Last month marked the 58^th birthday of Star Trek and on that day, my Physics teacher, Ms Bell, was telling me about how it was watching Star Trek when she was younger that made her love science so much. So I decided to meet with Ms Bell to talk about why she would recommend people to choose science subjects and a bit about why Star Trek was so inspirational to her. Maybe through this article, we will inspire the next generation of scientists, or at least inspire a few people in the junior school to pick a science subject for next year.

The first thing I talked about with Ms Bell was why pupils in S2, S3 and S4 could benefit from picking a science subject. Obviously Ms Bell absolutely loves science and would definitely recommend anyone to take science subjects, but why, exactly, would she recommend this?

“Science is just such a fun subject,” she said. “I think that any child from when they’re really young, have got that quest to know what’s going on around them and why things happen and that’s what science answers. Science lets you build on your curiosity. The world around us is scientific. For example, if you look at what happened during Covid; everybody suddenly had to become experts in immunology, vaccines and statistics and if you’ve got that knowledge anyway, from science, you can start to take apart what’s in the news and understand what’s true and what’s not true. Another thing is, you can look up into the sky at night and you see the stars, science can now answer the questions about what they are. Science can answer questions that for thousands of years, humans didn’t have the answers to. I think we should all try to have a scientific knowledge as it’s a very important subject.”

It’s very clear that having even just a little knowledge about science can help us to understand so much more about the world around us and that it’s excellent at sparking our curiosity. But what sort of things will our pupils be doing in science? Ms Bell already said that it’s such a fun subject but what are the most fun or interesting things that pupils will learn and do in their science classes?

“One of the most fun things you’ll get to do in science is the Van De Graff Generator,” Ms Bell told me. “You put somebody on a Van De Graff Generator and their head looks like a dandelion because their hair’s standing on end and not only can we get them to do that, we can explain why. Also, the other day, I was doing an experiment with the S2s where I had a disappearing glass beaker. The way it works is you put vegetable oil or glycerol into a glass beaker and put it into another glass, then all of a sudden it disappears because the light’s behaving in a different way. So not only can you do these tricks but you can explain it because of science.”

While its amazing that science can teach us so much about the world we live in and also be a fun and interesting subject, Ms Bell also told me that there are so many jobs in life that are all about science. This is probably something that our S3 pupils may be interested in learning about as it won’t be long before they decide what National 5s they’ll be study and they’ll want to know where these subjects could take them. So what kind of jobs in science could pupils get after leaving school?

“There’s a huge variety,” Ms Bell explained. “Obviously, there’s engineering. An engineer is probably more the application of science as opposed to science itself but a lot of science degrees could take you down an engineering route. There’re all sorts of jobs that people don’t think of, such as being an optician. They’ve had a science degree, an optician needs ophthalmology which needs the science of light. You could also think of things like a meteorologist or weatherman which would definitely involve a lot of science. You’ve also got things like a sound engineer for a band, that’s a job with science in it because you’ll have needed to learn about the science and sound of acoustics. There’s of course, the obvious one, a rocket scientist. Why not reach for the stars? If you want to be a rocket scientist, you need to do Physics. There are so many jobs that people can get into through studying a science, whether it be Physics, Chemistry or Biology, science can take you wherever you want to go.”

It’s certainly clear that there are so many places of work that you can get into through science, even ones you wouldn’t expect.

At the start of this article I mentioned that Ms Bell’s interest in science sprouted form watching Star Trek and she isn’t the only person this has happened to. But what is it about this iconic television franchise that has inspired so many people over the years to get into science?

“I wouldn’t be here today, if it wasn’t for Mr Spock,” Ms Bell said. “When I was a kid, I saw Star Trek on the TV and you had this guy that when the captain or the crew couldn’t solve a problem, they turned to the science officer and he would give the information they needed. The show allowed you to see different roles and people weren’t stereotyped. So it wasn’t the case that the women had to be the nurses or the cooks, no, they had roles that were just the same as the men. For me, through the show, you sort of see what science is about and you can see that it can solve problems. It also shows you that there’s no limits. It doesn’t matter who you are, what you are, what the colour of your skin is, what your religion is, what gender you are, if you want to have a scientific career, science isn’t going to mind what you look like. Star Trek just says you can do whatever you want to do.”

