Celebrating Success Across Bo’ness Schools
Throughout the school year, there are many opportunities for children across Bo’ness to shine. While not everyone can be invited to present their achievements on Fair Day, it is important that we recognise and celebrate their successes in other ways.
We begin by congratulating Bo’ness Academy and its four cluster primary schools – Deanburn, Grange, Kinneil and Bo’ness Public, on achieving the sportscotland Gold Award. This prestigious accolade is presented to schools that demonstrate the highest levels of pupil participation in extra-curricular sport and physical activity. This marks the first time a full cluster of schools in the Falkirk Council area has received the award, and only the third time this has been achieved anywhere in Scotland. An outstanding accomplishment for the town.
Across Bo’ness, many other achievements deserve recognition, starting with our queens School. Grange has enjoyed recent success in the literary arena, proudly securing the Agnes Ford Shield, a prestigious short story competition for local schools. Creativity and storytelling flourished across the pupil body. Our Champion, Ruaridh, took top honours with a standout winning entry, while a number of other pupils earned highly commended recognition. All entries showcased the impressive standard of writing throughout the school. This years Seabox Society Competition to create a Tourist Leaflet for Bo’ness, the winning entry receiving the Eric Potter Trophy from Grange was Rosie C.
Bo’ness Public Primary School has had a particularly memorable year, celebrating a significant milestone, its 150th anniversary. To mark the occasion, the school hosted a concert featuring performances from both current pupils and alumni. Public were delighted to learn that Erin D recieved 2nd place in this year’s Seabox Society competition. Sporting success was also evident, with the P7 boys’ team achieving third place at the Falkirk-wide cross-country event, while the mixed team won this year’s Rugby Fair Cup. The girls’ football team also brought home the Challenge Cup, rounding off a year of achievement.
It has been an unforgettable year at St Mary’s School, with pupils putting their faith into action and across the local community, sports pitches, and quiz circuits. Mini Vinnies raised funds for SCIAF with an Easter Egg raffle, hosting a coffee morning for their parish community, and helped collect essential items for the local foodbank. Pope Francis Faith Award children stepped up to by putting their leadership skills into practice as Playground Leaders. Meanwhile, competitive spirit was out in full force as the boys’ football team put on a spectacular performance to win 1st place at the Bo’ness Cluster Schools’ Tournament, closely followed by Primary 7 pupils who secured a fantastic 2nd place finish at the Bo’ness Basketball Fair Cup. To round off a wave of success, four of our sharpest Primary 7 minds clinched another 2nd place spot at the Bo’ness Cluster Rotary Quiz, and the cross-country team represented the school with pride out on the course at Callendar Park, leaving the entire St Mary’s community bursting with pride.
At Deanburn Primary School with celebrated success across sports, creative writing, and the performing arts. On the sporting front, the school secured a double victory, taking home silverware in both the Badminton, Basketball and Netball Fair Cups. Meanwhile, the school’s creative sparks were ignited; Myla S in P4, who won her age group category in the Falkirk Writing Rammy, an event where Deanburn also received a special prize for submitting the highest number of entries overall. To top off an incredible year, the whole school community was treated to a spectacular stage performance of Matilda Junior, perfectly highlighting the breadth of talent, hard work, and creativity running through the school right now.
In Kinneil Primary School, Kinneil All Stars hit all the right notes to sail through the first round of the national Glee competition before delivering a fabulous performance at the Central Region Finals, in P7 star Niamh MacF picked up 3rd place in the Seabox Society competition. The school was proud all round, as Rory McD P5 showed incredible stamina crossing the finish line in a brilliant 2nd place at the Falkirk School’s Cross Country event, and the brilliant Primary 7 brainboxes—Alaya D, Steve O’H, Marcus K, and Theo B, won the Bo’ness cluster tournament and triumphed at the Rotary Quiz for the first time in Kinneil history. To cap off an already successful year, the senior boys football team were crowned champions and the junior team secured a fantastic 3rd place out of 14 competing schools at the Linlithgow Round Table Football Tournament, before the Kinneil boys’ team claimed this year’s Challenge Cup, and both boys and girls teams rounded off a spectacular sporting season by taking home the Fair Cup!
In addition to sporting and creative successes, pupils from across the town were honoured to take part in the launch of the local history book Without Fear: Stories from World War II. Representatives from each school contributed by narrating stories of local men from Bo’ness, bringing history to life and demonstrating the powerful role young people can play in preserving community heritage.
We are incredibly proud of the young people across Bo’ness, many of whom play an active role in this year’s Fair Day celebrations. Their hard work, dedication and enthusiasm throughout the academic year deserve to be recognised and celebrated. Well done to everyone involved.
