NEWSLETTER NO 1 December 2019

Welcome to the first newsletter of this academic year. Once again we celebrated a great set of results last summer and we are pleased that our Progress 8 figure places us top in Weston-super-Mare and second in the whole of North . This is great for our students who left last year as it places them at an advantage when in interviews against their peers!

In September we welcomed our largest ever cohort, 240 students, to the Academy. They have settled in well after our extended continuity work at the end of Year 6. Already Year 7 have been awarded the Continuity Cup, taken part in shows, given tours at Open Evening and subsequently to families looking to apply for a place at Hans Price.

Our cohort is now just short of 1000 children. This is significant as it means the Academy is nearly full for the first time in many, many years and reflects Ofsted’s assertion that “The school is increasingly the school of choice for local parents and carers because leaders have estab- lished a culture of learning and high aspiration”. We rely heavily on you as parents and carers to support us as we provide the culture and ethos at HPA to enable your children to thrive, so I would just like to take the time to thank you for your ongoing support.

This has been a very long term for both students and staff alike, we are 15 weeks into the school year already! Teachers and support staff have worked tirelessly to ensure your child is getting a great experience, both in their lessons, during Learning Family time and through pastoral support.

As you will see when you read the newsletter our students have taken part in a range of activities across the arts, sports and literature as well as design and technology. This has seen our students competing both locally and nationally to showcase their fantastic skills and knowledge whilst representing our academy as great ambassadors.

Year 11 have taken their first set of mocks and now have a very clear understanding of what needs to be achieved in each of their subjects as we move towards the final 6 months of their compulsory education journey.

We look forward to welcoming students back to the Academy on Tuesday 7th January for the start of the New Year.

As we approach the end of 2019 and look forward to 2020 and all that it may bring, I would like to thank you once again for your continued support and wish you and your family a safe and happy Christmas break. Mobile Phone Policy Parent Feedback

Disabled Parking

We have a number of parents/carers who require blue badge parking. Could we please ask that you respect these spaces and unless you have a blue badge displayed, you do not occupy the bays. Thank you for your support with this.

“The foodbank was there when we really needed it, it was an absolute lifeline.”

We don’t think anyone in our community should have to face going hungry. That’s why we provide three days’ nutritionally balanced emergency food and support to local people who are referred to us in crisis. We are part of a nationwide network of foodbanks, supported by The Trussell Trust, working to combat poverty and hunger across the UK.

Hans Price Academy are in a position to issue Foodbank vouchers that can be redeemed at Foodbank, North Street, Weston-Super-Mare, BS231QF. We understand the Christmas holidays can be a financial struggle for some of our families, so if you are struggling and in need of some support please get in touch with our safeguarding team at school who will be able to assist you with a voucher.

Students in Year 9 & 10 held their very own general election on Thursday 12th December. Bethany, Harrison, Brennan and Elliot came up with their own policies and held a live TV debate on the key issues. Students worked really hard with their teams to encourage the school to vote for them. Turnout on the day was excellent with students queuing around the corridor to place their votes. The votes have not yet been counted and the school waits with baited breath for the results. Ready for WOW

You will regularly find the ‘Ready for WOW’ section as a part of our newsletter. Ready for WOW stands for Ready for (the) World Of Work and will highlight our careers provision within the academy. This term has seen many fantastic opportunities for our students but a particular highlight was our Year 9 and 10 students who attended a Hospitality take over event at the Aztec Hotel, a two time AA rosette winning hotel. The students had the opportunity to learn from a large number of experienced staff including those from Hilton Hotel, Starbucks, Aztec Hotel and Tortworth Court. Johny (Acer) was awarded a future stars award. Attendance News

TERM 1 Attendance

We had a fantastic Halloween Draw back in Term 1 with students gaining entries for each week of full attendance. Well done to the students who were lucky enough to win one of 24 prizes!

Rewards Trip

In Term 1 we took the Top 100 students (for attendance and behaviour) last year, on a rewards trip to Hollywood Bowl. Massive congratulations to those students who went!

