On Wed 29th March and Tues 18th April, between 4-6pm, there will blazer fittings taking place in the school assembly hall.  There will be a variety of balzer sizes for pupils to try on and the ability to order direct with the company.  This is open to all parents/carers and especially the current P7's who will be joining us in August. 

We have received the following advice from the campus cops here in South Ayrshire regarding a new social media app popular amongst teens.

Yellow is the newest social media app encouraging teens to find new friends on Snapchat and Instagram by allowing them to swipe left or right to connect.  With over 7 million users, some have called it ‘Tinder for Teens’ and its lack of safety features have raised concerns. Here’s what you need to know about the app to keep kids safe.

What is Yellow?
Yellow is a social media app available on Apple and Android smartphones.  The icon on the phone screen is a yellow square.
Who is using it?
It’s growing in popularity among school-age teens who use it to chat and send pictures to friends and strangers on Snapchat and Instagram.
How it works
Similar to dating app Tinder, it allows people to connect with others on based on their location, with users ‘swiping’ to accept or decline talking to someone based on their profile picture. It is linked to photo-sharing app Snapchat, which allows users to send temporary pictures that disappear after no longer than ten seconds and also Instagram.
If you swipe right on a person who has swiped right on your profile, you can then chat and automatically follow them on Snapchat and Instagram. This means that they can begin sending each other photos right away — even if they don’t know each other.
What are the safety concerns?
Age restrictions and privacy – It’s rated 17 on the apps store but if you try to enter a birth date for a person under 13, the app’s login screen defaults to a birth date that is over 13 and allows you to create an account anyway.
Parents should be aware of the app’s problematic privacy issues.  You can read the app’s privacy policy, which is embedded within its terms of service, to find out more about the types of information collected and shared.
Sharing location – You need to have this enabled in order to find friends nearby and although it allows you to disable this function, the app cannot work without it. Your location is then shown to other potential ‘friends’ along with your name and age
Inappropriate content – the app is rated 17+ so there is the potential that if your child is under this age, they may see content that may not be appropriate for their age.
What can you do to protect your child?
If your child is using the app or wants to start, talk to them about the potential risks and what they hope to gain from it.  Also, consider whether your child is emotionally mature to be exposed to the kind of content that may be posted on the app.  Advise them to be careful about what personal information they are sharing and the potential risks of sharing too much with a potential stranger.
Take some time to go through Yellow’s community guidelines so you and your child are aware of what is allowed on the platform and what is not: community.yellw.co
How to report if something goes wrong on the app
If you’d like to report anything that your child has found distressing on the app, you can visit Yellow’s safety centre and report it: safety.yellw.co
On the app, you can report inappropriate photos or profiles by clicking the flag button in the top left corner of the relevant profile.

Internetmatters.org

We have a full timetable for supported study available to all our senior pupils.  This includes sessions after school and during lunchtime, and will run until the exam diet 2017.  

On Tuesday, 7th February, the Careers and Options Evening was held from 6pm to 8pm with around 450 people showing up. A wide variety of representatives were available with over 20 attending and giving advice to pupils. Parents and pupils could seek advice from local college partnerships, employers, universities, apprenticeship/recruitment consultants, Skills Development Scotland and businesses about pathways beyond school and possible careers.

Pupils could gain interview techniques at the interview techniques workshop and then take part in face to face interviews with consultants about their careers. Donations for a local charity were also collected at the careers and options evening, thank you to anyone that donated. Mr Bill Porterfield, Head of HR at Distell Europe gave the main speech twice on the night. Refreshments were provided in the canteen by N4/N5 home economics department and pupils. Some S6 students were also available to talk to pupils and parents about their past experiences in choosing different subjects.

Mr Mcneill said that “This was the first time the careers evening was held in a different format” and that “The feedback was good from both students and parents.” He also said that the event was “aimed towards getting people to think beyond school” and hopes that “these events achieve that.”

The universities in attendance were Glasgow University, Strathclyde University, S.R.U.C, U.W.S, Dundee University and Glasgow Caledonian University.

We would like to say thank you to pupils and parents for attending the event and also thank the representatives that gave out a wide range of information.

British Science Week 2017 come to Marr College.  Miss McCauley has organised some fantastic events, all will take place in the science department.  Pupils in S1-3 are welcome to come along and join in the experiments. 

On Saturday 25th February, the Marr Sports Leaders were successful in securing £1000 to run their own community project at the ‘Troon Locality Decides’ Participatory Budget Event.   Three members of the class, Euan Rhodes, Eilidh McDonald and Brooke Buchanan presented their Marr Summer Sports Camp project idea to a packed Walker Hall.  Strictly limited to a two-minute slot (enforced by the 30-seconds-to-go buzzer),  they produced an informative and dynamic performance, delivered with confidence and eloquence.  The investors, local community and fellow presenters all responded with praise, encouragement and excitement for the project.  The Marr Summer Sports Camp will offer all prospective Marr students from P6&7 the opportunity of a 4-day sports camp (10am-2pm) with the main aim of supporting a smooth transition into S1 at Marr College.  A Marr College summer camp for students, led by students.  Now they have secured the funding, major planning is underway…so….please watch this space for more information to follow on what will be a very exciting project. Congratulations to the Sports Leaders.

Our pupils progress throughout the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme was recently recognised by South Ayrshire Council.  All pupils who were collected an award this year, whether it was bronze, silver of gold, were invited to a reception held at the Princes Royal Suite, Ayr racecourse on 22nd February.  Our very own Jennifer McArthur gave an inspiring speech about her experiences over the past few years, completing all the challenges the DofE Award threw at her.  As you can see from the images we have a high number of pupils participating in the award here at Marr College. 
The Troon Times ran an article on this event, which you can read here. 

All images from our photo booth today can be found by clicking on the image below.  A full report of all the days celebrations will be posted by MIss Owens in due course. Do Something Booky!