ACADEMY NEWS 14th MARCH 2014

E X P L O R This week’s Year 7 Science trips to Trengwainton E coincided with the glorious Spring weather. Look out for all the exciting activities next week during Science Week. Photograph by Mrs Gendall

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Principal’s Report

Dear Parent/Carer

The Academy has made some changes to its Marking Policy over the last few months and it would be useful to explain some of the developments to you.

• The new marking system is that all teachers from now on are expected to make their marking comments/feedback in green pen.

• Students are being asked to comment on teachers’ feedback using purple pen to distinguish it from staff comments.

• It is our intention that marking becomes more of a dialogue between staff and students. This has started to take place with the use of the Academic Habit sheets.

• You may have seen in exercise books a strange code – WWW and EBI. This stands for What Went Well and Even Better If. Staff and students are invited to evaluate student learning and progress. These codes already appear in the Student Planner and students need to be filling them in for each lesson.

A recent review of homework has brought to my attention that the setting and quality of homework has been inconsistent over the last month. I have asked staff to make sure that homework is set early in the lesson and never at the end of the lesson. All homework should be a planned task and not reminders about equipment or resources. We will be monitoring homework in the next semester to ensure that the quality is good.

I would like to thank parents for their support in school events. Last week we had a very busy and successful Year 9 Parents Evening and next week we have an Arts Award Celebration evening. It is our hope that we work in partnership in all areas of Academy life. Any feedback on how we could improve things is always welcome.

Have a good weekend.

Best wishes

Sara Davey Academy Principal BE INSPIRED

First Aid Heroes

Two Year 10 students have been praised for their kind, mature and public spirited actions at the weekend.

Lowenna Collard and Lottie Harrison were enjoying the Spring weather in Morrab Gardens on Sunday when they came to the aid of a member of the public who had had an accident. Kate Barden, who works at College, was also in the gardens and has contacted MBA to sing the girls praises: Photo by Lauren Hill

“I was in Morrab Gardens with a friend when an elderly man collapsed hitting his head badly on the floor. Two girls (who told me they were at Mounts Bay) were really helpful and soooo sensible. One of them phoned the ambulance and gave very clear directions etc and relayed info from me to the ambulance service about the man's condition. I don't know their names, but they said they lived in . They stayed with me, my friend and the man till the ambulance came and were absolutely lovely. If you could find out who they were they really deserve recognition/house points etc for their selflessness and care and maturity in dealing with a stressful and upsetting situation...they are amazing!”

On 27th March The Exchange Gallery is holding an event called ‘A Postcard to ’. This is an initiative by Newlyn Art Gallery and The Exchange to create a positive platform for the voicing of constructive views about our town.

Here at MBA we will be contributing films to show how young people at MBA feel about their town and there are two ways of contributing.

Firstly, budding film makers are being asked to contribute a one minute film that reflects your views about the future of Penzance from your own perspective. What sort of place do you want to live in? What makes this place so special. There will be five overall winners and each will win a prize and be showcased at The Exchange Gallery on Thursday 27th March.

You also have the opportunity to voice your opinion of Penzance in a video booth that will be set up in Reception next week. Three Arts Award students; Callum Williams, Darcy Blewett and Bryce Tremethick, will be organising this and they will be editing together clips recorded in the booth, pictures, and sound effects to create a film to show at The Exchange. The film will concentrate on what it was like growing up here, what it’s like being a teenager here and what role you see Penzance playing in your future. They would also like any pictures you would be happy to be included in their film, including selfies of you in Penzance, pictures of you as a child enjoying Penzance or pictures of your favourite part of Penzance. Pictures and films can be emailed to: [email protected]

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Arts Leadership

The Arts Award students with Mounts Bay are very much involved in leadership based activities. The Bronze Award students are involved with the planning and delivery of activities for Year 6 days and weekends. Silver and Gold Arts Award students run and organise most of the musical based events in school. For example: Camp Cube, assembly weeks, the Surf Action and even parts of the Golowan Festival. They also give support for the younger students involved with the technology and music within the Academy. The Gold students are very independent and have to organise events on their own. They have to work with younger students as well as the partners, organisers and venue owners for the setting up and running of events.

Luke New, who runs the Arts Award programme, said, "It's a great way for students to integrate with other students, with organisers of big events and to improve their organisational skills."

One of the first students to complete her Bronze Award this year, Alex Woollock, said, "I find the Arts Award has helped me be creative and helped me see what I'm capable of doing within a school. It is also helping me get my half-colours!" Silver Award student, Izzy Upton, was involved in organising the Museum Takeover event at Penlee Museum. She said, "Organising the event at Penlee Museum was a very rewarding experience because we got good feedback from the attendees and the participants, and our hard work paid off." Jenna Eddy, who is in Year 10 and is working towards her Gold Award said, "Gold is more of an independent qualification and gets you involved with experienced people in the arts industry. It's also equivalent to an AS Level."

