Inside this issue

Welcome 1 Maths Challenge 1 Cluster News 2 Thematic Review 2

Parent Council News 3-4

Skill Force Initiative 4

Library News 5-7

PE News 8-11

E-portfolios 11

Social Subjects / RME 12-14

S2 Science Centre Visit 15-16

National 5 Prelim Reflections 16

Important Dates

16th Dec S1-3 Ceilidh

17th Dec S4-6 Ceilidh

18th Dec Christmas Reflec-

tions Event

19th Dec Christmas Fund-

raising Day

19th School Closes

5th Jan ‘15 School Opens

5th Feb ‘15 School Closes

11th Feb’15 School Opens

2nd Apr ‘15 School Closes

Head Teacher News

Welcome to our December newsletter. We have again reached the end of a very busy term for the school and, as ever, the pace seems to quicken through December with a wide range of activities taking place in the school. This news-letter is a great example of this and I am sure you will agree a fantastic way to celebrate the wider achievement of our pupils and staff. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the staff and pupils for their hard work and effort this term and to thank you as parents for your continued support in ensuring we get it right for your child. The school will close at 2:30pm on Friday 19th December 2014 and resume at 8:45am on Monday 5th January 2015. Please have a safe and happy holiday.

Woodfarm High School, Robslee Road, East Renfrewshire, G46 7HG

Tel: 0141 577 2600

Website: https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/er/Woodfarm/

Email: schoolmail@woodfarm.e-renfrew.sch.uk

December 2014

Article 29 Education should develop your personality and talents to the full.

WOODFARM HIGH SCHOOL

PARENTS NEWSLETTER

Maths Challenge

In September four of our pupils - Joy, Lennart, Kieran and Emily - participated in the East Renfrewshire maths challenge. These pupils came out on top winning the most points out of all seven high schools in the authority. On the 18th of November, these four pupils then went on to participate in the Scottish Maths Challenge at the Glasgow Science Centre. The competition consisted of 61 high schools across Scotland and we are delighted to announce that Woodfarm came 14th. Well done to Joy, Lennart, Kieran and Emily.

Cluster News

Remembrance On November 11 some of our pupils took part in a Cluster Remembrance Service. This service was attended by Councillor Fletcher and Councillor Waters. The pupils read poems that had been written about Remembrance and laid a Cluster Poppy Wreath.

Explore You will be aware that we have been working on a cluster approach to Information Literacy through the use of Ex-plore. All schools within the Woodfarm Cluster have been using the Explore approach when doing a piece of re-search. On Wednesday 19th November, our teachers got together to assess and moderate the work that has been completed. This was a great opportunity for our teachers across the cluster schools to work together and also to moderate pupil experiences to ensure consistency across the cluster.

Thematic Review During the two week period beginning the 16th February 2015, the education authority will carry out a thematic review of the effectiveness of Woodfarm Cluster’s arrangements to promote curricular continuity and progres-sion, deliver a broad general education and provide a senior phase which provides rich opportunities for students to progress into employment, training, further or higher education as appropriate. This review will focus on learning and teaching, approaches to assessment and moderation, standards and expecta-tions, and on recognising achievement and raising attainment. The review team will gather information in several different ways including: looking at documentation and resources related to transitions and partnership working seeking the views of pupils / parents on their experience of transferring from stage to stage or from one sector

to another.

direct observation in Woodfarm High School, Thornliebank, Braidbar and Giffnock Primary Schools.

asking people what they think of arrangements for transition and partnership working through meetings

analysing outcomes

looking at partnership working

Further details will be issued nearer the time.

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Woodfarm Parent Council - Autumn 2014 Update

Welcome to our first Parent Council (PC) update of the 2014/15 session. We have been very busy over

the last few months and thought it would be helpful to share with you some of what we have been doing.

As you know, at the end of last session three PC members joined the panel for the appointment of the

new Head Teacher and we were delighted when Mrs Nicola MacGlashan accepted the position at Wood-

farm.

