Real Life African Adventure!

Well here we are on the eve of our visit to Donkorkrom, Afram Plains, Ghana! Hamilton Grammar Staff are off to visit our colleagues in Africa!

All the medications have been taken or packed... mosquito net purchased and DEET also (industrial strength).

Now all to do is to get ourselves to Accra and then meet up with our companions who will take us up north into the Volta region.

I aim to upload some videos and put them on YouTube and TeacherTube while we are out there, and also to create some podcasts by the local students.

Perhaps next year I can create my own African Adventure entry for our S1 competition for Ghana!

We will also get to visit the Mango plantation which many people have sponsored. And we may even get to see the Tractor which is being bought with the money raised by Mr Dyer, the Eco Group, and the school.

I will be thinking a lot about what we can do to embed this experience into our curriculum, particularly for Technologies and Social Subjects relating to Business and Computing.

If I have the opportunity I will post blog updates from Ghana also... not that anyone will be reading as you will all be off on your holidays to Cyprus, Magaluf, Mexico, Penang or somewhere exotic.

Billionaire Surrenders!

DALLAS -- Texas billionaire R. Allen Stanford, chairman of the troubled Stanford Financial Group, surrendered to FBI agents in Virginia Thursday afternoon, his attorney said.
Law enforcement officials said Stanford is in custody after surrendering in Stafford, Virginia. Authorities plan to unseal an indictment charging Stanford on Friday, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.

Source: Associated Press

Stanford first came to prominence when he sponsored English Cricket's Super Series match where players received a million dollars per man for winning and nothing for losing.

It seems more and more of businesses that fall into financial trouble will have huge effects and implications for sport. Sport, finance and business are nto happy bedfellows. Some of the Corinthian spirit of sport has been lost. Money is more important than achievement.

How do you feel about this?

Scotland's Top Tourist Destinations

As part of the SG Administration Course I asked one of my classes to come up with their favourite top ten of places of interest in Scotland.

1. Loch Ness
2. Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh
3. Loch Lomond
4. Wallace Monument, Stirling
5. David Livingstone Centre, Blantyre
6. Hampden Park, Glasgow
7. Stirling Castle
8. Cairngorms
9. Blair Drummond Safari Park
10. St Andrew's Old Course

I was quite surprised with some of the landmarks, though it has to be remembered that perhaps pupils in Hamilton would have a different perspective on things than pupils in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Stirling, Dundee, Aberdeen, Ayr, Inverness etc. For example, the David Livingstone Centre in Blantyre may not get as high a placing from pupils in Thurso, Ullapool, Stranraer or Dumfries.

I suppose it was inevitable that Loch Ness would come up as number one!

If you can think of any omissions please post a comment. I will try and discover the real top ten in terms of official visitors.

SLL Golf Festival 2009

I was fortunate enough to take part in this year's SLL Golf Festival held at Hollandbush Golf Course in Lesmahagow.

Hamilton Grammar were represented by Cameron Graham, Jack Neiland, and Dean Johnstone. We took part in a fun Texas Scramble, but sadly the weather was terrible. It rained all day and it was incredible that the course held up so well.

Jack and Cameron were booming drives down the fairway, while myself and Dean struggled to match them. Our contributions were really in putting, though Dean did strike the shot of the day with his 3 wood onto one of the par5s. We worked well as a team, even though there were a few holes I didn't even drive off due to not being able to hold the club in the wet.

Our good scoring was let down by 3 bogeys, but even so we shot a 66. Sadly we were just pipped by a very strong Lesmahagow side who naturally had local knowledge.

Our lads did the school proud and hopefully we will be back next year to have another run at the title.

Social Enterprise Award

The pupils of Hamilton Grammar received the Social Enterprise Award given by the Social Enterprise Academy. The ceremony was held at the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow yesterday.

Our pupils received the award for the excellent work by Mr Dyer and the Eco Group for all their work for Ghana, Mrs Breen and the Frozoz smoothie company, and Mr McGowan and Young Enterprise's Carbon Offset initiative.

The certificates were presented by Sandra Ewen, MBE, of Determined to Succeed. Hamilton Grammar were the only High School in South Lanarkshire to receive an award this year - another great achievement by our pupils.

One of the guest speakers included Rachael Arnold, who was formerly part of the Virgin Group but who now runs Impact Arts - which aims to help develop young bands. Rachael's speech was truly uplifting and inspirational.

