December 2019 – JMAC- The Blog Experience

S5 Ceilidh

Every December the fifth year students at St.Aidan’s High come together to celebrate Christmas in the best way, by having a ceilidh! The committee have worked so hard over the past few weeks leading up to the big event.

Everyone was dressed to impress on the night and thoroughly enjoyed one of the best experiences of their fifth year.

The night featured lots of Dancing and singing as well as a lovely meal. The students even put together a video for Mrs Devlin who unfortunately could not make it to the Ceilidh that night.

Some of the fourth year pupils came dressed as elves for the night to help serve drinks to the fifth years.

An overall great night for everyone!

Photographs- Daphne Miller and Eilidh Kinsman

Edited- Daphne Miller

Michael Byrne #LETsTALK

“It’s okay to have a bad day. The trick is to not let a bad day turn into a bad week.”

On the 26th of November St. Aidan’s was visited by Michael Byrne a speaker on trauma and mental health. Megamind invited Michael to talk to raise awareness about mindfulness for the launch of their colouring and activity book unplugged. Michael started the #LETsTALK after founding Lived Experience Trauma Support (LETs) to help others who went through trauma like him.
He spoke to the 5th and 6th year pupils about his own story and the importance of talking. He said “It’s okay to have a bad day. The trick is to not let a bad day turn into a bad week.” He encouraged us to talk about our mental health especially now as the senior pupils are the ones who can change the stigma.
Pupils were interested in the talk and glad to see mental health being talked about. Sarah Mecredy, a S6 student said “The talk with Michael really opened my eyes and made me see a bigger picture. I thought it benefited the fifth and sixth years as this is a tough time for us and to see someone who has struggled immensely but eventually found happiness and peace was very inspiring”

Megamind Bakesale

Young enterprise gave students the opportunity to run their own business for 6 months in school. 6 senior pupils from St Aidan’s took on the challenge and are now starting their own company called Megamind. They’re developing a colouring and activity book called ‘Unplugged’ to promote mindfulness.

Before they could start, they had to pay their registration fee. On November 20th they ran a bake sale to raise the money to develop unplugged. The bake sale raised over £100. Megamind has now started to develop unplugged and is on the way to be in print before December.

Daria Orlicka, managing and sales director of Megamind, said “As part of a team we chose to raise money by doing a bake sale at school. We raised enough money to proceed with our plans, which is the making of our book unplugged. We are all excited since this is just the beginning”

Tin Tuesday

“We want to make everyone feel included at Christmas, we send them a Christmas card to wish them a merry Christmas”

The RE department in St. Aidan’s have started it create Christmas parcels for local parishes filled with tins, sweets, and essentials. Pupils have also been donating money. With the help of all the WPS classes, Caritas pupils, and the school as a whole they aim to send 100 parcels to local community.
Mrs Hynes said “We need to remind ourselves Christmas is about receiving presents but also about giving. The parcel give everyone the opportunity to give something. We’ve had some people bring in bags of shopping.”
Caritas student Hollie Conlin said “We want to make everyone feel included at Christmas, we send them a Christmas card to wish them a merry Christmas” This thought is shared throughout the school and the students are getting ready to deliver the parcel.

Parliament Trip

The modern studies and politics students recently had an exciting trip to the Scottish Parliament. They had the opportunity to tour the building, visiting the debate chamber and committee rooms. Pupils also learned about the meanings behind different aspects of architecture and art in the building.

Niamh Steel, an S6 politics student said “The trip was very enjoyable – it was an enlightening experience to learn about the running of the Scottish Parliament.”

The students took part in a lesson about the process of passing a bill and were given a task to scrutinise a bill and make necessary amendments. This was beneficial to many of the students as it was a practical application of what they are learning in higher politics, giving them an insight into how the government works.

Mrs Young, a Politics teacher at St Aidan’s commented “Students and teachers enjoyed a fabulous trip to the Scottish Parliament on Monday, the students received an educational lesson about the work and structure of the Parliament.”

Additionally, she remarked that “the day was rounded off with a trip to the Edinburgh Dungeons, where the students enjoyed an excellent variety of terrifying shows.”

SCIAF Real Gifts

This week St. Aidan’s High school Caritas class promoted and sold SCIAF Real Gifts during a Christmas themed staff coffee morning. The pupils served mince pies, coffee and tea to the large number of staff who visited during their Christmas lunch to show support.

Purchasing a Real Gift provides something vital for people living in poverty in Africa, Asia or Latin America such as emergency blankets, seeds or even a goat. Whilst also giving a thoughtful gift to someone in your life. The pupils raised around £180 from this event.

Scottish Mathematical Challenge 2019

This year our school was fortunate enough to have four super smart students – James Walsh, Rian Duncan, Gavin McKeown and Valentina Joseph – take on the Scottish Mathematical challenge. The pupils from S3 and S4 participated in the middle division placing 42nd overall.

The mathematical challenge was set up in 1966-67 by the chairman of the Scottish Mathematical Council at the time- professor E.M Patterson- who wanted maths to be a source of interest and pleasurable achievement.

The pupils were led to battle by maths teacher Mr Barr. He comments “there was a massive improvement from last year, the four pupils performed brilliantly and worked really well together”

Mr Barr also commented on what the day consisted of ” It’s a national competition across all of Scotland which consists of problem solving maths questions, we finished 20 places higher than last year”