News from Lockerbie Academy - Thursday 6 May 2010

National Schools Burns Competition

On Saturday 24 April four of our students Callum Moffat S6, Grace French S6, Erin Johnstone S2 and Liam Rogerson S1 represented the Scottish Southern Counties at the National Schools Burns Competition at Coatbridge. All performed very well and achieved certificates of excellence, and Callum Moffat won the S5/6 piping competition and gained the overall first place out of all the categories, singing, reciting and instrumental. This is a tremendous achievement coming first out of 90 competitors. He is now Young Burnsian of the Year 2010. The points won by all our students went to make our region the top region in Scotland in the competition.

S6 Steering Committee

One of the main pupil voices in the school is the sixth year Steering Committee. They held their last meeting last week and were presented with certificates of achievement. The certificates went to the following:

Dawn Anderson (House Captain – Milk)
Lynsey Armstrong (Head Girl)
Emma Carson (Eco School Rep.)
Allison Donaldson (House Captain – Annan)
Craig Irving (House Captain – Dryfe)
Hayley Jardine (House Captain – Dryfe)
Chris McClune (House Captain – Kirtle)
Tom McMinn (Head Boy)
Duncan McNab (Depute Head Boy)
Vicky Pollard (House Captain – Kirtle)
Hope Robertson (Depute Head Girl)
Kate Shenton (House Captain – Annan)

In the final weeks sixth year students will be concentrating on their SQA exams but will also look forward to their Validictory assembly and, of course, the S6 Prom Friday 18 June 2010 at Dryfesdale Hotel.

School Prospectus 2010

This years school handbook or prospectus has now been printed and will be delivered to all parents whose children are going to Lockerbie Academy after the summer. An electronic copy of the Prospectus will also be made available to all parents via the school website loffice682@ea.dumgal.sch.uk

Space School 2010

Jess Liddon and Matthew Mann have been selected as space candidates. This is the first stage and will allow them to go to Strathclyde University with a chance of going to Houston (NASA) in November.

School Dux 2010

The announcement was made of the three top academic students for session 2009-2010. These awards were based on the results of the S5 prelim results, and were as follows:

Dux (1st) Steven Gray
Proxime Accessit (2nd) Rebecca Donaldson
Rector’s Cup (3rd) Emma Scott

Thermal Imaging

On March 17th Lockerbie Academy celebrated National Science and Engineering Week (NSEW). This is an opportunity to get the community involved in Science. We decided our theme would be thermal imaging and Ecoextravaganza. Tom Barbour from Thermal Imaging UK had previously come to school early one cold morning and imaged the school. These photos were shown to the audience during his presentation and it was interesting to see all the places where heat was leaking from the school.

Several S2 pupils had worked really hard over the previous months to ensure the event went smoothly. Working with a teacher they produced posters, tickets and helped plan and prepare the food. They collected ticket money and prepared the pizzas and quiches, as well as setting up the school display and helping with the demonstrations.

On the night the audience were given plenty of refreshments and then had an opportunity to see the wonderful displays provided by exhibitors. This included a fantastic display of the work being done by MoffatCAN on their new allotments, recycling centre and people could discuss ways of reducing energy costs, particularly in the home. Free low energy light bulbs and power saving units were given to those interested. 10 new members signed up to become members of MoffatCAN on the night. Liz Gunby from Ecoschools also brought many display items and her special animal torches delighted many. The pupils from school showed that a snowman wrapped up in clothes will not melt as fast as one that is bare. This was demonstrated with several bottles of frozen water each displaying a face of a member of staff. Mr Cotter in a thick woolen jumper melted least and Mr Bowles without clothes was the first to turn to water. After half an hour of informal chat everyone moved to the assembly hall where several exhibits were on display. The S2 Dolls’ Houses (which were purchased from a previous NSEW award grant) were set up, one insulated and one not. The camera was pointed on each in turn. It was clear that the carpets had prevented the heat from moving up through the house. Many enjoyed seeing themselves on the screen when the camera, detecting infra red radiation was pointed at them. Each person had a very different temperature profile, some very hot and some very cold. Joe gave an excellent demonstration of how thermal imaging cameras are put to use by the police when the lights were switched off and the camera traced him easily as he moved around the room. Finally it was the audience’s chance to use the camera and we were taken along the corridor and shown how much heat was generated by digital appliance that had been left on standby and the uninsulated pipes in an English room. There were some unusual temperature profiles that would have been worth investigating if we weren’t heading for our new school very soon. We hope that the new school can be thermally imaged and a comparison of the new and old schools be made.

S6 v Staff Charities Event

Last Thursday sixth year students challenged staff to football and rounders. The school community were asked to pay £1 – to guess the first goal scorer, and the two scores.

Richard Graham guessed the correct answers:

First scorer David Dillon
Football S6 5 v 3 Staff
Rounders S6 8 v 12 Staff

£70 was raised and the proceeds will go to the 6th Year charities Steps and MacMillan Cancer Support.

Dates for the Diary