There was a real festive feel around the school last week as pupils from all year groups enjoyed the annual Christmas disco. Members of the sixth year transformed the dining room and house block into a bright and colourful venue, with decorations draped to produce a wonderful atmosphere. Everyone had a great night as they danced to popular Christmas classics. Thursday was also the day of the annual Christmas lunch in the dining rooms. The catering staff served a wonderful traditional turkey or steak pie lunch in the Xmas Meal Deal Special. Thanks to catering manager, Danny Muir and his staff for providing the delicious festive feast.

Members of Clyde Valley’s sixth year get into the Christmas spirit at last week’s disco.

First year pupils celebrated St Andrew’s Day in style this year by taking part in an afternoon festival that celebrated all things Scottish! The Celebration of Scotland event was the culmination of months of hard work by first year who have been working on the theme of ‘Scotland, my country, my culture and my heritage’ across all subject departments. Pupils have carried out historical research, written reports on the economy and geography of our country, produced colourful art work, learned poems and songs, baked and cooked some famous Scottish dishes and brushed up on their Strictly Scottish Dancing skills!

While much of the work is now on display in the Library in a special exhibition, the afternoon of St Andrew’s Day was very much an active way of celebrating Scotland. Sometimes in House groups, but often as an entire year group, pupils devoured Irn Bru and shortbread, listened to Scottish poetry, belted out resounding versions of ‘Flower of Scotland’ and other well-known songs and energetically danced the ‘Gay Gordons’ and the ‘Dashing White Sergeant’. Staff and pupils gathered in the Games Barn for the final activity, the traditional singing of ‘Auld Lang Syne’. Many staff and pupils added to the spirit of the occasion by adorning a marvellous array of tartan clothing and Scottish sports tops!

Some of Clyde Valley’s first year pupils take a break from their ‘Scottish Strictly Come Dancing’ efforts!

Pictures show some of our penalty takers along with overall winner Zayn and goalie Ross.

Early in November, 45 S2 Geography pupils visited ‘Our Dynmaic Earth’ in Edinburgh. The pupils have been studying Earth Forces in class and the visit was timed to coincide with this topic. The pupils toured the galleries where they learned about the history of the earth, the forces that change the earths surface and about the different climatic regions of the earth. The 3D cinema experience where we flew from the North Pole to the Equator was full of surprises and one pupil (who shall remain nameless) jumped a metre into the air with fright at one point! Later the pupils took part in workshops on the theme of ‘Supervolcanoes’. The pupils should be commended for their enthusiastic participation in the workshops and for their exemplary behaviour throughput the visit.