The following items have been extracted from the parents newsletters written
by Mr Thewliss four times a year.

March 2008

Robotics

S4 Computing pupils recently enjoyed a robotics workshop delivered by Morna Findlay of the School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh.

Pupils studying Automated Systems and Robotics as part of the Standard Grade Computing course were recently able to get their hands on some very clever (and very expensive!) robots from Edinburgh University’s School of Informatics.

Morna Findlay, a lecturer at the university, brought along some mobile sound and light-sensitive e-pucks, a state-of-the-art Sony AIBO robot dog and a robot capable of playing Connect 4 against a human opponent!

October 2007

A number of our S6 pupils achieved considerable success when they took part in the Dare to be Digital Schools Team Challenge week, run at the University of Abertay and organised through Enterprise in Dundee.

This competition focuses on ideas about the future of digital entertainment merging the best aspects of education and enterprise.  The pupils had to learn basic Flash programming from scratch in two days and then apply this to the creation of a piece of software involving animation and interactivity.  Each person was put in a team of up to 4 people – with pupils from other schools – and at the end of the week, each team had to demonstrate what they had produced. 

All our pupils excelled, with one of them, Pamela Graham, being part of the team which came first and another, Sascha Stasyk, being part of the team which came second.  Congratulations to them and to the other enterprising pupils – David Ewen, Ross Waddell, Bilal Hussain, Tyese Bastiaen and Amr Din – who took part.

June 2007

Pupils win the Strathmore Trophy Competition

Congratulations to Sarra El-Wahed, Mhairi Fenton, Blair Fyffe and Jamie McGilchrist, of the new S3, who beat 10 other Tayside schools to triumph in the Strathmore Trophy Competition held in the School of Computing at the University of Dundee on 12^th June 2007.The teams were given a programming challenge and had to produce a solution using software none of them had seen before. The winners were presented with their trophy on the day by the Countess of Strathmore and their notable achievement has been further recognised by the British Computer Society. Well Done!

Queen Mary University of London

October 2006

The ‘A’ Star Awards, initiated by Axios Systems to celebrate the top female Computing school pupils in the country, are sponsored by Microsoft, IBM, Accenture, Deutsche Bank and EDS.  Every female pupil sitting an SQA Computing examination is automatically entered for these awards.

Advanced Higher Computing Pupil Lynzie McGill is one of the top ten female Computing pupils in Scotland in 2006.  This is a major achievement.  Well done Lynzie.  Lynzie received her award at a ceremony in Edinburgh on 22 September 2006.

June 2006

Strathmore Trophy Competition – Congratulations to Katie Armstrong, Alanna Carroll, Hannah Orchiston and Debbie Urquhart who built and programmed a fantastic robot which came in 2^nd place – missing first prize by one second!  Well done girls.

European Computing Driving Licence – Congratulations to the following pupils who have completed their EDCL:  Samuil Chowdhury, Kian Dastoori, Duncan Gauld, Rebecca Havranek, Alison Hoskins, Steven Lowson, Jessica McMillan, Patrick Millan.  British Computing Society (Level 1): Graham Bell, Samiul Chowdhury, Kian Dastoori, Duncan Gauld, Graham Hamley, Gillian Harris, Rebecca Havranek, Sam Hood, Alison Hoskins, Steven Lowson, Lynzie McGill, Jessica McMillan, Patrick Millan

Be Impressed – As a result of the moderation of our AH Computing projects, the SQA want to use a selection of materials, and the work of one of our pupils in particular, for an “Exemplification of Internal Assessment” for other teachers.  This material will be made anonymous so as not to include any reference to the pupil (s) or to the school and will be available to teachers across the country via the secure area of the SQA website.

December 2005

Steven Lowson (S6), working as part of a team which included three pupils from other schools, won the Dare to be Digital Schools Team Challenge Competition run at Abertay University and organised through Enterprise in Dundee.  This competition focuses on ideas about the future of digital entertainment merging the best aspects of education and enterprise.  Steven’s major contribution was to learn basic Flash programming from scratch in two days and then apply this to the creation of a piece of software involving animation and interactivity.  The other team members helped design the artwork.  The final product was then presented to a number of pupils as well as staff from Abertay University and Enterprise Dundee.  Steven won a number of prizes for his work.

British Computing Society Level 1

Congratulations to Patrick Millan who has worked extremely hard to complete BCS Level 1 and is now awaiting his certificate.  Patrick is the first pupil this academic year to have completed the first part of the ECDL course (European Computing Driving Licence).  Well done Patrick.

ECDL — Congratulations to the following pupils who were the first pupils at Harris Academy to complete the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) Adba Almas, Roy Hillis, Andrew Kirkman. These pupils worked extremely hard in their own time to complete the internationally recognised qualification.

Digital Media Group — The Digital Media Group has worked hard this year to submit entries to two competitions: the digital media competition for LT Scotland and the Green Week competition ran by the European Commission. Both competitions took the theme of Global warming and recycling. The group planned, captured and created a short digital video and an animation. The media group were not selected as winners but should be congratulated for their hard work and effort. Well done to Hazel Aitken, Esther Robertson, Anir Din, Ryan Fleming, Sasha Staysk, Ivan Havranek.

June 2004Computing – Strathmore Trophy – 8^th June 2004

A small group of pupils, Philip McGavin, Pamela Graham, Hazel Aitken and Ross Waddell were taken to Dundee University by the Computer Education Department (Miss Batchelor) to participate in this competition.  The pupils once briefed quickly worked together to build a robot to be used on Mars!  Their robot was equipped with sensors to navigate the difficult environment.  The pupils then wrote an amazing program to guide the robot.  Throughout the entire proceedings the pupils were a credit to the school and to themselves.