Parents` Newsletter November 2015

Volume 5, Issue 3
November 2015
LGS Young Minds
Lanark Grammar School
Charity Champions
Charity fundraisers Robbie Kerr, Jennifer Fleming, Ailie Sinclair, Abbie Reid, Abbie Young, Robyn Patrick, and Kari
Barr.
Every year within the
school calendar, a week
is dedicated to raising
money for a chosen
charity. This year’s sixth
year chose the charity
“Young Minds”, which
strives to help young
people with mental
health issues. A charity
committee was created
by the sixth years and
they led the activities
that were planned
throughout
the week.
To kick off the
week on Monday a charity football match was
organised between female pupils and teachers. Despite the weather
it was a very successful
event resulting in some
interesting photographs.
Tuesday was another
lunchtime event which
was held outside. “Beat
the Goalie”, Cameron
Pollock, and the “Hula
Hoop Challenge” helped
to involve all school
years and raise money.
Wednesday was the beginning of the popular
events that we relate to
charity week. The
“Sponge and Gunge” was
Some teachers attracted
more attention than others and were more popular when put up for gunging.
On Thursday we were
given a treat from the
sixth year boys in a fashion show. Our beautiful
models strutted their
Inside this issue:
Youngs Minds Charity
1-2
News from the Head Teacher
3
Growth Mindset
3
‘STARs’
held outside in the quadrangle. This gave pupils
the opportunity to throw
sponges soaked in cold
water, water filled buckets and for the finale
buckets filled with custard, at the teachers.
4
Sports Update
5-6
Captains Blog
7
Christmas Extravaganza
7
National Poetry 2015
8
Whats with Work?
9
Damn Delicious 2015
9
Haunted Tower
10
Important Dates
10
Young Mind Charity Week Cont’d
Mr Smith examines Fashion Eco Warrior Mrs Brown.
Catwalk kings Calum Yuill, Grant Scott, Harvey Boyle, Darius Draycott and Billy Davies.
stuff along a catwalk. With some
assistance from the Drama Department and donations from sixth
year girls, the boys had created
flattering outfits that they showed
off. This event was responsible for
the biggest intake of donations for
the whole week.
After the challenge, the female teachers performed in a
dance troupe directed by Jordyn Prentice. This was a very
interesting performance
packed with individuality
from all the different teachers.
Legs and Co reformed especially for the Charity Week!
On Friday it was the big finale of
charity week. With thanks to Mr
Smith and his skilful hosting skills,
we were able to hold a successful
game show styled event. This included Mr Munogee and Miss Darroch in team 1, Mr Thompson and
The effort given from
the teachers and pupils of the school was
hugely important and
helped to make this
year’s charity week a
Mrs Brown in team 2 and Mrs Gardiner and Mr Brownrigg in team 3.
The challenges that faced them
included: the dress challenge,
which required the male teachers
to create a specific style of dress
out of bin bags; the other challenge was the cake decorating,
which asked the female competitors to be blind folded and to
stand behind the male teachers as
they direct them to decorate the
cake in a specific way. The victors
of this challenge were: Mr Thompson and Mrs Brown: team 2.
success. By the end of
the week the school
had helped to raise
over £2300 for the
“Young Minds” charity
which will contribute
greatly to young people who need their
help and support.
Page 2
Kari Barr, Jennifer Fleming, Robbie Kerr and Jenni Donald—Heave!
Ailie Sinclair
Photos : Sophie Neill
Rain doesn’t stop play nor does it stop Amy and Kari collecting cash.
News from the Head Teacher
Since our last Parents‟ Newsletter,
we have seen a significant number
of events take place within the
school which have contributed to
supporting our pupils and parents
and providing leadership opportunities for
our pupils.
The work of our Charities Committee deserves great praise for
a week of highly enjoyable activities in
order to support the
Young Minds Charity
which is the UK‟s
leading charity committed to improving
the emotional wellbeing and mental health
of children and young
people.
