ALVA ACADEMY

In This Issue

MACMILLAN latest

total & photographs

Faculty Updates

Sporting

achievements

ParentPay

Much, much more...

Headteacher’s Remarks

Attainment and Achievement

Welcome to our first newsletter of the session. The term got

off to a flying start following S5/6 senior school impressive

SQA exam results. Of course, it is business as usual as our

young people focus in a purposeful way on achieving their

next set of challenging targets, in preparing for January

prelims, so that they continue to make good progress.

It goes without saying that attendance, punctuality and

completing homework are all crucial ingredients for success.

The good news is that our attendance figure is currently

standing at 93%, the same as it was at this time last year.

However, given the fact that good attendance to school

significantly correlates to success we encourage parents to

continue to support us in this respect. At our senior S4-S6

parents’ meetings, it was also clear that parents are ...

Academy Avenue, Alva, FK12 5FE , T: 01259 452322, W: alvaacademy.com November 2015

Primary Liaison Mr Blair and 4 of our S3 Engineering Science pupils attended a presentation at Tillicoultry Primary School on Friday 30th October. Both P7 classes showcased their mechanical fairground models which they designed and constructed from a project kit that we had supplied to them. The quality of the models and presentations was outstanding. A huge amount of praise of the work undertaken by Angela Murphy and Angela Bain , P7 teachers, is deserved. We also had an opportunity to showcase some of our S3 work, Catherine Young, Megan Maitland, Sophie Kane and Ross Penman were a credit to Alva Academy.

P7 pupils at Tillicoultry Primary

… reinforcing the homework message too and helping young people adopt good working

practices. We all know that homework consolidates what is learnt in class and builds

confidence.

In addition to classroom work, parents will have seen from the website http://alvaacademy.com

and our twitter feed, that numerous events have been happening within and out with the school.

A few of the highlights are listed here but can I draw your attention to the website, which is a

developing and ongoing source of valuable information on events and achievements which

celebrate the fantastic efforts of our young people. We also ask parents to share achievements

that we may not be aware of and there is a section of the website that enables this.

Subject Ambassadors

I am also delighted to introduce Alva Academy’s

S6 Subject Ambassador Team. These young

people are helping co-ordinate activities in

faculties, supporting the work of staff, spreading

and promoting the faculty news whilst sharing their

ideas for improvement.

ParentPay @

Alva Academy

January 2016

ParentPay - our new online payment service

We are pleased to announce that we will shortly be accepting payments

online for items such as dinner money, school trips and uniform. Using a

secure website called ParentPay you will be able to pay online using your

credit or debit card. ParentPay will be our preferred method of making

payments to school.

What are the benefits to parents and pupils?

ParentPay is easy-to-use and will offer you the freedom to make online

payments whenever and wherever you like, 24/7. The technology used is

of the highest internet security available ensuring that your money will

reach school safely – offering you peace of mind. Payments can be made

by credit/debit card or also through PayPoint. Full payment histories and

statements are available to you securely online at anytime. Your children

will not have to worry about losing money at school. Parents can choose

to be alerted when their balances are low via email and/or SMS text.

What are the benefits to our school?

The more parents that use ParentPay, the greater the benefit is to our

school.

You can help us reduce workloads for all staff, creating more time to lend

to educational support and the smooth running of the school.

Using ParentPay also ensures that all financial transactions are safe and

secure - helping us to remove costs associated with us having to manage

cash securely on the school premises.

How to get started with ParentPay

We will shortly be sending you your account activation details, just follow

the instructions in the letter we give you to get started with ParentPay.

If you want to find out more about ParentPay go to:

www.parentpay.com/Parents

S4 Work Experience

Alva Academy is committed to the national initiatives regarding work experience and offers all pupils the opportunity of one week’s work placement during forth year. This year, the two weeks concerned for the bulk of the pupils were from 9th to the 13th November, and 16th to the 20th November, with 50 pupils due out of school each week. 29 of these places were self found. Extensive planning took place in PSE, with pupls supported by their Guidance teachers—the onus, however, was very much on the individual pupil in terms of taking responsibility for their placement.

The purpose of work experience in further year is to give pupils an idea of the world of work generally, and our evaluations over the years have shown that the vast majority have a valuable and enjoyable experience. It also provides added motivation in school, and this is supported by national research.

Some S4 pupils—for example those who attended college on Tuesdays and Thursdays—have not been involved in this round of placements, but will have an opportunity later in the session to organise work experience placements.

UCAS

Applications

UCAS applications are now in the final stages. All seniors are working hard towards the school deadline of December 4th when we submit applications. Seniors should be commended for their progress at a busy time of year.

