Last week, Helen Scott welcomed members to the November meeting of the parent group. Helen extended a special welcome to Ryan Burrell, George Wilson and Jamie Semple of fifth year. The boys delivered a wonderful photographic presentation, capturing the highlights of their recent SkillForce Aid mission to Uganda. The boys explained how they qualified for the expedition and spoke eloquently of the enormous personal impact they felt after what clearly had been a very humbling experience. The boys revealed a clear determination to ensure their work supporting the schools the visited continues into the future.

Ryan Burrell, George Wilson and Jamie Semple (centre) with Helen Scott (far left) and Parent Group members, Esther Craig and Elizabeth Lindsay.

Congratulations to Emma Mooney of S6 on having one of her photographs selected for inclusion in the 2014 North Lanarkshire Council Learning and Leisure Services Calendar. Emma’s stunning photograph of tulips in full bloom will feature in the June calendar entry.

Emma snapped the image as part of her Higher Photography portfolio and maintains Clyde Valley’s proud record of having our pupils’ work featured in the prestigious publication.

Emma Mooney with her stunning picture of tulips – the June calendar entry.

Angela McCormack, Fundraising Manager for MacMillan Cancer Support, was a very welcome visitor to the school last week. Angela was delighted to accept a cheque for £256, this being the amount raised by the Modern Languages Department when they hosted a staff coffee morning to celebrate the European Day of Languages.

Fourth year Modern Linguists prepared and served the staff event, helped by a number of S1 pupils, who presented to staff in various foreign languages. Mrs Elaine Osprey, Principal Teacher of Modern Languages, who coordinated the event praised the pupils for their commitment and energy, especially as it raised much-need funds for such a worthwhile cause.

Fourth year pupils Andrew Glover and Holly MacDonald present Angela McCormack with the £256 cheque.

Report by Cara Sinnett 1H1

Many areas across the school have been preparing for ‘Celebrating Scotland Day.’ Throughout the school, we have made posters, practised dancing, and also learnt different songs. On Friday, 29th of November, many pupils will be celebrating Scotland. A ceilidh will be held on Friday, where we will dress up in tartan and dance with each other, this has proved challenging at times, but especially the group dances are enjoyed by all. We have also had different classwork to do with Scotland, in Tech and Home Economics we had to create different topics. In tech we made a power point which will be displayed in the library, this is so that we will get recognition for our work. In Home Economics we made projects, which were handed in, evaluated and also displayed in the Library. This has brought the whole school ‘closer together,’ and helped us think about where we live and different things that makes Scotland individual and significant to us.

Lanarkshire author, Kirkland Ciccone, recently visited Clyde Valley. Kirkland addressed a receptive audience of S3 pupils. He spoke about his debut novel, ‘Conjuring the Infinite’ and explained how he developed characters and plot. Kirkland delivered a highly amusing talk, while emphasising the very real educational and recreational benefits to be gained from reading. All those present thoroughly enjoyed Kirkland Ciccone’s visit to the school, particularly the lively question and answer session he led and in which he explained how he became an author and the process he follows to put words on the page. Kirkland Ciccone’s ‘Conjuring the Infinite’ has been placed on the North Lanarkshire Catalyst Book Award long list.

Following his visit, Mrs Cimmino’s S3 class were set a challenge by Kirkland in the form of a competition  to define ‘infinity’. The pupils’ responses were incredibly profound with four being sleected as the best. Ewan McBride was eventually selected as the overall winner and received a signed copy of Kirkland’s novel as a prize. Read Ewan’s entry below:

Infinity

Infinity is never ending. You can do everything with it or nothing. It is everything and everywhere. Everything is infinite and so is nothing. You can’t go above infinity; it is what we live on, it has no true meaning, it is impossible to define.

Kirkland Ciccone with the third year pupils who enjoyed his exploration of ‘Conjuring the Infinite’ and with competition winner, Ewan.

Pupils in first year recently enjoyed an afternoon of sporting challenge, courtesy of the school’s involvement in the Sky Sports in Schools Programme. For the fourth successive year, pupils welcomed a top athlete to take them through a series of sporting challenges. This year’s welcome visitor was Emma Wiggs, currently World Champion Para Sport Kayaker. Emma has also been a seated volleyball player.

