News from Lockerbie Academy - Thursday 5 November 2009

Book Competition Winners

Two of our pupils, Amanda Connell and Luke Hammond, have won sets of The Roman Mysteries by Caroline Lawrence after entering a national competition organised by The Orion Publishing Group Ltd. Each pupil received 18 books in total! Luke has very kindly donated his set to the School Library. This author is popular with our pupils and indeed a trip to the Edinburgh Book Festival recently involved hearing Caroline Lawrence deliver a very entertaining talk on How to Write a Roman Mystery.

Twenty pupils, along with Miss Wright and Miss Barclay, travelled to Edinburgh for the event. Many of the pupils are fans of Caroline Lawrence and were excited about the opportunity to see their favourite author in person. After the talk, pupils were able to chat with Laurence during a book signing which was a highlight of the trip! A good day was had by all! Here’s Emily Hencher’s account of the day …

‘The Edinburgh Book Festival in Charlotte Square gardens, is a great way to learn more about books and their authors. The shop sized marquees are warm and welcoming, ready for crowds of people. The marquee set up for the author’s presentations is bigger than I expected with tiered seating and a small stage. We went to see Caroline Lawrence’s presentation. She wrote ‘The Roman Mysteries’ series. Her talk was really interesting and she took questions with a microphone. She signed the book that I had bought.

It was really inspiring to hear how she plotted her books and about her relationship with the characters. I would recommend the Edinburgh Book Festival to anyone who loves books like me ! ‘

Changes to School Meals

Lockerbie Academy has been chosen as the next secondary school in Dumfries and Galloway to introduce the option to pay for school meals by credit or debit card from 26 October 2009. This payment option has been successfully operating in Annan Academy and will be rolled out to other secondary schools over the coming months.

Payments can be made by credit or debit card by phoning the Council’s Call Centre on 030 33 33 3000 between 08.00 am and 16.00 pm or by going to the Annan Customer Service Centre (CSC), formally known as the One-Stop-Shop on the Annan High Street or the Gretna CSC on Annan Road Gretna or Lockerbie Town Hall on the High Street, Lockerbie between the hours of 09.00 am and 16.30 pm. The Customer Services Centre(s) will also be able to receive payments by cash or cheque.

This will allow parents and guardians the flexibility to budget for the payment of school meals for a longer period of time without the pupil having to handle cash. A daily spend limit can also be applied to the card.

The Customer Services Centre and Call Centre staff will explain the details required when you contact them.

S6 Charities: Scary Witches and Thunderbirds!!

Last Friday, the S6 undaunted that they had to cancel the S1/2 disco due to a lack of demand, dressed up for the day and collected money for Steps and MacMillan’s Cancer achieving a terrific total of £223. The various witches, ghosts, characters from Little Britain and Thunderbirds certainly brightened up the school for Halloween.

Congratulations to the winners of the Hallowe’en Cake competition which took place last week:

1st Sarah Storey – Annan
2nd Francis Carruthers – Dryfe
3rd Koren Boomer - Milk

S6 Malawi Enterprise Group

On Saturday 21st November the African Link Enterprise Group will be holding a coffee morning between 10am and 12 noon in Lockerbie Town Hall. Fantastic stalls such as cake and candy, the tombola, the raffle and many toys and games. Entrance fee is £1 for adults and 50p for children. All funds will help provide resources and help Lockerbie Academy’s link school Thawale Primary in Malawi. We hope to see you all there and help to support a very worthwhile cause.

We hope to make as much use as possible of Fair Trade materials on the morning and see this as a joint venture raising both money and awareness for the Link School and highlighting the role that Fair Trade materials are increasingly playing in the world.

European Day of Languages Competition

The winners of the European Day of Languages Competition were:

Ashleigh Armstrong
Molly McCutcheon
Jessica Rae

Congratulations! Your are going to be very popular with your Register class as you have won a French Breakfast for the whole of 1C.

Sports News

Scottish Cup : Under 13
Lockerbie Academy 0 v 5 Ardrossan Academy
Man of the Match : Sam Copeland

Hard luck to our youngest team. In the first half Lockerbie had most of the play and the chances – but Ardrossan stole the lead after a defensive mix up. Lockerbie were optimistic about fighting back but immediately on the restart they lost a headed goal put down to poor marking. Ardrossan gained confidence and always looked liked winning after this although Lockerbie continued to make great chances none converted due to a combination of good goalkeeping, bad luck and occasional poor shooting.

On another day Lockerbie could have run Ardrossan much closer. Sam Copeland had an outstanding game in defence, with Luke Finch being very influential in midfield.

RE Trip

The RE department are hoping to run an S1/S2 trip to London in February . See Mrs Reville or Mrs Morton

The Fishing Club

The Fishing club is over until the Spring and the new season. Those pupils who wish to practise their casting may still do so on a Tuesday after school. There will be another 5 week course next Spring with a fishing trip to another location.

Well done to all those who went on the fishing trip over the holidays. In particular congratulations to Ben Wagner and his catch of 3 rainbow trout, winning the Tommy Smail Fishing Tournament. A fly fishing rod is yours Ben.

Lifeskills Group help Annandale Transport Initiative

Last Friday a group of Lifeskills students worked with ATI Directors to lay out 9.5 tons of gravel to improve the parking areas for the 3 minibuses and one people carrier which the Queens Hotel allows to be parked on their grounds. The pupils worked really hard and were a credit to the school. A real example of partnership in the community between ATI, Queens Hotel and Lockerbie Academy.

Dates for the Diary