Once again we are all very proud of the pupils for all their hard work and we are just a bit sad that not everyone could attend the event due to the South Lanarkshire Sports Day!

We would like to thank everyone at the Social Enterprise Academy and in particular Claire Fraser for all her hard work in organising the event.

Yasmina is the Apprentice 2009

Well don't say I told you so. Yasmina was declared the Apprentice tonight, after narrowly beating Kate into the runner-up position.

The final task was to create a new chocolate brand with the two finalists getting help from some of the other contestants.

Kate went for Choc D'Amour which had pretty naff packaging and her pricing was way out. However the product was tasty, her pitch was excellent and the idea of chocolates for him, for her, and to share, was innovative. And their video was quite good.

Yasmina went for Cocoa Electric and came up with some hideous flavours. Strawberry and Basil seemed to be the one that turned the most stomachs. However Yasmina got her packaging spot on, and her pricing was in the right ballpark. The product itself would probably not get many repeat sales, and her presentation was stilted to be kind.

When it came to Sir Alan's decision I knew he'd go for Yasmina. Why? Because Kate was such a fantastic and obvious winner it would make bad TV. The same happened the other week when Susan Boyle lost the final of Britain's Got Talent when we all know she was without question a unique talent that was the best there has ever been in the history of any Simon Cowell production.

It was too obvious.

It seems these days true talent is often being overlooked for the unpredictable option. That only works every so often, but if things go wrong then people will line up and say "Was that a good decision?".

Kate should have won.

Yasmina was solid, but lacked personality and came across quite dour. However she would probably follow Sir Alan's orders without question. She would manage, but would she lead? Is Yasmina capable of taking whatever he threw at her to the next level?

Kate on the other hand is bright, bubbly, self-controlled and sharp as a tack. Her communication and presentation skills are second to none. She held it together in interview (unlike Yasmina, thereby making a mockery of the whole process) and she also displayed excellent team working and sales skills. She also showed she has a creative side and displayed leadership for example telling Ben off that he had overstepped the decency line with his rude name for the chocs, or taking over from Kimberly in the advert shoot.

Kate was the all rounder and like Alex last year, the best candidate.

Oh well, will we ever hear from Yasmina again? Unlikely. But I am sure Kate has a bright future ahead of her and she will get over this setback, because at the end of the day if someone can't notice your talent then would you really want to work for them anyway?

And it brings to mind the best piece of advice I have ever been given, by Professor Brian Carlisle: "Never stay where you're not appreciated."

So good luck to Kate and Yasmina. But as so often is the case in this unfair and not always upfront world, the best 'man' did not win!

Social Enterprise Award

Our school, Hamilton Grammar, will pick up a Social Enterprise Award this Tuesday at the Glasgow Centre for Contemporary Art.

This celebrates the achievements of our pupils who in different ventures have raised money for good causes through an entrepreneurial event.

Our incredible Eco Group lead the way - 3 Green Flags! - and I am delighted their hard work is being recognised yet again. Young Enterprise are also involved since they worked with the Eco Group with gaining sponsors for the Mango plantation in Donkorkrom, Ghana.

Last but certainly not least is Frozoz. This was a venture led by Mrs Brown which had S3 and S4 pupils creating smoothies. The promotional material the pupils made was particularly impressive!

The Social Enterprise inspectors came to visit our school and seemed impressed, so we were invited to the awards ceremony.

It should be a great experience and yet more recognition for our fantastic young people. It will be bittersweet since many of the ones involved are leaving to go to university. But they go with all of our best wishes.

The Apprentice - Final

Tomorrow is the final of this year's Apprentice. In the running for the £100k job from Alan Sugar is Kate and Yasmina.

The two fiesty females won through the interview round which saw the really quite silly James dispatched, along with the lacking in confidence Lorraine, and the rather unlucky Debra.

James made a series of mistakes and came across as to flippant and trivial. He was quite frankly not serious enough.

Lorraine didn't have the CV and skills to compete against her rivals, and I think she knew she was doomed from the off. Lorraine also made a few errors in her CV, but unlike Lee McQueen from last year she could not engineer an escape.

Debra was aggressive and bullish but she did show emotion when James got the sack, but her faux pas was in her choice of referees. They slated her! What chance do you have if you pick a poor referee?

But Kate and Yasmina may count themselves lucky to have went through also.

Kate was accused of lacking passion and being too robotic. I would say she came across a bit false. She knows all the answers to interview questions but lacked the enthusiasm needed. She kept her cool - no bad thing - but perhaps she is too much of an ice maiden.

