The school library recently donated 29 boxes of non-fiction books to the Scottish charity Books Abroad, who will recycle the books and send them to schools and other institutions in developing countries.   The charity’s mission statement believes that through the promotion of literacy and education, children and young people, are provided with the means of a sustainable escape route from the plight of poverty.   Mrs Scott, the school librarian, would like to give a special thanks to her library volunteers, Charles Carroll and Sarah Cooper (both S6) for helping with the mammoth task of packing up and labelling each box of books.

Emma Ewart and Rebekah Tong took part in the North Lanarkshire Creative Residency for Art & Design in Oban just before the summer break.
They were studying Filmmaking and Printmaking at the Residency and are both looking forward to attending their specialist masterclasses in October.
The Residency Exhibition will take place in Summerlee in January.

Emma was studying Filmmaking and Rebekah, who studied Printmaking are eager to take up their places at this year’s Residency masterclasses

On Sunday 18^th September a group of ten enthusiastic Braidhurst pupils and two staff members took part in the annual St Andrew’s Hospice Schools 6k Fun Run and Race at Strathclyde Park.  The event kicked off at 10.30am with Ross Park being the first Braidhurst pupil across the line.

The school’s elective classes for S1 are now up and running.   Pupils are able to choose from an array of subjects including Pottery, Musical Theatre, Spanish and Robotics.   Mrs Scott, the school librarian, and Mrs Magowan, Principal Teacher of Modern Languages, are leading the school newsletter elective, where pupils meet in the library to improve their literacy skills by writing content and designing the layout of the school’s termly newsletter which is posted on the school website and paper copies issued out to parents and members of the local community.

This year’s quartet of school captains have been selected after being interviewed by Depute Head Teacher for S5/6 Miss Anderson.   For school session 2016-17 our school captains are Adam Sinnet and Lauren McKinstry whilst our vice captains are Barry Williams and Erin Wright.   The pupils are expected to represent Braidhurst both at school and around the local community.

On Monday 29^th August the Baldy Bane Theatre Group delivered plays on the topic of road safety to S1 and S5/6 pupils.  The plays are designed to remind younger pupils on the importance of safety as they travel to school on their own whilst the older pupils were reminded of the importance of being safe drivers as many of them will be thinking of taking driving lessons.

As the new term begins at Braidhurst High School, the pupils from S2 are pictured with an array of electronic and robotics learning equipment. The pupils will over the next 10 weeks experience various electronic and robotics lessons. “I hope that after this short session they will have a basic understanding of STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics)” comments Mr Hussain, who is running the course for the S2 and for the new S1 intake. Mr Hussain of the Science department further commented that the topics covered by the S1 and S2 electives will include Logic circuits, robotics and computer software / hardware architecture.

It is hoped that this exposure to STEM concepts will nurture creative advancement in robotics, electronics, and skills in teamwork, leadership, communications, and much more. By the end of S2 Mr Hussain is hoping to put together a new team of young enthusiastic students who will then go on to take part in the VEX Competitions, presented by the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation (REC). In the competitions teams of students are tasked with designing and building a robot to play against other teams from around the world in a game-based engineering challenge. Tournaments are held year-round at the regional and national levels; local champions go on to compete against the best in the world at VEX Worlds each April.

Mr Hussain has a background in science and engineering, having worked as a commissioning engineer for some of the most well known companies around the world, such as NASA in the United States and Mitsubishi in Japan. Robotics runs in the family as his wife works for a Scottish company called Touch Bionics (www.touchbionics.com/ ) based in Livingston, “she’s the real expert in the family”, comments Mr Hussain. The company is a real success story that Scotland should be celebrating and has offices in many countries as well as fabrication facilities in the United Sates.