Read the article about the fantastic volunteer work that Fraser & Eilidh Simpson participate in for St John Scotland
GHS Pupils Volunteer at St John Scotland
All posts by Mr Harris
Opening of “The Courtyard” at Greenfaulds High School
Opening of “The Courtyard” at Greenfaulds High School
Jack Guild handing the opening plaque to Head Teacher Linda Park
On Friday 1st June there was an official opening ceremony of the courtyard at Greenfaulds High School. This was the culmination of a project in conjunction with Morrison Construction that started last May. The pupils of Bruce House and the Greenfaulds DofE group all worked together to produce tables and benches to enable the space to be utilised as an external classroom and social space.
The Greenfaulds Go Green project was won with design ideas supplied and costed by the Bruce House team of Jack Guild, Fraser Menzies, Aaron Urquhart and Charlie Redmond. Their vision was then passed over to have the plans drawn up by senior members of the DofE group and then everyone from Bruce House and the DofE Group who had time dived in to create tables, benches and planters from recycled old scaffolding boards.
Jack Guild attended the opening ceremony in two capacities. He was the project manager and he is also currently attending work experience with Morrison Construction and attended as their official representative.
Jack said “This project has taken a very long time to complete but I am very proud of the final results. I have been working closely with Jim Johnston and Caitlin Quinn who have helped out with advice and materials throughout the last 12 months. The effort put in by the DofE Group and Bruce House members to produce the goods has been fantastic!”
Another table and two benches were created and donated to Redburn School for their new memorial garden
Depute Head Teacher Martin Burns said “The donation of the table and benches are a wonderful addition to our newly formed memorial garden. This provides both pupils and staff of Redburn School with the opportunity to access a quiet, contemplative space. We are very grateful to the staff and pupils at Greenfaulds High School for their generosity.”
T-shirt Design Competition Winner
Darcie Burnett of 2KR received a GHS Success Nomination for her recent success in an online t-shirt design competition.
Darcie commented;
“I entered an online competition to redesign a well known logo The Forty Monster by the very popular Brand Forty Clothing. I used pointillism to create a finely dotted new design. I was chosen out of over 300 entries to have my design printed on the new summer t-shirt range to be sold in their store near the Merchant City in Glasgow”
Well done and congratulations on your fantastic design Darcie.
Blazer Fittings
Blazer fittings by Academy Uniforms will be taking place on Wednesday the 6th and Thursday the 7th of June from 6.30pm until 8.00pm in the school.
Scottish National Standardised Assessments
Over the coming weeks all pupils in S3 will be taking part in Scottish National Standardised Assessment. Below is some information on the assessments and how they are used.
What are the Scottish National Standardised Assessments?
All Scottish school children in P1, P4, P7 and S3 will complete online standardised assessments in literacy and numeracy. The assessments help to identify children’s progress, providing diagnostic information to support teachers’ professional judgement.
Children and young people do not have to revise or prepare for these assessments. The assessments are as inclusive as possible to accommodate the needs of children and young people who require additional support. There is no pass or fail
Why have these assessments been introduced?
Assessment is a central part of everyday learning and teaching for every child and young person. The Scottish National Standardised Assessments have been introduced as part of the National Improvement Framework for Scottish Education to provide teachers with objective, comparable information about progress, which will help improve outcomes for all children and young people.
These assessments have been specifically designed to reflect the way we deliver education in Scotland and are aligned with Curriculum for Excellence. Ongoing and periodic assessments are, and will continue to be, the main basis of teachers’ professional judgement. Teachers continue to draw on all of the assessment information available to them when considering children’s progress and planning next steps in learning.
An overview of assessments
The web-based Scottish National Standardised Assessments tool enables teachers to administer online literacy and numeracy assessments to learners in P1, P4, P7 and S3. The assessments are marked and scored automatically giving teachers immediate feedback to help children progress.
