Pictured here are almost 100 pupils who, along with staff, enjoyed a fantastic trip to Motherwell Civic Theatre on Thursday 19^th December. The visit is now a firm favourite of pupils and this year’s trip was as usual a great success. The story of The Wizard of Oz was a thoroughly entertaining family show with lots of audience participation and the show was enjoyed immensely by the school party.

The school hall was packed to capacity on Wednesday 18^th December for the annual Christmas concert. Following a warm welcome from the Rector Mr Derrick Hannan, the audience joined in singing ‘The First Noel’ which was followed by the wind band playing ‘You’d Better Watch Out’ and ‘Jingle Bells’. Members from the drama department then performed a sketch entitled ‘2 Wise Dudes!’ The audience was then entertained by the very talented choir from Logans Primary School who performed ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas’ and ‘I Was a Hippopotamus for Christmas’. The school guitar ensemble then played ‘El Noy de la Miare’ followed by Dale Archibald with his version of ‘The Christmas Fairy’. The school choir then sang ‘Let’s go to Bethlehem’ and ‘Holiday Favourites’ followed by the audience singing, ‘Twelve days of Christmas’.

Following an interval, Mr Hannan announced the winners from the raffle before the Logans Choir entertained the audience by performing ‘Do I hear what I hear?’ and ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas’. Members of the drama department then performed an excellent ‘Faulty towers Spoof’, followed by Dale Archibald singing the old favourite ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’. The volume was then increased when the school samba band played ‘Christmas Festival’ followed by an outstanding performance by the choir singing ‘Silent Night’. The wind band then played ‘Somewhere in my Memory’ from ‘Home Alone’ before the vocal duet of Sam Bell and Hannah Allan singing ‘A Mother’s Prayer’.

The drama department then entertained the audience with their next sketch entitled ‘God Angels’ before Mr Hannan gave a very sincere vote of thanks highlighting the input from staff, members of the PTFA, pupils and especially the Logans Primary School Choir. The evening finished in traditional form by the audience joining the pupils in singing ‘O come All Ye Faithful’.

Mr David Ramage co-ordinated and led the service at the end of term attended by a packed hall of pupils and staff. Some of the inputs from the Carol Concert were included, together with various video inputs and a really thought-provoking message from Mr Ramage entitled ‘Putting Yourself Second’. The Rector Mr Hannan led the assembly in prayer with Dale Archibald doing the bible reading.

Third and Fourth year students of German have enjoyed the support of Miss Anja Woike, a German assistant, who has helped them to become more confident when conversing in the language. Last week, she brought German culture to the department, by devising a power point presentation on Christmas and New Year in Germany. Pupils were able to learn about such things as typical Christmas foods, presents, rituals and some of the popular carols sung in German. They also had the chance to sample German fruit cake (Stollen) and ginger cookies (Lebkuchen). In addition, S3 pupils have been learning how to describe their house in German, and Anja produced authentic photographs of her house in Germany and pupils were given a virtual tour of the rooms via a Smart Board presentation. Anja is spending Christmas with her family in Dusseldorf in Germany, but has promised to bring back a multitude of stimulating resources to further extend the pupils’ knowledge of the customs and language of the country!

Senior pupils from Braidhurst High School once again delivered our annual food parcels to the elderly and the needy within the local area. The response to this year’s collection was fabulous and resulted in all residents in the sheltered housing complex at Baillie Court receiving a gift box.

Groceries and small gifts were donated by pupils and staff and collected by Mrs McKay in the RME Department. The boxes were then wrapped and dressed by Mrs Dalzell in the PE Department and when they were looking fantastic, they were delivered, by Santa’s little elves, to the people in the community who need it most.

This was once again a successful event, which people in our community greatly appreciate as is demonstrated by the level of telephone calls received expressing gratitude, often before the pupils return from delivering the boxes.

Staff and pupils feel this is a worthwhile cause and gain a real sense of satisfaction from being involved. Pupils taking part gain valuable life skills such as empathy and initiatives such as this one help the pupils to foster a real sense of community spirit within the Forgewood area.

The hall at Braidhurst was packed on Monday 16^th December for the Christmas Dance. Well over 200 pupils danced to the music provided by the Cairnhill Ceilidh Band. The pupils from all year groups took part with great enthusiasm and no small measure of skill. The PE Department teaching of traditional Scottish dances shone through the entire evening which was compered expertly by Dr Gardner and Mr Hamilton. Staff well organised by Mrs Libby Doris, catered for the pupils and the vast number of staff in attendance. The highlight of the evening was the senior pupil ‘dance off’ judged by Mr Hannan and Mrs Clarke and won by Falakanaz Khan and Jazzmin Fernandez.

The annual line dancing competition took place during Friday 13 December when over 600 pupils and staff packed the assembly hall and strutted their stuff. This is the most popular inter house event of the year and hundreds of pupils practice every lunchtime for weeks leading up to the day of the competition. After a very difficult task the judges decided that Rannoch House were the 2013 champions.