School Photographs

On Monday 16th November, Tempest Photography will be in school to take individual portraits of all pupils.

Please ensure you wear formal uniform.

Thanks.

Illness

Today there were 9 pupils off in the secondary department and 8 pupils off in the primary. There were no teacher absences. Most of these children were absent due to sickness related illnesses rather than flu symptoms.

Cry Freedom!

S3 have begun their third and final unit of work for Intermediate  Modern Studies. The unit is called 'South Africa: A Developing Nation,' and we have started by comparing life for blacks and whites under the apartheid regime. We have been watching 'Cry Freedom,' the film which details the efforts made by Steve Biko, and Donald Woods, to end the regime. the class have all been moved by the suffering and atrocities shown in the film, and shocked at how deeply entrenched racism was in society. The class are now writing essays discussing the differences in standard of living between the blacks and whites. 

The rest of the unit will be an investigation into how much has changed since apartheid was abolished in 1994. We have contacts in South Africa who the pupils can email, who offer a startling insight into the country, 15 years on.

Boy Power!

This week in Primary all our pupils of the week were boys! We had Nicholas in P1, David in P2/3, Benjamin in P4/5 and Finlay in P6/7. Maybe next week it will be all girls!

swine flu letter

Dear Parents

Recently a few of our teachers and children have been unwell with flu like symptoms. We are uncertain if this is swine flu as it is not the policy of health professionals to routinely swab patients. However the illness has been very unpleasant.

In school we are putting into place what measures we can to minimise the transfer of infections. The measures are those recommended by government agencies.

We will encourage hand washing.
We will provide anti bacterial gel.
We will teach and encourage the safe use of tissues.
We will inform parents of the situation.
We will ensure that children do not miss significant work due to absence.

I would ask you to co-operate with this by trying to minimise the spread of infection by taking the following steps.

Send your child to school with tissues.
Give your child their own personal hand gel.
If you suspect your child is unwell, especially if they have a temperature or are sick, please keep your child at home.
If your child develops flu like symptoms keep them at home for at least 5 days.

We hope that these measures will keep illness to a minimum. We will not close the school as the infection is rife in the community and it is not the recommended procedure.

We will keep you updated daily in the “Home” section of the “Blog” on our school website at www.cedars.inverclyde.sch.uk and I encourage you to check this daily.

I hope these preventative measures will keep children and staff healthy throughout the winter.

Yours sincerely





Alison J B Speirs
Head Teacher

This Saturday...

We will be holding a craft fair in the school on Saturday 7th November.

Stalls will include paintings & photographs, jewellery, cards, crafts, decorations, portrait and family photographs, home made sweets and jams, and teas/coffees and baking.

All welcome!

Christmas production rehearsals...

Primary pupils went down to the church on Friday afternoon to begin practising for the school nativity play. Primary 1 - 3 girls made an excellent start on their angel dance and were all very enthusiastic.

The play will be on Thursday 17th and Friday 18th December in Struthers Memorial Church, West Stewart Street.

End of term!

Today we held a whole school assembly down at the Church on West Stewart Street. We announced pupils of the term for each class and the heads of each house for primary and secondary. We also announced the new head boy and head girl for 2009 - 2010.

In the lower secondary the pupil of the term was Lauren Buntrock in S2 and for the senior secondary it was Deborah Mole in S4. Both have had a super term and have made great progress in all areas.

All pupils in each house voted to decide on the heads their houses - 2 from secondary and 1 from primary. These are as follows:

Ardgowan = Chloe Neilson, Reece Watson and Matthew Wallace
Lyle = Lauren Buntrock, Scott Hallam and Finlay brown

Rankin = Beth Miller, Iain Parker and Olivia Cameron

After a closely fought contest the head girl for 2009-2010 is Rebecca Collins and the head boy is Daniel Henderson. Congratulations to both!

