Author: Mr Docherty

Two new Sports Ambassadors, Lindsay Sword and Julia Fountain, were appointed last week. Their role is to promote sport among the pupils and to organise sporting events.

 Sixth year pupils are currently arranging a number of Community Involvement placements, which will enable them to use part of the school week in volunteering. Many of these opportunities are linked to careers that the young people are hoping to pursue and we are grateful to local employers who support the programme.

 Congratulations to Eilidh McDowall (2B), who was the best Kilsyth Academy entrant in the recent Inspire Aspire competition, and also a national finalist. Eilidh received her medal at assembly last week.

 The Parent Council will meet on Thursday 3rd September, at 7.00 p.m., in the school.

Congratulations to the five pupils who achieved eight A passes in their National 5 examinations – Archie Grant, Holly McArthur, Anne Paterson, Ross Quinn and Jack Rennie. Similarly, congratulations to the five pupils who achieved five A passes at Higher, in S5 – Blair Anderson, Lewis Cameron, Kayley Forsyth, Erin Main and Annie Mason and to the two pupils who achieved three Advanced Highers at grade A – Erika Allen and Kathryn Marshall. These are fantastic achievements from all concerned and are testimony to the hard work that each of these young people put into their studies.

 S1 individual photographs were taken last week and the pupils have been issued with order forms, which should be returned to the school, with full payment, by Wednesday 2^nd September.

 The 2015 Yearbook finally arrived, during the summer holiday, and those who ordered a copy can uplift it from Miss Reilly. Thanks go to last year’s Yearbook team for putting it all together.

 Senior pupils are visiting a range of University Open Days, as part of the groundwork to prepare application forms for courses that will begin in the autumn of 2016. Over the next few weeks, the Seniors will be working on Personal Statements, supported by Mrs Kerr and on Monday 31^st August, we will be holding a UCAS Information Evening, to provide parents of S5/6 pupils with information about the process of applying for university. This will include details about funding, qualifications etc and we will be having a guest speaker along – Professor Kevin O’Gorman from Heriot Watt University. The evening begins at 7.00 p.m. and we are hoping for a good turnout.

 Congratulations to our initial group of prefects, who received their badges last week. They are:

Blair Anderson (Vice Captain), Angus Buck, Lewis Cameron (Vice Captain), Jack Devlin, Courtney Forsyth (Vice Captain), Kayley Forsyth, Joanna Hay, Rachel Kimmett (Vice Captain), Chloe Laggan, Scott Leslie, Erin Main (Captain), Annie Mason, Connie McFarlane, Kirstin McLaren, Lucy Rutherford, Christopher Smith, Nicola Wilson. A further group of prefects will be appointed in the coming weeks.

 The Parent Council will meet on Thursday 3rd September, at 7.00 p.m., in the school.

We are delighted to welcome our new S1 pupils to the Academy and wish them all every success in the years to come. Well done to pupils from last session’s S4, S5 and S6 on their excellent achievements in SQA examinations. We are very pleased with the results and it is clear that pupils’ and teachers’ hard work really paid off, particularly with respect to all the new qualifications. We wish last year’s leavers every success as they embark on either new courses in Further or Higher Education, or on new careers. Similarly, our warm congratulations to former pupils who graduated over the summer.

We are pleased to welcome a number of new staff. Miss Annette Graham has joined us as Principal Teacher of Humanities and she will also be teaching Modern Studies. We wish her every success in this new role. We have also welcomed Miss McFarlane (Modern Languages), Miss Rae (Mathematics), Mr Mullen (Computing), Miss Stirling (Biology), Mrs O’Neill (Mathematics), Mrs Coggill (English), Mrs Bowes (Geography) and Mr Martins (PE). We hope that they will all greatly enjoy their time in Kilsyth Academy.

On Monday 31^st August, we will be holding a UCAS Information Evening, to provide parents of S5/6 pupils with information about the process of applying for university. This will include details about funding, qualifications etc and we will be having a guest speaker along – Professor Kevin O’Gorman from Heriot Watt University. The evening begins at 7.00 p.m. and we are hoping for a good turnout.

Congratulations to our new captaincy team, appointed last week, following interviews and presentations. Erin Main will be the School Captain for 2015-16 and will be assisted by four Vice Captains – Blair Anderson, Lewis Cameron, Courtney Forsyth and Rachel Kimmett. We wish the group a very successful 6^th year and look forward to working closely with them.

Our new S1 intake spent two days in Kilsyth Academy, last week, acclimatising to their new school, meeting their teachers and hearing about the many opportunities that exist for them, in secondary school. The two days went very well, as did the Parents’ Evening which followed. We look forward to welcoming the children to Kilsyth Academy, in August.

