November 2010

Girvan Academy

View our newsletter in colour by visiting our school website

www.girvanacademy.sayr.sch.uk

Girvan Academy has always placed great emphasis on giving our pupils a range of experiences to compliment the “formal” curriculum. This newsletter gives you an insight to the activities that have been happening across the school this term. Even as budget constraints begin to bite, we have still been able to offer a diverse menu of activities for our young people. Along with the newsletter, you can also keep up to date with what is happening in the Academy on our website. I know that more and more people are checking out our website, including visitors prior to coming to the school. Curriculum for Excellence is not so much about what is taught, but more about how it is taught. That said, we did make changes to the S1 curriculum including introducing inter disciplinary learning, electives, dance, drama and enterprise. These choices appear to have been well received by pupils. Next session (2011-2012) we are moving to a 33 period week starting in August 2011. The timetables for all our pupils (S1-6) will need to be altered to reflect the new structure. We will therefore be re-assessing what we can offer for each year group and as plans become available we will publish them on our website. In our senior school, we are approaching prelim time. Prelims for S4 are in December, and not far away after we return from the Christmas break, our S5/6 students will be sitting their prelims. We have managed this session to provide mentor support for some of our pupils. I wish we had the structure and capacity in place to offer this support to all our students. This is something that in future years, I hope to be able to provide. On reading the newsletter, you will understand that we could not manage to offer all that we do without the support of our partners, the

local community and particularly you - the parents. Parents are involved in all sorts of ways, from helping out at events to running the “taxi service”, ensuring that our young people get to and from venues. Your Parent Council is actively involved in the life of the Academy, from fundraising to advising on reporting pupil progress. We are continuing to build a strong and positive relationship together. I hope you enjoy reading and celebrating in our achievement. Allan Rattray Head Teacher

S6 Pupils visit Girvan Nursery

Pupils in S3 English classes were given the opportunity

to attend the Edinburgh International Book Festival on

Monday 23rd August 2010. Pupils were accompanied on

the trip by Mrs McEwan and Mr Robertson from the

English Department. The Edinburgh International Book

Festival has been running since 1983 and allows pupils to

meet authors and sample new and recommended litera-

ture. As part of our visit we listened to presentations

from authors, Keith Gray and Patrick Ness. We also

visited the Book Festival bookshop, dedicated to chil-

dren and teenagers. Pupils had the opportunity to pur-

chase books recommended at the Festival.

DEPARTMENTAL NEWS

Advance Notice – In the lead up to Christmas,

Mrs McEwan’s S3 English class will be selling

Personalised Letters from Santa. Letters cost

£1.50 per child and our last posting date is

Thursday 16th December. Children are guaran-

teed to be delighted to receive a personalised

message from Santa himself!

If you would like a child to

receive a letter from

Santa, contact Mrs

McEwan, Mrs Bone or a

member of the S3 Sales

Team.

This session S2 English Pupils are taking part in the Ac-

celerated Reader programme. Accelerated Reader is a

computerised programme which rewards success in

Reading by testing pupils‟ understanding of personal

reading books through quizzes. Pupils who pass five

quizzes over the academic session are presented with

certificates. Pupils who pass ten quizzes are awarded a

second certificate. Pupils who complete quizzes on fif-

teen books are presented with certificates and prizes at

the end of the session. So far, the programme is proving

to be so successful that Mrs Morrison has awarded a

number of certificates to pupils who have completed five

books and is already preparing certificates for pupils

who have completed ten books! To date, S2 pupils have

successfully completed quizzes on 339 books! Our top

reader so far has read 696,613 words this session and a

grand total of 7,506,730 words have been read across

the entire year group! Well done S2!

Mr Rattray and Mrs Roberts photo-

graphed with the winners and runner-ups of this years Christmas Card

competition.

A pack of 10 Christmas Cards are available to purchase for £3.50.

To see the winning designs, go to the school website...

