This term has been a rollercoaster with lots of ups and downs but our pupils (and staff) have risen to the challenge! Staff have had to explore and familiarise themselves with whole new ways of teaching through Google classroom and online resources while pupils have had to learn to rely more upon themselves and use their initiative. The progress from when we started e-learning before Easter to now has been staggering. Quality of work has improved, confidence in using digital methods has increased and a mutual respect  for what everyone is going through these days has developed.

In Enterprise and Creativity we have set work to try and increase both fundamental practical skills and knowledge so pupils are primed to return to the Art rooms, workshops and kitchen! The work pupils have produced has been amazing. Below is a short video showcasing only a very small portion of the work produced. We wish to thank the pupils for their dedication and the parents for their continued support over the last term. Stay safe and have a great holiday!

Enterprise and Creativity Video

Well done and thank you Team Alford!

As school session 2019-2020 draws to a close, the year of lockdown, no SQA exams and learning from home, it’s time for everyone to switch off from school work and relax.  We leave you with this special message today to celebrate how well we work together.

All in this together

We’ll be in touch with pupils and parents again at the beginning of August.  Stay safe and well and enjoy a well deserved holiday!

Alford Academy Senior Leadership Team (Mrs Milne, Mrs Lees, Mr Gardner and Mr Cookson)

This is the 4th and final Staff Pets collection. Final totals for pictures are:

1. Dogs – 28
2. Cats – 14
3. Rabbits – 2

Dogs Win! Thanks to all staff who submitted a photo!

“Together, together, together everyone 🎵🎶”

How are you?  I hope you are doing okay.  I can hardly believe that today is the start of the last week of school session 2019-2020 and I’m sad that we can’t all be in school and taking part in our usual end of term events.  However, it’s how it has to be just now and we can still celebrate your achievements in a different way, watch this space for some premieres this week!

I want to reassure you today that we are working hard preparing for your return to learning in school in August and very much look forward to seeing you.  We will share more information as soon as we can, but at the moment are waiting for more guidance from the Scottish Government.

As always, we really value your views.  This week as you finish off school work please also look out for a survey we are sending you in the next day or two.  Take time to share your feedback and ideas.  Remember ‘we’re all in this together’ and need to work together to keep everyone safe and learning to be the very best they can.

Have a really good week everyone.

Mrs Milne

The Science Faculty is striving to keep pupil engagement as high as possible during home learning. To achieve this we are using several platforms alongside Google Classroom, to inform pupils of what they are required to learn and providing a variety of activities to achieve this.  We are providing feedback on pupil work, celebrating when successful home learning has happened but also giving any ‘next steps’ required to improve work further. We have also been gathering feedback from pupils and adjusting home learning based on their responses. We have put some examples of this in the video below.

We acknowledge the following resources and platforms uses within the Science Faculty

@kahoot @fuseschool @youtube @edpuzzle @echalk @brightreddigitalzone @googleclassroom @googleforms @PhET @googleslides @Tilly @clickview @transition @scholarn@bbcbitesize @brightred @bpes @sqa @ExxonMobil

@AlfordScience

Well done and thank you to all pupils and their families who took part in our House challenge, a virtual race around the NC500.  We had 112 teams enter which was brilliant and we have managed to gather lots of very important house points.

Overall top 4 winners were:

House points gained as follows

Please keep sending in your house points forms – we need your points!

More pets! Keeping us company at home. They have other benefits too