Summer 2012 - Newbattle Community High School

NEWBATTLE COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL 

Summer 2012 

Issue 18 

Newbattle News 

Pupils return to school: Wednesday 22nd August 

National Success for Newbattle – Nice One Newbattle! 

It was celebrations all round as the 

school was victorious in this year’s 

Convention of Scottish Local Authorities 

(COSLA) Excellence 

Awards. The COSLA Excellence 

Awards showcase and celebrate the 

very best of work across Scottish Local 

Government. The school was 

triumphant 

in 

winning 

t w o 

awards: 

the Gold 

Award 

for the 

SOLACE Best Team Award and a 

Silver Award in the Achieving Better 

Outcomes Award. The awards were 

presented at a ceremony in St Andrews 

by TV news presenter and 

journalist Jackie Bird. 

Midlothian Council nominated Newbattle 

CHS for the enormous amount 

of progress made under the School of 

Ambition banner and in particular the 

highly innovative Peak Performance 

Programme and Academies that operate 

in the school. Recognition was 

given for the tremendous amount of 

inter-generational work that had 

taken place involving staff, pupils, 

parents and a wide range of partners. 

Two hundred and twenty projects 

were nominated from across Scotland, 

eventually narrowed down to 

just nine awards. 

Midlothian Council Chief Executive, 

Kenneth Lawrie made a special visit 

to the school to offer congratulations 

and praise the efforts of the Newbattle 

CHS community. In his presentation 

he said, ‘This is a massive piece of 

work across a wide range of areas, very innovative 

and a successful approach to delivering 

inter-disciplinary learning which the youngsters 

obviously enjoy participating in. It 

leaves the school ideally placed to overtake 

the challenges of delivering Curriculum for 

Excellence. As a school you quickly realised 

that by releasing the leadership potential that 

existed across the school community, great 

things can happen. The success you have 

achieved is well deserved and I am sure the 

school is well placed to strive for excellence in 

everything they do.’ 

Our School of Ambition 

Basketball 2011/2012 2 

Netball 2011/2012 2 

Dynamic Earth 2 

School Dress Code News 3 

Bionic Designs 3 

Auschwitz Visit 4 

Junior Enterprise Project 4 

Future Athletics Stars 5 

Dragonfly 5 

PE Goes to Wembley 5 

Sky Sports Group 6 

School Report Live! 6 

Toilet Twinning 6 

Music Matters 7 

Young Musician 7 

Sleep Out 8 

Michael Grant Visit 8 

Dance Showcase Review 9 

Mr Foley meets the First Minister 9 

Art for Africa 10 

Skate Park Campaign 10 

Youth Sports Trust 10 

Forthcoming Events 11 

1000×1000 11 

Comments From SMT 12

Page 2 


www.facebook.com/newbattlehigh 

Well done to the Senior Boys’ Basketball 

Team who finished second in 

their league and missed out on being 

at the Scottish Cup finals by one 

game. The boys did really well this 

year and are inspirational to the new 

S1/2 boys’ teams, as well as now 

having two newly qualified referees - 

Darren Gould and Neil 

MacKinnon. The MVP player of 

Basketball 2011/2012 

this season has been awarded to 

Darren Gould who has scored an 

amazing tally of points for Newbattle 

High. Seniors now focus on their 

exams and all games now are for the 

S1/2 Boys. 

Training night is Monday 1530 to 

1630 or Wednesday lunchtime. 

See you there! 

Mr Foley Head of PE 

Our Trip To Dynamic Earth 

Ms Terris and Mr McMillan took Ms 

Terris’ S3 Intermediate 1 class on a 

class trip to Dynamic Earth in December. 

We went because we were 

studying evolution and the Big Bang 

theory and we learned a lot about 

these topics during our tour. When 

we got there we were told to wait on 

an elevator that came every seven 

minutes to take us back millions of 

years. We learned about the start of 

the world and how animals fit into 

their surroundings in a really good 

3D experience. After the tour we 

then went to a workshop to learn 

about the Big Bang theory and made 

little spaceships out of Lego! The 

pupils represented Newbattle well 

and were very well 

behaved throughout. 

