Alloa Academy: Inter-House competition; In last week’s competition Bruce House were again the winners, achieving 14 points, with Erskine only one point behind on 13 and Schaw having their poorest performance for a while and gaining only nine points. 1B1 came top for weekly cooperation and 1B2 were top for homework completed. 3E2 had the highest total number of merits.

Cycling news; Congratulations to Justin Reynolds, Adrian Krol and Cameron Chalmers who attended a cycling camp during the October holidays. Following this, we have been granted £1500 to support cycling throughout the school. The money can be spent in a variety of ways and the boys will be working with Anne Manson of sports development to put together a plan. We look forward to hearing their ideas.

Learning through Work week; In the Sunshine class at Park Primary, we talked about aspirations and ambitions, looked at books and thought about the jobs that people we know do. Then each child decorated a person template (combined with learning about shape and pattern in maths) and told the others what he would like to do for a job in later life. At Alloa Academy all of S4 took part in a presentation about modern apprenticeships and learned how to interpret both positive and negative feedback from work experience reports. Each morning a member of staff described on the tannoy the field of work in which he or she was involved before coming to work at Alloa Academy. Pupils then guessed who the member of staff was. Our staff do indeed have a varied background in the world of work.

Pupil Council news; All Pupil Councils took place as planned and lots of information has been gathered by the senior prefects. Meetings have been arranged with the Senior Management Team to agree on how we respond to pupils’ views.

Success guides; Success guides for all levels of exam in every subject were launched last week and are available online. The guides contain information on how each subject is examined and the percentage of marks available for each particular activity. They also give websites and other information for revision support. We will be evaluating the use and impact of these at the end of the session and in focus groups.

Assemblies; Our assembles this week featured an act of Remembrance. Head boy Blair Rankine and head girl Joanne McFarlane also laid a wreath at the War Memorial in Alloa on Sunday as part of the Remembrance Service.

In-Service dates; Please be aware that the school will be closed to pupils on Wednesday 26, Thursday 27 and Friday 28 November for in-service training.

Alva Academy: f Dance had a great opportunity recently to work with and experience professional dancing through the company Chordelia and their production of Dance Derby. Previously a popular show on the Edinburgh Festival, a few of the (now-touring) cast took time out of their busy schedule to come and work with our S2 dancers on choreography from the show. The girls all loved the opportunity to talk to the professionals, enjoying the advice and assistance offered by both the cast and the choreographer, Ms Kally Lloyd-Jones. In addition to this, the whole S2 School of Dance, as well as dance teachers Mrs Kelbie, Ms Abernethy and depute head Mr Ash, were given an opportunity to see the Dance Derby show, which was thoroughly enjoyed by all. The girls had a fantastic experience and were a credit to the school. Well done.

Under 15 Scottish Cup; Alva 1-7 Coltness. Alva played previous finalists Coltness Academy, and Coltness fielded what proved to be, an unsurprisingly strong team. Alva, however, stuck in and played well despite setbacks. Against a more experienced team with several titles, Alva’s single goal stuck out as the most technically impressive of the whole match. Their manager complimented the boys on their perseverance, and each of Coltness Academy’s goals was hard-won from our hard working squad. Players of the Match were Glenn McKerracher and David Wells.

Italia Conte visit; Former pupil and current student of the Italia Conte Theatre Arts School, Nadine Blackie, dropped in to Alva Academy this week to lead a session with the S3 School of Dance. Italia Conte, established in 1911 and located in London, is the world’s oldest theatre arts training school, and a prestigious institution. Nadine took the time to teach the S3 pupils an Italia Conte workout and commercial dance routine. Alva Academy would like to thank Nadine for taking the time to visit and teaching our students how one of Britain’s foremost theatrical institutions dances.

Book Week at Alva Academy; As part of Book Week Scotland 2014, the library will be hosting a Scholaristic Book Fair from 18 November to 25 November, which will be open to all pupils at lunchtime. The library has also won a signed copy of Angio Sage’s PathFinder via their twitter feed, @AlvaAcadLibrary.

St Modan's High School: Memorial Mass; Our annual Memorial Mass will be held in the school chapel tonight at 7pm. We remember the names of all those who have died in the celebration of mass and in prayer. Everyone is welcome to attend.

Football success; Congratulations to the U14’s football team who won 4-2 against Lornshill Academy last week. Goals from Thomas McGhee, Danny McDade, Daniel O’Hare and Dylan McCafferty. Next game is scheduled for tonight against Alva Academy.

Dates for the diary; Wednesday 12 November - Memorial Mass, 7pm. Thursday 20 November - S1 Parents Evening. 26-28 November - in-service days.