HILLHEAD HIGHLIGHTS – No 2
September 2014
Dear Parent / Carer,
Please find enclosed some of the many highlights that have happened during the month of
September. It is always a difficult decision to know what to leave out of Highlights, as there
is so much going on, however, you can find more information on our school website and
also on our twitter account which now has 400 followers! In response to feedback from
parents you will find all letters that are issued are also available on our school website. If
you sign up to our twitter account you will not only get a tweet alerting you to any letters
but also a link taking you directly to it on our website.
This session we have introduced a Focus of the Fortnight which is covered at all assemblies
to allow us to deliver a consistent message to all pupils as well as explore and reinforce our
school values. So far we have covered the following values:
Respect
Good Work Ethic
Be Responsible
Consideration for Others
I am very proud of the fact that so many visitors to our school comment on the excellent
behaviour and manners of our young people. I was also delighted to witness the conduct of
our pupils during our Hillhead High Referendum process which ended with our ballot on
Wednesday 17th September. Well done to all of those who spoke with such confidence and
passion at every assembly the week before our referendum and to all of those who
organised the event. The day itself was incredibly busy thanks to the press interest and you
may well have seen some of our voters in the news. The following week the process of
electing our new Pupil Council began and you will find more information on this later in the
Highlights.
The two days after our Hillhead Referendum were In-service Days and teachers worked hard
continuing to develop our courses, particularly for the Senior Phase. As you know our
current S5 pupils will be embarking upon their prelim exams at the end of November. Mr
Meechan has issued information on Supported Study and I would urge you to encourage
your son/daughter to take up this support.
Welcome
A very warm welcome to Mrs Michelle Laing who joined our ICT, Business and Technologies
Faculty at the end of September.
Parent Council
Our Parent Council has been elected for this session with Ms Sarie Young and Ms Sylvie
Warnecke as co-chairs.
You can contact the Parent Council athhsparentcouncil@googlemail.com
The Parent Council are now seeking a clerk for this year. This position is a paid one – the
successful candidate will receive £300.00 per year. If you would like to apply for this post, or
you would like more information, please contact me.
Best wishes,
W Wight
Head Teacher
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Our School Improvement Plan for this session was developed in consultation with parents,
pupils, staff and partners. A copy of the plan is available on our school website but our key
priorities are identified below:
 Developing Learning and Teaching
 Curriculum for Excellence - with particular focus on Senior Phase
courses and developing Wider Achievement this year.
 Assessment and Moderation – with focus on developing our approaches
to tracking and monitoring.
We have a new editorial team who will take on
some responsibility for our monthly Hillhead
Highlights for this session. They are:-
Hello, name is Rana Salem, I am 14 years old and I chose Magazine as my Wider Achievement
because I am an avid reader and enjoy writing and I decided to put these skills to use.
My name is Lewis and I’m a 4th year. I speak German and Norwegian fluently along with some Dutch,
Swedish and Danish. My main interests include Latin American history and politics, music, football
and Germanic linguistics. By working on our Highlights I hope to find out more about other cultures.
Hi, my name is Dorothy Ward and I chose Magazine as my Wider Achievement because I enjoy
literature. In the future, I am aiming to be a journalist or a writer and I hope that the skills I gather
from this experience will help me later in life.
My name is Harris. I enjoy reading Scottish writing my favourite colour is green. When I am older I
would like to work in Japan.
My name is Krzystof Robin Pukacz. I have always been interested in writing, reading and reporting,
and may choose to go into journalism later in life. My interests include music, food, cats and books!
My name is Kyle David MacDonald. I am 15 years old and I chose Magazine as my Wider
Achievement because I am interested in journalism as a possible career choice. My hobbies include
sleep, reading, television and food.
My name is Taylor Shirley. I am in fourth year and I love music, bands and concerts. I chose to be
part of the team because it sounded interesting and like something I would enjoy.
My name is Arzu Sadat-Khan. I love going to concerts and listening to music. I chose to be a part of
this group because I have an interest in interviewing and looking for information.
My name is Zamzam Jama. I was born in Somalia and l am 15 years old. I am interested in
photography, drawing and listening to music. I chose to be a part of this because I thought it would
be fun.
My name is Emma Moore and I am in S4. My hobbies include playing the guitar and the harmonica,
music, films and art. I picked this wider achievement because I am interested in journalism and I
want to be a journalist when I am older.
During the last few weeks pupils have been taking part in our Pupil Council election process. In
response to pupil feedback last session, it was decided to reduce the number of members of the
council to one per class in S1-S4 and have our Prefects, Vice Captains and Captains as our council
representatives for S5&S6. Pupils were given information about the role of HHS Pupil Council
members at assemblies and then were able to stand for election in their registration class. A secret
ballot followed and our Pupil Council for 2014-15 are named below.
