Dear Parents and Students
Happy Holidays! Well done, we made it through another really tough year. Despite all the disruption due to COVID 19, you have all achieved some amazing things. I really enjoyed this week’s achievement assemblies, led by Mrs MacPhie, and I would like to share her script below – I think it provides a very good summary of the outstanding work of staff and students. I would also like to draw your attention to our updated Dress Code policy so that we can all make a great start on this after the summer holidays. The policy can be accessed at the following link:
Forrester-HS-Dress-Code.pdf (forresterhighschool.org.uk)
A massive well done to the NEW s3 OLD s2 boys football team who had a fantastic season narrowly missing out on the league championship and league cup. These guys were absolute professionals and a credit to themselves, their sport and the school. In addition, they went on to win TEAM of the YEAR at this year’s award ceremony – GREAT JOB, so proud
A massive well done and thank you to our senior sports leadership team who were outstanding in helping our cluster primary schools’ sports day and received some amazing feedback from primary staff and parents!
Well-done to the Forrester Stingray Water Polo team who took part in their first ever competition in Dunfermline a few weeks ago, they held their own and gave each team strong competition. And a huge well done to our very own Millie Beath who is taking the dancing world by storm – keep up all the good work
A huge well done to Jayden McGarvey who continues to be brilliant in the world of amateur boxing! He recently won a silver medal in the Scottish Novice Championships
We are delighted to share that we have a wonderful horse rider amongst us. Well-done to Leya Bevis who continues to shine in the world of dressage and recently competed at the Royal Highland Show.
A huge shout out to the fitness team this year. Every Tuesday a wonderful bunch of young people join Mrs MacPhie in the fitness suite and small gym for a wee work out. Their commitment has been first class and an absolute pleasure to work with.
Well done to the senior higher basketball team who took on St Augs in their one of performance for higher PE. Both teams were fantastic on the day displaying some great skills.
This year was the first year that our seniors got back to exams. Their professionalism and commitment in this whole process was first class. Well-done to you all for all the hard work in the run up to these and here’s hoping for some great results come august
Well-done to all the modern languages stars this term. Particular mention this term goes to:
- Mohammed Gulzar
- Kewin Gawin
- Sophie Dalgliesh
- Zara Donaldson
- Zoe Greenshiels
- Callie Wright
- Nerea Poterfield
- Caelyn Lynch
- Sunny Cummings
- Filip Jaranowski
S3 YPI
Our OLD S3, NEW S4 took part in this year’s YPI (Youth Philanthropy Initiative). We ask all our S3 to become philanthropists and identify a social issue that is important to them (poverty/mental health) They then have to work as teams to identify a charity that supports this cause, build a presentation with a view to pitching their charity to a panel of judges in the hope they can secure £3000 for their chosen cause. This year’s winners were exceptional and epitomised our school values of Respect, Believe, Achieve and those of the YPI project. They also went on to win TEAM of the YEAR at this the awards ceremony. A huge well done to Elizabeth Shaw, Paige Baker, Amy Henry and Niamh Ronald Milligan who secured the winning prize fund for the Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity
Duke of Edinburgh
Our first batch of Bronze DofE groups had a very successful expedition in the Pentlands last weekend. Despite some miserable rain on Friday morning whilst going over East/West Kip and Scald Law, the weather cleared for them in the afternoon to get pitched at camp at Threipmuir Reservoir. Our second team were back up the Pentlands this weekend and endured humidity, a torrential downpour at camp and a slug falling in to a water bottle. Despite this, the groups had a grand time and we even managed a wee celebration of Pride at the campsite for those who were missing out on celebrations in town at the weekend. Thanks to Mrs Ross for supplying the bunting and popping up to say hello in the evening.
A huge achievement to the teams involved! A huge well done to:
- Liam Balloch
- Caitlin Donaldson
- Jessica Grant
- Charlie Cutt
- Hanna Illingworth
- Olivia Leishman
- Sophie Hawkins
- Eilidh Sheils
- Emily Paterson
- Allie McKay
- Clara Spence
- Amy Sutherland
- Eve Yell
- Lucy Reynolds
- Paige Sweetland
- Ellie Watson
- Katie Watson
- Tyler Dennis
- Callum Sandison
- Abdallah Aldaker
- Harry Barn
- Lewis Dougall
- Leo Ukonga
- Amiee Donlevy
- Jamie Ewen
- Paige Woods
- Erin Douglas
- Jamie Mills
And massive thanks to Ms Burns, Ms Craig, Mr Intihar and Mrs Epp for all the help, support and most importantly, for this amazing opportunity
Well-done to all our NEW s4 students who have been taking part in the “Build my Future Programme” and a massive well done to all those NEW s3 students who have been out and about on this terms “Greenshoots” Programme. The following pupils have now achieved their John Muir award and Hi-5 award.
- Saul MBallow
- Jack Birdsall
- Lee Bain
- Lewis Watson
- Jayden Green
- Douglas Reeve
- Liam Millar
- Kelvin Kinghorn
There has been some fantastic work done by some of our NEW s3 girls who were involved the “SHE Scotland “programme – well done ladies for all your hard work, we are so proud of you all.
A huge shout out to our wonderful Librarian Mrs Sutherland who won the 2022 Learning Professional Award. I think we can all agree that Mrs Sutherland offers a wonderful space for us to be part of before, after and during school. Her enthusiasm, incredible knowledge and thirst for books is only a small part of why we appreciate her so much. Thanks so much Mrs Sutherland and a huge well-done for your award. We all completely agree that you deserve this!!
