Busy time at school
It has been a busy few weeks since the start of term at Calderhead High School.
We were delighted with our exam results, which continued to maintain their high standards. We are especially impressed by the S6 results which are the best ever in the history of Calderhead High School.
Over four times as many more pupils now leave Calderhead with five Highers than ten years ago. In terms of Higher awards we are probably the fastest improving school in Scotland.
The school has a new House System.
Every pupil and member of staff has been allocated to a House, which they will remain attached to throughout their time at Calderhead High School. There are four Houses: Burns, Fleming, Lochhead and Wallace. House badges were handed out at special assemblies last week and we’re looking forward to our first Inter House Quiz on 21 September 2016. Caitlyn Paxton, Adam Pugh, Robbie Jarvis and Matthew Muir showed off their new house badges.
A wide range of extracurricular groups have started in the school including badminton, band, basketball, CalderRead book group, choir, fitness suite, fitness for girls, football, guitar, knitting, Lego robotics, multisport, orienteering, rugby, running/cross country, table tennis and trampolining to name but a few! More information is available on the school website with details of all the extracurricular activities available at the school.
Edinburgh Book Festival Calderhead High School pupils enjoyed two visits to the Edinburgh Book Festival this year. Pupils from S2 and S3 visited the Edinburgh International Book Festival on August 25 to see one of Scotland’s leading hip-hop bands, Stanley Odd. As well as hearing ‘front man’ Dave Hook talk about how he uses poetic technique and structure in his lyrics, pupils also enjoyed hearing the band play some of their tracks. Senior pupils also visited the Festival to hear from acclaimed authors, Jenny Valentine and Bonnie Sue Hitchcock.
S2 pupil, Kiera Allan, recently finished third place in the UDO Scottish Street Dance Competition and is now training for the World Championships. S6 pupil, Ewan Ferguson, has been awarded a place on the Transitions 20/40 Dance programme at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, which offers specialist training and mentoring to young people interested in pursuing a dance career. S6 pupil, Caleb Hariri, took part in a Nuffield Research Placement at the University of Glasgow this summer working on a research project on the optimisation of the glucose oxidase enzyme assay method. He attended the Nuffield Research Placements Scotland 2016 Celebration Event at the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh on September 1 to celebrate this achievement. Andrew Lynch, Morgan Lynch and Jason Prentice also competed in the recent World Pipe Band Championships. Well done, everyone.
The School actively participates in the Mentors in Violence Prevention Programme (MVP), which is designed to train pupils to speak out against bullying and all forms of violent and abusive behaviour. S6 pupils, Jamie Shaw and Connor McGinn, recently made a presentation to the NLC Education Committee about the philosophy behind the programme.
Calderhead High School marked the 100th Anniversary of the birth of popular author, Roald Dahl on September 13.
Pupils enjoyed special assemblies with Claudius England from Jamaica who used music and storytelling as a mean of relating the history of Jamaica, from slavery to present day. Claudius also talked about his work with ‘ Reclaimed Territory’, an initiative he started in Jamaica working in youth detention centres.