Class
1A
1B
1C
1D
1E
1F
1G
3A
3B
3C
3D
3E
3F
Name
Jack Hall
Daniel Modiba
Portia Roddick
Tighe Wylie-Freegard
Yaqin Gasney
Andre Gillies
Ellie Burns
Declan McConville
Ali Shan Nayyar
Kelvin Law
Aaiza Javed
Harvey Hunter
Mikele Perez-Jamieson
Class
2A
2B
2C
2D
2E
2F
4A
4B
4C
4D
4E
S5/6
S5
S5
S5
S5
S5
S5
S5
S5
S5
S6
S6
S6
S6
Prefects
Hannan Seyal
Cameron Inglis
Leon Jones
Sam Colville
Charlotte Bryson
Loujin Al-Ani
Talitha Gusta
Kafui Akpo Young
Emma Clark
Sara Gasmi
Rhys Donnelly
Kelvin Dempster
Hannah Takahashi
S5/6
S5
S6
S6
S6
S6
S6
S6
Name
Lewis Hamiton
Zaynab Bhutta
Olivia Gillies Burry
Emma Whiteside
Alice Kean
Lena Weeks
Darius McDavitt
Farid Ashgari
Dylan O'Donnell
Luca Manning
Morgan Fisher
Prefects
Kate Leung
Goran Sahota
John Katsikogiannis
Ross McDougall
Sunnah Safdar
Lucindia Lou
Parissa Rezaie-Khodabandeiou
Vice Captain
Vice Captain
Vice Captain
Vice Captain
Captain
Captain
Photographs of our Pupil Council members and information on meetings and drop-in sessions will be
placed in notice boards in the entrance to the Terrace Building.
Hillhead’s Social Subjects Department hosted a mock
referendum in the school on Wednesday 17th September.
The aim of this event was to engage young people in politics and all pupils from S1-S6 were
given the opportunity to cast their votes. In the weeks running up to the mock referendum
there was a great deal of work done in social subjects classes to explain the issues to pupils.
Posters and badges began appearing throughout the school and a group of pupils
representing both viewpoints visited all assemblies to give speeches and debate the issues.
Pupils were able to ask questions of the speakers and also had the opportunity to speak to
Mr Milne, Faculty Head of Humanities, every day at lunchtime for a fortnight to discuss the
referendum.
On the day of our referendum every effort was made
to make the experience as realistic as possible – this
was very important as so many of our senior pupils
were going to vote for real for the very first time the
next day! We had the real voting booths that would be
used on September 18th and our own ballot papers.
Pupils eagerly await the result
Once all votes had been cast and counted, pupils were called to the assembly hall for the
result to be announced by Mr Milne. The votes were cast as follows:
Yes- 415 votes
No – 283 votes
Spoiled papers - 123
The results were then analysed during lessons in the maths department and discussed in
modern studies.
- by Dorothy Ward Rana Salem, Emma Moore
Last session, four of our S3 history students were given the opportunity to take part in a
course at the Celtic Learning Centre to gain more information about the topic of the First
World War. Two of these pupils, Brodie Green and Lewis Harris, were then picked to go on a
trip to Sarajevo.
Sarajevo is the capital city of Bosnia-Herzegovina. It was here in 1914 that Arch- Duke
Franz Ferdinand was assassinated. This was the breaking point of a build-up of
disturbances that resulted in the declaration of WW1.
Brodie and Lewis travelled with a group of Glasgow secondary school pupils to Sarajevo on
the 21st September. After stopping off at Amsterdam and Zagreb the group arrived in
Sarajevo and began to explore the city. The group visited the spot where Ferdinand was
assassinated and the adjacent museum. They also took part in a large dance along with 200
hundred pupils from Spain and Poland and 10 from the UK. As part of his work in S3 Lewis
had narrated a film which was shown at the film festival in Sarajevo during their visit. They
returned on the 25th of September.
Brodie said of the trip:
“My favourite part was meeting new people. The Bosnian people were really friendly. I’ve
planned to meet up with some students whom I met through the trip. It was very strange to
stand in the spot where Franz Ferdinand’s car had driven and I felt really connected to
history. We did four hours of rehearsals for the dance and in the end it went really well and
was entertaining. The accommodation was wonderful. I’d go back to Sarajevo again as it is
such an iconic place in world history.”
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This year’s event will take place on Wednesday 29th October and will
celebrate Eid, Diwali and the Chinese New Year and many departments
will be getting involved - the Art Department are making a model
dragon, the P.E Department will be performing traditional Chinese
dances and the Music Department will be playing traditional Chinese
Music. The evening will feature a fashion show of traditional clothing and performances of
traditional music with refreshments served afterwards.
