HOLY CROSS HIGH SCHOOL

On Wednesday 23rd

September, our Annual Awards Ceremony for our young people in the Senior School took place. This was a fantastic occasion for our school community, with parents/carers, family, friends, young people and staff out in force to support all of those receiving an award. Our Principal Guest this year was Mr Tony McDaid, The Head of Curriculum and Quality for South Lanarkshire Council. Mr McDaid delivered an inspirational speech, encouraging our young people to aim as high as they possibly can; ready to overcome any set-backs they may meet on their journey. Mr McDaid also involved the young people in his address to highlight the inequalities which exist in our world and to remind us all to be thankful for what we have. Mr McDaid was joined on the platform by two other special guests; Councillor Monica Lennon, who presented the awards to our young people for Community Involvement and our School Chaplain Father Duffy who presented the awards for Endeavour. Also present were many of our Primary Head Teachers, former members of staff – including former Head Teachers of Holy Cross, Mr Boyle and Mr Loughran – and the office bearers from our Parent Council, Mrs Justine Docherty, Mrs Anne Marie Mulder and Mrs Alison McGuire. Below are some of the pictures which capture the celebrations taking place at the event.

Fr Paddy Duffy, Mr Tony McDaid, Councillor Monica Lennon and Mr John Reilly with the S6 5 Higher ’A’ Candidates

SESSION 2015/2016 – ISSUE 3 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

CELEBRATING SUCCESS AT HOLY CROSS HIGH SCHOOL

The Platform Party with the S5 School Dux

Although many of last year‟s Sixth Year Students have now moved on to do a variety of other things – from university studies to employment to gap years – it was tremendous to see so many of the year group return to receive an award. However, as always on these occasions, this was a night for our young people to be firmly in the spotlight. Looking on showing their joy were over 400 members of our school community – applauding achievements in for example, sporting success, academic excellence, contribution to the community, endeavour and artistic creativity. An excellent night at Holy Cross High School and may I thank and congratulate our award winners, their families and our guests.

The Platform Party with the young people who received awards for Outstanding Achievement in S4

Endeavour in S4

Endeavour in S5/S6

Contribution to the School Community

Award for Special Achievement

S4 Dux

On Monday 5th October, we had our Raising Attainment Information Evening for the parents and young people in Fourth Year. Once again, may I thank all of the parents and young people for their attendance, which was outstanding. On the night, parents received a variety of information to assist the planning and preparation for students taking National Examinations in 2016. Five of our current S5 students, Amy Smith, Lucy Wilson, Lucy Dwyer, Connor O‟Neill and Kathryn Douglas gave the young people in the audience the benefit of their expertise on studying, revision, achieving success – yet maintaining a „normal life!‟ Many thanks to Mrs Rea, our year head for S4, for her planning and organisation of the event.

Some of our young people in S4 recently enjoyed a trip to London with the drama department. This was a fantastic opportunity for our young people to experience west end theatre and to get a taste of life behind the scenes on a major film. We saw two west end musicals – “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory “and “The Commitments” as well as seeing theatre as it used to be when we attended a performance at Shakespeare‟s Globe on the South bank. The highlight of the trip was by far the day spent at Warner Bros studios where we toured the Harry Potter experience. All of this combined with some free time shopping in Covent Garden led to some tired but very happy Holy Cross pupils! We will hopefully be running our next London trip in June 2017 with this year‟s S3 pupils.

RAISING ATTAINMENT EVENING FOR S4

DRAMA LONDON TRIP SEPTEMBER 2015

This month the four winners of the English Department Word War Rap Battle Project were invited to take part in this year‟s Scottish Learning Festival in Glasgow‟s SECC. The four winners; Edward Asken, Mya Thompson, Lauren Lowell and Ellie Smith were invited to represent South Lanarkshire Council and performed their winning raps to crowds of educationalists and teachers alike.

The day was a tremendous success with one Scottish MSP later Tweeting that Word War by Holy Cross High “was the best thing he had seen all day”. Huge congratulations to our four winners who once again worked tirelessly to deliver an outstanding performance and were, as always, a credit to Holy Cross.

Many thanks to Ms Cunningham in the English Department for preparing our young people so well.

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Stephen Farrell of S6 – pictured below with just some of the collected items to date – had the idea that something should be done for those most in need in our local community. Consequently, he thought of collecting food items for our local Hamilton Food Bank.

Stephen has pitched his idea at every year group assembly and, the response from all year groups has been overwhelming. Stephen thought the best idea would be for each year group to collect different items of food – and this has proved to be a winning formula.

Collections have already been sent to the Hamilton Food Bank and there will be more on the way.

Thanks to Stephen for a simple but brilliant idea; and to all of our young people and staff for such a terrific response.

