Category Archives: Kemnay Academy

Kemnay Academy secure a place in “Champions in Schools National Event”

Kemnay Academy have been selected as the Aberdeenshire representative for the Champions in Schools national event in Glasgow later in May in the build up to the Commonwealth Games. This is the second year they have run the programme in school and the group were selected this year have really benefited from it. A number of schools across the Shire applied to take their group and fortunately Kemnay Academy were selected. The 8 second year pupils have already been selected who will go to the event and it should be an excellent opportunity for them to develop.

Well done to all involved and Good Luck 🙂

Greener Kemnay Design Logo Competition Winner

Greener Kemnay is a community group that was set up in 2012 to promote environmental living in the village of Kemnay.  It meets on the second Tuesday of every month.  The membership is growing.  It has a Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer, and regular members.

It has planted hundreds of trees in the village of Kemnay, many of which were planted in the school grounds.

It has run workshops on environmental lifestyles – it held a Permaculture Course, for example, in the village in March with an expert ‘permaculturalist’ visiting to teach for two days.

It is planning (with Aberdeenshire Council) walking routes through Kemnay and on the village’s outskirts;

It is planning a walking route to Inverurie, and a walking route to Kintore.

It is planning to get involved with Kemnay Academy’s school garden.

It is planning to promote growing food in community areas in the village.

It is gathering ideas for EVERY sort of environmental lifestyle improvement that could improve life in Kemnay.

 Its logo competition has been won by S3 student, Tricia Kelly.  Here’s her winning design.  Well done, Tricia.

Former pupil of Kemany Academy and Kelpies Prize winner Alex McCall visits the Writers’ Group

On Tuesday the 5th of March, Kemnay Academy Writers’ group had the privilege of a visit from Alex McCall, an ex-pupil of Kemnay Academy who is the newly published author of Attack of the Giant Robot Chickens.

Alex spoke to us about growing up and wishing to be an author for a very long time. He went into detail about the writing process, and how he went about writing his book, which won the 2013 Kelpies Prize. Now a film studies student at the University of West Scotland, Alex is the youngest winner in the history of the Kelpies Prize.

We were all delighted to have him visit us and the feedback was very positive. Iona Christie (S1) described the visit as “very funny, because of the jokes that he told”. Katie Cameron (S1) commented, “He gave us ideas on how to reach our goal of becoming an author.” Alex encouraged his audience to enter competitions and to persevere, even with work that was thought “terrible” by its author. Thiago Modena (S1) added, “It was an entertaining and educational experience, which taught us that we should never give up, even if the publishers rejected the book.”  The whole of Kemnay Academy’s Writers’ Group is very thankful to have been visited by a published author who, as a former pupil of our school, is very inspirational

Kemnay Academy win at Go4Set 2014

On 25th February two Kemnay Go4Set teams attended the Celebration and Assessment Day at Kings College in Aberdeen.  Both teams arrived sharply, leaving an hour so to set up out wonderful displays and get ready for the big assessment.  Both teams had worked very hard on the project over the past 10 weeks, spending lots of our own time on the project.  At 11:00, once our displays were all looking as good as possible, the first schools were being assessed by the judges.  At 11:15, it was our turn (Team One), so three judges from Scottish Marines, Stratosphere and Inktech Solutions.  These industry experts listened to our rehearsed presentation, and we talked them through our model and display.  Our task over the last 10 weeks consisted of four main areas, report, model, display and presentation.  We had to research ways that we could save, reuse and recycle water in our school.  In the first stages of our task we had to carry out research, to find the best possible ways to save water around our school.  We think the research was one of the hardest stages of the project, as no body in the team had any past experiences with saving, reusing and conserving water.  Over a couple of weeks, we managed to overcome over come our problem and put together a, what we thought, very strong final proposal.

 There were three prizes up for grabs, Pupil Choice, Best Team Work and Best Overall Project.  The best team work and overall project were judged by the judges but, as the name suggests, the pupil choice award was chosen by the pupils.  Each team was given an envelope with 6 voting slips in, one for each member.  They then walked around the room and made a decision on who they thought were the best.  After voting and having lunch, all of then mentors arrived.

Our mentor Kieran from Balfour Beatty who had helped us on various occasions throughout the project came to see our finally result which he was very proud of.  Once all of the mentors had had a chance to speak with their teams it was time for the moment of truth.  All of the teams were gathered at the front of the hall and John McIntyre proceeded with the award ceremony.

Torry Academy was awarded the Best Teamwork and £100 and Banchory Academy were awarded Pupil Choice and £50.  Kemnay Academy Team One (Samuel Payne, Lewis McDonald, Matthew Dailey, Ethan Gordon, Amy Emslie and Eilidh Morrison) won the best overall project, £250 and have been invited to the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh for the national final on the 16th of May.  When our team was announced we were all thrilled that we had won and that all of the hard work of the past 10 weeks had paid off.  It was a very close competition and all of the teams did very well including Kemnay Academy Team Two (Sasha Ratnayke, Beth Thomson, Rebecca Mackie, Kirsty Mclean and Alice Hepburn), who all did very well!

