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Kingussie High School Tel: 01540 661 475
Ruthven Road Email: [email protected]
KINGUSSIE Web: kingussiehigh.org.uk
PH21 1ES
20
14
NEWSLETTER
KINGUSSIE HIGH SCHOOL June
Welcome to our June Newsletter – the final one of the year, and what a busy year it has been!
As many of you will know from our regular news updates in the Strathy (The Kingussie Catch-up), Facebook
(www.facebook.com/kingussiehigh) and on our website (www.kingussiehigh.org.uk) it has been SQA exam
and school trip season. I’m really pleased that our SQA Chief Invigilator reported an excellent standard of
behaviour during the examinations and I would like to take this early opportunity to wish everyone the best
of luck on results day.
I thought I would also take this opportunity to up-date you all on some staffing changes for next session. As
many of you may know Mr Dziennik (PT Technology), Mr Mark (PT Maths), Miss Wallace (Art) and Mrs
Thomas (SfL) have all chosen to retire this summer. Their service to the school over many years has been
exemplary and I am sure you will all join me in wishing them and long and restful retirement. Miss Monigatti
(Maths) has also been successful in gaining a post in the North of England and we wish her the best of luck
in her new adventure. We also say goodbye to three of our Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) Miss McInnes
(English), Mr Walker (Technology) and Mr McLagan (Geography). Am delighted to say they have all been
successful in finding employment for the next session and they have all made a significant impact on the
school during their short time with us.
With so many people leaving we also have made some new appointments Mrs Nagle will take over as PT
Maths and Mrs Wilson will also join the Maths department. Miss Seymour (one of our NQTs from this year)
will also join us on a full time basis from August. We will also be joined by four more newly qualified teach-
ers for next session Miss Thomson (Art), Mr Mackenzie (English), Miss Ralston (Geography) and Miss Deans
(PE). We look forward to welcoming them all to the school and our community in due course. I will give you
a full update on staffing in our August newsletter.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy our June newsletter it is packed full of lots of
exciting stuff that has been going on around the school over the last few
months including updates on our school show (Back to the 80s), S2 Lon-
don Trip Report, S3 Barcelona Trip Report, Parent Council News and
sporting achievements.
Finally, can I personally thank you for your ongoing support and work-
ing with us to help make Kingussie High School an exciting place to
learn. Remember if you have any questions about the school or your
child's education then please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Ollie Bray Headteacher ([email protected])
Page 2
PRESTIGE PINE WORLD-
WIDE :
END OF YEAR REPORT!
(Chair Austen Davey)
Prestige Pine Worldwide is a new company formed at the start of session 2013/14. It
comprises 9 pupils from S2 who opted for an enterprise class. We have done very well this
year by raising lots of money and giving it out to charities in need of our help.
So far we have aided charities all around the world such as Disability Snowsports, Red
Cross Haiyan Appeal, and The Leeanne Fund, by raising over £50. We have raised the
money in the following ways: by making Rocky Road, Hobnobs, banana bread and hyacinth
bulbs at Christmas. Our customers were very satisfied on the whole although at times we
had a little trouble with our Quality Control. One customer is quoted to have said, ‘a solid
8/10, and I’m feeling generous!’
During our time in this class, we have increased our team work skills by spending more
time as a group, and getting to know one another’s strengths and weaknesses. We enjoyed
working as a team however, we could be more organised in the future. We learned to
respect the ideas that were put forward by the group although at times we had heated
discussions.
Over the year, we had several committee meetings and each term we rotated the office
bearers. During the year we learnt lots about how committees are run. For example in
order to get the office bearer jobs we wrote a CV and applied for the post. We learnt how
to keep basic accounts. We researched costs of ingredients and went on class outings to
purchase them. We regularly self-evaluated our progress.
We bonded with class teachers and learnt to work together with them as part of our team.
Overall this has been a good experience for us a class and we have learnt some great life
skills. Quotes from class members include the following:
‘ Always fun, eventful, entertaining, never boring.’ Kaitlin/Flossie/Agnesa
‘Greatest company in the world’ Austen
‘We are funny, kind and hard working class who get on well with everyone and respect eve-
ryone’ Jack (not too sure about the hard working bit!)
‘A fun class that can work together’ Skye
‘A very good and enjoyable experience for each and everyone of us’ Billy
‘We shed blood and tears to make this group’ Christopher
Page 3
Barcelona 2014!
Staff and pupils enjoying themselves at Port Aventura!
Barcelona Trip Report
Following the success of the Paris trip last year, 34 pupils
and 5 members of staff embarked on a citizenship trip to
Barcelona. Throughout the week pupils undertook
numerous different activities and tasks in order to
explore the Catalonian culture.
