DUMBARTON ACADEMY – SUMMER NEWSLETTER 2015

‘KEEP THE HEARRT IN MIND’

Dear Parent/Carer

As you will read in this final newsletter of the year, this has been another very busy and

successful session where our pupils continue to achieve both within and outwith the classroom.

I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your valuable and sustained support for what

we are striving to achieve for your youngsters. There is no doubt that Dumbarton Academy

continues to be an ambitious and successful school and the strong partnership we have with

parents plays a key role in our success.

A great deal of excellent work has gone on to support our young people to achieve their very

best. This newsletter gives a snapshot of some of their achievements and an insight to the

hard work of the staff.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the pupils and staff for their hard work and

commitment throughout this very successful year.

I look forward to welcoming pupils back on Monday 17 August at 8.50 am wearing full uniform.

Finally, can I wish you and your family an enjoyable and relaxing summer break.

Jacqui Lynam

Head Teacher

2015 LEAVERS’ DANCE

S5 and S6 pupils let their hair down and enjoyed a fantastic night at the Leavers‟ Dance which took

place on Thursday 18 June. The dance was held on the Bonny Banks at Duck Bay Marina. All of the

pupils looked amazing. The girls wore beautiful dresses in many different colours and the boys were

very smart in their suits and kilts. The bow tie was a very distinctive fashion item this year for the S5

boys. I am sure many parents would have had a wee tear in their eye seeing their sons/daughters

looking so grown up.

DEBATING COMPETITION

On Friday 12 June Dumbarton Academy hosted the

second annual MacKinnon Cup Debate; schools from

West Dunbartonshire and Argyll and Bute

participated in this junior debating competition.

Two speakers from Dumbarton Academy, Our Lady

and St Patrick‟s High School, St Peter the Apostle

High School, Clydebank High School, Vale of Leven

Academy and Hermitage Academy debated the

motion: This house believes that Physical Education should not be compulsory within the education

system.

Dumbarton Academy‟s speakers, Eilidh Watt and

Nairne Brown, won the second round against St Peter

the Apostle High School. Vale of Leven Academy was

the overall winning school, taking the MacKinnon Cup

trophy back to their school.

All of the pupils who participated in this competition

delivered an exceptional talk; they certainly

entertained and impressed the panel of judges:

Councillor Martin Docherty (MP for West

Dunbartonshire), Councillor George Black (Councillor

for West Dunbartonshire) and Laura Mason (Head of Educational Services).

NEWS FROM THE ART DEPARFTMENT

„Art for Charity‟ Elective

Mrs Grant‟s „Art for Charity‟ elective pupils raised £165 this year

with the sale of various pieces of art and craft work. This year‟s

chosen charity was Milton Animal rescue and rehoming centre.

SCHOOL BUNTING

S2 Art pupils designed the flags for the school

bunting. The design features our school colours and

design features from the old school. The bunting is

on display in the Art department and was also used to

decorate the function room at Duck Bay Marina for

the recent Leavers‟ Dance. Thank you to Mrs Walsh

and Mrs McMillan for their support in making the

bunting.

LIBRARY CARD COMPETITION

S2 pupil Natasha McKechnie won the Library

Card Competition. Natasha‟s artwork will

appear on the school library card. Natasha

received a £50 voucher from Amazon which

was presented to her at the recent House

Assembly. Congratulations and well done to

Natasha!

NEWS FROM THE MATSH DEPARTMENT

UKMT Junior Maths Challenge

7 S2 pupils at Dumbarton Academy achieved a Bronze Award in the UKMT Junior Maths Challenge this

year. Over 250,000 pupils from across the UK sat the challenge, with roughly the top 6% receiving a

gold certificate, the next 13% silver and the next 21% bronze.

Eilidh Watt, Sam Grierson, Josh Wilson, Jamie Reid, Morgan Page, Nicole McKechnie and Serena Glen

were presented with their certificates at the Awards Ceremony on the 9th June. Eilidh and Sam were

also awarded best in School.

House Competitions

Congratulations to Fruin who have won this year‟s House Cup!