If you are interested in working towards the Arts Awards and learning new leadership and organisational skills, please speak to Mr New, Miss Fisher, Miss Tooby, Miss Wills or Mr Townsend in the first instance.

Report by Theo Black

The organisers of the Penlee Museum Takeover event BE INSPIRED

Science Week

Lunchtimes:

Tues/Wed/Thurs Monday Science Film Club - Gravity Fun with Physics - Rm 9 Build a Robot - Rm 10 Wednesday Explosive Science - Rm 9 Tuesday Thursday Mentos and Coke Competition - Rm 8 More Fun with Physics - Rm9 Paper Aeroplane House Competition - Hall

Science Shop in Reception every lunchtime

After school: Thursday

Monday Astronomy Club - Rm 9 STEM Club - Rm 7

Science News

This week Year 7 Science students have been visiting Trengwainton. They have been looking at the plants there and producing a piece of extended writing based on their research and investigations.

On arrival, the Head Gardener, Phil, gave us a fascinating introduction to the gardens and we learnt a lot about indigenous and non- indigenous species. The Year 7s had some very insightful and interesting questions to ask. The students then explored the gardens, using their iPads to record their findings. The weather was beautiful and the students were a delight and it suddenly felt like Spring!

Next week ‘Science Ambassadors’ from Penwith College will kindly be doing some ‘drop-in’ sessions with our KS4 classes. They will be popping in to share their experiences of A- levels with our students and hopefully inspire some of our students to continue with their Science studies after they leave MBA! Report by Miss Weightman

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Safety Talks

This week in PSCE our Year 8 and Year 9 students were fortunate enough to experience very powerful workshops on road safety, organised by the Community Safety Service. On Thursday our Year 8 students learned about the importance of wearing a seat belt when travelling in a vehicle, and on Friday our Year 9 students focused on safety while crossing roads and being able to identify risks while being a pedestrian.

The presentations included first-hand accounts of real accidents where people have lost their lives or suffered life- changing injuries due to avoiding wearing a seatbelt properly or crossing roads in unsafe ways. The sessions included a chance to take part in interactive quizzes, watch relevant media clips, discuss important safety issues and ask questions.

The sessions were incredibly frank and purposeful. I believe many students are as shocked as I am about the stories and road and traffic accident statistics that were shared. The sessions have highlighted the importance of some safety tips I’m sure many of us take for granted, and the consequences of split-second mistakes that can often be avoided. Though the sessions were mainly aimed at our students there were some important questions aimed at adults:

• Do you set a good example by always wearing a seatbelt? • Do you always wear it properly? • Does your child need a booster-seat to make sure their seatbelt fits and works effectively? • If you have a car seat has it been fitted properly? • Do you store loose objects on the back shelf in your car that could harm people in a collision? • Do you take extra time to check for cyclists and pedestrians when driving? • Do you look both ways when crossing a road? • Do you allow things to distract you (mobile phones, other passengers/pedestrians) when driving or crossing the road?

I hope the impact of these workshops will be lasting, and I encourage everyone, whether child or adult, to remember to wear a seatbelt properly at all times when in a vehicle, and to always cross roads with safety in mind. If you would like to know more about road and vehicle safety then I would also encourage you to look at this site: http://think.direct.gov.uk/

Stay Safe!

Report by Mr Johns

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Author Visit

On Friday 7th March MBA welcomed local author Helen Douglas to the Learning Resource Centre to meet students and sign copies of her first novel, After Eden, which was published last November. It was an informal visit and students took the opportunity to talk to Helen during lunchtime. She talked about the writing process, what inspired her to write her first novel and the whole process of getting published.

Review of After Eden This book is brilliant, the first reason being that it is set in and mentions the Eden Project, I mean practically everyone has heard of or been to the Eden Project and this book describes Cornwall so well even if you don't realise it.

In the beginning, it starts off with a new student joining a secondary school in Cornwall. The student’s name is Ryan Westland. As he waltzes into school he gets stares from literally everyone (both male and female, but mostly female). He makes friends with Eden, Connor and their friends, but as he's ordering lunch Eden notices something slightly odd with Ryan. Firstly, he doesn't know who Hitler was, nor does he know what pizza is or anything else on the school menu. As Eden befriends him more the more she realises there is something different about him, a special quality no ones else seems to have. To know more you should read the book to find out!

