\Alloa Academy
\Balfron High
World Book Day Pupils in S3 organise a World Book Day Chat Show watched by all S2 and S3 pupils who later wrote a report in their English class. S3 pupil Jamie Young wrote the following article to describe the day: The World Book Day was an original and interesting event put together by our Literacy Champions, a group of third year pupils. The champions invited four inspirational speakers to come along and talk about how literacy impacts their working lives. The four speakers were Kerry McPhee Commonwealth mountain biker, Alex Gray a crime author and the co-founder of crime writer festival, Lorna Robb a local business woman and Rhona McLeod, well-known BBC presenter and former athlete. Kerry explained how literacy impacted her lifestyle. She grew up in the Outer Hebrides and went to university to become a PE teacher but then decided to compete in cycling. Literacy is an important skill for her, as she uses communication for feedback from sessions with her coach. Her favourite book is ‘The Talent Code’ by Danny Boyle. The book made her believe that she could be an athlete if she worked hard enough and set her mind to it. Alex Gray is a Scottish crime writer. She said how incredibly essential literacy is to her job and life. She described her job to the pupils and how she needs to dive into an alternative universe to create her novels. She also has to do a lot of research to make sure her information is correct and plausible. Her favourite book is JRR Tolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings’. She has written 14 novels, her favourite is ‘The River Man’. Local businesswoman Lorna Robb outlined how her job involved literacy and what it consisted of. She said that her job as a director at Fraser C Robb’s involved a lot of communication as she has to give clear instructions to other workers in her team. She enjoys reading business style books. She especially enjoys audio books when driving as she never really has enough time to read. Rhona McLeod, a former athlete and now a well-known and successful BBC sports presenter told us her job depends on having good literacy skills to analyse reports, edit them and then deliver them live on television. She trained for the Commonwealth Games. She loved English in school and said “literacy applies to everyone everywhere”. Her favourite book was James Herriot’s ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ when she was a young girl. She also said “the most important thing to do is read, as it improves your mind”. Overall the event showed us how much we need literacy in our lives and what it can do to improve life. It was an enjoyable and different way for us to celebrate World Book Day. Library visits During the last few weeks as part of the English curriculum’s whole school literacy initiative, most P7 classes from catchment schools have visited the library to gather information for their investigations across a range of curricular areas and develop information handling skills. An excellent range of resources was prepared for their visits by the school librarian who worked with Mrs Murphy, Community Librarian for Balfron Library, to provide nearly 100 additional resources. Pupils were also able to observe the manner in which pupils moved between classes along corridors and also how break and lunch queues formed. Some pupils were also able to observe activities in the Home Economics and Physical Education areas of the school. Mr McIntyre delivered an excellent presentation for Killearn Primary School pupils on the wide range of opportunities for participa- tion, performance and development of technical skills within the Music Department. Inter-House competition This week’s saw a draw with both Bruce and Erskine House scoring 13 points. Schaw House scored 10 points and 1S1 had the highest total number of merits and 4B1 topped the list for completed homework. Healthweek Thanks to all from across the Learning community who contributed to Healthfest and Healthweek. Showcases focussed on substance misuse, mental health, positive relationships and healthy food and drink choices. Young Enterprise Scotland Alloa Academy had three teams competing in the finals of the Forth Valley Young Enterprise competition. Illuminate did particularly well, gaining three awards and making it to the final three but Cindercandles and Venture also performed well and all of their employers represented made a point of saying that every student involved would be a candidate for a job. STEM Careers Hive More than 30 S3 students attended a STEM Careers Hive event at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh last week. Students did presentations and learned about the various roles and jobs which fit under the umbrella of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. Senior Awards Ceremony Invitations are currently being sent out to the parents of award winners in S4, S5 and S6. A finalised list of winners will be posted on the Prefect Noticeboard by the end of the week and students are asked to check. The ceremony takes place on Thursday, March 30 at 7pm and Lyndsay O’Donnell, former pupil and Scotland rugby player, will be guest speaker. Easter Revision School One week of revision mornings will be taking place at Alloa Academy in the week of April 3-7. Different subjects will be holding sessions each day from 9.30am-1pm and lunch will be served each day. The timetable is now available on the Senior Noticeboard and all students who are sitting exams are encouraged to sign up.
\McLaren High
History On Tuesday, March 21, there was a visit from Callander Heritage Society and Harry Doy, who brought along his collection of original World War 1 artefacts. Pupils were allowed to handle many of the objects such as medals, grenades (de-activated) and binoculars. Harry had also brought along several military uniforms, such as a German officers coat (which had been found in a trench), a German Naval Uniform and a Scottish soldier’s uniform. All the pupils had an informative afternoon and the best part was getting to see things they heard about in class in real life.