North Berwick High School Winter Newsletter

NORTH B E RW I CK H I GH S CHOO L

SQA Results 2009

The school has had another very good set of results in the SQA examinations of 2009. These results are the accumulation of individual results by individual students and illustrate the hard work of staff, pupils and parents in partnership. I hope that these results will be the springboard to further success this year. Our results for 2009 (S4 are pre-appeal) are as fol-lows:

Fourth Year 5 or more awards at 1-2 50% 5 or more awards at 1-4 89% 5 or more awards at 1-6 96%

Fifth Year 5 or more Highers 27% 3 or more Highers 49% 1 or more Higher 68% (of original S4 group)

Sixth Year 1 or more Advanced Higher 30% (of original S4 group) The work for the examinations starts from the mo-ment our students come into First Year when we build upon the work of our partner primaries. We can never take good results for granted and indeed we are always looking for ways in which to improve. Our aim is, as always, to ensure that all our students at-tain as highly as possible in their examinations. There are many ways in which parents can help us in our efforts. Two of them are homework and atten-dance (particularly not taking holidays during term time).

Attendance and Registration

In order for our students to attain highly, they must of course be present in school. I there-fore urge you in the strongest possible terms not to consider taking family holidays outwith the normal term times. This point cannot be stressed too highly. In addition, regulations from the Scottish Government mean that fam-ily holidays are classed as ‘unauthorised ab-sence.’ Thank you for your cooperation and support in this vital matter. I am pleased to report that our attendance level is running at over 95% and pupils are ar-riving punctually to school apart from a small percentage who – and they are not the same pupils every day! – persist in arriving just a few minutes late. Clearly they are cutting it too fine and I have asked all of them to leave home ten minutes earlier so that they can arrive in school with a few minutes to spare. I ask for your assistance with this if your child comes into this category. We have been operating our parental contact system for quite a while now, in which we con-tact you by telephone if your child is not at school with no reason for absence. This has been going well and I know that it is greatly appreciated by parents. It is vital that parents do keep us up to date and this includes tele-phoning the school in the morning to tell us why their child is absent. The contact number is:

01620 894716

and this is a dedicated line for this purpose.

Winter Newsletter

All staff and pupils at North Berwick High School wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year .

Winter 2009

WINTER NEWSLETTER Page 2

RAG BAG COLLECTION

As part of a fundraising event, NBHS are taking part in the ‘Rag

Bag’ textile recycling scheme.

Every pupil took home a bag to fill with any unwanted textiles

and a large number of bags were returned to school during one week in October. The bags were weighed

and taken off for recycling and we raised £90.60.

Many thanks to everyone who brought in a bag.

(Please note that bags can no longer be accepted.)

For more information, please see the website

www.rag-bag.co.uk.

We’re on the web! www.northberwickhigh.net

CHEWING GUM-FREE ZONE Please remember at all times that North Ber-wick High School is a chewing gum-free zone. Thank you

Allergies to nut products, especially peanuts

Please remember that there are a number of pupils in school with an allergy to nut products. An increasing number of our pupils suffer very serious reactions when they are in contact with any peanut products, for instance. They do not even need to eat the peanuts to suffer from such a reaction. Could you please help by not providing your child with any snacks for school which contain peanuts, and by preventing them from buying these products to bring into school. This in-cludes peanut butter, chocolate spread and chocolate bars such as Snickers. Our school must be a ‘nut free zone’ at all times.

YOUTH MUSIC THEATRE Our very successful production of ‘Guys and Doll’ is a hard act to follow, not least because many of our star performers have now left school. With a relatively young cast the choice of our next project caused many options of show to be pondered upon and rejected. For a complete contrast we have selected – FIDDLER ON THE ROOF. This will be staged on 18-20 March, 2010. The show is set in Tsarist Russia at the turn of the last century and follows the trials and tribulations of Tevye the Milkman, his wife and five daughters. It is a time of hardship and change – not least in mat-ters of matrimony. The show has now been fully cast and a com-mitted group of 32 pupils are hard at work re-hearsing on Monday evenings from 6 until 9 and after school on Wednesday too. Auditions were fiercely competitive with as many as 12 girls vying for the parts of the older daughters. Our choice of Tevye is Matt Rogers and his wife Golde will be played by Zoe Moskal-Guy. Any parental help with choreography would be very much appreciated. Please get in touch via the office if you can help out. Likewise, if you have any suitable costumes that you feel you can donate to the theatre group we would be more than happy to recycle them for you. Lesley Hood


PLEA FOR TEXTBOOKS Any school textbooks or library books still lurking under beds or at the back of book-cases? If so, please bring them back into school before the end of term and hand them back to teachers. It is essential that all books are returned. Thank you.

PTA Report

What’s coming up?

29th January - Burns’ Supper

Traditional Burns Supper and ceilidh with the 6th year students presiding. Tickets will be on sale at the start of the new term in 2010.

