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Volume 5, Issue 7

June 2016

Club of Lanark, and like Charlotte in the junior cate-gory, caught another breathtaking picture of the Scottish landscape. Megan said the contrast in colours and textures in the land-scape was a big inspiration for her photograph, which shows a lighthouse stand-ing proudly on the cliffside. The three winners pro-gressed through local, dis-trict and regional heats and were selected from 57 na-tional finalists by a panel of judges. The panel for this year’s competition included professionals and photog-raphy experts from the fields of journalism, educa-tion and business, all of whom were amazed by the standard of the entrants. The Rotary Young Photog-rapher competition is open to any young person in full time education between

After hundreds of young people took part from across Great Britain and Ireland, we are delighted to announce the three win-ners of this year’s Rotary Young Photographer com-petition. This year’s theme was ‘Our World Is Beautiful’, which inspired the entrants to find inspiration from the world around them. There were a whole variety of high quality submissions, which were split into jun-ior, intermediate and sen-ior categories based on the competitor’s age. Each en-trant was judged on their technical merit; content and composition; and imag-ination and style. The senior category was won by 16-year-old Megan McCulloch from Lanark Grammar School. She was sponsored by the Rotary

Young Photographer 1

Engineering Challenge 2

Gilbert Murray 2

News from the Head Teacher 3

Spelling Bee 4

Tinto Climb 4

Football Cup Winners 5

Fleetwood Team GB 6

St Mirren Visit 6

Sports Days 7

Italy Trip 8

Marta Martin 9

Important Dates 9

Inside this issue:

Rotary UK and Ireland Young Photographer

of the Year 2016

the ages of 7 – 17. The theme for next year’s com-petition is ‘Reflection’. If you are interested in taking part, visit our club finder to get in touch with your local club who may be hosting a competition. Excerpt from: http://www.rotarygbi.org/young-photographer-2016/

Wallace pupil Megan McCulloch with Maggie Clark as she congratulates her on her great success on behalf of the Rotary Club of Lanark.

with “fake” money to spend.

The winning team was then put for-ward to take part in the “Engineering Challenge Final” which took place in the drama studio in May. Each S1 class competed against each other in a Knex Bridge Building Challenge. The aim was to build a bridge at least 2m wide which could hold the largest mass.

Gilbert Murray Essay Writing Competition

Two S6 Students were successful in gaining a Certificate of Excellence for their submissions in the Gilbert Murray Essay Competition organised by the Classical Association of Scotland and judged at Glasgow University.

Rachael Murray and Zach McGinnies beat off stiff competition in this prestigious competition from The Glasgow Academy, The High School of Glasgow, Hamilton College, Albyn School, St Columba’s , St George’s School for Girls among others to be awarded their certificate. Only 8 certificates were awarded to S5/S6 Students in Scot-land. We wish Rachael and Zach well and congratulate them both on this magnificent achievement. Rachael is studying Classics and English at St Andrews University next year and Zach will be studying Classics and English at Edinburgh University. S Harrison

fallen quite dramatically over the past few years. It is hoped that the various activities undertaken by these pilot schools will help to re-verse this trend. If it does accom-plish this objective, then the inten-tion is to roll out similar initiatives over the whole of the U.K.

The first phase of the competition involved pupils working in their sci-

Page 2

Engineering Challenge 2016

A number of sec-ondary schools throughout Scot-land were chosen to spearhead an initiative to help raise the profile of

Engineering within schools. Lanark Grammar was one of these schools.

The school were asked to develop

some activities which might help encourage pupils to consider Engi-neering as a career when they eventually leave school. It would seem the number of pupils opting for Engineering-based courses at U.K universities and colleges has

ence class in groups of 3 or 4 to build the tallest working lighthouse possible.

They were given a fictional budget of £20000 to spend on various building materials. Each team had an accompanying information sheet

In first place Dorina Toth, Natasha Easton and Olivia Ferguson from 1P7.

