Activate Success

Pupils from Doon Academy who took part in the Activate Programme from the summer of this year attended the Odeon Cinema in Kilmarnock on Friday 12 December for a Celebration of Success. The programme aims to help young people make the transition from school to further education, training or employment and covers aspects such a teambuilding, communication, job search, employability skills and career exploration. During the morning on Friday they heard a presentation from Mark Beaumont who has recently broke the Guinness World record for cycling around the world. Mark covered 18,297 miles in just 194 days smashing 81 days off the record. His motivational talk was extremely inspiring and this was a good opportunity to bring to life some of the important aspects of the Activate programme. Pupils could learn first hand from someone who had set goals and worked extremely hard to achieve his target.

ICT

In ICT 1st year pupils are busy compiling their presentations on Past and Present Dalmellington.

Maths Prelims

In January, S5/6 and S3 Mathematics pupils will be sitting their Higher Still prelims.

Body Attack Back

After the Christmas holidays the Body Attack class will resume for pupils, staff and parents. This will be perfect for shedding the christmas pounds!

Art Exhibition Opening

The opening of the Doon Academy Art Exhibition in the Doon Valley Museum was a great success. The Exhibition will be on display in the Museum until the end of January. Also in Art, 3 Doon Academy Pupils artwork has been chosen for the East Ayrshire Calendar for 2009. The three pupils are, Daniel Whiteford, Reese Wigglesworth, and Natasha Allison. Congratulations to them all for their excellent artwork.

Burns Competition Winners

Well Done to all the participants in the S1/2 Burns Recitation competition. The judges, Dr. Morrall, Mrs. Skilling and Lauren Mitchell were impressed with the high standard of entries. Congratulations to runner-up Fiona Kennedy and the winner Lauren Shaw.

Crime posters

Congratulations to the winning maths group, Cameron Smith, William Paton, Lauren Young and Jordan Berretti, for their poster analysing the crime statistics in the local area. PC Poulter judged the poster competition.

FOCUS

Pupils from S3 to S6 undertook various Campus Days as part of the FOCUS West project. Everyone had very interesting and informative days finding out about courses and life as a student.

Netball win!

Well done to our junior netball team who won their first game. We all wish them every success in the future.

Motor Vehicle News

As the festive season approaches the students of the Doon Academy and Kilmarnock College Motor Vehicle and Fabrication Department have completed their 6 months projects. They now have a sectioned single point injection, which has been completely overhauled by the students and is now a priceless teaching aid. Finally, the quad bikes rewired and almost back to their original build. The team go-cart engine has now been remounted, tested and will hopefully be in full working order early in the New Year. These projects would not be possible without the assistance of college lecturers Billy Tomlinson and Tom Bone who have a huge input, out with school time, preparing for these tasks.

BBC mentor visit

Doon Academy’s BBC School News Reporters were very pleased that their mentor, BBC Sports editor Tom Connor, visited the school to check on their progress. Whilst he was here he presented Lauren Young with her prize for winning the Accelerated Reader “Wall of 100%” prize draw. Everyone who gains 100% in a quiz receives a ticket for the draw. Many thanks to Mr. Connor and congratulations to Lauren.

Christmas lunch

The school’s catering department prepared a wonderful Christmas Lunch. Everyone enjoyed a delicious meal consisting of a choice of starters, steak pie or traditional turkey with all the trimmings followed by Christmas tree ice cream and Christmas pies. There was also homemade ginger wine and shortbread. Our grateful thanks to the staff in the cafeteria for all their hard work in preparing and serving this scrumptious celebratory meal.

Craigengillan visit

In PE, S1 pupils, Varri Murdoch and Michael Harvey gained awards for Pupils of the Month for November. They have shown to be Confident Individuals, Responsible Citizens, Successful Learners and Effective Contributors during their lessons. Also, the P.E. Department held their ACE Rich Task Day on Monday 8th December. All S1 pupils visited the Craigengillan Estate. Girls had a go at grooming the horses and mucking out the Stables. The boys had a go at fishing, completing tasks such as fly tying, fly casting, beach casting and spinning. Pupils spent all morning at Craigengillan and had a wonderful time. Many thanks to Craigengillan staff for their time.

