S2 Study and Organisation have been working on a project to create a digital magazine.
We wanted young people to read more so we decided to make a digital magazine because everyone uses their phones nowadays. We wrote lots of different articles as people are interested in lots of different topics.
During this project we had to work as a team and communicate with each other. We had to use our literacy, research and IT skills, and work towards a deadline. You can read our magazine by scanning the QR code advertised around the school or clicking the link below.
We enjoyed working on this magazine project and we hope you enjoy reading it.
Alford Academy say thank you to our partners by hosting a Business Breakfast
This morning Alford Academy hosted a Business Breakfast to thank partners of the school for their partnership and continued support.
Head Teacher Angela Wetherspoon opened the event welcoming guests’ and thanked them for their invaluable contribution to Alford Academy.
Romana Richards, Employer School Coordinator, Developing the Young Workforce – outlined her role of connecting employers and educators at the school. She explained how partners can become involved in the Young Persons Guarantee to support Young People aged 16-24 to reach a positive destination.
Stuart Cookson, Depute Head – discussed the different subjects, courses and pathways available at Alford Academy. He explained the wide variety of Foundation Apprenticeships opportunities currently available to pupils.
Jenni Rees – Jenkins, Principal Teacher of Achievement Pathways & Partnerships, explained the School Leaver Profile which highlights the nine core meta-skills Alford Academy collectively feel are important for our young people to develop throughout their time at school to provide them with the most success for the future.
Following the presentation partners and staff enjoyed a delicious breakfast where they discussed future partnership working.
Thank you to everyone who came to Alford Academy this morning and made it a memorable event. Your support is very much appreciated. We very much look forward to growing our partnerships further.
The GCHQ Christmas Challenge 2022….. can you crack the code?
S3 Chemistry pupils from Alford Academy are set to tackle an exciting project with Neptune Energy following a series of presentations from staff members during Scottish Careers Week (7-11 November 2022).
Pupils were visited by Neptune Energy’s geologist Calvin Roberts, metallurgist Bob Conder and communications advisor Jodie Kilminster. Each staff member outlined their career path and current job role, providing pupils with an insight into their backgrounds and day-to-day working life.
Calvin went on to talk about the geology of batteries, the use of lithium and associated environmental impacts. Bob’s presentation covered metals, alloys, corrosion and prevention, outlining why metals are useful for transport and how corrosion can be slowed or prevented. Jodie explained to the pupils how she helps Neptune Energy communicate with its internal and external audiences by managing the company’s website, social media channels and interactions with the media.
Having received some additional design and messaging tips from Jodie, pupils have been tasked with producing a poster to showcase the lessons learned from the presentations they heard during class. The finished results will be sent to Neptune Energy for feedback and review, with the best examples going on display at the company’s offices in Aberdeen.
“Having the opportunity to visit schools and share our knowledge is something we really value and we hope the students benefit from our support for their future careers.”JODIE KILMINSTER, COMMUNICATIONS ADVISOR · NEPTUNE ENERGY
Neptune Energy’s Communications Advisor, Jodie Kilminster, said: “We’re extremely passionate about supporting young people in our local community with mentorship, guidance, and advice. Having the opportunity to visit schools and share our knowledge is something we really value and we hope the students benefit from our support for their future careers.”
Stuart Cookson, Depute Head Teacher, Alford Academy was delighted to welcome the Neptune Energy team members to the school.
“We are so grateful to Neptune Energy for allowing Bob, Calvin and Jodie to come into Alford Academy to provide such fantastic lesson inputs to S3 chemistry pupils,” he said. “The sessions enabled pupils to understand how their learning at Alford Academy is transferable to future careers and the world of work.
“Feedback from the pupils has been really positive. They are looking forward to designing their posters to showcase what they learnt from Neptune Energy. Alford Academy is excited about furthering our relationship with Neptune Energy to continue to inspire and engage our pupils, who are the future workforce.”
Developing the Young Workforce director, Margo Milne, said: “This is an excellent example of contextualising classroom learning with the world of work – and exactly the sort of activity that we wish to celebrate during Scottish Careers Week.
“We are incredibly grateful to Neptune Energy for providing the pupils with such a meaningful experience. The follow-on activity is particularly important in terms of cementing the pupils’ understanding and I’m sure the poster challenge will produce some fantastic results.”
Scottish Careers Week runs from 7-11 November 2022. The initiative is led by Skills Development Scotland with the support of partners and employers, and focuses on all things skills, jobs and careers. Further information about Scottish Careers Week is available here.
