Thursday 24 January 2008

1st November 2007

Congratulations to Alistair Paton in S1 and Connor McCallum in S2 who have won the Accelerated Reader of the Month for October for their respective year groups. Last months winners were Shannon Rodger 1B and Chelsea McLarty 2D. Keep up the good work!
Sci-Fun took place in the week beginning Monday 29 October. All the pupils who took part had great fun and cannot wait for next year’s event.
Preparation is underway for the Art department’s Silent Auction, which is due to take place on November 29th. Staff and students are busy creating their artwork for the auction.
The Ayrshire Schools Cross Country Championships took place on October 31st. Doon Academy pupils performed well in the races.
Doon Academy’s 1st year Boys football team played Cumnock Academy. The team lost narrowly in the first game of the season. The School Girls football team also played Cumnock.
To celebrate the European Day of Languages 2007, lots of events were organised at Doon Academy. S1 students took part in a Europe Quiz, devised by Mrs Bax, the School Librarian. They had to work together in teams to do research on one of the countries of Europe. They searched for information in books and online. Afterwards, they were given the task of compiling a Quiz about their chosen country for the other students to do. The results were collated and prizes were awarded to the Best Quiz Questions and the Best Quiz Answers. In the afternoon, S3 students took part in a fun European language quiz, and prizes were given to the winning teams.
Mrs Lake and Mrs Brotherwood from the Maths Department are busy organising the Shoebox Appeal. The boxes are ready for shipping next week. Well Done to all the staff and pupils who contributed to this worthwhile appeal.
The UCAS group had a very interesting and informative talk, from Strathclyde University’ s Imelda Devlin, on their personal statement for their UCAS application.

3rd October 2007

The Art department have been selected for the East Ayrshire “shooting Stars” project. Pupils will be working with the Colombian filmmaker Sergio Aliarez Uribe for a total of three months. Sergio will be based in the Doon Valley museum, and all pupils are looking forward to working with him.
The Art club will be running every Wednesday from 2.50pm until 4.25pm in Miss Fuller’s room. All budding artists are welcome!
All after school clubs are now up and running. On offer at the moment are Trampolining, Rugby, Boy’s and Girl’s football, Cricket, Music, and Puzzle Clubs and a wide variety of subject tutorials.
The group selected for the next Leadership Academy had their induction afternoon this week, and they have our best wishes for the course at Dalguise in Perthshire next week. They will be led by S4 Leadership Graduates Lee Orr and Ashley Thomson and Leadership teachers Mrs. McLay, Mr. McCrorie and Mr. Taylor.
S1 –S3 pupils celebrated National Poetry Day on Thursday 4th October by writing poems of the theme of “Dreams”. It can take hours to walk along the English corridor now, as all the poems are displayed on the walls.
Six of our Student Council representatives attended a conference in the Scottish Parliament on Drugs and Alcohol in 2025. They presented the views of young people on these issues, and looked at Government Policies and how public services are dealing with the problems in society surrounding these issues. Maybe we will get a brief report from them next week.
Pupils studying standard grade music attended the Glasgow Concert Hall for a recital from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Everyone had a fantastic time and look forward to the next concert.
Aimee McKnight won the International School Library Day logo competition.
The school photographer was busy snapping our new S1 last week, and up-dating the pics we have of S3 and S5 which are now two years old. Group photographs will be taken in November.
Past Papers for all subjects are available from the Maths department for £6.40 each. All order forms and money must be handed in to Mrs Lake before the October holiday.

1st October 2007

Accelerated Reader now has a Reader of the Month. For September the Readers are Chelsie McLarty in S2 and Shannon Rodger in S1. Well done girls!