Goodbye to students

Doon Academy’s staff and pupils bid a fond farewell to our student teachers, Ross Nisbet in English, Kirsty Maxwell in Biology and Louise Davidson in Art. We have enjoyed the students input into the teaching curriculum of the school and we wish them the very best of luck for the future.

Readers' Cup quiz

The first round of the Readers Cup quiz will be taking place in school in the run up to Christmas. Everyone in S1/2 will get a chance to have a go at this fun quiz with prizes. Winners will also have the opportunity to represent their clan in the next round.

New Teacher

We welcome new member of staff Mrs Wendy McKenzie, previously of Kilmarnock Academy, who will be job sharing as PT in Modern Languages.

Coffee Morning

The Supported Learning Centre, for their rich task, held a successful coffee morning for the school and the local community. There was a raffle for a Christmas hamper, guess the weight of the cake and various items for sale. The ASDAN group also made goods, which they sold.

Citizenship programme

9 S2 pupils have successfully completed the After School Citizenship Programme. The Pupils took part in engineering activities with lecturers from Kilmarnock College; they prepared healthy fruit smoothies and they took part in litter pick-ups in the local community. There will be a graduation, which will be attended by the pupils, family members and teaching staff. We congratulate the pupils who successfully completed the 10-week programme.

Army in

The Army visited the school for a training session with pupils from the Duke of Edinburgh Award Group.

Celebration of Success

Careers Activate Group will attend their Celebration of Success event at the Odeon Cinema, Kilmarnock. Mark Beaumont, Guinness world record holder for cycling the world will be joining them for the day to offer some words of inspiration.

Tree of Hope

The Tree of Hope outside the Dalmellington area centre is now adorned with messages from the community. The messages are all wishes and hopes for the future. This was organised by the S1 PSE rich task group.

BP Carbon Challenge Roadshow

Pupils in Doon Academy were delighted to receive a visit from the BP Carbon Challenge Roadshow. The pupils worked in teams to examine a school's carbon footprint and learn about carbon reduction though a variety of activities. The S1s had a very interesting and informative morning and will be implementing what they learned in conjunction with the school’s Eco-code.

Community tasks

Doon Academy S1 classes will all be involved in a curriculum for excellence cross-curricular rich task based around our local community. In French pupils will be interviewing people in the community and then translating their replies into French. The Supported Learning Centre is hosting a community coffee morning. For personal and social education pupils are composing messages of hope to be displayed throughout the community. In Science for their community rich task, S1 Pupils will be presenting a persuasive argument to other Doon Academy pupils on the conservation of the Artic Charr. This is a type of Salmon, which is found in Loch Doon. Good Luck to all the participants with their tasks.

Art Exhibition

On Thursday 11th December the Art Department are opening their Art Exhibition in the Doon Valley Museum in Dalmellington. This is to show the artwork, which Doon pupils have been working on this year. There will be refreshments and a raffle. Parents, pupils and the local community are all invited to attend. Also in Art pupils are busy making the hall decorations for the Christmas Dance.

Netball match

Our junior and senior netball teams took a Christmas trip to another seaside town in North Ayrshire. After an eventful journey to Largs, that included a late bus and witnessing an overturned lorry, we started our game at 5pm! Our junior team played well against Largs’ 1st team but were unable to stop their shooters scoring 9 nets. Thanks go to Lauren Shaw and Claire Boyd in defence, because without them our deficit would have been much more! The seniors played next and well done to those in the team who did not stop trying even when the score to Largs went into double figures! Special mention goes to Melissa Napier who kept up team morale and was awarded Player of the Match. Well Done girls.

New Car

Doon Academy has taken delivery of a Vauxhall Vectra 1.8 16 valve petrol estate from Kilmarnock College. The school is delighted to announce that a two-poster lift will be installed before Christmas allowing the students to be involved with basic servicing tasks simulated upon the donated vehicle. It is anticipated by June 2009 that the school and college partnership will be able to offer a formal qualification in engineering disciplines.

Maths

In the Maths Department S1 pupils were investigating famous mathematicians from the past. They presented their findings to DHTs Mr. Reid and Mr. Mackenzie.