5th March - Quiz Night

A fun evening with questions to suit all. Open to students, families as well as the more competitive adults

among us. Tickets on sale nearer the time, refreshments and a licensed bar available.

100 Club The 100 Club welcomes more new members and those who would like to renew for 2010. Applications will

be available at future events or you can download a form via the school website.

The next meeting of the PTA is on 24th November at 7.30pm in the conference room at the school. New members are most welcome, as are any fundraising ideas or opportunities.

For more information contact Cathy Barber on Tel 894313.

Dropping Off and Picking Up At School

As you know, we have several pupils who need to be dropped off and picked up as close to the front door as possible to allow them to access vehicles easily. Please do not stop or park di-rectly in front of the school at any time, be-cause our pupils may need this access throughout the school day in addition to the be-ginning and end of it. Please use the turning circle area outside the Sports Centre instead. Thank you for your support in this matter.

Careers Ever wondered what we talk about/look at in a careers talk? Well, worry no more as you can now view any online talk I deliver at edubuzz.org/blogs/careers. The current posts include the recent parents presentation for S6 students. The blog has loads of information and podcasts that can help with career planning. But it’s not just about posting information: you can use it to ask ques-tions, pass on information, highlight issues or update me on developments in your career that may be of interest to young people. In November a further podcast will be put on featuring a presenta-tion from the Academy of Music at Edinburgh’s Telford College. We have ex-students sharing their experiences, links to other organisations, a parents page and videos showing how to access vari-ous websites. So please free to visit, comment, make suggestions or even ask a question! Mick Burns Careers Adviser [email protected]


Rewarding Achievement We have built up over a number of years a system of recognising and rewarding achievement in the school and in the com-munity. It sits well with our ethos of respect, responsibility, relationships and resilience. Praise is the first level of reward and is used by teachers within the classroom and around the school to say ‘well done’, either verbally or with a written comment. Mention is also given at Year Assemblies of any particular achievements.

Positive Referrals Positive Referrals These are issued to pupils who merit special mention. Teachers write these for a variety of reasons including for good work or effort in class, for progress in a particular skill, for be-ing helpful and thoughtful. Each positive re-ferral gains a House point – we issued about 4000 positive referrals last session.

CitizenshipCitizenship Our Citizenship Committee of staff and pupils receive nominations from teachers for pupils in any year group who have shown good citi-zenship through a term. Very distinctive badges are issued to pupils who gain this award each term.

Merit Awards Merit Awards Merit Certificates are issued to pupils in S1 to S3 at the end of terms 1 and 2. Each subject teacher nominates any pupils who have been working to the best of their ability and are putting in the expected level of effort and en-thusiasm. These result in gold, silver or bronze certificates which are handed out in PSE by the guidance teacher. The ‘colour’ of the certificate depends on the number of nominations gained. For instance in S1 where pupils have 12 subjects, 10 or more nominations would gain a gold, 8 or 9 nomi-nations for silver and 6 nominations for bronze. Generally about 50% of a year group gain a gold award.

Junior Award AssembliesJunior Award Assemblies These take place in June each year with sepa-rate assemblies for S1, S2 and S3. Parents are invited to these occasions and our Head Boy and Head Girl are the guests of honour. Certifi-cates of Excellence are awarded to the 10% of pupils in each subject who have achieved the highest academic achievement. Certificates of Merit are awarded to pupils who have worked hard and made the most progress.

Senior PrizegivingSenior Prizegiving This takes place in September and rewards academic achievement for pupils in S4 to S6. We award book tokens to the pupils who gain the highest mark in the SQA exams for each subject. Certificates of Merit are awarded to S4 pupils who gain eight Credits (or Intermediate equivalent) with at least six of them a level 1, and to S5 pupils who gain 10 points at Higher where an A is 3 points, B 2 points and C 1 point. We also recognise special achievements made by senior pupils who have served the school and community in a meritorious way. We always take the opportunity to mention and if necessary issue certificates at assemblies for other achievements, for instance Duke of Edin-burgh, UK Maths Challenge and 1st XV and 1st XI ties.

Wider Achievement GroupWider Achievement Group

We have a newly formed committee which is reviewing our current practice with regard to rewarding and recognising achievement. We have already carried out a questionnaire with a sample of pupils and staff looking at positive referrals. The group hope to make the awarding of these more consistent across the school and also suggest set criteria for awarding them. The next task is to review our prizegiving as-semblies for both junior and senior school. Pu-pils will be involved in this review but we would also like an input on this from interested par-ents. If you would like to be invited to a meeting of the group or would simply like to note down your thoughts as a parent on this topic please get in touch with Mr Peyton on [email protected]

Homework

I am pleased to see our youngsters making good use of their diaries, which should be used for re-cording homework, assign-ments, ‘things to do’ and achievements gained. Suc-cess comes from being well organised and the planners should assist in this process. I ask all parents to take an active inter-est in these diary/planners. Ask to see them regularly and contact the school if you ever feel that there is an issue about homework.


