March 2011 - Turnbull High School

P
C
Turnbull
Times
ARENT
OUNCIL
Issue 115
March 2011
LETTER FROM THE HEAD TEACHER
Dear Parent/Carer
Lent
As we continue our Lenten journey, I
would ask you to encourage your son/
daughter to attend one of the services
in the oratory: Mass on Tuesdays
(1.30pm) and Thursdays (8.45am) and
Morning Prayers on Fridays (8.55am).
Please also encourage them to be
generous in giving to our fund-raising
for Live with Hope, perhaps donating the
money they have saved by giving up
chocolate, crisps etc.
Senior Pupils will lead the Stations of
the Cross for an ecumenical gathering
of Bishopbriggs Churches in St
Matthew’s on Tuesday19 April at 7pm.
Exam Candidates
I hope that all our pupils enjoy the
Easter break, but would ask that S3-S6
pupils set up a study plan to revise for
the S3 Exam diet and the S4-S6 SQA
exams. Leisure time is important, but
to ensure success in these important
exams, all pupils must plan a significant
programme of study for all their
subjects. This should involve identifying
their weakest topics, making notes,
doing past papers and asking family
members to ‘test’ their knowledge.
Inside this issue:
BBC School Report
2
International Youth Pro Life Conference
2
School Meal Price Increase
2
UK Intermediate Maths Challenge
3
Pistoia Exchange Visit 14-21 Feb 2011
4
Turnbull Bridge Builders
5
Fireman Support for SG Physics
5
Turnbull Pupil Wins Logo Competition
6
Turnbull Youth SVDP Conference
6
Turnbull High School Dance Club
7
The Premiership Experience
8
S2 Football Tournament
8
Active Schools’ Extra-Curricular Timetable
9
Dates for your Diary
10
I hope that many of you will be able to
support them with your prayers by
attending our Exam/Leavers’ Mass in
St Matthew’s on Tuesday 26 April
at 7pm.
Car Park
The school has several parking spaces
for disabled drivers and for parents to
collect young people who are not
mobile. Please do not use these
spaces, even when collecting your son/
daughter from after-school clubs.
Scottish Youth Parliament Success
Congratulations to Conor Brady (S3) who
has been elected to the Scottish Youth
Parliament. Our other candidates, Greg
Kennedy and Craig Olliffe, also deserve
great credit for their campaign, attracting
votes not only from Turnbull but from
other schools. They will now serve on
East Dunbartonshire’s Youth Senate.
Three of the six candidates were from
Turnbull, with 89% of our pupils voting –
the second highest turn-out across the
eight EDC schools.
Staff News
We are sorry that Linda McGuire will be
leaving on Friday 1 April. Linda has been
one of our school assistants since 2004,
but has also made a huge contribution to
the wider life of the school, including
supporting extra-curricular activities. We
wish her well in her new post in EDC’s
homelessness team.
Mobile Phone and Internet Policies
A summary of our policies on the use of
mobile phones, the internet and ICT
generally are set out on Page 10. Please
encourage your son/daughter to be a
responsible user of all forms of electronic
communications in school and at home
and to avoid misusing them to cause
distress to others.
End of Term
School closes for the holidays on Friday 1
April at 2.30pm, reopening on Monday 18
April. The dates of Easter and other
holiday weekends are listed on the back
page.
With best wishes to you and your family,
Yours sincerely,
Neil Roarty
Head Teacher
A community of faith engaged in learning
Turnbull High School
www.turnbull.e-dunbarton.sch.uk
S2 BBC School Report
Over the last couple of months, pupils from numerous schools across Scotland
have had the chance to experience life as a journalist thanks to the BBC
Schools Report programme. A group of our S2 pupils have planned story
boards, written scripts and even conducted interviews including with the Head
of Education, Gordon Currie himself.
The BBC, who run the project, has been airing the student made broadcasts from 2pm on
Thursday March 24th 2011. Parents and pupils can watch the clips online from this point on the
Turnbull High School website.
The clips were filmed and edited by the pupils themselves who had a thoroughly positive
experience. We even had the help of a mentor from the BBC, producer Laura Reid.
Grace McGill S2
International Youth Pro Life Conference 2011
On 19th March, 10 pupils went out to Loch Lomond with Mr Hughes, R.E. to take part in the 4th
international youth pro-life conference.
