st margaret's academy winter newsletter 2014

Winter 2014

St Margaret’s Academy

Winter Newsletter

www.stmargaretsacademy.org.uk

Newsletter written, designed and published by S6 pupils; Jessica D’alton, Morgan Cameron,

Jennifer Ricci, Emma Turner, Amie Morrow, Shaun McKnight, Shannon Whyte, Anna Hesel-

tine, Catherine Cooper, Heloise Buchannan, Claire Hynd, Aaron Johnstone, Daniel Steele,

Chloe Harte & Hayley Arnott.

SSVP Christmas Hampers

This year’s Christmas hamper appeal was run by the Maths department. Each class

was asked for food donations to help support some of the most vulnerable families

in our

community. As

usual, we had a

fantastic

response from

the pupils and

families of St

Margaret’s. In

total we were

able to create 50

hampers with a variety of dinners, snacks and Christmas treats. Thank you to

everyone who contributed, especially those parents who awoke to find items had

vanished from their cupboards!

In this

issue…

STEM

careers

event

Bibleworld

Children in

Need

School

Clubs

What a fantastic term we have had packed with high quality

learning and many activities involving the whole school

community. Our young people have been working hard at their

studies and showing a very focused attitude in their classwork.

Thank you to all of our staff for the tremendous contribution that

they make to supporting all of our pupils and to you, our parents,

in supporting the ethos and aims of the school. Have a lovely, peaceful Christmas

with your families. Mrs McGarty

For all the latest news visit


Head Teacher’s Message

The Burns Ceilidh will take place on 30th

January 2015 at 7pm at St Margaret’s

Academy. Tickets will cost £20 per family,

or £7 per adult and £5 per child. These can

be purchased from Mr Swan (CDT) or the

school office.

Mary’s Meals Back Packs

40 Back packs were collected by

Mary’s Meals from St Margaret’s

Academy. This was organised by

the Smart Time classes and will

be sent to Malawi on 22 January

2015. Thanks to all who

supported the project.

Follow us on twitter

@StMargaretsAcad

House Captains Update

Thomas McKeon

Captain of Columba

Michael Keenan

Captain of Aidan

Vanessa Anucha

Captain of Teresa

Jessica D’alton

Captain of Sinclair

We meet every Friday during Smart

Time to discuss house affairs.

We’re working towards a more

community based ethos in Aidan

House. We are also in the process

of setting up an edmodo group!

We meet during

Smart Time on a

Friday. We are

currently trying to get juniors more

actively involved in the school

community and make them feel

more comfortable when talking to

seniors and senior management.

I have some good ideas about

making badges for Columba House

council. Columba wishes everyone

a Merry Christmas!

On Friday the 12th of

December the House

Council for Sinclair went round Sinclair

classes to introduce ourselves and become

familiar faces in the school. We hope this

makes the pupils of Sinclair House feel

more confident to come and talk to their

representatives! There is also an edmodo

group for Sinclair pupils to add – the code

is 5jnizn. It would be great if people could

join!



Other news...

Business Fayre

This year in Business Management we were given the opportunity to participate in the ‘tenner

challenge’. We presented our idea at the Christmas Fayre. Our product idea was our Christmas

Hampers, which included a hand decorated mug filled with mints and candy canes wrapped in

cellophane and ribbon. Our selling price was £3.50 and we also sold bags of sweets for £0.50. In

total we raised £55.20, which all went to charity. Through this we have learned many beneficial

business skills. -Uswa Ali, Anna Berry, Sanaa Elahi, Carla Doherty and Lauren Gill.

SSVP News

Our group has been working hard this term organising and running a Christmas

themed stall for a week. The candy canes were the biggest sellers and we raised

£78.81 in total which we donated to the homeless charity Shelter. Some of our group

also accompanied Mrs Platt’s Junior Choir for their annual carol singing visit to

Craigengar Park. The audience loved their performance and even joined in with the

singing! It is a busy time for the choir as they have been back out singing in the

local community a further two times. Firstly, for the staff Christmas lunch at West

Lothian College and then at St John’s Hospital.

