East Ayrshire Schools Readers’ Cup

The Doon Academy heats for the East Ayrshire Schools Readers’ Cup competition was held on Monday 25th March in the Library.

S1 answered questions on humour, comics, witches and wizards and animals. The competition was very close and ended with a tiebreak between Raecar and Bradan however, Raecar were “pipped at the post” as Bradan won. The top two teams scored 31.5 out of 50 which is a very good result. Finlas were very close with 36 points. Well done to the winning team of Lee Uriate, Olivia McCutcheon, Sheryl Whiteside and Emma Blain.

 The S2 competition took place in the afternoon. This time Raecar were clear winners on 31 points. Well done to Liam Elder, Melanie Connell, Jade McClymont, and Ryan McMillan.

Librarian, Mrs Bax, with the winning S1 team.

History Author visit

As part of the Spring Read programme S2/3 History pupils visited Grange Academy to hear a talk by renowned author Allan Burnett. His talk was on the key themes in Scottish history related in his books, but he also spoke about the wider world of history. Mr. Burdett incorporated an awareness that certain themes, e.g., Wars of Independence, The Reformation, World Wars 1 and 2, are increasingly being taught in history classes in secondary schools. He also discussed how history can help us in a range of other subjects and disciplines, because they all have a history of their own. The law, economics and politics, in particular, all depend on an understanding of history if they are to be practiced and advanced at the highest level. Everyone found his talk very interesting and informative for their history studies.

Author visits

For the Spring Read Programme organised by EA librarians the S2/3 History pupils will be visiting Grange Academy to hear a talk by renowned history author Allan Burnett. Also, the Art Book Club pupils will be visiting Auchinleck Academy to see author and illustrator Teresa Flavin.

Spring Read

East Ayrshire school librarians are putting in a bid to the Scottish Book Trust for funding for next year’s Spring Read Programme. We wish them luck.

Readers' Cup Quiz

The S1 round of Doon Academy's Readers' Cup Quiz was held in the Assembly Hall, and the categories for the questions were Heroes and Heroines, Jacqueline Wilson, Lucky Dip, Comics and Animal Stories. After a very hard fought contest between all four teams, Finlas and Raecar edged ahead and the contest ended at the bell in a tie with both teams having a respectable 30.5 points. The final result was decided with a tiebreaker between Finlas and Raecar. Both teams got 6/10 in the tiebreaker and so it went to sudden death and Finlas just managed to answer the last two questions more quickly so they won. Congratulations to the winning Finlas team of Alana Murray, Morgan Davis, Shannon Clelland and Keiran Madden. They all received W H Smith vouchers. Well done to the other teams’ especially Raecar who were pipped to the post. A big thank you to the judges, Heather Dunn, Lisa McTaggart, Rosie Coles and Hayley Bone.

Readers' Cup Quiz

S2 Readers' Cup Quiz was held in the Library and the question topics were Lucky Dip, Eoin Colfer, Witches and Wizards, Historical Fiction and Books and Films. Unfortunately the questions proved to be rather difficult for S2 and the teams did not score as well as S1. Again the contest was between Finlas and Raecar with Finlas leading all the way through, until Raecar managed to overtake them in the final round with a very good score of 8 points. Congratulations to the winning team of pupils, Tommy Campbell, Stephanie Carrick, Rachel Murphy and Halle Fitzsimmons, and commiserations to the runners-up John Anderson, Nicky Fairbairn, Lorelle White and Sandy Napier. Our thanks to the S4 judges for the event, Heather Dunn, Megan McCleary, Nathan Gilmore and Paige Collins.

Cathy Forde visit

Famous author Cathy Forde came to the school to speak to S1 pupils about her work. The visit was organised by East Ayrshire school Librarians and funded by Live Literature Scotland. Cathy talked about how she writes about things she knows and about some of the scary and spooky things that have happened to her. She then uses these incidents in her stories.

Spring Read programme out

The Spring Read Festival organised by EAC school librarians will be held during 15th to 25th March. Four fantastic authors, Gillian Philip, Keith Gray, Barry Hutchinson and Cathy Forde will be visiting East Ayrshire secondary schools. There will be one author visit per school and the other schools pupils’ will be invited to attend. The aim of the festival is to promote reading and interschool joviality.

