Issue 3 Dear Parent/Carer Welcome to our Christmas newsletter. Preston Lodge is always a very special place at Christmas. We have already held our annual Senior Citizens’ tea party and our Christmas concerts and Senior Dance take place this week. As everyone will know, this has been a good year for Preston Lodge. A positive inspection gave us a great boost ahead of the introduction of Curriculum for Excellence. However, we have recently gone through a difficult time for all members of the school community. The death of Fraser Kiernan has been a great shock to all and I would like to thank everyone for the way in which they have supported each other in recent weeks. Now is a good time for everyone to step back and reflect on what really matters in our lives. I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I hope that you have a peaceful festive season.

Gavin Clark Head Teacher

Preston Lodge High School 22 December 2010

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Christmas Greetings from Mr Clark

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Fraser Kiernan 2

School Updates 3

Parent’s Evening Changes

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Out and About 6

Questions at Christmas 8

Sports Update 10

Dates for your Diary 11

Inside this issue: December Newsletter

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Fraser Kiernan

All members of our school community will now be aware of the tragic death of Fraser Kiernan.

Fraser was a highly valued member of our Biology department as well as the driving force behind our school’s Duke of Edinburgh Programme and the forthcoming trip to Ecuador.

However, Fraser offered so much more of his time to the school that it is hard to know where to begin. He was heavily involved with the school’s outdoor education programme, and participated in a large number of school trips for both students and staff. Fraser’s passion for teaching and the great outdoors was matched by his love of canoeing, music and very, very hot chilli sauce! All staff and students will remember him with great affection.

Fraser’s work will not be forgotten at Preston Lodge High School. Indeed, many of the things he put in place, such as the Ecuador trip, are already being taken up by other members of staff. Perhaps one of the most moving aspects of Fraser’s death has been the way in which an enormous number of our students have supported both each other and their teachers through a very difficult time for everybody in the school. We were very proud of the way in which our students handled last week, and many of them attended the funeral in Bathgate last Saturday.

In the New Year we will hold a celebration of Fraser’s life. This event is likely to take place in late February and will be organised by a selection of our students. All students who worked closely with Mr Kiernan will be advised of this event when we have more detail.

Fraser Kiernan was, is and will always be much loved by everybody at Preston Lodge High School.

of us. Sheila’s skills and enthusiasm will be sorely missed. Good luck in your retirement, Sheila, and keep in touch! We also bid farewell this term to Moyra Hughson. Moyra joined our SFL department in August 2009 from Musselburgh Grammar School. Although she has only been in this school for a short time she has had a big impact on the lives of a good number of our students and we wish her well for her retirement. Finally, we were delighted that Vanessa Abbot secured a long term post in our school office last month. Vanessa will be working with us until at least the summer holidays.

Christmas Fair The school held a Christmas Fair for the second year running this week. Students had been busy making and baking all manner of goodies to allow members of the school and its community to do a little extra Christmas shopping. Students baked a vast array of cakes and biscuits in Home Economics, created beautiful jewellery in CDT, and made all kinds of gifts and Christmas decorations in SfL. Local businesses were also invited to come along and sell their wares. The fair took place on Monday 20th and Tuesday 21st December during the afternoon and through into the evening. This allowed those who were watching the Christmas concert to do a little extra Christmas shopping during the interval. The funds raised through this event are being donated to a cancer charity.

Show the Red Card for Racism

Following on from the very successful Design a T-Shirt competition, held as part of the Anti Racism Day in May, three winning entries have been submitted to the SQA’s Red Card for Racism annual competition. This is the first time PLHS have entered and we would like to wish Graeme Minski (S2), Amy McInnes (S4) and Laura Turnbull (S4) good luck!

School Updates

Parents’ Evening Changes Due to the disruption caused by recent snowy weather we had to cancel our S5/6 parents’ evening. Accordingly, this event will now take place on Thursday 20 January, replacing our S3 parents’ evening. The S3 parents’ evening has been rescheduled for Wednesday 23 February. Families will be advised in writing of these re-scheduled events.

School Uniform Again, due to the snowy weather, we have adopted a more relaxed approach to school uniform in recent weeks – particularly in relation to footwear. I would be really grateful if we could all redouble our efforts to ensure that all of our students are wearing full school uniform – weather permitting – after the Christmas holiday. Prior to the weather disruption we were very impressed with the positive way in which students and their families were engaging with our new approach to school uniform.