Borneo 2009

A group of 9 pupils spent a month in Bor-neo during the summer. Whilst there they spent time jungle skill training; went on a heritage trek on the slopes of Mount Kina-balu; and spent 8 days involved in conser-vation work – planting trees, clearing paths, making a board walk and painting a mural for a school. The work was very challenging and the team all came back with a variety of hard earned survival skills!

Team cleaned up after Jungle Training

French Exchange From October 5th to October12th, 30 French stu-dents from Champigneulles came to live in our houses. They went on numerous activities in-cluding a beach walk, a visit to the Seabird Cen-tre, a walk up the Law, various sporting activi-ties, a visit to Edinburgh Castle, a visit to Dy-namic Earth and occasionally came into our classes with us. On Thursday the school held a Ceilidh. It was a fantastic opportunity to connect with our French correspondents and others. At the weekend, the hosts took their visitors to various places. Nancy does not have any beaches so it was a great idea to take our guests to the beach to have a barbeque and a game of badminton etc. They liked roaming around Edinburgh so a trip to the zoo or just shopping was great fun. We think that our French visitors have learnt a lot about Scottish culture, for example, Scottish food and Scottish traditions (ceilidh). They have also enjoyed visiting Scottish buildings such as Edinburgh Castle, and the lovely beaches in and around East Lothian. We are looking forward to the return visit to France in June and we hope that our visitors are as excited as we are. Eliza Sutton Nick Hamilton Ethan Roulstone

Duke of Edinburgh’s Award

Going for Gold Gold Award presentations were made to Hannah Nash, Belinda Sergeant and Don-ald Waters at Holyrood Palace this July. They had worked hard to achieve the Award and enjoyed their time at the palace.


S1 Footballers Storm Into Next Round of Cup North Berwick S1 8 St David’s S1 2 North Berwick S1’s got their Scottish Cup run off to a stunning start with an 8-2 demolition of St David’s School Dalkeith, goals from players from all areas of the pitch helping to secure North Berwick a place in round 2. Although Matthew Hogg, Guy Stirling and Liam Mackle stole the lime-light with 2 goals a piece, the star player was Finn Davies-Clark at centre-back. North Berwick's no nonsense attacking style got them off to a flying start when winger Cameron Gordon was pulled down in the box, resulting in a penalty. Cameron stepped up and calmly put it into the bottom right corner, 1-0 North Berwick before we could blink. A shell-shocked St David’s side could do nothing to stop a rampant North Berwick team who raced to a 5-0 lead in 25 min-utes. The pace of forwards Guy Stirling and Liam Mackle created numerous opportunities includ-ing a terrible miss from Michael Hagan who decided to sky the ball over the bar from 3 yards out. NB’s dominance was best shown in the 3rd goal where Liam Mackle sprinted down the left wing leaving the defenders all alone to flick the ball over the keeper for Guy Stirling to tap in an easy goal. A scene which was replicated in the 4th goal 10 minutes later. Along with the pace of North Berwick, St David’s could not handle the organisation in the set pieces of North Berwick. A corner kick from Guy Stirling and a free-kick from Matthew Hogg both led to goals for Matthew Hogg and Michael Hagan. After this early goal-fest, St David’s fought back and were rewarded when they scored just before half-time with a sweetly hit volley from 30 yards going into the top corner of the goal. There was nothing keeper Andrew Grant-Suttie could do. Nevertheless, North Berwick held a commanding 5-1 lead at half-time. Any hope of a St David’s fight-back was ended 10 minutes after the break with a horror-show from the keeper letting a weak Matthew Hogg shot go through his hands and roll across the line. The second half was not as exciting as the first, though North Berwick did come back to life after St David’s scored a penalty in the 53rd minute to get the score to 6-2. North Berwick forward Liam Mackle got his name deservedly on the score sheet with 2 stylish goals. First of all a fantastic move between Finn Davies-Clark and Liam led to him rounding the keeper and slotting in. NB’s final goal 5 minutes from time came as a result of good play from midfielder Tom Coull before Liam smashed the ball into the net from 15 yards. This match was a great game to watch for all the goals; another unexpected sight was seeing the referee being hit in the face with the ball while talking. You could see what the players thought of what he said. MAN OF THE MATCH: Finn Davies-Clark for his outstanding defending throughout the game. He showed great determination making every tackle and header he attempted. It was obvious that Finn was desperate to see the team win and his involvement in the seventh goal topped off a fan-tastic game for him. Team: Andrew Grant-Suttie, Liam Mackle, Matthew Hogg, Michael Hagan, Finlay Goodlad (C), Danny Darrie, Finn Davies-Clark, Guy Stirling, Lewis Edgar, Alex Mackay, Tom Coull, John Gardner, Michael Grant, Cameron Gordon, Liam Gibb and Liam Campbell.


