gryffe high school

Caring • Learning • Achieving www.gryffehigh.com

Date: 6/02/19 Dear Parents/Carers/Relatives/Pupils I hope you enjoy this month’s newsletter.

Charity News

Iain raises the fantastic sum of £2000 for Beatson Iain Milne (4W) recently raised the sum of £2000 in aid of The Beatson Cancer Charity. Iain accomplished this through a sponsored bike ride around Millport that he completed with his family. What a fantastic achievement, well done Iain!

Also, Olympic Team Announcement

Fantastic news for Lara Cabrera-Myram in S4! She has just achieved selection for the 27-strong Team GB for the Sarajevo 2019 European Youth Olympic Winter Festival. Lara will be Snowboarding. An amazing achievement. Very well done Lara!

Index Page

1 Charity News; Olympic Team Announcement

2 Parent Council Update; PTA Update

3 Attainment & Achievement

4,5 Update from the Pupil Management Group

6 Remembering the Holocaust

7 Advanced Higher Chemists visit University

of Strathclyde

8 S1 Pupils get Creative with Hill Forts 9 Cyberfirst Girls Competition Entry

10 Modern Studies pupils enjoy trip to Scottish Parliament

11 Promoting Positive Relationships ‘Shout Out’

12,13 Young Musician of the Year 2019 14 Musical Carrots and Bananas;

S6 Driving Success!!

15 Modern Languages Pupil of the Month;

Stars of Science

16 Drama News

17 World Challenge Expedition 2019... Bolivia!!; Liam wins the Scottish Tennis Junior Indoor 18 Phoebe takes part in the Young Chef District

Final, organised by the Rotary Club 19 Morgan Stanley Finance and Technology Apprenticeship Event 20 Communication via Show My Homework

Upcoming priorities/events

Old Bridge of Weir Road, Houston, PA6 7EB Tel: 01505 690633 Fax: 01505 690888 e-mail: [email protected] web address: www.gryffehigh.com Head Teacher: Mr Colin H Johnson BSc

Follow us on Twitter @GryffeHighSch @Gryffe_Sports

Website

Gryffe High

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.gryffehigh.com/


Parent Council Our Parent Council met on Monday 14 January at 7:00 pm, with the following agenda: 1. Welcome, Sederunt and Apologies 2. Minutes 3. Pupil Management Group 4. Fairtrade/Citizenship/Rights Respecting Schools

Award Miss Rowan 5. Show My Homework Ms Sharp 6. Digital Schools Mr Vannet 7. National Parent Forum

Debbie Newlands/David McDonald 8. Renfrewshire Parent Council Liaison Update

Torquil Murray/David McDonald 9. PTA Update Torquil Murray 10. Head Teacher Update Mr Johnson

Achievement & Attainment Visit Curriculum ICT Proposed School Holiday Arrangements

2020/2021 YPI Presentations – Wednesday 27 March

You can find all the above PowerPoint presentations on the school website, under ‘PARTNERSHIPS’, then the tab ‘Parent Council and PTA’

Please feel free to attend any Parent Council Meeting, without commitment, in order to help us support improvement throughout the school. Other Parent Council Meetings for the year are:

Monday 4 March Monday 29 April Monday 3 June

PTA News We would like to thank everyone who attended our Christmas Fayre on Wed 28 November . Despite the dreadful weather, the fantastic sum of just under £1500 was raised whilst folks did some Christmas shopping & enjoyed mulled wine and Christmas pies to the background music provided by the school choir. We have some exciting events planned for 2019 . Firstly, on Friday 22 March we are holding a Pamper Evening in the school for ladies of all ages. This is just 1 week before Mothers Day and is a fantastic opportunity to pick up unique gifts and enjoy competitively priced beauty treatments. Places will be limited, so please watch out for ticket details on the school website & ShowMyHomework. Our Annual Raffle will take place in the Summer term ….look out for tickets coming home with pupils in April. A new venture in the Summer term will be our proposed Treasure Hunt & BBQ which we are planning as a fantastic conclusion to the P7 Induction Week on Fri 14 June. This event is in the planning stages, however save the date and get your team together. Details to follow.

