Mardi Gras Celebration

On Wednesday 9th May, S1 pupils celebrated their Curriculum for Excellence Mardi Gras project with a festival of fun and crêpes tasting!

Pupils in the French classes had been busy researching how Mardi Gras is celebrated in France and around the world, and produced some excellent PowerPoint presentations for the festival.

In Art, pupils designed and made vibrant Mardi Gras masks to wear for the festival parade.

The King and Queen of Mardi Gras were Liam Elder and Shannon Carrick.

Pupils in Home Economics made some delicious crêpes for everyone to enjoy. One of the many highlights was the lively dance which P.E. teacher Mrs Ferrie taught pupils and teachers to do on the day.

Rapid Response Engineering challenge

Pupils and staff were delighted to welcome to the school 2 engineers from Institution of Civil Engineers in Scotland who gave a talk to S2 about what civil engineers do and introduced the Rapid Response Engineering Challenge. S2 have been busy all week on project work relating to the challenge.

P7 Day

The ‘Burns by Bonnie Doon’/P7 Curriculum for Excellence Day was held on Thursday 26th May and was a tremendous success. P7 pupils from our Learning Partnership primary schools: Bellsbank, Dalmellington, Dalrymple, Patna and Littlemill took part in a round robin of 6 workshops. At the Doon Valley Museum the P7s had a workshop on the life and works of Robert Burns with Mr. Wilson and made willow trees and fishes with local artist Geoff Forrest assisted by Ms. Fuller and S1/2 pupils. Back at Doon Academy the P7s had workshops in ICT with Mr. Power, Physics with Mr. Richardson, Maths with Ms. McClue and Cake Decoration with Mrs. Cumming. Everyone really enjoyed their day. Thank you to Mrs. McRoberts and Mrs. Dorans for organising the event and to all staff and pupils who took part.

Rapid Response Engineering Challenge

During the week of the 16th to 20th May S2 pupils will be involved in the Rapid Response Engineering Challenge.

In the Science department the lessons will be focussed on the challenges of water purification.

Mardi Gras Celebrations

S1 pupils at Doon Academy celebrated Mardi Gras (Shrove Tuesday) by having a big festival of fun, games and dance! An interdisciplinary project involving the departments of Modern Languages, Art, Music, Home Economics and P.E took place over several weeks. In Modern Languages, pupils researched the history of Mardi Gras around the world and made PowerPoint presentations and posters for the festival. In Art, pupils made wonderful masks, which they wore in the Mardi Gras parade at the festival. The two pupils with the best masks were crowned King and Queen of the festival. Wendy Roulstone was voted as Queen and Kieran Madden as King. In Music pupils learned to play some Mardi Gras style instruments to accompany a musical item, which they performed on the day. In H.E. pupils made French crêpes which were enjoyed by all and our P.E. teacher taught everyone a funky salsa dance! The school librarian and senior pupils recorded the event. The school canteen prepared a fabulous Mardi Gras lunch for the whole school, which was very well received by all. This event was part of the new Curriculum for Excellence projects for S1 pupils and will hopefully be repeated again next year! As the Mardi Gras slogan says - "Let the good times roll" at Doon Academy.

RREC video

This is a short video of S2 pupils participating in the Rapid Response Engineering Challenge in May 2010.

Ayrshire Leader Fund

Senior pupils have been discussing, with Sarah Baird from the Ayrshire Leader Fund, how to develop a number of exciting ideas relating to health, the arts and astronomy. The school staff and pupils are looking forward to seeing how these ideas can be embedded into the curriculum.

Festival of Learning

As part of the East Ayrshire Curriculum for Excellence programme. David Burrell, Jack White and Cameron McCrorie will be representing the School – College Partnership at the Festival of Learning in the Cumnock Town Hall.

Curriculum for Excellence meeting

College lecturers from Doon Academy’s college partnership, and a group of senior pupils will represent the school at a Curriculum for Excellence event for parents on the 14th November. The group will explain how the school has developed vocational education over the last few years.

Literacy Across Learning

Doon Academy's teachers have scheduled a meeting with Literacy Across Learning Working Party (LALWP) to discuss the development of a booklet of literature activities for use in every subject. This will increase students' literacy skills through means of fun tasks and games.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.