Issue 21 Newsletter May 2020 Alia is cycling 100 miles in May to raise money for The Lily Foundation Executive Headteacher’s Message Dear students; parents / carers and staff, As we continue in this period of extended lockdown, instead of the weekly update that I have become accustomed to issuing on a Friday afternoon, please have a good look through this bumper newsletter that shares many success from this academic year. I think this must be the biggest edition ever and I would like to thank everyone that has contributed and helped put this together. In these unusual times, it is good to be reminded of some of the Spalding Academy events and achievements since September and to remind students of the general buzz of life at School that we can hopefully get back to as soon as safely possible. I hope by sharing this issue of the newsletter it will help our students and our families feel more connected to the school, during this period of absence? There are far too many great aspects of this publication for me to pull out as being ‘highlights’ and share with you, so I will let you find your own favourite story, report or image. However, a few stand out articles that I know will prompt fond memories include the Geography Department’s Year 7 Fantastic Places homework project, which is always so popular. This year the models that students built were so complex and professional, they were all truly impressive. Also, since September the Art & DT department have yet again excelled in the creative area. This is such an important area of the curriculum for Spalding Academy and the Art & DT department are always looking for new ways to inspire the students, such as for the Year 7 and 8 students who had the fantastic opportunity to meet and participate in workshops run by Robert Sabuda, a famous pop-up book author. The creations that followed are truly impressive. During this time of school closure we have seen many people engage in very charitable activities and our charity support work at Spalding Academy has always been very important to both students and staff and when school can return to ‘normal’, we will be looking to see what charities can be supported by our students in the next academic year. In this newsletter you will find the inspirational story of Year 9 Alia Jones, who has a condition called Mitochondrial. I am so very proud of Alia, as she has managed to complete a 3K bike ride a day to total 100 miles by the end of May, which is not an easy task for someone with this condition. She is an inspiration and has raised nearly £2000 for the Mitochondrial charity, far exceeding her original goal of £250! … Well done to Alia! Also, during this lockdown period, many of us have been inspired to be engage more in sport, by running or like me, it has been by doing far more walking with my dog Fred! PE is such an important aspect of the curriculum at Spalding Academy and in this newsletter you will find articles sharing the sporting successes of the school, including that of Year 11 Elliot Foster, who experienced playing for Boston United. I hope that by reading Elliot’s story, he may inspire other young football players. As well as these events and stories that have made it into this newsletter, I am continually sent photos, you tube links; success stories and thank you emails from our amazing young people, which are very well received by both myself and all the staff. I am always keen to share and celebrate the huge talent of our students, so please continue to send your information, items and images in to the school. Continued on the next page……………………… Executive Headteacher’s Message I hope that seeing all these fantastic stories in the newsletter will remind our students of just how amazing Spalding Academy is … and this is a publication dedicated to all our students, put together to show them just how much we miss them all! I know that all parents want to know when they can send children back to school as the continued school closures will have a detrimental impact on their individual progress. However, as the country progresses though Phase Two of the Government ‘road map’ for the UK, it is clear that any return to school will be gradual and I hope that during Term 6 we will start to hear news of when and how schools can start to plan for September. I feel very sad for the students that this has been their experience of education this year, but I am confident that we will be able to make the future at Spalding Academy for them a great one! Finally, I would again thank all the staff for working so hard to ensure that work set is appropriate and there are the important feedback opportunities for students and I also give huge thanks to our wonderful parents for supporting all our learners so well from home. To work with young people is such a joy and a privilege, being a teacher is an amazing job and one that I have personally enjoyed every single day for the last 28 years. It may be that the experience of the last 8-9 weeks has convinced a few of our parents that a career in teaching is for them? If so, please contact the school and we can give you the best advice on how to explore this as a profession. I hope that all our young people and our families are able to keep well and stay safe over the May half term break and I look forward to giving you a further weekly update at the start of Term 6. Stay safe! Mrs Lucy Conley Executive Headteacher Art & Design News Well done to all our wonderful Art and Design students that have been showing their flare for creativity and resourcefulness in these very odd times. For us as Art teachers, we have found the process of setting home learning work very challenging. We have tried really hard to set challenging but enjoyable work that you could easily create at home with limited resources. Many of you have risen to that challenge. If you have been struggling to get the correct resources, in most cases, even if you just have a piece of paper and a pencil you should be able to take part in the activities. We hope you have not found home learning with us too much of a challenge. Please ensure that you keep all your work that you are creating at home safe and bring it into your first lesson (whenever that might be!). All of your work will be added into your sketchbooks in lessons to form a project. Year 9 and 10 students work will of course be added into your overall coursework folder so take care when creating your work. We have been proud as punch when receiving tasks back in on Show My Homework or email. You are a very talented bunch out there. I have included some photos below. Apologies for some of the photos, we had to take photos from our screen to send it across to each other! Parents, carers and students, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with your Art and Design teacher if there is anything we can help you with. We will be more than happy to help. The Art and Design team Henrique Arvanas Chloe Slipper Alexandra Laslau Madeleine Hilliar Christopher Knibbs Lily Mallen-Wallace Sarah Lamming Oliver Goodyear Vesta Lukaite Design & Technology News We would like to thank everyone for their support in finding materials, pens and pencils down the backs of sofas, old cereal boxes and forgotten envelopes. We hope that the art of creation is rediscovered in old things, and we are so enthused to see what our resourceful students are coming up with. Year 9 and 10 have started to look in to Op Art and Typography, to include in their projects when they are able to begin using clay once again in the workshops. Work from Roksana and Elektra. Year 7 and 8 students are studying Robert Sabuda. Sabuda is a famous pop-up book author that taught himself how to make pop ups with materials he could find around his home. The students are following in his footsteps and are creating wonderful pieces from what they can find. Students work: Design & Technology News English News Key Stage Four – Term Four Another relatively short term, but again an awful lot has happened for our amazing Key Stage Four students. Year 11s have sat Pre Public Exams (PPE) for English Literature - both paper one and paper two. Practising paper two in particular has been extremely useful since being 2 ¼ hours long, it has tested students’ ability to write cohesively for this length of time and given them further assurance of their knowledge of all four literature texts and areas to target their revision prior to their actual exam. To prepare them for this exam the students have been revising ‘An Inspector Calls’, ‘Macbeth’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’. They had the opportunity last term to reflect on poetry so were well prepared for their PPEs. We have also continued with extensive intervention for both language and literature each week during lunch and after school. These sessions recognise specific areas, according to past exam results, where students need further support and will fill in gaps in their knowledge.