McLaren High School Dear Friends of McLaren High School Welcome to the 2015 edition of the Former Pupils newsletter. I hope the following articles give you a flavour of what has been going on at McLaren High School during Session 2014/15. As you will see we continue to be a very busy, thriving and productive school community. 50th Anniversary Celebration – McLaren Five 0:50 Years at Mollands Road McLaren High School celebrates 50 years at the Mollands Road campus after the move from the old school building in Bridgend, now Callander Primary. A number of events are taking place on Saturday 5 September to help celebrate this milestone and includes Sports Matches, Tours of the School & Exhibition and also a Ceilidh. It would be great to see many FPs come and join us. More information regarding these events can be found at the back of the newsletter. Orchestra Tour 2014 After over a year of planning and months of rehearsing a party of seventy pupils and nine staff left for Spain in June 2014 to embark on a week-long tour playing four concerts on the Costa Brava. The first concert in Lloret de Mar was going well until a thunder storm approached and the group had to cut short the performance. The theme for Star Wars has never been played so fast, or with lighting (or was it lightning!?) effects. The pupils showed great professionalism in dismantling the orchestra and PA system and loading up all the equipment on the bus in less than ten minutes before the heavy rain came on! The group visited Barcelona, taking in the sights and sounds of La Rambla with street performers, shops and cafes. By coincidence a few of the staff and pupils bumped into a group from a school in East Lothian who were also visiting the city. Their challenge was to do a Gay Gordons and so some of our group helped them out! Barcelona will probably never be the same again! The group had a hugely successful ceilidh night back at the hotel, where they taught some pupils from a school in Wolverhampton how to do a Strip the Willow. For many of those taking part, this was the trip of a lifetime. New friendships were formed, happy memories made, and everyone agreed it had been a wonderful experience all round for pupils and staff. Many people spoke to staff to compliment the pupils on the standard of their playing and behaviour. The McLaren community should be very proud of them: they have been great ambassadors for the school. Loch Lomond & the Trossachs National Park Debate In October Hazel Lafferty and Harris Kliskey represented McLaren High School in the National Park Debate. McLaren were faced with the unenviable position of arguing against the motion that ‘John Muir is relevant to the management of National Parks and Protected Areas’. McLaren won their round with extremely powerful and persuasive speeches. Congratulations to Hazel and Harris for their excellent performance on the day. Eco Schools – 2nd Green Flag! The school has gained its second Green Flag for our work in relation to being an Eco School. The Lead Assessor commented that our application was ‘A joy to read.’ He went on to say that ‘The use of Eco-Schools as interdisciplinary learning topics for a whole term is an important case study opportunity. The use of outdoor learning enhanced by community links is admirable. In summary, the empowerment of the pupils is a credit to the subtle support of the dedicated staff. The commitment of the Head Teacher and SMT to ‘Learning for Sustainability’ is evident. There is a whole-school approach to sustainable development education – through the curriculum, the way the buildings and grounds are run and through leadership, culture and ethos of the school. Former Pupils’ Newsletter: June 2015 Former Pupils’ Newsletter: Congratulations to McLaren on weaving the campus, culture, curriculum and community into successful Learning for Sustainability and a robust environmental management system.’ Well done to everyone involved in Eco-Schools this session. The S1 Challenge - ‘Going Nuts over Red Squirrels’ An exciting conservation initiative geared towards helping a small population of Red squirrels, Sciurus vulgaris, at Blair Drummond Safari Park leaped into action. Students from McLaren High School, as part of the Curriculum for Excellence challenge, were invited to construct specially designed nesting boxes. The students then travelled to the Safari Park to see their boxes getting installed with the kind help of some very able tree climbers of Forestry Commission's Conservation Department. It is everyone's hope that the squirrel population will triple and start to disperse from their current location. The Safari Park's education officer, Dave Warren, who set up the project along with Niall Williamson (McLaren High School) and Dave Anderson (Conservation Officer, Forestry Commission) says: "This is a brilliant, and such a simple, project that could have almost immediate positive results for the Red squirrels on the estate. Reds can potentially have two litters of up to 6 kits, so even if we say we have a very conservative ten pairs on the estate, there is no reason, if everything goes well, we can't double if not triple the population heading into next year's breading season. It's vital work that is much needed to protect the remaining 100,000 Red Squirrels left in the UK, 75% of which, live in Scotland. I'm sure Safari Park visitors would welcome, too, seeing Red Squirrels hopping about as they picnic in the park." Niall Williamson, teacher at McLaren High School says "The Curriculum for Excellence Challenge is one aspect of the junior year’s curriculum that McLaren High School is proud of. It delivers several aspects of the curriculum to the current S1 cohort looking at things as varied as health and fitness to emergency response training to outdoor learning and conservation. We are currently undertaking the John Muir Bronze award looking at applied environmental conservation in our local area, and when this opportunity arose to be part of an active and practical conservation initiative, we leapt at the chance to be a part of it. The red squirrel project provides the young people a chance to see a planned conservation strategy have a direct impact in their local area in a very short space of time that they have driven forward as a group. All who have taken part have commented positively on the fact that their handy work will provide a potential home for one of Scotland’s big 5 animals. It is also very positive that the pupils can see the direct impact that their work will have as this adds a tangible credibility to the project. The added value that this gives the initiative will help provide the drive for future projects and will stay with the participants for a very long time. We are looking forward to seeing the expansion of the Red Squirrel population at the park. One of the pupils who took part in the project wrote: ‘Recently we have been looking at 5 different endangered animals in the UK. We started our challenge by looking at the life of red squirrels and other endangered animals. We then started to plan and make red squirrel boxes and we worked in groups to complete the task. The end result was brilliant and a group of us attended the Safari Park to put them up with the help of a tree climber from the Forestry Commission. Thirteen other boxes that we made were placed in other trees in the local area in the last few days. Whilst we were at the Safari Park, the others stayed behind at school and worked in groups to produce a presentation on a specific animal. We have also been given talks about the red squirrels By Dave Warren from the Safari Park. We have learned how much the red squirrels need our help as the grey squirrels keep stealing their food and their habitat. I have really enjoyed the work we have been doing recently in our challenge and we really enjoyed making the squirrel boxes. The end result was very impressive when we saw the completed boxes knowing that our team had built it! This is really good as I have never done anything like this before and it is very enjoyable knowing that you are helping to make a difference with one for the UK’s endangered species.’ ‘Rookie Ranger’ programme launches in Loch Lomond & the Trossachs National Park Twelve young people (S2-S5) spent a week in June learning about the broad range of work undertaken by Rangers in Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park in the Park Authority’s first ever Junior Ranger programme. Ali Cush, Education and Inclusion Adviser at Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park, said, “We help thousands of school pupils each year to get a better understanding of nature in the National Park and what it takes to look after this very special place and we are thrilled to be able to take that to a whole new level with our first Junior Ranger Programme. “The young people from McLaren High get an insight into the line our Rangers walk every day in terms of balancing the needs of conservation with those of our visitors and residents. They will also work towards a John Muir Award, so leave with invaluable knowledge, skills and experience of connecting with nature.” The Junior Ranger programme saw pupils participate in a scrub clearance at Kilmahog; a biodiversity day at Aberfoyle; and a Recreation and Access day taking them out on the Glenoglehead to Callander cycle path.