One of Braidhurst High School Art Department’s pupils, Nadene Traynor, gained an award in this year’s ‘My Place’ Photography competition.   Her photograph of Glasgow in the rain was well liked by the judges and has been chosen to gain an award.   The competition is run annually by The Scottish Civic Trust and Nadene will be presented with her award at the ceremony in the Lighthouse in Glasgow at the end of March.

S6 pupils Chloe Wishart, Azhar Khan and Mark Coletta recently completed their Peer Education qualification.   They delivered a wide range of health related workshops to S1 pupils and discussed important issues such as positive self-image, mental health and good communication and team work techniques.   The young people said they enjoyed learning something new from people nearer their own age as they could relate to them more easily.   Linda McGurk, Partnership Officer who delivered the training said “The Peer Educators were very well organised in their delivery of the sessions and have learned new skills and experiences which I’m sure will be of great benefit to them in the nearfuture”.

Subject choice interviews with parents and pupils are almost complete.   The Pupil Support staff have conducted these along with issuing subject reports and setting targets prior to the SQA examinations in May.

The Parent Teachers and Friends Association recently held a prize Bingo Evening in the school and raised almost £500 for the funds.   This will go towards the Senior Prom to be held in the Popinjay Hotel in June.

Assemblies took place last week with the school chaplains, Mr David Ramage, Rev Derek Pope, Rev Derek Hughes leading the various year groups.

Braidhurst under 13’s boys go into the semi-finals of the Lanarkshire cup with a comfortable 4-0 victory over John Ogilvie HS from Hamilton.   With Zafar Khan (2), Jordan Critchley and Luke Biggart all on the score sheet, Braidhurst are hoping they can keep up the good performances and make it to the final.

With the boys still in two cup competitions, a dream of a cup double is still on the horizon.   With either Our Lady’s HS (Cumbernauld) or Trinity HS to play in the Lanarkshire cup semi-final and Grange Academy to play in the quarter-finals of the Scottish Cup, the boys are working hard to achieve their dream.

Jamie Buchanan was crowned last Monday as the new chess champion of Braidhurst High School 2014.   There were 32 pupils who battled it out in a knockout tournament to compete for the shield.   Jamie cruised through the four rounds to beat Gary Stokes in the final who was also a strong contender to win the title.

The last chess champion from Braidhurst was Kit Won in 1997.   Mr Clark hopes to have many chess champions in the years to come due to the club’s success as there are so many keen players.   Braidhurst is even looking to enter a few pupils into next year’s state championship.

Pupils from all year groups have enjoyed the strategic complexities of the game which offers challenge and stimulating exercise.   Played in a vibrant atmosphere at Monday lunch times, the game of chess has brought fun and competition to all.