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At every stage in their school life, Woodmill pupils are encouraged to take part in the wide range of activities available to them outside the formal classroom environment. Thanks to the effort and commitment of the staff, Woodmill offers an impressive range of extra-curricular activities which are an important part of the school's philosophy of educating the whole child.

Woodmill regularly achieves at a high level at both regional and national level in a wide variety of activities.

Rotary International in Britain and Ireland sponsors an annual Young Citizen Award scheme in conjunction with the BBC. This year one of the five awards was one by Woodmill’s Interact Club which is supported by the Rotary Club of Dunfermline Carnegie. The award was in recognition of the Interact Club’s fundraising for charities in Africa and their record of service to community projects in the Dunfermline Area. The Club members received their award from personality Konnie Huq at the RIBI Conference in Edinburgh in April in a ceremony broadcast live on BBC. Later this summer, members of the Interact Club will be participating in a visit to a Rotary Club in Toronto, Canada. This project has required the pupils to raise over £8000.

The Junior Maths Challenge is a national UK competition aimed at the top third of pupils in S2. The challenge involves answering 25 multiple-choice questions in one hour and is sat under examination conditions. The top 6% in the UK receive a Gold certificate; the next 12% receive a Silver certificate and the following 18% receive a Bronze certificate.

In this year’s Challenge, 48 Woodmill pupils in S1 and S2 received certificates. 7 achieved Gold, 19 attained Silver and 22 achieved Bronze.

This is by far the best result by Woodmill pupils in the Junior Maths Challenge and ranks among one of the best performances in Fife. To have 7 pupils among the top 6% of young mathematicians in the UK is an achievement of which the Woodmill mathematics department is very proud.

Woodmill’s Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme goes from strength to strength with four pupils having now attained Silver level. Jim Tolson MSP presented the pupils with their awards at a ceremony in the school in March. In addition, a further nine pupils received their Bronze award and thirteen received their First Aid certificates.

The Woodmill group is now set on the route to Gold and we hope to attain this very significant landmark by the end of session 2009-2010.

Woodmill’s S1 Netball team had a very successful season, winning the Scottish Cup (Silver Division) by beating Grove Academy of Dundee in the final by 26 – 17. The S3 team also made the final of their Scottish Cup competition for the second year running, losing to Auchmuty High School. This consistent level of national success in Netball reflects great credit on coach Jackie Moore of the PE department and her continuing dedication, enthusiasm and commitment.

Woodmill was involved in a partnership with the National Theatre of Scotland in the early months of the year. Fifty-seven S3 pupils were selected to work with the NTS team on the creation of a site-specific event combining drama, dance and music. The resulting production, ‘You Tell Us What Was, We Tell, You What Is’, was staged five times during a three-day run in the old Pilmuir Works in Dunfermline which closed in 2005.

Working alongside professional stage managers, directors, lighting and sound engineers from the National Theatre of Scotland was incredibly stimulating and energising for the pupils who reacted extremely positively and reached an excellent standard. Feedback from the NTS, the audience and the sponsors was uniformly positive as were the articles in the Times Education Supplement (Scotland) and the STV news coverage.

Woodmill’s very active Eco-Committee continues to promote ‘green’ issues and thinking within the school and we have now attained the Silver level. A lot of hard work is now going in to support our application for our first Green Flag.

Woodmill’s U – 15 football squad showed great determination and skill in winning the Fife Cup after a hard-fought final against Kirkcaldy High School which went to penalties after finishing 1 – 1 after normal time. Coolness at penalty time led a to a 5 – 4 victory.

Congratulations are also due to two of the U - 15 squad who were selected to play for Fife. In addition another Woodmill pupil won selection for the Fife U – 18 squad.

Woodmill’s Young Enterprise Company, ‘Wyse an’Wycht’ became Fife Champions after the presentations in Glenrothes in March. They also won the award for the best presentation. The Woodmill team achieved their success by making and selling attractive clocks using wood from ‘Scottish Wood’ which is the trading arm of ‘Dynamic Woods’, a Scottish charity based on Inzievar Woods which aims to regenerate our woodland resources and create sustainable sources of top-class timber. The members of 'Wyse an' Wycht' presented a cheque from their profits to 'Dynamic Woods' in order to support the charity.

The Woodmill team now go to the Scottish finals in Glasgow in June.

Once again, Woodmill enjoyed great success at both regional and national level in this year’s Burns Competitions. At the Fife competition we achieved two 1st places and three 2nd places. All five pupils qualified to represent Fife in the Scottish Schools Burns Festival in Duns at the end of April.

Three Woodmill pupils returned with medals from the national event; taking Silver in the S1 / S2 Verse Speaking, Bronze in the S5 / S6 Singing and Bronze in the S5 / S6 Verse Speaking. This represents a significant level of national success for Woodmill given the high standard of performances from pupils from around the country. This is our best performance at the national competition and has set us a target for next year.
In addition, one of our seniors won the Mel Rennie Quaich, awarded by the Dunfermline United Burns Club, in recognition of her successes in the Fife Burns Competition of 2008.

‘Footnotes’

Woodmill’s ‘Footnotes’ Dance company was one of only two schools selected from auditions in the east of Scotland to perform in the ‘Great Big Dance Show’ in Dundee Repertory Theatre in October 2008. The company’s performance was regarded as outstanding and it enthralled the audience. The organisers commented on the positive attitude and sheer professionalism of the Woodmill girls and further invitations are likely to come about as a result. This is all the more praiseworthy given that with the exception of one other company, the dance troupes in the show were either national organisations or professionals.