Dear Parent
It is good at this time of year to reflect on the year past and take the
opportunity to share with Eastwood High School parents a good news story.
2010 has been a most successful year for the school and its pupils, The
graphs below show
how our pupils’
attainment in key
measures of SQA
performance has
been improving
steadily over the last
5 years. A great
achievement.
This is a testament
to all the hard put
in by pupils and
staff alike to
ensure that no one
under achieves.
At our recent S1 parents evening,
attended by almost 80% of the
parents, a survey of parental opinion
was undertaken. In answer to the
question “Is your son/daughter happy
at school?” the parents responded as
illustrated in the pie chart above. A ringing endorsement you’ll agree.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all parents for their
continued support in ensuring that this session the standard of school
uniform is much improved. The pupils should also be complimented for a
marked improvement in behaviour in the school - exclusions and referrals are
both significantly lower than last year.
We are a very good school and perhaps I do not take the opportunity
often enough to tell people that. I will leave the last word to S1 pupils
Bhavna Mehta “I really enjoy Eastwood High School and all the opportunities it has given me” and Mark Falconer “I enjoy being trusted by my teachers who always do their best for me” S Maxwell
EASTWOOD HIGH SCHOOL
Parents Newsletter
Specia l points of interest:
13th December - Christmas Concert
14th December - Senior Citizens party
16th December - Junior Dance
20th December - Senior Dance
23rd December - School closes for Christ-mas holiday @ 2.30pm
5th January - School re-opens @ 8.45am
11th January - S5/6 Parents Evening
19th January - S2 Parents Evening & Options hour
2nd February - S4 Parents Evening & Options hour
11th February - Inservice day
14th & 15th February - Holidays
23rd March - ASN Transitions Parents Eve.
1st April—School closes for Spring holiday @ 2.45pm
18th April - School reopens @ 8.45am
22nd April - Good Friday Holiday
25th April - Easter Monday Holiday
PARENTS NEWSLETTER PAGE 1
November 2010
Tel : 0141 577 2200 Fax :0141 577 2220 Website : www.scottishschools.info/eastwoodhigh
E.Mail : [email protected]
Dear Parent 1
Silverburn Glee Choir Date
2
Eco School News 3
Drama in London 3
High Fashion 4
Sports News 4
Parent Council 4
Inside this issue:
0
10
20
30
40
206 2007 2008 2009 2010
Year
S4 SQA Points Score per Pupil
Series1
0
10
20
30
40
50
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Year
S5 SQA Points Score per Pupil
Series1
Is your Child Happy at School?
Very Happy
Quit e Happy
Not Happy
DNC
Parent Information
Line 0845 84100 10
www.ea.e-
renfrew.sch.uk/
Mock Interviews
Employers from all areas of
business attended Eastwood on
18th & 18th November to take
part in our very successful
Mock Interview programme or-
ganised by Mrs Sinclair. The
event is aimed at all S5 pupils
who prepare letters and CVs
during Social Education classes
and are then interviewed by
the employers on the Mock In-
terview day. The feedback for
the pupils was very positive and
a big thank you is due to all the
volunteer employers who as-
sisted
the
school by
partici-
pating in
the
event.
NEWS IN BRIEF
The fantastic sum of £750 was
raised by senior pupils and staff for
the “Wear it Pink” Charity. The sen-
ior pupils organised a number of ac-
tivities and events. The money was
raised through such things as a cof-
fee morning, face painting and the
sale of pink confectionary.
Wear it Pink
Silverburn Carol Concert Miss Robertson’s Glee Choir will
be performing at the Silver-
burn Shopping Centre on Friday
3rd December between 3pm
and 4pm. The choir will be rais-
ing money for the CLIC Sargent
Charity and all teachers and
parents are welcome to come
along to offer support.
In addition a reminder that the
School Christmas Concert and
Art Exhibition will be held on
Monday 13th December at 7pm.
Tickets will be on sale soon.
Eastwood High School Page 2
Geography Actvities
In geography, S1 pupils have been
learning about landscapes through
model making. The pupils were asked
to create a mini landscape inside an
egg/shoe box. Theywere then asked
to open their boxes, talk briefly
about their landscape and give rea-
sons behind why they had chosen
Also in geography Miss MacAskill ac-
companied Louise Clark, Stephen
Haggis, Laleh Metin and Caitlin Roan
of S5 who represented Eastwood in
an inter schools debate against Bar-
rhead HS on “China’s One Child Pol-
icy”. The debate can be heard on
podcast at www.pulseonair.co.uk.
Congratulations are due to a number of
staff this month for successfully gaining
professional qualifications. After 2 years of
hard work Mr
Richmond,
Mrs Foster
and Mrs
Regan have
passed the
Scottish
Qualification
for Headship.
Congratulations also go to Mr Murray in
The Technical Department who collected his
award at Strathclyde University this month
for being Technical
student of the year
for session
2009/2010.
Well done to
everyone.
Mathletics Eastwood pupils have been representing Scotland in the
Mathletics Four Nations Championship. This event is an
on line competition where schools from Scotland, Eng-
land, Wales and Northern Ireland complete a series of
Maths challenges. The more successful they are at
completing the tasks the more points they secure for
their country. Needless to say with national pride at
stake Eastwood is pulling out all the stops for a Scot-
land success.