Ms Terris, RMPS 

Newbattle Netball has had another 

successful season with the S3 team 

playing in the Scottish Cup and competing 

against Glasgow teams:- the 

heartland of Scottish Netball. As the 

only High School in Midlothian playing 

competitive netball we started this 

season's competition against previous 

Newbattle Netball 2011/2012 

winners Peebles as well as Craigmount 

and Berwickshire. After the 

first round, Newbattle qualified to 

play in the knock out stages where 

they were faced with Eastwood High 

School. Newbattle proved to be the 

stronger team and won this game 18- 

12. This allowed Newbattle to move 

on to the quarter finals, where we 

travelled to Coatbridge to play St Andrew’s 

High School. This was a hard 

fought game finishing at 20-20. All 

of our players worked extremely hard 

and showed great team spirit but in 

extra time St Andrew’s took the lead 

with the final score of 24-22. Thank 

you to all players from S1-S6 for the 

great commitment and team work 

again this season. For all pupils interested 

in joining netball for next season 

please ask your PE teacher. 

Well Done! 

Mrs A. Alexander, PE 

Your Newbattle Community High School...

Page 3 


Check out our website at www.newbattle.org.uk 

School Dress Code News 

Advanced Higher Product Design Pupils, the NHS and some Bionic Designs. 

Inspired by the ‘Walking with the 

Wounded’ charity’s television promotion 

on the BBC, this year’s four Advanced 

Higher Product Design candidates 

got in touch with some notable 

war veteran charities. They accumulated 

knowledge and information regarding 

the types of injuries sustained 

in the battlefield and how service men 

and women learn to adapt to a new 

aspect of life with a permanent disability. 

Through partnerships with Help for 

Heroes, Erskine and the NHS, 

Kieran McInulty, Ryan Laing, 

Yvonne Pearce and Stacey McCaig 

(all S6) began to amass much information 

surrounding the development 

of prosthetic limbs throughout the 

centuries, right up to the present-day 

You might remember that we were 

asked to look at alternatives to dress 

code which involved a shirt and tie 

option for younger pupils. A consultation 

and design exercise was carried 

out before Christmas and we have 

taken ideas and themes from this, and 

in discussion with Clan House, have 

come up with new look ties as shown 

in this mocked up image. 

The striped tie will be worn in S1, S2 

and S3 – its blue comes from a background 

colour in the school’s badge 

of arms and the black reflects the 

dominant colour from the current 

dress code. The senior tie picks up 

the blue colour and includes the full 

badge of arms – this will be worn in 

S4, S5 and S6. Ties for all, of course, 

mean shirts for all and we would be 

sticking with our current white shirt 

option. We hope you approve of the 

choices! An order has been placed 

with Clan House and we hope to take 

designs on offer to patients. 

Dr David Gow (of the 

SMART centre, Astley 

Ainslie Hospital, Edinburgh) 

invited the 

group to a tour of the 

NHS prosthetics facility 

where artificial limbs are 

designed and fabricated 

for a bespoke fit to all 

who require them. Dr 

Gow is also a founding 

member of TouchBionics, 

Livingston who are one of the 

extremely few myo-electric limb developers 

in the world today and employed 

heavily by the US military to 

develop bionic limbs for servicemen/women’s 

rehabilitation. 

During the Easter break Kieran and 

Yvonne met with Dr Gow to evaluate 

the work done throughout the ten 

week design process. Yvonne’s work 

was picked out as a refreshing change 

and a move away from human, handlike 

mechanisms and Kieran’s stood 

out as a well thought out fullyworking 

design utilising OLED touch 

screen technology for use with new 

technology and other media. 

The importance of this link with the 

NHS has opened-up a partnership 

delivery of the new ties very soon. 

The plan is to launch the new look 

dress code at the start of session in 

August. I will be writing to all parents 

to describe the new code and to ask 

for support in carrying it through. 

There will also be comprehensive 

information sent 

out with the summer 

mail shot. 

G Moffat 

Acting Headteacher 

between the SMART centre (East 

Scotland’s only prosthetic limb development 

lab and ability aid manufacturer) 

and Newbattle High School 

and a joint application for funding 

from the MOD will follow to help 

facilitate this. The future for Newbattle’s 

Product Design classes will be a 

working partnership with NHS Lothian, 

to help motivate ability aid design 

into the present day and beyond. 

