Dear Parent

It is good at this time of year to reflect on the year past and take the

opportunity to share with Eastwood High School parents a good news story.

2010 has been a most successful year for the school and its pupils, The

graphs below show

how our pupils’

attainment in key

measures of SQA

performance has

been improving

steadily over the last

5 years. A great

achievement.

This is a testament

to all the hard put

in by pupils and

staff alike to

ensure that no one

under achieves.

At our recent S1 parents evening,

attended by almost 80% of the

parents, a survey of parental opinion

was undertaken. In answer to the

question “Is your son/daughter happy

at school?” the parents responded as

illustrated in the pie chart above. A ringing endorsement you’ll agree.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all parents for their

continued support in ensuring that this session the standard of school

uniform is much improved. The pupils should also be complimented for a

marked improvement in behaviour in the school - exclusions and referrals are

both significantly lower than last year.

We are a very good school and perhaps I do not take the opportunity

often enough to tell people that. I will leave the last word to S1 pupils

Bhavna Mehta “I really enjoy Eastwood High School and all the opportunities it has given me” and Mark Falconer “I enjoy being trusted by my teachers who always do their best for me” S Maxwell

EASTWOOD HIGH SCHOOL

Parents Newsletter

Specia l points of interest:

13th December - Christmas Concert

14th December - Senior Citizens party

16th December - Junior Dance

20th December - Senior Dance

23rd December - School closes for Christ-mas holiday @ 2.30pm

5th January - School re-opens @ 8.45am

11th January - S5/6 Parents Evening

19th January - S2 Parents Evening & Options hour

2nd February - S4 Parents Evening & Options hour

11th February - Inservice day

14th & 15th February - Holidays

23rd March - ASN Transitions Parents Eve.

1st April—School closes for Spring holiday @ 2.45pm

18th April - School reopens @ 8.45am

22nd April - Good Friday Holiday

25th April - Easter Monday Holiday

PARENTS NEWSLETTER PAGE 1

November 2010

Tel : 0141 577 2200 Fax :0141 577 2220 Website : www.scottishschools.info/eastwoodhigh

E.Mail : schoolmail@eastwood.e-renfrew.sch.uk

Dear Parent 1

Silverburn Glee Choir Date

2

Eco School News 3

Drama in London 3

High Fashion 4

Sports News 4

Parent Council 4

Inside this issue:

0

10

20

30

40

206 2007 2008 2009 2010

Year

S4 SQA Points Score per Pupil

Series1

0

10

20

30

40

50

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Year

S5 SQA Points Score per Pupil

Series1

Is your Child Happy at School?

Very Happy

Quit e Happy

Not Happy

DNC

Parent Information

Line 0845 84100 10

www.ea.e-

renfrew.sch.uk/

Mock Interviews

Employers from all areas of

business attended Eastwood on

18th & 18th November to take

part in our very successful

Mock Interview programme or-

ganised by Mrs Sinclair. The

event is aimed at all S5 pupils

who prepare letters and CVs

during Social Education classes

and are then interviewed by

the employers on the Mock In-

terview day. The feedback for

the pupils was very positive and

a big thank you is due to all the

volunteer employers who as-

sisted

the

school by

partici-

pating in

the

event.

NEWS IN BRIEF

The fantastic sum of £750 was

raised by senior pupils and staff for

the “Wear it Pink” Charity. The sen-

ior pupils organised a number of ac-

tivities and events. The money was

raised through such things as a cof-

fee morning, face painting and the

sale of pink confectionary.

Wear it Pink

Silverburn Carol Concert Miss Robertson’s Glee Choir will

be performing at the Silver-

burn Shopping Centre on Friday

3rd December between 3pm

and 4pm. The choir will be rais-

ing money for the CLIC Sargent

Charity and all teachers and

parents are welcome to come

along to offer support.

In addition a reminder that the

School Christmas Concert and

Art Exhibition will be held on

Monday 13th December at 7pm.

Tickets will be on sale soon.

Eastwood High School Page 2

Geography Actvities

In geography, S1 pupils have been

learning about landscapes through

model making. The pupils were asked

to create a mini landscape inside an

egg/shoe box. Theywere then asked

to open their boxes, talk briefly

about their landscape and give rea-

sons behind why they had chosen

Also in geography Miss MacAskill ac-

companied Louise Clark, Stephen

Haggis, Laleh Metin and Caitlin Roan

of S5 who represented Eastwood in

an inter schools debate against Bar-

rhead HS on “China’s One Child Pol-

icy”. The debate can be heard on

podcast at www.pulseonair.co.uk.

Congratulations are due to a number of

staff this month for successfully gaining

professional qualifications. After 2 years of

hard work Mr

Richmond,

Mrs Foster

and Mrs

Regan have

passed the

Scottish

Qualification

for Headship.

Congratulations also go to Mr Murray in

The Technical Department who collected his

award at Strathclyde University this month

for being Technical

student of the year

for session

2009/2010.

Well done to

everyone.

Mathletics Eastwood pupils have been representing Scotland in the

Mathletics Four Nations Championship. This event is an

on line competition where schools from Scotland, Eng-

land, Wales and Northern Ireland complete a series of

Maths challenges. The more successful they are at

completing the tasks the more points they secure for

their country. Needless to say with national pride at

stake Eastwood is pulling out all the stops for a Scot-

land success.