Star Trek has often explored the ideas of new technology but has it ever predicted, or perhaps even inspired, the technology that we now take for granted?

“It’s a known fact that the person who first invented the mobile phone in the late 1960s said that Star Trek was his inspiration because of the idea that Captain Kirk could be down on a planet and communicate with Scotty on his spacecraft, that inspired him to come up with the mobile phone,” Ms Bell told me. “The mobile phone came from Star Trek. The Motorola flip phone was even inspired by the communicators on Star Trek. There’re other things too, for example the replicator. On Star Trek you could use these to immediately produce objects, now in real life, we have 3D printers. In Star Trek you had a Universal Translator where people from different languages and cultures could communicate freely, now look at what AI can do today. Science Fiction, if it’s done well, can teach us about what might be possible, and then people can take those ideas and make them into reality.”

I think Star Trek has probably influenced our lives today more than we realise, and it goes without saying that this has all happened because of science.

While it was Star Trek that inspired Ms Bell to have an interest in science, who knows what might make you become keen on the subject. I very much enjoyed the conversation I had with Ms Bell and, speaking as someone who is studying Advanced Higher Physics, I do find science very interesting and it’s very clear that the possibilities in science can be endless.

Article by Jack Ramsay, Head Boy

At the very start of this month, the Higher and Advanced Higher Geography students enjoyed an overnight trip to Dolphin House in Culzean. I am studying Higher Geography this year and so I had the fantastic opportunity to go on this trip. I’m writing this article to tell you about what a great time we all had.

Dolphin House is located in Culzean Country Park, just next to Culzean Castle and around an hour and a half minibus drive away from Clydeview Academy. Including myself, there were 14 pupils on the trip and we were joined by Clydeview’s excellent Geography teachers, Mr McFadzean and Mrs Blackman. The trip saw us taking part in many fun-filled activities as well as learning a bit about the surrounding area, which linked to what we have been learning in our Geography classes.

When we first arrived, we were greeted by the wonderful views of Culzean’s sprawling coastlines and we were very fortunate to have been there on such a bright day. I remember Mrs Blackman showing us a wave-cut platform and the remains of a stack, both of which are features we have been learning about in class. After our visit to the beach, our guide for the day, Andre, let us take part in some archery which was great fun. I spoke to Sophie and she told me a bit about her experience:

“I thought the archery was great because we had an opportunity that you wouldn’t really have without going on the trip as we got to try out this new activity. My favourite moment was probably when I aimed the arrow correctly and got to hit and burst the balloon on the target. I think we had a great time all round!”

– Sophie T, S5

Our other activities while at Culzean included hill walking and gorge walking. Our experience while hill walking was very peaceful (despite the surprisingly strong winds!) and once our tired legs reached the peak of our hill, we admired the amazing landscape around us. Mr McFadzean also took the time to teach us about the soils we walked across and showed us examples of what we had recently been taught in class. The gorge walk, on the other hand, was far more challenging as we had to climb through narrow passageways, over large rocks and through water which was as high as our chests. I met with Lorna afterwards and she told me about what she thought of our activities:

“I thought the trip was very good and very exciting overall. The gorge walking was very interesting as it showed us the landscape that a glacier would have created. It was a bit of an adventure, having to climb through the rocks and walk through the water. The hill walking had wonderful views! It was also very interesting seeing different layers of soils and the soil horizons. Getting to see what that was actually like instead of just a picture in a textbook was great.”

