Parental Newsletter October 2016

Calderglen High Newsletter October 2016

Welcome S1
We are delighted to have welcomed
263 new S1 pupils to Calderglen
High in August. Our S1 have settled
in quickly, are getting used to their
new surroundings and have been
supported very well by their S6
Buddies. Pictured here are Mrs
Watters, Depute Head and S1 pupils
representing a range of our primary
schools.

Exam Successes
We are delighted to announce continuous improvements in the exam successes of our pupils and I
want to recognise the exceptional efforts of our staff as we have fully implemented the new
qualifications at every National Level now. Our performances at Nationals 3 & 4 have seen clear
improvements and we have a target to restore our greatly improved National 5 results from the
previous session to mid - high 40s. We have significantly improved in the number of pupils achieving
Higher qualifications with our highest ever number of pupils gaining 5 Highers [54] and 13 pupils
achieving 5 As. Pictured here are our seniors who achieved 5 A passes, all Band 1s, Allan Woodhouse
& Scott Magee and 5 A Passes Katrina Livingstone – Congratulations and well done to all of our
pupils who have worked hard to achieve great results!

“I wish you all a safe and enjoyable October holiday!”
Liz White

Calderglen High Newsletter October 2016

East Kilbride & District Crime Prevention Panel Annual Awards

Last Thursday the school picked up a collection of community awards at this annual
ceremony:

South Lanarkshire Council Silver Salver Award

This Award was presented to Mrs Watters, DHT, for her services to the community through
a decade of engaging teams of pupils twice yearly, in partnership with East Kilbride Rotary,
in the Calderglen Country Park clean-up. A well-deserved award and thanks for all those
Saturday mornings, together with some willing staff volunteers. Well Done Mrs Watters
and great to be recognised as the first ever staff member within the Council to pick up this
award. Mrs Watters is pictured her receiving her Award from Depute Lord Provost Pam
Clearie. The Calderglen Sax Quartet [pictured below] were invited to play at the Awards
Ceremony in East Kilbride Arts Centre.

Calderglen High Newsletter October 2016

Barry McGinley Award for Good
Citizens

Calderglen seniors also scooped this
award for their efforts in becoming a
Dementia Friendly school and the work
they had done to raise young people’s
awareness of dementia.

South Lanarkshire Council Silver
Salver Junior Award

This was awarded to S4 pupil Lewis
McKay for all his fund-raising efforts for
Breast Cancer awareness and
MacMillan Cancer Care with his 6-hour
bike race last session.

Finally, certificates of recognition were given to seniors on behalf of the school’s
continuing Befriending Project and for the girls who organised the Talent Show last
session and raised substantial funds for both Kilbryde Hospice and MS.

Diving Success:
S2 pupil Mhairi Goodwin dives for Edinburgh Diving Club. She competed in a UK diving
competition called ‘Junior Elites’ in Plymouth just before the summer where she won a
Silver award. On the basis of this win, she was approached by the Sports Institute who
will allow Mhairi access to their physiotherapist and full team to help her pursue her
diving.

Calderglen High Newsletter October 2016

Duke of Edinburgh Silver Expedition

In partnership with Outlook Adventure Scotland, Mr Ormsby & Mr Bleach 5 pupils
[Gemma Knox, Caitlin Ferguson, Fionn McLaughlin, Alexandra Morton and Murray Brown]
successfully completed a qualifying expedition for their Silver Duke of Edinburgh Award
on the Island of Arran from Sunday 2nd October to Tuesday the 4th October. This involved
three days walking, covering approximately 40 kilometres carrying all their equipment
and food as well as two nights camping. They worked really well together showing
maturity in the way they made decisions as a group and showed excellent navigational
skill and camp craft. Their schedule was as follows: Day 1 walk from Lochranza – North
Sannox, Day 2 walk from North Sannox through Glen Sannox over ‘The Saddle’ Goatfell
and down Glen Rosa, Day 3 walk from Glen Rosa – Lamlash . The assessor was most
impressed with them and they were a credit to the school in the way they behaved
throughout the expedition. Well done to all involved and, in particular, to the staff who
made this possible.

