File - Robert Gordon`s College

Issue 50 I Summer 2015
Pupils enjoy
experimenting
in the new
science labs
P7 perform
Disney’s Aladdin
Pupils prepare for
Himalayan trek
CCF RAF cadets
visit flight
simulator
Chess Challenge
Mr Fish accompanied eight of our chess players to the North Scotland ‘Megafinal’ of the
UK Delancey Chess Challenge in May. Mr Fish
said: “All our players did extremely well with
six qualifying for the next round, the Gigafinal’
in Manchester in July. This is a record number
for us with Euan, Tobi and Adi winning all their
games.” Stuthi Hegde (S3), Euan Gray, Tobi Komolafe, Andrew Ross (S2), Adi Hegde (P5) and
Peter Fish (P2) will participate in the ‘Gigafinal’.
BBC School News
Report
On 19 March pupils from S1- S6 reported on
topical news items for the BBC School News
Report 2015. Visit www.rgc.aberdeen.sch.uk/
bbcschoolreport to view their coverage.
Maths
UMKT European Kangaroo Papers
Senior Kangaroo Paper:
Yash Nirmal (S5), Catriona Soden and Luke
Travis (S6) - Certificate of Merit
Dance Achievements
Freya Oswald (S6) has gained a Distinction in
Modern Theatre Dance at Level 4 Vocational
Graded Examination in Dance: Advanced 1
(QCF) from the Imperial Society for Teachers of
Dancing. This is the second highest award available to her and is considered a ‘professional’
examination.
Olivia Attwooll-Keith (S6) devised and implemented the choreography for the very successful
‘Theatreland’ show performed recently by our
S3-S4 pupils.
Erin Strachan (S1) recently represented North
Aberdeenshire at the Scottish Area Finals in
Oban during the Highlands & Islands Music
& Dance Festival. This event is the only Highland Dance team competition to be held in the
world. Seventeen areas throughout Scotland
were represented by a team of six dancers who
had qualified by their performance at a selected
championship. Erin performed exceptionally
well, making a significant contribution to her
team, which won the overall championship.
Veronica Duthie (S4) has been awarded a place
in the Edinburgh Tattoo dance team for August
2015. This is a great achievement for Veronica
as over 200 dancers auditioned for 50 places
and she is the only 16 year old to make the
team.
Pink Kangaroo Paper
Jiesen Pan (S3), Magnus Ferris (S3), Nimrod
Libman (S4), Miriam McDonald (S4), Matthew
Mays (S4) - Certificate of Participation. Keith
Yardley (S4) - Certificate of Merit.
Kirsty Oldham, Robbie Eost, Nicholas Runcie qualify
for Junior Kangaroo. Katie Smith gained Best in School
and Best in Year and qualifies for Junior Kangaroo.
Junior UKMT Maths Challenge
Bronze: Colin Chen, Gemma Rowbotham, Lewis
McShannon, Vaibhav Chetty, Adithya Kannan,
Matthew Davidson, Jubal George, Patrick
Robinson (all S1), Tobi Komolafe, Lewis Guy,
Kirsty Forbes, Rohan Mudkavi (all S2).
Silver: Konrad Wojciechowski, Douglas Fraser,
Ellie Black, Patrick Ashdown, Nivi Aravind, Anna
Scott, Marcus Henderson (all S1), Shreya Nirmal,
Andrew Dawson, Peter Collins, Rory Gilmore,
Pranav Maganti, Priyanka Ram, Eilidh Forrest,
Peter Lacaze, Michael O’Donovan, Mary Shearer
(all S2).
Gold: Caelan Teismann (S1) was Best in Year. Theo
Aidbiyi, Andrew Ross, Joel Simpson, Tom Craik,
Kirsty Oldham, Katie Smith, Robbie Eost, Nicholas
Runcie (all S2).
Creative writing
success for Aparna
Aparna Kumar (S2) was one of 12 winners
(10 from Scotland and 2 from St Petersburg)
of The Pushkin Prize and attended a
prizegiving ceremony in Archers’ Hall,
Edinburgh, on Monday 27th April. Aparna
submitted a folio of 3 pieces of work which
was judged by published authors Keith
Gray and Joan Lennon. Mrs Rencontre,
Teacher of English said: “This is an extremely
prestigious prize in a competition for young
people interested in creative writing. We are
truly delighted that Aparna won this award.