Term 2 Icescape

We will be taking 150 students to Icescape at the end of term. These students were among those who have achieved 100% attendance in both Term 1 & 2 and were lucky enough to be picked out of the draw. There will be another award next term for the students not picked this time along with students who have significantly improved their attendance. Don’t forget there are weekly Attendance Challenges and Rewards for excellent and improved attendance all of which are advertised on the noticeboards and screens so look out for them! EVERY  What does ‘Good Attendance’ really mean? SCHOOL DAY  90% sounds good, but is it? MATTERS  Although 90% in a test might be quite a good score, 90% attendance is the same as missing half a day of learning every week! This would add Missed school days up to 4 whole weeks in a school year, or half a are missed opportunities year missed over 5 years of secondary school.

Research Students with the best qualifications have more college shows that 17 courses to choose from; a better chance of further learning missed school or training opportunities; a better chance of the job they days each year really want; the chance to earn more money; better = 1 GCSE grade opportunities for future success. drop in achievement

For most employers, a good Did you know? attendance record is just as important as qualifications When you apply to College because it shows that they or for a job, the Academy is can depend on their asked to confirm your attendance at school employees to be reliable and resilient. For some students, coming to school every day is very difficult ………. This could be because of a medical condition, an injury or operation. They might feel anxious about school or something unavoidable might have happened at home. Some students are just unlucky to have been unwell for a few days and this could temporarily drag their attendance down. For this reason, whilst we reward the achievement of 100% attendance, we also recognise and reward students who make improvements and we are always willing to work with parents/ carers and students who need help. More than half of our absence is due to minor illness. Headaches, sore throats and ‘feeling sick’ should not prevent a student Ways to ensure good attendance from coming to school. Give them a pain- killer and send them in. If you keep your child off school and they feel better later they can come in and they won’t get a de- tention for arriving late. If your child is regu- larly absent with minor illness you may be GET UP EARLY COME TO MAKE MEDICAL DON’T GO AND ARRIVE SCHOOL APPOINTMENTS ON HOLIDAY asked to provide medical evidence that ON TIME EVERY DAY AFTER SCHOOL IN TERM TIME they have seen a GP. This will help us to understand why they are ill so often and may identify other reasons why your child Please note we cannot authorise time off for does not want to come to school to come to holidays in term time, visiting relatives, family school. day trips, birthdays, tiredness due to late Excellent attendance is crucial. We want your child nights, looking after siblings/pets, shopping to achieve their potential so please work with us to trips, no school uniform, illness if medical encourage good attendance. We want the best evidence is requested but not provided or bad outcomes for your child. weather. If no reason is provided for absence, it cannot be authorised. EVERY DAY COUNTS! These lovely students helped customers in Morrisons to pack their bags and raised £240 for Weston General Hospital.

On Monday 16th December, a group of students visited three residential homes: Albert House, Tilsley House and Stoneleigh Care Home. They sang Christ- mas carols to the elderly which was an incredible contribution to our wider community. The residents thoroughly enjoyed it and as this is the third year running, we plan to continue this annual trip!

Annual Fireworks Display

November saw HPA light up the sky with our annual charity fireworks display. The weather held off and the crowds came to watch the spectacular display, by SkyRascal. There were lots of fun and games with stalls such as hook a duck, penalty shoot-out, a vintage stall, jewellery, cakes, burgers and much more. The total raised from the evening was a brilliant £1216 which will be distributed to the college’s chosen charities.

Accelerated Reader is the system we use to encourage, track and reward reading at Hans Price Academy in Years 7 and 8. The following students have successfully quizzed on the most books or have read the highest number of words since September. Well done! Word Millionaires! This year our Year 7 and 8 students have started off the academic year reading more than ever before! The students below have read the most and more than ever Top Quizzers (Books Finished) before have read over one million words before Christmas! College Year Quizzes Word millionaires receive star badges, in their college Passed colours, which can be worn on their blazers for the rest of Destiny S Acer 7 46 their time at Hans Price. Harley L Acer 7 29 Ryan G Clarus 7 27 Alicia D Clarus 7 27 Leen M Acer 7 25 Darcy B Mando 7 25 William L Clarus 7 24 Highest Word Count (Words Read) Ella-Louise R Fortis 7 23 College Year Word Lola B Clarus 7 23 Oliver D Mando 7 21 Destiny S Acer 7 3,010,522 Otis C Mando 7 21 Lola B Clarus 7 2,048,890 Jessica C Clarus 7 21 Charlotte D Mando 7 1,640,487 Olivia S Fortis 7 20 Kaylum H Fortis 7 1,268,516 Kaylum H Fortis 7 20 Yasmin P Clarus 7 1,250,369 Rhys W Clarus 7 19 Grant H Clarus 7 1,109,290 Dylan C Mando 7 1,108,224