All Houses performed extremely well throughout the year raising fantastic sums of money for various

charities such as Breast Cancer Research and Kilts for Kids. Most impressive about the charity events

which took place in the school was the fact that it was largely pupils who took on the responsibility of

organising them. The fundraising events which took place during the Scotland Our Nation Day, such as

the bake sale, were chiefly organised by the House Captains. Further to this, the school‟s Christmas

Parcel scheme had its most successful year ever. Several Christmas Hampers were delivered to a

number of families throughout the area. These are just a few examples of the hard work and dedication

shown by the pupils of Dumbarton Academy this year.

P6 and P7 Visits

On Wednesday 27 May the P6 pupils from our four associated primary schools spent the day at

Dumbarton Academy as part of our transition programme. The pupils had the opportunity to meet the

staff and experience a day in the life of a secondary school pupil.

On Thursday 28 and Friday 29 May our new first year pupils joined us for their transition visits. For

the first time these students made their own way to Dumbarton Academy, meeting their P7 teachers

for registration. They followed a timetable which gave them a flavour of the curriculum they will

experience in August. During interval and lunch pupils interacted with our current pupils and were

encouraged to sample food from the Cafeteria.

We asked pupils about their experience; overall they really enjoyed trying new subjects and loved the

school dinners! We are really looking forward to having them with us next term.

NEWS FROM THE SCIENCE DEPARTMENT

West Dunbartonshire’s Amazing Things Awards

The science department have had another busy term with lots of

interesting activities happening both in and outside the classroom.

The most notable achievement this term came from the hard

work and dedication of DA zoo and our Dumbarton Academy

Zoology Learners (DAZL). The pupils and animals entered the

WDC Amazing Things awards and were short listed and invited to

attend the final awards held at the Bret Butler football stadium.

Holly Craig and Elle McIlory from S1, accompanied by Miss Bream

and Mrs Walsh, went to the event to share the good practice of

using animals to enliven

learning. Described as

“revolutionary teaching” the

team were delighted to be

awarded first prize in the

secondary category of the awards. Terry Lanagan was there to

present the prize of £200 that will be used to reward the hard

work of DAZL and take the regular helpers on a trip to either Amazonia or Edinburgh zoo.

In other news DAZL are happy to welcome on board a STEM

(science technology

engineering and math)

ambassador, Linda

Wilson. Linda has a BSc in

zoology and will be

helping assist the zoology

club in an after school

programme of events set to kick off straight after summer. Events

including dissecting owl pellets, making food chain mobiles, using IR and UV to observe animals and

hopefully a visit from ZOO Ed and Alba falconry are all planned to take place on Thursdays after school.

Staff and pupils will be welcome to join in these events which will happen twice a month. If there is

enough interest the programme may be extended in the spring/ summer term of 2016. (Picture shows

silk being produced by a spider, learn about this at zoology club!)

We also welcomed Schrodie are newest aquatic friend who has joined Aristotle in Miss Bream‟s room.

Schrodie is a golden albino axolotl and is causing quite a stir with his funny antics. And finally our Giant

spiney stick insects have started to hatch with the onset of summer.

CSI and topical science in S2

Who stole sweep? Why did the “smiler” crash? Are just two

of the questions we asked the new S2 pupils to investigate as

they moved into their new timetable as the term draws to an

end. Pupils were encouraged to use skills from science,

literacy, and numeracy to investigate and present. All pupils

had the opportunity to turn their hand to forensic science

investigating the strange disappearance of sweep the cat;

putting all the skills they learned through the year of

investigating and team work to solve the crime. Over the

course of a three lessons the new S2 pupils used chemical, biological and physical evidence to work out

“who did it”. The week culminated in them presenting their evidence in a written report. In addition the

S2‟s also looked into topical science issues. Pupils were given a choice of what

to present and given a week to complete a power point presentation with talk

about a science issue interesting to them. Topics from the recent accident at

Alton towers to why the air in planes could be considered toxic gave staff an

insight into what interests our budding scientists. The feedback from pupils

was they really enjoyed the chance to present and find out about topics that

interested them, some pupils even said despite being nervous and finding it

daunting speaking in front of their peers this is an activity they would be keen

to do again in science.

