Braidhurst High news

Nov 19 2008 by Jean Ward, Wishaw Press

Braidhurst High last week welcomed Mr Antony Short, Head Teacher of Tabeetha School in Jaffa in Israel. This is a Church of Scotland school and Mr Short was visiting through a link with Hamilton Presbytery. As a former teacher of physical education, he was particularly interested and impressed by the facilities and activities in the sports comprehensive. Ruth Anderson, head of the sports comprehensive, conducted a guided tour and highlighted the curricular and extra-curricular activities on offer. Kathryn Clarke, senior depute head teacher then gave him a guided tour of the rest of the school with the Rector Derrick Hannan covering a wide range of Scottish education topics.

ASSEMBLIES were taken last week by Rev. Gavin Black, Rev Derek Pope and Rev. Derek Hughes for all year groups. These are monthly events and the school is very pleased to have the services of three Church of Scotland ministers as chaplains.

PARENTS’ night was held last week for pupils involved in the SFA School of Football based in Braidhurst High. The school has 18 boys and three girls along with SFA coach Ian Ross, who formerly played midfield with Motherwell and St Mirren. A full turnout of parents and players attended the evening where there were demonstrations of the skills and exercises involved as well as input on nutrition. Each player was given a folder of resources outlining home exercises as well as actual football resources. Feedback from parents and players was extremely positive.

S5/6 pupils at Braidhurst High School recently took part in a Day of Industry Challenge. During this day pupils worked in teams and were to assume the role of entrepreneurs. They were tasked with turning an initial cash injection to their business into a final profit by participating in a series of business scenarios. From this challenge, pupils gained an insight into aspects of business including manufacturing, trading, advertising land negotiating and improved skills in problem solving, team working and risk taking.

Braidhurst High School has had a tradition of running a robotics club.

The club is geared towards allowing pupils to get involved in the construction of programming of microprocessor-controlled robots. Many of modern toys have the same computing power as the space shuttle.

The club tries to teach members how to programme and build fully-functioning robotic vehicles while equipping them with the knowledge to become the engineer of the future.

CHALLENGING STUFF: some of the S5 and S6 pupils who took part in a Day of Industry Challenge. During this day pupils worked in teams and were to assume the role of entrepreneurs.