Callum Cameron from Johnstone’s Paint for the donation of paint and varnish. Finally Cash For Kids for giving us the grant to do our mural. Part two to follow. #rock river #planting
Inclusion Ambassadors Group
Everyone at Pilrig is very excited and proud that one of our pupils has been chosen to be an Inclusion Ambassador with Children in Scotland! Children in Scotland is a Scottish children’s charity that works to ensure that all children and young people are heard and included in decision-making. The Inclusion Ambassadors is a group established to guarantee that the views of young people with additional support needs are heard in discussions about education policy.
We look forward to hearing how Katie gets on with this important work.
Ms O’Hagan
Trams to Newhaven Project
2 pupils from Pilrig Park School were invited to travel on the first tram to Newhaven on Wednesday 7th June at 12noon. We were part of the cutting of the red ribbon ceremony with the Council Leader along with other pupils from the local area. We then all boarded the first tram and off we went on our journey down Leith Walk. On board was a piper, piping us along some of the journey. Many local businesses and locals kindly waved us along our journey all the way to Newhaven. Once at Newhaven there was a Samba Band who played for all the passengers before the tram then headed on its return journey back up Leith Walk with us getting off at the new local stop Balfour Street. It was a great opportunity for us all and a great experience to be part of this historic journey.
A Walk to Remember Alice
Stunning blossom will honour Queen Elizabeth II in Edinburgh
Heritage and horticulture through the generations are the key partners in marking National Tree Week today (November 30). Pupil gardeners from Pilrig Park School are contributing to the Queen’s Green Canopy initiative by helping the experts plant an avenue of cherry trees at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE).
Commemorating Queen Elizabeth’s 70 years as sovereign and underscoring the importance of school gardening projects, the planting was presided over by the research institute’s Regius Keeper Simon Milne MBE, who was appointed to RBGE by the late Queen in 2014.
The creation of an avenue of attractive cherry trees during the Platinum Jubilee was instigated by RBGE’s Arboriculture Supervisor William Hinchliffe. He explained: “The species of flowering cherry we have selected is Prunus x yedoensis, the Yoshino cherry, which – with slightly fragrant white or pink flowers – is not only one of the most beautiful Japanese cherries but also one of the most reliably floriferous in Edinburgh.”
Simon Milne noted: “When the decision was made to undertake a series of plantings across all four of our Gardens during the jubilee year, we did not foresee that this avenue would become our memorial to the Queen.
“What we can clearly predict is that it will become an amazing focus of attention when the trees flower each spring. Already, a single Prunus x yedoensis, planted near the East Gate in 1938, is a real crowd puller. An avenue of 10 in the heart of the Garden cannot fail to attract attention and direct visitors towards the conservation plantings from Japan, highlighting our international plant science and conservation horticulture partnerships.
“It is entirely appropriate we should be joined in this special undertaking by young gardeners from Pilrig Park School whose commitment to gardening and environmental awareness is to be commended. In the engagement of future generations with plants, we must trust.”
Miss Sawyer, ASN teacher at Pilrig Park School noted: “Over the years we, staff and learners, have developed a strong relationship with the staff at the Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh. Our aim is to provide our learners with as many valuable learning experiences as possible and gardening at the Botanics has played an important role in this. The learners get to experience the joy of being out in nature, learning about the seasons, plants and wildlife, and of course the seed to table project where we get to eat what we have grown. When we are not at the Botanics we are developing our gardening skills in our school garden and we recently began offering a gardening qualification to some of our senior pupils.”
Sakura is the Japanese word for cherry blossom and the new avenue has been named Sakura Brae. The path is only the third in the Garden to receive a name, the other two being named Stove Brae and Gallery Brae.
Initially due to end in December – at the completion of the Platinum Jubilee year – the Queen’s Green Canopy initiative has been rescheduled to conclude in March, providing further opportunities for other individuals and organisations to honour Her Majesty by continuing through the recognised UK tree planting season from October to March.
The Pilrig Planters meeting Mary Berry on BBC2
Click on the link below to watch the full episode:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001d1n3/mary-berry-cook-and-share-series-1-6-crowd-pleasers
Pilrig Park School 