Craigclowan Preparatory School

CRAIGCLOWAN
Preparatory School

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PRE-SCHOOL

SPRING TERM 2008

(Post Half-Term)

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SPORT RELIEF CHARITY WALK

20 MARCH 2008

SPORT RELIEF 2008

Cows! Pirates! Fairies! Whoopie cushions! Tin men! They were all there in abundance on the last day of term. Craigclowan celebrated Sport Relief with flair and laughter. Every child in the school came in fancy dress and even the staff made a huge effort. What a fantastic way to end the term and raise lots of money for those less fortunate than us.

The final total will be tallied up at the beginning of next term, but we are sure that a great deal of cash will have been raised

Well done everyone and a Happy Easter!

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Team Tactics

STAFF v 1st XI HOCKEY

19 MARCH 2008

Any ideas, anyone?

Final Result: 1st XI 1 Staff 2

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HOCKEY REPORT

SPRING TERM 2008

Under 10s
The Under 10s had three games and although the results were mixed, it was good to see so many young boys representing the school. There is much hope for the future of hockey at the school when you see the talent that is coming through.

Under 11s
It has been a fantastic term for the U11s. The team, as a whole, have made enormous progress and I am sure that those moving up next year will be pushing for places in the 1st XI. If they need to take one thing on with them, it is to always give 100% and try as hard as they did against Belhaven in the Craigclowan 6s Tournament, with only Cargilfield not being defeated by our slick attacks down the right, the team can be incredibly proud of their achievements.

2nd XI
The 2nds have had a mixed season this term, beating Loretto 4/2 and losing closely to Adrvreck, Cargilfield and Fettes. If it wasn’t for the help of Mr. Simpson and Mr. Reynolds they wouldn’t have improved so much through the season.

1st XI
The 1sts have had a great season. There has been much improvement in the team since our first game against Fettes in which we lost 3/1. We picked up our standard massively and won the next batch of games. We dominated many of these games. Next we had the IAPS 7s in which we did not play to our full ability. We were all very disappointed with our performance. Then came the Strathallan 6s in which we performed exceptionally well. We had worked very hard to get into the final and then the whole team probably had the best game of their lives. Everything went perfectly and we came away with a 7/0 win against Loretto. This Tournament was the highlight of the season. Finally, we rounded off the season with a 4/0 win against Cargilfield. Everybody had a very good game then we played the staff and sadly lost 2/1. Next time we might give the staff a less of a chance!!

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ANNUAL SECOND HAND
BOOK SALE

19 MARCH 2008

On Thursday we held our annual second hand book sale. Books were donated by pupils and sold at 50p each or three for £1. There were more books than ever donated this year and we raised £345 for Book Aid International, an organisation which buys books for schools in sub-Saharan Africa. Senior Scripture Union Explorers, who helped to organise and run the sale, dressed as characters from the books for the occasion. We were also able (after the sale) to donate unsold books to three schools in Kenya which Mike and Angela Beale had visited. They had noted that there was a real shortage of reading material available for the pupils in these schools and will arrange for the books to be shipped off to Kenya. We would like to thank everyone who contributed to the sale by donating or buying books.

Issy Arnaud

F. 5 & 6 POETRY RECITATION
COMPETITION

19 MARCH 2008

Hamish Rathborne

This year’s poetry competition was again a close-run affair. Form 5 + 6 candidates were reduced to fifteen per year. Mr. Court came out of retirement to judge and adjudicate and did a fine job of encouraging and rewarding each finalist with his comments. In the end Mr. Court judged Issy Arnaud as the form 5 winner with Hamish Rathborne picking up the Form 6 honours.

Mr Court, well holding court!

Form 6 Competitors

Form 5 Competitors

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F. 7 LATIN FEAST

17 MARCH 2008

On Monday March 17th Form 7 Latin held its annual feast. Dressed as Romans the class enjoyed a spectacular range of food, following the theme “one food disguised as another”. This year we had a Medusa Cake complete with snakes, a chocolate sponge in the shape of a fish, some toadstools some nests and some top hats to name but a few items. Entertainment was provided by Liam who told us jokes and by Annabel, Séverine and Ynke who danced. Then everyone joined in a Latin conga.

As ever omnes bene cenaverunt!

