Art Exhibition

The opening of the Art exhibition at the Doon Valley Museum was a great success. The opening was well attended by local councillors, parents, pupils, staff and members of the local community. The exhibition will run for the remainder of December, opening times are Thursday to Saturday from 10am until 4pm.

Centrestage

Final preparations are well underway with our performers for next week’s Christmas Showcase event in conjunction with Centrestage. The Christmas show will take place on Tuesday the 11th of December from 1.30-3.00pm with all Centrestage workshop participants involved.If you are interested in attending please see Mrs Hetherington for more details.

John Muir

The John Muir Award group have been working in partnership with the Forestry Commission to plant new community woodland. The Forestry Commission have been gifted land on Mains Hill facing the town of Dalmellington for the purpose of benefiting the local community. The group of S3 student helpers have been involved in the initial planting of the woodland. Thanks to the Woodlands Trust for the donation of birch, rowan, cherry and oak saplings. The planning process is still developing and the group recently met with the Forestry Commissions planner and submitted ideas for the layout of the woodland. The group have also presented plans for the proposal of a woodland walk, picnic area and camping area which they hope the planners will be able to accommodate.

Literacy Across Learning Research Challenge

S3 pupils from the Supported Learning Centre took part in a Literacy Across Learning Research Challenge in the library with Mrs Whitson and Mrs Bax. Students spent two days learning different researching skills such as mind mapping, how to use keywords to search the internet and how to identify good resources. From this they then went onto research a topic of their own choice which ranged from horses, classic cars, forensic science, dogs and Dr Who. They all worked very hard and produced excellent final products that included, information leaflets, posters, auctioneer brochures and information leaflets for a museum. Well done to all involved.

Micro tyco Quiz Night

On Wednesday 28th November the senior Micro Tyco team, consisting of Frazer Buchanan, Lauren Shaw, Peter Featherstonehaugh, Sophie Dobbie and Fiona Kennedy, held a quiz night. Participants took part in six gruelling rounds, testing their general knowledge to the limit. Our winners for the evening were Doon Nothing comprising of: Mr Wilson and some members of the Pupil Support department. The evening finished with a buffet and a live performance from local band ‘Wasted Years’. Thanks to all who attended or donated raffle prizes; the group raised the £212.00 for the charity Wild hearts in Action. Well done!

Community Christmas Coffee Morning

The Supported Learning Centre are holding their annual community Christmas coffee morning on Friday 7th December between 10.00am and 12.30pm. There will be tea, coffee, home baking, a quiz, Christmas crafts for sale, guess the weight of the cake and a prize bingo. Everyone is welcome. We hope to see you there.

Art Exhibition

The annual art Exhibition will be held in the Doon Valley Museum in Dalmellington. The exhibition will run for the remainder of December. Opening times are Thursday to Saturday 10 am – 4 pm (closed public holidays).

Pantomime Trip

Mrs Rae, PT of Music, is organising a trip for students to see the pantomime “Cinderella” in Glasgow on Friday the 7th of December. The cost of the trip is £18.00. Please see Mrs Rae for more information.

Netball news

On Monday the 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.

Willow Art

Local artist Geoff Forrest has been working with Miss Fuller’s master class making willow stars and wreaths for Christmas. The opening of the Art department’s annual exhibition will take place on Thursday the 29^th of November at 6.30pm until 8.00pm in the Doon Valley Museum in Dalmellington. All are welcome to attend, refreshments provided and arts and crafts will be on sale.

Poetry Workshop at the Sea Fever exhibition

S3 Art and Design students took part in a poetry workshop with author and poet Kate Tough at the Dick Institute in Kilmarnock on Monday the 19th of November. Students firstly had a tour of the Sea Fever exhibition and then created their own poems based on the exhibition. All students really enjoyed the workshops and had fun writing their poems. Students will now take what they have learnt and write a poem about themselves based on the self portrait they have been working on in class.

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.

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!

Sponsored Walk

The school’s annual sponsored walk took place on the afternoon of Wednesday the 31^st of October through Craigengillan Estate. Despite the poor weather spirits were not dampened and all students and staff took part. Mrs Chapman and Mrs Reid supplied refreshments at the half way point. Well done to the PE department for all their hard work in organising this event.

S3 Leadership 2

The second part of the S3 Leadership Academy was a great success. Pupils developed various leadership skills from teamwork, respect, creativity, integrity, focus and awareness. An assembly will be held next week where students will graduate and receive their certificate and polo shirt. Well done to all who took part.

Halloween Disco

The Halloween disco was a great success and well attended by both students and staff. We had an impressive range of costumes from sailors, pirates, morph suits, I pods and we even had an Avatar and an Ozzy Osbourne!

Art

The Art Department held a late night supported study from 3.30pm until 7pm where senior art students were able to work on their folio pieces. Pizza and cupcakes were supplied at half time to replenish energy levels! This event was well attended. The next late night supported study is scheduled for Tuesday the 4th of December. The Art department also offers supported study on a Tuesday lunchtime and a Wednesday and Thursday afterschool. The opening of the Art Department’s annual art exhibition will take place on Thursday the 29th of November at 6.30pm until 8.00pm in the Doon Valley Museum. All are welcome to attend.

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.