Continuing Rugby Sponsorship The school was delighted to receive a cheque for £500 from local Solicitors and Es-tate Agents Paris Steele. This longstanding support allows all the boys playing rugby from S1-S6 to purchase top quality rugby playing kit at subsidised rate. The school would like to take this opportunity to thank Paris Steele for their contribution which helps keep our teams at the forefront of schoolboy rugby. RG Jeffries PT PE

Rugby The U18 team played in the Scottish Cup against Edinburgh Academy on Saturday 14 November, at Newfield, Edinburgh. After an exciting close game, the Academy came out on top at 6-0. After a third round win against Hamilton Col-lege, the U15s continue their campaign with a game against High School of Glasgow on Tuesday 24 November, 2pm KO at NBHS.

East Lothian County Sports Pupils from S2-S6 took part in the annual East Lothian County Sports at Hallhill, Dunbar. The team participated in 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, shot putt, discus, long jump, high jump, triple jump and relays. After some great performances in a number of events, NBHS emerged overall East Lothian County Sports Champions.

Senior Pupil Coach Education

Senior pupils had the opportunity to take part in a range of Coach Education Courses, led by the East Lothian Sports Development Officers. These courses gave them an introduction to becoming a leader / coach in a number of sports. Ten pupils took part and now have basic intro-ductions to coaching in badminton, hockey, football, rugby and disability sport. There is now the opportunity for them to use their qualifications to assist with extra-curricular sport within the school.

Malawi Week Dance

As part of the Malawi Week celebrations, 14 senior girls were lucky enough to take part in an African Dance Workshop with Seby Ntege, a tal-ented dancer and musician from London. The girls participated in a workshop to learn the dance in the morning and then rehearsed with the musicians in the afternoon. On Fri-day 18 September both the dancers and musicians performed to the school and the special visi-tors to the school that day. The performance was fantastic and thoroughly enjoyed by all.

Basketball

Grant Mackay (S4) has been chosen by Bas-ketballscotland to join their "Elite Sportsman Programme". This is a development pro-gramme to support athletes with Olympic po-tential, and Grant is the youngest person to be selected – a great achievement!

Scottish CupScottish Cup

The U14 boys’ basketball team started their Scottish Cup campaign with a resounding 72-2 victory over Dunbar. The Senior Boys also got off to a winning start with a 105-44 win over Craigmount High School. The U14 Girls play Mary Erskine’s at home in their first ever foray into the Scottish Cup. Good luck!

Sports Uniform Sponsorship The school has received a cheque for £400 from Housecall Care which will help subsidise equip-ment for football and badminton this year. We would like to thank Mr Jason Logan for this con-tribution which enables us to purchase up to the minute equipment. RG Jeffries PT PE


Hockey

East Lothian Hockey TournamentsEast Lothian Hockey Tournaments Both the S1 and S2 girls’ teams won their events at the East Lothian Hockey Tourna-ments, held at Meadowmill Sports Centre.

East District KnockEast District Knock--out Cupout Cup

The 1st XI played in the East District Knock-out Cup on Thursday 19 November, against St George’s. It was an extremely close game, with the final score 1-0 to St George’s.

East District RepresentationEast District Representation

Fern Mitchell and Amy Nicholson (S4) repre-sented East District’s U16 girls’ hockey team in the recent Inter-District Tournament. After some tough games, East emerged as winners—Well Done!

‘Othello’ Theatre Trip On the evening of 28th October a small group of 5th and 6th years, accompanied by Mrs Fleming, went to see Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’ at the Brun-ton Theatre. We were looking forward to seeing the performance as our Higher English class had been studying it; seeing a production would help us get a better feel and understanding for the play. The characters of Othello and Iago were strongly portrayed. Rodrigo’s foolish nature really came to life. Actors played more than one part, but with various costume changes, all of them looked au-thentic. The seven members of the cast also showed their musical talent when they played the violins and cello which enhanced the action. This we thought, was different. A mishap occurred during the drunken brawl scene when an actress lost a tooth and was rushed to the Dental Hospital. This called for an early and extended interval so that the play could quickly adapt to one less member of the cast. Overall ‘The Original Theatre Company’ gave a good performance and we would thoroughly rec-ommend anyone to go and see them in this, or any other production that they might put on in the future. Louise Melvin 5L1

ELC RECRUITMENT The Education Department are currently looking to recruit Supply Additional Support Needs Auxil-iaries and Supply Nursery Nurses. For further information please contact East Lothian Council HR Department, telephone number 01620 827625 for an application form.


Music Department Theatre Visit

80 pupils from NBHS en-joyed the fantastic produc-tion of ‘We Will Rock You’ at the Edinburgh Play-house on 10 November 2009. The music features 32 of Queen’s greatest

hits, took six years to develop and cost £7.5 mil-lion pounds! So far, there have been over 2,200 perform-ances in the UK and 2,200 standing ovations! In August 2005, the show officially became the longest running musical to play at the Dominion, one of London’s biggest West End theatres. Comments from our pupils: ‘fantastic – funny – loved it – great interaction with the audience – absolutely amazing – costumes were awesome – the music was so loud, you could feel it going through you!’ As always, our NBHS pupils were a pleasure to accompany. Mrs Medine

Malawi Fundraising Gigs September and October

These very successful gig nights raised over £900 in total towards Malawi! Well done eve-ryone who organised these, performed in them and came along to support. 28 dancers and percussionists worked together for two days under the direction of Ugandan dancer and musician Sebby Lubwama to produce a won-derful performance just bursting with energy and joy!