Rachael Borthwick commented that “The trip was packed
full of fun. We even found out Mr Douglas has a sense of
humour. Just an amazing week, such a laugh.”
Throughout our time in Barcelona our itinerary was
packed with loads of things, ranging from the aquarium,
Nou Camp stadium, Guadi Museum, boat trip and a visit
to the Dali Museum. One evening we treated our taste
buds to the local cuisine – and went to a Tapas bar. The
food was very nice; however some pupils mistook the
calamari for onion rings – if only the staff had the camera
at the ready!
One afternoon we spent our time on a boat trip from Rosas-Cadaques. As many saw from the videos on our
Facebook page this turned into a party boat – singing and dancing to numerous songs such as YMCA, Las
Ketchup and Gangnam Style. X Factor here we come!
The overall highlight of the trip was when we went to Port Aventura theme park. Kennady McGlynn
commented that “The day spent is unforgettable! I’ll never forget screaming like an idiot and trying to see out
of my watery eyes from the fastest rollercoaster in Europe!”
Throughout the trip the behaviour of all pupils was fantastic and we were even praised by fellow passengers
on the flight home.
Special thanks to Mr Hickey who
organised the trip before his departure
from Kingussie High School
Mr Douglas (Trip Leader), Mrs
Mossman (our Linguistic specialist),
Miss Wallace, Miss McIlroy and Mr
McLagan.
Page 4
Sporting Ambassadors!
Here is a great picture of our Commonwealth Young
Sporting Ambassadors (Rachel and Hollie - S5). They are
pictured with David Andrew Smith (Paralympian Rower),
Chris Sherrington (Olympic Judo team)
Dates for Your Diary!
UKMT Junior Mathematical
Challenge 2014
In this year’s competition, which is open to all pupils
in S1 and S2 and which saw over 240 000 students
across the UK taking part, three of our pupils gained
certificates.
Congratulations go to: Luke Appleby S1, who
gained a Silver and best in school certificate; Fin-
lay Guy S1 and Calum Lynch S2 both of whom
gained bronze certificates. Well done to everyone
who took part in this nationwide event.
JUNE
Wednesday 11 School Musical
Thursday 12 School Musical
Friday 13 School Musical
Wednesday 18 Prize Giving and Graduation
Tues 24 & Wed 25 Primary 7 Visiting Days
Thursday 26 Parents of P7 Visit 1.50pm
UCAS & Higher Education Evening (details to follow)
June 27 School Sports Day
JULY
Thursday 3 School closes for Summer
AUGUST
Tuesday 5
Students receive results by post, and, if registered with MyS-
QA.org.uk, by text and email
Monday 18 Start of new school year for staff
Tuesday 19 Start of new school year for all pupils
We hope the weather is as nice over the summer
for everyone as it was this week for our pupils in
beautiful sunny Oban!
Picture by Miss McInnes
Page 5
Kingussie High School is proud to be a part of and support BIKEFEST Scotland. We
look forward to seeing you all there! The Parent Council will be running the
'Smoothie Bike' on the day and any help that can be provided is very much
appreciated. See the Parent Council news update on Page 6 for further details.
INVITATION You are invited to attend the AGM of
Badenoch and Strathspey Music Festival
Association on Thursday 19th June at
7.30pm in Kingussie Parish Church Hall
WELL DONE Well Done! Fraser Brown and Jaeger Lamont
for being volunteer swim coaches all year at
the Badenoch Swim Club. Your input has
been very valuable and much appreciated
by the club and the other swimmers. In No-
vember they both also passed their UKCC
Level 1 Teaching Aquatics course, which is
accredited by SQA, after intensive study-
ing for two weekends - we would like to
congratulate them for this as well!
Page 6
Kingussie High School has a very active, supportive Parent Council and we are always keen to have more
parents involved, whether by attending meetings, supporting fund-raising activities or joining one of the sub-
committees.
Ali Leiper heads up our very hard-working fund-raising team and they are appealing for help with several
upcoming events. Please get in touch with Ali ASAP if you can help with any of these: [email protected]
Hello from
the Parent
Council
Raffle Hampers for School Show – 11th, 12th, 13th June
We need donations for three special hampers that will
be raffled on the show evenings. Please drop off
donations at the school office or contact Ali for another
arrangement.
Smoothie Stall at the Kingussie Bikefest – 14th June,
Ardvonie Park
We will be running the 'Smoothie Bike' on the day and
need helpers for set-up, manning and clear-up. Science
teacher, Alastair Kendall, has kindly agreed to co-
ordinate the stall, so if you are able to help at all, please
contact him ASAP on:
BBQ at Sports Day – 27th June
There will be a BBQ, cake table and a few small stalls.
