Sixth Year Student Journalism and Opinion in Saint Aidan's High
St Aidan’s musicians again brought the festive season into full swing as they again put on their annual Christmas Concerts. 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.
Mrs Mullen’s drama club put on a tremendous Christmas play on Wednesday 12th December. The talented group of young people who meet at lunchtime and after school have been devoting their time and talent to creating a production of “A Christmas Carol”, the classic Charles Dickens tale of ghostly goings on in the festive season.
Emma McConville, a very talented S5 student from St. Aidan’s High School in Wishaw has recently represented our country and brought home a whopping silver medal, all the way from Budapest, Hungry.
The S6 JMAC team met with Harry Miller – the founder of Forty Clothing – and his wife Kelly during their visit to St. Aidan’s high school. Forty Clothing was established about three and a half years ago. The logo was one of his three-year-old sons first drawings at the time, then Harry and one of his close friends decided to turn the drawing into a design for a brand new clothing company, Forty. We asked him what the main purpose of visiting the school was and he told us that “We really want everybody to feel part of what we do, so what I think is really important is that we have been invited here today to tell the story of basically being able to follow your dreams. You don’t have to be academic, our message is to follow your passion in life. No matter who, what, why, where and when.” He added “I am not good with letters and numbers, I’m a creative guy and it really is about spreading that message of following your passion” We also asked what he thought the pupils would take from his talk. He said “Life is short and you don’t get first prize for anything in life. SO If anyone today can be inspired to follow their dreams, that’s the main goal. We want the kids to work hard and achieve their goals in life, if they don’t like something they can change it. He also said “The most important thing you can do in life is to be happy, if anyone can take this from us today that would be just amazing.” Our third question for Harry was how he felt when Forty clothing took off and he said “I think it’s still now that we don’t really see it as it ‘taking off’ you don’t really see that tipping point. One of the kids back in the meeting asked us ‘Who is your biggest competitor’ and it was a fantastic question but we don’t see anyone as our competitors” He also said “We really feel amazing because of how people feel part of the business and will come in and ask us how the business is doing. What is inspiring is that we see people coming in and feeling like they are part of the business.” Kelly then added “I don’t think you would ever get used to people wearing your stuff, its mad.” Harry feels very strongly about people being singled out from others because of what they like and what they want to do, He told us that “I remember as a young lad, talking about building self-confidence because it’s really difficult going through your teen years of basically wanting to fit in and wanting conform and being scared to do something different in case you’re singled out and that is a really difficult part of life as a teenager.” Kelly then added “It’s not even just selling a good product, for example we have had parents that come into the shop to thanks us in the way we have treated their kids because that’s really important to us.” We asked him for some inspiring word for the readers of our blog and he said “ People that have discovered their happiness in life tend to say the same thing, stop doing things in life that make you unhappy. Do what you love, if you do something you don’t love, get out of it. We’re constantly asking ourselves, well how do we get better. Nothing changes until you do.
The time has come, leaving school is around the corner. We will soon be abandoning the place we’ve grown to love and helped us blossom into the young people we are today.
As a group we remember hating high school throughout the first few years but as time passed it began to shape us into the people we are today and taught us valuable life-long lessons. Such as the ability to interact and bond with others, as well as the confidence to express ourselves. Which we believe at the end of the day to be more important that any exam we’ve ever sat.
Although our experience has had it’s ups and downs, it is a journey we will never forget. With this new path unfolding comes the pressure of entering the working world and fitting into modern society. Keeping in mind it is a stressful and hectic time, it is important to cherish our remaining days of school life with our close peers.
Reminiscing on past events such as the various school trips to light-water valley, the S5 ceilidh, the recent Victoria Park party and so much more!
Anticipating the S6 annual prom, summer holidays with friends and our last ever moments together as a year group.
As it all comes to an emotional end, we have realised that without St Aidan’s High School we would not have had the same opportunities, friendships and fond memories, that we will hold close to our hearts for the rest of our lives. ❤️
Written by Joanne Hamilton, Lauryn Omeike and Nicolle Muir
Have a look at a montage of the Strictly Come Dancing event that raised £750 for the APD project
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.”
An annual highlight of the school year has once again been a tremendous success. Every year, Sixth year students take on the huge task of providing a fabulous Christmas party experience for the children of the Victoria Park School.
This year over sixty children from Victoria Park School were welcomed by the sixth year for an afternoon of fun, games and gifts. The sixth year students immerse themselves in the festive experience by dressing as Christmas Elves. The year group took charge of decorating the hall and piling the individual presents for the young guests high.
The transformation from assembly hall into a Santa’s grotto is amazing and is a product of the enormous enthusiasm and energy of the sixth year students. The effort that goes into creating this fabulous day was also clear in the smiles, the energy and the excitement of everyone who took part in the party. The young people’s excitement reached a peak when Santa made a special appearance to distribute the gifts.
The event was the culmination of a long period of planning, organisation and fundraising by the sixth year students. They have organised and supported events as diverse Halloween discos, coffee mornings and handmade Christmas gifts.
All their efforts resulted in over a thousand pounds being raised to fund the party. The real commitment of the students over the whole process of planning such an ambitious event and their enthusiasm for making it such of success on the day was clearly rewarded by the smiles on the faces of everyone who took part.
Edited by David Russell.
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