S6 Leavers

Last week, Clyde Valley’s most senior pupils gathered for two final photographs as they prepared to venture into the world beyond school. They assembled for their year group picture, with the blazers they have worn with pride throughout S6. On a lighter note, they then posed in their leavers’ hoodies before gathering with Mr Sommerville, the Head Teacher, to look back on their six years at Clyde Valley.

Of course, their final farewell will come near the end of June when staff and the seniors will gather at the Avonbridge Hotel in Hamilton for the S6 formal dance.

 

Clyde Valley’s S6 pose on their last day at school.

Record Breaking Charities Week

The last week of term heralded the eagerly awaited annual charities week. This year’s chosen cause was ‘Make a Wish Foundation’. Under the direction of Mr Vincent Lanagan, Depute Head Teacher, sixth year pupils and staff joined forces to provide fun and laughter throughout the week. Their sole purpose was to raise as much money as possible for ‘Make A Wish’ and, as always, the sixth year hoped to smash the record of £6,100 reached on two previous occasions.

The week began on Sunday morning, when seniors completed a sponsored, fancy-dress walk around Strathclyde Park. On Monday morning it was clear madness was in the air as most of the sixth year arrived in pyjamas, night dresses, dressing gowns and slippers for the annual ‘Pyjamathon’. Staff also enjoyed a coffee morning at the interval and were also able to bid for the services of a sixth year slave.

At lunchtimes pupils gathered in the theatre to enjoy the rewards of their ‘Golden Ticket’. Monday was  Departmental ‘The Voice’. Staff from Performing Arts, English, Humanities, Home Economics, Maths and Catering Manager, Danny Muir, all provided a wonderful start to the week, with Humanities triumphing with their unique rendition of Beyonce’s ‘Single Ladies (put a ring on it)’.

Tuesday saw Clyde Valley’s ‘Big Fat Quiz Meets the Bush-tucker Trial’, with forfeits for wrong answers, including delights such as cup cakes with tooth paste and paprika and raw onions! The packed theatre revelled in the on-stage retching!

Wednesday was ‘Strictly Come Dancing’, with staff and pupils combining to entertain with dazzling footwork. On Wednesday evening, the highlight of Charities Week was again ‘Clyde Valley’s Got Talent’ hosted by school captain, Josh Speirs. After a wonderful night’s entertainment the worthy winners were ‘The Highland Prancers’, second year pupils Kaitlyn Kenmure and Amy Mcleod with a wonderfully energetic display of Scottish Highland Dancing. 

Thursday’s lunchtime offering was Clyde Valley’s version of ‘Take Me Out’ with some of the ‘beauties’ on offer looking more beast than beauty! In the afternoon, senior pupils and staff paid for the privilege of tackling an inflatable assault course in the games barn. Sumo fights also broke out as staff and senior pupils challenged each other to bouts of honour!

On Friday morning, staff and pupils filled the theatre to capacity for the final day’s programme. Events included an encore of the winnign acts from the previous days’ events, as well as on-stage sumo fights. 

Sixth year pupil, Emma Mooney, then accepted the challenge of having her hair shaved off for the ‘Make A Wish’ cause. Emma’s mum, Karen, appeared on stage, clippers in hand, to perform the transformation from ‘long-hair’ to ‘no-hair’ for brave Emma. And, Emma’s bravery and determination added a remarkable £1,000 in sponsorship to the overall total!

The sixth year brought the house down with a brilliantly choreographed and complex dance routine to lead Charities Week to its traditional conclusion, with ‘Gunge a Teacher’.

To the raucous approval of a packed theatre, Mr Lanagan revealed the victims.  A week of underhand tactics was not enough to save Mr Burns from being first to endure the deluge of gooey, brightly-coloured mixture of beans, custard, porridge oats, syrup, flour and hundreds of thousands!

 No sooner had Mr Burns plodded from the pool of doom, when the theatre roof became endangered when Mr Lanagan announced the second gungee would, indeed, be Mr Sommerville! To his credit, and obvious shock, Mr Sommerville then took his seat before suffering the waterfall of gunge to the loud approval of the audience.

At the end of a tremendous week, Mr Lanagan and his sixth year team were proud to announce that, thanks to the generosity of staff, pupils, parents and friends of the school, they had raised a staggering, record-breaking total. The final total of £7,300 completely smashed all previous amounts!

Well done to everyone for a fantastic effort.

Our pictures capture some of Clyde Valley’s Charities Week highlights.

Tree of Knowledge

All second year pupils recently took part in a motivational workshop delivered by staff from the Tree of Knowledge organisation. Pupils learned about the different areas of the brain and how that knowledge can be used to learn more effectively.

