It may be autumn and “all the leaves are brown”, but you can colour me delighted…
The trophy cabinet is getting fuller by the day – on Monday I was greeted by two of our S4 girls (Cara and Courtney) with the news that they had triumphed in the East Lothian Young Chef Competition.  With their ambitious menu of Trout, wrapped in Parma Ham, in a white wine sauce accompanied by turmeric rice, followed by “Tuille Surprise” they  beat off the competition from the other secondary schools.  They worked seamlessly as a team, filleting and de-boning the fish (for the first time ever) and producing tuilles that were see-through, and  finishing a good twenty minutes before the other teams.  I think that they would have put some Masterchef contestants to shame.  They literally left their mark on the Preston Lodge kitchens with their liberal use of turmeric but also with their good humour.  They go on to an awards’ dinner later on this year where their achievement will be lauded again.

Also on Monday I received an email from Mr McSwan (Computing) letting me know that the pupils who had helped out at the Computing and Schools Conference last weekend had been a real credit to us.  Some of the feedback was:
“Please say to your HT that I thought the students who helped out at #casscot12 were an absolute credit to the school.”
“Pupils were very helpful and a credit to their school. It was very good of them to give up their Saturday in this way.”
"I wish I had students like this".

On Thursday morning I popped down to the Gym Hall to witness some of the School of Rugby training.  A dedicated band of youngsters were to be found training under the supervision of Scott Marnoch and Kenny Harper – at the point I went in they were playing a game to practise dodging and the losers were forfeiting 10 press-ups!  Well done to all of them for their dedication that gets them to school for 7.45am to train.

If you are wondering what’s available for your youngster to get involved in here, please have a look at the extra-curricular and Sport timetables that are located under the Extra-Curricular tab at the top of the website.  There’s a lot going on, be it academic or otherwise.
The picture that accompanies this post is “Snapshots of Autumn and Hallowe’en” produced as Art homework by AM in 1G2 (Isn’t it marvellous? I Just had to share it with you).