Solid Castle Issue No 14 - March 2024

SOLID CASTLE

STEM Nation Expo

Merchiston attends Education

Scotland’s STEM Nation Expo!

A grand farewell

UVI boys end their Rugby at Merchiston in style

Nation Expo, at the Glasgow City Chambers.

The event began with inspirational speeches from Education Scotland and a number of school. The STEM Nation Expo proved to be a fantastic opportunity for practitioners and young people to connect with STEM Nation Award recipients and a host of dynamic partners and businesses.

Activities and discussions allowed teachers and young people to find out about exciting and innovative practice in STEM, including Young STEM Leader programme, CREST Awards and of STEM Ambassadors.

Huge thanks go to the MerchiSTEM Prefects who joined Mrs Chapman at the event. Their favourite part of the day was:

enthusiasticpeople!TheLEGO tablewasapersonalhighlight.”

Richard Z.oftheMinisterstogetthefastest reactiontimewiththebuzzer!It wasalsogreattoseetheBoston DynamicsDoginaction.The operatoransweredallourdifficult questions!”

Rohan R. - “ExplainingourSTEM Activitiestoindustryprofessionals andthegeneralpublicwasa rewardingexperience.Itwasgreat togettheopportunitytospeakto theEducationMinisterandthe foodtheeventprovidedwas excellent!”

Biology DNA Day

On 23rd Feb our UVI Biologists took

Big well done to Leo F. and Luke D. who performed so well at their first tennis tournaments around Scotland. Leo won his first tournament at the Thistle Tennis Club Championships before Luke won through to his first final down at the Kelso Club Championships.

Thank you Mr Millar for giving the boys such a great experience at both events.

Football vs Loretto

Undeterred by the awful weather, and by the opposition’s struggles to assemble a full-squad, the Merchiston First XI demonstrated its flexibility and quality by providing the winning team in a five-a-side football carousel on the Merchiston Astro.

The winning team, captained by player of the tournament David O, went undefeated throughout its four games and triumphed 4-3 in the final. The side’s performances were characterised by strong running from Fergus W and Nathan C and some nice touches

and finishes by Carlos PM and Tommy F. Teiyoon K was a surprisingly solid presence, saving his side on more than one occasion in the final.

The event was characterised by good football and good conduct from both sides, and the football programme will be looking to build in more opportunities for skill-building small-sided fixtures in

Stewart Trailers Trip

On Wednesday 13th March the IV Form EDT team, Young Farmers and A-Level Product Design pupils visited Stewart Trailers in Inverurie, Aberdeenshire.

We have been fortunate to receive sponsorship from Stewart Trailers for the EDT Industrial Cadet team this year. Part of the EDT programme is to carry out a Site Visit with their Industry Sponsors. Given the work Stewart Trailers do, we thought it would be a rich experience for the A-Level pupils and Young Farmers.

Mandy and James Stewart led the charge, assisted by Lukasz and Hannah. The pupils were split up into two groups and given a tour around the facilities. The pupils were able to see:

- Metal laser cutting

- Press forming

- Metal stock forms

- Hardox metal

- Welding

- Painting

- Hydraulics

- Sand blasting

The terminology used throughout the day was fitting with both the GCSE and A-Level courses, so it was great to see the pupils engage with the design team and ask some great questions!

At the end of the tour, the pupils were shown some of the trailers and tractors in action, which was the highlight of the day!

Fraser A. particularly enjoyed: “Seeingthevarietyoftrailersthat theymakeandhowtheirmade!”

U17 British Schools Final

Last week our year 11-13 boys team took part in the North of England Finals in Sunderland.

This is the first time we have played the event for a number of years and saw a combination of plates from our performance and development academies come together to perform as a team.

Over the past two terms our team has won convincingly against multiple schools, showcasing

given them the right to be called Scottish Champions as well as the 2nd best school in the North of England at U17 level. This builds on our success at the U15 ages and gives us a momentum moving into a busy summer term.

A huge well done to Ollie Warner, Sushanth Srinivasan, Henry Sommer, Callum Adamson, Arka Wong and Luke Duker.

Match vs Hutchenson

Well done to Louis W., Alasdair L., Severijus S., Henry S. for their 12-0 win in the first round of the Glanville Cup against Hutcheson School.

The LTA Glanville Cup is the premier U18 Schools event and this year we have entered 2 teams into the competition, for the first time ever!

Well done boys.

U18 County Cup

HERE

Last weekend 44 countries across Great Britain played in the LTA’s Inter County Cup event.

The East of Scotland Team this year consistent of Lance N., David D. and Henry S., who has managed in just under one year to gain a place in the County Team. An excellent achievement!

The team played Exeter University with all three boys putting in strong performance, with a notable performance from Henry who won four out of five matches he played!

The team did really well coming in 2nd place behind a very strong South Wales performance, before heading for a midnight slight back to school!

Well done boys!

inSTEMagram Competition

On Friday the 8th March we celebrated International Women’s Day here at Merchiston. To mark this occasion, MerchiSTEM ran a competition called inSTEMagram. Pupils were asked to submit Instagram style posts, following research into an inspirational STEM figure.