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FAIR CITY PRIMARY CHESS COMPETITION WINNERS

14 MARCH 2008

The chess team have retained the title of Fair City Primary Chess Competition Winners.

The team comprised Geordie Houldsworth, Henry Deards, George Marlow, Robert Wilson and Johnny Alexander (reserve). The boys saw off Errol, RDM Scone and a very strong team from Auchterarder to end up champions by a whisker.

To get to the Final the boys had to win their group, which they did in some style.

Group Results
Round 1 Craigclowan 3 Dunning 1
Round 2 Craigclowan 3 St, Ninian's 1
Round 3 Craigclowan 4 Ardvreck 0

Results in the Final
Round 1 Craigclowan 3 Auchterarder 1
Round 2 Craigclowan 4 Errol 0
Round 3 Craigclowan 3 RDM Scone 1

Final Standings
1st Craigclowan 6 match points
2nd Auchterarder 4 match points
3rd (after tie breaker) Errol 1 match point
4th RDM Scone 1 match point

Geordie Houldsworth was also the winner of this year's British Land Chess Challenge. He, together with a few other members of chess club, have qualified for the Scottish National Finals to be held in Edinburgh in May.

This has been a very exciting term for the chess club and with so many young players coming through the ranks, I am looking forward to the new season in the Autumn already. Well done to all!

Mr. McCarthy

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SCHOLARSHIP SUCCESSES

13 MARCH 2008

News reached us this week of further scholarship success to follow on the back of Mairi Hill’s academic award at Kilgraston. Cameron Montgomery won the top academic scholarship at Glenalmond while Ross Davis and Annabel Flowers were given All-Rounder awards to the College. At Strathallan, Marcus Black followed in his brother’s footsteps to win a Sports Scholarship and Martin Marshall was awarded a Music Scholarship. Sacha Taylor, Ynke Lariviere and Scott Whiteford all impressed, too, but sadly missed out.

From our nineteen Form 7 leavers, just under a third have won awards that reflect the quality and breadth of education on offer at Craigclowan. A big “well done” to them all.

A RABBIT WARREN IN 2B

13 MARCH 2008

2b made some papier-mâché bunnies for Easter. It was a messy experience, but fun!

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HOCKEY MATCH REPORT

12 MARCH 2008

1st XI v Ardvreck

On Wednesday the 1st team had their annual grudge game with Ardvreck. After coming out of the Strathallan sixes tournament last week on top, the boys had shown much confidence throughout the week in training. However, the boys ran in to a very strong Ardvreck team and unfortunately found themselves on the back foot right from the start. The boys fought hard to keep them out and with a goal to Ross Davies just on the stroke of half time we were lucky to be down 2-1. Unfortunately the boys couldn’t carry this momentum through the second half and went down 4-1. They had come up against a much better team who played with a lot of confidence away from home. Though there were some positives out of the match with James and Hugh really impressing again as well as Geordie and Liam who had their best games of the season! Our final match is next Wednesday against Cargilfield which will then be followed by the biggest match of the season against a very primed Staff XI.

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CROSS-COUNTRY EASTER EGG HUNT

11 MARCH 2008

Our last week of training ended on a sweet and cheerful note, with our Tuesday and Thursday groups being rewarded by chocolate eggs, to be found scattered over the school grounds and beyond . Roll on next autumn for more happy time in the mud!

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F.2B TO R.R.S. DISCOVERY

10 MARCH 2008

On the 10th of March 2 B went to the Discovery in Dundee. When we first got to the Discovery we went to the toilets. After that we went up the stairs to have our snack. Next we went to see the history of the discovery. Then we watched a video. When the video was finished Jackie showed us around the ship. There were lots of ankle bashers. After that we went to the kitchen. The cook was the luckiest member of the crew because he sleeps in the galley.

Then we saw the mess deck. There was a dart-board and a record player. In the next room Jackie showed us a cool trick! When Captain Scott sailed the ship over the Equator the leather seats would get hot and sticky so the officer had to turn the seat over to the bamboo side! Finally we saw Captain Scott's cabin. Then we said goodbye to Jackie and went back to Craigclowan.

By Gregor Cochrane age 6.

