Primary CPD

Primary staff from Patna, St Xaviers, Damellington and Bellsbank took part in a textile painting course which was organised and delivered by Miss Fuller in the Art and Design department. Staff were able to experiment will fabric paint and come up with a unique t-shirt design based on the Scottish Dark Skies Observatory. Miss Fuller was delighted with the turnout of staff and the quality of work produced. Primary staff will now deliver this unit of work to their pupils.

The work produced will then be modelled at the primary 7 “Celebration of Success” day at Doon Academy in June.

East Ayrshire Conference

The school took part in an East Ayrshire conference which examined approaches and good practices related to children’s services. Mr MacKenzie and Mrs Hetherington, with Mrs McAvoy from Dalmellington Primary School and Mrs Hamilton from Social Work led a workshop on the changes we have made to our working with partners in Health, the Police, Social Work, Housing and others. It was also good to hear about work being done in other centres - Cumnock and St Joseph’s Academies and from the East Ayrshire Support Team.

Mentors in Violence Prevention

On the afternoon of 7th March the Mentors In Violence Prevention (MVP) Trainers are delivering a staff training session to outline the basic principles of the programme. MVP encourages people to consider the importance of working together to prevent violence, particularly against women.
The four main goals of the MVP programme are to:

• • Raise awareness about the level of verbal, emotional, physical and sexual abuse of women. 
• • Challenge thinking by countering mainstream messages about gender, sex and violence. 
• • Open dialogue by creating a safe environment for men and women to share their opinions and experiences. 
• • Inspire leadership by empowering participants with concrete options to effect change in their respective communities. 

 The MVP trainers are comprised of pupils, teachers and other staff members, and community and voluntary sector partners. In recent weeks we have been greatly encouraged by the willingness of our students to become MVPs. 15 girls and 10 boys volunteered following assemblies led by teacher, Mr Kerr. We have also had expressions of support from prominent local businesses which we will report on soon. We have been guided by Chief Inspector Graham Goulden of the Scottish Government’s Violence Reduction Unit. We have also had training from American experts in changing attitudes to what are acceptable or unacceptable behaviours in our society and in the world of new digital media.

Aspiring Principal Teacher

The aspiring Principal Teacher programme has now finished and congratulations to Shonagh Borthwick, Shona Elder, Fiona Ferrie, Justine Fuller, Kristine Gillespie, Martin Richardson, Mark Kerr and Ian Power for completing the course. Also, thank you to DHT Lyndsay McRoberts for her delivery of the course

SLF visits

Acting Depute Head Teacher Mrs Stewart visited the Scottish Learning Festival held at the S.E.C.C. At the festival there was a workshop on GLOW with an emphasis on the E-portfolios and the advantages for pupils. Also, Mrs Stewart attended the CfE session on Building the Senior Curriculum and how employers should have a pivotal role in delivery of CfE in the upper school. The new school inspections framework was also discussed with information on changes to the system. Mr Stewart will be updating staff on her findings at the next collegiate meeting. Mrs Bax, the School Librarian also visited SLF and attended sessions on Reading in Curriculum for Excellence, Planning interdisciplinary projects, and Literacy across learning at 3rd and 4th levels.

Seasons of Growth

Mr. Kelly, Mrs. McLay, Mrs Murray and Mrs Wood have all begun their Seasons for Growth training alongside colleagues from our learning partnership primary schools. The training is aimed at supporting young people who have been affected by change, loss or detachment in their lives.

Thank you to Michael Pratchett for his excellent delivery of the course.

Copenhagen visit

Mrs Bax, our librarian, has been lucky enough to be selected by Learning and Teaching Scotland to participate in a SCIPD visit to Copenhagen to study interdisciplinary learning in Danish schools. She will be away from 2nd to the 6th March. We hope that she will return full of good ideas for us to use.

Glow champions

Mrs Stewart and Mrs Bax recently attended Glow training at St Joseph’s Academy in Kilmarnock. Mrs Newall from the office has already received training to be an Administrator. The staff at Doon Academy will now be trained on how to use the system. Glow is an intranet for education, which it is hoped, will transform the way education is delivered in Scotland. Glow provides a safe environment for pupils and staff, and an area where personal programmes of work can be created, as well as resources shared throughout Scotland.

Staff Working Groups

The first staff after school collegiate time meeting was held and the focus for discussion was Working Groups. These groups are linked to the 5 main entitlement areas on the improvement plan, which are Raising Attainment, Wider Achievement, CPD, Parents and Enterprise. Staff selected which of the working groups they wished to serve on during this academic year.