The winning teams for the Final Engineering Challenge 2016 were as follows

In second place Christopher Barrett, Elodie Moore and Zachary Cross from 1P3.

In third place Alyth McInnes, Rebecca Brownlie, Ellie Davidson and Jessica Rob-son from 1P8.

The whole venture is relevant not

only to Engineering but also to such developments in education as En-terprise, Citizenship and Curriculum for Excellence.

M Rabie

End of session

Once again we have reached the end of another very successful ses-sion for the school illustrated through the diverse achievements of our pupils and the support offered to them by parents and ex-tended families and our staff.

For students in our senior phase, Tuesday August 9 2016 will be a very important day as they receive their SQA results which, it is to be hoped, will bring positive news.

Students who wish to change their senior phase options in the light of the SQA results should come to school between 1:00-3:00 pm on Friday 12 August 2016 to discuss their plans with a member of the senior management team. This will enable option choice changes which are required to be made before stu-dents return to school on Monday 15 August 2016.

I would like to wish all of who stu-dents who are leaving school a very positive set of examination results which enables them to fol-low their desired options whether this is in training, employment, college or university. I hope that your commitment to your studies, and to the broader experiences gained through school and commu-nity involvement, has enabled you all to achieve your goals.

Finally, I hope that all members of our school community have a very enjoyable summer break and, for those pupils who are returning to school, we shall welcome you back on Monday 15 August 2016 at our usual time of 8:45 am.

Staff retirements

This session has seen quite a number of staff retire from the school and we wish them all

well in this new period of their lives. The following members of staff have retired:

Mr Clark of our Mathematics de-partment; Mrs Fisher from Additional Sup-port Needs; Ms Laughland from our History department; and Mrs Goldie, our school librarian

In their unique and individual ways, all of the above staff have made an excellent contribution to our school and we wish them all a very long, happy and healthy re-tirement.

News from the Head Teacher

Page 3

Head Teacher Mr Mark Sherry

School Uniform

The support which receive from parents/carers about school uni-form is greatly appreciated by all staff. The vast majority of our pu-pils fully support school uniform and take pride in our unique identi-ty. As you may be purchasing school wear for your daughter/son over the coming weeks, the follow-ing reminder on uniform may be helpful

School uniform consists of the fol-lowing:

white shirt; school tie; black jumper or cardigan; black trousers or skirt; black shoes; and blazer.

Our school blazer can be purchased from ALJ Workwear in Lanark, or other providers if you so desire. In adverse weather an outer piece of clothing can be worn with the blaz-er underneath.

All pupils will have access to a per-sonal, secure locker where they may keep an outer jacket, books and equipment.

All parents are asked to note that the following clothing is not ac-ceptable for schoolwear: clothing or scarves which feature football favours or slogans; tracksuits; denim clothing (jeans or jackets); leggings; baseball caps of any description; shorts; and sheer blouses

Where pupils arrive at school with-out appropriate uniform they will be provided with a tie and/or a blazer to wear for the day.

The Tinto Climb

With trepidation; noses pressed against the windows of the bus, S1 pupils stared at the top of Tinto. Well at least as much as was visible through the slate-grey clouds. They were dis-embarking at the foot of the hill to begin a journey that, although arduous, would help alle-viate the suffering of others. Staff from the St. Andrews Hospice directed us to the registra-tion point, where groups steadily began to make their way up the dirt track to the top. Alt-hough the conditions were not favourable, S1 ploughed on regardless. A procession of dark shapes could be seen gently snaking its way over the ridges, with occasional shouts of joy and laughter carried on the wind. The morning drew colder and wind speeds peaked at the top, almost toppling our adventure back down to earth, but as medals were secured on blustery shoulders at the bottom, cheeks glowed with the satisfaction of achievement ( and a little bit of wind chill ! ).