Pupils then enjoyed taking part in a number of team-building tasks that ranged from paper-tower building to untangling tangled skipping ropes without letting go of the rope. The solution to each of the challenges set was to think creatively and work together in a more abstract way than normal.

All of those who took part thoroughly enjoyed the workshop activities. Tree of Knowledge will return after Easter to work with S4 pupils to help with their SQA examination preparation.

Charity Donation

Congratulations to Taylor Walker of fourth year for raising a magnificent £147 for the ‘Cancer Genetics Education Fund’ at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow. Taylor was inspired to raise the money through various sponsored activities after learning that members of her extended family were in danger of carrying the BRCA2 gene, a cause of certain cancers. Although she herself will not become a gene carrier, Taylor was determined to help others who may face health challenges in the future.

Among the activities Taylor completed was to avoid wearing make-up for an extended period. She was delighted to receive sponsorship from family, friends, fellow pupils and teachers, all of whom were pleased to support her heart-felt commitment to raising much-needed funds.

Taylor dropped into the West of Scotland Genetics Research Centre at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow last week to make her unexpected donation to staff. Staff were pleased to take time of our their busy schedule to express their gratitude to Taylor and to explain her donation will help the centre hold education events for patients and families to share their experiences with each other and staff.

Taylor Walker (third left), with Gordon Lowther (Head of Service – Genetics), Ms Catherine Watt (Principal Genetic Counsellor) and Lesley Snadden (Principal Genetic Counsellor).

 

SkillForce

Students in the S4 SkillForce group have successfully completed their industry standard First Aid course. Over several weeks, pupils learned the key principles and life-saving skills from their instructors Paul Craig and Jim Carrick. As well as learning how to respond to sprains and fractures, the students learned how to recognize the symptoms of heart failure and how to respond accordingly.

Mr Ian Sommerville, Head Teacher, presented each of the students with their Health and Safety Executive First Aid Certificate at a special ceremony. Instructors Paul and Jim were delighted with the application and concentration the class demonstrated throughout the course and commended them for their commitment.

SkillForce instructors, Paul Craig (left), Jim Craig (right) and the fourth year SkillForce group proudly displaying their First Aid course.

Rowing Champions

Congratulations to our team of rowers who captured a clutch of team and individual medals at the recent North Lanarkshire Indoor Rowing Championships. Well done to all of the team for their sterling efforts and enthusiastic support of their team members throughout a grueling test of stamina and determination.

S1 Girls: Hannah Devine, Elizabeth Hendrie, Emily Lang, Iona Orr, Lucy Whitehead; S1 Boys: Logan Lawrie, Callum Curly, Ben Miller, Hayden Muir, Lewis Wilson, Dominic Yuill; S2 Girls: Abbie Nelson, Gemma Muir, Nicole Dunning, Leah Hannah, Rebecca Martin, Leah Turnball, Kara Wilson; S2 Boys: Reegan-Jay Boal, Ryan Boyd, Euan Bradshaw, Jordan Brown, Jamie Brownlie, Nathan Harkin, Brandon McCorquodale, Aaron Miller, Jay Wilson, Nathan Wale; S3: Sam Murdoch; S6: Andrew Morley

Clyde Valley’s Indoor Rowing Team

Badminton

Congratulations to the school’s badminton team who finished as runners-up in the North Lanarkshire Schools League. After another outstanding display at the final, round-robin event of the year at Ravenscraig Sports Complex, Clyde Valley’s S3/S4 team narrowly lost out on the gold position to St Aidan’s High School. This event was supported by Morth Lanarkshire Leisure Trust.

Well done to Zak Reid, Jack Reid, Matthew Turnball, Derek Tyson, Taylor Strang, Donald Hannah, Grant Wood, Nicholas Carle, Craig Tart and Andrew Glover whose consistency throughout the tournament has been outstanding.

And, a big well done to all our badminton players from S1-S6 and for making the badminton club one our most popular and successful sporting activities.

The S3/S4 badminton team proudly display their silver medals after a highly successful season

Commonwealth Games Baton Bearer

The school was delighted to learn that Eilidh Murray of fifth year, will be one of the relay team of Baton Bearers carrying the Commonwealth Message to the Glasgow Games Opening Ceremony.

A champion swimmer, and one of the school’s Sports Leaders, members of the Pupil Council nominated Eilidh to be Clyde Valley’s representative in this prestigious challenge in recognition of her outstanding work in promoting sport across the school and within the wider community.

Eilidh will enjoy her brief moment in the Commonwealth Games spotlight when the Commonwealth Baton passes through the Wishaw area on Monday 23 June.

Eilidh Murray, who will carry the Commonwealth Games Baton