Lily M Clarus 7 1,080,353 This is what 1,060,923 Laila M Mando 7 1,044,735 words look like. It’s Daisy R Mando 7 901,153 amazing that some of Ella-Louise R Fortis 7 872,575 our students have already read this many Alicia D Clarus 7 858,215 books since we started Emily D Acer 7 842,366 in September! There’s Dean O Clarus 8 745,774 still plenty of time to Jessica C Clarus 7 715,920 become a word millionaire this year. Students can log into Accelerated Reader at home and click on their “Book Shelf” to Words read by Years 7 and 8 since September: show you what they have read so far this year. Clicking on the “Tops Report” on the most recent book will give you an overall word count. 45,262,959 Christmas Show

On the 12th of December we had our annual Christmas Show, each year they are getting bigger and better. During the day the cast of over 100 students performed to a packed crowd of Year 4 and 5 students from local primary schools. The evening was another sell out show and a great demonstration of talent in Music, Dance and Musical Theatre. All money raised from the show will help fund the Summer school Musical. Thanks to everyone who supported the show from Mrs Skidmore, Miss Angell and Mr Hooper.

Kids’ Lit Quiz On Thursday 28th November eight students travelled to Monkton Prep School in Bath to take part in the annual Kids’ Lit Quiz. The Kids’ Lit Quiz is an international competition to find the best read and most knowledgeable young readers from around the world. The competition is open to students aged10 - 13 and quizzes are held in Australia, Canada, Nigeria, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the USA.

The students selected as part of two teams of four to represent Hans Price Academy were made up of students who had shown great potential in LRC reading lessons, Accelerated Reader quizzes and a preliminary quiz at Hans Price. It was a really tough selection process and there were so many incredible readers to chose from this year.

The Regional round at Monkton Prep School included two teams from Monkton Prep, Bristol Grammar School, School, Monmouth School, Colston’s School, St John’s and Hans Price Academy as well as a team made up of Authors of recent popular children’s books who spent time talking with our students and introducing their books.

Both teams from Hans Price did exceptionally well moving up and down the leader board throughout the quiz and finally drawing with each other and settling in joint 7th place out of the twelve teams. They represented Hans Price incredibly well and we even received an email from one of the attending authors, Emma Read, after the event praising our students.

“It was an absolute delight chatting to your lovely kids yesterday - they were fantastic ambassadors for the school.“

In addition to an impressive overall score from both teams, our Year 8 team were top scorers in one round, winning books of their choice and in our Year 7 team, Charlotte won an individual money prize for being the first in the room to recognise a speech from the book Wonder.

The knowledge and commitment to reading shown by our students impresses me every year and this year was no exception. I wanted to pass on my congratulations to all students involved and everyone for putting so much effort and passion into their reading. Pop Up Library

This term saw the first outing of the Pop Up Library. Designed and built by Year 9 students, the mini library will be popping up around the academy during lunch breaks so students who don’t spend a lot of time in the LRC have the opportunity to browse and borrow new books. Dungeons and Dragons Club Due to the popularity at break and lunch, students are now trialling a Dungeons and Dragons club which will take place 3:10pm - 4pm in the LRC on Tuesdays.

Students have come up with their own structure and expectations for the club and anyone is welcome to find out more about the club or sign up to take part in the LRC.

Any DnD donations to help them set up and expand on the resources they have would be hugely appreciated.