How Yasmina got through I do not know. She may well be an entrepreneur, but when Claude - one of the interviewers - grilled her over her restaurant's accounts, she was clueless. She didn't know her accounts were filed at Company House and therefore public, nor did she know the difference between gross and net profit! I cannot believe she got through after making such mistakes! In fact if she was on Dragons' Den she would have been shown the door.

Alan Sugar has recently been made Enterprise Czar by the Labour Government, which I am also a bit worried about! Alan chose Lee over Alex last year when Alex was clearly the best candidate and in fact even Kristina was a better candidate that Simon the year before (he was a bit like James!).

I would have taken Debra to the final and in fact I think she is the most capable of all the candidates though she does have to learn how to respect her colleagues, but she will learn I feel.

In saying that in the final it looks like a canter for Kate, but the way Alan Sugar seems to play to the entertainment side of the programme rather than the business side that means Yasmina will win!

Bill Gates v Google

Everyone knows how Google has become the generic name for internet searching but now Microsoft want to take them on.

Apparently 70% of net users search via Google but the Seattle based firm are launching their own websearch engine called Bing! It is simply at www.bing.com

It is not fully operational yet but it will be interesting to see if it can eat into Google's high market share.

Ask.com resorted back to Ask Jeeves to help rebrand themselves, and Yahoo and Lycos are no longer the forces they once were in the early days of the net.

Can Google withstand this latest attack?

In the News

Academics tot up costs of mobiles

Numerous different tariffs are provided by phone operators
Mathematicians and scientific advisers from Oxford University have helped develop a price comparison website for mobile phone users.

BillMonitor has become the first mobile phone comparison site to be accredited by the communications regulator Ofcom.

The UK mobile market offers consumers more than three million deals on over 119,078 tariffs.
The site is financed by commissions on its recommendations and only takes account of some of the deals on offer.

Consumers supply details of their bills and the website analyses them for a tailored recommendation.

"Science has been put to work for struggling consumers in a free service to help them lower their bills," said Stelios Koundouros, co-founder of BillMonitor.


Honda staff vote for 3% pay cut

Workers at Honda's Swindon plant have voted in favour of taking a 3% pay cut for 10 months in an attempt to safeguard 490 jobs.

In return, the workers will receive a bonus of six additional days' leave, Unite the union said. Managers' pay will be cut by 5%.

Of those balloted, 89% voted for a cut after the plant closed for four months.

They were asked to take a salary reduction after too few staff took up the offer of voluntary redundancy.

The plant has been shut for four months because of a fall in demand for new cars. It is due to reopen next month.

While pay freezes have become common in the car industry, pay cuts are more unusual.
"While a number of struggling companies are imposing pay freezes on their workers, to get employees to accept a pay cut is a significant achievement," the BBC's employment correspondent Martin Shankleman said.

"It is a measure of the calibre of industrial relations at the plant."
Jim D'Avila, regional officer for Unite, said the workers at Honda were standing together in "true solidarity in difficult times to protect hundreds of jobs".

The slump in car production was underlined earlier by industry figures which said the number of cars made in the UK halved in April.

Carmakers are pinning their hopes on the government's car scrappage scheme, which started earlier this month.



Car production down 55% in April

Car companies are cutting production

UK car production fell 55.3% in April, according to the latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

A total of 68,258 cars were made in April, with the total for the year to date about 251,268 cars.
In April, 56,267 cars were exported, a drop of 53.4%.

Overall vehicle production - including commercial vehicles - fell 56.5% to 75, 913 in April. Carmakers are cutting production as the recession takes hold.

Commercial vehicle production fell by 65.2% to 7,655 in April, with the year-to-date production down 63.6% at 29,950 vehicles.

Source: BBC News

The Future: 23rd Century Products and Services

Having watched the new Star Trek movie - very entertaining - it got me thinking of what will the future be like?

What kinds of products and services will people be using in the 23rd Century?

Will we have starships that can warp us to different solar systems?

Will we have a transporter that can teleport us from one place to another? Would make the trip to Australia a lot easier and would put airlines, trains and buses out of business!

The communicator is really what inspired the mobile phone, so perhaps there are other items we have seen in movies or TV that have actually inspired real-life inventions.

So if you can think of something new and original then let me know....

The Millau Bridge

I received this in an email from a friend in the USA and thought it was a joke. It was not!