The Junior Choir learnt a traditional Malawi song ‘Tambala walira’ and welcomed guests as they came into the school on the morning of the Malawi Launch.

Parental Consent/Update Forms In the Head Teacher’s summer mailing (which seems a long time ago now!), two parental con-sent forms were included: one giving permission for your child to take part in general activities outwith the classroom, but within the catchment area; and the other giving permission for images of your child to be shared in print and/or digitally – such as in this newsletter or on the school website. Thank you to those of you who returned the forms promptly. Unfortunately, we are still trying to chase up some of these forms. If you have not yet done so, please could you return them to the school office as a matter of urgency. If you no longer have the forms, please phone for a replacement . Also, recently update forms were sent home by pupil post. Many of these have still not been re-turned: please check school bags!


Music in the Community Macmillan Concerts, Haddington, Wednes-day 7 th and Thursday 8 th October A group of pupils from NBHS joined with pupils from other East Lothian schools to perform in concerts to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support, which raised over £1,300. Well done to all those pupils and staff involved. Dunbar and District Choral Society concert in aid of the Lifeboat Association and Chris-tian Aid, Friday 16 th October Tal Ramsay (violin) and Zoe Moskal-Guy (voice), both S6, performed at this fundraising event, which raised funds of over £500. Their performances were a credit to the school and complemented the choral work very well. It is hoped that this joint concert between the choir and the school will be an annual event. CD for sale Zoe Moskal-Guy, along with two other talented musicians, has produced a CD featuring songs which they have written and performed. The group are called ‘Zass’, and the CD ‘join the dots’ is available from Mrs Macaskill at NBHS, priced £10. 50% of the funds are going to RNIB to support blind and partially sighted people. Senior Citizens’ Concert, Wednesday 2 nd De-cember Pupils will give a Christmas Concert to local Senior Citizens, followed by an afternoon hosted by the school Charities Committee.

RSNO Concert Four of our pupils – Emma Aitken (violin), Alex-ander Casson (violin), Joanna Casson (cello), and Matthew Rogers (trombone), were given a fantastic opportunity on Thursday 24th Septem-ber, to play alongside RSNO musicians for ‘Mars’ from Holst’s ‘Planet’s Suite’. Eight lucky pupils in total were chosen from four different schools to have this once in a lifetime experi-ence. These four instrumentalists, along with another 43 of our SQA pupils, attended the ‘Maestro Mu-sic’ – a concert aimed particularly at secondary pupils. Eight pieces from a range of periods and styles were presented to the young audience. Key concepts of the curriculum were brought alive through visual illustrations on a screen, and Paul Rissman talking enthusiastically about the pieces. Below are some comments from the pupils: Emma Aitken, S5, who played violin: “I was very excited about being given the opportunity to play ‘Mars’ with the RSNO. Music is an important part of my life so this experience was invaluable for me as I progress through school and, hopefully, embark on a career in music. Never in my wild-est dreams did I envisage myself playing with such a respected professional orchestra. I am certain that this experience of playing with such talented musicians will be one I will remember and be thankful for my entire life.” Matt Rogers, S6, who played trombone: “Playing ‘Mars’ from ‘The Planets’ was a fantastic experi-ence. As I am currently writing a dissertation on Holst, this has added to my understanding of this fantastic and emotive music.” Ailsa Hay, S6 pupil, member of the audience: “The structure of the concert was very informa-tive. There was a good balance be-tween music be-ing played and the concepts being described. I liked how the music progressed though time. It made the changes and advances more obvious.”

Christmas Concerts 2009 Pupils are rehearsing hard for the Christmas concerts taking place on Monday 7th and Tues-day 8th December at 7pm. Tick-ets are available from Wednes-day 18th November, from the school office, Fergusons and Sweet News, priced £5 and £3 concessions. We look forward to seeing you there! DVDs of ‘The Christmas Concert 2009’ will go on sale in the Spring Term – a memento to keep forever! Details will be posted up in Janu-ary. Advance Notice…..Spring Concert 2010….will be taking place on Tuesday 30th March at 7pm.