S5 Prefects This autumn we welcomed fifty of our S5 stu-dents into the prefect system. They are doing an absolutely fantastic job supporting students in and around the school and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them all for their efforts so far. A number of staff have commented very positively on their impact.

Burns Super 2011 The annual Burns Supper will be held on Thursday 27 January 2011. It is open to S6 students, parents and staff and tickets costing £10 will go on sale from the school office from 11 January 2011.

Staffing Update This Christmas we say farewell to Sheila Munro in our mathematics department. Sheila has taught at Preston Lodge High School for 34 years and her departure leaves a big gap in our school. In recent years Sheila had experienced significant health problems, and the way in which she tackled her difficulties was an example to all

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S1 Cafe Culture On the 1st of October, our S1 Italian Challenge group took the 26 bus to S.Lucas Cafe in Musselburgh. The purpose of the trip was to find out about the Luca Family (did you know the 'S' Stands for Scappaticcio?) and their adventures in setting up a business in Scotland. Everyone had the chance to practise ordering food and drink in Italian. 1C2 would like to say a massive THANK YOU to Yolanda and Jackie at Lucas who made the trip possible and who told us lots of stories about the family while we (very reluctantly) sampled their ice-cream.

House System

This year Preston Lodge gets competitive! The school house system has been re-launched, giving pupils more opportunity to win points for their house in the classroom and in a variety of different activities. PLHS is a school with a proud tradition of house groups, and former pupils will no doubt remember

Rotary Young Chef Competition 2010 Some of our S2-S4 students were involved again this year in the Rotary Young Chef competition. Students were asked to submit a recipe for a dessert and the Home Economics department invited the ten best students to compete in a school heat. They made chicken stuffed with haggis with a whisky cream sauce with their choice of vegetables. Six students were suc-cessful in achieving a place in the school final. Those six students were even more excited when they learned that the judge was Derek Johnstone, winner of ‘Masterchef’ 2008 and head chef of the prestigious Greywalls hotel, owned by Albert Roux. Abi Cowan (S2) wooed Derek with her chicken dish followed by spiced cherry chocolate pots. Rosanna Gaffney (S2) was also commended by achieving the runner-up prize with her toffee apple crumble and cus-tard. Derek has very kindly said he will work with Abi to hopefully allow her to achieve even more success when she goes on to represent the Rotary club in the next stage of the competition.

Petit Déjeuner Français S2 pupils recently enjoyed a French breakfast as part of their food and drink topic. Here's a taste of what they had:

Staff were impressed by the excellent table manners and positive way in which the

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jus d'orange ou jus de pomme

croissants avec de la confiture fraise pain au chocolat

brioche

A French breakfast

S1s in Lucas

Derek and the contestants

youngsters tried out some new food. Bravo!

which house they were in, - Gosford, Grange or Seton. The three houses have been competing to win the honour of House Champion for many years but recently Seton has dominated proceedings. Being part of a House gives every pupil a chance to represent the school in a competitive environment wherever their talents lie. Pupils are motivated by the challenge of competition through a series of individual or team activities. Mr Thomas is in the process of working closely with our new House Captains to make sure this year’s House competition is the most meaningful one yet. Each house has now been assigned its own liaison teacher to help assist the respective House Captains with their House related duties (Mr Thomas for Gosford, Mrs Christie for Seton and Mrs Binnie for Grange). New staff have been allocated to one of the three houses and established staff have been reminded of the house they belong to, as Mrs Robertson seemed to have “acquired” a few extras for Seton along the way! There is a new House Board outside the S6 Common Room providing a focal point for House members and Committee members alike. The House Captains are now meeting weekly with Mr Thomas to review activities, planning and organisation of events. In addition to this the House Liaison Officers and a number of other interested staff will be meeting at least once a month with the House Captains. Mrs Binnie is heavily involved in the collating of results and promotion of house points. These are the results so far…

Grange 395 points

Seton 341 points

Gosford 303 points With a massive number of points to play for in the coming months the competition is anyone’s to win. Gosford had a relatively quiet November so here’s to them upping their game and the others maintaining their performance. Well done and good luck this month to all! If any parent, pupil or staff member has any interesting ideas or pro-active thoughts on how we can further improve the House Challenge we would be delighted to hear from you!

