Monthly Archives: January 2016

Smith competition winners

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As part of a class project pupils were asked to mine interesting and unusual words from the classic ; Smith by Leon Garfied.
This is what the winning pupils came up with.

Winner
The Client – By Joseph

It was just another day. You know the usual; my secretary dextrously tapping away at her keyboard; me in the solitary confinement of my office, customary coffee in hand. The tapping came to a halt abruptly and I could vaguely make out the subtle tones of female voices. One was of course familiar to me. The other was not.
What followed was the subsequent tottering of my secretary’s heels and after a few seconds a brisk knock at my door.
In her sanctimonious tone, Miss Lancaster announced the arrival of a potential new client anxious to see me. I agreed and the lady was directed into my office. A little embarrassed I became aware of the rooms musty odour and I turned to open a window.
The lady introduced herself with a slight accent though she was proficient in English. She was beautiful but from her complexion I could detect she was flustered.
Comment:
My winner is … The Client. A crisp and clean short story. The new vocabulary fits well into the story and does not feel as if it has been put there for a class project. It reads like the beginning of a detective novel and already there are little clues as to what might happen next … strained relationship with a snotty secretary, musty room why? A client with an accent ooh exotic… so many questions … great!

Runner – Up
First Day by Jenna

She approached the door with circumspection. This was her first ever job and she had brooded over this moment a thousand times. Indecision of whether to knock or not passed through her. She looked behind her and could see her quaint little house standing sombre adjacent to all the others in the village. She wiped her hands on her livery disdainfully and knocked the door.
An affable man wearing a freshly pressed suit opened the door. “You must be the new maid”, he said gesturing for her to come in, “yes” she replied while looking around the huge hallway decorated with hatchments and paintings. “There is no need to look so peevish”, he smiles, “I’ll look after you”. He led her down towards the maid’s chambers. She blundered down the staircase and almost crashed into him. He laughed as he said “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to the darkness…”
Comment:
The New Maid story is second in my selection. It could have been taken right off the pages of a Bronte/ Austen novel. It was so easy to imagine the scene and it painted a vibrant picture of a vignette of someone’s life… and then there is the ending … pure Victorian Gothic horror “Don’t worry you’ll get used to the darkness.” It’s as if the author has closed the door on the new maid and we are left with only our imagination as to what the “darkness” might hold. Come back don’t go in there!

Third equal
The Present – by Joshua

On Christmas Eve I looked wistfully at the brightly coloured gifts under the tree. The lights from the Christmas candles and the tree lights made the pigment of the brightly shining gift wrap shimmer and glisten in the darkness. All that vexation over whether my mum’s present would arrive had been unnecessary. All the sanctimonious crowing from my sister over my lack of gift was finished.
I had bought my mum the best present ever! My sister’s complexion had changed dramatically; when she saw me briskly and dextrously wraps the immense gift. As my mum prepared the Christmas dinner in the scullery, I could sit back and relax, knowing everything was under control.
Comment:
The Christmas Eve story about the present was a great example of how less is more. It was a short, to the point, succinct and well – rounded story with hints to other unexplored themes – such as the relationship between the two sisters and the warmth of feeling from the writer to their mother… and you never do find out what the present is!

Third equal
Mean Girls by Caitlin

St David’s High is a high school in the west end of Glasgow. Channel, Alison, Brittany, Miranda and Jade think they are in the “in crowd” in fifth year. They strut the corridor with formidable attitude, glaring at the rest of the fifth years contemptuously. Part of their self-confidence comes from their prosperous background. Their sanctimonious attitude intimidates other girls. They were known as “the plastics” which gave them great eminence.
There were five girls in “the plastics” ranging from Channel who was at the top of the pyramid and felt she was unaccountable to anyone.
Next on the pyramid was Alison with her long blond hair and pretty face but her looks belied her felonious personality.
After Alison came Brittany the cheer captain who was very sporty and very popular despite her blasphemous mouth.

Although Miranda was not top of the pyramid you would be foolish to under estimate or get on the wrong side of her sarcastic, quick-witted tongue and shrewd personality.

Jade was the naive, vexatious airhead who impressed the group with her gentry background but if rumours were to be believed her dad’s impressive title had been bought off the Internet.
So, the moral of this story is “ all that glitters isn’t gold, because sometimes it’s just plastic”.

Comments:
Mean Girls brought 19th century vocabulary bang up to date and applied it very successfully – I could imagine those girls… in fact I think I went to school with some of them .. not in the 18th century and you can never go wrong with a story with a moral!

Well done to all the winners.

Creative responses – CPD

Here is a list of all the resources for the staff CPD on
Creative responses to … CFE.

AND for ease of clickology – they are linked.
If any break let me know.

Please also note that this is a living and breathing list and will be added to when I find more suitable sites OR if you find anything super and dandy I will add it on.

USEFUL ONLINE RESOURCES

WORDLE
TAGXEDO
ANIMOTO
POWTOON
TIMETOAST
PREZI
THINGLINK
PIKTOCHART
KAHOOT this is the link for staff
KAHOOT FOR PUPILS
SPIRAL EDUCATION
BUBBL.US
COMMENT BUBBLE

Alternatives to Google

Holocaust Memorial Day – Inge Auerbacher

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As part of St.Ninian’s commemorations for Holocaust memorial Day we were honoured to welcome an amazing woman… Inge Aurbacher.
Inge’s story


    Inge Auerbacher the only child of Regina and Berthold Auerbacher, was born in 1934, a year after the Nazis came to power. She lived in a small village in southern Germany where her father had his own textile business.