S3 pupils have just finished the Mackie’s Chocolate Bar Challenge where, in groups, they had to carry out research on Mackie’s of Scotland and their competitors. They came up with an idea for a chocolate bar and pupils had to identify their target market, design the packaging, set a selling price, and prepare marketing material for the product. They then presented their product idea to the class; each class chose a winner and the winning presentations were sent to Mackie’s to select an overall winner. This year’s winners were Sophia, Penny, Adele and Madeline whose idea was a Bucks Fizz and Gold Leaf chocolate bar and gift set (non-alcoholic). Mackie’s sent us presentation boxes of chocolate bars for each of the winning group but said that all entries were all excellent and of a very high standard.
Mrs L Taylor
PT Business Education and Computing Science
Harrison and Lucy (S4) have been working on an Enterprise project since August with an aim to make and sell their own chocolate to members of the school community. They had a great online meeting with Stuart Common, Sales Director at Mackie’s, who gave an outline on where to start and the process Mackie’s goes through when creating a new product. Harrison & Lucy did some market research, which involved tasting lots of different chocolate bars! They then created a Google Form to ask some pupils and staff what their preferences were.
Aimee Maitland (DYW) helped Harrison and Lucy get in touch with Chloe Lawson, owner of Chloe’s Kitchen Creations who kindly offered her assistance in making the chocolate with the pupils. Harrison and Lucy went down to Chloe’s shop on Main St and saw the operation in full swing as they were making and packaging all the orders for the week – a little insight to their task ahead!
At this point, it was decided that rather than making chocolate bars, they would make Reindeer chocolate bark to sell in the run up to the Festive holiday. Chloe came into school twice to help make the chocolate bark with Harrison and Lucy. It was great to see the pupils get so involved and it really brought the project to life for them.
Harrison and Lucy decided early in the project that any money raised would be donated to DAWGS. They went to DAWGS yesterday to hand over a cheque for £120 to Heather Wakeling, manager at DAWGS on Main St, Alford. Heather was thrilled that Harrison and Lucy had managed to raise so much money and that they chose to donate it to DAWGS.
Harrison and Lucy would like to thank all the people who helped this project become reality for them – Stuart, Aimee, the PSAs who helped make the chocolate, and everyone who bought their delicious chocolate. Special thanks to Chloe for all her support and expertise.
Thank you to all pupils, staff and parents/carers for all your support and commitment this session. Hope you enjoy reading our Winter 2021 Newsletter – please click on link above:
Now its time to “switch off” from school and have a well deserved rest. Seasons Greetings!
The Business Education and Computing Science Faculty were very excited to find out that Finlay in S3 had won a prize in the DressCode Halloween coding competition. Finlay is pictured below with his prize. The only criteria for the Scratch coding competition was that there had to be a haunted house. Finlay said “My entry was a haunted house and it included a monster which was bitten by a bat and turned into a vampire – I’m really delighted with my prize and really enjoyed coding my competition entry”. Well done Finlay, we all hope you enjoy your prize which is a Divoom Pixoo Pixel Art digital photo frame.
The S1 study and organisation class, with Mrs Anderson, have completed a kindness project based learning task to try and create a pandemic of kindness at Alford Academy as part of kindness week. We worked in groups to think of ideas to do with kindness. We also wanted to develop our organising skills and confidence by completing this project.
Our class had a discussion about kindness and what we could do to spread kindness around the school. We had lots of ideas but we picked the best ones and also the ones we could do within the covid regulations. We decided we were going to send staff a positive sticky note and leave it in their pigeon holes. We also left positive sticky notes on random lockers for the pupils. We designed signs to remind people to hold the doors open for each other and also researched and shared kindness tips and quotes in the school bulletin for 2 weeks.
The skills we learned during our kindness pandemic project were as follows:
We used teamwork when we wrote kindness tips for the bulletin. We used our numeracy skills when we counted all of the lockers and pigeon holes. We had to be confident when we asked the headteacher if we could put up our hand signs on the doors. We used our computer skills when using google docs when writing the blog, researching ideas and for making the questionnaire. We all worked creatively when we designed and drew our hand signs. Finally, we communicated with each other throughout the project to complete the work quickly and effectively.
Our questionnaire feedback included some really positive and heart-warming responses. Some examples were that the positive notes made people feel happy, energised, pleased, worthy, chuffed, excited, seen, and part of the team. Some people thought the tips in the bulletin were very helpful as a daily reminder to stay positive, have courage and be kind. One response said this was a nice idea by nice people and another thanked us for organising the project. Reading all the feedback has made us overjoyed and proud of our project.
S2 pupils in maths have been working on 2D shapes, and this week have been constructing Triangles and polygons using rulers, protractors and compasses. Some of the classes put their new-found skills to good use today, creating a bonfire and fireworks display with their constructed triangles. Well done S2 – They look Fantastic!!