Calderglen High Newsletter October 2016

S1 Learning Event

Over 130 parents and pupils attended this year’s
Learning Showcase for S1 parents. This showcase
allowed parents to discover some aspects of work that
their child has been participating in since attending
Calderglen High. It also highlighted how they have
progressed from work previously completed within
primary school. The evening is workshop- based and
parents were shown examples of learning and teaching
approaches. This session they observed aspects of
collaborative learning, reciprocal reading and active
learning. Professor Brian Boyd introduced the evening
giving a humorous insightful view into how young
people learn in today’s society. Parents and pupils joined
in with the three workshops led by Mr Crichton, Mrs
O’Connell and Ms Innes. Feedback from parents
regarding the evening included “Very helpful to share
learning and teaching techniques and also to reassure
pupils it is important to work with their parents” and “ it
was a very informative and interesting evening” All
workshops were rated excellent or very good by all who
attended. Well done to all staff who participated.

European Day of Languages

Well done to the Modern Languages Faculty for all these
events! Thursday 22nd September was the European Day of
Languages here at Calderglen High School. Languages were
the order of the day, with the Pokemon theme playing in the
Street to help us start the day in the Languages frame of mind!
Staff across the school wrote the date on the board in a
foreign language and shared their language learning
experiences with pupils. 2C3 were working in the topic of
Healthy Sleep in PSE and incorporated elements of French and
Gaelic into their posters. Mrs Sutherland joined Ms Marley’s
Higher English class as they spent some time reading the
broadsheets in both English and French. The S4 Dance class
choreographed and performed a fantastic Can-Can, complete
with costumes in the colours of the French flag! Miss Loudon’s
ICT classes were working on data handling and tables and their
data came in a variety of languages. They also discussed
aspects of how to stay safe online in French. The Faculty of
Modern Languages and Gaelic ran a European selfie
competition, with pupils using a variety of European props to
take their selfies and post them on Twitter.

There were fantastic activities taking place across the school,
many thanks to all those who got involved.

Calderglen High Newsletter October 2016

Advanced Higher French Trip to the Burrell Collection

Advanced Higher French pupils enjoyed a guided tour of the Burrell Collection in French
last month. The girls were a credit to the school and thoroughly enjoyed the challenge as
they were treated as native French speakers. They did really well to keep up as they
heard about paintings, artefacts, stained glass windows and Henry VIII’s head board (tête
de lit).
They even filled in their feedback forms in French after the tour!

Chinese Visitors

The Faculty of Modern Languages and Gaelic at Calderglen was delighted to welcome 3
Chinese language assistants 2 weeks ago and 2 Hanban teachers last week. Our Chinese
visitors were delighted to observe lessons across the department from S1-S4 and they
commented on the interactive nature of lessons which is so alien to them because in
China the teacher talks and the pupils listen and there is little in the way of group work or
active learning.
JIANG Wei (Hanban teacher from Tianjin) took lots of photos and said that she had gained
lots of teaching ideas for her own lessons when she starts teaching Mandarin in a Scottish
secondary school.

Follow @calderglenlangs on Twitter to keep up to date with the department.

The Higher Design & Manufacture class Ikea Trip

The Higher Design & Manufacture pupils were invited along to Ikea Glasgow to
participate in a series of activities to develop their understanding design in real world
applications. The pupils were shown how Ikea are working towards reducing their
environmental impact of their products through managing resources and changing their
designs to reduce the number of parts. The pupils were challenged to examine products
to determine the materials used and the method of manufacture in order to see how this
impacts in ‘real’ product development.

Charles Barbour, Ikea designer, emailed us to say “It was great to have you all here in
IKEA Glasgow yesterday for our Design and Manufacturing School tour. I would like to
thank you all for your engagement and enthusiasm. I hope you and the pupils enjoyed
your visit and you found our presentations interesting and relevant to your current
course work.” Many thanks to Mrs O’Connell who arranged this visit!

