Y Dance Showcase

On Saturday 11th February 5 Doon Academy pupils attended Y Dance’s annual showcase at The Magnum Leisure Centre, Irvine.

Lisa McTaggart, Paige Collins, Fiona Kennedy, Alana Murray and Cheryl Allison performed two fantastic dance routines to a packed auditorium and delighted the audience with dances to ‘Black and Gold’ and ‘Beautiful Monster’. The girls have been working hard since October and it finally paid off as both dances received a massive cheer from those watching.



The day began at 11.30 with a warm up for the 100 girls involved and then the groups rehearsing on stage. They then went on to have a full rehearsal with schools from Ayrshire and Glasgow, all working out where they had to be with their routines. The show finally started at 7.30pm with relatives and friends amongst the audience to watch the girls. All groups performed brilliantly with Doon showcasing particularly well. The show finished with a mass finale number to ‘I’ve Had the Time of my Life’ which looked fantastic as all 100 girls moved in unison.

The Doon girls left The Magnum with tired legs but big smiles as all had enjoyed an unforgettable day. Well done to those involved- wear your new Y Dance t-shirts with pride!

SLC Burns Supper

The SLC hosted their annual Burns Supper recently and for the first time invitations were extended to parents and friends of the SLC pupils. This resulted in a very well attended Supper and much planning and preparation by Mrs Shaw. As this was Mrs Shaw’s last Burns Supper before her retirement she ensured that it was an event to remember. The Burns Supper was expertly compared by Robbie Drynan with recitals of To a Mouse and a good blast at the Jeely Piece song and Flower of Scotland. It was great to see the growing confidence of the pupils during their recitals and everyone made all our guests feel very welcome.

Charity fundraising

The non-uniform day organised by S5 pupils raised the fantastic sum of £113 donated to children’s cancer charity CLIC Sargent Scotland. Well done S5

Geography Development Day

On the in-service day Geography teacher, Mrs Elder, hosted a development day for East Ayrshire’s geography teachers. At the event the teachers discussed curricular planning for the new S3 courses.

S2 Parents evening

Our S2 parents evening took place on Wednesday 22^nd February. This was an important event as pupils prepare to make their option choices for our new S3 Curriculum for Excellence courses. For more information on Cufficulum for Excellence click here.

Barry Hutchison Visit

As part of the East Ayrshire School Librarians' Spring Read programme Doon Academy pupils were delighted to welcome to the school the author of the ‘Invisible Fiends’ books, Barry Hutchinson. Mr. Hutchinson talked to S1 pupils from Doon and Auchinleck Academy for nearly an hour about his books especially the Invisible Fiends series and answered a few questions at the end. He had everyone in stitches laughing at his stories and pupils were horrified at the horrid bits!

Art Work

In the Art Department,over the past 10 months, pupils have been working with local willow sculptor Geoff Forrest on a new design. The large sculpture based on pupils’ ideas is now nearing completion and everyone is looking forward to the unveiling of the completed piece.

Burns Supper 2012

Doon Academy’s annual Burns Supper was a great success and everyone really enjoyed a really splendid evening. The haggis was piped in by our own school piper S4 pupil Frazer Buchanan and ably addressed by President of our Burns Club S4 pupil Robbie Uriarte.

Head Teacher John MacKenzie said the Selkirk Grace before junior pupils superbly served the delicious meal excellently prepared by Rena Riggans and her team. School captain Ritchie Lindores gave an interesting and informative Immortal Memory of the Bard. Chloe Chalmers, our Burns finalist gave an excellent recitation of an extract from Tam O’Shanter.

Our Ayrshire Association of Schools Instrumental winner Kirsty McCormick livened up the proceedings with a melody of Scottish tunes. Robbie Uriarte followed with a witty Toast to the Lasses with a humorous reply by Hazel Limond. School Captain Lauren Mitchell presented a moving and heartfelt Toast to the School.

The entertainment was outstanding with some stirring Scottish tunes from Fiona Kennedy on her cornet and Frazer Buchanan on the bagpipes. Lauren Young gave a haunting rendition of Ye Banks and Braes. The Doon Dancers, choreographed by Mrs Ferrie, looked beautiful and gave a superb display of Scottish Traditional Dancing.

The evening would not be complete without a recitation from teacher Bryce Wilson who mesmerised the company with his rendition of Tam O’Shanter.

Guest speaker Mr Bill Duncan, President of Alloway Burns Club, gave the toast on behalf of the guests and spoke about the continuing role of the school and our Burns Club on promoting the work of Burns.

Chairperson for the evening was S6 pupil Ryan McKnight who did a terrific job in keeping everyone in order and making the evening run smoothly.

Thank you to our honoured guests, Graham Short Director of Education and Social Services, Councillor Dinwoodie, Councillor Pirie and Dr. Morrall, President of Ayr Burns Club.

Congratulations and well done to all our performers on the evening. A great time was had by all.

S2 Parents Evening

The S2 Parents Evening will be held on Wednesday 22^nd February at 5.30pm to 7.30pm. This is an important time for our S2 pupils as they are making their 3^rd year option choices. It would be great to meet as many parents as possible to discuss their child’s progress and future options. We look forward to seeing you all.

Galaxy of Greatness

The Wider Achievement Group is launching a ‘Galaxy of Greatness’ on Friday 24^th February. This involves highlighting pupil’s achievements inside and out of school so they may be recognised for their accomplishments.