AUSCHWITZ TRIP PROVES HUMBLING EXPERIENCE Most Wednesday mornings do not start with a 3.30 am wake up call. Then again most Wednesday mornings don’t involve a one day visit to Poland. Yet that was what was ahead of us and the other 200 S6 students from across eastern Scotland who were taking part in the Holocaust Educational Trust’s ‘Lessons From Auschwitz Project’. After being allowed to wake up a little on the flight between Edinburgh and Kraków we went by coach to the town of Oświęcim, just 2 miles from Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Here we saw glimpses of pre-war Jewish life, visiting the site of the Great Synagogue, destroyed by the Nazis, and the Jewish museum. From Oświęcim we went to Auschwitz 1, a concentration camp built to imprison political opponents of the Nazis. The rows and rows of coaches in the car park, carrying tourists from around the world, showed the interest that many people still have in the Holocaust. Auschwitz 1 itself was organised like a museum, with exhibits in each large barrack covering different aspects of camp life. While the ma-jority of the horrors that people associate with Auschwitz took place at nearby Birkenau death camp, Auschwitz 1 still felt like an evil place. This mood of evilness was underlined by the sickening nature of some of the exhibits on display at Auschwitz. The museum housed many of the personal belong-ings of the Birkenau victims that were found when the Soviets liberated the camp in 1945. It was sometimes difficult to comprehend that the 2 tonnes of hair, the 40,000 pairs of shoes and the 3,800 suitcases kept in the glass display cases all belonged to individuals who most likely died on the day these items were taken from them. At about half past 3 in the afternoon we left Auschwitz 1 and travelled the short distance to Birkenau, a death camp purpose-built by the Na-zis to exterminate groups they deemed to be ‘sub-human’. The differ-ences between Auschwitz 1 and Birkenau were immediately obvious. Whereas Auschwitz is on the outskirts of Oświęcim, Birkenau is iso-lated, cut off, quiet. The tall brick buildings of Auschwitz are replaced by windowless single storey wooden huts. However, the most striking thing about Birkenau was the scale of it. The 300 huts held 100,000 people at a time, and the camp was so large that you could fit fifteen Wembley Stadiums into the giant expanse contained within the barbed The entrance to Birkenau wire fence. death camp

After seeing the full scale of Birkenau from the top of the guard tower that sits above the entrance, we saw some of the most notorious parts of this ‘factory of death’. By touring the dingy wooden huts that held 1000 people at a time and the unhygienic and basic latrines, it became clear that life in the camp was a daily fight to survive against the odds. Another element of the camp that was very noticeable was the ruthless efficiency with which the SS killed an estimated 1.1 mil-lion people. We followed the infamous railway line from the ramp - where newcomers were divided into those that were going to live and those that were going to be sent to the gas chambers - to the ruins of

The remains of one of the the gas chambers themselves. Each of the gas chambers at Birkenau chambers at Birkenau could kill 2000 people in half an hour. Words cannot describe the feel-

ing of disgust we all had at the industrial scale of killing at the death camp.

The closing service held in the shadow of the Birkenau gas chambers brought home to us the rele-vance our visit still held today. Previous generations have failed to learn the lessons of the Holocaust, and now it is up to us to make sure the victims of Auschwitz-Birkenau did not die for nothing. This ex-perience opened our eyes to many of the issues surrounding the Holocaust, and despite a very tiring day, it was an unforgettable and very worthwhile experience.

By Daniel Crowe, 6L, and Lizzie Dalley, 6G.

HOME ECONOMICS Since 2000, all pupils who participate in H.E. have been asked to contribute £1.00 for all practical food lessons. As from January 2010, due to the increase in food prices, all H.E prac-tical food lessons will be £1.50.


German Work Placement Trip to Forst Forst – an unsuspecting borderland town on the banks of the River Neisse – once again played host to our German Higher and Intermediate 2 pupils in October this year. Ten pupils chose to immerse themselves in this intensive German language visit, working for the Spree-Neisse Council. The pupils were involved in a variety of industries, from Agriculture and Land Manage-ment to Tourism and even Business Consulting! Throughout, our pupils were warmly welcomed by the civil servants of Spree-Neisse, who went out of their way to educated and entertain their foreign guests. North Berwick High School and Dunbar Gram-mar already took a party of pupils to Forst in Germany, and it was wonderful to see everyone again, not least of all our International Relations Manager, Jana Handrischeck, who organised the pupils’ work placements with flawless effi-ciency and much style! This was the nineth such trip to run, a testament to its worth. We arrived on the Monday, and George Elder-field put in a valiant effort to make the 3am start after spending the three days prior to the trip on a Duke of Edinburgh expedition. Our journey was mercifully uneventful and upon arrival in Forst we quickly settled in before paying a visit to the local Youth Volunteer Fire Brigade. The children there were extremely welcoming and made our first evening a real treat. We even got a bird’s-eye view of Forst from the fire crane! The rest of the week passed too quickly, with pupils visiting a wide range of local areas as part of their jobs. Evening acitivies were varied too – from making Novo Letzki (Sorbian dough decorations), to walking to Poland, and visiting at home some of the German students who will be working for East Lothian council this Novem-ber. To round off the week, we spent a day in the “big smoke”. We spent the day in Berlin sight-seeing and catching up with our favourite former language assistant, Tilman Kalckhoff. The pu-pils who took part in the trip brought back with them some fantastic memories. They got a true insight into how much contemporary Germany has to offer, how friendly their welcome was, and how much German they actually can under-stand.

