Sawtry Village Academy Newsletter Autumn Term 2019 Update from the Headteacher As the autumn term draws to a close it is time to reflect upon what has been a very busy and successful term.

It was a pleasure to welcome our new year 7 and year 12 students alongside opening our new 18 classroom block in September. It is a wonderful new learning environment and we look forward to officially opening it in the new year where parents will be welcome to come and take a look. This December also saw the first CMAT leisure centre at Sawtry join us officially and in partnership with Stevenage Leisure Limited this brings an exciting future with greater access for our students. Many thanks to those who supported the Quiz Night in October and those that continue to support our Easyfundraising page: http://bit.do/SVAFundraising. We plan to use some of these funds to launch a Learning Resource Centre/Library in one of the new classrooms that will be available to all Spring Term 2020 students in years 7 to 13 and this is part of our continued drive to improve literacy and a love of 6 Jan– Training day reading in all our students. It is also wonderful to see how many parents, students and members of 7 Jan– School opens 16 Jan-Yr 11 Parents’ Eve the community support the Sawtry Foodbank: http://bit.do/SawtryFoodback and the recently 30 Jan- Careers and launched Essentials: http://bit.do/SawtryEssentials. It was excellent to see so many people on Sunday Guided Pathways Eve 8th December at the Community Carol Concert held at the Academy. Thank you sincerely for all of 6 Feb–Yr 13 Parents’ Eve the donations which support some of the most vulnerable members of our community. Half Term- 17-21 Feb Towards the end of November the Department for Education / Ofsted released provisional national examination statistics for year 11 in 2019 and it is with great pride that in the eight areas for student 27 Feb-Yr 10 Parents’ Eve progress (overall progress 8, maths, English, EBacc, open subjects, science, languages and humanities) 12 Mar-Yr 12 Parents’ Eve Sawtry was significantly above other schools nationally. Our Sixth Form continues to be in the top Easter-6-17 Apr 25% of all Sixth Forms in , on average, over the past three years. 8 May– Bank Holiday Many students have been rehearsing very hard for the Christmas Show on Wednesday 18th December 14 May-Yr 7 Parents’ Eve and if you haven’t yet managed to purchase a ticket yet there are still a few remaining. There have Half term- 25 29 May been some great experiences and visits as well this term and a few examples of these: year 8 visiting the Edge Careers Event at Weald, GCSE MFL students visiting France and our Sixth Form 17 Jul– Students last day students who experienced New York at the end of this term. Student experience and extending the in school boundaries of learning continue to be areas we look to enhance and develop in 2020 and beyond. I wish you a very restful Christmas break with families and friends and look forward to welcoming everyone back in 2020 on Tuesday 7th January for the start of the spring term. Thank you all for your continued support of all that we do at the Academy. For up to date information on Simon Parsons activities at the Academy please see our website Headteacher www.sawtryva.org, follow us on Facebook.com/sawtryva , or follow us on Twitter.

Sawtry Village Academy Newsletter Autumn Term 2019

Update from the Chief Executive Officer of CMAT Mr Mark Woods

It is unfortunate that bad news makes better headlines than good news. Recently, the national news has focused on the small number of academy trusts that have let the rest of us down. The Confederation of School Trusts (CST) are working to take control of the narrative to make sure that the communities we serve are aware of what we do.

 Academy and Multi-Academy Trusts are education charities that run schools to give children a better future  Over half of pupils in state schools attend academies  We help our local communities thrive by giving children the best opportunities to learn inside and outside the classroom  A trust is a group of schools working in collaboration as one entity to improve and maintain high educational standards across the group.  A trust has a single legal and moral purpose: to advance education for the public benefit

In CMAT, mainly as a result of our Village College philosophical roots, we have a second charitable objective: to make the school a hub for community use.

Two recent examples that we are proud of that demonstrate these objectives have occurred in one village, Sawtry. The Junior Academy was graded “Good” by Ofsted for the first time since 2007 which is a reflection of the excellent work of the team within the school, and of the way in which the school has been able to draw upon the expertise of our wider primary team. On December 1st, the village leisure centre facilities returned to the control of the Village Academy. This will be of huge benefit to the schools in the village and the local community.