Staff Christmas Cookery Class Approximately 15 staff and parents have enjoyed preparing for the Christmas festivities in recent weeks. They have made their Christmas stuffing, discovered a whole array of wonderful starters and desserts, and made and decorated their Christmas Cake. Hopefully some of their efforts will be displayed on the school website shortly.

Staff Hospitality Christmas lunch Our annual Christmas 2-course lunch for staff took place last Thursday 16th December. It was prepared and served by our senior Hospitality pupils. Over 60 members of staff enjoyed rolled pork with spiced cranberry stuffing and rubied gravy, potato, parsnip and porcini gratin, roasted broccoli and cauliflower followed by a choice of sticky toffee pudding and ice cream or caramelised orange trifle. This was washed down with tea or coffee and a piece of Mrs Waldie’s infamous tablet!

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Out and About A large number of our departments have recently offered students the chance to learn outside the school gates. Below is a selection of some of these events:

French Trip On Thursday 4 November a selection of S4 French students took part in a school visit to the cinema at the Brunton Theatre in Musselburgh. The film, Le Scaphandre et le Papillon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), which deals with some very challenging human relationship issues, was appreciated by all the pupils. Indeed, some of the pupil comments following the show were very insightful and showed a mature appreciation and empathy towards the film's characters. Following the film there was a discussion with a well-known Edinburgh French specialist which helped to expand on some of the themes in the film. Further discussion later on in class saw pupils relaying some of their experience to others who had not made the trip. The 25 pupils from PL represented themselves very well at the screening and were a credit to the school. Overall, the visit demonstrated a healthy appetite amongst pupils for foreign language films which help compliment the department's work in the classroom and brings language and culture more to life. We hope as a department to keep the interest and momentum going and we will be able to offer more pupils the opportunity to view foreign language films as part of their learning. Bravo à tous!!" D Ramsay and M Jegat

Coca - Cola 'Real Business Design Challenge 2010' Recently, S3 students were asked to take part in the 'Real Business Design Challenge'. Two groups of pupils, team 'Awesome' and team 'Kreativ', were asked to design a new Education Centre for the London Coca-Cola factory, which will be launched in conjunction with the London 2012 Olympics. With a little help from Miss Nisbet, the teams were asked to appoint each team member a role, conduct market research, produce sustainable designs for the centre, keep to a budget, record all their costs on a balance sheet, market the centre and record their ideas for a launch party.

The teams were then asked to present their final designs and ideas to an in-school judging panel of Mr Clark, Mr Cruickshank and Mrs Beattie who made the tough decision to award team Kreativ (Carley McCann, Alana Vance, Courtney Ritchie, Ashton Ritchie, Julia Gribbin and Jade Graham) the winners. Their ideas were then passed to Coca-Cola, who were so impressed they put them into the final of the challenge, which took place on 15 November at Stirling University. They were presented with a new challenge - to design a new brand of fruit juice drink. This involved extensive research into existing brands and target market preferences, mixing fruit juice flavours, designing a brand name and bottle, calculating their budget, setting a selling price and coming up with a marketing plan for the brand. Unfortunately, they were narrowly beaten in the final but completed an excellent entry, being in the top 10 of over 350 school entries. Well Done team Kreativ! S Nisbet

Maths Challenge Selected pupils in 5th and 6th year sat the UKMT Senior Maths Challenge in November and achieved 2 silver and 3 bronze awards. Over 65 000 pupils sat the senior maths challenge with the top 13% achieving silver awards and the next 21% achieving bronze awards. Brian Dickson (S6) achieved the best score in the whole school and achieved a Silver award. Stuart Morgan (S6) also achieved a silver award. Robbie Gordon (S6), Richard Winter (S6) and Kathryn Berg (S5) achieved Bronze awards. Congratulations to all! Well done! R Taylor

The ELPers Recently our Enhanced Learning Provision (ELP) pupils competed at the East Lothian Special Needs games at Meadowmill. Accompanied by Mr Bennion, George Leslie and Karin Menzies, they had a fantastic time taking part in table tennis and archery events. A number of other staff were also able to pop up the road to help support the effort. House points are being awarded to all of our competitors for taking part, and additional

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points have been secured by James Connolly (Seton) who won the overall MVP award for the games. We are very proud of the pupils and their efforts.

