JuneJune 19 19 Issue:Issue: 7 7
The Buckie High Blether
The Buckie High
Blether A newsletter covering the events of Buckie Community High School
Welcome to the 7th edition of the Buckie High Blether. Our school newsletter will keep you informed of events, news and activities from Buckie High School. The newsletter has been put together by Buckie High pupils, who will be responsible for its
production throughout the year. Enjoy!
Rector’s Reflection have had a very varied path and demonstrate that there is no wrong path “As the end of another school year fast from or through school. We aspire for our approaches it is important to use things like young people to do well in the things they
this newsletter to look back at the many want to do well at, and to give them opportunities that set them up of for the amazing things achieved by our young people this year. In doing so we must remember varied lives that most of them will have. For those young people who will be adding SQA that every child is different and we must guard against the risk of trying to squash qualifications to their journey this summer, them into pigeonholes that allow us to good luck for results day and remember that measure their achievements. We don’t have however well they have gone – these
‘academic’ or ‘vocational’ young people, we shouldn’t define you and are only one of many twists in a long and - I hope - have over 700 young people who each have their own strengths, talents, weaknesses and interesting and fulfilling journey.”
barriers to overcome. Some will demonstrate this by getting 5 Highers and progress Neil Johnson, Rector directly to university and glittering post- graduate careers. Some will continue to build Keep in Mind a portfolio of amazing pieces of creative artwork – becoming fulfilled and contented Author and Mental members of the North East’s thriving artistic Health expert Nicola community. Some will have overcome Morgan speaking at barriers that many of us find it difficult to Buckie High School
understand in order to put together a as part of the Moray package of experiences and qualifications Minds Mental that set them up for an apprenticeship or Health project employment that they will enjoy and do well involving S3 pupils at. All will continue to learn and for most across Moray. that will mean many changes in direction Full story inside. over the next few decades – when you read about really successful entrepreneurs, most
June 19 Issue: 7
The Buckie High Blether
Mental Health Week Deia McAllister and John Stewart investigating the information display put together by Buckie High School S3 Mental Health Ambassadors, to promote
Children’s Mental Health Week in February 2019. The Mental Health Ambassadors are part of a Moray-wide Moray Minds project in High schools targeting S3 pupils and
Mental Health.
Drop in to Buckie High The Primary 7 Drop-In sessions organised by CLD and Youth Worker Barbara Leitch were a huge success this March. Over 3 consecutive Monday evenings 150 P7 pupils visited Buckie High to take part in different activities and events in the school, including break-out games in the Library with librarian Mr Leitch.
June 19 Issue: 7
The Buckie High Blether
Before Buckie High
Interviews with members of staff at Buckie High.
Mr. Johnson has had a lot of travel experience in his lifetime, being born in Germany and growing up in countries such as Australia, America, China and Cyprus. And furthermore, working in countries including the Netherlands and Finland. He has also visited most places in Europe, South America, North America and a couple of countries in Africa.
He began his teaching career in the year 2001 and has been teaching for 17 years – during 7 of which, he has been the head teacher of Buckie. Before becoming a teacher he was a research scientist where he researched in the field of fish immunology as a parasitologist. He would discover information on how fish fight infection and had an interest in parasites that infect the kidneys of fish. This information would be extremely useful to fish farms and hold a financial importance as there are many farms in Scotland that harvest fish such as salmon and trout. His work was mainly focused on trout and he would spend most of his time in a laboratory studying them. During this time, he also taught at the university where he did his research.
The teaching side of being a research scientist was a key reason why Mr. Johnson went into his current job. After being a laboratory scientist for a while, he realised that he was spending most of the day just moving liquids from one tube to another and, according to Mr. Johnson, “It’s a bit dull once you’ve done it for a while”, and he was enjoying the educating side of his more than researching. However, teaching only took up about 20% of his job - so he wanted to expand into a more teaching-focussed career. He had the options of college teacher or school teacher and after experiencing both, he enjoyed working at a school more.
During his time being head teacher at Buckie High School he states that his biggest achievement at the school is that over the past 5 years the school has only been closed twice for staffing issues and him and the staff are keeping things going as smoothly as they can in the school despite the fact that it has been difficult recently in terms of recruiting staff. The greatest achievement as a school collectively, according to Mr. Johnson, is the exam results of approximately 700 pupils that come in every year. He believes that all exam results are positive whether it’s five As at higher or one National 4, if the pupils have worked hard to achieve that then that’s the best results. During his spare time, Mr. Johnson spends most of his time looking after his two children going to rock pools, playing football and other activities. He also enjoys reading in his spare time and usually has three books constantly on the go, he states that he likes to read anything but usually he’s reading one work-related book, a biographical type book and a novel and he chops and changes between them.