Staff Stars
Drama Trip to the National Theatre in London A group of intrepid Higher drama pupils and teachers
braved a 10 hour return train journey to London on
Saturday 6th of November in pursuit of Higher suc-
cess. The group enjoyed a backstage tour of London’s
National Theatre before seeing a production of “Men
Should Weep” a key text in their Drama course.
Thank you to Miss Workman for organising the trip
and Mrs Regan, Miss Robertson and Miss Campbell for
accompanying the group.
Eastwood High School Page 3
Physics on the Road On the 17th of November 79 S3 Physics students
visited the Glasgow Science Centre. The trip was
organised by Mr Howard to enhance the pupils’
Physics understanding. The highlight of the trip was
a 3D Imax presentation of images from the Hubble
telescope but pupils were also able to study New-
ton’s 3rd Law in the Planetarium and gain some
hands on practical experience of optics and mechan-
ics ex-
periments
in the
main Sci-
ence Hall.
ECO Schools News Autumn has been a busy time for the Eco groups within the school under the direction of Dr Lowe. The
pupil ECO Committee had a visit by Zoe Furnivall of Friends of the Earth to talk to them about the work
of the charity and discuss possible partnership work between Friends of the Earth and Eastwood’s ECO
committee. Dr Lowe’s S5 class have also been involved in planting a number of trees on the school campus
to promote biodiversity—one of their course topics. The trees were provided by Go Greener East Ren-
frewshire’s Environmental
Group. Finally Mr Law and
his Cope class have con-
structed “Bug Hotels” and
placed them in the woods
around the school campus to
help inverebrates survive
the winter.
Busy Bhavna Bhavna Mehta of S1 has had a very busy month
of dancing and performing. Firstly she was in-
volved in a show to mark the handover of the
Commonwealth Games from Dehli to Glasgow
performing Bollywood dance to the songs
“Deya Deya Re” and Naiyo Naiyo”. Bhavna and
her group then performed their dance at
Falkirk Town Hall and
Clarkston Hall as part of
the community celebra-
tions for Diwali. As part
of East Renfrewshire’s
celebration of Diwali
Bhavna then performed in
a drama of the story of
“Rama and Sita”
St Andrews Day Ceilidh The junior and senior Eastwood High School
Ceilidh Bands joined forces to play for the St
Cadocs and Crookfur Primary Schools St An-
drews Day Ceilidh held in our school assembly
hall. The event has become an annual fixture
and is thoroughly enjoyed by all the pupils. It
also gives
invaluable
performance
practice for
our musi-
cians.
Parent Council News The next meeting of the Parent Council is set for
Thursday 13th January at 8pm when a new chair and office bearers will be confirmed. At the last meeting
of the Council DHT Mr Richmond gave a presentation
on school self evaluation. The presentation was fol-
lowed by questions.
The next PCTA meeting is scheduled for 7pm on the
same night. Discussions wil centre around the fund
raising programme for the coming term including the
possibility of a school Easter Raffle.
The fundraising branch of the Parent Council (PCTA)
is always looking for volunteers to assist with its ac-
tivities. If you feel that you can spare some time
please do not hesitate to contact the PCTA chair
Vivienne Christison via the school office.
PARENTS NEWSLETTER PAGE 4
SPORTS NEWS The senior Boys basketball team have now played
5 league games with a 3 wins and 2 losses record.
This month they have played four games losing to
Williamwood HS but beating Barrhead HS in a
tight match and St Lukes HS culminating in a 71-
51 win against Gryffe HS. In netball this week the
Eastwood senior girls team beat Castlehead HS
15-10 to progress to Round 2 of the Scottish Cup.
Euan Robertson of S2 recently competed in the
UK Tae Kwon Do Championships in Edinburgh. In
his belt category he won a bronze medal in spar-
ring and a silver medal in shaping.
On the 26th of November Mrs Rorison accompa-
nied members of the Eastwood HS badminton club
to the Glasgow International Badminton Carnival
held at the Kelvin Hall. When there they took part
in coaching sessions and challenges under the
watchful eye of the Scotland’s coaches.
In football Eastwood’s boys U15 team is now top
of their league having beaten St Ninians (4-2) and
Woodfarm (6-3) as well as progressing to the 3rd
round of the Scottish Cup by beating Inverclyde
Academy 6-2 away in round 2. Also in football our
U15 girls team unfortunately lost their West of
Scotland cup final
however they did
look the part
thanks to their new
kit kindly donated
by Mr Houston of
Direct
Accounting
HIGH FASHION On Sunday the 14th of November the PCTA held a
fashion show at the Matalan store in Darnley. The
event was a great success and enjoyed by the
large audience who attended on the night. A large
number of very professional pupils acted as mod-
els and had a most enjoyable evening. Nearly
£1000 was raised for school funds. A big thank
you to everyone who helped
to organise the event—
especially Mrs Margo
McGibbon from the PCTA,
and Mrs MacGlashan from
the school.
Eastwood High School Swim Team had a most
successful Renfrewshire Area Championships
with all our swimmers qualifying for the Scottish
Schools Championships in January. The results
were as follows Neil Ross 200m Ind. Medlay Gold & 200m Breaststroke
Silver; Paul Chrichton 100m & 200m Backstroke Gold;
Katie James 100m & 200m Backstroke Gold; Gavin Con-
nor 100m & 200m Breaststroke Gold; Nicola Connor
200m Butterfly
Gold and 200m
Ind. Medlay Sil-
ver; Amy McIl-
reavy 200m
Breaststroke
Gold & 100m
Backstroke
Silver