In the run up to remembrance Sunday, the school has been selling poppies to raise money for Poppy Scotland. Pupils and teachers were asked to contribute a donation in return for the poppy and during assemblies and House Time, pupils watched presentations about the charity and the work that they do on behalf of the soldiers. We remember all the brave soldiers that fought in the wars, both past and present, and risked their lives for their country.

Megan Smillie of S3 has continued to excel in the world of tae kwon do. Megan’s most recent achievement was to capture bronze at the world championship event held in Brighton. Megan scooped her third place award against strong opposition in her weight category and by demonstrating high skill levels to the judging panel.

Megan Smillie proudly displaying the bronze medal she recently won at the World Tae Kwon Do championship at Brighton.

Alison Dobbie & Jodie Barrett

The Wonderful World Club run by Miss Logan and Miss McGough, along with a group of s1 to s3 pupils, organised a book and bake sale to raise money for their ‘adopt a deer’ fund. They sold books and cakes to members of staff in the staff room. They also sold raffle tickets to win a variety of prizes; one was for white wine and a small cake which was won by Miss McConachie, one for red wine that was won by Miss Murray, the third one was JK Rowling’s ‘The Casual Vacancy’ won by Paula from the office and the fourth one was chocolates which were won by Mr Carrol.  A final special prize was a cake made by the Wonderful World’s very own Fraser Lindsay. This was won by a very lucky Miss Douglas who kindly donated it to Mr Lanagan for his birthday.

All in all they successfully raised over £130 for adopting a deer, but still haven’t  adopted one yet because they are still deciding what to do with  the rest of the money because they raised  over £130 but only needed £80 and deciding what to do with £50 to see what else they could help in this cold and frosty winter.

Three students from Clyde Valley High School have won the SkillForce Prince’s Award. Ryan Burrell, Jamie Semple and George Wilson, received their awards from HRH The Duke of Cambridge at a ceremony at St James’s Palace.

The Duke of Cambridge, in conjunction with SkillForce, launched the SkillForce Prince’s Award in recognition of the contribution that young people make to their communities.  In a message of support to the charity, the Duke of Cambridge said: “I am immensely proud to put my name to the SkillForce Prince’s Award.  It rewards young people who have made an outstanding contribution to their community, encouraging them to go further to nurture their personal, professional or educational development.”

Five students from Clyde Valley High School demonstrated their commitment to the local area by refurbishing a community centre for local people.  The local challenge was one of seven taking place across the country and took place at Craigneuk Community Centre in June. The young people agreed amongst themselves the theme for the challenge having noted that the community space available to residents was not fit for purpose and felt that this was something that could be improved through their collaboration and hard work. They then planned, budgeted and implemented the task themselves. The three lucky students were selected as winners of the award after being judged against strict criteria. 

One  of the winners, Ryan Burrell, said: “I feel overjoyed with our achievement.  It is great that we are being rewarded for our hard work.  The work we completed has helped to vastly improve a community and I feel so proud at how much we accomplished in only 24 hours.  We are all so happy about winning the award and being given this once in a lifetime opportunity makes it even better!”

Over three nights during the last week of term, Clyde Valley High took its audiences back to 1985 and to Ridgefield, New Jersey, for the school’s 20^th Anniversary production of the popular, modern musical ‘The Wedding Singer’.

Ricky Owens was a masterful Robbie Hart, playing the lead role with absolute assuredness. Ricky brilliantly captured the agony and ecstasy of Robbie’s journey and led the audience through the peaks and troughs of his emotional rollercoaster ride to happiness.  Kelly Powell, as the other lead, was simply stunning as Julia, the patient and pure-of-heart waitress who inadvertently fell head over heels in love with Robbie. Kelly sang beautifully and with a poignancy that added to the drama of the couple’s troubled journey to wedded bliss.

 A group of very talented principals provided wonderful support to the leads. Jon Connelly and Dean Dunn as Sammy and George, the other members of ‘Simply Wed’, produced many of the show’s magically comedic moments. Sammy also brought his own love interest as he tried to win back Holly, his worldly-wise former girlfriend. George’s intensely melodramatic input to every situation evoked roars of laughter from the audience who appreciated his own love interest lay elsewhere.

There were outstanding performances also from James Da Costa as Glen Guglia, Laura Kilpatrick as Linda, Eleanor Histead, Caitlin Smith, Heather Waugh, Rachel Moon and Samantha Rae. Even Clyde Valley History teacher, Andrew Keating prompted great hilarity in his twin cameo roles as the bar drunk and as the Elvis impersonator.

 A chorus of almost 50 other young people brilliantly supported the lead characters. Each and every member of the chorus contributed so much to the success of the show, their energy and charisma shining through.

‘The Wedding Singer’ was undoubtedly a 20th anniversary triumph for the school. Much of the credit for the success of the show lay with the Production Team: Mrs Debbie Taylor, Miss Stefanie Frame, Mrs Joyce Halliburton and Mrs Mari-Claire Barclay. Mrs Anne Traynor, as Musical Director, masterminded a show that clearly demonstrated the enormous musical talent in the school.

Hallowen disco tickets are on sale from Monday 22nd of Monstober (October) till the 25th. Tickets are only £4.00  and you can buy them in canteen 1 at lunchtime from 1:20pm.

So, dress up in your spookiest best and come along !

The Library Resource Centre was transformed into an Amazonian Rain Forest last week thanks to the visit of Zoolab and their wonderful collection of creatures commonly found in that tropical world. First year pupils bravely handled giant snails and millipedes and cockroaches and snakes! The presentation was an exciting and very practical way of backing up the information on eco-systems pupils had been learning in Science and in Geography. And, most of the pupils thoroughly enjoyed the insight into the wonderful underworld of the rainforest!