Matthew Dailey 2E and Lewis McDonald 2D

Kemnay Academy Italian Music Tour June 2014

Preparations for our forthcoming music tour to Lake Garda, Italy, continue with lots of rehearsals and fund raising activities.  So far members of the concert band, choir, jazz band, ceilidh band, piper and dancer have been involved in bag packing, Christmas concert, a Scottish evening and a quiz night.  The next fund raising event is a Musical Coffee Morning to be held at the Kintore Public Hall on the 22 March.  The group need funds to help buy such items as equipment and concert uniform but our biggest expenditure will be for the transportation of instruments to Italy.

A Farewell Concert will be held at the academy on the evening of 5 June.

 

Rock Challenge Success

I enjoyed Rock Challenge this year! It was my first time and it was the best day of my life! From the minute I woke up to the minute I fell asleep, I was ecstatic! It was like living in a dream running about and going mad in the AECC as I’m usually just going to see a show! All the schools were amazing this year and we had an amazing time meeting everyone! Getting third place has really made our teachers proud and our parents appreciate all the extra rehearsals and all the hard work that has gone into Rock Challenge this year. I definitely want to do Rock Challenge next year! It has been the best day of my life!

Indy Watson S2

It was my first time doing Rock Challenge. The atmosphere was just amazing; I couldn’t believe it when I was in the AECC with all the other schools. From the moment I woke up till the moment I fell asleep I was just buzzing with excitement. I knew I would be tired though. When it was our time to rehearse I was really nervous but when we were actually performing I was fine, I wasn’t nervous at all. It was the best day ever. When we were waiting for the results and getting the awards we were sitting right next to Mackie Academy and we were trying to be louder than them but I still think that they were louder but my voice was starting to hurt. When they announced 1st, 2nd and 3rd we were so happy because we came 3rd. I still have the chant in my head, I would definitely do it again next year, and I think this was the best day in my whole lifetime.

Georgia Sharp S2

Rock Challenge is probably the most unforgettable and incredible thing I have ever done in school. The build up to it was so exhilarating, we practiced every Tuesday and it was definitely the highlight of it! When the event came around, I was so excited.  I couldn’t wait to get on stage! In Rock challenge our theme was Alice in Wonderland, I was a Cheshire Cat. My face paint was amazing and my hair was crazy, nightmare to get out though! I knew quite a few people from other schools so it was great to see them. I also made a few new friends.  Everyone was so lovely and supportive. It was soon time to go on stage, I gave a 110% and made sure everything was bursting with energy and that I pointed my toes! When we came off the stage everyone was delighted with how it went! It was soon time to find out the results, we found a seat and we were screaming and chanting for Kemnay. In the end we got 10 awards and was placed 3rd. Everyone was over the moon, we couldn’t believe it! Rock Challenge was amazing, I had so much fun. It’s something I will definitely remember forever! Can’t wait to do it again next year (hopefully!)

Beth Elkin S2

Teacher Recognised as a Character Champion

We are delighted that George Clail (our Principal Teacher RMPS) has been nominated as one of Scotland’s’ first recipients of a Character Champion award.  George was presented with his award at a staff meeting on 24 March.  His nomination was made by Character Scotland to celebrate and thank him for his work in supporting the Inspire/Aspire programme and for providing students with the opportunity to explore character education.  Congratulations to George on his receipt of this award.

S1 Social Studies – Adam’s Bairns

All S1 Social Studies pupils are currently studying the topic Adam’s Bairns which is a History and Modern Studies topic.  Pupils have been studying the Forced Movement of People:  Clearances, Emigration, Refugees and Asylum Seekers, Scottish Identity and Diversity:  Who is a Scot? Immigration Past and Present, Prejudice and Discrimination:  Scottish Gypsies and Travellers.

Throughout the topic pupils are taking part in a Homework Competition.  Pupils can select Homework pieces from a list of 15 such as make a 3D model using junk, write a report on a Great Scot, write a film review, create a Refugee Camp and research “Your Scotland’s Story”.  Pupils can also create their own tasks if they have an Adam’s Bairns link.  So far the pupils have come up with some fantastic pieces of work including a model of the Highlands, a model of a Black House, a sheep, a refugee model and an Andy Murray Fact File and Quiz.

Kemnay Cluster – P7 Technology Transition Event

Kemnay Academy was again the venue for our annual P7 Technology Transition event.

Our four Cluster primary schools, Alehousewells, Kemnay, Kinellar and Kintore brought along their P7 (soon to be the new S1!) pupils for the morning.

The curricular focus is Technology, with the pupils being judged on their knowledge of structures and problem solving skills. With competitors working together with pupils from other schools for the first time, they also displayed their ability to be successful team members and effective contributors.

In groups of 5 they were set the task of designing and building high tech paper aeroplanes. Their structures were  be constructed using only paper, tape and paper clips and required to meet specific performance criteria; greatest distance, most accurate flight and most acrobatic.

S6 pupils together with younger students from the Academy were on hand to lend their support and ideas to the future Academy pupils and a fun but competitive time was had by all!

Ecuador Short Film

After returning from Ecuador this summer I decided to make a short film documenting Group 2’s experience.  Along with Bethany More and Anna Duncan we made it one evening with the intention for it to be shown at Assemblies.  Outlook Expeditions coincidentally had a Participant Video Competition running nationwide, which decided to enter.  We were very pleased to find out that we had won.  Our short film will now be shown on Outlook Expeditions website.  I also made a longer version which is available for viewing on YouTube along with Group 1’s.

Ruth Bryce, S6 KEC