So far the total collected stands at over £1,000, with the majority still to hand their money in. I will post the final tally once it is all in.

Can I thank all participants, from pupils to staff for their efforts and making it a memorable day.

N Boyce

Page 4

Braxfield’s Spelling Bee Brilliance

Tkalcic, Ryan Adair and Ben Wilson. The winning Braxfield team was made up of Erin Stewart, Christo-pher MacMillan, Kyle McGinnies and Lois Jones- O’Keeffe.

The teams who made it to the final had to compete in the Spelling Play-off and the Quick-Fire rounds. The Spelling Play-off was a tough round of challenging words. Some stu-dents were shocked that they were asked to spell words that they’d never even heard of! ( Even some of the staff present looked a bit puz-zled!)

On Wednesday the 1st of June a team from Braxfield won the annual Lanark Grammar School S1 Inter-House Spelling Bee. They finally beat Jerviswood’s reign of two years in a row!

During the month of May all S1 students had a chance to practise their spelling and try out for their class team. Students practised spelling in their English class and at home. Some students even had a class Mini Bee in order to identify the top four spellers who would represent their house in the heats.

After a very close run heat, four teams made it to the final; two teams representing Hyndford, one from Wallace and one from Braxfield. The first Hyndford team consisted of Emily Anderson, Sam Barton, Craig Fisher and Ben Hum-ble. In the second Hyndford team was Taylor Sim, Emma Patrick, Coreena Stewart and Thomas McLellan. The Wallace representa-tives were Jessica Robson, Holly

The Quick-Fire round was a bit easier than the Spelling-Play Off. This was where teams worked to-gether to spell as many words as pos-sible in three minutes. Students felt there was less pressure in this round because they were playing tacti-cally and simply passed if they did-

n’t know how to spell the word.

At the end of round one, Braxfield were slightly ahead. By the end of round two, Braxfield were the clear winners by twelve points. It was a really exciting finish to the Spelling Bee.

Overall, the Spelling Bee was a great success. The students were able to showcase their spelling abili-ties. The students felt that it was a great way to encourage pupils to work harder on their spelling.

H MacKenzie

Lanark Grammar

School’s seven-a-side

football stars won

the Scottish FA Na-

tional Learning Disa-

bilities School League

Cup at Toryglen in

Glasgow recently.

The Grammar boys –

aged from S1 to S6 –

defeated Glasgow

outfit Abercorn 2-1 in

the final thanks to

goals by Cameron

Pollock and Nathan

Fleetwood.

“This is the first time a Lanark Grammar team has won a Scottish Cup since the 1950s,” said Team Manager and Lanark Grammar School PE teacher Mr Johnny Gardi-ner. “It is great recognition for the players’ efforts and I’m overjoyed for them. “They were brilliant during the qualifying campaign and then brilliant again during the finals. “They had lost in the semi-finals last year so it is tre-mendous that they man-aged to win it on this occa-sion.” Lanark Grammar had qualified for the final stages by finishing as top South Lanarkshire team in their re-gional qualifying section, when games were played at Ravenscraig Sports Facility. But they made a less than brilliant start to the finals and only ended up qualifying as the third placed team in their section.

Scottish FA Schools League Cup Winners

Page 5

Although they beat Bucksburn 2-1, Lanark lost 3-2 to Mary Russell and 3-0 against Carrongrange. But the return of star defender Cameron Steer – the team captain

who missed these initial three matches after suffering a migraine – for the knockout stage was key in them improving significantly as the event went on. Mr Gardiner said: “Cameron

returning meant I could restore him to the defence and move Cameron Pollock back into his preferred mid-field position and play Nathan Fleet-wood up front again.” Lanark duly beat Balwearie 8-0 in the quarter-finals and May Russell 2-1 in the semi-finals to reach the showpiece against Abercorn where they were ultimately triumphant.

