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Welcome to the first Parental Newsletter of the session. In particular I would like to welcome those of you who are new to the Woodmill community and I very much hope that you and your children have had a positive experience of the school so far and that they have settled down well into their new routines.

Our new First Year have already gone through their Induction programme including a day at Fordell Firs with guidance staff, register teachers and senior prefects. As a group they have already created a very positive impression and we look forward to their continuing contribution to the life of the school.

The school roll continues to rise (a 10% increase over the past two years) and this is an encouraging trend which we expect to continue.

This is the first of seven Parental Newsletters which you will receive over the session. This issue is being posted to you but normally Newsletters will be sent home via your son / daughter and you should expect to receive the next two issues in early November and mid-December.

Enclosed with the Newsletter are Homework Information booklets which give you exact details of the homework expectations in each department for all year groups.

Even this early in the session, there is a great deal to celebrate in the school. This year’s SQA exam results were very good and there is further detail provided further on in the Newsletter. In addition, there are individual and group pupil achievements to record and later on this session we will be involved in a six month project with the National Theatre of Scotland.

Woodmill has a reputation as a vibrant and successful school. There will be numerous opportunities over the coming session to show exactly why that is the case.

We welcome a significant number of staff who have joined us at the start of term.

Biology	Ms Nicola Moore
Business Education	Ms Lynne Mowbray
Design Technology	Mr Allan McGregor
Drama	Ms Rachel Jeffries
English	Ms Fiona Hornsby
Geography	Ms Samantha Hull
Mathematics	Dr Linda Garside
Mathematics	Ms Catherine Parsons
Physics	Mr Gordon McGregor
RMPS	Miss Lorraine Clark

All of our new colleagues have settled in well and you will have a chance to meet them during the course of the session.

Ian Watson, Rector of Woodmill from 1983 – 1997, died very suddenly on 11 July. Ian came to Woodmill from Dyce Academy in Aberdeen where he had been Depute Rector and his energy and drive made an almost immediate impact upon the school. Ian was totally committed to Woodmill and had an unshakeable belief in its potential to be successful, not just academically, but in providing its pupils with as rich and wide an educational experience as possible. Education was, for him, about developing the ‘whole child’ and he could show a justifiable impatience with those who did not put the needs of pupils to the forefront.

I had the pleasure of working with Ian for seven years, initially as Assistant Rector then as Depute. I have no doubt that I learned a great deal from him. The present inclusive ethos of the school, the positive nature of staff-pupil relationships and the high expectations are all based on foundations which Ian created during his rectorship. He left a significant educational legacy. Our thoughts are with his family.

NEWS FROM DEPARTMENTS

Stuart Barr of S6 has had his painting noticed by examiners marking his Higher Art & Design folio. It has been selected for inclusion in this year’s SQA Art Exhibition. Stuart’s painting will be exhibited at the Scottish Parliament later this year.

Congratulations to Stuart. This is quite a venue for his first public viewing, and it will look very good on his CV!

The new term began with a celebration of successes after the SQA results were published. Not only did the students gain more ‘A’ grades than ever, but their individual marks for composing, performing on two instruments, and listening, were outstanding. The hard work will continue to ‘09 but all music students deserve great credit for their achievements.

As ever, we have a varied programme of musical events outwith school. The first is a concert at Dobbies Garden Centre on the 18th September, when the school band will perform in the coffee area from 6.30-7.00 and 8.00-8.30. Please come along and give them your support. There are lots of new 1st years playing in their first proper concert band, and they are rapidly learning the ropes at rehearsals every Tuesday.

On 2 October, 30 pupils will be attending a masterclass at the Queens Hall, Edinburgh, with RSNO Masterworks.

The Winter Concert will take place on Wednesday 10 December, at 7.30 pm in the School Hall. This is where the outstanding talents and hard work put in by staff and students alike will be on display. Put the date in your diaries. It will be a sell out as usual, no doubt. (Tickets available 1st December - £4 each).

The Music, Art and Drama departments have already coordinated a special ‘EXCEL’ assembly for all new S1 pupils on Friday 29 August. These departments will be working together to create a piece with the National Theatre of Scotland later in the year.

The music department hopes to liaise with Scottish Opera to enable masterclasses for singers studying for Intermediate 2 and Higher exams. We have made a bid for this opportunity and hope to be successful.

On 1 December we will be taking a concert to the Rainbow Club at Touch Community Centre. This may well involve the choir. All choir rehearsals are on Wednesday at 12.20 in the Music Department. Commitment is required for all musical activities but the rewards in terms of self-esteem and pupil confidence extends well beyond the music department and into all aspects of school life.

