Charity Committee

July 2, 2013 s. aberdeenshire Leave a comment

The committee rounded off a successful year with the annual Golf Day held at Kemnay Golf Club on 24 June. Seventeen teams from a wide range of organisations played in a Texas Scramble with the winning teams being Anderson Bain and Kemnay Pupils. Callum Scott (S3) won the Nearest the Pin competition. The day raised over £1200. We were grateful for sponsorship from Arcadion, Jasmine Holdings and Morrison Construction. There will be a cheque presentation to our three focus charities at the Senior Achievement Ceremony on 4 July. A small group from the committee were able to show their promotional DVD to new S6 pupils on their induction day. They are to be congratulated for the time and effort they have put into producing this. Social responsibility is high on the academy’s agenda and the Charity Committee offers senior pupils the opportunity to develop leadership and public speaking skills and to take ownership of organising a wide range of innovative events and challenges to raise much needed funds for local charities.

A new committee for 2013/2014 has already been formed and the main focus will be funding Emergency Boxes for disaster areas around the world. This will involve the academy working closely with Kintore Rotary Club.

Well done to all involved 🙂

Kemnay Academy

Poppy Scotland Video Competition

July 2, 2013 s. aberdeenshire Leave a comment

We entered Poppy Scotlands moving story competition in November 2012. The S3 class worked really hard on ideas about what remembrance meant to them. We came up with a theme first and the idea that we wanted it to be a positive and “joyful” message about our personal freedoms. We then worked on story boards in groups and agreed as a class to include the best ideas from each group. A script was the next job and Max Mackay (our producer/director) got to work on the technical side of things. We then started filming and were very pleased with the final product. We got it posted just before the deadline and hoped for the best.

We were thrilled when we heard we had been short listed to the final two – along with Kinlochbervie. This meant we would spend two days with a professional film maker getting to reshoot our film. The pupils really enjoyed this opportunity and were involved with lighting sound and filming as well as interviewing Tom Rooney and Gordon Rae who agreed to take part.

Then the public vote started! We waited for nearly three weeks knowing that it was too close to call and then the email came on the 28th June telling us that we had won. We were all very excited, and I was very pleased that the pupil’s hard work and effort had been recognised and rewarded.

“Winning the Poppy Scotland Video Competition is a superb achievement for our young people and I’m very proud indeed of the sensitivity and respect for service men and women, past and present, that they’ve shown in it.

Their experience will be a lasting one. I’m looking forward to using the video to support next year’s poppy appeal and remembrance day.”

Dr Hunter, Rector

Kemnay Academy, Uncategorized

Electro-fishing Event

July 2, 2013 s. aberdeenshire Leave a comment

Kemnay Academy pupils enjoy as the River Don Trust demonstrates electro-fishing.

On Thursday 20 June, Jamie Urquhart and Steve Murphy from the River Don Trust visited the academy to demonstrate to S1 pupils the work they carry out. Pupils headed to the river to watch as the two showed pupils the electro- fishing. The process which temporarily stuns juvenile fish with a small shock is used to calculate river populations and assists with water quality and pollution monitoring. All captured fish are quickly returned to the river, unharmed.

Jamie Urquhart from the trust said, “Each year we carry out a regular survey at each village along the Don. We cover all 82 miles of the river and aim to enhance bio-diversity. We are a charity organisation based at Cluny Castle. I enjoy my job as I am a fisherman myself.”

The trust focuses on different points from the start of the river to the finish, especially concentrating on places like sewage pipes. On the day, the pupils saw many types of fish, salmon, trout and lamprey just to name a few. All pupils who took part in the event enjoyed it thoroughly and some said the fish felt ‘smooth’ others saying ‘slimy’.

Mathematics teacher Peter Gibson said, “It was good to see pupils engaging directly with the environment and learning of the contribution that Mathematics and the Sciences make in understanding the natural world to which we belong. Many thanks to Jamie and Steven from the Don Trust, for running the event so well and whose expertise and enthusiasm were wonderful reward for the pupils’ hard work throughout S1.”

Lee Aitken

Well done to all involved 🙂

Kemnay Academy

Youth Philanthropy Initiative (YPI) Scotland National Event 2013

July 2, 2013 s. aberdeenshire Leave a comment

This year’s YPI Final for Kemnay Academy was won by Isobel Thomson and Sarah-Jane Christie from Bennachie House. Their chosen charity was ‘Riding for the Disabled’ (Gordon Branch).