Jazz is his favourite genre of music, his favourite film is The Shawshank Redemption and his favourite colour is orange. After answering the question, “what’s your favourite colour”, Mr. Johnson proceeded to tell us that this is because it reminds him of big events that would occur in Holland. When he lived in Holland there was a day in Spring called ‘Queen’s Day’ where 70% of the population of Holland would go to Amsterdam for a huge party, all the bars would be outside, people came out into the streets to sell anything and every person you meet would be wearing orange as it’s the colour of the royal family. Describing himself in three words Mr. Johnson said: ‘Reliable, Hungry, and Relaxed’.
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The Buckie High Blether
Working Wood
The National 5 Woodwork class including Kyle D, Jodi G, Charlie H, Owen M, Emillia M, Connor P, Kieran R, Kieran S, Ben S, Ben W, and Alens Z were given the opportunity to make some wooden picnic benches from recycled wood offered from Chivas Regal. The pupils (with a little guidance) had to select a bench design and then come up with a cutting/parts list.
They then worked as teams to make the two benches. One bench has been presented to Chivas to sit in the staff courtyard at their Longmorn distillery near Elgin. The other has been placed in the memorial garden at Buckie High
School to be used by staff and pupils.
All the pupils involved had a great time making the benches and lots of effort and“He’s enthusiasm behind you!” were - putS3s input by on all. Successful It was fantastic Pantos! to work with a local companyOn the 12 andth and be 13 ableth of to February, give something the S3 Dramaback as classes well as put make on asomething show for allthat to willattend. be enjoyedInspired by by lots the of Roald people. Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes, they performed three shows: Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Little Pigs, and Jack and The Beanstalk. The productions were split across two days, two of the productions were performed on the Tuesday and the final production was performed on Wednesday. The productions props and sets were made and designed by the students themselves. Each production was part of an internal assessment carried out by the teacher. The production’s were a success and ran smoothly both nights, being applauded by parents and teachers alike. Mrs Craib, who directed all the productions, says “All pupils now have a better understanding of productions, the work that goes into these productions behind the scenes and how important every area is to a production.” June 19 Issue: 7
The Buckie High Blether
Defibrillator Training For S6 Pupils Shannon Milton
In 2016, 16-year-old Keiran Mckandie from Elgin was involved in an accident with a car while cycling and did not survive. This has devastated his family and changed their lives. They knew their lives would never be the same.
In Keiran’s honour and to allow him to continue to contribute positively to society, Keiran’s parents, Sandra and Gordon Mckandie, established Keiran’s Legacy to begin raising awareness of defibrillators and committed themselves to ensure that every secondary school in Moray were provided with these life-saving devices. Keiran’s parents, relatives and friends raised money to donate ten defibrillators to Grampian Road policing vehicles, six to Highland Road policing vehicles and some to secondary schools in Moray. The charity has worked with local communities to raise funds to site defibrillators into more communities. In total there are now 45 life-saving devices in place in Keiran’s name and this will continue to develop over time. Keiran’s Legacy is dedicated to saving lives and promoting education on how to save a life through various activities, using different pieces of equipment. In 2018, the equipment was used twelve times and among those, it saved a 52-year-old man’s life.
Many secondary school pupils have experienced CPR training from Keiran’s Legacy and in January, the S6 pupils were fortunate and very grateful to receive an incredible amount of training. The pupils were delivered a presentation by Keiran’s amazing mother, Sandra, before taking part in CPR activities, using defibrillators. After this, they took part in making decisions
through a live-action video that allowed us to demonstrate what they learnt called Lifesaver. The video was interactive and allowed us to choose between options on how to save someone’s life in various scenarios.
The overall experience was extremely beneficial as they learnt how they could help people and gained new lifesaving skills that could help us in the future. Many thanks to Sandra Mckandie and Keiran’s Legacy for teaching us more about what we can do to help.
“The school made us feel very welcome and all the children engaged in the session and we hope that the skills that the children learned will be invaluable in the future. Special thanks as always to all the trainers who helped deliver the session, the IT department for making sure the technology worked and to all the pupils who now join Keiran’s Legacy Saving Lives Campaign.” - Sandra Mckandie
“Buckie High School welcomed the hands-on training session on CPR and safe defibrillation. The enthusiastic students asked relevant questions whilst working in small groups and were determined to master their CPR technique. A pleasure to facilitate the session.” - Moira Dickson
If anyone wishes to volunteer or do any fundraising activities and be part of a save a life campaign through Keiran’s Legacy then please do not hesitate to contact the charity by emailing [email protected]
If you’re interested in learning how to save someone’s life, go to http://life-saver.org.uk or download the Lifesaver app.
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The Buckie High Blether
Matthew ’s ‘awfy guid’ visit tae Moray
Top Scottish author, translator and Scots language champion Matthew Fitt made a marvellous return visit
to Moray secondary schools as part of their World Book Day celebrations.
