BUSINESS-SAVVY Six students from PHS are off to the ICAEW Business and Accountancy competition national finals in Birmingham having seen off very stiff competition to win the Edinburgh heat. The competition sees our busi-ness students engage in challenges that enable them to develop key employability skills and understand what it’s like to be a Chartered Accountant. Good luck to Mrs Futty and her team of senior students: Emma Thomson, Daniel Talas, Katie McLeod, Andrew Oliver, Jodie Sinclair and Eilidh Cannon.

S3 Modern Studies students participated in the annual BBC

NEWS SCHOOL REPORT project culminating in news teams

producing reports on topics as diverse as the effects of cyber-

bullying to Donald Trump. Their work can be viewed at

http://www.peebleshighschool.co.uk/news/bbc-school-report-project-2017.

After a break our YouTube chan-nel is up and running again with a new focus on the life of the school. All filmed, edited and pro-duced by the pupils and featuring the pupils themselves. Please do check it out - follow the link on the PHS website.

Earlier in 2017 Luc Ramsay (S4), represented Scottish Bor-

ders at the Scottish final of Future Chef 2017. Luc reached

the final 12 in this competition with his French inspired

menu. Thanks to mentor Kenny Coltman.

Brass players from PHS, part of the Scottish Borders Youth Brass Band, are reigning Scottish Champions and recently travelled to Belgium for the European Youth Championships. (Pictured) Callum Ander-son, Thomas Brydon, Theo Ward Murray, Sophie Ward Murray, Alec Robertson, Andrew Wilson, Callum Robb, Elliot Brydon (P.7).(Missing from photo Alex Patterson, Joe Giegerich, Oliver Landers, Anya Wilson, Ally Norman)

In July Caroline Connor, our Diabetes Care leader, has set herself the phenomenal challenge of swimming end-to-end Loch Lo-mond, a staggering 36km, taking approximately 14 hours in order to fundraise for Diabetes Scotland. Please sponsor Caroline by visiting her Just Giving page (search Grahame Connor).

Thanks to Caroline Connor, First Aider, PHS has the accolade of

the top Diabetes Care in School in Scotland.

15 pupils participated in a Drivewise event, this initiative is a partnership between Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Police Scotland, Scottish Am-bulance and IAMRoadSmart. As well as getting behind the wheels of a fleet of brand-new Volvos and putting their driving skills to the test, the students also learned important safety messages about responsible driv-ing from all the emergency services.

Peebles High School Newsletter Summer 2017

Welcome from the Rector

Welcome to our Summer Newsletter. We have enjoyed a great end to last session and start to the new this month and are looking forward to the summer holidays knowing that an exciting year awaits on our return. Highlights in recent months include the SQA examinations, Health Week, S3 Work Placements and S1 Residen-tial.

Our residential in Aberdovey with S1 was a success again this year. There is no doubt that it is a challenging week for young people (and staff!) but it is also rewarding and undoubtedly builds resilience and a positive mind-set to overcoming challenge. We work hard to focus on the school’s values of wisdom, integrity, compas-sion and justice throughout the week and our S1 (new S2) responded bril-liantly. I hope that our parents enjoy seeing these values grow in their chil-dren in the years to come .

Peebles High transformed to become

Rydell High, complete with Pink Ladies,

Burger Palace Boys, quiffs, bangs, bobby

socks and petticoats for a rock-and-rolling

version of “Grease” for three sell-out

nights. Thanks go to Mrs McAllister and

Mrs Campbell for their huge contribution.

First Aid Training Several PHS students received training in emergency first aid, they

learned life saving techniques including opening an airway, performing cardio pulmonary

resuscitation, use of an Automated External Defibrillator and placing a casualty in a safe

airway position. All students received the Emergency First Aid at Work qualification. The

training was delivered by Lucy Husband, First Aid Skills Training.

The DofE is the world’s leading youth achievement award. At PHS we are very proud to have almost 100 students currently committed at Bronze, Silver or Gold levels. Pictured here are last year’s successful DofE participants receiving their awards at a dedicated ceremony. Former pupil, Jack Gray returned for the evening and shared how his DofE journey broadened horizons, skills and friendships and hopefully helped to inspire a number of the younger students to continue on their DofE journeys. PHS are grateful to the broader PHS community of staff and volunteers who continue to support the DofE.