So overall this book is good, I would recommend this book to Year 6, or Year 7s. I think they would really enjoy the book.

By Lauren Hill 8 Blue.

Congratulations to Rowan Torrie in Year 7 who is this week's Accelerated Reader quiz winner. Rowan has achieved 85% or more in nine quizzes and for her prize she chose two cinema passes for a film of her choice.

Come into the library and see some of the great books we have in such as: the Shiver trilogy by Maggie Stievfater, the first two books in The Raven Boys quartet, The Northern Lights trilogy, The Mortal Engines quartet, the Cherub series, the Alex Rider novels and the Percy Jackson series as well as much, much more. Did I mention Divergent and The City of Bones?

Keep on reading and taking Accelerated Reader quizzes and see if you are next week's winner. BE CREATIVE

Outstanding Poem

This is a fantastic poem by Thomas Stephens in Year 8. He wrote it after reading an extract from Seamus Heaney's 'Beowulf'.

Beowulf, the first action hero in Literature, has ripped the marauding Grendel's arm from its socket to stop him from devouring more of King Hrothgar's men. The creature limps home in agony and his mother vows her revenge.

Grendel's Mother As the anger filled her wicked heart Grendel's mother's lust for revenge began to start. With a cackle, a scowl and an evil cry The mother screamed,"This Beowulf will die!" Grendel's mother was a grotesque figure She could make an ill man, feel even sicker. Her skin was rough and her face was pale She had bull-like horns and a snake-like tail So she crept and slithered out of her cave and told Grendel to prepare Beowulf's grave! Soon she heard the voice of men As she crept past and quickly shoved up a hen. When the men's faces began to show She grabbed an arrow and drew her bow. She aimed at one man and her fingers quivered In the cold night her body shivered. But there was breathing that she felt on her back This she had not planned in her attack. She felt her stomach and she saw some red And with no other thought, Grendel's mother was dead!

By Thomas Stephens BE COMPETITIVE

Year 7 Hockey Tournament

A group of Year 7 boys travelled to School for what was, for most of us, our first hockey tournament.

In our first match we played Humphry Davy. After displaying good defence and passing we won 1-0, thanks to a goal from Harry Edwards. In the next match we faced Cape Cornwall and won 2-0 with goals from Pasha Wilson and Harris Eddy. In our third match we played the co-hosts Truro B. A goal from Harris meant we won this match 1-0.

We knew that our next match would be our toughest as we faced the defending champions Truro A. Unfortunantely we lost 1-0 with the only goal we conceded during the day. Our next opponents were A and this game we drew 0-0, neither sides being able to score.

We knew that we had to win our next match against . This was a tense match and a link-up between Harry, Harris and Perran lead to a late goal finished off by Harris. Final score 1-0. In our last match we played Liskeard B. After great passing we scored 5 goals without reply. Fin, Harris, Harry, Perran and Pasha scored the goals. After a great day’s performance, we finished 2nd overall.

Well done to the whole team: Ben Wragg, Tyler Kearey, Harry Edwards, Harris Eddy, Toby Osborne (goalkeeper), Perran Tustin, Pasha Wilson, James Prowse, Ellis Hart, Tom Morice.

Thanks to Mr Eddy and Keeleigh Brownfield for coaching us and to Miss Mander and Miss Rooth for driving.

Report by Toby Osborne.

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Fantastic Festival of Football

On Monday 10th March , the Long Term Player Development Centre (LTPD) programme, which currently has an array of LTPD centres operating across the County, produced another buzzing evening of Festival Football for many local talented players.

The annual West Cornwall LTPD Centres Festival is always a positive evening and this was no exception to that. Each venue (Mounts Bay, Cornwall College , Penryn College) hosted a particular age group on the evening with Mounts Bay hosting the U9-U10 age groups.

Players from U8-U12 are a part of the LTPD programme and all age groups took part in Festival Football across West Cornwall on the evening. Players involved at the Centres participate in weekly training sessions receiving advanced coaching linked into the County’s Player Development Pathway.

Designed and supported by Cornwall FA and Cornwall Schools FA, there is now a clear structure and development pathway for our gifted young players with improved links and partnership with Plymouth Argyle. The LTPD Centres are designed to operate below professional Centres of Excellence and above school/club football, co-operating with them to ensure a development pathway for young players. The objective is to support, nurture and provide a professional standard of coaching for our gifted young players.

Working in partnership with the LTPD Centres players are offered a process of advanced coaching and County representation until U16s. Coaching/training sessions lead up to termly festivals against other LTPD squads and as a result of this pathway across the County, players have been offered numerous opportunities by professional clubs.

Many thanks to all coaching staff, players and parents for supporting the centres and allowing the festivals to happen.