The Millau Viaduct is part of the new E11 expressway connecting
Paris and Barcelona and features the highest bridge piers ever
constructed. The tallest is 240 meters (787 feet) high and the
overall height is an impressive 336 meters (1102 feet), making this
the highest bridge in the world.

It is taller than the Eiffel Tower.

Intriguingly, the Millau Viaduct is not straight. A straight road could induce
a sensation of floating for drivers, which a slight curve remedies. The curve
is 20km in range. Moreover, the road has a light incline of 3% to improve
the visibility and reassure the driver.

It is an amazing engineering feat!

Just think of the workers it took to build this and the money it generated for the local economy. Giving jobs to local people, or hotels and B&Bs having more customers if workers came from elsewhere. Plus they would have to eat and drink!

At present it costs between 5.40-7 euros to cross the toll bridge. It cost some 394 million euros to build!

It certainly does have the wow factor.

International Education and Curriculum for Excellence Showcase Event

Yesterday I attended in place of Mr Dyer a very interesting event held at Hampden Park, Scotland's National Football Stadium.

The conference looked at International Education and highlighting the excellent work being done by schools in all sectors and in all authorities. The examples were great for linking with Curriculum for Excellence.

In particular the Moray Council schools who did their presentations were fabulous. St Thomas's Primary in Keith did a splendid job showcasing the many aspects of International Education they work at in their school. They have done work on China, Pakistan and Poland, to name but a few. Their teacher Cathy Francis was very enthusiastic and a great role model for the pupils.

Also I was highly impressed by the pupils of Elgin High who had been to Tanzania. Their head teacher also went and he was rightly proud of the two brave pupils who had to face an audience of strangers! I was interested in this since we are going to Ghana in the summer! The pupils put any fears I may have at rest, though they didn't need a Yellow Fever jag! Lucky people! The links Elgin has with the schools in Tanzania (and I think it was Zambia also - I may be wrong) has permeated right through the school and its Learning Community. One factor I thought was a great idea was that the girls that had been to Africa were on the interview panel to select the next batch of Elgin pupils to go to the trip in September.

As well as going to the workshops and talking to other teachers and pupils, I had the job of manning the Hamilton Grammar Exhibition Trade Stand. I reckon I still have issues with Trade Stands since I am not one who is great at the Blue Peter aspect of the job. As a former Marketeer I know what to do to make it eye catching etc, but I really think the pupils would have done a better job! Sadly they had exams and couldn't be there. And Stuart Bence was at a pre-arranged trip to a local primary, teaching pupils about the Eco Group.

Our trade stall showcased the Carbon Offset initiative whereby we plant mangoes in Ghana to offset our carbon here in Hamilton. I also mentioned the role Young Enterprise played in getting local organisations to sponsor acres of mango. Another aspect we highlighted was the World View committee. The people that talked to me seemed to think this was a great idea bringing together Eco Group, International Education, Citizenship, Health Promotion, and Enterprise. And thankfully so did HMIe!

I have a few things to follow up. I never got the chance to speak to a Mr Stuart Hay from Shetlands, as he has several links with overseas schools and he may be able to give us some tips on our links with Australia, Canada, and of course Ghana.

This gave me an idea about our focus for each of the year groups in our new curriculum.

S1 = Africa (by far the most popular continent for schools it seems. Malawi, naturally is a favourite)
S2 = Latin America (wrongfully overlooked in my opinion, and a natural link for Spanish)
S3 = Asia (another interesting part of the world that has booming economies and contrasting poverty)

There was also young people who spoke to the audience who were very impressive. Pupils from Wallace High and Holyrood Secondary were particularly impressive.

There was a debate also about fundraising, which raised a few eyebrows. Many of the panel of experts assembled at the end of the day seemed dead against giving money to the partner schools abroad. I thought to myself that I just hope they didn't comment on the great fundraising work our school have done for the Spartanburg Orphanage in Ghana, but one of the panel spoke up. He was a DHT at Holyrood and spoke of the work his school had done through Mary's Meals to help schools in Africa. I personally agreed with this, since surely if we are in a position to help and it is sustainable and not just handing over wads of cash, surely this is the right thing to do?

Building schools, buying farm tools, raising livestock, buying machinery and all the other great things that the Developed World can do to help the Developing World is surely the least we can do.

If only global politicians acted with the same compassion, commitment and energy of our young people, then perhaps poverty in general would be a thing of the past.

