Wednesday saw the sun come out to play. Group C enjoyed an epic day in the hills, whilst B and C had the best of the weather tackling river kayaking and paddle sports. Looking forward to our final day today, everyone in good spirits, but definitely tiring now!
Day one was a resounding success, as we got settled into our accommodation and made a start on our activities. Group A were straight in at the deep end (quite literally), as they took on a challenging gorge scramble. Group B followed that in the evening. Group C had a dry day and have still to tackle a wetsuit, but today we are river day all day, then gorge scrambling in the evening. Sure they will sleep well tonight! 
Congratulations to S6 pupil Jamie Trinder, who returns from Romania with not one, but two medals! Jamie was competing in the European Taekwon-do championships, representing Scotland. He was absolutely thrilled to win bronze in the more difficult of the two weight categories, then he went on to top that with a Silver. Jamie showed a lot of commitment to compete at this level; training, managing a strict diet and studying for his exams at the same time. He even sat his Higher Admin exam in Romania whilst there. We wish Jamie all the best as he now moves on from Alford Academy.
Alford Golf Club are valued partners of Alford Academy and our pupils are increasingly working with the club throughout our curriculum.
Our S3 Business pupils are bringing learning outcomes to life with students working on the clubs advertising and marketing to improve their social media presence and office handling.
Our Hospitality Foundation Apprenticeship students have been working in the kitchen and front of house to develop their hospitality/teamwork and communication skills which has been very successful.
ALFORD GOLF CLUB
The Golf Club would like to invite all non golfing members to an introduction to golf taster session on Saturday 13th May.
Come along to this free event to learn the basics of golf with our coaches. Then into the clubhouse for a refreshment afterwards.
Young junior (12 and under) 11.00 – 12.00
Adults 13.00 – 14.30
For more details or to reserve a place, please contact the club on 019755 62178 or email info@alford-golf-club.co.uk
The Science Faculty asked S1 pupils to make a diorama of an ecosystem as part of British Science Week 2023. This year the theme was ‘Connections’, and pupils were connecting the plant and animal life found within their chosen ecosystem or biome.
We have been overwhelmed by the excellent models produced and thought that we would show a selection of the amazing work produced by 10 of our pupils. I think you will agree that these show creativity, skill and hard work to produce such fantastic work.
Well done again to everyone, we have only shown 10 of the many outstanding dioramas produced.
To find out about what the week long RYLA experience is all about, watch the video on the link below. If you are interested in applying, please read ALL the information on this page and then, if it is for you, click the link at the bottom of the page to apply. The camp is for 16 and 17 years olds (at the time of the camp) living in the Rotary District 1010 of Scotland (Stirling, Fife and North – see map here), and is paid for by local Rotary clubs.
Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) 2023
Massive congratulations to Isla, in S3, who coded a winning entry for the DressCode coding competition and earned herself a fab prize. She was delighted with her reward and we’re all sure that she has a great future ahead of her with those top skills. Very well done Isla from us all. @dressCodeHQ #coding #computingscience
The Cairngorms National Park offer a Junior Rangers Program with different projects each month. It is an exciting, fun and adventurous outdoor learning programme for young people aged 11–18 years. We already have a few pupils from Alford who regularly attend the program. If you are interested in joining visit the following link: https://cairngorms.co.uk/caring-future/education/learning/junior-rangers/#tablepress-163
Last week Social Studies pupils and the Eco-group were lucky enough to receive a visit from Ben Sparham from ‘Highland One World’. He came to speak with the pupils to gain valuable information about their passions in life and how they relate to the Sustainable Development Goals. They then decided which Global Development Goal was most important to them and produced vision statements to show how this goal could be achieved, especially in the Northern Cairngorms. The Eco-group used this information and will include this in their Green Flag Action plan for 2023. Alford is one of a small number of schools working on this project and Ben plans to work with the school to help the pupils and staff continue to inform future environmental and community projects in the Cairngorms in the future.
This video clip helps to explain the project Heritage Horizons: Cairngorms 2030 – YouTube