Further to their success, the girls and Ms Donaldson were invited to attend the YPI Scotland National Event at Perth Concert Hall on Wednesday 19^th June 2013. The event was held to celebrate the successes of all the winning teams across Scotland, and for those that helped to make it happen. At present there are over 80 schools participating across all Local Authorities in Scotland.

The audience were entertained by Aberdeen singer/songwriter Myke Black, with the headline act being Sandi Thom. The guest speaker was Katherine Grainger, Britain’s most successful female rower, who won Olympic Gold at the London 2012 Olympics. Ms Grainger was appointed CBE this year for services to rowing, and her Olympic achievements make her the first female British athlete – in any sport – to gain medals in four consecutive Olympic Games. The girls, and Ms Donaldson, were photographed with Ms Grainger as can be seen in the photographs below.

Photograph of the winners and Ms Donaldson with Olympic Gold Medal Winner Katherine Grainger at the YPI Scotland National Event at Perth Concert Hall, June 2013.

Kemnay Academy

European Netball Championships

July 2, 2013 s. aberdeenshire Leave a comment

A small group of S1 and S2 girls attended the European Netball Championships at Aberdeen Sports Village on Friday, 31 May. This was their chance to see top class netball and get a few autographs from some of the best players. Louise Dorrington, Caitlin Robbie, Tricia Kelly, Hannah Power and Xenoa Campbell-Ledgister watched 3 matches and said: ‘’We really enjoyed it! They were really skilful and it was very fast! The netball was entertaining and exciting – the best match was Wales against England!’

Kemnay Academy, Uncategorized

RGC/Albyn Invitational Athletics Championships

July 2, 2013 s. aberdeenshire Leave a comment

On 16 May a team of 30 S1 – 3 pupils competed in the inter-school Athletics Championships at the Sports Village. This was the first occasion a team from Kemnay competed at these championships and with some outstanding individual performances the team achieved 8th place out a total of 19 competing teams. S1 pupils: Alix Still achieved 1st place in both the 100m and the long jump; Laurie Allardes achieved 2nd place in the high jump with Caitlin Gray winning points for the team in 8th place; S2 pupils: Caitlin Robbie and Louise Dorrington won points in the shot and the 1500m respectively, achieving 6th place while Mason Reid was narrowly beaten into 4th place in his 1500m race; S3 pupils: Douglas Young had an outstanding meet by achieving 2nd place in the 1500m and 5th place in the shot; Cara MacKenzie came 3rd and Emily Cossar 5th in the 100m and Emily also came 4th in the long jump. The relay teams all performed well with both the S3 boys and S3 girls winning points. All pupils were a credit to Kemnay Academy in their attitude and behaviour – well done to all the team! Following her outstanding performance in the long jump, Alix was selected to represent South Grampian in the inter-district team championships.

Kemnay Academy

Rock Challenge Scottish Final

July 2, 2013 s. aberdeenshire Leave a comment

The thunderous cheering begins to blow the roof off the Dundee Caird Hall. Arbroath High has been awarded yet another prize, one of a string of prizes they go on to win. Chatting and laughing with my friends, I am not paying a lot of attention to the stage: after all, we were at the Rock Challenge Scottish Finals not to win, but to show the schools what Kemnay Academy was made of, and to have a good time. We had had such fun during the day, dancing with other schools in the Morning Production Meeting, munching on pizza together before our final show preparation; we weren’t overly focussed on winning the most amount of prizes. Being the lighting director and working on the administration side of Rock Challenge, I had never felt I was overly important in the scheme of things; there was dancing, choreography, set, costume all of which I believe were more important than me. So when an award-presenter on-stage announces that the Lighting Design Award has been given to Kemnay Academy, our school erupts with screams and cheers of surprise and joy – and I was in utter shock.

I had won an award, completely off my own back, and it lifted the school’s spirits infinitely. Knowing we had made our mark at the Rock Challenge Scottish Finals was a great achievement, and furthermore knowing that it was me who had made that mark, boosted my self-esteem. I realised then that no matter what role you play in a Rock Challenge performance, whether you are the main character such as the Dictator, or if you painted one tree on one piece of set: every single member is important, and without the joint effort of everyone we could never pull off the performances that we do. Rock Challenge is and will continue to be a staple in the diet of the pupils of our school, from S2 up to their final days at school. If nothing else, Rock Challenge helps you to take part in something great, learn new skills, and most of all, to make life-long friends.

