Sports Afternoon

On the 12th Of July the school held its annual inter-house games afternoon. The pupils of the school competed in a variety of sports to win points for their house. The afternoon was a great success with all pupils thoroughly enjoying themselves and all sports were played fairly yet competitively. As the results from each event were coming in it was clear it was going to be a very close contest, with the winners only being confirmed after the football had been completed. The eventual winners were Brandan house however, well done to all who participated in the afternoon making it a fantastic time for both staff and pupils.

Sporting Stars

Ryan McCreath in S2 and Rory Parker in S3 have both been selected to play for the Ayrshire U-14 Cricket Team. Ryan presently plays for Prestwick CC.

Mark McAllister in S1 is currently the European Under 18s Pool champion.
Congratulations and well done!

Badminton Tournament

Before Christmas, the two Higher PE classes at Doon Academy came together to play a doubles tournament against each other. With all pupils having performed to a very high standard during assessments, it was going to be a close tournament from the start. The Main Court hosted Connor Strang & Dylan Thirtle against Ryan Brown & Michael Harvey. Points were shared throughout the game with Ryan and Michael finally clinching the win in the last few seconds of the game. On the other courts it concluded with a victory to class 5B. The second round saw a very close game between Robbie Ogilvie & Andrew Paton against Gemma Hughes & Lyle Wares. Final score 21-19 to Gemma and Lyle. On the second court at the same time, the win went to the 5E class when Varri Murdoch & Dylan Thirtle beat Lauren Toner & Ryan Brown. Round 3 saw Bradley Kirkwood & Michael Harvey secure a win for 5B against Derek Brown & Robbie Ogilvie. Winning 21-17 it looked good for 5B going into the final round but 5E were about to make a comeback. In the fourth and final round, Dylan Thirtle and Andrew Paton beat Lyle Wares and Michael Harvey 21-18 and Varri Murdoch & Derek Brown were victorious against Lauren Toner and Gemma Hughes. Because of the two 5E wins, the scores had to be counted carefully and in the final minute the results came back showing that 5B had won the tournament 7-5. Well done to everyone involved including Mr McEnea who alongside Mrs Ferrie, Mr McCrorie and Mr Kelly umpired the games. A high standard of badminton was witnessed by all on the afternoon tournament. Keep up the good work!

British show jumping – South West Junior Academy

S1 student Grant Smith has been horse riding for three years and show jumping for one year with his pony called George who is an Appaloosa gelding. He jumps between 70cm and 9cm jumps and has won 6 trophies and over 290 rosettes. Well done Grant and George!

Netball News

On Monday 12th November, Doon Academy’s S1/2 netball team left a blustery Dalmellington and headed for Kilmarnock to play Loudon Academy. This was the first game of the season for the girls and was made more exciting by the fact it was away from home.
The game started fiercely with Loudon gaining a four point advantage. Lori McLarty made heads go up as she scored from the circle line taking the game to 4-1. Loudon scored another point but thanks to Macey Biggar and Brooke Welsh helping get the ball to the Doon circle, Chloe Hainey and Lori McLarty were able to score another three points.
Going into the second half, the score remained at 5-4 to Loudon. Katie Johnstone stayed in at Goal Keeper but after an energetic and successful first half, Olivia McCutheon was replaced by Sophie Paulin as Goal Defence. Melanie Connell, Alison McCann and Brooke Paulin took to centre court and soon the ball was quickly getting to Doon’s net.

The score evened out at 5-5 one minute into the second half and from there on in both teams scored one after the next. The final score ended as 9-9 and everyone involved deserves praise for the maximum effort put into the game.

Special recognition goes to Chloe Hainey who was awarded Player of the Match.

Sports Ambassadors Trip

On Wednesday 10th October Paige McMahon and Raegan Heggie visited The Park Hotel in Kilmarnock to represent Doon Academy at the annual Sports Ambassadors Conference. At the conference the girls interacted with schools from Ayrshire and Glasgow and came up with plans as to how they were going to promote healthy lifestyles in their communities. The day was made extra special due to the fact the got to make several Para-Olympians including Neil Fachie who won silver and gold for stage sprinting and time trials in the cycling events in London this year. The day was extremely busy but very rewarding and gave the girls renewed energy to continue with their work in the Doon Valley.

London Paralympics

The four student sports ambassadors were taken to visit the Paralympics stadium in London. The ambassadors, Nathan Gilmore, Dillan Dunn, Paige McMahon and Raegan Heggie, along with P.E. teacher Mr McCrorie and Nicola McCormack had a tour of the athletic stadium, and saw the sights of London.

