December’s final week of school ended, as all should, with the Nativity presented by the Nursery and Primary 1, 2 and 3 children. All the children came together and put on a fine performance, doing the Primary department proud. There were many parents, grandparents and friends present who cheered the young stars on. Every pupil in all of the classes was given a role to play and all did fantastically.

The much anticipated annual senior Christmas dance finally arrived for the girls of S5.  This is a special night for all the girls in this year group and in S6.  The main house and hall were transformed with the decorations and had a definite festive feel.

The girls were full of glitz and glamour as they arrived – some unrecognisable out of their Fernhill uniforms.

As always there were awards given out in “special and carefully chosen” categories by the girls. Picking up these crowns were:

Chatterbox – Kaitlin Boswell

Blondest Brunette – Katie Mitchell

Drama Queen – Rebecca Brown

Most likely to be a model – Kaitlin Boswell

Double Act – Khloe Boswell and Pauline Hughes

Bell of the Ball – Courtney Gibson

Cutest Couple – Jenna Morrison and Partner

Profits from the Dance – which will be in excess of £200 – will be donated to a charity dear to the hearts of the S5 girls – The St Vincent De Paul Society

Thanks to everyone for attending and making it a great night.

Merry Christmas!

With the spooky time of year fast approaching, Fernhill School had their Halloween Cake Competition on Tuesday 25th October, when there were many house points up for grabs in the Secondary department.

There was an overwhelming number of entries and a great effort was made by all who participated.

1st Place went to Ruth Cole (MacKintosh), Sophie Malley (Stevenson) and Viktoria Bachtler (Napier)

2nd Place went to Olivia Allan (Kelvin), Zaynab Bashir (Kelvin) and Jennifer Docherty (Stevenson)

3rd Place went to Eve Telford (Stevenson), Laura Docherty

4th Place went to Katie Dorman (Napier), Colette McCarron (Napier), Sarah McLaughlin (Stevenson) and Alice Nicol (Stevenson)

Commended entries were Megan Deas, Pauline Hughes, Bethany Henderson, Maria Hughes, Eilidh McLees, Natalie Foster and Georgia May Drennan all from Kelvin.

Jessica Lee, Olivia McAdams, Ciara Connor and Rois Kenney were commended from Napier, Melissa Miller and Melissa Lee were commended from Stevenson.

Finally, commended from MacKintosh was Kathryn Thomson.

Congratulations to all…….Happy Halloween!!!!

HM Inspectorate of Education visited our school in June 2011.

The final report from the Quality Improvement Professional Engagement visit is now available to view.

HMIE Report

S6 Girls enjoy their annual teambuilding trip to Loch Eil in September with Mrs Sexton.

After an intensive year of musical events, not to mention Higher and Advanced Higher exams, the S5 and S6 choir pupils were able to relax on a recent ‘Culture Visit’ to London.
Organised by Head of Music, Mrs Forshaw, and Mrs McShane, the visit from 6-9 June took in several of London’s main cultural landmarks. The group travelled down by plane, stayed at a hotel in Covent Garden and took part in many activities including sightseeing, a boat cruise on the River Thames and of course shopping! The trip included a tour of the Houses of Parliament where the group had the opportunity to meet the local MP for Rutherglen, Tom Greatrex, and a visit to the National Art Gallery in Trafalgar Square.  The group also attended a ballet performance of ‘The Rite of Spring’, where Mrs Forshaw’s daughter (a former Fernhill pupil) was playing the violin in the orchestra. The group also saw the musical ‘We Will Rock You’ at the Dominion Theatre and on the last day visited Westfield, one of the largest shopping centres in Europe, for some retail therapy.  By common consent, a really enjoyable visit to end the year on a high point!

At the end of the Summer Term, S3 and S4 pupils cycled around Great Cumbrae to raise almost £900 for their nominated charity of the year, the St Vincent De Paul Society. On bicycles and tandems, the pupils battled strong headwinds, led by their valiant teachers Dr Murphy, Ms Hamilton, Ms Lewis, Mrs Smith and Ms Wilson. Saddlesore and relieved to have completed their charity ride, the S3 and S4 pupils said afterwards: “It was a great experience and a fun day out in a good cause. We’re delighted to have raised so much money for all the good work that St Vincent de Paul Society does to alleviate poverty”.

