Shetland Islands Council
Brae High School,
Brae, Shetland, ZE2 9QG,
Tel: 01595745600,
Fax: 01595745602
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.brae.shetland.sch.uk
Head Teacher: Colin Kirkness
BRAE HIGH SCHOOL
“Wirk tagidder wi ean anidder”
8 / 10 / 13
Dear Parent / Carer
It has been a particularly busy term here at Brae High School, the term seems to have flown past and it is
difficult to believe that the holidays are nearly here.
Pupils and staff have been working hard on their studies, as well as being involved in a multitude of other
activities and achievements, a number of which are included in this news letter.
This week has seen the Shetland Islands Council undertake an intensive informal consultation on the
Strategy for Secondary Education for the whole of Shetland. The consultation considers five different
options for the structure of Secondary Education in the future. There are a number of meetings being held
across Shetland this week with parents, staff, pupils and the public.
Responses to the consultation paper are also being sought from individuals – details of the options and the
individual response form can be found online at:
http://www.shetland.gov.uk/education/blueprint_for_education.asp .
The closing date for responses is the 15th of October.
This term there has also been an ongoing consultation by Children’s Services considering its position with
regard to the number of subjects, at levels N1 to N5, that a young person will be able to take in one sitting
at the end of S4. It has now been decided that the number will be up to seven. Young people may take
more N1 to N5 courses in S5 and S6, by following a programme of study that best meets their needs.
It should be noted that this decision does not impact upon the present S3 and S4 pupils who are following
the current model of up to 8 presentations at the end of S4 but will apply to the present S1 and 2 cohort. A
review of this decision will take place in the first term of the 2015 – 2016 academic year. Further details on
the Curricular Structure for future S3 and S4 cohorts will follow next term.
October / Autumn Holidays – Reminder
The school will close for the October Holidays on Friday 11th October at 3.25.
School transport will leave at the normal time.
School reopens for pupils on Wednesday 30th October.
(Staff In-Service days Monday 28th October, Tuesday 29th October)
Visit of Simon Hughes
The Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Simon Hughes MP, recently visited Brae High School to face
questions from around 150 pupils in the red area. Predictably, Mr Hughes was challenged on his
opposition to Scottish independence, before having to defend the privatisation of Royal Mail and explain
why his party supported free school meals in England, but not in Scotland.
Mr Hughes also visited other parts of the school, spending time chatting to both primary and secondary
pupils, as well as various members of staff. BHS is grateful to our local MP, Alistair Carmichael, for
organising this visit, and, of course, we would also like to thank Mr Hughes for devoting time from his busy
schedule to our pupils.
In the year ahead BHS hopes to organise more visits from senior politicians, in addition to our usual school
debates. With the referendum on Independence approaching, there will hopefully be plenty of
opportunities for pupils to engage with current affairs.
Visit of Caitlin McClatchey
Olympic and Double Commonwealth Gold Medal swimmer Caitlin McClatchey, visited Brae High School on
Wednesday 28th August. She gave presentations to both Primary and Secondary. The topics included how
she got into swimming and how her career has developed so far. She described many aspects of being a
sportsperson at the very highest level, training, competitions, competitors and her life out with sport. She
brought her Gold and Bronze Commonwealth Medal to show and hand round to the pupils.
During an open question time pupils asked her a broad range of questions including ones about her
training regime, her specialist diet, how she prepares herself for events, when she has to start training in
the morning, her favourite stroke, her fastest times, what motivates her etc. Calum MacColl presented
Caitlin with a gift from the Shetland Swimming Team which was gratefully received. This was a fantastic
opportunity for pupils from Upper Primary to Secondary 6 to meet with a top class athlete who has
experienced participating in 3 Olympic Games and is currently working towards achieving qualification to
represent Scotland in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Hopefully her visit will help to motivate
the pupils of Brae High School to realise what can be achieved with hard work, motivation and
determination to do well.
Young Sports Ambassador Conference 2013 – Contributed by Jack Murphy S5
On Friday 13th September, myself and fellow Young Ambassador Mhairi Gifford attended a Young Sports
Ambassador Conference in Aberdeen. Over 100 pupils from schools in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Moray
and Shetland took part. Young Ambassadors from Anderson High School, Sandwick, Aith and Yell also
made the trip down so there was an opportunity to establish contacts with other schools. We all arrived at
the conference about 45 minutes early and with a 10am start there was quite a bit of waiting around.
Fortunately the conference was held at Pittodrie stadium so we had the chance to have a bit of a look
round which was great considering I am an avid Aberdeen fan.
