To celebrate World Book Day we are running a Scholastic Book Club until Friday 20^th March. Collect a leaflet and order form from your English class or the School Library or browse and order online at https://shop.scholastic.co.uk/schools/auchinleck-academy (link also available from the Library webpage).  Hand your World Book Day token in with your order to claim £1 off the total.

All cash orders and payments must be handed to your English teacher or Miss McGill in the Library by Friday 20^th March.​

Last night we welcomed an incredible number of parents / carers and young people to Auchinleck Academy for our first P7 Information Evening. Mr Gilchrist introduced the Senior Leadership Team for the new campus as well as our Pupil Support teachers and we are very encouraged by the huge turnout as well as the positivity coming from everyone in the room as we look forward to next year!

We are proud to publish our first campus newsletter that you can view below and are keen to use the school app and twitter feeds to communicate with parents/ carers. A new Barony Campus app will be created shortly.

We now have a Robert Burns Academy twitter page which can be found by search on Twitter for EACrobertburns or by typing http://www.twitter.com/EACrobertburns

More updates will be published shortly, in the meantime please follow us on Twitter!

Barony Campus Newsline 1. 26 Feb 2020

Please find the scheduled Supported study timetable attached below.  Transport home is arranged by the school.

Supported study calendar Feb – Mar 2020

February’s Right of the Month at Auchinleck Academy is Article 28: the right of the child to an education on the basis of equal opportunity. We know that despite secondary education being provided free in Scotland, there are still many young people who struggle to access it. At Auchinleck we are currently looking at ways of creating a variety of pathways for pupils for next year when we move to the Robert Burns Academy. It is important that our pupils have a say in this process and many of our S2-S6 pupils have already started, or completed their option choice interviews with the guidance teachers. We aim to ensure that our pupils are given a range of choices that challenge and stimulate them by encouraging vocational learning and making good use of our school partners.

We work hard to ensure that pupils attendance rates are high and that they enjoy their time in school. Over the past few weeks pupils have been involved in an exercise where they will vote for their favourite House names for the new school. It is important that pupils take part in this process as it is their school and all pupils should feel supported in taking up their right to an education.

Wellbeing Survey

Auchinleck Academy has been chosen to participate in the TOK Mental Wellbeing Survey. It’s purpose is to help the mental wellbeing of those in the school community and is open for all pupils, parents, guardians and staff to complete. The document attached will help you understand what your child will be asked about and how their data will be used.  Any information your child shares will be treated with the strictest confidence and their individual results will not be shared with anyone. The data collected from the school may be used to help TOK understand mental wellbeing across Scotland.

The questionnaire will only take a few minutes to complete and can be found here:

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/ZV3PPZW

December’s right of the month at Auchinleck Academy is Article 27: the right to an adequate standard of living. We know, however, that child poverty is on the rise in Scotland, and therefore many children and young people are unfortunately not accessing this right.  Some of our pupils and staff have therefore been taking action to try and combat child poverty in our local community. With support from Mary Patterson, Home/Community Worker, pupils have set up a food bank in the school to help local families that are experiencing hardship. They have also started a uniform recycling project, and there are plans to introduce a ‘winter warmer’ coat exchange initiative in the near future. Some of our S3 pupils who won the Children’s Rights/ Global Goals ‘Idea for Change’ project last session came up with the idea to package and distribute left over food from the canteen- this is now happening at the end of each day and is available to anyone who needs it. We are also planning a Christmas jumper/dress down day on the 20^th December. Pupils and staff can bring in £1 or an item for our food bank to wear their own clothes or a festive jumper. All proceeds will go to Hillside, a charity which supports children and families in our local communities.

There were also lots of activities going on in Auchinleck Academy last month to promote children’s rights. November’s right of the month was Article 12: Respect for the views of the child . To celebrate this right and mark World Children’s Day on the 20th November, Mary Patterson arranged a special event to showcase some of the work that is going on in the school to support children’s rights and ensure that young peoples’ voices are listened to and taken seriously. Pupils also had the opportunity to meet with representatives from local organisations that support young people’s rights, and talk to them about matters that are important to them.

