Summer-Newsletter-2015.Pdf
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NEWSLETTER Summer 2015 Kent Literacy Awards 2015 Accelerated Reader at Wilmington Wilmington Academy Academy is very All students in Years 7 & 8 at Wilmington Academy proud to be the use the Accelerated Reader program. It is a targeted recipient of the program designed to improve reading ages through Kent District and regular testing. Each student is assessed and given a Regional Literacy reading level and can choose freely from a range of Awards 2015 books at that level. for our Hunger Games Festival, which saw tutor groups transforming Once students have read their book they take a into Districts and competing in a series of cross quiz to assess their level of understanding of the curricular literacy challenges. Mr Devlin Head of characters, plot, language and themes. A high pass Apollo College, Miss Marken, Director of Literacy earns them a reward and means they move up a level and Mrs Kennedy, Librarian are pictured receiving the showing progress. award at a presentation ceremony at the Hampstead Students have one Accelerated Reader lesson each House Hotel in Sittingbourne. week as part of their English Curriculum time but N. Marken should also be reading at home on a regular basis. Summer Reading Challenge Accelerated Reader is very successful at improving This year, students at Wilmington Academy are reading ages but more importantly it is fun. encouraged to head down to their local library and take part in the Summer Reading Challenge. ‘The Since September students on the program have read Guinness Book of World Records’ is working with the over 65,000,000 words and quizzed on over 6000 Reading Agency to make this year’s challenge the best books. A word count is generated each time a student ever. At their local library they will be issued with a reads and quizzes a book and this year six of our prize booklet to track their progress. All they have to students have joined the prestigious Millionaire Club do is read six exciting books from their local library’s by having read over a million words which is a huge collection, collect the six corresponding stickers, and achievement. be in the running to win a host of exciting prizes! Congratulations to Molly Plummer (1,825,423 You can check out more information about the words), Dylan Ennis (1,697,917 words), Callum Burke programme at www.summerreadingchallenge.co.uk. On (1,506,831 words), Ryan Frost (1,164,078 words), the website you can also set up your own profile and Carlo Sidonio (1,143,292 words) and Taylor Dawson keep track of your reading progress. Happy reading! (1,084,625 words). N Marken D. Kennedy Year 8 Art & Business Enterprise Challenge On Monday 15 June, Year 8 Art Gifted/Talented students, who have opted to study Business and Art courses next year, were set the challenge of designing, making and marketing innovative products for the visually impaired. The day started off with students gaining an appreciation of what it is like to have a visual impairment. Firstly, students participated in a wonderful session run by Nicola Forster, a Rehabilitation and Mobility Officer for the Kent Association for the Blind. During the session, students participated in various activities including signing their names whilst wearing visually impairing glasses. Our morning session was finished off by an obstacle course, expertly designed by our P.E. Department. The obstacle course was designed to give students an understanding of what it is like to carry out daily tasks as a visually impaired person, such as walking to the local shops. These activities provided the perfect basis for students to think about what products they could design to help improve the lives of those with visual impairments. Working in teams in the afternoon session, students collaboratively worked together to design and make prototypes of their products. Students were required to think about and justify the features and unique points of their products, the price they would charge, where their products would be available from, as well as how they would market their new products to their potential target audiences would know about it. The day finished with students presenting their final product ideas to a Dragon’s Den style panel who eagerly battled out to win investment opportunities within the products. Students demonstrated fantastic creative skills and confidence when presenting. A huge congratulations to the winning team of: Bethany Edwardes, Elise Grigg, Mia Watson, Kylie Tu and Maddison Fairweather, and all other participants, who were a credit to the Academy. L Evans & T Whitcombe A Wonderful Year of Drama The Wilmington Academy Drama Department has worked hard this year to increase the number of Theatre Trips students are invited to attend. Throughout this year the aim has been to have at least one theatre trip per module, with only one exception: the module of the whole school production, Hairspray. Such an ambitious challenge has been positively received over the year and students, who have never been to the theatre before, alongside those who are regular attendees, have enjoyed everything from Shakespeare to big National Theatre productions. Trips have included: • Module 1 – War Horse – National Theatre • Module 2 – Alice on the Underground – Chickenshed Theatre • Module 3 – Othello - Frantic Assembly. Also Frantic Assembly Theatre Company came in for a day-long physical theatre workshop • Module 4 – HAIRSPRAY • Module 5 – The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night time – National Theatre • Module 6 – The Play That Goes Wrong – Mischief Theatre Company Such variety and regularity is something that we as a department believe inspires students and we are extremely pleased with the outcome. We would like to thank you for all your support we could not have done it without you. J. Cringle Maths Across the Academies On Friday 19th June 16 Year 10 students from Wilmington Academy gathered with pupils from other schools across the Leigh Academies Trust at The Leigh UTC for a conference looking at how maths is used in the real world and the careers that have mathematics at their core. Central to the morning were hands-on activities that allowed them to utilise their existing skills and develop new ones. The Leigh UTC’s Coordinator of Learning for Mathematics, Harroop Sandhu, organised for the members of the Further Maths Support Programme to deliver practical workshops to the most able Year 10 students from the five Academies within the Leigh Academies Trust. The event was a huge success, allowing the Year 10 students to gain a real insight of how mathematics can further their future career prospects and gain experience of practical activities which really inspired and challenged our students. Each Academy from the Trust: Wilmington, The Leigh, Longfield, the Leigh UTC and Stationers’ Crown Woods, sent potential A level mathematics students to the event that was supported by the Further Maths Support Network (http://www.furthermaths.org.uk/). Alison Terry, area support for the Network, was delighted by the response. “They have been doing some fantastic hands on engineering related activities as well as finding out more about the range of careers available within A-level in mathematics. The workshops we have provided are designed to encourage more young people to take up A-Levels in mathematics and further mathematics to improve their life chances.” The students were unanimous in their praise for the experience and it convinced many to study mathematics beyond GCSE. “It was really interesting to see how they merged mathematics and mechanics together. Today has made me want to take mathematics as an A Level as I see all the careers I could do,” said Josh Murphy (Wilmington Academy). Director of Improvement for Mathematics at Leigh Academies Trust, Keith Denchfield, said “It was wonderful today to see the smiles and wonder on the faces of students as maths was brought to life. Events such as this are essential for developing the mathematicians of the future, whether they go into industry, business or education. The students are seeing real life application of topics they have learnt or will learn at A Level. In a time where there is a drastic shortage of maths teachers, I have set all the Academies in the Trust a target; develop the mathematics teachers of the future by inspiring a love of the subject at all ages and abilities. After all, someone once did that for them; caught their imagination and a created a desire to take the subject to a new generation.” K. Larner Science Success! Eight Year 11 students have secured places at the Earth and Marine Science Summer School, based at the University of Southampton and the National Oceanographic Centre. This fully funded residential event takes place on the 16th-19th July and students will experience an exciting range of interactive and curriculum linked activities to enhance their knowledge of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. Students will develop their presentation skills, personal effectiveness and self-confidence. They will benefit from sessions on the university application process and careers advice. Marine scientists will explore the waters off-shore in the vessel Callista. Earth scientists will explore coastal sites of geological interest including a venture to the Isle of Wight. The Science staff are all very jealous and we wish we were going too! G. Stringer Wilmington Science Chicks Last module the Science department were very excited to receive their hens’ eggs, lots of students signed up to care for them. The eggs arrived in an incubator to keep them warm until they hatched, students and staff were fascinated by the hatching process, we learnt how they use their beaks to peck a ring around the top and pop open this lid.