The stunning performances of Lan-ark Grammar in winning the nation-al crown have led to four of their players – Pollock, Fleetwood, Steer and Chad Taylor – being selected for trials with the Scottish under-19 disability squad. That team’s manager David McCardle was the man who pre-sented Lanark Grammar with the trophy at Toryglen. The trial will take place later this year. Football for Lanark pupils with ASN – conditions include dyslexia, ADHD and autism – has been run at the school for the past three years. Ten youngsters are in the Lanark seven-a-side squad as it goes from strength to strength. Johnny also thanks Tricia Millar for

all her support with the ASN young-

sters and all the parents who come

along to every game the boys play.

J Gardiner & Lanark Gazette

A proud Mr Gardiner with the squad including Mark Morris, Chad Taylor, Ryan Gillan, Callum Wishart, Nathan Fleetwood, Liam Daly, Shawn Cottam, Macoist Fordyce, Cameron Pollock and Cameron Steer.

The Under 13s LGS football team have enjoyed a good season putting in some very good perfor-mances and narrowly missing out on a place in the Lanarkshire Cup Semi- finals. To end the season they enjoyed a trip to St. Mirren Football Club at The Paisley 2021 Stadium on Wednesday 1st June.

The boys had the opportunity to tour the stadium which is also the official home of the Scotland Under 21s team. They saw the home and away dressing rooms, media area, boardroom, hospitali-

ty suites and new supporters lounge as well as going pitch side.

Following the tour the team were put through their paces in the form of an Academy Level training session by the Football Development Officer Ross Paterson and Junior Academy Coach Ryan Tait in the SMISA JD Airdome at the stadium. The boys undertook a short warm up which included brain training and cognitive exercises in relation to awareness on a football pitch before engaging in passing and shooting drills which were developed to replicate game situations. They then finished with a 7 v 7 match in the dome.

The team thoroughly enjoyed the trip and hopefully benefited from the Academy session. I would like to thank all the boys for their commitment, performances and positive attitude to school football throughout the year.

S Macfarlane

UKSA announce Great Britain Team aiming for success at the Inas European Athletics Champi-onships

The UK Sports Association for

People with Learning Disability

(UKSA) is pleased to announce

the six athletes who will repre-

sent Great Britain at the Inas Eu-

ropean Athletics Championships

in Ankara, Turkey, 28th June to

3rd July 2016, an event sanc-

tioned by the IPC.

Preparing for tough competition

at one of Inas Europe’s top events

and making their international de-

but for Great Britain are Reece

Palmer (County Durham), Nathan

Fleetwood (Lanark, Lanarkshire)

and Paul Davidson (Inverness), who

will be joined by Daniel Pass

(Birkenhead, Wirral), Owen Miller

(Dunfermline, Fife) and Declan

Manning (Bungay, Suffolk).

The GB Team will be led by Jane

Coia (Team Manager), supported by

Deputy Team Manager/Coach,

Tommy Patterson and GB Coach,

John Kinder.

Team GB for Nathan Fleetwood

Page 6

Fifteen year old Nathan Fleetwood

commented “It’s exciting and I’ll

give it my best. I’m aiming for top 3

or a gold medal”.

Tracey McCillen, Chief Executive,

UK Sports Association said

“Congratulations go to the athletes

and staff selected to represent GB

at the Championships. We are con-

fident we have a good mix of expe-

rience, enthusiasm and talent to do

Britain proud.”

“Inas events are an important part

of the performance pathway, and I

hope that British sport sits up and

takes notice in this Paralympic

year. British sport needs to give

these athletes the recognition

they deserve and have

earned. Investment in learning

disability sport at this level is at

an all-time low, despite legacy

promises. This needs to change

to preserve the future of talented

athletes with learning disability in

performance sport.”

10 countries are expected to

compete at the Inas European

Athletics Championships.

The Great Britain Team is selected

and managed by UKSA with the sup-

port of its four Home Country mem-

bers, Scottish Disability Sport, Disa-

bility Sport Northern Ireland, Welsh

Sports Association for People with

Learning Disability and Mencap

Sport in England.