Here's a final question: What happens to the young idealists when they get to Parliament or positions of power?

Curriculum for Excellence Planning

Today at inservice we concentrated our efforts on Curriculum for Excellence Planning. In fact we unpacked the Social Subjects and Technologies outcomes. We have already unpacked the draft outcomes so this time it was an opportunity to see where it all goes.

For my original ideas on the draft outcomes you can view them here: http://www.docstoc.com/docs/4989997/Curriculum-for-Excellence-Unpacking-Outcomes-Course-Ideas I received good feedback from HMIe about this document, though obviously I will have to make changes for the final outcomes and then put more detail into each module.

Much has been made of Modern Studies and Business overlap, but in reality Business was hardly mentioned in 5-14 at all so it really means that we are being represented! I would also say that elements of Geography are also Business teachers domain: such as Globalisation and Multinationals. This is the realm of Economics, which sadly is not offered in many schools anymore in Scotland. Even more poignant considering the Father of Economics is Adam Smith - a Scot!

Anyway while we were looking through and unpacking the outcomes I came up with a word that could help define the use of technology and its impact on the economy: Techonomics, but there does seem to be a similar word, so with the help of my colleague Mr McAlpine I dropped a letter and thus: Technomics was born!

Techomonics is defined as: (noun) : the branch of economics focused on the economic impacts and structure of technology-based economic development

whereas my new word means:

Technomics (noun) the economic and social impact of new, existing and emerging technologies regarding individual and organisational behaviour.

So perhaps a bit of an overlap there, but hey ho I am sure the English language can cope. My emphasis is on the impact of new technology and how it affects people and organisations

I think this is an element in Curriculum for Excellence that has much scope for some really interesting opportunities for pupils.

Not bad for a days work when you create a new word, eh? I will have to ask the pupils what they think!

**UPDATE: there does seem to be a word for Technomics. http://www.economypedia.com/wiki/index.php?title=Technomics Boo Hoo!

Exams 2009

FYI:

The Exam Diet for 2009 is as follows

5th May - Standard Grade Administration

Foundation - 9am - 10am
General - 10.20am - 11.35am
Credit - 1pm - 2.30pm

18th May - Business Management Higher - 9am -11.30am

19th May - Business Management Int 2 - 9am - 10.45am

20th May - Administration Higher - Paper 1 (Theory) 9am - 10.20am, Paper 2 (ICT) 10.40am - 12 noon

Home study should be in overdrive by now. Remember even if you think you know it all, a little bit of extra studying helps.

Remember the COMMAND WORDS. Answer the flamin' question!!!

Good luck to everyone. It has been a pleasure to teach you all this year and for the senior pupils I hope you all are going to Prom as I look forward to our class photos together!!! Naturally I will show you up as I will need a fake tan and some hair care to get up to the standard of what is expected in these Beckhamesque days. Oh how I pine for the Cloughie era!!!

Go do your best in all your subjects and try to make the best account you can. I knwo it is a hard time in school, but you have to remember it is the same stresses and strains that every other schoolkid in Scotland is going through and they are your competition for uni and college places.

If I think you can get an A, then prove me right. If I think you will struggle, prove me wrong.

You may not believe this, but I would be so happy to be proved wrong. Everyone involved with Hamilton Grammar wish you all well. The best things in life are free and the sense of achievement when you do your best and your are rewarded is something you will never forget.

I salute you all.

The Budget

There we go another Budget from the Government and Alastair Darling, the Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer.

KEY POINTS IN THE BUDGET

1. 50% tax rate for earnings over £150,000
2. Big debt and deficit increases
3. Economy shrinks at record rate
4. Public spending squeeze planned
5. Books not balanced until 2018
6. 2p on fuel, 1p on a pint of beer and 7p on cigarettes
7. £15bn public sector 'efficiency savings'
8. Claw back tax relief on top earners' pension
9. £2bn help for young unemployed
10. £1bn to boost housing market
11. £2 ,000 car scrappage scheme

Source: BBC Business News

It looks like we are all going to pay for the collapse of the Global Banking System. Taxes will inevitably rise and public spending cuts. So I wonder what is the future for hospitals, schools, and the police, as well as every service provided by Local Authorities.

It is a huge gamble by Darling. He's borrowing money to use to offset the increasing unemployment rate we face. We just all hope it works!

S1/S2 Enterprise Group

Our junior entrepreneurs now at long last have a company name... Market Matters, as voted by 27% of the 79 people who cast their vote.