Peebles Maths Circle : In 2016-17 PHS have run two ‘Maths Circle’ events: these were devised for 5-16 year olds and their family members and set out to help fami-lies keep up to date with modern day maths techniques. The sessions were

lots of fun with hands on activities and lots of family inter-

action. Watch out for next sessions’ Maths Circle dates.

Further News

Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music and Trinity College successes : Cameron Munro grade 1 violin with merit

Amy Brown grade 1 violin with distinction

Lydia Hughes grade 1 violin with distinction

Katie Nethercot grade 1 violin with distinction

Bella Sosa grade 1 violin with distinction

Fraser Meldrum grade 1 viola with merit

Imogen Lewis grade 1 viola with distinction

Elise Reed grade 6 clarinet with distinction

Mack Reed grade 7 saxophone with distinction

Elizabeth Nguyen grade 7 piano with distinction

Treeve Willcock grade 7 violin, grade 5 piano with distinction, grade 5 theory with distinction

Gus Molyneux grade 3 clarinet with merit

Alex O'Reilly grade 3 clarinet with merit

Mhairi Sinclair grade 6 percussion

James Culshaw grade 4 piano with merit

S1-S3 students recently participated in Health Week at PHS. The week started with the

annual charity walk and was followed by the increasingly popular ‘PHS in the Park’ mini

music festival featuring the staff band, with support acts from current and former pupils as

well as Tweeddale Youth musical talent. Impromptu ceilidh dancing followed. A range of

popular activities were staged for the students throughout the week including bubble foot-

ball, gardening, high impact yoga and bowling. A video of Health Week can be found on the

school YouTube page : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-PfFpaCqMk

Spring Concert 2017: a cast of what seemed like thousands graced

the stage in March for the Music Department’s annual Spring Concert.

There was everything from epic film scores to intimate solos and

everything in-between, with impressive performances from the

concert band, pipes and drums, guitar group, brass group, junior

string orchestra, jazz band, ceilidh band, clarinet group, saxophone

group, choir and senior orchestra.

Peebles Burgh Silver Band

Reece Ward Murray, Player of the Year 2016.

Katey Jardine

Most Improved Player 2016

Erasmus Estonia 2017 In March a group of S6 students participated in the final ex-change visit of the Erasmus Plus project to our partner school, Lahte Uhisgumnassium in Tartu, Estonia. The students from the partner schools had a busy schedule learning about film-making, local history and culture and enjoyed tours of Tartu, Tallin and even survived the hike in the Taevaskodade National Park.

S1 Commendations: Lorna Adams, Hannah Barrow, Edith Brophy, Luci Clelland, Rosie Dykes, Cerys Finn, Kirsten Finnie, Erin Fulton, Katie Grieve, Tess Grigor, Madeleine Hubert, Zoe Jarvis, Owen Jones, Anwen Knight, Jessica Levine, Emma Millar, Lauren Nightingale, Rory Pyman, Louise Russell, Jessica Sharwood-Smith, Anna Tweedy, Oscar Weipers, Rosie Wood.

S2 Commendations: Rachel Anderson, Eden Bal, Amy Brown, Aidan Coulstock, Rebecca Davie, Laura Eggleton, Ruby Finn, Anna Gibson, Oliver Glasse, Lydia Hughes, Amber Jeary, Hans Kobus, Carlo Kolodziej, Tilly Leathart, Ellie Leckie, Kaerdy MacDonald, Ellie Martin, Emily McIn-tyre, Lauren McKay, James Mercer, Gus Molyneux, Eilidh Mooney, Katie Nethercot, Alistair Norman, Noee Sellar, Eleanor Smith, Iain Turpie, Anya Wilson.

S3 Commendations: William Adams, Kristin Beards, Alice Bryce, Thomas Brydon, Corran Carrick-Anderson, Jasmine Cartmail, Charlotte Clare, James Culshaw, Peter Dasiukevich, Finlay Durkin, Jennifer Fearnley, Ellen Finnie, Sean Fraser, Mhairi Kinahan, Elena McGorum, Gavin McLachlan, Rose Moncur, Estelle Nguyen, Ellie O’Hara, Elise Reed, Maddy Robinson, Michael Smith, Natasha Thorp, Naomi Towse, Sophie Ward-Murray.