The starting point for this relationship 

has certainly been the amazing 

work done by 

our four Advanced 

Higher 

Candidates. 

Mr Watt 

CDT 

Our School of Ambition

Page 4 


Auschwitz Visit 


Junior Enterprise Project 

Over the course of twelve weeks, a 

group of S1 and S2 pupils enjoyed a 

lunch time business enterprise club 

where they were given the task of 

creating their own business and designing 

a product to sell throughout 

the school. After a lot of hard thinking 

and research, the group decided 

that they would create a gardening 

pack. During this time, they carried 

out a number of tasks including market 

research, creating names and logos, 

and designing and selling the 

product. The gardening packs sold 

Last September we took part in the 

Lessons From Auschwitz project. 

This included meeting a survivor 

from World War II, and a one day 

trip to visit two camps and a cemetery 

in Poland. Before visiting the camp, 

we met Ziggy Shipper, a Polish survivor 

who experienced the horrors of 

World War II. He told us about his 

struggles as he was shipped to many 

different camps at a very young age, 

living in unimaginable conditions. 

After hearing about Ziggy’s suffering, 

we felt incredibly guilty for taking so 

much in our lives for granted. 

After visiting the cemetery, we made 

our way to one of the concentration 

camps, Auschwitz I. On arrival, the 

coach was silent as everyone took in 

their surroundings. We met our guide, 

Anna, who told us of the horrors that 

happened here, while we walked 

along-side the barracks where prisoners 

were kept not so very many years 

ago. We went inside several barracks 

where we saw masses of hair, shoes, 

suitcases and even children’s toys; 

these personal items were removed 

from prisoners on arrival at the 

camps. Throughout this time nobody 

spoke. We could only just 

about take in the horrible statistics 

that were thrown at us. 

We were allowed to stand inside 

one of the gas chambers 

and this for us, personally, was 

surreal. We could walk in, view 

inside it, view the crematorium, 

and then walk back out 

but every prisoner that was 

marched into the gas chamber 

only made it to the crematorium, 

they didn’t even get to 

see the way out. Seeing the 

cells within the basement of one of 

the barracks was very eerie. The suffocation, 

starvation and standing cells 

were all designed to make people suffer 

in the cruellest ways possible. 

They were kept there for days on end 

without the necessary things to sustain 

life. 

We also Visited Auschwitz II, where 

we saw the terrible conditions even 

young children had to put up with. 

At the end of the day we all made our 

way to a building within the camp 

that had been kept to house photos 

and a few personal items. In this 

building we held a memorial service 

to show our respect for those poor 

innocent victims who died at the 

hands of the most evil people on 

Earth. Rabbi Marcus held the memorial 

service and said a few prayers towards 

the end. He reminded us to 

reflect on the trip and change our way 

of life; we shouldn’t take things for 

granted and we should live each day 

as it comes. All that we can say now is 

‘seeing truly is believing.’ 

Zoe Forrester & Louise Collins 6M 

very well and the pupils enjoyed the 

experience so much that they would 

all like to continue with another project 

in the future. 

By Ellie Hogarth 1AM 


Page 5 



In February at the Scottish Schools 

Indoor Athletics Championships in 

the Kelvin Hall, Rachel Robertson 

and Gareth Fleming produced outstanding 

performances in their events. 

Gareth got silver medals in the Under 

16 Boys’ Pole Vault (3.00m - PB), and 

the Long Jump (5.36m). He also finished 

sixth in the hurdles final. 

Rachel won gold in the Over 16 Girls’ 

Long Jump, with a new PB of 5.50m, 

with the second place girl (a sixth year 

Future Athletics Stars 

pupil) jumping 5.22m. She also made 

it through the heats, semi and into the 

final of the 200m, where she finished 

fifth. She was the only S4 pupil to 

make it to the final. The first three 

runners in the 200m final are also the 

top three sprinters in Scotland in the 

Under 20 age group. 

As a result of their performances Rachel 

(triple/long jump) and Gareth 

(pole vault) have been invited to attend 

a Scottish Schools coaching day 

at Pitreavie Stadium in Dunfermline. 