Elementary Food Hygiene Certificate

S4 Home Economic pupils have recently completed a course in food hygiene training as part of Standard grade work and in conjunction with the Royal Environmental Health Institute for Scotland (REHIS). The following pupils successfully sat and passed the Elementary Food Hygiene Certificate which is set by REHIS. Alex Copland Evan Eaglesham Lucy Watt Allan Dewar Claire Gray David Wilson Charlene Bennie Lindsay Hand Angela Robertson Louise Bridges Claire Milroy Victoria Potts Linzi Monteith Dean McAllan Celine Dixon Robyn Clive Alistair McColm Stephanie Parker Kirsty Cowan Teri McMaster Sean Davidson Emma Cunningham Noi McMillan Well done to everyone!! This certificate is of great value to these pupils at present and in the future should they wish to work in the

food industry. E.g. in food retail outlets, or catering establishments such as hotels, restaurants, schools and

hospitals.

Ms Harrigan presenting certificate to the successful candidates

DEPARTMENTAL NEWS

USA 2011

The Humanities faculty are once again running a trip to the USA. After the success of the Boston/New York trip last year, the faculty have decided to run a similar trip to Washington and New

York in October 2011. Pupils will spend 3 nights in Washington and will experience a full day coach tour of Washington

DC. They will visit sites such as the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Veteran‟s Museum, the Air and Space museums, the Holocaust Museum, the National Museum of American History and the Inter-national Spy Museum! Pupils will also have the opportunity to visit the White House (if Mr Obama

is not too busy). In New York pupils will be given a guided coach tour of Manhattan. They will attend a Broadway

show, climb the stairs in the Empire State Building, tour Central Park, stroll round the Metropoli-tan Museum of Art and, of course, shop till they drop on 5th Avenue!

Pupils will be shown a presentation about the trip at assembly and information booklets and per-

mission slips will be distributed.

For more information please contact Miss Murray or Miss Wilson.

DEPARTMENTAL NEWS

CONGATULATIONS!

Well done to our team of 6 S3‟s who won the regional

We‟re In Business shield at Queen Margaret Academy

on Wednesday.

The pupils in the winning team were:

Jamie Candlish, Louise Carle, Ryan Conway, Joss de

Faye, Sarah Ferguson and Elizabeth Robertson.

Mr Drennan accompanied 12 S3 pupils (2 teams of 6)

to a We‟re In Business challenge organised by Royal

Bank of Scotland on Wednesday, 8th September held

at Queen Margaret Academy. They were up against

14 other teams from various South Ayrshire Secon-

dary Schools and one of our teams were victorious. The shield has been engraved and has now made

its‟ way to the school and has taken up residence outside the Head Teachers office.

Senior Maths Challenges

25 Higher and Advanced Higher

pupils participated in a UK Maths

Challenge held in school during

early November – we are still

awaiting the results from this.

Certificates will be issued to

candidates who end up in the top

40% across the UK with a spe-

cial certificate for the pupil who

is “Best In School”.

Girvan Academy were also repre-

sented in the UK Senior Team

Maths Challenge last Thursday,

held at the University of Paisley.

No awards this time but all pu-

pils involved had a thoroughly

enjoyable and fun time and rec-

ommend a team of pupils to par-

ticipate in future years. The

participants this year were Al-

ison Pitt and Andrew Brown from

S5 and Alison McIntosh and

Hannah Graham from S6. Well

Done to you all for taking part

and thanks to Mr Stafford who

accompanied these pupils.

S1 Halloween Project

Our entire S1 took part in a two

day Halloween Project where

they moved from class to class

solving mathematical puzzles. It

involved the pupils working in

groups and solving 4 different

puzzles including magic squares,

creating 3-dimensional shapes,

calculating the number of ghosts

and skeletons in each room and

interpreting a bar graph to show

the correct information. All pu-

pils also had their own set of

puzzles to solve after they suc-

ceeded in the 4 group tasks.

Pupils said they thought the day

was fun, enjoyed learning in this

way and would like to participate

in another group activity.

Check out our department web

page for pictures from this

event.

Puzzle Day at

Prestwick Academy

A group of 4 pupils - 2 from S4

and 2 from S3 went off with Mr

Smith to participate in a maths

puzzle challenge in September

and came a very impressive 3rd

place only just missing out in

qualifying to represent South

Ayrshire in the next round.

