Sixth Year Student Journalism and Opinion in Saint Aidan's High
Tis the season for Christmas jumpers. APD ambassadors in St. Aidan’s ran a Christmas jumper day on the 13th of December to raise money for the association of disabled people. Pupils from St. Aidan’s high school will be going to India to give help first hand this summer.
St. Aidan’s has worked with APD for the past years to try create a world of Equity, Dignity, and Justice for people with disability and plans to work with APD for years to come.
Glitz, glamour, lights. On Monday St. Aidan’s teachers hit the stage to show what they can do out of class. Strictly came to St. Aidan’s high school and the crowd was excited. A group of teachers were randomly paired up to dance and strut their stuff to raise money for APD.
APD (the association of people with disability) India is a non-profit organisation that aim to rehabilitee people with disability especially in India.
The school welcomed visitors from APD India this September and discussed the organisation and what they do, as well as how their partnership with Scottish schools affects them.
APD have been working with the St. Aidan’s and a number of other Scottish high schools for sixteen years commenting “we would like to thank our Scottish schools for the great partnership which allows us to do more work for those with disability”. On arrival our visitors met with the school captaincy team. The captaincy team and teachers involved in the project were gifted some traditional Bindis and Gandhi caps. 
Speaking to the APD representatives they commented on what the charity organisation does and the different sectors involved”APD uses a life-cycle approach where they provide services for people of different age groups with a disability”
APD has a school in Bangalore-which our S5 APD pupils will be visiting in June next year- but some of their other services include educating parents on disability, training teachers and a livelihood programme which teaches young adults how to live independently and gain skills such as cooking(hospitality),engineering, gardening and retail. They also have rehabilitation centres based across the sate of Karnataka for those who have suffered from spinal cord injuries.
Christmas Jumpers Make the Day
“Wear your Christmas Jumper to Work” took on an extra dimension when the students of Saint Aidan’s ditched their uniform for a day and wore their festive finest. A colourful array of Christmas jumpers were the crowning glory of the students who turned up in their smart-casual outfits.
With everyone paying a pound for the privilege of wearing their festive best a £642. was raised for Save the Children and the APD partner-project in India. The party mood was added to as first and second year held their party in the social dining area, with the Saint Aidan’s massive DJ’s Deepcat and Ginger filling the floor as they dropped some monster beats! Big shout out for Jamie and Josh please. Respect! 🙂
Strictly Come Dancing- The Saint Aidan’s Edition
Strictly came to Saint Aidan’s on Wednesday the 20th December when staff and seniors took to the floor to entertain the students in a glorious extravaganza of stylish dance and elegant costume. To be fair, that was the aim, but delivery was more comic than composed. However, the good-natured event saw the staff and students deliver a fun-filled afternoon at the expense of only a little dignity leaking from the participants.
Elf-costumed PE teachers cavorted wildly and Mr McKague, Depute Head Teacher, delivered an homage to the dance influences of his distant youth that had the hall roaring its approval. Mrs Claire Connelly, head teacher, stepped into the shoes of Darcy Bussell to lead the judging panel. Those wildly cavorting elves, specifically PE Teacher Jamie Craib and Social Studies Teacher Melissa Bourke, won the day with a routine that really impressed the panel as it referenced the slosh, Grease and Dirty Dancing, but which was ultimately its own unique performance.
Nearly three hundred students watched the show and a £750 was raised to support the Saint Aidan’s ongoing commitment to the APD project for disabled young people in India.
Social Studies Department teachers Lucy Kelly and Caroline McHenry organised the event and commented: “Thank you to all the staff who gave up your time (and dignity) to put on an excellent show- it was so worthwhile and great fun! Mr. McKague’s performance was a particular treat. We raised a fantastic £750 for APD and couldn’t have done it without support from the whole school community.”
Christmas Hampers Delivered
Food Hampers
Every year the students and staff of Saint Aidan’s work hard to bring some extra Christmas cheer to the local community. One annual event that is going from strength to strength is the appeal that goes out to all of our students to collect food that goes into festive hampers for distribution to pensioners in local parishes.
Students bring in their donations and everything is brought together and organised through the tireless efforts of our fourth year citizenship class, led by Mrs Elisabeth Hynes. Boxes are wrapped in Christmas paper and the donations are sorted and organised to make sure each hamper becomes a real Christmas Treat.
Mrs Hynes commented, “Thank you to everyone in the school community, teachers and students, who have worked to make the Christmas Parcels project complete. Local people will be getting our Parcels now.
Thanks to all the staff who helped in any way and huge thanks to the staff who delivered parcels to the parishes:
Mrs. Brown – St Athanasius, Mr. Connarty – St Ignatius, Miss Donnelly – St Aidan’s, Miss Muldoon, St Patrick’s Shieldmuir and St Thomas’, Mrs. Telfer – St Patrick’s Shotts, and Father Bruce – St Brigid’s and St Mary’s Lanark.
School Christmas Concerts
The school Christmas Concert went with a swing once again as the Saint Aidan’s musicians put the festive season into overdrive. Close to one hundred young people participated in two events- The Christmas Concert on Monday 18th December and the Pensioners Concert on the afternoon of Tuesday 19th December. The school assembly hall, elegantly decorated with festive finery, was filled to bursting point for both events.
The young musicians created a range of great groups: from the Junior Band, Choir, and the Senior Concert Band through to the Samba Band, Swing Band and ensembles for clarinet, saxophone and flute. The variety of talent performing at the concerts was amazing and some of the classic sounds of Christmas were given a fresh and exciting spin by the Saint Aidan’s musicians. Special mention should go to Katie McCrum of S4, who performed a technically brilliant and emotionally powerful solo performance of “My Grown up Christmas List”, a song that really got to grips with the real moral message behind the festive season.
Over two hundred pensioners from the community were invited to a matinee performance of the concert and enjoyed a festive tea while being entertained by the young musicians. Once again the event was a great success.
Mrs Celia McEachen, Faculty Head of Music and Art, was delighted with the commitment, hard-work and talent of all her young musicians within the department, commenting, “It is wonderful to see our young people deliver such a high level of performance and it is a real testament to the hours of dedication they put into their musical education. These young people really go above and beyond our expectations of them when they collaborate in creating events like this. The amount of energy and enthusiasm in the room that they generated through their performance was amazing.”
APD volunteers Shree and Catherine have been involved in many things since their arrival in Scotland such as visiting the transport museum, visiting Victoria Park and SCIAF to help raise the profile of the importance of APD India. They plan on taking knowledge back to India. After their meeting with SCIAF who have funded in the past have decided to send a proposal for funds to the EU. Shree told us “APD is a great team, we always try to help the people in rural communities” Katherine added “We try to build confidence in them, so they can lead an independent life. Even the disabled person can be an abled person.” She also said “ I am proud to work in APD to render my service to the disabled where I can motivate them to develop self-esteem.” Shree lost his leg In his younger years due to polio which is very common among young people in India. Polio is easily avoidable in the UK because we receive a vaccination at a very young age. Shree told us that “I work alongside the primary students to help them to become able. The APD have helped me overcome my disability and I am very grateful of them.” The visitors have enjoyed their time in Scotland. Shree told us that “I am enjoying every single second of Scotland, all the places we have visited have been so welcoming!” Katherine added “Scotland is the loveliest place, it is very beautiful. I am fascinated with all fashion and cooking classes that you provide for the children.” Katherine surprisingly enjoyed our weather here in Scotland she also added “Scotland has wonderful weather we get to see all four seasons in one day.”
