RREC

On Friday the 17th May 2nd year students took part in a “Rapid Response Engineering Challenge” day. This event was based on a hurricane causing devastation in a Southern American country and involved the pupils assuming the roles of disaster relief engineers when they arrived at any international disaster site. The pupils had to simulate creating shelters, investigating weather changes, transporting clean water, generating sanitation flow and creating a meal without any gas or electricity. All of the pupils were enthusiastic and a great time was had by all. We were lucky to have two visitors from the HNC Civil Engineering programme at Stowe College who helped pupils understand the relationship between disaster relief and everyday engineering challenges. All in all this was a successful event which the school is looking forward to hosting next year.

The winning team with the engineers.

Doon Dancers

The Doon Dancers dazzled the audience at the Palace Theatre in Kilmarnock in the East Ayrshire's Got Talent show with a slow and emotive routine choreographed entirely by the students. The girls performed a contemporary dance routine to “Skinny Love” by Birdy. This is the second time the girls have appeared in the annual show for the best of East Ayrshire' school performers. The following S3 students took part: Chloe Chalmers, Lauren Ferguson, Shania Brown, Cheryl Allison, Caitlin Steele and Tamsin Thorburn. The audience of councillors, parents, pupils and staff thoroughly enjoyed the show. S3 dancer Lauren Ferguson said: “I really liked the opportunity to perform in front of an audience. The atmosphere was really good and it was great fun. I also really liked seeing the primary students perform. Their dance routines were really good and they were full of ideas. It was great meeting students from other schools who had the same interests as me.”
 

Food Hygiene Certificate

A group of S3 pupils completed the “Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland Elementary Food Hygiene Certificate” course as part of their Intermediate 1 Hospitality Mrs Cumming in Home Economics. Well done to all students who completed the course.

Duke of Edinburgh Award

Seventeen pupils at Doon Academy recently received their Duke of Edinburgh Bronze and Section Awards. Mr MacKenzie, Head teacher, presented the awards at a special ceremony in school. He congratulated the pupils on their tremendous achievement in earning an award which is internationally recognised by education establishments and employers alike.

This is the largest number of pupils to achieve this success in many years and it is attributable to the commitment and dedication of the pupils and the staff responsible for the programme this year: Mr Kerr, Mrs Murray and Mr Gooding.

This year's group are well underway to duplicate this success and we wish them well in the coming months.

Y Dance Showcase

On Saturday 11th February 5 Doon Academy pupils attended Y Dance’s annual showcase at The Magnum Leisure Centre, Irvine.

Lisa McTaggart, Paige Collins, Fiona Kennedy, Alana Murray and Cheryl Allison performed two fantastic dance routines to a packed auditorium and delighted the audience with dances to ‘Black and Gold’ and ‘Beautiful Monster’. The girls have been working hard since October and it finally paid off as both dances received a massive cheer from those watching.



The day began at 11.30 with a warm up for the 100 girls involved and then the groups rehearsing on stage. They then went on to have a full rehearsal with schools from Ayrshire and Glasgow, all working out where they had to be with their routines. The show finally started at 7.30pm with relatives and friends amongst the audience to watch the girls. All groups performed brilliantly with Doon showcasing particularly well. The show finished with a mass finale number to ‘I’ve Had the Time of my Life’ which looked fantastic as all 100 girls moved in unison.

The Doon girls left The Magnum with tired legs but big smiles as all had enjoyed an unforgettable day. Well done to those involved- wear your new Y Dance t-shirts with pride!

Spring Spectacular Concert

Doon Academy pupils are busy rehearsing for the East Ayrshire Schools Spring Spectacular Concert.

Well done to Annabel McTaggart who has been selected as first clarinet and Fiona Kennedy, first cornet, in the concert band.

Pupils selected for the choir are Leigh Boyce, Becky Inglis, Nicole Millar, Shania Brown, Paige McMahon, Jonathan Milligan, Alex Dearie, Bethany McGhee, Cheryl Allison and Courtney Cassells. The concert will take place on Wednesday 21^st March at 7pm in the Grand Hall, Kilmarnock.