Congratulations to Jordan Jacobs of 1C2 on winning the ‘Festive Fun Gangsta Granny’ competition. Mr Andrew Keating, of the Home Economics Department, presented Jordan with her prize of a copy of Gangsta Granny and a Wonka bar.

During English library periods, S1 and S2 classes watched a Scottish Book Trust Author’s Live interview with the wonderfully funny author, David Walliams. To test pupils’ listening skills they were set the Festive Fun task of answering two questions relating to the David Walliams’ interview.

1 – Who or what gave David the idea for the story of Mr Stink?

2 – David’s favourite children’s book tells the story of a little girl’s adventures. What is her name?

Billie Davie, 2C1, Calum Dunn, 1H1, Kimberley Bryans, 1C2, Sophie Smith, 1C2, Iona Orr, 1C2 and Jordan Jacobs, 1C2 all answered both questions correctly, but it was Jordan’s name which was pulled out of the Christmas hat to win the Festive Prize.

The holidays are almost here and there is certainly a festive feeling in the air. Take a look at our Christmas Gallery below to spread a little Christmas cheer!

Thanks to all the e-Mag team for compiling the above photos, particularly Emma Hillain, Laura Douglas, Hannah Devine, Kym Crawford and Miss McGough.

Pupils from all year groups enjoyed a terrific Christmas Disco during the second last week of term. Pupils travelled through Santa’s Cave, carefully constructed by sixth year pupils, to enter the disco. The dance floor was filled all evening as staff and pupils began their Christmas celebrations.

Take a look at our gallery of photos from the night. Thanks to our e-Mag team for their sterling work!

There was a packed audience of parents, staff, community friends and distinguished guests for the annual Christmas Concert. Mrs Stefanie Chalmers, Acting Principal Teacher of Performing Arts, produced a very varied programme of entertainment and community carol singing.

From the very beginning when the Samba Band set the concert off to a flier right through the staff rock band leading everyone in ‘I Wish it Could Be Christmas Every Day’ as the finale, the evening was a truly joyous celebration of the true meaning of Christmas.

At the end of the evening, the raffle had raised £325 to support the Kisadhaki School in Uganda. This was the school 3 of our S5 pupils visited in October.

And, the school captains were delighted to present Margaret Donald, of St Andrew’s Hospice in Airdrie, with a donation of £600. Margaret thanked everyone in the audience for their kindness and the school for its continued support of the Hospice.

The recent ‘Beat the Goalie’ competition, organized by the school’s Fair Trade Group, raised a grand total of £80. This allowed the group to purchase Fair Trade Christmas Hampers to present to our senior community friends at the Law View Sheltered Housing Complex in Wishaw. The group also presented a decorative nativity scene made by our pupils.

Fair Traders, Miss Lucy Kenny, from the Humanities Faculty, and pupil members Nicole Tollan and Erin Laing visited Law View last week to present their early Christmas gift to the residents.The Law Viewers expressed their deep appreciation for the kindness of the Fair Trade Group and clearly eagerly anticipated sampling the wonderful range of chocolate in each of the hampers!

Clyde Valley’s Fair Traders (Miss Lucy Kelly, far left), Erin Laing (kneeling) and Nicole Tollan (far right) present the Law View residents with their Christmas gifts.

Members of the school’s S1 Nurture Group, along with their S6 Peer Mentors, spent a busy morning at the local Morrisons store to help Christmas shoppers with their bag-packing. All of the pupils thoroughly enjoyed the work and were very warmly received by both public and the store employees alike. In turn, Morrisons staff complimented all of the Valley packers for their industry, efficiency and impeccable manners.

A special well done to first year pupils Daniel Cairns 1S1, Marc Downs 1C2, Rebecca Finlayson 1S1, David Gordon1C2, Ben Isherwood 1C2, Ryan Parvin 1C2, Shannon Sirrell 1C1 and Chloe Watson 1C2 who worked tirelessly and with great Festive cheer!

The school would like to thank all of the Morrisons staff for their hospitality and friendliness, with a special thank you to Morrisons Community Liaison Officer, and former Clyde Valley Captain, Stephanie Gray, who organised the visit.

The Clyde Valley bag-packers outside Morrisons in Wishaw.

The school has been delighted to receive many cards from other schools and friends from within Learning and Leisure Services and the wider community. These have been prominently displayed in the main entrance hallway.

As has been our custom for several years, Clyde Valley’s Festive Greetings have been sent via the CVHS Christmas Card Series for 2013. Each of the designs in the 6-card series was created by an S2 pupil: Calum Dunn 2H1, Lisa Megahy 2C1, Annabel Rae 2C1, Carly Murray 2H1, Meghan Hill 2C1 and Stuart Murphy 2C1.

Mr Sommerville presented each of the Christmas artists with copies of their card and a sketch pad and pencils to encourage further design work.

Clyde Valley’s Christmas Card Designers: Back row (left to right): Annabel Rae, Meghan Hill and Lisa Megahy; Seated: Stuart Murphy, Carly Murray and Calum Dunn

Mr Sommerville and the school captains made a special trip to St Aidan’s High School during the last week of term. Alex Murphy, Karen Perry, Adam Lawson and Josh Speirs presented Mr Rooney and their captain counterparts from St Aidan’s High School with a special commemorative ‘Friendship’ banner to recognise St Aidan’s 50^th Anniversary and the long-standing and close working relationship the schools have enjoyed.

