Pupils back the foodbank

The Coltness High pupil council was exceptionally busy before the October break, organising a collection for Basics Food Bank.

Contributions amounted to a staggering 2000 items of food which will be distributed to help local families.

The competition between the Houses was very close with Skye House just winning by a count of two more tins of food.

The theme of this year’s National Poetry Day was ‘Changes’ and the school celebrated by having a poetry competition for S1 pupils.

All the poems are displayed in the library and the winning poems will be sent off to the Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh.

Coltness High pupils visited the STEM driven “Big Bang” event, organized by DYW Lanarkshire.

The pupils took part in activities throughout the day including Vex robotics, where they were asked to use robots to move objects around a ring, competing against each other against the clock.

Cyber security was also on the itinerary with pupils being asked to crack codes, with levels increasing in difficulty. They also did some food testing including learning about molecular gastronomy and the chemistry involved in producing different fruit and milk and chocolate products as well as having a chance to taste the end products.

Pupils were involved in song writing and had the opportunity to hear the college students perform a song they had already prepared from a task set in the morning.

They also had a chance to meet local employers who set up challenges to test different skills and give them an idea of opportunities available in various sectors including engineering, the military, food production, hospitality and NLC among others.

The pupils enjoyed taking part in all activities throughout the day, working in small groups to complete six different activities each and meeting with pupils from other North Lanarkshire schools in the process.