The Wooden Spoon Sports Pitch is excitingly underway with a planned opening date of mid June.  Most of the major build work has now been completed and the delicate work of layering the surface, installing the floodlights and laying the turf is currently in progress.

The build has been very kindly sponsored by The Wooden Spoon Society and will allow both Columba 1400 participants and the local community an all weather flood lit playing field for a variety of different team sports and training.

The staff and members of the local community are very much looking forward to the opening as it will provide an integral space for all.

What a remarkable sight - 40 adults kicking off their shoes and launching themselves into the exciting task of creating personal collages with the same level of youthful enthusiasm they might expect to witness in the classrooms of their own schools ...

All of these heads and deputes met together in Crieff at the end of November for a very unique purpose, the Columba 1400 Head Teacher Leadership Academy (HTLA) Gathering.

For each and every one who attended this fantastic event, this was a chance, not just to make friends, to network and to exchange valuable information, but also to evaluate and take stock of both achievements and goals.

They came from nursery, primary and secondary schools all over Scotland, and from local and central Government offices. But what these 40 people had in common, was that shared experience of having taken part in Columba 1400’s HTLA programme in Staffin, on the Isle of Skye.

The Ambassadors’ Leadership Academy is a ‘whole school’ approach bringing together students, staff and members of the senior management team into one leadership development experience and ongoing dialogue focused on the future of the school.  On return participants are bubbling with confidence, belief, ideas and inspiration about how they can help affect change in their ‘communities’.

We have now worked with more than 50 schools. Read about what Columban Ambassadors have been up to all over Scotland.

Help Columba 1400 raise the funds that we desperately need to continue our work with young people from tough realities - become a fundraiser through JustGiving, our secure online fundraising site.  Anyone can do it, and it's really fun!

Teachers and pupils who have attended leadership academies run by Columba 1400 on Skye met First Minister Alex Salmond today after the the last in a summer series of Cabinet meetings held around Scotland.

The Columba staff team invites you and your friends/family to join us in a Ridge Walk from the Old Man of Storr to the Fairy Glen. We have also invited people in our local community to support us on this walk too.

This will be an opportunity to reconnect with friends and memories; to re-explore your Core Values (whilst walking up the Storr) and to share with us and the community what has been happening for you since your academy.

Recent research into our Ambassadors’ Leadership Academy (ALA) has demonstrated the significant differences that participants make following graduation from a Columban programme. 

A substantial evaluation of our Ambassadors’ programme by Mark Bitel “Code for Life: The evaluation of Columba 1400’s Ambassadors’ Leadership Academy” – involved interviews with more than 175 people, including 9 Head Teachers, 31 teachers, senior managers and guidance staff, and 135 students who graduated from Columba 1400.