Please support the work of the PTA at Gryffe High School. Looking forward to seeing you at our forthcoming events. Mrs Sheila McHarg - PTA Chair


Attainment

and Achievement

(Broad General Education) The opportunity for pupils to reflect

and evaluate their strengths

and areas for improvement as well as

record skill development and personal successes.

Raising Attainment

All pupils should be aware of how they are progressing within their different subjects. Information

surrounding the levels that we track throughout the Broad General Education (S1-3) is on this page.

Parent/Carer Termly Review and Pupil Progress There are many pages in the Learning Diaries for pupils to record their own progress within their subjects as well as detail any specific skills developed or achievements that they may wish to record on their My MerIT profile (Gryffe uses this online platform for pupil profiling).

At the beginning of this section, there is an area for ‘Parent/Carer Termly Review’. We would ask that you please sign off your child’s progress record if you can, confirming that this information has been shared with you. We greatly appreciate your support as our partners in education and believe this will improve communication between school and home out with reports and parents’ evenings.

Wider Achievements Pupils are also given additional space to record skills development and achievement both within and out with the curriculum. As well as this, there is a section to detail the success of being rewarded a token in recognition for curricular, across the curriculum or extra-curricular success. By keeping an up to date MyMerit profile, pupils will have clear and detailed records of their skills development across their school life and be able to utilise this information for personal statements, job applications etc.


Update from the Pupil Management Group School Captains Last month, both Shaun Sweeney and I (Matthew McCaw) hosted our first Captains Conference of the year. We met with the head pupils from different schools across the authority. We each gave a 10-15 minute presentation on what we believe to be our school’s most successful and effective project running to date. For Shaun and I, we thought that we would highlight the excellent work that our support staff do here at Gryffe, especially within our Wellbeing committee (more about them later). We then went on to discuss what Shaun and I do as School Captains, alongside our pupil management team. Our pupil management team meet every Friday morning at 8am, sharp! Shaun and I chair this meeting together and included are our Committee Heads and House Captains. In addition to this, Mr Johnson, Mrs Brown and Mr Findlay are all present. As a large group of hard-working, motivated and enthusiastic pupils, we have managed to make a significant difference to the school by involving ourselves more in the day-to-day life of the school. For example, our lead Wellbeing Ambassadors (Cara and Mhairi) and I have taken a very involved role with our younger years and Shaun has been working with a group of senior pupils to create a pupil development plan for the school. Shaun and I would like to thank the pupil management team and all staff and parents/carers who have assisted us thus far in our roles and hope to continue our hard work as a team to ensure the best possible environment for our pupils to work in.


