Our awards
We're incredibly proud of our colleagues and the services they help deliver to our residents and colleagues, and it's great to hear when they're recognised for their hard work. These are just some of our recent awards, showcasing our amazing teams.
Eat Them to Defeat Them
Currie Primary’s kitchen team has won bronze in a nationwide campaign, ‘Eat Them to Defeat Them’, alongside Primary 6 pupils at the school. The event, run by healthy eating charity Veg Power, aims to encourage children to eat more vegetables.
The school has taken part in the annual event for the last three years, securing bronze in 2024, silver in 2025, and bronze again this year. Kitchen Manager, Lee Blackwood, and her team go above and beyond by encouraging the children to eat healthier. Lee said, “it’s actually a whole school effort” and “everyone in the school gets involved.”
Scottish School Food Awards
The Scottish School Food Awards aims to reward excellence in catering at schools across the country and schools are celebrated for prioritising health and wellbeing, sustainability, nutrition, collaboration and staff development.
Karina Kay is a Cook 1 Kitchen Assistant at Carrick Knowe Primary School. She was highly commended by the judging panel in the Employee of the Year category. She embodies all our behaviours – respect, integrity and flexibility. She treats everyone with respect, her integrity is clear in the pride she takes in her work and her flexibility shines through in her willingness to step in wherever needed. Colleagues and parents speak highly of her, recognising her work ethic and role in creating a warm, welcoming atmosphere. Additionally, she plays a key role in helping new catering team members settle in, offering guidance and support that helps them feel confident in their roles.
Success for our libraries
Our library service is celebrating success after several award wins at the recent 2026 British Book Awards. A partnership between Oxgangs Library, Saughton Library at HMP Edinburgh and the Mobile Library Service initially won the Scotland Library of the Year award, before going on to win the overall national UK-wide Library of the Year award.
The teams were recognised for their Secret Santa project which provided gift-wrapped books to those in custody so they would have something meaningful to open on Christmas Day last year. Colleagues from Kirkliston and South Queensferry libraries were finalists in the country category for their Schools Outreach Programme. The success of Craigmillar Library’s Teen Book Group also made them finalists in the same category.
Our library service had the most finalists and was the only local authority to be recognised three times across the UK.
Scotland's most inspirational history teacher
Fionnuala Glover who teaches history at Holy Rood RC High School, was named Scotland’s most inspiring history teacher in the inaugural Inspiring History Teaching Awards in March 2026.
The competition, led by Historic Royal Palaces and featuring historian Lucy Worsley, recognised Ms Glover for bringing digital skills into the history department - from AI to podcasts - as well as her commitment to the innovative teaching of subjects such as slavery and Scotland, migration and empire.
Schools - TES Schools Awards
South Morningside Primary School has been shortlisted to become primary school of the year at the prestigious TES Schools Awards – the only school in Scotland to be nominated in this category. Awards take place on 19 June. The awards highlight the outstanding efforts and achievements in state and independent schools.
Win at COSLA Awards for construction skills pathways
We were announced winner of The David J. Kennedy Excellent People Award at the 2025 COSLA Excellence Awards. This special award recognises the exceptional people who are at the heart of local government excellence.
In partnership with Edinburgh College, we have expanded construction courses using a place-based model with 12 school-based sites across the city, with delivery supported by Kier Construction at Currie Community High School and Balfour Beatty at Liberton High School.
The Council’s Construction Skills pathways project was recognised for its work in building brighter futures for young people. The project is focused on improving outcomes for learners by getting more school leavers into jobs within the construction industry. Not only does this improve attainment through relevant and engaging courses but responds to labour market needs.