    On the night of November 9th, 1938, just before Inge’s fourth birthday, countrywide acts of terror and destruction were carried out against Germany’s Jews. Inge’s father was arrested and sent to a concentration camp. After his release a few weeks later, the family realized the need to leave the country, but they had nowhere to go. They moved to her mother’s home town. Inge could no longer attend the local public school. In 1941, she was forced to wear the yellow star. In late 1941, Inge, her parents and her grandmother were told to report for “resettlement.” Her father, a disabled World War I veteran, obtained a postponement, but her grandmother was sent to Latvia where she was murdered.
    On August 22, 1942, Inge and her parents were arrested and deported. Forced to leave all their possessions behind, they were sent to the Theresienstadt ghetto in Czechoslovakia. Conditions were horrendous. Always hungry, Inge and her parents constantly lived with the fear that they would be deported to the death camps in Poland. In the spring of 1945, the Germans began building gas chambers in Theresienstadt, where they planned to kill all the remaining Jews. But on May 8, 1945, Soviet troops entered the ghetto and ten year-oldInge and her parents were freed.
    Of the 15,000 children who had been imprisoned at Theresienstadt, only 100 survived and Inge is one of them.

    We would like to thank Inge for coming to the school and for being so gracious as to hand out awards for pupils S1-S6 who had successfully taken part in our creative responses competition.

    As time moves on our opportunities to meet witnesses to these atrocities , to ask them questions and to feel their passion, diminishes. Inge left us with her story, some hugs and plenty of inspiration “it is your job to be everything today for those who are not here” and who can argue with that.

    On Wednesday 27th a group of pupils will be attending the Scottish National Holocaust Memorial Day event at Falkirk town hall where we will be able to meet us with Inge again.

    Pictures of the event

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Holocaust Memorial Day Winners

    This is a selection of the winning entries to our Holocaust Memorial Day Creative Responses Competition 2016.

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Pupils were asked to respond on the theme “Don’t Stand By” in the format of either a post-card, poem or photograph.
Winners will attend the national service in Falkirk Town Hall and also be presented with their certificates of achievement by Inge Auerbacher one of only 100 child survivors of Theresienstadt ghetto in Czechoslovakia.

Many thanks to all the pupils who took the time to take part.

Dear Mum,
hope you are doing well. Did you hear what was on the television? It was a man called Martin Luther King Jr. He stood up for his rights which he deserved. He didn’t just stand and listen to people say thing that are not true about his friends and family. He stood up and said “I have a dream” he spoke to 200,000 – 300,000 dissidents and millions of television viewers. I was one of them, he was very inspirational. I think that we should do something to help him. Maybe we should start a campaign or try to change the rights so he gets the rights he deserves. What are your thoughts please write back soon.
Love you lots,
Grace xxx</
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I just stood there, I didn’t move, even if I wanted to it wouldn’t be possible. Not then at least. Where I found myself was the history corridor of my school third period had just ended and I was headed to French but I was delayed because of something, that something being what I was seeing, my classmate on the floor and a beefy figure stood over him grinning while my classmate squirmed to get free of his iron grip. At that moment I had two choices: stay and help him or leave him to fend for himself. In the end I chose option B. as I would soon find out that was the wrong choice. Fast forward four weeks later that same boy the one I left to fend for himself was in front of me, he had many emotions on his face in the thirty seconds we were there, happiness wasn’t one of them. I couldn’t bare to look him in the face so when we had contact I averted my eyes so I wouldn’t have to look at what me being a coward had done to him, but I couldn’t just look away, I had to make sure that he was ok. He wasn’t. he had bruises all over his face and his eyes and lips were very puffy but also bright purple, still to this day I wonder what would have happened if I didn’t just stand by, I won’t make the same mistake again.
By James

It makes me wonder, wonder all day
What happened? To make people this way?
How can they watch? And merely stand by
As hundreds upon thousands of people … Die

These people shan’t be overlooked and neglected!
How can’t we feel? How can’t we be affected ‽
Have we fallen to a point, in our world and society
Where we lose all sense of humanity and piety?

We are one. We are the same. We are the human race,
And despite all differences, we all end up in the same place.
So all across the nations I say, open the doors! Let them in!
Because when we learn to love, that’s when life, truly begins.

By Tom

The person who hides behind a computer screen
Fingers typing hate filled messages
Click of a button that changes it all

The victim innocent and alone
Thoughts that could end a life
Coward of a bully who destroys it all

Their future, dreams, ambitions crushed
As nobody helped
People will die.
Don’t stand by.

By Maria

Excelsior!

Have you been inspired by recent library lessons? Are you a DC devotee or a Marvel maniac?
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If so you might want to pop in to the library very soon to participate in this year’s Excelsior awards.
There are 8 great titles in the Senior Category and 5 in the Junior section.
How many you choose to read is up to you.

How do I get involved?

    All you have to do is read one of the books or two of the books or all of the books – how many is purely up to you. And with choices from Darth Vader to Dr Who to Oddly Normal and Ant Man there really is something for everyone (even a wee bitty o Manga for the back to front gang).
    Senior selection
    Junior selection

    So whether you only read comics or have never read comics – come in and take part.

    Bat Girl; the second best librarian of all time

    Boo!