Eco Committee Being the largest committee in the school, we sometimes find it difficult to ensure everybody has a role to play. To combat this, a number of smaller groups and teams have been created. We have a Social Media Team, which concentrates on spreading the Eco word, posting our fun fact of the week to help make people more aware of the larger global impact. As mentioned before, our S6 recycling team are kept very busy around the school. To try and increase the presence of the committee within the local area, we also have a primary links team, which liaises with Houston, Bridge of Weir and St. Fillans Primary Schools. Our S1 group has recently been given the responsibility of planning, organising and managing the Eco Committee’s role within the P7 into S1 induction week. This is very important as it allows the new S1’s to gain an insight into the committee and what we do. Over the past 6 months the committee has been working towards reducing the amount of paper within the school being wasted. The committee agreed that the paper bulletin, which is read out every Monday morning is very wasteful. Every week 80 pieces of paper are printed, that amounts to nearly 3000 pieces of A4 paper every year! We have set the wheels in motion for the bulletin to go digital and paperless. There have been numerous ideas of other ways to convey important information across to both staff and pupils, including using the newly implemented homework system; Show My Homework. The committee would love to hear your thoughts and opinions on this matter and any support would be greatly appreciated. We thank all staff and pupils for the support they provide the committee. Communities The Communities Captains Niamh Heywood and Charlotte Stuart have been really busy over the past few months in and around Gryffe High School. Every day, several S6 pupils have been going out into the Houston Community litter picking, ensuring a clean and healthy environment for all. Additionally, Communities have been going to Mosswood Care Home in Linwood every Wednesday to teach the residents (and even some of the staff!) some Spanish. This project has brought great enjoyment to both the residents, and the S5/S6 students taking part who have built lasting relationships with their new elderly friends. Just before Christmas, the committee even arranged a musical showcase for the care home, with performances from the school’s Choir and Jazz band. This was again highly enjoyable and a great way to end the year! Moving forward, Communities plan to continue and grow their already successful efforts, so watch this space! Wellbeing Aromatherapy Recently, a group of sixth years have been working to try and help many pupils in exam years to feel less stressed around the prelim time. We were provided with funding for this project from the Hearty Lives Foundation and we chose to learn about aromatherapy. The group of 6th years have been taught about the physical and emotional benefits of using essential oils and been taught how to make up different blends of oils which complement each other. We were taught this by Laura Naismith who is a holistic therapist. We have been making Aromatherapy Roller Balls to attempt to help pupils to stay calm during the prelims and the exams later on in the year. We have created 3 different blends to help us to achieve this. The different blends are: Focus – to help concentration Tranquillo – to help create calm Sweet Dreams – to help aid sleep

These oils were available for 5th and 6th years to buy during the prelim timetable for only £1. All of the profit from the project will be going towards a mental health charity.


In assemblies this month we reflected on the Holocaust Memorial Trust's theme 'Torn from Home'. Holocaust Memorial Day took place on January 27th - the 74th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. The rights that so many pupils support and work to promote throughout the school are key to our school objectives of Caring, Learning and Achieving. We reflected on someone from our home who displayed these values, but who was a victim of the Holocaust. Jane Haining was a Church of Scotland missionary who was born in Dumfriesshire, educated at Dumfries Academy, and worked at J & P Coats, Paisley. She served in Budapest, at a Church of Scotland school for girls. It was during the Nazi domination of Europe that she refused to come back to Scotland as she would not leave her pupils. When the Nazi's did occupy Hungary in 1944, Jews were treated with the same distaste and injustice as other Nazi territories. Jane was arrested for 'espionage on behalf of England' and supporting Jews. She was taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau where she died two months later.

Jane Haining epitomised the values that so many of our pupils promote across our school. This was a key event to allow pupils to reflect on how important our rights are to maintaining a fair, equal, and respectful community and world. Article - Mr A Vannet

Teacher of History

‘Torn from Home’ – Remembering the Holocaust


Advanced Higher Chemists visit University of Strathclyde As part of the Advanced Higher Chemistry course, S6 pupils visited the Chemistry Department at the University of Strathclyde. The pupils were there to carry out analysis techniques on Organic samples that they had already synthesised in school. This provides the pupils with very useful information, necessary for their SQA Project. Article - Mrs L Jamison Teacher of Chemistry


S1 Pupils get Creative with Hill Forts

S1 are currently working on their History unit in Social Subjects. As part of this, they are studying the Picts and Egyptians. All classes were challenged to create a Hill Fort over the Christmas holidays, showing life in Ancient Scotland. The pupils were very creative with some even baking cakes, which were then enjoyed by their classmates! Article - Miss S Kennedy

