General News

S2 STEM VISIT TO ROYAL OBSERVATORY
Published: 18 February 2013

A group of our pupils have taken on the huge challenge of researching and writing a report on 'The Importance of Engineering to Scotland'. We have had the pleasure of welcoming various Engineers into school to talk about their work and we recently visited the UK ATC.  We always hear about the discoveries and science but not often the engineers who design, built and test the equipment for the research.  Our visit involved talks from an Astronomer and two Engineers who work at the Observatory and then an 'access all areas' tour of the Observatory. All in all, a fantastic day. We'd like to thank Dr Hermine Schnetler for organising the visit and for being so enthusiastic to help us in our research.

S3 TRAFFIC COPS!
Published: 18 February 2013

As part of our S3 Measurement topic, we arranged to learn about Laser Guns and how to use them. We checked how accurate our measurements were using the Laser Gun and then measured the speed of vehicles on Pencaitland Road.

Huge Thanks go to PC Lynn Black and her colleagues for taking the time to show us.

 

 

S3 BUSINESS CORE SKILLS DAY
Published: 13 February 2013

The S3 Business Core Skills Day was an event which took place in January, and taught all S3 pupils who had taken Business as one of their subjects about teamwork, creativity and the world of work.

It was run by three representatives – one from the oil industry, one from the construction industry and one from the Royal Navy. Pupils took part in three fun and interesting events in a randomly assigned team, and told to work together to achieve a goal. The first task was to rescue six jelly babies from a collapsed school by building a small robot to scoop them up and return them safely.

 

The second task was to use 200 lego bricks to construct a tower, which would be marked on height, speed to build and economy of bricks.

The third task was to build a parachute which would protect an egg when it was dropped from the top of the stairs, preventing it from cracking.

This experience was unlike anything that the S3s had ever participated in before, and was widely enjoyed. This day has helped to prepare students for careers ahead of them, and was an excellent taster in the sort of problems these professions may face. Overall the day was a great success and we hope to see more in the near future.

C Smith (S3)

PSP MINUTES: 9 JANUARY 2013
Published: 09 February 2013

Minutes of the meeting of the Parent School Partnership, held on Wednesday 9 January 2013, approved at the meeting on 6 February 2013 are now available to view.

Further details of PSP activities and previous minutes can be accessed on this website: School Info > Parent School Partnership.

The Parent School Partnership website can be accessed here.

SUCCESS: UN DAY FOR CHANGE
Published: 08 February 2013

Today's UN Day for Change campaign seems to have been a great success! So far we have raised £555.36.

Thanks to all of the staff and pupils who got involved. We had some interesting dress-code, 'Dress Up' seems to have been interpreted as 'Dress Down' by some!

We have also received nearly 40 applications from pupils across all year groups to be UN Rights Respecting Schools Ambassadors. You can find out more about the award by clicking here.

L Woolley

STEM EDUCATION
Published: 06 February 2013

After a visit to the UKATC today (commonly known as the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh) I thought that these might be of interest:

 

How can we see and take pictures of space? Have a look here to find out and see about careers in this field.

Want to see some of those cool pictures from space? Check out NASA's Images of the Day Gallery.

 

More on our visit soon....

C. Blair

 

CUPID'S BALL POSTPONED
Published: 06 February 2013

It is with regret that Cupid's Ball (scheduled for the evening of Thursday 7 February) has had to be postponed.

This will be re-arranged for after the February break and those with tickets should hold on to them.

 

HIGHER GEOGRAPHY REVISION
Published: 05 February 2013

Higher Geography Revision Sessions will start on Tuesdays 4 pm from 19 February 2013 with Mrs Barber.

THE PAIN OF EXISTENCE - PERFORMANCE CANCELLED
Published: 05 February 2013

Due to unforseen circumstances the performance by NC ATP pupils on Wednesday 6 February at 7 pm has had to be cancelled.

We apologise for any inconvenience that this may cause.

Advance ticket sales will be refunded in due course.

SCHOOL COUNCIL MEETING - 15 JANUARY 2013
Published: 04 February 2013

Our first meeting of 2013 began with many happy faces after the Christmas break! 

In matters arising, the lunchtime radio is still in progress with CD's being made by Donald Turvil, all which will hopefully be aired soon. Also, an S3 representative expressed that some of the year group were still unsure about the changes from Standard Grades to the new curriculum so an assembly was held for S3 to try and make the changes clearer and some information was posted on the school website for parents to look at. Posters were also created to explain that some of the school toilets were closed due to vandalism and the only toilets in use are the ones in the social area. We have had numerous complaints about some of the toilets being closed but we hope this makes the current situation clearer to understand. We also spoke to the dinner ladies as many pupils have asked for the food products to be individually priced and they told us that pupils have just to ask them the prices of products as they find it very difficult to find the time to price things.  

The new dress code has been fully enforced and many pupils seem to be following it well! We would also just like to clarify that navy is allowed in the new dress code as this seems to have caused some confusion. Four of our council representatives will be taking pictures to show what is excellent dress code and what is not acceptable. Watch this space for these photographs.

Now on to the S1-S6 issues, we only received one complaint. S4 reps stated that pupils would like ore places to sit at break and lunch. Myself and the Head Boy have already discussed this with Mrs Ingham and we think that bean bags could be a possibility. However, much of our budget was spent on seating last year so we will see what we can afford but we would like to remind pupils that many teachers allow pupils to sit in their rooms at lunch times. The Head Boy and Head Girl have an email address (erin_ben@hotmail.com) so if you have any issues please get in touch and we will do our best to try and resolve these issues.

The School Council has a lot to do in the coming months. We will be giving an assembly to the school on our progress so far and we will be helping Mr Blair and Mr Dempster film the S1 FAQs.

 

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