At the start of the new term, the PC once again had representation on the selection panel for the new

Head Boy and Head Girl.

Guest speakers

At the November meeting our school librarian Ali Mundie gave us an interesting presentation on the vari-

ous projects she gets involved in, over and above running the library on a day to day basis. These include

a Climate Change project, a writing workshop, a book club and working closely with our cluster primary

schools. It was extremely informative and showed us how Mrs Mundie’s role undoubtedly adds value to

our pupils’ learning experience and helps develop literacy in a fun way.

Events/Fundraising sub-group

We have asked the school to produce a “wish list” of items that could further enhance pupils’ experiences

but which are not currently funded or available through East Renfrewshire Council (ERC) funding. Once

priorities are agreed, we will be looking at ways we can fundraise to support as many of these as possible.

We have been looking at alternative ways of fundraising and have arranged to have a Rag Bag collection

bin placed at the back of the school car park. Parents/relatives can drop off their “rags”, which in turn can

be exchanged for cash. More to follow on this and our other fundraising ideas.

Communication/PR sub-group

We have been continuing to collate good news stories and media publications about Woodfarm and these

are now displayed on the PC stand at school events along with other relevant information about the PC.

You may have seen us at the Learning Festival or the Careers Fayre where we had the opportunity to talk

to many parents about the PC and what we do.

ERC proposed budget cuts

When the proposed Education budget cuts were announced by ERC, we set up a working group to deter-

mine what we could usefully do to raise awareness of the cuts to the wider Parent Forum. We issued a

letter to all parents/carers and also to the Chairs of our cluster primaries, to encourage as many parents

as possible to raise objections to the proposed cuts. We also wrote to The Extra and were delighted to

see our letter shown in the 27 November edition of the paper. The public consultation has now closed.

However, we will endeavour to keep you informed of any developments, prior to the final budget being

agreed in February 2015.

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Parent Council News

Article 3: Adults should do what’s best for you. 3

SkillForce Initiative

Article 29 Education should develop your personality and talents to the full.

This year, Woodfarm High School pupils have been lucky enough to participate in the SkillForce pilot scheme.

SkillForce is a dynamic, not for profit, youth education char-ity delivering the SkillForce Prince’s Award – for 11-18 years old. SkillForce has worked with 50,000 young people in the UK, developing their skills, and preparing them for their next steps in education, training or work. SkillForce are currently working in 44 schools across Scot-land. Young people are being provided with a combination of learning in a classroom environment and health and well-being promoting activities, to motivate and inspire them to succeed. Woodfarm pupils are currently studying the following programme:

ASDAN Personal Development Award at Bronze level (60 hrs.) – a programme of activities to develop communication and teamworking skills, personal confidence and a positive work ethic. Pupils have just completed a unit on first aid training and we are delighted that a number of pupils scored full marks in their recent first aid test – Nathan B, Hamnah S, Jordan C and Zubair W. National Navigation Award at Bronze Level (15 hrs.) which meets the criteria for Expedition navigation training, which will be useful if any pupil decides take part in the Duke of Edinburgh Award.

The youngsters taking part in the course are thoroughly enjoying the SkillForce experience. Here is what they have to say about it: “I have really enjoyed learning about First Aid.” “SkillForce lessons are fun and you learn in different ways.” “I was really happy to get full marks in my First Aid Test.”

Parent Council meetings The remaining meeting dates for 2014/15 are as follows:

08 January 2015

12 February 2015 (Equalities meeting 6.30–7pm followed by main meeting)

12 March 2015

23 April 2015 (PC Cluster Event)

14 May 2015

Meetings are held in the Conference Room, Woodfarm HS from 7–9pm and all parents are welcome.

Should you wish to find out more, please visit the PC pages on the school website:

https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/er/Woodfarm/parent‐council/parent-council-minutes/

Here you can find copies of the minutes from our monthly meetings, together with lots of other useful infor-

mation.