Harrier House

update

Harrier House - we have started awareness raising for our house's chosen charity - Strathcarron Hospice. House captains and Vice captains gave an inspiring assembly to launch our charity. They have now organised special screenings in the Assembly hall during SQUAD time of a programme which highlights the amazing work done at the hospice. As always the response of the pupils has been fantastic and we are now looking for fundraising ideas to begin our campaign.

Sporting

glory for

the

Junior

Hockey

Team

Junior Hockey

Junior Hockey Tournament

November 2015

Congratulations to the Junior Hockey Team who were

fantastic in a competition at McLaren High School, playing

against 7 other schools and finishing in third!

Everyone put in a great performance despite the terrible

weather. Special mention to the players for surviving when

the bus broke down and waiting for 3 hours to be saved by

the AA and Mr Woods (Woods of Tillicoultry)!!

Active Girls Day

On 2nd October, 200 Alva Academy girls took part in a

day of Clubercise, Just Dance on the Wii and

professional choreography as part of sportscotland

Active Girls Day. The entire day was organised by our

own S6 Dance Captain Chloe. What a fantastic day with

so many girls enjoying taking part in activities they hadn’t

perhaps tried before. A massive amount of money was

raised for our school charity Macmillan helping take the

total over £30,000.

Well done to Chloe for organising a great

event and everyone for taking part!

Rotary Club Shoe Box Appeal

Clubercise

Rotary Club Shoe Box

Appeal

The Rotary Shoebox Scheme

was originally started in 1994 by

North West Rotary clubs and

was intended to provide

children of Iasi, in North East

Romania, with Christmas gifts.

Since then, the scheme has

grown throughout

Britain and Ireland with

approximately 60,000

Shoeboxes and gifts now being

sent per year.

In addition to Romania,

Shoebox gifts have been

delivered to Belarus

Ukraine, Bulgaria, Albania,

Croatia and Kosovo.

Alva Academy has collected 56

filled boxes this month for the

appeal. Thank you for all your

kind donations.

Malawi

2016 After a very

successful

Ladies Night in

December last

year, the

fundraising team

decided to do it

all again.

Ladies, come

and join the

pampering and

shopping event

at Alva Academy

on Wednesday

2nd December .

Tickets priced £8

are available

from

Miss Conlan in

the Technical

Department.

Forthcoming Music Events

There are 2 events coming up in November & December which will give our talented pupils the

opportunity to showcase their talents in music.

Following an extremely successful Remembrance evening last year we have decided to build upon this

success by holding another on the evening of Tuesday 24th November. There will be musical

performances from the orchestra, soloists and ensembles. The evening will also feature displays from

many other subjects.

Our annual Christmas concert takes place on the evening of Monday 14th December. As usual there

will be the usual festive favourites as well as some phenomenal performances from over 300 pupils.

Tickets will be on sale in December.

Photographs from 2014 Remembrance evening

Photographs from 2014 Christmas Concert

Annual

Christmas Panto

Trip S1

The English Department are continuing their annual Christmas Panto trip with S1.

(Oh no they’re not…oh yes they are!)

They will be going to see ‘Snow White’ in the Kings Theatre in Glasgow on Monday 14

thDecember. It’s

sure to be a great show and a wonderful opportunity for the pupils to experience the theatre!

Debating Club Since August our senior pupils have been working on their National 5 and Higher folios. One of the requirements of the externally assessed folio is a piece of persuasive writing on a topic of their choice. As a result of the high standard of work produced across all year groups and interest expressed by pupils, the English Department have established a debating club. Debating is open to all year groups and held every Monday lunchtime with Mrs Horne in room B107.

Secondary School Writing Competition

Creating Gallipoli Connecting Scotland’s diverse communities through creative writing

Last term, Miss Brogan, from the English department, accompanied three pupils (Ciorstaidh McKellar S1, Cameron Murphy S2, Mairi McKellar S3) to a secondary school writing workshop held at the University of Stirling. The workshop was led by Chris Powici, an award-winning poet with a long experience of teaching creative writing. The aim of the workshop was to educate pupils on the Gallipoli campaign and encourage them to commemorate the global world war by using war diaries, memoirs and photographs to write either a poem or short story based on the themes of: the landings, treating the wounded, life in the trenches, being taken a prisoner or the evacuation of Gallipoli. The writing competition was an excellent example of how interdisciplinary learning may be achieved. It enabled pupils to utilise their historic knowledge and understanding to produce creative writing pieces which reflected the life of a soldier during the Great War. The workshop also gave pupils the opportunity to challenge themselves and allowed them to develop their writing skills.