Another common misunderstanding is who trustees are and what they do. They are volunteers, in the same way as school governors (academy council members). The board review their skills annually and we work to maintain a very strong group. Recently we were joined by three new trustees at the start of this year:

 Mike Griffiths – Mike was formerly the Headteacher at Deacon’s School in . During this time, Mike appointed both myself and Martin Bacon to the school.  Sean Hayes – until April this year, Sean was the Headteacher at St John Fisher in Peterborough.  Judy Slater – Until August, Judy was the Headteacher of Glenwood School, a special school in Benfleet, Essex.

All three of these retired recently after long and distinguished careers “advancing education for the public benefit” and I am sure will contribute to our own improvement journey.

We are always on the look out for people willing to volunteer their time to develop our governance. Whether in local academy councils, trust policy and scrutiny committees (we are currently looking for support in our Personnel and Audit committees) or when there are vacancies for trustees.

For up to date information on activities at the Academy please see our website www.sawtryva.org, follow us on Facebook.com/sawtryva.org, or follow us on Twitter. e

Encore Christmas Show

Our Christmas show this year is Disney’s Aladdin. The Christmas show is always an excellent opportunity for younger students to get involved, as it’s a shorter show and many of the older students are committed to their GCSE studies. This year we have George Adamson Year 7 taking on the lead, with Millie Keen from year 8 as Jasmine. Rehearsals are going really well and there will be two performances on the 18th December 4.30pm & 7pm. Tickets are available at www.ticketsource.co.uk/sawtryva or from the academy. Encore will restart after Christmas, when we will start to cast our summer show, new members are always welcome!

SJA Encore

Encore at the Junior Academy has been running for the past two years, however this year will be the first time they have performed to an audience. Their play Santa Interviews will be performed alongside Aladdin on the 18th December. We have a talented group of 15 students who will take to the very large SVA stage. They will also be joining in with some of the big numbers in Aladdin.

Matilda Workshop

November saw a visit from West End Pro ROBERT TREGONING. Robert recently starred in Matilda on the West End as well as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He put a group of SVA & SJA Encore students through 2 hours of acting and dancing, as well as a question and answer session. Our next workshop will be We Will Rock You and is sure to be very popular with our forthcoming summer show.

SIX The Musical trip

You have heard the rhyme ‘Divorced Beheaded Died’….now hear their story! The musical based on the Six Wives of Henry the 8th was a huge success with our students. Having already had a taster session in September and learning a dance routine from the show, they were able to see the performance live! Conversations over the next few days were around rating their favourite queen 1-6! Our next trip is 11th January, where we are taking students to see Everybody’s Talking About Jamie and & Juliet.

Archers Magazine December 2019 English

Our Year 8 students have been studying the literature of World War 1, looking at poems from Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, and also at some accounts of life in the trenches. They have been producing their own letters from the trenches which highlight the dire conditions which our brave soldiers had to endure. With the recent Remembrance Day in mind, one of our students, Aaron Foley (A-NR), has kindly shared some of his family’s WW1 history with pictures and information of his relatives who served and died in the war.

Book Review

At SVA English we are involved in the Bookbuzz programme. Bookbuzz is a reading programme from Book Trust that aims to help schools inspire a love of reading in 11 to 13-year-olds. Participating schools give their students the opportunity to choose their own book to take home and keep from a list of 17 titles. One of our Yr7 students, Aston Randall (S-HE) has written a book review about one of the books available and how much he enjoyed reading it. French Residential Trip 2019

The MFL department took 26 students on a 4 day residential trip to Picardy. Students stayed at the Château du Broûtel. They all enjoyed the opportunity to practise their French skills in an authentic setting, gaining confidence for their forthcoming GCSE examination. They also learned more about French life and culture through a number of excursions. During their stay, students experienced a variety of activities in a unique French speaking environment and followed a programme which supports their GCSE studies. Activities included visiting a French market with the opportunity to conduct interviews with French speakers, making a French dish, supervised by a French speaking chef, a trip to a beautiful historical French town called Amiens, a trip to Nausicaā Sea Life Centre and a visit to a local bakery, where students made croissants and were shown how bread is made. The trip was fantastic and our students were brilliant, showing enthusiasm and resilience. We are very proud of them and wish them every success with their French examination. Bravo!