If you have any suggestions or comments please email us on

parentcouncil@woodfarm.e‐renfrew.sch.uk or contact the school office who will pass a message to our Chair.

4

Library News

Scottish Book Week @ Woodfarm High School :

Book Week Scotland 2014 took place from Monday 24 – Sunday 30 November 2014.

During Book Week, people of all ages and walks of life come together in libraries, schools, community venues and workplaces to share and enjoy books and reading. They are joined in this celebration by Scotland’s authors, poets, playwrights, storytellers and illustrators to bring a packed programme of events and projects to life. Wood-farm was no exception. We had our Scot or Not Quiz, Love Letters to Libraries and we welcomed our History Pin Guests and presented them with “Stories of Home”.

Scot or Not Quiz!

Much fun was had guessing whether haggis originated in Scotland ( it didn’t ! North of England!) and test-ing our knowledge of Scottish authors, inventions and food!!

Our winning team was a Team of Two!! Holly and Grace (S1)- congratulations girls you are our Scottish experts

Article 29 Education should develop your personality and talents to the full.

Local History

An S2 class in Woodfarm High school

have been researching local history,

pinning their research using a pinning

site “History pin”. They hosted a coffee

afternoon in the library with parents

and Eastwood Writers where their re-

search was shown and stories were

traded.

Mrs Mackie and Adam (S2) look at the history

of local schools.

5

Library News

Local History

Mr and Mrs Khan look at pupils work in researching their

family and share stories of home.

Eastwood Writers discuss Local history with S2

pupils – we presented them with the “Stories of

Home” book produced by Scottish Book trust.

Love Letters

This week the Scottish Book Trust urged us to send our love to the quiet champions of reading and tell them why

they are important to us.

Did a library inspire your love of reading, give you a quiet place to study or open the door to new places? The Scot-

tish Book trust with our help want to explore the impact libraries have on our lives and tell them just how important

they are.

Dear library,

This is what I love about you…

L- Lovely cosy chairs

I- Inspires me to read

B- Big, bright, beautiful Books

R- Roaring with excitement

A- Access to computers

R- Reading for joy

Y-Yes Woodfarm’s Library is the best!!

Love Emily P (S2) Woodfarm High School

Article 29 Education should develop your personality and talents to the full. 6

Library News

Woodfarm High School Junior Book Club

December 4th 2014 – Paired Reading Prize Giving – Last Thursday we had our mid programme prizegiving..

The aim of our Paired Reading programme is to encourage younger pupils to read more for pleasure and to

give senior pupils an extra skill-set. The aims of the scheme are plentiful! For the S1 to S3 pupils it is intended to

support and develop their literacy skills, both encouraging and challenging them to read and enjoy a wide range of

fiction and non-fiction for pleasure. For the senior pupils, it is an opportunity to gain an extra skill-set. They learn

how to mentor a young person, using patience, kindness and a sense of humour (personal skills). They also learn to

teach (at a very basic level) using their own literacy skills.

Our dedicated readers have been coming to the library every Thursday at lunchtime since the end of August. It was wonderful that Mrs MacGlashan and Miss Wilson came to present the certificates to honour all the hard work and dedication from both mentors and mentees. It will resume on Thursday 8th January 2015.

Lots of exciting things planned for 2015 – our book group will be finishing their shadowing of the Scottish Children’s Book awards , and we have just been invited to take part in another exciting Authors Live programme with the Scot-tish Book Trust which we will tell you about in January.

All that’s left is to wish all pupils, staff and parents a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year! Don’t forget to ask Santa Claus for a book this Christmas and failing that there is plenty to take out from the school and local library to read while eating your selection box! “To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.” — Victor Hugo

Ali Mundie ( School Librarian)

Please check our website https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/er/WFHLibrary/

Article 29 Education should develop your personality and talents to the full. 7

PE News

Girls’ football - seniors

The senior girls’ football team won the second round of

East Renfrewshire fixtures at Eastwood High School.

