Sir Tom Hunter Challenge

On Monday 17 June, 5 S4 pupils attended the Sir Tom Hunter Challenge at St Joseph’s Academy, Kilmarnock. Morgan Davies, Aaron Gilmore, Bethany McGhee, Elleis Peters and Carla Strachan accompanied Miss Borthwick and Mrs Allen to the annual event to pitch their business idea – MyCase, a customisable case for the iPhone– to Sir Tom Hunter and a panel of judges. It was a fierce competition and the team delivered a fantastic presentation. Well done to all involved!

Young Enterprise Ayrshire Finals

On Thursday 25 April, 4 senior pupils attended the Young Enterprise Ayrshire Area Finals at The Park Hotel, Kilmarnock. Halle Fitzsimmons, Kirsty McCormick, Dylan Thirtle and Mark McLean accompanied Mrs Allen and Mr Mackenzie to the event run by the Young Enterprise Ayrshire Area Board. The night was a great success and everyone enjoyed the opportunity of seeing 9 schools from Ayrshire competing in the Company Programme finals. This programme will run in Doon Academy from next year and the 4 budding entrepreneurs were inspired by the talent from Ayrshire, in particular, the winning team from Belmont Academy.
 

Christmas Market

Miss Borthwick’s master class held an enterprise marketplace in school. The stall boasted an excellent range of products that students had made. It was an excellent opportunity to get in some last minute Christmas shopping done!

Micro-Tyco Marketplace

On Wednesday 14th November, Doon Academy's Micro Tyco participants held a market place event. The pupils, who were given £1 to spend, came up with many stall ideas to turn their capital into cash for the Wild Hearts in Action charity. In the market place pupils from other classes were given the opportunity to attend the nail bar, pin the hat on Santa, guess the sweets in the jar and stock up on stationery supplies. The afternoon was a great success with one team raising £24 from an 80p investment! The challenge runs from 1st to the 30th of November. Good luck to our teams for the rest of the month.

Micro Tyco

Doon Academy is participating in the Micro-Tyco Challenge this year, run by the charity Wild Hearts In Action.  The participants are given £1 seed capital and their challenge is to make as much profit as possible between the 1st and 30th of November. All profits raised from the Micro Tyco challenge are donated to the Wild hearts In Action charity.

Pupils involved are those in The Miner's Lamp master class and a team of senior pupils: Frazer Buchanan, Lauren Shaw, Sophie Dobbie, Fiona Kennedy and Peter Featherstonehaugh. 

Good Luck to all our budding entrepreneurs; let's hope they raise lots of money!

Enterprise display

An Enterprise display cabinet containing items that students have made is situated in the school reception. Some of the items include jewellery, key rings, candles and photographs.

Fashion Show

The school will be hosting a fashion show on the 20^th of June 2013 where the pupils will display their unique fashion and jewellery designs.

Warning May Contain Losses

All S2 pupils have been working on the Warning May Contain Losses project that has been run between the Business Education & ICT Dept. and Home Economics. The pupils’ challenge was to start-up a company to design and sell a chocolate bar across the school. Each group of 4-5 pupils had to investigate the market to find out about the products available; then discover what influences what we buy and why; design an advertising poster and wrapper for the product; and prepare a PowerPoint presentation. The class winners presented their product to Mr MacKenzie, Mrs Riggins and Miss Borthwick.

The overall winning product was ‘Choco Madness’ designed by Charelle Boyce, Kieran Madden, Morgan Davis and Ryan Crawford. The Choco Madness bar will be available in the school canteen for all to buy from Tuesday 8th May. Congratulations to the winning team and to everyone who took part.

Plants for sale

As part of the BESC project S1 -S3 Biology students and the Science Club masterclass are going into business. They bought gardening supplies and, taking advantage of the sunny weather, have created a range of products.

For sale we have: Tomato, Sweet pepper and chilli plants - £1.50 each  Herb Garden window boxes containing 3 herbs- £ 12; Colourful planters - £15; and Hanging baskets - £15.

These are on sale in school. Anyone wishing to purchase these should contact Miss Borthwick on 01290550521

Fairtrade Fortnight

Thank you to Mrs Elder and her Higher Geography pupils who raised £196 during Fairtrade Fortnight by selling craft items and holding a Fairtrade tuck shop.

Willow Sculpture

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 completed and everyone is looking forward to the unveiling of the completed piece.

BESC launch

On Wednesday 29th February Doon Academy launched its Business Enterprise Skills Centre (BESC). Councillors and invited guests were treated to an overview of our Leadership course and the Fashion and Textile master class by Mr Richardson and Miss Fuller. It was then over to School Captain, Connar McCallum, who got the audience, motivated with some leadership games. The guests took part in some "speed dating"; visiting various groups of pupils who discussed Enterprise activities they had undertaken. Mrs Gillespie and her team then served canapés and cakes to finish. The BESC centre will allow Doon Academy to give our pupils many new and exciting opportunities in Art, Technical and Leadership. We are also planning projects which well develop our pupils’ skills for work.

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.

Tim Hunter Challenge

Doon Academy's budding entrepreneurs Frazer Buchanan, Paige McMahon and Kirsty McCormick competed in the Tom Hunter Challenge on Wednesday 18th January at East Ayrshire Council Chambers.

Their task was to present a business idea to a group of business leaders and pupils from other schools, in East Ayrshire, in order to win the top prize of £5,000.

The group presented their idea "The Outward Pioneer" a walking holiday company based at Craigengillan Estate, and achieved a very respectable third place in the competition.

Their hard work and enthusiasm paid off, congratulations!

School Calendars

Doon Academy has produced two calendars containing pictures, many of the local countryside, taken by the Higher Photography students.
These are on sale in many of the local shops in Dalmellington and at school.
The cost of the calendar is £3.

School Calendars on sale

Doon Academy has produced two calendars containing pictures, many of the local countryside, taken by the Higher Photography students. These are on sale in many of the local shops in Dalmellington and at school. The cost of the calendar is £5.

Business start-up day

6 senior pupils attended the Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust start-up day at the Park Hotel in Kilmarnock. The pupils undertook workshops and gained valuable skills that will help them to start-up their own business in the future.

Music CD available

 The Young Musician of the Year 2011 CD is now on sale from the school office. The cost is £7 for one or 3 for £20. This wonderful CD will make an ideal Christmas present for all music lovers.

Doon on URTV

Doon Academy has once again hit the small screen. On Wednesday 23rd November film crew from URTV, an internet based community news channel, filmed the Craft master class and Miss Borthwick to find out more information about our gift shop project “The Miner’s Lamp”.

Thanks to Miss Fuller for letting us use her classroom as a colourful and exciting backdrop and to the pupils of the master class who were great ambassadors for Doon. It can be viewed at http://ayrshire.urtv.co.uk/stories/1145-doon-academy-ventures-into-business

Pupil Enterprise Team

Elaine Stewart, Manager of the Zone, and Miss Borthwick conducted interviews for the Pupil Enterprise Team. The Enterprise Team will be involved in the running of the gift shop;"The Miner's Lamp" managing stock, organising events and promoting the brand. All candidates performed well. The chosen team is Paige McMahon, Frazer Buchanan, Naomi Allan, Kirsty McCormick, Nicky Fairbairn, Nathan Gilmore, Kayleigh Boyd; and Halle Fitzsimmons. Congratulations to them all.