She completed all the pieces at home, in
her own time - two short stories and a
poem.” After the prize-giving ceremony,
Aparna and the others participated in a 5
day residential creative writing course near
Inverness, working with published and
successful authors to develop their skills.
1
From the Quadrangle Summer 2015
Music
Rachel Lowden (S5) Clarinet and Hayleigh
Mathers (S6) Trumpet both played in the Aberdeen Music Centre’s Youth Wind Band which
achieved a Gold Award at the National Scottish
Concert Band Festical at Perth Concert Hall on
March 22. Further information: www.scottishconcertbandfestival.com
Ganesh Mohan (S4) has secured a place in the
National Youth Choir of Scotland Training choir.
ABRSM
P5: Shravan Aravin - Grade 1 Piano (Merit).
S1: Alistair E. Finch - Grade 2 Alto Saxaphone
(Merit); Patrick Robinson - Grade 3 Oboe; Marcus
Henderson - Grade 3 Alto Saxaphone (Merit); Nivi
Aravind - Grade 2 Flute (Merit) Esther Hayes Grade 4 Flute (Merit); Jamie Niven - Grade 2 Flute
(Merit); Shavena Balan - Grade 2 Flute (Merit).
S2: Ryan Milne - Grade 4 Clarinet; Sebastian
Barclay - Grade 3 Alto Saxaphone (Merit); Shreyas
Nirmal -Grade 5 Alto Saxaphone (Distinction).
S3: Thomas Slater - Grade 7 Violin (Merit).
S4: Ganesh Mohan- Grade 6 Singing (Merit).
S5: Rachel Lowden - Grade 7 Clarinet (distinction).
Duke of Edinburgh
Awards
Congratulations to the following pupils on the
completion of their Gold Award: Catherine
Cannell, Amy Fraser, Alice Jaspers, Eleanor
Jenkins, Hayleigh Mathers, Freya Oswald, Aized
Shahbaz, Curtis Stephen, Tom Summers, Lise
Théron, Louise Walker (all S6).
Scottish Maths Challenge Award
Congratulations on their success in the Scottish
Maths Challenge competition.
Patrick Ashdown (S1) and Kirsty Oldham (S2)
- Bronze Awards and to Viaibhav Chetty (S2)
- Gold Award. Viaibhav Chetty was invited to a
Presentation Day at the University of Aberdeen
earlier this month.
Taekwon-do
Rogan Rennie (S6) recently completed the
prestigious International Instructor Course in
Taekwon-do. This allows him to teach Taekwon-do
to a high level to adults and children. Lauren Kiloh
(S5) completed the same course on a previous
occasion and, like Rogan, has previously enjoyed
a very successful Taekwon-do career, which saw
each of them compete with great success at the
Taekwon-do World Championships.
Trinity College Examination results
P7: Archie Love Grade 2 Tuba (Distinction).
S1: Tom Cameron - Grade 3 Bassoon (Distinction);
Harry Forbes - Grade 2 Cornet (Merit); Jonathan
Reeks - Grade 3 Trumpet (Merit)
S2: Siobhan Bridges - Grade 3 Trumpet; Kirsty Forbes
- Grade 4 Violin (Merit); Euan Seaman - Grade 5
Trumpet (Merit); Lucy Spalding - Grade 4 Saxophone
(Distinction); Cara Whitelaw - Grade 3 Singing (Merit);
Callum Adams - Grade 4 Flute (Merit); John Gamba Grade 3 French Horn (Merit); Josie Gomersall - Grade
3 Flute; Conor Hardy - Grade 2 Singing (Distinction);
Samuel Hill - Grade 4 Flute (Distinction); Henry Lyons
- Grade 4 Saxophone (Distinction); Grace Milne Grade 4 Saxophone (Merit); Emma Morrice - Grade
5 Clarinet (Distinction); Kirsty Oldham - Grade 4
Flute (Distinction); Emily Purcell - Grade 2 Trumpet
(Distinction).
S4: Katrina O’ Donovan - Grade 5 Clarinet (Distinction); Rishi Purkayastha - Grade 5 French Horn
(Distinction); Hannah Milne - Grade 6 Cello; Brodie
Barker - Grade 5 French Horn (Merit).
S5: Yash Nirmal - Grade 6 Euphonium (Merit); Chloe
Trail - Grade 7 Clarinet (Distinction).