REAL BUSINESS CHALLENGE

Fifty S3 Business pupils took part in a business competition where they

had to create a new, sustainable, healthy juice drink brand with a strong

emphasis on ethical decision-making. Pupils were put in teams and each

member was assigned a role, one of which was Team Leader. The

pupils spent 3 weeks carrying out market research, designing packaging

and labels, making decisions about how they could manufacture more

ethically and calculating costs and profits. Pupils then had to present

their information to 4 judges. The judges were Calum Gullen (S6), Yahui

Wilson (S6), Mike Gordon from Omega Diagnostics and Stuart Cail from

Harviestoun Breweries. All judges were very impressed with the pupils

presentation skills and the quality of their ideas.

The winning team was: Hamza Afzal, Chloe Lawson, Cameron Glennie,

Tiegan Brown, Dillan Hunter, Holllie Jarmooz and Laura Nelson. Well

done to them and all of the pupils who participated in the challenge.

Pupils carried out an evaluation of the challenge and here are some of

their comments:

“The challenge was quite different from anything I’ve done before in school, and it was a unique, fun experience”.

“I learned that if you put your mind to the task and share your ideas and

research with the group when it all comes together at the end you get a

great result”.

“I enjoyed the Challenge because it was a hands on challenge and I had to work with different people that I have never worked with before. I also liked having the choice of what we could do so it was all our own ideas and not step by step instructions”.

“I learned there is far more to making a product than just a simple name

and idea – pricing, market research etc”.

“I learned that maybe next time I need to put in a little more effort to get a

better outcome”.

PRESTIGIOUS NATIONAL ENGINEERING SCHOLARSHIP

AWARDED TO Alva Academy’s Cameron Johnson,

Shaun Lynch & Declan McInroy.

Three pupils from Alva Academy have been awarded a sought-after Arkwright Engineering

Scholarship that identifies them as some of the country’s future leaders in engineering and related

areas of design.

The renowned Arkwright Engineering Scholarship provides the student with a £600 financial award to

enhance their Scottish Higher studies and a range of activities to enhance their understanding and

experience of engineering. Alva Academy will also receive £400 for each Scholarship that its students

have been awarded. The Scholarships are respected by leading universities and industrial companies and

are supported by top engineering employers such as Rolls Royce, BT, BAE Systems, National Grid,

Balfour Beatty, Microsoft Research, Thales, The Royal Air Force and The Royal Navy.

The pupils had to successfully complete a rigorous selection process consisting of a detailed application

form, a two hour aptitude paper and an interview hosted at a top engineering university.

The aptitude paper tested candidates’ flair and originality in solving engineering design problems. The

interview was a grilling in which candidates had to discuss an engineering project they had conducted.

During the interview day the candidates took part in a team exercise to solve a hands-on engineering

problem working with students they had never met before. Candidates and their parents also toured the

engineering facilities at the host university and explored the diversity of engineering and design careers

and their importance to the UK economy.

Dr Martin Thomas, National Director of the Arkwright Scholarships

Trust said: “I am delighted to see students from Alva Academy

secure this prestigious accolade. Clearly, there is considerable

technical talent in the Clackmannanshire area. With the competition

for rewarding jobs becoming ever-more fierce, the receipt of an

Arkwright Engineering Scholarship can help dynamic young people

at the start of their journey to be the country’s future leaders in

engineering and related areas of design.

Mr Sherriff with Cameron, Shaun & Declan

S5/6 Health & Wellbeing Conference Morning

Friday 13th November

On Friday morning our S5 and S6 pupils experienced a wide range of valuable

workshops to help them focus on key issues in their lives. Guest speakers were

very impressed with the pupils, commenting on how friendly and attentive they

all were.

The following topics were all discussed:

Know Your Alcohol Limits?

Legally High?

Relaxation and Mindfulness

Growth Mind Set

Active Learning Skills

Study and Be Successful

Internet Safety and You

First Aid Essentials For Life

For the Love of Leigh

Gender and Sexuality

Camp America Can be Life Changing

Drinking, Drugs and Driving

NPS: Staying Safe

LGBT Issues

Re-Solv

Thank you from Ms Gibson to all speakers for their contributions, pupils for their

input and staff who helped to cover classes during the event.

Alva

Academy

Macmillan

2015

A record breaking year of Macmillan fundraising with our current total

standing at …… £31,039.86.