Staff Stars

Drama Trip to the National Theatre in London A group of intrepid Higher drama pupils and teachers

braved a 10 hour return train journey to London on

Saturday 6th of November in pursuit of Higher suc-

cess. The group enjoyed a backstage tour of London’s

National Theatre before seeing a production of “Men

Should Weep” a key text in their Drama course.

Thank you to Miss Workman for organising the trip

and Mrs Regan, Miss Robertson and Miss Campbell for

accompanying the group.

Eastwood High School Page 3

Physics on the Road On the 17th of November 79 S3 Physics students

visited the Glasgow Science Centre. The trip was

organised by Mr Howard to enhance the pupils’

Physics understanding. The highlight of the trip was

a 3D Imax presentation of images from the Hubble

telescope but pupils were also able to study New-

ton’s 3rd Law in the Planetarium and gain some

hands on practical experience of optics and mechan-

ics ex-

periments

in the

main Sci-

ence Hall.

ECO Schools News Autumn has been a busy time for the Eco groups within the school under the direction of Dr Lowe. The

pupil ECO Committee had a visit by Zoe Furnivall of Friends of the Earth to talk to them about the work

of the charity and discuss possible partnership work between Friends of the Earth and Eastwood’s ECO

committee. Dr Lowe’s S5 class have also been involved in planting a number of trees on the school campus

to promote biodiversity—one of their course topics. The trees were provided by Go Greener East Ren-

frewshire’s Environmental

Group. Finally Mr Law and

his Cope class have con-

structed “Bug Hotels” and

placed them in the woods

around the school campus to

help inverebrates survive

the winter.

Busy Bhavna Bhavna Mehta of S1 has had a very busy month

of dancing and performing. Firstly she was in-

volved in a show to mark the handover of the

Commonwealth Games from Dehli to Glasgow

performing Bollywood dance to the songs

“Deya Deya Re” and Naiyo Naiyo”. Bhavna and

her group then performed their dance at

Falkirk Town Hall and

Clarkston Hall as part of

the community celebra-

tions for Diwali. As part

of East Renfrewshire’s

celebration of Diwali

Bhavna then performed in

a drama of the story of

“Rama and Sita”

St Andrews Day Ceilidh The junior and senior Eastwood High School

Ceilidh Bands joined forces to play for the St

Cadocs and Crookfur Primary Schools St An-

drews Day Ceilidh held in our school assembly

hall. The event has become an annual fixture

and is thoroughly enjoyed by all the pupils. It

also gives

invaluable

performance

practice for

our musi-

cians.

Parent Council News The next meeting of the Parent Council is set for

Thursday 13th January at 8pm when a new chair and office bearers will be confirmed. At the last meeting

of the Council DHT Mr Richmond gave a presentation

on school self evaluation. The presentation was fol-

lowed by questions.

The next PCTA meeting is scheduled for 7pm on the

same night. Discussions wil centre around the fund

raising programme for the coming term including the

possibility of a school Easter Raffle.

The fundraising branch of the Parent Council (PCTA)

is always looking for volunteers to assist with its ac-

tivities. If you feel that you can spare some time

please do not hesitate to contact the PCTA chair

Vivienne Christison via the school office.

PARENTS NEWSLETTER PAGE 4

SPORTS NEWS The senior Boys basketball team have now played

5 league games with a 3 wins and 2 losses record.

This month they have played four games losing to

Williamwood HS but beating Barrhead HS in a

tight match and St Lukes HS culminating in a 71-

51 win against Gryffe HS. In netball this week the

Eastwood senior girls team beat Castlehead HS

15-10 to progress to Round 2 of the Scottish Cup.

Euan Robertson of S2 recently competed in the

UK Tae Kwon Do Championships in Edinburgh. In

his belt category he won a bronze medal in spar-

ring and a silver medal in shaping.

On the 26th of November Mrs Rorison accompa-

nied members of the Eastwood HS badminton club

to the Glasgow International Badminton Carnival

held at the Kelvin Hall. When there they took part

in coaching sessions and challenges under the

watchful eye of the Scotland’s coaches.

In football Eastwood’s boys U15 team is now top

of their league having beaten St Ninians (4-2) and

Woodfarm (6-3) as well as progressing to the 3rd

round of the Scottish Cup by beating Inverclyde

Academy 6-2 away in round 2. Also in football our

U15 girls team unfortunately lost their West of

Scotland cup final

however they did

look the part

thanks to their new

kit kindly donated

by Mr Houston of

Direct

Accounting

HIGH FASHION On Sunday the 14th of November the PCTA held a

fashion show at the Matalan store in Darnley. The

event was a great success and enjoyed by the

large audience who attended on the night. A large

number of very professional pupils acted as mod-

els and had a most enjoyable evening. Nearly

£1000 was raised for school funds. A big thank

you to everyone who helped

to organise the event—

especially Mrs Margo

McGibbon from the PCTA,

and Mrs MacGlashan from

the school.

Eastwood High School Swim Team had a most

successful Renfrewshire Area Championships

with all our swimmers qualifying for the Scottish

Schools Championships in January. The results

were as follows Neil Ross 200m Ind. Medlay Gold & 200m Breaststroke

Silver; Paul Chrichton 100m & 200m Backstroke Gold;

Katie James 100m & 200m Backstroke Gold; Gavin Con-

nor 100m & 200m Breaststroke Gold; Nicola Connor

200m Butterfly

Gold and 200m

Ind. Medlay Sil-

ver; Amy McIl-

reavy 200m

Breaststroke

Gold & 100m

Backstroke

Silver