S6: Connor Welsh - Grade 8 Alto Saxophone (Merit);
Niall Macrae - Grade 7 Euphonium (Merit); Tom
Summers - Grade 8 Voice (Merit); Tom SummersGrade 7 Flute; Alexander Young - Grade 6 Cello
New centres open their
doors to pupils
Editorial: pr@rgc.aberdeen.sch.uk
Photography and articles: A big thank you to
everyone who contributed to this edition of From
the Quadrangle.
© Robert Gordon’s College 2015
Pupil lessons started at the end of April in The Wood Foundation Centre for Science and
Technology, and the Craig Centre for Performing Arts. The new centres will formally open
after summer with a series of celebration events planned for pupils, families and the wider
community from August 2015 until June 2016.
S1 drama club were delighted to perform ‘Matilda’, the first drama production in the
new Craig Centre for Performing Arts. Mr Hunter, Teacher of Drama said: “This production
embodies the true values of a drama club with pupils taking responsibility for all aspects of
the production. Roles such as Acting, Lighting, Set, Choreography and Directing were all
taken on by S1 participants who are relishing the exciting opportunities the new Craig Centre
for Performing Arts has to offer.” Ticket sales from the performance raised over £360 for
Brain Injury Grampian Group.
Read more at www.rgc.aberdeen.sch.uk/news.
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Useful links
S1 Drama Club perform ‘Matilda’
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Name an Element on the
Periodic Table of Elements
Name a seat
in the Craig Centre for Performing Arts
Seats are available for naming after individuals, year
groups, a company or in memory of a loved one. Your
name of choice will be recognised on your seat in a plaque
designed as a granite star. Each seat costs £2,000.
I
The Periodic Table of Elements will be an
impressive feature in the Foyer of The Wood
Foundation Centre for Science & Technology.
Elements are available for naming after
individuals, year groups, a company or in
memory of a loved one and cost £5,000.
Li
Tii
Lithium
m
Titanium
um
James Smith
The Johnston
Family
II
Iodine
Io d in e
In Loving
Memory
of “xx”
Al
Al
N
Aluminium
nium
um
Nitroge
ge
en
n
Class of 99
John Thomson
Abby Ltd
Summer 2015 From the Quadrangle
2
TV Doctor visits pupils to talk allergies
Farewell from the
school captains
With this academic year drawing to a close,
the temptation is for us to look forward to
what comes next. Yet we also look back with
pride at what has been a whirlwind year for
all of us here at Robert Gordon's College. As
school captains, we have helped the College
undertake an amazing variety of challenges,
from hosting a political debate with BBC's
'Any Questions?' in our very own MacRobert
Hall to continuing the College's dramatic and
musical success in several productions - most
recently the fantastic S1 performance of
‘Matilda the Musical’ in the Craig Centre for
Performing Arts. As if this wasn't enough, we
have seen the school gain the extraordinary
asset of The Wood Foundation Centre for
Science and Technology, which has injected
new enthusiasm into our future engineers,
doctors, and scientists.
The time has now come for pupils to look
forward to the Summer break, and for S6 to a
life beyond school. Over the course of the year
we've watched the S5s develop into extremely
capable future leaders - we wish them all the
best of luck in their various roles of responsibility
over the course of next year.
It seems as if it was yesterday that we became
school captains, which makes it all the more
peculiar that we now say farewell. It has truly
been a pleasure, RGC!"
Mirrhyn Stephen and Benjamin Osugo (S6)
Grampian Children’s
Book Award
In mid-May, two S1 English classes, along with
their teachers and the librarians, attended
the annual Grampian Children’s Book Award
ceremony at Aberdeen University. The pupils
had read six shortlisted books and also entered
competitions associated with the award. Robert
Gordon’s College secured second place in the
book review and book trailer presentation
categories. This was a great achievement
considering they were competing against
schools from all over North-East Scotland.
Mrs Brazendale
3
From the Quadrangle Summer 2015
As part of the health campaign ‘Best To
Test’ TV Doctor Hilary Jones and Emma
Wileman founder of Haydn’s Wish charity
visited pupils on 29 April. Raising awareness
of the link between asthma and allergies,
the campaign is designed to improve the
diagnosis of allergies and how to treat
them. Emma’s son, Haydn, tragically died
aged 9, due to anaphylactic shock caused by
the combination of asthma and an allergic
Pictured: Dr Hilary Jones, Emma Wileman
reaction to peanuts. Dr Hilary said: “If you
and S1 pupil Samantha McEwan.
have a food allergy, you are four times more
likely to have asthma. ’Best To Test’ is urging
parents, particularly of children with asthma, to seek help for tiny changes in their child’s
symptoms, from patches of eczema to the onset of hay fever, which could indicate they’re
at risk of developing a food allergy. We also want to make teachers and pupils more aware
so they can seek help and advice.”
