News

On Thursday 8th February the whole school went on a trip to the Five Sisters Zoo in West Lothian. The zoo was an ideal location to build on the pupils’ experiences of biodiversity and adaptation, which is part of all the Biology courses they are studying. The pupils and staff really enjoyed this trip.  There were opportunities to walk around and see all the interesting anima...

On Wednesday 31st January Zoolab visited the school for an animal handling session.  The Ranger, Ross, brought in a variety of interesting and exotic animals for pupils to handle and discuss.  Amongst the animals were: an Albino Corn Snake, Bearded Dragon, Giant African Snail, a Chilean Rose hair Tarantula and a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach.  The pupils were given the opportuni...

We are now half way through our Drake music workshop and those pupils taking part have had a fantastic opportunity to try a variety of instruments with an experienced musician on hand. Pupils are currently working on compiling their own song and have chosen to include drums, guitar and a keyboard in their composition.  We have a further five weeks to go and we hope to showcase ...

This week saw the culmination of this year's collaboration with The Lyceum, when invited guests joined us for our sharing event.  Guests were encouraged to walk through the “bizarre bazaar” pupils had created, which was intended to be a feast for the senses.  They could read and listen to the stories and scripts pupils had developed, inspired by the tales of The Arabian Nights....

On Tuesday 28 November, 15 pupils and staff attended a performance of The Lyceum’s winter production of The Arabian Nights.  This fantastic opportunity to go to the theatre is part of our collaboration with The Lyceum. It was really interesting for those of us who are participating in Project Genie to see how a professional company would bring the stories which we are now fa...

Four of our pupils have recently started an Engineering course at Edinburgh College.  Their course focuses on three National 5 units and are a practical introduction to machine shop skills including operating lathes and milling machines.  The course is hands-on and very quickly our pupils were using the machines to cut and face aluminium and mild steel to tolerances of 0.1mm.  ...

On 14 November, staff and pupils enjoyed what has become an annual trip to the cinema as part of the nationwide Into Film Festival.   This festival aims to put film at the heart of children and young people's education, and gives access to over 100 films which are grouped by theme.  It is also a lovely opportunity for us to enjoy a trip out together! This year, we elected to...

Children in Need is always a fun day at school for our pupils, if not for some of our staff!  This year pupils decided they would like the staff to be the coconuts in a coconut shy, though they did relent and use wet sponges rather than anything more substantial. As well, some of our pupils made a variety of baked goods in our kitchen, including Wheaten Bread, Ginger Bread a...