Sean McMahon, an S6 Dunoon Grammar School pupil, has recently developed and launched his own smart phone app for Dunoon Grammar School, named DGS Official App, which is available to download for Android from the Google Playstore. Sean, who is an aspiring software developer, used Java to develop his application. As the language is not taught within the school, Sean taught himself how to script using it and brought in his own laptop to write the code. Continue reading appy days at Dunoon Grammar School
Category Archives: Secondary schools
Budding artists at ACES day
On Wednesday 6th December Dawn Barrett from Glasgow School of Art’s Access to Creative Education in Scotland (ACES) department came to Inveraray Church Hall to run a portfolio Day. 18 S5 + 6 pupils came from various secondary schools to show some of their work and glean top tips to help them develop their folios prior to applying for art & design courses. Continue reading Budding artists at ACES day
Tobermory – S1/2 RME
S1/2 continued their RME conferences with a day on the theme of Rich World, Poor World. This busy day began with a look at how the world’s wealth is divided up and some of the issues that arise from this division of wealth. Using games the group could easily see what an unjust world we live in and how sometimes even those trying to help developing countries can sometimes make life worse for those already suffering. Continue reading Tobermory – S1/2 RME
Tobermory High takes to the floor.
Both teachers and pupils of Tobermory High School took to the floor recently for another fantastic St Andrew’s Day ceilidh, organised by the S3s. The afternoon was filled with lots of wonderful performances by The Traditional Group, Carys Christine and the pipers, along with lots and lots of ceilidh dancing! The S3s are currently raising money for their Paris trip and so this year there were delicious homemade pizzas and cakes for sale. There was also face painting available and many pupils proudly opted for the traditional Scotland flag. Lots of fun was had by all.
Lochgilphead HS Wind Band SILVER PLUS SUCCESS
The members of Lochgilphead HS Wind Band travelled to Livingston on Sunday 2nd December to take part, for the very first time, in the Scottish Schools Concert Band Festival. The band played four pieces including an Abba melody and got a great reception from the audience. Miriam McKay, the band’s musical director was given particular praise from the adjudicators for her choice of repertoire and balance of parts within the band. Continue reading Lochgilphead HS Wind Band SILVER PLUS SUCCESS
Tobermory High goes ‘International’
The annual International House event took place the last week in November. There is a different country each day and Houses earn points by answering questions about their country with a question for each year group and a lunchtime challenge where Houses gather as many participants as possible to take part. This year the chosen countries were Mexico, New Zealand, Italy, Japan. As is traditional St Andrew’s Day was represented by some of the countries of which St Andrew is patron saint including, of course, Scotland. Continue reading Tobermory High goes ‘International’
Plugging into Parent Power!
Pioneering approaches to harnessing parent input at Dunoon Grammar School
“Hi it’s me!” is often the first thing a parent will hear when their child returns home from school and now parents will be hearing it a lot more from their child attending the Faculty of Business and Computing at Dunoon Grammar School.
Pupils working in Business & Computing classes will be encouraged to send parents regular ‘me-mails’ – emails containing information on their progress in class, highlighting skills being developed and including samples of their work. Parents will be encouraged to reply with comments and praise. Continue reading Plugging into Parent Power!
Dunoon School Hostel Talent Night
Dunoon School Hostel held an exciting event on the 29th November for St Andrews Night! The first ever Hostel Factor Talent Night was a huge success with both pupils and staff. There were 10 acts highland dancers, a piper, boy bands, a keyboard player and singers. The hall was adorned with flags, bunting and shields. Brandon Wilson started off the show with a short recital on St Andrews Day followed by Rory McCrae with the pipes. Continue reading Dunoon School Hostel Talent Night
Dunoon Rocks 2012!
Dunoon Grammar rocked to the sounds of 16 keen musicians and 5 tutors last weekend as CAST held one of its series of YMI funded ‘Rock Weekends’. Over two full days the singers, drummers, guitarists and bass players co-wrote and rehearsed 3 different tracks, guided by a team of top musicians from all over Scotland. A resource pack was given to each pupil which had useful information about studying music and the rock and pop industry. As part of the first day the tutors held a discussion on the merits of studying music, rehearsing and playing talking from their own wide experiences.The young musicians were even treated to chocolate fairy cakes! See the video below for a flavour of the weekend. Continue reading Dunoon Rocks 2012!
