Lanark Spells Success. Lanark Grammar School. Volume 2, Issue 4. 18
December 2012 was when each player was asked to spell a word and had a
chance.
Volume 2, Issue 4
Lanark Grammar School
18 December 2012
Lanark Spells Success Borthwick, Elysia Small and Ayla Mascarenhas. We won a shield which was presented by Mrs Wilson and our House Captains. We also won 12 points for our House and will now avoid the detention promised by Mr Goldie if we lost!
On Monday the 3rd of December 1J1 won the first ever Lanark Grammar School S1 InterHouse Spelling Bee! During the month of November all S1 students had a chance to practise their spelling and try out for their class team. We practised our spelling in English class in order to identify the top four spellers who would represent their class in the heats. We practised spelling words for homework and memorised the spellings and definitions. Some of us even had a class Mini Bee. The winners of the heats were 1L1 and 1J1. We were through to the final where we had to compete in the Spelling Play-off and the Quick-Fire rounds. The Spelling Play-off was a tough round of really hard words. This
was when each player was asked to spell a word and had a chance to accumulate points for their team. Some were words that we‟d never even heard of! It was challenging but worth it.
Overall, the Spelling Bee was a great experience because we got to show our spelling abilities. We also think it encourages other students to work harder on their spelling. We hope to take part in another Spelling Bee in the future- maybe in second year!
The Quick-Fire round was a bit easier than the Spelling-Play Off. This was where we worked By Ayla Mascarenhas as a team to spell as 1J1 and Rachel Best many words as possible 1J2 in two minutes. It was less pressure because Inside this issue: we were playing tactically, as a team, and Spelling Bee Success simply passed if we Haunted Tower didn‟t know the word. At the end of the two rounds, it was a dead heat. We played a final short round and 1J1 won by four points. It was a really exciting finish to the Spelling Bee.
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2
Swim For Kenya
2
News from the Head
3
English Dept Cinema Trip
3
Samba Band
4
Battle Of The Bands
4
Achievements
5
Our winning team from News...in brief Mrs McCrindle‟s class Important Dates consisted of Lucas Anderson, James
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S1 Haunted Tower Interdisciplinary Project On Monday the 29th of October pupils from Art, Music and Drama celebrated the culmination of their work on the interdisciplinary project “Haunted Tower” with a presentation ceremony in the drama studio.
Pupils had been working on their projects in their respective subjects based on the same stimulus which was a story about a “Haunted Tower”.
reading the story using any media they chose. Pupils in Music had to create a composition and pupils in Drama had to create a play from the stimulus also.
Pupils in Art had to create a drawing from their imagination after
Interdisciplinary learning takes place when pupils develop particular skills or work on particular themes across a number of subject areas. This enables pupils to identify links between different curricular areas and to recognise that the knowledge and skills in one subject are also relevant and important in other areas. This is the second year that the faculty has celebrated the success of their expressive Arts pupils by holding this ceremony and pupils has a wonderful afternoon watching their peer groups perform. The winners were as follows:Art -
Ben Clark
Music - Amy Graham , Kimberley Graham , Danielle Watson, Rachel Cameron , Zoe Davenhill
Ben Clark with his winning artwork and the S1 finalists work
Drama - Sophie Marriot, Morgan Hillier, Emily Noble, Kay Sydney
Swim Star for Kenya 2.5 Km, 1.5 miles, 100 lengths. Whichever way you look at it it‟s a long way to swim but that‟s exactly what Mrs Melvin did last Wednesday to raise money for the charity Lanark Grammar School supports in Kenya. “It just seemed so fitting to have a swim at lunch time to raise money for school lunches” said an exhausted but very happy Mrs Melvin afterwards. “I know how our pupils‟ energy dips before lunch time. Imagine if you had no lunch at all.” This money will be used to buy maize meal (cheaper than rice), beans and greens – the cheapest nutritional meal available - and should help raise educational standards in the afternoon Page 2
as concentration improves when you‟re not hungry! Mrs Melvin would like to thank her Length Counter Mrs Edgar and all staff, pupils and parents who have donated so generously and wished her well. The total raised is already almost £700 and still rising.
Mrs Melvin with the award from the charity in recognition of her and the schools efforts.
News from the Head Teacher .Merry Christmas Christmas is almost upon us and I hope that all members of our school community have a very enjoyable and relaxing festive period finding time to relax with family and friends. Our Christmas Service is being held in Greyfriars Church on Wednesday 19 December 2012 and I would wish to take this opportunity to thank our School Chaplaincy team for all the work they do throughout the session in supporting Lanark Grammar School. School reopens at our usual time on Monday 7 January 2013.
