Parent Newsletter
Consultation re Timing of Parents’ Evenings
I would like your assistance in planning the timings of future Parents’ Evenings. You may be aware that this session we have held a number of Parents’ Evenings from 5.30pm to 7.30pm instead of the later interval from 7.00pm to 9.00pm. The earlier timing seems to be popular with most parents, which has in turn led to more parents attending Parents’ Evenings. Enclosed with this bulletin, I have suggested a number of possible arrangements for the timing of Parents’ Evenings for future consideration. I would be grateful if you could spend a minute or so reading through the options available and deciding which times best suit you. I would then please request that you return the completed questionnaire to the school office, either by post, or by pupil delivery.
Obviously, the more completed returns we have, the better will be our information on what parents wishes are. We will try to accommodate these as far as possible.P7 Parent’s Evening – 18th May
The Parents’ Evening for parents of the new S1 in August, will take place on Monday 18th May. On this evening, departments will have pupils demonstrating various aspects of their work, which we hope will be of greater interest to parents than simply viewing where each department is located. Last session we piloted this evening in March, supported by the Parent Council both financially and in person, and found it to be very successful. Consequently we would like to repeat this model on Monday 16th May, again assisted by the Parent Council. Although the evening will be designed for new “P7 Parents” it will be open to all parents to come along. This may be of particular interest to parents of pupils demonstrating within departments. A bus will be provided to bring pupils into school for the evening and take them back home later.
Pupil Activities
Pupils have been involved in a huge number of activities this term, as well as their studies, and have attained some tremendous successes.Sports: Boys’ and Girls’ football teams from S1 to S6 continue to play regularly, with varying degrees of success. Mr Nimmo’s and Mr Hodgart’s teams have been successful in reaching the quarter finals of the Ayrshire cup. Mr Neill’s rugby teams, junior and senior, continue to compete well, with the seniors scoring a memorable victory against Largs Academy. The school badminton team is doing well in the North Ayrshire league and look forward to fixtures against Auchenharvie Academy and Irvine Royal Academy.
Mr Burns’ and Miss Wraith’s Bank of Scotland’s football teams continue to make progress in this year’s competition being held at Greenwood Academy. There have been mixed fortunes for the for the S1 basketball team, winning and then losing against Stewarton Academy, and narrowly losing to Auchinleck Academy in the Ayrshire cup. In the S1/S2 Coke football 7s, Miss Wraith’s team qualified for the second stage of the event.
You might wish to note that the PE department have organised a 5k event for female participants, to improve general fitness. PE department staff have established links with our associated Primary schools and training for the event is going well. The event will take place on Thursday 30th April, starting at the Vale playing fields at 6.30pm. The entry fee is £1, and the event is open to any female wishing to take part.Music: Pupils have been involved in a huge number of activities, both individually and as members of choirs and bands, over the past term. Pupils have competed in the Inverclyde Music Festival, the Glasgow Music festival as well as our own Ayrshire Music festival, with a tremendous degree of success. It would be impossible to detail every success in these festivals since this would require a separate bulletin of its own. However, I will arrange for a full list of successful pupils, bands and choirs to be placed on our school website for anyone who wishes to read the complete list. Some of the most notable successes were: the Jazz band won Inverclyde’s Cuthbert Foster trophy for the best overall school entry of the entire festival, and likewise won first place in the Glasgow festival for school jazz bands. These were won in the face of serious competition from Glasgow and Inverclyde schools bands, that were good, but not quite good enough. The senior choir won the Ayrshire Saville cup for the best choral performance of the Ayr festival, and took first place for singing Scots songs in the Inverclyde festival. The senior girls’ choir and the senior mixed choir won a considerable number of trophies in both the Ayrshire and Inverclyde festival. I have no doubt whatsoever, that Garnock pupils have performed in an outstanding manner musically over this term, and deserve the successes they have enjoyed.