Other in class activities

In other news Mrs Weir, and other biology staff, have been

enlivening

learning by

dissecting

lungs and

hearts as

part of our

S2/ 3 BGE. This activity allows pupils to see the

internal structures of the hearts and lungs and

also to see healthy lungs from lambs reared and

slaughtered just across the water in Bridge of

Weir. Supplied by Roy Holmes, local butcher to Miss Bream, the hearts and lung dissections certainly

caused some raised eyebrows and Mrs Weir and other biology teaching staff blew them up to

demonstrate the huge volume of air they can take! Not for the faint hearted!

Pupil success

Rowan Johnstone this year becomes a NASA

representative! Rowan has been lucky enough to be

accepted into Space School. Being held at

Strathclyde University this is an event that allows

pupils to explore engineering with NASA and

Strathclyde university support. Applications came

from across Scotland and Rowan is one of a lucky

selected few who will now get the chance to

compete for a place in the next round and a trip

to a real NASA space centre. Good luck Rowan!

The voice of our pupils

As a school we are keen to develop our courses and

enliven learning for the young people in our classes and

we are also very keen to help understand what our

learners feel about what is going on in the department.

Mrs Smith and Mrs Latimer took time to listen to our

science learners from S1 to S6 and got some helpful

feedback. As is the case in most feedback surveys in

science

departments our learners would like more experiments;

the new National 5 chemistry resources have helped

develop this area of the department with classes

investigating chemical reactions and rates of reaction for

the last two weeks using experimental work. The Royal Society of chemistry grant that was well

received by the department earlier in the year has also helped develop our experimental resources and

pupils should see more exciting equipment being used more regularly for example the IR camera has

been used by S1 classes and also higher chemistry classes to observe endothermic reactions. Pupils said

they liked coming to science and enjoyed doing presentations and they all felt welcome and safe in the

department. Learners were able to identify using numeracy and literacy skills in science and generally

gave good feedback all-round. We will continue to listen to our learners and develop better ways of

working to get it right for every pupil in our department.

And finally

As the academic year of 2014-15 draws to a close the science

department couldn‟t miss out on one last chance to get our pupils

inspired by the world the staff in the department love so much.

During activities days over 30 pupils have signed up to take part

in a molecular gastronomy event being lead by Miss Bream with

the help of Mrs Cook in the home economics department. Pupils

will get the chance to make ice-cream without using a freezer,

make lemonade with a chemical reaction and produce their own popping candy! Some staff have also

signed up for the chance to get involved in this Willy Wonka style activity! Let‟s just hope we don‟t turn

anyone into a giant blueberry!

Thanks to all the enthusiasm of the pupils and staff in the science department in helping to make 2014-

15 a year of awards, excitement, fun and of course excellent learning. Let‟s hope next year continues to

be as great!

NEWS FROM THE HUMANITIES FACULTY

HISTORY

It is with mixed feelings that we

have to say goodbye to Miss McGee

as she takes up a permanent post in

another school.

She has been an invaluable addition

to the Humanities Faculty this year, showing willingness to

teach not only History, but also Modern Studies, PSE, Badminton Club and anything else that was asked

of her Including Duke of Edinburgh events and the Geography residential trip to Ardlui in December.

The Faculty will not be the same without her but we wish her well in her future career.

S3 Century of Warfare Project

Miss McGee‟s S3 class came up with an exciting idea for the month of May which was to investigate

warfare over the past 100 years – as they had enjoyed the First World War topic so much! S3

investigated technology in World War Two, the Vietnam War and the Iraq War and considered how it

had developed and how this had impacted the countries at war. They explored propaganda and the

reasons why people sign up to war and finally they looked at the impact of war on people; with a special

focus on the Clydebank Blitz. S3 created fabulous presentations which they delivered to the rest of the

class.

S1 Native American Research

Miss McGee‟s S1 class really love presenting to one another and so they decided to carry out an in-

depth study in Native American history before delivering fantastic and interactive presentations. Every

group chose their own areas to focus on and we learned about family life, homes, clothing, food, warfare

and superstitions just to name a few !!

