An important date for your diaries:

Open doors evening for all parents of our cluster primaries to meet pupils and staff on Thursday 10 November between 4:30pm and 8:30pm.

Please see Drummond Booklet  (PDF, 2.71MB) for more information.

The run was to raise money for several charities, in line with the Religion, Beliefs and Values Award (RBV) at Drummond CHS.

The charities represented were –

• The National Autistic Society Scotland
• MacMillan Cancer Care
• Cancer Research UK
• Down’s Syndrome Scotland

All of the young people did us proud and some even surpassed the 5k mark- all were completed within 40 minutes.

YP- Ryan Gordon, Layza Mirhadi, Sara and Amy Anderson, Erin Youngs, Josh Westwood and Charly Miller.

Teachers- Miss Tonner and Miss Fry.

Completed portfolio of writing (All levels): 10^th March 2017

National 5 and Higher Analysis and Evaluation unit to be completed by: 2^nd December 2016

National 5 and Higher Creation and Production unit to be completed by: 31^st March 2017

National 3, National 4 and National 5 Literacy Award to be completed by: 31^st March 2017

National 3 and National 4 course will be completed by: 28^th April 2017

Advanced Higher unit assessments complete by: 22^nd December 2016

Advanced Higher Dissertation deadlines:

First Draft: 13^th December 2016

Final Draft: 2^nd February 2017

National 5, Higher and Advance Higher Prelims: 12-20^th January 2017

National 5 final exam: 12^th May

Paper 1: 9.00-10.00am

Paper 2: 10.20-11.50am

Higher final exam: 11^th May 2017

Paper 1: 9.00-10.30am

Paper 2: 10.50-12.20pm

Advanced Higher exam: 11^th May 2017

Paper 1: 13.00-14.30pm

Paper 2: 14.50-16.20pm

We are re-launching our Vision and Values here at Drummond Community High School.

What 3 values would you consider to be the most important for Drummond Community High School? Respect? Commitment? Excellence? Opportunity? Confidence? Aspiration? Recognition? Loyalty? Ambition?

Please follow us on Twitter (@Drummond_CHS) and use the hashtag #valuesdchs in your response.

A REMINDER

This hardship fund is still available to support/reimburse parents dependent on FSM and breakfast club services as part of their budgeting to ensure they are not adversely affected by the loss of service during the school closures in April.

Please contact admin@drummond.edin.sch.uk for more information or to make a claim.

On Thursday 29th September 2016 the following four students took part in Enterprising Maths in the Lothians, tackling a variety of mathematical puzzles and problems against 26 teams from across Edinburgh, East Lothian and Midlothian:

•  Mhairi Dickie (S4)
• Daniel Farrow (S3)
• Sara Leszczynska (S3)
• Benjamin Sterratt (S4)

The puzzles ranged from creating a poster, a whole-team competition, a speed competition, a relay competition, individual mental calculation rounds and an aeroplane building task.

I’m sure everyone will remember that we won this event last year – an historic triumph for the pupils and for the school.

The team were magnificent throughout, performing superbly in every round, hugely impressing the teaching staff, the actuarial staff (who were sponsoring and supporting the event), and advanced higher maths pupils helping out on the day.  They have now qualified (again!) for the National finals due to take place in Glasgow in November.

On Wednesday 21^st September, the Higher Biology students were given a last minute opportunity to visit the Applied Sciences faculty of Napier University to participate in a PCR and gel electrophoresis workshop, supporting our study of genetics.

We took the tram out to Bankhead and headed up to the Sighthill campus on a bright and sunny morning. We were welcomed and escorted up the glass staircase of a stunning modern building, to a huge lab full of incredible equipment.  We were joined by other students from Whitburn Academy, along with university staff and student demonstrators to assist us.

After a short introduction, we put on lab coats and gloves and began by practising our micro-pipette skills, transferring tiny volumes of liquid into small plastic Eppendorf tubes. Once able to do this proficiently, we started on our task of comparing DNA samples from unwashed salad leaves to check for the presence of harmful E.coli bacteria (responsible for the recent Dunsyre cheese food poisoning outbreak).  Each pair of students created a ‘master mix’ containing DNA samples, DNA polymerase, primers and other solutions using their new skills, centrifuged it and then placed it in the PCR thermal cycler to amplify the DNA samples.

After lunch, we were taught how to load the gels for electrophoresis (well done to the 3 Drummond students who stepped forward to demonstrate this in front of 50 spectators!), and each pair set about carefully transferring their samples into tiny holes in the gel using a micro-pipette.  After running the gels, they were analysed on a UV light box to check for DNA bands.

The students all agreed that they had a fantastic experience, and we would like to thank George Chambers, Tom Evans and the other staff and students at Napier for inviting us and for laying on such an amazing workshop.  The students themselves were professional, polite, answered questions intelligently, volunteered to demonstrate techniques and carried out the practical activities with great care and concentration.  They were a credit to the school, impressed the staff at Napier and should be very proud of themselves.

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Please see re-issue-schedule (PDF, 93KB) for the S4-S6 re-ssue of iPads.

Very regrettably, the parental meeting for the school expectation of the senior phase has been cancelled due to unforeseen technical issues.

The meeting is rescheduled for the same time on Thursday 15 September 2016. Senior students will receive their iPad during the revised meeting.

Sincere apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused.

There will be meeting to highlight the school’s expectations of the Senior Phase on Monday 29 August 5:00-6:00pm.

I-pads will be re-issued to students at this time.