Pupils are now preparing for music SQA examinations, but a number will take part in the Concert tour to Spain in June, and will perform in Sweden and Prague over the summer period as well. You will see Garnock pupils perform at a Concert in the Rowantree restaurant in Seamill (27th March), at the Lochwinnoch festival (29th March), Kilwinning Congregational Womens’ guild (30th March), Stevenson High Church women’s guild (2nd April) and Beith Cultural and Heritage Society, Beith High Church (29th April). Link to all music pupil's successesIn addition to the above, Kirsty Williamson (S6) won the North Ayrshire schools young singer of the year award - for the second year running - and Siobhan Lennox (S5) was runner up in the North Ayrshire schools young musician of the year.
Charities: Harris house raised over £512 during February for Yorkhill Sick Children’s Neo Natal facility. They achieved this by holding a school “Family Fortunes” show, and by running a Scottish themed raffle. Islay house has March as its Charity month, and is raising money for the Guide dogs for the Blind Association. Islay house has also held a raffle, a cake bake and a coffee morning, and on 2nd April are hosting a school variety show for S1 to S3 pupils.
There have been many other outstanding pupil achievements over the term. Breandan McElhill, the British champion Rubik cube solver with an average time of around ten seconds, continues to perform well at international level. Breandan competed in Paris in March. Alastair Turner represented Scotland in the U16 100metres freestyle at the WISE championships (Wales, Ireland, Scotland and England) in Swansea and was 2nd in the U16 100m freestyle and 3rd in the 200m U17 freestyle events. A number of pupils earned Duke of Edinburgh scheme awards this term. These were Lucy Crook, Claire Mills, Marc Donati, Jamie Jenkins and Jamie Christie (Bronze) and Nikki McInnes (Silver). Several other pupils - Scott McCallie, Lee Armstrong, Jed Crerar, William Milne, Jamie Graham, Tammi Sneddon, Devlin Mitchell and Connor McKenna are working towards their bronze award and have achieved up to three individual elements towards the four elements required for the full award.
Work Experience
Work experience for S3 pupils will soon be taking place. This is planned for the weeks 11th to 15th May, and the 18th to 22nd May. Pupils will soon receive details of how they can browse jobs offered to us by the Ayrshire Chamber of Commerce, via the WorkIT website. This can be viewed at www.workit.info
Three S3 pupils have already successfully completed a unit of work experience with Strathclyde Fire and Rescue service, and two S3 pupils have completed a week of work experience with Strathclyde Police.
SQA Exams – Supported Study etc
This year’s diet of SQA exams is almost upon us again. We have been trying to impress upon S4 to S6, at regular assemblies, how important it is to make the right preparation for these examinations. Each S4 to S6 pupil has been issued with a timetable of supported study activities which take place after school or occasionally at lunchtimes. Guidance staff will be covering study skills with S4 to S6 classes prior to the examinations, and are also happy to discuss study techniques with parents. Guidance staff are available for consultation to support pupils (and parents) experiencing exam pressures.
This session we have made extra provision to work with and assist individual pupils in their preparation for examinations. Mr J Hunter has been working with S4 pupils since January to ensure that all achieve at least five SQA awards before they complete S4. We were very successful in this area last session with almost 92% of our S4 pupils gaining five or more SQA awards against a North Ayrshire average of 88%. This session we expect the figure to be nearer 95%, which would be an excellent figure to achieve. Ms K Lily has also been working with senior pupils trying to ensure that pupils predicted to achieve five or more credit passes, or three or more Highers, are supported in their study techniques, with advice on where to concentrate their efforts. She also has contact with parents to offer advice on how to assist students reach this level. We hope that this work will pay dividends in raising pupil achievement. Link to SQA Timetable
School Plan
This school’s priorities for next session are currently being considered. The main priorities will be to continue in our efforts to raise pupil achievement, to improve our tracking of pupil progress from S1 to S6 and set achievable targets for pupils to attain and to continue to prepare for the “curriculum for excellence” initiative which involves all Scottish schools. There may be other areas which you feel we should be addressing, but are not at present. If you have views on areas which we should consider for next year’s school plan, please let me know by telephone (01505 682685) or by dropping a note to the school office.
Brian McNaught Rector March 2009
Garnock Academy
School Road
Kilbirnie
KA25 7AX5
Telephone:01505 682685
Email: contactus@garnock.n-ayrshire.sch.uk
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