The day consisted of various inspiring talks delivered by a number of enthralling and experienced
pro-life campaigners.
After a long bus drive we were all ready to listen and learn about this issue that we all felt very
strong about. From the first speaker, Fr Fleming from Australia, who spoke about the practice of
creating “saviour siblings” to the key note speaker who fascinated with his unique outlook on
eugenics in modern society, we found ourselves in awe of the strong individuals and we all
agreed that we would be taking part again next year.
Paul Lyons S4
School Meal Price Increase
At the last Education Committee a report was approved that will increase the prices of
school meals.
From 18 April 2011, the following price increases will be introduced:
Primary School
Secondary School
Page 2
£1.75 and Snack Meal Price £1.53
£1.85
Turnbull Times
Turnbull High School
www.turnbull.e-dunbarton.sch.uk
UK INTERMEDIATE MATHS CHALLENGE 2011
TURNBULL PUPILS QUALIFY FOR ROUND 2
This competition is organised by the UK Mathematics Trust for
schools from across the UK and is designed to select and train
teams to take part in the annual International Mathematical
Olympiad.
There are three levels of competition: Junior, Intermediate and Senior. This year Turnbull
pupils took part in the Junior and Intermediate sections, along with several hundred
thousand secondary pupils.
In the Intermediate section, which took place on 3rd March, 60 S3 and S4 pupils were
entered, competing against pupils up to S4. We won 3 gold, 6 silver and 11 bronze
awards, an increase of 2 gold and 3 silver from 2010.
The “Best in School” award was won by Iain Grant in S4 and for the first time
ever 2 pupils qualified for round two! Iain and Ciaran Roy in S3 took part in round
2, known as the pink kangaroo, on Thursday 17th March. They qualified by being in the
top 2000 pupils in the UK.
The other prize winners were:
Gold
Iain Grant (S3)
Silver
Connor Groden (S4)
Michael Reilly (S4)
Thomas Holton (S4)
Lewis Renfrew (S4)
Ciaran Roy (S3)
Luke Ralston(S3)
Jack McInally (S3)
Anna Britton (S3)
Bronze
Eilidh Roy (S4)
Eilish Gordon (S4)
Elliot Sexton (S4)
Kyle Kennedy (S4)
Paula Pappas (S4)
Maura Kenny(S3)
Declan McVey (S3)
Rochelle McGrory (S3)
Emily Devlin (S3)
Laura Davie (S3)
Well done to all our pupils who took part, especially those of you who did achieve an
award. Certificates will be issued in due course.
The Maths Department
Turnbull Times
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Turnbull High School
www.turnbull.e-dunbarton.sch.uk
Pistoia Exchange Visit 14 – 21 February 2011
Between 14th and 21th of February, a group of eighteen S5 students took part in our
annual exchange visit to Pistoia, Tuscany. This venture is part of a school twinning scheme
in conjunction with five North Lanarkshire schools and has run successfully for the past
five years.
The group flew from Prestwick to Bologna and then onward to Pistoia where they met
their Italian ‘twins’ for the trip. Among the many highlights of their sojourn in Tuscany
were a guided coach tour of the beautiful city of Florence (and shopping in the famous
market), a visit to the beautiful towns of Sienna and Lucca and a fantastic excursion to the
carnival in Viareggio with its incredible floats and costumes.
The Italian visitors will come to Bishopbriggs in September for the start of next year’s
exchange and the challenge is for us to return the memorable hospitality shown to us in
Tuscany. Such a trip offers our students cultural, social and academic benefits and is a
fantastic experience for all involved !
The Modern Languages Department
Page 4
Turnbull Times
Turnbull High School
www.turnbull.e-dunbarton.sch.uk
Turnbull Bridge Builders
S3 Physics classes had a visit from a practising Civil Engineer this month. Jim
MacPhie shared his experience and
enthusiasm for civil engineering projects
with the pupils with a particular focus on
Bridge design. This ties in to a bridge building
competition that S2 and S3 pupils are
currently engaged in. The competition
finished on Thursday 24th March. The big
question is:
“Which team has the best and cheapest bridge?”
Current Winner is this design with a cost of $165,952
On Wednesday 23rd March, 3rd Year Physics pupils had a visit from the Fire
Service. The focus of the visit was electrical safety in the home.