For me, it was a pleasure to watch our pupils grow in confidence. The value of foreign language trips, both in terms of academic and personal achieve-ment, cannot be underest imated and I would like to thank those who came to Forst and their parents for their support. Miss Ritchie Modern Language Dept

Top Geography Student Megan Thomson was recently presented with the award for the best result by a Higher Geog-raphy student in the 2009 diet of exams. Megan's effort throughout the year was excep-tional and the recognition of this by the Scottish Association of Geography Teachers was just reward. Leading the way across all the schools in Scotland, both in the state and independent sectors, is a tremendous achievement and one which the Geography department and the whole school are very proud of.

Page 13 WINTER NEWSLETTER

Pupil Support The Pupil Support Department were welcomed back by the installation of a kitchen to support the needs of our pupils. This was partly funded by the School Council and the school, so a very big thank you goes to those who have helped with this facility. The first major event was Malawi week within the school. This saw a number of pupils getting involved with some fact finding on the country especially its Scottish connections and providing displays along the Support corridor. The pupils thoroughly enjoyed the music, especially the drumming and taking part in the dancing and listening to the African music. October saw the ‘Good Food Day’ with a number of our young people being involved with organising the ‘Bag of Rice’ stall and helping to set up the Fair-trade stall at the event. The young people had a lovely time sampling all the food products and buying some to take home to their parents and carers. The highlight was the fruit ice sorbet from Belhaven Fruit Farm. Throughout October the department were involved with collecting back packs for the ‘Mary’s Meals’ Malawi initiative at the school. A number of the young people brought in back packs which were added to the school collection. It was a great effort. The group also were involved

with making and putting up informative posters about ‘Mary’s Meals’ along the Pupil Support corridor. The young people also compiled and distributed a message to staff about the Malawi Rice Appeal which has resulted in the ini-tial 90 bags being sold, thanks to staff purchases and parents and carers who have attended the recent parents’ nights. A great achievement. During the month of November our senior pupils who access the base will be participating in visits to post school venues. These include visits to Orcadia

in Portobello, Port Seton Resource Centre, Tynebank Resource Centre in Haddington and Jewel and Esk College in Edinburgh. It is Enterprise month during November and the young people will be involved in an enterprising event, probably involving the use of the new kitchen. A number of our pupils will hopefully participate in various events at Mead-owmill during November. Our November programme hopes to conclude with a visit to see the Panto-mime “Sinbad” at the Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh. Again a very busy and varied set of activities for our young people within the Pupil Support Department.

North Berwick & District Round Table The Round Table is looking to recruit new members in the North Berwick area. This is an oppor-tunity for parents to make a difference in the local community, as money raised from the Round Table’s activities is used for projects which benefit young people in our community. If you are in-terested in learning more about the organisation and its very wide variety of activities, please con-tact Mark on 890725.


CATCH ALL THE NEWS AT NBHS

Sign up to receive updated posts on our website by logging in on the Feedblitz link at the bottom right hand side of our website (www.northberwickhigh.net). Or click on this link, http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=363795, and it will take you directly to site. Once you sign up, you will receive regular updates on any news that has been uploaded, making sure you never miss something important!

Update from the Parent Council – enter the PRIZE DRAW You are all welcome to attend the Parent Coun-cil (PC) meetings; the next one will be on 27th January at 7pm in the school library. We have two new members this year, Stephen Govenlock and Wendy Knottenbelt. We would like to thank Bobby Anderson and Stuart Ainslie, who have now stood down, for their contribution over the years. PC agendas, minutes and news items are posted on the school website. In order not to miss valuable information from the PC or the school, please do sign up for alerts from feed-blitz. The PC is running a prize draw with a first prize of £30 Tesco vouchers and two second prizes of £10 Tesco vouchers for everybody who has subscribed to feedblitz by the Christmas holiday as an incentive to subscribe. So do please subscribe by following the link halfway down the NBHS home page http://edubuzz.org/blogs/northberwickhigh/ under ‘how can I never miss a post’. Thanks to Tesco for supporting the PC in trying to promote electronic communica-tion and save the school money in printing costs. (Please note we appreciate that not all people have access to a computer. Paper copies of all correspondence are available on request.) Topics for discussion this year will include: the ongoing budget position, restorative practice, GLOW, curriculum presentations, eco school, SQA results, learning partnerships, quality im-provement officer’s report, supporting pupils, Curriculum for Excellence, the school’s develop-ment plan, partnership working. We hope you enjoyed the ‘Road to L’ presentation by Lothian and Borders Police on learning to drive and the Drugs information evening. Finally, our clerk Jane Kelly is standing down; if anyone would be interested in applying for the position, please contact Val McIntyre via email - [email protected]

NBHS Christmas Post A group of students from NBHS have been busy fundraising for a visit to Malawi in June 2010. During our 16-day trip we will be visiting and sharing music with out partner school. We will be participating in humanitarian work with the charity Mary’s Meals and distributing back-packs to pupils there. It is also a unique oppor-tunity for us to explore the country and culture of Malawi. As part of our fundraising for the trip, we are running the Malawi Christmas Post, which works the same way as the old Scout post. Christmas cards for those in the North Berwick area can be posted at boxes around the town:

