Dear Parents and Carers

There is an ongoing issue with the School App at the moment. This is impacting on all the App’s customers and is not specific to Stewarton Academy. They are working on a resolution.

In the meantime, key information will be posted on the school website and shared via Twitter.

Vital communication will be sent via email/text/letter

Regards

John Stuart

Head Teacher

Happy New Year to all in the Stewarton Academy community.
We will be straight back in to a busy term so I hope the reminders below will be helpful.

Industrial Action
You will have seen the message on this app from East Ayrshire Council on 6^th January which reminds you of the arrangements necessary due to industrial action by four teaching trade unions.
Please read this message from 6^th January carefully as the action will impact on different schools and learning centres in different ways. It also gives detail of support available for pupils who are entitled to free school meals. As far as Stewarton Academy is concerned, we will be closed to pupils on Wednesday 11^th January and then again on Monday 23^rd January 2023.
We aware that the strike action will cause an inconvenience to many families, but we cannot operate safely without the required number of staff in situ, and I thank you for your understanding at this time.

Key Dates
There are a number of important events in January. Please find a link in the box below to the  key dates document  as a reminder.
Please remember that there have had to be a couple of changes to the calendar published at the start of term, specifically the S4 parents’ evening is on in school Thursday 12^th Jan.

As highlighted in December, the virtual information evening for parents/ carers of S2 pupils regarding subject options will take place 6:30 – 7:30pm  Wed 18^th Jan via Teams – the link will be shared in due course in the coming week.

Pupil health and wellbeing
We very much hope that you have had a restful holiday. However, we know that there are a number of winter illnesses in circulation. Trusted health advice can be found on NHS Inform https://www.nhsinform.scot/ . You will recall that East Ayrshire issued specific information about group A streptococcal infections (including scarlet fever) via this app on 8^th Dec.
If you child is unwell, please consider not sending him/her to school, especially if he/she has a fever.
You will be aware that the S5/6 mid-course assessments begin this week. Please be assured that any pupil who misses an assessment through illness will be supported to complete necessary assessments when back in school.

Conclusion
Thank you for taking the time to read this pre-term information. We look forward to supporting all our young people to achieve and thrive in 2023. If you would like support with any aspect of your child’s experience at Stewarton Academy, please don’t hesitate to contact your child’s Principal Teacher of Pupil Support via the school office.
Best wishes,
John Stuart
Head Teacher

School Calendar

Alan Brown, our local MP visited Stewarton Academy on Friday and met with our S4 modern studies pupils and our Rights Respecting School group. Ms. Hogg arranged this visit as part of her delivery of the Democracy in the UK unit to give pupils further insight into the role of an MP not just on a local level but also to understand how this interlinks nationally. Aside from this it is also UK Parliament week, so this really was a perfectly timed visit. Prior to the visit both the S4 pupils and the RRS group had prepared questions to pose to Mr. Brown as part of a Q&A session.

The S4 questions were focused on the day-to-day workings of parliament and the different jobs MP do. They were also very interested to hear that Mr. Brown had previously been a civil engineer and had then had a career change and decided to go into politics. They were also intrigued by the fact that as a back bencher Mr. Brown can hold the government to account.

The RRS group focused their questions on human rights and mental health issues. They were very interested in Mr. Browns role with regards to the environment and asked questions relating to the schools Clean Green Award and measures taken by parliament to reach net zero.

This was a fantastic opportunity for Stewarton Academy pupils to have their voices heard and further their knowledge of community issues. A huge thank you to Ms. Hogg for arranging.

Our senior pupils have recently taken part in workshops on sexualisation delivered by Mairi Edwars from the Star Centre. These workshops were hugely beneficial. They highlighted gender stereotypes, sexualisation in the media and opened up general discussions around sexual violence and consent. Our senior pupils were very active in all tasks and showed respect, confidence and maturity at all times. The workshops made the rights of the child explicit at all times. The main articles in focus were:

Article 2-No discrimination

Article 8- Identity

Article13- Sharing thoughts freely

Article 16- Protection of privacy

Article 19- Protection from violence

Article 34-Protection from sexual abuse

Article 35-Prevention of sale and trafficking

Article 36-Protection from exploitation

Mairi was very impressed by the inclusive ethos in all classes. She commented on the pupils being respectful not only of her but of each other’s opinions and feelings. She added that there is a real sense of pupils being able to express their identity and thoughts freely.

Pupil’s comments included: ” This was so fun” “This is one of the best workshops its so interactive”

Miss MacBain

Yesterday, our Senior Modern languages pupils had a virtual meeting with the Franco British Chamber of commerce that talked about the top industries in France,  cultural differences, other towns and cities in France outside of Paris and Career paths of staff on call including how they came to France and their experiences of France. This was very informative and also a great motivator to remind our pupils how important and also fun is learning French! 

Mrs Verneau-Conlan

Black History Month takes place this October. This year’s theme is “Time for Change: Action Not Words”. Throughout the month Stewarton Academy will be celebrating the occasion through a variety of activities.

So far The Equalities and LGBTQ+ group enjoyed a presentation and workshop on Black LGBTQ+ people who have influenced our current and past society. Additionally our S2 pupils have been learning about the many positive contributions made by famous black British people as part of their ‘Ending Prejudice and Discrimination’ unit in RME.

Teachers and pupils have also been inspired to read a book by a black author from a suggested list to choose from. The link for this list is below.

Our school community is likewise encouraged to celebrate Black History Month in many ways. Examples can include: reading a book that celebrates Black history, watching a TV series such as ‘The Underground Railroad’ on Amazon Prime or ‘The Get Down’ on Netflix, or cooking a traditional African or Caribbean meal.

Celebrating Black History Month 2022 Book List

Last week Stewarton Academy hosted its first in-house event since early 2020 when we welcomed S1 pupils, parents and carers to the S1 Open Evening. Attendees had the opportunity to visit the various departmental stalls, meet teachers and other staff members and learn more about the life of the school. Thank you so much to all staff, pupils and parent volunteers who were involved in the organisation and delivery of this event.

Stewarton Academy was award a Bronze Award at last week’s inaugural East Ayrshire’s Clean, Green Award ceremony. There was special recognition for pupil leadership in this initiative. Thanks go to outgoing S6 pupils, Lois and Jane, for all their hard work. They have shared this short article to sum up the work that has been done over the session:

East Ayrshire Council’s Clean Green Award encourages young people to tackle the climate crisis through their school. It encourages action across the key themes of the climate change strategy: Energy, Transport, Waste and Natural Environment. We met with other schools virtually in October 2021 to discuss how to help our schools be more environmentally aware under the categories of these four themes. Over the past year we have worked towards a bronze award by encouraging energy saving within the school, liaising with the Ayrshire Roads Alliance, the Thrive Stewarton community group and Burns Nursery to name a few. The higher environmental science class also put together the first micro Teams lesson to inform pupils what they can do in their everyday lives to become more eco-friendly.

This week, we attended the Clean Green Award ceremony to accept Stewarton Academy’s Bronze Award with special recognition for pupil leadership. It was really inspiring to see all the hard work the other schools had been putting in over the past few months. We’ve really enjoyed taking on this responsibility as it is such an important issue and we hope our actions toward the award spread awareness of this global priority. This is just the beginning for Stewarton Academy and we can’t wait to hear about the ideas and action taken by next year’s team when aiming towards the silver award. This celebration of achievement has been such a nice way to end our time at Stewarton Academy, and we thank everyone who was involved and supported us throughout.

– Jane McDowell and Lois Anderson