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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