More than a Department

We believe in supporting pupils in, around and beyond the Technology department. We are committed to improving the school experience for Vale of Leven Academy pupils. Some of these activities are listed below.

STARS - Primary 7 & S1

Sharing Together & Raising Standards (STARS) is our flagship transition project. A project that is designed to encourage social skills and communication between young people, their peers and staff. The pupils will work in teams as well as independently to survive on a hostile alternative planet to earth. A fun project that starts in Primary and ultimately ends in Vale of Leven Academy where the pupils are expected to work with new pupils from various schools who they have never met before and pitch a presentation to an elite panel selection.

Parental Workshops

We are a team of teachers with over a 70 years of teaching experiences and one thing we hear consistently at parents evenings is "I wasn't good at this when I was at school, so my child might struggle as well". Well... we are here to set you straight! With determination and effort anybody can improve. We strive to instill effort is key in each and every pupil and we now want to help you. We will be hosting a number of parent workshops where you can do the work that your child does on a regular basis. Education moves that fast that it is most likely changed since you last stepped into a classroom. If you can, come along, learn, become more confident to help your child with homework or even help them progress to a positive future. Keep an eye out for dates and times.

Design Engineer Construct

Design Engineer Construct or DEC for short is a new programme of work we have developed for our new skills based curriculum. It is not an SQA qualification but an English based course. The premise of the course is for the pupils to become part of all aspects of the Building Information Modelling (BIM) environment. They will become Architects, Quantity Surveyors, Landscape Designers and more. They will learn professional 3d modelling software including Autodesk Revit and Google Sketch-up. One of the most exciting elements is that V.O.L.A will be adopted by a company with BIM expertise and they will send and invite professionals and pupils to work in real life projects.

Supportive Study

We value health and well being and mindfulness of our pupils more than anything. A healthy mind will help towards better attendance, better effort in class and hopefully better attainment and achievement. A Supportive Study was designed by Miss Skelton that offered Zumba, Mindfulness, Yoga and more to help de-stress the pressures that can sometimes be heaped onto our young people. This will grow from year to year so keep a little eye out...

Careers Fair

Opening the pupils and parents minds to the opportunities that are available to them is very important. We are very proud of our annual Careers Fair. With over 50 organisations in attendance we invite all pupils from all year groups to support siblings and parents. Glasgow University complimented V.O.L.A by saying it is the "best event they have attended for careers".

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