CCF RAF cadets visit
Flight Simulator
Nine CCF RAF cadets thoroughly enjoyed a
visit to the CAE Super Puma Flight Simulator at
Dyce on 5 May. All “flew” the simulator over
Aberdeen and the North East and were fascinated
by the experience with some pupils carrying out
an approach to the helipad at Aberdeen Royal
Infirmary. We are extremely grateful to Gordonian
and former CCF RAF cadet Andy Jewell, now
working at CAE as a Flight Simulator Engineer,
for organising the event, and to the company
for agreeing to host the visit.
Lord Lieutenant’s Cadet
Sgt Matthew Munt (S5) of the CCF RAF Section has been appointed Lord Lieutenant’s Cadet
for the year 2015-16. Matthew has had considerable success in the CCF since joining in S2.
He visited RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, and graduated from the prestigious Air Cadet Leadership
Course at RAF Cranwell in 2014. After a rigorous selection procedure, he has been awarded
a place on the International Air Cadet Exchange in August 2015 when, as a member of a
small party of UK cadets, he will visit Washington DC as a guest of the United States Air Force.
Beating the Retreat
Selected Pipers and Drummers from the Senior Pipe Band took part in the CCF Beating the
Retreat at the Palace of Holyrood House on a dry sunny evening in May in front of a spectator
audience of over 500. The Lord High Commissioner took the salute for the parade in what will
now become an annual event in the Pipe Band calendar.
Pupils prepare for Himalayan trek
Update from the
Parents Association
STEM in the Pipeline
In March we held our first quiz night, raising
over £1500. Thanks to all those who attended
the event and to our wonderful quiz masters,
Bob and Paul, for making the evening such
a success! The PE staff again made Sports
Day a very enjoyable day! We were proud to
support this event and special thanks go to
the army of helpers who assisted our fund
raising efforts. At time of writing it seems we
have raised around £2000. With the Spree
funding raised in Autumn, the PA were excited
to support the visit of Stuart Trotter, Author
and Illustrator, to the Junior School children.
The book and second hand uniform sale were
of course as busy as ever. Lastly, we have
enjoyed working with the music department
this term to support their fundraising efforts
for the Italy music tour. The standard of music
in the school never fails to impress and these
groups are a fantastic showcase of the talent
Robert Gordon’s College has to offer! In all
these matters we remain ever indebted to
the support of parents and the College with
our efforts. Have a relaxing Summer! We
hope to see as many of you as possible at
the AGM next term.
Jo Hardie and Steve Kemp,
chair.rgcpa@gmail.com
Preparations are underway for the second annual GAIL (Global Alliance for Innovative Learning)
Convention which is this year being held at Woodstock School, Mussoorie, India in July. The
Convention will look to elaborate on key environmental issues within a global context and pupils
from the GAIL schools will experience some of the Himalayan Outdoor Education on which
Woodstock prides itself, whilst exploring the local flora and fauna of this picturesque region of
India. During the Easter break, some of the Robert Gordon’s College student delegation together
with the accompanying staff, Mr Primrose (Head of RMPS) and Miss Holdsworth (Junior School
Teacher of Art) met with Andrew Stokes-Rees of the Royal Geographic Society who will be leading
the group on a week long trek up through the high Indian Himalayas following the convention.
Mr Duncan, GAIL Co-ordinator said: “Our team will be walking at altitude and camping in some
of the world’s most remote and challenging terrain and as such, thorough preparation and a solid
team spirit is essential for what will no doubt be an experience of a life-time.”
After an intense induction day at Aberdeen University, we were immersed into the world of the
oil industry and for the next three months we met three times a week in order to complete the
vast amount of work. The project set was a comprehensive, in-depth and challenging series of
3 tasks to produce a Field Development Plan for the STEM field. The tasks covered subsurface
work, production profiling, separator design, safety and the calculation of CO2 emissions. We
completed a 40 page written report, which was assessed by industry experts. In December we
presented our work at the BP Headquarters to a panel of judges and came came second in the
competition against 16 schools and all achieved a Silver Crest Award. We were commended
for being the most professional presentation the assessors had ever seen.