If you have any questions about music, please write to Mrs C White, PT Music at Woodmill in the first instance. Please encourage your child to get involved and to enjoy the opportunities the school provides.

Former pupil Calum Gourlay shown with Mrs White at a recent concert performed by him at the Edinburgh Festival. Calum performed a new piece 'Labyrinth' with the Fife Youth Orchestra. Calum recently graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in London with a First Class honours degree.

S1 - Wednesday and Friday lunchtime, 12.15pm start.
S2 - Monday, 3.50 - 5pm. and Thursday, 12.25pm.
S3 - Monday, lunchtime and 3.50 - 5pm.
Senior - Thursday, 3.50 - 5pm.

Here are some fixtures for the coming season. More, e.g. Scottish Cup games will be added when they are announced.

10 Sept. - Senior A, Madras Tournament
18 Sept. - 3rd Year A and B v Beath (Home)
22 Sept. - 2nd Year v Beath (Away)
30 Sept. - 1st Year v Beath (Away)
9 Oct. - Seniors v Beath (Home)
29 Oct. - 3rd Year v Auchmuty (Home)
5 Nov. - Seniors v Kilgraston (Away)
13 Nov. - Seniors v Auchmuty (Away)
17 Nov. - 1st Year v Auchmuty (Home)
25 Nov. - 2nd Year v Auchmuty (Away)
1 Dec. - 3rd Year v Buckhaven (Home)
9 Dec. - 1st and 2nd Year v Buckhaven (Away)
8 Jan. - Seniors v Buckhaven (Home)
12 Jan. - 2nd Year v Buckhaven (Away)
20 Jan. - 3rd Year v Madras (Away)
28 Jan. - 1st Year v Madras (Home)
5 Feb. - Seniors v Madras (Home)
9 Feb. - 2nd Year v Madras (Away)

S1: For the first time ever we have up to 20 boys turning up to practice on Monday lunchtimes which is very encouraging and is possibly a result of work done in Primary Schools by former pupils Darryl Wood and John Day. The future looks bright.

S2: A group of hardworking, committed and skilful boys are emerging from S2. Their attitude and workrate is excellent and they have the makings of a strong squad. They had a friendly against a small Viewforth HS team and proved too strong. They played a fast moving passing game backed up by tough defence and deal combination. It is hoped to arrange some more games before the Scottish Cup starts.

S3: Yes! At long last we have a small group of S3 boys turning up regularly at practice so a Scottish Cup campaign run may be possible this year.

Senior Basketball: The senior practices are regularly attended by up to 26 players – a healthy state of affairs. The boys are a bit light on playing experience but signs are good that a competitive squad will represent the school in both Fife League and Scottish Cup competitions.

Four more pupils have achieved the Bronze level: Dean Haggerty, Daniel Norman, Callum Robinson and Craig Skicko. They received their certificates and badges in a brief ceremony in the school on 15 September from Jim Tolson MSP, shadow minister for Communities and Sport.

This means that fourteen pupils have attained Bronze over the past two years which reflects extremely well on the commitment of the pupils and the dedication of the staff involved, led by Ms Fotheringham of the RMPS department.

It is expected that a number of pupils will achieve the Silver level in the coming months.

The school has now achieved the Silver award and all our efforts are being directed on gaining our first Green Flag, hopefully before the end of session.

Congratulations are due to the school’s Eco Committee, led by Ms Urquhart and Mr Maxton for continuing to raise the profile of environmental issues within the school.

Can you help? We would love parents to be involved on our committee. It would be a small commitment – involving a 1-hour meeting every 2 months approx. We would look at improving environmental awareness in the school, litter issues and recycling. Please contact Mr John Maxton or Mrs Alison Urquhart via the school.

We have received notification of the graduations of the following former pupils:

‘Interact’ is a service and social club for young people aged 14 -18. Each club is sponsored by a Rotary Club which guides the Interactors in developing local and international service projects. This is an international organisation with more than 8600 clubs worldwide.

Woodmill is delighted that an Interact Club has now been established in the school with the support of the Rotary Club of Dunfermline Carnegie.

Membership currently stands at eleven with Sarah Jane Dale (S5) as President. All eleven members attended the Rotary Club Of Dunfermline Carnegie’s meeting on 9 September and the four office-bearers; Sarah Jane Dale, Stuart Baynham, Kirsty Gill and Nicola Bett, were speakers at the Rotary District 1010 Conference in Aviemore on 13 September.