Book Advent This year, as we come to the end of term and the beginning of the holidays, we are doing our own book version of an advent calendar. For each school day of December a student who has been impressive in their reading or kindness will choose a book to open. Half contain a great quote from the book, the others contain a mystery gift!

Our 1st & 2nd students chosen to open advent books were students from Year 7 and Year 8 who have borrowed the highest number of books since September. One chose Can You See Me and won a mystery gift, the other chose Pet by Akwaeke Emezi (which may or may not be a mystery gift up for grabs!) and was treated to a beautiful quote from the book.

The 3rd & 4th books were chosen by Destiny for reading over 3 million words in since September & Lily for her kindness & thoughtfulness towards others. They uncovered lovely quotes from David Leviathan & Kartherine Rundell. Wonder Reading Challenge

This term we’ve taken time to read through the fantastic entries to the Summer Reading Challenge. Each Year 7 student was given a copy of Wonder in the first week of September and we extended the entry deadline to give everyone time to enjoy the book and complete the challenge.

We chose Wonder as a gift because the main themes are acceptance and kindness and this has been reflected in the entries from students and highlighted in the quotes they identified most frequently as ones that stood out to them.

“Be kind, for everyone is fighting a hard battle.” “It’s not enough to be friendly, you have to be a friend.” “When given the choice between being right or kind, choose kind.” “We carry with us, as human beings, not just the capacity to be kind, but the very choice of kindness.” “Courage, kindness, friendliness,

If you liked this book try... (Not because they’re all a similar colour, that was a coincidence!) New Display and New Books! You can find this display in the main street to give you some inspiration for which book to read next!

Graphic Novels The young Prince Alfred has never known a life outside Buckingham Palace – but when strange goings-on breach its walls and stalk the corridors in the dead of night, he is thrust into a world of mystery, adventure and monsters.

All of the students at Borderlands have parents in the armed forces. New boy Woody is desperate to escape the school and find his way to his dad's military base, but his dad has been mobilised. He's gone. Worried and unhappy, Woody turns to the only thing that could help get him through - rugby. “I'm going to tell you the word that ruins my entire life: BIG. For as long as she can remember, Tova has Because my name is Jemima lived among the Svell, the people who found Small. But I am exactly the her washed ashore as a child and use her for opposite.“ her gift as a Truthtongue. She has found a fragile place among those who fear her, but An empowering story about when two clans to the east bury their age-old body confidence. blood feud and join together as one, her world is dangerously close to collapse.

Year 9 Parliamentary Visit

On Tuesday 3rd December, we had a visit from a representative in Parliament who spoke to Year 9 about how laws are created in this country and the importance of a difference of political opinion. Some Year 9’s then took part in a workshop where they debated some issues, including the voting age. Students were really engaged and it was great to see them debating issues that really matter to them.

Mock Magistrates Court Hearing

On the 26th November and 10th December, Year 8 students spent some time experiencing a Magistrates Court Hearing.

Based on a real scenario, students argued the prosecution and defence for whether the person accused should be given bail or not.

Students were keen to get involved and particularly enjoyed acting out the court hearing. On Friday 6th December, Hans Price Academy was joined by 4 of the electoral candidates to answer questions and debate on current issues ahead of the general election. Joining us were Tim Taylor (Labour), John Penrose (Conservative), Patrick Keating (Liberal Democrats) and David Clegg (on behalf of Suneil Basu, Green Party). Year 9 and 10 were involved and asked some really relevant and challenging questions, including issues around Brexit, education, and voting age.

Exam Invigilators Needed

Our academies need exam invigilators, readers and scribes to assist with scheduled exams.

This is a casual position, you will be advised when you are needed and you advise if you are available.

Work is usually available in November, January, March, May and June. With other opportunities throughout the year to support mock exams. You can choose to work in a single academy of your choice or we can allocate you to any of our academies.

This position is paid on an hourly rate plus holiday pay.

To apply or to find out more about this role please visit www.clf.uk/examsjobs to apply.

If you would like to discuss the role with an Exam Officer please email [email protected] and an Exam’s Officer will contact you. Year 7

The Year 7 rugby team have made an excellent start at HPA, amassing 24 fixtures in a mixture of traditional matches and mini tournament games.

