News from Lockerbie Academy - Thursday 21 May 2009

Sports News

Scottish Cup Under-13 National Shield Semi Final
Lockerbie Academy 4 v 0 St Andrew’s High (Coatbridge)
Scorers: Sean Dunbar, Luke Hammond, Zak Caldwell, Dean Smith

A fantastic result which means the Under-13s now go on to meet N Berwick High in the National Final at the Regional Sports Centre, (Toryglen) Glasgow on Thursday 28 May.

In an exciting start Lockerbie’s speed from Luke Hammond and Sean Dunbar troubled St Andrew’s defence and eventually lead to an excellent left foot strike by Sean for the opening goal. Other chances were missed as Lockerbie’s shooting was slightly off.

St Andrew’s also created a number of good chances especially from corners and free kicks but 1-0 at half time was about right.

However at the start of the second half Lockerbie had a purple patch scoring 3 great goals, missing a penalty, having a goal chalked off and being denied by some great goal keeping.

The second goal came from a ‘Maradona’ like run by Luke Hammond which he also brilliantly finished. Zak Caldwell then broke through on the right and had a great shot equally well saved by the goalkeeper but a minute later he had a similar chance which he blasted past the keeper. Dean Smith then smashed in a 20 yarder for number 4. Sean Dunbar almost made it 5 when he broke through only to be brought down by the last defender who was booked. After a long wait Luke unfortunately missed the penalty. Shortly after Eddie Booth came on as substitute he was put through by Luke after another exciting run, but the goalie saved well. The final chance cam when subs Lee Scott was denied a memorably goal by a tight offside decision. To cap a great team performance Robbie Carter pulled off a full length save with 5 minutes to go. Despite a strong attacking performance credit must go to a terrific performance by the Lockerbie defence which showed bravery, and some great clearances and passes out of defence.

A great win for Lockerbie Academy who have reached a National Final for the first time in the school’s history.

Thanks to the SSFA, Cumnock Juniors and our traveling support for making it a special night. All round some excellent performances by all 16 Lockerbie players.

Team: Robbie Carter, Conor Graham, Bob McGowan, Danny Graham (c), Kyran Jackson, Zak Caldwell , Luke Hammond, Levi Carrick, Dean Smith, Kieron McCrudden, Sean Dunbar.
Subs (all used): Eddie Booth, Lee Scott, Ryan Arthur, Ross Burgess, Kerr Hogg.

Science Project

The Science Staff were delighted by the high standard of all the Projects which the first year handed in before Easter. The eventual winners were decided as follows:

In 4th place overall was Megan Finlay of 1G
In 3rd place was Fergus Smith of 1D
2nd place was awarded to Ellen Muir of 1F

The outright winner of the Junior Science Trophy 2009 was Rebekah Hargreaves, whose project was titled “International Space Station”.

The trophy and other prizes and certificates will be delivered soon.

Some of the best examples will be displayed during the S1 Parents’ evening.

Language Enhancement

My name is Yingxu Yin. I am originally from Harbin, China. This is my third year in the UK. I finished by teacher training course from the University of Edinburgh last June and started my probationary year teaching in Dalbeattie High School.

It is a pleasure to join the Modern Languages Department in Lockerbie Academy for two days, working with the first years on Chinese culture and language. It is a brief introduction to Mandarin so that the pupils have an opportunity to experience a different language with separate speaking and writing systems. They learn the basic greetings by reading out the pinyin (the pronunciation system) and the Chinese characters by recognizing different symbols. It is also an opportunity for the pupils to know more about China in general, i.e. the people, the traditions, the food etc.

The pupils are well-mannered and keen to know something new and different, which it is great to see. I enjoyed my time with them.

S6 Charities – Cheques handed over

At last Wednesday’s S6 Memories Assembly two cheques were handed over to their two charities – SAMH (Mental Health) received £1,210 and SSPCA (Prevention of Cruelty to Animals ) also received £1,210. The school were warmly thanked by both groups. The Sunday pet walk reached a final total of £470 – and throughout the year money was also raised for Children in Need, Jeans for Genes, Comic Relief and Fairtrade’s Chosen Charities.