Kilsyth Academy, Balmalloch, Kilsyth, G659NF – Tel : 01236 632157

 

Congratulations to so many of our pupils, from S1 to S6, whose numerous achievements were recognised at our Celebration of Success Assembly. These included awards for academic excellence, large numbers of merits, representing the school at various events and awards such as Crest and Reading for Gold. The certificates were presented by our House Captains.

 

Once again we had an excellent Christmas Concert, which played to a packed audience for families and friends. Our many talented musicians, vocalists and dancers confidently entertained the audience with a fantastic range of pieces, in large groups, small groups and as individuals. This was, of course, the culmination of many weeks of rehearsals and our thanks go to Mr Russell, Mr Clarke and our Music Instructors for all their work in preparing the young people. Many thanks too, to all staff and pupils who assisted in making the event such a success.

Pupils in S1 and S2 enjoyed a great afternoon Christmas party, playing games and dancing. All the young people joined in the fun and had a great time. Many thanks to the PE department, other staff and senior pupils, who organised the event.

 

Chanelle Gallagher and Mairi McLean, on behalf of the school, delivered around 1150 items to the Kilsyth Foodbank last week, following the week of collections within the school. This was a great total and was gratefully received by the staff at the Foodbank. Well done to Chanelle, who led the whole project and saw it all through to its conclusion.

 

The inter-House Volleyball tournament took place last week and, at the end of the competition, Antonine was victorious. Dumbreck was second followed by Balmalloch in third and Colzium in last place. The games were played in the truly competitive and friendly spirit. Well done to all participants!

The school will re-open on Wednesday 6^th January, at 8.55 a.m. We hope everyone has a great holiday, a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Tickets are still available for our annual Christmas Concert, on the evening of Thursday 17^th December. The price is £5 for adults and £3 for concessions, and tickets can be purchased from the Music department. This is a great way to celebrate Christmas, with friends and family and to enjoy the entertainment provided by our young people.

Thank you to everyone who contributed items for the foodbank collection. These will be delivered to the Kilsyth Foodbank this week.

Plans for Crazy Day and the last day are now in full swing and we are looking forward to plenty fun and celebration, while also raising lots of money for charity. We hope that pupils will all support the end of term events, so we can raise as much as possible.

S4 pupils have been very busy finding out about the work of local charities. This is part of an enterprise initiative, sponsored by the Wood Foundation. In the spring, the pupils will make a pitch for their charity to be awarded a £3000 grant from the Wood Foundation.

Our cafeteria has undergone a refurbishment last weekend, with a few finishing touches to be completed by January. We hope that pupils will greatly enjoy this new-look facility within the school.

The school will close on Tuesday 22^nd December, at 2.20 p.m. and will re-open on Wednesday 6^th January, at 8.55 a.m. We hope everyone has a great holiday, a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

 

Tickets are still available for our annual Christmas Concert, on the evening of Thursday 17^th December. The price is £5 for adults and £3 for concessions, and tickets can be purchased from the Music department. This is a great way to celebrate Christmas, with friends and family and to enjoy the entertainment provided by our young people.

Collections for the Kilsyth Foodbank are well underway and we urge everyone to give generously. In particular, the Foodbank would welcome donations of mince pies, Christmas crackers, chocolates, tuna/salmon, shortbread, fruit juice/Shloer, tinned ham, crackers and cheese. Our last day of collecting will be Friday 11^th December.

The S1/S2 Christmas Party will take place on the afternoon of Monday 14^th December. Pupils have been issued with information about this.

Our three Kilsyth Academy Christmas cards have now been sent to the printers. Congratulations to Holly Shaw, Jake Muir and Olivia Elliott (all S2), who designed the cards.

 

The inter-House football competition took place last week. It was played in good spirits, with some exceptional goals being scored. Antonine House won the overall event, with Dumbreck House coming second, Balmalloch third and Colzium fourth. Well done to all participants and to the PE Department for organising the event.