The pupils involved in this were

Dale Knowles, Hannah Murdoch,

Jamie Candlish and Sarah Fergu-

son.

These pupils feature in our pic-

tures on the website as well.

DEPARTMENTAL NEWS

All Intermediate 2 French pupils should now be revising vocabulary and learning their Letter of Application off by heart for the prelim. After the prelims they will have 1 month to prepare

for their internal speaking assessment, which will make up 30% of the pupil‟s final grade. Pupils have all the materials they need and should be able to give a 1 minute presentation for and hold a 4 minute con-versation with their teacher. This is a key element of the course and support from home when preparing

would be greatly appreciated.” While Intermediate 1 pupils have completed their speaking assessment they still have their Intermediate 1 Writing CV to prepare off by heart for the prelim. They should also be revising all vocabulary thoroughly. 2 good websites are www.languagesonline.org.uk and www.linguascope.com . The password for the latter can be obtained from any teacher in the department.

The open night

On Thursday the 7th of October there was an open night at Girvan Academy.

The Spanish elective class showed the primary 7‟s, fellow students and parents what the Spanish

elective class has been learning over the past few weeks.

There was Spanish tapas including olives in different oils, a Spanish sausage called chorizo (there

was spicy and non spicy), there was mild manchego cheese and there was Spanish flat bread with

olive oil.

There was a most popular food and it was Spanish chorizo (non spicy). There were PowerPoint

presentations, about the different Spanish speaking countries that we have researched, the favour-

ite one was Mexico. Over all it was a success. Yeah!

By Lauren Stevenson, Alastair McLeish, Sean Lowe, Lewis Gray, Rhian Ferguson.

European Day of Languages On Tuesday 16th September (European Day of Languages) the sixth year Higher French class—all two of us! - travelled to Prestwick Airport where we took part in a convention celebrating European languages. The convention took place in a suite in the airport, and it started with a presentation from staff of the Chamber of Commerce, IBM and NATS. We received short talks from the foreign workers on

how important and useful a Euro-pean language is to have. There were around 100 pupils of Modern Languages there and to start with, we were split into around 10 groups to participate in an ice breaker challenge, making a poster on 10 reasons to visit France (or Spain, for students of Spanish), which we then pre-

sented to each other. Next, we were swapped around in our groups and played the French version of “Pictionary” and “Guess Who”. Then, our challenge was to go into even smaller groups and engage in a role play of a French tourist information office. Hannah (Agnew) and I were the reception-

ists and two pupils from Carrick were the holiday makers. We had to speak in French to each other, with the help from a French worker from IBM who gave us ideas and inspiration. This, I found quite challenging! Overall, the day was a fun way to practise French, and to connect with European workers in the UK,

and also stu-dents from other school who took

Modern Lan-guages. By Rachel McAl l i ster—6G

DEPARTMENTAL NEWS

G FACTOR We are still looking for auditionees to add their names to the list for the G Factor! The Grand Final is on Monday 20th December starting at 7pm in the theatre. Tickets are £5 which includes refreshments; these will go on sale on Monday 6th December from Music Department or from the school office.

CONGATULATIONS! Congratulations to Corrie Bonner, Sam

MacPherson and Josh Sloan who have

been selected to play in the U15 Ayrshire

Football Team.

Adam Stevenson has also been selected

to play in the U18 Ayrshire Football

Team.

Well done to all the boys.

Ayrshire Cross Country Wednesday 29th September 2010

Well done to all pupils who took part in terrible conditions at Irvine Beach Park.

CONGRATULATIONS to Louise Hill-Stirling

who won the senior girls with a few metres to spare!!! The first year boys won the team shield for 1st

place so CONGRATULATIONS to all the

boys... this being the first time Girvan Academy has won the team shield at 1st year level.

U13 Scottish Cup

GIRVAN V WALLACEHALL The boys played very well, winning the game 2-1 with Reagan

McGurn opening the scoring and Wallacehall equalising just

before half time.

