The first newsletter of session 2018 – 2019 is now available for your perusal. And an action packed document it is, beautifully presented as ever.
All posts by Mr McGivern
The Summer Newsletter
another school term comes to a close and a beautiful summer looks ready to shine on everyone.
Another busy term in school with the promise of lots of exciting things to look forward to next session.
All showcased in the excellent Johnstone High newsletter.
The Winter Newsletter
Following hot on the heels of the Autumn newsletter comes the final one of the year.
A really busy term in school has just ended with a lot of the main events happening to late to meet the deadline for publishing. Hopefully you got a chance to come along to the outstanding production of High School Musical which was a resounding success in the 2nd last week of term.
This was followed by the Promoting Positive Behaviour awards ceremonies and the Inter House Games in the last week of term, which were also a resounding success.
You’ll read more about these in the next edition of the newsletter, but in the meantime sit back, relax and enjoy what’s been going in the school via the attached version of the newsletter.
Have a great Christmas holiday from all in Johnstone High School.
School News Report
BBC School News Day finally arrived!
The news team assembled in our very own recording studio for the entirety of Thursday the 16th of March, and clubbed together amazingly well in order to produce this full report!
Thank you to all the brilliant 2nd years who put their all into this, and well done!
Miss Wakefield
Team Tanza 2 – Training Expedition
This is the part of the World Challenge experience where it suddenly gets very real. After more than a year of fund raising and team meetings in school, bag packs are on, tents are allocated and setup the trekking begins. And suddenly challengers think – “this is happening – I’m quite excited/scared/nervous buzzing”. Take your pick – it may be all 4.
Team Tanza 2 made their way to Aviemore with some brilliant weather considering it was October. Team 1 will head up in November, and if they get the weather half as good they’ll be delighted.
Day 1 saw tents allocated. The very tents that will be used in Tanzania. This was also the first time that the team met Expedition Leader Lyndsay and to get the ball rolling with responsibility and team work the first task was to put the tents up – blindfolded. Not a bad job done, with one member of the team giving instructions to 2 wearing blindfolds.
Next up it was packs on and up the hill. In Tanzania packs will be carried day after day (including tents) as this was a great chance for the team to see where they were with their fitness. Some work still to be done for sure, but with 8 months to go there will be nothing to worry about – as long as the fitness regime kicks in now.
Saturday evening saw the team cook up the meal that they had brought with them. A great job done here with everyone working well together. Another school were using the same training facility in Aviemore – they started cooking long before Team Tanza and were still at it long after Team Tanza had finished. Super efficient!
Bedtime saw weary bones getting into sleeping bags and a cold night ahead. More lessons learned – get a good quality bag, liner and ground mat. It pays to be comfy with more than 3 weeks in a tent facing challengers in Tanzania.
A 6 am start on Sunday and another efficient food service with the cooking team on breakfast sharply.
Today would see an easier trekking day with lots of stops to look at scenarios and consider isues that will be needed for the team in country.
Lunch at Loch Morlich and the leadership groups for Tanzania were announced. The al important accountancy role going to Morgan Spence. Mess this one up Morgan, and the team will be going hungry!
The day flew in and soon it was time to say farewell to Lynsey – the next time the group wil meet her will be at the airport heading for Tanzania next summer.
Back down the road and the journey went quicker knowing a McDs stop was planned. There will be none of that malarkey in Tanzania!
All in all a very succesfull training expedition. The team will have learned lots about themselves, their team mates, their levels of fitness and what is expected of them in Tanzania.
It’s going to be epic.
Senior Football: Gryffe v Linwood
The senior team were looking to build on their excellent start to the season with a trip away to face Gryffe.
The match got off to a great start with Greg Steven showing his pace and determination to connect with a loose ball in the Gryffe defense and a drive and cool finish saw Johnstone 1 – 0 up.
Soon after another great finish from Greg saw the team 2 – 0 up and things were looking good.
With little more than 25 minutes on the clock the match looked over after another Gryffe defensive mix up and brilliant pace and determination to get to the ball from that man Steven saw the score 3 – 0 and a hat trick for Greg (he won’t have liked Daniel Smith taking the limelight last week with his own hat trick).
This was a match determined by teams taking their chances. In the first half that’s exactly what Johnstone did. Competitively, Gryffe were always in the match but were struggling to take advantage when chances fell their way.
However, they managed to pull one back before half-time and Johnstone heads dropped for a spell as Gryffe began to move the ball about and dominate possession.
However, Lewis Banaghan was outstanding at the back marshalling the defense ensuring there was no way through for Gryffe, and in the last minutes of the first half another chance came for Johnstone and was duly despatched by the head of the team’s own man mountain, Sam Dillon, who scored for the second game running to ease the nerves.
The second half saw Greg Steven wearing a pair of borrowed boots that were a size tool small after his own burst (too many goals Greg). A couple of reasons chances were spurned by Greg which we’ll put down to those new boots.
Nonetheless, within the first minute of the match the contest was over as John Martin played a great ball through for Steven Banaghan to chase on to and lob the goalkeeper for a stunning goal and 5 – 1.
Gryffe managed to pull a goal back and there were a couple of shaky moments at the back but a fine 5 – 2 victory away is a fine achievement and leaves the team in a very comfortable position after 2 games.