Lanark Grammar pupil Nathan will

represent Great Britain in the 100m

hopefully the 4 x 100m relay which

has still to be confirmed.

Issued by the UK Sports Associa-tion for People with Learning Disa-bility (UKSA)

Nathan at the Scottish National Championships in February with an American athlete.

Sport Superstars 2016

School Sports 2016

This year, we had over 150 S1-3 pupils participating in the school sports. Luckily for us, the John Cumming Stadium had received Mrs Sanders’ order for a sunny day! Yay! Pupils par-ticipated in a total of 6 different events, 3 track and 3 field. These events allowed competitors to accumulate points

throughout the duration of the day from 1st place all the way through to 10th place. With our exceptionally talented Mrs McEwan with her ‘spreadsheet know-how’ and with assistance from Mrs Mackenzie, the winners of each event were calculated alongside the overall winner of Lanark Grammar’s School Sports 2016! Without further ado, the results are as follows:

Only joking! The winners will be revealed at the Celebrating Sporting Suc-cess assembly during the last week of term. Well done to everyone who participated, as ever, your behaviour and effort was fantastic!

County Sports 2016

As a result of such strong performances in the school sports, 45 pupils from S1-3 represented Lanark Grammar School at the County Sports. The initial day gives pupils an opportunity to compete for a place in the finals which is held the following week and our incredibly talented bunch managed to qualify for a total of 40 events. Finals day did not disappoint with Lanark securing 21 medals in total! This really is an incredible achievement as there is such strong com-petition from South Lanarkshire’s 19 competing schools. Below is the list of medal winners, a huge well done to you all!

L Rankine

Page 7

Liam Grant GOLD Long jump Leon Kelly BRONZE Shot putt

Jessica Robson GOLD 1200m Andrew Barrett BRONZE 800m

Erin Snow GOLD 1500m Niamh Anderson BRONZE 200m

Ellie Davidson SILVER High jump Finlay Patrick BRONZE 1500m

Olivia Ferguson SILVER 600m Zara Higgins BRONZE 800m

Cameron Snell SILVER Long jump

S3 GIRLS RELAY

Amy MacLarty

Niamh Anderson

Eve Joyce

Zara Higgins

GOLD

Eve Joyce SILVER 100m

Zara Higgins SILVER High jump

Christina Eadie SILVER Shot putt

Christina Eadie SILVER 100m

James McClafferty SILVER 100m

Holly Rolls BRONZE Shot putt

Italy 2016

28 pupils and students from S2-S6 travelled to the Bay of Naples, Italy during the Spring Break.

Day 1 involved travelling to Liver-pool Airport to catch the flight to Naples with a late arrival at the Ho-tel Oriente in Vico Ecquense. A lav-ish meal was put on for the whole group , which was much appreciated after service sta-tion lunch and snacks at the air-port. All first time fliers coped well.

Day 2 After a good night’s sleep, it was up early for a 7.30 breakfast and off to visit the Acropolis at Cuma, home of the Sib-yl, the priestess of Apollo. It was here that the legendary Trojan he-ro, Aeneas, landed his fleet and en-gaged the Sibyl as his guide to the

Underworld. Next it was off to the entrance to the Underworld, the Solfatara volcano and the smell of rotten eggs/sulphur. We engaged Chiro as our guide and his knowledge of the Fiery Fields and the volcanic area was excellent and his Latin was even better as he re-counted Pliny’s eyewitness account of the eruption of Vesuvius. Last

stop of the day was at Puzzuoli and the third largest Flavian Amphithea-tre. For many this was the highlight of the day as we explored the un-derground rooms/cells under the arena where animals and gladiators

would have been held before the shows. Tired and smelly( sulphur fumes), we returned to the hotel for a well earned shower and a pizza party dinner.

