Welcome back!

The pupils seem refreshed and ready to go following their Easter Holiday. From what I have heard, pupils have managed to keep themselves occupied with sports – rugby, swimming being prominent. We also had very well attended revision sessions in the second week of the holidays, demonstrating that a large number of S4 to S6 pupils are taking their exams very seriously. We are doing all that we can to support our exam-takers, and if pupils or parents have any concerns or need support, please just get in touch.

On Tuesday afternoon I was delighted to hear that one of our S1 pupils – Isaac Ingram won his age section in the “Astro Pi Coding Challenge”. The aim of the competition was to produce code that would turn an Astro Pi Computer into an MP3 player so that music can be sent to Tim Peake on the International Space Station. “Entries were received from all over the UK and were judged across four age categories; 11 and under, 11 to 13, 14 to 16 and 17 to 18. So the outcome is that four MP3 players and four songs will be going up to the ISS for Tim to use…The judging took two days to complete.” This is a huge success for Isaac, who, when I spoke to him about it, was incredibly humble. He worked steadily on the project for a couple of months and it just goes to show that hard work and perseverance really do pay off. If you want to listen to Isaac’s entry follow this link  .

After school on Tuesday we hosted a training session for our community volunteers who help with Paired Reading. It was a great success (and thanks to Ms McBride and Mr Bristow for hosting it) and we now have 46 volunteers. This is marvellous and will enable so many more pupils to improve their reading skills.

I was excited to hear about the work of a former pupil, Kara Anderson, who is presently doing a year abroad before moving on to the next stage in her education. She’s working in Ghana through Project Trust. Kara is fully occupied, teaching English and Science, learning the local dialect “Ewe”, and broadcasting on local radio amongst other things. I am so pleased that she is enjoying her adventures and look forward to hearing more about them. Pupils who are interested in availing themselves of this opportunity should visit the Project Trust website for further information.

We are now at the time of year when we start to really gear up to welcome next year’s S1. Next Tuesday we are hosting the P7s for a Numeracy Transition Day. I am looking forward to meeting the pupils and seeing how they get on. Thanks to Mr Blair, Mr Wren and their team of S3 helpers for organising the event.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Mr Dempster and his cohorts (Mr Blair and Mr Redford) for their hard work on redesigning the school website. I think that you’ll agree that the new design and format make it very user-friendly. We do need to do a bit of deletion of out-of-date information and that will happen in the next couple of months. In the meantime – happy surfing!

Have a good week.

S Ingham