Our annual Careers Convention,
held on Thursday 12 November
2015 was, yet again, a hugely successful evening with large numbers
of our pupils from S3-S6, and their
parents, in attendance. The
evening provides an opportunity for pupils
to engage directly with key
staff from a
range of organisations and receive information and advice
which is specific
to their needs.
On Tuesday 17
November 2015,
we held our first
The work of our Char„Helping Your
Head Teacher Mr Mark Sherry
ity Committee has
Child in S4‟ eveensured that pupils‟ awareness of
ning for parents. The evening was
mental health issues has increased
very well attended by parents, and
greatly and their astute use of social
pupils, and provided the opportunity
media to get core messages across
to learn through 3 informal sessions
was really innovative.
about: strategies to support your
child‟s learning; study skills; and the
context of new National Qualifications.
Feedback from parents has been
very positive and we shall use this in
shaping next session‟s event.
The Lanark‟s Got Talent event was
also a very enjoyable part of our
November calendar of events, providing an opportunity for pupils to
display their diverse musical talents
in front of an appreciative audience.
There is no doubt that Lanark certainly has got talent!
Finally, as we are now moving into
the period of the year when adverse
weather will possibly be the norm, I
would ask that you ensure that your
daughter/son is aware of the arrangements which you have in place
should there be a need for the
school to close during or before the
school day. Should this need arise,
we shall communicate with you
through the school‟s website, Twitter
account and through the Group Call
text messaging system.
Growth Mindset
In the Senior Phase Year Group
Assemblies this session, Mr Falconer, with S4, and Miss Pollock,
with S5 & S6, are further supporting
raising attainment and achievement
for our students by focusing on “The
Growth Mindset”, as part of our aspirational goals for each student, in
line with our motto of Learning,
Growing, Succeeding.
Individuals with a “Growth Mindset”
believe that their most basic abilities
can be developed through dedication and hard work. This view creates a love of learning and resilience
that is essential for success. However, in the opposite mindset, a
“Fixed Mindset”, people believe their
basic qualities, like their intelligence
or talent, are simply fixed traits.
They believe they are just not good
at some things and challenges are
avoided or excuses made not to
Page 3
take on a challenge. They believe
that talent alone creates success –
without effort.
We are encouraging students to
think about their mindset and further develop it
into a Growth
Mindset, where
they understand
that intelligence
can be developed, that their
focus should be
on improvement, instead of worrying about
how smart they are and working
hard to learn more and become
smarter.
What we want for our students is
that they learn to thrive on chal-
lenge and see any failure, not as
evidence of lack of intelligence, but
as a springboard for growth and
stretching their existing abilities.
Through years of research it has
been shown
that students
who learn this
Growth Mindset show
greater motivation in school,
take charge
over their own
success and achieve better grades.
The truth is that “hard work beats
talent when talent doesn‟t work
hard!”
G Pollock and D Falconer
Volleyball ‘STARS’ Shine in National Festival
Lanark Grammar’s Star Programme
up their performance and ended
(Belmont House, Duncanrig, Kyle
attended a National Volleyball festiup qualifying for pool 2 of the fiAcademy, Stonelaw, Woodfarm,
val at John Wright Sports Centre in
nal games.
Marr College, Belmont Academy,
East Kilbride. The format of the day
Craigmount). This is an outstanding
Some of the skill, control, detercomprised of two rounds of “round
achievement considering schools in
mination and attitude shown by
robin” competition within pools.
the event are ‘schools of volleyball’
On completion of pool
with some having
games, teams were reInternational
organised into new pools
coaches. The girls
of a similar ability and
finished 2nd in pool 2
play then continued as
(so 6th overall) again
before. The 4 v 4 format
out of 23 girls teams
was an ideal environand should also feel
ment for Lanark’s young
extremely proud of
‘STARS’ to showcase their
this fantastic
skills and improvement in
achievement. The
the sport. The school
girl’s team demononly recently became
strated remarkable
affiliated with the Scotresilience and ‘grit’
tish Volleyball Associato recover from an
Stars Amy MacLarty, Eve Joyce, Zara Higgins, Eve Joyce, Alyx Mackie and Chantelle Taylor.