STAY AWAY FROM the EDGE

• Towpaths, bridges and lock-sides can be particularly slippery

during the winter months and snow can conceal trip hazards such

as boat mooring rings close to the water’s edge.

• Frozen canals, whilst incredibly picturesque, can also be very dangerous and visitors should

never attempt to walk on the canal. The ice can be very thin in places, with freezing cold water

moving in currents beneath the surface.

• Pets should also never be followed out onto the ice. Animals are far more likely to make it back

onto dry land safely and owners only jeopardise both themselves and their pets by stepping onto

the ice.

Other news...

Find us on Facebook St Margarets A, Livingston

Writing Around the Amnes–tree

In Social Subjects S1 and S2 pupils were taking part in the ‘Write for Rights’ project for Amnesty

International. We were to research an individual who had their human rights infringed and write a

message of support and solidarity to them. As it is Christmas we felt that Christmas cards would

be an appropriate way to send our support.

Everyone wrote a card and expressed their sadness at the plight of the individuals involved which

Mrs Wright posted to Amnesty International who then send our messages on. It was a really eye

opening experience and reminded us that some people face huge challenges at Christmas time.

While the case studies were really shocking we did hope that our messages might brighten the

victims’ spirits a little as it is important to know that people care about you and support you at this

time of year.

Ellis Bryant and Aidan Brady S2

Wicked Trip

A number of senior pupils had the amazing

opportunity to attend a showing of Wicked at the

Playhouse in Edinburgh. Miss Cardow from the

Music Department organised the outing which

allowed pupils to be inspired by this amazing

show. All the pupils on the trip had a wonderful

time. It was an experience not to be forgotten. St

Margaret’s Academy has a very well established

Expressive Arts Faculty and a number of our

former pupils are now involved in performing arts.

Pupils should keep an eye on newsletters and

bulletins for the next Expressive Arts Experience

that will be available soon.

Rural/Urban Landscape Trip

I went on a trip Mr Docherty led into

Glasgow open to all Nat 5s and Higher

students. We looked at urban changes

in the architecture and compared the

differences from different times in the

city’s history. We mostly stayed around

the city centre and visited Glasgow

Green. There was a lot of walking and

we spent lunch with a stop at the

Christmas Market. I enjoyed the trip a

lot and would like to do another one to

Edinburgh.

Children in Need



On the 21st of November, sixth year students

stormed the atrium in aid of Children in Need.

From pandas to pirates and babies to birds

students successfully dressed up to collect

money for such a worthy cause. All sixth year

students came together to perform and look

silly to raise an impressive £255.14!

STEM (Science, Technology,


@StMargaretsAcad

CONSTRUCTION CHALLENGE

A selection of S2 pupils were chosen to take

part in a construction challenge at West

Lothian College. There were three different

challenges that pupils needed to complete,

each were very different and required skills

such as problem solving and construction.

To complete these challenges successfully

team work and effective communication were

extremely important. Lorna Bell, one of the

pupils who was chosen to take part said,

"I really enjoyed myself because it was a

different experience to anything I've ever

done before and everyone had a great time."

Due to the pupils success they have been invited to return to the next stage of the

challenge in Edinburgh.

HOUR OF CODE

This week in Computing Science, we took part in the ‘Hour of Code’. This is an international

activity which uses a set of tasks designed to challenge users to write computer programs.

Everyone is expected to write code for an hour, just as the title suggests. In S4, we studied two

different programming languages. These two programming languages were SQL and JavaScript.

We had to do various tasks including writing and editing code. SQL is a programming language

used for databases and tables while JavaScript focuses more on interactive aspects of webpages.

These were very enjoyable and challenging tasks which we benefited greatly from.

