MERKINCH Primary’s school garden has been celebrating a good year - the club for P6 and P7 pupils meets on Tuesdays from 3-4pm. The various bushes and trees planted in November 2001 had fairly grown and the garden is attracting birds and butterflies.

The Garden Gang has gone from strength to strength and thanks to their efforts the planted areas have been kept weed-free.
More shrubs and bulbs have been planted, seedlings transplanted, paths maintained, grass cut, and new plots cleared ready for planting.
The club is very grateful to the three mums and dads who came along to help on “Dig In” days.

At the first meeting of the club this term members planted out nine lavatera plants which were very generously donated by Mr J Sutherland of Carse Road who has taken a great interest in the project.

* The garden club is looking for old worn-out carpets - fabric-backed ones only please - to suppress weed growth in the school garden. Contact the school on 232962.

MPS held a Book Fair in September and the excellent sum of almost £500 was raised. This meant the school was able to select books to the value of £260 as their commission from the sale. The next Book Fair will be held in May.

MPS is still running various recycling schemes: Area B wants old plastic ring carriers, printer, copier or fax machine toner cartridges, and outgrown school uniforms, PE shorts and t-shirts. Also, Mrs Campbell is still collecting used postage stamps for charity.

Diary dates - Both MPS and Inverness High close for the festive break on Friday 20th December and reopen on Monday 6th January. MPS’s Church service is being held on Monday 16th December.

Sports diary dates include shinty training for P6 on Thursdays from 3-4pm, and Junior Hockey training takes place on the Astroturf behind the ice rink on Saturdays from 12 to 2pm. And on Sundays there is ice skating at the ice rink from 12 to 2pm.

Mr Gavin McLean has been appointed Depute Rector, Pupil Support at Inverness High School. He started on 25th November. Mrs P Carmichael left at the end of November to take up a Principal Teacher’s post at Millburn Academy. The school said farewell to Assistant Rector Mr C Gibson and Science Technician Mrs D McGregor who both retired recently.

Inverness High advises senior pupils that revision should be underway now for the Prelims. These take place after Christmas for S4 and slightly later from S5 and S6. “These exams are very important,” says Rector Ritchie Cunningham, “in that they provide us with good evidence of the likely grades pupils will achieve in SQA exams in the summer. This evidence can be used to appeal results for pupils who underperform in the the summer, or are ill on the day of an exam.”

Inverness High was last month inspected by Her Majesty’s Inspector of Schools. This takes place around every seven years and can take about three weeks to complete.