Twitter In order to extend our communication with parents and the school community, we have set up a Twitter account – @LGS_1183
We shall use Twitter as a means of communicating information about school events and activities and in cases of exceptional circumstances such a school closures due to adverse weather. You can set up an account by going to www.twitter.com and following the instructions on screen. If you would wish further information on how to do this pupils can pick up help sheets from the School Office or, if you telephone, we shall send you a copy. Curling Opportunity: Lanark Curling Club Lanark Curling Club are keen to give our pupils the opportunity become involved in curling. For those who are interested, we
shall arrange taster sessions in school where basic skills will be taught with a chance to try curling using an indoor set of stones. There are also indoor coaching sessions at Hamilton on Saturday mornings from 8.30/9.00a.m. to 11.30a.m. The cost is free and transport will be provided by members of the Club Those who want to continue with the sport can either join the junior curling programme at Hamilton and/ or curl with Lanark during the evenings where a fee of £3.00 per game will apply. Transport can also be organised for the evening sessions. If you are interested in taking up this opportunity please contact the school office and we shall pass your information to Lanark Curling Club who will then make contact with you.
Go Curling
National Schools Film Week On Thursday the 8th of November a group of first and second years went on a film trip to the Vue cinema in Hamilton to see the film „Mirror, Mirror. ‟ The purpose of the trip was to celebrate and enjoy „National Schools Film Week‟ which is a free, annual event allowing schools across the UK to take children to film screenings during the school day as part of their curriculum learning. Despite some concerns, especially from the boys, that the film was about a princess and may not be to their liking; it was a resounding success. The behaviour was impeccable throughout and everyone enjoyed themselves. On their return all students particiPage 3
pated in a Film Review Competition. Those short listed were Kelsie Ballie, Rebecca Wilson, Oliver Sneddon, Lewis Smith and Mhairi Jessup. The winning review was Lewis Smith‟s. Well done Lewis! Here is an extract from the winning review: “It was an amazing film, so worth watching. I liked how Snow White married Prince Alcott at the end. My favourite characters were the Seven Dwarfs because they were always so full of excitement. I didn’t have any least favourite characters I liked them all. I would recommend this movie to
anyone because the film was amazing. I would award it 1000 stars.” By Lewis Smith 2J1
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Samba Band In Demand
The Lanark Grammar Samba band was recently asked to perform at the prestigious Association of Directors of Education Conference at the Westerwood Hotel in Cumbernauld. Led by their band leader Mr David Calder they performed to the Directors of Education from across Scotland at a formal dinner on Thursday the 22nd of November. The Lanark Grammar Samba Band was formed in 2007, originally as a salsa band, but due to the high number of accomplished drummers within the group they became purely a drum ensemble focusing
on samba and Latin grooves and rhythms. There are now 15 players in the band which rehearse every Monday lunchtime in the music department. The band is available for players of all grades and involves pupils from S1-S6. In 2009, the band incorporated bagpipes into the band due to the interest from the pipers attending the school and also to try and experiment with a cross cultural idea of integrating both the traditional sound of the pipes with samba and Latin grooves. The Band has performed and still continues to perform at many engagements throughout the school calendar year, both in and out of school events.
The band regularly perform at the lanimer day celebrations every year as part of the lanimer parade as well as performing at the school concerts organised by the music department and also visit various local primary schools to involve young kids in samba drumming. Recently, the band has performed at the citizenship partnership in south Lanarkshire as well as taking part in the supercounty show in Hamilton. As the band has progressed and grew in numbers in recent years, the band has performed twice at the Lanarkshire orchestral society as special invited guests of the committee. In 2012, the band has performed at many CFE events and have helped promote the Instrumental Music service both within South Lanarkshire Council and nationally. The band performed at the official opening of the new school and most recently in March 2012, the band competed at the Glasgow music festival for the first time winning the music making class with 87 points, gaining national recognition from the festival organisers.
Battle Of The Bands the night was “The Palindromes” . The band consisted of band Members -
Lanark Grammar School held their annual Battle of the Bands competition on Thursday the 22nd November in the Street area.
Morgan Cardwell, Shareen Cutkelvin, Sean Murray ,
The event was organised by the Music Department and sixth year pupils Anna Philiben and Georgia Smith. We were very fortunate to not only have the talent of our pupils at Lanark Grammar School but we also welcomed pupils from St Aiden‟s High School who also performed to rapturous applause. The competition was judged by local Band “Zulu” who decided
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Euan Gallan , Ally Sinclair, Eve Walker , Alex Rae
Congratulations to everyone who participated in this successful event and thank you to Staff and pupils who supervised in the night. that the overall winning band on
Achievements Scottish Youth Championships
Band
Congratulations are in order to some music pupils from Lanark Grammar School for taking part in the Scottish Youth Band Championships in Perth on Sunday 25th of November with their conductor and Brass Tutor – Mrs Jayne Brownlie . The Coalburn Bronze Band won a gold award and became Scottish Champions in their section. The pupils involved were :- Ben Strang, Rachel Ramsay, Liam Riley, Charlie Anderson, Tom Reid, Esme Kelso and Katie Riley. Well Done!