Before we start ordering our stock, their next job is to create a company logo and assign job roles.

Our senior Enterprise people are going to judge the best logo!

Young Enterprise Examinations 2009

Congratulations to the following pupils:

Danny Gray
Kyle Jeffrey
Edison McKenna
Fraser Porteous

who all passed the Young Enterprise Examination.

Kyle received a Credit pass.

All four of the pupils have contributed greatly throughout the year. Well done!

From Woolies to Wellies

In Dorchester, an ex-manager of the failed Woolworths brand has created a phoenix from the ashes, documented in a show on BBC 1 last night.

Claire Robertson re-employed all the axed Woolies staff and renamed it Wellworths. She changed the stock a bit - with help from a new buyer who was obssessed with picture frames - and changed the look of the store slightly. She axed the poor selling CDs and DVDs - which did not keep everyone happy - but it was a cold blooded business decision.

The famous pic and mix was still there for everyone to see. Claire got a £100,000 loan and an agreement with her landlord for 3 months. The Wellworths store had a target of £38,000 sales to make every week in order to keep the business solvent.

Under huge time pressure the store opened and Radio 2 DJ Chris Evans did the honours - giving Claire and her shop well wearned national publicity.

Who knows how long the store will remain open in these troubling times of recession but good luck to Claire and her team. There was something about Woolworths that we all liked even if we didn't always shop there.

In the News...

G20 Summit

Barack Obama has hailed the G20 summit as a historic turning point in the pursuit of world economic recovery.

Leaders pledged new spending and tougher financial regulations, in what the US leader called an unprecedented set of actions to ease the crisis.

He now heads to Strasbourg for talks with the French and German leaders, before a Nato summit begins.

RBS Axe Jobs

Royal Bank of Scotland expects to shed more jobs worldwide, the bank has said.
RBS has already announced that about 2,700 posts will go but "this will not be the end of the story", according to chairman Sir Philip Hampton.

He also called for an "end to the public flogging" of the bank over its past mistakes.
Directors of RBS will face shareholders at the bank's annual general meeting in Edinburgh where they will be rebuked over their pay and pensions policy.

Sir Philip will tell shareholders that more redundancies are expected, although it is too early to say how many jobs will go or where the cuts will be made.

In February RBS reported it made a loss of £24.1bn in 2008 - the largest annual loss in UK corporate history.


Trade-ins Boost German Car Sales

German car sales soared 40% in March compared with the same time a year ago, with a spate of buying encouraged by a trade-in plan to scrap old cars.

The VDA automobile federation said sales in March hit 401,000 vehicles.

In Germany, drivers get 2,500 euros (£2,220; $3,170) for trading in a car more than nine years old. The scheme will be phased out by the end of 2009.

The figures come a day after the US auto industry's monthly sales were 45% down on this time last year.

And South African new vehicle sales plunged by 30.1% in the year to March, industry figures there showed on Thursday.

EU Working Hours Dispute

The European Parliament and EU governments are starting a new round of talks aimed at resolving a dispute over the EU's Working Time Directive.

The UK and 14 other EU member states have an opt-out from the directive, objecting to the 48-hour limit it sets on the working week.

But in December members of the European Parliament voted to scrap the opt-out.
MEPs also say on-call time counts as working time. A decision on that would affect key sectors such as healthcare.

The current "conciliation" is the final stage in the legislative debate. Both sides have until May to thrash out a deal, and if none is reached the European Commission will have to present new legislative proposals.

Sources: BBC News

S1 and S2 IT Course Review Pupil Vote

Please can you spare a few minutes to cast your vote on what you feel has been the best unit in S1 and S2.

For S1 votes go to:

www.s1it.blogspot.com

and for S2 go to:

www.s2it.blogspot.com

Your vote counts!

BBC School Report

Today is the day!

After a lot of planning and anticipation Hamilton Grammar's News Club and Writer's Group are in the process of investigating and reporting on news events in and around the school.

Mr Bowen and Mrs Kelly have done a fab job in helping the pupils learn about journalism and presenting, but now is the time for the pupils to come into their own!

I am hoping that these new found skills will encourage the pupils to join in HGS Digital and Weh TV! I know a few of the BBC kids have already been instrumental in our pilot programme, but the more the merrier.

I have helped some of the BBC School Reporters with podcasting and again I hope they use their skills to great effect!

