Au Revoir...

We had our last ever S3/4 drama class on Wednesday last week. They have all worked well over these last two years and each one has greatly improved their skills. After their successful, assessed performance of a modified version of "An Inspector Calls" last term, all that remains is the exam.... Good Luck!!

Folios away!

S3/4/5 have now completed all work on their art folios! Each pupil completed an expressive folio and a design folio and these have now been packaged up and collected for marking by SQA.

Before they went we had an art exhibition of all their work...

S1 Design

S1 artists have been working on a mask design project this term. They have now decided on their final ideas and are beginning to try to make them. They are using plastic masks as a base and adding foam, card and wire as is needed. They will then cover them with papier mache to make them more robust. 

P.S. Kerr is the pupil hiding under the box - his mask is based on a robot and the box will be the shape of the robot's head. He was just trying to gauge where the position of the eyes would be...

Inverclyde Kidney Support Group Competition

Over the past few weeks P7 and S1 have been participating in a competition set by Inverclyde Kidney Support Group.
The group, which offers support to people in Inverclyde who are affected by kidney disease, set us a competition to design a poster to advertise their monthly meetings. P7 and S1 did this in their computing periods and the results are just in!
The support group will display the poster in various locations throughout the area. The winners will also receive gift vouchers and a framed copy of the poster.
So.... congratulations to.... Melissa McNeal and Nico Medinelli, who together designed the winning entry.
Well done!


Mr J :)

Anarchy in S2!

S2 have been examining why we have laws.... today, we imagined that we had just bought an island ro £5million... The pupils had to come up with 10 laws they wanted to be in place on their island, and suitable punishments for peoplewho broke them.

Among their ideas were:

1. Everyone has a right to freedom of speech. If someone stops someone having this right then they are not allowed to speak for two years!

2. No cannibals! Punishment for cannibalism: starve to death in a cell under ground.

3. No murder. if you are giulty of murder, you must go t jail for LIFE, and life means life!

4. Free Health care for everyone, however old or young or rich or poor you are.

5. No making, dealing or taking drugs. Anyone found guilty of any of these should be imprisoned for 40 years.

The class felt very strongly about lots of issues- our current unit on Crime and the Law in Society is proving to be very interesting.

10th Anniversary Preparations!

In Cedars School, this term we are feverishly preparing for a very special performance. On Monday the 22nd of June we will be hosting our 10th Anniversary Celebration in the Greenock Town Hall. The evening will features, songs, choirs, orchestra, drama and poetry from P1-S5. All parents, friends and family will be invited. The Town Hall holds up to 1000 people so we will have plenty of room to accommodate all! We will also be inviting all former pupils, parents, staff and families. We are really looking forward to seeing some of them again! Watch this space for more info and maybe even some videos of rehearsals!

Mr J :)

S2 fashion design studies

S2 artists have been working on some independent fashion design research over the past few weeks. As they are designing hats and masks for their desgin folio they are looking specifically at hat designs. 2 designers they have looked at so far are John Galliano (see above) and Elsa Schiaparelli (see below). Galliano designs for Dior and is famous for his outrageous, dramatic work. Schiaparelli worked between the two world wars and her most famous design was the 'Shoe Hat"!

Critical studies

In S3/4 and S5 art we have all been completing our art and design studies unit. For the design part of the course pupils have researched the history of fashion as well as the life and work of some contemporary designers. For the art studies part of the course pupils have looked at the cubist artist Pablo Picasso and the post impressionist painter Vincent Van Gogh.

Mardi Gras!

In S3/4 Megan has now finished her design unit for her Intermediate 2 art. She has done a fantastic job completing her design. Well done Megan!

Studying style

S2 artists have began working on their Art and Design studies unit. We are looking at fashion design first and have been learning about the history of fashion over the last 100 years. We are also looking at some contemporary designers such as John Galliano. In the pictures below we are creating a visual vocabulary by brainstorming words to describe different styles of fashion to use in our projects.

Fashion update...

Jessica from S3/4 has now completed her Swan Lake inspired dress for her design unit. Well done to Jessica who has spent hours sewing all the different sections and thanks to Jane Fraser for all her help with the project!

  

Drama Exam!

S3/4 Dramatists successfully completed their externally assessed performance exam today. They performed their improvisation based on "An Inspector Calls" and were assessed on acting or a technical role such as props / costume / set manager. The play was a great success and everyone gave their best. Although the examiner could not give away the marks she said everyone had performed very well and the work was of a high standard for their level.

The performance piece is worth 50% of the overall drama grade so it is a great relief to have it successfully complete! The remaining 50% is based on the written exam which pupils will sit in May.

Well done to Daniel, Deborah, Jessica, Gabriella and Hannah! Excellent work!

Secondary Fitness Challenge!