Eilidh Maclachlan

Kemnay Academy

S3 History Fundraising Success

July 2, 2013 s. aberdeenshire Leave a comment

S3 History pupils have been studying the topic of Genocide and in particular the country of Cambodia. Part of this study involved looking at the work of Handicap International and how they help landmine victims.

The pupils created a raising awareness campaign and were involved in presenting at school assemblies. Across the three S3 History classes, various fundraising activities were carried out including an Easter hamper, sponsored silence, guess the birthday, guess how many sweets are in the jar and a Landmines Challenge. The Landmines Challenge was a success in particular as it gave both the pupils and teachers who competed an idea about how everyday life can be a challenge for landmine victims.

In total £302.21 was raised across the various activities. Thank you to all the staff and pupils who contributed as this money will help many landmine victims in Cambodia.

Meldrum Cluster, Old Rayne

Old Rayne Retains its Fairtrade School Status

July 1, 2013 s. aberdeenshire Leave a comment

Old Rayne School were delighted to find out that they have retined their Fair Trade Status by organised the events below;

Ran Fairtrade stalls at our school Harvest, St Andrew’s Day, Burns Day, Fair-trade Fortnight and Easter Community cafés. We also serve Fairtrade tea, coffee and sugar at these cafés.

Ran two school stalls at the Old Rayne Christmas Fair in the Lawrence Hall, one for Christmas Traidcraft products and the other sold Fairtrade Chocolate Brownie mix in jars and Fairtrade cookies and truffles that we made. They were very popular!

Celebrated Fairtrade Fortnight 2013

Created Fairtrade art work – necklaces and banners

African Drumming workshop with Chief Chebe

A lady who represented Traidcraft visited each class

A man from a company called Koolskools gave us an assembly about Fairtrade cotton

We baked all helped make a Fairtrade cake and put it in a competition called The Fair Bake.

We recycled our Fairtrade wrappers to make a sculpture. We uploaded a photo of the sculpture to the Fairtrade Foundation website and we won 3^rd prize.

We had a healthy Fairtrade tuck shop everyday in the hall for all the pupils and staff in the school

This evidence from the session was collated and submitted to the Fairtrade Foundation and last week the school heard news from the Foundation that Old Rayne School have retained its Fairtrade School status.

Mrs Fiona Eaton
Head Teacher

Well done to all involved 🙂

Mill o' Forest

Mill O’ Forest : Giant Walking Bus

June 17, 2013 J. Aberdeenshire Leave a comment

All the schools made large, colourful banners with slogans and pictures to take on our Walking Bus for the community to see as we walked. We walked through the community and met in our local park. On our Giant Walking Bus, we displayed 20 different road signs and road safety questions. The pupils of the Mill O’ Forest Eco Committee selected and painted the road signs, chose the questions and distributed answer sheets to the other schools. Then, all the pupils from three community schools (nearly 1000 pupils!) were able to see the signs and take part in our Road Safety Quiz.

A winning entry will be selected the Eco Committee and a prize, linked to travelling safely, will be sent out. Mearns FM Radio let the Eco Committee use their equipment to read the answers for the Quiz. We wanted all the pupils to learn on the day and the quiz helped them to be able to identify important signs that they might find as they walk, cycle or ride in the car.

Finally, a vote of thanks and congratulations was given by one of the three councillors who had joined with us on our Walking Bus. A very successful day – and the rain stayed off for just long enough! It was great to have so many members of the community working together to promote BRAKE and road safety in our town. (Teachers, Parents, Councillors, Police Officers, Traffic Wardens). We were delighted to see our efforts recognised at a national level by BRAKE on their Giant Walking Bus Thank You Bulletin which was sent out on Friday 14th June 2013.

Mill O’ Forest Primary School is logging the day as our annual Day of Eco Action under the Transport heading.

This evidence from the session was collated and submitted to the Fairtrade Foundation and last week the school heard news from the Foundation that Old Rayne School have retained its Fairtrade School status.

Mrs Fiona Eaton Head Teacher

Well done to all involved 🙂

Mrs Fiona Eaton
Head Teacher