WOSPEG

Report by Mr Law

The Our Lady’s High School Physics quiz team brilliantly buzzed their way into the semi-finals of the West of Scotland Physics Education Group, “Livewire”, quiz.  These mighty mental gladiators have taken a step on the way to emulating last years finalists.

Ciaran, “Buzzer”, Burns, Shaun, “Knowledgeable”, Nicholls, and Neil, “Gifted”, Gaittens opened up a massive lead over the High School of Glasgow, Boclair Academy, and Eastbank Academy, in the first round.  Lacking somewhat in stamina, under the enormous mental pressure of the assembled audience expectations, they were gradually pegged back over several rounds before once more opening up a respectable lead.  Yet again however they were reeled back in and finished level with Glasgow High … with a tie break in our favour.

Fortunately, as both teams progressed to the next round, no brawl ensued and no blood was shed.  Congratulations to all the teams involved, including contributions from a table thumping, tongue in cheek, “This is an outrage!”, contestant.

 

Interhouse Athletics

Report from Mr Knighton

Results of this year’s Inter House Athletics Championships.

S1

• Columba (71 points)
• Sinclair (64 points)
• Andrew (56 points)
• Margaret (49 points)

S2

• Andrew (74 points)
• Columba (73 points)
• Sinclair (49 points)
• Margaret (42 points)

Combined result

• 1st Columba (144 points)
• 2nd Andrew (130 points)
• 3rd Sinclair (113 points)
• 4th Margaret (91 points)

 

Reading Trail Winners

Five pupils accompanied Mrs Macfadyen and Mrs Mitchell to Borders on Friday as winners of the S1 Reading Trail.

The group (Rhys Bevan, Jay McMahon, Ross McQuade, Nadia Warnock, Colette Wilson) vanished amongst the shelves from the minute they entered the store and spent a happy morning discovering and exploring books on lots of different topics.

At lunchtime, everyone toured the Fort to decide where to have lunch before agreeing on Pizza Hut (which was back where they had started, naturally) where the staff made a fuss of them, which the pupils quite enjoyed.

During their walk, the group also spent ten minutes petting a puppy, which turned out to be a trainee guide dog called Venice, and building an appetite on the monkey bars in the park.

After lunch, the whole group returned to the bookshop to spend the remainder of their money, and choose a book for themselves. This involved some serious decision making, mind-changing, walking back and forth between authors and trying to remember what already existed in the LRC back at the school. Eventually everybody was happy (and relieved that they remained within budget), collected their bags and headed back to the school.

The staff were delighted that the pupils had so much fun, which was summed up by the demands that the Reading Trail be run again next year.

 

North Lanarkshire Athletics Championships

Report by Mr Knighton

The OLHS team were extremely successful at the championships this year, with twelve medallists, two Championship Best Performances and a whole string of finalists.

Gold medallists: Jamie Cubis (S1 Boys Javelin); Liam Sandford (S1 Boys Discus, New Championship Best Performance); Oskar Ryfa (S2 Boys Discus, New Championship Best Performance); Connor O’Mara (S3 Boys Shot Putt).

Silver Medallists: Nicola Bell (S1 Girls 800m); Ronan Higgins (S1 Boys 200m); Sophie Robertson (S2 Girls 100m); Ryan Craig (S2 Boys 200m);  S1 Boys 4 x 100m relay team (Liam Sandford, Christopher Cadden, Stephen Ross, Ronan Higgins); S2 Boys 4 x 100m relay team (Ryan Craig, Ryan Sandford, Joshua Callaghan, Gavin Walker).

Bronze medallists: Liam Sandford (S1 80m); Christopher Mulholland (Open 1500m). 

Many congratulations to the whole team on a fantastic performance.

 

Maths Challenge

The Maths Department held an Enterprise Event for 1st year.

There were five tasks to be completed, with teams rotating every 15 minutes: build a tower, two problem solving tasks, a treasure hunt, a relay and a paper cutting task.

The winning team were: Brogan Devine, Marc Costello, Stephanie McCarron, Katlyn Rankin, Ross Higgins, Caitlin Hoey. Many thanks for the additional help to S2 and S5 pupils, who kept track of time, and encouraged groups to move round quickly.

 

North Lanarkshire Maths Challenge

The Maths Challenge team with their spaghetti tower

Report from Mr Hair

Four pupils from S2 and S3 attended the North Lanarkshire Maths Challenge in Cumbernauld Town Hall on Thursday 4th June. The main aim of the day was to work as a team without the use of a calculator.

There were five rounds where the team worked on the same problem. The rounds ranged from a practical problem to build the highest tower using only a packet of spaghetti and sticky tape to a relay where speed and accuracy were important. The team thoroughly enjoyed themselves and finished mid-table, leaving them enthusiastic and optimistic about their chances next year.

Team: Laura Baird, Katie Cunningham, Nicole Donnelly, Christopher Dunn, Shaun Nicholls, Nicholas Stewart

 

Reading Trail Winners

Reading Trail winners from each class, holding their team labels.

The S1 classes have selected their winners. Many congratulations to the five pupils who were voted for by the others in each class for their hard work and effort.

• Ross McQuade
• Jay McMahon
• Colette Wilson
• Rhys Bevan
• Nadia Warnock

Each class was asked to vote for three pupils who had consistently worked hard and tried their best, in their reading, in their mind-map analysis of the books they had read, and in their behaviour.

Every pupil examined the work of the whole class before selecting three colleagues to vote for (secretly). In most cases, every pupil received at least one vote, and the results were incredibly close.

The five pupils will take part in a book buying away day with Mrs Macfadyen and a member of the English department.

The winning 1st year class has still to be decided.

 

OLHS 1 : St Andrew’s 0

Congratulations to the under-16s football team who defeated St Andrew’s HS 1-0 yesterday. This result takes them to the top of the Lanarkshire Schools FA under-16s League.

You can follow the Under-16s progress in the League here.

Goal: Daniel Burns
Man of the Match: Connor O’Mara

 

Reading Trail Update

The 1st year Reading Trail is now at its halfway mark, with Team Supreme taking the lead, although The Thompson Terrors are close behind. The figures change with every Period as more books and mind-maps are completed and more feet added to the wall.

How many feet does your class have?

Each pupil has set themselves a target for a number of books to read before Easter, completing a mindmap for each book, and adding a foot to their class trail to mark that achievement. From this point on, the competition becomes more intense as classes leapfrog each other on a daily basis.

All five classes have now recorded more than twenty completed books, with many more pupils insisting that they have almost finished theirs. The final class winners will be selected not just on the number, but more importantly, the quality of their work, which so far this year, is extremely impressive.

• 22 Mitchell Crew: 29
• HYT: 30
• Team Sneddon: 25
• Team Supreme: 40
• Thompson Terrors: 34

 

Design Challenge at Caledonian

Report from Mr Allan

Challenged?

Five senior pupils went Caledonian University to take part in a Design Challenge on Wednesday 25th February. 

The teams were given drawings, research documents and a budget. They had to determine what facilities for people with disabilities were appropriate and possible, given their design constraints. They had to calculate the costs and present their solution to the client. The team that presented the best solution and best costs would be awarded the contract.

The pupils were split up and were working in teams with pupils from other schools. The team that included Luke Duncan was awarded the contract.

The pupils representing Our Lady’s are Luke Duncan, Alexander Findlay, David Hamilton, Stephen McShannon and Neil Cutler.