Penicuik High School

 Parental Newsletter Christmas 2007

It is a great pleasure for me to have this opportunity to write to you about some of the achievements of our pupils and staff over the last few months.

School News

During the first weeks back we had pupil visits to The Edinburgh Book Festival by the English Department, Biology led a visit to the Botanical Gardens, our Arts students participated in a Midlothian School’s residential visit to Benmore and Media Studies students took part in the Edinburgh International Film Festival

Our annual health promoting Big Day was held in September and we were blessed with favourable weather this year. The day is a major fundraising, health promoting and house event. The focus of the day this year was much more on health education, pupils still undertook the sponsored walk through the John Clerk Estate our thanks go to Sir Robert Clerk for graciously allowing us access to his property. My thanks also go to you for your continued generosity in supporting the school in our endeavours. The Big Day proved once gain to be a huge hit with the pupils and staff, a truly enjoyable occasion for all involved.

Elections have taken place for the Student Council and the first series of meetings have taken place. I am sure that the Council will be highly effective in terms of taking forward the concerns of students and helping with the smooth organisation of the school. One of the projects the council have been lobbying for is improvements to the student toilets. I am delighted to report that work will start early in the new year to completely renovate the toilets at the “Green Seats” area and in the old building.

John Lewis and Partners

I am delighted to report that Penicuik High School is one of only two secondary schools in Edinburgh, Fife, East and Midlothian selected by John Lewis and Partners to be offered support. As outlined below they have already given support to the S6 common room and our Home Economics department have also received support.

Maths Challenge

Congratulations to Finlay Noble Chamings, Ross Noble, Sarah Law and Vicky McFarlane who took part in the Scottish Enterprising Maths in Scotland national finals in Glasgow they represented the school with great distinction and finished the competition mid table.

Business experience finals

Our school produced a superb effort in the final of the Midlothian and Borders Enterprise Dragon’s Den challenge. They impressed everyone with their hard work, passion for their product and sense of determination. Well done!

Space school

Two of our S5 pupils Emma Baird and Ryan White were selected for the Space School interviews held in Edinburgh, sadly neither made it through to NASA but Ryan was successful in securing a place at the Glasgow Space School next summer, congratulations!

Visit by Astronaut

Franz Viehboeck who is to date Austria’s only ever astronaut visited Penicuik High School to tell us about his experience as an astronaut. Franz delivered an afternoon of fascinating stories about life as part of the team on the space station.

Visit by Minister for Schools and Skills

We recently welcomed Maureen Watt MSP who is the minister for Schools and Skills. Mrs Watt toured the school and had coffee with our S6 in their Common Room. She then met the media in the Hub for questions on school attendance. Penicuik High School was selected to host this visit because our attendance figures are the best in Midlothian.

SEEMIS

Midlothian Council have changed our school management system from Phoenix to SEEMIS. This new system is in the opinion of the experts a much better system for school management. We will in the fullness of time be able to move to an electronic period by period registration  of pupils, have electronic referrals and link our reporting and monitoring closely together. However inevitably there will be some problems in the initial phase whilst we sort out any data transfer issues form one system to another. I believe that the office staff are currently struggling with the printing of labels for envelopes.

History Department Foreign Trip 2008

The history department is off to the continent once more visiting Paris and Lille and a variety of sites of historical importance in and around both these destinations. The group of some thirty third to sixth years will be led by Miss Fleming ably assisted by Mr Christie, Mr McAndrew and Mrs Blyth.

The history department organise these visits in order to help pupils on Standard Grade courses deepen their understanding of the Unit they study on the causes and events of the First World War. It also allows staff to expose pupils to a wide range of cultural and historical events and to give them the chance to see that staff are actually human!

By the time the group returns they will have enjoyed the delights of a North Sea ferry, bus travel unlimited and lots of visits to museums, galleries, a youth hostel and sites of historical importance. Places to be visited include the site of the Armistice at Compiegne, The Belgian town of Ypres and its surrounding battlefields, the area of the titanic struggle for the gentle hills of the Somme district in France, the lovely cities of York and Durham and the beauties of unforgettable Paris.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a wonderful trip and to thank Miss Fleming for being brave enough to take on the weighty task of leading the group. For once I will not have to face the joys of ferry corridors and discos at one or two in the morning! Good luck everyone and have a great time!