Emma delivered a ‘Six Keys to Success’ workshop and para sport practical session to our pupils, with an emphasis on pupil engagement and interaction. Emma also held special workshops for our Sports Ambassador team.

Read some of the reviews below, directly from e-Mag members:

Cara Sinnett

The Sky Sports Challenge was basically for encouraging children of all ages to become more active and try different things, accepting opportunities that we wouldn’t normally go for. We met Emma Wiggs who was a Paralympian, and had won several gold medals for all of her efforts. She described how she became disabled and her story from then onwards. Afterwards we were involved in many different sports, some that only Paralympians would normally take part in. We were blindfolded for football and had to sit for sports like volleyball – this proved to be a challenge for some of us! We also had to support our partners in many different things too. This did seem harder than we had expected but overall was a great experience, worth being involved in. We had to really trust the people we were working with and be aware of our surroundings. This certainly did encourage lots of people in my year to join new clubs and welcome new opportunities. I would love to be part of many more similari activities!

Hannah Devine

On the 11th of November, Emma Wiggs came to Clyde Valley High School to challenge the 1st year at Paralympic Sports. The 1st years really enjoyed all of the games that Emma had set up for us. The most popular ones were Blind Football, Sitting Down Vollyball/Bumball and the 1 legged long jump. The 6 years helped us to do the challenges and it was the best way to end the day !

Liam Murray

On the 11th of November 2013 a paralympic gold medalist named Emma Wiggs came to Clyde Valley High to tell us about herself and show us what sport she played and how she played it. She also showed us the gold medals she won for sitting volleyball. It was a great experience and good fun for all the 1st years who took part in it. The activities we did were sitting volleyball, sitting basketball, one legged high jump, blindfolded beat the goalie and many more. Everybody loved it, I could see it on their faces and in their eyes. At the end, she thanked us for being good listeners and how we contributed with each other.

Tamarra Binnie and Jarad Bruff, assisted by fellow sixth year pupils, Karen Perry and Kerena Yuill, hosted a staff coffee morning during the recent in-service day. This year, Tamarra and Jarad are both participating in the Mark Scott Youth Leadership Programme and are working with their fellow Mark Scott participants from St Aidan’s High School and Coltness High School to organize a community event. The mark Scott team will host a Christmas Party for children from the Fir Park School.

The S6 hosts presented a delicious spread of cakes and scones that were very much appreciated by the staff. In turn, the generosity of the staff saw the group raise and impressive £220 for their venture.

Clyde Valley’s Mark Scott students welcome staff the recent coffee morning held in the staffroom.

Congratulations to the school’s team, who performed so impressively in the recent North Lanarkshire Schools Swimming Championships, held at Cumbernauld. Yet again, the team returned with a fantastic medal haul, with the medallists well supported by the other team members, who also impressed with highly competitive times, including a number of personal bests.

The Valley medallists were: Ainslie Wright: gold 200 fly, silver 100 and 200 free; Eilidh Murray: gold 200IM, silver 200 fly, silver 200 breast; Adam Pearson: silver 100 and 200 fly; Jack Reid: silver 100 back, bronze 200 IM; Karen Perry: silver 200 IM, silver 100 breast, bronze 200 free. The other team members were: Isla Barr, Carly Murray and Ailiesh McInnes.

The Clyde Valley swimming team who performed so strongly at the recent schools championship at Cumbernauld.

Inter House Public Speaking:

Sneddon House triumphed in both the Intermediate and Senior Inter House Public Speaking Competitions. The Sneddon Intermediate duo of Niamh Speirs and Leah Grant both produced strong speeches to edge the Houldsworth pairing of Raina Owens and Liam Dunnachie. Jodie Barrett and Claire Megahy represented Curran and also delivered stylish speeches in a closely contested event.

