Category Archives: Latest News

Christmas Concert

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.

Fair-Trade Hamper Presentation

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.

Morrisons Bag-Packing

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.

Christmas Cards 2013

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

St Aidan’s High School Presentation

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 50th 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).

Literacy Stars of December

December’s Literacy Stars received a novel by one of their favourite authors in recognition of their winning entry. Writing in verse and in prose, December’s theme of ‘What Christmas Means to Me’ attracted a high number of entries. Mr Sommerville presented the four winners with their novels before the end of term.

Well done to 1st Abby Cockburn 1C2; 2nd Leah Hannah 2H2; 3rd = Caitlin Jeffrey 1C1 and Chloe Watson 1C2.

December’s Literacy Stars: Seated: Leah Hannah (left) and Abby Cockburn; Standing: Chloe Watson (left) and Caitlin Jeffrey)

Copies of all the entries made to the competition can be found displayed along the English corridor. Abby’s winning piece will shortly appear below for all to read.

Fair Trade – ‘Beat the Goalie’

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.

Malawi Bag Pack – Mary’s Meals

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.

Festival of Scotland

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.

Geography Field Trip

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.

S1 Badminton 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.

Literacy Star of the Month

Each month, Miss Douglas and the English department run a competition to decide on the ‘Literacy Star.’ The theme changes throughout the year, with entrants asked to complete a short piece of writing in a particular genre, linked to the theme.

For November, the theme was ‘Remember, Remember’ with pupils asked to create a short story or poem.

The standard was incredibly high, but eventually a winner and three runners-up were chosen:

1st – Cara Sinnett from 1H1

2nd – Meghan Hill from 2C1
3rd – Iona Orr from 1C2
3rd – Ewan Findon from 1C1

Read Cara’s winning entry below.

Remember Remember

The Sergeant

I shuffled through the crowd. I was old now and could hardly move, never mind walk. But still I found myself standing to attention before the war memorial. As the gun sounded, I was mentally transported back to my time in the war.

I was haunted by the faces of the men who I had fought with, who never returned home. And yet, only one soldier was able to bring a measure of comfort to my tormented, twisted mind.

The echoing screams of the wounded soldiers continued to play through the minds of those remaining. This made it almost unbearable. The battle had raged for hours, with neither side gaining any advantage. Many had died and many were severely injured. Finally, a lull was caused due to sheer exhaustion of the men fighting on both sides.

During this time, a young soldier, David, approached me, pleading to be allowed to ‘go over the top’ to the fighting field. I couldn’t understand this; the boy couldn’t be any older than nineteen. The soldier explained that his friend was up top and that he needed to at least try to save him. I said gently that his friend had very little chance of survival, but seeing the desperation in his eyes, I let him go.

Later, I scanned the bodies of those who had been injured, searching for the young soldier David that had requested to go searching for his friend. I found him, dying, soaked in blood. His face was drawn and pale. I started to cry at the sight of his crippled frail body, knowing he would never stand again. Before I could apologise, he gripped my hand and said, “When I found my friend he was dying, so I stayed with him. His last words were ‘I knew you would come.’ ” With that, his heart stopped beating and his eyes closed over. “Goodbye,” I said as I let go of his hand.

I stood before the war memorial and could almost hear David whispering, “I knew you would come.”

Winner, Cara Sinnett, proudly displays her book prize for the ‘Literacy Star of the Month’

Parent Group

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.

Calendar Success

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.

MacMillan Cheque Presentation

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.

Celebrating Scotland Day

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.

Conjuring Kirkland

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.

Sky Sports in Schools

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.

Mark Scott Youth Leadership Award Coffee Morning

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.

Schools Swimming Championships

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.