We gained many things from our STEM experience including the importance of teamwork,
time management and presentation skills. We would like to thank Miss Pathakji, teacher of
Mathematics, and Jonathan Murray and Leanne Mearns, our mentors from ConocoPhillips. Lise Theron, Thomas Rowbotham, Ross Cooper, Ben Lyons, Alix Mowatt and Robin Murray (S6)
Medical Insights
Deborah Kennedy and Sheena Hendry
Kayaking
School Nurses Deborah Kennedy and Sheena
Hendry (pictured left to right) highlight
useful medical information and topics in the
secure pupil area of our website: www.rgc.
aberdeen.sch.uk/pupils/medical. The first of
their monthly health and wellbeing updates
focussed on ‘sun safety’.
The kayak club have enjoyed another very
successful year of training and competing in
slalom events throughout the country. New
members have shown a great deal of promise,
with some of our S1 pupils promoted at their
first slalom event. We have had trips to the River
Dee for beginners and Spey for more competent
paddlers. Our coach, Janet Peck, took some
of our second year paddlers to Grandtully to
train and shadow the more advanced paddlers.
The group are looking to defend their Scottish
Schools Slalom championship win from 2014
but with a depleted team due to S2 Activities
week, know they have a strong challenge
from other schools. We are very grateful for
the commitment of Janet and Roman Gorski
who give up so much of their time to help.
Dr Shand
Art news
Since January, S6 Art pupils have been busy
submitting initial digital folios followed by
interviews and full practical folios to the
universities and Art Schools of their choice. As
a result of their hard work and the dedication
of the teachers, they have all received offers
from a number of universities for courses
ranging from Architecture to Digital Media.
In May, S3 pupils went to Edinburgh to
visit two Art galleries. First we went to the
Gallery of Modern Art where we sketched
some of the paintings and took pictures for
our National 5 folio. We had a guided tour and
were told different facts about the paintings
and what had inspired the artists. After that
we went to the City Art Centre to see the
‘You Choose’ exhibition where we discussed
our opinions with a guide who gave us an
introduction into the different art styles and
the inspiration sources of artists. This trip was
very useful as we got a lot of ideas for our
folios and also learnt to explain why we like
or dislike paintings as well as learning a lot
about the artists and their influences.
Mariana Correa Villalobos (S3) and Chelsea
West (S6)
Summer 2015 From the Quadrangle
4
News from our Junior School
Junior Learning Council
Pupils from Nursery through to P7 took
part in the Junior Learning Council meeting
with Mrs Mennie. At the meeting, the
Council discussed behaviour as part of the
Junior School Improvement Plan.
P2 Trip by train to
Inverurie Garden Centre
Taking in elements from both this and last
term’s projects, ‘The Garden Centre’ and
‘Transport’, Primary 2 travelled by train to visit
Inverurie Garden Centre. We had a wonderful
time seeing inside and outside a Garden
Centre. We learnt about planting seeds and
helping them grow, were plant detectives
outside and even decorated cakes which
could grace any Garden Centre tearoom but we actually got to take them home! We
would like to thank all the staff at Inverurie
Garden Centre who welcomed us, taught us
so much and made everything so much fun.
Aladdin
The P7 Show Club of 2015 worked really hard to produce the magical, action packed stage
production of Disney’s Aladdin Jnr.
Jared Ednie said: “I was very grateful for the opportunity to be given the main part in the
P7 production of Aladdin. I felt very nervous from the first day when we were in the Lecture
theatre and my name was called out! I was astounded but felt fantastic. Working with such
a dedicated team was great fun. The teachers were very reassuring and on the night we were
all very excited standing in the wings. I am looking forward to Senior School and using the
new Centre for Performing Arts.”
Mrs Lizzy Rose, Teacher of Drama, commented: “Each week the children came to rehearsals
full of energy and we had a great time learning the dances, songs and blocking the scenes
all together. The final performances were excellent and a happy, fulfilling experience was
had by all involved.”
Teacher of Music, Miss Watt, added: “P7 have worked very hard to bring this Disney classic
to the MacRobert Hall - both the principal and chorus singing was of a very high standard
and all the children involved have experienced being part of a full scale production - memories
that will last forever!”
P2 Technology Week
P2 love a challenge and to transport an egg
safely using junk model transport was right
up our street! In teams, we designed our
transport, chose our materials and carefully
built our vehicles to carry our precious cargo.