Unfortunately, due to health issues, neither David Tracey or Leon Stevens were able to take part. We are sure when Team ELP is back up to full strength we will be even more formidable!

J Binnie

RAF Trip to Leuchars Air show As part of the Careers programme delivered in SE all S3 and S4 pupils interested in a career in the forces were given the opportunity to attend Leuchars Airbase for the day. Thirteen pupils took up the offer and Kirstin Carson submitted the following report: We had a really good day on Friday apart from the weather. It was raining all morning, but there was lovely sunshine as we were getting ready to leave. The boys all really seemed to enjoy themselves, sitting in planes, trying out the shooting range and the climbing wall. The boys all spoke very intelligently and succinctly with the RAF staff, really looked the part and conducted themselves well. We managed to collect lots of contacts for further work with the school. Special mention goes to Ms Walker who beat all our boys at the press-up challenge and won the teachers' competition with 44 press-ups in 1 minute! K Carson

Arkwright Scholarship 2010 Congratulations to Callum Price (S5) who was recently awarded an Arkwright Scholarship. Callum was one of 264 pupils throughout the UK

to be awarded a scholarship, and he travelled to London with Mr Cruickshank to receive his award at the Institute of Engineering and Technology. C Cruickshank

Stock Market Challenge On Thursday 18 November Taylor Slarks, Isla MacAskill, Lewis Tulloch, Iain Crawford, Robbie Baillie and Kieran Burnett went to a Stock Exchange Challenge at Edinburgh University. The day was great fun. We arrived and went into the big hall where other schools, including Ross High School, Stirling High School and George Watson’s College were all there. When we sat down we had to assign roles to each person in our team and try and come up with a good strategy for the day ahead. With a total of 26 schools we were ready to start! Throughout the day we worked as a team and developed our problem solving skills, teambuilding and communication skills. We were buying and selling shares all day for 20 minutes each time. The winning team were the group who had the most money, shares and Euros at the end of the day. We came 13th out of 26 and all had a fantastic day out!!! Isla MacAskill (S3)

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Our ELPs team

Callum Price receives his Arkwright Scholarship

Our Stock Market Challenge Team

Construction Challenge A team of 10 Preston Lodge pupils were selected to take part in the Construction Challenge 2010. We left Preston Lodge on a cold November morning, unsure of what to expect. When we arrived at the event, we found out we were competing against Newbattle. The judges gave us 3 tasks to complete as a team. They were really good fun and completely different to anything we have done in school. We started by working with bricks, laying them in a specific pattern. We had to be exact about it and make sure the surface was level. It was difficult, as we were being timed. We moved onto a Giant Jenga challenge where we had to start building a bridge and see how far we could make it go without collapsing! Our final challenge was to tile a roof. This was tricky because we had a specific pattern to follow and were under a tight time scale. I liked the tiling task! We knew by this point how to work as a team - we were much better at helping each other and allowing each member to work on an area they were good at. Sadly, we didn't win but we did come second! It was a great day and we really enjoyed working together. I know that if we had the chance again, we'd definitely win this time! Abbie Robertson (S2)

Questions at Christmas

This year we thought we’d mark Christmas by asking four of our staff the following five questions: What was your all time favourite Christmas present? How do you plan to spend Christmas day, this year? Are you a fan of the traditional Christmas dinner? What is your all time favourite Christmas song and why? Do you have a New Year’s resolution? If so, what is it and why? Here is what they said: Ms Duthie Present? It’d probably have to be a tricycle I got when I was about 4 or 5. I remember cycling up and down the hall with the corrugated cardboard still wrapped round the wheels. I was over the moon. Day? This year is going to be quiet. I’m having one of my sons over for Christmas dinner, and my daughter and her boyfriend may pop in at some point. Unfortunately my other son is working, so I may not see him on the day! It’ll involve lots of eating, drinking and sitting about dong absolutely nothing. Dinner? Yes! Having said that though, we usually have turkey with all the trimmings and something else. We have the traditional choice and an alternative. Song? I’d probably say Merry Christmas Everyone by Slade. It was out around the time of my school and BB discos. It was always played at them, and I remember that me and my friends always got all dressed up for them, wearing platforms and the like. So the reason behind it is probably nostalgia! Resolution? No, I never make them because I know I won’t keep them – especially the ones I really should stick to.

