Our Danish Friends

Many thanks to our Danish friends for the beautiful gifts you sent us for Christmas - the heart in particular is lovely and we really appreciate it!

Play Tickets

We have very few tickets left for the Primary Nativity Play - only 3 for Friday night and a few for Monday afternoon and evening.

Please note that tickets will not be available at the door as space is very restricted and we will not be able to squeeze anyone in!

If you find you can come but don't have a ticket on the day please phone the school and see if any are available - sometimes people have to cancel at the last minute and tickets are returned.

Thank You

Monday 13th December

Although the weather is still set to be fairly wintery this week, we are intending to run a full working timetable all week. The bus will be running as normal. We will update this blog if this changes at any point.

Weather update - Tuesday

The school is open from 9-3 as usual. Driving conditions are treacherous in and around the West End. Please make your own decision about whether travel is necessary and safe today. The school bus will not be running today.

A hero...

Special thanks to Jacqueline who runs the lunchtime cafe in school - she has made it to school every day despite the snow... even though she had to bring the soup on a sledge to get it here! Just what we needed to warm us all up!

SNOW!

It has been an unusual week for the secondary at Cedars School... the pupils that have made it through the snow and huge icicles (73 cm) have been doing revision work, consolidation, research tasks and experimenting with some new apps on their iPads... (I think the favourites are digital pottery, animation and Angry Birds...)

Senior pupils should check their email as some staff have been emailing homework tasks.

Primary Diversity Assemblies

This term we have been learning about women who have made an impact on society. We heard about Margaret Thatcher,

Rosa Parks,

Anne Frank

and Eilish Angelini.

Craft Fair!

There was a craft fair in the school on Saturday 27th November. Despite the snow it was a great success and raised approximately £1500. Thank you to all parents and members of the local community who supported it.

A number of enterprising school pupils ran their own stalls or helped with what was going on:

School Council

The school council, head boy and head girl were elected at the end of last term. They have been meeting every Thursday morning this term with Mr Jewell, Miss Oakley and Miss Bell to discuss a range of issues. You can read the minutes of the meetings on the school website.

Deborah Mole and Stuart Smith are the Head girl and Head boy for 2010 - 2011.

The school council includes house captains and representatives from each class:

CPD Movement and Learning

Today after school, the staff had a visit from Danny, who came to talk to us about the importance of movement activities in increasing concentration in learning. It was a very interesting presentation with lots of good ideas that we will hopefully be able to integrate with our classroom activities throughout the school.



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Diversity Assembly: Spitfire Women. Armistice Day

During this mornings assembly Miss Bell talked about the spitfire women who were a band of female pilots who fought against the odds for the right to aid the war effort. These trailblazers were part of the Air Transport Auxillary, a thousand-strong organisation that delivered aircraft to the frontline RAF during Britain's darkest hours. Every day, responsibility fell on their shoulders to get the planes to the fighters which often pushed them into dangerous and even deadly situations.

American assembly

This morning, Franca spoke to senior pupils in assembly about growing up in the US as an Italian and the stereotypes she faced. Pupils were very interested and challenged to change their stereotypes about minority groups in Scotland.




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American Visitors

On Monday and Tuesday this week, we are being visited by a group of American's from Times Square Church in New York who are spending this week touring schools in Inverclyde speaking on a range of current issues. This morning, S3, S1 and 2, and Primary6/7 have been looking at the issue of immigration from the point of view of the Romany people in Europe. We learnt that there are now 12 million gypsies throughout the world, and compared treatment of this ethnic group with the way Muslims and Polish people are sometimes treated in the UK. Each class was encouraged to challenge the stereotypes that exist, and to question their understanding of immigration. This has been a thought provoking morning!




our American friends will return tomorrow to take lessons with the Senior School, where amongst other things, they will tackle the question: 'how important is the truth in business?' It will be interesting to see what their conclusions are.


Whilst Daryl, Franca, Lucy and Sharon are in Scotland, Daryl and Franca's two children will spend the week in Cedars School. Nina is joining Primary 7, and Marinella is joining Primary 1. We are looking forward to getting to know them!

Friends from New York!

Today we were lucky to welcome some visitors from New York. They are visiting us to take lessons on immigration and other topics. It was great to have them assembly and in our classes!


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A Curriculum for Excellence

I am in Edinburgh today at a course looking at the progress of the curriculum changes in Scottish Education. A very interesting day with much opportunity for discussing the current changes in education.
Please note: only one mug in the picture above belongs to me!


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School Bank Launches!

Today, with a bang, our school bank launched in Cedars School!
Pupil from P4-7 queued to pay money into their savings accounts. Piggy banks were emptied and the bank, staffed by P7, took over £200 on it's first day. RBS sent a press photographer to capture the moment and the morning was a great success.
The branch will be open for pupils and staff on a Thursday morning from 9.15-10.15.















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School Council 2010-2011

Our School Elections are all over, and the results have been announced. Congratulations to everyone has been elected, by peers and teachers. Here's to a great, successful year on the School Council!

This years Council:
Head Boy: Stuart Smith (S3)
Head Girl: Deborah Mole (S5)

Rankin Reps:
Beth Miller (S4)
Iain Parker (S4)
P6/7- ALex McCarthur

Lyle Reps:
Alexander McCoist (S4)
Chloe Bryce (S3)
P6/7- Aimee Jewell

Ardgowan Reps:
Reece Watson (S4)
Chloe Neilson (S4)
P6/7- Toby Neilson

S2 Rep: James Mole
S1 Rep: Rebecca Carey

Cedars School Christmas Concert

Exciting news!

Keep this date free in your diaries:

Wednesday Decemebr 15th, 7.30pm.

This will be an evening of seasonal sacred music with Cedars School Senior Choir and friends...

Tickets, costing £2.00 wil be available from the School Office starting next Monday (8th November.)

Watch this blog for further information...

Careers!

Leah Marks, a lecturer at Glasgow University, and Miss Oakley worked with S4 and S5 this afternoon on how to write effective personal statements. This is a vital skill for all university, college and job applications and the pupils worked well. Their task is to write an excellent draft statement by 15th November and email it to Leah who will offer constructive feedback.

National Assessment Resources

Miss Black and Miss Rukin have today attended a course in Edinburgh on the National Assessment Resources offered online by Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS). The course was run by SCIS (Scottish Council for Independent Schools), in conjunction with LTS. Various speakers show cased examples of learning and teaching in schools across Scotland, focusing in particular on the various forms of assessment used. We were very encouraged to see that the methods of assessment and recording that schools are being asked to begin to use, are already in full swing in our school! These include blogs, displays of pupils work, displays of photographs of pupils achievements, folders of pupils work with evidence of their achievements, and the chance for dialogue with parents about pupils progress in an informal manner such as emailing.







Many of the teachers we spoke with today had heard of Cedars School as a result of media interest in our 1:1 iPad deployment, and were exceedingly envious as we demonstrated and discussed the ways we are using them to improve learning and teaching!




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