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March 2009 - News Stories | |
Care Commission report on St LeonardsPicture: general view St Leonards School has received an impressive set of gradings in an official report on its boarding provision. The recently published assessment of the School’s accommodation services, which was conducted by the Care Commission back in October, saw St Leonards score highly in each of the eight individual areas under inspection. Care Commission officers awarded the School two grades of “excellent” – the highest rating -, five of “very good” and one of “good” within the general themes of quality of care and support, quality of environment, quality of staffing and quality of management and leadership. The inspectors visited the School on a number of occasions over a two week period, examining policies, procedures and records and interviewing staff and pupils, who were found to be “enthusiastic and positive about the level of care and support that they received”. The report also highlighted the approachable nature of boarding house staff, the positive relationship between staff and pupils, the strength of health and wellbeing policies and the safety of the boarding house environment. Dr Michael Carslaw, Headmaster at St Leonards, said, “I’m delighted that the Care Commission recognise the quality of the boarding accommodation at St Leonards. “Staff at the School work very hard to ensure that our pastoral care is of the highest quality and it’s very pleasing to see this recognised.” Dr Carslaw says that the welcoming atmosphere in the School’s three boarding houses helps the 120 boarders – from a roll of 456 pupils – settle in to their accommodation very quickly. “The environment is very warm and friendly and that helps our students to feel at home and get the most from their time at St Leonards.” St Leonards-New Park pupils race their way to charity donationPicture: Clic sargent small The kind hearted efforts of pupils at St Leonards-New Park School have given a cancer charity a boost of more than £4000. Youngsters at the St Andrews school raised a whopping £4280 for CLIC Sargent by staging a sponsored fun run which saw Year1-7 (P1-P7) students complete laps of their playing fields back in October. With the donations finally totalled up and collected in, Hamish Alldridge, local Community Fundraising Manager for CLIC Sargent, came in to St Leonards-New Park to thank the pupils for their efforts and receive the cheque from Headmaster Andrew Donald and some of the fun-runners. Mr Alldridge said, “I’m delighted to be back at St Leonards-New Park again. “This is the fourth time that the pupils have raised money for us and the children really understand what they are raising money for. “It matters a great deal to me to know that there are children who do things for people who are less fortunate. “From a relatively small school it really is a significant sum of money.” CLIC Sargent provides care and support for young people with cancer and their families and Hamish explained that one of the ways the money might be spent might be to help with the running costs of one of the charity’s home from homes. He said, “Our Homes from Home offer families free self-catering accommodation close to the main Regional Children's Cancer Centres and that’s the sort of money it takes to run one of them for a month.” Hamish visited the School prior to the fun-run in order to encourage the pupils to do as well as they could and Andrew Donald was delighted that the students had taken the inspiration on board. Mr Donald said, “The children are always pleased that they can contribute to an extremely worthy cause. “It helps them to appreciate their good fortune and it’s great for them to see that they can help children who aren’t so lucky.” Multitude of magical musical performancesRecent weeks have seen music making at the School go into overdrive with competitions and performances! In the Iona Jack composition competition, Susan Honeyman, Viveka Kymal, Emily Lau and Amy Mathewson took the Year 8 title for their entry, “La Manière Laiteuse” (The Milky Way). The girls (minus Susan Honeyman) are pictured with the adjudicator, Dr Ian McDougall, Pemberton Fellow in Composition, University College, Durham. Picture: Iona Jack Yr8 small The Year 9 award went to the group of Charlotte Lorimer, Claire Marston, David Niven, Ross Proudfoot and Charlie Bunney for their underscore to a video short. Picture: Iona Jack Yr9 small In the senior section, adjudicated by professional composer Tanera Dawkins, Catriona Stirling was the winner of the year 10/11 category with Kirsty Keatch named as the Sixth Form and overall winner. Catriona and Kirsty are pictured with Director of Music, Stuart Whatton. Picture: Iona Jack Senior Small The Scholars and Soloists Concert in the Auditorium yielded its usual array of exceptional performances with a slight Latin flavour in evidence on the night. Meanwhile, adjudicator Dr Michael Downes, Director of Music at St Andrews University, was impressed by what he heard at the Duncan Award competition for senior instrumentalists. Upper Sixth Former Lavinia Younger was named the winner for her confident piano recitals. She is pictured with Mr Downes and her fellow contestant, Max Haas-Heger. Picture: Duncan Award small | |