Category Archives: Kemnay Cluster

Young Health Leaders @Kemany Academy

This year a group of S5 and S6 students have formed a group called “Young Health Leaders”. As a group our aim is to try and improve health within our school, we do this by making the staff and pupils aware of the nutritional values of the food they are consuming and by offering them healthier alternatives for these foods.  This year we targeted oral health in particular.  We have accomplished several tasks throughout the year so far, including going to Inverurie Academy to meet the Young Health Leaders of other schools and getting the chance to brainstorm ideas about health issues in our schools and local communities.  This year the S5 leaders were put in charge of promoting healthier alternatives for food and making all members of Kemnay Academy aware of what was in the food they were consuming.  This task was completed through the use of posters in the canteens and around the school.

An S5 leader also created a healthy eating booklet which offered several healthy recipes that could be made at home and some interesting facts about which foods are good for you and which foods are better to avoid.  On each page it also informed the reader if the recipe was high in phosphorus, calcium, vitamin D, or low in sugar.  Some of the other S6 leaders created an oral health campaign which they presented to the S1 pupils.  This campaign gave the S1 pupils information on the best way to clean their teeth, on how to spot signs of any problems in the mouth which could lead to disease in the future and also told them the best foods to avoid with alternatives available.                                                                                             Joanne Findlay S6

Tree-mendous Effort @Kemany Academy

Pupils and staff at the Academy were joined by local folk to plant trees in Kemnay on Sunday (March 17).

Very rainy weather, plus sleet, did not deter Keren Lovie, Nathan Di Marco, Catherine Chadbourn, Emma Thomson, Isobel Thomson, and Ewan Guild joining teachers Mr Bayliss, Mrs McGregor, and Mrs Tumelty in planting trees in and around the Academy area.

The tree-planting event was organised by local group, Greener Kemnay, and saw some two dozen people – local residents, guides, and family of the pupils and staff – plant hundreds of trees around the village.

A Scottish Baccalaureate First for Kemnay Academy

This year two S6 students, Fergus Milne and Alistair Mackay, have been working on the Scottish Baccalaureate in Science.  This unique course is only open to students that are studying two science subjects at Advanced Higher level, along with an additional Higher subject.  The Baccalaureate project involves researching and collating information on a topic of the pupil’s choice, in preparation for a final presentation.  The presentation itself can take any form – it can be a written report, a talk, a video, or anything else that the student can come up with.  However, the majority of the work for the Baccalaureate lies in the many reports and progress reviews that the student has to complete throughout the course.

The topic that Alistair has chosen for his project is ‘Food Sustainability’.  This involves looking into the amount of food we consume in our culture and the inefficient practices inherent to their production.  Fergus’ topic charts ‘The Development of Prosthetics’, following the changing nature of artificial limbs through history from wooden Egyptian toes to thought-controlled bionic legs.  Alistair has chosen to present his findings in the form of a written report, while Fergus is planning to give an oral presentation to a group of students of different ages.

Great work from the Kemnay Cluster

The Energy Apprentice

Four S5 pupils participated in this competition run by SPE & ICOTA which asked them to come up with an innovative idea of how more of the oil & gas in the current reservoirs could be extracted. The team spent time researching the oil & gas sector and before presenting their unique idea to a panel of industry experts (as well as the other school teams and teachers) who then judged the competition. The boys came a very close second.

Go4Set

The launch for Go4Set has taken place with Balfour Beatty sponsoring a team of S2 pupils with a possible second team participating depending on sponsorship. The focus is Energy Use and links with work being carried out for the Eco Schools award in addition to work in Science. There are two S6 Advanced Higher pupils mentoring the teams who have 10 weeks to research energy management and conservation, visit a partner company to find out what they do, do an energy audit and report with recommendations. The presentation of projects is on 4 Feb 2013.

Enterprise is the Business

This years P7 “Enterprise is the Business” event took place on Wed, 21 Nov, at Kintore Primary and involved ten S3 pupils helping to run the bank and the shop for the event along with five local business people who are the ‘buyers’ of the pupils products. This event gave pupils the chance to work as a team (mixed from the four schools) to start up and run their own business for a day. The sales person from the team had to then try to sell the groups products to the buyer for the most profit. Prizes were awarded for the most profit and for the highest quality products.

Dr Charlie Hunter: HT Kemnay Academy

Government recognition of work by Kemnay Academy Student Glow Committee

Last session Kemnay Academy reached a milestone with GLOW. The Academy team submitted and wrote the first ever Kemnay Academy GLOW report for what the Academy use GLOW for in the day to day running as well as the attainment of pupils and parents using Glow during the last session. Before the summer break the team met with MSP’s and Aberdeenshire officials to take forward the ideas featured in the report. I am pleased to inform pupils that after many meetings last session the GLOW team got a reply from the cabinet secretary and he called the Academy “A credit to education in Scotland” for writing the report and taking it to his officials. The Academy strives to become one of the top schools using GLOW in Aberdeenshire and in Scotland to help us the Government along with myself are running a survey that will be in registration folders for all pupils and staff to have a say on GLOW. The new GLOW has been unveiled and the team in the coming months will keep you updated with developments. I will be inviting pupils and staff to view the new GLOW in December 2012

Surveys go out in November. This information will go to create a second Academy GLOW report and will be available for all to view.

Kieran Swanson S5

Kemnay Academy to recycle all its food waste

Kemnay Academy’s ability to recycle all its food waste took a giant leap forward in June when

our electric composting machine – called The Rocket – was switched on.

