01

Emma Kirkbride –a success story!THE Theatre Arts programmehas produced a future star in Emma Kirkbride.

Emma, who is in S6, is thedance captain and helpschoreograph itemsand works withyounger pupils.

Emma willcontinue herstudies atEdinburghUniversityafter thesummer whenshe enrols inthe BEd(Hons)programmein physicaleducation.

Launch event – page 06Science is fun – page 07 Litter gets binned – page 07

Govan High SchoolAchievements!

ISSUE 5

GOVAN High is leading theway for S1 school attendance in Glasgow.Our figure of 92 per cent

attendance is five per centhigher than the city-wideaverage and proof, if it were needed,

that Govan High is a greatplace for children to learn.

As our recent S1 parents’survey in April has shown,there is an excellent level of“customer satisfaction”.

The positive findings from the survey included satisfaction

over the curriculum and seniormanagement of the school.

Comments included: “Sincemy daughter has been atGovan High I have seen a big change in her. She comes home HAPPY!”

The full survey results andcomments can be viewed at:www.govanhigh.glasgow.sch.uk

■ More survey news on page 8

THE Scottish Affairs SelectCommittee of the House ofCommons has been holding an inquiry into skills andrecruitment for the defenceindustry in Scotland.

The committee is chaired byMohammed Sarwar MP andincludes local MP for Govan,Ian Davidson.

In March, the committee helda session at Thales Optronics tohear evidence from relevanteducational institutions,including Govan High School,which was represented by headteacher Iain White and deputehead Kevin Sweeney.

The committee was soimpressed by their contributionthat Iain was asked to submitfurther written evidence andKevin was invited to presentevidence to a full committeehearing in Westminster.

Kevin went to London andappeared as a witness to the

committee on 14 May. Thequestions ranged from GovanHigh School’s implementationof its new skills-basedcurriculum, to the impacts of regeneration in the Govan community.

Again the select committeewas impressed by thecontribution from Govan High,

so much so,that it hasdecided to launch thereport on its findings in Govan High School on 23 June.

That event will take place afterthe publication of thisnewsletter – but you can expecta full report in the firstnewsletter of the new session.

UK Parliament hears how we are

preparing our future

Our survey says Govan has a great school for all pupils

Kevin Sweeney (inset) spoke at Westminster

Sponsored by

Victoria is a realhigh flyerVICTORIA Keir isin S5. Last yearshe achievednine StandardGrade Creditpasses – eightof them atGrade 1 andthis year she has beenstudying for five Highers inbusiness management,chemistry, English,mathematics and physics.

She got A passes in all ofthese at the preliminaryexaminations and we lookforward to further success fromVictoria when the final resultsare announced in August.

02

THIS is a veryexciting time forGovan High, andapart from beingin the school itself,there is no betterplace to see thatthan thisAchievementsNewsletter. We are able tocelebrate somany storieswhere pupils

have been successful in a variety ofdifferent learning experiences and havedeveloped many skills as a result – skillsthat will benefit them as they seekemployment.

This session, attendance has improved,pupil behaviour has improved with 25per cent fewer incidents referred,exclusion incidents are down by 32 percent, and we are predicting tremendoussuccess in National Tests for S2 pupils.

Estimates indicate that Level Eperformance will have improved by nineper cent in maths, six per cent inreading and 11 per cent in writing.

These S2 pupils have been followingAccess and Intermediate courses in all of their subjects and we are expectingthem to do very well with NationalQualifications too, two years ahead of pupils in many other schools!

The most important indicator of howwe are doing are the Leaver Destinationfigures. In recent years, we havereduced the unemployed figure from 32 per cent to 21 per cent and expectto reduce that further.

Just this week, our PositiveDestinations team reported six youngpeople leaving to start jobs in motormechanics, construction and the law.

Our dream is that someday all leaverswill someday go to a positivedestination and we are moving towardsmaking that dream come true.

Enjoy the read!Iain White – head teacher

From theheidie’s office

As a result of our continuing work withDetermined to Succeed, Govan Highreceived the highest awards in all areas atthis year’s Glasgow Education Awards.

We achieved a Diamond Award forenterprise in education and workingalong with our partners in the learningestablishments within Govan LearningCommunity, we were also awarded theNew Learning Community Award and the New Learning Community BusinessEngagement Award.

Determined to Succeed is the ScottishGovernment’s strategy for enterprise ineducation to help young people develop

self-confidence, self-reliance and ambitionto achieve their goals – in work and in life. Examples of Determined to Succeedevents we have held over the past yearinclude our Christmas Coffee Morning, S3 Business Week, Fashion Extravaganza,Annual Talent Show, Financial Education DVD, Fair Trade Day and our student exchanges to many different European countries.