tion through work with
opening game
the STAR Programme and develop‘hammering’ from one of the top
our students was brilliant to
ment officer Andy Fleming. Our
teams at the event. Eve Joyce, Zara
watch and was commented on by
STARS have only been focusing on
Higgins, Amy MacLarty, Alyx Mackie
several members of staff from the
volleyball for small sections of the
and Chantelle Taylor pulled together
other schools who
and towards the end of the tournaregularly attend
ment some of the defensive and atthese festivals. One
tacking play of the group was a demember of staff
light to watch. Our boys (Jordan Calstated that although
lan, Finlay Patrick, Danny Robson,
some of the quality
Jordan Fraser, Calum Strang, Lewis
of the skills was not
Wilson, Greg Brown, Cameron
as good as the ‘top’
Thomson, Leon Kelly, Sam Anderson)
schools at the event,
were amazing and to achieve so
the effort, determimuch with limited practice is a credit
nation to get to balls
to the standard of the pupils inand teamwork of the
volved in the programme. All stuSTARS was magnifidents represented their school with
cent to see. I have to
a commitment and belief that
agree that their pershould be applauded and celebrated
formance at this
as we look forward to the next opCameron Thomson, Danny Robson and Sam Anderson.
event, for first timportunity for them to showcase their
ers, was superb and all students
STAR programme and many of the
talents.
should feel extremely proud of
schools attending the event specialthe way they represented the
I would also like to thank Mr Webb
ised in volleyball and overall the
school and the STAR Programme.
for giving up his day, while recoverstandard was exceptionally high.
ing from injury, to attend and supOnce the games were concluded
Both boys’ teams qualified for the
port our students in the festival. Get
rd
our boy’s teams finished 3 and
top pool of teams and played some
well soon Martin.
4th out of the 23 represented
outstanding volleyball. The girls,
teams from various schools
Mr A Barr
after a nervous start, were able to
Page 4
Sports Update
Judo
Recently Kirsten Walker 5W3 competed in
the Scottish Judo Championships in the under
18 and under 21 category at Ravenscraig
Sports Facility. Kirsten achieved bronze medals in both categories being narrowly beaten
in the semi final stages. This is outstanding
national recognition in her sport and on the
6th of December she also hopes to build on
this success in the British Championships in
Sheffield.
Kirsten just keeps building upon her successes. Very well done Kirsten, what a wonderful achievement and Lanark Grammar are
very proud of you. Good luck in Sheffield!!
Swimming Success
Lanark Grammar achieved excellent recognition at the recent South Lanarkshire Schools Championships on
Wednesday 4th November at Larkhall. Many of our pupils
competed and excelled in various swimming events and
congratulations must go to the following pupils.
Erin Snow (200m Individual Medley 2nd, 100m Free 3rd,
200m Breaststroke 2nd, 100m Breaststroke 2nd)
Bradley Anderson (100m fly 4th)
Lewis Campbell (100m Free 6th)
Shiona McClafferty (200m Breaststroke 1st, 100m breaststroke 1st, 100m free 4th)
Kyle McEwan (100m Backstroke 2nd, 100m Free 5th, 100m
Fly 5th, 200m Back 1st)
Finlay Patrick (100m Fly 6th, 200m Fly 3rd)
Robyn Patrick (200m Breast 1st, 100m Breast 1st, 100m
free 1st)
Billy Davies (200m IM 3rd, 100m Breast 2nd, 100m Free 5th)
Euan McComish (100m Fly 2nd, 200m Fly 1st, 100m free 2nd)
This is an outstanding achievement for our pupils while
competing against the best in South Lanarkshire. Well
done!!!
Mr Barr / Miss Rankine
Page 5
Disability Football
In a remarkable
piece of recognition
for Lanark Grammar
School, two of its
pupils have been
selected for the
Scotland under-19
learning Disability
Football Development Squad.