Nicole Dunning (left) and Ailiesh McInnes bravely handle the giant snail that was just one the Amazonian Rainforest creatures displayed by Zoolab.

M McGough

As part of an Exploring World Food unit, S1 Home Economics classes have been attending the library to carry out research on Scotland. The Home Economics department provided pupils with a handout which contained information on the history of Scottish foods and cooking methods, Scottish baking traditions and modern cuisine. Pupils were then set the task of using library resources to gather more information on Scottish food, history, the geography of the country, traditional costume and famous Scots. Each class enjoyed working on the project and used a variety of texts and websites to glean relevant and interesting facts about Scotland.

The Foods of Scotland unit acts as an introduction to Scottish culture and tradition ahead of the S1 ‘Celebration of Scotland’ in November. It works alongside Scotland projects run by various departments throughout the S1 school year like Scottish music traditions, Scottish scientists and the Vikings in Scotland.

Some of the staff and pupils who took part in the recent Strathclyde Park Annual Fun Run on behalf of St Andrew’s Hospice were delighted to welcome back Margaret Donald, from St Andrew’s, to hand over a cheque for the money they raised through sponsorship. Just under 70 senior pupils and staff took part in this year’s run and raised a magnificent £2040 through generous sponsorship. Margaret Donald expressed the sincere thanks of everyone at St Andrew’s for this fantastic effort and for Clyde Valley’s ongoing support of the work of the Hospice.

Pictured at the cheque presentation ceremony are: (left to right) Miss Marie McGough, Liam Findon, Ross Megahy, Margaret Donald, Katie Lawson, Mr Cameron McKay and Pamela Kerr

Members of the Kickstart Theatre Company delivered a hilarious, but hard-hitting, message to all first year classes last week. They led the pupils through a number of scenarios, all designed to heighten the importance of personal safety. Members of the audience took part enthusiastically as the company led them through a series of improvised situations. The slap-stick style provided great laughs that were usually underpinned by a serious message of how the young people must behave in a series of situations to which they could so easily be exposed.

Members of S1 take a bow after performing with the Kickstart Theatre Company (from left to right; Claire Forrest, Aaron Andrews, Daryl O’Rourke and Nicole Rogan)

Every year the Modern Languages Department joins in the celebrations for European Day of Languages. This takes place at the end of September with the purpose of promoting the learning of different languages across Europe. This year Mrs Delaney’s S1 class, who normally learn German, spent two weeks learning some basic French and Spanish. They then produced posters using French, German and Spanish as well as English to write about themselves in each of the four languages.

The winners of this poster competition were:

Jamie Brownlie

Meghan Hill

Bobbi Kennedy

Leah Turnbull

They can be seen in the photograph holding their winning posters.

D Delaney

A group of thirty Third Year pupils, who study German, recently attended an exhibition at the Goethe Institut in Glasgow. The Goethe Institut is an organistaion which promotes the learning of the German language across the world. The pupils attended an exhibition organised to celebrate the 200th Anniversary of the publication of the first edition of Grimm’s Fairytales. The pupils were told about the origin of these stories and then worked in groups on various tasks using German vocabulary associated with fairy tales.

As well as expanding their knowledge of German language and literature, they were also given the opportunity to watch an extract of ‘Dornroschen’, or ‘Sleeping Beauty’, in German. They then worked on various speaking and interactive tasks connected to this story.

The pupils all thoroughly enjoyed their visit and agreed it was very worthwhile . Over the next few weeks the pupils will continue to look at this topic in class.

Just under 70 staff and pupils took part in the recent Fun Run around Strathclyde Park on behalf of St Andrew’s Hospice in Airdrie. The Clyde Valley team looked resplendent in their t-shirts kindly sponsored by Peter Francis & Co, Wholesale Jewellers, Caledonian Road, Wishaw. At the final count, staff and pupils involved raised a fantastic £2040 for the charity. The cheque will be presented to the hospice in the coming weeks.

The Clyde Valley fun- runners gather before the start of the trek around Strathclyde Park.

‘The Wedding Singer’:

Tickets are now on sale for this year’s school show, ‘The Wedding Singer’. The show will run over three nights on Tuesday 9 October, Wednesday 10 October and Thursday 11 October. All tickets are priced £6 each. These are now on sale every lunch time in the Child Care Room, or from Mrs Delany or Mrs MacPhee.

All pupils in S2, and those studying drama and dance in the senior school, enjoyed a very special presentation last week. The Osiligi Warriors, a dance troupe of the Masai tribe from Kenya, performed a series of traditional dance routines. The colourful robes and intricate jewellery added to the drama of the high-energy performance that was very much enjoyed by the enthusiastic audience. The Clyde Valley pupils thoroughly enjoyed the moment when a number of pupils and Mr Sommerville, the Head Teacher, were summoned to the stage to join in one of the dances. An interesting PowerPoint presentation and a lively question and answer session also allowed the Clyde Valley pupils to learn a great deal about Masai village life.

Our picture shows the Osiligi Warriors demonstrating one their traditional tribal dances.

The first leg of this year’s Italian Exchange programme was a resounding success.  A group comprising 2 staff and 9 pupils from the Sismondi and Pacinotti Institute from Pescia in Tuscany spent a week in Scotland enjoying a full programme of visits and trips, often with their Scottish ‘twins’. Over two days, the Italians shadowed their twins to gain experience of life in Clyde Valley. They also enjoyed day trips to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling and New Lanark. In the evenings, the pupils visited the home of their Scottish twins and also enjoyed a disco and a ceilidh for all of the 6 participating schools.

Within the space of a week, deep friendships were forged and all of the Scottish twins are now eagerly looking forward to the return visit in February of 2013.

The pupils and teachers from Clyde Valley and the Sismondi and Pacinotti Institute involved in the recent exchange visit.