To view all Football programmes and opportunities on offer at Mounts Bay Football Development Centre, visit the website (www.mbfdc.co.uk) or contact Mr K Lawrence - Football Development Officer, Mounts Bay Academy ([email protected]).

Report by Mr Lawrence BE COMPETITIVE

Year 7 Hockey

Last Thursday the Year 7 girls Hockey team travelled to Truro for the County tournament. Our first group game was end-to-end against where we drew 3-3. The second group game was against where we came away with a 4-1 win, and then it was the same score in our third group game against Penair. The fourth group game was a close one against Liskeard where we won 2-1, but we lost 3-2 to Truro High School B team in the final group game. As runners-up in the group we progressed to the quarter final but we came up against a well-organised Truro High School A team who knocked us out of the tournament after beating us 3-0. We scored a total of 15 goals - all of which were scored by Megan Pengelly and Tilly Hocking.

This was an excellent start to our hockey at MBA and we hope to improve on these results in the future! Thank you to Mrs Trevail for coaching us and supporting us on the day.

Team: Megan Pengelly (capt) Jessica Richards Tilly Hocking (vice-capt) Iona O'Connell Georgia Haffenden Rowan Torrie Abi Wallis Aimee Polyplank Jess Jago Erin Neil (GK). Charlotte Rodda

Report by Megan Pengelly BE COMPETITIVE

Year 8 Netball

On Friday 7th March Mounts Bay's Year 8 Netball team went to Penair school for a Netball Tournament. After a short practice we went straight into our first match. All matches went well but improvements were needed. Until the last match we played well and won 16-0. The team consisted of: Eva, Olivia, Skylar, Esme, Ella, Steph, Sophia, Phoebe, Lamorna, Renae and Rosie.

Report by Olivia Jenkin and Eva Hawken.

County Rugby Players

Three Mounts Bay students, Eddy Hall, Joel Bick and Isaac Blackbourne represented Cornwall at Rugby last weekend. There were two extremely hard fought games which resulted in a win and a loss for Cornwall Under 15s.

The boys are looking forward to the next fixtures in the Easter holidays against Devon. BE A WINNER

Maths Quiz House Competition This Week’s Puzzle: Green: 99 Points If you plot the graph x2 + y2 = 25 you should get a circle Purple: 40 Points with radius 5. If you plot the graph x2 + y2 = 16 you should Yellow: 17 Points get a circle of radius 4. Red: 15 Points Blue: 15 Points Follow the links above to check using WolframAlpha.com Orange: 6 Points (note: x2 is written as x^2 and y2 as y^2).

What shape is the graph x2 + 3y2 = 25? Click here to submit Extension for Bonus Points: your answer

Write an equation for a circle with radius 7? Win an iTunes Closing date for Entries: Thursday 12.00 voucher

For each correct answer Last week’s solution: 1.59cm throughout this semester we will put your name in the hat for a 3 Extension: 225cm chance to win an iTunes voucher – the more correct answers, the more chance of winning. Could you write next week’s puzzle? If you would like to set the numeracy puzzle for a future week click here. You will win house points.

Last week's answer was ‘squirrel’. MFL Word of the Week!

le ciel il cielo

der Himmel el cielo The winner was Skylar Finch. Well done! Translate the word of the week from either French, German, Spanish or Italian and send your answer to [email protected] to be entered into the weekly competition.

Use the word of the week in your Language lesson and get a credit from your teacher! BE A WINNER

This week’s word is: chock-a-block

Definition: Adjective

Informal, chiefly British - crammed full of people or things.

Etymology: Mid 19th century (originally in nautical use, with reference to tackle having the two blocks run close together): from chock (in chock-full) and block.

Competition

Congratulations to Loren Trevorrow who wins a WH Smith Voucher.

Lauren receives her prize.

To enter, simply write an original sentence correctly using the word choc-a-bloc. Send in your sentence using the link below.

The winner will receive a WH Smith gift card. The winner will be chosen from the correct entries received each week.

Click Here to enter the competition MARCH Wednesday 19

ARTS AWARD EVENING This evening is an opportunity to show your parents and family what you are doing in the Arts Award, watch some performances and get certificates for those of you who have already been assessed. All Arts Award students and their parents are welcome.

In the Hall, Mounts Bay 7:00pm - 9:00pm

Food, drink and entertainment

Please contact the organisers at: [email protected] or [email protected]

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Unsure about writing your personal statement? Finding it difficult to get work experience? Want to know how to impress at interview?

Pilton Community College Saturday 29th & Sunday 30th March 2014 For more information and to book your place, visit: www.memedec.com