Fishing Day

So today we came to the final day of a very succesful block of fishing lessons as part of the S1/2 Broader Curriculum afternoons. The children and some parents gathered at Ardgowan Fisheries for a whole day of fishing. The weather stayed pleasant and some whopping fish were caught!
It was the end of another fishing block which was greatly enjoyed by all who took part. Many thanks to all at Ardgowan Fishery from all of us!

Ardgowan!

Here is Ardgowan's house display - a very colourful reminder of the 60s!!

Rankin

Rankin has gone for a space theme for the house display. This is in keeping with the 1st moon landing which ties in with our studies on the '6o's'. Can you recognise anyone?

Choir

Over this term we have been working with an expanded choir. Children from P4-S5 have elected to join the choir. This term we have been looking at 'The 60's' in social subjects and so have prepared three songs connected with this topic. Today we have a performance day where we video the choir performing all three songs. I have posted one of them here. Listen for some three part harmony and beginnings of some work on dynamics. Let Cedars School Choir take you back to your youth ;)

Mr J :)

School Election Anouncement

Next Tuesday, we will hold our School Elections.

During House Assemblies, pupils will elect a Senior Boy and Senior Girl House Captain from S2, S3, S4 or S5. They will also elect one Junior House Captain from P5, 6 or 7.

During the morning, pupils will elect the new Head Boy and Head Girl, from pupils in S3-S5. Any pupils in S3, 4 and 5 who wish to enter the election must write to Mrs Speirs explaining why they would be an excellent choice! This letter must be in by FRIDAY this week at the latest.

We will announce the results at Assembly on Wednesday!

Netball night coming soon...

S2-5 girls have been working exceptionlly hard in PE on Friday's to get ready for the netball tournament coming up next week. They have been working on skills they identified as being their weakest areas, and have improved dramatically... the pictures tell their own tale!

Royal Scottish National Orchestra visit...

On Tuesday, S3,4, and 5 visited the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow to listen to the RSNO's annual school's concert. We heard music from composers including Holst, Debussey, Mozart, Brahms, Tchaikovsky... quite a cultured hour for the upper secondary school, who enjoyed their morning away from lessons!

Enterprise!

Scott in S2 was exercising his enterprising abilities today - he managed to earn himself a free lunch by helping serve behind the counter during secondary lunch. I even heard him inventing and then offering Mrs Offord a special meal deal where she could get a panini and a drink for a bargain price... this was the same as buying them separately, but everyone was happy as the juice was sold and Mrs Offord thought she was getting a good deal!!

House display

As the house championship is now digitally displayed, each house has a display area in the GP room. Lyle have completed a 60's themed display based around the cover of the Beatles LP "St Peppars Lonley Hearts Club Band".

If you look carefully you will see some famous individuals who have since left Lyle and moved on to be successful in their working lives...

Thanks especially to Nico, Nichol, Nathan and Daria in S1 who made the letters, painted the plants and helped put up the display.

School Email

As of this year every child in Cedars School has an email address and these will be used increasingly as children progress through the school to send information and homework. Obviously children in the younger years of the primary school will be a while before they are introduced to email but from the middle years of primary upwards checking email will increasingly be part of school life.
We have included instructions here for any pupil who would like to check their email.

1. Go to the school website and scroll down to the bottom of the main page where you will see a section on school email.

2. Enter your username and password which you have glued in the back of your homework jotter.

3. You are now directed to your inbox. Check your inbox to find any new email. Click 'repy' to reply or, if you want to make a new email of your own, click 'compose mail. Easy!

Happy emailing!

Teen Challenge

We were very pleased to welcome Laurence Deary into the school this morning to speak to the senior assembly. He told us of his experiences growing up in Port Glasgow, how he turned to drug addiction and eventually how he found freedom from this way of life through the Teen Challenge drug rehabilitation program. 

Teen Challenge is a Christian drug rehabilitation organisation which has found much success in helping drug users world wide. This is the charity we will be supporting at school this year.

House badges

Lyle is pleased to announce that all our members now have a house badge! Well done Lyle!