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News, Success

Our Dream By Jasmine

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OUR DREAM

Germans came and took us away,

All crowded together, we were gone in a day.

So many families were torn apart,

Children from mothers, bodies piled in a cart.

Have you no mercy, the old woman sighed.

All are the same in God’s eyes, they cried.

Murder and pain, sadness and shame,

Believing yourselves to be better.

Everyone gone, but our story lives on,

Remembered in cards, words and letters.

Some of us lived to tell the tale,

Death and destruction, a mad dream that failed.

Even now, we are filled with dread,

So many people ended up dead.

Taken away from all that they knew,

Railroaded to Auschwitz because they were Jews.

Our memory lives on, but the horror is real,

You destroyed a people, but no guilt you feel.

Justice can never fully be done,

Evil stood behind the trigger of a Nazi gun.

When the bullets rang out, we did not all fall,

So, our dream lives on, in spite of it all.                           

Jasmine

Blairgowrie High School S3

Success

English Speaking Union Junior Debating Competition

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Blairgowrie High School hosted the first round of a National Junior Debating Competition on Thursday 31 October in the school library.  The motion was ‘This House believes that the Congestion Charge should be introduced in all Scottish Cities.’  Teams from Crieff, Dunblane, Forfar and Kinross took part, as well as two teams from Blairgowrie. After three hours of heated debate, four out of the eight teams competing went through to the next round with Blairgowrie B (Dulcie Robertson and Fraser Burnie) being one of the successful teams.  Blairgowrie A (Issy Milford and Connor Ireland), although unsuccessful this time, also performed very well, with a last minute ‘point of information’ by Issy helping clinch the B team’s place in the next round.  Very well done to everyone involved.

Success

A Trip To St Andrews

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On Wednesday 11th September seven members of the Advanced Higher English class took a trip to St Andrews University to listen to a talk by the author Lisa Ballantyne about her debut novel ‘The Guilty One’. We had been given free copies of the book earlier in the year by the University as part of their book club scheme and had been told to read them over the summer holidays.

Mrs Shields commented:

“This is an excellent opportunity for the Advanced Higher English pupils to get a real insight into studying at a University like St Andrews.”

Once at St Andrews University we were ushered in to one of the main lecture halls along with students from about five other schools. The head of the English department of St Andrews gave a talk and then Lisa Ballantyne was introduced.

She told us a bit about her life and what led her to story writing. We learned that she was born in Armadale and went on to study English at St Andrews; she had spent most of her twenties in China and could speak Mandarin and it had taken her 12 long months to write ‘The Guilty One’. 

Advanced Higher English student Jessica Milford said:

“It was really interesting to know about what inspires an author, and to learn about her different approach to writing. I also found learning about her life interesting.”

After this Lisa quizzed us all on aspects of her talk. We did have the chance to win a few prizes, like the signed American edition of her book, but unfortunately none of us could answer quickly enough. We then stopped for an hour long lunch break where we were able to terrorise the streets of St Andrews town, looking for a bite to eat before we returned to the university.

Once we returned we took part in a question and answer exploration of ‘The Guilty One’ and its themes with a fourth year English Student. Through this we established that most of the characters in the book are guilty of something, whether they be crimes of love, or crimes of murder.  

Jessica continued:

“The discussion gave us better insight in to the book and characters. I’m really glad we got the opportunity to take part in the event. ”