The conference started off with a speech from a Platinum Young Ambassador, then a very inspiring talk
from Paralympic gold medallist David Smith about his journey to the podium at London 2012. He then led
a question and answer session with top British steeplechase runner Eilish McColgan.
We then split up into groups and attended workshops on what it means to be a Young Ambassador and
how to be the role model you are expected to be. Euan Burton, who represented Team GB at two
Olympics in Judo and World Champion curler Ewan MacDonald accompanied David Smith as the athlete
mentors. They, along with experienced Platinum Young Ambassadors and Sportscotland volunteers, were
on hand to lend invaluable advice on how to motivate and inspire young people to take part in sport and
ways to raise awareness of sporting opportunities in the local community and in the school. The day ended
with the closing ceremony, where a group ‘Harlem Shake’ took place where every group had to come up
with their own Ambassador-inspired routine.
Young Ambassadors act as sports leaders in schools. They are selected due to their sporting talent and,
more importantly, due to their commitment and ability as young leaders or volunteers. A YA’s role is to
increase participation and healthy lifestyles in their school, promote the positive values of sport and be the
young people’s voice on school sport.
Wordplay Visits
The English department were delighted to welcome three fantastic authors to the school this term as part
of the Wordplay book festival: Matthew Fitt, Joe Blades and Lemn Sissay all joined us to deliver workshops
to a range of pupils from S1-S6.
Matthew Fitt is a Scottish writer, children’s author, poet, editor and Scot’s language consultant. He well
known for translating classic stories into Scots and has worked on everything from Roald Dahl to his latest
project, a new Asterix and Obelix story. On his visit Matthew worked first with the Intermediate 2 class and
encouraged them to use Scots and dialect in their writing; he then led a great interactive session with the
S1s and discussed why it’s important to keep our spoken dialects alive by using the words we know often,
and finding new ways to have fun using dialect in everyday life as well as in pieces of writing.
Canadian writer Joe Blades has published seven volumes of poetry and held several unusual exhibitions
and displays of his journals; he delivers workshops all over the world and also works as an editor for his
own publishing company. He worked with the Higher class to share with them how he records experiences
in his journals, many of which later become poems or stories; he has written in his journals every day for
years and he encouraged the Higher class to do the same.
He read a few of his poems to the class and talked to them about some of his travels (most recently in
Serbia) and how writing helps him to keep a record of what he’s done each day. Joe then worked with the
S2’s on some poetry writing and encouraged them to include all the senses in their writing to make their
work interesting and exciting to read.
Lemn Sissay MBE was the Olympic poet in 2012 and is the author or several volumes of poetry. He led a
fast-paced and energetic poetry workshop with the Advanced Higher class, covering everything from what
poetry is to how to describe love in an original way, which led to each member of the class producing at
least one poem in the lessons that followed.
” Les galettes à l’avoine.” / “Süße Haferkekse.”
Some of S3 were working on ratios and proportion in maths at the end of September. They had been
looking at recipes, how to scale up or down to serve the number of people needed. With the assistance of
Mrs Dobson in Home Economics the class decided to make one of the recipes – Flapjacks. The group
calculated the correct quantities for the size of serving needed. This coincided with European Day of
Languages week which resulted in some pupils in the class translating their recipe from German to English
and the others translated from French to English. An excellent and very tasty example of cross curricular
working involving three different departments.
Young Enterprise Company – Healthy Pro-Fit
Our S6 pupils have been involved in this year’s Local Young Enterprise Competition. Working alongside Mr
Nicolson and their advisers Jenny Winks and Marie Hay they have decided upon a Health / Fitness themed
company. They have been working through many ideas and concepts. One of the products they have
developed is a calendar with a sporting / health focus.
This is in the final stages of editing and production and likely to go on sale in the middle of November.
Congratulations to:
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all those involved in the Question Time with Simon Hughes MP.
all pupils, staff and parents involved in the Macmillan Coffee Morning, particularly those who
baked or volunteered to help serve, etc. The final total raised was just over £300
Connor McDonald who won Gold in Javelin and Shot Putt at the Orkney Open Athletics at the end
of August, competing against athletes from Orkney, Shetland and the North of Scotland.
the following pupils who were entered in the 2013 Schools Bible Project by Mrs Watt and received
prizes for their essays imagining themselves present at an event in the life of Christ: Laynie
Graham and Ellie Ratter were awarded copies of “The Story”; Gavin Hamilton, David Hughson,
Stephanie Hurson, Josh MacColl, Aimee Scott and Stuart Williamson were awarded copies of “The
Gospel of John”.
the S6 Young Enterprise group who raised over £1500 for the local Young Enterprise Board with
their sponsored walk.
all those who helped with the SGP fun day which altogether has raised £2500 for the School.
the School Trip Fund bag packers who raised £1255.81 at Tescos in September.