– Lorna R, S5

We also had a good time in the evening while at Dolphin House as when the sun was setting, we went rock-pooling. The tide had gone out and had left hundreds of miniature ponds filled with tiny sea creatures, which I don’t think expected to see us staring down at them. We then returned to the beach and enjoyed toasting marshmallows around a campfire made by Mr McFadzean and Mrs Blackman. To end our night, we got head-torches and walked to a nearby park to play a game of hide and seek in the pitch black of the night – I definitely didn’t expect that from my Geography trip! I chatted to Finlay and Lara who told me more about why they enjoyed this so much:

“I thought the rock pooling was really good as we got outside in a wave-cut platform scenery so we could see the eco-system and the animals that you find in that habitat. Amongst my finds were hermit crabs, a butterfish and a worm pipefish. The campfire was a really nice way to relax in the evening and to get to chill out. We talked to everyone there and had marshmallows and a good time together.”

– Finlay A, S5

“I thought it was very eye-opening meeting new people that I’d never spoken to before. Especially at hide and seek, I felt like that was a bonding moment for us all and quite unexpected how we all got together and clicked. Doing it in the dark with head-torches was definitely a different experience, I’ve never done that before!”

– Lara C, S5

It’s clear that everyone really enjoyed their trip to Dolphin House and it’s certainly helped us with our studies in Geography, which I’m sure Mrs Blackman and Mr McFadzean will be very pleased about!

Article by Jack Ramsay, Head Boy

Callum Charteris was last year’s Head Boy of Clydeview Academy and is also the founder of Clydeview Connect. Recently I had the opportunity to meet with him and have a chat about his experiences during his last year of school and I was able to ask him a few questions about his time as Head Boy and with Clydeview Connect.

I remember when he started Clydeview Connect last year and I remember when he came to our school assemblies to tell everyone about his new project so I wondered what made him decide to create CV Connect?

“Well, I just felt that the pupils weren’t getting represented as well as they should be,” he told me. “So I thought let’s create a pupil blog where the news is actually coming from the pupils and not the teachers to let everyone know about life in Clydeview.”

But what did Callum enjoy most about Clydeview Connect?

“Just speaking to new people. I liked the creative aspect on the Instagram and Twitter and on the blogs,” he said. “I also liked leading from the pupils’ view and not really having a teacher telling you what to do, and being able to come up with your own ideas. It was just a great new idea and I really enjoyed being a part of it.”

Of course, Callum had a very busy year last year, not just with Clydeview Connect but with his role as Head Boy too. As I’m now getting the experiences of being Head Boy, I wondered what he liked most about his role.

“Everything, to be fair. I loved last year!” he said with a smile. “It kind of shaped me as an individual. Some highlights were probably the tannoys every morning, I really enjoyed that. But just, like, coming out of my shell, getting to speak with new people and loads and loads of opportunities like parents’ nights, speaking in assemblies, everything. Just being in that role was something that I’ll always remember and was just a great experience.”

It’s clear that Callum loved being involved with so much within the school but I was curious to know what was his single most memorable moment from his time as Head Boy?

“Probably an infamous moment, to be fair,” he laughed. “In the teachers versus students game, it was on penalties, I think it was three all in the normal match. We were drawing on penalties and it was the last penalty so we had to score to stay in it and I thought it would be a good idea if I hit it. Then I completely missed it in front of the whole school. The pupils lost the trophy and I was the one who missed the penalty, and I think that probably sticks with me the most.”

Perhaps this wasn’t one of his high points in his time as Head Boy, however, he did tell me about a more positive memory.

“Going away from negatives, my favourite moment was probably just the first time on the tannoy when I accidentally shouted ‘Come on the Clydeview’ and it became a catchphrase forever.”

Obviously, it isn’t always easy playing such a big part in the day to day life of the school so I asked him if there were any difficult parts of being Head Boy.

“Well, it was very challenging because there’s a lot to balance and I kinda found that I was getting overwhelmed at some points,” he told me. “But I just made sure to make sure that I was reaching out to people if I needed any support and making sure that I didn’t get completely overwhelmed. But yeah, it was difficult to balance your school work and your duties but I made sure that I wasn’t getting too stressed out and was talking to people if I ever needed any support or anything like that.”

