Scottish Youth Parliament

Congratulations to 4th year pupil Lesley Baird who was recently elected to represent the Doon Valley area at the Scottish Youth Parliament. Well done Lesley we wish you every success in your post and hope this is the beginning of a budding career as a politician.

Alton Towers

There will be a trip to Alton Towers for S1 to S3 pupils on Wednesday 17th June. Please contact Ms. Fuller in the Art Department for more details.

Fire Outreach

S3 pupils Keiran Mullen, Jack White and Lee Miller completed their Fire Outreach training as part of the Leadership experiences. Well done boys!

Sailing trip

Mrs Bax and Mr Tomlinson will be accompanying five S2 boys and five S2 girls on the Ocean Youth Trust Scotland voyage from Largs to Oban. The group set sail on Monday as part of the Leadership Academy. Have a great trip everyone!

Citizenship programme

A new ten-week citizenship programme has begun for S2 pupils. The selected pupils will work after school on activities designed to provide a service to the community. The participants learn new skills and gain confidence in working as a team to benefit others. Good luck to the new team

Earth Day celebrations

As part of our Earth Day celebrations we were pleased to welcome Eco Drama Scotland to the school. S1 pupils participated in 'Professor Green's Eco Gadget Workshop' where they acted as Special Green Agents to explore ways in which they could lead greener lives. Pupils had the chance to see a boat running on candle wax and a remote control hydrogen powered car. Pupils then used drama and role-play to design an advert for each gadget. Everyone enjoyed the experience and proved to be excellent ambassadors for the environment. For more information go to Earth Day

Lightning Larry

Congratulations to the S1 and S2 pupils who performed their drama skit ‘Lightning Larry’ for the pupils and teachers of Dalmellington Primary School. The performance was a great success with some excellent singing and dancing in the show.

Writer of the Month

In the English Department there will be a new ‘Writer of the Month’ award with the winning work being displayed in the corridor. The theme for April will be focused on William Shakespeare. Mrs Brotherston is looking for suggestions for themes for the coming months.

FOCUS West

Welcome back to students from Glasgow School of Art FOCUS West project who are assisting senior pupils with their art and design work.S4-S6 pupils in Art are very busy preparing their portfolios of evidence for the examination board in preparation for their final art exam.

Match Baby Photo to Teacher competition

Well done to S2 pupils who raised money for our Malawi charity ‘Mary’s Meals’ by holding a ‘Match the Baby Photograph to the Teacher’ competition. Claire Nisbet was the winner.

Fishing and Bowling

The PE Department have started up links with local clubs including fishing and bowling. Pupils will be given the opportunity to extend their sporting prowess in these areas with local club members.

Leadership course

Congratulations to the twelve S3 pupils who took part in the Kilmarnock College Leadership Award programme. They participated in a range of workshops to develop their leadership skills, which included such activities as abseiling and drama. Dannie Ferrance said, ‘It was really good and I would love to do it again if I had the chance.’ Zoe Muller commented, ‘I really enjoyed it and learned a great deal about myself and my leadership skills.’

Bridges4Europe visit

The final project meeting of the Comenius ‘Bridges4Europe’ project will be held at Doon Academy during the week beginning 1st June. We look forward to welcoming teachers and students from our four partner countries: Bulgaria, Italy, Romania and Turkey.

Readers Cup Quizzes

Mrs Bax, our Librarian, organized the annual S1 and S2 Readers' Cup quizzes this week. The topics covered in the questions ranged from "Pink" and humour to thrillers, witches and wizards and animals. Both contests were keenly fought with the S1 competition ending in a tiebreak with 1A beating 1C. In the S2 competition Doon beat Raecar by one mark to win. Congratulations to both the winning teams.

PE Pupils of the Month

In PE the S1 pupils of the month are Raegan Heggie and Robbie Uriarte. Well done to both of them.

Badminton

The badminton club, held after school every Monday, has now started and all pupils are welcome to attend. A professional coach, who will help pupils to increase their skills, runs the club.

Mary's Meals slaves

Mrs. Stewart’s register class 1Z1 have been raising money for the charity Mary’s Meals in Malawi. The class decided that they would be ‘slaves to staff’ during their mentoring period. The pupils did filing, tidied classrooms and stamped books. The magnificent sum of £101.70 was raised. Thanks to all staff that participated and well done to the class for such an innovative idea to raise money.

Technical deadline

In Technical, Mr. Callaghan, requires all the course work to be completed this week for Graphic Communication and Craft and Design courses.

Leadership Course

As part of the school’s leadership campaign 12 3rd year pupils have attended Kilmarnock College’s leadership course. The group were really enthusiastic about the knowledge they gained and they really enjoyed the course.

Citizenship programme

S2 pupils in the Citizenship Programme have now completed their course. Three pupils, Craig Pettigrew, Scott Grozier and Connor Patterson have been invited to be mentors for the next session. Citizenship staff believes the boys will be positive influences and set an example of good practice to their younger peers.

Mardi Gras

The French Department celebrated ‘Mardi Gras’ by making pancakes with S2 and S4 pupils. S1 pupils had a ‘French Feast’ with delicacies from France. Pupils and staff really enjoyed this end of term activities.

Netball

Largs Academy netball teams took a trip to a very sunny Dalmellington and that sunshine continued in their netball playing.
Our S1 team took on the Largs A team who took a flying start getting 3 nets in the first 4 minutes. As usual, Claire Boyd and Lauren Shaw were fantastic defenders and managed to hold off several attacks from the Largs team. Unfortunately our centre court players struggled to get the ball to our shooters and it wasn’t long before the score line reached 8-0 in the second half. The Doon girls had a burst of energy near the end of the second half which prevented us finishing with no nets but unfortunately it was all just a little too late with Largs getting another goal in before the final whistle. Final score, 10-1.
Our senior girls were next to play and Largs extensive experience in the game shone through from the start. Ashley Thomson had a great game playing Centre and our stand in Goal Keeper; Kelly McKinstry showed true potential in this position. Unfortunately all our effort was not good enough against the Largs girls who didn’t allow any goals to be let in against their side. Well done to all Doon seniors who put in maximum effort but were beaten easily by a more mature team.