Girvan‟s winning goal was a fabulous strike from Daniel

Storrie in the 2nd half.

GIRVAN V DUMFRIES HIGH SCHOOL

Game was played in extremely difficult condition and both sets

of boys were a credit to themselves and their schools. Result was 5—3 to Dumfries High School, good luck to them

in the next round.

Well done to Ainslie Mellon (S2)

Who competed in the Ayrshire Schools Swimming Gala at the

Citadel, Ayr.

Ainslie swam in the 100m Freestyle finishing 6th

Smashing her Personal Best by 16 Seconds!

Girvan Academy hosted a Primary 3 & 4

Football Festival on Thursday 18th November

for all Cluster feeder primary schools.

Excellent turn out and very successful.

On Wednesday 24th November, S1 girls took part in an Ayrshire Hockey Tournament at Prestwick Academy.

The girls played 5 games against other South Ayrshire Schools and gained valuable experience in play-ing hockey matches. They also teamed up with Carrick Academy to make an additional team. Al-though they got one or two “knocks”, they all thoroughly enjoyed the day.

DEPARTMENTAL NEWS

At the Open Night on 7th October, the secret ingredient in

the chocolate cake was mayonnaise. There were no eggs and no

margarine on the recipe and these were replaced by the mayonnaise.

Some of the more outlandish guesses were nettles and pilchards!

No one guessed this and so no-one won the chocolates (unfortunately for Mrs Bone‟s

waistline!)

Thank you to everyone who tried the cake and made a guess.

Lab in a Lorry All S2 pupils and some S4

standard grade science pupils

were involved in a science

event on 10th November 2010

called Lab in a Lorry. The

event included 3 hands on

activities demonstrated by

local volunteers and was

enjoyed by all who took part.

Culzean Castle Trip

All S3 Standard Grade Biology pupils were taken on a woodland tour on the 9th September 2010 to

Culzean Country Park, under the supervision of Miss Price, Mrs Bounds and Dr Mohan. Pupils

had the chance to carry out a number of different ecological techniques to better understand the

flora and fauna of South Ayrshire (as well as a little bit of tree hugging). The knowledge gained

will be invaluable to their Standard Grade course.

DEPARTMENTAL NEWS

Sci Fun

All S2 pupils took part in

a science event on 20th

October 2010 called

Sci-Fun. The aim of the

visit was to increase pupil

awareness and interest in

science and to provide

pupils with information

on careers in science. The

sessions were run by

senior volunteers and

members of Sci-Fun and

included demonstrations

and hands-on activities.

S5 Pupils – Casting Pins for Barr (Solway Precast)

A small group of S5 Technical Craft pupils spent a day turning

wooden cast pins.

This was an initial test run of 20 pegs. These items are used by Barr (Solway Precast) to produce Arena

Terrace Units for the forthcoming Glasgow Commonwealth Games.

Initial items passed quality control and another large batch is now in production.

S5 pupils producing casting pins for Barr Construction.

Turning Pine on Lathe

Drilling with pillar drill

Sanding

Ross R Bob C Billy C

Finished Product

DEPARTMENTAL NEWS

S1 ELECTIVE TECHNICAL COURSE Pupils are researching and manufacturing Bird Boxes & Feeders – using recycled materials to

produce long lasting products.

Grants Distillery are generously supplying the department with used whisky barrel staves.

Local tyre suppliers, Girvan Exhausts are providing used inner tubes for hinging and further

materials have been supplied by Carrick Building Supplies.

On Tuesday 14 September, Katie Walker, a Ranger from Culzean visited the school to talk to S1

pupils about different types of birds, boxes and different ways in which birds nest.

eg. On the ground, on cliffs and in trees.

Some of the pupils showed a good knowledge of different types of birds

and even had some nesting in their homes and farms.

Katie showed the pupils 2 nests and explained how they were made by the

birds.

Pupils were also told some interesting facts about local birds

Ganet‟s wingspan is 2.4 metres and it weighs around 12kg.

The Ailsa Craig has the 3rd largest colony of Ganets in the world,

around 27,000 birds nest there.

The fastest bird is the swift which can travel at 70mph.