The senior event proved to be a titanic struggle between Clyde Valley’s public-speaking ‘big-hitters’. Josh Speirs and Heather Waugh were Sneddon’s winning duo, finishing just ahead of Eilidh Murray and Rachel Moon, a formidable Houldsworth partnership. Aaron Winter and Rebecca Forrester ensured Curran also played their part in one of the best senior suite of performances in recent years.

Raina Owens was crowned this year’s Intermediate with an often amusing and certainly touching tribute to her mum with a speech entitled ‘A Girl’s Best Friend’. Josh Speirs delivered a masterful performance with ‘The Unfeathered Kind’, a sardonic account of his first-ever romantic encounter.

Mr Sommerville, the school’s Head Teacher, was joined at the judges table by Mrs Evelyn Neilson, Depute Head, and Pauline O’Neill, Learning and Leisure Services Quality Improvement Officer. In his summing up, Mr Sommerville recorded the unanimous view of the judges that the standard this year had been quite outstanding.

All of the competitors from the inter house public speaking competition. Raina Owens (back left) was the intermediate individual Winner. Seated is the victorious Sneddon team (from left to right) Leah Grant, Josh Speirs, Heather Waugh and Niamh Speirs. Josh was also the individual winner in the senior contest.

At the end of October, Josh Speirs and Andrew Morley of sixth year joined senior students from across the whole of the West of Scotland for a very moving one-day visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Death Camps in Poland. Run by the London-based Holocaust Educational trust and funded by the Scottish Government, the aim of the project is to give pupils a greater understanding of what happened in the death camps and to learn where prejudice, racism and anti-Semitism can lead.

The group visited barracks, and saw museum exhibits that gave a stark reminder of the cruelty inflicted in these dens of inhumanity. Both Josh and Andrew found the experience powerfully moving. The boys will lead the school in our own Holocaust Memorial Tribute in January 2014 as part of the national week of Holocaust Remembrance.

The recent Wishaw Grand Prix Karate open event. In addition, Kayley’s consistent performances in the 3 other meetings in the 4 game tournament, meant she was crowned the overall Grand Prix Winner. Kayley was presented with a lovely silver trophy in recognition of this fine achievement. The school looks forward to learning of Kayley’s future successes in this most demanding of martial arts.

Kayley Pollock proudly displays the bronze medal and the overall winner’s trophy she collected at the Wishaw Karate Grand Prix events this autumn.

The first year inter house football competition turned out to be a close-fought affair. Sneddon got the tournament off to a flier with a 5-3 win over Curran. Houldsworth also proved too strong for Curran, recording a 3-0 win in their first game. In the decided, Houldsworth continued their good form and ran out 4-2 winners to secure the 3 points available for the championship race. Sneddon picked up 2 points, with Curran adding 1 point to their tally.

After 2 events, the overall scores could hardly be closer. Sneddon lead with 5 points, Houldsworth are a point behind, with Curran a further point behind on 3.

To celebrate National Poetry Day 2013, Clyde Valley High held a poetry competition for S1 pupils. This year National Poetry Day was sponsored by Scottish Water. Unsurprisingly, the theme for the competition was ‘Water’.

During library period, each S1 English class discussed poetry techniques, the theme of water and listened to a recording of poet, Diana Hendry, reciting, “What is the Pond Doing?” Pupils were then set the task of writing their own Water poem.

The standard of work was exceptionally high and the two most descriptive and imaginative poems from each S1 English class were chosen, to be judged by Mrs Lesley-Anne Cimmino, Acting Principal Teacher of English.  Mrs Cimmino chose Iona Orr’s poem as the very deserving, winner. For her book prize, Iona requested a copy of the latest edition of ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’.

Very deserving runners-up were: Elizabeth Hendrie 1C2, Shannon Sirrell 1C1, Lewis O’Neill 1C1, David Kennedy 1S1, Jade Purcell 1S1, Amy Stewart 1H1 and Porsha Fitzpatrick 1H1

Iona Orr, winner of the S1 ‘Water’ poetry competition with her prize, ‘Harry Potter’ novel.

Yet again, the Science club run by Miss Pathmanathan is going from strength to stregth with more exciting and interesting experiments.

Check out some of the pictures in the gallery below which show club members taking on the challenge of designing and launching their own rockets!