At the Conference, the group were selling their hand-made cotton shopping bags, the proceeds from which will go to a Rotary / Leonard Cheshire International project to help disabled children in Africa.

Woodmill is proud to support the work of our Interact Club and looks forward to it growing and developing over the coming years.

A school musical production celebrating the 50 years of Woodmill will be staged the 3rd, 4th and 5th of December 2008.

The show, as yet untitled, has a Dr Who character travelling back in time, and finding himself in Woodmill High School in the middle of various musical and dramatic events.

A competition will be launched soon to give the show a title and the winner will win a family ticket to the performance night of their choice.

On Saturday 28 June, pupils from S4, S5 and S6 left Woodmill for the hot climate of Italy. Weighing the suitcases at Prestwick airport became a game of higher or lower for the teachers who skipped to the front of the queue, but what’s new there!

On Sunday 29 June we were up sharp and ready for a morning visit to Pompeii which was really something different. The entire town was nothing more than shells of houses and vineyards (we would see a lot more of them). Our tour of Pompeii took us to the arena which was pretty well preserved compared to the rest of the town, then to look at the casts of Vesuvius’ victims, which were extremely impressive because you could make out the expressions on the faces. There were children and even a dog among the casts.

In the afternoon, after a nice lunch, we took another bus trip, this time to Mt. Vesuvius which, what can I say, is simply a big volcano. After what seemed like a really long drive, HALF way up, it was time to walk the rest of the way up to the top. I walked up with Mr Stuart who stormed up to the top. We were then followed by Mr Fraser and his group. The views from the top were amazing, but the walk in scorching heat was difficult and there wasn’t even any lava!

Monday 30 June had to be one of my favourite days. We were up early for a day in Rome which was amazing. In the morning we visited the Colosseum, a truly remarkable sight when we first approached it. The huge walls towered up beside us and the massive arches which once contained statues were exactly how I imagined them. Once inside though you could see that time hadn’t been good to the Colosseum. Once it had been filled with marble all over for the flooring, walls and even the seats but most of the marble had been stripped away. The centre arena had rotted away and the underground lion and slave cages were now exposed but part of the centre arena had been restored and it wasn’t hard to imagine the fights which would have once taken place there.

After our visit to the Colosseum we walked briskly on to the Roman Forum which had also been stripped away but the senate building was still in excellent condition and we saw where Caeser was cremated after he had been murdered. It was also here where I had my very first Italian ice cream. Seriously, no ice cream could beat this stuff.

Next on our tour of Rome was the Trevi Fountain. The fountain itself was definitely a magnificent piece of art. We stopped to admire the fountain and also to throw coins into the fountain; one coin meant you would come back to Rome, two coins meant you would come back to Rome married and three coins meant you would never leave Rome.

Our last stop of the morning was the Pantheon which had to be seen because as you looked to the roof a beam of sunlight came through to light the entire room and all of the beautiful pieces of art that were painted around the room. We then headed out in groups for lunch. Some of us headed for nice wee Italian cafes, but some of us found… McDonalds!

In the afternoon we visited the Vatican which had to be the best part of the day because it was so surreal. There was huge bowl that the Pope filled with wine once a year and got drunk from, didn’t he Mr Fraser? (and to think that I actually believed him).

On route to the Sistine Chapel the walls of the corridors were adorned with paintings of almost everything; past Popes, countries and religious scenes. The Sistine chapel itself was pretty impressive. Both the walls and the roof had been covered with Michelangelo’s paintings depicting scenes from the Bible and the Day of Judgement, but you had to be really quiet; Mrs McLean said it was out of respect.

Our final destination at the Vatican was St. Peter’s Basilica, and if anyone has seen the cover of Dan Brown’s “Angels and Demons” then you’ll know what I mean about the shafts of light that beam down onto the Vatican seal that adorned the floor. The centre altar had to be the most impressive thing in St. Peter’s because it’s just indescribable!

On Tuesday 1 July we reached Pisa and it was really busy. When we got into the Tower of Pisa complex it was a sight to behold. The tower leans a lot more than I expected it to and looked like it was just going to tip over at any given moment! In our free time we were to have lunch and buy any souvenirs that we wanted but I used the time instead to practice ordering ice cream which I later became a master at!

We spent Wednesday 2 July at Gardaland theme park. There were numerous types of rides, water rides and proper roller coasters and this weird ride that went upside down, which actually looked pretty funny. A great day!