Tickets cost £2 each, and they are available from Mrs Nasim, Mrs Anderson and Mrs Lota.
by Krzysztof Pukacz and Kyle MacDonald
This year, our S3 and S4 Netball teams will be competing in the Glasgow League and the S3 squad will
also be competing in the Scottish Cup! Both teams have been training very hard since the start of the
school year. We wish them the very best of luck in their upcoming matches and tournaments.
Our Netball Club is on after school on Tuesdays from 4.00-5.00pm for S3&S4 pupils. S1 and S2 pupils
have the opportunity to attend an after school club on Fridays after MTA from 3.00-4.00pm. For any
more information, please see Ms Gowans or Ms Ayton.
- by Rana Salem
For the second year in a row we are proud to take part in Onesie Day.
Onesie Day is an exciting twist to non-uniform day! Wear your onesie
to school on the 10th October and donate £1 to raise money for the
Brick by Brick Appeal for the Prince and Princess of Wales new build in
Bellahouston Park.
N.B. Students who don’t wear a onesie are expected to be in school
uniform.
To create more awareness for Onesie Day, a large group of pupils will
perform our annual Flashmob in George Square on Friday 10th October. In total Glasgow
schools are aiming to raise a total of £60,000 to pay for a specially designed room for teenagers who
need to spend time in the hospice.
-
article by Rana Salem
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Ka-Pow Comics is a comic book shop run by Mr Foster. Most of the
comics cost around £2, which is much less than the prices in regular
comic books shops. The shop runs on a Friday at lunchtime in the
cafeteria from 1.20- 1.40 pm.
S1 Food pupils are well underway with learning to use the kitchen with Miss Douglas. They
have started to use the cookers and are using their organisation skills to set tables, cook and
then wash, dry and put away dishes in order to keep their work station in good order. They
have had a ‘taste’ of interdisciplinary learning by making croque monsieur and comparing
the French recipe to the English version. By now, pupils should be trying out their skills at
home by helping in the kitchen. They could find out how to operate the cooker and compare
it to the school one or continue to try out recipes at home if they are already cooking at
home.
Meanwhile Miss Campbell’s Fabric pupils are mastering the use of the sewing machine this
includes learning to thread them plus fine tuning their use of scissors. Sections are now
starting to over lock fabric edges and when this is done to a high standard, pupils will begin
to choose fabric to start their drawstring bags.
S3 Fashion and Textile Technology pupils have mostly finished
their first item and are working with commercial paper patterns.
Each of them has made their own choice and this year it ranges
from cushions and cuddly toys, bags, skirts to pyjama trousers.
The class will be walking into town to have lunch and then
buying fabrics from Remnant Kings in Argyle Street. All the
fabrics are paid using funds from the department’s account but
pupils must stick to a budget as learning about ‘economics’ is a
major part of the subject of Home Economics.
S3, S4 and S5 Hospitality pupils are working at varying degrees of difficulty but every class is
busy using seasonal and local produce. So far this has included blueberries (muffins),
strawberries (tarts), raspberries (Eton Mess), brambles (crumble), mushrooms and Scottish
beef (Hereford Pie), Ayrshire potatoes (various soups and Duchess potatoes), parsnips (lentil
soup), green beans (fajitas), fresh herbs (scones and garnishes), Scottish chicken (stir fry)
and Scottish haddock (fish goujons and skinny chips). S4 used Scottish bread to make Melba
toast to accompany their lentil soup and trying it again at home would be excellent
homework!
All the recipes are available from Miss Campbell.
Further information about Home Economics activities can be found on the school web site.
Scroll down on the front page and click on ‘week beginning’ to find out ‘What’s Cooking’,
plus details of fabric lesson and homework are available. This is up-dated every week.
Information can also be found about ‘Early morning Sewing’ which is Miss Campbell’s daily
extra-curricular activity. www.hillheadhigh.glasgow.sch.uk
Hillhead has not only got amazing pupils but also some pretty interesting teachers as
well. We sent two of our team to interview Mr Foster in the drama department.
Q – Where are you from?
A – A galaxy far, far away.
Q – Who is your favourite actor/actress?
A – Christopher Walken.
Q – Favourite TV Show?
A – Deadwood.
Q – Musical Idol?
A – David Bowie and Depeche Mode.
Q- What’s your favourite crisp flavour?
A – Bacon.
Q: What is the best thing about Hillhead High?
A – The creativity!
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October
Fri 10th October
Mon 13th- Fri 17th October
Wed 29th October
Fri 31st October
Event
Charity Onesie Day
October Week Holiday
Multi-cultural Event
S1 Halloween Party
November
Wed 3rd & Thurs 6th November
Tues 11th November
Wed 12th November
Fri 14th November
Mon 24th November –
Fri 5th December
Event
Interfest
S5/6 Parents’ Evening
S2 Science Visit
Children in Need Charity Event
S5 Prelim exams