Football

When it comes to football this summer you have to add the names of Brown and Turnbull to Torres, Lucio and Messi. Robbie Brown   played for Hibernian Under 13s in a European tournament in Milan at the end of May and Kyle Turnbull was selected for the Scotland Under 15 squad.

Merit Certificates

A highly successful Merit Certificate awards evening was held on Wednesday 2 June. The revised scheme has proved so popular that the school had to hold two events on the same evening. The Guest of Honour, West Lothian’s Provost, Mr Tom Kerr, gave an entertaining speech highlighting some of his memories of attending the school, including teachers who gave the belt!

Mrs Kerr then presented the
Certificates of Excellence to the pupils who achieved the criteria set by consistently working to the best of their ability all session (a summary description) of what was required).

Mr MacKenzie told LA News “It was a special evening for so many pupils and their families. It would have been good if we could have celebrated with all the pupils together but on the other hand it was fantastic to see so many achieving the top award”.

He added “I have to apologise to the parents and pupils who attended the first “sitting”. Because this was the first time we faced this problem we did run through the first event too quickly. We have learnt our lesson and I hope people in the audience and the prize winners did not feel cheated by the quick pace of their moment in the limelight”.

Rugby Finals

A season of great success ended in disappointment for the Under 15 and Under 18 teams.

The Under 15s lost their final against a physically stronger Earlston High team 29-19.

The Under 18s who led for most of their final against Wellington School from Ayr had the agony of losing 26-24 with the west coasters scoring a few minutes from the end.

Both teams want to use LA News to thank all the supporters who turned up at the games and their coaches for the help all year.

Karate

The Newey family were busy recently with both William and Alice competing in the Scottish International Open Karate competition.

William gained 3rd place in the over 16 (under 76kg) group while Alice fought well in her category but retired hurt in the second round.

Musical Notes

The postponed Spring concert went ahead on Tuesday 27 April in front of a huge and appreciative audience. Several of the audience commented on the quality and variety of the pieces played by the groups, bands, ensembles and orchestras.  Mr MacKenzie told LA News “I am delighted we could go ahead. It was a big decision to cancel it because of the weather in March. I am so pleased the S6 pupils who are leaving had the opportunity to show off their talent one last time.”

We are delighted to announce that Hannah Brutin, Hannah Cudmore, Katherine Harrower, Joanna Tickle, Emma Blake, Sarah McDonald, James Welsh, Shannon Harris, Katherine Mackenzie, Christie Jamieson, Kirsty McRae, Catriona Charlton, Lauren Muir, Kate Ogden and Jennifer Cleland are all part of the West Lothian Schools Junior Strings Group who are traveling to Hochsauerland in Germany as part of a cultural exchange with the Council. Hochsauerland and West Lothian have been twinning partners for over 20 years.

Molly McWhirter (4K2) has been selected to play Cello with the National Youth orchestra of Scotland.

Hannah Miller (5K2) is also starring by being picked for the National Youth Choir of Scotland. This is a great achievement considering that the age range for this group is 16-25!

Congratulations to all our musicians and singers.

Debating

This year the seniors have been represented by two girls from S6, Mairi Blair and Rachel Scholes. They took part in 2 very prestigious competitions, the Glasgow University Union Schools Debating Competition and the English speaking union Mace Competition. In the Glasgow event they had 4 debates in the day and won 2. In the second event hosted in the school they were up against some experienced opponents when supporting the motion “This House believes a life sentence should mean life” and unfortunately, despite debating with style and commitment they did not qualify. The event was chaired most ably by Lucie Douglas (S5).

Rebecca Scott (S3), who is building up quite a reputation as a highly skilled speaker and debater, has qualified for the Scottish final of the ESU public speaking competition.

Rugby Special

What a fantastic season our boys are having, despite the misery of so many call-offs and false starts the lads just keep going.

Our Under 15s have reached the Brewin Dolphin Bowl Final after beating Obermory (a combination of Oban and Tobermory) 31-22 last week. They will now play either Earlston or Biggar/Lanark in the Final. This game is likely to be played in Edinburgh during the last week of term but as we go to print the details have not been finalised.

Our Under 18s, having beaten Banchory in the quarters meet the Royal High School (Edinburgh) away from home in the semi-finals of the Brewin Dolphin Plate competition. That game may well go ahead next week.

Fencing Success

The recent Scottish School’s Individual Fencing Championship brought great success to the school.

Heather Gordon (S3) won bronze in the Under 16 foil and epee. Heather Yeats (S5) won bronze in the Over 16 epee.

Michael McCourt (S5) won bronze in the Under 16 epee and Campbell Thomson (S5) won bronze in the Over 16 foil and was crowned champion in the Over 16 epee.

Mr de St Croix the club coach said “I am delighted by these individual performances which resulted in the school being placed second overall out of 33 teams”.