Dragonfly - Heriot Watt University 

In December 2011, Miss Blair gave a 

group of S2 girls an exciting opportunity 

to gain some hands on experience 

of engineering; the application of science 

to solving real world problems, at 

Heriot Watt University. 

Dragonfly is an event that encourages 

girls to develop their interest in engineering. 

It aims to ensure that females 

are provided with opportunities to 

gain an insight into what is often perceived 

as being a predominately maleorientated 

area of engineering. 

Throughout our day on campus we 

received lots of encouragement from 

the staff and students. During the 

morning session our group was tasked 

to make a product - the ‘Perfect 

Slime’. You may have seen TV game 

shows where contestants may get covered 

in slime - this is the product we 

had to assess and produce a chemical 

recipe for. We had a lot of fun engineering 

the gooiest slime possible! 

We then went to the university’s cafeteria 

for lunch and a chat with some 

students. In the afternoon we went 

back to the engineering science labs 

and made a PCB musical organ. We 

were taught how to solder all of the 

components to the circuit board in 

order to achieve a working product 

which played a few Christmas songs. 

Overall, we had a very good girls’ day 

out where we learned lots of new 

things about engineering! It was an 

exciting experience and we would love 

to go back to the 

university! 

By Leanne Livie, Paige Gould, 

Emily Gillespie, Kirsty Dilworth 

and Sarah Hiddleston. 

The PE Department Goes To Wembley! 

Mr Foley & Mrs Alexander flew from 

Edinburgh to London in January to 

attend the Sky Sports Living for Sport 

Awards, where Mr Foley was one of 

three UK Finalists for PE Teacher of 

the Year. The awards are held every 

year for the 12 Regional Pupil Finalists 

and the three UK teachers who have 

used the Sky Sports scheme to change 

lives. Wembley is a really magnificent 

stadium and the awards room was 

overlooking the whole pitch from the 


highest level. The staff met many well 

known Sky presenters including Kirsty 

Gallagher and Olympic Sprinter Darren 

Campbell as well as our own mentor 

Steve Frew. At the awards Mr 

Foley was named as runner up and he 

was delighted that Newbattle PE department 

had again been recognised 

nationally for its work, after last year 

winning Pupil of the Year in the same 

scheme. 

Mrs Alexander

Page 6 



The S3 Sky Sports Living for Sports 

groups from Dalkeith High and Newbattle 

High worked in the PE department 

for three hours together with 

athlete mentor Steve Frew and their 

PE teachers in a UK first joint project. 

The two groups of S3 were wary of 

each other at first, but thanks to team 

building exercises, active sports and 

lunch together the two groups were 

soon working well together and planning 

future events for the community. 

The pupils from Dalkeith wore their 

white Sky T Shirts and Newbattle in 

Navy T shirts, which they receive free 

A dedicated group of Newbattle 

High School pupils 

took part in this year’s BBC 

School Report on the 15 th of 

March. BBC School News 

Report gives pupils aged 11- 

16 the opportunity to make 

their own news reports for a 

real online audience. The 

hardworking and assiduous 

news team have been steadfast 

in their commitment to 

weekly meetings and since starting the 

project in October the team of six 

have been busy finding news and reporting 

on topics that interest them. 

Newbattle High School is flushing 

away poverty! A group of S3 girls has 

formed Team Toilet Twinning to 

raise money for one of the poorest 

countries in the world- Burundi, Africa. 

The girls are aiming to raise 

money to ‘twin’ our school toilets 

Sky Sports Group Work 

for being members of the scheme. 

The two groups will repeat the session 

at Dalkeith High soon, to continue 

School Report Live! 

These range from widespread concerns 

such as bullying and literacy, to 

local issues which affect young people 

in the community. Pupils have been 

Toilet Twinning 

with a block of toilets in a town in 

Burundi. By sponsoring this block of 

toilets the hope is that charities will 

be able to put money towards improved 

sanitation and access to training 

and education in the community. 

All of this will improve the quality of 

Your Newbattle Community High School... 

building links and friends in another 

community. 

