Our annual Christmas Fayre, will take place on Saturday, 1st December 2018 from 1pm. Come and visit Santa in his grotto and check out our stalls including raffle, tombola and refreshments – there will also be hotdogs, cakes, tea and coffee.
Ho, Ho, Ho, Merry Christmas!
Dyslexia Awareness Week took place from 5 – 10 November 2018 and the theme this year was ‘My Wider World’. As many as 1 in 10 children and adults in Scotland have dyslexia, which can impact their lives in many ways, including difficulties with reading, writing or spelling. Pupils and staff at Calderhead High School marked Dyslexia Awareness Week in the school by wearing blue ribbons.
S4 pupil, Aiden, presented an Assembly to S1 and S2 pupils about dyslexia, ably assisted by S2 pupils, Jack and Cole. Some of our great selection of dyslexia friendly books were also on display in the library all week.
Pupils and staff also participated in a dyslexia word search competition. Congratulations to Chelsea in S2 and Miss Gillanders who were our lucky winners, and thank you to Mr O’Donnell and Ross in S1 who helped Aiden draw the winners.
Sadly, the heavy snow prevented us celebrating World Book Day on 1 March and we had to reschedule some of the events planned. 
However, we did manage to rearrange the ‘Book and Biccie’ lunchtime session in the school library and it was a lovely way to celebrate the joy of reading (and biscuits!) at the end of term.
Pupils were also invited to take part in a “Share a Story” competition by submitting a review of their favourite book and why they recommended that everyone should read it. There were many fabulous reviews and Mrs Lumsden and Ms Faulds struggled to decide the winner. However, they agreed that Kevin’s review of the Skulduggery Pleasant series should win first prize and Lauren and Jack were worthy runners up with their excellent reviews. Thank you to Mrs Galloway for presenting the prizes.
The Music Department accompanied pupils to see the Shine Company’s production of ‘Annie’ at Motherwell Concert Hall recently.
Set in 1930s New York during The Great Depression, brave young Annie is forced to live a life of misery at Miss Hannigan’s orphanage. Her luck soon changes when she’s chosen to spend a fairytale Christmas with famous billionaire, Oliver Warbucks. Meanwhile, spiteful Miss Hannigan has other ideas and hatches a plan to spoil Annie’s search for her true family…
Pupils and staff greatly enjoyed the show.
Kickstart Theatre Company visited the school recently and performed a smoking-prevention play for our S1 pupils. The performance discussed the dangers of smoking and encouraged them to make sensible decisions.
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.
November Jam 2016 is a totally FREE event for all young people in the Wishaw and Shotts area. Workshops currently confirmed are: mountain biking, SFX makeup, drama, working with Reeltime Music, explosive science, dance and fun athletics. It’s happening at Coltness High School on Saturday 12 November 2016. There are limited transport spaces and the buses return after 5pm (which means no transport at end of the event!)
Lots of spooky activity at Calderhead High School for Hallowe’en. CalderRead Book Group and French Club joined forces in the library on Friday and heard some terrifying ghost stories in French and English. Then on Hallowe’en, the S1s enjoyed a party at the end of the day, organised by staff and senior pupils as part of their personal development class. A spooky time was had by all…
Pupils and staff attended an Outward Bound Leadership course at the weekend in the Lakes.
The Outward Bound Trust is an outdoor learning charity that equips young people with social and emotional skills through learning and adventure in the wild. The Trust’s Ullswater & Howtown education centres are based on the beautiful shores of lake Ullswater.
As you can see from the photos, the pupils had a wonderful time – more images are available in the Image Gallery.
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