MODERN STUDIES

Members of the Senior Phase Modern Studies

classes took part in the Pupil Voice pilot in the

school. The discussion that took place has had a

direct impact on changes that have been made to

the N4-6 courses. This process has been a very

positive experience for the teachers and the

pupils and will be used with the current S3 class

to improve the learning and teaching in the BGE.

The students in the department have taken part

in a number of debates about the Scottish

Independence. A number of senior pupils represented the school at the Big Debate held by the BBC in

Glasgow prior to the referendum and as part of our Media Unit the S3 class researched and held a

debate in class to get a better understanding of the arguments for and against independence amongst

politicians and the wider community.

GEOGRAPHY

S3 field trip to Luss

Our S3 pupils ended their BGE years with a trip to Luss to learn and use some of the skills they will

need in future as they head into the depths of National 4/5 classes next

year. Even the few who are not

continuing with Geography at this

stage benefitted from this as we

looked at how to plan a

questionnaire (to survey members

of the public), how to organise a

traffic count and also how to

measure different aspects of a

river.

The process involved preparation of materials before we went to Luss,

collection of information throughout the day at Luss and then analysis and

reporting of findings. All of these skills are useful across the curriculum and both classes learned much

from the experience.

S2 Sustainable Development group

Some of the S2 pupils invented games based on the theme of Sustainable

Development – and the games were thoroughly tested by the S1 class on

their final day. The games displayed a great knowledge of managing forests

throughout the world, and other aspects of sustainable living including

renewable energy sources and lifestyle. The unit we had just finished also

involved links to our partner school at New Era, Vadodara, India as we looked

at projects they had been involved in at one of their local park areas.

RELIGIOUS, MORAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES

We sadly have to say farewell Miss Taylor as she

moves off to her new job in the Highlands. Miss

Taylor brought youth and enthusiasm to the RMPS

department this year ( ) and will be a huge loss to

the Humanities Faculty. She was also in charge of the

Amnesty Group and got involved in anything else that

was asked of her Including Duke of Edinburgh events and the Geography

residential trip to Ardlui in December. While we are sorry to see her go, we rejoice for her in her new

career and look forward to hearing about her adventures in her new school.

YPI - Amazing Things Awards

On 4th June, Niamh Austin and Kaela Murie represented the winning team from the S3 RMPS „Youth and

Philanthropy Initiative‟, at West Dunbartonshire‟s Amazing Things Awards. The group were given

recognition and praise for their close work with local charity, Dumbarton and District Disabled

Children‟s Forum. Earlier in the year the S3 (now

S4) year group battled it out in a bid to win a

£3,000 grant for a small local charity that was

close to their hearts. DDDCF won the money

after a passionate plea and a lot of hard work

from Kaela, Niamh, Josh Redler and Lewis

Barbour. The girls are pictured below with their

Amazing

Things

Award,

and with

Miss

Taylor

and Mr Downie who accompanied them on the day. It was an

excellent event that showcased the talents and inspiring

projects of all young people in the authority. Congratulations

to the zoology club winners who snapped up the prize for the

overall secondary school project!

YPI- National Event 2015

Our winning group were also invited along to the YPI National Event held in Perth Concert hall on June

10th. The event was an excellent showcase and celebration of great philanthropy work being done in

Scotland, including all of the school pupils involved in YPI, who have worked so hard to connect with

small charities in their local communities. The event included an inspiring presentation from young

entrepreneur Josh Littlejohn, the brain behind the Scottish Business Awards and founder of the „Social

Bite‟ empire; which donates profits to good causes, and employs formerly homeless people to give them

a chance to succeed in the workplace. We were also treated to performances from Daniel Mutch and

Band, The Big Noise and Matt Cardle – Winner of X-Factor! It was a great day out and the RMPS

department would again like to thank all of our former S3s for their fantastic charity work undertaken

this year.

More information about YPI can be found at http://ypiscotland.org.uk/

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It‟s not.” - Dr Seuss

FOOTBALL

UPDATE

The staff which run the school football teams have managed to secure significant funding from the

National Lottery Awards for All project. This will significantly improve the equipment already obtained

over the last few years. This is terrific news for the school at a time where investment is hard to come

by.