If you would like to know more aboutDetermined to Succeed, please contactemployability and enterprise officer Susan McAuley, on: 0141 582 0090 or at: smcauley@govanhigh.glasgow.sch.uk

THE Positive Destinations Programmeaims to make sure that every pupil wholeaves school has a job, college oruniversity place

For this, we have received and willreceive additional funding, from theScottish Government, Glasgow CityCouncil and the Hunter Foundation.

We are working with a number of pupils in their applications for

apprenticeships with BAE Systems, ThalesOptronics and City Building.

Our additional careers adviser, FionaFleming and our youth support workers,Derek Montgomery, Stewart Macgregorand Jacqui Fitzpatrick work with about 34of our senior pupils to prepare them forGet Ready for Work courses, and YouthEmployment and Training Schemes afterthey leave school.

A student council hasbeen established againthis term for pupils andstaff at the school andAutism Unit.

The council post holdersare: president AustinSheridan, vice presidentZara Savage and treasurerDeborah Mullholland.

The council is alreadyconsidering:

■ an outdoor learningcentre to get people

out of the classroommore

■ toilets improvement ■ a water machine for the

Autism Unit.

If you have questions or suggestions, email: austinsheridan@govanhigh.glasgow.sch.uk.

Govan Highstudent councilgets under way

School leavers given help

Learning is a real Diamond

Pupils at a Determined to Succeed event

Govan High School

03

ISSUE 5

KICKS ‘n’ Tricks is apartnership between GlasgowSouth West RegenerationAgency (GSWRA), StrathclydePolice, Rangers Football Cluband Culture and SportGlasgow. It is supported by theBig Lottery, CommunitiesScotland, Glasgow CityCouncil and Glasgow HousingAssociation and was launchedin August 2006.

The project aims to reduceantisocial behaviour, crime and the fear of crime throughstructured activity. Kicks ‘n’Tricks is a portable soccer arenaand in along with with CRE8,a mobile internet learningfacility, is deployed onThursday, Friday and Saturdayevenings at three local

hot-spot areas of Govan. A dedicated football

development officer, who isemployed by Rangers FootballClub, is seconded on a full-time basis to the project.

The project has been a huge

success with more than 100young people taking part on aweek-to-week basis. It will nowalso be deployed at secondaryschools where young peoplewill be able to access it duringthe school curriculum.

THIS year we have seen theintroduction of EngineeringCraft Skills which involves thecompletion of three units anda final project.

This course involves students using a wide range of machinery, tools andequipment.

This course is assessedinternally, where the level of accuracy and assistancerequired will determine thelevel (Intermediate 1 or 2) andgrade achieved by students.

From August 2008 we areentering a partnership withStow College, AnnieslandCollege and BAE Systems.

Classes will take place in theschool’s Technical Departmentand in Stow College. Pupilscan then progress to heavierengineering in a course runjointly by the school andAnniesland College. BAESystems will be supportingdevelopment of these courses.

To find out more, contact theTechnical Department.

Our hairdressersare a cut aboveLECTURER Isabella Morrison,who works with several classes inthe Govan High School salon,has supplied figures indicatingthat the hairdressing course hasa 100 per cent success rate forPositive Destinations.

Every one of this year’s 24senior hairdressing students hasstayed on at school, gained acollege place or got a job in a hairdressing salon.

Since the salon was opened atthe beginning of the school yearit has been a great success.

This session an S2 group andtwo upper-school groups havegained modules in hairdressing.

Another group have gained amodule in presentation skills andtwo students, Grant MacAskilland Raymond McArthur, havealso successfully overtaken amodule in barbering.

Kids doing it for kicks

Engineering given boost

The CRE8 mobile learning unit

Key skills arebeing learned

The busysalon

Employers enjoy breakfast

Morningmeeting is a big success

Our breakfast meeting foremployers took place inMay, with 20 localemployers enjoying ahealthy breakfast preparedby June Alba and Anne Keay.

The range of companiesincluded building andconstruction, scaffolding,painting and decorating,catering, hairdressing, metalfabrication and graphicdesign. The guests watcheda DVD and heard about thedifferent ways in which theschool and local employerscan work together inpartnership.

Former pupilsget to work

KERRY Porter, Ross Caw, Colin McEwan and SimoneBrown have all secured jobs at Corrie’s Solicitors in Glasgow.

Gareth Ware, one of thesenior partners at Corrie’s,interviewed the candidatesand confirmed that theywere successful for theavailable positions.

The young people will beworking as part of a team,and their role will be tosupport the firm with basicadministration duties.

The former pupils allstarted their first day in May.