London 2012 Paralympic mascot  Mandeville made sports day extra special for pupils at Fernhill School. Mandeville’s visit was the School’s prize for winning a competition about exploring what is unique about their community run through the London 2012 education programme ‘Get Set’.
The initiative called ‘Get Set to make your mascot’ invited primary schools to undertake a project to find out about their local area and change Wenlock or Mandeville to represent something that is special about their community.
The pupils of Primary 5, 6 and 7 all competed against each other to design the mascot for Fernhill School and Primary 7 design was chosen.   Each of the pupils were given areas of responsibility including being artists, researchers, writers and diarists.   Different girls visited local landmarks and gathered information for the artists to draw upon to use in the final design.   The Fernhill School version of Mandeville was in a wheelchair, representing his Paralympic Mascot status, it wears a kilt and a Queens Park Football Club strip, it has Rutherglen Town Hall on its head which signifies the light on top of a London taxi and there is a ‘I Love Hampden’ sign representing the national stadium where preliminary heats of football will be played for the Games in 2012.
Fernhill School Sports Day was held on Saturday 11th June 2011 at Coatbridge Outdoor Sports Day.   Despite the challenging weather the pupils took part in 40 events from 60m finals for P1 to P3 to 200m finals for Senior Girls.   Miss Cruickshanks, Principal PE Teacher, said “The Olympic and Paralympic ‘Get Set to make your mascot’ competition has been a fantastic way to get the children excited about the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympic Games.   Primary 7 have had a fantastic year completing  the work involved for the competition and were delighted to have Mandeville join them for sports day and for the whole school to celebrate their success together .”
Jaqueline Sexton, Head Teacher of Fernhill School said: “I am delighted that our School has won the Get Set to make your mascot competition poster competition. Our Primary 7 girls competed against schools throughout Scotland to win the prize. It is a real tribute to the creativity and teamwork of our pupils and our inspirational staff. At Fernhill, we believe that every child has gifts and talents to be nurtured, and it’s wonderful to see their success recognised in the Get Set programme.”
Dr Des Bancewicz, Chair of the Board of Governors of Fernhill School said: “We are very proud of the success of our Primary 7 pupils. It’s a great achievement for Fernhill School to be recognised in a national competition. On behalf of the whole School, I would like to congratulate the pupils and staff on winning the Get Set prize.””
Congratulating the Fernhill School pupils, Seb Coe, London 2012 Chair, said: ‘The Get Set programme is a way schools and school children all over the UK can make the most of London 2012 and the opportunities it offers – and this initiative has proved just how successful it is. These young people have been able to embrace the Olympic and Paralympic Values and have used them to be creative and work as a team. The results have been immensely impressive.’
Get Set is the official London 2012 education programme for schools and colleges across the UK. More than 18000 schools have already registered with the programme. It provides students and teachers with access to free resources including films, activity and fact sheets and access to competitions such as Get Set to make your mascot. Through Get Set programme schools and colleges which demonstrate how they are using the Olympic and Paralympic Values can apply to join the Get Set network. Members of the network will receive tickets to the Games through the London 2012 Ticketshare initiative, as well as other exclusive rewards and opportunities.
Fernhill School is one of more than 4000 schools which has already taken the next step and joined the Get Set network – they are making the most of the opportunities available through it. Footage of the national final event is available here [Download footage of the national finals event here

It was an exciting day for Fernhill School when the Lord Lieutenant of Lanarkshire, Mushtaq Ahmad OBE, visited the School to present pupils with an award for Outstanding Academic Achievement.   It was one of the Lord Lieutenant’s first official appointments since being appointed in November 2010.

Fernhill School had outstanding exam results in 2010 with 100% pass rates at Standard Grade Credit level and 95% pass rate at Higher Grade. The results make the School one of the top-achieving schools for academic results in Scotland.
The Lord Lieutenant was welcomed to the School by Head Teacher, Mrs Jacqueline Sexton, and Chairman of the Board of Governors, Dr Des Bancewicz.   Dr Bancewicz said:  “It has been an exciting day for both staff and pupils at Fernhill School.   We are very grateful that the Lord Lieutenant chose our school to receive this award, and we are proud that Fernhill School has been one of his first official engagements.”

The Lord Lieutenant said: “‘It is a great honour to come to this school and present this award.   All pupils are a great credit not only to your parents but to your teachers and to Fernhill School”.
The Lord Lieutenant presented the trophy to S6 pupil Danielle MacGill, who accepted the award on behalf of the pupils. Her S6 class-mate Caitlin MacGill gave the vote of thanks.