Teacher of Modern Studies


Cyberfirst Girls Competition Entry Wishing S2 pupils Keira McGarvey, Hannah McLarnon, Amy Anthony and Elisa Terra the very best of luck with their entry to the CyberFirst Girls Competition. Calling themselves Team 'Gryffe Graingers', the girls have worked tirelessly giving up all of their lunchtimes to work in ICT. They have also been working at home to move through the stages of the competition. The online CyberFirst Girls competition aims to provide a fun but challenging environment to encourage and inspire the next generation of young women to consider computer science as an option with a view to a future career in cyber security. The idea is for the girls to answer as many questions as they can across four categories, earning badges along the way. In each category, the challenges are separated into three levels of difficulty: beginner, intermediate and expert. Each level will have up to five challenges available at once, with more becoming unlocked as the girls progress through the challenges. Each question is derived from skills used every day by cyber security professionals and all can be answered using techniques freely available on the Internet. The girls will have to work, discuss and research together to solve as many challenges as they can. Article - Mr M Mackinnon

Acting Faculty Head ABC


Modern Studies pupils enjoy trip to Scottish Parliament On Thursday 10 January S4 Modern Studies enjoyed a trip to the Scottish Parliament for First Minister's Questions. The trip started with a visit to the parliament’s education department where we learned about the work of MSPs and the First Minister. We then went to see this in practice at First Ministers Question. Questions included a variety of topics such as the investigation into Alex Salmond, Universal Credit and ASN provision in schools. British Sign Language interpreters were at First Minister's Questions for the first time in a new pilot to make it more accessible to the public. Following the session, pupils also got to meet some of their MSPs for a question and answer session. Pupils asked the MSP’s about assessment in schools, PSE programmes and mental health. Thanks to Miss Kennedy for her hard work in organising the trip. Article - Miss H Rowan Acting Principal Teacher of Achievements and Teacher of Modern Studies


Young Musician of the Year 2019

The ‘Young Musician of the Year Competition’, adjudicated by Mr. David Murray, was a most enjoyable evening held in the school theatre. S5 pupil Matthew Hill welcomed everyone with the sound of the bagpipes. Many congratulations to all of our Finalists, who brought a very high standard of music to the theatre. Special congratulations to winners Sasha Kaloheris (Intermediate Category) and Laura Workman (Senior Category). Sasha delighted the audience with her fabulous rendition of ‘With You’ and Laura played a highly accomplished version of ‘Spanischer’ on the flute. Although there had to be winners, ALL of the finalists were amazing. Mr Murray gave each finalist very detailed and constructive feedback and spoke of his difficulty in selecting winners from an overall high standard.

Intermediate Rebecca Graham Voice Christian Galvin Guitar Gregor Hewitt Trumpet Rachel Jamieson Guitar Sasha Kaloheris Voice

Senior

Laura Workman Flute Charlotte Stuart Voice Lewis Da Silva Piano Ellie Houston Voice Kirsten MacKinnon Piano

Special thanks to Mr Murray for his excellent adjudication, Presenters Erin Morrison and Katie Reid and the Music Department. The Junior category of the competition will be held at a later date. We were also delighted that pupils and staff from Houston Primary were able to join us and experience our Young Musician Competition. They may be our stars of the future! Have a listen to some clips from 'Young Musician of the Year 2019' competition on the school You Tube Channel - https://youtu.be/Pl7dss_It1I

https://youtu.be/Pl7dss_It1I


We were delighted to have our future stars from Houston Primary School enjoy the evenings competition.


Musical Carrots and Bananas

Can you use carrots to play chords? Can you use bananas to keep a beat? S2 pupils discovered that they could do this in their Music class. They learned that when a MakeyMakey, which is a small electronic invention kit, is connected to a computer, it transforms everyday objects into an input device. One end of a crocodile clip was attached to the MakeyMakey and the other to a carrot. Scratch was used as a source for the musical sounds, and pupils used their aural skills to create melodies from carrots, or bananas, or even each other. Article - Mrs J Cockburn Teacher of Music

S6 Pupils Driving Success!