My final question to Callum was what his advice to this year’s pupil leadership team would be.

“Just be yourself, like, if you have an idea, go for it,” he said. “Don’t sit back on anything you want to do because if you don’t do it and regret it at the end of the year, you might think ‘why did I not get that started?’ Just don’t let anyone change who you are and just go for everything you want and enjoy it because it’ll be prom before you know it and you’ll be ready to move on. So yeah, have a great year, that’s what I would say.”

Callum definitely made the most of his time as Head Boy and followed every new idea he had. I think his advice will be very helpful to myself and the rest of our pupil leadership team.

Since leaving Clydeview, Callum has just started a five-year course studying computing science at Strathclyde University. He tells me that he’s very excited about the new experiences that await him and that he remembers his time at Clydeview very fondly. Hopefully he comes back to visit us again some time.

Article by Jack Ramsay, Head Boy

The Clydeview Academy annual prizegiving ceremony was held in Old Gourock and Ashton Church earlier this month and so I’m writing this article to tell you all about the occasion.

The church was very busy that evening as parents and carers came to congratulate their children on their fantastic achievements. I was there myself and, as Head Boy, I was asked to deliver the opening words to the ceremony alongside the Head Girl, Sophie. We were both quite nervous when we stood up to the lectern but it all went very well.

You’re probably wondering what kind of prizes were awarded at the ceremony, so I’ll tell you a little bit about each of them:

One of the main prizes awarded at the ceremony is the Subject Awards. Each subject offers this prize and it is awarded to the person who achieved the highest marks in a subject’s exam at the level they were studying it. I was able to speak to Lauren, who won the Higher Human Biology award, and Zak, who was given the prize for Higher RMPS. They each told me about how they felt about their awards and what they thought of their subjects:

“It feels quite good to have won the Human Biology award, my hard work paid off. I actually quite liked the subject because I found it quite interesting. I’m currently taking Biology as an Advanced Higher course but it’s different to Human Biology as there are more plants and it’s a lot more difficult. I plan to do healthcare when I leave school so Biology and Chemistry, which I also study, are perfect for that.”

– Lauren M, 6E

“I’m pleased, I’ve definitely put some solid work in and I’m glad to have seen the results of it. I loved RMPS, it’s the absolute best thing I’ve ever done! I really like that it tests you, not just on how much you can remember but actual critical thinking skills. I don’t think you see enough in schools of being able to be tested on how you evaluate information using just your own thoughts and I thought it was really good to have the opportunity to do that through my RMPS. I hope to do Law after school so RMPS will certainly be valuable in pursuing that.”

– Zak B, 6D

Another one of the main prizes awarded each year is the Academic Excellence Awards. This prize is given to any S5s who achieved 6 As in their fourth-year National 5 exams or any S6s who achieved 5 As in their fifth-year higher exams. I had the chance to speak to Paul and he told me about how it feels for his hard work to have paid off:

“I’m definitely proud of what I’ve achieved, it was a lot of hard work, especially English where I was sort of lacking behind so I’m glad I was able to put in the effort. My other subjects were Chemistry, Computing, Maths and Physics and my favourite out of them would have to be Physics. I plan to do Mechanical or Electronic Engineering when I leave school so Physics and Maths will be great for that.”

– Paul N, 6F

There are many more prizes that were awarded so I’ll try to mention a few of them:

There is an S4 Merit and Achievement award which is given to anyone in that year group who always worked hard throughout the school year. The Leading the Learning of Others award is given to those who showed leadership skills and helped out with groups younger than them. Additionally, the Commitment to Extra Curricular Activities prize is given to those who were a member of and consistently took part in any clubs or groups.

