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.
We have secured support from The Reward Foundation, who have created classroom-based resources for S3/4 and S5/6 pupils to inform discussion surrounding sexting and pornography use based on science and research.
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.
Pupils from our Advanced Higher and Higher English classes visited the Edinburgh International Book Festival at Charlotte Square in Edinburgh recently. The pupils enjoyed listening to three very different authors at the Festival: Melvin Burgess, Taran Matharu and Martin Stewart
The first session was with the Melvin Burgess, an author who is often described as the “godfather” of Young Adult fiction. Melvin talked about his prolific and often controversial writing and read excerpts from his latest novel, ‘The Lost Witch’ .
After lunch, pupils listened to authors Taran Matharu and Martin Stewart, who talked about their writing. Taran started writing online and soon gained a massive readership which led to the publication of his ‘Summoner’ series.
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.
Twenty S4-S6 Chemistry and Physics pupils recently made the trip to Geneva for a tour of European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN). After a quick train and tram journey from the airport, the pupils dropped their luggage at the hostel before enjoying ice cream in the glorious sunshine beside Lake Geneva.
The group took advantage of the weather by exploring the sights around the city and took a water taxi across the lake to see the Jet d’Eau.
They then made the short trip over the border to France where they were given a tour of the testing facility and central control centre. Everyone enjoyed a well earned lunch with the scientists at the the CERN restaurant before taking in the Microcosm and Globe of Innovation and Science exhibitions. There was just enough time to take in the Natural History museum the following day before making their way back to the airport to catch the flight home.