Throughout the year, many S6 pupils pass their driving test when they become 17. Local driving school JbS are very good at keeping us up to date with who has passed, by tagging the school on Twitter @GryffeHighSch JbS Driver Tuition - Houston, Renfrewshire. (T-075 85 75 85 28) (www.jbsdrivertuition.co.uk) @drivejbs ( on Twitter) Here are the details of 3 recent successes - Ross Cuthbertson Matthew McCaw Phoebe O’Neill Well done to you all and to all the others who have passed their driving test in S6.

SAFE DRIVING!


The Modern Languages Department continues our Pupil of the Month initiative to celebrate the successes of our learners. We focus on a different skill/quality every month and each teacher nominates one pupil from each of their classes who successfully demonstrates this particular skill. Below you will find the winners for January for their fantastic commitment to their learning in Modern Languages. Bon travail à tous! ¡Buen trabajo todos!

Stars of Science

The science department continue to celebrate success through the star of science award. Each teacher nominates one pupil out of all the pupils they teach who has demonstrated extra efforts in science. Below is the list of winners for January.

Teacher Pupil

Miss Badger Sam Carvil 2.5

Miss Ballantyne Rhoda Hewitson 2.7

Mrs Costello Lewis Harris 4M

Mr Christie Oscar James 4B

Mrs Henry Lottie Barry 3B

Mrs Jamison Thomas Campbell 6B

Mrs McGeough Eilidh Meek 3M

Miss Robinson Phoebe Singer 2.1

Mrs Smith Gregor Speir 4B

Miss Tipping Aidan McGinley 3W

Mrs Tunstead Erica Chalmers 1.7


Drama News!

Staff vs. Pupils Talent Competition Thank you to the staff and pupils who took part in and came along to the Staff vs Pupil Talent Competition in December. It was great to see everyone supporting each other and the monies raised will go towards the costs of the school show. The pupils won the trophy (this time!). Thank you to Mr McClelland and Miss O'Hara for representing the teachers; the Gryffe High Tech Team; Mr Anderson, Mr Smith, and their mini-mes, Peter Boyd and Aaron Caulfield; and a big "Congratulations!" to the pupils who won: Sasha Kaloheris, Abigail McClelland, Shaun Lynch, Murray Gray, and Cara McMurtie. The staff of Gryffe High are preparing our come-back.... S3 Drama Showcase The S3 Drama class showcased a range of their work on the course on Thursday 10th January for parents, family, friends and S2s who are interested in pursuing Drama in S3. The evening consisted of games, performances and demonstrations of production skills work. Mrs Carter would like to extend her congratulations to the S3 Drama class for their hard work preparing for the evening, putting together the events, entertaining the guests and for your hard work in general! Hairspray Rehearsals started back up on Wednesday 9th January, after school until 4:30. Although the show is five months away we have fifteen weeks of Wednesday rehearsals left! Tickets will be on sale from March but are available to pre-order now (see Mrs Carter). Design Competition Congratulations to Molly Speir in S6 who won the design competition for our show. Molly's design will showcase on our posters, tickets, programme and more. Check out Molly's design: Mrs Carter is looking forward to an exciting year of Drama Article - Mrs B Carter Teacher of English and Drama


World Challenge Expedition 2019…………. Bolivia!!!!!

With the Bolivia World Challenge expedition now under 150 days away, excitement is definitely building within the teams. Challengers were lucky to be allowed to Bag Pack at Morrisons in Johnstone, on Sunday 23rd of December. This was obviously a very busy shopping day pre-Christmas. The challengers covered eight tills for a backbreaking total of six hours. This was another excellent opportunity for participants to both fundraise and create stronger bonds with one another. Thankfully the fruits of their labour paid off. With the generosity of the shoppers, the teams managed to raise an amazing £930 between them. Article by Aaron Mills S5

Liam wins the Scottish Tennis Junior Indoor Title We had some excellent news to start the year with when S1 pupil Liam O'Brien won the Scottish Tennis Junior Indoor Boys U12 title at Scotstoun. Liam scored an impressive 6-4 6-1 in the final. Congratulations Liam! Thank you to 'Tennis Scotland' for allowing us to use their photographs.


