Wednesday, 8 October 2014 Message from the Rector Many thanks to everyone who came along to support the Peace One Day Event and Art Exhibition on Monday 22 September. It was a full house and a very thought-provoking and hard-hitting event. As ever the range of talent demonstrated was outstanding. Senior pupils are now over a third of the way through national qualifications and are hopefully applying themselves fully in preparation for the Formal Assessment Block at the end of November. As always we appreciate your ongoing support and if there are any issues you would like to discuss, please don't hesitate to get in touch. Ruth McFarlane Rector China Immersion Trip – Visit to Cairneyhill ‘Over-Sixties’ Club A group of four pupils representing the Fife Confucius Hub who travelled to China in July this year made a visit to the ‘Over-Sixties’ club in Cairneyhill to share their experiences on Monday 29 September. The group, accompanied by teacher Mrs Malcolm, spoke enthusiastically about all aspects of their China experiences: from food to high speed train travel, to visiting host families, to haggling in the markets, to learning about the culture and learning Mandarin. Numerous souvenirs from the trip were shown to a very warm audience and a most enjoyable afternoon was shared by all. The community group was very interested to learn that the Queen Anne Fife Hub had been awarded the title of Outstanding Scottish Hub at the closing ceremony in Beijing and to hear of all they did to achieve this award. Pupils pictured with the community group are: Andrew Clark, Chloe Adam, Rebecca Cameron (Queen Anne) and Amy Boxer (Madras, St Andrews). S2 Creative Writing Competition As the Commonwealth Games were hosted in Scotland this year pupils in S2 were asked to write a short story on this topic. All S2 pupils submitted their entries and three worthy winners were chosen. Many congratulations go to Beth Avery (3rd), Emily Hammett (2nd) and Emma Gordon who took first place - three talented writers! Well done to the winners and to all S2 pupils who submitted their entries. The Science Department takes on the Faraday Challenge! On Tuesday 30 September, six S1 pupils, Matthew Leitch, Jodie Connor, Lyle Hopkins, Rory La Trobe, Stephanie Smith and Robert Byers, took part in and won the Faraday Challenge. The Faraday Challenge is a UK-wide challenge (282 teams at 47 different locations) created by The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and held at a secret location (Kinross High School). IET Faraday Challenge Days give pupils the opportunity to research, design and make prototype solutions to genuinely tough engineering problems. At each event, teams compete to win a prize for themselves and a trophy for their school. Queen Anne High School came out clear winners against six other local school teams. The top three scoring teams in the UK will then enter the finals in London, which we very much hope to be part of. The challenge this year involved pupils designing lighting beacons, which can be placed on roads to help improve travel for cyclists. This gave the pupils a great opportunity to use 3D printers and try their hand at electronics. All pupils worked hard and with great enthusiasm. Well done to all who took part! www.qahs.org.uk Biology Study Support Biology study support has been taking place this term and will continue throughout the year. Higher biology pupils meet every Monday for question practice in lab 6. S4 pupils can pick up free revision material from Mr Egerton and attend specifically designated lunchtimes with their own class teacher. Higher human biology pupils can also find useful materials to work on at most lunchtimes or make specific appointments with their class teacher too. The biology tutorial room is being used regularly for online revision by all levels. Scientists dream about doing great things, Engineers do them Within the CDT department a smashing time is being had with the young engineers club. The club is for pupils who are enthusiastic about exciting engineering based experiments. Every week pupils come along and make things such as robots that are remote controlled, wind turbines, egg caskets and most recently a boat. The club is now going into its 5th week and the numbers of keen S1 and S2 engineers keep growing. There are still a few spaces left for young enthusiasts who want to join. Cycle Speedway The Scottish Championships which were rained-off in June finally took place on Friday 5 September. Queen Anne were up against defending champions Madras College, Liberton High School and St Mungo’s High School who had 2 riders who ride for the Edinburgh Falcons and who had just returned from the European Championships in Poland. It was an exciting meeting with the lead changing between the top 3 teams 8 times in the 16 heat event. Going into the last heat Queen Anne had to secure 2nd place to be crowned champions. Captain Harry Langdale held off his Liberton opponent to get 2nd spot which meant that Queen Anne are 2014 Scottish Champions. Scores: QA - 46 Jake Ferguson - 5, James Keenlyside - 13, Mickie Jewell - 12, Harry Langdale - 13, Lyle Fairfield 3 Madras - 44, St Mungo’s - 42, Liberton - 24 www.qahs.org.uk