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Construction Challenge Team

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Mrs Beattie Present? It’d have to be my engagement ring. Two years ago my hubbie had it wrapped up in lots of little boxes, which I opened, and eventually got the ring. Day? It’s a busy one this year! We have my sister and brother-in-law stay-ing at ours on Christmas Eve, then in the morning we’re heading to my hubbie’s dad’s for breakfast. Then it’s off to Paisley to my hubbie’s Mum’s for Christmas lunch, then back to North Berwick to my Mum and Dad’s for the evening party. Dinner? Yes, of course! I’m definitely a fan of turkey and all the trimmings – especially the trimmings! Song? I really love the original version of Band Aid – Do They Know It’s Christmas? I’d have to say it’s because of the 80s hairdos! Resolution? No, sadly I do not have any vices! I don’t often make resolutions – it’s hard when you’re perfect! (Laughs). However, the one I did make one year was to run the marathon, and I did it!

Ms Thacker Present? I’m going to have to be really cheesy and say when my husband proposed to me on Christmas day! Day? I’m spending it with family. There’s going to be twelve of us, but luckily we’re adults, so there will be no screaming children. We’re going to my in-laws, though, so in a way us adults act like the children anyway – lots of board games and strolls in the snow. Dinner? Good question! Yes, definitely, but the veggie equivalent. I love Christmas dinner though, and nut roast is definitely the way forward. Song? It would have to be Fairytale of New York. I like the fact that it’s more ironic. It shows the dark side as well as the light side, but still can be played at any time of the year and make

you feel cheery. Resolution? It’s always the same – to lose weight. Give up the pizzas and take on the salads!

Mr Kidd Present? I’d say it was a chemistry set I was given from my parents. I drove them daft learning to make explosives! I once made a land mine and detonated it in the back garden, covering the neighbours’ car in a layer of dirt. My brother and I had to wash the car and tidy up the garden before the neighbours and our parents got home! Day? With our new baby at home, I’m cooking for the in-laws too, who are coming, so, cooking for seven – I love cooking! Dinner? Absolutely – and really pushing the boat out for a Christmas dinner! Song? Fairytale of New York – definitely! I was in S2 at PL in 1987 on a school trip to Benmore when I first heard that song. The trip was one of my most memorable times as a pupil here. Resolution? I never make New Year’s resolutions – I find them too hard to keep.

Many thanks to Kirsty MacLeod (S6) for carrying out these interviews!

Sports Update Preston Lodge’s extra-curricular programme has more classes running this year than it has ever had. The core sports are badminton, basketball, football, rugby and hockey, but in addition we offer dance, dance mats, indoor football, table tennis, running/walking club, fitness, athletics and girls multi-activity clubs. The extra curricular timetable can be accessed at www.activeschoolseastlothian.co.uk where there are also news stories about the clubs running at Preston Lodge. The rugby team this year thought they would be struggling for an S1 team as there had not been P7 teams the previous year, but we have managed to recruit 15 new players and now have S1,S2 and S3 teams playing fixtures every week. In addition to this we have U-16s and U-18s teams competing in the Scottish Cup. Both of these teams qualified for the group stages of the shield but, unfortunately, neither team made it through to the quarter final stages. However, they did the school proud with solid performances against Glasgow Academy, Kelso High School, Currie High School and Loretto. The S1, S2 and S3 sides have been competing every week and have played some very difficult sides, especially the S3 team, but all teams have won the majority of their games and are developing into good teams that the school is very proud of. The school are running a boys football team for every year group and a Girls team. All the boys teams are competing in leagues and have started the season well. The girls have not been involved in a league, but are due to play James Gillespies in the next round of the Scottish Cup when the weather gets better. As for the boys’ teams, the U-13s have done really well, winning their first round Scottish Cup tie 11-0 against Armadale Academy. The U-14s and U-16s teams have not played in this competition yet because they have been seeded for the first time. The U-18s, however, were beaten 3-2 by James Gillespes. This was a disappointing result, but they have won in the League Cup and continue to do well in the league. Badminton clubs have higher numbers attending clubs on a Monday Lunchtime and Thursday after school. Through club teams they