Phoebe takes part in the Young Chef District Final, organised by the Rotary

Club

Well done to Phoebe Singer, S2, who participated in the District Final of the Young Chef Competition on

Wednesday 23rd January at South Lanarkshire College, East Kilbride.

Phoebe had won the qualifying round of the Gryffe Valley’s Rotary Club’s Young Chef Competition that took place in Gryffe High last November. Phoebe planned, costed, prepared and presented three courses in two hours. ~Menu~ Carrot and Orange Soup served with Irish Soda Bread Caramelised Baked Chicken served with Rice and Spiralised Vegetables Molten Chocolate Puddings Phoebe is pictured here with her HFT teachers Mrs Crawford and Mrs Thomson.

Fantastic work Phoebe!

Career Education and Community Partnerships


Morgan Stanley Event On Wednesday 6 February, Morgan Stanley visited Gryffe High School to give some information about their Finance and Technology Apprenticeship programmes that are currently open. For the previous four years, an ex-pupil of Gryffe High School who has moved on to work at Morgan Stanley have returned to present to the current S5 pupils. This year, Ross Moglia, returned to speak about his experiences and the benefits of working at Morgan Stanley. Ross started at Morgan Stanley last year in their Finance programme. Pupils always find this an exciting opportunity as they get to hear about what it is like to leave school and go into an Apprenticeship straight from a peer who has experienced it. Nicola Thomson from Human Resources also joined Ross to give an overview of the company and speak about Technology Apprenticeships. Morgan Stanley have been a great partner to Gryffe High School over the years.

Should anyone in the community feel that they would wish to forge closer links with the

school and help us enhance the educational life experiences of our pupils, or if you would

like a copy of our colour monthly newsletter for your business/place of work then please

contact us via email on: [email protected]

Career Education and Community Partnerships

mailto:[email protected]


Upcoming priorities/events FEBRUARY Fri 1 S4 Options Interview Day Mon 4 Responsibility of All Week 3 S5 Careers Pathways Focus Tue 5 Parents’ Information Evening – Internet

Safety, 7:00 pm start Fri 8 S4 Option Forms Returned Mon 11 HOLIDAY Tue 12 HOLIDAY Wed 13 In-Service Day Thurs 14 Pupils Return, prompt 8:50 am start Fri 15 S3 Option Forms Returned Mon 18 House Week Tue 19 S5 Reports issued to Pupils Wed 20 S6 Reports issued to Pupils Fri 22 House Colour Day S2 Reports issued to Pupils Mon 25 Start of Fairtrade Fornight S5 Options interview day S2 into S3, S3 into S4 Option’s

Information Evening, 7:00 pm start Thurs 28 S3 Apprentice Challenge Launch

S2 Parents’ Evening, 4:30 pm start

MARCH Fri 1 Captains’ Conference at Gleniffer High Mon 4 S2 Options Interview Day Parent Council Meeting, 7:00 pm start Please note: Our Awards Ceremony has now been changed from Thursday 28 March to Wednesday 17 April.

Mr Colin Johnson Head Teacher

Communication - Show My Homework(SMHW)

We continually try to improve our communication with parents/carers, and to date heavily rely on our School Website, Facebook and Twitter. We try not to use letters to parents/carers as sometimes they do not reach their intended destination! Data from 11th Jan 2019

• Pupils estimated 97% logged onto SMHW • 84% of pupils have used within the last two

school weeks • Parents estimated more than 60% have

logged on (S1 highest at 77%) • All current teaching staff are using the

system We previously used text messaging, however this was by far the most expensive for us to use as it costs approximately £40 to send a message to all parents.

We are now sending out key messages, via

Show My Homework, as this will not incur

any additional cost to the school. We

would ask you to bear with us, use Show

My Homework, and we will ask your

opinion in March as to whether this system

is the most effective. We will also continue

to provide updates via the School Website,

Twitter and Facebook ....... so please keep

following.

gryffe high school

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