S3 examinations will soon be taking place in Calderhead High School. The purpose of the S3 examination diet is to give pupils and staff an indication of the progress pupils are making on courses and also to help pupils prepare for SQA examinations in S4.
Please click on the image below for more information and a copy of the timetable for the S3 examinations.
The YAY YA Festival took place on 12 March and was a day of events dedicated to the “Teen Reads Scene of Scotland”.
Held in the iconic Cumbernauld Theatre, pupils were treated to talks and readings by many Scottish authors and were delighted to be able to meet them ‘up close’ and ask them questions about their writing.
The authors included:
Kirkland Ciccone has written many excellent young adult books and gave an extremely funny opening talk. Kirkland was also largely responsible for organising the Festival so deserves special thanks!
Ross Sayers writes the sort of ‘effortless cool fiction that teens should be reading’. He has published a novel for young adults called ‘Mary’s The Name’ and his new book will be coming out in May.
Alex Nye has written some wonderful ghost stories steeped in Scottish history. She has just published a book about Mary Queen of Scots which will no doubt apperaing in the Library soon!
Danny Weston/ Philip Caveney, revealed his dual identity to the group and gave us all shivers with his scary books, ‘The Slithers’ and ‘The Scarecrow’. His books are always popular with our readers in the Library!
LJ MacWhirter is the author of ‘Black Snow Falling’ which has been longlisted for CILIP Carnegie Award. ‘Black Snow Falling’ is set in the past (over 500 years ago) and sounds like a fantastic read!
Moira McPartlin is the author of the fantastic Sun Song Trilogy, including her new novel ‘Star of Hope’, which we can’t wait to read! Paul Murdoch‘s new book ‘Sunny’ tackles racial discrimination and we had a fascinating talk with him about his new book and a diverse range of subjects including Bali, the belt and sectarianism!
Pupils also got a chance to get their books signed by the authors and to take some selfies (as you can see!). We had a great day out and as well as encouraging eveyone to read more, I think we’ll have a few more aspiring writers!
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.
Calderhead High School pupils will be joining young people all over Scotland to cast their votes in the Scottish Youth Parliament elections, which are taking place from 15th to 28th March, 2019.
Elections for the SYP are held every two years and young people aged 14 to 25 are eligible to vote to elect Members of the Scottish Youth Parliament (MSYPs). The Scottish Youth Parliament is a politically-independent organisation that aims to represent the young people of Scotland. It is made up of around 150 young people aged from 14−25 across Scotland. Every constituency area can elect a MSYP to represent the views and opinions of young people. In addition some MSYPs also attend representing Voluntary Organisations. The SYP meets three times a year to listen to and recognise the issues that are most important to young people, ensuring that their voices are heard by decision-makers.
We started our celebrations earlier this week when author Martin Stewart came into speak to our S2 pupils on Monday. Martin gave a great talk about how he became a writer and the inspiration for his books, before reading an extract from his latest novel, “The Sacrifice Box”. This visit was part funded by the Scottish Book Trust as part of their Live Literature programme.
World Book Tokens are being distributed to all the pupils in the school and are available to uplift from the Library. Here are just some of the £1 World Book Day books you can ‘buy’ with your token, as well as using it to get £1 off a full price book.
We are also running a World Book Day competition. This year the prize will go to the funniest joke and the best book review about a funny book. The competition closes next Friday (Red Nose Day).
Calderhead High School’s Library was transformed into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy to celebrate Harry Potter Book Night and pupils enjoyed a myriad of Harry Potter related activities. Mrs Crosbie started the event with an excellent Potions class, where pupils tried some magic experiments including catching goblin eggs, creating goblin slime and catching a bothersome poltergeist. Pupils were then ‘sorted’ into their various Hogwarts houses and visited Ollivander’s wand shop where they created their own magic wands. As Chinese New Year had taken place earlier that week, we were delighted to welcome Catherine Lumsden, a former Tianjin scholar, who taught us spells in Mandarin and some useful phrases to use when meeting Chinese wizards and witches. We finished the event with a spell casting competition and Robert and Logyne were worthy winners. A great time was had by all.
Calderhead High School is committed to developing our young workforce and finding positive destinations for all our pupils. You can find more information here.
Here are just some of the current opportunities listed on Apprenticeships.Scot that might be of interest to pupils:
S2 and S4/ S5 pupils will soon be making important decisions about their course choices for the next academic year.
You are invited to attend an Information Evening to discuss the Option Choice process on Thursday 21 February at 6.00 pm. This will give you an opportunity to meet with members of
the Senior Management and Pupil Support Teams to discuss in detail your child’s progress and future pathways.
Please click below for more information.
At Calderhead, we are keen to encourage pupils to plan for their future and explore all opportunities and career paths, including higher education, further education, employment, apprenticeships, training or volunteering. We will be hosting a Developing the Young Workforce careers event in the assembly hall on Tuesday, 22nd January from 5.30pm until 7.30pm.
Our careers event will give both parents and pupils an opportunity to meet representatives from universities, colleges and a range of career options including local and national employers. Each will have their own stall and will be delighted to answer any questions you might have about the options and opportunities they provide. This will be of particular interest to S2 and S4/5 pupils who will be making option choices soon and to pupils looking to secure a positive destination in the near future. However, everyone is welcome to come along.
Staff and pupils enjoyed a whole school Christmas Assembly this morning. David and Lynn introduced all our talented acts, with performances from the school choir; our resident pipes and drums; and our rock band fresh from their success at NLC Rockfest’s Battle of the Bands. We also heard from Jennifer Deighan on flute; Andrew Prentice on trombone and Kenzie Steel and on trumpet; and Jack Stewart and Jennifer Deighan singing a beautiful rendition of ‘Real Love’. Shae Carroll, Eileen Boyle and Adam Ferguson also read the Christmas story for us.