Our amazing S6 pupils took part in organised events such as Parent

Trap 2015 and Pedal for Scotland 2015. They bag packed in Asda,

Tesco, Coop and Sterling; played football and collected at local

Galas, and let’s not forget the Duck Race in Tillicoultry. Our fabulous

team of S6 with the help of some incredibly devoted staff, Miss Finn

and Mr & Mrs Clifford, have walked, climbed, pedalled and rattled

their tins to raise this phenomenal total. Well done!

S1 Maths

inspired by

Florence

Nightingale

In S1 Mathematics, during the second and third weeks of November, we have been studying a famous mathematician and in particular the impact of their work on our modern lives, as part of the experiences and outcomes of the Curriculum for Excellence. We also wanted to form strong links between our learning in maths and other subjects, so we needed a mathematician whose work contributed to the current interdisciplinary theme of “Remembrance”. Florence Nightingale was for us a natural choice.

Most people have some knowledge of Florence Nightingale’s work as a nurse in the Crimean War in 1854-55. She was a champion of hygiene, nutrition and medical record-keeping (at a time when none of these were standard practice). But most people have not heard of her skill as a statistician, not only in the manipulation of data but also in the manipulation of minds to promote reforms of military hospitals by her pioneering and clever use of graphics. At a time when germ theory was neither understood nor accepted, she was able to use statistics and her famous “Rose Diagram” to prove that improvements in hygiene and nutrition could save lives, in the space of a year reducing the death-rate from preventable hospital-contracted infectious diseases from 60% to just over 2%. Perhaps more importantly, she was the first person in authority to treat the common soldiers with respect.

After the war, she then used statistics to show that even in peacetime, British military hospitals had, in all male age-groups, almost twice the mortality rate of the very worst civilian hospitals. This compelled the extension of her reforms to all military hospitals in Britain, and of course ultimately to the civilian hospitals also.

As a result of Florence Nightingale’s reforms of military hospitals, preventable disease was never again the huge cause of the loss of life of British servicemen that it was in the Crimea. As we remember the horrific loss of life in the First World War and later conflicts, we deplore the effects of the use of lethal weapons on an industrial scale. But we acknowledge too the contribution to the saving of lives made by medical personnel in the field and the debt that they and we all owe to one brave determined woman and her devotion to the use of statistics to force reform and save lives.

As we have learned about Florence Nightingale’s contribution to military medicine, we have summarised and displayed our learning in different ways. Some pupils have prepared posters; most have constructed Power Point presentations. On the evening of Tuesday, 24

th November, as part of our Remembrance Commemoration, a

small group of S1 pupils will co-present one such Power Point as the Mathematics Department’s contribution.

Fashion &

Textile

Home Economics – Wet Felting

The fashion and textile classes were visited by a tutor in wet

felting and enjoyed a morning making a felted piece of fabric,

and some felt beads. This showed pupils how one type of

fabric is made, and gave them ideas for use in their next

project – making a bag.

The tutor, Maggie Macdonald, then came back to do another

workshop with teaching staff from all local schools, both Home

Economics and Art, who of course can use bead making in

their portfolios

We are also gearing up to make 100 Christmas cakes with our

S3, S4, S5 and S6 Hospitality classes, along with the addition

of some Gingerbread houses this year, before we start the

serious business of prelims in January.

Contact Us

Alva Academy

Academy Avenue

ALVA

FK12 5FE

T: 01259 452322

F: 01259 769162

E: alva@edu.clacks.gov.uk

W: alvaacademy.com

Important Information First Aid/Medication

Alva Academy has qualified First Aid staff to assist pupils and staff in the event of an accident or emergency. The administering of regular medication will be considered on completion of a signed consent form.

Please note there are NO trained nursing staff based within Alva Academy, therefore the changing of dressings etc cannot be undertaken in school.

Parent/Carer Contact

Please can all parents/carers provide the school with any changes of address, telephone numbers and emails addresses so that we are able to contact you if required.

Pupil drop-off zone

Please can we remind you to drop off and collect your child from the drop-off zone, painted red at the entrance to the school. Please do not come down Academy Avenue, as there is nowhere to turn safely without causing an obstruction which inevitably leads to difficulties. Recently we had cars turning in the bus park—this is a very dangerous practice!

Lost Property

All lost property is kept securely by the School Office. If any pupil has lost something, they can go to the Office, during non-teaching time, with a description of the item and someone will look for it. All recovered lost property must be signed for. Please ensure that all of your child’s items of clothing are marked with their name.

Lost property will be retained for 3 weeks, after which it will be given to a local charity.

Acer in Ludo Ludisue Keen in sport and study