Peak Performance

June 2010: Pupils: click here to browse through your choices!

Peak Performance (PP) is an innovative cross-curricular experience that involves all pupils from S2, S5 and S6 for one period a week for the entire year. Peak Performance is a truly enterprising activity, which focusses on developing our pupils leadership and teamwork skills.

Departments from all across the school are involved - including Music, Home Economics, Art, Drama, PE, CDT, Business Education, and Media Studies.

There are two main elements to Peak Performance:

Trapped! - school musical and Peak Performance production- 2010

1. Cross-curricular work in Art, Business Education, Drama, HE, Music, PE and CDT, in which pupils take the lead in every aspect of the production of the school fashion, dance musical or musical theatre event. In recent years pupils have produced musical theatre performances Trapped! and Back to the 80s, a fashion/dance extravaganza and dance shows and festivals. The school has also presented two major showcases of pupils’ work called the 1000×1000 exhibitions. These have celebrated the fact that every single pupil in our school has something worthwhile to contribute to their school and community. This year pupils will present a musical theatre production which has been scripted, scored and choreographed entirely by themselves. What a talented bunch!
2. The development of Academies in PE devoted to developing pupils' playing and leadership skills in a sport that is of particular interest to them. The school recently won the opportunity to become an SFA School of Football, thereby enhancing the excellent range of opportunities made available to our pupils.

Peak Performance Options

All S2, S5 and S6 pupils must select their options for Peak Performance. They will take part in these activities throughout the year for one period a week. Click on the link below to find out about each one:

Department	S2 Options	S5/6 Options
Home Economics	Fashion Academy
Music/Drama	Musical Theatre
Media Studies	Media S2	Media S5/6
Art	Art
Business	Business Promotions
Technical	Technical Education
PE	Football Academy Basketball Academy Dance Academy Rugby Academy	Senior Coaching Academy

PP staff leaders have reported a distinct improvement in pupils’ subject-specific skills as a result of PP involvement. The relevance of the work and the development of greater self-reliance are contributing factors. Each year a timeline is produced showing the events for that year - the timeline for 2010-2011 is shown below:

Peak Performance in S2

At the start of the new school session, S2 pupils are asked to choose which area they would most like to be involved in from a choice of:

• PE - the Football Academy (winner of the Midlothian Award for Outstanding Contribution to School Sport in 2007), Dance Academy, Rugby Academy or Basketball Academy
• Music/Drama - organising the main artists, chorus, orchestra and music to be used within the production
• Media Studies - creating a film documenting the preparations for the production
• Art - producing backgrounds and props to be used in the musical production
• CDT - producing backgrounds, props and scenery to be used in the musical production
• Home Economics - producing costumes to be used in the musical production
• Business Education - raising money to finance the musical production and producing the advertising

Peak Performance in S3 and S4

Whilst S3 pupils do not attend Peak Performance in the same way as S2, they have the chance to continue build upon their work in S2 by taking a S3/S4 option in their chosen specialisation that could lead to an Intermediate 1 or Intermediate 2 award. In 2010, the options that will be available are:

• Art Academy (Drawing Skills) leading to an Intermediate 2 award
• PE Basketball Academy, leading to an Intermediate 1 or Intermediate 2 award
• PE Dance Academy, leading to an Intermediate 1 or Intermediate 2 award
• PE Football Academy, leading to an Intermediate 1 or Intermediate 2 award

This further study would be in addition to any PE or Art courses that the pupil had already chosen.

Peak Performance in S5 and S6

Senior pupils are expected to take leading roles with the PP groups. This has taken various forms including keeping juniors focused, helping them out with more advanced skills, participating in more technical assistance to teachers and latterly leading the teaching of small groups of pupils with teachers’ assistance.

Seniors working in PP groups have explained that the responsibilities given to them in Peak Performance have made a major impact on their levels of confidence. Not only are they now better able to lead and organise effectively, they can communicate clearly and work as part of a team in order to complete tasks and achieve goals.