There were over 70 entries, which made it extremely hard to judge! Well done and thank you to everyone for entering. The winners were Pringle – Joshua Mungavin with Mary Anning; Middle Years – Sikai Cao with Ruji Cao; VI Form – Julian Miu with Karen Petrie.

can’t go to school, the boys in their EAL classes, looked at education for girls in Liberia, Niger, Nigeria, Afghanistan, South Sudan and Burkina Faso.

The boys highlighted the reasons why they don’t have access to education, for example early marriage, societal pressure and norms, traditions, lack of funding etc. They then explored how life for young women and girls would be different if they could go to school.

They looked at economic factors for example how local communities would prosper and how education would give girls a voice and that they would know their rights.

I was so impressed with the maturity of the boys during the

presented their findings in class.

Leo, Bauti, Guillermo and Bob took it one step further and presented in the whole school assembly. Sharing their research and letting the other boys know that life is very different for girls in other countries was a real eye opener and a message that was important to talk about.

I want to thank the boys personally for all their hard work and illuminating such a crucial issue.

Greenyards and out

On Tuesday 12th March the badminton once again team combined power with St George’s to play in the Edinburgh Regional Final.

What stood in front of them was a strong George Heriots team who had not really been tested en route to the final. It was a chance for both schools to make History as neither school had ever won the trophy before.

The team of 10 players played in a combination of boys singles, boys doubles, mixed doubles, girls singles and girls doubles with a total of 10 matches being played across the afternoon. Yet again, this was an epic encounter which came down to the wire and the last game of the day being the decider. The pressure match fell on the final boys doubles match and it could not have been closer.

All eyes were on this match with each point being cheered throughout the entire game, but unfortunately it was Heriots who held their nerve winning the match 24-22. Well done to all the boys who played and they should be incredibly proud of their success this season.

There’s more…

Richard T. Jake M. and Ryan W. have all been selected to represent Scotland for their abilities in the shooting range.

I think they have already shot and the results will be posted in the next Edition of the Solid Castle.

There were tears of joy and sadness as the U6th played their last match for the Castle. They finished in style as they played with pace and a style that Melrose couldn’t live with.

A massive thank you from the Rugby Program for your part in the glorious history of the school and the glorious sport of Rugby.

We look forward to following your careers in 2024 and beyond!

CityZen Success!

Congratulations to team MerchiCAN who were announced as the top scorers in the Digital CityZen game. The team were asked for a quote about their experience of the CityZen competition:

WereallyenjoyedcompetingintheICE'sCityZen competition.Iparticularlyenjoyedtheincorporationof agamingelementtoareallifelearningexperience.In willthefutureIwillusewhatIhavelearnedtohelp othersanddevelopmyowncriticalthinkingand problemsolvingskillsasIprogressinmyown professionalcareer.Thankyouforthisopportunity.

A new home for hockey…

Saturday 16th March saw Merchiston host its first ever hockey tournament at the school, holding the inaugural U11 Merchiston Hockey Tournament. It was a huge success, with seven teams from different schools coming from all over Scotland to descend on a sun drench Astroturf for a full morning of hockey.

The round robin format meant all teams got six full matches and everyone got to play everyone. After a long season working hard to develop their hockey, it was the perfect opportunity for everyone to end the season in style and see how far they had come.

The Merchiston team performed admirably throughout the whole competition, finishing 5th including wins against Heriot’s and Belhaven and an agonising draw against George Watson’s College.

The eventual winners were Cargilfield, who went unbeaten through the competition. However, with 70 plus boys all spending their morning with a smile on their face and hockey stick in their hands, hockey really was the winner.

Harry is a great example of someone squeezing every drop. Entering as many tournaments as he can to become the best he can. Last week saw him win the Junior Golf Scotland Matchplay, below are some insights into the mind of our champion.

My family and I arrived at Trump Turnbury on Friday in advance of the Junior Golf Scotland Final. We were led into the Hotel and straight away my senses were overwhelmed with 150 years of golfing history. It was surreal and inspirational.

Finals day began with a hearty breakfast with the sun-shining and glistening over the sea around the Isle of Arran. This was going to be my most challenging match to date. The other finalist had a higher handicap so an extra 11 shots over me. I prepared by deciding the holes that I could not lose and the ones I had to win.

Captain fantastic

Gabriel P. was recently selected to represent Scotland in the upcoming 4 nations over the Easter holidays.

More recently, he found out he would be leading the group as the Captain.

The Solid Castle will give you a full update of the results next edition and also hear from the Captain himself on what he has learned from the position.

Go well Gabe, all in the Castle are behind you!

I stood at the yellow tees on hole one and took a deep breath and then hit down the middle of the perfect fairway. The match swayed one way and then another. My confidence was building at each hole . By the 16th it was all square I needed to win this hole as he had no shots over me. I won going one up into the remaining last two holes! Maintaining this lead was going to be essential to my win.

By the 17th hole the wind speed had increased dramatically further increasing the intensity. I halved the hole with a clinical “up and down”. It was over on the 18th fairway as he hit into the long grass and then out of bounds, I took the final hole. What a day!

Rosslyn Round-up

This year saw our U18, U14 and U13 sides head down to London to play the world’s best at Rugby 7’s.

A full write up will follow on our return from Easter with all the news from Rosslyn and all the gossip from the U13s’ trip to Caldicott Tens.