Joe Kelly & Aidan Rooney



Engineering & Mathematics)

STEM CAREERS EVENT

Twenty six members of the business and education communities came into school to run a careers

speed dating session with S4 pupils. Professionals from a variety of disciplines and companies

such as HSBC, Scottish Water and Glenmorangie were involved along with students and lecturers

from universities and colleges. Pupils got to have a chat with each professional to find out what it

was like in their working environment and how they got there through education and training.

This format is very different from other careers events as there was no recruitment taking place,

just a sharing of information. The aim of this event is to inspire pupils to begin careers in the

Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths sectors.

Maths Finance Week

S2 pupils took part in an RBS Money Sense Enterprise Activity in the Maths Department on the

8th of October in which they worked to create their own hypothetical catering company. They

had to budget and plan their event to ensure their company didn’t run at a loss. They were

acquainted with the different services available in most banks including practice in using a cash

withdrawal machine. ‘I enjoyed when we went on the computers and went into the digital bank

account’ – Aidan Donnelly

‘I enjoyed learning how to write a cheque’ – Ryan Kirkland

S3 students took part in playing the Money Minefield board game in which they went through a

virtual month where they had to pay rent, do weekly shops and receive money through lottery

wins and other incomes whilst still being in credit at the virtual months end. All S3 classes

played and enjoyed this game.

STEM (continued)


Heriot-Watt Trip

Five S2 girls, Chloe Westgarth,

Eloise Kristmanns, Kirsten

Doherty, Erin Boyle and Eirinn

Vance-Robertson, spent the day

at Heriot Watt University as part

of Dragonfly - a Head Start

event to promote Science,

Technology and Engineering to

girls. The two workshops they

took part in were Chemical en-

gineering and Electrical engi-

neering. In the chemical workshop they made different batches of "slime" and com-

pared the properties. They then attempted to reproduce this slime on a larger scale,

which showed the difficulty that chemical engineers have when trying to reproduce

what synthetic chemists do in a small scale in a laboratory. In the afternoon in the

electronics labs everyone got the chance to learn to solder and after some practice,

made a festive electronic organ by soldering resistors, LEDs, capacitors, switches

and other components onto a

printed circuit board. Everyone was

successful and was able to play

either the pre-programmed festive

tunes or any tune they liked using

the tone switches. This event was a

really useful insight into the many

different types of work that use

STEM skills and also allowed our

pupils to meet undergraduate and

postgraduate science and

engineering students.



Other news...

STRICTLY DANCE @ ST MAGS

There has been a massive boom in dance at St Margaret’s Academy over the past few years.

Dance is now offered in the curriculum from S3 – S6 and there is an after school club on a

Thursday as well. The dance courses in school offer a variety of styles including Hiphop, Jazz,

Street, Contemporary and Ethnic.

The pupils build confidence performing as well as refining their technique in the different

styles. All pupils are also guided in the art of choreography and St Margaret’s pupils have been

identified as “excellent” in this field. It is a real strength within the school.

Recently pupils from S1 – S6 took part in the West Lothian Schools Annual Dance

Competition. There were teams entered from every school in West Lothian and the standard

was the highest it has ever been. St Margaret’s performances and costumes were both

amazing! The junior team consisting of Katia Mendes, Erin Smith, Connor Miller, Shanice

Forbes, Chelsea Holm, Nicole Tillbrook, and Morgan McLellan chose to choreograph a dance

based around the theme of the pixar movie “RIO”. It was an upbeat dance with a carnival vibe

to it! The senior team was made up of: Philomena Lynch, Sky Cullion, Molly McGinigle, Keri

Elise Gibson, Caitlin Stewart, Jennifer Edwards and they were accompanied by Fida Gul and

Connor McCallum. They choose to choreograph their dance based on “The Red Carpet,

Movie Premier”. Again it had a street jazz, hiphop vibe to it and was an extremely enjoyable

and also technical piece of work. Both teams were a huge hit with the audience and excelled in

their performances.

The dancers are now currently preparing for a showcase where they will perform dances on the

stage at our cluster primary schools. They are very excited about this project and are working

very hard!

