Edinburgh Schools Film Competition

Well done to the following pupils who won the award for 'Best Picture' at Edinburgh International Film Festival schools' competition, with their beautiful and sensitively tackled short film
'Evanescent', about schizophrenia:

• Lucy Gogoliuk
• Ruairidh Graham
• Samantha Harrison
• Max McLachlan
• Naznin Khan

  They faced stiff competition mainly from S5 & S6s around the city and beyond.

School trips

When we reminisce about our school days few of us remember a particular lesson that inspired us. Instead it is often particular teachers we remember or events such as school trips. Gillespie's has a full and varied programme of trips including several to foreign lands during the past session. Currently there are school trips to New York, Switzerland, Berlin, Southern Ireland and Mongolia. Early reports indicate that they are going well and the pupils are enjoying themselves.

An email from Mr Carruthers on the Ireland trip reads as follows:  

Hallo folks, we had another fantastic day today. Although the weather was no where as good as it was yesterday we had a little bit of drizzle in the morning but we were shown around TG4 the Irish Language TV station at that time which the senior pupils particularly enjoyed. We got goodie bags and a warm welcome. We then had a little tour of Connemara before heading to Pairce an Chnuic where the kids were taken for Gaelic Football and Hurling on CLG Micheal Breathnach's new AstroTurf (main rule, Gaelic to be spoken at all times), Amazing that a small amateur community club can have such a facility in place - on top of a stand and full size pitch. The girls want to start up a Gaelic Football team in the school. Tomorrow we are off to Inis Mor, the largest of the Aran Isles. Sun supposed to reappear tomorrow, we'll keep you updated. Slan!

Dalai Lama visit to Edinburgh

On Friday, a number of our pupils have been invited to meet the Dalai Lama at a function in Edinburgh. One of those attending from Jghs will be Rachel Gray in S6. Earlier today Rachel was the official piper who had been chosen to play as his holiness arrived in Edinburgh. Well done Rachel - Gillespie's is proud of you! Great to see that he acknowledged Rachel as he walked past and that the Scottish weather didn't dampen her fine playing!

P7 visits to High School

Around this time of year thousands of Primary 7 pupils will be visiting their local High School as part of their induction towards becoming high school students from August. In Edinburgh's secondary schools pupils will visit high schools on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week. This visit is intended to help reduce the uncertainly and allay any fears that exist as we prepare for the summer holidays.

On Tuesday morning we will welcome 200 P7 boys and girls to Gillespie's for their 3 day visit. In order to keep parents informed we held a 'P7/S1 information evening' tonight in our Assembly Hall. I was delighted at the very high turnout. As I said to parents earlier tonight, I am looking forward to working with all our new pupils and our families in the years ahead. All of our pupils are expected to aim for university level qualifications by the time they leave us in S6. When teachers and parents work closely together we are more effective and successful in supporting our children.

Thanks

I'd like to publicly thank everyone who contributed to making this year's staging of Diversecity such a great success. A huge thanks also to everyone who attended. The money raised will support our continuing links with schools in South Africa. The show highlighted the diversity of talent and culture we have in the school.  We really are privileged to have such wide representation of cultures in our midst.

All 180 who performed were superb. A special thank you to Malcolm Hardie from our Expressive Arts faculty for managing the entire process.

Diversecity

This year's Diversecity performance will take place on Thursday 14, Friday 15 and Saturday 16 June in the school hall, with food available on the Saturday.

Tickets cost £8/£4 concession for Thursday 14 and Friday 15, and £10/£5 conc. for Saturday 16 (this includes food). Performers have all been issued with an advance tickets form - this should have been returned to Cathy Hoskins by Thursday 31 May.  Tickets to performers were issued in the hall on Thursday 7 June.
Tickets went on general sale on Monday 11 June at school. There are still a few left! Proceeds from this wonderful event will go towards supporting our continuing links with South Africa.

Youth and Philanthropy Initiative

These past few weeks have been an exceptionally busy time of year. Last week, now that the exams are complete, we changed our timetable and welcomed back senior pupils who had been on exam leave.

In order to prepare our S5 and S6 pupils for the year ahead we arranged special  induction sessions for both year groups. Following feedback from pupils, particularly in relation to offering more enrichment to S5s, this year's chort will all take part in the Youth Philanthropy Initiative. 'The Youth and Philanthropy Initiative (YPI) is an international programme that aims to develop the community leaders of the future. Participants are given a hands-on experience of philanthropy that provides them with the skills and awareness to make a positive difference to their communities.' I'm really looking forward to seeing how this develops in the weeks ahead. The group judged to have made the best presentation in each school is granted £3,000 to award to their charity.

A focus for our S6 this session will be Leadership. It is our intention to offer opportunities to all of our S6 pupils to develop their leadership skills. Examples include working with younger pupils, raising money for charities, organising social events across the school and participating in activities leading to Sports Leadership awards.