On Thursday 6^th March, we celebrated World Book Day. In addition to our drop everything and read event (now in its third year!), we hosted a live session with master of suspense and WBD £1 book author of “This Story is a Lie” Benjamin Dean. He is a full-time author with a background in celebrity journalism; he has interviewed a host of glitzy celebrities and is often tweeting about famous people, as well as LGBTQ+ culture. His award-winning middle-grade debut, Me, My Dad and the End of the Rainbow, was described as ‘One of the most joyful books you’ll read this year’ (The Bookseller), and he’s since gone on to publish The Secret Sunshine Project, as well The King is Dead and How to Die Famous for older readers. He discussed his childhood and memories of writing at school, along with what led him to become a writer and advice on how to write an edge-of-your-seat thriller.

A massive well done to the Culloden Academy S1/S2 Maths Challenge Team. After winning the Highland Region Team Maths Challenge in Kingussie, they have qualified for the Finals. In June, they will compete against the other 50 regional winning schools from across the UK in London. The team consisting of Micha MacDonald, Josseph Almadin, Roni Brady and Charlene Yeung are shown with their Winners certificates.

Young Carers Action Day is coming up!

On Wednesday 12th March, we are recognising Young Carers Action Day with this year’s theme: “Give Me a Break.”.

Connecting Carers support Young Carers to get a break via:

• Young Carer Clubs
• Online Activities
• Residential Trips
• School Holiday Event Programmes
• Short Breaks Bureau
• Funding

Our Young Carer Team will be delivering some much-needed respite through our clubs and events during March that will allow Young Carers to receive a break from their caring role. Anyone can make a referral – see the link below:

As Dr Vance mentioned in his recent newsletter, Highland Council are keen to understand the barriers to high attendance and would very much appreciate it if any parent who struggles to get their child to come to school or is worried about their child’s attendance would take 3-5 minutes to complete the parental survey. We also need to hear from pupils who struggle- or fail- to attend so that we better understand what we can do to make school and education a more appealing prospect.

February’s letter to parents and carers was issued by email this morning. It can also be downloaded below. It covers:

• Attendance
• Uniform
• Mobile Phones
• Vandalism

It was with great pleasure that we welcomed Calum back to Culloden Academy last week. Calum left school in 2006 and following his graduation with a Law Degree from Aberdeen University, and time as a Corporate Lawyer, Calum moved on to work with the Scottish Professional Football League. He has had a number of roles with the organisation and is currently the Chief Operating Officer, alongside his responsibilities with UEFA and FIFA.

Calum was good enough to talk about his experiences as a Inverness Caledonian Thistle U17 football player and how he made some difficult choices to follow his dreams to work in football. Calum was kind enough to bring the Scottish League Cup with him – a very popular choice!

Congratulations on your success Calum. Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule to talk to so many of our pupils.

A group of 12 budding scientists attended the Girls do Science event at the WASP Academy in Inverness.

After and interesting and inspiring talk from Laura Young on her role as an Environmental Scientist the students then took part in a range of interactive activities. They were introduced to using robotics in marine surveys from SAMS, extracting DNA from their own cells and the role of hydrogen and wind power from Balfour Beattie.   

On the 10^th February we attended the annual Rotary Club Inter-Schools Quiz Competition at Charleston Academy to compete against four other secondary school teams in the hope of retaining the shield for another year. There were 10 rounds, covering many topics such as Science, History and Music each with 6 questions. On the team were Finlay Simpson, Magnus Johnson, Evie Strachan and Zoe Marsden.

We are delighted to say that we did it, we won again for the second year in a row. Well done team!

Three of our S2 pupils entered the Highland Boccia Heats this month. After a morning of games at Inverness Royal Academy, Oihane qualified to take part in the Highland Finals which will be held at Millburn in March. Congratulations to Amy and Kenzie who also won several games!