Fifth year pupil
Cameron Steer and
sixth year pupil Cameron Pollock have gained international recognition for the first time in a 24-player
squad which will be attending a total of five training
sessions at Stirling’s Forthbank Stadium between
now and February.
The ASN team impressed Scotland selectors by
reaching the Semi-finals of a national cup competition at Ravenscraig in Motherwell.
By February, the Scotland coaches will cut the squad
from 25 to 18, so there is a chance our pupils could
play in the Home Nations Championship against England, Wales and Northern Ireland from April 2 to 7.
A fantastic achievement for the whole team and particular Cameron Pollock and Cameron Steer.
Sports Update Cont’d
Badminton
Lanark Grammar School has a great deal of sporting talent but the Badminton squad seem to be going from strength to strength.
Recently at the Lanarkshire Badminton Championships in the Ravenscraig Sports Complex, Motherwell they achieved some outstanding
results:
Calum Strang 3J1 beat Danny Robson 3J1 in the final of the Under15 Boys’ Singles
Calum and Danny then won the Under-15 Boys’ Doubles
Lauren Kennedy 6B1 and Sarah Kennedy 6J2 won the ‘B’ Under-19
Girls’ Doubles
Ben Strang 5B2 was runner up in the Under-19 Boys’ Singles
Ben was also runner-up (with a partner from Dalziel High) in the
under-19 Boys’ Doubles
Jessica Robson 1W1 won the Under-15 Girls’ Singles. Jessica is in
the Under 12 age bracket but there was no under-12 event.
She moved up 3 age brackets and still won!
Even more badminton success
for Lanark
Grammar
School at Airdrie Leisure
Centre as the
Lanark Grammar Senior Badminton team
qualified for the
Scottish finals to
be played in
March 2016.
Competing
against 3 other
schools in a
combination of
singles, doubles
and mixeddoubles, the
Some of the Badminton Squad Danny Robson, Ben Strang, Cateam played 15
lum Strang and Owen Robson.
games in total
and won 14 - 1 on aggregate. This is a superb achievement. The
team was:
Sarah Lowe 4J2, Georgie French 4W1, Sarah Kennedy 6J2, Lauren Kennedy 6B1, Calum Strang 3J1, Danny Robson, 3J1, Ben
Strang 5B2 and Owen Robson 5L1.
This is another fantastic achievement and good luck in the Scottish finals. Come on the Grammar!!!
Page 6
Triathlon Success
Many congratulations to Jessica
Robson 1W1. Triathlon Scotland national rankings for the end of the season were announced recently and Jessica is ranked 8th in the 12-13 age
group.
Jessica’s success has been hard earned
as she took up the Triathlon at the age
of nine. She is a member of the Lanark
Triathlon Club training 5-6 hrs per
week but everyday and sometimes
before her school day even starts.
This is truly an outstanding achievement in this physically and mentally
demanding sport.
This is not the sum total of Jessica’s
talents, however, as she won the East
of Scotland Under-13 Girls Doubles
(with her partner Jodie Black from
Eyemouth) at Meadowbank Stadium,
Edinburgh recently as well!
Mr Barr / Miss Rankine
Captain’s Blog
This year I have the great privilege
of being one of your School Captains - and I am truly loving it so far.
However, before I talk about that,
some of you are maybe wondering
who I am. In a nutshell, my name is
Billy, I’m a swimmer and I walk
around in a burgundy lined blazer
which you can probably see in the
photo next to me (which I’m hoping is not too bad). I have had the
opportunity over the last few
months to be indulged in the running of the school, my team of Captains and I have been working hard
to promote healthy living both
within the school and local community. Our Charity Week for Young
Minds in mid-November was a tremendous success. Sponging and
gunging teachers, crazy hair day, a
pretty weird kind of fashion show
(to say the least) and much more
all took place in the name of a
great cause and I, along with everyone else, thoroughly enjoyed it.
Overall, an amazing total of over
£2400 was raised for Young Minds,
the charity which we raised money
for. I hope that through this,
awareness was raised about mental
health issues and that as a school
we have a better understanding of
how it can really affect young people. Everyone should be immensely
proud of themselves and I would
like to thank everyone for taking
part and donating so generously.