Did they work and keep our eggs safe – well
– mostly!!
2015 Robert Burns
Federation Music
and Verse Speaking
Competition
Between the three disciplines of poetry recital,
instrumental presentation and singing, a
group of P6 and P7 pupils returned with 19
medals ranging between 1st, 2nd and 3rd
placings. In addition, overall category winners
included: Archie Love (P7) singing, Anna Frost
(P6) instrumental, Louis Roddy (P6) Verse
Speaking and the Burnsian Trophy.
5
From the Quadrangle Summer 2015
P4 working with Nursery on Bug Houses
P6 Victorian Trail
Nursery news
This term, the Nursery theme has been 'construction'. Our theme began with an enthusiastic
'bug house' session. The Nursery children were joined by their P4 friends and together they
carefully placed twigs, leaves and vegetation to create spectacular homes. The 'bug houses'
were positioned in the school garden to attract many minibeasts. The children then went on
to study (and then recreate using wooden blocks) various buildings in our local community
as well as some religious buildings around the world.
Primary 4 Mini-Trial
The P4 children recently had the opportunity to take part in a MiniTrial as part of their Rules and Laws topic. Within this trial, the charge
against the accused (Goldilocks) was that she ‘maliciously damaged
property’ belonging to the Three Bears. The children were given roles
such as prosecution lawyer, defence lawyer, witnesses, police, Clerk of
Court, Court Officer and jury. We were very lucky to have a real Sheriff,
Sheriff Cusine, attend our trial. This trial enabled the children to build
on their knowledge and understanding of how a court operates and
followed on from the class visits to Aberdeen Sheriff Court.
Athletics
Primary 5-7 achieved great results at the Aberdeen Primary Schools
Athletic meet on Saturday 9 May. Results were as follows:
P7 Long Jump: 1. Ella Sherwood
P7 Shot Put: 1. Athol Gordon; 2. Benjamin Evans; 3. Angus Jack;
4. Logan Coffey
P7 Shot Put: 1. Ella Sherwood; 2. Rebecca Heidenreich; 3. Holly Miller;
4. Morag Shepherd
P7 Long Jump: 1. Angus Hasler; 2. Athol Gordon
P5 Girls 60m: 1. Rachel Hopkinson; 4. Emily Winton
P5 Boys 60m:1. Dara Falope; 2. Finlay Black
P67 Boys 60m: 1. Athol Gordon; 2. Angus Hasler; 4. Ross Wilson
P6 Boys 60m: 1. Paul Augustine-Ohwo
P7 Girls 60m: 1. Ella Sherwood; 4. Holly Miller
Goldilocks on Trial
My Place 2015
Morag Shepherd and Penny Winton (P7) saw success in The Scottish
Civic Trust My Place Photography Competition. Morag’s photo
Moving Sands of Time won Highly Commended and Reflection on
the Past by Penny Winton won Commended in the Primary School
Category. Both pupils attended the awards ceremony in March 2015
at The Lighthouse, Scotland’s Centre for Design and Architecture. Read more at www.rgc.aberdeen.sch.uk/news.
Aviation Rules and Law
Captain Molloy came to speak to the Primary 4 pupils on Thursday
21 May. He was talking about rules and laws on a plane. One of the
most important rules is to listen to your captain when you are on board
the plane. Mr Molloy also talked about the scanner. You put your
bags through the scanner before you get on the plane. The scanner
shows what you have put in your bags and if you have some liquid
or a knife or something sharp. If you did have any of these things
then they would be taken out of the bags before you were allowed
on the plane. We were also able to ask Mr Molloy lots of questions
about being a pilot and how rules and laws support him with this role.
Lara Scatterty (P4)
Business Studies
ICAEW BASE Competition - Advanced Higher Accounting pupils
Andrew Davidson, Innes Bradford, and Richa Kamat and Higher
Accounting pupil Morna Holmes travelled to Carlisle to take part in
the Northern Heat of the national ICAEW BASE competition run by the
Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales, where they
were given the opportunity to show off their business and accounting
prowess alongside teams from schools and colleges in the area.
Presented with problems and decisions to be made for their
fictitious business, the pupils had to demonstrate knowledge,
teamwork, initiative and entrepreneurial thinking, culminating in a 4
minute presentation to the ‘Board’ at the end of the day. They did a
tremendous job and showed great insight into the business problem
they had been presented with and delivered a confident, well thought
out presentation that received excellent feedback.
