31st August
Goodbye Mr Murray

The most important news at Our Lady's this week is the retirement of Principal Teacher of Maths, Mr John Murray. Our new PT Maths is Mr Jim Hair.

John was a grammar school pupil at Our Lady's when the building was located close to Airbles Road. The log book entry for Thursday August 17th, 1967, shows him returning to his old school as a Maths teacher.

He taught for a brief period at Holy Cross High School then returned to Our Lady's as Principal Teacher of Maths in 1977.

Staff held a coffee morning in his honour this morning, including some now retired colleagues, who came along for the occasion to wish him well. Among the accolades, Mr Murray was described as thoughtful, caring, compassionate and devoted to his subject and his department. He can also be extremely funny and has a lousy memory for names.

Pupils recently came up with a list of phrases that staff were prone to use most often. Mr Murray, they claim, will write up some complex Maths problem on the board, solve it, turn around and ask "Do you follow me?"

Well, John Murray is a difficult act to follow. We wish him a very long and very happy retirement.

10th August
Summer School 2007

The Summer School in Our Lady’s High School was held from the 6th–10th August and organised by Partnership Officers, Deborah King and Angela McDonald.

Seventeen new first year pupils attending Our Lady’s High School enjoyed a week’s activities, which included literacy skills in the mornings and practical classes in the afternoon. Two sixth year pupils Gemma Valente and Mhairi Cassidy were also involved in a peer education aspect helping to support the new S1 pupils and to answer any questions.

Miss Nicola Mulholland and Mrs Rosemary Howieson, English teachers, put the pupils through their paces with work on a magazine that should be available for all S1 pupils this term while Mrs Christine McKay entertained them with science experiments. The boys and girls enjoyed making fruit kebabs and smoothies in the Home Economics dept and also had an amazing afternoon in the Drama dept with former pupil Laura Scott.

Pupils also completed team building activities and rounded off the week with the traditional trip to Loudon Castle in Ayrshire with the summer school pupils from Braidhurst HS.

Parents and pupils will be invited to an evening at the school on the 10th of September to be presented with their achievement certificates from the Headteacher, Mr Bernard Love.