Important Information - St Roch's Secondary School · As we approach Christmas I would like to give you some information about the work of our school ... Poland, and Escola Sagrada

St Roch’s Secondary School

Christmas Newsletter 2016 www.st-rochs-sec.glasgow.sch.uk

Dear Parent/Carer

As we approach Christmas I would like to give you some information about the work of our school

this term and some dates for events after Christmas. School finishes on Wednesday 21 December.

Lunch will be from 12.20pm to 1.05pm. Pupils will be dismissed at 2.30pm. We will have our

Christmas Service on Tuesday 20 December at 2:30pm.

Holidays

Return to school Thursday 5th January 2017.

Second mid-

term

Friday 10th, Monday 13th and

Tuesday 14th February 2017.

In-service day

all schools Wednesday 15th February 2017.

Spring Holiday

(Easter)

Monday 3rd to Good Friday 14th April

2017 (inclusive) and Easter

Monday 17th April 2017 **schools

will close at 2.30pm on the last

school day before the holiday.

May Day Monday 1st May 2017

In-service days

all schools

Thursday 4th May 2017

(To coincide with Election).

May Weekend Friday 26th and Monday 29th

May 2017.

School close

Tuesday 27th June 2017 **schools

will close at 1pm on the last school

day before the holiday.

Important Information

SQA Exams 2017

Prelim Exams - S4-S6

Monday 16th January until Friday 27th

January.

SQA Exams - S4-S6

Thursday 4th May until Thursday 1st

June.

S4-6 Prelim Exams

Prelim exams begin on Monday 16 January for National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher courses.

Remember to plan your study carefully and make best use of the time over the holiday period.

Contact details

If you move home, change

home phone or mobile

number, please inform the

school office in person or

phone 0141 582 0270.

Pupil Absence

If your child is going to be

absent from school, unwell

or for an appointment,

please contact the

Absence Line on 0141 287

0039.

SQA Improvements

Highers

Percentage of S5 pupils gaining:

2006 2015 2016

5 or more 1% 3% 7%

3 or more 4% 18% 22%

1 or more 10% 45% 50%

Attendance

06/07 15/16

82% 94%

Our attendance rate is the 2nd highest of

all Glasgow Secondary Schools. Good

attendance leads to good exam results.

Excellent attendance leads to excellent

exam results.

Parent Evenings 2017

S3 Thursday 26 January 5pm - 7pm

S5/S6 Tuesday 7 March 5pm - 7pm

S1 Thursday 4 May 5pm - 7pm

Positive Destinations

Initial figures indicate that 94% of our

2016 leavers moved on to a positive

destination this year in employment,

education or training.

Flipped Learning in Higher Maths.

The Higher Maths class have been working extremely hard this year and should be busy over the

Christmas break preparing for their prelims in January. The class have been asked to join the

EDMODO website where they can access home works/revision materials and power point videos on

lessons we do in class. This has allowed us to experiment with a new way of learning – FLIPPED

LEARNING.

What is FLIPPED LEARNING?

The pupils have been asked to watch the power

point videos on Edmodo in preparation for the

next lesson. These videos teach the pupils

what would have been traditionally taught at

the board in the class room. They should take

notes from the video at home and try the few

basic examples before the next lesson.

Why do this?

When they next come to class they should be

ready to start more complex examples. Since

there is less teaching at the board this frees up

time in the class room for pupils to work more

productively, and seek more support from the

class teacher.

Pupil response

The feedback from pupils has been mixed,

pupils can see the benefit of more time to work

class, but some have commented they like the

live interaction of the teacher teaching. It is

early days, but for this to be effective all pupils

need to watch the videos and take the notes

before they come to class. If your child is studying Higher Maths your support in encouraging them

to watch the videos is very much appreciated. After all, we all want them to do well.

Celebrating Success

We have been regularly rewarding our pupils in Maths for improvement in

Numeracy and general good work ethic and behaviour. Here are some of

the winners so far in 2016:

Mathematician of the Month:

S1: Danielle Kerr, Sarah Terki, Lauren Lennox, Calvin Frati, Chloe O'Neill,

Megan McAteer, Rachel Haggerty, Emad Al-Balushi, Kenward Chung, Lynce

Ngassam Ndja, Elle Marie Quinn, Alnour Alnour.

S2: Adam Black, Olga Mirenskaja, Dana Palgrave, Neil Kolei, Ryan Welsh,

Zina Ahmad, Abby Coventry, Rebecca Kyle, Heather Donald, Aisha Romeo,

Kasey Byrne, Salah Alnour.

S3: Paula Coulter, Sophie Kennedy, Kieren McDade, Seerat Zahra, Jiahui Lin, Liam Campbell, Jade

Black, Sibusiso Moyo, Emma Cameron, James MacDonald, Nikodem Zielinski, Kieran McLean.

