Bookmark competition

The Doon Academy winner of the National Book Tokens bookmark competition was Siobhan Robinson (S1). Her design of a bookworm and Read 15 minutes a day was felt to be the most encouraging. The runners-up were Fraser Buchanan and Shannon Brown.

In the Dark

For our March book the staff group read In the Dark by Mark Billingham. It's a fast paced detective mystery set amongst the gang culture of London with some surprising twists in the plot. Most of the group really enjoyed the book, especially as the setting was so different from here. It was also complete different from our previous book, Who's that girl?
At the meeting we swopped some of our own books too. One Day by David Nicholls is working its way around the group having been highly recommended. The Harry Hole series of Norwegian crime thrillers by Jo Nesbo is also popular.

S1 Readers' Cup

Raecar, the winners!


Thursday 18th March saw the S1 round of the Readers' Cup competition. Teams from all 4 clans answered questions on Cathy MacPhail,Christmas, Baddies, Families and of course the Lucky dip round. Raecar led from the start and were clear winners. Bradan and Doon fought neck and neck until Doon ended up 2 points ahead in the final round.

The results were First Raecar, then Doon, Braddan and Finlas.

As usual, between round the audience had a chance to test their knowledge and answer some of the questions.

Congratulations and well done to all who took part.

Some of the winning team will go on to represent Doon Academy at the East Ayrshire final in June.




Audience participation!






During the quiz!







Raecar hard at work!

Theresa Breslin

A group of S2 pupils led by Miss Borthwick and Mrs Bax travelled to Kilmarnock Acacemy to hear the famous author Theresa Breslin talk about her work. She told us about using solid objects like shrapnel and gas masks to help with her ideas for stories. She explained about the 3Ps that she uses - People, Place and Plot, which are the ingredients of a good story. Ms Breslin read excerpts from Remembrance Divided City and told the pupils about the background to the stories. To help keep everyone interested there was a raffle with her books as prizes.
At the end she signed pictures of her book covers. Ross Tait asked a question and won a signed poster of Divided City.

Readers' Cup S2

Friday 12th March saw the hotly contested S2 round of the Readers' Cup quiz. The question topics were Keith Gray, Lucky dip, Crime & detectives, Horror and Scottish connections. The quiz was closely contested until the last rounds when leaders started to emerge. The winners were Raecar with a clear lead of 3 points over their next rival Doon. Thanks for S6 pupils for marking the quizzes.

Keith Gray trip

On Tuesday 9th March, Mrs Dorans' S2 class went to Auchinleck Academy to hear the famous author Keith Gray. Keith was very entertaining and told stories about his childhood adventures, travelling with his friend to Keith in Scotland and being a bear in a carnival parade. He also read from some of his books. Everyone enjoyed the event and thought he was great fun.

Cathy MacPhail visits Doon

The famous author Cathy MacPhail visited our library on Monday 8th March and spoke to S1 as well as some visitors from Auchinleck Academy as part of our Spring Read programme. Cathy chatted to pupils for an hour on her books, how she gets her ideas and what makes a good story. She has inspired some of our budding writers to put pen to paper.

Michael Rosen event

Click here to go to the BBC Author Live event and see Michael Rosen talking.

"Although he claims to have become a children's poet by accident he's become a great performer of his own work and is guaranteed to engage and entertain the audience. Michael will be telling stories from his childhood and performing a selection of his poems."

Spring Read Logo Competition

The lucky winner of the Logo Competition was Liam Haining S3. The runners-up were Siobhan Robinson and Nicky Fairbairn, both in S1. Well done to all of them.

February staff book

The Staff Group book for February is Who's that girl? by Alexandra Potter. A rom/com which looks at what might happen if you could turn back time. The perfect antidote to stress!

New books

Lots of new stock coming in soon! vampires, fantasy, long books, short books, something for everyone - hopefully.

Christmas books

Our usual Christmas party produced some interesting and different offerings from Santa.
Melissa Benn - One of us
Barbara Kingsolver - The bean tree
Cecelia Ahearn - A place called here.
Lots of reading time over the Christmas holidays!