On Thursday 3 July we visited Venice, “Queen of the Adriatic” and it was quite different to all the places in the sense that the architecture was nothing like that of the other Italian cities. We had to travel into Venice itself by vaparetto (water taxi) which was pretty relaxing considering the sun was scorching. When we got to Venice we walked along the busy canal front over bridges which crossed the canal streets and into St. Mark’s Square. The square was really cool architecturally. On one side was the Palace of Justice which is really a building (I can’t describe; you really have to see it). At the top of the square was St. Mark’s Cathedral which had four large bronze horses placed on the roof above the entrance and on the final side of the square was the Campanile (Bell Tower). Despite being scared of heights I went up the Campanile and I’m glad I did because from the top the whole of Venice was on display.

On Friday 4 July, before flying from Milan back to rainy Britain, we had one last sight to see, the picturesque town of Verona. When we got there I personally could understand why it was the setting for Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”. We headed into the Verona arena which was being set up for the opera, ‘Tosca’ that evening. Unlike the Colosseum this arena was in really good condition with the original seats still there, plus the seats for the opera were all set up. We then walked to Villa Capulet to see Juliet’s balcony and leave notes at the entrance - this is where people leave love letters attached to the walls.
At lunchtime I got as much ice cream as I could afford and then lazed around in the park after having a good look around. Verona was lovely, but very expensive.

We then left Verona and headed for Milan for the flight home. After stocking up on loads of sweets and red bull for the journey it was time to come home. We all got through security fine, all except for Lara who lost her passport. Luckily it was found on the plane.

I don’t think that a better group of teachers could have taken us on this trip, so on behalf of everyone we would like to thank Mr Fraser aka Paulo, Mrs McLean with her swollen ankles, Mr Stuart with his sweaty back and finally Miss Kinghorn, or Mrs Dunlop as she is known now. Connor Beurskens

It certainly seems like we left a good impression as Mr Gilmour received this email on our return from Italy:

This summer, I was on holiday in Lake Garda, Italy with my husband and three children. We spent a day at an Italian theme park, Gardaland where we met several of your S5/6 pupils.

You tend to tune into Scottish accents abroad and we spoke to several pupils while we queued for various rides. I'd just like to commend them all for their confidence, their friendliness and their impeccable behaviour. It may sound an odd thing to say about people you've never met before but I was really proud of them. They were good ambassadors for Scotland.

Parents will be aware of the Scottish Government’s HPV immunisation campaign designed to protect against cervical cancer.

Girls in S2 and S6 were vaccinated during the week beginning 1 September by a team of nurses managed by Mrs Bissett, Woodmill’s own lead nurse. It is a tribute to the organisational skills of the school nurses and the mature and responsible nature of our girls that the vaccination programme was carried out very calmly and efficiently.

As I noted earlier, the SQA results were extremely pleasing and in many areas, the school has achieved our best figures for many years. I will be able to give fuller details in a later Newsletter once we obtain data allowing us to compare our performance with that of schools with similar characteristics. At the moment I would like to note the following.

*	The percentage of the roll gaining English at Level 3 or better increased by 7%
*	The percentage of the roll gaining Maths at Level 3 or better increased by 4%
*	The percentage of the roll gaining both English and Maths at Level 3 or better increased by 7%
*	The percentage of the roll gaining awards at 5+ Foundation increased by 2%
*	The percentage of the roll gaining awards at 5+ General increased by 10%
*	The percentage of the roll gaining awards at 5+ Credit awards increased by 12%

The performance of last year’s S4 was very good and reflected our predictions and targets for this year group who we expect to do equally well in the 2009 exams.

*	The percentage gaining 1+ Higher dipped from last year’s level to the average for previous years
*	The percentage gaining 3+ Highers dipped noticeably as predicted
*	The percentage gaining 5 Highers dipped very slightly although it is worthy of note that all S5 pupils predicted to gain 5 Highers did so

*	The percentage gaining 3+ Highers by the end of S6 rose by 8%
*	The percentage gaining 5 Highers by the end of S6 rose by 4%
*	The percentage gaining 1+ Advanced Higher rose by 2%

These improvements in examination statistics are welcome and we have confidence that next year’s results will build on this progress.

At the time of writing there are strong indications that the above unions will be taking industrial action on Wednesday 24 September.

I will write to parents nearer to the time to give further information. These letters will go home with pupils so please remember to check with your son / daughter.

The Authority is keen that as many parents as possible respond to the consultation process.

If you have still to return your consultation form, please do so as soon as possible.