Alford Academy STEM challenge

June 17, 2013 J. Aberdeenshire Leave a comment

On Friday 7 June 2013, Alford Academy hosted another highly innovative STEM Challenge which this time focused on S6 involvement, and linked to the Aberdeenshire initiative, “Be Part of the Picture”. The Challenge formed a part of the S6 Induction Event coordinated by Mrs S Ogilvie (Acting Depute Headteacher and PT Faculty Modern Languages).

Mrs Jan Holt (PT Faculty Business Education and Computing) designed the event and led a multidisciplinary team from Art and Design (Mr Moffat), Physics (Mrs Booth), Textiles (Mrs Woolley), Computing Science (Mr Scott), Business Education (Mrs Taylor), Mathematics (Mr Kerr) and HWB (Mr Cruickshank). Additional support across these areas was provided by Mr. A Spiers. The Challenge also partnered with The Robert Gordon University School of Computing Science and Digital Media, where Professor P. Holt, Dr. D. Doolan and Mr. J. McGregor led microcontrol and programming workshops.

Pupils were asked to express positive things about Aberdeenshire; people, place and environment around the themes of eFashion, Mobile Visualisation and Parallel Computation. Activities included designing and making LED bracelets – clothing with sewn in conductive materials (batteries included!) – 3D Electronic Billboards -constructed from Lego and controlled through Scratch – and iPad array displays.

Workshops were followed by group brainstorming sessions with presentations showing how the technologies could be used to contribute to “Be Part Of The Picture”. Ideas ranged from putting on an eFashion show with wearables designed around Nature in Aberdeenshire, to using 3D Lego models to capture the sophistication of Energy Technology. Feedback from pupils and staff was very positive and we look forward to next phase of this initiative.

Anna Ritchie, Burnhaven, Peterhead Central, Peterhead Cluster

Rugby Festival in the Peterhead Cluster

May 20, 2013 s. aberdeenshire Leave a comment

P6 athletes from across the Peterhead Network got together on Wednesday 15^th May for the Active Schools P6 Rugby Festival supported by Scottish Rugby Development staff. The event was held at the all-weather pitch at Catto Park and everyone was thankful that the rain stayed off for the morning!

A great day was had by all and some fantastic Rugby skills were displayed with Burnhaven School P6s being crowned the winners of the tournament and Peterhead Central School Team 2 coming in as runner ups. A special Fairplay award was also presented to Peterhead Central School Team 1 for highlighting the best example of sportsmanship on the day through respecting their team mates, opponents and referee’s decisions. Young Leaders from Anna Ritchie School were also present on the day to help the referees and each leader did an excellent job and will receive a certificate for their hard work.

The Rugby Festival was the climax of a four week block of rugby coaching that was delivered to all schools by Ross Finlay, the Ellon Rugby Development Officer. Active Schools Coordinator for the Peterhead Primary Network area Caitlin Dudley was delighted with the turnout of schools and the standard of play and sportsmanship throughout all teams and added: “Our thanks go to the Ellon Rugby Development officer and his colleagues for making today possible. It is fantastic to see so many pupils in Peterhead getting involved in sport and having fun! The effort of the pupils was a great reflection of the ongoing work by Active Schools & SportScotland to not only improve participation levels but to also promote competitive sport in a positive manner.”