have played one friendly fixture against Musselburgh, which the team won. As well as this the S1 and S2 team have played in the annual tournament which involves all East Lothian Schools. The S1 team did well and gained valuable experience but the S2 team won their tournament! This will bring them great confidence going into qualifying for the Scottish Quaich. Well done to Mrs Pike and her team! Hockey this year is going well. We are running S1, S2 and S3 teams and we will have a Senior team next year when the S3 team comes through. The teams that have been competing in matches have done really well, having been developed throughout the year with help from coaches Mrs Christie, Angie Davie and Mo Hardie. The girls basketball team continue to do well. Unfortunately, it has been hard to find games, but they recently played against a Musselburgh boy’s team, conducting themselves well and gaining a lot of experience from the fixture. There will hopefully be more games for the girls after the new year. The golf team has also continued their success from the previous two years as East Lothian Golf League champions. The boys have won their first two games in this year’s league. This has put them in a good place to defend their title with three games to go. The dance group has been involved in a per-formance evening at Ross High school, where they performed two outstanding dances and have another two performance evenings coming up in the new year. Finally, in addition to all the clubs that are running we also have a Sports Council up and running as well as a cycling group. These groups are set up for the pupils to raise issues that they feel will help sport and cycling in the school. These groups are being led by our four Young Ambassadors, Fraser Johnston, Valerie Quin, Shona Bell and Jamie Halvorson. These students have been asked to promote sport in Preston Lodge and the local community. It is never too late to get involved in clubs at Preston Lodge, so feel free to see Mr Bennion who can provide you with details of all clubs. The school are always looking for parents to volunteer and coach, so if you are interested in working with us please also contact Mr Bennion. Graeme Bennion

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To see our online calendar go to the School Calendar tab on www.prestonlodge.net

Dates for Your Diary!

Monday 10 January 2011 In-Service Day

Tuesday 11 January Students Resume

S3 Early Warning to Parents

Wednesday 12 January S3 Vaccinations

Tuesday 18 January S4 Reports sent to Parents

Thursday 20 January S5/6 Parents Evening (4.30-6.30 pm) - RESCHEDULED

Tuesday 25 January S4 Parents Evening (4.30-6.30 pm)

Thursday 27 January Burns Supper

Monday 31 January S5/6 Prelims Start

Monday 7 February S4 Intermediate 2 Prelims Start

Tuesdsay 8 February S2 Options Meeting

Thursday 10 February S4 Intermediate 2 Prelims End, S5/6 Prelims End

Friday 11 February All break

Monday 21 February All Resume, S2 Exams Start

Wednesday 23 February S3 Parents Evening (4.30-6.30 pm) - RESCHEDULED

Monday 28 February S4/5 Options Meeting

Monday 7 March S2 Exams End

Monday 14 March HPV Vaccinations

Friday 18 March S5/6 Reports sent to Parents

Friday 1 April S2 Reports sent to Parents

Monday 4 April S4/5/6 Prelims start

Wednesday 6 April S2 Parents Evening (4.30-6.30 pm)

Thursday 7 April S4/5/6 Prelims End

Friday 8 April All Break

Monday 26 April All Resume

Monday 2 May May Day Holiday

Tuesday 3 May S4 Exam leave starts

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Monday 23 May Victoria Day Holiday

Tuesday 24 May In-Service day

Wednesday 25 May In-Service day

Thursday 26 May Students resume

Monday 30 May—Thursday 2 June S1-S3 Programme of Health Days, Whole School Project and Sports Days

Thursday 2 June S3 Reports sent to Parents

Friday 3 June 5K Walk, All Exam leave ends

Monday 6 June New timetable commences

Friday 17 June S1 Reports sent to Parents

Tuesday 21 June Prizegiving Ceremony

Wednesday 22 June—Friday 24 June P7 Visits

Monday 27 June -Friday 1 July Whole School programme of Activities Week trips

Friday 1 July All break

Tuesday 12 May S5/6 Exam leave starts