Year 8 Lesson Study Maths

On Monday 18th November the Maths Department organised a Lesson Study with a Year 8 class. Lesson Study is a method for improving teaching based on systematic and careful observation of lessons, concentrating on learners and in particular on the learning. There is evidence that it has achieved considerable success in improving teaching in Japanese primary schools. It now forms the basis of professional development in Primary Education in Japan as well as in some parts of the USA. However, it has not only had a positive effect on the learning in these schools, it has had a profound effect on the teachers and their practice by promoting a more collaborative approach to their work. The students were given a series of problem solving tasks in pairs; manipulatives (physical learning aides) and mini- whiteboards as tools to help them. The students were then told to find answers to the questions, but asked to pay particular attention to how they would explain their answers to someone else, rather than just focusing on getting straight tothe answers. The last portion of the lesson was then spent with students explaining to the whole class how they had answered each question. It was a very successful lesson study and the teachers observing noted a number of things that they said could help in their own teaching going forward. Meanwhile in the department, Year 7 – have just finished their Feed Forward Fortnight following their first assessment, and are about to start fractions. Year 9 – have just had their first GCSE style assessment of their SVA experience. They will be studying indices and standard form next. Year 10 – have been studying congruence and trigonometry for the first time and Year 11 – will receive their mock feed forward after their results assembly. Up to 30 Prom Points will be given out to those who show Grit/Zest with these tasks. IT

Year 7 students have had an excellent start in IT. They have completed curriculum topics on e-safety and are currently learning basic spreadsheet skills. Year 8 have had a ‘feel’ of the different areas of IT; starting with programming using Microbit, which is relevant to computer science and graphics which require core IT skills. This hopefully will help with option choices later this academic year. As the Christmas holidays get closer, the department have focused on e-safety refreshers and tips relating to staying safe online generally. These include safety on online games, social media and entertainment websites. The aim is to ensure that students put to use the learning in school in day-to-day decisions. Year 9 have been working on iDEA, a Digital Enterprise Award, that helps young people to develop digital, enterprise and employability skills. Students complete a series of online challenges and can win career-enhancing badges, unlock new opportunities, ultimately gaining industry-recognised awards. These will help them stand out from the crowd. We hope to continue to use these resources in the future. Computing students are a real credit to the school having recently taken part in a display of robotics skills, as part of Year 6 Open Evening. They were able to explain to incoming students and their parents, basic computing concepts and the relevance of robotics in future technology. The department has also adopted the use of Microsoft Teams, which is a software capable of transforming lessons. We are pleased with overall student progress and a smooth start to the year. As part of the Session 6 Club that runs every Wednesday in S1, computing students are building programmable robots to be entered into the next First Tech Challenge – a national competition which is open to all computer science students in the UK. This is open to anyone who wants to develop their robotics/programming skills further or they can have a go at learning any other relevant software including images, sound and video editing software.

Art

Over 100 students from years 9, 10 and 11 enjoyed a day out in London in October. The trip had been postponed from earlier in the month due to congestion caused by demonstrations. The only available possible date was 31st October – both Halloween and potentially Brexit day! However, in the end, neither managed to spoil the fun for a tremendous day in London visiting the art galleries. Having explored the Tate Modern, the students enjoyed a boat down the River Thames to the Tate Britain. A very full and tiring day, but as always the Sawtry students were exceptional and looking forward to the next trip.

Train Delays Fail to Ruin Art and Photography Day Out in London Twenty Art and Photography sixth form students also enjoyed a trip to London this October. The one-hour delay at train station due to downed power cables came with a nice surprise – a free cafe! So after stocking up on free bacon ‘butties’, chocolate muffins and coffee, the students enjoyed a delayed, but safe journey down to the ‘Big Smoke’. Arriving at Trafalgar square, the Photography students carried out their street photography tasks, whilst the Art students perused the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery. Following a brief lunch in Leicester Square and a pleasant walk through Chinatown and Soho, the group arrived at the Photographers’ Gallery. Here they studied the exhibitions of Latin Photography and New Talent of Contemporary Photographers before making the journey home. Visit from Cambridge School of Art for KS4 Art Students The Art Department was visited by an art tutor from Anglian Ruskin University to speak to the year 10 art students about an exciting opportunity. It is run by the Cambridge School of Art, and called the Saturday Art & Design Club which is held at ARU for three hours every Saturday morning during term time. It is a UK wide network run by the Saturday Club Trust, supported by Arts Council England and the Department for Education. In 2018/19 there were 78 Saturday Clubs across the UK and 1,600 young people took part. The Saturday Art & Design Club at Cambridge School of Art, ARU, is now in its seventh year and will be offering up to 30 weeks of inspiring classes over the academic year, alongside a programme of national events. Members of the club will be introduced to a range of different disciplines using specialist facilities, including Print-making, Graphic Design, Interior Design, Fashion Design, Fine Art, Photography and Animation. This is a unique programme open to all abilities and will help to build skills and confidence as well as demonstrate pathways to further study and careers. The Club costs are generously covered by Anglia Ruskin University which means it is TOTALLY FREE!