We also had inter-House Table Tennis tournaments for boys and girls. In the boys’ event, Mike Chebe took 1st place for Colzium, Maciej Jelito was in 2nd place for Balmalloch, Scott Leslie was third for Antonine and Lewis Cameron was fourth, for Dumbreck. In the girls’ competition, Alex Burke took 1st place for Dumbreck, Emily Muir was second for Antonine, Nicola Wilson took 3rd place for Colzium and Connie McFarlane was fourth for Balmalloch. Well done to all!

Crazy Day will take place on Monday 21^st December and, by now, pupils should be paying their £3.00 donation to participate. Lots of morning activities are planned and staff and 6^th year have been rehearsing furiously for the afternoon show. All proceeds will go to the three charities selected by the Pupil Council – Strathcarron Hospice, SAMH and Mary’s Meals. Let’s do them proud!

Congratulations to Courtney Forsyth and Blair Anderson, who competed in the first round of the Donald Dewar debating competition, against Fernhill School. Kilsyth Academy hosted the event, which was very well attended. The Kilsyth team proposed the motion that ‘The internet does more harm than good’ and were successfully selected to proceed to the next round, together with St Andrew’s and St Bride’s High School, who also proposed the motion in the second debate of the evening. Thanks to Miss Graham for organising the event, supporting the team and chairing the debate.

A big well done too, to Adam Boyd and Ross Chalmers, who participated in the Kirkintilloch Speakers’ Club annual competition for schools. Both boys spoke very well but were unplaced, on this occasion. Thanks to Mrs Burke for supporting the boys in preparing for the competition.

Tickets are now on sale for our annual Christmas Concert, on the evening of Thursday 17^th December. The price is £5 for adults and £3 for concessions, and can be purchased from the Music department.

Collections for the Kilsyth Foodbank have now started and we urge everyone to give generously. In particular, the Foodbank would welcome donations of mince pies, Christmas crackers, chocolates, tuna/salmon, shortbread, fruit juice/Shloer, tinned ham, crackers and cheese. Our last day of collecting will be Friday 11^th December. This is also an inter-House competition, led by Chanelle Gallagher 6A.

The first of three S3 reports will be issued this week. This will be followed by a Parents’ Meeting on 12^th January and further reports in March and June.

The annual Primary Maths challenge took place last week, for all primaries associated to Kilsyth Academy. The children had a great morning, solving puzzles and problems and taking part in the popular Maths relay race. The teams did very well indeed and Lennoxtown Primary were the overall winners. Many thanks to Miss Rae for organising the event and congratulations to Lennoxtown.

Preparations for Crazy Day are well underway and we look forward to a great day of fun and fundraising, on Monday 21^st December. The Pupil Council met last week and decided that the charities to benefit from this year’s Crazy Day would be Strathcarron Hospice, SAMH and Mary’s Meals – a local, national and international charity respectively.

Congratulations to Mrs Stirling-Young who has been appointed to the post of Teacher of Biology, in the school. We are delighted that this post has now been made permanent.

The Parent Council will meet on Thursday 3^rd December, at 7.00 p.m., in the school. New members welcome.

We were delighted to welcome so many parents and children from our six associated Primary schools, to last week’s Information Evening. Despite the dreadful weather, almost 200 people attended and heard about the transition to Kilsyth academy from school staff and senior pupils. Most people also toured the school, visiting all the departments and finding out about the various subjects, from teachers and young people. Congratulations to members of 2D who ran a baking stall, for charities chosen by their class, and raised over £90.

History and Modern Studies pupils took part in a trip to the cinema, to see the film ‘Suffragette’. The young people greatly enjoyed the experience, which contextualised some of the work they are doing in class. Higher English and Higher Drama pupils attended a production of ‘The Crucible’ at East Kilbride Arts Centre. Again, this will be of great assistance to their studies in class.

Ben Cullen, Martin Murphy, Vicky Irvine and Emma Carrigan, all members of the S3 Achieve group, attended the Balmalloch Primary Tennis Coaching event, led by Judy Murray. The pupils have been helping at a number of sports events in our local primaries and were very pleased to be given this extra opportunity.

