Senior pupils from Thurso High School
have achieved the Millennium Volunteer Award [MV] for volunteering their
time to offer peer support to other pupils within the school or
organising fundraising events for charitable purposes.
These awards have been tremendously popular and as a result the
government wishes to continue supporting the development of volunteering
participation amongst young people. Consequently, the current awards are
being replaced with the new Saltire Awards.
Senior pupils from Thurso High School receiving MV Awards, Back Lto R:
Beth Henderson, Paul Ferrier, Rhea Garbe, Kirsty Rollinson, Alison
Gerrard, Mr Omand Depute Head Teacher. Front row: C Patterson, Stacey
Waters,Gemma Strange Missing from Photo Kelly Tadd and Ross Munro.
New Lectern for Thurso
High School
House Points
Saturday 12th May 2012
Having completed
their Woodworking Skills course with time to spare - no mean feat, five
pupils put their time to good use by designing and making a new lectern
for the school. Having done some ergonomics investigation to find the
ideal sizes for the lectern, they produced scale models of two proposed
designs. The design chosen combined elements from both models. The
pupils then worked together to produce the new lectern.
Pupils left to right:
Joel Sawyer, Paul Cowie, Ryan Cowie, Joseph
Brotherston & Derek Schlicher
Thurso High
Education Scotland Inspection Report
Highland Hospice
Presentation & Fundraiser
Thurso High School has received a very
positive report following our recent inspection. The
report published on Tuesday 20th March by Her Majesty’s
Inspectorate of Education (now Education Scotland)
praised pupils, teaching and ancillary staff and the
senior management team.
Inspectors reported the school has taken
a number of positive steps to make young people more
active in their learning. The inspection team noted
that:
“Overall, young people learn very well
and have a positive attitude to their learning. They
listen attentively and cooperate well with each other
and teachers. They are very well motivated by group
tasks, practical work, discussions and they are able to
carry out research effectively. Some teachers are making
very innovative use of information and communications
technology to enhance young people's learning.”
Inspectors applauded
head teacher Dr Fiona Grant for her “very strong and
effective leadership” and
“clear vision for the school”.
The Inspectors judge school performance against a number
of Quality Indicators. These help schools, education
authorities and inspectors to judge what is good and
what needs to be improved in the work of the school. The
evaluations for Thurso High School were:
In a joint project between English and
Religious Studies, Thurso High School S1 pupils have been involved in
collecting money for Highland Hospice. Pupils had listened to a talk
explaining the work of the organisation by Mrs Johanna Geddes and had
thought of ways they could help. Johanna visited the High School, on
Wednesday the 9th of May, to receive a cheque for
£475.24 from representatives of each of
the six S1 classes. She was delighted with the donation and praised the
pupils’ concern for others. Well done to all the pupils involved Pictured from left to right are Declan Gunn 1S5, Rebecca Smith 1S4,
Nathan Campbell 1S6, Mrs Geddes, Alexander Deas 1S3, Kieran Chard 1S2
and Sophie Mackay 1S1.
Pupils Enjoy
Gillie Mor
Song Writing
Workshop
with
Dick Gaughan
North of Scotland
Cross Country Championship
The pictures
across show pupils working with Scottish folk artist Dick Gaughan and
writer George Gunn at the recent song writing workshop held as part of
the Caithness Gillie Mor Folk Festival. Pupils and teacher Kathy Shanks
spent a day with Dick and George honing their song writing and
performing skills. The event was held in Caithness Horizons on the
Thursday 29th March. Thanks to Christine Gunn of Caithness Horizons for
organising the event.
Nine pupils travelled to the annual North of Scotland
Cross Country Championships in Gordonstoun. Over 350 pupils from the
North participated in the event, which took place in favourable
conditions for a change. Emma and Oonagh Dunnett won the Senior race
comfortably and their team mates of Sarah Mackinnon 17th, Hannah
Paterson 29th, Martha Garbe 41st and Lauren Lafferty 42nd secured the
girls the 1st Team Prize. Tommy Mcclenaghan finished 44th out of 116 in
the U/14 boys race and Rhiannon Kirk was 6th out of 77 in the equivalent
girls race. Daniel Kirk competing in the U/16 race was 66th out of 107.
John Thurso Visits
High School
National Theatre
Workshop
On the 9th of March Higher Modern Studies students were visited by
Caithness, Sutherland and Ross MP John Thurso for a question and answer
session during class. Topics and questions ranged from education
concerns, the recession and the coalition government. John Thurso was
delighted that pupils were confident to come back at him with
supplementary questions. Students study electoral systems, voting and
political attitudes as part of their Modern Studies Higher course and
the MP’s visit was useful as a study aid and as an opportunity to widen
their understanding.
On Friday the 4th
of May S1 to S3 pupils took the opportunity to work with National
Theatre of Scotland writer Rob Drummond. The event took place at The
Mill Theatre in Thurso where NTS were performing that evening in Rob’s
show ‘Mr Write’. The pupils worked on plot and character development and
Rob was very impressed by their efforts. Rob commented on how pleased he
was to return to Thurso having previously worked with Thurso High School
pupils on the NTS ‘Hunter’ production in 2009.
Rotary
Speechmaking 2012
At 7.00 pm on the evening of Tuesday
27th March, speakers with their friends, family and teachers joined the
Rotarians in the beautifully refurbished West Church, Thurso for this
year’s Speechmaking Competition. Participants and guests were welcomed
with cheese, biscuits soft drinks and wine.
After a brief introduction to the competition which started in 1977, the
President opened the proceedings. Mr Alan Sparling chaired the event.
The judges Elaine Watson and Ian Manson were led by Trevor Williams.
The audience were entertained and enlightened by five speeches. Ria
Falconer spoke first on “Homophobia”, followed by Colin Buchanan on
“Humanism”. Both of these were serious, thoughtful performances with
personal insight. The mood was lightened by Charlotte Mitchell with a
bright visit to Tobermory – or was that Balamory? The fifth speaker,
Isobel Macleod, provided a glimpse into the turmoil of teenage angst
with her examination of how the character Bella Swan in the extremely
popular “Twilight” series is a bad role model for young people. Finally
the audience heard about Sarah Gunn’s Duke of Edinburgh Expedition. This
final speech - a confident, entertaining, reflective performance - was
chosen as the winner by the judges.
After the presentation of the winner’s shield to Sarah, envelopes
containing prizes were handed over to each participant and the evening
was brought to a close with thanks given to all involved.