Pupils in S1 (new S2) made their Health and Wellbeing presentations this week. Eight pupils made presentations to their peers and a panel of judges. Once again, these were to a very high standard and the winner was Olivia Elliott. Well done!

A party of senior pupils and staff are now in Rwanda and, during their first few days, have been working with victims of the genocide, carrying out a service project and working with a Street Kids Rescue project. Trips to London and the Battlefields have headed off this week and we look forward to hearing about their exploits too.

A team of senior pupils from the Modern Studies took part in the annual International Conference last week. The country that they had to represent was Afghanistan and their research and debating skills were put to the test in representing their viewpoints. Congratulations to all those who participated.

Our very best wishes go to three members of staff who are retiring this summer – Mr Colin Laird, Mr David Chesney and Mrs Victoria McAulay. We wish all three a very long and happy retirement.

The school will close for the summer, on Thursday 25^th June, at 1.00 p.m. and will re-open for pupils on Tuesday 18^th August, at 8.55 a.m. We wish everyone a great summer holiday.

Our Senior Awards Ceremony will take place on Wednesday 10^th June, at 7.30 p.m. and we are delighted to be able to welcome Mr Eddie Wolecki-Black, Manager of Glasgow City FC, as our Principal Guest. We are looking forward to recognising the many achievements of our young people, in the areas of sport, academic studies, the arts, music and citizenship. Parents of reward recipients have already been invited. The following day, Junior awards will be presented at a series of special assemblies.

The Parents’ Evening for P7 parents will also take place on Wednesday 17^th June, at 7.30 p.m., which is immediately after the children’s two-day visit on 15^th and 16^th. Letters of invitation have been issued via the Primary schools.

A huge thank you to everyone involved in our school show, ‘Disco Inferno’, last week. The pupils gave fantastic performances to packed audiences and provided superb entertainment over three evenings. All the pupils’ dedication, during months of rehearsals, really paid off and the staff involved gave up a great deal of their own time to ensure that the production was such a resounding success – see separate review.

On Friday 29 May, the robotics team participated in the Scottish Colleges Robotics Competition at New College Lanarkshire. The competition involves teams driving Rampaging Chariots, which are powerful, radio controlled featherweight sporting robots.

In the morning event, the assault course, Calum Baird obtained first and Josh Wood third. Despite some strong competition from the college’s students. In the afternoon football event, which is a cross between football and robot wars, the Kilsyth robots took a real battering, and some hasty repairs were required. With two damaged robots, the two Kilsyth teams battled on and came third and fourth.

Kilsyth came out first overall, narrowly beating Dundee College to win the trophy for a third time. Well done to Calum Baird, Josh Wood, David Bauld and Adam Boyd. The team now have a week to repair their robots and prepare for the Scottish Robotics games in Edinburgh.

Remaining Uniform Evenings will be Monday 8^th June and Wednesday 17^th June, from 5.00 – 8.00 p.m.

Tickets for ‘Disco Inferno’, on the evenings of Tuesday 2^nd, Wednesday 3^rd and Thursday 4^th June are on sale every lunchtime, outside the café. The prices are £7 for Adults and £5 for Concessions.

A group of S3 pupils, studying Modern Studies, visited the Scottish Parliament last week and had a great day. During the visit, they had an opportunity to discuss fracking with MSPs Jamie Hepburn and Margaret Mitchell. The group also toured the Parliament and greatly enjoyed the experience. Many thanks to Mrs Wilson for organising the trip.

Simultaneously, a group of S1 pupils spent the day at Our Dynamic Earth. This was part of their Geography course and, again, the young people had a fantastic day. Many thanks to Miss Moir for organising the event.

Pupils in S4, S5 and S6, who do not have Study Leave, have been working with New College Lanarkshire and Skills Development Scotland, for part of each week. In classes they have been working on some projects, including fundraising for the Nepal Earthquakes.

Our three Uniform evenings will take place on Tuesday 19th May, Monday 8th June and Wednesday 17th June, each from 5.00 p.m. until 8.00 p.m. There will be a number of special offers available at each of these events. At each one, our Parent Council will be selling tombola tickets and we hope parents will take time to support this and to chat to the Parent Council about their work. Donations for the tombola would be most welcome, in the run up to these events. These can be handed in at the school reception or passed to any member of the Parent Council.

The school will be closed on Friday 22^nd May and Monday 25^th May, apart from those sitting SQA examinations. They will run as scheduled.

The next meeting of the Parent Council will take place on Thursday 28^th May, at 7.00 p.m. This is a week earlier than originally scheduled, due to the timing of the school show.