Allanton Jolly Beggars Burns Club

Liam Dunnachie and Niamh Speirs of S4 played leading roles in the recent Allanton Jolly Beggars Burns Club Annual Burns Supper, held at the Cambusnethan Club. Elizabeth Totten, the Club’s President offered warm words of welcome to Niamh and to Liam and to Miss Claire Douglas of the English department, who accompanied them.

Liam proposed a witty, and often stinging ‘Toast to the Lassies’ in which he paid reluctant homage to the country’s ‘bonnie lassies’, much to the great amusement of his fellow males in the audience and the friendly hostility of the women.

Not to be outdone, and ensuring the ladies had the last and most powerful word, Niamh’s rebuff made it patently clear to all males present their very being and tranquility in life was down solely to the direction and leadership and superior intellect of their better halves!

The school would like to thank the AJB Club for their kind invitation and generous hospitality.

Mrs Elizabeth Totten (centre) keeps apart the ‘duelling’ Niamh and Liam!

S1 Inter-House Burns Competition

Congratulations to the 9 participants in the school’s inaugural S1 Burns Poetry Recitation Competition. Iona Orr, Abby Cockburn and Emily Lang recited for Curran House. Rachel Lees, Rebecca Finlayson and Megan Young were Sneddon’s champions. Cara Sinnett, Ellie Docherty and Simone Ward represented Houldsworth House.

All of the pupils recited Burns poems or extracts from poems to a packed theatre and to judges, Mr Sommerville and Mrs Elizabeth Totten, President of the local Allanton Jolly Beggars Burns Club.

The standard was outstanding, with Cara Sinnett declared the overall winner with her wonderful rendition of the sardonic verse ‘To a Louse’. Cara and team-mates, Ellie and Simone captured first place for Houldsworth and the important 3 points for first place. Iona, Abby and Emily took the 2 points for Curran House. Rachel, Rebecca and Megan were a close third and took 1 point for Sneddon House.

The school would like to thank Mrs Totten for generously giving up her time to support this new event in the Inter House calendar.

Mrs Elizabeth Totten (centre) with the S1 Inter House Burns presenters.

 Cara was delighted to receive her Certificate of Excellence and winner’s prize of an anthology of the work of Robert Burns.

Cara Sinnett proudly holds her prize for winning the recent Burns Recitation Competition.

Badminton Success

Congratulations to Liam McGhie (1C1) and Lachlan Kyle (1C1) on producing outstanding performances at last week’s North Lanarkshire Secondary Schools Badminton Championships held at the Ravenscraig Sports Centre.

Liam reached the semi-finals of the Under 13 Boys singles competition, before being beaten by the eventual tournament winner in a close contest. Liam then partnered Lachlan to compete in the Under 14 Doubles Championship. And again, the boys did exceptionally well to reach the semi-final, once more falling to the eventual winners.

And, congratulations to our senior badminton players who also acquitted themselves well in the senior events. Neil McIntyre, Reece McCarrison, Fraser Simpson, Adam Lawson and Ross Garrard all competed strongly in the round-robin tournament format. Fraser played reached the quarter finals, but lost out to the eventual winner.

Spotlight on Eco, Fairtrade, Enterprise & more!

Eco-Schools 

Miss Kelly and Miss McGough have been working tirelessly with the members of the Wonderful World Club to make pupils across the school aware of environmental issues.  A ‘Picnic Day’ was one activity organised in October where the pupils were able to sample some seasonal produce. Since then they have been busying themselves with other activities, including making ‘Bird Balls’ to attract the local birds, ensuring their survival as the winter months approach. Shortly, they will be undertaking a project to try and tackle the problem of dog-fouling in the community which seems to be a massive blight on the environment and poses health risks also. In the new term Miss Kelly will be launching a Biodiversity Competition with pupils being asked to capture pictures of things that encapsulate ‘Biodiversity’ with the pictures being displayed in the House Blocks. More details can be sought from Miss Kelly. The school is due to renew its ‘Green Flag’ status and it is hoped that all the hard work of the Wonderful World Club and their two leaders will lead to our status being renewed.

 

Fairtrade 

The Fairtrade Steering Group met earlier this month and it was decided that the annual ‘Beat the Goalie’ competition should take place in December. The 3-day event was very successful and pupils queued up to take their chances against some famous goalies like Mr Bruin, Mr Conway, Mr Thomson, Mr Ford, Miss Hughes, Mr Keating and Miss Kelly. On the first day we had a celebrity goalie in the form of Mr Malcolm Taylor, Football Development Coach at Motherwell FC. Our sixth formers, Ross Megahy, Ross Garrard, Josh Speirs, Andrew Morley, Adam Lawson and Calum Glover all helped boost our stock of talented goalies. The winner….( I will let you know who this is afterwards) received two tickets to the Hamilton Accies game which had been kindly donated by Mrs Franks. Mr Sommerville was on hand to take photographs and show off his footballing skills. Thanks to all who made the event a success and a special thanks to Miss McGough and Mr Jones who were on hand to supervise. Mr Jones couldn’t resist the urge to take a penalty kick, despite hanging up his football boots last year after sustaining a knee injury. He scored a couple of goals but was soon banished to the sidelines by the boss.The total funds raised from the event will go towards purchasing Fairtrade gifts for the residents of Law View Sheltered Housing.

Work Experience 

‘Work Experience Week’ ran this year from 28th Oct- 1st Nov. Pupils enjoyed a break from the routine of coming into school each day and instead sampled the world of work. Please see some of the testimonies. All had a positive experience with one pupil impressing their employer so much than he was offered an apprenticeship with Arnold Clark.

Enterprise 

An S1 Enterprise Group was launched in December. Mr McDonald supervised the pupils in a pilot scheme of making  ‘nativity scenes.’ The pupils hope to sell these to staff before the end of term. Thanks to Mr McDonald and Mr Martin for helping pupils with this task. Hopefully as the group expands, new and innovative ideas will be turned into money-spinning activities in the new year.

Vocational Courses 

Hairdressing, Construction and Childcare continue to be popular course choices with students at Clyde Valley High School. Please see the testimonies.

Fire Reach 

12 S3 pupils were invited to take part in a Fire Reach programme in October at Coatbridge Fire Station. The lucky individuals were subjected to the same rigorous training as a new recruit.   All came back having found the exercise worthwhile with some expressing an interest in following a career in this field.

Check out the gallery below for a variety of photos!

 

 

Lessons from Auschwitz

Earlier this session, Josh Speirs and Andrew Morley, from S6, were part of the Scottish schools’ delegation who travelled to Poland to visit the Auschwitz Concentration Camps. This annual visit is run by the Holocaust Memorial trust, and supported by the Scottish Government and all of the Scottish local authorities. The entire purpose is to ensure that successive generations understand the inhumanity of the Holocaust so the lessons of history can truly be remembered and avoided in the future. All those who take part find the experience incredibly moving and life-changing.

As part of the school’s contribution to Holocaust Memorial Week, Josh and Andrew have been leading morning assemblies, delivering a powerful and moving PowerPoint presentation as they honestly and sensitively explain their experience.

This year’s theme for the Memorial week has been ‘Journeys’ and the boys prepared their presentation with this in mind. All pupils have also been given the opportunity to sign the school’s Memorial Candle as we respect the victims of this worst of human atrocities.

 

Josh Speirs (left) and Andrew Morley with some of the display material they helped prepare as part of their Lessons from Auschwitz presentation.