Discover Fortunes Event - Senior Economics, Business and Accounting
pupils attended an interactive workshop delivered by the Chartered
Insurance Institute. Discover Fortunes is a board game that introduces
pupils to the financial planning profession. Using different scenarios,
pupils were split into teams where they made decisions regarding
investment, pensions, savings and investment. After the “winning”
team was announced, the industry representatives spoke with the
pupils about their respective jobs in the finance sector, which ranged
from business development and marketin to financial planning and
accounting.
Visitors to the Department - Justin Urquhart Stewart, co-founder
of 7IM, visited senior Economics and Business pupils, discussing global
economic issues and the background to the latest financial crisis which
economies are still suffering from. Justin touched on many topics,
but one of the most interesting issues was “negative interest rates”,
which some economies are now facing. Having negative interest for
borrowers discourages them from saving and encourages them to
spend the money instead; and low rates on loans and mortgages
encourages consumers to borrow funds, which they then spend. The
effect is an attempt to boost economic performance by increasing
demand in the economy.
Senior Economics pupils also heard from Will Dowson, Bank of
England’s Agent for Scotland, who came to speak about the UK
economic recovery and Quantitative Easing (QE), a form of monetary
policy where a central bank creates new money electronically to buy
financial assets, like bonds, from high street banks. These banks then
lend out this “liquid money” (in theory) to the public, which we then
spend. The objective is to increase spending within the economy to
improve economic performance.
Advanced Higher and Higher Accounting pupils were lucky enough
to have a visit from Claire Burhouse and Kevin Reynard of PwC, who
advised them on the varied routes into accountancy as a profession,
and what a graduate recruitment scheme such as that available at
PwC can offer. Emphasising the choice and scope on offer within
the accountancy profession, Kevin Reynard (PwC Partner and Robert
Gordon’s College Governor), spoke about what being an accountant
actually involves. The pupils agreed that there was much more to
being an accountant that they had thought, and were particularly
taken with the worldwide travel opportunities that may be afforded
through such a career choice!
Summer 2015 From the Quadrangle
6
Sports Day
Good weather conditions accompanied a variety
of events at our annual Sports Day on 23 May.
View a summary in our websote news.
Scottish Schools’ Cross Country Championships
Congratulations to Kirst Oldham (S2) who won
the bronze medal on 7 March at Irvine Beach
park, finishing 3rd in a field of 125 competitors.
Basketball
Basketball players Ross (P6) and Darya (S1)
travelled to Andorra in May to compete for
Scotland in the U12 basketball squad against
other European Basketball teams at the TIM
Pirineus Tournament. After the event Ross said:
“I had a brilliant time playing with the Scotland
under 12 team in Andorra. The team worked
really hard and had lots of fun. I am so proud
to represent Scotland and I'm really looking
forward to the next competition in Surrey with
the under 11 team.”
Boys’ Hockey
Andrew Webb (S5) has been invited to join
the Scotland U21 hockey training squad. Jamie
Wong (Class of ‘13) is currently training with
the Scotland team.
Cricket
Despite the recent inclement weather the
RGC Cricket season has finally got underway.
A historic first was our first ever venture
against Glenalmond, which proved to be a
steep learning curve for the teams involved.
Undaunted, four teams then took to the
field at Countesswells against Dundee High
School. The Colts XI lost despite some
excellent bowling from their captain Magnus
Ferris (S3) who was ably backed up by Gailash
Ruthirakumar (S3). The Junior XI completed a
comfortable win due to the sterling batting
efforts of Lewis Cameron and Chris Fitch (S2),
and our North District U13 representative
Fraser Mclean (S2) who rattled through their
batsman very quickly. There is much potential
within this team with Rohan Mudkavi (S2),
Shreyas Nirmal and Alex Hounsome (S2)
contributing handsomely. The Minors XI
have gelled well and will hopefully continue
to improve under the leadership of Sean
Leishman (S1).
7
From the Quadrangle Summer 2015
Figure Skating
Ruaridh Fisher (S5) saw success at the Skate
Southern International in London in March where
he won a Gold medal/1st place in the Junior
Men’s Free programme and Silver medal/2nd place
in the Short programme. Ruaridh, one of four
young Scottish figure skaters, has been awarded
a financial grant from SportsAid Scotland to
support travel and training costs.