Furthermore, there were several special awards for the unique achievements of some of Clydeview’s pupils and multiple awards for sports as well. One of these was for Xanthe who was given her Gold Award for Duke of Edinburgh. I met up with her and she told me a bit about what she had to do to succeed in this excellent achievement.

“In Duke of Edinburgh, you do three levels, bronze, silver and gold. For the gold award, you have to spend five nights and five days in the wild. I was the only girl in my group and also the youngest. The other members of my group were three older boys from other schools but it was very good because I met new friends. The walking was alright, but it was 23 degrees while we were climbing the steepest hills I’ve ever walked up before. You also have to carry a 13kg backpack and we were camping every night in our own tents in the wild. I feel really good after completing it because of the fact that I’m the youngest from Clydeview Academy to complete this and have that award. If young people get offered this opportunity, I would say 100% go ahead and do it as you’ll develop great life skills.”

– Xanthe T, 6C

This is just a flavour of some of the many successes had by the pupils at Clydeview Academy. There were so many other prizewinners who I didn’t get to mention in this article but you may be able to find out more about their achievements on the school Twitter account.

Congrats to all our prizewinners!

Article by Jack Ramsay, Head Boy

Earlier this month, a group of Clydeview Academy’s S6 pupils went on a trip called the UCAS Discovery Day. But what is UCAS? And what’s a discovery day? In this article I’ll answer those questions and tell you all about our experiences.

To give a brief summary, UCAS stands for the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service. All pupils who want to study at a University or College must use UCAS as all of their applications are submitted through it. The UCAS website is very helpful for all fifth and sixth year pupils as it can suggest courses that may be of interest based on which subjects you like most. For many, UCAS is essential when planning your route after school.

The UCAS Discovery Day was held in the SEC Centre in Glasgow and around 50 S6s went on the trip. The event saw over 40 Universities and Colleges from across the United Kingdom have an information stall where their staff could answer any questions and tell you about what life is like at their Uni or College. Each Uni or College also offered their prospectus, which is a book that tells you all about the courses they have on offer, and these were free to take home.

Those who went on the trip all seemed to enjoy it very much and came home each carrying a bag filled with prospectuses from their preferred Universities. Here’s what some of our pupils told me about their day out:

“It was good that there were so many different types of Unis, but it wasn’t only Unis as there were also different colleges as well. It was just good to see the different options as I think a lot of people just think Glasgow, Strathclyde or Edinburgh but they forget there’s loads of other Unis that offer different courses. There were also stands for stuff like the RAF which I thought was good because, obviously, not everyone wants to go to Uni or College.”

– Emma W, 6B

“I found out lots of information about different Unis and what courses I want to do. Aberdeen University and Edinburgh University both really stood out to me. It’s hard to say why, I think it was just their vibe. I saw a lot of people talking to the University of Law which I didn’t know was a thing. I also didn’t know you could study Policing but the University of Law offers that and I thought that was quite cool.”

– Esme J, 6B

“I thought the UCAS Discovery Day was super beneficial. It let us look at options that we never really thought about and all the staff, they were lovely. They had a lot of stations for if you didn’t necessarily know what you wanted to do. They had like a little test you could do on a tablet to fill out what kind of courses you like and stuff like that. I thought that was really cool because some people don’t know what to do after school.”

– Emily P, 6D

“The UCAS trip was very informative I would say. It was really big, there were so many schools there and I really enjoyed it. I spoke to Glasgow, Edinburgh and even to Rural College Scotland as I’m interested in vet medicine and I was really intrigued with all of them. The information booklets were really handy as well. The one I got from Edinburgh Uni had a bunch of things, not just about the different courses, but also about the surrounding area and even a bit about job opportunities.”

– Beny D, 6F

The UCAS Discovery Day has certainly been a very beneficial experience for the S6s who attended the event. I think that after the event, a lot of us have a better idea of what our route after school will look like.