IN April, Hair Razin’ Records,our S5/6 Enterprise ThroughMusic class, took over the BBCat Pacific Quay to hold thelaunch party for this year’srelease – a CD of cover versionscalled “Wannabeez”.

Enterprise Through Music is a business studies course whereits students can learn realbusiness skills.

During their course the recordcompany “discovered” theartists (pupils and teachers fromschool), negotiated forcopyright on backing tracks,

recorded them at SplashProductions in Johnstone and manufactured the CD in London.

The launch party was hostedby the BBC’s Bryan Burnett and featured a speech byStephanie MacPherson – thisyear’s company manager – andperformances by the artists.

The show included

performances from HannahBrown, Emma Farrell andCourtney Hamilton, schoolband “Badly Put Together”, GHSPerforming Arts dance troupeand Daniel McInnes, who mustbe Scotland’s youngest Elvisimpersonator.

Ewan McLeod, of InfluxRecords, spoke about the courseas did Alex McLean, viceprincipal of Stow College.

To top the night off, theaudience were treated to anexcellent performance of“Islands In The Stream” byGraham Robertson and PhilipGraham from the school staff.

06

Welcome forlearning visit

THE Learning ResourceCentre recently played hostto an Austrian guest,Monika Dlaska, who isstudying a degree ininformation literacy. Monika said: “I was veryimpressed with the workthat is being done withinthe Scottish informationliteracy project. It willinform my future work.”

FashionExtravaganza

GOVAN High took part in“Fashion Extravaganza”, aGovan Learning CommunityDetermined to Succeedevent. The extravaganzainvolved pupils from otherschools and nursery schoolsin the community.

Dressed for success

S1 Kelvingrove visit

S1 pupils visited the Centrefor New Enlightenment atthe Kelvingrove Museum inMay – supporting theCurriculum for Excellence.

THIS year, the two-day eventto introduce P7 pupils to thesecondary school, took placeon 29 and 30 May.

This event is part of ourcommitment to ensure thetransition from primary tosecondary runs as smoothlyas possible.

It works alongside ourPrimary Liaison Policy, withprimary and secondaryteachers working togetherto encourage a deeperunderstanding of thelearning and teaching whichtakes place within each

other’s establishments. This eases progression for

children both educationallyand socially.

This two-day programmehas been created based onthe objectives of the ScottishGovernment’s “Determinedto Succeed Policy”, whilstworking towards the criteriaof Curriculum for Excellence,as well as our own FutureSkills Policy.

The itinerary involves oneday of active outdoorlearning in Pollok CountryPark and one day’s

familiarisation at GovanHigh.

The activities the pupilsundertake are based oneffective team working towork and socialise with thepupils who will eventuallyattend with them in theiryear group.

The activity also gets themfamiliar with the school interms of procedures andlayout of the building.

The event alsoincorporated a parents’information evening on 28May at the school.

Monika Dlaska (centre)

A great night to remember

A BUSINESS STUDIES COURSE WHERESTUDENTS CAN LEARN REAL BUSINESS SKILLS

Govan High’s dance troupe have got all the right moves!

Introducing the next class

07

Govan High School ISSUE 5

Chloe FernsChloe Ferns isabout to finishher HNC inDance atAnnieslandCollege and will return nextsession to do the HND.

She will be spending thissummer in London at theUniversity College LaineTheatre Arts summer school.

JamesMcKenzieJames is workingwith One StopRoofing Supplies

in Govan. He began on awork experience placement.

James did so well during hisplacement, and impressedhis employers so much, thathe has moved into full-timeemployment ahead ofschedule. A local lad doingwell at a local company!

Lesley DaviesLesley Davies, came to schooland gave a talk to ourBusiness Management classesrecently.

Lesley spoke about life sinceleaving school and studyingaccountacy at GlasgowUniversity, before working atKPMG then joining NationalGroup Australia, where sheworks today.

Liath HarrisonLiath Harrison,has completedher applied music degree at StrathclydeUniversity.

A number ofpupils attended heroutstanding final recital atthe Jordanhill Campus on 16 May, when Liath sang,played saxophone, pianoand guitar.

SOME S1 pupils took part in a litter pickproject in Elder Park recently, as part of theKeep Scotland Beautiful National Spring Clean Campaign.

Pupils armed with black bags, high visibilityvests, gloves and litter pickers set off aroundthe park – practically fighting over therubbish, such was the eagerness to win the

prize (and of coursetidy up the park!).

The pupils collectedalmost 25 bags ofrubbish as well aseight traffic cones, ashopping trolley,baseball bat and ahammer – to namebut a few of therandom things!

Pastoral Care

PASTORAL Care’s MrsMorgan and MrsTempleman, took 30 S1pupils to Xscape (picturedbelow) for a game oftenpin bowling as a rewardfor high attendance, goodtimekeeping and goodbehaviour. Needless to say Mrs Morgan was theoverall winner!