Once assessments have been completed, a diagnostic report will be available for individuals and groups of learners. The information provided by the assessments is used by teachers when making professional judgements about children’s progress. The reports focus on establishing where learners are in their progress in literacy and numeracy, identifying strengths as well as areas that require further support.
Click here for additional parent/carer information
Amazing Animals, Brilliant Science
A number of Miss Armstrong’s S1-3 Art & Design pupils took part in an Amazing Animals Brilliant Science competition run by ARC trust in Scotland last year.
Two of the pupils Amy O’Keefe and Kyle Diack were finalists in the S1-S3 art category of the ARC Trust Amazing Animals Brilliant Science competition in October at Edinburgh Zoo. Amy was 1st place and Kyle 3rd. Their art work has just been featured on the cover of a new book created by zoologist Dr Pete Minting of ARC (foreword by ARC patron Chris Packham) along with artwork by another of our pupils Ava Duffy. The book is about DNA technology – aimed at a teenage audience – and how scientists are using new techniques to study Scottish wildlife, such as the badger and golden eagle. This was the result of the Amphibian and Reptile Trust’s Great Crested Newt Detectives project in Scotland and the book features artwork and creative writing by school children in Scotland.
Amy O’Keefe drew the golden eagle featured on the front cover, Ava Duffy drew and painted the badger, and on the reverse of the cover there is Kyle Diack’s common frog (mixed media piece)
If anyone is interested in DNA technology and wildlife then this book can be downloaded for free as a pdf from the ARC Trust website. Click on link below.
https://www.arc-trust.org/news/aabs-book-launch
SQA Exams
Good luck to all our pupils sitting SQA exams. Remember to turn up at least 15 minutes before you are due to start in school uniform. The SQA timetable can be found on the link below or on the top bar of the GHS Homepage.
Good Luck!!!
Rezoning Outcome Report
Outcome Report on proposal to re-zone part of Greenfaulds High School catchment area to form part of the Cumbernauld Academy catchment area.
Parent Online Safety Workshop
In conjunction with respectme, Scotland’s anti-bullying service parents and carers are invited to attend two forthcoming workshops being held across regional venues.
Online safety: This interactive and hands on workshop lasting two hours will explore a range of important issues related to navigating the ever changing online world safely. The event will focus on:
How young people use technology- the risks/challenges Popular social media apps- the pros and cons Practical advice on parental controls, privacy and safety settings with an opportunity to explore your own social media settings Talking to your children about keeping safe online
Places are limited so places must be reserved by contacting enquiries@respectme.org.uk
Click on the image below to find out details regarding dates, times and venues or alternatively CLICK HERE to download the PDF version.
A Sense Of Place: The Roman Presence in Cumbernauld
Staff and pupils in the Art & Design Department at Greenfaulds High School enjoyed participating in a special Roman-themed project over the course of the last year. It was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund with £10,000 provided in March 2017. Art & Design teacher and project leader Kirstin Armstrong explains how staff and pupils have benefited from this project:
The first special event that kick-started this HLF project was the mosaic workshop with Alan Potter that took place in April 2017. A range of S1-S3 pupils in the Art & Design department helped the artist to create a series of large-scale mosaics which were intended to decorate the front exterior of the new school building. The pupils really enjoyed working with Alan Potter and learning how to cut tesserae to create mosaics. This part of the project was a huge success and the finished mosaics look fantastic! They were installed in August 2017, and they really help to engage the local community with their heritage as they provide visual information about the Romans and their presence in the Cumbernauld area.
The local heritage sites that were chosen for this project were the Antonine Wall and the Roman fort at Bar Hill. Pupils learnt about these sites in class, viewing PowerPoint presentations, and some of them visited the sites also as part of a series of day trips in June 2017 to museums with Roman artefacts (The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum, and The Hunterian Museum in Glasgow). S1-3 pupils drew Roman artefacts in class, such as arms and armour and pottery, created embossed metal replicas of Roman coins, painted watercolours of the Roman fort at Bar Hill and created Roman themed costumes. The pupils learnt about the Romans and their presence in Scotland in the 2nd century AD. The Antonine Wall was built circa AD 142 by the three Roman Legions that were stationed in Scotland at this time – the Second, Sixth and Twentieth Legions, on behalf of Emperor Antoninus Pius.