Thank you to all staff and parents who have supported the teams over the past year.

SCHOOL GARDEN

The school garden elective class has now finished its first year in the new garden. While lots of hard

work was done, the area that we have to cover is very large so this year we are hoping to enlist the help

of some of our senior pupils. It is our aim to include the school garden as part of the school‟s focus on

“volunteering” and we already have some willing gardeners to help get things moving.

We are hoping to get some hard landscaping done so that the garden is appropriate for pupils to work in

next year and we are currently trying to source materials and labour to help with this. We need raised

beds and pathways to be built to allow the pupils to be able to work safely and plant edible crops in the

time they have out there, instead of having to constantly remove the unwanted weeds. If anyone has

any spare materials that we can have, please telephone the school office and let us know about

them. Thanks.

However, the raised gardens at the front entrance are looking great due to some excellent care and

attention, including the planting of colour-appropriate summer plants. Each bed represents one of the

school houses – Clyde (blue), Fruin (red), Leven (yellow) and Luss (green-ish) – and have various plants in

the house colours.

WE NEED YOUR HELP ! (if you know where we can source the following,

please let us know by calling the School Office on 01389 774560)

Slabs – any shape or size Wood suitable for raised beds Half-barrels or large planter pots Hard-core or rubble Fruit trees (to replace the ones we lost in the

move – apple, pear, etc) Thanks

DUKE OF EDINBURGH

The Duke of Edinburgh programme led by Marc McLean continues to grow from strength to strength.

The achievements for session 2014-2015 are:

Bronze Award – the following S4 pupils have achieved their Bronze Award:

Abby Donaldson, Christie Grierson, Inder Hayre, David Henderson and Carla Knox

Silver Award – the following S5 pupils have achieved their Silver Award:

Alan Boyd, Rowan Johnston, Emily Martin, Fiona Martin and Andrew Scarlett

Gold Award – the following S5 and S6 pupils are currently

working towards their Gold Award:

Lewis Austin, Mhairi Buttle, Lisa Dalrymple, Chloe Smith,

Rachel Thomson, Alan Boyd, Rowan Johnston, Emily

Martin, Fiona Martin and Andrew Scarlett. The S6 Gold

group carried out their practice expedition on the Isle of

Skye and will carry out their final qualifying expedition on

21-24 June. We wish them all the very best of luck!

Staff News

I would like to wish the very best of luck to the probationer teachers – Miss Milroy (Business Studies),

Miss Taylor (RME), Miss McGee (History), Miss Queen (English) and Miss McLoone (Music) – who leave

us on 25 June. I hope they all have great success in their future career within teaching.

I would also like to wish Mrs Anne Esson, Principal Teacher Support for Learning, and Helen MacNeill,

Teacher of Home Economics, a long, happy and healthy retirement.

Parent Council

If you are interested in joining Dumbarton Academy‟s Parent Council then come along to our first

meeting of the new term which will take place at 6.30 pm on

Monday 7 September.

School Uniform

I look forward to all pupils returning to school in August and

maintaining the high standard of dress code which consists

of: black dress trousers/skirt (of appropriate length), white

shirt, school tie, black shoes and blazer. Black jeans and

leggings are not appropriate.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY FOR TERM 1 BEGINNING AUGUST 2015

Thursday 13 August Staff return

Inservice Day 1

Friday 14 August Inservice Day 2

Monday 17 August Pupils return – 8.50 am

Monday 7 September Parent Council Meeting – 6.30 pm

Friday 25 September Holiday

Monday 28 September Holiday

Tuesday 29 September Staff and Pupils Return – 8.50 am

Thursday 8 October P7 Parents‟ Information Evening

Friday 9 October Inservice Day 3

Monday 12 Oct - Fri 16 Oct Holiday

Monday 19 October School reopens at 8.50 am for staff and pupils

Wednesday 4 November S1 Parents‟ Evening

Thursday 26 November S5/S6 Parents‟ Evening

Wednesday 2 December S4 Parents‟ Evening

Friday 18 December School closes at 2.30 pm for Christmas Holidays

Tuesday 5 January School reopens at 8.50 am for staff and pupils