SCOTTISH LEARNING FESTIVAL - WORD WAR PROJECT

HAMILTON FOOD BANK

Proving that they actually did complete the 6K run around Strathclyde Park are, left to right, Mrs Gebbie, Mrs Douglas, Mrs Fagan and Mr Reilly! More importantly, more than 50 members of our current S6 and members of staff also completed the Fun Run in aid of St Andrew‟s Hospice. The sponsor money is still being collected – and we will let you know how much was collected in due course. Many thanks to Mrs Cunningham and Mrs McQueen for the organisation of this event. Pictured below, presenting a cheque for £2000 to St Andrew‟s Hospice are Niamh McLaughlin and Daniel Agnew. When in S1 in May of last school session, both Niamh and Daniel were part of the huge group of young people in S1 who successfully climbed Tinto Hill raising much needed funds for the Hospice in the process. Well done to all, and to Mrs Fagan and all members of staff who also climbed Tinto Hill in aid of a good cause.

ST ANDREW’S HOSPICE: 6K FUN RUN: STRATHCLYDE PARK

ST ANDREW’S HOSPICE: TINTO HILL CLIMB

The potatoes are ready for ‟howking‟! Thanks to the efforts of the Janitors, Mr Fallon and Mrs Kennedy, Katy and Andy who helped move soil, Mr Lightbody in Technical for constructing the beds, and the young people of 2P6; many of the vegetables in the Kitchen Garden are now ready for harvesting. The celery is a real success and it‟s the greenest and sweetest Mrs Lynch has ever used. S3 had the opportunity to put this into their Spaghetti Bolognese last week and will use it again in next week‟s Mexican Bean Chilli. Potatoes, beetroot, cabbage and carrots will be available for use in lessons soon. The finance for the garden came from First Direct and we are very grateful to Mrs Angela Stewart for helping to arrange this and to SLC for the ‟Black Gold‟ compost. Well done to all! Pastamania

Watch out for this year‟s winning pasta dish which will be available from Di Mambro‟s in the next couple of weeks. It is an explosion of flavours and well worth a try! Creative Cakes

This week‟s Star Baker is Kuda Matimba! No one was, however, sent home! 28th November a Date for your Diary!

We are delighted to announce that there will be a Christmas Fayre on Saturday November 28th from 11am until 2pm. This joint venture with the Parent Council will be a great opportunity to start (or finish) your Christmas shopping! There will be lots to buy from stalls run by local companies and our young people, as well as tombolas, raffles, home baking, teas and coffees, candles, handbags, soaps, jewellery, Fair Trade goods, face painting, cupcakes and Christmas Carols. Please help our young people support their school by donating prizes for the raffle and tombola. But, most importantly, bring your family and friends and join in the fun!

Forget the Great British Bake Off Finals. Last Friday the place to be was the PE classroom where members of our senior netball team and staff, produced outstanding home baking to raise funds for the team. Bakewells, dumplings and cup-cakes simply flew off the tables as young people simply couldn‟t get enough cakes. In a relatively short period of time, the senior netball team raised an incredible £330. When asked how they had worked to achieve this, one of them simply said “it was a piece of cake!” Well done to all.

KITCHEN GARDEN

CHRISTMAS FAYRE

NETBALL: CAKE ‘N’ CANDY

Bonjour! ¡Hola! Guten Tag! Ciao! Holy Cross High School celebrated European Day of Languages on Thursday 24th September. The event has been running annually since it was established in 2001 by the Council of Europe with the aim of celebrating Europe‟s many diverse languages and cultures.

In the Modern Languages Department there were many activities on a European language theme including word challenges, national anthem quizzes and a look at how animals make different noises depending where in Europe they are. For example, did you know an Icelandic cockerel goes „gaggalagó‟? Pupils were also asked what languages they or their family members spoke and it was fascinating to learn the variety of languages spoken by members of the wider Holy Cross

community.

The street, which was decorated in flags, became the focal point at lunchtime. The ladies in the canteen very kindly dressed up and put on a special menu including zupa grochowha (a Polish soup), Spanish omelette and spicy meatball sub rolls as well as the more familiar baguettes and croissants. These were all well received with staff and many a pupil heard to express how much they had enjoyed the fare. A huge thanks to the

canteen staff for their efforts. On the 23rd September, five young people in S1 attended the Scottish Learning Festival at the SECC in Glasgow with St. Elizabeth‟s Primary School to participate in the Spanish Ambassador‟s Project. The young people were there to represent Holy Cross High School and talk about their experiences of language learning in primary school as part of the Modern Languages 1+2 initiative. The group, Melissa Deakins 1C,

Anna O‟Callaghan 1C, Skye Nicholls 1F, Emma Wilson 1F and Darren Murphy 1G all talked about their experiences to teachers and practitioners from all over the country and the feedback was outstanding. Well done to the group, you were a real credit to Holy Cross! The Languages 1+2 initiative is enabling all young people in Holy Cross to learn Spanish and French in S1 which is proving to be a very enjoyable experience.

EUROPEAN DAY OF LANGUAGES

SCOTTISH LEARNING FESTIVAL

DAY DATE MONTH EVENT

Monday Friday

12th 16th

October

October Mid Term Holiday

Monday 19th October School Re-opens 8.45 am

Thursday 29th October S1/S6 Halloween Disco

Monday 2nd November 2nd Senior Tracking Report Due

Wednesday 11th November S4 Photographs

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