Spring Read ends

This is the last day of term and the end of the Spring Read programme. I hope that everyone who participated in it enjoyed it and that people will be inspired to carry on reading over the holidays.
Coming up next term we have the Carnegie Medal Shadowing group with a trip to Stirling to meet some of the short-listed authors. The group will meet once a week at lunchtimes and we will have a party at the end of the process to decide the winners. Check out the Carnegie Medal site to find out more.

S1 Readers'Cup competition

The S1 section of the Doon Academy Readers' Cup competition was held in the Assembly Hall on Tuesady morm 27th March 2007. There were four very strong teams and competition was expected to be fierce. The topics the teams had to answer questions on were Lucky dip, Baddies, Mythical creatures, Cathy Cassidy and Humour. Mythical creatures proved to be the hardest section. The winning team of Darren, Ryan, Lisa and Bronwynn scored a fantastic total of 31 points out of 50, which is a record for Doon! The final scores were:

1. Bradan 31 points,


2. Finlas 29 points,


3. Doon 28 points,


4. Raecar 26 points.

All the participants won prizes for their efforts and some lucky and knowledgeable audience members won spot prizes as the audience had questions to answer too.

March book

For March the staff reading group all read Restless by William Boyd. It won the Costa Book Award (formerly the Booker Prize), so we knew we were in for a treat. All the group members really enjoyed the book and it generated much enthusiastic discussion, virtually all positive. Restless is a gripping thriller, set both around World War 2 and now. The plot involves 2 main characters Sally Gilmartin and her mother Eve. Eve, a Russian migrant, was recruited to spy for Britain during the war. The main context of the plot is the undercover attempts by Britain to persuade the United States to join in the fighting in World War 2. Apparently about 3000 British secret agents were working in America on propaganda and other tactics to convince the Americans that Germany was their enemy. llll

The winner of the Costa First Novel Award was The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney. It is also a terrific read. Set in nineteenth century rural Canada it is about a woman's search for her missing son after a murder. It is very evocative of the time and place, but is very modern in terms of some of the psychological aspects included in the plot. llll

Readers' Cup

Wednesday 21st May saw the S2 section of the Doon Academy Reader's Cup competition. The topics the teams had to answer questions on were, Thrillers, Philip Pullman, Classics and Witches and Wizards. As always there was also a Lucky Dip round. The rounds were hotly contested with the highest scores achieved on Classics and Witches. After the final round, there was a tie for 2nd place so we had a tie-breaker question. "Who wrote Horrible Christmas in the Horrible Histories series? Naomi from Bradan knew the correct answer which was Terry Deary. The winners, Kyle Stewart, Stephanie Smith, Clare Connell and Lisa Teasdale all received book tokens and the other teams all had boxes of chocolates to share. The final result was

1. Finlas 26 points,


2. Bradan 25 points,


3. Doon 24 points


4. Raecar 22 points

Well done Finlas!

Jonathan Meres

The next event in our busy Spring Read programme was a trip to see the author Jonathan Meres at Cumnock Academy. Mrs Gibson and Mr Taylor took a group of S1 boys and they all thoroughly enjoyed themselves. The boys reported back that he was very funny and a bit rude, not what they really expected of an author. Several wanted to know if he could come back next year, which is a real commendation.

Book Fair

A part of the Spring Read programme, Waterstones Ayr Branch came and brought a Book Fair to school on Thursday 15th March. The event lasted from break until the end of the school day and virtually all pupils had a chance to visit it. Lots of pupils used their World Book Day tokens to obtain the free World Book Day short books. Some pupils and staff bought books and the school benefitted from a share of the profits.

Visit to Michael Kerins

Mrs Bax and Mrs Nicol took a small party of S1 to see and hear the storyteller Michael Kerins at Auchinleck Academy. He talked about his background and how he came to be a storyteller with lots of props, including Graham Davis who played Wee Tom.

He moved on to tell the story of Persephone and Orpheus of the underworld and how Persephone's mother, the goddess Demeter, persuaded the king of the gods Zeus to allow her daughter to live above the ground most of the year and in the underworld in the winter. That is how we got the seasons! All the pupils enjoyed the trip and were gripped by the story.

Cathy Cassidy visit

Cathy Cassidy, the author Dizzy, Driftwood, Indigo and Scarlett, came to Doon today to talk to some S1 pupils. Pupils from Cumnock Academy and Auchinleck Academy also came along to here what she had to say. Everyone really enjoyed her talk and she signed some books for pupils and chatted to them at the end. She talked about daydreaming and how not to get caught doing it in school!

Spring Read

This year East Ayrshire schools are running a series of book events in March under the banner of Spring Read. For World Book Day on March 1st, teachers brought in books and sat them on their desks to show what they were reading at home. We took some pictures of them to make into posters. There will also be a match the book to the teacher competition. We are having a book fair next week and there will be author visits and the Readers' Cup competition at the end of March.

February read

The staff book group read Voyage of Innocence by Elizabeth Edmondson as our February book. It is set in 1930s and is about a trio of girls who become friends at Oxford University and their lives from then on. It is set against the background of the rise of the Nazi in Germany and the depression and communism in Britain. We found the start of the book confusing as it is a flashforward which introduces the main characters, then the story tracks back several year. Most people liked it when they got into the book and they felt that it was a useful insight how different people's attitudes were in those days. We gave it 6 1/2 out of 10.