Thunder in the Glen – 23rd & 24th August
Saturday 23rd – Tesco Bag Pack
Lucky Numbers Draw
You can help raise funds for the school and be
in the running for a prize yourself by joining the
Lucky Numbers scheme. It's £9 to join now for
the rest of the year and three prizes are
awarded each month. Fill out the from on the
last page of this newsletter and return to the
school office with your cheque – but remember
to only pay £9 (not £12 as it says on the form).
Any questions, or wishes to help, please
get in touch!
Our current Office Bearers are:
Kate Christie, Chair:
Penny Mackenzie, Treasurer:
Merryn Appleby, Secretary:
Thank you for your ongoing
support and help!
Page 7
Hockey and Basketball
Kingussie High School students excel in Hockey!
The young people in the back row are KHS students. The whole team who were made up of a wide range of ages
played really well The picture on the right is Beth Mickel who played recently in the InveRoss Cup in Inverness, Beth
was awarded this medal for being an outstanding player.
Shell Twilight Basketball launched at Aviemore
Community Centre on Friday 2nd May and had a
successful first session with 23 young people in
attendance. The free programme aims to keep young
people off the streets, get them active and through the
unique educational time out system help them make
positive lifestyle decisions away from drugs, alcohol and
smoking.
The project will be delivered in Aviemore by Scottish
Sports Futures in partnership with Police Scotland,
Highland Active Schools and Highlife Highland. The
initiative comes to Aviemore after the positive benefits of
the programme have been seen in other communities.
Taster sessions were delivered in local schools by a
Glasgow Rocks professional player Gareth Murray in the
week running up to the launch.
Basketball has proved to be hugely successful as boys and girls can play together, it is free from tribalism within Scottish
culture and most importantly- it’s great fun! he Glasgow Rocks professional players make appearances during the season
where they bring their basketball skills, life stories, advice and energy to inspire young people. Fran Urli and Chris
Johnson were in attendance on the launch night and gave out prizes for exceptional effort during the session.
Shell twilight basketball is FREE to attend and open to S1 to S6 pupils from Grantown Grammar and Kingussie High.
Sessions run every Friday from 8-10pm at Aviemore Community Centre. Please see www.ssf.org.uk for more information
or contact [email protected].
Tina Gibson - Active Schools Co-ordinator 07748335191
The week started with a very long,
boring seven hour train journey down to
London. Everyone was extremely excited
for the week ahead. We were pretty
quiet for the first part of the journey but
then we couldn’t hold in the excitement
for the rest of it. This lead to many of us
taking selfies with everyone (especially
Mr Bray).
We arrived in London King’s Cross station at about 4 o’clock and had
to wait roughly half an hour in the glorious sunshine for our bus to the
Premier Inn at Greenwich. The bus journey took about forty-five
minutes which didn’t feel that long as we were all looking out for all the
famous attractions in London. We managed to spot quite a few
including the London Eye, Big Ben, the London Bridge and The Shard.
We arrived at the Premier Inn at about 1730. We all went in and got
our room keys and up we went to get settled in. The rooms were a
good size and all had at least two beds including one double bed.
Once we had all done that we set out to see the Cutty Sark (an old
ship) where Mr Bray did a very inspirational yet boring speech. We
then went to the Greenwich Park for a game of softball or football.
By
Ruaridh Anderson
and
Alexander Michie
Page 8
Page 9
On Tuesday we got up bright and early for a boat ride on the Thames which was very good for site seeing as
we saw nearly all of London’s main attractions from the water. Once we got off of the boat we waited for
about twenty minutes for a flight on the London Eye. It was very high and some people were very scared but
soon got over the height and started enjoying it. There was a camera at the end of it for everyone to get a
group photo.
Next we walked to Parliament and got a tour around it and also met Danny Alexander the local MP. We then
got onto the Underground and went shopping or bowling in the Stratford shopping centre. After dinner at the
shopping centre we got a Gondola over the Thames which some people thought was great but too short.
Wednesday was the most compact day with loads
of things happening. First we went to the Wembley
Football Stadium which was very good because
there were lots of things to get pictures of or with
including the FA Cup.
Next was the Science Museum which was interest-
ing. We then set off for the tour of the BBC Studios
which most people were slightly disappointed, but
a few people did get to broadcast the news and
weather. Some people also got to act in a play.
“The Lion King” musical was next and we had to
get the underground Everyone was very
impressed with the songs and all thought it was
very smart how they did all of the costumes.