· Ferguson’s Chemist · Greens and Blues · Andersons Butchers · The Westgate Gallery

Parents will also be able to post their cards at the school on the evening of the Christmas Concerts (7th and 8th December) and pupils will be manning the boxes at lunch times after this. Cost: 20p per card. Collection Boxes will be opened on 30th November and will close on 17th December . The students will be sorting and delivering the post and it is guaranteed to arrive by 24th December. Please support us in our quest to raise money for the trip and in pro-viding a service to the community. Matthew Gibbons Head Boy


S2 Course Choices

Next term, S2 pupils will be making choices about which subjects they would like to take at Standard Grade and Intermediate level. If you are a parent of an S2 pupil, you will be receiving information in the new year about the process for course choicing. It is a de-tailed process, including plenty of opportunity for consultation with subject teachers and guidance staff.

Contacting School

Just a reminder that if you wish to contact school

about your child for any reason, the first point of contact is your child’s guidance teacher. Here is a

reminder of which guidance teacher is responsible

for each House:

Craig Mr McDowell Fidra Mrs Logan and Mrs McCormack

Glen Mrs Neri

Law Ms Prete

Website and Department Blogs

Please do keep logging on to the school web-site, as there are regular updates about events and activities. There are also some super department blogs – have a look at busi-ness studies and modern languages, for ex-ample. You will also find homework for some subject departments on the site, and there will be much more of this over coming months.

Fidra House Christmas Fair

The S6 students of Fidra House, helped by many other pupils and staff, organised a very successful Christmas Fair on 18 November. Around thirty lo-cal businesses had stalls selling a wide variety of goods, and there were also some lovely Christmas decorations on sale made by S3 pupils in the art department. It was certainly an evening full of the Christmas spirit, and a wonderful sum of around £900 was raised. Part of this money raised will help Fidra’s sponsored child, Derrick, in Cameroon and part will be going to Mary’s Meals to help build a school kitchen in Malawi.

Malawi Backpacks

North Berwick High School, cluster primaries and nursery school gathered an amazing 981 filled backpacks to send to schoolchildren in Malawi. It is wonderful to know that this small gesture from families in the North Berwick area will make such a positive difference to the lives of 981 young people in Malawi. When Mary’s Meals staff came to collect the backpacks, they were absolutely overwhelmed at the number contributed – the largest number they’d ever received from any school. A very big thank you to everyone who took the time to fill a backpack. The school will continue to fundraise over the rest of the session, in order to donate £7000 to build a kitchen at a school in Malawi.

Footwear

Please note that, for safety reasons, girls should not be wearing lightweight ballet pump-type shoes in practical lessons. This is particu-larly important in CDT classes. If girls do wear this kind of footwear to school, then they should have a sturdier pair of shoes to change into for the practical lessons. Your help in en-suring this happens is much appreciated.


Grange Road

North Berwick

East Lothian

EH39 4QS

Phone: 01620 894661

Absence line: 01620 894716

Fax: 01620 895495

Email: [email protected]

School Holidays 2010-2011

We have recently received the school dates for session 2010-2011. Wednesday 18th August 2010 Pupils resume Monday 20th September 2010 September holiday Monday 18th October 2010 First day of October holiday Tuesday 26th October 2010 Pupils resume Friday 24th December 2010 First day of Christmas holiday Tuesday 11th January 2011 Pupils resume Monday February 14th 2011 First day of February half-term holiday Monday February 21st 2011 Pupils resume Monday 11th April 2011 First day of Easter holiday Tuesday 26th April 2011 Pupils resume Monday 2nd May 2011 May Day Holiday Monday 23rd May 2011 First day of Victoria Day holiday Thursday 26th May 2011 Pupils resume Friday 1st July 2011 School closes for summer holiday

Dates For Your Diary

December

Wednesday 2nd Senior Citizens’ Concert and Afternoon Tea Monday 7th Christmas Concert Tuesday 8th Christmas Concert Thursday 10th S1 Dance Monday 14th S2 Dance Tuesday 15th S3 Dance Thursday 17th S4 Dance Monday 21st S5/6 Dance Tuesday 22nd School closes for holidays with performances of our seasonal panto in the

school hall

January Wednesday 6th School re-opens Thursday 14th S5/6 Parents’ consultation Monday 25th S2 Ski Trip (all week) Monday 25th S4 Work Experience (all week) Wednesday 27th Parent Council Meeting Friday 29th PTA Burns’ Supper and Ceilidh

February Thursday 4th S1 Parents’ consultation Wednesday 10th S1 Parents’ consultation Friday 12th School closes for half-term


North Berwick High School Winter Newsletter

Documents

sqa results

good results

good set of results

north berwick high school

individual students

happy new year

sqa examinations

rag bag collection