Academy Newsletter Christmas 2014

A Message from Mrs Munro Primary School as part of the school’s It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to St Andrew’s Day celebrations. Congratulations to Bellshill Academy’s Christmas Newsletter. everyone who took part.

2014 has once again been a highly successful Christmas Ceilidh year for the Academy, with continued Our thanks to Mrs Anderson and the PE staff for improvement in achievement and standards organising another fun-packed ceilidh on Monday across the school. night. Pupils from S1-S6 danced the night away from 7pm till 10pm and everybody had a great I would like to take this opportunity to offer my time. Well done to all the teachers who gave up warmest congratulations and thanks to all of our their evening to help out. young people and staff who have worked very hard this term in order to achieve the many Charities Committee successes you will read about in our Newsletter. Since August the Senior Charity committee, led by Miss Wilson of the English department, have On behalf of everyone at the Academy, I would been worked on a number of projects in order to like to thank you for your ongoing support of our raise much needed funds for both national and school and to wish you and your family a very local charities. happy Christmas and successful New Year. In September the committee organised a coffee Christmas Concert morning for Macmillan Cancer care and also ran a photobooth and cake sale to enable them to raise £292.84. Staff and senior pupils also took part in the 6k Fun Run for St Andrew's Hospice. 30 representatives took part in this event at Strathclyde Park and were able to raise £708.95 in sponsorship money which was able to benefit the charity immensely. The committee quickly followed these successes with a day of fundraising for Children in Need and organised another photobooth and a non-uniform day. Again the event was a success and the committee raised £649.09.

Throughout December the committee has been working to support elderly people within the local

community by collecting food donations and This year’s Christmas show – “Jingle Bells-hill” - creating hampers to be delivered before was hailed as “terrific” by parents and invited Christmas. guests alike. A capacity crowd was treated to a musical extravaganza as students demonstrated Alongside the efforts of the charity committee their skills in singing, dancing and playing a wide Jamie McCallum has been working tirelessly to range of musical instruments. Special praise raise funds for St Andrew's Hospice and most must go to Ms Gormley, Ms Stewart, Ms Rae and recently organised a cake sale were he obtained Ms Prucnal for organising the students and £51.15 and presented the cheque to a helping them to perform so wonderfully well. representative from the charity. Due to his efforts Praise too must go to the Staff choir who sang so Jamie was invited to visit the Hospice with Clare beautifully and the School Band who supported Tomlinson and Chelsea McLaren to see how the all the acts. Finally, our special thanks to Mr money is used. This has motivated the students Maguire of the English department who to continue their fundraising for this charity for the compered the evening with wit and panache. remainder of the school year. A large group of Academy students also performed in North Council’s S1 Panto Trip Christmas Concert on Monday 1st December. Our thanks to Miss Wilson of the English Two of the pupils also played the bagpipes at department for organising the annual S1 trip to the pantomime (oh no she didn’t!). Our first years loved the spectacular ‘Treasure Island’ at the opportunities to volunteer in a range of Pavilion in Glasgow. Leadership activities within the school and local community. Much of the work involves senior Religious Observance Assemblies students supporting younger pupils as mentors. Many thanks to everyone involved in our (Seniors working with pupils on a Health and extended Chaplaincy Team for organising and Wellbeing project). Many are on track to delivering presentations at our Year Group complete up to 200 hours towards the prestigious assemblies this term. Everyone on the team took Saltire Award. part and the presentations were very well received by our pupils. The team are currently Scottish Mathematics Challenge working with staff in the RE department to Bellshill Academy this year for the first time ever prepare for our Christmas service on 22nd qualified to compete in the finals of the Scottish December. Mathematics Challenge held at The Glasgow Science Centre. The event took place on Movember Campaign Tuesday 18th November. Bellshill Academy, Many thanks to all of our staff, led by Mr Willie along with three other schools in North Davidson, who participated in this very Lanarkshire, made the finals. worthwhile fundraising initiative for men’s health charities. Yet again it was a great success. Our four pupils who took part in the event - Amy Bennett (S3), Ellie Birch (S3), Cara Jackson (S4) Supported Study and Scott Mitchell (S4) - were a credit to the Our extensive supported study programme for school. senior students will continue until the end of term. The pupils finished an impressive 37th place out Students in S4-6 are encouraged to attend these of the 61 schools across who took part. very valuable classes. All senior students have A great first time effort! received progress reports before the end of term to support their revision before the Prelim The pupils received a goody bag, a certificate examinations in January. and a glass trophy.