 

We are hoping for a great turnout at our Information Evening for P6 and P7 parents, on Monday 9^th November, at 7.00 p.m., in Kilsyth Academy. During the evening, there will be an opportunity to hear about various aspects of the transition process from Primary to Secondary school and our school captains look forward to sharing information about the wider life of the school. Thereafter, there will be an opportunity to tour the school and some staff and pupils will be available within departments, to showcase facilities and answer questions. Letters have been distributed via our associated Primary schools but the event is also open to any other families who are interested in attending.

 

Last week we hosted two MSYPs, who explained to pupils about the work of the Scottish Youth Parliament. Thereafter, pupils each completed a questionnaire, as part of the SYP’s ‘Lead the Way’ consultation. We were also pleased to welcome Stuart McDonald MP, who is also a former pupil of the school, to speak to the Higher Modern Studies class about his role. The discussion was extremely informative and the young people asked some excellent questions.

Our annual Halloween celebrations were a great success, as always. Members of S6 organised three events, in total – a Ghost Walk and a party for S1 pupils and a Movie Night for S6. The young people who led these events, did so as part of their SQA Leadership Award and all those who participated had a great time. Well done to Lucy Rutherford, Rachel Kimmett and Chloe Laggan.

Pupils studying National 5/Higher Art and Design and Higher Photography visited Kelvingrove Art Galleries and Museum last week, as part of their course. This included a visit to the ‘Century of Style’ exhibition, to support design folios, a visit to the galleries, to assist with expressive work and there were ample opportunities for Photography students to add to their folios. The pupils all found the day very beneficial. Thanks to Ms Andrew for organising the trip.

Our Higher German pupils attended a German Immersion Day, at the Goethe Institute, in Glasgow. The pupils enjoyed the workshops and felt that the day was very valuable for their studies.

Our S4 Employability classes attended the launch for the Youth and Philanthropy Initiative, which they will all be participating in, over the coming months. This will involve small groups of pupils investigating the needs of local charities and presenting reasons why their chosen charity best deserves a £3000 grant, to be gifted by the Wood Family Trust.

We are delighted to welcome Mrs Lindsey Smith, another former pupil, as our new Library Resource Centre Manager. We are all looking forward to working with Lindsey and hope that she enjoys her new role. Congratulations to Mrs Jayne Gordon who has been appointed to the permanent post of Teacher of RME in Kilsyth Academy, following a 2½ year placement, which was on a temporary basis. We would also like to welcome Ms Lorraine Higgins to the English department, to cover the remainder of Ms Gough’s maternity leave.

Rachel Kimmett (S6), Jack Rennie (S5), Harry Thomson (S2) and Sophie Bridges (S1) represented the school at the North Lanarkshire Pupil Council, held in Airdrie. The main items involved discussion about ‘Mentors in Violence Prevention’ and ‘Focus on Food’ initiatives.

The Parent Council meeting scheduled for Wednesday 4^th November has been cancelled and the next meeting will therefore be on Thursday 3^rd December, at 7.00 p.m.

A group of S3 boys have enjoyed a week at Firereach, run by Scottish Fire and Rescue. They really enjoyed the experience and learned a great deal about the importance of teamwork and perseverance.

 The Achieve 4 group has been working in local Primaries and Nursery classes, providing games, activities and sports for the children during intervals and lunchtimes. Prior to putting their learning into practice, the group participated in a training programme, organised by our Active Schools coordinator. The younger children seem to have enjoyed working with our pupils – well done!

 Our Information Evening for P6 and P7 parents will take place on Monday 9^th November, at 7.00 p.m., in Kilsyth Academy. During the evening, there will be an opportunity to hear about various aspects of the transition process from Primary to Secondary school and our school captains look forward to sharing information about the wider life of the school. Thereafter, there will be an opportunity to tour the school and some staff and pupils will be available within departments, to showcase facilities and answer questions. Letters have been distributed via our associated Primary schools but the event is also open to any other families who are interested in attending.

 The Parent Council meeting scheduled for Wednesday 4^th November has been cancelled and the next meeting will therefore be on Thursday 3^rd December, at 7.00 p.m.