S1 French Cinema Trip

On the 26th November 2014, 40 S1 pupils participated in an exciting

excursion to the Edinburgh Filmhouse. We went to watch an emotional and

dramatic French film called ‘Belle et Sébastien’ which was being shown as

part of the French Film Festival. The S1 pupils came back feeling happy and

relieved that they got to participate in this educational trip. They said it was a

great movie and they thoroughly enjoyed watching it. We hope that there is

another trip waiting for us as we have enjoyed this experience very much.

Written by Haadiyah and Leah

Email us at [email protected]

Other news...

TLC/Green Room Panto Trip

Many great traditions surround the wonderful festival that is Christmas and the one I enjoy

most is our annual trip out to see a festive film, a Christmas play or a pantomime! It is an

opportunity to reward our young people for all their hard work during the first term.

This year we decided again to organise a trip to the pantomime over in Howden Park Theatre

as it was such a success last year. This year it was Cinderella – with one or two twists and plot

additions! Cinderella’s famous Fairy Godmother turned out to be her Nanny Morag in

disguise; Cinderella and Buttons were cast down a Shale Mine by the Ugly Sisters but they

were saved by the King of the Trolls and helped to escape by other friendly Trolls. At the Ball,

Nanny Morag disguised Buttons as Prince Charming to ensure that he and Cinderella lived

happily ever after.

The added bonus this year was that three of St Margaret’s students were acting in the

pantomime and they were terrific, what a talented bunch! I can safely say a great time was had

by all.

Mrs Wilson

S4 Inspire conference

In November the third S4 Inspire conference took place. This event consisted of four workshops

which informed, motivated and helped prepare pupils for their upcoming prelim examinations.

The workshops were delivered by St. Margaret’s staff and consisted of the following:

Music – how music can help you study, relax and become inspired (Mrs Crookston)

Health and well-being – what to eat / drink in order to feel physically prepared (Ms Keenan)

Happiness – how being grateful enhances the wellbeing of us all (Mr Conway)

Celebrating mistakes! – overcoming emotion and barriers from challenges (Mr McIntyre)

The pupils responded very positively to the workshops and the feedback was very encouraging.

It is hoped that this uplifting event will help inspire our pupils to achieve their full potential.

Phone us at

(01506) 497104

School Clubs

Debating club

The Debating Club has experienced early success

this year, getting through to the next round of not

one but two competitions! Our Junior Debaters,

Caleb Heather and Valentino Jaconelli (S3), were

up against fierce competition in November opposing

the motion that ‘boxing should be banned’. Next we

had our Seniors, Jessica D’alton and Anna Heseltine

(S6) opposing the complex motion of ‘An ever

closer union offers the best future for the citizens of

Europe.’ Both teams performed exceptionally well

and shall be competing again in the New Year. All

members of the club have put a great deal of effort

into debating this year. We will keep you posted

with our progress!

Miss Nisbet

Young Enterprise

Young Enterprise is a group that equips young people

with the correct characteristics necessary in a multitude

of different business backgrounds and aims at promoting

business. Young Enterprise specifically does this

through offering the experience of organising, running

and directing events within the school. Most recently our

Young Enterprise Group is aiming to run a disco

themed event for either our first year or sixth year within

the coming months which we greatly look forward to.

All proceeds of any event run by the Saint Margaret’s

Young Enterprise group goes directly towards charity.

The Young Enterprise Group is open to all sixth years to

get involved with. If you are interested, Mr Fagan will

be able to provide more information. Young Enterprise

can be very good for your Personal Statement, College

Applications or even CV’s to prepare you for

opportunities after leaving school.

Ruksar Shabir

Film Club

Film club is an after school club. It is on every Monday from 15:40 to 16:40 with Mrs O’Neil.

At film club we get to watch lots of different films of our choice. After we finish the film we

discuss what we liked about the film and what we disliked, and how well we thought it was

produced. We watch a film over two Mondays and there is always popcorn! We also have a

website (interfilm.com) where we can write reviews on a film or suggest films to watch.

