Issue 7 May 2010
The BAnner
Inside this issue P2
Headlines 1000 by 1000 P3 Last Day Lunch P4 Former Pupil is a Hero Ladies 10k Run P5 S2 Open Evening P6 & 7 Science Week 2010 P8 & 9 European Day P10 & 11 Go4Set Hunterston A Power Station P12 Parent Teacher Association Run a Marathon in May P13 Engineering Education Scheme 2010 P14 Election Special P15 Travels with Selali P16 &P17 Sport News P18 Calendar
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Headlines As you read this, the SQA examinations are underway and the many weeks and months of hard work should, we hope, be bearing fruit. It has been obvious in the way our students conducted themselves in the preparation for exams that they care deeply about their potential for success. They have been ably supported by committed teachers and caring families. We shall await the outcome via the publication of SQA results in August. Between now and the summer, our S1-S3 pupils find themselves involved in myriad activities, both academic and extra curricular, that are designed to provide them with both challenge and enjoyment. As ever, we rely heavily on the support of parents to ensure that pupils study for assessments and prepare properly for all school activities. In this edition of the newsletter, the feature on “1000 x 1000” below is of particular note. This is a genuine and innovative attempt by pupils and staff to celebrate success. All pupils from S1-S5 have been involved. The aim is simple: everyone should be proud of an achievement and the school community should recognise that all pupils have strengths. Please come along to the event and help us show our appreciation of our talented young people. Looking forward to June, there are many events planned: awards ceremonies, a summer concert, our sports day, visits of our next S1 cohort from their primary schools, in service days for teachers, activities and trips are just some of the highlights to come before we break for the summer holiday. I am also delighted to see the formation of a re-vitalised Parent Teacher Association in Bearsden Academy. The group has many excellent ideas and already is planning fundraising and supportive events that will improve the experiences of our pupils. I wish all members of the school community continuing energy and enthusiasm in the weeks ahead.
George Cooper Head Teacher
1000 by 1000 A date for your diary. Please note. We hope that you will be able to join us at one of our most exciting events ever, planned for the evening of Monday, June 14th. 1000 by 1000 will be a celebration of the achievements of every pupil in the school (S1-S5) as chosen by these 1000 pupils. We would be delighted if you would join us on the 14th at this first of its kind event for Bearsden Academy. Further information about the event will be sent to you soon.
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Last Day Lunch “Can’t believe it’s here already!” “This is the last time we’ll go up these stairs”. ..”go to Maths” “...sign in”. Like every year group before them, the class of 2010 found that their last ever day at school had arrived all too quickly. The Captaincy Team, after discussion with their peers, had elected to stay ‘on site’ for the event and the first event was distribution of the hoodies. Instead of electing to stick with only one colour, there had been all options available and they ranged through the more sedate navy and grey to palest pink and vivid orange—Ross, are you sure that was a good idea? Lunch was a buffet, courtesy of our own catering staff and we then moved to the Yearbook awards (the original event having been cancelled in March) Kirsty Goodlet and Jordan Hanlan, wielding the megaphone, made great presenters and the Awards were received in the spirit in which they were intended! There had been a slight glitch in getting the bouncy castle, gladiator game and bungee run set up but these and the inevitable water fights filled the rest of the afternoon. As usual, too, although they were allowed to leave, the Sixth year lingered on and on. It is not really the final farewell, of course, as they will all be back—for exams, for concerts, for the Awards ceremony and of course, they will all meet again exactly a month from now for their Prom at Cameron House. However their ‘proper’ school days are over and we bid them farewell with our sincere wishes for health and success in the years ahead.
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Former pupil is a hero It was a pleasant surprise to open the Herald on Monday May 10th and find former pupil, Graham McGrath, highlighted as a hero. Graham and his friends were walking along the Clyde, by the Albert Bridge, on Saturday afternoon and noticed that a woman had fallen into the Clyde. Realising that no-one else was doing anything about it, and that the woman was drowning Graham leapt into the river and his friend, Reece, pulled Graham and the woman to safety. His friend, Rosie, gave CPR to the unconscious woman, whose life was undoubtedly saved by the brave actions of the young people. Well done, Graham and friends.