Mr Haire

S5 and S6 Common Rooms

Both S5 and S6 have been enjoying their new common rooms, the first time senior pupils have had  dedicated common rooms for many years. The Parents’ Association provided the S6 group with a magnificent pool table and S5 are enjoying playing table tennis on their new table also provided by the Parents’ Association. John Lewis and Partners have provided S6 with a kettle, toaster, radio and some mugs. Our thanks go to both organisations for their support.

Staffing

We welcomed a number of new faces to the staff of the school in August and in the succeeding months.

Ms Lauren Anderson in Chemistry, Ms Rosie Billett in PE, Ms Wendy Muir in History, Mrs Fiona Nicholls in Geography, Ms Flora Steadman in Maths, Ms Rachel Vale in English, Mrs Christine Chisholm in Business Education, Ms Alvina Schwartz   and Ms Christiane Coquerelle  in Modern Language, Dr Cameron and Dr  Alder in Chemistry and Ms Jennifer Watson in Design Technology. Ms Alison Hamilton and Ms Stefanie Waltenberger as Learning Asisstants. Mr Ross Jamieson will take up post of Depute Headteacher at the start of January. My thanks go to Mr Jack Christie who has acted up in this position since August and also to Ms Nicola McShannon who has been acting Principal Teacher of PE.

I wish all the very best to the following staff who have recently left Penicuik High School. Mr David Haire retires at the end of this Month after 20 years as Principal Teacher of History my thanks go to him for these years of dedicated service to the school.  Mr Damien Hayes will take up post in early January in succession to Mr Haire. Mr Hayes currently teachers at Ross High School. Mr Andrew Collins has gained a very well merited promotion as Principal Teacher Curriculum at Bathgate Academy. Mrs Debbie Taylor has taken up a post as teacher of Modern Languages in her home town of Peebles. Mrs Helene Clark has returned to France with her family following her husband getting a new post in Brittany. Mrs Frances Renton has take up a new post in Fife following a family move to live in the Kingdom.

Music Department

The school has launched a Vocal Academy under the leadership of Miss Lundy. This group gives pupils the chance to sing together either as a large group or in small groups or as soloists. The Academy has 45 members who have already been practicing very hard for this year’s Christmas concert.

Congratulations to former Penicuik High School student Siobhan Miller who along with her colleague Jeana Leslie won the highly prestigious BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Musician of the Year. Siobhan and Jeana both attend The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow. We wish both every success in the future.

Parents' Association

Thanks to all who returned their voting slips on the new PA
constitution. There were 53 votes in favour, none against, and
6 who forgot to express a preference either way! This means that
our next meeting, at 7pm on Monday 14th January, in school, will
be our first as a parent council. We'll appoint members and
office bearers and then get on with our normal business. As usual,
all parents/carers are welcome to attend, whether or not they would
like to become official members. As ever, we are grateful to members
of the 50-50 club. Over the last year or so, the money raised
has supported a wide range of activities, including purchase of
laptops, a theatre performance, Arts week, the Student Council,
the leavers' function and equipment for student common rooms.
The PA chair is Murray Cole, who can be contacted on 672400 or
by e-mail to mic@inf.ed.ac.uk.).

Sports Results

Basketball
Senior Girls

• Penicuik HS 8-12 Newbattle CHS

Junior Boys

• Penicuik HS  8-2  Newbattle CHS

Football
Senior Boys Scottish Cup

• Merchiston Castle    3-5   Penicuik HS (1st Round)
• Penicuik HS             2-2  Craigmount HS (2nd Round,    Penicuik won 5-3 on penalties)

Senior Boys Lothians Cup

• Penicuik HS    3-3   Ross HS (1st Round, after extra time, Penicuik won 5-4 on penalties)

S3 Boys Scottish Cup

• Linlithgow      2-2   Penicuik HS (1st Round)
• Penicuik HS  0-1   Linlithgow   (Replay)

Our senior football team are through to the third round of the Scottish Cup and the  Lothian Cup, well done and good luck!

