Deputy First Minister visits Our Lady’s High School

The National Advisory Group for Developing the Young Workforce visited the school to hold their strategic meeting in the school library on Wednesday 31 August. The group included Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education John Swinney, Minister for Employability and Training Jamie Hepburn MSP and Sir Ian Wood.

They were joined by Isabelle Boyd, Assistant Chief Executive, Education Skills and Youth Employment and Councillor Frank McNally, Education Convenor together with various other group members from the world of business.

Six of our young people delivered a superb presentation to the group highlighting the fantastic work that has been going on in the school to develop Scotland’s young workforce. Our visitors then had an opportunity to tour a series of stalls showcasing our work in this area. Our guests were very impressed with the commitment of our young people and staff. Well done to all involved.

SQA Success August 2016

We are extremely proud of the success of all our learners this year. Our S4 students had an outstanding performance in this year’s National Qualifications. At National 5 level 63.5% achieved at least 5 awards which is a fantastic performance. At National 4 level 98.1% achieved at least 5 awards and a superb 98.7% achieved at least 5 awards at National 3. Well done to 19 of our learners who achieved 7 National 5 awards all at grade A. They are: Ben Allison, Marisa Barrack, Angeliki Biza, Joe Diamond, Emma Duncan, Emma Hay, Alannah Irwin, Abby McDuff, Michael McGee, Katie McGowan, Rachel McMullen, Ryan McSherry, Andrew Noble, Sophie O’Hare, Mark Pencovitch, Liam Reilly, Julia Shaw, Aileen Stewart and Alannah Thomas.

Adding to this success, this year’s S5 results were fantastic. 21.4% of S5 learners achieved 5 Highers, 43.4% achieved at least 3 Highers and 61.0% achieved at least 1 Higher.

Well done to 6 learners from S5 who achieved 5 Highers all at Grade A. They are: Seamus Bonner, Connor Brown, Lewis Duncanson, Sean Kennedy, Sean McGeachie and Conor O’Brien.

This year’s performance at S6 was also superb with an outstanding 30.3% of our learners achieving at least 1 Advanced Higher. In addition, 90% of our S6 pupils finished their time in Our Lady’s High School with Higher level qualifications. These results will give our young people a very strong basis to progress on to college, university, work or training.

Our congratulations go to all our learners this year. The hard work, commitment and dedication that has been put in by pupils, their families and staff has been rewarded. We look forward to celebrating the achievements of our learners at our Senior Awards Ceremony in September.

Well done everyone!

Celebrating Success on Results Day

Some of our young people joined Councillor Frank McNally, Convenor of Education and Lorraine Fisher, Education Officer on results day to celebrate the outstanding SQA success both in Our Lady’s High School and across North Lanarkshire.

The video is now on Youtube – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyvTBCBR0m4

University…….here we come!

Congratulations to 65 of our senior pupils who have gained a place at University following their outstanding performance in the SQA exams. As a result more than half of our S6 pupils will go on to university. The majority of our learners have chosen to progress to Strathclyde, Glasgow or Stirling Universities, however we have a few learners who are going further afield to continue their education.

Congratulations to Jonathan Aitken who is going to Dundee University to study Dentistry, Seamus Bonner who has chosen St. Andrew’s University to study Computer Science and Jacqueline Shaw who will move to Aberdeen to study Medicine.

Congratulations also to Lewis Duncanson who has been successful in gaining a place to study Architecture at the Glasgow School of Art.

We wish all our leavers every success in the future!

S4 Raising Attainment Evening

On Monday 5 September at 6.30pm we will host a Raising Attainment Evening for parents of pupils in S4. The evening will consist of a number of presentations that will provide information on how you can support your child as they progress through the year. In particular specific arrangements around course requirements will be highlighted at this event. We look forward to seeing you there.

BGE Awards Ceremonies

We celebrated the success of our young people on Wednesday 22 June when over 300 pupils from S1, S2 and S3, were recognised for their outstanding academic progress and wider achievements at three award ceremonies.

All our award winners are pictured below with Mr. McNulty, Mr. Lester and Mrs Reynolds-Cowie. Congratulations to them all!

The events were attended by family and friends and we were entertained by wonderful musical performances including Magdalena Hubbard-Perez (S3) and Anna O’Reilly (S3) both playing the piano, Anna McMillan (S5) singing ‘Fields of Gold’ accompanied by Erin Campbell (S5) on guitar and Abbi Wilson (S4) singing ‘Yours’.

Some of our young people shared their wider achievement experiences at the ceremonies. They spoke passionately about their involvement in sports, Maths Challenge, Fire Reach, Outward Bound, Police and Business Challenges.

Blackpool Trip

Nearly 300 pupils enjoyed a fantastic day at Blackpool Pleasure Beach on Monday 27 June accompanied by approx. 30 members of staff.

This trip was a reward to pupils for positive behaviour throughout the year and a great day was had by everyone. A very fitting end to another great year at Our Lady’s High School!

S6 Prom

The S6 Prom took place on Friday 10 June at the Radisson Hotel, Glasgow.

This was a very glamorous event where our S6 pupils came together for the very last time to celebrate the end of their six years of education at Our Lady’s High School.

They all had a fantastic time and we wish them well for the future.

 North Lanarkshire Athletics Championships

The North Lanarkshire Athletics Championships took place on Wednesday 8 June and we had a great day! Congratulations to our long list of medal winners!

New S2: Kian Callaghan Silver in Javelin, Louis O’Hare Gold in 1500m and Elle O’Reilly Bronze in 1500m.

New S3: Jacob Brown Bronze in 400m, Delarno Herbet Bronze in Long Jump, Rebecca McPhee Silver in Shot Put and Nicky Semple Silver in Discus.

New S4: Harris McLaughlin Silver in Discus, Sam McNee Gold in 400m and Bronze in High Jump and Harry Tough Silver in Javelin.

New S6: Sean Kennedy Gold in 80m Hurdles.

Old S6: Marta Majka Bronze in 200m and Cameron Richardson Gold in 1500m.

Joshua Allan – Pool Success

Joshua Allan (S3) attended a national Pool trial on Saturday 4 June and has been successful in gaining a place in the Scotland A-team at U15 level.

Joshua will now compete with the Scotland team against Ireland in October.

This is a fantastic achievement for Joshua and we wish him success with the Scotland team.