Ladies 10k Run On Sunday 10th June, over 13000 women set out on the annual 10k run. Included in the group were Annie Thomson, Girls’ Captain, and Mrs. MacKay, Miss Robinson and Mrs. Yekken who were running to raise funds to provide a suitable memorial in the school for Michael Stoakes who died tragically in March. First to finish fittingly was Annie in 56:43 followed by Miss Robinson in 57:39, Mrs Yekken in 1:07:10 and Mrs. MacKay who was quite happy to finish at all, in 1:13:40. However these were not first and last. Mrs Chapman, in PE, finished in 42:56 and was an impressive 79th overall. Mrs. Dickson of the support staff completed her first 10k in 1hr 20 while Mrs. Gilchrist, the school librarian, complete with pink tutu, walked round in 1.51mins. More importantly around £800 has been raised to buy a memorial bench and to fund a prize in Michael’s memory. Any money left will be donated to the two charities nominated by his parents.
Timetable Change The new timetable in the senior school for session 2010/2011 will start on Thursday 3rd June. As ever, the sections allocated in all subjects are subject to final assessments and National Qualification results and may change slightly in light of the additional data. However, for pupils at all stages, we hope they will make a flying start to their new courses in June.
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S2 Open Evening On Monday 8th March, Departments threw open their doors and S2 parents were encouraged to go round Departments and find out a little about the courses on offer to their children in S3.
An impressive number of S3 and S4 pupils volunteered to come in and explain what was involved in the courses and the feedback from parents and staff was overwhelmingly positive and the pupils enjoyed showing off their skills to an appreciative audience.
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Science Week 2010 By Mr. Morrison, Biology Department During Science week all first year classes took part in the ‘Marble60 second challenge’. The target was to design and build a course that would allow a marble to roll continuously for at least sixty seconds. The only materials they used were paper, card, sellotape and any household item they could find, as long as it wasn’t a ready made track! There were some fantastic designs with many groups really thinking ‘outside the box’ in their attempts to slow down the marble. The longest time for the year was over 3 minutes!! Winning teams received their certificates from Ms Reid at assembly and prizes will be winging their way to classes shortly. Well done to all who took part and many thanks to all the Science staff for their patience, as their rooms were turned into building sites!! Photos of the week are on the Science department notice board.
Awards Ceremony Reminder that the senior awards ceremony (S3/S6) takes place on Tuesday 8th June at 7.30pm and the junior awards ceremony on Monday 21st June at 2.30pm. Parents of pupils involved have been/will be informed by letter.
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Science Week 2010 by Mr. Ford As part of the recent National Science and Engineering week S4 Physics pupils undertook a challenge to design, build and fly a model rocket. This tied in with the final section of the Standard Physics course on space travel. With card, scissors, sellotape, and even some sequins, a variety of flight-worthy rockets were assembled. Pupils quickly realised that important decisions on the design of their rocket included the shape of the nose cone, the weight distribution, the seal with the launcher and the number and shape of the fins. The rockets were launched from the front of the school with our bespoke gas-powered launchers; the challenge being to achieve the greatest distance. There were varying degrees of success, with some rockets only just making it off the launch pad, but the longest flight was achieved by Drew Cowan with an impressive 60m. Special mention should be made of Kirsten Porter’s 47m (w) with sequin – the ‘w’ is for ‘windy’. The challenge provided valuable practical experience of the physics of spaceflight as well as enjoyable way to round off the Standard Grade course.
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European Day The Sixth year pupils who had been part of the Comenius project since they were in S3 and who had made the famous trip to Hannover last June, remained committed to the idea of raising the profile of International education within the school.
From this, after various discussions came the idea of European Day for S1 pupils which took place, just before the Easter holidays on Wednesday 30th March. Pupils spent the day on a variety of activities in different Departments—they listened to different kinds of European music and answered questions on it, they learned a little about the European Union and how it works, they took part in “Europe in Crisis” devising laws to protect Europe in times of crisis and justifying these laws to the assembled first year.
They made hats with European themes in Art—some of these were very ornate indeed. Last, but by no means least, pupils learned a few key phrases in 6 different languages. It was a delight to hear pupils exchanging ‘spasibo’s and ‘guten morgen’s as they passed in the corridor on their way to the next class and the next language.
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European Day
German and Spanish were taught by the Modern languages staff with Sofia Gamio, S5, helping out with Spanish. Mrs McIntyre and Mrs Reedie had hitherto unrecorded skills in Portuguese and Russian respectively, with Raquel Santana helping with Portuguese. Italian was taught by Harry Naio, S6 and his sister Olivia, S4, and Czech and Turkish, taught respectively by Veronica Kocovska, S4 and Bilge Morden, S5. Pupils were surveyed at the end of the day and they were extremely positive as this small sample indicates. ‘It was fun and enjoyable making hats’ ‘I loved learning different languages—very interesting and exciting’ ‘I liked listening to the wide range of different music’
Well done to the pupils who helped teach on the day and thanks and well done to the group who organised this event—Gillian Campbell, Thomas Dent-Jones, Annie Lo, Kirsty McVey, Harry Naio and Fiona Porter.