Shaun Alderman who is competing in the UK Schools Fencing this week.
Jim Johnson, Iwan MacBride and Jack Murphy who are representing Shetland in U18 Rugby in the
League this winter
former pupil Julie Dennison and current S6 pupil Iwan MacBride on being announced as joint
winners of the Shetland Young Writer Award. Julie also won the Dialect Prize.
Miss Cartney and all those involved in collecting aluminium cans. The School Trip Fund received a
cheque for £1326.35 earlier this term
Astri Balfour for making it in to the Shetland Under 13 Netball Development Squad
Vaila Tait, Sarah MacDonald and Ellie Johnson for making it in to the Shetland Under 15 Netball
Development Squad
Atlanta Turner, Frances Cunningham and Lynsey Johnson for making it in to the Shetland Under 17
Netball Development Squad
All pupils, parents and staff involved in making the Brae High School Educational Trip Sunday Teas
and Tabletop sale such a success.
BP Links up with Brae High – Contributed by Joy Ramsay S6
On Tuesday this week BP's school link officer along with 6 BP staff came to Brae, where they set up team
building and organisational challenges for Secondary 1 and 2 pupils. These consisted of an exercise that
allowed small teams to design and build an oil rig jacket out of marshmallows and straws, and a challenge
to build a model of a lego house - but with the twist that the instructions came from someone who
couldn't communicate by speaking.
Two Secondary 2 pupils taking part -William Arthur and Kayleigh Thomson - gave a small interview about
the experience:
What was the BP day for?
W.A: BP were in to do activities for team building and organisational skills.
K.T: It was a lot of different organizing games.
What did you do?
W.A: We got to build oil rigs using marshmallows and straws, and then tested them to see how much
weight they could hold. We also had to build a lego house, eac person having a different role, which had
it's own advantages and disadvantages.
K.T: We had to build an oil rig jacket, using the given materials. We then got into groups that had to build a
model house, with only one person knowing the design, who also couldn't talk; they could only shake or
nod their heads to the team's suggestions
Did you enjoy the day?
W.A: It was fun, but could be a little tricky.
K.T: Yeah, it was okay.
What was your favourite part?
W.A: The marshmallow oil rig, because it was more creative
K.T: I liked the lego group best, I liked the group I was in.
Would you like something similar again?
W.A: I enjoy these exercises; I'd like one that could be outside and active
K.T: Yes, but less messy.
Winning groups whose jackets were the most cost effective whilst holding the greatest load will be
presented with USB memory sticks courtesy of BP at assemblies early next term.
The day received a very positive response from participants so we should hopefully be seeing a similar
project soon!
Pictured is BP shift team leader David Manson with a group preparing the oil rig jacket
University Visits
Last week we were fortunate to have visits from representatives of three Scottish Universities – Dundee,
Edinburgh and Aberdeen.
Dundee and Aberdeen spoke mainly about Courses at their respective universities, student life and a little
bit about the cities themselves. Edinburgh focused upon the UCAS application system and particularly the
importance of the pupil’s personal statements. The feedback from pupils has been that the visits have
been very informative and will help with applications and decisions to be made in the future.
The week after the holidays, nearly twenty S5 / 6 pupils will be taking part in the Universities trip which
should further assist pupils in making their choices.
Parent Council News
The Parent Council members remain the same for this year, as do the office bearers. At the meeting
following the Parent Forum A.G.M. we prepared our response to the proposed change in the number of
subjects chosen in S3 for National qualifications. At the time of writing we have not been informed of any
decision on this. ( Information included in opening section of this newsletter ( Seven Subject decision) was
received subsequent to Karen completing her report .)
This week, as you will be aware there is an informal consultation on the strategy for secondary education
in Shetland so we will end the term with more uncertainty than at any other time that I can recall. We
have been given very little time to get the views of parents or to ensure that you know about the meetings
so if you have not been able to attend please remember that you can give an individual response on the
options put forward on the future of secondary education, returning it to Children’s Services at Hayfield
House before the 15th October.
Hopefully when I write next terms news we will at least have some sense of direction and can get on with
what we are most concerned about, helping our school educate our children to reach their full potential.
Karen Hetherington
Chairperson
I hope that you all have a relaxing break with your families and we look forward to seeing the pupils again
on the 30th.
Yours sincerely
Colin Kirkness