Rugby trip

40 pupils from Dalmellington Primary and Doon Academy attended the Scotland v France rugby match. Everyone had a fantastic day despite the disappointing final score..

Giant Heptathlon

S1/2 pupils will be taking part in the East Ayrshire Giant Heptathlon to be held at Stewarton Academy. Pupils will undertake a series of sporting challenges. Good luck everyone.

Basketball tournament

 The Young Ambassadors are hosting a basketball tournament for S1 pupils.

Primary Sports Event

Congratulations to Doon Academy’s sports ambassadors, Dillan Dunn, Melissa Carroll, Stacey Chalmers and Nathan Gilmore who ran their first primary sports event last week at the academy for over 60 primary aged pupils and it was a great success!!

In conjunction with Active Schools the young ambassadors have been helping their Active Schools Coordinator, Nicola McCormack run a number of events to help promote the Olympics for next year, and they kick started it by running a basketball festival for all 6 primary schools in the partnership.

At the sporting festival, each of the six primary schools competing represented the country it had been allocated in the lead-up to the Olympics: Bellsbank – Turkey, Dalmellington – Spain, Dalrymple – Georgia, Littlemill – Slovenia, Patna – Indonesia and St Xaviers – Argentina.

Nicola McCormack, Active Schools coordinator said “Festivals like this are great to help promote the Olympic values of Respect, Excellence and Friendship. The young ambassadors have been absolutely great in the lead up to this festival; I couldn’t have done it without them”.

Young Sports Ambassadors

Congratulations to Nathan Gilmore and Dillan Dunn who have been selected as Doon Academy’s representatives for the East Ayrshire Young Ambassadors. They join our other ambassadors Stacey Chalmers and Melissa Carroll. The ambassadors will be supported by Active Schools and they will create a plan to promote the 4 key themes in the school and local community. The ambassadors’ first event was a football tournament which they organised for S1 pupils. This was a tremendous success and the pupils are looking forward to many more planned activities.

Netball

The S1/2 and S3/4 netball leagues begin this month. Everyone wishes them good luck in their future matches.

Schools Cross Country

Well done to the 27 pupils who represented Doon Academy at the Ayrshire Schools Cross Country Championships held at the Magnum, Irvine. The weather was wet and wild but everyone run their very best and there were some personal best times.

Sports Leaders

 In the Sports Leader masterclass Active Coordinator Nicola McCormick has been working with pupils on how they teach, to others, the sporting skills they have learned. Pupils will be assessed and awarded the Junior Sports Leaders Award.

Ayrshire Cross Country

The Ayrshire Cross Country Championships will be held at the Magnum in Irvine on Wednesday 5th October. Pupils from schools throughout Ayrshire will be taking part in the event.

Scottish Schools Inter Area Championships

On Thursday 16th June, alongside 25 under 15 Ayrshire pupils, Mrs Ferrie of Doon Academy visited Grangemouth for the Scottish Schools Inter Area Championship. Pupils from Belmont, Kyle, James Hamilton, Cumnock, Marr, Kilmarnock, Grange, Arran, Prestwick, Ardrossan, St. Matthew’s, Ayr, Auchenharvie, Garnock and Largs all took part against pupils in track and field events from all over Scotland. Even after an early start, all pupils remained upbeat and enthusiastic as the bus headed east. The warm sunny weather meant that waiting for an event was not too much of a struggle and cross school friendship bounds got the chance to flourish. All pupils were well behaved and showed skill in warming up and getting themselves to the correct event at the right time. Well done to all pupils who competed, especially Holly Morgan of Ardrossan Academy who brought home gold in the shot putt and silver in the javelin, and to Ross Campbell from St. Matthew’s who picked up silver in the boy’s javelin. Ayrshire finished midway in the table and all pupils took home the experience of being part of a Scottish Championship.

Games afternoon

The school games afternoon will be held on Wednesday 22nd June. Pupils will compete in their clan groups for points to win the Inter-House shield.

EA Athletics Championships

On Thursday 26th May, Doon Academy attended the annual East Ayrshire Athletics Championships at Dam Park. The day was cold and showery but this did not dampen the spirits of our pupils. All pupils did extremely well with the following bringing home medals: Gold medals - Annabel McTaggart, Josh Taylor, Lauren
Lauren Shaw, Aaron McKinstray. Silver Medals - Fraser Buchanan and Nicole Millar. Bronze Medals - Terry Ann Murphy and Jason Grover. Congratulations to them all.

SportsAbility

Supported Learning Centre S1to S3 pupils took part in a SportsAbility Event at the Magnum Centre in Irvine. Pupils undertook activities in Boccia, curling, archery, football and dancercise. Everyone really enjoyed their day learning new sports.