The girls defeated St Ninian's, Mearns Castle and East-

wood to move into 3rd place in the league. Goals were

scored by Claire A, Rachel A and Morgan W. Keep it

up for the next round girls!

Team: Lynsey R, Claire A, Alex B, Rachel A, Catriona

S, Morgan W, Harriet B, Kay P, Ceit B and Simrin K

8

Girls’ football – Juniors

Currently sitting second in the East Renfrewshire League, the junior girls have made a steady start to the season

so far. New additions have been brought in to strengthen the squad for the forthcoming fixtures with the hope

of pushing for first place in the league.

Senior Girls’ Volleyball

Congratulations to the senior girls’ volleyball team who qualified for the second round of the Scottish Cup.

Despite an epic journey to Huntly, the girls put on a fantastic display to ease into the next round.

Netball Club

The first round of the Scottish Cup is now completed and all teams have progressed to the second round after

Christmas. Woman of the Match nominations are being gathered after every match. Well done to all.

Triathlon Club

The group has been preparing for the East Renfrewshire Schools event in January by swimming once a week at

Eastwood pool.

Badminton

Our team of competitors took part in the East Renfrewshire Schools competition coming 2nd for the senior

team and 5th for the junior team. Andrew H, Morgan W, Catriona S, Callum M, Hannah A, Andrew K, Kay P

and Peter K were the senior team. Michael S, Scott G, Nathan B, David S, Georgia W, Eve C, Chloe I and Lu-

cy S and were members of the junior squad.

Article 29 Education should develop your personality and talents to the full.

PE News

S1 Basketball

Team: Abdul W, Roberto O, Marshall R, Hisham A, Waseel A, Aaman A, Awais A, Muhay-men M, Mahdeeha S, Izma A. Kier K and Haris M (not pictured).

The S1 team have made a storming start to their basketball careers and are currently leading the way in the league

after two rounds of fixtures. The results so far have included a very impressive over-time win against Gryffe High

School and a comfortable victory against Gleniffer High School. The team are now aiming to reach the finals which

will take place in March at the Lagoon Leisure Centre.

School Dance Show – Wednesday 10th Dec

This year’s School Show showcased the talents of the school Dance Club, PE classes and this year for the first time

our Primary pupils who have been taking part in the ‘Fusion Dance’ at Woodfarm.

Bollywood festival – Wednesday 3rd Dec

Woodfarm welcomed Bellahouston Academy to our school to participate in a festival of culture and dance. Parents

and staff were entertained by dances from both schools and a workshop was offered by two former Woodfarm pu-

pils. .

Members of the club:

Wardatshan M, Zoya K, Ferva K, Hafsah Z, Minah B, Rimshah M, Aamna A, Elif K, Zoya S and Khadija S

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PE News

Ski Trip – Austria December 2014

The 40 Woodfarm pupils arrived in Austria – not Italy as planned, on Saturday 6th December. Reports from the resort are

very positive and everyone is having a great time in this very new, exciting environment. A fuller, more detailed report will

be included in the January newsletter. This is an ‘Après ski’ photo of the group

Primary Transition Activities

This term our associated primary pupils have been coming to Woodfarm to take part in activities as part of our extra-

curricular programme. New skills in volleyball, dance and judo have been picked up by our pupils and next term

table tennis and triathlon will be offered.

We held our primary transition netball tournament on Monday 24th November. Our senior girls umpired and

coached the 50 girls who attended the event. On 3rd December our Primary 7 pupils took part in the cluster football

tournament at Woodfarm. Our senior Higher football referees were very impressed with the standard and etiquette

of all players involved. Braidbar were the eventual winners.

Our annual Christmas Transitions Ceilidh took place on Friday 12th Dec. We took great pleasure in welcoming all

our Primary 7 pupils and their teachers for this exciting event. S3 Sports Coaching classes managed the event.

Article 29 Education should develop your personality and talents to the full.

11

PE News Tennis

Mr Phelan our Social Justice Manager has been doing an amazing job coaching our group of pupils who participate

each week at Queens Park Tennis Club. Although the training has now moved indoors for the winter, sessions will

continue when the new term begins.