Calderglen High Newsletter October 2016

Higher RMPS Trip

Thanks to the RMPS staff team who organised this curricular visit! Last Thursday, 24
students from the Higher RMPS class visited the Kagyu Samye Ling as part of their studies
for the Higher Religious, Moral and Philosophical Studies. This annual trip allows students
to see first-hand Buddhism in action and to take part in educational talks with monks and
members of staff at the monastery. The students had a guided tour of the complex.
Among the places visited was the main temple, the peace stupa and the prayer wheels.
There were two talks and Q & A sessions with Peter, our guide for the day.

The students witnessed the beginning of the daily Mahakala practice. This Tibetan
Buddhist ceremony involves chanting, gongs, cymbals and huge drums. The object is
spread compassion and love throughout the world. The students ate delicious vegetarian
food in the monastery’s dining room and managed to speak to some of the monks,
including an old friend of the school who originally comes from Greenhills.

The visit always ends with a visit to the Tibetan Tea Rooms and the gift shop. Students
and staff bought lots of souvenirs of their visit. A rare and wonderful event took place
during our visit. We were invited to meet the eminent Buddhist meditation teacher
Drupon Rinpoche who is visiting the Kagyu Samye Ling. The school party greeted the
Lama as he made his way through the complex. Rebecca Quinn volunteered to give the
traditional Buddhist greeting to such a man. She offered him a silk scarf which he then
returned around Rebecca’s neck. Through his interpreter Drupon Rinpoche hoped that all
the pupils would enjoy their visit and be successful in their studies. He said that education
was a wonderful gift and advised our students to use it in their lives to make the world a
better place.

Calderglen High Newsletter October 2016

S4 Work Experience

We have received some first class reports from employers and providers about some of
our pupils on Work Experience
.

Under 18s Football Success –
Well done to the boys under
the leadership of coaches
Edgar and McLean who
secured a 6-0 victory in
Stranraer this week in a
Scottish Cup tie!

School Captains Session 2016-17

Following nomination from staff and a rigorous selection process, the pupils below were
successful in gaining leadership positions within the school. Congratulations to all and a
true reflection of their hard work within the school and wider community. From Left:
Marcus Boyd (STEM captain), Heather Miller (Health and Well-being captain), Fraser
Andrew (Eco Captain), alongside School Captains Katrina Livingstone, Scott Magee and
Sarah Erol

Calderglen High Newsletter October 2016

Prizegiving
Thanks again to all staff who made the Senior Phase prize giving such a memorable
evening – it was so nice to see many of our last year’s S6 return to collect their awards.

Calderglen High Newsletter October 2016

NPA Cosmetology and S3 Masterclass

As part of our commitment to delivering new and vocational skill based accreditation we
have expanded our portfolio of courses by introducing hairdressing within the
Cosmetology Masterclass. This is allowing young people to develop key skills for life,
learning and work and inspiring them to engage in vocational based courses. At senior
level S5/6 pupils complete an NPA in Cosmetology in conjunction with our beautician.

As part of this, we have an operational beauty salon running as a small enterprise, within
the school alongside our trained beautician and hairdresser. It was re-launched with a new
name and logo designed by the pupils on Thursday the 6th of October. Regular and new
customers came along to experience the delights of dermalogica facials, gel nails, massage
and hairdressing treatments at reduced prices!

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Edinburgh Book Festival
Thanks to Mr Meikle and accompanying staff who took a bus of S2 –S6 pupils to the
Edinburgh International Book Festival last week. As you can see the pupils look delighted
to be there, especially during the Edinburgh Fringe where they can soak up a really vibrant
atmosphere.

Many of our teams and clubs have started up and thanks to staff who are already taking
these. This session we continue as a School of Basketball, Football and Rugby.
Swimming Success Lucy Ross 3C2
Congratulations to Lucy Ross of S3 who has achieved her main goals for this season which
were to compete well at the British championships in Sheffield in July and to be promoted
to the junior gold squad for Scottish swimming (The Youth squad). This has been achieved
by her with some great swims. Lucy won two silver medals and a bronze at Sheffield
narrowly missing out for gold in two of the events, one by 0.05 of a second!
She has also been promoted to the gold squad. This year the selection criteria was very
tight with only two swimmers being promoted from silver to gold from a total of 47 which
makes her achievement all the more impressive. Scottish Swimming has also put Lucy
forward for support from SportScotland Institute for Sport to be among the many
supported athletes from all over the country. They will be supporting in different areas to
help her achieve senior athlete status hopefully over the coming years.