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Go4Set by Max Cochrane 2.4
In the first term of school, six second years were chosen to represent the school in the Go4Set (Science, Technology and Engineering) project. Those six were Ross Kennedy, Jessica Docherty, Max Cochrane, Cameron Paul, Callum Laird and Annamae Burrows. The Go4Set project was about waste management. The project was run by Strathclyde University and EDT Scotland. Many schools throughout East Dunbartonshire and Scotland were involved. The aim of the project was to find out why we need to reduce the amount of waste we produce and how we can help to reduce it. As part of our research we visited Hunterston Power station and Halcrow engineering to find out how they handled the waste produced by their company. We were very privileged to visit Huntertston Power Station which used to be active but has shut down as they are now in the business of decontaminating and decommissioning the nuclear power plant. We were the first group of school children to be allowed inside.
World Challenge Borneo 2011 Sean Dick 5.4 and Sarah Young 4.9 are fundraising for their World Challenge expedition. They are holding a Table Top Sale on Saturday 22nd May from 10am— 12pm in New Kilpatrick Parish Church, New Halls. Entry £1.50 includes tea/coffee & scone/pancake.
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Hunterston A Power Station
We visited Halcrow engineering company in Glasgow City Park. We received a tour of their offices and got to find out what kind of things they did there and how they disposed of the waste that they produced. The project report was completed by March. We then attended a presentation day at Strathclyde University where we gave a group presentation to the judges about what we had learned during our involvement in the project. There was a prize at the end of the project but unfortunately we did not win the grand prize, but we all had a lot of fun doing the project. We each received a certificate from Strathclyde University and a Silver Crest award for our hard work and dedication!
Presentation day at Strathclyde University BAnner online We recently conducted a number of small scale surveys and were delighted to discover how many of you enjoyed the BAnner and read it from cover to cover. At the moment, we issue every family with a paper copy of the BAnner. Next session, we want to give parents/carers the option of reading the BAnner online or downloading it from the website. This will be an option only and paper copies will continue to be produced for everyone who wants one. Details for opting out of receiving a paper copy will be issued with the pack of documents parents receive at the start of term but you may wish to go to the website and view this BAnner online to see what you think. www.bearsdenacademy.e-dunbarton.sch.uk
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Parent Teacher Association On Wednesday 30th March an enthusiastic and extremely competitive group met to battle it out for the first PTA quiz night for some years. It was a “ladies only” night – by accident, rather than by design! – with the token male being question master Mr. Stewart (Maths). The victorious team headed off into the evening, delighted with their win, but all participants agreed it had been a pleasant evening which we should repeat sooner rather than later. On Monday 10th May, a good number of parents’ met for the first formal meeting of the PTA. This was a positive and energetic meeting with many great ideas for supporting the school. A formal Committee was appointed to take matters forward Chair – Dorothy English, Secretaries joint) – Veronique Millar, Seona Nairn, Treasurer (joint) – Shiela Reid, Liz Paul. The PTA will have an input into the Awards ceremony and P7 Parents’ meetings later this term and have events planned for the autumn term. Minutes and other information are available on the website. If you wish further information in the meantime, please contact, Dorothy English, Chair, or Annette MacKay, Depute Head. Next meeting is on Monday 14th June at 7.30pm.
Run a Marathon in May Once again, pupils, teachers, parents and pets!! are being challenged to run a Marathon in May. . Pupils and their families and friends are challenged to get together to run, in bite-size pieces, the total distance of a Marathon (26 miles and 385yards) over the 31 days of May. Even for non runners, the challenge is to power walk the distance. Initially, we had 98 people, including 16 parents, friends, neighbours and grandparents and 6 dogs – yes, really!---signed up for this event, with females far outnumbering the males in every category A Beginner’s and Intermediate Training Programme have been devised to help you and are available on the school website. www.bearsdenacademy.e-dunbarton.sch.uk Although the month is just over half way through, there are people who have almost completed their first marathon and are starting out on their second one!! So, don’t look for excuses, there’s still time to join in. Page 12
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Engineering Education Scheme 2010 The EES gives senior pupils invaluable experience of working on real life engineering problems, the sort of problem facing engineers from all sorts of different types of businesses and organisations. This year a team comprising Jordan Hanlan, Pim Gritter, Stuart Breen, and Nirvik Ganapathy were introduced to Coherent, Inc. one of the world's largest providers of laser-based solutions. Coherent invited them to their factory in the West of Scotland Science Park where they were they met Senior Manufacturing Engineers Jackie Murray and Marco Capani. Marco and Jackie asked the team to find a way to improve the soldering process of an optical stand, which had been causing problems in the manufacture of their “Talisker” laser which is in the final stages of development. The visit included a demonstration of the process to see for themselves exactly where the problems might lie. After considering some initial ideas the team had a couple of days away at Glasgow College of Nautical Studies where they were able, with Jackie’s help, to concentrate on their solution and get help to manufacture some of the jigs required to make the soldering process easier to carry out. A further visit to the factory was then arranged so that they could find out how well the solution worked and see if any further improvements could be made. With the Talisker due for full production at the beginning of July, the team got a real flavour of project management how manufacturing problems are solved by teams of engineers. The project was concluded on Tuesday 23rd March when the team attended a celebration and assessment day at Strathclyde University joined by five other schools from across Scotland.