Spring Read 2011

East Ayrshire school librarians are putting together a bid for Spring Read 2011. The authors they are going to ask for are Keith Gray, Gillian Philip, Cathy Forde and another.

Readers' Cup Quiz

The S1 round of the Readers' Cup competition was held on Thursday 18th March. Teams from all 4 clans answered questions on Cathy MacPhail, Christmas, Baddies, Families and of course the Lucky Dip round. Raecar led from the start and were clear winners. Bradan and Doon fought neck and neck until Doon ended up 2 points ahead in the final round. The results were Raecar, then Doon, Bradan and Finlas. As usual, between rounds the audience had a chance to test their knowledge and answer some of the questions. Congratulations and well done to all who took part in the competition. Some of the winning team will go on to represent Doon Academy at the East Ayrshire final in June.

Theresa Breslin

Miss Borthwick's S2 English class travelled all the way to Kilmarnock Academy to hear the famous author Theresa Breslin speak about her work. She mainly discussed Remembrance, her First World War story and Divided City, which is set in Glasgow and is about prejudice. She answered questions from the audience, gave away posters and had a prize raffle. A very entertaining morning.

Author visits

As part of the East Ayrshire Spring Read Festival the author Cathy MacPhail visited Doon Academy and gave a really interesting and entertaining talk to all of S1. She spoke about her books and where her basis for her ideas. She inspired all our young authors to be creative. Cathy MacPhail is the author of many books including Roxy's Baby, Another Me, Hide and Seek, and the Nemesis quartet.
The S2 class went to Auchinleck Academy to hear the author Keith Gray. Keith Gray is the author of Ostrich Boys, Malarkey and many other novels for teenagers. He gave a funny talk about his life and told the pupils that the two main ingredients needed for a writer are imagination and experience. He showed this by telling us about travelling as a young man and about his friend Steve giving him a cigar when he joined the army. Keith Gray suggested asking the teachers which story was true. The Doon BBC School News Reporters also interviewed Mr. Gray for the BBC.

Spring Read Logo Winner

Congratulations to Liam Haining who was the winner of Doon Academy’s Spring Read logo competition. The competition was open to all pupils and there were many colourful and interesting designs. Liam’s winning design has been submitted to the East Ayrshire logo competition.

Spring Read news

Three terrific authors have been booked for the annual Spring Read Festival, which begins in March 2010. Catherine Forde, Theresa Breslin and Keith Gray will all in East Ayrshire giving reading of their works and speaking to pupils. Look out for more information on the Spring Read Festival.

Readers Cup Quizzes

Mrs Bax, our Librarian, organized the annual S1 and S2 Readers' Cup quizzes this week. The topics covered in the questions ranged from "Pink" and humour to thrillers, witches and wizards and animals. Both contests were keenly fought with the S1 competition ending in a tiebreak with 1A beating 1C. In the S2 competition Doon beat Raecar by one mark to win. Congratulations to both the winning teams.

Cathy MacPhail

Pupils in S3 taking part in Literature Circles visited Kilmarnock Academy to see famous author Catherine MacPhail. The trip was arranged as part of the East Ayrshire Spring Read programme. Ms. MacPhail spoke to the pupils about her books and how she researches her ideas for the stories. Everyone enjoyed her talk and they also picked up ideas which would help them with their folio writing.

Cathy Forde

For the Spring Read programme we were delighted when the famous writer Cathy Forde, author of books Fat Boy Swim, Sugar-coated and Drowning Pond, visited the school. She spoke to our S1/2 pupils alongside pupils from Auchinleck and St. Joseph’s Academies about her work. She chatted about where she gets her ideas and how she turns them into stories. Ms. Forde then answered questions from the audience. Everyone found her a motivating speaker and the pupils are very keen to read more of her books.

Spring Read

Mrs Bax, the librarian, is running a competition for pupils to design a logo for the Spring Readathon. The winning design will be entered into the East Ayrshire competition.