Business Education Skills Base

Our new Business Education Skills Base is being refurbished.
It’s been carpeted and John McBride has made a great job of the painting of the walls and ceiling. Miss. Borthwick and Mr. Richardson are busy preparing for the launch of the Business Enterprise Skills Centre on the 29^th February.
The centre will include state of the art equipment and will be the home of our school business The Miner’s Lamp.

Campus Day in Kilmarnock

27 S3 pupils attended a FOCUS West FE Campus Day at Kilmarnock College.

The pupils took part in various team-building, leadership and college information activities. They also undertook a workshop in one of the following disciplines: motor vehicle, engineering, sports, hairdressing and beauty. Everyone really enjoyed their campus day.

Their next FOCUS activity will be a HE Campus Day at the University of Strathclyde.

Giant Heptathlon

S1/2 pupils will be taking part in the East Ayrshire Giant Heptathlon to be held at Stewarton Academy. Pupils will undertake a series of sporting challenges. Good luck everyone.

Peer Education Project

Together with Auchinleck Academy, 12 S6 pupils will be taking part in a Peer Education Project where they will receive 2 days training on drug and alcohol misuse. The seniors will then deliver the lesson to S1 pupils and Dalmellington P7s.
This course will go towards the S6's Higher Leadership practice.

Spring Spectacular Concert

Doon Academy pupils are busy rehearsing for the East Ayrshire Schools Spring Spectacular Concert.

Well done to Annabel McTaggart who has been selected as first clarinet and Fiona Kennedy, first cornet, in the concert band.

Pupils selected for the choir are Leigh Boyce, Becky Inglis, Nicole Millar, Shania Brown, Paige McMahon, Jonathan Milligan, Alex Dearie, Bethany McGhee, Cheryl Allison and Courtney Cassells. The concert will take place on Wednesday 21^st March at 7pm in the Grand Hall, Kilmarnock.

Reading Week

Our latest Reading Week was a great success with pupils and staff reading for enjoyment the first 20 minutes of the day.
Our focus this time was on a Reading Quote competition. Pupils were asked to choose a quotation and design an appropriate illustration.

 The winner was Tommy Campbell in S3 with his picture of "A book is like a garden carried in a pocket" which is a Chinese proverb. Runner-up in the competition was S2 pupil Jordan Kean. Congratulations to them and well done to everyone who took part.

Health4Life visit to Portugal

As part of our Comenius Health4Life Project, Mrs Bax, Ms. Miller and pupils Shannon Renwick and Lauren Kennedy will be visiting Portugal, in March, for a project meeting. They will be meeting staff and pupils from our partner schools in Belgium, Greece, Poland, Portugal and Spain. 

Dark Skies Observatory

Head Teacher Mr. MacKenzie together with the school’s junior captains and members of the astronomy masterclass attended the ground breaking ceremony, on Friday 27^th January, for the new Dark Skies observatory at Craigengillan Estate.

The event was also attended by council dignitaries and MSP Fergus Ewing, Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Energy. Despite heavy snow falls the first spade was struck and now the building work may begin.

Stock Exchange Challenge

Five pupils from S3, Kirsty McCormick, Rachel Boyce, Stephanie Carrick, Halle Fitzsimmons and Patrick Gilmore attended the Stock Market Challenge competition in the Mitchell Library, Glasgow. 
Pupils were accompanied by Mrs Stewart, Principal Teacher of Business Education and IT. 

The challenge allowed pupils to experience what life is like in the Stock Exchange and gave them an understanding of the effect of supply and demand on share prices.  Students also learned how events in the news and people behaviour can affect the confidence of investors and determine share and currency prices.  During the day pupils were involved in problem solving, risk assessment management and using their Business and Maths skills.  To be successful they had to work under pressure, as part of a team and rely on good communication skills. 

The pupils thoroughly enjoyed the event and above all had 'great fun' in their learning.

Burns' Wreath Laying

 

S2 pupils Carla  and Sarah  represented Doon Academy’s Burns Club and laid a wreath at the Burns statue in Ayr to celebrate the bard’s birthday.

Jazz Awards

On Wednesday 25^th January, the following girls sat their Intermediate 2 Jazz module: Lisa McTaggart; Tami McLelland; Paige Collins; Fiona Kennedy; and Alana Murray.

All girls showed outstanding individual performances resulting in all girls passing. The girls had to perform several warm ups as a group and then show an individual jazz piece.

The independent adjudicator told the girls that it was the highest standard of performance she had seen from any of the schools she has visited.

Well done to everyone for all their hard work and a special mention to Alana Murray who in second year has now received an Intermediate 2 award.

Literacy Wall

The Music and Social Subjects departments are February's contributors to the Literacy Wall.

In Music S2 pupils worked in groups of four or five researching a genre of music and producing an information poster.

In Social Subjects S1 pupils learned about local government and wrote letters of complaint. In S2 pupils wrote pieces discussing the Holocaust. Another S2 group studied Mary Queen of Scots and wrote murder reports about Darnley. 

The best pieces of work were written by: Chole Chalmers, Wendy Roulstone, Fallan Smith, Chole Halliday, Amy Collins, Rebekah Copeland and Katie Burrell. Congratulations to them!

Day of problems

Last week the school suffered a series of unfortunate problems when part of the school had to be closed, on Thursday, due to water in the corridor. Whilst this was being sorted there was further flooding to a large section of the building and the school had to be closed, to S1 to S3 pupils. Senior pupils who were preparing for their prelim examinations stayed in the school until lunchtime when we were hit by a power cut and a heavy fall of snow. We are grateful to pupils, parents and staff for helping us to manage our difficulties.

Thanks also to the East Ayrshire council workers who repaired the problems.