Article by Jack Ramsay, Head Boy

On Friday the 6^th of September, we had our school sponsored walk. For those of you who don’t know, this is an annual event and is the main occasion each year for raising school funds. All year groups in our school take part and, in total, the walk is around 10 kilometres long. The route of our journey is the long, winding, and often fairly muddy, path of the Greenock Cut which begins at Overton. Fortunately, just as we are getting very tired and desperately in need of some food, we are given a break half way along the walk at the Greenock Cut Visitor’s Centre.

This year’s walk was quite the contrast to the previous ones which I’ve been a part of as it was a very hot and sunny day. All of our recent sponsored walks have involved our pupils layering up in heavy raincoats and coming prepared with umbrellas but there was no need for any of that this year. In the fantastic weather that we had, the views along our route were truly spectacular. I know some of you might find that hard to believe about Inverclyde but trust me, it was great.

One of the best things about the sponsored walk each year is that the S6s, like myself, do the entire walk in fancy dress and this year’s costumes were certainly some of the best, if I do say so myself. Across the Greenock Cut that day, many spotted a crowd of Smurfs, your favourite characters from Shrek, Dorothy and her friends form the Wizard of Oz, a few Barbie Dolls and even Elvis Presley. It was quite a bizarre day.

Everyone put so much effort into their costumes but what was it like doing such a long walk in fancy dress? I was able to speak to a few of our S6s about what they wore and their experiences of the journey. Here’s what they told me:

“It was a very fun day. I did a Star Trek costume and it was a group theme with three of my friends. It was comfortable to wear, yeah, although I did have to roll my sleeves up as it was a very hot day. My favourite part was when we stopped at the Visitor’s Centre and got to meet up with everyone else.”

– Euan S, 6E

“It was good because we got to do loads of exercise and had to walk for quite a while. I liked seeing the cool waterfall as it was nice and did have water, unlike sometimes. It was nice and sunny and stayed dry so it wasn’t all windy and rainy, unlike previous sponsored walks, and it didn’t have to get delayed like last year.”

– Iris P, 6D

“We were so lucky with the weather! It was almost too good, a bit too hot. I actually didn’t think the walk was as bad as I remembered it being when I was younger. I went as Sol Goodman from Breaking Bad and I was really happy that everyone dressed up in S6 because I was kinda worried that people weren’t gonna go full out.”

– Freya L, 6E

“The weather was absolutely beautiful, I’m happy it wasn’t raining. My friends and I all went as Barbies, it was amazing! Everyone all had quite different costumes. The walk felt super long but I think that’s just because I was in a dress and it was so hot. I think my favourite costume had to be Noah and his friends who dressed up as Disney Princesses, they were amazing.”

– Emily P, 6D

“I thought it was really good this year. I’m glad the weather was nice and it wasn’t raining. It’s a shame it was the last one for us because I’ll miss it after I leave school. I enjoyed dressing up for it. Emma’s costume idea was really good so I’m glad I went with her. My favourite moment of the walk was towards the end as I liked when we were walking downhill.”

– Campbell M, 6E

It’s clear that this year’s was definitely one of the best sponsored walks we’ve had and, like Campbell, I’m also upset that this was my last with Clydeview Academy. Hopefully next year’s S6s have costumes as good as ours.

Article by Jack Ramsay, Head Boy

Welcome to Clydeview Connect 2024-2025!

Clydeview Connect is a branch of the school website that is written completely by pupils. Here you will find articles about special occasions, charity events and any other exciting things happening within our school. You will also find a collection of photographs alongside some blogs that are written.

I’m Jack Ramsay, Head Boy of Clydeview Academy, and I’ll be in charge of Clydeview Connect this year. The Clydeview Connect team and I have many excellent ideas for articles which will be appearing on our website very soon.

You will also be able to find us on Instagram (@cvconnect2024) and Twitter (@CVConnect2024) which our team will soon be posting on. Our Deputy Head Girl, Carys Donaldson and I are very keen to upload regular pictures on our social media accounts.

Visit our website regularly to keep up to date with everything happening at Clydeview!