Attendance andtimekeepingA NEW text service is nowin place to inform parents iftheir child is absent or late.If your child has not arrivedin school by 9.30am, a textwill be sent directly to your mobile. If you havechanged your contactdetails please let us know.

Johnny Ballat the BBCLAST month S2 Intermediate 1 Physics class visited the BBCand met TV legendJohnny Ball.

Johnny waspresenting onmaths and physics,and explained lotsof interesting mathsand scienceconcepts withclarity – and plentyof jokes thrown infor good measure.

For the class, it was almost likea revision lecture for their exam.

It’s also worth noting thateveryone in the class has passedall the unit NABS (SQA NationalAssessment Bank Tests) atIntermediate 1 and have allmade excellent progress.

Franz for the memories

ALEX Kapranos, lead singer with Franz Ferdinand, popped in to oversee our School of Rock project with pupils recently.

Johnny Ball with some future scientists

Former pupils

What a load of rubbish!

08

Govan High School ISSUE 5

THE Autism Unit (AU), in its fifth year of operating, has succeeded in gaining a Diamond Award for Enterprisefrom Determined to Succeed.

This session pupils have beeninvolved in the AU EnterprisesCompany (a committee electedby the pupil and staffshareholders). They haveorganised an annual pooltournament and all pupilshave had the opportunity to

design motifs for either T-shirtsor mugs, which were thenproduced and sold.

Pupils also organised a raffleand stall at the Govan HighChristmas Coffee morning andcontinue to run a Fair Trade

stall each week. And staff have

forged links withorganisations, ranging from privatebusinesses tocharities. As a result,fourth and fifth-yearstudents had theopportunity take up avariety of supportedwork-experienceplacements.

Finally, third and fourth-yearpupils are set to participate in a residential opportunity,thanks to Scottish YouthHostels Association andProvident.

Ladies run forcharity and fun

STAFF and S5/6 pupilstrained extremely hard forthe women’s 10k which tookplace in May – raising moneyfor Malawi as well as the School Fund.

Well done to the buddingathletes listed below!

Andrena Fatkin, CarlaMcCracken, StephanieMcPerson, Stephanie O’Neill,Miss Bonner, Mrs Kerr, MissMcNaught and Mrs Morgan.

Clothing grantinformation for next session

SCHOOLS will no longer beprovided with a supply ofClothing Grants/Free SchoolMeals application forms forthe next school session.

With effect from 6 May2008, Clothing Grant/FreeSchool Meals applicationforms for next session will be available to downloaddirectly from the Council’swebsite (see below).

Only new applicants arerequired to download anapplication form. Forms will be posted in April/Mayto all previous applicants.

Application forms for over 16s will only becomeavailable to download from the website whenpupils return to school in August 2008. Visit:www.glasgow.gov.uk/en/Residents/GoingtoSchool

THE senior girls football teamhas had a superb season takingpart in the Glasgow “Soccer G”league at Glasgow Green. Thegirls have performed very wellbeating Holyrood, Hillpark and St Andrew’s.

Well done to Stephanie Dykes(captain), Natalie Deans, KellieHarvey, Natalie Hunter,Danielle McDonald, JenniMelvin, Zara Savage andShaunie Fleming for theirfootballing efforts.

The S1/2 team wasestablished in January and has already proved itself, byconceding only one goal at the Coca-Cola 7s tournamentin February.

Well done to Lauren Shaw(captain), Jennifer Ferguson,

Lauren McCann, Chelsea Mills, Jodie O’Donnell,Siobhan Smith, Teejay Tinney, Sarah Wilson.

The girls are having a ball

Helping US outAmerican studentMcKenzie Dove (aboveright) has been taking S1girls for football, which isteaching them footballskills, teamwork, respect,and communication.

Can we kick it? Yes we can!

Autism Unit winsDiamond Awardfor Enterprise

■ From page 1

IN the Govan High S1 ParentsSurvey, we gave out a series of statements and asked whether respondents agreed or disagreed .

The questions included: ■ The school is right to involve

colleges and employers as wellas staff with my child’s

education –100 per centagreed.

■ I think that the curriculum inGovan High is right for mychild – 90 per cent agreed

■ I am confident about mychild’s education at GovanHigh School – 100 per centagreed.

■ I think the school iswell led by thesenior staff – 90 percent agreed

■ I have opportunitiesto be involved indiscussions about

education and imroving theschool – 90 per cent agreed

A full list of the survey resultsand comments comments can be viewed at:www.govanhigh.glasgow.sch.uk

Our survey says Govan has a great school for all pupils