House Competition Bellshill Youth Forum and Fire and Rescue In the hotly contested Inter-House Competition, Scotland Project Arran are in the lead with 100 points, closely followed by Iona with 90 points and Lewis with 80 points.

History Trip to New Lanark A group of S3 History students were treated to a great ‘New Lanark Experience’ on Wednesday 26th November. The trip was organised by Mrs Fiona Higgins as part of the National 5 History course.

North Lanarkshire S1/S2 Dance show We were delighted to host the S1/2 Dance Show in our Assembly Hall. The event was a great success thanks to the support of Mrs Caroline Anderson and her PE staff. Well Senior Pupils from Bellshill Academy are done to Bellshill Academy students and to all of collaborating with Bellshill Youth Forum and Fire the students from the participating schools. and Rescue Scotland on new project that will raise awareness of the dangers of setting fires Preparing for Work deliberately. Currently the groups are exploring a A group of potential school leavers have been range of different fire safety materials than can given the opportunity to be out of class for the be used to develop a peer education approach to three weeks on a Tuesday afternoon to take part fire safety and this will be launched in March in a "Routes to work" workshop. This will be great 2015. The picture shows senior pupils preparation to ensure that they are ready for the experiencing just some the tasks that Fire next step in moving into the workplace. Fighters have do on a daily basis. Many thanks to everyone involved in making this such a Senior Volunteers worthwhile experience for our students. (Photo A large number of senior students, with the front to back: Chloe Stillie, Rachel Brown, support of our Partnership Officers, have done Marykate Nailen very well and embraced a number of Fire Reach Project MacPhail and Matthew Fitt will visit the school in Twelve S4 pupils have been selected to take part January to talk to pupils about their writing. in the Fire Reach project which began on Monday 1st December. Scots words for Book Week Scotland To celebrate Book Week Scotland 2014, the Remembrance Service. Library Resource Centre and English department Senior students and staff joined with members of created a display of staff's favourite word in the wider Bellshill community in a moving Scots. Some stoatirs included glaikit, numpty, ceremony at the War Memorial. Our School eejit, blethering and slabbering. As it was Captains laid a wreath at the memorial and Sarah November, many were scunnered, drookit from Lindsay read her World War 1 Memorial poem the rain which gave some people the boak. At which is now inscribed in marble at the memorial. least they could look forward to wearing their We were pleased that Primary 7 pupils from mingin' baffies in their manky hoose after school. Lawmuir, Mossend and Noble Primary Schools were able to join with our senior students at the There was also a bookmark competition and ceremony. display of staff’s favourite Scots word to celebrate Book Week Scotland. S1 winner of a copy of NLC Swimming Championships The eejits and goody bag was Charmaine Swan Three pupils from Bellshill Academy, Liam 1.3; S2 was Kim Jackson of 2.1. McDougall, Ellie Ramsey, both S3 and David McLuckie S6, were well deserved medal winners Rugby Success at the recent North Lanarkshire Schools' Our Under 14 rugby team took part in a rugby Swimming Championships. This event, which festival at Park, which attracted schools was held last week at the Sir Matt Busby Sports from all round North Lanarkshire. The character Centre in Bellshill, is an annual gala aimed at and passion of the boys who took part shone club swimmers from across North Lanarkshire. through as they took their first steps to a great Liam won 5 medals: 1 silver and 4 bronze, Ellie season after going four games unbeaten. They won a bronze and David won 1 gold, 1 silver and managed to win three of their four games and 2 bronze. Well done to all our young swimmers draw their fourth and final game, which was a whose unstinting commitment has been great success. This sums up the spirit and rewarded again this year. passion of the pupils at Bellshill Academy; although it was for some their first game of rugby, they worked as a team and we are delighted with their success.