Also a big thanks to the rest of the
charity committee and Mrs Wilson
January. I wish everyone the best of
luck and hope that you work to your
goals and achieve your potential!
It’s going to be a lot of hard work
but it will definitely pay off. So far I
have had the pleasure of leading a
great team of House Captains and
Prefects this year. Our House Captains recently organised an inter
house football tournament to which
Jerviswood took victory in. Well
done to the guys that played!
Waffle Wednesday is back! Except
now it is on a Monday, and I probably speak for the majority when I
say that I was pretty excited when I
smelled them as I walked into
school on that Monday morning.
for making it run so smoothly. We
have many more fun activities
planned throughout the year and
we have just had Lanark Grammars
Got Talent on the 25th of November. More on this in our next newsletter.
Obviously over the coming months
all of our senior pupils, myself included, will be working hard in
preparation ahead of our prelims in
The start of this session has been
great and I’m sure this will continue
until the end. I hope that everyone
continues to work hard in their subjects to achieve their best and get
the rewards they deserve. It has
been great to have such a satisfying
role within the school this year and
I am going to work my hardest until
the end of the year to improve our
school.
Billy Davies
School Captain
Christmas Extravaganza Concert
Wednesday 9th December 7pm
We will be holding our annual Christmas Concert on Wednesday the 9 th of December in the street area at 7pm.
It will be a fantastic opportunity to showcase our very many talented pupils in the Samba Band , Choir , Wind
Band , Drama Club and many more.
Tickets are available on the door that evening priced £3.00
Page 7
National Poetry Day Prizewinners 2015
Light
National Poetry Day 2015
by Amy Bennett (First Prize)
As is always the case our pupils produced some inspiring works for this
year’s National Poetry Day Competition and here are the Lanark
Grammar School winners for 2015.
Core of Our Universe, our glowing light,
out shining star, our life-force,
essence of existence, the touch of
warmth, the wakening of day, the creation of life.
Light is the heart of our world,
A spectrum of colour.
The beauty of light, natural, fragile,
untouched by the flame of man, has
been taken for granted.
No longer waking to the heat of the sun
upon your face, no longer falling into
a dark slumber with the sunset.
Artificial, false, unnatural light has kept
the world conscious, awake, running
constantly to a superficial life of exhaustion.
Please Bring Back the Light
by Heather Murray (2nd prize)
It’s getting dark, I’m wide awake,
Untitled
The day has changed to night.
by Eilidh Joyce (3rd prize)
I tell myself I’m not afraid
But please bring back the Light!
When it’s dark at night and the sun is
gone,
I cannot sleep, I cannot rest,
When the moon shines bright and the
stars follow along,
Each noise gives me a fright.
I know I’m not long into bed,
Dreams to appreciate, deceased into
unhealthy solid blocks of recuperation,
But please bring back the Light!
the scales of dark and light inverted,
imbalanced and never to be recovered,
The dark just doesn’t scare me,
altered to deceive the individual eye, to
making choices,
Sinful to greed, lust, gluttony, sloth,
envy, wrath and pride.
Neon intoxicates the eye, the beams of
moving cars bang our skulls,
sickly ruddiness distorts our sky.
The sparks of planets, patterns of symbolic meaning
For that would not be right.
I tell myself the monster’s gone
But please bring back the Light!
I hear a creak, now a scratch,
A dark figure’s in my sight,
I know it’s just my dressing gown
But please bring back the Light!
and admiration of their magnificence,
gone, vanished, dissolved, ruined
Someone’s at my window,
Into a smudged canvas
Fear has changed my sight.
reflecting the contamination of manmade light.
I tell myself it’s just a tree
The flame of man can deform light for a
time,
Yet, the first light force rising over the
seas is the perpetual cycle
That is and will continue to be our infinite beauty.
Page 8
But please bring back the Light!
The sun is finally rising,
It’s been a long, long night.
