Category Archives: news

No Braver Deed

Pupils in four North Lanarkshire Schools (including Calderhead High School) have been working on a documentary on Willie Angus.

S4 pupil, Brianna, was recently interviewed by Stephen Jardine on BBC Radio Scotland about the project and you can hear this interview by clicking here. (1:49)

William (Willie) Angus was awarded the Victoria Cross in August 1915 for rescuing a wounded comrade following an assault on enemy lines. This was an extremely dangerous mission during which Willie received forty wounds, including the loss of sight in one eye as well as injuries to his legs, arms, head and shoulders. His commanding officer stated that there had been no braver deed in the history of the British Army and commended him for a Victoria Cross.

Rockfest Battle of the Bands 2018 – SITA

Calderhead High School’s band SITA performed at the recent Rockfest Battle of the Bands competition in Motherwell Concert Hall. As one of the ten bands who passed the initial audition, SITA  had to perform a cover song and their own composition. Competition was fierce but the panel of judges, led by BBC’s Vic Galloway,  eventually declared  Chryston High School rock band ‘Voltage’  to be the winner.

SITA performed in the school during ‘Calderhead’s Got Talent’ and gave a marvellous performance at the Battle of the Bands. We are very proud of all our talented performers. Well done!

 

 

 

Harry Potter Night

Calderhead Library was transformed into Hogwarts’ Calderhead Campus  at lunchtime on 2nd February, in celebration of Harry Potter Book Night.

All those wizards and witches who received their Hogwarts Letters were first sorted into their respective Houses and then treated to an excellent Potions class with Professor Crosbie, who took sinister delight in helping pupils create Goblin Slobber, Laughter Potion and Dragon Flare.

Thank you to Mrs Crosbie and the Science Department for creating the potions class and to Mrs Phee who helped sort all our young wizards and witches.

 

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Visit to the GFT

S2 Modern Language pupils attended the Glasgow Film Theatre recently to watch the acclaimed French film, Un Sac de Billes (A Bag of Marbles).

Based on the famous  memoirs of Joseph Joffo, this film tells his incredible story as a young Jewish boy living in France during the Second World War. When he was ten years old, his father gave him and his brother Maurice some money and a map and sent them on a dangerous mission to escape Nazi-occupied Paris to the demilitarised zone in the South. The boys suffered many hardships and witnessed horrific acts.

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Talent Raises Funds for Charity

Beatson Charity chequeCalderhead pupils showed off their talent  at the Talent Show in December, and we were extremely impressed by the breadth and variety of talent demonstrated by our pupils. This included the prefect choir (who sang a moving rendition of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”), the brave seniors who braved their own “Bush Tucker Challenge” and many more fantastic acts. The eventual winner was the talented pianist, Heather Duncanson, S4, who performed to great acclaim.

Our School Captains, Jay and Nicole, and Heather were delighted to be able to present the money raised from this event to the Beatson Cancer Charity.

Robotics Success

Calderhead High School’s Robotics clubs have gone from strength to strength.

VEX Robots
Vex

Our senior team recently participated in the VEX Robotics “In the Zone” competition at New College, Lanarkshire. Ceinwyn and Jason in S6 built an excellent robot which was required to carry out tasks such as stacking cones, scoring goals, and parking. They were narrowly defeated in the final and won second place. Well done!

Our junior robot creators took part in the recent Tomorrow’s Engineers EEP Robotics Challenge at Forth Valley College, which was one of twenty five regional heats. One hundred and forty young people aged between eleven and fourteen, organised into teams from local high schools, took part in the Challenge. Each team had learned how to build, program and control autonomous LEGO robots to complete a series of aviation themed missions. Our pupils built their robots during lunchtime Lego Robot club sessions and worked out how to complete the missions. On the day of the competition, they also had to research, design and present their own solution to a contemporary engineering problem faced by STEM professionals in the aviation industry. Everyone had a great time and well done to all who took part.