Mr Foley/Mr Baxter 

honing their interview skills and even 

managed to scoop a story from Labour 

councillor Wilma Chalmers 

about the latest developments in funding 

for a local skate park. The team 

also gained some top tips when they 

had the opportunity to show BBC 

video journalist Duncan Kirkhope 

their projects so far. The news broadcasts 

can be found on the Newbattle 

High School website at 

www.newbattle.org.uk/Departments/ 

English/bbcnews.html. 

Well done to the BBC News Team at 

Newbattle! 

Miss Miller, English 

life for the people living there. So far 

the team has already 

raised 

enough to link one 

block of toilets in 

our school- Well 

done girls! 

Miss Henry

Page 7 


After a successful start to the academic 

year, the music department’s 

extra-curricular groups have been 

focusing on fundraising and getting 

our fantastic performances out into 

the community. 

The Jazz Band were particularly active 

in this area and performed in 

both the local and wider communities. 

Pupils are selected to play in the 

Jazz Band which gives them the opportunity 

to stretch themselves musically 

and to experience the varied 

styles and pressures of performing. 

Mr D Knox directs the Jazz Band and 

the group is a mixture of pupils and 

some staff who enjoy coming along at 

The annual Rotary 

Young Musician 

competition was held 

in Newbattle on the 

9 th February. This is a 

competition for instrumentalists 

and 

vocalists from Newbattle, 

Dalkeith, St 

David’s and Lasswade. 

Each pupil performs 

a song or piece 

of music and they are 


Music Matters 

Young Musician 

judged by Graham 

Lovatt, Vocal Specialist 

and Charlie 

Farren, Bass Trombone 

player. 

We had six entrants 

in the competition, 

more than any other 

school. All of the 

pupils were praised 

by the judges for 

their performances 


lunchtimes to join in the music making. 

The band has gone from strength 

to strength in recent months and they 

have performed in Dobbies and in 

Asda at the Jewel with fantastic responses 

from both businesses and the 

public. In total the department raised 

over £500. This included money from 

Dobbies which has been given to the 

development of the 

school garden, a project 

that the S4 college class 

are involved in. 

A big thank you goes to 

Councillor Lisa Beattie 

who kindly gave £2000 

to the department to buy 

much needed equipment. 

This has allowed pupils who 

would otherwise not be able to participate 

in musical activities to experience 

performing in public or to their 

friends. 

Coming up: 

School Summer Concert – Cool Britannia 

12 th June 2012, tickets £4/£2, 

refreshments included in the price of 

the ticket. Please buy your tickets in 

advance from the office from the 1 st 

June. 

If your child is interested in playing 

an instrument or participating in a 

lunchtime group please see Miss 

Maynes or a member of the music 

department. The Vocal Group and 

Keyboard Club are open to all. 

Miss Maynes, Head of Music 

and Anne-Marie Hall was announced 

as the winner of the vocal section. 

She went on to compete in the regional 

finals in Heriot-Watt University 

on the 29 th February. 

Pupils entered were: Anne-Marie 

Hall S6, Eireann MacIntyre S5, 

Linzi Blacklaw S5, Amy Paterson 

S5, Tyler Durnion S5 and Ashley 

Edwards S4. All of these pupils were 

a fantastic credit to both the school 

and their families. Well done!

Page 8 



Sleep Out 

On Tuesday 13 th March the best selling 

teen author Michael Grant visited 

Newbattle to chat to S3 pupils about 

his latest books, his best selling Gone 

series and how he became a writer. 

His two new books are BZRK, a sci-fi 

story about a war fought using nano 

technology and Fear, the latest in the 

popular Gone series. 

The Gone series imagines 

a town in California 

where all the adults 

have vanished in the 

blink of an eye. All of 

the remaining kids 

have to survive on 

their own as there appears 

to be a mysterious 

barrier 20 miles 

wide keeping them in. 

In November, over 40 Newbattle 

High School pupils took part in a 

Charity Sleep out on George Street in 

the grounds of St Andrew's and St 

George's Church to raise awareness of 

the work of homelessness charity 

Rock Trust. The Rock Trust were 

there on the night supporting everyone 

who took part. Refreshments 

were available from inside the Church 

and entertainment was also provided 

on the night. The only belongings allowed 

were sleeping bags, extra 

clothes to keep warm and food to 

snack on. No tents were allowed. 

