arbroath academy summer newsle er · russell to a permanent spsa post. we look forward to our young...

Arbroath Academy Summer Newsle�er

Summer 2018 Tel: 01241 438200 E-mail: [email protected]

Top Stories:

FMRC—page 3

BPhO Silver Winner- page 5

Project Barracu-da—page 8

P7 Science Visit—

page 10

Maths Success—page 12

Basketball Winners - page 13

County Sports—page 14

Dates for your Diary— 19

Together with Pride! Head Teacher’s Welcome

Dear parents, carers and friends,

It is hard to believe that we are already approaching the end of

another school year, and I'm sure that thoughts are turning to sum-

mer holidays as we enjoy the warm and sunny weather.

This year we have seen the structure of the school week change,

with four longer days and a short day on Fridays. We have been

aware of advantages and disadvantages in this, and Angus Council

is currently seeking views on the changes. It has been good to see

a healthy number of pupils take advantage of the Ac8ve Schools

op8ons which have been available on Friday a9ernoons, and our

Ac8ve Schools Coordinator has spoken highly of the senior pupils

who have been helping lead the ac8vi8es.

Listening to pupils is important to us, and we are planning an addi-

8on to our school uniform following discussions with our Pupil

Council and Fairtrade group. We s8ll expect pupils to wear a white

or black shirt with school 8e (see details later in the newsle=er),

but we will be introducing a school hoodie. Details of this will be

available shortly.

As always at this 8me of year we have a number of staff changes.

We are delighted that Mrs Gillian Alcorn and Miss Karen Duncan

have both been appointed to permanent DHT posts, so they will

remain with Tay House and Morlich House respec8vely. Our pro-

ba8oner teachers this year are all moving on to permanent posts –

Mrs Quinn to Monifieth HS, Mrs McGuffin to Forfar Academy and

Miss McGlynn to Hutchinson's Grammar – and we look forward to

welcoming 5 proba8oner teachers next session. From the English

department Miss Meikleham shortly leaves us for an ASN post in

2 Arbroath Academy News

Montrose Academy, and Miss Cameron to a post in Whitburn Academy. We

have recently welcomed Mrs Amie Wa= to the ASN department and Mrs Elaine

Russell to a permanent SPSA post.

We look forward to our Young Musician Compe88on on 14th

June and our Cele-

bra8on of Achievement evenings on 26th

and 27th

June, and hope that many of

you will be able to a=end these events. Recently we hosted the Angus STEM

fes8val which was a wonderful day with many interac8ve ac8vi8es for all ages,

and we were delighted to see our school and grounds filled with families learn-

ing together.

Over the next year as a school we will be having a focus on improving behaviour

in classes to allow all young people to learn, and we will also be working on im-

proving the resilience and wellbeing of our young people so that they reach

their poten8al. We look forward to a year of working with our cluster prima-

ries, parents and other partners to make our school a happy place to be where

young people achieve their best.

The summer holidays can seem like a long 8me for parents, so please take op-

portuni8es to spend some 8me with your children – o9en the ac8vi8es which

cost li=le are the ones which have the biggest impact on them. I hope that you

and your families have an enjoyable summer, and we look forward to a new

term in August.

Yours faithfully

Summer 2018 21

Links of Interest

My World of Work: h=p://www.myworldofwork.co.uk/

Skills Development Scotland: www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk

SQA (Sco)sh Qualifica+ons Authority) Home Page:

h=p://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/70972.html

SQA Parents’ webpage: h=p://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/41292.html

Na+onal Qualifica+ons Informa+on for Parents:

h=ps://www.npfs.org.uk/downloads/

Educa+on Scotland – parentzone Scotland:

h=ps://educa8on.gov.scot/parentzone/

Twi�er accounts:

Web Site: h=p://www.arbroathacademy.angus.sch.uk

Keep in touch with what’s happening at Arbroath Academy!

School Account:

@ArbroathAcad

Business Studies:

@ArbAcadBusiness

P.E:

@ArbroathAcadPE

Language & Communica+on:

@ArbAcadLang_Com

Library:

@arbacadlibrary

Social Subjects & RME:

@ArbAcadSSubRME

Maths:

@ArbAcademyMaths

BCT:

@ArbAcad_CompSci

Expressive & Performing Arts:

@ArbrAcad_ExpArt

Building a Reading Culture

@ArbacadR


Our School Uniform Guide

Arbroath Academy’s colours are BLACK and GOLD. Pupils are expected to wear:

∗ A white or black blouse/shirt

∗ Black cardigan, v-neck sweater or plain black sweatshirt (no hooded tops)

∗ School 8e (available to buy from the school office £4)

∗ Black trousers or skirts (no shorts or leggings)

∗ Black shoes

∗ Dark coloured jacket (no denim jackets)

∗ School hoodie will be available soon (details to be finalised)

All outdoor garments and anything that is not uniform is to be removed in the

classroom.

