Stromness Academy has had its first HMIe School Inspection in 14 years. This secondary school takes all its 350 pupils from eight of the parishes in the west mainland of Orkney. During the week 24th March 2025, HMIe came to Stromness and did a whole school inspection, from the Home Economics department to Music, talking to not only to staff but also to the students.
The staff – teachers and non-teaching – had mixed feelings about this, one teacher saying they were “Super Stressed” and others stating “It was a useful and positive experience” or they were “not worried”.
One teacher said, “The inspectors asked very clear questions – they obviously had quite specific things they were interested in knowing.”
They added, “We have a lot to be proud of at Stromness Academy but it is always good to know where we could do better.”
The inspection report can be found, from 3rd June, at: https://education.gov.scot/inspection-and-review/find-an-inspection-report/

By Maisie B

The Stromness Academy Players are going south to compete in the SCDA youth finals in St Andrews, to perform their play which has competed twice already in the Orkney Theatre in February and the second time in March on the Brechin City Hall stage, winning both times first place!

Now they are going to St Andrews down south to compete for the Scottish drama competition and if they win, they will be going home as the champions of Scotland.

This all takes place on the 21st June 2025. Their play is called ‘Everything you always wanted to know about your teacher but were afraid to ask’ which is a comedy play made to relate to teachers in a dramatised fashion and it has been utterly adored across the island and in Brechin too, which gives our players a good amount of hope.

The play has a crew of 15 – 13 actors and 2 on lights and sound – so there are a lot of people to take down south. They will be leaving on the Friday Hjaltland and coming back on Sunday, staying overnight in Dundee after the competition on the Saturday.

Arwen Macnamara, an actor in the play, said, “I think the trip will be really fun and I believe we have a good chance of winning,” proving the determination the group has with just one person.

Fraya Purnell, also in the cast, exclaimed, “I am so excited for June and so enthusiastic about our hard work, I’m so grateful for all these opportunities!”

We aren’t yet sure who they are competing against so we can’t get too confident. Updates are to come.

The Players would like to thank Stromness Drama Club, Northlink Ferries, Birsay Drama Group, and Barbara Grieve for kindly providing sponsorship as they progress to St Andrews.

By Kacey B

On Thursday, the 29th of May 2025, Stromness Academy hosted a fun Netball Festival for the S2 girls. It took place from period two till period seven (10:15 to 3:30).

Miss Ewen who is a P.E teacher here at Stromness was completely in charge of the netball festival and made the choice that the netball games should be 10 minutes long.

Miss Ewen originally wanted us to play outside although sadly the weather wasn’t on our side so she decided to hold the games inside.

Wick, Thurso, KGS and Fortrose all travelled to Stromness to play in the festival and overall, we had 9 teams competing. Stromness Academy had two teams an A and a B.

The B team won two games and then lost two. The A team won four games then lost in the final by one point.

Katelyn who was in the A team said, “It was annoying because we were only one point behind and we were so close to winning.”

Orla stated, “I was really mad, I almost crashed out.” Although in the end, it was a very fun experience, and everyone enjoyed it very much.

 By Arwen M

Irving Norquoy aged 14 is a para-swimmer for Scotland and is on the rise, winning multiple medals from his incredible swimming skills he has displayed at the Scottish Disability Junior Swim Championships.  

Irving, from Sandwick, started his swimming journey at the age of 3. Irving was born with spina bifida. 

“I feel very proud, and I put a lot of effort in training beforehand,” said Irving, on winning his medals.  

His training strategy is gym twice a week and swim twice a week.  

When asked about representing Orkney at a young age Irving replied saying, “I feel very good, and you enjoy going down south and it’s good to represent Orkney.”  

(Credit Orkney Amateur Swimming Club Facebook for the photo) 

By Elliott M

2M Stromness Academy have gone to Hoy for a school trip from the 21st to the 23rd  of June 2025.  Hoy is an island in Orkney north of Stromness every school in Orkney gets an opportunity to go to Hoy. In Hoy we do a variety of activities where we get to choose what to do. 

Outdoor activities have been going to Hoy for years so everyone can get the opportunities.  This is run by the outdoor activity group that are the instructors for these trips they help us do all our activities.

A pupil in Stromness academy that went to Hoy, Archie Johnstone, said, “The thing I enjoyed the most was playing catch and hide and seek” and another pupil, Oliver Tait, said “My favourite thing was kayaking because I was super super fast” and “My least favourite thing was camping because it was boring.” 

Hopefully these Hoy Trips go on for many years to come.  

By Fredrik D

A group of Stromness academy pupils were taken out of class on Thursday morning to give feedback on prospective candidates of the Chemistry teacher post. 

A group of around twenty S2 pupils were put into 3 groups, and given a sample lesson by one of the job candidates.

 Archie Johnstone, who was with group 1, said they “learned about atoms, protons and nuclei.” He said he enjoyed the experience of the interview, and was happy to be a representative for Stromness Academy. 

Rohan Spence, in group 2, said “I went to Mr Ferguson’s classroom to get our seating plan, then we went through to Chem lab 2.  We sat in the same seating plan, then the candidate started the lesson they had planned.”

Rohan said “I enjoyed learning about atoms and the periodic table.” 

Rylee Sutherland, group 3, added, “I enjoyed the experience and I liked the candidate our group was given.”

By Ross S

Stromness Academy staff, pupils and parents are eagerly awaiting their HMIE report which will be out on Tuesday 3rd June. The last time that Stromness Academy got inspected was 2011. Inspectors were in the building for a week from 24th March and spoke to teachers and pupils in the classrooms.  

Pupils had mixed reactions to the inspection process. Lily, from 2T, said, “It was odd. They wanted to see what I was doing in class. They seemed nosy.”  

Ruby from 2T said, “It was weird: not all teachers but some acted more happy and kinder than normal but the inspectors stayed out of the way.”   

Brooke from 2R said “It was fun, I was a bit nervous, but it was fun.”  

Arwen from 2M said, “It was good, we told them what we were learning about they seemed nice.” 

91% of pupils polled think the inspection report will be positive. 

The inspection report can be found, from 3^rd June, at: https://education.gov.scot/inspection-and-review/find-an-inspection-report/ 

By Robyn S

Pamela McLellan, an S2 pupil from Harray, is excited that she might learn to drive a tractor this weekend. 

Pamela’s dad, Glen, has said that he might help her to learn to drive the tractor this weekend, at the farm of Nistaben, which belongs to relatives. 

“I have always wanted to drive a tractor. John Deeres are my favourite.” Pamela said. 

“It sounds fun but I have never tried I know how to drive a quad and a Gater, but I don’t want to drive them again I want to drive a tractor on the farm.” she continued. 

“I would like to be able to help out at Nistaben with the tractor work. I want to be a farmer’s wife when I am older,” said Pamela. 

By Pamela M

Liverpool fans were injured in a parade in Water Steet in Liverpool after their team came home with the Premier League Cup. 79 people were injured including a child who is badly injured. This happened on the 22nd of May.

This happened because a 53-year-old British man was drunk. He snuck in with an ambulance and ran over a high number of pedestrians.  The 53-year-old man from the west derby area was arrested on suspicion of drug driving and attempted murder and was interviewed in custody. The man was also detained for dangerous driving.

The man that was arrested is a father of 3 and a former royal marine.

The man is in court today facing 7 offences

two counts of wounding with intent, two counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent, two counts of attempted grievous bodily harm with intent and one count of dangerous driving. 

by Rohan S

The sixteen members of the Stromness Academy Players prepare to travel to St Andrews to compete in the S.C.D.A (Scottish Community Drama Association) finals.  The team have made their way past two fierce rounds of competition, once in Brechin and once here in the Orkney Theatre.  

The team has worked incredibly hard on finding more ways their can improve and will continue doing so until the finals!  Orkney has shown loads of support to the club, especially Stromness Drama Club, Birsay Drama Group, Barbara Grieve, SCDA Orkney, and NorthLink Ferries.  

Hannah Morrice, who does the lighting, said that using the equipment in different theatres “has brought me new skills I did not know I had.” 

Her favourite memory of the Brechin trip was “when we were all at the park and a student was on the swing and jumped off – it was super funny!” 

Cayla Paton, who does sound, said, “I would say it was a good experience so far.”

In Brechin, they competed against two other clubs, one who performed a two-hander, and the other who were a bigger team. Cayla’s favourite memory from Brechin was “Beating the other team, because a boy from the other team said we were losers.” 

When asked how they felt about competing in the finals, Cayla said she was, “nervous and excited”, and Hannah is “super excited and joyful.” 

 By Fraya W