Holyrood News

March 2011

This Spring 2011 edition of the

Holyrood News celebrates some

of the countless achievements of

our young people. Those achieve

-ments take place in the class-

room and beyond it in the fields of per

forming arts and sport. There are

also examples of how we put our

Gospel values into action by bringing love, compas-

sion and support to those in need. I do hope you en-

joy reading this newsletter and recommend too that

you take a look from time to time at our school

website: www.holyrood-sec.glasgow.sch.uk

Tom McDonald

Head Teacher

HOLYROOD MALAWI BALL

The now annual Holyrood Malawi Ball took place in

February. This event attracted around 400 to the

grand surroundings of the Hilton Hotel in Glasgow.

Leonie bole , school captain and Malawi 2010 team

member welcomed the guests and reported on the

achievements of the project last year. She passed to

Sophie Harker , 2011 team member who outlined the

plans for this year. High class entertainment was

provided by a group of former pupils , „Tumbling Dice‟

and the ‟The High Waisters‟ featuring parent , Mike

Harker. Guests also gave great support to the raffle

and auction , very professionally compared by staff

member, Robert Carroll. The “ Gutty Slippers” from

St Francis Pipe Band made their customary enter-

taining appearance. Once again this event was an out-

standing success and raised around £13,400. This is

a great boost to our fund raising target of £30,000.

St Patrick’s Day Celebrations

In keeping with the school ideal

of „One Holyrood – Many Cul-

tures‟, St Patrick‟s day was cele-

brated in style with pupils wear-

ing forty shades of green in a

whole variety of outfits. Pray-

ers and greetings in Gaelic were read out by Mairi Gal-

lagher and Jack McGarvie. There was an excellent staff

coffee morning, with an Irish theme organised by Mrs

Brunton‟s S3 SVS class. The pupils involved were ex-

tremely professional and displayed great confidence and

maturity as they served staff with tea, coffee and home

baking.

The Irish theme was carried through to lunchtime with

Irish stew being served in the fuel zone with traditional

music in the back ground. Various stalls were set up and

money was raised for SCIAF (our Lenten Charity), Mala-

wi and Mary‟s Meals.

The school Eco Group continued

the „Green Theme‟ by encourag-

ing us to walk or cycle to school

on 17 March. They also manned

a stall selling cakes made by

members of the Eco Committee.

OLYMPIC ATHLETE RETURNS TO HOLYROOD

Former pupil, Interna-

tional athlete and Com-

monwealth medal winner,

Lee McConnell, made a

visit to Holyrood recent-

ly and presented medals

to winners and runners

up in the school‟s cross

country championships. Lee also spent some time talking

to the young athletes about her success and impressed

upon them the need for absolute dedication and hard

work to achieve your goals. Lee is now preparing for the

world Championships in South Korea and the London

Olympics 2012. Everyone at Holyrood will be cheering

her all the way.

Holyrood Pupils visit Oatridge Agricultural college

On Friday 25 Febru-

ary a group of S3 and

S4 pupils took part in

a Land Based Career

taster day at

Oatridge Agricultural

College in West Lo-

thian. This was a

wonderful experience for the

pupils who took part in a vari-

ety of activities such as Far-

riery, Block Paving, Small Ani-

mal Handling, Equestrian Ac-

tivities, Agricultural Engi-

neering, Sheep and Cattle

handling and Countryside Man-

agement. The pupils were

great ambassadors

for the school and

thoroughly enjoyed

the day.

ACTFAST The annual ACT-

FAST day took

place on 25th

March as part of

our Lenten pro-

gramme. A large

number of pupils and staff abstained from food

for 24 hours to support the campaign of the Scot-

tish International Fund (SCIAF) for a „day without

food for a world without hunger‟. To help everyone

through the hunger pangs of lunchtime , Miss

Watkins highly accomplished Music Performance

group provided outstanding entertainment. The

whole event was or-

ganised by Miss

O‟Reilly and raised a

substantial amount to

support the work of

SCIAF across the

world.

Scotland-Malawi Conference

On Wednesday 16th

March, we went with

the Head Teacher to

the Lothian Chambers

in Edinburgh to attend

a Scotland-Malawi

Partnership confer-

ence. Leonie and I were invited to represent not just

Holyrood but all young people involved in similar part-

nerships. We were there as VIPs among others in-

cluding representatives from the Scottish and Mala-

wian governments, Jack McConnell MSP and HRH

Princess Anne.

We spoke for five minutes about the Holyrood-

Malawi Project, what we have achieved and the bene-

fits it brings not just to our partner schools in Blan-

tyre but also to us here in Scotland.

After this, we set up an exhibit as one of ten, show-

ing what we have done since the beginning of our

partnership in 2006 and what we hope to do in the

future. Princess Anne took time to visit all the exhib-

its and seemed very impressed with what Holyrood

has done in Malawi.

Later, there was a panel discussion in which Jack

McConnell praised the Holyrood-Malawi Project as

“the best example of a partnership in the whole of

Scotland.”

We were then invited to the Scottish Parliament for

Commonwealth Day where Jack McConnell introduced

us to Annie Lennox. This was, without a doubt, the

highlight of the day as we had the opportunity to

compare our experiences in Malawi and further publi-

cise the Project.

At the Parliament we also met other young people who

had been to Malawi and have invited them to our

Fundraising Concert on the 6th May.