For PE and sports ac8vi8es in school, pupils are expected to wear:

∗ A plain white t-shirt/polo shirt (no football tops)

∗ Black shorts/tracksuit trousers

∗ Training shoes or a change of shoes.

∗ In cold weather you might also like to wear a tracksuit or warm top.

For health and safety reasons pupils will asked to remove jewellery and piercing in

PE.

P.E & Sports

School Blazers

We have boys/girls black school blazers available to purchase from the school. Our

supplier is www.uniform-direct.com.

The blazers can be purchased at a cost of £30 and they are

available from size 6 to 24 for girls and size 30” to 40” for

boys. Please contact the school office if you would like to

purchase one.

∗ Teflon HT

∗ Crease resistant

∗ Easy care

∗ Machine washable

∗ Quick drying

∗ ‘Mobile phone’ pocket

∗ Easy access badge s8tching

Summer 2018 3

First Minister’s Reading Challenge (FMRC)

The S1 and S2 Reading Programme came to an end this term with many S1 and S2

pupils comple8ng Bronze, Silver or Gold. As part of the FMRC, we will be con8nuing

to develop a whole school reading culture

next session and the reading programme

will con8nue along with many other ac8vi-

8es to make reading a regular feature in the

pupils' school life. Our photos show just

some of our achievers.

Since the Spring newsle=er, we have had

two author/illustrator visits. A group of S1

pupils were treated to a visit from comic

book illustrator Tom Foster who is currently

working for 2000AD. Tom provided an en-

tertaining a9ernoon on how he and other

illustrators put their comic pages together

then gave the pupils a scenario they had to

illustrate themselves. Some really great

pages were developed, and

the pupils were thrilled

with Tom’s super hero il-

lustra8ons that he drew for

them while they were

working.

Dylan Gower S1 said, ‘Tom

Foster told us how to make

a comic and what it takes

to become a comic book

illustrator and writer. He

also gave us the script of a

comic book strip that we


needed to illustrate ourselves. We

did a prac8ce to see how well we

could it. It was very fun to do and I

liked it a lot. I also liked it when Tom

drew superheroes that we asked for.

I liked it when we were looking at

other peoples’ drawings to see their

different version of the comic strip.’

Scots language author, Ma=hew Fi=

took a workshop with a group of S3

pupils. He spoke about Scots lan-

guage and took the pupils through various poems and songs that had been wri=en in

or translated into Scots by poets, Ma=hew himself or pupils from other schools, and

he asked the pupils to share their own knowledge of Scots words and phrases from

family and friends. Next, they had a go at transla8ng a nursery rhyme and finally they

chose a popular Scots phrase to mash up. Some really good pieces came from the

a9ernoon and the pupils seemed to really enjoy Ma=hew’s banter. Here’s just one

example:

‘Haud yer wheesht, Shush!

Shush, I says. Haud.

Weesht, Shush, haud.

Gonnae no! Wheesht yersel.

Yer crabbit, no?

Dinnae fecht, haud yer breeks

Fit? Troosers. Aye.

Gaun yersel, ye muckle, peeliwally ta%e

heid.’

Summer 2018 19

Dates to remember!

Holiday Dates 2017/18

Monday 13 August In-Service Closure Day 1 (pupils return to school Tues 14 August)

Friday 28 September Last day of Autumn Term

Sat 29 Sep—Sun 14 Oct Autumn Holiday (pupils return to school Mon 15 October)

Wednesday 28 November In-Service Closure Day 2

Thursday 29 November In-Service Closure Day 3

Friday 30 November St Andrew’s Day Holiday

Friday 21 December Last day of Winter Term

Sat 22 Dec—Sun 6 Jan Christmas Holiday (pupils return to school Mon 7 January)

Thursday 21 February In-Service Closure Day 4

Fri 22—Mon 25 February Mid-Term Holidays

Friday 5 April Last day of Spring Term

Sat 6 Apr—Mon 22 Apr Spring Holiday (pupils return to school Tues 23 April)

Monday 6 May May Day Holiday

Monday 27 May In-Service Closure day 5

Friday 28 June Last day of Summer Term

Sat 29 June—Sun 11 Aug Summer Holiday

Holiday Dates 2018/19

Friday 29 June Last day of Summer Term

Sat 30 June—Sun 12 Aug Summer Holiday

Cut out these holiday pages and s�ck them to the fridge for

ease of reference!