Recently we have watched “The Muppet’s Christmas Carol” and we are going to be watching

“Maleficent” when we return in the New Year. Some weeks we do different things. On the last

Monday we had a Christmas party and we played games and listened to music. In the future we

plan on going to the cinema or the panto for an outing. We resume film club on January 12th

2015 and hope to see some new faces!

Dance Club

Dance club is on a Thursday at 3.20 – 4.30 and we are always looking for new members. If you fancy

joining please see Mrs Downham in Pupil Support for a permission form.


Remembrance Day

During Remembrance Friday many informative activities took place. One of these was presenting

our knowledge of our trip to the Battlefields in Belgium. This included; answering pupils ques-

tions, informing them about the trip and describing what we learned.

The pupils showed a great respect and maturity for the subject and displayed a keen interest for

the subjects we spoke about. We also had experts from West Lothian Historical Society come in

to talk to the pupils and show them all the memorabilia they had collected over the years. We

especially liked this as there were many photographs showing what the war was like and how it

affected people.

Overall the work shop helped pupils to learn about the importance of the First World War. They

thoroughly enjoyed talking to the experts and we hope to have them back in the years to come.



Bibleworld

First Year pupils and Primary 7 classes from the Cluster enjoyed the Bibleworld experience

when the interactive resource visited St Margaret’s Academy recently.

“I found the video shown in Bible World regarding the children getting Bibles very informative

and interesting”

Caitlin Reid – S1

“There was a museum zone

that I went to with my group.

They showed us how writing

had developed over the years.

There was one with wax and

another that was done with a

big sort of stamp. It was very

interesting and fun”

-Chelsea Holm - S1

Sports News


Sports ambassadors

The schools Young Ambassadors

are currently focusing on a variety

of projects trying to reach and

engage with all year groups and a

range of sports. In particular, a

large focus of our efforts is going

towards starting a large scale

annual sporting event. The event

will be an inter-house competition and will be named 'The House Cup'. It is still in its very early

stages, however, we aim to deliver the project to you in the last month of term before summer

begins and after exams for the senior school. Also we aim to secure additional funding to

upgrade our schools sporting facilities. This is still in the process of being done and obviously

cannot be guaranteed. Other initiatives target raising awareness of Scottish Rugby and Female

football within the school.

Football update

Well done to our U16 team in reaching the last 16 of the Scottish Shield after a fantastic away

win against St. Aidan’s HS (Wishaw). The boys showed great character and spirit, in difficult

conditions, to come back from a

goal down to win 2-1. It was a

competitive match and

goalkeeper Jakub Welna had a

number of impressive saves.

Teni Akintola used his pace to

break through and score the

equaliser before Brandon Forrest

slotted home the winner to take

the boys through to the next

round. Moving into the New

Year, the boys are in a good

position in three competitions…

the treble is still on!

.

Prom fashion show

On the 21st of November the school held a Prom Fashion Show, and a dazzling

night was had by one and all! The evening was captured perfectly by our 6th year

photographers Hayley Murphy and Chloe Harte. A number of senior pupils and staff

strutted down the catwalk in beautiful gowns, kilts and suits to showcase the current

fashion attire. Local companies came along to represent and display their services.

Congratulations to everyone involved, you all looked excellent!

9th January - S2 Full report to parents

19th January - S4 Prelims begin

22nd January - S2 consultation evening

30th January - Parent Council Ceilidh

12th February - S5/6 Interim report to parents

13th-16th February - Holiday

19th Feb - S5/6 Prelims begin

12th March - S4 Consultation evening

27th March - S5/6 Interim reports to parents

2nd April - S1 Full report to parents

3rd April - Easter Holiday begins

Parent Council meetings are held on the 1st Monday of every month from 7pm.

Prom fashion show photos

Dates for the diary...

st margaret's academy winter newsletter 2014

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