S1-2 pupils created ceramic replicas of Roman votive pots, learning how to work with clay to create 3D forms, and S2 pupils made 3D clay heads which were based on Roman sculptures found in Scotland. S3 pupils made ceramic replicas of Roman distance slabs – these were made by Roman craftsmen to celebrate the construction of different sections of the Antonine Wall. Pupils learnt about the Romans and they also gained a greater understanding of how to work with clay and clay tools, making and decorating 3D forms. Some of the pupils used coloured glazes to decorate their pots and these were very effective. Photographs of the artwork have been on display electronically in the school’s social area, conference suite, and in the Art & Design classrooms and corridor. Some of the very best work can be seen online also.
Over twenty pupils enjoyed an illustration workshop with the artist Kate Leiper in September. Kate helped S1-S6 pupils create fun Roman characters for an illustrated brochure about the Roman presence in Cumbernauld. The pupils managed to come up with an interesting array of characters and these included people, animals, and even inanimate objects, such as a Roman pot. The brochure can be viewed online and hard copies have been passed on to our associate primaries, Redburn School, and our local museum & library in Cumbernauld. Pupils really enjoyed working with Kate and finding out more about the use of characters in graphic design.
I worked with a small group of pupils at Redburn School in October to create a Roman feast. Pupils worked really hard to create drawings and paintings of Roman foods, such as fish and fruit. They used wax crayons and oil pastels to make spots and lines, experimenting with mark-making, and bottled and metallic paints were used to add colour. Pupils tried some of the foods which the Romans liked to eat, such as lemons, grapes, pomegranates and asparagus. I really enjoyed meeting the pupils and thought the artwork looked great!
Recently, S1-2 pupils created prints of Roman coins and imagery, such as the Eagle standard. They enjoyed using polystyrene to create simple templates and used coloured printing inks to make multiple copies of their image. Many of the pupils had never tried printmaking before and they thought it was an interesting process. Some S3 pupils have also started a costume design project based on Roman armour, and they will be making 3D outcomes which should be lots of fun.
It has been a busy year and pupils have really benefited from the HLF grant. They have been able to take part in drawing, painting, printmaking, ceramics, illustration, and ceramics workshops in GHS, and they have learnt a lot about the Romans in Scotland. They have had new creative experiences and have learnt new skills, such as printmaking, ceramics and mosaic-making, and have improved their knowledge of Art & Design and Scottish and Roman history. Many pupils had never visited the museums before and seeing artefacts first-hand proved to be an exciting and interesting experience. Approximately six hundred young people have been involved in this project!
The HLF project has provided opportunities to display pupils’ artworks and celebrate their achievements, see the photographs and blogs that are available online. It has been fantastic to have artists Alan Potter and Kate Leiper in GHS to work with our staff and pupils, allowing them to learn new skills and making Art & Design more relevant to the world of work. Hopefully, by taking part in the HLF project, pupils will have learnt more about their local heritage sites and the Roman presence in Cumbernauld.
Click Here to Download Pupil Brochure
Acknowledgements
Heritage Lottery Fund, thanks for the £10,000 grant!!!
I’d like to thank all of the staff and pupils in the Art & Design department at Greenfaulds High School for their participation in the HLF project 2017-18, and for their efforts in making it so successful. Thanks go to all of the staff in GHS for their support with the mosaic workshop, particularly Mrs Macdonald in Art & Design. Finally, thanks also must go to Mr Daniels, Mr Cochrane and Mr Harris for their help with the twitter feed, electronic display in the social area, and GHS/Art & Design website.
Miss Armstrong
Gallery Slideshow of Pupil Work (Over 200 images)
Project Presentation Boards in Art Department