18 Arbroath Academy news

The Communi+es Team in Arbroath Academy

What is Family Learning?

Family learning is about giving families the 8me

and opportunity to learn and play together in a

safe environment.

What Family Learning is happening in Arbroath?

We currently run two community based Family Learning projects. We have a

Family Learning a9er school group on Mondays from 3.30pm-5pm at the Com-

munity Space in the Community Wing, Arbroath Academy. This is open to

families with children of all ages.

We also run a Learn Laugh Play programme on Tuesdays from 12.30pm-

2.30pm at the Community Space in the Community Wing, Arbroath Academy.

This is for families with children aged 0-5 years and we do a range of ac8vi8es

including arts and cra9s, outdoor learning and messy play.

We also run Learn Laugh Play in school nurseries to encourage families to

learn together within the school environment.

For more informa8on please contact Avril Gordon on 01241 438255 or email:

[email protected]

Summer 2018 5

This is what one of the pupils had to say about the workshop:

‘It was really funny and I feel like I came out of my shell. It actually made me have a

brainstorm of ideas for a short story. I’ve been having so much trouble thinking

about ideas lately.’

The Bri8sh Physics Olympiad is a charitable trust

associated with the University of Oxford and aims to engage with and stretch the

most able pupils across the UK, in order to encourage talent to progress on into the

best universi8es. It does this primarily by producing a number of highly challenging

exam papers which pupils can a=empt, and the minority who achieve a ‘Gold’ Award

subsequently a=end an evening ceremony and networking event. Ankit Bha�arai

(S4), en8rely on his own ini8a8ve, entered the 2018 Olympiad for GCSE level, and did

extremely well to achieve a Silver Award, very narrowly missing out on the Gold

Award band. This was a highly impressive effort, especially considering the paper was

largely based on GCSE Physics, rather than the Na8onal 5 syllabus.


Author/ illustrator Workshop

Children’s author/ illustrator Natalie Russell came

in to the Art and Design department for a whole

morning at the beginning of March to work with

a group of S2 pupils. Natalie gave a great talk

about her own books, giving the pupils the op-

portunity to look at her original art work for the

books and fascina8ng development sketchbooks.

She then led a workshop where pupils created an

animal character from drawings of randomly

picked plas8c animals and a strange assortment

of household objects!

The pupils then developed a story involving the

character and objects, finishing with a mock

book. The workshop was a great success and the

finished stories were fantas8c, full of crea8vity

and imagina8on.

Summer 2018 17

Duke of Edinburgh’s Award – Open Unit – meet in the Community Wing

The groups meet alterna8ve Wednesdays at 6.30pm – 8.00pm and we currently

have two Bronze groups and three Silver groups. The sponsored walk was a success

with 22 par8cipants out on what was a sunny day. We have now been out on a Sil-

ver prac8ce up in the Rothiemurchus area and the weather was rather wet – but a

good 8me had by all. If you are in third year or above then why not come along and

find out more. Some of the transferable learning outcomes include, leadership, self-

belief, responsibility, teamwork, problem solving and having fun and challenging

yourself which are great for future employment or University life. The Award is

open to all 14 – 25 year olds living in Angus.

The Outdoor Learning Space

The Outdoor Learning Space con8nues to grow (no pun intended). The

group have now planted a number of fruit and vegetable plants and are

looking a9er them. The pond is teeming with tadpoles so we might have

lots of frogs about soon – great to help get rid of the slugs! If your son or

daughter is interested in the outdoors then ask them to contact a PCS

teacher to see if they could work in this space.

To come along to any of these clubs or if you have an idea for a new

club then ask your son or daughter to pop in and speak to the youth

workers who are based in the Schoolhouse at the Glenisla Drive gates

or contact Rikki on 438254.


The Communi+es Team in Arbroath Academy

The Communi+es team currently offer a number of learning opportuni+es for pupils and

adults within the Community Wing in the school.

Youth Work learning opportuni+es include:

#Des+na+on group

Senior pupils, Ashley Pannell, Thomas Reeves, Amber Dunipace and Rachel Stuart are

off to Italy in August with the #Des8na8on group. This is an Angus wide youth ex-

change with Italian partners. The project is about Youth Wellbeing 4 All. The Italians

are visi8ng us in early July with the Angus group heading out to Italy in early August.

The group are currently fund raising and planning ac8vi8es to help with the exchange.

