Following a year long analysis of the structure of our periods the staff of the school has agreed to implement a 32 x 50 minute period week and end our current 46 x 35 minute set-up. This will mean a 7 period day, Monday through to Thursday and a 4 period day on Friday. In order for this to work the school will start slightly earlier in the mornings but finish much earlier on a Friday. It is intended to start this new structure when the new timetable begins.
A detailed letter highlighting the changes can be found on the ‘Parents Info’ section.
I am writing this as we enter the month of March or as I call it the Mad Month of March. It is the month of maximum pressure for everyone in a school. Pupils feel it. Staff feel it. Parents feel it.
Courses are coming to an end, final assessments are approaching and projects and investigations are to be handed in. If time has been lost, teaching gets quicker so that there is time for revision and that revision for the forthcoming exams has to be mixed with homework for the ongoing course work.
Pressure everywhere!
Let’s make sure we acknowledge each others increased stress and take an extra deep breath before dealing with situations. That way we might get through to April Fools Day unscathed!
David A MacKenzie
The annual West Lothian competition brought a number of successes in X country recently. The most notable results were as follows:
In the S1 girls race Keri Greig (1B2) won in a time of 7.32 minutes and Jake Percival (1K3) was 2nd in the S1 boys race with the exact same time.
In the S2 race for girls Jane Henderson (2W2) was first in 12.13 minutes and the S3 girls race was won by Amy Ritchie (3K1) in 11.59 minutes.
In the S3 boys category the team was 3rd behind West Calder and St Kentigern’s with 47 points.
Our team of Kenneth Port, Iain Loggie, Owen Shahim, Rachel Cooper and Jessica Martin won the West Lothian competition and now take part in the Scottish Finals this month. The team organiser and coach, Mrs Sandhu, was delighted with the success and said “It was a hard fought final against Bathgate Academy. We were well ahead after 7 rounds but they certainly came back at us in the final buzzer round and we held on to win 65 - 62”.
Catriona Charlton and Ilona Butter were respectively 1st and 3rd in the Avant-Gardens competition to design a small garden. The judges were so impressed by Catriona’s design, “Giant’s Feast”, that it will be constructed on site at the New Hopetoun Garden Centre. Mrs Aikman (PT Enterprise) told “LA News” “I am delighted for the girls. They put in so much thought and effort to their designs they are truly deserving winners. Well done”.
Congratulations to Catriona Rennison (1W2) and Neil Fraser (2B3) who won the ESU West Lothian Junior Competition on Wednesday 25 February. They now go forward to represent the area in the Edinburgh and Lothian’s leg of this national competition. Well done Catriona and Neil.
Following our appeal in the last issue for information about ex-pupils we have been informed about the following successes:
Ian Burgess now aged 33 and a self-employed management consultant has been elected to be chairman of the Scottish Region of Institute of Management Consultants.
and
Gordon McDavid who left in 2000, has passed the examinations for admission to the Royal College of Physicians.
Niall Stevenson, who was in last year’s S6, is making quite a name for himself in the world of “art”. One of his pieces of work from his Advanced Higher is currently being exhibited in the National Gallery of Scotland as part of the SQA exhibition. Mr MacKenzie recently told “LA News” “I am delighted Niall’s talents are getting the profile they deserve. In fact a personal friend of mine said that he had been visiting the gallery and spotted Niall’s work and was astounded at the quality”.
Niall’s piece is also used on the leaflet issued by National Gallery to advertise forthcoming events along with works of other artists including someone called Titian!
In the annual “Friends of the RSA Art Award” Jennifer Fearn S3 won the Intermediate category while Flora Smith S2 was Highly commended in the Junior category.
School News | admin | 
March 9, 2009 4:06 pm | 
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