Willow weaving

Our local willow artist Geoff Forrest came into school on Friday the 7^th of June to work with Art and Design students. The students learnt about the art of willow weaving and created beautiful sculptures and platters, everyone really enjoyed the workshops. Thank you to Geoff for taking time out of his busy schedule to come in and work with our students. 

Little Eye

Doon Academy was very fortunate to be given the opportunity to have “Little Eye” perform in school.  Little Eye are an upcoming Scottish band currently touring Scottish schools with an anti- drugs message. They are supporting the anti-drugs charity DARE and have been trained by the charity to deliver the message. The band have supported Olly Murs and Alesha Dickson on tour and recently won Clyde 1 In Demand – Band of the Year.

The band performed some of their songs, delivered the anti-drugs message, with a question and answer session, and finished with an autograph session for the pupils. The main message of the band was to make the right decisions in life and to live a healthy lifestyle.

The performance was very much enjoyed by the whole school – pupils and staff!

Student Teachers

Congratulations to our student teachers Mrs Murdoch from the Art Department and Miss Gibson from the PE department on having a very successful final placement. All students and staff wish them well in their future careers.

Visitor from NASA

Nagin Cox is a NASA scientist who worked on the Mars Rover expeditions. She addressed the audience of P7 pupils from Bellsbank, Littlemill, Dalmellington and Patna primary schools, and pupils from the Doon Academy’s Astronomy Master Class. The P7 pupils have been attending the academy as part of their transition project which is focused on astronomy and the local Dark Skies Observatory.

Nagin Cox described how she progressed from the US Navy to working on robots with the space agency, NASA. Her photographs of the Mars Rover expeditions captured the excitement of the NASA scientists and engineers as their years of planning culminated in the successful landing on Mars.
 The pictures transmitted by the wheeled robot showed the incredible details of the Mars landscape and evidence of the relatively recent existence of streams of clean water.

 Pupils were able to ask questions of Nagin about her career, space exploration and the prospects of life in distant planets. A show of hands at the end indicated that pupils are interested in following careers in Science and Engineering and one pupil asked about the challenges of working in the multi-national, multi-lingual team at the NASA control centre.

 Mr MacKenzie, head teacher, said the talk had been inspiring. Astronomy and curricular subjects such as the Sciences, Technologies, Maths, Languages and Social Subjects will offer even greater great opportunities for pupils to follow in Nagin Cox’s footsteps in the coming decades.

Student Teachers

Both pupils and staff are delighted to have our two student teachers back for their final 5 week placement; Rowena Murdoch student teacher of Art and Design and Rebecca Gibson student teacher of PE. We wish them both an enjoyable placement.

Glasgow School of Art Students

On Monday the 18th and Tuesday the 19th of March two Product Design students from the Glasgow School of Art worked with S1-S4 Art and Design students. Students were involved in different projects and workshop activities along with a presentation on life as an Art student and different careers choices related to Art and Design. All students thoroughly enjoyed the workshops and some students are considering applying for an Art course in the future.

Glasgow School of Art Students

Two students from the Glasgow School of Art will be coming into the Art and Design department for a two day placement. The two second year students are currently studying Product Design and will be working with S1-S3 pupils in March.

Student teachers

Doon Academy would like to welcome Mrs Murdoch, student teacher of Art and Design and Miss Gibson, student teacher of PE to the school. Both pupils and staff are looking forward to working with them.

Art Department open afternoon

The Art and Design Department is having a “drop in” afternoon on Tuesday the 19th of February 2013 for all parents and guardians from 2.45pm until 4.30pm. The Art Department would like to take this opportunity to invite you to come along to our open afternoon to see some of the fantastic art work being produced by current students within the department.
 During the afternoon you will be able to view the department, meet some of the students and view students working on their current SQA Art folios.
You will also be able to ask any questions you have concerning courses, coursework and extra curricular activities offered by the Art Department.

Refreshments will be provided, please see Miss Fuller for more details.

Mentors in Violence Prevention

On the afternoon of 7th March the Mentors In Violence Prevention (MVP) Trainers are delivering a staff training session to outline the basic principles of the programme. MVP encourages people to consider the importance of working together to prevent violence, particularly against women.
The four main goals of the MVP programme are to:

• • Raise awareness about the level of verbal, emotional, physical and sexual abuse of women. 
• • Challenge thinking by countering mainstream messages about gender, sex and violence. 
• • Open dialogue by creating a safe environment for men and women to share their opinions and experiences. 
• • Inspire leadership by empowering participants with concrete options to effect change in their respective communities. 

 The MVP trainers are comprised of pupils, teachers and other staff members, and community and voluntary sector partners. In recent weeks we have been greatly encouraged by the willingness of our students to become MVPs. 15 girls and 10 boys volunteered following assemblies led by teacher, Mr Kerr. We have also had expressions of support from prominent local businesses which we will report on soon. We have been guided by Chief Inspector Graham Goulden of the Scottish Government’s Violence Reduction Unit. We have also had training from American experts in changing attitudes to what are acceptable or unacceptable behaviours in our society and in the world of new digital media.