Despite being a cold wintery night, 

the atmosphere was uplifting and 

everyone had a really good time. Two 

pupils involved, Rebecca Fairnie and 

Dale Drummond became ‘Stewards’ 

for the night collecting money from 

the public to put towards the Charity. 

In total so far the school managed to 

raise over £2000 (still counting!) The 

Michael Grant Visit 

It’s a scary world with no rules and it’s 

survival of the fittest (aided by the 

development of strange powers by 

some of the kids). The series is like a 

cross between Lord of the Flies and X 

Men. 

Michael Grant became a writer in a 

round-about way. A school drop-out, 

he only started writing in his 30s after 

pupils felt that is was an eye opening 

experience and they agreed that they 

would do it again as it really does 

make you realise how 

lucky you are! 

Rebecca Fairnie 6M 

his wife, (author K.A. Applegate) told 

him he had to grow up and get a 

proper job. Since then he has helped 

write over 150 books. He stressed the 

point that he was most definitely not a 

role model. The session ended with a 

very short Q and A session (the pupils 

were obviously left speechless!) which 

was all about Gone. 

Michael’s visit to the 

school was interesting as 

well as funny and was 

enjoyed by all present. 

The Gone series and 

BZRK are available for 

loan from your fantastic 

school library. 

Mr McRobbie 

Library 


Page 9 



Dance Showcase Review 

Dance Showcase 2012 was a real success 

with S1 to S6 dancing their hearts 

out to songs like ‘Little Bad Girl’, 

‘Greased Lightening’ and the best 

song of the night ‘Waka Waka’. The 

first song of the night was ‘Little Bad 

Girl’ with the S2 dancers, each and 

every one of them, hitting each of the 

steps with perfection leaving us all 

wanting more. The S4 girls caused an 

earthquake of cheer with their self 

choreographed dance ‘Earthquake’. 

The girls were then joined on stage to 

finish their act by a young break 

dancer who danced with them until 

the end. S1 and S3 made it all about 

the night dancing to Pixie Lott’s song 

‘All About Tonight’ which was amazing- 

some putting more effort in than 

others but they still made it a performance 

to remember. Giving us all a 

great feeling were the S2s performing 

to ‘Good Feeling’ and they were absolutely 

great to watch. The S5s danced 

to ‘Paradise’ and it was an amazing 

performance to watch and the dance 

could not have been better. ‘All Fired 

Up’ just can’t describe how some of 

the S3s felt after dancing to ‘All Fired 

Up’ in front of their friends and family. 

They definitely showed their talents. 

The best ever version of the ‘Jai 

Ho’dance was performed by the S2s 

5s and 6s and I loved it so much that I 

want to see it again and again, well 

done girls. Well done to the S2s dancing 

to ‘Greased Lightening’ it was one 

of the best dances of the night. Finally 

the best song of the night ‘Waka 

Waka’ performed by all the dancers 

participating, wearing amazing costumes, 

and I loved it. Well done to 

everyone who performed in the dance 

show case. 

By Caitlin Leslie 2LL 

Mr Foley Meets Mr Salmond, First Minister. 

Following the PE Department’s recent 

success, Mr Foley was invited to a reception 

at the Botanic Gardens, where 

he met First Minister Alex Salmond. 

Mr Salmond gave a speech praising all 

the great success Scotland is achieving 

in sport, both in major competitions 

and in school and community sport. 

All of this is leading to the Olympics, 

Paralympics and the Commonwealth 

Games. After the speeches Mr Foley 

was delighted to meet both him and the 

Sports Minister Mrs Shona Robison. 

‘Mr Salmond was really a nice 

friendly and engaging man and had 

time for everyone he met and knew 

all about our success at Newbattle 

High’ said Mr Foley. 