During his two day tour of Moray from the 4th – 5th of March Matthew visited 5 secondary schools (Buckie, Keith, Milnes, Elgin Academy , and Forres) and led seven sessions of book talks and Scots language writing workshops with pupils.
His book talks involved him telling pupils about his work, as an author and translator. At Elgin Academy and Milnes High School the sessions included Matthew reading extracts from his latest translation – Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stane, with one pupil even being dressed up as Harry Potter, and a game of Quidditch taking place in the hall. “He was so engaging, enthusiastic and hugely entertaining. Having Quidditch balls flying around the hall
will be something I will remember for a long time!” said Elgin Academy librarian Mrs Toonen, sentiments echoed by Forres Academy and Milnes High School librarian Mrs Munn where Matthew led similar talks.
At Buckie High, Matthew led two Writing In Scots workshops for an S2 and an S3 class, running different activities to get pupils thinking and writing in Scots and Doric, with the theme of horror writing proving very popular with the students. As well as getting the students writing in Scots, Matthew told them a little about his work including his publishing company Itchy Coo who publish Scots language books, and he read an extract for their latest publication Diary o a Wimpy Wean which proved a hit with pupils. This is a translation of the first book in the multimillion selling series Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney. On the theme of translation Matthew also led a sing-a-long of Just The Way You Are, a song by Olly Murs with lyrics translated into Scots by pupils at Milne’s High School. With this he left the S3 pupils at Buckie with a challenge to take their favourite song and translate the lyrics into Scots or Doric.
Matthew was delighted with his time in Moray schools and Buckie High saying “I always love coming here to Buckie as the Doric is so strong and I really enjoy listening to it.” Movies were on the menu at Keith Grammar School as Matthew led a script writing work shop with a group of S2 pupils who are looking to create a video for the Doric Film festival. The school librarians involved with hosting visits by Matthew Fitt hailed them as a great success. Buckie High School Librarian Mr Leitch said “Matthew has done a brilliant job as encouraging and inspiring pupils at our schools to take a greater interest in Scots and Doric. With a grow ing interest in Scots languages and development of Scots language qualifications it’s really important that pupils hear and read their own language and Matthew has done a great job in promoting Scots language to pupils in Moray.”
As well as Diary o a Wimpy Wean and Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stane, Matthew and Itchy Coo publishing have also translated numerous other books into Scots including Mr Mingin (Mr Stink by David Walliams), The Eejits (The Twits by Roald Dahl) and Astrix, Matthew also advises the Scottish Government on Scots language issues. June 19 Issue: 7
The Buckie High Blether
Top Tweets from around the school’s departmental Twitter accounts!
June 19 Issue: 7
The Buckie High Blether
Top Tweets from around the schools departmental Twitter accounts!
June 19 Issue: 7
The Buckie High Blether
My Experience – Conor Thain Reflection by Alicia, Jamie and Megan All I can remember from the start of this year is sitting
with these people I hadn’t really spoken to before and Working on the Buckie wondering if this class was for me. Sure, I loved to write Blether as a wider and I wanted to expand my education more. But would I achievement choice has be able to cope with not being with people I knew? The been an enjoyable answer was yes. I was able to cope, I was able to grow and experience especially as we learn. I made friends, wrote articles about things that are pupils with an interest happened this year. The articles were written and in writing and published and each quarter year flew by as if it were only photography. This has been a couple of days. I haven’t thought of this as a class. I’ve an opportunity to build on never thought of it as a class. I’ve considered it a place of our confidence and creative freedom, a place I could write and express the strengthen our skill-set feelings I had to computer screen or paper. The Buckie with activities such as Blether has helped me expand my writing and introduce interviewing teachers and me to Journalism in a new way. I would recommend this creating articles on the experience to anyone who was passionate about writing, prominent events taking who wanted to expand their language and who wants to place in our have an experience you won’t get in a normal classroom. school/community. Throughout our time in the newsletter team, we have formed a bond with one This newsletter is produced by Buckie High another and the work we School pupils and Mr Leitch, as part of the have produced. Choosing this will give you a lot of wider achievement programme: freedom to express your creative abilities and further develop your everyday skills. Overall, 2018/19: Jamie-Leigh Cumming, Alicia this has been a very Gray, Megan Hay, Shannon Milton, James rewarding year for each Park, Conor Thain individual and we highly recommend this wider achievement course to anyone who has an interest 2019/20: Abigail Brown, Courtney Cowie, in journalism or would like to expand their knowledge Tegan Cowie, Mannix Healy, Conor Thain. of writing creatively.
The new school term starts on Tuesday 20th of August 2019.
