Tag Archives: Parents

parents tag

Swimming Success

IMG_3285Well done to Kirsty McGinley (S5) who managed to squeeze in three qualifications swims, during her SQA exams, at the West District Seniors.  As a result, Kirsty has been invited to the Summer Meet in Edinburgh in July.

The British and Summer meets are invite only seeing the top 25 British swimmers being invited to the British Meet and the next 10,15 or 20 Scottish swimmers , dependant on stroke/ distance being invited to the Summer Meet.

Kirsty has also managed to achieve 10 qualifying times for the Scottish Nationals Open which she will be attending at the end of June.

A fantastic achievement Kirsty, and good luck with your upcoming meets.

SmartSTEM Event

WellIMG_20150603_101904 done to all of the S4 girls who attended a female-only STEM event this week.

STEM – standing for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics – encourages students to work together to solve problems. The SmartSTEM event, organised by SericSystems, had the girls learning about renewable energy, building obstacle courses and designing structures that could be used in offshore wind farms.

 

The girls were also inspired by Sarah Drummond, director of Snook, who presented her cyclehack idea; a truely inspiring day.

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Salters’ Festival of Chemistry

IMG_2395The Salters are one of the livery companies from the City of London. They were formed in the 14th century to regulate the trade in salt through London. Today the Salters provide charitable funding for chemistry education, amongst other things, and run festivals and camps for schools throughout the United Kingdom.

Barrhead High has been attending the festivals for some time now with varying degrees of success. They are open to pupils in P7 and S1 only. The day is split into three sessions.

 

Session 1 – The Salters’ ChallengeIMG_2390

This requires the teams to follow precise instructions in the analysis of various known and unknown substances. It is presented in the form of a forensic investigation and the teams have to identify the criminal from the evidence they have analysed. Marks are deducted for poor safety protocols, not following instructions and for too much teacher input!

Session 2 – The University Challenge

This is set by the host university and is also a forensic investigation but this time has a selection of mini-tasks which involve many scientific techniques. Teachers are excluded from this event.

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Session 3 – The Show

Each year the host university provides a series of chemical demonstrations designed to whet the appetite of the young learners. The demonstrations are usually loud – but not always!

Barrhead High attends the festivals hosted by Glasgow University which are run by Professor Bob Hill and an army of technicians and demonstrators. The pupils are under constant scrutiny throughout the day to see how well they cope with the challenges and the regime of being in a laboratory. This session we were represented by:

Lisa Drain, Jack McFarlane, Andrew Chapman and Robyn Johnston, all from S1

Our team presented themselves very well and they all said how much they enjoyed the day even if they did not win any of the challenges.

The next festival will be announced in November 2015 and will probably be held in May of 2016.

 

Mr C Murray

BHS Science Faculty, Chemistry Department

Hillwalk for Nepal – Saturday 30th May 2015

DSC_0133Over 100 pupils, parents and staff, and their families and friends, joined together today for a charity hill walk for Nepal. A bus left the school at 9.30 and more folk met us in Balmaha for the walk up Conic Hill. The weather could not have been better and we made quick progress up and had lunch on top before heading back down.

Pupils had expressed their concern over the last month as they heard the news coming through about the earthquakes in Nepal. This was made more real for them when Mrs Knowles (Maths teacher) spoke to them at assemblies of the 5 years she had spent in Kathmandu, the people she had met and the current situation. She showed us photos of the sherpa that took her to Everest Basecamp, his family and house and the recent effect on his village, which had been wiped out with only 1 house left standing.

DSC_0182The pupils decided that the most appropriate response was a charity hill walk with all money raised being sent to help the relief work. All money raised should be brought in to the School Office next week and if any other pupils, parents or staff wish to contribute, they are welcome to do so.

We enjoyed a great day but it is good to know that this will also bring benefit to people in real need.

A big thank you to all who participated.

Mr Sinclair

 

Congratulations to three Barrhead High senior students who recently competed in the  Scottish National 5K swimming competition.

The results are as follows

 

Kirsty McGinley :  Time. 01:06:12  Result : Gold medalist in 15/16 age group/ 6th place in Open.

Neil MacCuish   : Time. 01:06:11. Result : 9th in 17/24 age group / 16 th in Open.

Iain MacCuish    : Time. 01:09:30. Result : 5th in 15/16 age group / 20 th in Open.

Well done to Kirsty, Neil and Iain.

S1 – Rapid Response Project

 

Runners up – Group 11

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(Adam, Rory, Kieran, Kyle, Rebecca, Kerry, Holly)

Winning Team – Group 14

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(Sheean, Callum, Lauren, Connor, Graeme, Emma)

Well done to our S1 students who all took part in the Rapid Response Project yesterday.  Rapid Response is an inter-disciplinary project, created by the Institute of Civil Engineers (ICE), that invloves S1 students working on a scenario involving the rebuilding of a hurricane-devasted country.

Students competed in groups to build plastic shelters, purify water, create wind turbines and to improve communication through ICT.  Well done to all of S1 students.

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Apprenticeships in Scotland Magazine

ApprenticeshipIn support of Scottish Apprenticeship Week 2015, Apprenticeships in Scotland have launched their Scottish Apprenticeships Online Magazine to help our senior pupils with their next steps. The magazine features some of the largest employers in the UK, case studies of their apprentices, exam help, CV and Cover letter templates and Interview help, this magazine is a great career resource for all pupils and their parents.