The school will be open as normal for staff & pupils on Friday 27th May.

Monday 30th May is a school holiday.

Auchinleck Academy are hosting a Mary’s Meals Backpack collection to be completed by 31^st May. If you can spare ANY of the following items, please hand into school office by then.

Old backpack, crayons, pencil cases,  towels, spoons, flip flops or sandals, skirts/shorts or dress, t-shirts, rulers, toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, small ball e.g. tennis ball, pencils, eraser, sharpeners, notepad/jotter.

https://www.marysmeals.org.uk/get-involved/the-backpack-project/

This term a committee of staff and pupils at Auchinleck Academy has been working together to obtain their recognition of commitment which is the first step in achieving Unicef’s Rights Respecting School Award.

The award started in 2006 and to date Unicef works with over 4000 schools in the UK. Unicef UK supports schools to embed the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. There are forty-five articles or rights which all children should receive.

In order to achieve their recognition of commitment the committee members at Auchinleck Academy have been working hard to raise awareness of children’s rights and the award. Members of the committee held special assemblies to inform the whole school community about their work. There are also visual displays throughout the school highlighting particular rights. It has also been decided that each week there will be a focus on one right and that this will be shared in the daily bulletin and on the school Twitter account. The committee have highlighted the rights which they feel are most important to the pupils of Auchinleck Academy and they will begin with these.

Committee members were also keen that children’s rights should feature in the school curriculum. Inserts will therefore be developed for the English, RME and PSE courses.

The work of the committee has struck a chord with two pupils whose relative, a little girl called Layla Anderson, has been diagnosed with kidney cancer. Angelina Scott (S2) and Rachel Scott (S6), sisters and both members of the committee, explained that Layla is only fourteen months old and is currently undergoing treatment. They were very keen that the committee raised funds to support Layla at this time. The girls held a raffle for signed Ayr United and Kilmarnock football strips; had a ‘guess the teddy’s name’ fundraiser and they hosted a whole school bake sale. Their endeavours raised over £200 for Layla. Head Teacher, Mr Gilchrist commented: “I am delighted with the work initiated by our committee in taking us on an exciting journey towards accreditation as a Rights Respecting School. I am also very proud of Rachel and Angelina who have already shown real care and concern for a younger child and determination in taking forward aspects of several Rights of the Child through this fundraising initiative. Well done girls!”

The committee hopes to achieve the recognition of commitment by the end of this school session. This will place Auchinleck Academy securely on the path to becoming accredited as a Rights Respecting School.

Thank you to everyone who ordered from our Book Club in March. Our latest Scholastic Book Club is now online at http://schools.scholastic.co.uk/auchinleck-academy. There are hundreds of fantastic children’s books to choose from, and every £1 you spend on this month’s Book Club will earn 20p for our school in Scholastic Rewards.

Please place your order online or by handing the printed order form and payment to Miss McGill in the School Library or your English teacher by May 20th, 2016

On Thursday 20th April we hosted the Quarter Final Glasgow Science Festival K’Nex Challenge. This is a national competition that our cluster participate in each year, and is an excellent opportunity for Primary 6 pupils to engage with engineering, problem solving and team work.  The first stage of the competition took place in Primary schools across our cluster. The winning team from these heats were then invited to participate in the quarter final challenge in Auchinleck Academy.

This year, the teams were asked to construct a go-kart – whilst adhering to strict technical design criteria. The teams were also constrained by a tough time limit of only one. All teams were able to successfully meet the design brief and our judges – Mr Tickner, Mr Richardson and Miss Brien, were very impressed by the standards achieved by all teams on the day.

Congratulations to Ethan Frew and Scott Kirkland from Ochiltree Primary who were the declared the winning team. The boys were able to impress the judges with how creatively they had interpreted the design brief and how confidently they presented their design ideas. Arran Hall and Dylan Welsh from Drongan Primary came a close second with a very solid Go-Kart design. A big well done to all who took part, it was a very worthwhile event that was enjoyed by all.

The winning team from Ochiltree Primary will now move on to the next stage in the competition and will represent the Auchinleck Cluster at the regional semi-finals in May.

The Minutes from the recent Parent Council meeting are available to view on the Parent Council Section of the website.

The next meetings of the Parent Council will be held on Tuesday 3rd May and Wednesday 1st June.

Anyone wishing to find out more information or become a member of the Parent Council is encouraged to attend on Wednesday 1st June.