Well done to all involved 🙂

Alford Academy, Alford Cluster

2013 Transition Event at Alford Academy

May 16, 2013 J. Aberdeenshire Leave a comment

WeDo Stories From Scratch at Alford Academy
As part of the primary to secondary transition programme, Alford Academy hosted a P7 STEM Challenge for 120 primary pupils on 10^th May 2013. The event had at its core the tradition of Storytelling but through the idea of construction, construction, construction! The day was organised to provide a set of seamlessly integrated activities that involved building 3D Lego characters, constructing storyboards, coding computer programs with interface and control to the Lego objects; all to tell ‘living’ stories. The Games Hall was transformed into a hive of workstations equipped with writing materials, storyboards, display boards, laptops and lego kits at which groups of up to 7 pupils could work together on the construction of their living stories. As pupils got to grips with the task, 14 of our S3 pupils dressed in Disney themed costumes took charge and taught the youngsters how to create simple animations in Scratch, use of the school laptops and ways of interfacing and controlling the lego characters. S5/6 pupils also came along to assist Mrs Lees and Guidance staff with school tours. The WeDo storytelling event was planned and coordinated by Mrs Holt, PT Faculty Business Education and Computing, who was joined by an interdisciplinary team from Business Education (Mrs Taylor), Computing Science (Mr Scott), Modern Languages (Mrs Barclay), Mathematics (Mr Kerr), Physical Education (Mr Cruickshank), English (Mrs Shearer) and Drama and Media Studies (Mr Coston). Mrs Shearer and Mr Coston led the storyboarding activity and provided opportunities for pupils to talk about and share their ideas with all involved. Final animations were judged and pupils received awards according to how well they had worked as a team, the quality of story design and construction and the animated control of the lego WeDo; all of which mapped to core skills in literacy, numeracy and health and well being. Feedback has been very positive and the organising team are delighted with the outcome. Our P7 pupils can pat themselves on the back for their excellent participation and say with pride: Didn’t WeDo well!

Peterhead Academy, Peterhead Cluster

P6 Pupils from Peterhead – Young Leaders of the future

May 10, 2013 s. aberdeenshire Leave a comment

P6 pupils from across the Peterhead Network had the exciting opportunity to complete the Young Leaders Award this term which focuses on developing leadership skills such as organisation, communication and teamwork, as well as helping to develop confidence and self-esteem. The P6 Young Leaders will be able to use these skills in the playground and during PE lessons to coach games to younger pupils, helping Active Schools with their fundamental aim – to provide more children with the motivation and opportunities to adopt active and healthy lifestyles Active Schools Coordinator for the Peterhead Primary Network, Caitlin Dudley said “The P6 pupils have all really enjoyed the training and are looking forward to developing their coaching skills and confidence when teaching the younger pupils. This award is a great tool for teaching the pupils a range of skills that they will be able to use during their transition into Secondary School and in later life as well as getting them involved in helping the younger pupils become more active. Congratulations to all of the Young Leaders that passed the award!” She also points out that this opportunity would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication from the S5-6 Sports Leaders from Peterhead Academy who delivered the training to the P6s as part of a peer-education scheme, “Having the S5-6 pupils deliver the training really gave the P6s a level to aspire to”. Malcolm Grant Active Schools and Community Officer for Buchan also said “The senior pupils who have been involved in the Community Sports Leaders programme at Peterhead Academy will benefit from their coaching experiences well beyond their time at the school. The skills they have developed in relation to communication, planning, assessing and delivering the Young Leaders programme to the Primary pupils will serve them well as their future careers develop.”

Well done to all involved 🙂

Kemnay Academy

Kemnay Academy:Young Writers’ The Poetry Games Success

April 21, 2013 J. Aberdeenshire Leave a comment

Three Kemnay Academy pupils are to have their work published following their success in a poetry writing competition. Young Writers received thousands of entries from across the UK for The Poetry Games. Jack Bedborough (S2), Lee Aitken (S3) and Ewan Guild (S4) will now have their poems appear in The Poetry Games – Scotland & Wales anthology, a complimentary copy of which is to be sent to the school in recognition of their achievement. Staff and pupils alike will therefore be able to see in print Law and Order, Bagpipes and A Farmer’s Life, written by Jack, Ewan and Lee respectively. Young Writers has been publishing poetry for two decades and winners of the competition were selected based on “perception, imagination, expression and creative use of language”. Staff of Kemnay Academy are extremely proud of our writers and wish to congratulate the three young poets.

Kemnay Academy, Mintlaw Cluster

Mintlaw and Kemnay Academies scooping awards in National Event

April 21, 2013 J. Aberdeenshire Leave a comment

Kemnay Academy’s ROV team came third once again in a hotly contested competition. The scores were very close between the top 3 and no one really knew what the outcome would be until the announcements were made. Mintlaw Academy won and Menzieshill High from Dundee came second.
The project was sponsored by BP and each entry received £300 to cover the costs of the project.
The Kemnay team comprised S6 students, Peter Mitchell, Gavin Mackenzie and Martin Thomson and S5 student, Liam Miller, won £200 as a prize and certificates.