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YPI Report Doing this has also given me a lot of time to The seventh annual Youth Philanthropy work on things I’ve never done before, for Initiative (YPI) finals were held on May 29 at example filming our visit to NESS. It was the school where eight groups of S2 students also a chance to give something back to the made impassioned 10-minute presentations community.” Congratulating the winners, for their chosen charity to receive a £3000 event organiser, Mr Clelland, also spoke in
cheque. Victory for the quartet of Callum glowing terms of the general standard of Blake, George Wallace, Euan Lawrence, and this year’s contest. Aidan Parrott against stiff competition was
enough to secure the £3000 for North East Sensory Services (NESS). The finals were the culmination of a 10-week programme involving all S2 pupils who had to research
local charities before choosing one to support. A charity fair in school gave the students a chance to meet representatives face-to-face and, once they had selected their charity, were encouraged to visit and see them in action. Callum filmed his group’s visit to NESS and some of the footage was later used
in the group presentation. The group went on to present their work without the aid of any notes. The choice of NESS was a very The winning team representing North East personal one to Callum. “NESS have given Sensory Services are: Callum Blake, George me a lot of help and I know other people they have helped, too,” he said. “It feels amazing Wallace, Euan Lawrence, and Aidan Parrott to have won and to know the money is going
to such a good cause. All of our hard work was worth it. Going into the finals I was hopeful we’d win but was a bit on edge as I was really impressed by the other finalists.
A Swiss Adventure
Mr Riddell from the Physics Department took 3 of our students to the world’s largest experiment, CERN, near Geneva. This colossal particle accelerator smashes protons
together at six hundred and seventy million
miles an hour then analyses the contents. The boys were mesmerised by the facility and were shown round by one of its top scientists. Geneva is a vibrant city and we took the opportunity to visit the Red Cross Museum and had a tour of the UN Palais des Nations as well as some free time to soak up the
sights. The trip was a great success and we are hoping to go again next year. The pupils involved in the visit were Dylan Ralph, Arran Rosie, and Aaron Stickle. June 19 Issue: 7
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Teachers Leaving
-Mr Pattison, SFL, retiring after 14 years with us at Buckie High School.
-Mrs Hamilton, Deputy Head, relocating to a new post in England
-Miss Brett, English, taking up a post in East Renfrewshire
-Mrs Smith, maternity leave, “I’ll be heading off for a wee bit of time to have a baby but will be back to Buckie High. Mrs Stoker will be acting Head of the Geography department in my absence. I’ll make sure to bring in the baby for the staff and pupils to get a bosie”
-Mrs Wright, maternity leave,
-Mr Garner, MFL, temporary Principal Teacher post of MFL at Keith Grammar School
-Mrs Humphries, SFL, going to Shanghai.
Mrs Humphries Mrs Smith Mrs Wright Mr Pattison
Teachers Joining BCHS
-Miss McLean, Modern Studies, -Mr Bowes - Technical -Miss Bernard – Modern Languages -Mr Laing - PE
-Miss Pender - Biology -Mr Hay - English -Miss Hall - Maths -Mrs Dawson - Guidance, part-time for Cluny -Miss Ogg, Business Education Miss Brett Mrs Hamilton -Mrs Julie -Anne Drake – Teacher of English as an Additional
Language -Miss Greig, ASN June 19 Issue: 7
The Buckie High Blether
Mind your Mental Health
S3 Students from Buckie High have been part of a project to raise awareness of mental health issues and anxiety with S3 pupils across Moray as part of the Moray Minds project. The project was the idea of Moray School Librarians who secured funding for the project from the Scottish Government School Library Improvement Fund, and have worked with key partners including Youth Workers, and NHS Grampian Mental Health Team to deliver the project in schools.
Part of this involved recruiting up to 30 S3 Mental Health Ambassadors organised Mental Health Ambassadors, who would several Fruity Friday events at Buckie High receive training in recognising and dealing for pupils. with anxiety and would devise their own plan for sharing this information with their S3 colleagues and the school in general.
The Ambassadors also attended a talk by author and mental health expert Nicola Morgan, who reinforced what they had been learning and gave them new strategies to helping people with anxiety. This event took place at Buckie High with Ambassadors from Milne’s, Keith and Speyside secondary schools also attending the talk. During this event pupils had the opportunity to talk to The BCHS Moray Minds Mental Health pupils from other schools and find out what Ambassadors activities they had been organising at their schools to promote good mental health. Our Ambassadors have also worked with Senior Youth Worker Mrs Leitch every week At Buckie a very popular event organised by during the project devising information notice the Ambassadors was a series of Fruity boards, rating the accessibility of advice Fridays held in the library, where fresh fruit websites, planning and organising events like and fruit smoothies were given out free to Fruity Friday, producing a Colourful Moods remind students that healthy eating had a colouring book and assisting Mrs Leitch with part to play in dealing with stress and awareness sessions during the P7 Community keeping healthy over all. Day at Buckie High. Follow the project on twitter at: @MindsMoray