Academy Club – meet in the Community Wing

The lunch8me group meet on Wednesdays and

gives pupils the opportunity to have some fun in a

relaxed safe environment. In the last few months

par8cipants have been taking part in food tas8ng,

dodge ball, arts and cra9s amongst other things.

Some of the learning outcomes include, team-

work, leadership, building posi8ve rela8onships

and literacy and numeracy skills.

Step Up Club

We have recruited new P7

members to the club and nearly

all the feeder schools to the

Academy have pupils in this

group. The group is about fun

and helping to form friendships

through a variety of ac8vi8es

and help them towards transi-

8on to Secondary school. The

club meet on a Wednesday

a9er school 3.50pm – 5.30pm

and there are s8ll some places

available.

Angus Young Scot Mul+media team

We have recently recruited for this group and the

new par8cipants begin their training over the next

month. They will be trained in film, anima8on,

photography and journalism to prepare them to

produce material for the Angus pages for the

Young Scot site. The group meet in Forfar Com-

munity campus on a Thursday evening but free

transport is available from the Academy.

Summer 2018 7

The ScoWsh Band,

“Single By Sunday,” were in school to perform an Online Safety, Cyber Bullying

& Discrimina8on themed school tour.

They performed twice, once to the whole of S1 and again to the whole of S2. The

band was well received by all pupils and staff, enjoying the music whilst engaging

in discussions of the issues surrounding online safety, bullying and discrimina8on.


This year we have made a business link with RR Spink and Sons in Arbroath (part of the

Dawnfresh Seafoods

Group) to set a project with

S3's to help them to under-

stand how food is devel-

oped from concept to fin-

ished product that a cus-

tomer would buy in a local

supermarket.

'Project Barracuda' fits

nicely within the Food for

Health benchmarks, as pu-

pils are asked to design and

make a food item, using

appropriate resources,

skills and materials. It also

links into our local context,

with Arbroath being a fish-

ing town, as the brief was

to create a fish based prod-

uct.

The pupils were then asked

to 'sell' their product to a

judging panel, which al-

lowed them to develop key

communica8on and

presenta8on skills.

The pupils worked in

groups for the project, which allowed other key employability skills to be displayed

such as leadership and team work.

Project Barracuda

Summer 2018 15

A number of 'Compu8ng Sci-

ence' pupils were invited to a=end the

Dundee and Angus college digital event

earlier this month.

Pupils got to experience various aspects

of what Dundee and Angus college Com-

pu8ng has to offer through a number of

challenges using computer systems and

so9ware. These included cyber security,

ethical hacking, so9ware development,

games development, digital audio and

anima8on to name a few!

The pupils involved really enjoyed their

day out, they found it to be an eye open-

er and are now thinking about following

a career in one of these fields!

Technologies

Next events:-

In the next few weeks four S2 pupils will

be defending their 8tle as last year’s

winners and represen8ng the Arbroath

Academy Compu8ng Science Depart-

ment in the annual Strathmore Trophy

event held at Dundee University. Good

luck!!!


County Sports—Amazing Successes!!

Arbroath Academy sent a 58 strong squad to the annual County Sports event. This year it

was held at Arbroath High School whilst the Caird Park is undergoing re-development.

The day started well with 3 medals in the first round of events. Abbey Gordon secured

Gold in the S2 girls 800m, coming back from 4th with 400m to go. In the field events

James Boyd clinched Bronze in the Senior boys triple jump. Ben Porter smashed the

County record for the S3 boys Shot Put, and took Gold.

James Shellard and Adam Knight added to the medal haul in the second session, James

compe8ng in the Senior boys Shot Put and secured Silver with ease. Adam Knight start-

ed his day by taking home a Bronze medal in the S3 boys Long Jump.

Session 3 saw S3 girls Shot Put take place and Kira Bell take a brilliant Silver medal. Ben

Porter added to his medals by winning the S3 boys Discus, taking the Gold, and bea8ng

yet another County record. Ben now holds four records!

Craig Tosh took part in a hard fought 200m Senior Boys Final. Craig sat in 4th and

pushed Forfar Academy with 20m to go and his pressure paid off.

Session 5 resulted in two medals, a Silver for Aiden Hu�on and Bronze for

Aleks Simeonov in the S3 boys 1500m and Senior Javelin respecZully. Alex was pipped

to Silver by Joe McColgan, son of ScoWsh interna8onal athlete, Liz McColgan.

In the final individual session the S3 girls claimed two more Silver medals, Krista Bunce in

the Long Jump and Laurie Whamond in the Javelin.

