Mrs Mary Pitkin, Housemistress

I am delighted to welcome all of the 5^th Form girls from Home and Lothian who will be at Carinies House for the 2009/2010 session.

I am a teacher of Physics, Director of Pupil Welfare, Child Protection Officer and College Counsellor. My husband Keith and I live in the Cairnies flat with our two dogs Scooby and Scrappy. We have a son, Christopher, and daughter, Elizabeth, who both live and work in London.

As with all pupils, it is important that the girls feel valued and able to contribute positively to all aspects of life at Glenalmond. With their co-operation and trust, I will support and encourage each girl to reach her full potential. It is certainly my intention that they will thrive during their time at Cairnies'

I want all girls to feel involved in the running of Cairnies, so all members of the House will be asked to vote for representatives on the Cairnies House Council. Members of the Council will meet with me every fortnight to discuss House matters and to help to plan House events.

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Latest News

A small set of photos is in Photo Gallery

Michaelmas term is always long and tiring and this one has been no different. As you can see from the reports written by the Cairnies girls we have been busy in every area of College life.

This year's Cairnies girls are fun, noisy, feisty – all the things that 15 and16 year olds should be. What impresses me about them most is how quickly the Home/Lothian divide disappeared and was replaced by Cairnies girls wanting to work together and show us what they can do in so many different ways.

I am delighted that the House have chosen a design by Jenny Anderton as the new symbol of Cairnies. This is the first time that anyone outside the House has seen it. I hope that soon it will be made into a new Cairnies House badge.

As you all know Cairnies is a fair way from the centre of College so the girls are exposed to the elements more than most. When they return in January it would be very sensible if they came back with a navy water proof coat and a good pair of water -proof shoes – regulation colour of course!

I am lucky to have the support of so many excellent staff in Cairnies, Amie Bruce my graduate assistant and tutor to one quarter of the girls, our House Matron Mrs Erdal and the other three tutors, Mr Whitten, Dr Hamilton and Miss Nicci Kitchen.

I hope you all had a very Happy Christmas and I look forward to welcoming the girls back to Cairnies in the New Year.

With best wishes

Mary Pitkin

House Chapel Grania Lambert

This year Cairnies House Chapel was all about not judging people on first appearances. The message that we were trying to get across was not to judge people on what they look like, but to push past the first impressions so that you can get to know the person underneath. We received several positive comments from girls in the U6th and many teachers so we feel that it was very successful.

The First Sunday of this Term Katie Winton

On the first Sunday after our return to school Mrs Pitkin organised an afternoon of make-up demonstrations. Sarah and Ann came to Cairnies to show us how to do both subtle and evening make-up successfully. The whole house was involved. The make-up and techniques were demonstrated using Rosina, Fern, Molly and Amy as models. Two had very natural looks and two had evening make-up done for them.

The demonstrations were very good and we all enjoyed watching and trying out the make-up. At the end of the afternoon we got into a coach to the Pitcairngreen Inn where we had a lovely high tea. We were given a whole room to ourselves so that we could make lots of noise, which we really enjoyed! The meals were very tasty and it ended with a yummy selection of cakes after the main course.

It was such a lovely day; everyone really enjoyed themselves. It was a very good Sunday bonding the two houses, Home and Lothian, on our first weekend in Cairnies.

Thanksgiving Dinner Mary Pitkin, Freya MacLean-Boyd and Grania Lambert

For the last three years Cairnies House has celebrated Thanksgiving with their Graduate Assistant from the USA by organising and eating a Thanksgiving Dinner. On the last Thursday of November Cairnies girls arranged seating, decorated the Common Room and the tables and then sat down with their tutors, Mrs Pitkin and Mrs Erdal to a delicious meal that had been prepared for us by Mr Abbott and his team in the College kitchens.

After the meal we followed the US tradition of everyone standing up and telling us what they are thankful for. These ranged from being thankful for friends, being thankful for getting to know girls from the other boarding House and for everyone getting on so well to being thankful for music.