Science

In September the Science Department welcomed a group of twelve students from Church of England Primary School. Mr Strawbridge and Mr Keppel taught the group how colours can be formed in chemical reactions and how to use flame tests to identify different elements. The Folksworth students conducted a number of practical activities to put their new skills to the test. Mr Strawbridge’s grand finale was to demonstrate ‘Dragon’s Breath’ using various salts dissolved in ethanol, to form large coloured flames.

Science club continues to go from strength to strength. It was an exciting first half-term with our older, enthusiastic, Science Club Leaders (Ana, Zoe, Lily, Poppy, Will and Bonnie) continuing to plan and run sessions. Highlights included: foaming pumpkin heads and purple potions at Halloween, firework colours for bonfire night, fire-drawing pictures and messages. In the run up to Christmas, Science Club is being treated to innovative sessions led by the 6th Form Science Ambassadors. At the time of writing, we have had the first of these highly anticipated sessions which involved students trying to collect the most carbon dioxide gas from anaerobic respiration, delivered by a very confident Lily and Tom. The time the Science Club Leaders and Science Ambassadors have spent planning and preparing sessions has paid off, with more than 20 students regularly attending each week. Lily, a Year 10 student, commented, “We are delighted that such young students have a big interest in science.” One committed Year 7, when asked about why they come each week, said, “I like doing all the scientific things that we don’t do until we get older.”

March 2020 sees the return of the Cambridge Science Festival, now in its 26th year. It runs from the 9 _ 22 March and offers a broad mix of events, talks and hands-on Science experiences at the University of Cambridge. Most events are free to attend, although booking is recommended for some. At the time of writing, the programme has not yet been released, but keep an eye on https://www.sciencefestival.cam.ac.uk/ for updates. In previous years the Science department has taken groups of students to a number of the events in the programme and we hope to be able to do so again in 2020.

Physical Education

One of the main focuses this year in the Physical Education Department, is to enhance a whole school culture of being physically active and to appreciate the social, mental and physical benefits of taking part. Mrs McCloskey is analysing SVA’s current programmes to ensure that we are providing a rich and innovative Physical Education alongside our extra-curricular programme. Students have enjoyed studying and practising the traditional sports of rugby, netball, badminton, dance and gymnastics this term. We have also incorporated training programmes, yoga and lacrosse to ignite enthusiasm on a different level. Working with Sawtry Youth Project, who secured funding for our students, enabled us to participate in skate boarding which was a huge success. We look forward to bringing in new ideas for the future. Our sports teams have continued to be popular and successful. Our magnificent Boccia team came 2nd in the Cambridgeshire competition and have now qualified for the regional tournament. The Year 7 rugby team has boasted a squad of over 30 students, most of whom had never played rugby before. Our Year 7 netball team have qualified for the county round of the school games in June, which is a fantastic achievement. Our Year 8 Hockey team were runners-up in the district tournament, displaying outstanding skills to score some beautiful goals. The Year 10 and 11 mixed netball teams have won their first matches against Swavesey Village College and Chesterton Community College.

Our U13 Girls football team were undefeated when winning the district 7-a-side football tournament. Big congratulations to Evander Wishart who finished 2nd and Maddison Kehoe, Moira Howard and Mia Karagholi for finishing in the top 16 of the District Cross Country Championship. They have now been selected to run in the County Competition in Cambridge on 11th January. The next set of fixtures we are looking forward to are boys’ and girls’ basketball.

Textiles

Year 12 students have been looking at a mixed media textiles artist called Laura Edgar. She is a real whizz at manipulating fabric and layer- ing up colours on which she uses mostly free hand stitching to blend or add accents. Students have all had a go at creating mixed media versions of her beach inspired work. These mini pieces have made students refine techniques to create outcomes that showcase different textures in imaginative ways. Food Technology On Friday 15th November, we hosted the local heats for the Rotary Young Eden For- Chef competition. Four students cooked for two hours, making a starter, main course and dessert. They showcased some excellent skills and pro- duced dishes which looked and tasted amazing. The judges said it was ex- tremely close, but the overall winner was Cerys James, who will now go on to the District level of the competition in Cambridge. A massive thank you to all four competitors (Cerys, Natalie, Daisy and Lily) for taking the time, and having the enthusiasm, to take part.

