This is a unique creative writing competition open to all pupils in  first and second year. Twelve young writers will be selected to join Pushkin Prize-winners’ Week in April 2017 at the Moniack Mhor Writers’ Centre with tuition from professional writers. They’re looking for stories, poems, plays, articles, memoirs – anything you like on a subject of your choice. Closing date 19th December 2017.
The Scottish Book Trust is seeking seven young people aged between 14 and 17 years old, with enthusiasm for developing as writers or illustrators. This can include prose, poetry, storytelling, illustration, graphic novel writing, song-writing, writing for TV and film, journalism, blogging and writing for video games and more.
The seven chosen teenagers will act as ambassadors for What’s Your Story? while they develop their skills and knowledge in their chosen creative form. For 2017, the programme includes a residency in the National Library of Scotland, professional mentoring, a creative retreat, programming the teens creative writing conference StoryCon, and a feature showcase event.
What’s Your Story? is free to apply for and take part in, and interested 14 to 17 year olds from all over Scotland are encouraged to apply.
For more information about both competitions and other writing opportunities, please see Mrs Wilson in the English Department.
What’s the link between Lego blocks, zero pollution cars, disposable nappies, liquids that flow up hill, and false legs? How is this linked to the perfect recipe for slime?  Mrs Crosbie’s Chemistry class attended a “Fantastic Plastic” demonstration lecture delivered by Professor Averil McDonald at the University of Glasgow on 1st September. The lecture discussed the physical properties of plastics as featured in the topic in National 4/5 ‘Properties of Plastics’ and featured many interesting demonstrations.
After a brief overview of the great variety of physical properties of plastics that make them suitable for various intriguing and surprising applications, students were reminded of the basic concepts of solid, liquids and gases and introduced to the idea of polymers consisting of long chain molecules. Polymers can exist as solid and liquids but often have properties of both (as in slime). Lively demonstrations showed the effects of increasing the temperature, crosslinking the molecules, “tangling up” the polymer chains, and dissolving them in liquids. Some examples are given to show how by controlling what happens at the molecular level, the characteristics of the final material are determined.
Pupils from S3 and S4 enjoyed a day out at the Edinburgh International Book Festival on Monday, 28th August. Our first author was Darren Shan, an extremely prolific author of  fantasy and horror books for both young people and adults. His books include the Zom-b series; the Saga of Darren Shan series; the Demonata series; The Thin Executioner and many more. He has apparently sold more than 25 million books and his books are on sale in every continent, in 39 countries and in 31 languages.
Darren treated us to readings from Zom-b, which were suitably gruesome, and gave us his thoughts about Brexit, Trump and how his concerns are reflected in Zom-b.
After a trip to the Festival bookshop and the ice-cream stall, we heard from two authors who have written some fantastic science-fiction. Lauren James talked about her latest book, ‘The Loneliest Girl in the Universe” and Philip Reeve talked about the weird and wonderful worlds of the “Railhead” series of books. It was great to hear about new YA sci-fi books, especially from two authors who are so passionate about the genre.
School will start again on Thursday 17th August at 8.55am.
We look forward to welcoming everyone back, especially our new first year pupils. Starting High School can be daunting – the Parenting Across Scotland website gives some great tips on how you can help your child make a successful transition from primary school.
Good luck to all our pupils who will be receiving their Scottish Qualification Award (SQA) results today (Tuesday, 8 August 2017).  Check out the Young Scot website for more information and tips on how to cope with exam results day.
The SQA advice line will be open from 8am to answer any questions about your SQA results certificate – you can call them on 0345 279 1000.
My World of Work
You can also contact Skills Development Scotland (SDS) on 0808 100 8000. Advisers can give you information on Clearing, resits and appeals. They can also chat to you about other options apart from going to college and university, such as doing a Modern Apprenticeship. The helpline will be open
Tuesday 8 and Wednesday 9 August, 8am-8pm
Thursday 10 to Wednesday 16 August, 9am-5pm
Alternatively, check out the My World of Work website.
If you’d like to be prepared and know more about what the SCQF Levels and Credit mean on your SQA Exam Certificate and accompanying Profile sheet, check out this video:
Would you like to know more about the changes to the National Qualifications and what this means to your child? The National Parent Forum of Scotland have published a Parent’s Fact Sheet about the 2017/18Â revised National qualifications.
The Digital Leaders held an informative and fun workshop with all S3 and S5 pupils and launched a recruiting drive for more pupils to become involved in the programme.
They presented a powerpoint on what is involved, the types of initiative that Leaders could become involved in, and then finished off with team-building exercises.