As part of our Thanksgiving celebrations we decided to give presents to the children at Rachel House in Kinross. Everyone who came to the dinner brought a Christmas present for a child, wrapped in Christmas paper and labelled with suitable gender and age. These have been passed on to Rachel House so that they can be distributed for Christmas.

Grania Lambert, our Chapel representative, wrote a special grace for the event:

'Many years ago, the pilgrims thanked God for helping them put peas in the pod. Today while we sit and give thanks for the flowing waters and river banks, as the tartan clad clans that came before us said,

"Down with your hunkers,

Up with your paws,

Thank the Good Lord

For the use of our jaws."

All in all it was a very successful evening which everyone enjoyed.

Dundee Shopping Trip Charlotte Houldsworth

On Sunday 29^th November all of Cairnies House piled into a coach with Mr and Mrs Pitkin and Miss Bruce and were whisked away to Dundee for Christmas Shopping. We arrived in Dundee at 11 a.m. which gave us four hours to walk freely around Dundee, doing a mixture of Christmas shopping and eating in restaurants. We also had fun buying presents for each other for the White Elephant game that Miss Bruce was organising the following week. Everyone had a great time and we were lucky enough to go there when there was a Christmas Street Market, which added to the excitement of the day. We were all very thankful to get out of school and go shopping in preparation for the coming holidays.

Cairnies House Music

This year we were the first group of girls to have taken part in House Music as Cairnies. In our year group we have some very strong vocalists and instrumentalists making it an easy task to put together groups for the ensemble and part song where we made moments of musical fusion. It was a joy to be in both ensemble and part song as everyone was co-operative and eager to make a good performance. For part song we thought we would do a Motown classic "Blame it on the Boogie" by the Jackson 5. Everyone put in their own ideas about how we were going to present the performance and sing it. Our final performance went very well and everyone looked as though they were thoroughly enjoying themselves. A special mention goes to Patricia Walker and Iona Gaskell who did well on their solos and really made the performance something to remember.

Ensemble was put together by Lara Tulloch where she arranged the famous James Bond theme tune "Live and Let Die" by Paul McCartney using Sibelius on the IMac computers. Heather Campbell gave the song an encouraging start with her tremendous violin solo. Kirsty Nicoll who had never touched the drums before shouted "One, Two, Three" with admirable enthusiasm. Sadly we did not get placed on either Part Song or Ensemble but we all tried our best and had a lot of fun.

Cairnies Sports Alice Onslow

In Cairnies this term there have been many girls who have participated in different sporting activities inside and outside of school. In school nearly everyone has been involved in Hockey in teams ranging from the 1sts to the 5ths. Everyone has had a good time and a chance to play in matches throughout the season which have had some successful results - especially the 1sts and 2nds. Some people have been selected for the 1sts and 2nds Netball and in their few matches have had some good results.

Outside of school Fern Whitelaw was selected for Perth and Kinross Under- 17 Netball and Alice Onslow was selected for Midlands Hockey Under -16.

Cairnies Music Heather Campbell

The Music School has been filled with budding musicians from Cairnies, from clarinettists to pianists and flautists to violinists. While other members of Cairnies are off playing hockey and winning debates several members of Cairnies fill the altos and 1^st sopranos in chapel choir and lead the flutes, second violins and third violins in Dr Ridley's orchestra. As well as orchestra and choir, Cairnies' girls play parts in flute trio, fiddle group, string quartet and string duo.

Hallowe'en

The Cairnies' girls entertained second and third form girls on Hallowe'en with games and face painting. The event was organised by Sarah White and Charlie Loudon, the Lothian and Home link prefects.

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Cairnies Tutors 2008/2009
Home	Mr Brian Whitten
	Miss Nicci Kitchin
Lothian	Dr Gilly Hamilton
	Miss Amie Bruce
House Matron	Mrs Janine Erdal

Cairnies House Council
Elected by you	Flat/Annex Co-ordinators
Wisha (L)	Sarah Jane
Lorna (H)	Amy
Iona G (H)	Kate
Emma S (L)
Lydia (H)
Rosina (L)

Since Cairnies is a 5^th form only House, we do not have a Head of House or House Prefects in the same sense as the other College Houses.