Mrs Brownlie, Lanark‟s Brass Tutor and the winning pupils.
Gymnastics Club First Class Performance
and Mari McKay. The team won first place.
Congratulations to the girls who took part in the South Lanarkshire Schools Gymnastics Competition.
Our level 2 team, Georgia Miller, Amy Urquhart, Fiona Bryden and Megan Rooney. Our level 2‟s came second in their competition.
Our level 1 team included, Victoria Wilson, Gemma Phillips, Becki Gordon
A special congratulations to Becki Gordon who won silver in her individual performance.
Tae Kwon Do Champions
in Sweden where they hope to represent Scotland in both the Individual and team events.
Recently two talented brothers have achieved great success in their sport of choice. In October eldest of the brothers, Lyle Walker in S6, became 2012 Individual World Champion in the 1517 section. Over 2,000 competitors took part, yet Lyle was triumphant. His younger brother Lewis also recently managed to attain Individual Silver in the 12-14 section. Next for the Tae Kwon Do experts are the European Championships Page 5
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News...in Brief S3 Life After Death Walk On a very chilly (but dry!) November Friday, 10 S3 pupils headed out round Lanark to explore some of the local myths and legends relating to life after death. S3 have been exploring a variety of beliefs in RME including heaven and hell, purgatory, reincarnation and various suggestions of proof of ghosts and spirits. We have looked at evidence from various parts of the UK and beyond, but this was our opportunity to look
Harvest Festival at Stanmore School On Wednesday 10th October Amy Allan, Natasha Armstrong and Sarah Jane Syme along with some pupils from Ridgepark School and some of the Stanmore pupils entertained staff, pupils and guests. They sang a selection of songs and were really so much appreciated. Although this was their first time of performing they did them-
specifically at Lanark. Councillor Ed Archer was our guide, and he
selves proud! We look forward to developing more links with Stanmore. Well done to those involved.
Young Writer’s Competition
Small, Kay Sidney and Jordan Doyle all entered poems for the competition. Amazingly, all five poems were selected for publication in the „Sporting Days- Going for Gold‟ anthology. We all received a certificate of merit. The best thing about participating in the competition is the poems are going to be published and a copy of the anthology is going to be held in the British Library.
Recently in the English Club, we participated in the Young Writers‟ “Sporting Days” competition. In preparation, we studied a variety of poems. We looked at the winning poems from the London Mayor‟s Olympic Poetry Competition 2012. We particularly enjoyed reading „The Champion‟s Story‟ by Fope Jegede, aged 15, who won first prize. We also read „Translating the British, 2012‟ by Carol Ann Duffy, our Poet Laureate, on the Olympic theme. We then began writing our own poems. Some of us did acros-
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took us to St Kentigern‟s Church, Wide Close, the site of the Clydesdale Inn, Castlebank Park and Delves Park and told us various legends including the Roman soldier whose spirit has been seen in Wide Close, and the Grey Abbott who has been seen in the cellar of what is now the Clydesdale Inn. Thanks to Councillor Ed for sharing his knowledge with us as part of his work with the Clydesdale Heritage Society and Lanark and District Archaeological Society.
tic poems and some focused on rhythm and rhyme. Mostly we used the present tense and lots of verbs to create a sense of action in our poems. Jackie Brown, Esme Kelso, Suzie
Important Dates Please find below, information about important dates in the school calendar. This includes parents‟ evenings; parents‟ information evenings; and holidays. I hope that you find it helpful.
In-service Days Wednesday 13 February 2013 Friday 3 May 2013
Parents’ Evenings S4 S4 S3 S3 S1/S2 S1 S2
Information Evening Tuesday 29 January 2013, 7.00pm Tuesday 5 February 2013, 4.30-7.00pm Information Evening Wednesday 20 February 2013, 7.00pm Wednesday 27 February 2013, 4.30-7.00 Information Evening Tuesday 26 March 2013, 7.00pm Thursday 9 May 2013, 4.30-7.00pm Thursday 30 May 2013, 4.30-7.00pm
Holidays December 2012/January 2013 Close at 1.00pm on Friday 21 December 2012; Re-open on Monday 7 January 2013 February 2013 Closed Monday 11 and Tuesday 12 February March/April 2013 Close at 2.30pm on Thursday 28 March 2013. Re-open on Monday 15 April 2013. May 2013 Closed Monday 6 May 2013. June 2013 Lanimer Celebrations: closed Thursday 6 and Friday 7 June 2013 Close for end of session at 1.00pm on Wednesday 26 June 2013
L ANARK GRAMM AR S CHOOL
Kirklands Road Lanark ML11 9AJ Phone: 01555 667520 Fax: 0155 667521 E-mail:
[email protected]
Head Teacher : Mr Mark Sherry
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