In addition to these Awards, both Flora Smith and Amelia Bucknall have been asked to read their poems at the United Nations Concert at the Usher Hall on Saturday 26^th November: quite an honour in front of hundreds of people.

Two Cargilfield pupils – Marcel Lasnet and Tatenda Chiriseri – won through to the final of the Glenalmond College Creative Writing Competition.

English Speaking Union Debating Competition:  success for Cargilfield

Very well done to Max Gentleman and Marcel Lasnet for qualifying through to the next round of the E.S.U. Debating Competition.  Both performed very well indeed against older boys and girls from a whole host of other schools and we wish them well in the coming months.

 So far, the Dandylions have defeated the WOSPS at netball and the Dandylions play the WOSPS at rugby in the coming weeks.

The mini concert on Monday 17^th October was a spectacular hour of exciting music: 24 children played instruments and in addition to two more mini concerts and the Christmas concert at the end of term, boys and girls have played in various masterclasses this term: piping and strings.

41 boys and girls went to a Maestro Music Concert in Glasgow on the 1^st November; they listened to a programme which included Beethoven, Vaughan Williams and Shostakovich.

The Chapel Choir spent the day at the Glenalmond Choral Day, a wonderful experience of choral music which culminated in a beautiful and moving Evensong service in the College chapel.

Eton, Fettes, Glenalmond, Gordonstoun, Harrow, Marlborough, Merchiston, Oundle, Queen Victoria School, Dunblane, Rugby, St Mary’s Ascot, Sedbergh, Strathallan, Uppingham and Wycombe Abbey.

Congratulations to the following on winning Scholarships to various Senior Schools:

 2011

Tiffany Bucknall, Academic Scholarship to Rugby

Eilidh Smith, Academic Scholarship to Oundle

Lucinda Gray, Academic Scholarship to Fettes

Hector McLean, Academic Scholarship to Fettes

Flora McMicking, Academic Scholarship to Fettes and Joannides Classics Scholarship to Fettes

Johnny Bing, Academic Exhibition to Glenalmond

William Howie, Classics Exhibition to Merchiston

Sophie Cook, Music Exhibition to Wycombe Abbey

Fergus Skinner, Outstanding Talent Scholarship for Sport to Glenalmond

Will Porter, Outstanding Talent Scholarship for Sport to Glenalmond

Fergus Barne, All-Rounder Scholarship for Sport and Piping to Glenalmond

Sophie Cooper, All-Rounder Scholarship to Fettes

Charlotte Steele, All-Rounder Scholarship to Fettes

Fergus Barne, All-Rounder Scholarship to Fettes

Lorne Milne, All-Rounder Scholarship to Fettes

2010

 The senior choristers went on an outing to the Theatre to watch “My Fair Lady”, the famous musical adaptation of Pygmalion.  I think all the Cargilfield group would have voted Eliza Doolittle the star of the show; there were excellent performances from Eliza’s father and Professor Higgins.  The singing was vibrant and what really impressed the children was that the cast play nearly all the instruments for the Musical background; one of the cast has been known to play seven instruments during one performance!

 As ever, the Dundarach Hotel looked after us very well indeed; we were fed well and certainly appreciated not having to drive back to Edinburgh at 10.45pm.

A second group of senior boarders will be going to the Theatre in November to watch Whisky Galore, which has been brought back for a month, after its fantastic run two years ago.

In the quarter final we played a strongly fancied Loretto side but here we really started to play well, aggressive in defence with Charlie Bainbridge and Teddy Dickson to the fore, and used our quick hands to put Amodio and Andrew away; a great performance and a terrific win which put us into the semis against our hosts, Ardvreck.  Having suffered a big loss to us earlier in the week, they were clearly up for it, but again we played some super sevens with Will Russell quick at the base of the rucks, and Harry Moir directing operations behind; the large crowd were soon silenced and we won by three tries in the end.  So this tenacious side had reached the final, but the exertions of the previous two knockout games proved too much and Merchiston played some great sevens to emerge worthy winners.  They were the stand out side all day, but we competed well and never gave up. 

To lose in the final was a tremendous effort and the whole squad showed enormous improvement from the start of the day and played good seven-a-side rugby, winning deserved plaudits from spectators and referees about the way we played the game.  Well done indeed, boys: a wonderful day indeed!

 P3 visited Craigies Farm, just outside Edinburgh

P3 hosted a talk by an organic livestock farmer

P3 have been to the National Gallery for a 3 hour Art session.

P3 have been to Craigmillar Castle just outside Edinburgh

P2 have been to Edinburgh Zoo

P2 visited The Observatory in town

P1, P2 and P3 put on their Harvest Festival on the 21^st October for many parents and friends.

Nursery has hosted both the Police and Fire Brigade and have visited the Modern Art Gallery in Edinburgh

Our pre-tournament match was against Queen Margaret’s, York, and we played a morning match against their U13’s.  The 2 teams were very evenly matched and the game could have gone either way.  However, we dug deep and thanks to some great saves from Amber, we managed to win the match by 3-2.We travelled down to our hotel in Derbyshire and enjoyed a swim before a hearty supper, and an early bed before the tournament at Repton.  The weather was kind to us all day on the Friday and we played the tournament in warm conditions.  We lost our first match 2-0 against Cheltenham College which was a disappointing way to start.  We played Wellingborough next and looked more like our normal selves and won this match 2-1. A disappointing 1-0 loss against St Anselms followed by a 2-0 against Beachborough saw spirits low, however we picked ourselves up and battled hard against The Elms.  This was one of our better matches and narrowly lost this match 2-1.  Our last match against Wellow was our best performance all day and we had a very entertaining 3-3 draw, although sadly our results were not good enough to see us through to the play offs.

A big thank you to all the mums who came down to support the girls and well done to the girls who although didn’t qualify for the Nationals, learned a great deal and behaved impeccably.  Thank you also to Mr and Mrs Elder for coming to support and keeping spirits high!