TCSoA School Newsletter December 2017 Newsletter | Page 7

Falconry Trip
(By Jamie S, Lee M, Callum W, Ryan M, James M, Damian O)
On Tuesday 28 November, Miss Crook’s S4 English class went to the Scottish School of
Falconry at Gleneagles to learn about the history of falconry and to have a chance to fly
a Harris hawk. We had been studying the play based on the novel “Kes” by Barry Hines
and this visit really made the play come to life.
We met Stuart Lowe who introduced himself and the first bird, the peregrine falcon. We
were amazed to learn that this relatively small bird is probably the best hunter in the
world and can reach a speed of 240 mph and can kill a small deer. Next we were
introduced to Fatti the golden eagle who has a wing span of seven feet. She was
powerful enough to crush a human skull and when Stuart took off her hood we could see
how beautiful she was. After that, Stuart brought out
Margot a Harris hawk; she is one of the best birds for
training beginners in falconry as she was really calm,
passive and tame.
Stuart then got us to put on leather gloves called
gauntlets. It was amazing how the bird just glided
away and then when it came it back it came straight
to your hand where it got its reward – a nice piece of
raw meat!
After everyone had had a couple of shots, Stuart
showed us how you’d hunt with a hawk.
Stuart told us about lots of expressions or idioms we get from falconry because this is a
method of hunting that’s been going on for thousands of years. A couple of our
favourites were:
At the end of your tether - A tether is another word for the string tied to a falcon to stop
it flying away. This phrase comes from the action of a bird, typically a young, untrained
falcon, who bates from his perch. Being at the end of your tether, means being a bit
frustrated.
Under the thumb - A falconer will hold the bird’s jesses under the thumb to prevent it
from flying away. This has come to mean having someone under your control.
This trip gave us the experience we had only read about up until then and it was a great
way to develop our understanding of the difficulties of training a hawk and how much
we should admire Billy Casper in the play.
Christmas Cafe
A huge Thank You to all pupils, parents, staff and local community who supported the
joint Parent Council and Primary Christmas Café and sale event in school on Saturday
2 December. A total of £2,911.29 was raised which will all go to the purchase of Primary
resources: The Parent Council took in £784.45 for their Christmas café £2,126.84 was
raised by Primary classes for their table top sale in the Assembly Hall, which includes
£247 raised from the Christmas raffle. Well done to all!
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