Well done to all of the players who have represented HPA this autumn. Special mention to Kaydon for scoring an impressive 70 points with Will not far behind with 55 and as Morgan for his excellent leader- ship as captain.

HPA 45- 10 Broadoak: Morse x2, Latham x3, Lucas x4

Tournament 1 @ Weston RFC Tournament 2 @ Weston RFC HPA 15-10 Sidcot HPA 5-0 Worle Lucas, Frake, Latham Latham

HPA 35-0 Priory HPA 15-5 Sidcot Jing, Lucas x2 , Latham, Corbett x2, Andreozzi-Inganni Latham, Jing, Andreozzi-Inganni

Worle 20-20 HPA HPA 0- 0 Broadoak Corbett, Jing, Lucas, Latham HPA 5-5Churchill Churchill 20-25 HPA Frake Lucas, Frake x2, Latham x2 HPA 5-5 priory Andreozzi-Inganni

Triangular fixture @ Worle Tournament 3 @ Hornets HPA 5-15 Churchill School RFC Lucas HPA 2 0-25 Backwell HPA A 45 -10 Priory HPA 0- 5 Nailsea Morse x2 HPA 0-5 Nailsea Andreozzi-Inganni x2 HPA 0-15 Nailsea Caunter HPA 25-0 Priory Lucas x2 Frake x3, Morse, Latham St Kaths 15-0 HPA

HPA B 5-10 Priory St Kaths 10-5 HPA Chingo HPA 5-15 Backwell Lucas Latham HPA 15-20 Worle HPA 10-10 Churchill Lucas x3 HPA 5 -5 Priory Latham x2 Jing

Year 8

It has been another busy term for our Year 8’s. They have participated in three Rugby tournaments, numerous after school matches and even a Somerset Cup Football match.

The Year 8 Rugby team did extremely well in all of the Rugby tournaments scoring some great tries on the way to some emphatic victories over other local schools with many students now going on to join Weston Rugby Club.

The football team unfortunately missed out on progressing to the next round of the cup after being beaten by Taunton academy in a well contested game. Girls Netball

Year 7

Our Year 7 team this year have made an excellent start to their sporting debuts. They have seen some amazing progress over the course of the season with particular success during their recent tournament. We are excited to see how they progress into next year.

Year 8

The Year 8 netball team has had an outstanding season so far. It is the first time that we have been able to field two teams with both winning a fair share of their matches. The A team have had more matches and have won all of them except one, which was a very tough match against Churchill, who they meet again at the Tournament.

One stand out match of the term was when both teams beat Priory School for the first time, showing excellent netball and teamwork.

Year 9

The Year 9 massively increased their numbers this year each week making team selection a very difficult decision. They started the season with a convincing win against Sidcot and a tough game against Priory. This made it challenging when picking the final 13 students to represent the school in the Year 9 North Somerset Tournament. They went from strength to strength throughout the tournament finishing with two wins and a draw against a very tough Gordano team.

Cross Country

On a very cold Wednesday afternoon we took four teams to to compete in the North Somerset Cross Country Championships. These students recorded the fastest times within their year groups in inter year Cross Country. The students faced a very tough field but all put in a fantastic effort and supported each other throughout.

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Key Dates

Monday 6th January Inset Day Tuesday 7th January Term 3 begins Monday 13th January Year 10 Mock Exams begin Wednesday 22nd January Ski Trip Meeting (5.30pm) Thursday 23rd January HPV Vaccinations (Year 8) Thursday 30th January Year 8 Parent’s Evening Wednesday 5th February Academy closes at 2.10pm Thursday 6th February Music Show Thursday 13th February Year 10 Parents’ Evening Friday 14th February End of term Monday 24th February Term 4 begins Year 11 Mock Exams begin Thursday 5th March Year 9 Booster Vaccinations Wednesday 18th March Academy closes at 2.10pm Tuesday 24th March Year 10 Work Experience begins Tuesday 31st March Year 11 Parents’ Evening Thursday 2nd April End of term Friday 3rd April Inset Day Saturday 4th April Ski Trip departs Monday 20th April Term 5 begins