Man of the Match: Greg Steven
Senior Football: Johnstone v Linwood
A brilliant first game of the season for the senior team.
A tight first half came down to the fact that Johnstone took their chances while Linwood missed theirs,
2 goals for last seasons top scorer Greg Steven and 2 – 0 at the break.
Goals change games and it was crucial that Johnstone didn’t allow that next goal to come from Linwood.
In the event a brilliant passing move was finished with a Daniel Smith screamer. 3 – 0 and looking comfortable.
To make things difficult goalkeeper Irwin Gray made a last gasp tackle in the box. Sadly all he connected with was the man and a penalty to Linwood. Red card also for Irwin with the ref explaining at recent that he didn’t like the tackle, hence the sending off.
The resulting penalty was blazed over and that seemed to strip all belief from Linwood.
Further goals by Daniel Smith from the spot, Sam Dillon and the hat trick goal that man Smith led to a comprehensive 6 – 0 victory.
Signs looking good for another successful season with the S6 players gelling well with the core S5 players from last season.
Man of the Match: Daniel Smith
Next game away to Gryffe.
Bag 2 School Collection
The Tanzania World Challenge team have organised a collection with Bag 2 School as part of their fund raising for their trip to Tanzania next summer.
Bag 2 School will be coming to the school to make a collection this coming Tuesday 14 June.
If you have any old clothes, shoes, hats, bags, handbags etc. cluttering up your wardrobes at home then why not bag them up in any old bin bag and get them into the school on Monday or Tuesday for collection?
A list of items that can be submitted can be found at the following web page – Bag 2 School.
Bags can be deposited by pupil or parent at the school reception and we’ll make sure that they make their way down to the Computing and Business Education Department for uplift.
Those old kipper ties are not coming back into fashion any time soon – let them be gone!
Under 16 League Playoff Finals
Saturday 7th May saw the league playoff finals where Johnstone High’s section winning Under 16 team were looking to cap off a tremendous season with victory against an all-conquering St Ninian’s, who were fresh off a 5-0 victory in the Scottish Cup final the previous week.
This St Ninians group of boys have never failed to win a P and D league match since they started playing in S1 which emphasised the size of the challenge facing Johnstone. Furthermore, they have averaged 7 goals a game in the league this season and did not lose a single goal in regulation time.
To compound the difficulties faced by Johnstone, 4 regular starters were unable to play in the game for a number of reasons which left some frantic late call-ups just to be able to field a team on the team.
However, when the match got underway, it has to be said that Johnstone performed sensationally. St. Ninians certainly did the bulk of the attacking (with the wind at their back helping in this regard) in the first half but Johnstone defended brilliantly throughout the half.
A late penalty gave St Ninians a chance to open the scorign but the post came to the rescue of Johnstone on this occasion.
With just a couple of minutes to go, St Ninians did manage to score the opener. No fault of Irwin Gray in goals who had an inspirational match.
Into the 2nd half and Johnstone began to show more of an attacking threat. Sustained pressure saw a fine run by Steven Buchanan halted illegally in the box and a 2nd penalty was awarded.
Dylan Miller stepped up and a really cool finish saw the game level at 1-1. Dylan has managed to score in every game bar one this season.
This will probably be his last game for the school team as he heads to college next year, but Dylan should be very proud of the dedication, commitment and skills he has brought to the team this season.
The game wore on and Irwin Gray continued to excel with some astounding saves including one from the third penalty awarded in the match.
With the match scheduled to go directly to penalties in the event of a draw, Johnstone would surely look to be favourites in the event of such an outcome.
With less than 5 minutes remaining on the clock, St Ninians did manage the all important breakthrough to go 2-1 up, and with heads down a little, another goal arrived to leave the final score 3-1 to an excellent St Ninians side who are to be thoroughly congratulated.
The Johnstone High players should be very proud of their achievements throughout the season and especially on this day when not one player failed to put on an excellent performance. The medal ceremony saw both teams awarded the same medals, as the medals were a symbol of success in their league sections. No shield to take home – but the boys go home as winners for all their efforts this season.
Irwin Gray, Lewis Banaghan, Steven Buchanan and Dylan Miller put on season best performances, which says an awful lot considering how well the boys have performed throughout this campaign.
So some disappointment on the day, but the boys were told to keep their head up and look forward to what could be a very interesting season at Under 18 level. The bulk of this squad will be involved and will be very capable of making real progress both in the league and cup competitions.
Under 16 League Playoff Final
After a long hard season the Under 16 boys have made it to the league playoff finals having triumphed 3-2 against Gryffe in the semi-finals at Johnstone.
A great performance on the whole from the team but very disappointing to have 2 players correctly sent off which made it very difficult for the remaining players to hang on for the victory.
The team will play the final this weekend against a highly impressive St Ninian’s who did not concede a single goal in their own league section, scoring an average of 7 goals per game.
So a very tough match lies ahead. The boys should go into the match with their heads held high knowing that they have had a fantastic season whether they win or lose this match.
It is key that the the match is played in a fine spirit to showcase all the positives that have come from a fine season where the boys deserve congratulations for the fine achievements that they have banked.
The match kicks off at 9.30 am at St James playing field in Paisley this coming Saturday, 7th May.