Turnbull Times
Page 5
Turnbull High School
www.turnbull.e-dunbarton.sch.uk
Turnbull Pupil Wins Logo Competition
Aiden McCann of S3 has won the 10 – 14 year category of the
‘PAT2014’ (People All Together) competition.
PAT2014 is a new development for the very successful charity Mary’s Meals.
Thanks to a very large donation from an individual, Mary’s Meals will now move
into the field of research into the link between food and nutrition and how
young people perform in education. They will work with research teams at
universities and use the expertise in their charitable work.
Mary’s Meals now provides 500,000 children with a meal (in school)
worldwide, each day.
Aiden came top in his category from a field of thousands of
entries from schools all over the U.K. PAT2014 needed a logo
and Turnbull High School’s R.E. department arranged entries
from pupils in S3.
Well done, Aiden.
Turnbull Youth SVDP Conference
Our Conference has had a very busy month. We had a meeting with the
Staff at the Marie Curie Hospice and have agreed to support them in
various activities. Mrs Grant and 3 conference members helped at the
Ozanam Centre which involved giving out clothing to the homeless. We are
also supporting the “Live with Hope” appeal by organising a raffle. If you
would like to support this very good cause, donations of raffle prizes are
urgently required and can be dropped off at the school office. The pupils
will be selling raffle tickets from Monday 18th April.
The Conference wishes everyone a very happy Easter.
Page 6
Turnbull Times
Turnbull High School
www.turnbull.e-dunbarton.sch.uk
TURNBULL HIGH SCHOOL DANCE CLUB
BALLROOM BLITZ - S1/S2
The dancing competition was amazing. We came to school at 8 o’clock (in the morning)
and our dance teachers Emma Timoney, Gillian Milroy, Lauren Mullen and Hannah Gunn did
our hair and make-up.
We left school just after registration. When we got to Bishopbriggs Academy we went
straight to the hall. We were the first
dance from Turnbull and danced 4th in
the first category. All the dances
were amazing although we won 1st
place. We were all so happy and had
o u r p i c t u re t a ke n fo r t h e
Bishopbriggs Herald.
We would like to thank the 5th Year
pupils who helped and also Mrs Dean,
Mrs MacNab, Miss Doran and all
other teachers.
Sarah Greenan S1
The Dance Competition
The morning of Dance Fest started early! We had to be in school by 8am to get our hair,
make-up and costumes done. Everyone was really excited but a little nervous as well. The
whole day was brilliant, especially performing our dance ‘Town Called Malice’, watching the
other groups and cheering for Turnbull! As we waited for the results of our section we
doubted whether we could win because we were against really tough competition. When
we heard our group name called out as winners we jumped out of our seats and screamed.
Going on to perform our winning
dance was just amazing!
The ‘Town Called Malice’ group
would like to say a big thank you to
the three S5 girls for their amazing
choreography, costumes, hair and
make-up. Sophie McCumesty, Nicola
Murphy and Colette Magennis.
The whole experience was just
amazing!
Kate McGinness S1
Turnbull Times
Page 7
Turnbull High School
www.turnbull.e-dunbarton.sch.uk
Active Schools—The Premiership Experience
26th February 2011 was the date that some pupils and staff from Turnbull
High School attended the Wigan V Manchester Utd match, at Wigan’s DW
Stadium. The match was a Premiership fixture. We all sat in the ‘home’
end of the stadium, just behind and to the left of the goal. We had a
brilliant view! The game finished 4-0 to Man Utd with two goals from
Hernandez and one each from Rooney and Da Silva. Some of us found it
difficult not to cheer when Man Utd Scored!
We had a great day and hopefully there will be another opportunity to go
and see another match in the not too distant future!
S2 Football Tournament
We held a football tournament to raise awareness of multiple sclerosis. Multiple sclerosis
(MS) is the most common disabling neurological condition affecting young adults. Around
20,000 people in Scotland have MS and it is a condition that affects people in Scotland
particularly.
We made posters and a power point presentation about MS to make people aware of it.
The football tournament was held for 4 weeks and those who took part enjoyed it.
Thank you to the S2 boys who took part in the football tournament.