November book

The Staff Book Group book for November was Enderby by Sebastian Faulks. Two members managed to complete the book, but everyone else either ran out of time or found the main character so unsympathetic that they gave up.

Top 100 Tools for Learning 2009

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Top 100 Tools for Learning 2009

View more documents from Jane Hart.

Anita Shreeve

We have just acquired a new set of Anita Shreeve novels for senior fiction. Should be popular.

Senior Reading Group

At the last meeting, we talked about "Fight Club" by Chuck Palahniuk. It was Sharon's favourite book and she tried to persuade us all to read it. We also talked about Terry Ptatchett's Witches Abroad, which is a great introduction to Discworld.

October Book

The staff book group read Netherland by Joseph O'Neill during October. Most people failed to complete the book. It is a bit different from our usual choices. It is set in New York and concerns a Dutch investment analyst whose marriage is failing and who gets involved in playing cricket, very much a minority sport in the US. Those who completed the book were not very enthusiastic about it.

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SimplyBox - Think Inside the Box

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Carnegie Medal

The shortlists for this year's Carnegie Medal and Kate Greenaway medal are out and we have received our copies of the books. The Art Department are going to review the picture books and a mixed group of enthusiasts are going to try to work their way through the Carnegie Medal titles. To see our Shadowing Group pages go to Doon's Shadowing pages.
The shortlisted titles are:
FRANK COTTRELL BOYCE - COSMIC
KEVIN BROOKS - BLACK RABBIT SUMMER
EOINCOLFER - AIRMAN
SIOBHAN DOWD - BOG CHILD
KEITH GRAY - OSTRICH BOYS
PATRICK NESS - THE KNIFE OF NEVER LETTING GO
KATE THOMPSON - CREATURE OF THE NIGHT

They all look like terrific reads, so here's hoping that everyone enjoys them.

Easter read

The staff book group read Speaking of love by Angela Young over the Easter holidays. The group was not very enthusiastic about the book. It is the story of mental illness and loss of a parent and the effect they have on a family. Some people quite enjoyed it, but some found that they were not engaged enough by it to finish it and one person hated it.

S1 Readers' Cup quiz

After a tense competition in which the lead changed with each round, 1A the S1 Readers' Cup on after a tiebreak with 1C. 1E were a close third. Well done the 1A team of Fiona, Varri Robbie and Raegan.

S2 Readers' Cup

The S2 round of the Readers' Cup quiz was held on Tuesday afternoon. Doon again just pipped Raecar to win for the second year in a row. The teams answered questions on Thrillers, "Pink" Ghosts/Horror and Lucky dip. Well Done Doon.

Cathy Cassidy

Local author Cathy Cassidy popped in to school the other day to be interviewed by some S1 pupils for our BBC School News Report.

Staff Book Group

We read When will there be good news? by Kate Atkinson in March. It is a mystery set in in the Edinburgh area with an interesting set of characters, some familiar to readers of her other books and some new ones. It was entertaining and gripping at the same time. Everyone enjoyed it and some people were spurred on to read some of her other books including Behind the scenes at the museum.
April's book is Speaking of Love by Angela Young.

Cathy MacPhail

We took 15 S3 pupils to hear the author Catherine MacPhail speak at Kilmarnock Academy. Despite arriving late, she chatted away for nearly an hour and answered questions from an enthusiastic audience. She spoke mainly about the Nemesis series and her new books.

Cathy Forde visit

The author Cathy Forde came to Doon yesterday as part of the Spring Read Festival. Some of our S1 and S2 were joined by pupils from Auchinleck, Cumnock and St Joseph's Academies.

Cathy Forde talked for about 40 minutes and then answered questions from the audience.

She spoke about several of her books, how she got ideas for stories, how she managed to turn them into books, how she redrafts her works up to 100 times until she is happy with it.

She was very entertaining and enjoyable.

Staff Book Group

This month's staff book is
When will there be good news? by Kate Atkinson