A huge thank you and well done to our equalities team. This year we have raised awareness of so many different topics including Young Carers, Sepsis, Dyslexia, Autism, Downs Syndrome, Black History Month and LGBT. We now have over 70% of staff trained in LGBT so that staff are more aware and hopefully more confident in creating an even more inclusive environment for our wonderful diverse community. Purple Friday was a huge success which we celebrated in Feb along with all the incredible work we did earlier on in the year to raise awareness and support “Show Racism the Red card”. Well-done to all of you and staff who have been part of all this amazing work this year.
Congratulations to our very own Mrs Forbes and Mrs Ross who were nominated at the Proud Scotland awards earlier this year!!
A massive thankyou and special mention for our very own Julia Zawislak who pulled us all together to raise awareness, support and money for Ukraine through her wonderful bake sale. Julia raised £150 to support Ukrainian families.
Congratulations to Emma Stafford who won the travel and tourism school college partnership award.
A huge thank you and well done to all the New S4 students who helped support the primary maths transition event and to Mr MacDonald for leading this. Its safe to say that our primary pupils had a brilliant time and our Forries students did a great job in supporting them.
Our S6 pupils have gotten off to a flyer this year, many of whom attended a University opportunity at Heriot Watt. Their professionalism and attitude was first class. In addition to this many then helped and supported our new, soon to be S1 pupils on their transition day. Thank you so much guys and well done for the start you have made this year!
Well done to all our award winners this year. We were delighted to see you all win your awards in your specific subject areas. Great job!
A huge well done to Sara Kelly for winning the Childcare award at Edinburgh Coll
A huge well done to Ms Christie’s NPA dancers last year who took part in their first contemporary performance in school since COVID
Mrs Sutherlands reading club were involved in a stencilling project to celebrate International Women’s Day that also included community groups across the city.
The finished mural celebrates Edinburgh Women and is currently on display at Central Library. Congratulations to:
- Rameen Ijaz
- Sharon Amojo
- Esther Cuckwu
- Demi Mearns
Well done to all our Social studies subjects’ team who have had classes out exploring in the water of Leith this year. They have also been out and about in town and in the local area learning about urban land use and microclimate. A team from the modern studies dept also managed to squeeze in a visit to the Scottish Parliament and be part of some important discussions with local MPs.
Congratulations to Miss Sheail, Miss Hood and Miss Robertson raised over £300 for Cash for Kids by walking, dancing and running 5k a day every day in May.
The senior drama class took part in Class Act – a project run by the Traverse Theatre. They worked with professional writer James Ley to create a number of short plays which were performed by a professional cast and crew (including Gary Tank Commander!). Their plays were published in an anthology of work together with pieces from Drummond High School, Royal High School, Balerno High School and Craigroyston High School. Congratulations to our published playwrights!
The S3 Drama classes created a piece of work with the theatre company WonderFools called The Pappy Show. Activities such as impossible tasks (making the world silent is not easy with Miss Sheail around!), a fashion show, make a rainbow etc were enthusiastically attempted. These pieces were filmed and edited by Miss Hood and Miss Robertson and have contributed to a national theatre project.
Our musicians and actors have had a quiet year due to restrictions on public performance, but huge congratulations must go to Ruby Coulter, Eilidh Shiels, Sam O’Donnell and Eilidh Dickson for their performances at the awards ceremony. We look forward to hearing more from all these young people over the next few years.
We’ve been fortunate to welcome lots of new people to our instrumental music programme this year. In percussion we have Ana K, Tiana S, Aiden M and Cayden M. In strings we have Kirsty K, Ruby H, Grace C and Lily A. Our new guitarists are Jessica P, Demi M, Sophie M, Sophie D and Calum C. In woodwind we have Adam H, Vicki C, Harry C, and in voice and piano we have Ava S, Caitlin C, Megan C, Stuart M, Ruby C, Sasha S, Rhianna D, Kodie A and Freya M. We’re really pleased you continue to work hard and achieve in your chosen instrument and we look forward to hearing you in public performances over the next few years.
Congratulations to Eve Yell in S5 who sat her grade 6 piano exam recently and has played for us today during the assembly.
Staff V pupils – 1-0 to staff after a 28 -13 victory in the basketball comp last week. Massive thanks to Mr McDonald and all the Basketballers who took part.
Wren Innes’ artwork has been selected to be exhibited in The Epic Art Challenge 2022.
This is on show at the MacRobert Arts Centre in Stirling until mid-August.
The budding Artists were asked to be inspired by the place they live, the people they love or even something fantastical!
Well Done Wren!
Our S6 students have gone through a recruitment process for the Senior Team in recent weeks. They have had to complete an application form and then some have been taken forward to interview. The process wasn’t straightforward, and they had to deal with tough competition along the way. Let’s meet our Senior Team.
| School Captain | Niamh Woodrow |
| Vice-Captain | Iratxe Garcia Hernandez |
| Burns House Captain | Sunayana Pulivarthi |
| Redpath House Captain | Robbie Beath |
| Telford House Captain | Kasey Reeves |
Well done to Lewis Webber, Mara O’Kane and Sampoorna Biswas for completing the Industrial Cadets Bronze virtual experience Bronze award.
A team of New S4 students headed to the Manor Grange Care home to put on an afternoon tea and game of bingo for the residents. Their care, professionalism and kindness was second to none and the afternoon was thoroughly enjoyed by all.
Finally, I wish you and your families a great summer and, whatever you get up to, please keep yourselves safe and well. I look forward seeing students back when term start on Wednesday 17th August.
Best wishes
Stephen Rafferty
Head Teacher