BBC School Report - Shawlands Academy

31 Moss-Side Rd, Glasgow, G41 3TR // TEL: 0141 582 0210 // www.shawlandsacademy.glasgow.sch.uk
BBC School Report
A big congratulations to Mr
McClure’s S3 English class who
took part in this year’s BBC
School Report on Thursday 19��
March. They worked tirelessly
to produce some fantastic
written reports and some
excellent short news videos.
The written reports and the link
for the YouTube channel can be
found in the Clubs & Groups
section of the school website.
S3 Duke of Edinburgh
Success
Well done to the S3 Bronze
Duke of Edinburgh groups
who took part in their
training day walk over two
weekends in February. All
pupils did extremely well.
Easter School
During the Spring holidays,
Shawlands Academy will be
providing a Supported Study
programme. There will be a range
of subjects on offer for National 5,
Intermediate and Higher. There
will be both morning classes from
10am to 12 noon and afternoon
classes from 1pm to 3pm.
Details on the school website.
Dates for your Diary
Ÿ Thursday 2nd April - School
closes 2.30pm for Easter Holidays
The skills these pupils picked
up around navigation, map
setting and route making will
help them greatly on their
expeditions later this year.
Ÿ Monday 20th April - School
reopens 8.45am
Ÿ Tuesday 28th April - Senior exams
begin
Ÿ Monday 4th May - May Day Bank
Holiday
Ÿ Thursday 7th May - In service
day, school closed
Science Club
given the chance to participate
in a Dragon’s Den style
presentation in order to obtain
funding for their School
Garden Project. Four pupils
represented the Eco Club,
these were: Sehir Iftikhar,
Mariya Younas, Ilgin Eroglu
Under the stewardship of Miss and Zile Huma. They applied
Keatings, Science Club has
for £500 and were awarded
been meeting every
the full amount, which is a
Wednesday at lunchtime. The fantastic achievement.
club has been investigating a
The organiser also made
number of extremely exciting mention of the fact that she
scientific questions and has
had been very impressed with
produced some truly
fascinating results so far this
year. Recently, the club has
done some fire writing, they
have made snowflakes and
they have even dissected a
heart! Two of the most
successful events so far have
been The Paper Airplane
the girls’ dedication and
Challenge and The Tallest
application as they had gone
Tower Challenge. Both proved beyond what was required of
to be incredibly interesting,
them and had included a
exciting and highly
poster and pictures of the
competitive.
garden. As a result of this, the
If you are interested in joining application process will now
Science Club, please get in
require all applicants to submit
touch with Miss Keatings.
a poster.
Well done Eco Clubbers!
Eco Club
The Eco Club has had more
recent success. Pupils were
Forming New Partnerships
The school has just started a
partnership with a Palestinian
school on the West Bank. This
is a fantastic opportunity for
the school and we are aiming
to accomplish a number of
PAGE 2
things as a result of this
venture. Firstly, we are
intending to document the
daily lives of our students and
the students in Jenin through
the mediums of film,
photography and other
opportunities presented by the
twinning process. Secondly, we
are hoping to run a course for
the upper school through PSE
classes with a series of lessons
s springboards for discussion.
Two pupils, Ruth Jahoda and
Kerry McMullen, both from S5,
have recently come on board
the project to give us insight
into the pupil view point.
We will be providing further
updates as more progress is
made.
The Personal Development
Class Success
Miss Spiers would like to offer
a massive thank-you to
everyone who ordered a box
or, in some cases, boxes of
cakes from the Personal
Development class. After
deducting the cost of
ingredients, they raised the
truly wonderful total of £150
for Comic Relief. Your support
is greatly appreciated. This is a
marvellous achievement and a
real credit to everyone
involved in the endeavour. The
cakes were delicious!
A Brief History of the
Shawlands Academy Cricket
Club
By Miss Swan
their ground and they also
send their overseas pro and
amateur for a 6 week block of
coaching with the junior team
in the summer term. Mr Shaikh
is often kind enough to act as
an umpire in our junior
matches and I am scorer. Every
S1-S3 pupil with an interest in
the game is welcome to come
along to training which is on
Thursdays at 3pm. Some of our
Shawlands pupils also play
with the local clubs such as
Poloc CC, Clydesdale and
Victoria and some just like
playing with their mates.
Everyone is welcome.