S4 Subject Prize Winners: Niamh Carters (Personal Develop-ment), Sam Cartmail (Biology), Katie Clelland (Italian), Aimee Currie (Drama N5, History), Kieran Frost (Chemistry, Geogra-phy, Mathematics-joint), Eleanor Hatton (Art), Alyssa Heg-gison (Graphic Communication N5, Mathematics-joint, Computer Science N5), Rhian Laird (Practical Metalworking N5), Steven Lee (Science), Anna McGorum (English, Physics), Emily McNeill (German), Ben McSporran (Practical Wood-working N5), Alex Morgan (French), Jack O’Hara (Outstanding Mentoring in the Store), Aidan Reed (Music), Callum Robb (Administration & IT N5), Abbey Scrimger + Patrick Hughes + Laura Day (Modern Studies joint), Alex Jones + Oliver Tate (Design & Manufacture N5 joint), Emily Watson (Business Management N5), Aedan Wilson (Philosophy), Emily Wright (Spanish).

Senior Subject Prize Winners: Rachel Aird (Italian), Ben Balfour (Design & Manufacture), Tom Beards (Design & Manufacture, Adv H), Megan Beattie (Biology), Olivia Brunton (English, Mathematics, Modern Studies, History, French), Lewis Crooks (Science in the Environment N2, Leadership SFRS), Imogen Dixon (Art & Design), Olivia Elsmore (Graphic Communication), Keira Farmer (Maths, Chemistry, Physics), Joe Grieve + Heather Smith (Spanish joint), Charlotte Hope (History), Colin Kaljee (English, Biolo-gy, Modern Studies), Sam Laurenson (Administration & IT), Ben Macrae (Geography S5), Hannah McCann (Geography S6), Erin McCusker (Art & Design Adv H), Andrew Oliver (Business Management), Bianca Ricci (Drama), Alexa Smith (Music), Eilidh Whyte (Philosophy), Treeve Wilcock (Human Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Music).

Achievement Awards: Erin McCusker (Maigret Cup – Best overall linguist), Orla Kane (Evie Douglas (Dee) Award), Anessa Babariya (Geoffrey Simpson Award – Head Girl), Murray Young (Geoffrey Simpson Award – Head Boy), Rhian Laird + Harry Cadman-Cabello (George OB Thomson Memo-rial Cup), Keira Farmer + Euan Magowan (Senior Dux 2017 joint), Alexa Smith (Balfour Medal 2017).

HALL OF HEROES Congratulations to the newest four additions who have represented Scot-land in their chosen discipline :Tilly Leathart (Tetrathlon), Natasha Thorp (Tetrathlon), Ellie O’Hara (Athletics and Netball), Zoe Jarvis (Voice)

SBBBA Youth Ensemble Champions INTERMEDIATE (U-16) ENSEMBLE SCOTTISH CHAMPIONS. Ally Norman, Callum Robb, Callum Anderson, Andrew Wilson and Thomas Brydon.

David Mundell, MP,

presented certificates

to all the PHS Mentors

in Violence Prevention

graduates.

In February PHS hosted partner agencies for our first annual

BORDERS RESILIENT COMMUNITIES DAY.

Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Scottish Ambulance Service, Police Scotland Tweed Valley Mountain Rescue Service, SBC Emergency Planning Officers, Salvation Army, Peebles Resilient Communities Group

The aims of the day were to find out how the partner agencies in the Borders co-

ordinate and implement incident responses and also to establish a youth volun-

teers group. Participating S3 students: Sophie Gray, Douglas Hogg, Isaac

King, Luke McLean, Sam Tait, Conrad Thomson and Katie Ward.

SCOTTISH FIRE AND RESCUE SERVICE PROJECT

Earlier this year 7 PHS students undertook a six week

Fireskills Youth Engagement Programme in conjunction with the

Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS). They attended the Fire Station

in Galashiels each week and the emphasis was on practical activities

and developing skills for life, learning and work.

JOE MOORE

Teacher Add Needs

The main draw for my

relocation to the Tweed

valley was the lure of the

mountain biking – I am a

‘golfie’ addict. When you

can drag me away from

my bike you will find me

in the store where I am

settling into life at PHS.

LEE THORNBURROW

Teacher History

I am a former pupil of

Peebles (1999-2005) and

it’s a bit strange to be

back teaching in one of

my old History class-

rooms and working with

some of my past teach-

ers. It is very interesting

to view school life from

the other side of the

desk .

ANGELA WALLACE

Teacher Maths

I am delighted to be

teaching maths at

PHS. For the past

eleven years I've been

teaching in Lesma-

hagow and having

previously worked in

Glasgow, I am now

enjoying the shorter

commute!