Numeracy Awards

S1: Danielle Elliott , Kieran Kelly, Caitlin Hannah, Paul Dados ,Ciara Marshall, Taffie Kanyimo.

Well done everyone! Keep up the hard work!

“The flipped classroom is a peda-

gogical model in which the typi-

cal lecture and homework ele-

ments of a course are reversed.

Short video lectures are viewed

by students at home before the

class session, while in-class time is

devoted to exercises, projects, or

discussions.”

Erasmus+ Project "Innovative Learning in Mathematics and Science" with Poland

and Catalonia.

In the Mathematics, Science and Deaf Education Departments we have started on a three year Eras-

mus+ funded project with schools in Szkola Da Vinci, Poznan , Poland, and Escola Sagrada Familia, El

Masnou, Catalonia, to look into how the ideas and beliefs of Sugata Mitra can be used in the Class-

room.

Professor Sugata Mitra's TED talk in 2013 can be seen using Google. His research has led him to be-

lieve that if suitably lead and motivated children will, in effect, teach themselves. He believes that our

present way of teaching, with the teacher standing in front of rows of pupils is out dated and that the

instant access to information from the internet will cause a fundamental change in how we learn.

Throughout the world schools use his ideas to do what's called SOLE Activities (Self Organised Learn-

ing Environment Activities).

Our project will develop these SOLE activities for use in our classrooms They will not interfere with

day to day teaching. Teachers and pupils in S1 will together trial this different approach by doing ac-

tivities which complement usual teaching methods and enhance the curriculum. The pictures attached

show pupils in Saint Roch's and in our partner schools doing there first SOLE Activities.

A very important part of the project is working with our partner schools to discuss each of our conclu-

sions and findings as we progress. This collaboration is to enable us to learn from each other and de-

velop a best practise. It is normal and easy using the internet to communicate in different ways with

people anywhere. Similarly the Saint Roch's pupils will be sharing information and discussing

the Project findings with their counterparts in Poland and Catalonia.

The three year project includes the opportunity for some S1 pupils from each school to visit the other

schools to take part in student organised mini conferences about the project. Some S1 pupils from

each school will visit the other school once. Saint Roch's will host the first visit during the week of 20

February 2017. Ten pupils and two teachers from both Szkola Da Vinci and Sagrada Familia will visit

Saint Roch's. We hope to make this a great experience for our visitors.

We are looking for Saint Roch's families to host the pupils from the schools in Poland and

Catalonia when they visit Saint Roch's in February. We need to accommodate 24 pupils alto-

gether. The pupils would have to stay in your house for up to five nights. If you would be interested

in hosting a pupil from Poland or Catalonia please contact the school for further information.

The project is keeping everyone up to date with what we are doing using Facebook: "Innovative

Learning in Mathematics and Science Classrooms" and Twitter: Innovative Learning @ erasmussole.

Please have a look and follow us.

St Roch's Runners

Canal Canter race in August saw 14 runners taking part in the 3km race and Daniel Haggerty taking

part in the 7km race. Great runs for all and Daniel won the 7km race and Samson Reisom finished in

2nd place in the Junior race.

October:

Staff and pupils took part in the Great Scottish running festival. There were fantastic runs from staff

and pupils and well done to everyone who took part. The staff finished in 2nd place in the team event

- so great efforts all round.

November:

3 hardy pupils - Daniel Haggerty, Burhan Uddin and John McCluskey participated in the Springburn

Harriers cross country race in Kirkintilloch with Daniel finishing in 2nd pace overall with a fantastic

run. Burhan and John also had amazing performances showing what determination can achieve.

December:

16 pupils took part in the annual Santa dash and in the process raised money for charity. Cameron

Macaulay finished an amazing 20th place out of 7,500 runners. A great time was had by all -

especially fitting into the Santa suits.

TSB Budgeting Workshops

TSB held workshops for some of our S2 pupils on how to manage their finances as

part of their studies in Business Education. Pupils received help on how to budget

their money and the best ways to save! The rest of the year group can expect

their workshop early in 2017.

ICT Stars of the Month for October and November

S1 ICT Teigan Connely, Anita Rutkowska, Arsalan Ahmed, Leo Essenkam, Megan

McAteer, Caitlyn Riley, Alison White, Ciara Marhsall, Emad Al-Balushi,

Mohamed Fetah

S2 ICT Molly Mackay, Boston Rose McCusker, Emma Gibson, Halah Ahmed,

Tamzin McLeish, Heather Donald, Kaja Ciuchta, Luci McKee, Ryan Todd

S3 Computing Science Ben Matavoi, Seerat Zahra, Adam Kolei, Nati Weldelasie

S3 Admin & IT Helen Correia, Eve Gillespie, Eilidh O’Neill, Amanda Byrne

S3 Business Nati Weldeslasie and Lucy McAlindon

McVitie’s Workshops

All S1 Pupils will got the chance to Hob-Knob with McVitie’s Thursday 12th December

and digest(ive) some information on product design, marketing and packaging

design. There might even have been a bit of product testing as well! This excellent

workshop will set the pupils up well for their Dragon’s Den Enterprise Project in

January – where they will get the chance to do some biscuit product design in Home

Economics and market their product in Business Education.

