School news
The senior prom took place in the grand marquee at Enterkine House near Annbank.
The theme for this year’s prom - which was organised entirely by the school captaincy team - was Las Vegas and the seniors oozed glamour.
Year head Ms Neil said: “What a pleasure it was to share such an enjoyable evening with a group of fine young adults.”
Earlier this month saw the Ayr Academy Sports Awards take place, with over 100 pupils and 40 parents attending the event.
The two main awards for each team this year were Coach’s Player of the Year and Player’s Player of the Year.
There were also two special awards. Matthew Field won the Volunteer Award for incredible commitment to extracurricular and leading rugby teams during fixtures.
This year also saw an award for Outstanding Contribution to Sport, considering the achievement and commitment to extracurricular teams, as well as outstanding attitude to physical education and immense talent. The award winner was Jamie Brotherston.
Last month the English department offered junior phase pupils in S1- S3 the opportunity to attend the Boswell Book Festival at Dumfries House near Auchinleck.
Ms Burgoyne, student teacher Ms Allan, Mrs Curran and 23 pupils were shown around the stately home before attending a workshop about biographical writing.
Based on examples of James Boswell recalling a prolonged episode of illness as a young boy, pupils constructed writing frames based on their own medical histories. The group was then led to a talk and presentation by Kjartan Poskitt, author of the Murderous Maths series of books.
Kjartan entertained the group with gruesome facts about ancient Greek mathematicians, amazing maths based magic tricks, hilarious jokes and picked hapless volunteers from the audience, including the academy’s own Laura Henry.
Pupils Sydney Wallace and Sara Findlay have been featured in a new resource called Bright Blue Packet, a music video designed to highlight the dangers around Legal Highs.
The project was carried out by South Ayrshire campus police officers, South Ayrshire Community Safety and Film School and was funded by Choices For Life and South Ayrshire Cultural Planning.
The project features 17 pupils from across six South Ayrshire Secondary schools and has been shared nationally via Police Scotland Facebook and Twitter, West FM and YouTube. The video will also be available on the Choices For Life website.
Thirty five S1- S3 pupils, accompanied by four members of staff, enjoyed a two- day visit to France and Belgium where the focus of the trip was the events of World War One.
They visited the Passchendaele museum where an underground reconstruction of the trenches allowed pupils to experience what life was like for the soldiers.
The In Flanders Fields exhibition in Ypres was particularly interesting because of the interactive exhibits and the film footage available.
At the Tyne Cot cemetery pupils had an opportunity of private remembrance as they planted a cross on the grave of the soldier they had researched beforehand.
It was a proud moment when S1 pupils Brandon Sloan and Adam Donnelly solemnly laid a wreath during the Last Post ceremony at the Meningate in Ypres.
More ‘ fun’ highlights were: a visit to the famous Leonidas Chocolate shop; buying food in town using French language skills and trying out escargots.
Many thanks to Mr Warrander for organising the trip and to Mrs Kelly, Mrs Olpihant and Mr Robinson for accompanying the pupils.
A total of 25 pupils from S3 took part in the annual Intermediate UKMT Mathematics competition in February.
Over 250,000 pupils from across the UK sat the Intermediate Maths Challenge, with roughly the top seven per cent receiving a gold certificate, the next 13 per cent a silver and the next 20 per cent a bronze certificate.
The top 6000 pupils are also invited to sit a follow- on competition, the Pink Kangaroo. This is a European challenge, where they have only ever had two pupils in the history of Ayr Academy selected to participate.
This session Jaymee Platt ( S3) qualified for entry into the Pink Kangaroo challenge, and the school were delighted to learn she had been awarded a merit certificate.
Merit certificates are awarded to the top 25 per cent of participants, this year the cut off was 84 out of 130. Jaymee managed a staggering 101 out of 130.
This is a fantastic achievement for Jaymee, the mathematics department and Ayr Academy and we are all very proud of her success.
On Tuesday 14 June, the Art and Design Department visited the Glasgow Clyde College at their Cardonald Campus. Pupils were involved in a Draping workshop where they created garments without pattern cutting.
They created interesting and dramatic shapes using two different fabrics to help them understand how fabric drapes.
The Piece of the Month for June is a selection of drawings created by the following Senior Phase pupils: Gary Blane, Sophie Holland, Laurie Nant, Heather Reid, Ebony Clark, McKayla Harrison Salmon, Molly Boyle, Maia Wilson, Caitlin Toy and Laura Henry.
Senior Phase pupils are currently working on the investigation stage of their design unit.
Working on the theme of Natural Form or Sea- life, they have created line drawings and colour studies focusing on the visual elements of line, shape, colour and pattern.
These drawings will form the basis of their development work which will in turn lead to the designing of a 3D product.