We are introducing a new more convenient way to pay for school meals, trips and more using the Parent Pay Service.  Please see the letter and presentation below for more information:

Parent Pay Pupil Presentation

Parent Pay Letter 1 – 1.4.16

The new system will go live from Monday 16 May 2016, if you have any questions not answered in the letter or presentation please do not hesitate to contact the school office.

This year the procedure for selecting school and house captains has been changed.

Details of the new arrangements are as follows:

Tuesday 19th April: Closing date for application forms

Wed 20^th April – Tues 6^th June – Short list of applicants for interviews composed.

Wed/Thurs 7th/8th June: Interviews and presentations

Thursday 16th June: New captains receive badges at prize giving

The job description, application form and details on how to apply are attached.

School and House Captain Selection Procedures 2016-17

Recently, four sixth year Auchinleck Academy pupils – Ryan Burley, Jake Cocks, Kitty Ma and Stephanie McConnachie – entered a competition run by the Scottish European Educational Trust called ‘Our Films, Our Europe’. This competition was led by the school’s Modern Languages teacher Ms Morrsion who helped to film during the day of the workshop.

This project involved a film making process, where contestants have to plan and create a short film about the benefits, experiences and opportunities as a young pupil in the EU. It is an amazing chance for young people to learn about production as they get to work with film making professionals and different types of equipment and resources.

The first stage of the competition required contestants to submit a storyboard of their chosen plot, an idea for their film and a recording describing the storyline. Auchinleck Academy pupils’ final idea was to go on a road trip around Europe including countries such as France, Germany and Sweden. This involved pupils meeting fictional characters telling them about employment, education and immigration opportunities available for them as a European citizen. All these ideas were able to come alive as pupils managed to go through to the second and final stage of the competition which was to produce, direct and film. Pupils were very pleased with the outcome of their short film and the finished product can be viewed on the ‘Our Films, Our Europe’ website soon.

On Monday 21 March 2016, the team travelled up to the Scottish Parliament building in Edinburgh with our teacher, Ms Morrison. They were invited to a film premiere where all fifteen of the films were shown, which was then followed by an awards ceremony where Per Johansson from Eunic and Madeleine McGirk, a member from SEET, issued all seven awards to a variety of school teams.  John Mulgrew OBE and Christina McKelvie SNP MSP opened the premiere by saying a few words about the EU and Our Europe project. Each school did a wonderful job with their filmmaking and every single one was deserving of an award.  The team was ecstatic when their name was called for the ‘Best European Content” award and Stephanie McConnachie then gave an acceptance speech to express their joy at winning and to acknowledge the hard work that had went into the project.  The whole experience was wonderful and they were all thankful to be a part of it.

Pupils were able to improve their language skills as part of this project; they boosted their French speaking skills and were able to learn two completely new languages in the space of three months. Learning a new language was interesting; it gave them an insight in to a variety of different cultures. It was a challenge but they all enjoyed it nonetheless. It was exciting learning how to film and edit, how to use iMovie and a variety of other software packages to make sure their film pieced together nicely. They all enjoyed being actors for the day and filming in various places around Glasgow City Centre – including George Square.  Hopefully this will encourage young people, from S3-S6, to get involved with this project as you most definitely won’t regret it: you will meet new friends, learn new languages and adapt new skills that may come in handy when building up your CV to impress future employers.

By Kitty Ma and Stephanie McConnachie

Saturday 5^th March

Auchinleck Academy School of Rugby Under 13 team took to the field in the school’s first Saturday morning fixture to take on Carrick Academy their South Ayrshire rivals from Maybole (Mr Raby’s hometown) the weather was perfect for open running and attacking rugby which both sides played. Auchinleck came out on top with a stunning 44-28 win over turning their first every result together when Carrick were the victors in a pre-conference friendly. This shows that all the hard work and effort put in by the pupils is paying off.

Stand out performers were L. Young, J. Morrison and C. White who showed some great passing skills and attacked space at every opportunity. In the forwards K. Kong playing his first game scored two run away tries and A. Rogers tackled everything that moved in Carrick colours. L. Graham also making his debut played well and both Kong and Graham have caught the Happiness bug from Mr Raby – “Happiness is Egg Shaped”

Well done to all pupils and parents for getting out of bed early on a Saturday and for fielding 17 pupils, this is further evidence of the massive improvements made by Auchinleck Academy Rugby since August. It is hoped that Auchinleck will build up a fixture list of Saturday morning games and start competing against the established Saturday morning playing schools in the upcoming season. For all things Auchinleck Academy Rugby follow @EACAuchRugby.