Mr Foley, Head of PE 

Our School of Ambition

Page 10 



Art for Africa 

Skate Park Campaign 

Our sister school in 

South Africa, Khanya - 

Lesedi High school 

near Johannesburg had 

asked if we could arrange 

to send some 

Art work showing our 

local area painted by 

pupils. Mrs Grieve in 

Art worked with a 

wonderful P7 class at 

Newtongrange primary 

school and has produced 

over thirty lovely pieces of Art 

to send to Africa. The Artwork along 

with some other vital items such as 

pencils, erasers, chalk, whistles and 

captain armbands , 2 footballs, 2 basketballs, 

set of bibs and a ball pump 

will be jetting off in a box from Newbattle 

High to Johannesburg to help 

our Teacher colleagues and the superb 

pupils in Khanya Lesedi High 

school. Thank you to Newtongrange 

PS P7's, PE staff and Mrs Grieve. 


Three S2 Newbattle pupils have been 

campaigning to create a new skate 

park facility in Newtongrange. James 

Chisholm, David More and Gordon 

Burnett set up a Facebook page called 

‘Make a new skate park in Newtongrange’. 

They have got the council 

involved and have also started a petition, 

which has been gathering names 

in the bike shop and local library. 

Councillor Wilma Chalmers has been 

very impressed and is supporting the 

boys with their campaign. She said in 

an interview in the local paper that 

‘there’s sometimes a feeling that 

the council gives young people 

what we think they want, when it 

should be them telling us what 

they want’. The article featured 

in the Midlothian Advertiser and their 

photo was on the front page. Midlothian 

Council’s Landscape Service 

department will now decide if the 

skate park will be built in Newtongrange. 

It would not only be used for 

skate boarding, but also for bikes and 

scooters. The boys have been meeting 

with Councillor Chalmers and youth 

worker Fiona Horne to discuss how 

to go ahead and get funding. 

Whether the campaign turns out to 

be a success or not, these three boys 

have used their initiative to fight for 

something that would benefit their 

local community. 

Youth Sports Trust 

As part of the PE department’s prize 

from Youth Sports Trust which they 

won in February, two Sky Sports personalities 

visited Newbattle and 

worked with groups of pupils. 

After a great lunch in the Bite Site, 

Neil McCann (Hearts legend and Sky 

Football pundit) and Mr Mark Pearman 

(Executive editor for Sky Sports 

TV), worked with the Sports Academies 

and the English department 

and its wonderful media pupils who 

had made the BBC News reports (see 

article on page six). It was a great day 

for sports pupils learning about the 

life of a top professional and pundit 

and the media pupils meeting a giant 

of media to ask about his career. A 

great inter disciplinary learning day 

and project. 


Mrs Kernaghan, Head of English 


Page 11 



Forthcoming Events 

Newbattle Community High School 

Summer Fund Raising Concert 

12 th June 2012 

7:30pm 

School 

Photographs 

S3 & S4 

Wednesday 22nd August 2012 

S1, S5 & S6 

Thursday 23rd August 2012 

Tickets £4/£2 available 

from the school office 

Friends of Newbattle 

Are now on facebook 

Just search for Friends of Newbattle and Press ‘like’ 

You can also email us on 

friendsofnewbattle@gmail.com 

Peak Performance groups have been 

working hard to prepare for our 1000 

×1000 Exhibition. They have been 

working on a variety of projects to be 

revealed at the opening ceremony 

Thursday 31 st May 2012 6-9pm. 

In Art they are working on Animations- 

‘Quetzalcoatl’ (about a Mexican 

dog who finds a magical cloak and 

mask; based on a Mexican creation 

myth) and new versions of 

1000×1000 Exhibition 

‘Cinderella’ and ‘Hansel and Gretel.’ 

These are well under way with pupils 

involved in the meticulous process of 

filming using stop-motion animation 

software. 

In Music they are perfecting performances 

of Glee style mixes of pop 

songs. The Media group is linking to 

create music videos. Drama pupils are 

hard at work on their own scripts, to 

be performed in the style of a radio 


play. We will also be treated 

to some musical performances 

from our Jazz Band. 

Dance pupils are building on 

the success of their recent 

showcase and as ever we 

look forward to a selection of 

performances on the night. 

CDT will be displaying personal 

projects, created during 

Peak Performance time including 

model car designs. 

HE will be revealing their 

completed fabric wall hanging 

that represents our school 

and local community. 