Thursday was most pupils’ favourite day as it was Thorpe Park. Once we arrived in the park we dropped all of
our bags and then everyone went their own way to get on all of the different rides and rollercoasters. The
favourites seemed to be Stealth, Saw, Swarm and Tidal Wave. There were a few pupils that didn’t want to go
on any rollercoasters but everyone was trying to encourage them. After a while most pupils gave in and went
on some and very quickly realised what they had been missing. Unfortunately some of us from the school
were sick on some rides and they had to get closed for half an hour. Even some teachers went on a few rides
especially Tidal Wave where they all got soaked, but no one saw any of the teachers near Saw and Stealth.
The trip ended with another seven hour train. Not many people were as excited leaving as they were going
there as they were leaving such a great week behind them.
As the pupils were getting off the train they thanked the teachers for such a
wonderful week and experience.
London 2014—Continued
Page 10
Kingussie High School is going ‘back to the 80s’ this week with 3 performances of the ‘totally
awesome musical’ set for 11th-13
th June.
Pupils have been working hard since auditions took place in January to perfect their American
accents, acting, singing and dancing with the help of Director Lucy Hodes, Choreographer Heather
Cooney and a dedicated team of Kingussie High School staff.
Back to the 80's tells the story of the 1989 graduating class of William Ocean High as seen through
the eyes of the narrator, Corey Palmer Sr, who is now living in the year 2001.
The 17-year-old Corey is madly in love with his next-door neighbour, Tiffany Houston, one of the
coolest girls in the school. However, she barely notices this, as she is too busy swooning over
Michael Feldman, the hottest guy around. Michael and his friends are athletic and good-looking -
kind of guys that Corey and his two best friends dream of being. However, while they may not be
the coolest guys in school, they are still one up on Farrah McFerrin III, whose best friend is her
computer, and who believes the crazy notion that one day CDs will replace cassette tapes. Follow
these characters as they decide who should become student president and who they should take to
the prom while enjoying classic 80’s song such as ‘Kids in America’, ‘Footloose’, ‘Dancing on the
Ceiling’ and a full 80s megamix!
Tickets are now on sale for ‘Back to the 80s’ and are available from Kingussie High School office and
Murchie’s of Kingussie at a price of £6 for adults and £4 for school pupils/concessions. The
performances will take place Wednesday 11th, Thursday 12
th and Friday 13
th June at 7.30pm in
Kingussie High School.
The cast looks forward to seeing you there and can guarantee you will have a ‘totally awesome’
time!
Page 11
Page 10
News from other clubs in the Strath
Badenoch and Strathspey
Pipe Band!
Badenoch and Strathspey Pipe Band now
have a Novice Juvenile band for any young
pipers and drummers who already play, or
for those of you that would like to start
learning.
You are welcome to come along to a
beginners practice from 7.00 p.m. to 9.00
p.m. on Monday evenings in Macdonald
Aviemore Highland Resort or if you are
ready for more of a challenge, come along
to a main practice 7.30 p.m.—9.30 p.m. on
Tuesday evenings at the Macdonald
Aviemore Highland Resort.
Just come along and meet us or contact
[email protected] for more details!
Cheertastic!
Many pupils from Kingussie High School
were in the Cheer Event which recently took
place in Inverness.
The junior teams came 1st and the older
team came 3rd.
Well done to all who took part!
Accolades for Former Pupil Cathy Wang
Former pupil Cathy Wang developed an interest in jewellery when studying her Higher, and
Advanced Higher Art and Design, at Kingussie High School. She has now just completed an
honours degree in Jewellery Design at Dundee Art College and has been gathering a steam
of accolades.
A much coveted Goldsmiths Precious Metal Bursary, meant that she was able to use real
gold for part of her degree show. This led to several commissions, plus an award with Neo
Design Dundee, being selected for the New Design show in London in June, and the "Best
of Degree Show 2014" in Six Foot Gallery in Glasgow in July. In September she will travel
back to her native Hong Kong to exhibit in one of the best contemporary jewellery galleries
during their 3rd year Anniversary Exhibition. If everything goes well she will be taking part in
the Barcelona 2014 Jewellery show in October.
Well done Cathy.
Page 11
Pupils have been busy
planting our remembrance
garden for Rachel Waters.
We had been given some
wooden tubs by Laggan
Forest Trust, and three of
these were placed outside
the support centre
classrooms.
S3 pupils barrowed in compost and constructed rabbit proof netting and then
planted 3 roses – called Rachel and surrounded them with alpine strawberries
which the Eco club had raised from seed. Lauchlan MacDonald and Callum
Lyon designed and constructed a beautiful plaque, with help from the
technology department machines.
The roses are peachy pink
and have a lovely
fragrance.
A perfect reminder of a
lovely girl.
Rachel’s Roses