Yesterday we went to the Discovery. We were on the ship. I was very interesting because the crows nest was very high indeed. There was a spare crows nest at the bottom as well. The cook was the luckiest man on board ship because the kitchen was the warmest room, but the dinner room was the coldest room. They had operations in there. The cat was one of the most important members of the ship because he will chase the rats away. We also saw Captain Scott’s diary. Then we went inside to eat our snack. Then we saw a cinema. It was very interesting.

By Thomas Reynolds age 6

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PERFORM IN PERTH SPEECH CLASSES

10 MARCH 2008

Performers from Forms 3-6 were in action at several venues this week.

Some outstanding work has come from the talent of the children and practice of several weeks of rehearsal fitted into a crowded school day.

There have been many such distinctions this season.
There were twenty-two first class certificates at 85
There were eleven first class certificates at 86
There were six first class certificates at 87
There were three first class certificates at 88
There were three first class certificates at 89
This makes a total of 45 distinctions.

LHC

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IAPS NETBALL TOURNAMENT

07 MARCH 2008

Nine girls were chosen from the U12 group to represent Craigclowan at under 12 level in the Independent Association Preparatory Schools Regional Netball Tournament at Ranby House Prep School, Notts.

We were the 1st group to use the new minibus which was very exciting for all concerned but meant that we had to be particularly careful with our rubbish! After about six hours travelling with a couple of stops we finally arrived at our Travel Lodge, ordered some very welcome carry-out pizzas and settled down for the evening.

The tournament started at 10am the following day, the girls had seven matches to play and we had ten matches to umpire so it was going to be a busy day! Luckily and very thankfully for us, we had our star parent supporter Mrs Smillie with us who also knows one or two things about netball, having played for Scotland herself. She very kindly offered to do all the umpiring for us and did a wonderful job, thank you, Mrs Smillie!

The team had a bit of a shaky start with the first few matches and they really didn’t play their best. However, as the day progressed they progressed too and ended up playing really confidently and well. Ranby House was our first match and undoubtedly the best team in the tournament, the rest of the games where we drew and just lost were a little unfortunate but the girls gained loads of experience from the day and ended up winning all the latter matches.

The final results were: v Ranby House we lost 13 - 3 / v Foremark Hall we lost 3 - 2 / v St Mary's Hall we drew 3 - 3 /
v Malsis we won 11 - 0 / v St Anselm's we won 8 - 4 / v Bromsgrove we won 6 - 3 / v Rockport we won 12 - 1

We came 3rd overall.

It was lovely to see Cargilfield there too, they had entered a team at under 13 level and although their team didn’t do as well as ours their bus certainly got them home quicker than ours did!

Liz Henderson and Fiona Grant

F.1 TO PIZZA EXPRESS

06 MARCH 2008

Form 1 enjoyed a trip to Pizza Express this week as part of their Senses topic. They had a lovely time, learning how to roll the dough and spread the tomato topping. They certainly smelt delicious as we walked back to the school minibuses with our boxes of pizza!

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STRATHALLAN HOCKEY SIXES

05 MARCH 2008

The boys travelled the short distance determined to put up a better showing than they did in the IAPS qualifier the previous week. Four group games against Riley, Fettes, Lathallan and Ardvreck saw three wins and a draw against Ardvreck. This meant we topped the group. The afternoon saw us play against Belhaven and Aberlour. Two wins here meant that we had qualified for the final. Until this point, the boys had remarkably scored 20 goals and conceded only 2 although the biggest plus point was that some of the younger members of the team such as Grant, James and Hugh really ‘stepped up to the mark’. All three were outstanding during the entire day. Our opponents in the final were Loretto who had beaten us 4-0 last week. However, the boys had a new found confidence and were determined to make amends. Fantastic performances from every member of the squad saw us run out 7-0 winners. A special mention, however, must go to our captain and player of the tournament, Ross who scored the first six goals of the game. Every one of these goals would have graced any Astroturf and many left the crowd gasping. This was the first time in the 28 years of the tournament that Craigclowan had won the trophy outright.

A very well done must go to every member of the team. Others who played were Marcus, Mark, Rory, Cameron who gave us ‘just that little bit extra’ and Shane in goal.

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CROSS-COUNTRY AT BELHAVEN

02 MARCH 2008

Sunday 2 March was no rest day for our Girls (U12 and U14) and Boys (U12 and U14) as they all travelled to Belhaven to compe