On Friday, at the Greenock Waterfront gym, S2-5 put themselves through a punishing challenge which they have been training for in P.E sessions over this term.
The fitness challenge involved a time circuit of various fitness machines. The children were each accompanied all the way by a member of staff to time and encourage them. The challenge was as follows:

1km on the treadmill
1km on the upright bike
1km on the rowing machine (500m for the girls)
20 lateral pull downs (20kg - boys, 10kg - girls)
50 box-steps

The time started on the first machine and stopped after the last box-step. There were various awards but the main prize was for the fastest boy and fastest girl. These were won by Stephen Thomson S5, and Beth Millar S2.
Both Stephen and Beth received a 3 month 'top-deck' gym membership and a gym bag full of goodies from Inverclyde Leisure.
Well done to all who took part and many thank to all the staff at Inverclyde Leisure!
Next year we will be trying to encourage some parents to take part!

Mr J:)

Vive le francais

It's Folio time in French at Cedars school!

S3/4 have worked very hard all this year to complete their writing and speaking folios, and it all paid off yesterday when their written work was collected to be sent off via SQA to their external examiners.

Craig says: "It was a lot of hard work, but it paid off for once! Especially when we got 'pain au chocolat' afterwards!"

Daniel says:"At the time there was great stress and lots of hard work but finally we acomplished the task. C'est super!!!"

S2 have also got into the folio spirit, and are completing their first piece of writing today.

Well done everyone.

A visit to P1

S2 artists took a trip to see P1 on Wednesday. We showed them all the masks and hats we have been designing. They were a super audience who asked great questions and enjoyed trying on all the pieces we had designed. The S2 pupils gave some excellent explanations of their design work too. We will come back when we have some more things to show!

Progressive English at Cedars School!

S3/4/5 are progressing well through our English courses in the senior stages of Cedars School. Most pupils have now successfully completed all their NABs, and we are revising our texts for the exam - Poetry, An Inspector Calls and 'Mossy' in S3/4, and Poetry, Macbeth and Lord of the Flies in S5.

S2 have just completed a language essay on what it means to be Scottish, and we are reading our way through a play called Street Child.

In S1, we have really enjoyed reading Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer, and are about to let our enthusiasm for it spill over onto a literature essay. We are also letting it inspire us as we write our own short stories.

In P7, we have read and written about a dramatic version of The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler. We won't give away the exciting ending! As well as weekly spelling and grammar work, we are also starting to hone our close reading skills (interpretation).

S1 are independent Learners!

S1 are focussing on improving their independent learning skills, with individual projects on cities across the world. Each pupil has one city to research, and will be making a Keynote presentation using their newly acquired skills in Computing! These will be shown to the class and Mrs Speirs, who will decide whose is the most interesting presentation.

Lauren Boyd says 'It's good doing this because it's good practice for when I'm older and need these skills.'

Euan MacDougall says, ' It's good to have the skills to find out information about different places.'

Lauren Buntrock says, 'It's improving my general knowledge.'

Jennifer Scholes says, 'I like learning about different places!'

Angus Shearer says, 'Did you know that in Berlin there is a Beer Academy and people that go there get a MAsters of Beer Diploma!'

Kerr McAdam says, 'Beijing issue 2000 new number plates every day! And Beijing punks look funny!'

Chloe Bryce says, 'Istanbul used to be known as the Paris of the East.'

David Kane says, 'Did you know most people who live in London actually walk or use cars than use the underground?'

Euan also says, 'The Statue of Liberty was a gift to America from France!'

Lauren Buntrock also says, 'Did you know that Tokyo have eco-friendly bicycle taxis?'

Lauren Boyd says, 'Mumbai is another name for Bombay- that's what Indians call it.'

Jessica McAleese says, 'There are 107 libraries in Cape Town!'

The Change Game in S2 Modern Studies!

S2 are revising Pressure Groups today! Lots of the class prefer Kinaesthetic learning ativities, so today we are playing the Change Game. Pupils have twenty seconds to write down as much as they can remember about the title on the sheet of paper in front of them (eg. Actions a Pressure Group can take). When the teacher shouts 'CHANGE' the class move one place to the left and do the same aagin. We repeat this till everyone has been round the whole table twice... the WINNER is the person who has written the most! (Each pupil has a different colour pen!)

S2 are doing well... here's hoping their very first Modern Studies NAB is as much of a success- next week!!

Be nice to S3/4...

... they are working VERY hard!!

S3/4 have their final Modern Studies NAB, and they are busy revising hard for it, and of course for all their exams!

S2 Drama progress

S2 dramatists are continuing to work well in their production roles for our "Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" project. Scott has done an excellent job making all the props, Zander is very proud of his scary White Witch costume, Chloe's SFX work is super, Lara can apply a great dwarf beard and Beth will be a Narnia set expert by the time the project is over!

Design progress

S2 artists are making excellent progress in their design projects. They have now started making 3D mask ideas using a wide range of materials including polystyrene spheres, hula skirts, theatrical crepe hair and bubble wrap! As you can see the results are quite exciting! Here is a quick reminder of what each pupil is designing:

Beth - The Beast from "Beauty and the Beast"
Jonathan - a bug from "A bugs life"
Ailie - a lion from "The Lion King"
Lara - an underwater queen from "The Little Mermaid"
Lamorna - The Queen of Hearts from "Alice in Wonderland"
Rebecca - a jungle crown for the Lemur King in "Madagascar"