Calderglen High Newsletter October 2016

St Andrews Hospice

Katrina Livingstone (S6) presents Lyndsey
Morrison from St Andrews Hospice, with
a cheque for £354 on behalf of Calderglen
High School. This was raised by over 30
senior pupils and staff through
participation in last year’s 6K Road Race
and Fun Run.
Lyndsey added “This was a phenomenal
effort from a number of pupils and it has
helped to raise awareness in East Kilbride
of the work we do at St Andrews Hospice.
Mrs O’Connell, pupil support manager,
has worked extremely hard in promoting

The Volunteering Class raised £96 for
Parkinson’s with a fantastic bake sale.
Well Done!

Congratulations to the EK Pirates who won the British American football championships
in early September – a significant achievement for the club. Pictured here is Declan Kelly,
S6 pupil, who was defensive captain and we are proud of Declan winning his first national
award.

Calderglen High Newsletter October 2016

Marcus Boyd, 6th year student at Calderglen has successfully completed a 6 week Nuffield
Research Placement at the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC),
based in East Kilbride.
The centre boasts areas of strength in geochemistry, radiochemistry and isotope
biogeosciences and houses perhaps the most comprehensive suite of dating techniques
available in the UK.
Marcus was one of 94 successful students from across Scotland to gain a summer
placement through the highly regarded Nuffield system and was the only successful
candidate with SUERC. After a competitive application and interview process which was
coordinated by school staff, Marcus was matched to a project suitable to his aspirations
and experience.

Dr Brian Tripney SUERC, Research Associate “We’ve been really impressed with Marcus’
attitude to the project. He was quick to learn when being shown things in the labs and we
were impressed by the level of interest Marcus showed in the background and significance
of the project. All are agreed that we could not have asked for a more polite summer
student”
Marcus will get the opportunity to showcase his research and findings to invited guests at
a Celebration Event at the Royal College of Surgeons in September.

Calderglen High Newsletter October 2016

8th November, 10th January, 21st of February, 14th
May and the 13th June.

Calderglen High Newsletter October 2016

Calderglen High Newsletter October 2016

Improving our School - Parking

Safety of Pupils

Following on from my letter of 15th August outlining the new traffic regulation order
which has been put in place I wish to thank the vast majority of parents who have made
arrangements to drop off and collect their child from an agreed street outwith the school
grounds. Pupils are reporting strong, clear views that they are feeling safer in the school
grounds. This is vitally important for all pupils and especially for pupils in Sanderson High.
As we head into a darker, probably drearier climate, I would ask you all to continue with
these arrangements for the safety of all pupils. I would also appeal to the small number of
parents who continue to crowd the school grounds at the end of the day to put the safety
of all first and agree alternative collection points.

Calderglen High Newsletter October 2016

Dates for your Diary

Tuesday 11th October Parent Council Meeting

Friday 14th October School Photographs [S1, S2, S4, S6]

Friday 14th October School closes for October Holiday at 3pm

Monday 24th October School Returns

Thursday 27th – Sunday 30th October S2 Learning Away

Friday 28th October Whole-school Charity Event

Monday 31st October –Wed 2nd November S1 Learning Away

Wednesday 9th –Friday 11th November Visit of European Agency Delegates

Tuesday 1st of November S1 E-Safety Workshops for Parents 6 – 7.30 pm

Thursday 10th November P7 Open Evening

Monday 14th November Staff Meeting

Tuesday 15 November Young Performers’ Evening

Monday 21st November Inset Day 3

Thursday 24th November S4 Parents’ Evening 4.30 – 6.30 pm

Thursday 1st of December S1 Snow Ball

Monday 5th of December S5/6 Parents’ Evening 7 – 9 pm

We wish all in the school community a refreshing October
break!