Visit from staff of Harrow School

We were pleased to welcome Chris Barry, Head of Physics & Astronomy and Critical Thinking at Harrow School, to Doon shortly before the Christmas break. Chris and his wife, Sarah who is also a teacher, met pupils and staff and enjoyed a tour of our facilities, and an excellent school lunch.
The meeting was arranged as part of the Dark Skies Observatory project at Craigengillan and we discussed future links and the sharing of teaching resources.
 An illustrated history of Harrow School was presented to our school library.

The politeness and friendliness of our pupils was commented on by Chris and Sarah during their visit. We have also had a ‘thank you’ email from Chris in which he invited us to visit Harrow and offered astronomy course materials.
This is part of his email: “I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to see us during our visit to Dalmellington last month and for taking the time to show us around and make us feel so welcome. Sarah and I really enjoyed meeting you, your colleagues and your pupils. Everyone we met seemed so motivated and proud of what you are all achieving and (as you know!) there is some remarkable work going on in your school underpinned by much outstanding dedication and professionalism: I must say we both felt inspired by our visit. So thank you”.

We look forward to further links with one of England’s most famous schools which numbers Sir Winston Churchill amongst its former pupils.

Glasgow School of Art

Two fashion and textile art students from the Glasgow School of Art did a two day placement within the Art and Design Department. The students worked with senior pupils helping them with their art folios. The two art students also delivered a presentation to students on their own work and what is was like to go the art school. Thank you to Emma McAndrew and Catherine Farrar for their hard work. S6 student Ryan Watson is currently undertaking a portfolio preparation course at The Glasgow School of Art on a Saturday. Ryan is sitting Advanced Higher Art and Design this year and is hoping to secure a place at art school.

‘Inside-Out’ Mental Health Awareness

In order to raise awareness of the ‘Stigma’ associated with mental illness, pupils in S5/6 were treated to a very powerful and informative drama production by performers from Ayr College. Following a development day at Ayr College and two intense workshops as part of S5/6 Health and Wellbeing afternoons, professionals from a wide range of mental health organisations accompanied the Ayr College students as they delivered a hard-hitting and poignant performance addressing mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety and schizophrenia. After the production pupils were divided into break-out groups in order to discuss some of the pertinent issues arising from the performance. Mental health professionals were on hand to facilitate discussions. Thank you to Patricia Murray and her team at Ayr College for inviting our school to be part of this important area of Health and Wellbeing.

Medics Against Violence

Recently senior students has a visit from Medics Against Violence and they were shown a video of the after effects of drunkeness and gang violence. The shocking security camera footage and real life stories of the people who had lost someone due to violent attacks really made the message hit  home. The pupils agreed that it was intolerable and showed good feedback to the speaker.

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.

Former pupil John McNair, from Lost World Pet Shop in Ayr, visited the Art Department with various creepy crawlies – scorpions, spiders and snakes. Both pupils and staff really enjoyed the visit.

Art visitor

Doon Academy Art pupils were delighted that former pupil Jenny Cumming visited the school to work with S1 and S2 pupils on their designs and discussed ideas with them from her Art Portfolio.

Health4Life Final Reunion

As part of the school’s Comenius ‘Health4Life’ project, 12 teachers and 19 students from our partnership schools in Belgium, Greece, Poland, Portugal and Spain visited the school for a project meeting Monday 16^th April to Friday 20^th April. 

During their visit they had a full programme of events beginning in the school on Tuesday 17^th April with a welcome assembly followed by the Comenius Walk to Dalcairnie Falls, and a welcome dinner in the evening at Cecchinis. 

On the Wednesday they visited Edinburgh Castle, and had a meeting with MSPs at the Scottish Parliament and a tour of the building. 

The visitors had a very interesting and informative day on the Thursday when they visited Robert Burns Birthplace and Museum. This was followed by a farewell Ceilidh in the school in the evening where everyone joined in the Scottish dancing.   

There were many tears as students and teachers were presented with their certificates and goodie bags. 

Thank you to everyone who helped to make this reunion a wonderful occasion.

Education Scotland Award shortlist

 Doon Academy is on the shortlist to achieve an Education Scotland Award. As part of the award process we had a visit from Hilary Bombart, Education Scotland, and Iain Ellis, Chair of the National Parent Forum of Scotland. Our visitors met with pupils, parents and teachers to talk about the work that we do to improve literacy skills. The award winners will be announced at a gala dinner on Tuesday 12^th June. 

Our BBC School News Reporters Elleis Peters and Kieran Madden took the opportunity to interview the visitors on the award process.

Geobus visit

Doon Academy pupils and staff were delighted that the Geobus project run by the University of St Andrews visited the school. The Geobus staff ran sessions with S1, S2 and S4-6 Science and Geography classes.

S1 pupils looked at ‘Fascinating Fossils’, they were invited to look and touch real fossils which are hundreds of millions of years old.

S2 pupils were ‘Monitoring Volcanoes’ where they looked at how geologists are able to predict an eruption using instruments such as infra-red cameras.

S4-S6 pupils were studying ‘Fluvial Processes’ and were given the opportunity to design their own river settlement. It was a very successful day and pupils thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Thank you to Mrs. Elder and Ms. Kerr for arranging the event.