Kemnay Academy

S3 Students at Kemnay Academy in National Finals

April 21, 2013 J. Aberdeenshire Leave a comment

Kemnay Academy is delighted that a group of S3 students has won through to the National final of the Poppy Scotland Moving Stories Competition 2012. The team is one of two National finalists. Earlier in the session they created a video during their RMPS lessons to coincide with Remembrance Day and submitted this for the competition. Next month, professional film-makers will spend 2 days with the students shooting a high quality version of their film.

Banchory Cluster

P7 pupils get together in Hill of Banchory PS

April 6, 2013 J. Aberdeenshire Leave a comment

P7 pupils from Strachan, Durris and Drumoak primary schools met up at Hill of Banchory primary school to work to gether on an animation project.

The pupils were given only 2 hours to introduce each other, setup, storyboard, implement and edit an animation using I Can Animate software.

The finished videos are shown below, can you guess the theme?

[kml_flashembed movie="https://wikis.glowscotland.org.uk/@api/deki/files/63963/=Animation_Station_4-Clip6.flv" width="400" height="400" allowfullscreen="true" /]

Kemnay Academy

Writers’ Group Reading @Kemnay Academy

March 27, 2013 s. aberdeenshire 1 Comment

Several of our writers showcased their talent at a reading held in the school library on Tuesday, February 5^th. Featuring members of various year groups, the event included both poetry and prose pieces. Ailie Keddie, Lee Aitken and Ewan Guild entertained with poems they’d written, whilst Rebecca Newman read one of her short stories.

Ewan, who also contributed to the reading with the prologue to a longer piece of his, later reflected on the day: “It was an excellent opportunity to share our work with others – an opportunity I will gladly seize again.”

The group continue to work on new projects and are enthusiastically welcoming new members to their weekly meetings. Our next focus is to post our pieces on Kemnay Academy’s Writers’ Blog, which can be accessed through Glow at https://wikis.glowscotland.org.uk/0002985/English. Miss Hall, English

Kemnay Academy

Kemnay Academy Glow Team Update Christmas to Spring 2013

March 27, 2013 s. aberdeenshire Leave a comment

“Lead by Excellence”

Recently the academy pupils undertook a small survey to see how the Academy Glow Team could benefit the learning of each person in the Academy. The surveys were filled in during registration and were collated into the GLOW REPORT SESSION 2011-12. A PowerPoint of the responses can be viewed on the Academy website. The team hope to get feedback from pupils on the changes that have be made to Glow in this session 2012-13 by the national team. The Academy was commended by the Cabinet Secretary recently as a “credit to the education system. The work by Kemnay Academy Glow Team shows the stellar leadership of the group and shows the next generation making great changes in education and Glow“. All stakeholders along with Dr Hunter and staff should be encouraged by this.

As pupils are aware, the Scottish Government are looking at ICT in Education and how they can support it. The Cabinet Secretary asked Professor Muffy Calder to conduct a review process into the use of ICT in Education. Her report had been submitted and parents and pupils across Scotland can view the report on the following site: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Education/Schools/SSDN/ExcellenceGroupReport.

Kemnay Academy Glow Team has given feedback on the recommendations of the report. The new Glow portal, Stage One, was rolled out to all Aberdeenshire schools in early December. The Glow team is currently training pupils on it. We encourage pupils to get involved and help us make this a good resource for the next generation.

Finally, the Academy has great resources for exam revision and and I encourage each pupil to have user names and passwords to allow use of them at home. Updates of the Academy’s work on Glow will be included in future newsletters. The next few moths will see us conduct our second annual Glow report.

I would like to thank the Academy’s faculty PTs, staff, pupils, SMT and Dr Hunter for the continued support they give the Team.

Kieran Swanson (S5), Head of Glow Team.