Congratulations to the 90 Clyde Valley staff and pupils who took part in the recent St Andrew’s Hospice schools’ 6K event around Strathclyde Park. Miss Clare Hughes, of the PE Department, was the star performer coming in first in the female race. However, the real winners were all of the Valley team who took part with spirit and real determination. More importantly, all of our entrants secured different amounts of sponsorship and, at the time of going to print over £750 had already been collected.

Miss Claire Douglas, of the English Department and the event’s coordinator, will organise an early presentation to St Andrew’s of the Clyde valley donation.

Check out the gallery of pictures from the day!

A party of 34 S4 pupils and 4 staff from the Humanities Department enjoyed a 3 day educational visit to London last weekend. Linked to their National Qualifications courses of study in Geography, History and Modern Studies the party visited a number of the capital’s world-renowned sites, including the Houses of Parliament, the Imperial War Museum and Buckingham Palace. They also enjoyed a trip on the London Eye and other cultural experiences, including a visit to the Harry Potter Set at the Warner Brothers Studio and taking in a West End Show.

Miss Nikki Heeps, who organised the trip, was fulsome in her praise of the youngsters for their keen interest and impeccable behaviour throughout the busy weekend.

The Clyde Valley party outside the Harry Potter set and, uniquely dressed in a range of ‘onesies’ outside Buckingham Palace!

Congratulations to Ross Kerr (3H1) and Megan Smillie (4S1), both of whom have enjoyed recent success in Tae Kwon Do competition.

Ross collected a silver medal for team-sparring at the Scottish Open Tae Kwon Do Championships held at Ravenscraig Sports Facility.

Megan captured bronze at the tri-nation tournament held in Belfast. Megan overcame the hindrance of a debilitating ligament strain to play her part in the Junior Girls tournament.

Both Ross and Megan will return to competitive action later in the term.

Ross Kerr with his silver team-sparring bronze medal and Megan Smillie with her tri-nations bronze trophy.

The school’s Italian twins from the Sismondi and Pacinotti Instituto in Pescia, Tuscany have returned to Italy after yet another highly successful exchange visit to Scotland.

Teachers Cristina Brancoli and Gianca Pellegrineschi and 10 senior pupils spent a week visiting the school and touring central Scotland. In school, the Italians took part in cooking traditional Scottish dishes, learned country dances and attended classes with their Clyde Valley partners.

The Italians enjoyed a day trip to Edinburgh in glorious sunshine, visited Glasgow City Centre and toured the Trossachs by coach, taking time to enjoy a boat trip on Loch Katrine.

All of the schools involved took part in a language immersion day at Summerlee Museum. As always, one of the week’s highlights was the ceilidh held at Dalziel High School when all the dance practice paid off!

Strong friendships were forged during the busy week and all of the participants are now eagerly looking forward to the return trip to Tuscany in February 2014.

Our gallery of photos shows the Italian Teachers, Cristina Brancoli and Giancarlo Pellegrineschi with all of the senior pupils who took part in last week’s exchange programme. Take a look at all the fun that they got up to!

At the time of going to print, this year’s Italian exchange students had just arrived in Scotland. Teachers Cristina Brancoli and Gianca Pellegrineschi and 10 senior pupils from the Sismondi and Pacinotti School in Pescia, Tuscany, will spend a week visiting the school and touring central Scotland. During their visits to Clyde Valley, the Italians will take part in cooking traditional Scottish dishes and learn a number of country dances. This is in preparation for a ceilidh that will involve all of the school involved in the Pistoia – North Lanarkshire twinning programme. The Italians will also enjoy day visits to Edinburgh and Glasgow, as well as a coach tour to the Trossachs.

The friendships this week made will be reinforced when the Scots make the return trip to Tuscany in February 2014.

Three fifth year pupils are about to set off on an adventure of a lifetime. At the beginning of October, Ryan Burrell, Jamie Semple and George Wilson will join 3 students from Oldham and 1 from Devon to form a Skill Force work team who will set off for Uganda.

Last year, all of these young people were recipients of the inaugural Skill Force Prince’s Award. The boys received the award after carrying out renovation work in a community centre in Airdrie. HRH the Duke of Cambridge, Skill Force Patron, presented them with their Prince’s Award at a special ceremony in London.

Paul Craig, the school’s Skill Force instructor, will accompany the boys as they travel to Jinja on the banks of the River Nile. The boys will spend two weeks helping to paint two local schools and to upgrade their kitchen areas.

All of the young people involved in the Ugandan trip are being sponsored by the Henry van Straubenzee Memorial Fund. Henry, a close friend of the then young princes, William and Harry, tragically lost his life in a motorcycle accident, when aged only 18. The Straubenzee family, supported by the royal princes, created the memorial fund in their son’s honour to encourage other young people to carry out aid work in disadvantaged parts of Africa, activity that  had meant so much to their son.

National Skill Force Project Coordinator, Lucinda Elliott from Birmingham, Skill Force Scottish Director Gayle Adnyana and Andy Currie, North Lanarkshire Coordinator, visited the Clyde Valley group last week for a final briefing with the boys and their parents before the adventure starts for real on 1^st October.

Ian Sommerville, Clyde Valley’s Head Teacher, proudly commented: ‘Ryan, Jamie and George are looking forward to this enormous challenge with a sense of nervous anticipation! They so much to want to make a difference to the Jinja community and are already planning how they can continue their relief work when they return to Scotland. This is a unique opportunity for them. I am so grateful both to the teams from Skill Force and the Henry van Straubenzee Trust for making this incredible adventure possible.’

(Left to right): Andy Currie, Paul Craig, George Wilson, Lucinda Elliott, Jamie Semple, Gayle Adnyana and Ryan Burrell prepare for the boys’ Ugandan adventure.

Members of the S3 Modern Studies class enjoyed a fascinating visit to Shotts Prison last week. The class is currently studying a society and crime theme and the visit gave all the pupils a very realistic insight into the harsh realities of prison life. Ms Caroline Clark of the Modern Studies class praised the group for their enthusiasm and probing questions as they explored the theory of the classroom in such a dramatic, real-life context. The school is delighted to confirm all those visiting returned at the end of the visit!

Clyde Valley is collecting ‘Let’s Grow’ vouchers currently being offered by the supermarket chain Morrisons. The school’s nurture support groups are busy collecting as many vouchers as possible and hope to be able to trade these for gardening equipment and plants for use around the school. The groups do a marvelous job maintaining  the flower beds at school’s main entrance and administration corridor as well as looking after the vegetable and herb plot between the two house blocks.

The school would be delighted to accept any donation of Let’s Grow vouchers from any parent or friend of the school. Pupils can hand vouchers in into Reception or directly to Esther Craig, our Partnership Officer.

The Kickstart Theatre Company presented a fun-filled, but hard-hitting anti-social behaviour message to pupils in S4 last week. The cast, all members of the partner organisations of the police, health and other community support services, challenged pupils to appreciate fully both the individual and community consequences of behaviour far too prevalent in today’s society. The cast demonstrated how peer pressure can all too often lead young people into alcohol, drug and substance misuse and crime, including wanton vandalism. ‘Kickstart’ powerfully highlighted how mindless acts of vandalism on railways and roadways and pathways can be fatal.

‘Kickstart’ also praised the willingness of the pupils Ben Grierson, Mark Naughton and Reece Speirs to perform with them as they reinforced their strong good citizenship message with great humour.

Reece Speirs (far left) performs with ‘Kickstart’ during the recent performance at the school.