S3 pupils from Calderhead High and Taylor High School attended an intensive five day Fire Reach course with Scottish Fire and Rescue Services at Coatbridge Community Fire Station recently. The pupils learned about teamwork, resilience, health and safety and first aid as well as experiencing the role of being a firefighter. Well done boys!
Category Archives: pupil achievement
BBC Scotland Young Reporter’s Day
For News Day (6th March) the Young Reporter team and BBC Scotland invited pupils from a handful of schools across Scotland to visit their iconic headquarters at Pacific Quay in Glasgow and pupils from Calderhead High School were delighted to accept the invitation.
The pupils were taught some of the skills of being a reporter and got the opportunity to put these into practice. They learned the background mechanics – Emma demonstrated that she was a natural using the autocue! The pupils got a chance to interview each other in the radio recording rooms before filming an interview with Fraser Gillan, star of the new BBC Scotland flagship programme, ‘The Nine’.
They also met the team behind ‘The Social’ and were intrigued to see the ‘post-it’ notice board with ideas for current and future features.
After lunch, the pupils were delighted to film an interview with BBC Weatherman, Christopher Blanchett, and you can see Sahand and Shakira’s interview by clicking here.
The pupils then learned more about evaluating sources and discovering ‘fake news’.
The pupils had a fantastic day and learned much about being young reporters. They are looking forward to implementing all this at Calderhead’s Young Reporters’ Club.
Charity Day at Calderhead
Pupils and staff were very charitable on Thursday, 20th September, when everyone paid to wear their own clothes instead of uniform all day.
Staff were treated to a MacMillan Cancer Support coffee-morning at interval, with some excellent cakes and other baking. Special thanks must go to the Shotts Co-op and Bells Food Group for their donations.
This was followed by a charity football match in the afternoon where pupils and staff watched S4/5 pupils play a senior pupil/staff team. The all pupil team won with an impressive 4-2 score. The match was ticketed and raised an impressive £400 for the charity, Chris’s House. Pupils have also set up a just-giving page for donations to this charity.
Knitting
Our creative knitters in Knitting Club created some ‘twiddle muffs’ , which are used for dementia patients. People with dementia often have restless hands and like to have something to keep their hands occupied. The ribbons, buttons, and beads attached to the muffs provide a great source of visual, tactile and sensory stimulation for the patients, whilst keeping their hands warm.
Suzannah, Heather and Hannah presented the muffs to Nicola Jack, a charge nurse at Accident and Emergency in University Hospital Wishaw. Well done, girls, they look fantastic!
If you would like to join Knitting Club, please see Mrs Crosbie.
Award Ceremony
We celebrated our pupils at our annual awards ceremony on 20th June 2018. The guest speaker was Dr Michelle Carlin, Senior lecturer in Forensic and Analytical Chemistry at Northumbria University and former pupil of Calderhead High School. Michelle delivered an inspiring speech about her time at Calderhead and her subsequent career, including funny stories about Harry Potter jumpers and her work with the Institut de Recherche Criminelle de la Gendarmerie Nationale (IRCGN) in Paris. We enjoyed wonderful musical performances from our piper, Douglas Pinkerton, and our drummers, Mackenzie Forrest, Morgan Lynch and Caitlyn Paxton. Our junior and senior choirs sang beautifully and there were marvellous solo performances from Carly Ogilvie and Sophie Whyte. Well done to all our award winners with special mention to our Dux, Jade McPhail, and Proxime Accesit, Kayleigh McLean, and to our S6 MVP Team, who won the Head Teacher’s Team of the Year.
Well done to all our award winners – you can see a full list by clicking on the link here.
Tinto Hill Challenge 2018
On Wednesday, 23rd May, our S1 pupils participated in the Tinto Hill Challenge.
This Challenge is open to Lanarkshire schools who want to support St Andrew’s Hospice. The Hospice is based in Airdrie and Calderhead High School regularly carries out fundraising activities to support them.
Our pupils enjoyed the walk up Tinto Hill in glorious sunshine and were delighted to complete the challenge.
If you would like to read more about St Andrew’s Hospice, please click here.
Drumming Success
S3 pupil, Mackenzie, recently won an award in the Under 17s category at the recent Glasgow and West of Scotland Branch of the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association drumming competition held at Coatbridge High School. Well done, Mackenzie!
Judo Champion
Over 700 keen judoka competed in the British Schools Judo Championships at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield. Around 400 schools were represented over the course of the two day competition and we are delighted to report that S2 pupil, Emma Pringle, was awarded a gold medal in the Girls (Years 8/9) Under 52kg category. Congratulations, Emma.
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!