But even a9er 11 medals and 2 records the prizes did not stop there. Ben Porter was

nominated by the staff of all 8 compe8ng schools to be worthy of winning the Boys Indi-

vidual Outstanding Achievement Award. His outstanding performance, 2 Golds, 2 rec-

ords and keenness to help the staff at the sta8on made him the unanimous winner!!

Overall, we got 255 points, finishing 52 points ahead of Brechin High and 6 points behind

Forfar Academy. Even though some pupils did not medal, their performances and deter-

mina8on were outstanding and resulted in some breath-taking races.

The staff were pleased with the ethos and camaraderie of the pupils, with many stepping

up to take part in unfamiliar events to cover for those who picked up injuries. The pupils

showed great sportsmanship a9er each event by congratula8ng the other compe8tors

and shaking hands.

Summer 2018 9

Overall, 'Project Barracuda' has supported the pupils to engage with the wider as-

pect of employability and look into the various roles that are available within the

food industry. We hope to con8nue this project and partnership annually.

Here is a link to an ar8cle wri=en by Developing the Young Workforce Dundee &

Angus: h=p://dywda.co.uk/project-barracuda-a-reel-success/#DYW_DA


On Tuesday 15th May, the P7's from our

cluster Primary schools had a great morning

carrying out science experiments to deter-

mine the energy content of different types

of crisps.

The pupils worked well and safely, using

bunsen burners and other unfamiliar scien-

8fic equipment.

They were a credit to their schools and we look forward to welcoming them to the

Science department during their two induc8on days and at the start of the new term

in August.

P7 Science Visit

Summer 2018 13

A big congratula8ons to Arbroath Academy basketball teams

this year where our S1 team won the Angus league.

The under 15s team came in 3rd overall in Angus.

Then our under 18s team made it to the ScoWsh Plate Compe88on Semi-finals.

Huge team improvements this year as well as some excellent individual improve-

ments too.

Arbroath Academy Basketball

Fairtrade

On June 7th we were delighted to welcome Fairtrade ambassador, Andy Ashcro9 to

Arbroath Academy. Mr Ashcro9 of Koolschools, met with pupils from across all years

at the school as well as representa8ves from the Fairtrade, Pupil Council and Eco

groups. Mr Ashcro9 spoke to classes in the Social Subjects faculty where he ex-

plained how

co=on, and in par-

8cular FT co=on,

is produced. The

pupils found his

talk very inter-

es8ng and were

fully engaged in

the ques8on and

answer 8me that

followed.

As you know the

school is s8ll ac-

8vely pursuing their final FT award, The FairAcheiver award, and Mr Ashcro9’s visit

will hopefully see the school having met all the requirements to secure this final

award. Keep a lookout on the school’s Twi=er account over the next few weeks for

news!


UK Junior Maths Challenge—Success!!

Over 250,000 students from over 3,000 schools across the UK par8cipat-

ed in Junior Maths Challenge in April. Aimed at pupils in S1 and S2 stu-

dents are given 60 minutes to answer 25 mul8ple choice problems. The top 40% of

students are awarded Gold (6.7%), Silver (13.3%) and Bronze (20%) cer8ficates to recog-

nise their success, with top scorers invited to par8cipate in follow-on compe88ons.

These Arbroath Academy pupils received the following awards:

This year we are honoured to announce that 3 pupils were selected to par8cipate in the

follow-on rounds. This recognises their outstanding ability at problem solving and

mathema8cal processing.

Having made it into the top 3500 of pupils in their age group in the UK,

Hamish Swinton and Zuzanna Surmacz, both S2, received invites to the Kangaroo.

Rainers Zujevs, S2, was selected to par8cipate in the Junior Olympiad, placing him in

the top 1,100 of S1 and S2 pupils across the UK, huge congratula8ons to Rainers for the

extraordinary achievement.

Harry Napier

Thomas Twaddle

Josh Reid

Victoriaella Robertson

Dylan Tulleth-Parker

Ryan Thomson

Savannah Addy

Brianna Elder

Adam Robb

Mitchell Findlay

Lennon Buist

Cohen Smith

Bobby Fleming

Ella McDade

Molly Riach

Brodie Williams

Riley Burne�

Shay McGivney

Ellie Stallerbrass

Christopher Haabma

Paige Watson

Hannah Gall

Jemma Robertson

Rainers Zujevs

Hamish Swinton

Zuzanna Surmacz

Hannah Dibdin

Jasmine Stather

Jade Mooney

BRONZE

SILVER

GOLD

Summer 2018 11

arbroath academy summer newsle er · russell to a permanent spsa post. we look forward to our young...

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