Auchinleck & Cumnock Academy recently celebrated success at the Scottish Concert Band Festival at the Royal Concert Hall.  All three bands played exceptionally well and were fully deserving of the following Awards:

ACCB Junior Band – Gold Award

ACCB Intermediate Band – Gold Award

ACCB Senior Band – Gold Award

ACCB Senior Band – SCBF Entertainment Award

As a result all bands now qualify to represent Auchinleck & Cumnock Academies and East Ayrshire at the SCBF National Finals in Perth Concert Hall on 14 & 15 March 2020.

As ever, the pupils were tremendous ambassadors for both schools and it’s wonderful to see their efforts and industry being recognised and rewarded in such a high profile setting; and of course, I’m delighted for Band Directors Craig Anderson, Gary Williams and all Auchinleck/Cumnock IMS Instructors/music staff who have worked so hard to give our young musicians this incredible opportunity.

Well done to Mrs Hammersley’s S3 Business Class for all their hard work running the Book Fair.  They have earned £205 in rewards for the school to spend on books.  Mrs Hammersley’s class will also be helping choose some of these books and we hope to have them on the Library shelves soon. Thank you to all the staff who helped during the Fair.

If you missed the Fair you can still place an order for any books you wanted to buy. Check the Library News web page for a link to browse the Scholastic website and place an order online. Orders and cash payments can also be handed to Miss McGill at the School Library. The deadline is Friday 6^th December and all orders must be paid in advance.​

Parents of pupils in S2 to S5 in Auchinleck and Cumnock Academies are invited to an information evening at Cumnock Academy on Tuesday 3rd December at 7pm.

If your child is in S2, S3, S4 or S5 they will soon be asked to consider which subjects they would like to study next session in The Robert Burns Academy.

To assist with this decision parents are invited to this information evening where they will hear from school staff about the subject choices available to pupils in each year group and you will have the chance to ask questions and discuss the opportunities available with myself and DHTs from both Auchinleck and Cumnock.

A letter with a tear off reply slip has been sent home with pupils this week.

Peter Gilchrist

Head Teacher

Barony Campus

Auchinleck Academy received the excellent news last week that we have been accredited as a Gold Rights Respecting School! This is an absolutely outstanding achievement for all of our pupils and staff, who have worked really hard together over the past four years to ensure that children’s rights are fully embedded throughout the school in our policies, practice and ethos.

Achieving Gold Rights Respecting status means there is strong evidence in a school that:

• A child rights approach based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is embedded in all school policy, practice and culture
• Children, young people and adults in the school have a thorough understanding of child rights, and rights respecting attitudes and language are embedded across the school
• RRSA has had a positive impact on children and young people’s learning and wellbeing
• tudents see themselves as rights respecting global citizens and are advocates for social justice, fairness and children’s rights at home and abroad

On 30^th September we were visited by Steven Kidd from UNICEF UK who spent the day at Auchinleck Academy meeting with pupils, parents and staff, and finding out about our school. He was extremely impressed by his visit and commented on how clear it was that rights are very much part of the school environment, and in fact underpin every facet of school life.

He compiled a report in which the following have been highlighted as particular strengths of our school:

• Confident, articulate students who have an excellent knowledge of rights and a strong belief in their ability to make a difference
• Commitment to and passion for embedding children’s rights from the school’s senior leadership team and from staff.
• Strong focus on wellbeing and inclusion with a huge variety of support available to pupils.
• An extensive record of fundraising achievement, for causes such as Mary’s Meals and Unicef
• Some excellent individual examples of practice e.g. PLP learning, Rights awareness video, LGBT rainbow wall.

Mr Kidd also commented in his report on how relationships between pupils and between pupils and staff were noticeably positive and indicative of a culture based on mutual respect. He stated that students on the learning walk were confident and enthusiastic, listening carefully to any questions and replying informatively. In focus groups, students were polite and respectful, happy to offer their views and keen to hear those of others, whilst the Steering Group spoke passionately of their work to drive forward rights practice in the school. It was also clear to the assessor that the young people of Auchinleck Academy see themselves as agents for change, confident in taking action on the issues that matter to them and often inspired by children’s rights.

Well done Auchinleck Academy!