A huge well done to Isla Scott (S2) and Kate Paul (S1) who competed in the British Athletics Cross Country Challenge in Liverpool on Saturday. Isla finished 24th and Kate finished 31st on a very challenging course.

Our Higher PE pupils had a fantastic experience yesterday at the Scottish Open Badminton Championships taking place at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow.

The pupils witnessed an excellent standard of play, with competitors coming from all over the world to take part in this excellent event.

A huge well done to all staff and pupils who made this trip such a success!

Morning of school 📚 or morning of badminton?🏸

We know where we’d rather be today 😝#SOGP pic.twitter.com/ea18FwKoWQ

— BadmintonScot (@BadmintonScot) November 23, 2017

On Thursday 2 November we held our 3rd annual Health and Wellbeing Lecture with Keynote Speakers Rose Marie Parr (Scotland’s Chief Pharmaceutical Officer) and Dr Gayle Davis (Senior Lecturer in the History of Medicine at the University of Edinburgh).

Rose Marie Parr discussed why she embarked on a career in Pharmacy as well as topical issues in her field such as ethics and over prescribing of drugs that were highly beneficial for our students considering studying Pharmacy but also all science and health related fields such as Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing and Biomedical Science.

Dr Gayle Davis offered an alternative view for people who are interested in Science.  She gave an extremely interesting presentation on the History of Medicine, making clear why it’s a worthwhile exercise to look backwards as well as forwards when we consider health, disease and its treatment, and how that might benefit both patients and the people who treat them.

Both talks were highly inspirational and pupils were able to ask questions at the end.

• Health and Wellbeing Lecture 2.11.17 Rose Marie Parr
• Health and Wellbeing Lecture 2.11.17 Gayle Davis

The S1 pupils had the opportunity to undertake the Bikeability Level 3 course, building on their previous knowledge from Level 1 and 2 which they experienced at primary school. Level 3 equips trainees with skills for more challenging roads and traffic situations – busier streets, queuing traffic, complex junctions and roundabouts. It also includes planning routes for safe cycling. The course is broken down into 3 sessions; a 1½ hour classroom based session detailing the course and going over the cycling routes; a one hour on road session and a two hour on road session.

Six pupils from St Ninian’s participated and successfully passed the course in October this year. They encountered a range of challenging contexts and continued to develop their knowledge of cycling on the road as the course progressed. Well done to Gareth Isaac, Yanis Yekken, Oliver Ngouajio, Colin O’Hara and Seumas Semple on their successful completion of the Level 3 Bikeability course!

A huge well done to all staff and pupils involved in the hugely successful Active Girls Day 2017!!!

PE staff, our active schools coordinator and our senior sports leaders worked extremely hard preparing for the day and ensuring it was a roaring success.

Girls from S1 to S6 participated throughout the day – completing a challenging obstacle course throughout the school grounds.

Active Girls Day is a SportScotland initiative and aims to promote & celebrate sport and physical activity for girls all across Scotland.

Here are some highlights from our day……….

Active Girls Day 2017 @stninianshigh

pic.twitter.com/allNOV1aPn

— St Ninian’s PE & HWB (@stninianshighpe) October 6, 2017

The Scottish Schools Road Race took place on 4^th October at Falkirk Stadium. This event was attended by 33 pupils from St Ninian’s High School. It was a truly successful day for the athletes and was thoroughly enjoyed by all competitors.

Most notably, our S1 girls’ team are now the Scottish Champions as the team achieved a gold medal, leading the league table by several points. This was a phenomenal performance from Erin Ward, Hannah Ryding, Rachael Morran and Kate Paul!

Also, our S2 boys achieved a bronze team medal.  Huge congratulations to Aidan Flynn, Joseph McKay, Hugh Shiels and Aaron McGillvray for your efforts to achieve this medal!

A huge thank you and well done to all organisers, staff, volunteers and participants!

Get Exercising to be Healthy and Happy

The PE department would like to thank all S1 pupils for participating in the Skipathon.

Each pupil took part in non-stop skipping for three periods.

The PE department would also like to thank the families and friends of participants who helped to raise as much money as possible.

In total we raised a fantastic £2531.34 which will contribute to the school’s PE equipment, the Friday club and transport for sports fixtures.

A huge well done to all staff and pupils involved!

St Ninian’s has been recognised with a prestigious national award for innovation and achievement in delivering physical education and extra-curricular sport.

As part of the National Lottery funded programme, the sportscotland School Sport Award is a national initiative that is designed to encourage schools to continuously improve physical education and sport. The Award also encourages sporting links between schools and the communities around them.

Delighted Head Teacher John Docherty said: “It’s an honour to be awarded the sportscotland Gold School Sport Award. Our staff work incredibly hard to deliver first class experiences for our young people.  We believe that physical education, physical activity and sport are important factors in the school curriculum and very much contribute to the development of the whole person.”

With more applications than ever before, there are currently 212 sportscotland Gold School Sport Award schools. 336 schools have been awarded Silver and 84 with Bronze.

To achieve a Bronze or Silver sportscotland School Sport Award, schools self-assess their current practice. However, to gain Gold status an extensive external assessment is also carried out by an independent panel of experts.

Stewart Harris, Chief Executive of sportscotland, said: “Congratulations to all the staff and pupils at Saint Ninian’s High School in Giffnock – they should be extremely proud of this fantastic achievement. Not only have they put physical education and sport at the heart of their school and local community, but they have managed to do so in a way that encourages all pupils to engage in physical activity whilst having fun at the same time.”

“sportscotland is committed to building a world-class sporting system for everyone, and a crucial part of that is putting young people at the heart. Working with our partners in local authorities and governing bodies of sport, we are creating closer links between physical education, school sport and club sport, which benefits young people by providing more and better opportunities to take part in sport.”

The sportscotland School Sport Award is supported by the Active Schools Network, a programme that involves sportscotland working in partnership with all 32 local authorities to encourage schools to ensure there are opportunities for all children and young people to engage, participate and reach their potential in this area.

The on-line self-assessment tool supports schools to achieve this by helping them to reflect on their current practice and identify areas for improvement. It also puts the young people in the school at the forefront of the decision making and implementation processes around sport in their school.