Geography It has been a busy term in Geography!

The GCSE students went to Hunstanton in September to carry out fieldwork for their GCSE. They had two hypotheses; they firstly investigated longshore drift on the beach and had to decide if sand was being moved north or south. Theyused oranges to measure the rate of longshore drift and measured the build-up of sediment on either side of the groynes. The second investigation was into the link between the beach and the economy of the town. They had to carry out business interviews, a land use survey and an environmental quality survey.

Years 7 and 8 are both studying river processes and flooding. They are currently working in groups on a decision making exercise: the students have to decide how to prevent the village of Aston Hope flooding. This seems very relevant given the weather we have had recently and the changes to our climate being brought about by global warming. All in all it has been a successful term in the Geography Department.

Child Development

In Child Development the students are learning about pregnancy and birth. As part of this, we set up an antenatal class and students were able to experience what a class would be like. Definitely a positive experience, as the students realised that these classes are not only informative and fun, but they can give confidence and all the information needed, in order to prepare for a baby’s birth. Sixth Form

Outside of lessons we have had a full programme of activity based around five main themes: wellbeing, life skills, work skills, team-building and advice & guidance. This term has included guest speakers in assembly, for example the Cambridgeshire Chamber of Commerce and local employers BGL, Safapac and Saffery Champness. We have also had talks from ex-students about their experience at university, from a university admission tutor providing feedback on personal statements, from PwC (a global professional services company) on their recruitment process, from the AIM Group (who specialise in apprenticeship opportunities) and from the NHS on organ donation.

Sixth Form Open Evening

In November, we held our Sixth Form Open Evening providing an opportunity for students to discover more about our Ofsted Outstanding sixth form. We have been working very hard to drive forward improvements in recent years, as recognised in the last OFSTED inspection (January 2018): “The sixth form provides an outstanding education. Achievement overall has been significantly above average for the previous two years. Strong teaching and a very supportive pastoral system are enabling students to follow ambitious career pathways”.

The evening was very well attended. Parents/carers and students had the chance to talk with teachers and sixth form student ambassadors about the various subjects that on offer. These include a range of both A Levels and BTECs. The evening also included at talk by Mr Parsons (Headteacher), Mr Carpenter (Head of Sixth Form), and SVA Head Boy and Head Girl. We are looking forward to receiving applications, the closing date for which is 31st January 2020.

Cambs Drive iQ

As in previous years, we were fortunate to be offered sessions on driving safely by the Cambs Drive iQ team for our year 12 students.

The harsh reality is that one in five new drivers has a crash within 12 months of passing their test, which is why raising standards on the roads is a priority. Cambs Drive iQ is free, state-of-the-art, award winning, online software providing a virtual experience of driving: it helps improve skills such as anticipating danger, hazard detection, risk management and eye scanning. It can really help students who are preparing for their driving theory test, as well as those who have recently passed their test. Sawtry Small Business Partnership

In November, A Level Business students attended a lecture hosted by the Sawtry Small Business Partnership on marketing and sales. We would like to say thank you to the SSBP for hosting us as it was a great opportunity to see how business theory applied to the “real world".

Wellbeing

As part of our commitment to our sixth formers’ wellbeing, we have been looking into the benefits of physical activity through assembly and registration activities. Studies have considered reasons why young adults stop participating in any form of physical activity, suggesting: lack of time due to school workload, having to play in adult leagues, part-time work taking up free time, other competing leisure interests.

Since highlighting the mental, social and physical benefits of any form of physical activity, we have seen an increase in participation levels and students setting up their own clubs, e.g. Wednesday night badminton, Friday football and basketball. During a couple of morning registrations (so far) students (and tutors) participated in either walking, yoga, football and badminton.

Year 13 Geography Fieldtrip to Sheringham Earlier this term, year 13 Geography students spent two days in the coastal town of Sheringham carrying out data collection for their non-examined assessment. Students worked in groups to complete a range of tasks including beach profile measurements, cliff degradation surveys, questionnaires, business surveys, analysis of sea defences, groyne measurements etc. The students collected large amounts of data which they will use to produce a piece of coursework in the coming months.

It was a good trip; no one fell in the sea and the weather was pretty good; on both days we finished just before it started to rain. The students worked very hard and hopefully their efforts will be reflected in their final outcomes.