First up this week is a night of pride and celebration for Miss O’Hara as she accompanied Abby Kane (S2) to an awards ceremony at the House of Commons in London.
Susan had nominated Abby for the ‘Kids Count Inspiring the Nation’ award. Abby won the Most Inspiring Young Person of the Year award. Susan said “My reason for nominating Abby was due to all the hard work she puts in trying to balance her training schedule, school work and competitions and of course after her great success at winning a silver medal in the 100 metres backstroke at the Paralympics in Rio.” North Ayrshire & Arran MP Patricia Gibson presented Abby with her award.
Kids Count is an organisation that has been set up to firstly, provide young people and small community and organisations with a ‘voice’ and secondly, to educate, develop and empower disadvantaged young people. Well done Abby!
In class this week, Mrs Henderson’s S3 PDA (Personal Development Award) group have been investigating the issue of homelessness and the work of the charity “Shelter”. As well as their own research they are currently taking part in a workshop delivered by CHAPs (Community Housing Advocacy Project), where they are learning about how homelessness can impact on people in their local area. They will be holding some awareness/fundraising activities to support the work of Shelter in the month of December. Keep your eyes peeled for how you can help.
In charities news, hot off the press… here’s our very own Malawi Partnership Team. A group of 6 current S4 and S5 pupils have been successfully chosen to visit our partnership school in Malawi. Kathryn Reid, Abbey Dowdells, Katie Bell, Nathan Noble, Michael Donnachie and Lewis Duff will be accompanied by Mrs Tait, Miss Griffiths and Miss Dempsey on a 10 day trip to Mzambazi in Malawi in June 2017. It will be a life changing experience for all involved and the group are looking forward to experiencing the different cultures of the country and also day in the life of a school pupil in Malawi. Over the coming months the group will be fundraising in the local community to help support the partnership and the Mzambazi community. Look out for details soon on how you can support them!
Joanna Stewart rocked along to the auditions for this year’s school show. Here’s what she had to say. On the night of the 16th November Largs Academy was filled with music by none other than the biggest names of rock and roll. Yes of course I’m talking about the Rock Of Ages audition workshop. From start to finish the volume was cranked up, the guitars plugged in and the hair was loud!
Each pupil arrived amped as a person of the 80’s who they devised. Around the hall they met one another in a new light – and for many in a new accent and in the boldest of outfits. After a rad introduction each person introduced themselves to the full group of dudes and dudettes.
It was then time to warm up those dancing shoes and voices to Journey’s hit ‘Don’t Stop Believing’! Dancers flew across the floor shakin’ their money makers for a chance at a main role. Followed closely by small group workshops with the song ‘High Enough’ and a little bit of dialogue for the potential stars to show their rock and roll abilities.
Guys and dolls alike had the chance to shine with solo auditions, guys with an introductory musical monologue and selected girls with ‘Every Rose Has It’s Thorne’. Mr Smith concluded the night thanking everyone in attendance for their efforts and promised to reveal some main roles the following day.
The show is definitely looking rockin’ with a strong chance of it being totally rad. We hope to see you all there to support the talented pupils of Largs Academy as they intent to top previous hits of ‘Les Miserables’ and ‘The Phantom Of The Opera’ next June.
Well done to everyone who hit the teachers with their best shot and good luck with future auditions. Look out in January for our big reveal, as we introduce our principals to you. Or – even better – come along to Largs Academy’s Christmas Concert on Wednesday 14th December, where the cast will bring you a taster of what’s to come.
And finally… here’s S5 pupil Michael Smith’s report on a recent, very successful science endeavour. I recently took a trip over to the University of the West of Scotland – joined by fellow pupils Lyle McDonald, Jack Murdoch and Sam Templeton, and by Mrs. Scott of Largs Academy’s Physics Department – to compete in the final round of a three-round physics and general knowledge quiz, organised by the WoSPEG (the West of Scotland Physics Education Group.
Upon arriving for the first round, we got to see some cool experiments involving levitating magnets and liquid nitrogen, and we each got free refreshments and a WoSPEG mug for taking part, reading “I ❤ physics” (the mug, not the refreshments).
After watching some cool physics stuff, we were abruptly plunged into an intense test of knowledge and reflexes which pitted us against three other schools: Boclair Academy, Bearsden; Larbert High School, Falkirk; and Shawlands Academy, Glasgow. And of course, it goes without saying that we smashed the other teams by… a single point. Alright, maybe not quite smashed. In fact, the score by the end was so close that there were actually two teams tied in second place, so after they did the sudden death question – the answer to which was an admitted lucky guess – we ended up tied in first place, along with Larbert. Since we got there without the extra question, however, I’m comfortable enough saying we won.
The competition consisted of a number of rounds, starting with an intense general knowledge buzzer round – which was, in retrospect, a very fortuitous way to start, as it yanked me out my state of sleep deprivation in a way that no caffeinated beverage ever could. Following that, we had a combination of buzzer and individual question rounds. These were mostly physics-based, with the occasional peppering of general knowledge and current affairs. We did pretty well in every round, with the exception of the anagram round.
Anyway, anagrams aside, we managed to win, taking us to the semi-final round against St. Columba’s, Kilmacolm, and Renfrew High School, Renfrew. In this round, far more smashing took place, and this was proper, serious smashing; we managed to win by a margin of sixteen points! Even the dreaded anagram round was no cause for concern – I managed to answer all but one, and I was only beaten to that one by a fraction of a second by my own teammate, getting us the point anyway.
So that brought us to the final round. Sadly, this round wasn’t a victory for us (so we didn’t get the awesome trophy that looks like a moon lander). A lot of the questions in this round were considerably trickier; and I’ll also personally admit to the moronic mistake of confusing an image of salt crystals with an image of ice cubes. Apparently the words “400 nanometers” meant nothing for me for a just brief moment. In the end, the winning team was Dunblane High School.
Still, this was the first time Largs has even reached the final round. Ever. And the score by the end was exceedingly close. There were two teams in joint first place, putting us in joint second – but then the tiebreaker for first place bumped the second place teams down to joint third. Overall, this was a very good outcome (and it did still yield us, in lieu of a fancy moon lander thing, some Amazon voucher currency and nice runner-up certificates).
I would like to thank Mrs. Scott and WoSPEG for giving us the opportunity to take part. I also congratulate Lyle, Jack and Sam for their exceptionally excellent question-answering – and of course, Dunblane, for their arguably slightly more exceptionally excellent question-answering. I hope they bestow utmost respect upon that moon lander thing, because it’s so really very cool.
That’s all this week – tune in next week!