Here is a link to the practice day http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/school_report/7842302.stm


and here is the news as it happens!!! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/school_report/default.stm

The Apprentice Back on BBC 1

Sir Alan Sugar, the man behind Amstrad, is looking for a new Apprentice. Last year Lee McQueen won despite lying on his CV (heavily criticised by other business leaders) and performing his incredible reverse pterodactyl.

This year we have 8 bossy females and 7 cocky males. One of the men already quit. He 'bottled' it according to Sugar.

Last night the teams were divided into boys and girls. The boys took the rather dodgy name of Empire which signified their Britishness, whereas the girls came up with Ignite.

The task was to run a car valleting service. There wasn't much in the actual takings or the eventual profit which caused one of Businesses worst cliches to rear its ugly head...again:

"Turnover is vanity; profit is sanity". It is very true but every Tom, Dick and Harry now use it. Duncan Bannantyne is particularly prone to it in Dragons Den!

Things came to a head in the girls team and in the Boardroom when losing Project Manager Mona took Debra and Anita back into the firing line. A series of digs at each other and lack of accountability riled Sir Alan. Eventually it was 35 year old Business Strategist and hot shot lawyer Anita who was fired.

She claimed Sir Alan doesn't like lawyers (a couple of years ago feisty Scots attorney Karen Bremmner was a brilliant candidate and yet was harshly fired early on) but Sugar insisted that she had not displayed any business acumen.

Anita had really set herself up for a fall though by claiming she was exceptional and outstanding and other hyperbolic terms.

If you talk the talk you have to walk the walk!

I do hope you watch it as it is educational and highly entertaining. Though it does not come close to the superior and original USA version starring my hero... Donald Trump!

Brian Clough - Managerial Genius

Some of you will be too young to remember Brian Clough. He was a remarkable and controversial figure when I was a lad.





He is now coming again to prominence thanks to the book The Damned Utd by David Peace and the new film of the book starring Michael Sheen.





Cloughie was a prolific goalscorer for Middlesbrough (his hometown team) and Sunderland in the late 1950s and early 1960s. His goals were all in the lower leagues and he only gained 2 full England caps. A bad collision with the Bury goalkeeper in winter 1962 ended his playing career early.





Clough then went in to management at Hartelpools (as they were called then) generating publicity for the club - and even drove the team bus!





He then took over at Second Division Derby County and won them the Second Division Championship and then the League Championship in 1972. He took Derby to the semi-finals of the European Cup only to lose to Juventus. His after match remarks caused great controversy when he accused the Italians of being in cahoots with the West German referee. This diplomatic gaffe was one of the reasons he was never appointed to his dream job: England manager.





He had a flourishing TV career and was TV's most controversial football pundit. This led to clashes with his Derby chairman and he resigned!





He then accepted the job at Leeds United - the best team in England and the current champions. He had previously slated Leeds for being cynical and dirty - and he disliked their successful manager, Don Revie. Clough lasted only 44 days.





He then went to sleepy Nottingham Forest who were near the bottom of the Second Division and not only got promotion but then won the League Championship in 1978. Cloughie then won two successive European Cups with Forest in 1979 and 1980. This was an achievement even the great Leeds Utd team of Don Revie could not achieve.





Why was Brian Clough so special?





He believed in discipline, having control of everything football related, but most of all he was a motivator. He created belief in his players.





This charismatic style of leadership is not very common as most managers in business will control, lead or manage through fear and bullying. Clough was accused of bullying but perhaps we can view it as Autocratic leadership style.





The difference is that Clough was loved by his players. They respected him and respected his achievements.





Clough was also an excellent communicator, an important role for any manager. And even though it didn't look like it to the cameras, he has excellent interpersonal skills in knowing how to deal with people. Some he would challenge and motivate to produce their best; others he would take under his wing and build their confidence.

Cloughie was also a team player as he worked for large parts of his career with Peter Taylor, his valued assistant. They were never as good apart. Taylor could spot potential in players which other scouts missed.

Perhaps Jose Mourinho is the nearest thing we have to a modern day Clough, but I would say Jose is Clough-lite.



There may be many great football managers and leaders, but there is only one Brian Clough.

To leave you this is best perhaps the ultimate Brian Clough quote:

"I don't think I am the best manager in the business. But I am in the top one."

HMIe Inspection Report

Our school, Hamilton Grammar was recently inspected by HMIe.

The report has been published and is available to review here.

International Education and Building Links with Global Schools!

