Month: March 2015

Congratulations to our Dance squads who represented the school at the North Lanarkshire Dance Championships. After two days of competition, Kilsyth Academy was delighted to come away with a total of seventeen medals.  The S1 Juniors, dancing to Circle of Life, were delighted to win gold in the Jazz category. The dancers involved were Ailsa Deans, Hollie Currie, Megan Currie, Eilidh Dunsmore, Bethany Lyall, Ellie Andrews and Hannah McFarlane.  In the Senior categories, the girls were awarded second place in the hip hop section and third in the contemporary category. The dancers in this group were Mollie Kiernan, Connie McFarlane, Nicola Wilson, Mairi McLean and Mhairi McFarlane. The dancers were also very appreciative of the efforts Connie Kirwan (S5), who did an excellent job in applying the junior dancers’ stage make up, for their performance as jungle creatures!!

Well done to Murray Gallagher (S6), who took part in the Scottish Civic Trust’s ‘My Place’ photography competition. There were almost 500 entries in total and the panel of judges was very impressed with the quality and range of submissions. Murray’s image, ‘Harbour Walk’ was selected by the jury as a Highly Commended photograph within this year’s secondary school category.

Our annual Primary K’Nex Challenge took place last week and the schools were well represented. As always, the young people came up with some very imaginative designs and worked well as teams. Following the judging, Craighead team 2 were declared the runners up and Chapelgreen Team 2 were the winners. Well done to all concerned and thanks to Mr Turnbull and his S3 helpers, for laying everything on.

Last week also saw the annual Rotary Club Public Speaking Competition, within the school. The eleven competitors had prepared excellent speeches for the judges, who came from the Rotary Club of Kilsyth. At the end of the event, the winner in the Junior competition was declared as Harry Thomson (S1) and the runner up was Ross Chalmers (S2). In the Senior competition, the winner was Sean Climie (S6) and the runner-up was Adam Boyd (S4). Well done to all!

All pupils should have received a copy of the Head Teacher’s Newsletter, which incorporates a copy of the Progress Report from the school’s HMIe Inspection, in 2012.

Plans for the Easter School, from 13^th – 16^th April are now all in place, and those pupils who have opted in have been provided with details about tutorials, study time and transport. Pupils have also been issued with individual timetables and detailed instructions for the forthcoming SQA examinations.

The school will close for the Easter Break on Thursday 2^nd April, at 2.30 p.m. and we will re-open on Monday 20^th April, at 8.55 a.m. Thursday will also be a non-uniform day and pupils wishing to participate in that should pay £1 towards yearbook fundraising.

Pupils from S2 travelled to Hamilton on 19 March to take part in the Lanarkshire finals of this year’s Go4SET competition. This competition links teams of S2 pupils with companies, to offer a 10 week science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) experience. Work-related learning within an industry and enterprise context is the basis of the project, and our team had been paired with Network Rail. Our team consisting of Jodie Young 2D, Jasmine Geor 2B, Emma Stewart 2B, Finlay Sword 2A, Luke Shearer 2A, Jamie Stevenson 2A and Elena Walker 2D had been working very hard to produce a new design for Croy railway station. Their task was to produce a proposal for a sustainable station with improvements in energy consumption, passenger comfort and efficiency.
On the day the team made a presentation to the judges, demonstrated their excellent model of the design, and had their project report scrutinised by the judges. Although not winning the competition, the judges were very impressed with Kilsyth’s proposal. The feedback to our team praised the range of ideas generated, the focus they made of the station being used as a community resource, and their effective teamwork. Well done to all the pupils, and thanks to Mr Dudman and Mr Turnbull and to their mentors at Network Rail for all their help.

Pupils in S4, S5 and S6 have been issued with information about the forthcoming Easter School, from Monday 13th to Thursday 16th April, during the second week of the Easter holiday. We would encourage all those who will be sitting exams to take advantage of this opportunity to attend subject tutorials and to study in a quiet environment. All returns must be made by Tuesday 24th March, so final arrangements can be put in place.

All S2 pupils should now have returned option forms to their Pupil Support teacher and we have now moved to the options process for pupils in S4/5. There was a fantastic turnout of parents at the recent S2 Parents’ Evening and we hope that it was a valuable experience, at this time. S3 Tracking reports will be issued next week.

Immediately after the holiday, on Tuesday 21st April, S3 pupils will be faced with extended assessments in all their subjects. The style of assessment will vary from subject to subject and pupils will have no more than two assessments/day, during class time.

Study Leave, for pupils in S4/5/6 who are sitting examinations, will be from Wednesday 29th April until Friday 29th May, both dates inclusive. Pupils must be in classes up to Tuesday 28th April, as there is still work to be completed. Pupils who have no examinations will not have Study Leave and will be expected to attend school, during this time.

The school will close for the Easter Break on Thursday 2nd April, at 2.30 p.m. and we will re-open on Monday 20th April, at 8.55 a.m.

Kilsyth Academy selected thirty five pupils to take part in the North Lanarkshire Cross Country Championships at Airdrie last week. The weather conditions were less than favourable and every athlete put in a huge effort, just to complete a very challenging course.  When all results were collated the S2 girls’ team of Jessica Curle, Morgan Ross, Rebecca Love and Kayleigh Craig finished in a very impressive 2nd place.  All four girls finished in the top twenty five out of over a hundred athletes giving them a very solid team score. Congratulations to them and to all other members of the team, for their contribution.

A group of S1 and a group of S5 girls participated in the North Lanarkshire Dance Championships, also held in Airdrie last week. The girls gave an outstanding performance but results of the competition are not yet known.

Our S2 pupils have been considering the courses that they will specialise in next session and have been attending interviews with Pupil Support staff, as part of that process. There will also be a Parents’ Meeting on Tuesday 17^th March, from 4.15 until 6.45 p.m., when parents can meet with class teachers to discuss progress and preferences for next session.

Our S4 xl Club paid a visit to Hampden, to attend the ‘Welcome to your Future’ event, which was an opportunity to access information from employers and Further Education establishments.

Well done to the S5/6 Beauty Therapy group who organised a Pamper Day, with donations totalling almost £130. The girls have now donated this sum to ‘Children in Need’.

 

The annual Rotary Technology Competition took place last week, once again hosted by Kilsyth Academy. There was an amazing turnout from schools throughout Lanarkshire and it was a challenging day for the teams who participated. Kilsyth Academy won the Advanced category, for senior pupils, and congratulations go to Kathryn Marshall, David Bauld, Josh Wood and Calum Baird. Also, sincere thanks to the Rotary Club for organising the event.

The fundraising Race Night, in aid of the forthcoming Rwanda trip, was a great success and raised over £1400. A group of senior pupils and two staff will be heading to Rwanda in June.

Higher French pupils attended an immersion day this week, at the Alliance Française. This will be of great assistance to the pupils, as they prepare for their forthcoming examinations and those involved enjoyed the day.

Elections for members of the Scottish Youth Parliament have been taking place across Scotland this week. In Kilsyth Academy, pupils voted for their preferred candidate, on Wednesday. We look forward to hearing the outcome of the event.

Some of our Mark Scott Leadership for Life candidates have organised Heartstart training to enable pupils to teach first aid. The next step will be to put this learning into action!