Day 3 saw the group trek up to the summit of Mount Vesuvius and spec-tacular views of the Bay of Naples and of course the inside of the vast crater of this sleeping volca-no. After risk as-sessing the ONE toilet with no water on the volcano, the decision was made that our next stop

was toilet, lunch then onto Hercula-neum. Here the group explored the excavations of the town in groups filing in the worksheets. Many high-lights to this day but for some it was seeing the excavated skeletons in the boathouses bringing the reality of the devastating 79AD eruption right up close and personal by see-ing victims lying where they per-

ished. On the way back to the hotel the group paid a visit to the Villa Arianna, a huge country house and well preserved.

Day 4 Everybody got a “wee rest” on the coach trip down the Almalfi Coast to the ancient Greek settled of Paestum. Three magnificent Greek temples from the 5th century BC dominate the Roman town. After a visit to the mu-seum at Paestum, it was back up the coast to Sorrento for a late lunch and time for leisure and shopping in glorious sun-shine.

Day 5. The full day was spent at Pompeii exploring all as-

pects of Roman life from the 1st century AD:- shops, laundries, pri-vate houses, temples, theatres, am-phitheatres, bath houses, tombs, the forum and of course the famous plaster casts of the victims caught up in the eruption of Vesuvius. Last night in Italy was Tartan Night and the group really excelled them-selves.

Day 6 Travel home, back to the rain,

complete diaries and a catch up on

sleep on the way back to Lanark.

After six days of excellent Italian

food, the coach heaved with talk of

KFC, MacDonald’s and Burger King

and the coach driver duly obliged

with a stop at a service station on

the way back from Liverpool. Then

students could be heard asking

their parents to get a Chinese take

away for their return! All in all this

was an excellent trip with students

soaking in the culture, the sun and

the ambiance .

S Harrison

Page 8

Page 9

Phone: 01555 667520

Important Dates

V OL U M E 5 , I S S UE 7

Please find below, information about important dates in the school calendar. I hope that you find it helpful.

Kirklands Road Lanark

ML11 9AJ

Head Teacher : Mr. Mark Sherry

Marta Martin

in with every lesson and read aloud from “Romeo and Juliet”, some-thing even native speakers would find difficult. She worked her way through Scottish poetry and broad-sheet newspaper articles and really developed skills to be proud of.

More than this, Marta was able to bring a little of her own culture into the English classroom, informing the class of how early school start-ed in Spain if ever they were too “tired” to start close reading work during period 1 and writing a fan-tastic folio piece on Spanish Bull-fighting. Marta worked tirelessly to bring her English up to National 5 level and was always self-motivated and keen to improve – a mindset that creates success.

Marta has been a delightful young lady and always had a huge smile on her face. She had such an en-gaging personality and this allowed her to quickly establish a wide cir-cle of friends and they are all sad to see her return to Spain.

We were fortunate to have shared the last year with you Marta and we hope we will all see you again in the not too distant future.

Adiós, pero no de despedida.

Staff and Pupils of Lanark Grammar School

Senior Prizegiving Tuesday 21 June

End of Term Friday 24 June @ 1.00pm

New Academic Session begins Monday 15 August @ 8.45am

A young person who joined our fourth year at Lanark Grammar this session from Madrid, Spain, is com-ing to the end of her year in Scot-land and will shortly return home.

Marta came to Lanark in June 2016 to live with a family friend to learn more about Scottish culture and to improve her English language skills. Despite the language difference, Marta has undertaken subjects at National 5 this year in English, Maths, Biology, Chemistry and French, in addition to Higher Span-ish which she undertook with staff in the Languages faculty. What a challenging S4 timetable for any-one never mind a non-English speaker!!

Marta coped incredibly well and developed her already excellent English language abilities. Marta studied both National 5 English and National 5 English as a Second Lan-guage this year. She embraced life in the Scottish classroom and al-ways got fully involved. She joined