Stonelaw pupils keeping busy

DofE award proved to be a muddy experience

It has been a busy time at Stonelaw High recently.

A group of pupils from the school were out and about as they completed a practice expedition for their Duke of Edinburgh awards.

After splitting into four groups the teenagers spent three days and two nights walking and exploring the Trossachs.

The first day was at Strathyre, where it was wet during the day and drier at night, meaning they had midges to deal with.

The second day involved a long walk of just over 18Km from Immervoulin Campsite at Strathyre to West Dullater on the southern shore of Loch Venachar.

The night was spent at Invertrossachs Scout Camp with more midges for company, before day three saw the pupils go up and over the hill in to Aberfoyle.

Sections of the walk were very muddy and wet due to the amount of rain leading up to the expedition.

All participants and groups completed the expedition and are looking forward to the qualifying expedition.

Meanwhile, a group of pupils were thinking internationally, after an initiative led by school captains Andrew Morris and Emma Rae.

The first year business studies pupils were taking part in the World Trade Game, where they were divided into five different ‘countries’ , based proportionally on the population of the country.

Each team were then provided with resources of paper, protractors, rulers and scissors according to the relative assets of that country, in order to represent how some countries such as the USA, have far more industrial capabilities than others, such as Nigeria.

The integral idea of the game, was then to produce cut-outs of shapes in accordance with dimensions provided, and ‘sell’ them to Andrew or Emma – who acted as traders – for points.

Come the end of the class, the country with the most points were deemed the winners.

Andrew, who originally suggested the idea of the ‘World Trade Game’ to the business staff, said that the reason for the proposal was that, “The game offers a fun and competitive environment for younger pupils to learn about the complexities of international trade and business; it has a subtle likeness to the real world and therefore teaches the students about these ideas in practice without needing the difficult theory behind it”. The game seemed a hit with pupils too. Sam Scott of 1K1 said: “It was worthwhile to do as I learned a lot. It was a great experience”.