Saluting Achievement
The 11th November 2008 saw a full house at the Academy for the Awards Ceremony to congratulate the year’s many achievers. At our last such ceremony, our academic achievers were congratulated; this time, these were achievers from the world of sports and athletics. A further Award Ceremony will be held later in the year for distinguished performers in art and music.
Also present were recipients of the Duke of Edinburgh Gold and Bronze awards. In the former category were Peter Farquhar, Lily Caunt and Paul Milne with no less than twenty two others achieving the Bronze award: Emma Downie, Jordan Wilson, Niall Anderson, Louise Summers, Blair Scott, Craig Frater, John Watson, Elliot Godsman, Louise Cormie, Aidan Bell, Mairi Gillis, Graeme Ormiston, Rosie Stephen, Thomas Renwick, Cameron Rathie, James Baxter, Anna Duncan, Jessica Elliott, Alistair Russell, Kieran Crews, Tom Brotherstone.
Achievement Certificates were awarded to pupils in the following categories:
Swimming: Kirsty Paterson, Sarah Paterson, Fiona Inglis.
Tennis: Lewis Armstrong.
Cricket: Kristopher Mein, Caitlin Ormiston, Gregor Mein, Duncan Millar, Josh Irvine, Graeme Ormiston, Rory Hancock.
Football: Marc Berry, Gregor Amos, Dylan Howel, Christopher Nicholson, Dale Scott, Craig McBride, Brad Lochrie, Declan Leckie, Joe Tait, Lucy Brownlee, Kerry Bonnar, Linsey Borthwick, Laura Holmes, Ashleigh Hedderly, Leigh Bell, Lauren Brownlee, Amy Robson, Eilidh Walker, Rachael Patterson, Siobhan Andrew.
Athletics: Gregor Hunter, Nicola Mackay, Alice Haining, Blair Reavely, Craig Robertson, Fraser Anderson, Kristopher Mein, Gavin Young, Demi Yorke, Corrie Stanners, Lisa Robertson, Sean Ballantyne, Gregor Amos, Ian Dawtry, Callum Murray, Nadine White, Samantha Brown, Jennifer Armstrong, Danielle Barron, Fiona Inglis, Alix Johnston.
Rugby: Craig Robertson, Gregor Hunter, Dawn Hope, Lisa Robertson, Kristopher Mein, Ewan McQuillin, Ian Dawtry, Gavin Young, Jamie Livingston, William Brownlee, Bruce Dick, Mark Welsh.
Mountain Biking: Peter Farquhar, Craig Paterson, Douglas Pflug, Tenzin Stephen, Cameron Balfour.
Horse Riding: Jennifer Armstrong, Claire Hancock, Lyndsay Allan, Charlotte Dun, Rebecca Dun.
Hockey: Katie Stavert, Rachel Lawrie, Kirsty Marks, Jacqueline Affleck, Darragh Moss, Simone Reid, Linzi Mitchell, Caitlin Ormiston, Alix Johnston, Danielle Barron, Lucy Brownlee, Rebecca Dun, Hailey Graham, Nicole Templeton, Briony Scott, Luci Wilkinson, Claire Hancock, Jordan Wilson, Mary Charters, Louise Summers, Amy Falconer, Claire Wilson, Sarah Johnston, Kayley Barbour, Lindsay Miller, Eilidh Barrie, Anna Duncan, Eilidh Walker, Isla Craigie, Suzanne Henry, Ashley Hogg.
Deputy Head boy Jamie Livingston gave the welcome address which was followed by deputy head girl Karen Ormiston introducing the guest speaker, former pupil Ruaridh Cunningham, currently Junior Downhill World Champion who gave the address to the pupils and handed over the certificates. The Jim Shearer Memorial Trophy was awarded to Demi Yorke for her outstanding performances on the athletics field.
Dawn Hope, head girl, made a presentation to the guest speaker who was thanked by deputy head boy Andrew Gould.
By Peter Renton and Daniel Porter
Putting Bullying in its Place
A competition was organised by the Health Committee in the school to encourage pupils from 1st-3rd year to create a poster, PowerPoint or any other graphic item that would raise awareness to the Anti-Bullying Week that began on 17th of November to the 23rd.
Once all of the entrants were in, they were divided into their appropriate groups. The winners were then chosen from each group by each of the committee members. One member of the committee, Claire Geddes, said; “I feel we made the right decision about the winners. There was some grand work in there.”
The winners were: S2 - Rebecca Law for her drawing and Kayla King for her poem; S3- Greg Farrell for his video; S1 - Chloe Allan for her poster and Laura Stennett for her PowerPoint.
When asked their thoughts on what they had created, they were pretty unanimous on their reasoning. They said the reason for their anti-bullying creations was to stop the bullies being able to hurt future victims, and to give information to anyone who needs it on ways to tackle their bullies.
Kayla King added. “People get picked on for being different but it’s really their choice on how they dress or decide to act. They shouldn’t be called emo's, for instance, for choosing to wear their hair a different way.” According to Kayla, she got the inspiration for her poem from her own experience of being bullied and she feels writing about is one way to get rid of the bullies.
Overall, there was a single idea uniting all the entries: don’t let the bullies win! And judging by the number and standard of the entries, they’re not going to.
By Liliana Hunt
Not About 
Heroes
To help the Academy mark Remembrance Week, the Rowan Tree Theatre Company brought their production of Not About Heroes to the Assembly Hall on the 12th. The play about the friendship between the war poets Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon was written by Stephen MacDonald and starred Oliver Bissett as Sassoon and Matthew Burgess as Owen. For Matthew, it was a kind of homecoming since he and the Stage Manager Alistair Patullo are former pupils of the school.
There was, in fact, more drama than planned, for Ollie, labouring under the heat of the hall and the multiple layers of clothes his role demanded, fell ill towards the end of the first half. Gallantly, he refused to abandon the stage altogether and the remainder of the afternoon was turned into a productive Question and Answer session for the S3 Credit classes attending.
Science and St Andrew
To mark St Andrew’s Day this year, the Science department is running a competition. Pupils have the chance to win one of ten hologram chambers by investigating a Scottish scientist or inventor. Pupils should create a poster/picture/video/PowerPoint/play/podcast or whatever they see as relevant to the subject. Entries to Ms Pritchard as a soon as possible or e-mailed to Galashiels.physics@googlemail.com. Prizes sponsored by SCDI.