When Owls „twit‟ „twoo‟ it is actually a male (twit) and a female (twoo) singing together.

After the talk in the Theatre the pupils were then taken to the Technical Department where they

made cardboard models of what they thought a small bird box should be like.

Student Investor Challenge

If you notice your son or daughter

watching the Bloomberg channel or

reading the Financial Times, then

they are probably taking part in the

Student Investor Challenge. Girvan

Academy pupils have been given a

virtual £100,000 to invest in the

stock market until the 4th February

and are basically watching their

virtual wealth grow. Each month the

most improved team in the

competition will win a prize. Along

with teams from all over the UK the

race is on to win a trip to New York.

Mini-trials On Saturday 13th November at Ayr Sheriff Court, two teams of pupils took part in Minitrials. This was organised by South Ayrshire Council, along with the Faculty of Advocates and the Law Society of Scotland. It involved pupils intensively preparing their cases and taking part in a mock trial situation against another school. Pupils also experienced a tour of the holding cells at Ayr Sheriff Court and went on board a Reliance. So well done to the following pupils who represented the school in this event: Charlotte Graystone Matthew Cosslett Alex Copland Lewis McKie Kaidi Hall

Melissa MacAskill Catherine Connolly Joshua Garner

Congratulations to

Kaidi Hall, Louise Carle, Melissa MacAskill, Jamie

Candlish, Joss De Faye and Josh Russell who made

it through to the Scottish Finals of the Coca Cola Enterprise ‘Real

Business Challenge’ on 15 November 2010.

The group mixed and branded their own flavour of fruit Juice called „FLAVA‟ and presented their product to a group of

judges at the Stir l ing Management Centre in Stirling University.

Well done to our group of budding entrepreneurs!

DEPARTMENTAL NEWS

1.1 Enterprise Class raised £250.00 for the flood victims in Pakistan by doing a

sponsored silence!

Well done to all involved!

S1 Global Citizenship

1.6 raised £300 by doing a 2 mile sponsored walk to support HALO Trust, a charity which clears landmines.

Well done class 1.6!

Bounceback Girvan Academy is piloting an innovative new health and well-being programme to promote confidence and resilience in young people. The Bounceback course will be delivered to S1 pupils during special activity days during the year. The first will be a whole day event on 8th December, where S1 pupils will work with teachers, senior pupils and partners of the School on Core Values, such as integrity, cooperation, respect and friendliness. This will lead into other events throughout the year which will focus on positive thinking, strategies to deal with setbacks and adversity, and understanding negative feeling. The course focuses on the Bounceback acronym: Bad times don’t last. Other people can help if you talk to them Unhelpful thinking makes you feel more upset Nobody is perfect – not you and not others Concentrate on the positives Everybody experiences sadness, hurt, failure, rejection and setbacks sometimes Blame fairly Accept the things you can’t change Catastrophising exaggerates your worries Keep things in perspective A group of S5 pupils have been attended training on the principles of Bounceback and the skills of Peer Mentoring. They will assist as facilitators on the 8th December.

The S1 Big Bulb Plant

On Tuesday 16th November all S1 pupils braved the cold to plant hundreds of daffodil bulbs in

the School Grounds. In the Spring, when the daffodils are in full bloom, we will be undertak-ing some fundraising activities to support Marie

Curie Cancer Care, which has the daffodil as their emblem.

The mentoring programme was launched this session on Thursday 28th October. S4 pupils being mentored took part

in a variety of workshops with an aim to help improve their study skills, time management and confidence in their

own ability to achieve the highest standards of attainment. Each workshop lasted thirty minutes and pupils took part

in a variety of „hands on‟ activities.

For further information in relation to our Mentoring Programme go to the website

http://www.girvanacademy.sayr.sch.uk/information/downloads/

Supported Study

In the run up to the S4 prelims which begin in December, all departments will be offering Supported Study. This is an

ideal opportunity for your son/daughter to gain additional support to help prepare them for their prelim exams.

For our young people staying after school for supported study, we will supply fruit, snack bars and drinks (at no cost

to the pupils) to keep their energy levels up.