In accepting the gift, Mr Rooney was gracious in his appreciation of the warm partnership that exists between St Aidan’s and Clyde Valley. He reflected that partnership will only grow even closer in the years ahead.

Nicholas McDonald, St Aidan’s X Factor finalist, was a surprise visitor the school that afternoon and was delighted to join the presentation ceremony.

St Aidan’s Head Teacher, Tony Rooney (second left), Clyde Valley’s Ian Sommerville (second right), with the school captains of both schools and Nicholas McDonald (centre).

Malcolm Taylor, Motherwell FC Community Development Officer starred as one of the guest goalkeepers in last week’s lunchtime ‘Fair Trade – Beat the Goalie Competition’. Pupils thoroughly enjoyed testing their spot-kick skills against Malcolm and a number of staff ‘guest goalies’!

Ross Hayhoe of 2H2 was the winning striker, netting 2 of his 3 strikes in the final shoot-out. Ross received two Guest Stand Tickets for a forthcoming Hamilton Accies home game, courtesy of a donation from Mrs Margaret Franks of Home Economics. Ross also received a box of Fair Trade chocolates.

The pupils and staff efforts to replicate the penalty skills were more Messy than Messi, but they did raise over £80.  The Fair Trade Committee used this money to buy Fairtrade goods, which they put into hampers and gifted to the residents of Law View Sheltered Housing.

Thanks to Mr Tony Jones, PT Physics, and Miss Marie McGough, our Librarian for helping to supervise each day. A special thanks to all our goalies and, in particular, Malcolm Taylor of Motherwell FC for supporting the Fairtrade cause.

Guest keeper, Malcolm Taylor with some of the penalty kickers.

The school is delighted the recent Malawi Bag Pack Appeal resulted in the creation of a magnificent 67 packs of educational and play gifts, now ready to be shipped to Malawi, under the auspices of the Mary’s Meals organisation. Mrs Lynsay Ashton, of the Humanities Faculty who organized the appeal, praised pupils from across the school for their amazing generosity. As well as the 67 packs, pupils also raised a whopping £435 for Mary’s Meals.

Congratulations to the pupils of Houldsworth and Curran Houses who both gathered a total of 25 packs each. Sneddon pupils contributed 13 packs, with their junior school classes particularly generous. The extra packs were created from various donations to the bag pack cause.

Mrs Lynsay Ashton (centre) with S6 pupils carrying just some of the bag packs about to be shipped to Malawi, all proudly showing their £435 cheque donation to Mary’s Meals.

Pupils in S1 celebrated St Andrew’s Day in style last week. Over the past two months, all S1 pupils have been studying aspects of life in Scotland in every single subject area. The culmination of their work in ‘Scotland – My Country, My Home, My Heritage’ has included a display of work in the Library. However, the main celebration came on Friday when pupils participated in three activities over the course of the afternoon: pipers Callum Cowan and Kieran Cain and snare-drummers Lachlan Kyle and Scott Esslemont played a Scottish medley while pupils completed a Scottish General Knowledge Quiz, while drinking Irn Bru and eating shortbread; in the Library, pupils belted out ‘Flower of Scotland’ and other popular Anthems; and in the games barn pupils enjoyed a mini-ceilidh under the watchful eye of tartan-clad staff! All of the pupils took part in each of the activities with great enthusiasm and celebrated their National day in true style.

Pupils and staff enjoying the Celebration of Scotland event.

Members of the S4 and S5 Geography classes recently enjoyed a day’s visit to Glasgow to conduct an urban field study. Geography teachers, Mrs Aileen Barrie and Miss Lucy Kelly and student teachers, Mr Gregor Doyle and Mr Philip McCluskey led the party on their day’s observation and research.

The pupils completed a somewhat bracing open top bus City Sightseeing Tour, visiting the old part of Glasgow around the Cathedral and Glasgow Green and the new developments along the Clyde waterfront.

They then carried out fieldwork to find out what attracts shoppers to the city centre malls, the St Enoch’s Centre and Buchanan Galleries. Pupils then completed a visitor survey at the Fort Shopping Centre. The Management Team at the Fort Shopping Centre, who granted permission for the survey to be conducted, has requested a copy of the results of the survey.

Pupils will undertake follow-up activity in class as part of their National 4/5 Added Value Unit. All of the pupils have to be congratulated for being so cheerful throughout on what was one of the coldest field trips ever experienced by a Clyde Valley group!

(From left to right) David Callan, Lucy Rankine, Andrew Murray and Lindsay Macdonald on the streets of Glasgow during their recent urban survey outing.

First year pupils recently enjoyed travelling to the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow to participate in a Badminton Festival at the Emirates Arena.

Aaron Green (‘Around the World’), Mark O’Reilly (Agility Test) and Liam McGhie and (Shuttlecock ‘Keepie Uppie’) won the individual skill challenges set for all pupils.  The Clyde Valley group performed with great enthusiasm and attracted plaudits for their good manners and sportsmanship.

Highlight for most was the opportunity to be spectators at the Scottish Open Badminton Championships in the afternoon. Our young players were amazed, and inspired, by the performances of the athletes playing.

The S1 Clyde Valley badminton players take a break from their matches at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow.