Elgin Academy

School Notes Wednesday 23 November 2016

Christmas Concert date – We are looking forward to a real extravaganza on the night of our Christmas Concert on Monday 5 December (Not 7 December as published previously in School Notes).

Children in Need - Elgin Academy students paid £1 to dress as they pleased on Friday 18 November 2016, and enjoyed ‘all the fun of the fair’ in the Assembly Hall throughout the day. Everyone’s collective efforts have raised £1935 so far for Children in Need. Well done to everyone involved, with a special thank you to our amazing Fundraising Committee!

Support for Learning – Ms Julie Green leaves us soon as a Support for Learning teacher to take up an Art Teacher post at the Gordon Schools in Huntly. Congratulations go to Richard McWhirter who has been appointed to replace her. Mr McWhirter currently teaches at Turriff Academy, and will join us on Monday 19 December.

Scottish Enterprising Maths Competition - While most pupils were enjoying two days off school for the inservice days, four members of our Junior Maths Team - Daniel Campbell, Jolie Henderson, Dariusz Miskiewicz and Jacob Holder – gave up their free time to travel with Mr Hume to the national final of the Scottish Enterprising Mathematics Competition. The team performed very well and placed 14th in Scotland – a great achievement. They received certificates as well as a glass trophy for the school. Well done to the team for doing so well, and giving up their holiday in order to take part! Judo Success At last weekend’s Scottish National Closed Championships, Megan Edwards S4 R won a Bronze medal in the Cadet Section under 52kgs and also was awarded Grand Prix champion for the year whereshe had amassed the most points over the year in the cadet under 52s over 5 competitions. Reece Edwards S2R also won a Bronze medal at the same competition in the Pre-cadet in the under 34kg category. He also won Grand Prix champion after gaining most points in in his category Pre cadet under 34s.

Farmers’ Market – The Farmers’ Market returns this year on Friday 16 December – please keep the date in your diary!

Vice-President – Our Head Teacher, David Barnett, has undertaken the role of vice-president of School Leaders Scotland (SLS) for the coming year. SLS is the leadership organisation for secondary schools in Scotland, representing Head Teachers, Depute Head Teachers, Faculty Heads, Principal Teachers and Business Managers.

Virtual Reality Learning - The science department has been piloting the use of virtual reality headsets in science with huge success. A virtual reality app is downloaded on the phone, then the phone inserted into the headset which allows pupils to enter a fully immersive educational 3D world where you can look around in 360 degrees. To date, virtual reality has been used to teach global warming and the effects on the world's oceans and countryside, in addition to using virtual reality in the astronomy elective to fly to and visit all the planets of the universe. The ASN department has also been using virtual reality learning over several subjects as well as science and more and more educational vr apps are being made available all the time. The science department has just invested in ten virtual reality headsets which will be put to very effective using for teaching and learning in the future.

All Buzzing about Books All Week - All in school joined in a week-long packed programme of events and activities to celebrate Book Week Scotland. On Monday, we welcomed bestselling author Sara Sheridan to the library, to work with S4 girls. Sara is an Edinburgh-based novelist and is also an active campaigner, fascinated by women’s issues. The girls enjoyed meeting Sara and chatting to her and have been left with a writing task to complete. Our new Film Club began on Monday and there was much enthusiasm for the film Alice Through The Looking Glass and for the popcorn too! Staff accepted Reading Dares and snapped book selfies and talked to pupils about their books, whilst lunchtimes saw Ms O’Reilly, Mr Davies and Mrs Reynolds reading to pupils during Itsy Bitsy Book Bits. Pupils also enjoyed reading staff tweets about favourite books throughout the week. Our Christmas Book Fair did a roaring trade, with top titles, brilliant bestsellers and cracking Christmas presents purchased. S1 pupils described their books in 3 images and S2 pupils interviewed each other about their books in a fun hot seat library event. The exciting finish to the week is today, with our annual and very popular Battle of The Books Inter-House Quiz, hosted by Mr McWhirter and led by House Heads and Deputes. Gordon House has now won two years in a row and are looking to make it a hat trick this year. We shall have S6 musicians, tartan, books, the staff team and lots of fun. A fitting finale to our Book Week.