Girls’ Hockey
The S3 Girls Hockey Team had a fantastic time
at the Scottish Schools Hockey Finals day at
Glasgow Green on 21 April. The team saw
success against Hutchesons’ Grammar School
2-0 and George Heriot’s School 1-0 where they
qualified for the Semi Finals which resulted in a
1-1 draw with Heriot’s and an exciting penalty
shoot-out with Heriot’s winning 2-1.
Golf
Robert Gordon’s College was one of two teams
from Scotland to make the Independent School
Golf Association national finals alongside Loretto
in Musselburgh and were placed 4th in the
team standings.
Golfing trio Dylan Smith (S5), Lauren Watson
(S6) and Michael Lawrie (S4) competed on
26-27 April at Princes and Royal St George’s in
Kent. Mr Scorgie, RGC Golf Co-ordinator, said:
“The team performed admirably and achieved a
very credible 8th place after day one, improving
by 3 positions the following day to finish 5th
in the overall team standings. Not only did
they enjoy practising and playing at such a top
venue, they spent some time with Gordonian
Stuart Mitchell whom we would like to thank
for his support throughout the tournament.”
Gymnastics
Congratulations to Innes Reid (S1) on his first
cap for Scotland. He represented Scotland at
the Celtic Cup Championships in Cardiff in a
team of 6 gymnasts.
Netball
Countesswells played host to visiting Primary 6
and 7 Netball teams from Ashley Road, Cults and
Bucksburn Primary Schools on 31 March. This
is a new tournament in our sporting calendar
providing the opportunity for pupils to play with
teams throughout the area.
Rugby
Former Scotland Rugby Captain Jason White
hosted a training session at Countesswells with
the S1 Rugby team. Talking about the experience,
pupil Cameron Morrison said: “I thought it was
great for our team to get an extra training session
in the summer with someone as experienced
as Jason White. We worked on communication
in attack and defence, and at the end we put
those skills into a game of touch rugby.”
Skiing
Pupils George Roddy, Tim Brewis (S2), Findlay
Randalls (S4), Ross Buchan (S4), Ben Chapman
(S2) and Andrew Budge (S3) travelled to the
Snow Factor at Braehead on Thursday 23 April
to compete in the Scottish Schools Association
Indoor Freestyle Championships. The team
put down some excellent tricks, some of
which were first seen on the pro circuit only
5 years ago. The highest ranking riders from
each team were used to place the team. Ross
Buchan's 4th place and Findlay Randall’s 5th
place for male skiers and Andrew Budge's
5th place for male snowboarders gave RGC
the most points, winning them the title of
Freestyle Champions.
Swimming
Sam Evans (S3) came 7th in the final of the
Scottish National Swimming Championships
in the 50m breast stroke.
Mattie Tildesley (P7) enjoyed competing at the
British Schools Modern Biathlon Championship
in London where he stormed his way to a PB of
33.81 and came 13th overall in the swimming.
There were 170 children taking part from across
the country.
Murray Coueslant (S4) has been selected to
swim in the 2015 Sainsburys Schools games
at the Manchester Aquatics Centre on the 3-6
September. Murray will swim as part of the
North & West Boys Team.
Tennis
Four pupils competed in the High School of
Dundee's Invitational tennis tournament on
Wednesday 20 May. Mr Allan, Teacher of PE
said: "Varada, Brooke, Zoe and Dorothy played
really well and were delighted to be invited
with Brook and Varada winning the A section."
In other tennis news, Ross Martin (S3),
currently ranked No 3 (14 & Under) in
Scotland, was runner-up in January at the
Scottish U14 Indoor Championships. He
recently competed for the North of Scotland
U18 County Team at the British County Cup
in Sunderland, winning 3 out of 3 matches.
In addition, he represented Aberdeen in the
Scottish Inter City Davis Cup U14 Doubles
event in Glasgow, with a 100% record,
winning against Glasgow, Edinburgh, Stirling
and Inverness. Ross and his partner, Matthew
Clegg from Yorkshire, won the U14 doubles
at the Grade 2 National Tour event at Halton,
Buckinghamshire.
For more on all these stories go to www.rgc.aberdeen.sch.uk/news.
Robert Gordon’s College is a charity registered in Scotland, No. SC000123
Congratulations go to our S1-S3 pupils who
won the girls and boys Albyn Athletic Match
at Milltimber Playing Fields on 13 May.
Robert Gordon’s College, Schoolhill, Aberdeen AB10 1FE UK Tel: 01224 646346 (Senior School) 01224 646758 (Junior School)
Athletics