The cricket club has been
running in Shawlands for a
long time. We have a strong
tradition of making and
sometimes winning the junior
and senior finals in the
Glasgow Schools League. The
One of Gran Nessie’s Many
juniors are S1-S3 and the
Chocolate Truffle Recipes
seniors are S4-S6. The senior
By Ruby Jane Honeyman
competition is a one day round
robin competition of 5, 8 ball
overs in the qualifying and
then the two teams who won
their respective qualifiers have
10, 8 ball overs. The junior
league usually has two groups
of around four teams and
there are 20 over matches to
find the top two to go through
Ingredients:
to semi-final, then final. The
numbers vary slightly year on
· 3oz plain chocolate;
year but there are teams like
· Coconut or cocoa (opus who have been participating
tional);
in it for a long time and other
· 4 tbsp drinking chocoteams who have more recently
late;
joined. Over the last few years,
· 1oz butter;
Shawlands has developed a
partnership with Poloc CC. We
· 1 tbsp milk
play our home matches at
PAGE 3
· And a few drops of vanilla essence.
Method:
Break up the chocolate and
melt it in a bowl placed in a
pan of boiling water, kept
simmering until the chocolate
is completely melted. Add the
butter in small pieces until it’s
mixed through and stir in the
milk. Beat it together. Add the
drinking chocolate and the
vanilla essence. When cool, roll
into small balls and roll in
coconut or cocoa. Put them in
petit four cases (or very, very,
very small cupcake cases). Pop
in a pretty box to give as a
present or put them on a nice
dish, cover them with a dry,
clean tea towel and serve
them up as a Christmas
pudding.
Mark Scott Leadership
for Life
March saw the culmination of 6
months worth of work for our 7
Senior MSLLfL pupils. The pupils
have been engaged with The
Outward Bound Trust since they
attended their outdoor education
residential in October. Since then
the group have been working with
St Paul’s Academy and Govan High
on a joint community project. Our
pupils were part of a team who led
a three day community litter pick
around the different schools. As the
award is sponsored by the Scottish
Government, Nicola Sturgeon has
invited all the pupils to meet with
her in Edinburgh early June to
discuss their experiences.
Shawlands Academy’s
Budding Programmers
On Friday 13th March all S3
Computing Science pupils took
part in a LIVE Computer
Science lesson hosted by the
BBC's Voice UK.
Hosted by Radio 1 DJ Clara
Amfo, the lesson was
streamed to classrooms across
the UK with a focus on thinking
creatively with code. During
the lesson, the pupils engaged
with some of the fundamental
concepts from the National 5
Computing Science curriculum.
The lesson included some
incredible expert speakers –
including Will i Am - who
helped to demystify and
celebrate the fun, creative
potential of coding. The lesson
also highlighted the varied
careers (and substantial
salaries) that coding can
unlock.
The event was held to
celebrate British Science
Week.
Local Crime Writer Visits
Shawlands Academy
On Monday 16th March,
Scotland’s potential new top
crime writer Graeme Macrae
Burnet, author of the novel
‘The Disappearance of Adele
Bedeau’ kindly came to our
school to talk to us about his
book and what being an author
entails.
and seems to be impossible for
anyone else to top it.
He told us it was always his
goal to have a novel published
and to have a second is
unbelievable. Burnet explained
He started by telling us about that the process of publishing
what the novel was about, and a book is a lot harder than
how he got his inspiration for people think. He said that one
the story. After he had
of the reasons it took so long
explained this, he read a
to get his book onto shop
section from the first chapter shelves is because it is
of the book; it was really
extremely difficult to even get
interesting to listen to him talk to speak to a publisher in the
and to hear about his
first place and often, an agent
experiences in writing the
is required for this. However,
book and the obstacles he
of course, his own story has a
overcame to get this, his first
happy ending as he did find a
book, published.
publisher and “The
Disappearance of Adèle
He explained that the novel
Bedeau” was released in July
took three years in total to
2014.
write and produce. His second,
“His Bloody Project:
We would like to extend a big
Documents Relating to the
thank you to Graeme McRae
Case of Roderick Macrae” is
Burnet for coming in and
being released in November
speaking to us.
this year.
By Niamh Donnelly, Katie
After being asked about the
Conner and Tom Anderson
pieces of literature he loved,
he told us that his favourite
author is George Simenon, a
Belgian crime fiction writer.
Burnet explained that Simenon
wrote over 500 books and
short stories in his lifetime.
200 of these have been
published. Of course, he
added, this is an incredible
amount of work to produce
Graeme McCraeBurnett
PAGE 4
General Election 2015 is Just
around the Corner!
