P1 story time

This is the video of Mr Paton's S2 class reading stories from the Kate Greenaway Medal shortlist to P1 at Dalmellington Primary School. The primary pupils really enjoyed the story time and voted for "There are cats in this book" as their favourite book.
To get to our Shadowing page go to

Readers' Cup Final

The annual East Ayrshire Readers' Cup Quiz final was held this morning at Auchinleck Academy. Our team of Fraser Buchanan, Mark McLean, Laurne sham and Halle Fitzsimmons had been practicing and reading for weeks and their hard work paid off with our best ever result of joint second place tied with St Joseph's. Auchinleck won again! Doon was leading after the first round but fell away a bit in round 2 only to make up ground in round 4. Congratualtions to the team, supporters and their coach Miss Borthwick.

P1 storytime

This afternoon some of our S2 pupils read contenders for the Kate Greenaway Medal to the P1 class at Dalmellington Primary School. The Primary pupils decided after a vote that they liked There are Cats in this book best. After the stories our pupils gave the visitors juice and biscuits. The winning readers were Rachael, Demi and Robbie. The other readers were Joe, Kyle and Robert.

Copenhagen presentation

Copenhagen trip on Prezi

Use arrow keys to click through this prezi.

New Football books

Loads of new books in stock today. World Cup 2010, Famous Football Stars, The story of Rangers, The story of Celtic, Manchester United, Liverpool. Plus books on Crocodiles, NASCAR racing, manga and comics.

Carnegie Medal Shadowing

This year for the first time, we are sadowing the Carnegie Medal as a class activity with Mrs Dorans' S2 class. They came into the library the day the shortlists came out and personalised our Shadowing Group home page, had a look at the shortlisted titles, found out more about individual titles and told other members about them.
To see our Shadowing site click here.

April book

The book the staff group read in April was The House at Riverton by Kate Morton.
On the whole the group really enjoyed it, but there were a few quibbles about perceived gaps in the plot. We would have liked to know more about the housemaid who was narrating the story. We felt that she actually had a more interesting life than the aristocratic sisters she was serving. We wanted to know more about her later life and her family. However the bits about life below stairs in a grand house were interesting and illuminating.

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.