Congratulations to Claire Emslie 2a5 who has been selected for trials for the Scotland Under 15 team

Golf

Rose Challenge Cup

•  Jedburgh Grammar  3.5 - 2.5 Penicuik HS 

Hockey

Midlothian Festival (October)

• Penicuik HS "A"    1-0   Dalkeith HS "A"
• Penicuik HS "A"    4-0   Dalkeith HS "B"
• Penicuik HS "A"    1-1   Lasswade HS
• Penicuik HS "A"    4-0   Newbattle HS
• Penicuik HS "B"    2-0   Dalkeith HS "A"
• Penicuik HS "B"    1-0   Dalkeith HS "B"
• Penicuik HS "B"    0-2   Lasswade HS
• Penicuik HS "B"    1-0   Newbattle HS

S1/S2 Midlothian  Festival (November)

• Penicuik HS    0-5   Dalkeith HS
• Penicuik HS    0-1   Newbattle CHS
• Penicuik HS    1-1   Beeslack/Lasswade HS

Mixed Age Friendly

• Penicuik HS  4-2 Beeslack HS

S1/S2 Friendly

• Newbattle CHS  0-4 Penicuik HS

Congratulations to a number of our hockey players who have been selected for the East region team, and to Gwen Morton-Lloyd who has been selected for the Scotland U-16 squad.

Judo

Congratulations to Jodie Mullen, who did extremely well at the recent UK School Games held in Coventry, 24-26 August, winning a bronze medal in the Under-63 kg category.  

Swimming

• Congratulations to Jennifer Somerville who did incredibly well at the recent UK School Games held in Coventry in August.  She won two bronze medals in the 100 metres backstroke (she was first in her class) and in the 100 metres free.  Jennifer also went on to break the British Record for 200m Freestyle at the Dunedin Swimming Club meet at Glenrothes, and achieved 7 personal bests at the same meeting, a fantastic achievement. 

Congratulations to all who have performed so well.

Thyolo – Penicuik School Partnership

Our partnership is not yet two years old but already we have begun to share many aspects of our culture, traditions and areas of the curriculum.  There is a growing sense of excitement and goodwill in Malawi and in Scotland about the possibilities for our working together and learning from one another.

A highlight of this year has been the John Muir Trust Awards to Geography students in both schools.  S1 students in Penicuik earned the Bronze Award and the older students in Thyolo won the Silver Award.  Well Done to all students involved.

Other joint activities this year have included beginning a joint anthology of stories, through the English Departments, which we hope to publish later in 2008 and the setting up of an Enterprise Craft venture in Penicuik High.  Students are making ceramic items for sale under the expert tutelage of Mr McKale, principal teacher of Art.  Students in Thyolo plan to make carved wood items and cards.  There are more plans in the pipeline for joint curricular projects in Music, Life Skills and PE.

During Mrs Stewart’s visit in July 2007, we were able to improve communications via a more reliable internet link and several teachers are now in direct contact.  We are also able to text each other. 

In April 2008, we hope to welcome two teachers from Thyolo Secondary School, Mr Alan Gawani and Mr Sydreck Nachuma, for a 3-week stay during which they will teach, observe, plan new joint ventures and enjoy our Scottish hospitality.  Plans are already afoot to apply for funding from DfID to allow more teachers and several students to exchange visits during the 2008-9 session.

Watch this space!

Enterprise Success at IKEA

A group of S4 pupils studying Enterprise Through Craft in the Design and Technology Department had a very successful sale of their work at the Ikea store at the beginning of December.

Over the past term the pupils have manufactured a range of products such as candle holders, key rings, spice racks and games using batch production techniques. They then priced, marketed and packaged the products in order to simulate a real life enterprise situation. Ikea kindly allowed the pupils to sell their work to the general public in the shop cafeteria as part of their winter festival.

The pupils did an excellent job of promoting their work to members of the public who were very positive about the quality of the products on offer. The sale was a tremendous success with all stock sold in five hours and a turnover of £196.

Anti Bullying Policy

We recently updated our anti-bullying policy. As bullying is a concern for a number of parents I have included this policy along with this newsletter. Should you wish to discuss any aspects of this policy please contact Mr MacDonald, Depute Headteacher.

Standards and Quality Report

I have enclosed a full copy of our Standards and Quality report. A summary of this report is required to be published annually to each parent. I have decided once again this year to give a copy of the full report I feel that it is essential for you to have this information to let you know that we are committed to providing the best quality of education possible for your child.

Can I take this opportunity to wish you a happy Christmas and very good New Year.

Mark Edie

Headteacher