Parent Council Meeting In November, our Parent Council were treated to a fantastic presentation from our students who The boys have since gone on to beat Taylor High visited Malawi in June. The presentation was School in their most recent game. very moving and hugely inspirational and we would like to thank the students who have now Primary 7 Roadshows moved to University for sharing their experiences Our annual Primary 7 Roadshows took place this with us. term. This was a fantastic opportunity for senior staff from the Academy to meet with P7 pupils Scottish Book Trust and their parents to discuss the transition from Our Librarian, Miss Boyd has been awarded P7 to the Academy. funding for our students to have two author sessions from the Scottish Book Trust. Demand Mrs Munro and Mr Johnston, delivered for funding far outstrips supply and we are very presentations to the pupils, and the highlight of fortunate to have been successful! Cathy the roadshows was presentations from S1 pupils and our School Captains about their experiences This session was delivered as part of the seniors’ at the Academy. The following S1 pupils Duke of Edinburgh Award programme and pupils delivered presentations, Ellie Muir, Jennifer in S1 responded exceptionally well to this. Pupils Lindsay and Jordan Lee. They were supported by also participated in a lunchtime Dodgeball our Captains, Abbie Milligan and Martin Young. tournament which raised approximately £150.00 As one parent commented, our pupils were a for the British Heart Foundation. Positive credit to the school. feedback was given by pupils on the wide range of activities available. Our community partners Debating Club were actively involved throughout the week and We are delighted that three of our debating spoke very highly of pupils' interest and teams from S2 and S3 had the opportunity to enthusiasm during the week. Many thanks to Mrs participate in the Junior ESU Debating Anderson who organised Health Week and to all Competition. The students involved are: of our partners who contributed to a great range Darren Beattie, Mairi Lees, Danielle Burke, of experiences for our young people. Jordyn Graham, Angela McCormack and Morgan Ferguson. As part of Health week, school captains and prefects took part in training at the YMCA for the Our Debating Club organised a Staff versus mentors in violence prevention programme. The Teacher Debate as part of our fundraising for MVP programme is new initiative in North Comic Relief which took place last month. Lanarkshire and has received very positive feedback from those schools who were initially NLC Christmas card and calendar involved. After the training day, a programme for competition. implementation will be shared with all staff. We are delighted that Megan Batty one of our S1 pupils, has had one of her illustrations selected to Firework Safety feature in NLC s Christmas card and calendar Our senior students worked with the Fire Service competition. Megan’s work is called ‘Highland to share the delivery of an excellent Firework Getaway’. safety presentation to S1 and S2. The senior students involved will now have the opportunity to take part in a one day "Fire Reach" style programme at Fire Station. This will enable the students to further develop their skills and knowledge about wilful fire raising s information with younger pupils

Partnership Office It has been a busy term in the Partnership office. The 3 and 4XL groups have started their own business with the XL Christmas Shop. They have made personalised Christmas baubles, reindeer dust, Christmas decorations and Christmas badges. The XL pupils also helped at the school Christmas Dance by providing the tuck-shop. So far with all these enterprising initiatives they have raised £160. Well done to all XL members!

This year, there are 10 fifth and sixth year pupils working towards their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Health Week Award. Pupils involved complete their physical All pupils in Bellshill Academy participated in our section with staff at the YMCA gym and have annual Health week in November. Activities been volunteering with Mr Baker helping to offered to pupils during Health week contributed improve the school garden and grounds. The to all aspects of Health and Wellbeing, covering group will go on to complete their camping physical, mental, emotional and social health. expedition in June. Some of the activities that pupils experienced were, Driver Safety, Drugs and Alcohol The Partnership Office are getting ready to start Awareness, Cyber Bullying, Personal Safety, work with the P7 pupils in the associated Positive mindset, Juicing, Self Defence, primaries in January. All P7 pupils will complete a Relaxation Techniques, Child Exploitation and Dynamic Youth Award for all the work they do Online Protection. Pupils in S1 received a with Bellshill Academy in the transition to presentation from senior pupils on Smoking secondary school. Awareness.