By Catriona Reid
The next UK general election
will be held on Thursday 7th
May to elect the 56th
Parliament of the United
Kingdom. Recent polls suggest
a very close result between
Labour and the Conservatives.
However upcoming parties
such as UKIP, the Greens and
in Scotland the SNP are
becoming significantly more
popular in Britain, this is
changing the face of politics.
This could be one of the most
interesting elections in British
history because of these
smaller parties holding the
balance of power – this means
that if the Labour or
Conservatives don’t achieve a
majority then they will have to
form a coalition with one of
the other parties. The current
government is a coalition with
Conservatives and Liberal
Democrats. The smaller parties
are now more empowered
than ever before. This would
mean that both the Labour and
Conservatives would have to
compromise their manifesto in
order to become a majority.
Look out for the next article in
our next edition for another
political update.
or something else entirely. On
the last day they will have the
opportunity to relax on the
beach and maybe even ride on
an elephant!
World Challenge: Thailand
If you would like to help the
By Isla Grant
pupils in their fundraising
efforts, then please look out
for upcoming World Challenge
events such bake sales,
sponsored runs and sponsored
silences. They will be very
grateful of your help and it is
for a good cause.
Every few years, a group of
pupils have the opportunity to If you would like more
information on World
travel to another country to
Challenge or assisting with
help a community. This may
take the form of renovating a fundraising, please contact
Miss Mclean in the English
school or building a well. In
department.
2017, a group of pupils will
have just such an opportunity
Word Wizard Semi-Final
when they make the journey
Success
to an area in Thailand.
However, before this, in order
to go, they need to fund-raise Ailsa White, Heather Napthine
the amount of £2500 each. The and Rosie Mckay (S1) took
money will pay for them to fly part in the Word Wizard semifinal competition (spelling bee
to Thailand, their
in French). It took place on
accommodation whilst they
Friday the 27th of March at
are there and a portion of it
will also go directly to the local Strathclyde University.
The judges wanted to say how
community they are there to
impressed they were with all
support.
of the pupils, and to say that
On the first day they are due
to arrive in Thailand, the plan they feel the standard has risis for the pupils to trek into the en from last year.
Heather Napthine has made it
jungle and sleep under the
through to the final on 29th
stars- which sounds pretty
May at the Scottish Parliaincredible! The next day they
ment.
will begin working with the
local community; this may take
the form of teaching, building
PAGE 5
Val di Fiemme Ski Trip
By Catriona Reid
on Saturday 11th April at
approximately 11pm.
Food Bank Donations
As you may or may not know,
Shawlands Academy has set up
Great Shawlands Bake Off and a drop off point in N18 (Mrs
Bake Sale
Thompson’s classroom) for
pupils and teachers to donate
Miss Sinclair would like to offer food and/or money for the
a huge thank -you for all the
school to pass on to the local
support for the Great
food banks. Food banks are for
Shawlands Bake Off and Bake people that are unable to find
The Shawlands Academy
Sale which raised an incredible food to feed their families due
annual ski trip for 2015 is due £200! This is a fantastic
to extreme hardship.
to take place in Val di Fiemme, achievement and the money
Italy. Pupils travelling to the
really is going to a great cause.
Fiemme valley will depart at
This success is an even greater
7:30am on Saturday 4th April achievement considering there
and take the Dover to Calais
was the inevitable jiggerylate night ferry. They will then pokery with one entrant
embark on a 32 hour bus
claiming a shop-bought cake as
journey and arrive at the
homemade and even a daring
resort at approximately 3pm
sabotage attempt involving a
on Sunday the 5th April. The
The number of people having
carefully placed hair in a
next 5 days will be spent
to go to a food bank has
competitor’s icing. Devious
skiing; with 4 hours of tuition stuff indeed!
increased dramatically which is
being provided per day.
another important reason to
Breakfast and dinner is also
support local food banks. The
included as well as evening
latest figures shows that
entertainment to end the day.
913,138 people were given 3
The students will have the
day emergency food in 2013exciting opportunity of
2014 which compares to
spending their lunch break on
25,899 people recorded in
the slopes in the resort’s cafes
2008-2009. Please continue to
and restaurants. A party night
contribute to the Shawlands
Congratulations
to
the
winning
including presentations and a
Academy food bank.
ceilidh will be held on the last chocolate brownies by Ms
If you have any questions or
night before departure. Friday Finbow and a big thank-you to suggestions, please contact
10th April will involve another the three valiant judges: Mrs Mrs Thompson.