Staff at the Academy were shown how to use the machine by Glasgow-based environmentalist Frank McMaster, who uses a Rocket – which is a brand name – in the college where he teaches.

Kemnay Academy will be the first academy in Aberdeenshire to recycle all its food waste.  The resulting compost will be used on its garden that grows potatoes, cabbages, neeps, and other vegetables. 

The Academy currently produces approximately 60kg of food waste from its canteen, snack machines, HE department and in staff bases every week.

Teachers from the Academy’s RMPS department which set up the garden three years ago and the composting scheme 18 months ago were trained in the use of the Rocket by Mr McMaster.

Teacher of RMPS, George Clail, said:

“We’re thrilled to be getting this training, and being able to use the Rocket.

“The idea that we, as a school, can recycle all our food waste is exciting in itself.  But we’re showing youngsters in this area what can be done with food waste – something that is part of their everyday lives – and that is educational in a fundamental sense of the word.”

Mr Clail concluded:

“This is exciting not just for the school, but for the community as well, as we at the Academy would like to invite local people to get involved with our garden and composting projects.”

Mr M Bayliss

Kemnay Academy Celebration of Engineering and Science 2012

Representatives from Kemnay Academy Young Engineers Club went to the Glasgow Science Centre on the 8 June to participate in a “Celebration of Engineering and Science”.  This event hosted many YE teams from all over Scotland.

Each team had a display of their projects.  Judges evaluated teamwork, presentation and challenge presented in the projects.  Kemnay Academy’s young engineers had a submersible ROV which came third in the MATEROV competition in March, a Makerbot 3D printer that was given to the school be the Scottish Council for Development and Industry to promote new technology in schools and a Rampaging Chariot that is one of two that Kemnay Academy YE have built.

The ROV is made up of plastic pipes for its chassis and has attached tools, propellers and camera’s to make it operational.  It is controlled via a control box.  The Makerbot uses melted plastic to build up layers when it is printing 3D objects and receives its instructions from a program on a laptop that is used to input the objects dimensions.  The rampaging chariot uses two handheld drills to power the wheels and a remote control to operate it.

We had to depart from Kemnay at around 6.00am to arrive at the Glasgow Science Centre and set up our projects ready for judging at 10am.  When the judges arrived we showed them our projects and provided them with a good presentation.  As part of the event companies and universities provided a competition based on mini challenges.  We did six 3min problem solving challenges such as controlling pumps and valves to pump a liquid into a cylinder and building up deep sea pipes that were made up by oil companies like Shell.  We had our lunch and then headed off to the IMAX theatre for the awards ceremony.  Our Makerbot won a prize for the most interesting shape prize.  After the awards ceremony we headed home and discussed ideas to improve our projects further.  From the young engineers club we have all gained teamwork skills and improved our problem solving when it comes to engineering new things.

Martin Thomson S5

Well done to all involved 🙂

Top Prize for Kemnay Academy Pupil

On Tuesday, 12 June, I was invited by Ms Jones to attend the Achievement in Community and Education Awards to present Darlene Dent (S6) with a Student of Excellence Award. I have worked alongside Darlene for several years at Rock Challenge and during our time on Expedition in Borneo, therefore, I was honoured to be asked by Ms Jones to present Darlene with her award.

Darlene was nominated for a Student of Excellence Award for several reasons which I outlined in speech on the evening. These included her positive attitude, service to Rock Challenge, contribution as prefect, house
6 captain and prom committee member, commitment to fund raising, her academic success and leadership and commitment to the Borneo expedition. Thank you, Darlene, for all the hard work that you have contributed to Kemnay Academy overyour six years. I wish you all the best for the future. 🙂

 

Miss G Cameron
History

Kemnay Academy Teenage Reading Month Book Review Success

Ewan Guild was winner of the Teenage Reading Month Book Review Competition. The competition took place in March this year, and is an Aberdeenshire Libraries initiative, sponsored by Total.

Teenage Reading Month aims to promote reading and showcase the huge selection of books being published with young adults in mind. 

Ewan reviewed “Floors” by  Patrick Carman . He was presented with a copy of the book and a certificate by Fiona Gillies of Aberdeenshire Libraries and a £50 book token by Virginie Jegat of Total.

Mrs Power

Librarian

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Kemnay Academy Drama Elective Wins the Day ……in French!

The S1 Drama Elective was offered the chance to perform a play in French. Being a merry band of seven, they jumped at the opportunity to perform to a live audience.

As part of their skill building, they had improvised a piece called The Pit.  With the help of their Drama teacher, Mr Ross, the sketch was carefully scripted in English then translated into French by the Modern Language Department.  The Pit, a story of alien invasion, became “La Fosse” and several weeks of rehearsals began to ensure costume, effects and lighting were correct, not to mention pronunciation and voice projection in a second language.

La Fosse was entered into a French theatre competition open to schools across the North East called Rencontres Théâtrales.  It was organised by the the Institut Français d’Écosse, based in Edinburgh.

The event took place on 28th March in Bucksburn Academy and we were delighted when our Kemnay team won the senior competition and £200 sponsored by Total and presented by the Franco-Scottish Society of Aberdeen.

It only remains to thank the pupils of the S1Drama Elective for performing so brilliantly on the day and doing their French and Drama skills proud.  Thanks also go to Mr Ross for allowing his elective to take a detour for a number of weeks.

Ms Ellson

Principal Teacher of Modern Languages