Arden Love and John Russell
Page 8
Turnbull Times
Monday
supervising
teacher
venue
Mr McLachlan
Miss Doran
Miss Hamilton
3G Pitch
Badminton (except S1)
S3 Football
Fitness Club
Table Tennis
Mr Hay
Miss Hamilton
Mrs Brown
Mrs Irvine
Games Hall
3G Pitch
Fitness Club
S4 Football
Bike Club
Miss Doherty
Mr McLachlan
Mrs Irvine &
Mark Kiehlmann
Fitness Suite
Thursday
Badminton (except S2)
S1 Football
Mrs Grant
Mr Grant
Friday
Dance
S2 Football
Miss Pearson
Mrs Irvine
Mr Hughes
Tuesday
Wednesday
Rugby Circuit Training
Fitness Suite
Gym Hall
Netball Club
S1 Football Training
Trampolining Club
supervising
teacher
Mrs Swann & Mrs McBrearty
Mr Grant
Miss Pearson
Mrs Dean & Mrs McNab
venue
Games Hall
3G Pitch
Gym
Dance Club
Rugby Club (S3 and above)
Football Matches
Mr Hughes
Various Staff
Games Hall
3G Pitch/Gym
3G Pitch
Girls’ Football Training
S2 Boys’ Football Training
Miss Hamilton
Mrs Irvine
3G Pitch
Games Hall
3G Pitch
Football Matches
Various Staff
3G Pitch
Gym
3G Pitch
Games Hall
Senior Boys’ 5-a-side
S4 Football Training
Mr Condron
Mr Simpson
Games Hall
3G Pitch
Fitness Suite
Gym Hall
3G Pitch
Playground
Games Hall/3G Pitch
Page 9
www.turnbull.e-dunbarton.sch.uk
S5/6 Football
Fitness Club
Gymnastics Club
club
Turnbull High School
club
AFTER SCHOOL – 3.45 – 4.45
ACTIVE SCHOOLS TIMETABLE
LUNCHTIME – 1.10 – 1.40
The active schools timetable has been updated for the new year. There are clubs on every lunchtime
and every day after school in the PE department.
Turnbull Times
Active Schools’ Extra-Curricular Timetable
March 2011
DAY
www.turnbull.e-dunbarton.sch.uk
Turnbull High School
Mobile Phones/I-Pods
Mobile phones should be
switched off in class, nor
should pupils use their phones
between classes or at breaks.
If you need to contact your
son/daughter during the school day, please speak to a
member of our office team who will be pleased to
pass on your message. Equally, pupils can talk to
their Pupil Support teacher or Year Head if they
require to contact you. Under no circumstances
should they record or take photographs of other
pupils or members of staff. This also applies school
events outwith the normal school day.
Pupils may listen to I-pods/MP3s in social areas at
breaks. However, they should not walk around
corridors with earphones plugged in, since we need
everyone to be able to listen to instructions to
ensure the safe movement of pupils through the
building.
Misuse of the Internet
Pupils have signed a guarantee that they will not
misuse the school ICT system. Any breaches of this
agreement, particularly those which cause distress to
others, will result in a serious sanction.
I would also ask parents to be vigilant in ensuring
that young people do not misuse mobile phones or
the internet at home to cause annoyance,
inconvenience or needless anxiety to other young
people or adults. Misuse of public electronic
communication networks is a criminal offence.
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
THIRD TERM
Closed
Mon 4 April to Friday 15 April 2011 inclusive
FOURTH TERM
Reopen
Mon 18 April 2011
Closed
Fri 22 April 2011
Closed
Mon 25 April 2011
Reopen
Tue 26 April 2011
Closed
Fri 29 April 2011 (Royal Wedding)
Closed
Mon 2 May 2011
Closed In-Service Day
Thu 26 May 2011
Closed
Fri 27 May 2011
Closed
Mon 30 May 2011
Reopen
Tues 31 May 2011
Last day of school
Fri 24 June 2011
PARENTAL
INFORMATION
EVENINGS
MASSES
P7
Exam/Leavers’ Mass
Information Evening
Tue 26 April 2011
St Matthew’s Church
16 June 2011
7:00 pm
7:00 pm
CHANGE OF DATE : EXAMINATION AND LEAVERS’ MASS
Our Exam / Leavers’ Mass has been brought forward to Tuesday 26 April at 7pm in
St. Matthew’s Church
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Turnbull Times