Rugby

Brandon Wamburgh, Rugby Development Coach has been delivering coaching sessions for our S1 and S2 pupils with

the aim of getting more pupils involved in our thursday club and in clubs within the authority. If interested, speak to

the PE staff.

i Kick

Ross Penman delivered a very interesting and challenging new combat activity to our S1 and S2 pupils to show a

new activity which they could try in their own community.

Young Ambassadors

Morgan W and Euan K have been visiting our local primaries to tell them about their role within the cluster. They

explained how the Sports Council works, what activities are available and the PE department’s extracurricular pro-

gramme.

Boccia

Murray T of S1 did well at the East Renfrewshire Council Boccia Championships.

He Came 3rd in his group.

E-Portfolios

Over the last few weeks S3 pupils have been given the opportunity to update their e-portfolios. Staff discussed

recent learning in all of their subjects and the most recent and best achievements were recorded in the e-

portfolio notebook.

These details were then transferred to the e-portfolio page on GLOW. Both pupils and parents can access the e-

portfolio at any time by logging on to GLOW at home where comments on achievements within and out with

school can be added.

Details of how to negotiate the website are available by using the instructional PowerPoints on the e-portfolio

page on GLOW

Article 29 Education should develop your personality and talents to the full.

12 Article 29 Education should develop your personality and talents to the full.

Social Subjects and RME News

S2 Pupils Achieve Volunteering Awards

S2 pupils had an opportunity to influence what they learn by choosing an elective to extend their learning and spe-

cialise in a social subject. Motivation was enhanced as our young people had a choice of community projects. Pupils

had an opportunity to achieve a Saltire Award by recording the skills, experience and learning gained through suc-

cessful community projects.

In History pupils worked with the school librarian Mrs Mundie to develop their skills to interview members of our school community. Pupils also developed historical skills as part of their visit to the Giffnock Heritage Centre. The group of pupils used their skills to create a collection on various topics including local history projects and their fam-ily history. Pupils celebrated their success by inviting their family members and Eastwood writers to a coffee morn-ing to share their stories. Pupils opting for the Modern Studies elective had the opportunity to enter the Amnesty Youth Awards. The awards celebrate young people's talent for human rights reporting, photography, song writing, campaigning and fundraising. Pupils have developed their skills as global citizens, and have been motivated to take action to raise awareness of hu-man rights abuses around the world, such as prison camps in North Korea and the mistreatment of baby girls under China's One Child Policy

In Geography pupils have been learning about John Muir, one of the ‘Greatest Ever Scots’. After learning about Muir’s story pupils explored and shared stories of special places they had visited. Many shared stories of family holi-days or visits to relatives.

(Continued over)

13 Article 29 Education should develop your personality and talents to the full.

Social Subjects and RME News Pupils then looked at threats to the environment in groups and produced posters and PowerPoints to display their

findings. Issues covered fracking, plastic in our oceans, wind farms and anti-social behaviour in national parks.

Muir was a passionate conservationist and for this element S2 pupils completed voluntary work with Park Rangers in

Rouken Glen Park and Dams to Darnley Country Park. The staff were impressed with the commitment and enthusi-

asm shown by the pupils who helped collect visitor surveys, promote responsible dog ownership and cleared and

planted trees. Visiting both places in a different capacity allowed pupils to discover and explore wild places on their

doorsteps.

RMPS Homework

Following the recent success of the creative approach to home-

work taken by S2 in Social Subjects, S3 RMPS pupils were tasked

with creating work to help each other revise.

This handmade, 3D drawing of the Wheel of Samsara is

just one example of Sarah Y’s (S3) excellent RMPS

homework this term.

The wheel of Samsara is a Hindu and Buddhist depiction

of the belief of constant rebirth, which we have studied

as part of the RMPS National 5 course.

