Community Christmas Coffee Morning

The Supported Learning Centre are holding their annual community Christmas coffee morning on Friday 7th December between 10.00am and 12.30pm. There will be tea, coffee, home baking, a quiz, Christmas crafts for sale, guess the weight of the cake and a prize bingo. Everyone is welcome. We hope to see you there.

New sculpture

The Art Trail sculpture designed and built by Doon Academy pupils and local willow sculptor Geoff Forrest has now been installed on the Craigengillan Estate. The sculpture is an amazing piece of work and thank youto everyone who helped design and build this lasting exhibit.

Diamond Wood

Doon Academy will soon be involved in an exciting project to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Craigengillan Estate in Dalmellington has been chosen as one of sixty sites in the U.K where a ‘Diamond Wood’ will be planted. The project will be led by the Woodland Trust and will involve the planting of 60 acres of woodland. Pupils will be involved in the planting of the trees and the woodland will provide an outdoor learning environment for the school for many years to come.

Community Carol Service

 On Sunday 11 December Doon Academy pupils and staff attended the Community Carol Service at Dalmellington Church. Readings were given by S3 pupil Kirstie McCormick, S5pupil Nathan Gilmore and School Captain Ritchie Lindores. 

Thank you to the pupils for their willingness to be involved in the venture. Everyone had a wonderful time at the service.   

Litter picking

The school litter pickers were out and about in the community tidying up the public areas.

Community improvement logo

Pupils in the Art Department are designing a logo for the community improvement project. Pupils also gave their views on the strengths of our community and the areas that can be improved. The views of pupils and adults will help to shape the regeneration of our area over the next few years.

CLD video

Doon Academy and The Zone are showcased in a new video on the LTScotland website demonstrating the ways we are working together to make opportunites for pupils to learn outside school.
Here is the link to the video

S3 Peer Education

An S3 peer education group has been assembled with the help of Heather McCormick and Melissa McCulloch from community learning and development. The group will focus on developing a play/film based on important issues within the local community and present it to associated primary schools.

Willow Workshops

Local artist Geoff Forrest has been teaching pupils the art of willow weaving during workshops in the school. The pupils’ designs will be used as part of the ‘Art Trail’ to be established in Dalmellington.

Romania visit

During the October holiday week a team of twelve Doon Academy students, part of the Lazer Group from Bellsbank Church, visited Romania on a mission trip.
The team worked on projects with the Romanian based charity ‘The Smiles Foundation’. The group were involved in working on eleven of the nineteen projects that Smiles is currently developing in Romania. These activities included: working on a farm by cutting back hedges and painting pens; delivering aid to poor, deprived families: taking aid in the form of food, soap and sleeping bags to the homeless; visiting Tileagd school and village; delivering a container into Salard; visiting the emergency housing unit and helping at the crèche with children who need love and attention. Throughout the week the students were able to see ‘how the other half live’ and this proved to be an emotional journey for them. On return, the group hope to spread awareness about the Smiles Foundation and continue fund-raising in the school and the community to help to make a difference to the Romanian people.

BBC project

Doon Academy’s BBC School News Reporters have been selected by the BBC to be one of 10 schools in Scotland to work with the BBC on a Media Literacy/First Click project. The reporters will work with older family and community members to learn together whilst researching a topic of their choice. The participants will have access to BBC archives and the chosen topics may be commissioned by the BBC for broadcasting on television and radio.

ICT

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