ST. JOSEPH’S ACADEMY Weekly Newsletter
ISSUE 21.2 MARCH 17TH
2014
INSPIRE AND TRANSFORM: S1 pupils Chloe and Chelsea are presented wit their prize for the best Pi poster in Miss Welsh’s Maths class
FOR PARENTS, CARERS, FAMILIES & PARISHES
Ben Davis, Acting Headteacher Grassyards Rd Kilmarnock KA3 7SL 01563 526144 www.saintjosephsacademy.co.uk Twitter: @StJoAcad
AS EASY AS PI (=3.1415265359)
S3 pupils benefit from the SPICE roadshow
When is a circle not a circle? When the ratio of its diameter to its circumference is not Pi. It is such a special number that it has even been given its own day and this year we celebrated on March 14th.
This week St. Joseph’s was visited by the SPICE roadshow which used visiting speakers and theatre to tackle issues of substance misuse, drinking and healthy living amongst young people.
This being St. Joseph’s the celebrations of the world’s most famous number were not confined to the Maths department. In English Miss Geary’s class wrote haikus inspired by Pi and in Home Economics Pi became pie. Yum.
As well as listening intently to some thought-provoking and hard-hitting talks from speakers who had themselves experienced the lows of substance and alcohol misuse, the pupils were able to learn about how to offer first aid and enjoyed a short theatre presentation on the dangers of alcohol.
Miss Welsh in Maths created a poster challenge for S1 pupils to develop and present a poster inspired by Pi and to encourage pupils to find out more about the history and development of this extraordinary number. As well as that she held a Pi reciting contest. The world record for reciting Pi and its decimal places from memory is 67,000. We didn’t come that close, but we were pretty impressed by Marc Ferguson (S4) who managed to recite Pi, from memory, to 70 decimal places. S1 pupil Isla Grant reflected on the day saying, ‘Pi is a very useful number when dealing with anything circular. To get the number Pi you divide the circumference of a circle by the diameter. Maths teachers are very handy for knowing this. Our Pi day has been a great day to celebrate.’ Pictures of the work produced by pupils inspired by Pi appear later in this newsletter.
Primary Engineer Event In what has so far been an unprecedentedly busy month for hosting events and conferences we were delighted to welcome representatives from 40 East Ayrshire primary schools to St. Joseph’s for the Primary Engineer challenge. Organised by Primary Engineer the day saw nearly 100 primary age pupils build, test, trial and race their creations in the Assembly Hall under the watchful eye of invited guests and teachers. As with previous conferences a team of S1 pupils helped to run the event by keeping score, managing time and supporting the primary pupils in their work. The results were very impressive. Photos of the event will be published in the next issue.