S4 National4/5 History pupils enjoyed a recent trip to Summerlee Heritage Centre, Coatbridge.   The visit offered an excellent opportunity to further their studies of Changing Life in Scotland during the Industrial Revolution.   The miner’s cottages offered an excellent insight into living conditions between the late nineteenth century until the 1980’s.   Pupils were delighted to observe first hand a coal fire, the wash house and of course the outdoor toilet!   Pupils particularly enjoyed the coal mine tour and gained respect and appreciation for this dangerous but essential industry.   The afternoon was spent experiencing a ride in a tram car, touring the Vulcan, Scotland’s first iron boat and exploring the museum’s impressive exhibition hall.  The pupils also had the opportunity to handle artefacts, dress up as a Victorian family and to play Victorian childhood games.   Everyone had a great day and agreed that Summerlee was definitely “Scotland’s Noisiest Museum”.

Pupils from Logans, Ladywell and Muir Street took part in the recent P7 Quiz.   This annual quiz challenges the pupils in all curricular areas; literacy, numeracy, social subjects, health and well-being, languages, expressive arts, technology and science.   Each round provided a different specialist team to come out and answer questions.   This was a close contest with Logans only narrowly defeating Muir Street in the final technology round.   This was Logans first victory and all pupils celebrated their success.

The quiz is the first event of the transition programme.   The next event is the ‘Open to Question’ on Wednesday 19^th November at 7 pm.   This event is for parents and pupils of P6 and P7.

Members of Braidhurst 4xl Princes Trust Group took part in their walk expedition for their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award.   The group travelled to Strathyre for their practice expedition and completed their assessed walk in the Killearn area.

On Wednesday 8^th October, Braidhurst High School’s S3 netball team took on the S4’s of Coltness High School at home.   Braidhurst took the lead in the first quarter due to excellent shooting from GS Kirsty Speirs, the score at the interval being 4-2 to Braidhurst.   The girls were able to maintain their lead into half time with the score at 9-7 with the help of WA, Victoria Kane, and her exceptional interceptions.   Both teams continued to play to their best ability, but it was Braidhurst that took the win at full time with the final score being 18-15.   The match was a brilliant demonstration of healthy competitiveness and good sportsmanship on both sides.

Pupils studying Higher Drama visited the Tron Theatre before the October week to see a production of ‘The three Sisters’ adapted by John Bryne.   Pupils were very impressed with the standard of the production and were excited to see some famous faces on stage.   As part of the new Higher pupils have to see a live production and write about this in their final written exam.

The Tron Theatre also visited the school and carried out two workshops, one before and after the performance.   All pupils were delighted to meet the assistant director and to be involved with the workshop, they thoroughly enjoyed the experience.   The Assistant Director and Drama Officer at the Tron both commented on how impressed they were with the pupils and how enthusiastic pupils were.

Elite performance players from Braidhurst S2/S3 took part in an elite training camp over the October break at the Ravenscraig regional football centre.   The dedication shown by these young athletes was more than commendable.   They train every day at school as part of the SFA performance programme and then again at night with their clubs.   The players worked with Gordon Craig, SFA Elite performance coach, John Kerr SFA and Hamilton Accies goalkeeping coach, Andy Smith NL Trust Motherwell FC head coach, Craig Mcleish Assistant Coach as well as NL Trust sports science support staff.

Gordon Craig explained, “The young players were put through their paces on and off the pitch with sessions covering Individual technique, game behaviours such as protecting the ball through good possession including speed of play, protecting and shielding mentality, moves to create space to a pressing mentality both individual and as a team then onto more themed sessions such as defensive organisation.   It was also an ideal opportunity for us to educate the players in a modern gym set up and thanks to the NL Trust the players were taken around the gym and shown useful exercises on and off the machines to help core work, power, speed and agility.

The time we had the facility also allowed us to spend some quality class room time with the players.   It is hoped we can expand this relationship with NL Trust and the Ravenscraig facility and staff to provide a series of these days throughout the year.

I feel this will also help encourage the young players and even their parents to have that mentality of utilising such facilities and expertise in their own time in a hope to give them the edge or for some parents to get them out there utilising gyms, classes and facilities helping send a positive supportive message to the players”.

Parents of pupils in the new first year attended a meeting last week to hear more about clubs in general and the schools status as a Sports Comprehensive and how this can have a positive impact upon the pupils.   The Principal Teacher of Physical Education, Mr David Gardiner, delivered an excellent presentation using multi-media where he outlined the current delivery within the Sports Comprehensive.   The Rector, Mr Derrick Hannan encouraged parents in attendance to maintain strong links with the school and encourage their children to take full advantage of the tremendous range of clubs available.   The rest of the evening was then devoted to pupils and parents finding out more about the various clubs.