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The Election Special Our public speakers are often very good—sometimes they are excellent. One such occasion was the election debate held on May 6th. Erin Crawley, Tory Ross Greer, Green Party Niall Love, Monster Raving Loony Party Calum Marshall, SNP Ewan McAleer, Liberal Democrats Dougie Morton, UKIP Elliot Porter, Labour
The candidates made their case and fielded questions from the knowledgeable audience with skill and good humour and one was left thinking that if the national picture was of the same quality then the country would indeed be in safe hands. Thanks, too, to Harry Naio, who was chairing the election debate in his last act in a long and distinguished career in school debating and public speaking. The results of the school election were as follows. Total number of votes cast =44. Labour—9 votes; Conservative—3; Lib Dem—14; Green Party—2; UKIP—2; Raving Monster Loony—6. There was one spoilt paper.
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Travels with Selali Selali Fiamanya, Boys’Vice Captain in 2008-09 has been taking an action filled gap year before commencing his medical studies at Oxford this autumn. His latest venture is as a volunteer with Global Exchange which pairs him with a young Nigerian. A brief extract from his most recent account is given below ———— Nigeria Dear me, it's hot. Doesn't help when you're wearing a hoodie and jacket, but it's 5am for goodness sake. We hopped in a van after exchanging sterling for naira and to Abuja we went. Everything is green in Nigeria. Billboards, taxis, posters...even the grass. The 15 minute drive to the hotel showed a Nigeria of wealth and vibrance, but I shan't be lulled into a false sense of security so easily. We pulled into "Crystal Palace, the Buckingham Palace of Nigeria" and before we even had time to see our rooms, we were ushered into the Happy Hall to meet our Nigerian counterparts. It need not be said that we looked and felt rough, but they had adorned the hall with welcome posters and balloons so one couldn't help but cheer up. They seemed a nice lot too, and introductions over, it was up to the suite (where I still had a wee bit of time for some flute practice!) and then bed. Up by 10 though! We had some learning to do. In actual fact, we've spent the past two days in varying states of lucidity reading flipcharts, and sticking post-it notes to flipcharts, and drawing spider diagrams on flipcharts, and listening to people demonstrate their points with flipcharts. This was interspersed by "energizers": games to awaken us, mostly short lived and mainly in vain. It's all been useful stuff of course: about volunteering and the programme and local culture. I must admit learning about Nigerian language, customs and behaviours was very interesting. Learning pidgin and Yoruba, having my roommates wake up at 5 to face Mecca at my bedside...The diversity and differences that can coexist within one country, within one room, was fascinating. It's whetted my appetite to learn so much more. Thankfully, that begins Monday. We've got a 9 hour bus ride to Ilorin tomorrow where we'll meet our host homes and families.; in a group with two other Nigerians and we're staying an a "very big house" with a retired, lenient Muslim family. Literally sounds like the perfect scenario. To top it off, I got my preferred placement of working at a local TV station part time and working in the School for Special Needs Children the other half……….. to be continued. Well done, Selali, we look forward to hearing more of this.