We now have three schools in three different continents which we have set up blogs and email communication for future curricular development!

We have Pierre Elliot Trudeau in Ontario, Canada...
Southern River College in Gosnells, Western Australia
Donkorkrom Agricultural School in Ghana.

I will be visiting Donkorkrom in the summer, but fingers crossed in the future I may get to go to Canada and Australia!

I have set up the blogs with the schools and hope to help the educators from across the world to get blogging.

Once they are up to speed with events then we can get our students sharing experiences and perhaps even working on projects together.

My S3 Admin class are in the process of starting correspondence with a Year 11 English class in Western Australia, and hopefully from this small start we can then tailor off to relevant subject areas. But I guess we have to walk before we can run as the time difference is crazy!

I'm going to create a welcome podcast with my pupils and post it to the blogs to see if we can create more discussion and dialogue with our International Partners.

Citizenship is such a worthwhile cause... I was always very interested in global affairs and other nations, peoples etc ever since I was in Primary school. To get to speak and communicate with educators and students across the world is mind blowing!

Anyway, I'll keep posting updates on here as we go.

Enterprising Education in St Andrew's and St Bride's Secondary

Earlier today I visited St Andrew's and St Bride's Secondary in East Kilbride to discuss their enterprising methods of teaching.

It was very interesting and centred mainly on some excellent work undertaken by the Science department in the school. I was shown round by Mrs Agnew, a DHT.

Without giving too much away, as I don't want to steal their thunder, the basis for the work was to have pupil centred lessons whereby the S2 Science students were working towards a realistic design brief which was part of the course. A fictitious company called Besto Boilers was created to put all the learning into context.

Pupils worked in small teams and researched the design problems and over a period of time collated the information and presented it back to teachers and their peers in a presentation.

This obviously improved communication, team working and presentation skills, not to mention their research and analytical skills.

Pupils were encouraged to become independent learners and the principles of the tasks were planned with Curriculum for Excellence in mind.

A comparison of pupils learning in this enterprising way with the more traditional method is to be undertaken. The results will be interesting!

The hard work of the teaching staff has paid dividends by the feedback they have received so far. It certainly is much more interesting and enjoyable for pupils to learn in this way.

It has given me a few ideas and I will share what I saw with Mr Colin Stewart, our Headteacher and Mr Dyer, the Faculty Head of Science. Perhaps Mr Dyer and I can chat about this in Ghana!

Harvard Business School

Some of you will have heard of Michael Porter, one of the world's leading business consultants and an expert on Competitive Advantage.

Michael Porter is one of the professors at Harvard Business School - the world's premier Business School.

Harvard invented the Case Study Method for learning and teaching, which is used in many disciplines but obviously is very important and effective in examining what has happened to failing businesses at certain points of time.

Harvard Business School also publishes the best business quarterly, the Harvard Business Review, which contains research on all aspects of business: Marketing, Finance, Operations, Human Resources, Consumer Psychology and Strategic Management.

Harvard's MBA is one of the most prestigious qualifications in the world. It opens many doors for the budding entrepreneur and aids their networking!

From wikipedia:

The school's faculty are divided into ten academic units: Accounting and Management; Business, Government and the International Economy; Entrepreneurial Management; Finance; General Management; Marketing; Negotiation, Organizations & Markets; Organizational Behavior; Strategy; and Technology and Operations Management.

Harvard look for students who are leaders, have the capacity for intellectual growth, and are driven to make a difference in their community.

Alumni include:

Robert S. McNamara - former president of Ford Motor Company, president of the World Bank but most famously as US Secretary of Defense in both the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations

Orin C. Smith - former CEO of Starbucks

Robert Kraft - CEO of the Kraft Group

George W. Bush - the 43rd President of the United States


In the USA Business is serious stuff!

Billionaires Go Bust

Even Billionaires have been hit by the credit crunch. Everyone is losing money and Warren Buffet - the man who ended Bill Gates's 13 year reign as the World's Richest Man lost $25bn!

Bill Gates lost $18bn himself but now is back at the top of the pile with $40bn.

As for the distribution of billionaires worldwide, the USA still has almost double that of Europe.

New York is now the number one city for Billionaires, with Moscow - the previous top dog - slipping to third. London is number two.

Who knows what lies ahead, but the numbers floating around boggle the mind.

Mr Arthur has created a blog page for SG Admin past papers which I will post on the other pages also.

http://adminpapers.blogspot.com/