National Poetry Day

Freedom was the theme of this year’s National Poetry Day, and Largs Academy’s Amnesty Group took the lead along with the English Department. Eleven pupils from the group visited BGE English classes to talk about what Freedom means, and to discuss the campaigns they had been involved in to protect the freedom of other people around the world. Members of the group also took time to read poems about freedom from across the globe, and penned their own work, which they bravely shared with the classes they visited.

Pupils then had the opportunity to write their own poems, exploring ‘Freedom’. Some of these poems will be on display at the S1 Parents’ Evening, and at the Legacy Open Evening in November. Here’s a haiku, written by one of the Amnesty Group, to whet your appetite:

Trapped inside my head;

Held by invisible chains –

Someone set me free.

Work Experience

Most S4 pupils will be going out on work experience during the first week after the October holiday. The school would like to thank all the local businesses for their continued support of the work experience programme.

Home Economics

The S1 bake-off competition will be introduced in classes on Monday. Pupils will have plenty of time to practice their skills over the October break with the competition commencing during the first week back.

PE

The PE department hosted active girls’ day where girls from S1-S3 came to PE to try out different sports and activities. They had the chance to try out rugby, hockey, Zumba and dance. The girls thoroughly enjoyed the activities and the day.

History

Last week Alice Murdoch and Heather Maxwell visited Auschwitz as part of the Lessons from Auschwitz programme. They were very moved by the experience and will go on to do a "next steps" project to help other students learn about the holocaust and what they can learn from it.

Biology

The Advanced Higher Biology class are visiting the labs at Strathclyde University on Thursday where they will work on experiments.

Developing the Young Workforce

Largs Academy's two vocational projects, Barista and Nail Bar, were recognised on Monday 9th October at the Prince's Trust Enterprise Awards held at Saltcoats Town Hall. Four senior pupils, Keira Rankin, Kelsi Hood, Caitlyn Muir and Connor Graham represented Bean Stock and Inspiration Nails to collect a certificate to acknowledge these innovative ventures which develop skills for learning, life and work while providing pupils with an appropriate pathway through the Senior Phase.

Physics: Ayrshire Girls’ Engineering Challenge

On Tuesday 3rd October our team, of four S3 girls competed in an all Ayrshire Girls’ Engineering Challenge at Dumfries House near Mauchline. Twenty schools took part in the event.

The Largs Academy team consisted of Caitlin Castelvecchi, Joanna Louis, Eleanor Jones and Lauren Hyde. The challenge day was been sponsored by Scottish Power and was run in conjunction with Young Engineers and Science Clubs (YESC, part of SCDI, Scottish Council for Development and Industry).

This year’s challenge involved building a rotating crane system to lift eggs into a motorised boat, which had then to carry the eggs a distance down a water filled canal. The pupils were encouraged to follow the engineering design process cycle of; ask, think, plan, create and improve.

Over lunch there were short presentations by female engineers on their careers before and after joining Scottish Power and pupils were able to seek advice on their future subject choices.

The challenge event was won by Stewarton Academy.