Neill McCallum - Headmster Balerno High School
Wed, May 20th 2020 at 8:00 pm - 9:00 pm
On Zoom
Our speaker, Neill McCallum, told us this was the first time he had talked on Zoom.
He had been in teaching for the past 25 year and had been appointed head teacher at Balerno High School in 2016. Currently they had 750 pupils with an increase next session. Covid19 is making things very difficult for pupils and teachers.
As well as close links with Rotary the school also has links with Hearts Football Club and Currie Rugby Club.
Neill went on to tell us how grants from the Community Chest had proved most useful to the school:
The creation of a support base for disadvantaged children had been of great benefit. The number of activities would continue and grow in the future. His colleague, Jen Wilson, supported this group. She was doing an excellent job.
STEAM : Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths. This was for S1 & 2. They had met several professionals in these disciplines giving them a better understanding of what was involved. They had entered a competition to build a rocket car, made use of a robot and built a drum kit.
Neill thanked the club for their donations which had made a great difference.
There were several questions at the end of the talk.
Roy Stirrat reminded him the closing date for applications was the end of this month.
Percy Farren wanted to know how pupils were coping with the school closed. He replied it was very difficult. A big problem was that a number of pupils did not have access to a tablet or laptop so virtual lessons were very difficult for them.
The club’s vote of thanks was given by Rodger Thom.
He had been in teaching for the past 25 year and had been appointed head teacher at Balerno High School in 2016. Currently they had 750 pupils with an increase next session. Covid19 is making things very difficult for pupils and teachers.
As well as close links with Rotary the school also has links with Hearts Football Club and Currie Rugby Club.
Neill went on to tell us how grants from the Community Chest had proved most useful to the school:
The creation of a support base for disadvantaged children had been of great benefit. The number of activities would continue and grow in the future. His colleague, Jen Wilson, supported this group. She was doing an excellent job.
STEAM : Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths. This was for S1 & 2. They had met several professionals in these disciplines giving them a better understanding of what was involved. They had entered a competition to build a rocket car, made use of a robot and built a drum kit.
Neill thanked the club for their donations which had made a great difference.
There were several questions at the end of the talk.
Roy Stirrat reminded him the closing date for applications was the end of this month.
Percy Farren wanted to know how pupils were coping with the school closed. He replied it was very difficult. A big problem was that a number of pupils did not have access to a tablet or laptop so virtual lessons were very difficult for them.
The club’s vote of thanks was given by Rodger Thom.
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