Live-Link from Tarbert Academy to Lessons at Home
Our photograph shows what looks like an everyday Maths lesson. But in the top right hand corner of the whiteboard, a pupil, at home on Gigha because of adverse weather, joins the class through webcam and GLOW. Douglas can see the teacher’s whiteboard on his computer at home, can see his classmates working and joins in all their activities. Tarbert Academy is successfully piloting Lessons at Home for pupils who travel by ferry each morning so that learning and teaching time is not lost this winter. Continue reading Live-Link from Tarbert Academy to Lessons at Home
Remembrance Day
On Sunday 11th November S6 captains Megan, Ryan, Laura and Sophie participated in the annual Remembrance Service at Croc an Raer, Bute. The service, to commemorate civilian sailors lost during the Second World War and buried at the cemetery. To reflect the many nationalities buried far from home, the captains laid flags representing each of the sailors’ country of origin whilst reading the poem Taking a Stand by John Bailey. Continue reading Remembrance Day
Social Enterprise Academy
Glasgow Caledonian University and the Social Enterprise Aacdemy present: Social Enterprise: an academic discussion or a way of changing the way we do business?
Thursday 6th December 2012
5pm – 7.30pm
Tobermory High River Study
S3 Geography pupils from Tobermory High School recently braved the cold weather to complete a river study. This involved taking measurements on a local section of river and using calculations to work out the river’s speed. Pupils measured the width of the river, the speed of the river, angle of slope and used Powers’ scale of roundness to examine the bedload. They will now use the raw data they collected out in the field, back in class, to enhance their processing and information handling techniques. Continue reading Tobermory High River Study
Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park offer Travel Grant Scheme for schools.
Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park has launched a new pilot scheme to help schools and outreach groups experience the great outdoors in the Park by offering an Educational Travel Grant. With forests to explore, landscapes to walk and climb, lochs and rivers to sail on and rich wildlife and history to discover, Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park provides the perfect outdoor classroom for schools and groups. Continue reading Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park offer Travel Grant Scheme for schools.
‘Elephant Angel’ in Kintyre!! (It was a sell out)
Scottish Opera visited Kintyre last week and put on a fabulous show at Campbeltown Grammar. 7 local primaries had encouraged their P7 pupils to embrace the chance of working with SO to help stage the performance. Pupils contributions included: writing original material, graphic design, advertising and marketing, singing and acting, front of house and prop building.
In total 65 pupils were involved all of whom came to the performance with 35 being part of the chorus on stage. SO rehearsed with these 35 pupils for 2 days and the entire company thrilled an audience of 340 with their version of a ‘The Elephant Angel’. Continue reading ‘Elephant Angel’ in Kintyre!! (It was a sell out)
Photoshop Courses
3DMadeEasy are offering a wide range of Photoshop courses between now and the Christmas break. 3DMadeEasy are keen to make these courses accessible to teachers across Scotland, should your school/area have sufficient numbers 3DMadeEasy would be happy to come to you. To take up this fantastic offer email your location and the course you are interested in to mailto:kim@3DMadeEasy.com Continue reading Photoshop Courses
Film G
At the beginning of November, FilmG came to Tobermory High School to work with Gaelic/Gàidhlig students in S2, S4 and S6. The students had written two different scripts during class time on the theme of ‘Hunger/Desire.’ The FilmG crew spent a week working with the students on filming and editing. The films will be entered in the FilmG Gaelic Short Films Competition. A fantastic time was had by all and everyone is looking forward to taking part again next year. Continue reading Film G
Have a look at GLOW
If you haven’t visited GLOW for a while, it might be worth your while visiting the National Site …… Continue reading Have a look at GLOW
Tarbert Academy Moral Conference
Senior pupils in Tarbert Academy took part in a Moral Conference at the end of October. This ‘Question Time’ style event found pupils asking questions about Scotland’s future, footballers’ wages, the issues surrounding foreign aid at a time of recession and current debates on marriage. Pupils achieved highly in setting questions, taking part in debate and listening sensitively to a wide variety of views. Anne Paterson praised the pupils highly – as did the panel members. Pupil feedback is highly positive regarding our Moral Conference. Continue reading Tarbert Academy Moral Conference
S3 French Poetry
S3 French in Tobermory have been studying French poetry, mainly the works of Jacques Prévert. They took advantage of the sunshine and beautiful autumn colours to go to Aros Park and take photos to illustrate one of Préverts most famous poems “les feuilles mortes” as well as a couple of other autumnal poems. Two groups chose to take images to represent “les feuilles mortes” in which the sight of the dead leaves prompts memories of a time in a man’s (or a woman’s!)life when they were in a happy relationship which is now over. Other groups took photos of the autumn colours to represent the poem “les saisons”. The colours and scenery are stunning and the class have brought the poems to life with some images which demonstrate understanding of the poems and are now working on displaying their work as poetic posters. Continue reading S3 French Poetry