14

Social Subjects and RME News S2 Fairtrade Poster Competition

UNCRC Article 24 You have the right to good quality health care and to clean water, nutritious food and a clean environment so that you can stay healthy. Rich countries should help poorer countries achieve this. S2 pupils had the opportunity to be involved in the annual

Fairtrade poster competition to learn about and promote the work

of Fairtrade. Our winner this year is Callum W in 2.3. Well done

Callum!

Samye Ling Trip

This month, 24 pupils studying RMPS at National 5 and Higher visited Samye Ling Tibetan Mon-

astery in Dumfriesshire. National 5 pupils have been studying Buddhism as the world religion

part of the course, and greatly benefited from this trip. A guide gave us a tour of the grounds, led

us through some meditation techniques, and we were able to watch some Buddhist worship,

which included Tibetan chanting and some very loud music! The day was an excellent chance for

pupils to revise their knowledge of Buddhism, to see it being practised by Scottish Buddhists, and

to ask some searching and very intelligent questions. It was evident that pupils have embraced the

study of Buddhism and were keen to understand how it differed from their own beliefs.

Article 14 You have the right to think and believe what you want and to practise your religion, as long as you are not stopping other people from enjoying their rights.

Article 29 Education should develop your personality and talents to the full.

15 Article 29 Education should develop your personality and talents to the full.

S2 SCIENCE CENTRE VISIT

On 21 November, 30 S3 pupils were invited to the Science Centre by Skills Development Scotland (SDS) to experience their new MYWOW facility. Pupils were given the oppor-tunity to tour the centre starting with the huge Bodyworks exhibition. This is a giant hands on facility which pupils thor-oughly enjoyed. Pupils tested their fitness by taking the giant hamster’s wheel with differing levels of success! Other physical fitness tests were tried out - grip tests, sprint challenges and balance boards. One of the most fascinating exhibits was the mind ball chal-lenge where pupils competed against each other to move a ball on the table using only their thought waves via sensors attached to their foreheads. There were memory games, reaction time and multitasking challenges all aimed at testing pupils’ nervous systems. It was then on to the main event – the MYWOW AREA. SDS have provided the facility to allow young people to investigate the vast range of careers in scientific fields – many of which they had not considered before. Woodfarm pupils produced excellent presentations about the jobs required in the provision of music to the masses and our youngsters’ ideas were really thoughtful and creative. It was a very thought provoking activ-ity which allowed the S2s to look into science careers from many different angles. Giant interactive screens allowed pupils to conduct this research completely visually with pictures and video clips providing fuller detail about the careers they had chosen.

16 Article 29 Education should develop your personality and talents to the full.

Pupils could also carry out psycho-metric testing using online pictorial test consoles answering a battery of questions which resulted in a list of potential careers to suit their person-ality type. There was even an interactive game which allowed them to see themselves in the uniform of the career of their choice! Overall, it was an interesting and worth-while trip, well timed to allow pupils to think about potential careers before decid-ing their options in January. Huge thanks to Dr Hadfield for organising the logistics – everything ran like clockwork!

National Five Prelim Exams

“Some of the challenges that I faced were memorising quotes for the English exam and

sometimes it was difficult to remember certain things for different subjects.

I think that the Graphic Communications prelim was easier than I thought because, the

night before, I had gone over a past paper and some of the questions were quite similar.

In the final exams I think I will study more so that I can get the highest mark possible

and achieve as well as I can in the National 5 exams.

I believe that revision will help improve my performance in all of the exams.”

“I was very nervous during the prelims and I thought that I wouldn’t be able to control

my nerves. When I went into the games hall for my first exam, I reminded myself to

forget about the tense environment and focus on what I had learned and studied.

I surprised myself in one of the subjects I had worried about by completing it in the

time provided - with five minutes to spare. I have received my mark for this subject

and I got an A.

The prelims have given me an understanding of what is expected of me in the final SQA

examinations.”

Jamie Corsie, S4, reflects on his approach to the recent prelim exams.

Saarah Hussain, S4, reflects on exam tech-nique in the recent prelim exams.