Twenty pupils and staff had an educational residential visit to Dumfries House estate last week.  The purpose of the visit was to enable S4 Business Management pupils to undertake their National 5 coursework assignment.  Wednesday afternoon was spent team building with outdoor instructors.  This took place at the Manoukian centre where Richard and Duncan, the enthusiastic outdoor instructors, put pupils through some physical and mentally challenging tasks.   Wet and exhausted the pupils enjoyed warm showers before tucking into a lovely dinner freshly prepared by the estate chefs.  The chocolate cake was a firm favourite!    The evening programme included people bingo and the business decision game spaghetti challenge.

After a good night’s sleep day 2 involved pupils visiting the Coach House Cafe, the Games Hall, the Lodge Guest House and finding out about Events within Dumfries House where managers of these areas gave pupils business information, tours and answered pupils previously prepared business questions. Pupils were well prepared and asked managers some challenging business questions.  Next pupils took part in some of the daily routine tasks which take place in these areas or were given specific tasks to work on.  It was then back to the Manoukian centre for lunch.  After lunch, pupils conducted market research on the estate, asking visitors to the estate about their expectations and experiences.   As ever, Auchinleck Academy pupils were commended on their excellent behaviour and their willingness to take part and help each other.  Mrs Campbell and Mrs Hammersley would like to thank all of the staff at Dumfries estate for giving their time and making our pupils feel so welcome.  Back at school lots of effort will be put into creating their reports for the SQA exam.