All posts by Mr Hamilton

Children in Need

As usual our fantastic nurture unit pulled out all the stops when celebrating this year’s Children in Need with a bake sale and sweep stake. Mrs Currie and the pupils of the ‘hub’ organised and hosted a bake sale on Thursday 18th November whilst a sweep stake amongst staff was won by Ms Young. In total over £200 was raised with all money going towards the fantastic charities that Children in Need represents. Well done to everyone who helped raise money for a very worthy cause.

DEC Project

Recently our developing the young workforce staff invited the award-winning team behind the learning program for digital built environment and infrastructure education ‘Design…Engineer…Construct’ (DEC) into school for a five-day project with our S3 pupils. The pupils were tasked to design a net zero McDonald’s restaurant and over the five days participated in a series of workshops which looked at idea generation and problem solving, with sessions such as 3D modelling and design overview being offered. It was a great week and for completing their designs the pupils were rewarded with a feast from McDonald’s.

Reading Schools – Alex Nye Visit

On Tuesday 15th November the reading schools team welcomed friend of the school, author Alex Nye, into the school library to deliver an author workshop to a group of S1 pupils. Alex’s children’s books are all set in Scotland and they brilliantly incorporate Scottish history and ghost stories into their plots. The S1 pupils listened attentively as Alex spoke of her work and read excerpts aloud to them. The session ended with a quick Q&A which was especially useful for the budding writers in the audience. This fully funded session from the Scottish Book Trust is part of the school’s ongoing efforts to secure reading schools accreditation next year. Thank you to Alex Nye, the Scottish Book Trust and our fantastic S1 pupils.

PCR Workshop

Our Higher Human Biology pupils recently took part in a very interesting and topical workshop on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing. The session was led by staff from TimStar Laboratories and was very hands-on as pupils were given the chance to handle the testing equipment whilst learning about the step-by-step process.

Lush Workshop

Recently a group of S4 N5 Lab Skill pupils participated in a fantastic bath bomb making workshop delivered by the bath bomb experts from Lush. Pupils were given the opportunity to create their own scented bath bombs by using the required ingredients and following the recipe instruction. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

S4 Mid Assessments

To reflect the change in status of the assessment process prelims will be called ‘mid assessments’

  • S4 Thursday 2nd – Wednesday 15th December (at least three exams will be in the hall with external invigilators)
  • Performance in these assessments will help to indicate likely performance but the will not guarantee any pupil estimate or final exam performance
  • S4-6 pupils will receive one further tracking report and one subject report

Click below to view the timetable.

S4-Mid-Assessment-TT-Dec-2021

Reading Schools Peer Mentors

A few of our S6 peer mentors recently gathered in the library to receive their peer mentor badges, which they are wearing on their school blazer.  The mentors are working really hard to offer paired reading support to a selection of S1 pupils, in their free periods.  The pupils meet once a week to read aloud together, to discuss stories and reading for pleasure. Well done to our S6 pupils on volunteering for this worthwhile initiative which is part of the school’s ongoing Reading Schools accreditation process.