Alva Academy
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| Motto | Acer in ludo ludisque |
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| Established | 1860s |
| Headteacher | John Meney |
| Location | Alva, Clackmannanshire United Kingdom |
| Students | 1140 |
| Website | alvaacademy.clacks.sch.uk |
Alva Academy is a six year comprehensive school serving the villages of Alva, Menstrie, Tillicoultry, Coalsnaughton, Devonside, Dollar and Muckhart, all in Clackmannanshire, Scotland. The roll is fairly static at over 1100. It has six associated primaries - Alva, Menstrie, Tillicoultry, Coalsnaughton, Strathdevon and Muckhart.
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[edit] History
The original Alva Academy was established in the 1860s by public subscriptions from concerned residents of the town to overcome the shortcomings of educational provision. Educational change and a constantly rising school roll forced regular change to meet growing demands. The advent of comprehensive education in 1967/68 saw the linking of Tillicoultry and Alva Schools into a six year comprehensive.
Following a Clackmannanshire Council decision in 1997 to integrate pupils with Moderate Learning Difficulties into a mainstream secondary school, Alva Academy was chosen as the location for this development. MLD pupils in S3 to S6 experience a full and varied curriculum which is integrated with mainstream subjects at appropriate levels.
Pupils receive a broad curriculum in S1. In S2 and S3 pupils select subjects from a whole range of Standard Grade and National Certificate courses. The curriculum is also broad with Higher Still courses at Advanced Higher, Higher, Intermediate 1 and 2 levels and Access levels. The school enjoys excellent relationships with Forth Valley College.
The school is at the forefront of many national developments e.g. curriculum review, use of praise and reward to motivate, support study, activities weeks, European links, Restorative Practice, Co-operative Learning and working with pre-NEET pupils. The school enjoys considerable success in both the formal and informal curriculum.
Extensive use has also been made of the Sport Scotland funded Sports Development Coordinator to offer a full menu of sporting experience.
Information Technology is at a very advanced stage, with seven dedicated computer labs and interactive white boards in every department. This is to aid learning to an advanced stage and to ensure their use is optimised for the move to the new school building, in which every classroom will have the use of the interactive whiteboards. The school is also credited as being a pioneer in Social Media. In 2001, a former pupil, John Harrower, was the first to create a web-based photograph tagging application. This allowed users to add "tags" and comments to yeargroup photographs that was used as a means of labelling the people within photographs and allowing social interaction. These features would go on to become commonplace in future social media websites.
The school was accredited with the Investors in People standard in 2001 and re-accredited in 2004.
The School is due to be demolished or sold after a move to their new building, also situated in Alva is due for completion and pupils will be moving into their new building on 24 April 2009. This will feature state of the art equipment along with existing whiteboards being transferred from the former building.
Alva Academy has been made to change the house system from three houses to five. This is due to a member of staff leaving. The new houses have been named after birds of prey, with pupils being in Falcon, Harrier, Kestrel, Osprey or Merlin house.
On 10 November 2009, the school was evacuated due to a fire which broke out at a nearby cigarette paper factory.
[edit] Clax
On 23 March 2009, Alva Academy released a charity single under the name Clax, in honour of Clackmannanshire, the council area in which the school is situated. Entitled "The Haggis", the song was released in aid of Comic Relief, and featured the voices of former Miss Scotland winner Stephanie Willemse and more than 2,000 students.[1] As well as an official video,[2] the single also featured its own "Haggis Dance". The single raised over £3,000 for charity, and topped both the UK Indie Chart and the Scottish Singles Chart.[3]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Bolouri, Yvonne (24 February 2009). "Model pupil". The Scottish Sun. http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/news/article2265769.ece. Retrieved 15 May 2009.
- ^ "Alva Academy - The Haggis official music video". YouTube. 30 March 2009. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrNLm0w0mDs. Retrieved 15 March 2009.
- ^ "The Haggis Alva Academy". Alva Academy. 2009. http://www.alvaacademy.clacks.sch.uk/school/haggis/. Retrieved 15 May 2009.