Teachers across the school 

are busy selecting work to 

represent every pupil in the 

school. This will be displayed 

on boards and in slideshows. It is a 

great opportunity to recognise the 

hard work put in every day by our 

staff and pupils. 

Our Business group in Peak will be 

sending out invites and posters to 

advertise this exciting event! We hope 

you will come along and see the work 

and support our school. The exhibition 

will stay open on Friday 1 st June 

until 3pm. 

Miss Reynolds, Art


Comments 

From 

Senior Management 

We’ve had a very busy start to 2012 

with many successes to celebrate. You 

may remember our record attainment 

in the 2011 SQA Examinations which 

gave us much to be proud of with our 

S4 and S5 pupils producing the best 

results in the history of the school. As 

we move into the examination period, 

we look forward to adding to our successes 

with an even better set of results 

this year. Our pupils continue to work 

hard and target setting shows that they 

are confident of doing well this year. 

They have made the most of the many 

opportunities available to them, participating 

positively in exam preparation 

Get in the Zone workshops. Teachers are 

reporting an encouraging uptake of 

after school study support and Easter 

Revision classes. Your continued support 

in this whole process is appreciated 

and it was gratifying to see so 

many parents at our S5/6 Future Pathways 

evening and our exam preparation 

workshop for parents, Parent Power Plus. 

Our pupils continue to achieve in the 

widest sense with outstanding performances 

in sports and the arts, science and 

technologies. The Duke of Edinburgh 

Award goes from strength to strength 

with 25 pupils aiming for their Silver 

award this year. Pupils now record their 

wider achievements twice yearly on a 

Personal Support Card and the range of 

achievements in and out of school is 

thoroughly impressive. 

The young people at Newbattle are well 

known for their generosity and their 

willingness to help others. They continue 

to be involved in raising money 

for various charities, most recently for 

the Teenage Cancer Trust, Help for 

Heroes, Rock Trust and Toilet Twinning, 

helping to improve the lives of 

others at home and abroad. 

We are extremely proud of Gareth 

Fleming 4IL who administered emergency 

CPR to a member of the community, 

saving his life. Gareth has been 

commended on his courageous and 

selfless act. He is a credit to his family 

and our community. 

Our successes continue to be recognised 

locally and nationally, attracting 

visitors from near and far. In February 

we were visited by a group of school 

inspectors from Romania, and more 

recently by Shona Robison, Minister for 

the Commonwealth Games and Sport. 

Also in February, the school won two 

prestigious awards; a silver COSLA 

Award for Excellence and a gold SOL- 

ACE award for teamwork (see front 

page article). The Times Educational 

Supplement Scotland (TESS) further 

highlighted the excellent teamwork 

between teachers and pupils in a double 

page spread in March. This was great 

coverage in a UK national publication. 

As we move towards summer, we look 

forward to recognising the impressive 

achievements of our young people at 

our award ceremonies in June when we 

will present our subject prizes and our 

Bronze, Silver and Gold certificates. 

Finally, we would like to wish all of our 

2012 SQA candidates the very best of 

luck for their SQA exams. 

Susan Bennett 

Acting Depute Headteacher 

Values For Life 

Trust – to feel confident and secure by 

building relationships based on honesty and 

fairness 

Respect – to be considerate of the needs, 

wishes and feelings of others as well as your 

own worth 

Perseverance – continued determination 

to succeed and never give up in spite of 

difficulties 

Responsibility – making informed decisions 

and being accountable for your own 

actions 

Humour – maintain a positive outlook on 

life even in the face of adversity 

Focus – concentrate fully on the task in 

hand and avoid distractions 

Newbattle Community 

High School 

64 Easthouses Road 

Dalkeith 

Midlothian 

EH22 4EW 

Telephone 0131 663 4191 

Fax 0131 654 2611 

Email newbattle_ hs@midlothian.gov.uk 

Website www.newbattle.org.uk 

Find home study resources, latest news, photos and more at www.newbattle.org.uk 

Get our latest news delivered 

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twitter.com/newbattlehigh 

See videos from 

Newbattle past and 

present on Youtube 

www.youtube.com/newbattlehigh 

Pupils return to school Wednesday 22nd August 2012

Summer 2012 - Newbattle Community High School

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