All in all, it was a fantastic day and the Holyrood-

Malawi Project is now even more highly regarded as

the best there is.

A letter was received from Buck-

ingham Palace addressed to the

Scotland Malawi partnership. It

stated that ; “ Her Royal High-

ness was impressed by the inspi-

rational speakers. Max Graham

and Leonie Bole of Holyrood Sec-

ondary school were exceptional”.

Graphic Communication Pupils scoop the tre-ble! Three of the Technical

Department‟s Graphic

Communication pupils

won 1st, 2nd and highly

commended in a Nation-

al competition to rede-

sign a leaflet which de-

scribes Scotland‟s

Lifelong Learning

Framework.

Christopher Gordon (1st), Jonathan Russell (2nd) and

Aimee Brannan (highly commended) were then given

the opportunity to see the winning leaflet progress

from design to the commercial printing stage. They

were given a tour of the Kemsley Design Agency,

the SCQF Head Quarters in Glasgow and a walk

through of MLG printers. To top off the day, the

pupils received a free lunch in town and Amazon

vouchers totalling £500 between them!

Mr McChesney was delighted that Holyrood pupils

had scooped top prizes for their efforts and inspi-

rational designs. All 27 entries from Holyrood were

of a high standard and to beat competition from

other schools across Scotland certainly is some

achievement.

Over 240,000 copies of the SCQF leaflet

(Achievement Counts) will be printed and distribut-

ed to all secondary schools and colleges in the coun-

try.

Developing Global Citizens LTS National Showcase

We were delighted to have been invited to share our Global Citizenship work

with teachers and educators across Scotland at the Developing Global Citizens

LTS National Showcase. S1/2 Social Subjects pupils created a display illus-

trating the many different topics they have studied in this area, such as „Child

Soldiers‟, „One Holyrood-Many Cultures‟ and „Our Divided World‟.

Fair Trade Group representatives were also on hand with a Power-Point display to tell the story of our jour-

ney to Fair Trade School Status.

The Malawi project is very important to everyone in Holyrood and our pupil

representatives enjoyed explaining the work of the project and our plans for

the future to delegates.

l-r, Aimee Brannan (S5), Christo-

pher Gordon (S6), and Jonathan

Russell (S6)

HOLYROOD PROM NIGHT FASHION SHOW

This year the 8th Annual Prom Night Fashion Show

took place with the usual glamour and glitz. A num-

ber of companies, including

Spencer Railton, Moss Bros,

Debenhams, Coast, Phase

Eight, and Lipsy, all from

Silverburn, Halo and Belles

Bridal provided the daz-

zling outfits for our model

pupils to wear. Amid all the

excitement, the main focus

was the range of Holyrood

Charities supporting pro-

jects at home and abroad.

Pupils and staff „strutted

their stuff‟ down the cat-

walk with a variety of en-

tertainment including SuBo,

Beyonce and George Mi-

chael. They were accompa-

nied this year by the reign-

ing Miss UK Nicola Mimnagh

who modelled for Belles

Bridal and was promoting

her charity CHAS.

Clydebank College took up

the challenge of dressing

over 100 pupils‟ hair and make up with a fabulous col-

lection of Hats from the students at North Glasgow

College under the direction of Lecturer Nancy Pax-

ton.

The massive sum of £1800.00 was raised on the

night for our school Malawi project, The Prince and

Princess of Wales Hospice, CHAS and the Dixon

Community.

Interdisciplinary Learning (IDL) opportunities allow space for learning beyond subject boundaries,

so that pupils can make connections between different areas of learning. These are a requirement

of Curriculum for Excellence as they deepen understanding, and can also make the curriculum more

meaningful from the learner‟s point of view.

One of our main S.2 Interdisciplinary projects is „Holocaust Remembrance‟ and several subject are-

as are involved, including Social Subjects, RE, Art and Modern Languages.

Each year the project evolves in partnership with the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, whose theme

in 2011 was „Untold Stories‟. The clear purposes of this IDL experience is raising awareness of the

sacredness and the dignity of human life and the rights we all deserve to share through a study of

the past and present. Next year, we hope to secure a museum exhibition space out with the school

campus.

Successful Learners: Students

record their experiences across the

subject areas in a log book and

comment on their own progress.

They are able to make a per-

sonal statement at the end of

this process.

Confident Individuals: Students are able to draw on

different learning experienc-

es:

RE: Rosa Sacharin and the

Kinder transport documen-

tary created by the Holyrood

Media Club.

Social Subjects: Life in the War-

saw Ghetto and genocide in Darfur.

Modern Languages: through films,

such as ‘Au Revoir les Enfants’.

Art: Treasured Possessions and a

Memorial Banner.

Responsible Citizens: Our Special

Assembly on Holocaust Memorial Day

was led by Father Anthony who lit the

candle of remembrance. Two of our

sixth year students, Heather Campbell

and Michael Mullaney,

delivered a presentation on

their experiences in Ausch-

witz. Pupils were then

invited to sign the Anne

Frank Declaration.

Effective Contributors: Learners choose an example of their

learning across the subject areas on the

theme of Holocaust Remembrance

which they are most proud of. This

forms part of an exhibition. A contribu-

tion be anything from a prayer com-

posed in RE, a tannoy announcement or

a piece of art work.

CURRICULUM FOR EXCELLENCE