On Thursday of last week, the S3 Modern Studies class at Braidhurst High School went to the polls, after two weeks of preparation.  Nearly 60 voters, including teachers and fellow pupils, completed their ballot papers in order to cast a vote for one of the hardworking candidates: Luke Main of the Conservative Party; Dylan Tait of the Labour party; Abdullah Onal of the Liberal Democrats; and Liam McNicholl of the SNP.

Each candidate worked hard with their party group for two weeks to prepare their policy positions in relation to important issues in the UK, and Braidhurst High School.  Parties tried to win voters over by producing posters, leaflets and canvassing on the day.  The class also included a media specialist group, acting as the press, who produced informative candidate profiles and held candidates to account through the use of interviews broadcast on polling day.

In the end, there could be only one winner, and the SNP candidate Liam McNicholl emerged victorious – with a winning margin of only one vote!  On his party’s victory, Liam said ‘I think our win would benefit pupils at Braidhurst.  Not only would our policies be effective here, but across the nation as well.  I was delighted to win the election, I feel very proud of my party.’

On Monday 7^th December, S1 and S2 pupils enjoyed a visit from Motherwell Football Club centre back Stephen McManus and the club’s Head of Children’s Programme Paul Burns.   The visit included a talk on the broad themes of literacy and communication, which highlighted the importance of asking questions when learning and remaining open-minded and focused when reading.   The event ended with a quick question and answer session where pupils got the chance to submit football and literacy questions to both speakers.

Olivia Biggart (S1) and Nicole Watson (S2) competed in the North Lanarkshire Gymnastics championships.  Both girls performed very well in their level 3 category with Nicole picking up a bronze medal.

Miss Young would like to thank Olivia and Nicole for their hard work and dedication.  Both girls were a credit to the school, with continued efforts we hope to see more success in the future.

The recent success of the S4 Basketball team in the regional heats saw them progress to the North Lanarkshire finals.   The team were undefeated through the qualifiers and hoped to continue their great form into this past Monday at Ravenscraig Sports Centre.   The team faced off against Caldervale High and Cumbernauld Academy who both had similar records going through the qualifiers.   The boys played extremely well in the first game against Caldervale, narrowly losing out to the eventual winners.   They then faced off against Cumbernauld and managed a convincing victory to secure 2^nd place.   This was a great campaign for the boys who were impeccably behaved throughout, representing the school in a mature manner.

S4 Team: Scott Bell, Christopher Duncan, Billy Fleming, Stephen Gower, Scott Ingram, Scott Main, Alan Weir.

Braidhurst High School’s Christmas card 2015 is ready to be sent out.   Pupils were asked to produce a drawing for this and Claire Keatings, S3 has had her drawing featured on the back of the card.   She will soon be receiving a prize of a selection of art materials.

Tickets costing £2 for the annual Christmas Cracker concert are still on sale from Ms Ruth Watson at the school.   Taking part will be the choir from Ladywell Primary school as well as a host of items from the music and drama departments at the school.   This is always one of the highlights of the session and ticket sales have been going very well.

Braidhurst Parents’ Group help a Fashion Sale on Thursday 26 November in the school hall.  The event was a huge success with over eighty people attending.  The group worked with Shop2Drop to sell a wide range of clothes from Topshop, Next and Monsoon and raised £550 towards supporting the young people from Braidhurst High School.  Many thanks to all the staff, parents and pupils who supported the event and also thanks to Asda, Tunnocks, Curves and many others for providing prizes for the raffle.  A special thanks must also go to Nicole Baird, S6 pupil, who not only helped organise the event, but also modelled on the evening.

The next event the Parents Group will help host is the Christmas Concert on Monday 14 December at 7.30pm.