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Developing the Young Workforce Day

Calderhead High School held their annual Developing the Young Workforce day on Tuesday, 23rd January. The event has been held for the last three years and gives an opportunity for all year groups to develop their knowledge about the world of work and gain insight into a variety of pathways available when leaving school.

DYW Day 18S1 pupils were involved in an interactive ‘teacher pathways’ quiz where they worked in small groups to identify a teacher based on clues about their journey through school to starting their teaching career. The pupils were interested to find out that some teachers did not achieve as well at high school as they might have expected. The pupils also realised that the journey into education doesn’t always happen immediately after school and university and that many members of staff started their teaching careers after a number of other jobs.

S3 pupils took part in the ‘Friends of Calderhead’ event before lunch. Former pupils Steven Lake and Tom Stewart (Scottish Fire and Rescue), Glenn Paterson (Gas Sure), Alex Stewart (Scottish Canals), Carrie Fleming (NHS), Gillian Tannahill (Skills Development Scotland) and Fraser McPhee (Amey) were joined by Maths teacher Mrs Johnston’s brother, Ross Mitchell (Lloyds Banking Group), and community police officer, PC Susan Rooney, to provide workshops regarding the line of work they are involved in. These sessions gave insight into the type of work that is involved in a variety of sectors and the skills and qualities required to be successful. Many of the speakers also spoke of their own time at Calderhead High School and we heard about the impact that not only academic qualifications but experiences and skills learned have had on their life.

DYW Day 18In the afternoon a traditional Careers Fayre took place with 24 providers setting up stalls with a vast array of information, prospectuses and freebies. Pupils were able to spend time speaking to staff from a variety of local and national firms, training providers and Further and Higher Educational establishments to gain knowledge about the entry requirements and recruitment process.

Thanks go out to all the providers who attended and passed on valuable information to our young people, many of whom are now engaging with the application process and actively seeking opportunities for post school destinations.

Burns Night 2018

Calderhead High School celebrated Burns Night recently. On 25th January, the catering staff treated us to a wonderful Burns supper (lunch), replete with haggis, neeps and tatties. Mr Graham addressed the haggis and Mrs Prucnal and pupils performed some Scottish music for us.

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This was followed by a moving commemoration of the Bard by Mr Reilly in the Library at lunchtime on 29th January. Douglas drummed us in and we enjoyed some of Burns’ poetry before tucking into some Scottish snacks.

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Burns Night 2018

Staff and  pupils got together to celebrate Burns Night at lunchtime on 25 January in the social area. Our talented catering staff cooked some delicious haggis, neeps and tatties for us to enjoy. Douglas and Mackenzie piped us in and Depute Head, Mr Graham, addressed the haggis with gusto.

There were also some sonsie faces at the Burns Commemoration event which followed in the Library on 29th January.  Douglas started the commemoration with some spirited drumming. Mr Reilly spoke eloquently about the bard and we heard some of Burns’ poetry and songs as we enjoyed some Scottish refreshments.

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Calderhead’s Got Talent

Cheque to BeatsonWe were extremely impressed by the breadth and variety of talent demonstrated by our pupils who performed at the ‘Calderhead’s Got Talent’ show which took place on 18th December, including the prefect choir (who sang a moving rendition of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”), the brave seniors who braved their own “Bush Tucker Challenge” and many more fantastic acts. The eventual winner was the talented pianist, S4 pupil, Heather, who performed her own composition to great acclaim. The money raised from this event and the Christmas Jumper day has been donated to the Beatson Cancer Charity.

A cheque for £500 was recently presented to Callum from the Beatson Cancer Charity by Heather and our school captains, Nicole and Jay. A brilliant night – well done to everyone who took part!

Click here to view Heather’s performance (with thanks to Mr Duncanson for providing the video)


<p><a href=”https://vimeo.com/247961131″>Calderhead High School, Shotts</a> from <a href=”https://vimeo.com/user57385570″>Calderhead High</a> on <a href=”https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>