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Sports Athletics The Athletics season is getting underway with S1 pupils competing in a festival next Tuesday, May 18th. Our own sports finals day is Wednesday 19th May. Details of the performance of all competitors will be included in the next BAnner. Football After a frantic month, catching up with a back log of fixtures, at the start of the term all 4 football teams had made it through to the quarter finals of their respective league cups. Unfortunately that was as far as it went for the U18s, beaten by Hermitage, and the U15s, who lost out narrowly on penalties to St. Peter the Apostle High School. The U14s, unusually, had a comprehensive victory against Hillpark at the quarter final stage but lost their semi-final to a strong St. Paul’s team. The U13s meanwhile, have been the team to have brought glory to the school so far. After beating Hillpark 5—2 in the quarter finals and St Peter the Apostle 1-0 in the semis, they went on to defeat Bishopbriggs 5-1 in the final to win the Castle Cup. In the Scottish Cup they reached the semi-final but unfortunately were beaten 4-3 on penalties. On Tuesday 11th, they were beaten in the regional plate competition but as we go to press, the semi finals of the league play offs (against Bannerman High) is imminent. More details in the next Banner. Mr. Douglas Golf East Dunbartonshire Schools Three Bearsden Academy pupils finished in the top 4 places at the recent golf championships held at Kirkintilloch golf club. Ewen Ferguson ( 2.7 ) shot a 2 over par 72 and finished second , two shots off the winner . George Duncan ( 4.3) was third with a 3 over par 73 and Gavin Clark ( 4.8 ) was fourth equal with a 76. Ewen and George have qualified to represent the East Dunbarton area in the 3 player team event at Murrayshall, Perth, on Monday 7th June in the Scottish Schools Finals. The best 10 players in the finals are selected to represent Scottish schools and play against English schools in an International match towards the end of June. Well done to the boys and good luck in the finals. Mr. Fingland Rugby The U18 rugby team, led by Finn Campbell-Young, played Lenzie academy last Wednesday and produced a fantastic performance to run out winners 68-22. They outscored their rivals 9 tries to 3 and played some thrilling rugby. There were so many great performances throughout the team its impossible to mention everyone! It was the final game for the school for all the sixth years and quite a performance to say farewell. Congratulations and best of luck to all the boys in their exams. Mr Morrison. Page 16
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Netball By Miss. MacKell Once again this year Bearsden Academy entered two teams in the EDC Schools Netball League. Both teams played outstandingly well all season; the S1/2 team remained unbeaten until the final few fixtures at the end of the season. Despite a disappointing final few games they took overall third place, an absolutely fantastic effort! The S3/4 team had a score to settle and were more than delighted with home and away wins against arch rivals and Scottish League Cup players Bishopbriggs. The season came to a nail biting finale and it was to be a narrow defeat against Turnbull which snatched the team’s top league spot. After first place Turnbull, Bearsden took a very respectable second place, made all the more satisfying by finishing ahead of Bishopbriggs. This was a particularly poignant win for a number of the S4 players who have played in the league since S1, and this year must hang up their bibs. This year, captained by Caitlin Ord the S3/4 team played superbly well and I will miss watching them play competitively each week. They do assure me that they will continue to train with us, and maybe even come out of retirement to play some friendly matches at home. On behalf of the team I would also like to thank our new coach and former pupil, Neil McGuire. Neil has helped train the teams and has even accompanied us to away matches. He has yet to join in with the singing on the bus! Hopefully he will return next season to help out, as there are a few in need of a singing lesson or two- you know who you are! Netball training is now running every Wednesday after school. If you are in S1-4 and have played netball before, or just want to give it a go, please come along! The new season will start again in September.
Rachael Dick, Ciara McDonald, Grace Holmes, Katie Burns, Lauren O’Hara, Eleanor Smith, Amy Drysdale, Niamh Russell
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Erin McCrossan, Katie Hart, Rebecca McKenzie, Louise Ballingall, Holly Shearer, Sarah Pagan, Caitlin Ord, Ruth Gilligan, Kathleen Gordon, Kirsten
Issue 7
EVENTS CALENDAR
May
June
Thursday 27th May
In Service Day
Friday 28th May to Monday 31st May
May Weekend
Tuesday 1st June Wednesday 2nd June Thursday 3rd June
In Service Day S5 Induction Maths day (S5) New Timetable S2-S5 (Provisional) S6 Induction S5/6 Conference Awards Ceremony S6 Prom Best Piece of Work Evening Summer Concert P7 Visit P7 Visit/P7 Parents Junior Awards Ceremony Uniform Night Activities Day Activities Day Close 1.00pm
Friday 4th June Monday 7th June Tuesday 8th June Thursday 10th June Monday 14th June Tuesday 15th June Wednesday 16th June Thursday 17th June Monday 21st June Tuesday 22nd June Wednesday 23rd June Thursday 24th June Friday 25th June
The next issue of the BAnner should appear on Friday June 18th
Contact details: Address : Stockiemuir Road, Bearsden, Glasgow G61 3SF Phone number : 0141 955 2344 Fax number : 0141 942 5949 Pupil Absence Line: 0141 955 2345 Email :
[email protected] Web site : www.bearsdenacademy.e-dunbarton.sch.uk Page 18
