Prince’s Trust S3 xl Group

On Tuesday 20 December, the S3 Prince’s Trust xl group visited The Sick Kids Friends Foundation. The group handed over a cheque for £204.28, to Susan Veitch of The Sick Kids Friends Foundation. The group raised this sum by selling flower bulbs and having a table at the Christmas Fayre held at school, where they sold home baking, handmade Christmas wreaths and small gifts. They also had a Lucky Dip. The S3 xl group was delighted to raise £204.28 for The Sick Kids Friends Foundation.

Duke of Edinburgh Award Presentations

Councillor Ricky Henderson attended the annual Currie CHS DofE Award presentation on Friday 16th December. Twenty nine Bronze and ten Silver award completion certificates and badges were presented to S4, S5 and S6 achievers. Fifty nine pupils completed their Bronze, Silver or Gold expeditions this summer.

South East of Scotland U-15 Girls’ Football

Congratulations go out to Amy Lynch and Alex Cairns on their selections as part of the squad for the South East of Scotland inter-area team. Both girls performed very well at the recent trial and will travel to Aberdeen for the tournament on 6th of December. Well done! Additionally, Amy was recently in Germany with the u-15 squad and featured in both games, despite being only 13!

Swimming success

Congratulations to Ross Muego on his swimming successes. Ross, of 2K2, won 2 silver medals for his individual swims at the regional qualifiers for the Scottish Schools’ Swim Championship in November.

SG Biology Zoo Lab Visit - pupil view

Toad-in-the-hole anyone?

Incy wincy spider...

On Tuesday 25 October, Zoo lab came to our school with many different fascinating creatures. He came to show us many different animals and to teach us about each of these animals and even hold some of them. They brought us a giant African snail, several large cockroaches, a cute, blue tree frog, a monitor lizard, two large tarantulas, a scorpion and a corn snake. He came into our Biology classroom in the morning with a bag and inside the bag were all of these amazing animals.

Firstly, he brought out the giant African snail and he told us that their shells were the same colour as tree roots so that they can be hidden and not seen to the untrained eye. These snails are the largest land snails in the world with their shells fully growing to a whopping 18cm long and 9cm in width. We were then able to hold the snail and he was pretty slimy! After he put the snail away he brought out about 6 or 7 large cockroaches and he told us that for every one person in the world there are a million cockroaches! He also told us how they can eat practically anything which is why they never really become extinct. He then passed them round so that we could all hold them and I have to say, they were very tickly to hold!

Next he brought out a tiny blue tree frog that was very cute but he liked to jump and he could jump very far! We were then allowed to hold it as he told us how because his tongue is on his front lip, he has to use his eyeballs to swallow his food which is pretty disgusting but quite interesting at the same time. He also brought out two tarantulas called Chilean Rose tarantulas who were quite itchy so he just held them both as he went around to show us them. The females live until they are 25 years old but the males only live until they are 5 years old but often the males die before then because they are eaten by the females after breeding.

Afterwards he brought out the red desert scorpion but again, we were unable to touch it for obvious reasons but he took it around the classroom in his hands to show us. He then proceeded to tell us that the scorpion had absolutely no bones to enable it to sting in front of itself! Next, he brought out the monitor lizard which was only a year old but was already quite big. The lizard had extremely sharp claws so we could stroke it but not hold it. The monitor lizard is quite vicious as it can crush all the bones in your finger if it bit you! Last of all he brought out a corn snake which we were allowed to hold and I have to say the corn snake was very cold and very slippery.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Zoo lab and I definitely recommend it to any other Biology class to take part in it! It was great fun, really interesting and you really learn a lot from it about animal you didn’t know about.

Written by Lucy Miller 3L1

S3 Girls in Physics

The Institute of Physics hosted a one day Girls in Physics workshop this October at George Watson’s to promote Physics. Fifteen girls from S3 Physics took part in the day which involved talks and workshops from the RAF, Selex, Heriot Watt University, Institute of Civil Engineering and Glasgow University. The girls enjoyed many different activities including ice-cream making, bridge building and sound engineering.

Edinburgh MiniTrials 2011

MiniTrial is an initiative from Scottish lawyers to help schools find out more about the Scottish legal system. Currie took part in the 9th annual "Edinburgh MiniTrials" that took place on Saturday 8 October 2011 in Edinburgh Sheriff Court.

Thanks from Chogoria Girls High School

We have just received letters of thanks from Winjoy Karendi, Dorkin Mkiende, Betty Kendi Maina and Iradukunda Giselle for helping to pay their fees at Chogoria Girls High School.
Without the generous support of pupils, staff and parents these girls would not have been able to attend secondary education.

Some quotes from the letters include:

“thank you for the significant impact that you have made on my life”
“I really want to express my gratitude to you for your help in my education”
“I promise you that what you have done for me, I will also do it to someone else when I grow up”
“I am very grateful and pleased for your whole heartedness and kindness towards me.”
“Thank you for paying my fees. My mum passed her great appreciation.”

Primary Maths competition

Today we welcomed our associated primary schools to take part in our annual Primary Maths Competition organised by the maths department in the school. Approximately 130 pupils took part in a range of problem solving activities, working cooperatively in small teams.
The highlight for many was building towers using marshmallows and spaghetti!
Every pupil taking part received a ruler, pencil and certificate with the members of the winning team each getting a scientific calculator.

School Sports Day

The School Sports day was a great success with the 4 houses vying for the honour of winning the House cup. In her last year at Currie, Mrs Nicholls held the cup aloft for the winning house, Woodhall.

Award Ceremony

Once again we celebrated the many varied and outstanding achievements of the young people who attend Currie Community High School.

Over one hundred pupils received awards which included distinction certificates, departmental awards, special awards for a range extracurricular activities and to celebrate people closely associated with the school. A particularly poignant moment was when Erin Boyle came on stage to accept the Paul Davies Braveheart Award, given in memory of Paul who died from leukaemia last year.
The winner of the Ian Bentley Medal for Dux of the school Award this year was awarded to Da Chen. His academic achievements are all the more remarkable as he could speak little if any English when he joined us 3 years ago.
A copy of the Award Ceremony programme can be downloaded from the news section on the school website.

Scottish Schools Track and Field Championships 2011

Congratulations to Robbie Nairn who took part in the Scottish Schools Track and Field Championships at Grangemouth Stadium on Friday 11 June.
Robbie came first in the Shot Putt with a Personal Best of 12.63 meters, also gaining a Standard Badge as he threw in excess of 12.30m. 216 High Schools took part in this national athletics event, travelling from as far away as Orkney.

Robbie also won the Shot Putt at the Edinburgh Schools Athletics Championships at Meadowbank Stadium on Wednesday 9th Jun

The John Byrne Award - winning entry

Here is the film from Currie's winning entry in The John Byrne Award

JB Award

Nothing to do with the award!

Well done on winning the award.