All change at Blair HS

Jul 2 2009 Blairgowrie Advertiser

SEVERAL members of staff at Blairgowrie High leave this Wednesday (July 1) as they move on to another phase of their lives.

Mrs Ruth Hird, Principal Teacher of English, finishes her role as head of department, and is taking early retirement after 11 years at the school.

Mr Archie Campbell has been a teacher in the Support for Learning Department since arriving from Alyth High, 13 years ago, will be retiring.

Miss Jenny Louden, Maths Department, will be taking up a permanent post at Perth Grammar School. Mrs Sara Kyle, English Department, starts her new job at Morgan Academy in Dundee.

Miss Alexa Seagrave, Biology, will be working as a Countryside Ranger in Perthshire this summer, in the Aberfeldy area.

Miss Sutherland, also Biology, will return to school in August as Mrs Atkinson, after getting married in July.

The School Podcast Club held their 2009 prize-giving ceremony in the Learning Resource Centre. Chris Smith and Wendy Pieroni were the comperes.

Chris is a podcast expert and has been working with the group for several years. There were many awards.

The group has worked very hard this year, and were short listed for a Spirit of Youth award and have reported at several events in the school.

FOR six weeks of the Third Year Businesses Management course, three volunteers from Aviva ran different workshops on Paying for It.

The workshops ranged from discussions about money, crime, health, and other topics.

At the end of the six weeks, a regional event was held for all schools in the area, who had taken part in the workshops.

This year was the first year such an event has taken place.

It was held at Aviva HQ in Perth on June 19.

Only three schools took part, Blairgowrie High, Perth Academy, and Perth Grammar.

The agenda included three different workshops, and ended with a Dragon's Den style presentation. The workshops were run by Paul Kyle, Economic Development for Perth and Kinross; Fiona McPhail, Enterprise Facilitator; and others.

Once the workshops had finished, presentations from all three groups were made to the dragons, one of which was local MP Pete Wishart.

Each of the groups had to come up with an idea to boost the local economy.

The first group came up with bringing championship wrestling back to Scotland.

The second group decided to set up Tartan Tours offering boat trips on the Tay.

The third group were to sell Summer Smoothies and Winter Warmers, using local berries.

The winners were group two with Tartan Tours.

A GROUP of Blairgowrie High S3 pupils recently took part in a trip to Italy.

While there they visited Verona to see Romeo and Juliet's balcony and the amphitheatre.

There was also a trip to the Ca Salina wine production area, Venice, where they saw the famous Rialto bridge, St Mark's square, the Basilica, and ate and had a pizza evening in true Venetian style.

The trip was rounded off with a day's trip to the Cornaro School of Catering where they worked alongside pupils of a similar age to prepare, cook, and served a lunch – which was a great experience for all involved.

TWO teams of S1 pupils competed in the Tesco Schools Cookery Competition to prepare a dish to celebrate the year of the Homecoming.

Team 2 won with their Haggis Rosti Gateau with strips of steak in a whisky cream sauce.

The prize was £200 of Tesco vouchers and a VIP trip for both teams to Scotland's largest food and drink event in Glasgow.