Grant, Mr Hutchison and Sam
full day skiing but an early
Meheux! Well done
dinner before beginning the
(Tinned food and things that
everybody!
journey home. The bus will
won’t go out of date quickly
arrive at Shawlands Academy
are recommended)
PAGE 6
Creative Writers
Friends crying in pain
War, it ruins your life.
Please contact Mrs Rusk in the
library if you are interested in
joining the Creative Writers
club.
What does Freedom of Speech
Mean?
By Catriona Reid
Mohammed Ahmed and Keir
Penman, members of the
Creative Writers Group have
received a Certificate of Merit,
for a piece of writing they
submitted to the Young
Writers national competition,
entitled ‘Out of this World’.
Their poems have been chosen
to be published in Out of this
World-UK Rhymes. This really
is a massive achievement for
both boys, as the competition
was open to everybody in the
U.K.
Amnesty International says….
“Free Speech and the right to
freedom of expression applies
to ideas of all kinds including
these that may be deeply
offensive”
War
Others argue that freedom of
By Keir Penman
speech isn’t freedom to be
bully. So what is freedom of
Joe didn’t want to be in this,
speech, the official definition
but His brother joined.
is:
His family was brought up to
Free Speech - the right to
join the army.
express any opinions without
The war had been going on for censorship or restraint.
years all
A recent example would be the
The boys have very kindly
because of us and them. If the “UKIP Calypso Song” - some
allowed us to print their
two sides just
people found it offensive and
winning efforts:
agreed none of this had to
thought it should be
happen.
withdrawn entirely, once again
War
Joe was only 10, much too
others argued that that is
By Mohammed Ahmed
young to join.
freedom of speech.
The latest to join up was toWhere can we draw the line
War, a terrible feeling
morrow morning.
between the two? Can we? Is
The pain of killing a person cir- He waked up to the table and free speech a good thing? Can
cles
picked up
we as a society differentiate
You for the rest of your life,
the pen and pressed the pen to between dehumanising others
You feel like backing away but, the paper.
and our own opinion? Do we
You can’t understand what to
have freedom of speech in our
do
country and/or in our world?
Other than killing more people Well done Mohammed and
The conclusion is up to you.
And then it’s over
Keir, you have both done a
What do you think about free
You see all your loved ones
fantastic job!
speech?
and
PAGE 7
The week was a huge success
Eco and Sustainability Course and pupils enjoyed this
experience immensely.
Fairtrade Club
At the beginning of March, 12
of Shawlands Academy’s 1��
and 2ⁿ� years took part in an
Eco and Sustainability course
at the Outward Bound Centre
in Loch Eil, gaining their John
Muir Award.
The course lasted for 1 week
and pupils were able to take
part in a number of activities
designed to increase their
awareness of the natural
environment, enhance their
communication skills and
improve their confidence and
resilience.
sold chocolate bars, bracelets
and flutes. Everyone who
visited the stalls, very kindly
bought something. We sold
the chocolate bars for £1, the
flutes for 60p and the
bracelets; we sold for £1 as
well. We sold different kinds of
chocolates: white, milk and
orange.
Henna
By Ayeesha Hafeez
On Friday the 6�� of March, we
Visit to City Chambers
were doing henna; it ranged
By Aleena Bhatti
from 50p and up. We had
On Monday 23�� of February,
various different designs
the Fairtrade Committee went available. Many students and
on a visit to the City Chambers teachers came to take
for Fairtrade Fortnight. We
advantage of this and get
met Pamela from Mauritius
henna done. We took lots of
who spoke to us about her life photographs of our work on
before Fairtrade and since.
their hands. Most importantly,
we made lots of money so it
was a great success. Everyone
was pleased with their designs.
Aleena and Sara did the henna
for everyone, they were really
good at it.
There were lots of different
people from different schools
there, it was an excellent
experience and we learned a
lot.