I know I’m not scared of the dark,
But I’m glad to have the Light!
The whisper in the wind,
The rustle in the trees,
Let me know that you are here with
me.
Although your life faded
And the sparkle in your eyes
Your spirit roams free in the glowing
skies.
There’s a howl in the distance
A whisper close by.
Your light guides me through the darkness of the night,
Here with me now,
Not ready to say
What’s with Work?
A section of fourth
year pupil are finding
out the answer to this
question by undertaking a selection of vocational qualifications
at National 4 and 5 at
New College Lanarkshire and Wiston
Lodge. These are part
of the What’s with
Work programme
coordinated by South
Lanarkshire Council.
The Skills for Work qualifications
are in Care, Beauty, Engineering,
Construction, Rural and Uniformed
and Emergency Services and as well
as preparing young people with a
taster experience of the college environment, the knowledge and skills
required of each field of work are
developed.
Experiences across the courses
range from bricklaying, painting and
decorating and joinery, to learning
how activities influence children’s
physical, social, emotional, cognitive and language development, as
well as planning and carrying out
cosmetic treatments such as facials
and manicures, understanding
health and safety requirements,
working as part of a team, preparing for occupational fitness entry
tests, and learning about land management.
staff in balancing their academic
and vocational studies, as the college course is an additional qualification to their school subjects. The
young people work with pupils from
other Clydesdale schools and are a
credit to Lanark Grammar in the
level of commitment and responsibility they display and the quality of
their work.
Pupils are well supported by school
D Falconer
Damn Delicious 2015
On Wednesday 21st October the
Home Economics Department held
their Annual Damn Delicious Meat
Challenge Final. This year, pupils
were hard at work designing some
tasty new burger recipes and then
testing these out in class. The winning pupils, who were entered into
the final, comprised of 20 pupils
from each of the different practical sections.
All pupils were commended for
their hard work by both Mr Sherry
and Mrs Wilson, who were delighted to be part of our Damn
Delicious Judging Panel. The quality of food produced by all finalists
was exceptional, making it a very
difficult decision for the judges to Even the best chefs have to do the washing up.
Page 9
arrive at an overall winner. Congratulations to Caitlyn Browning
and Stuart Wood (2B1) who were
our deserving winners this year.
We would also like to offer a huge
well done to all pupils involved in
the final, they worked extremely
well and did their fellow pupils
proud.
Home Economics Department.
Haunted Tower Competition 2015
The Faculty of Creative and Aesthetic Subjects was proud to present our annual Interdisciplinary project again this year.
We had all of S1
competing to attend
the final and staff
had an incredibly
difficult job of deciding on the finalists
for this.
true to the description as much as
possible, but also show individuality
creativity in the competition was
again very high and the judges had
a difficult task.
However, the winners in
the subject categories were
as follows:DRAMA WINNERS
1P2 Lewis Hornell, Andrew
Jack, Jack James, Paddy
Higgins, Ben Rattray.
MUSIC WINNERS
The project was
1P3 Christopher Mullen,
based on the poem
Donald Gilchrist, Christoentitled ‘The
Haunted Tower’. Mu- The winners being presented with their awards by Mr Sherry and Mrs Wilson. pher Barrett.
sic pupils were asked
ART WINNER
to create a piece of music which
and imagination in its execution.
used a variety of sound effects and
1P7 Amelia McLoughlin
Drama pupils were asked to devise,
compositional techniques. Art purehearse and present a Halloween
pils were asked to produce an illusWell done to all of our finalists.
drama which had a clear beginning,
tration based on the description of
middle and end. The standard of
a haunted tower which had to be
Important Dates
Please find below, information about important dates in the school calendar. I hope that you find it helpful.
In-service Days
In-service Days are as follows:
Day 4 Wednesday 10 February 2016
Day 5: Thursday 5 May 2016
S
Kirklands Road
Lanark
ML11 9AJ
Phone: 01555 667520
Fax: 01555 667521
Head Teacher : Mr. Mark Sherry
Page 10
V O L U M E 5 , I S S UE 3