S2 Parents Night

S2 Parents Night was extremely well attended and was another demonstration of the strong

partnership between St Roch's and home. Looking ahead, S3 pupils will be the first

Parents Evening in the new year on Thursday 26th January at 5pm in the school. Reports and

appointment sheets will be issued in the New Year and it will be great to see all pupils represented.

Expressive Arts Faculty

Saint Roch's Secondary Choir have been busy

performing at a number of events within the local

community over the festive period. They sang for

Cancer Support Scotland in St. Enoch's Shopping

Centre, attracting much attention from busy

shoppers and raising a large amount of money

for a very worthwhile cause. This was followed by

a performance at Broomfield Court Care Home

later in the week. This was a beautiful and

moving experience for both the pupils and residents and Saint Roch's Secondary look forward to

working closely with the Care Home in the coming months.

In addition to these musical experiences, S2 pupils prepared

a pantomime for the local nursery and Infant Departments

within the Royston Primary Schools. The pantomime was

performed by two S2 classes, who were joined by the school

choir to entertain and delight the younger members of our

community. We thank the pupils involved in all of these

performances and look forward to developing our community

links in 2017.

Boys’ football

Well done to the S1 boys’ football team who

after playing in the Glasgow 7’s league

achieved a mighty third overall of all the

Glasgow schools. Hopefully, we will have

an opportunity to better this position when

the spring league starts back after Christ-

mas. If any pupil is interested in joining

the team, training will start back every

Wednesday 3.30pm-4.30pm. Games will

be played every other Tuesday 4pm-6pm at

Toryglen football centre.

S2/3 boys football team

Unfortunately, owing to other schools cancelling our fixtures, the

S2/3 boys haven’t had many opportunities to display their skills.

The boys showed great character against an S3 Jordanhill team

to narrowly miss out on a draw. There will be more games after

the New Year namely, Shawland and Smithycroft as future

opponents and hopefully get that sought after win! Training

resumes Wednesdays 3.30pm-4.30pm after Christmas, with an

opportunity to play in a Friday night league with A&M if we get

the numbers.

Senior Boys

Well done to Daniel Bonnar and Jordan Kemoe who made it through to

the Scotland schools trials. Daniel did get selected to play for Scotland.

Unfortunately, an injury has delayed his chance to represent his country

at school level. Watch this space….

Sports Leaders

The sports leaders 2 class have just finished a very successful term working with the P3 class from St

Rochs primary. The group have been working on their leadership skills teaching ball and movement

skills over a 6 week block. The pupils were an absolute credit to the school and did such a great job

that St Mungo’s and St Stephen primary requested help with their PE classes too. Well done!

Girls Football

The girls have worked well this session and improved

their skills and confidence over a number of weeks at

Toryglen, as well as having some fun in between!

Toryglen is every second Tuesday from 4-6pm and has

given the girls the opportunity to develop their skills

within a highly competitive environment. It has been a

real learning curve and hopefully in the next session we

can rack up the goals and place higher in the table.

Girls only football training is on Monday 3.15-4.15pm

after school and is open to all girls from S1-S6.

Girls Swimming

Girls only swimming has been running from the start of the year and has grown in numbers ranging

from 10-19 each week. All S1-S6 girls are welcome each week and have an opportunity to develop

water confidence, technique, learn new skills and make friends across all year groups. Keep up the

good work to the swimmers who attend and I encourage others to come along and try it out, the club

is afterschool every Thursday from 3.15-4.30pm.

Basketball

The Panthers basketball team have continued to grow in numbers with five teams now running for all

age groups, both boys and girls. The Under-18’s Boys (reigning Glasgow league champions) finished

second in their league section and are through to the quarter-finals of the cup so far. The Under-18’s

girls are hoping to progress to the last-16 of the Scottish Plate following their league section. They

currently remain unbeaten in the Glasgow league. The Under-14’s boys have won all their games so

far, progressing to the quarter-finals. The Under-15’s girls have an ever increasing amount attending

training and are looking forward to some games in the new year.

Charity Work

The phenomenal charity work of St Roch’s has continued this year. Among other things, we have

raised money and gifts for the St Vincent de Paul, Food Banks, Fairtrade, SCIAF, Mary’s Meals, etc,

etc!!

Thank you so much for all your support in our charity work – it all makes a real difference to people’s

lives both at home and across the world. Alios Adiuva – Help Others!

On behalf of all the staff, I thank you for your continued support and wish you a very

happy and safe Christmas Holiday.

It is a real privilege to be Head Teacher of St Roch’s Secondary School and my 2 years have

gone by in a flash!

Mr S Stone, Head Teacher.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year