FRANCES ENEIDE

Business Manager

I am on secondment

from Council HQ to

the post of Business

Manager, part of

which is looking at

how we transform

Business Support in

Schools for the

Tweeddale Cluster.

AUDREY ROBSON

Teacher HLS

I have worked at

Earlston HS for the

last four years. In my

spare time (ha ha!) I

enjoy biking up the

local hills and cook-

ing (who knew?!).

French Exchange In May a number of bikers from our mountain bike partner school near Marseille in France visited for a fun-filled week at Glentress forest, Innerleithen and other natural biking routes in the Scottish Borders. A highlight was the new pump track from the Bike Track. There was fantastic camaraderie between the two groups and we look forward to meeting up in France next year for more biking and to continue our friendships.

The English department's very own Mrs Bowles has won the

Scottish Teenage Book Prize yet again. This time for her fantas-

tic novel 'Black Cairn Point'. We're hugely proud of her and

delighted at her success

Roll of Honour

FOOTBALL: The PHS U-14

team made it to the quarter-

final of the Scottish Schools

Plate competition only to be

beaten by the eventual winners.

Teams from S2 and S1 also took

part in a Borders-wide 7 a-side

competition and returned

winners and runners-up. Next

season U-14 and U-15 teams will

participate again in the Scottish

Schools competition and an all

new Borders League. Diary date:

25th August PHS U-14s v Jedburgh Grammar.

PHS SPORTS NEWS

NETBALL SUCCESS Congratulations to our S1 Netball team for coming runners-

up in the Scottish Schools Cup. 40 S1 teams started out in this competition, to

reach the final two in the Gold section is a fantastic achievement for the girls.

Lucy Smith (Capt), Nairne Wells (Vice-Capt), Jessica Mitchell, Cerys Finn,

Rachel Lothian, Keeley Rippin, Ellie Farndon, Erin Fulton, Erin Ackerman,

Lorna Adams.

Scottish Schools: PHS U-15 girls and Senior girls (both pictured) both won Gold, the U-15s broke the Championship record in 50.96. Congratulations!

Scottish Track & Field: Michael Girdler won Gold and the 200m championship record in 22.96 seconds. Ellie O’Hara Long Jump Bronze, 75m Hurdles Silver.

Bryony Patterson Triple Jump Silver. Ethan Elder 1500m Silver. Eve Huxley 200m Silver. All PHS athletes put in a huge amount of training throughout the year to perform so exceptionally during

the season.

Louis Myatt (left), S1, winner of U-13 Edinburgh

and Lothian TABLE TENNIS Championships 2015

and 2016. Louis and teammate, Louis MacLeod,

(S4), who play for Penicuik, topped Division 1 of

Edinburgh and Lothian Table Tennis junior league.

CANADA TOUR 2017 In May the S3 hockey and rugby squads went on tour to

Vancouver, Canada. From start to finish this was a fantastic tour. From day one relaxing on

the beach; we went whale watching; spent a

memorable evening playing ice-hockey at Shawnigan Lake Boarding School on Vancouver Island

and took in many of the sights in Vancouver. We were hosted by four schools during our tour and

played numerous hockey and rugby fixtures; some matches were played in blistering heat and

there was some outstanding play and great sportsmanship throughout. The squad members

were commended for their manners and behaviour whilst on tour, the participants were excellent

sports ambassadors for PHS.

Bryony Patterson and Kayza Stevens

receiving the overall trophy from Mary Weir

BORDERS SCHOOLS RECORD

WINNERS

Senior Girls Relay Team - Bryonny

Patterson, Ailsa Innes, Rianna Sterricks and

Eve Huxley.

S3 Boys Relay Team - Sam Archibald, Aaron

Russell, Thomas Nicholl and

Struan Wells.

S2 Girls Relay Team - Mia Downie,

Hannah Little, Molly Saxon and Imogen Lewis.

Hannah Little - S2 800m

Robbie Mackay - S1 Boys Javelin

Ethan Elder - S3 Boys 400m

Ellie O'Hara - S3 Girls High Jump

TENNIS SUCCESS

Congratulations to Rory Shaw, Jamie Gordon, Stuart Brown and Max

Blundell for winning the Border Schools' Tennis Championship 2017. (The girls

team were the runners-up : Kirsten Rodwell, Anna McGorum, Rebecca Davie

and Ellie Gordon.)