Chocolate Stalls
By Umarah Ali
We did the Fairtrade stalls on
Tuesday the 3�� of March. We
PAGE 8
in ascertaining their opinions
Visit to Langside Primary
of Fairtrade as that was his his
School
area of expertise in the last
Labour government. He asked
On Monday 2ⁿ� of March
people’s opinions and
seniors from the Fairtrade
answered questions. He
committee went to Langside
informed us that 0.7% of
Primary School to talk to
government revenue goes to
primary 7 about Fairtrade. We overseas aid and he wants to
talked about how they were
ensure some of this goes to
affected by Fairtrade and we
Fairtrade projects. He spoke to
learned more about how other Fairtrade committee and 1
schools are contributing
second year class.
towards Fairtrade. This visit
was very helpful to the
children of primary 7 as they
will soon be entering
Shawlands Academy and they The Eco club has been as busy
wanted to know what the
as ever as we near our Spring
school was doing to help
term. There have been a range
Fairtrade. We had many
of successes our pupils have
activities prepared for the
been helping the school
primary 7’s in order to engage through. Seven boys worked
them with Fairtrade.
with Gary Linstead our local
Countryside Ranger at Linn
Meeting Tom Harris MP
Park. There the boys helped
clear away a small woodland
that had been cut down,
making way for younger trees
to grow and develop. The
group also helped plant the
dozens of saplings the school
received from the woodland
Eco Club news
On Tuesday 3�� of March we
had a visit from Tom Harris
MP. He was here to ask people
about their attitude to
Fairtrade as he was interested
PAGE 9
Trust, helping Glasgow reach
it’s sustainability targets.
Miss McGinlay and Mr Wright
have were busy at the recent
showcase event , displaying
work the group have been
carrying out and presenting
their plans for our garden. And
lastly the group were also
successful in receiving free
paint from B&Q Darnley.
Darren Payne, Unit Manager,
kindly donated enough paint
so we could refresh our 46m
squared garden wall. The task
now is to start putting all these
plans, paint and money into
action!
DofE
The Duke of Edinburgh Bronze
expeditions will soon be upon
us. Over the course of 3 weeks
between April and May, forty
one S3 pupils will take part in
their Practice and Qualifying
expeditions. Good luck to all!
PTC Report
students (and donations of
ALL THE SCHOOL’S A STAGE:
SHAWLANDS CREATIVE
ACADEMY ‘SHOWCASE’
The event is all about
Shawlands Academy and the
aim is to extend the invitation
beyond the school to our
feeder Primary schools and
parents as well as to the wider
Shawlands community. So
please note the date in your
diary - Saturday 13 June 2015 and come along and support
and enjoy what will be a great
community event.
The PTC in conjunction with
the school is to host a new and
exciting event, ‘Shawlands
Creative Academy Showcase’.
The aim of the event, to be
held in the school on Saturday
13 June 2015, is to celebrate
everything that’s good about
Shawlands Academy and in
particular to showcase the
creative talent of all our young
people. The Showcase builds
on previous successful PTC
events such as the Shawlands
Academy Mela and will include
the auction and sale of student
art works and photography; a
showcase for the excellent
work of the school’s
Technology Department as
well as music, drama and
gymnastic performances. In
addition, the Showcase will
provide an opportunity for the
school’s numerous clubs –
from the Eco Club, the Duke of
Edinburgh Club and others – to
showcase what opportunities
they provide for young people
at Shawlands to get engaged in
out-of-class learning and
development. The Showcase
will run from 10am to 2pm and
refreshments – tea, coffee and
baking - will be available
courtesy of our excellent
Health and Food Technology
home baking etc. would be
warmly welcomed).
prepare our young people by
providing them with job
interview training.
Aneeta Prem Visit
Charity founder Aneeta Prem
was at the the school as part of
her visit to Glasgow in
February. Aneeta Not only
gave a speech at the City
Chambers with our Lord
Provost but was also a guest at
PTC News …
BBC is Shawlands Academy’s
business partner: This news
was warmly welcomed by the
PTC as it presents new and
exciting opportunities for our
young people at Shawlands
Academy to get involved with
the BBC and its multifarious
media and learning activities.
Shawlands Academy speaking
to a select group of pupils on
the subject of Forced
Marriages. Many of the
students commented positively
on her talk. Aneeta was also
able to distribute her recently
published book, ‘But it’s not
Shawlands Academy PTC
fair’, a book detailing the story
Facebook: the PTC is to launch
of a young girl who has first
a Shawlands Academy PTC
hand experience of a forced
Facebook page to better
marriage. Aneeta is the
communicate with parents and
founder of the Freedom
carers at that the school – and
Charity based in London.
to better communicate what it
is doing on behalf of all parents
and carers.
The PTC / School Careers
Evening: in January was a great
success, again. The PTC is now
working with the school to
take up the kind offer of our
‘Career Consultants’ to help