S2 Course Choice 2010/11

Wed, 3 Feb 2010 20:45:10 +0000

S2 pupils will soon have to choose the subjects that they wish to take in 3rd and 4th year. This is an extremely important time and pupils in S2 and they must ensure that they make the right subject choices.

There are two documents below. The document entitled ‘GHS Outline of Courses’ can be downloaded in pdf format. This includes detailed information on each of the courses that can be studied during a students 3rd and 4th year at Gracemount High School.

The second pdf document entitled ‘S2 Course Choice Form’ should be completed by pupils and signed by a parent/guardian once they are sure of what subjects they wish to take.

A hard copy of the ‘Course Choice Form’ will be given out to the pupils over the next couple of weeks during registration if you do not have access to a printer.

Gracemount High Rise Flats Demolition

Wed, 6 Jan 2010 18:33:44 +0000

At the end of October, the Gracemount High-rise flats were demolished to make way for modern housing.

Edinburgh City Council released this short video of the demolition.

Make Waste History

Mon, 4 Jan 2010 19:42:42 +0000

This December 4 pupils from the Eco Committee were chosen to attend the ‘Make Waste History’ summit in the Assembly Rooms on George Street.

Sophie Alvarado, Hannah Brunton, Chloe Pearson and Abby Maule (all S1) attended and took part in several workshops, all aimed at reducing the amount of waste we produce.

In one workshop we were learning how to compost food waste, and making our own mini composters. In another we were designing and making smoothies, using a bicycle-powered blender!

The third was called ‘Canny Kitchens’ which taught how to reduce the amount of food which we throw away, through ‘canny’ buying and cooking.
In another workshop there was a competition to design a new product which would help to reduce food waste. Hannah and Chloe came up with the idea of a ‘thinking’ toaster which never burns your toast – and they won!

There was also a talk by Smithy Croft High School who are campaigning to have all the plastic and polystyrene dinner ware in their canteen replaced by re-useable plates and cutlery. Did you know that schools in Scotland throw away millions of pieces of plastic cutlery and polystyrene plates every year?

The summit gave us lots of think about and hopefully we will be putting some of our ideas into practice with the rest of the Eco Committee very soon, and helping to reduce our waste here at Gracemount.

Mrs K Mountford
Teacher of Modern Languages

Ogwini Pupils Visiting Gracemount

Tue, 1 Dec 2009 17:40:24 +0000

So far through the sale of the "Who Am I?" anthology booklets we have raised £1355. We are aiming to get around the £1400 mark so that two pupils can come over to Gracemount in February 2010.

"Who Am I?" booklets can be bought from me at anytime.

Barbara A Dingwall
Principal Teacher of Art and Design

Gracemount High School Golden Evening

Sun, 1 Nov 2009 20:19:16 +0000

On Thursday 29th October, Gracemount High School opened its doors to pupils and staff past and present.

A 50th DVD was produced lasting 16 minutes which contains photos and video footage of various events and concerts that have taken place at the school over the last 30 years.

Click on the link below to download this file in QuickTime Format (198 MB approx).

Who Am I?

Mon, 5 Oct 2009 18:04:52 +0100

Who am I? – a poetry anthology, three years in the making.

This anthology arose out of a project (C-IT-THRU) which aimed to bring together the poetic talents of a wide range of young people in an expanding and outward-looking community: Gracemount High School; Gracemount, Burdiehouse and Gilmerton Primary schools; Kaimes School and our South African partner, Ogwini High School.

Poet Gerry Cambridge ran a number of workshops in Gracemount, maintaining a strong link over a period of time to work with pupils of a wide range of ages and stages from P7 to Advanced Higher, including pupils in our schools who do not have English as their first language. English and library staff visiting South Africa worked with pupils from Ogwini to bring back their contributions to the anthology.

Themes of personal identity, location within a community, national consciousness and growing in a changing world are explored in the poems collected.

Since 2007 pupils from Gracemount High School have visited Ogwini High School, Umlazi, South Africa. So far it has not been possible for Ogwini pupils to visit us in Edinburgh. Therefore, all proceeds from the sale of this anthology will go to finance a visit here by Ogwini pupils.

To date we have raised over £10001 and with the support of Gracemount pupils and parents we may soon have enough money to bring two Ogwini pupils over to Edinburgh.

To buy your copy of the anthology (£5.00), please contact Mrs Dingwall in the Art & Design department, Gracemount High School.

1City of Edinburgh Arts Unit purchased purchased 100 copies (£500) to give one booklet to each of Edinburgh’s primary schools; 38 (£190) were sold at our stall in the Edinburgh Book Festival and Stefana’s poem and image can be found on the Scottish Poetry Library’s website, along with one other poem from the anthology. In October some copies will be “winging” their way to Ogwini High School in South Africa and a DVD is in the process of being made to celebrate the launch.

Information on Scholar

Mon, 5 Oct 2009 17:51:58 +0100

Gracemount High School @ 50 Update!

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 17:00:51 +0100

Dawn Malcolm’s AH Art Animation

Fri, 3 Jul 2009 17:53:49 +0100

Senior student, Dawn Malcolm, completed her last year at Gracemount High School with a fantastic Advanced Higher Art animation called Record Time. This can be viewed below. The school wishes her the best of luck with her final exam grade in August.

Golden Bin Competition

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:34:12 +0100

During the week beginning 22nd June 2009, The Eco Group ran a Golden Bin competition. Student members of the Eco Team would watch out for a pupil putting their plastic bottle into one of the many recycling bins around Gracemount High School.

One of the recycling bins in the school was a special bin and if a pupil was seen using this bin at a specific time, they won a prize.

Congratulations to Liam Marr. Liam was observed putting his plastic bottle into the Golden Bin and received a prize from Mr Cassidy.