Exam Leave

This session, pupils will be offered exam leave from Wednesday 1st December until Wednesday 15th December 2010

inclusive. This brings Girvan Academy in line with other secondary schools in South Ayrshire. During exam leave,

pupils will still have access to school facilities, and access to their teachers at their normal subject period times. They

can however study at home during this period.

Prelim Exam Timetables

Prelim exam timetables were issued to S4 pupils via their registration teacher on Monday 8th November 2010.

To download further information in relation to Supported Study and Exam Leave, or to download the exam timetable,

please go to

http://www.girvanacademy.sayr.sch.uk/information/downloads/

Launch of Mentoring Programme

2010-2011

S4 Pupil Pendrives

To assist pupils with their home studying, we are issuing pendrives to pupils in S4, 5 & 6. Pupils wishing to download revision materials and past papers etc can obtain a pen drive from Mr Drennan in the Maths Department. They will then be able to download revision materials specific to the subjects they are studying. By doing this, pupils will have their revision materials in one central location, hopefully making it easier to study at home.

The Senior Boys Football team made it through to Round 3 of the Scottish Shield Competition, unfortunately being beaten by Largs Academy on Monday 22nd Novem-ber, 6-1. The boys had travelled to John Ogilvie High School in Hamilton for Round 1 and after 90 minutes the score was 4-4. Girvan won 3-0 on penalties. Round 2 was played at home in Victory Park and with great support from Girvan Academy pupils and staff, the boys defeated Ardrossan by a mighty 6 goals to 1. Good luck to the boys for the forthcoming Ayrshire Cup Games.

S3 Personal Safety Awareness Day

Friday 22/10/10 The S3 Personal Safety Awareness day ran on 22nd Octo-

ber 2010. This was a very successful and informative day

for both the visitors to the school and S3 pupils. Visitors

came to the school and delivered various workshops to pu-

pils. These workshops were Smoking Cessation, Alcohol

Awareness, Fire-brigade, Police and Zero Tolerance.

Mrs Brooksbank received very positive feedback from per-

sonnel running the workshops of the high standard of be-

haviour and active involvement of the pupils.

“Outstanding Achievement in Building Cleaning”

Girvan Academy was one of only 3 finalists in the whole

of Scotland nominated for an award for “Outstanding

Achievement in Building Cleaning”

Nominated by our area co-ordinators Jennifer McGill and

Colin Pyper, Girvan Academy was the only school nominated, making us “the cleanest school in Scotland?!”

Well done to Davie Hunter, Fiona McMaster and their teams.

Our Fundraising..... Over the last month, Girvan

Academy Staff and Pupils have been

heavily involved in fundraising for 4 worthwhile causes.

Have a look on our website to see

totals raised along with photographs of the events.

Wednesday 24th November 2010

Boys Dance Workshop

Professional dance and choreographer Daniel

Ang led 22 S1/2 boys in a dance workshop. The

focus was on hip/hop and break dancing, and to

help raise the profile of boys in dance.

The boys excelled themselves. They were

focused throughout the 2 hour session and all put

in performances to rival “Diversity”!

GIRVAN ACADEMY DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Further dates for 2010-2011 can be found by visiting our website at www.girvanacademy.sayr.sch.uk

November 29th November S5/6 BP Challenge Road Show December 1st December Study Leave begins for S4 Prelims G Factor Auditions begin

2nd December S4 Prelims begin S6 Photographs 9th December S5/6 Parents‟ Evening 14th December Junior Dance 16th December Senior Dance 17th December Go For Gold Reward Day 20th December G Factor Final 22nd December School Closes at 2.30 pm January 6th January 2011 School Re-opens

TO DEVELOP A LEARNING COMMUNITY:

Our Vision

• High quality learning and teaching

• High attainment

• Continuous improvementTO ASPIRE TO

• Self respect and respect for others

• Self esteem

• Personal responsibility TO PROMOTE

• More opportunities for wider achievement

• Better partnership with parents

• Greater involvement in and with local community

• A safe and stimulating environment

TO WORK FOR