The Leigh Academy Winter Newsletter 2019

THE LEIGH ACADEMY Winter 2019

THE LEIGH ACADEMY WINTER EDITION 2019

NEWSLETTER

Letter from the Principal

Welcome to the Leigh Academy winter newsletter, the first of the 2019-20 academic year. We have had a very positive two modules, which began with celebrations from the summer results, which saw the Leigh’s best ever outcomes at Calendar Key Stage 4 and our first cohort of IB Diploma students at Key Stage 5. 7th Jan—Module 3 begins Many of these students were invited to attend our annual Senior Awards event on 7th—17th Jan—KS3 Assessments 16th December, a highlight of the year which saw students and former students praised for not only academic achievements, but for their determination, 14th Jan—External Post-16 commitment to their studies, resilience in overcoming adversity and service to the applicant interviews community. 50% of the Year 13 cohort have now settled into university , a further 15th Jan—Year 9 Parent Teacher 35% into apprenticeships and the remainder going into employment, work evening experience or a gap year. This is a testament to the support provided by our Post- 21st Jan—External Post-16 16 team, the work ethic of our students as well as the pathways at Post-16 which applicant interviews allow our students to study a range of subjects. This enables all young people to 27th Jan—Year 11 & 13 PPE develop their skills, abilities and interests, leading to great success. fortnight

This year, both our year 7 and year 8 students have been following the International 3rd Feb—Year 10 & 12 Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme. This is a global framework which aims to Apprenticeship talks develop active learners and internationally minded young people. The units of study 12th Feb—Year 8 Parent Teacher encourage students to inquire into a wide range of issues and ideas of local, evening national and global significance. Students are enjoying these approaches to their 13th Feb—End of Module 3 learning and are showing themselves to be creative & reflective thinkers. Students have also enjoyed having the opportunity to be IBMYP ambassadors, helping others, developing projects and being guides to visitors. Whilst we are already an IB World School delivering the IBCP to Post-16, this year we are working towards our

IB accreditation with MYP and will be able to share further updates with you through the year ahead.

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Letter from the Principal continued Contents

We have ended this module with a non-uniform and Christmas jumper day, with Page 3—Leadership changes donations going to Save the Children and Bantabami charities. I must thank you and our students for your support and generosity for our fund-raising activities as this Page 4—Post-16 updates year different tutor groups have planned events and raised money for Macmillan, Page 6—Cross Country

Crisis and the NSPCC. Page 7—English Literature

I hope that you enjoy reading about these events and many more within this Page 8—Visits & workshops newsletter. Page 9—Remembrance Day I wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas and a festive start to 2020. Page 12—Safety & Charity work

Julia Collins, Principal Page 13—Evolve talk

Page 15/16—Visits & charity

Page 18—Swimming Gala

Page 19—Dickens Day

Page 20/21—Senior Awards

Christmas Card Competition

The winner of this year’s Leigh Academy Christmas card competition was Kaitlynne Neale, Year 8 Chaucer, whose design has been professionally printed to make the Christmas cards that have been sent out on behalf of The Leigh Academy to The Leigh Academies Trust, Leigh staff, other academies and agencies that work with The Leigh Academy. Congratulations Kaitlynne!

Well done also to the runners up who have received certificates, chocolate and reward points.

Julia Collins, Principal

Bromcom—My Child at School

A reminder that ‘My Child at School’ gives parents/carers a real-time view on assessment, timetable, rewards and consequences and other key data about your child.

The primary contact for each child has been emailed a user name and password to access the system at: https://www.mychildatschool.com

If you have any questions or issues in accessing the system, please contact [email protected]

Sarah Forde, Head of Chaucer College

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College Leadership

Assistant Head of College, Mr Patrick Lonergan, has been a member of the leadership team at The Leigh Academy for two years. In that time Mr Lonergan has been an asset to both Da Vinci and Darwin Colleges, supporting our students and staff and ensuring a strong network for our staff. Mr Lonergan is moving on to be a Head of College at Wilmington Academy. We wish him well in his new role and thank him for all he has done for The Leigh.

I am pleased to announce that Miss Jade Smith will be Assistant Head of Darwin College from January 2020. Miss Smith has been at The Leigh since 2014 and Co-ordinator of Learning in Post-16 for the last three years. Miss Smith is excited to be working alongside Mr Lindars and Miss Neve in Darwin College and has already completed a handover to ensure the Darwin leadership team is raring to go in 2020!

Julia Collins, Principal

Post-16 @ The Leigh Academy

Induction days

It has been a busy start to the academic year for Post-16 staff and students. In September, we welcomed another intake of Post-16 students to Year 12, with two days of induction activities, designed both to get them into a Post-16 mindset and to help them to bond with new and old friends. One third of this year group has joined us from other schools but all have come in with excellent GCSE results, so we are looking forward with great interest to see how far this cohort of students will take their academic excellence, after record-breaking GCSE results at The Leigh this summer. Post-16 Open Evening

On Wednesday 13th November, the Post-16 team opened the doors to welcome both existing Year 11 students and those from other schools and showcase the fantastic provision we offer at Post-16. Over 200 students came to visit our subject stands, as well as to speak to external guests from the National Citizen Service and Canterbury Christ Church University. The buzz in the restaurant was amazing, as staff and students discussed options, and a huge thank you must go to all the staff and students who stayed to help create such a great atmosphere and provide students with so much information. University Update

Year 13 students, who aspire to higher education next year, have now begun to send their applications off to universitiesand offers have already started coming back. Half of the students from last year’s Year 13 cohort are now enjoying their first year at university and we confidently expect to see a similar number in this year’s cohort achieving their dream of a university education. Many of them will be the first in their family to attend university. Amongst last year’s successful students, our top achiever, Abigail Firmager, achieved 156 UCAS points via the IB Career-related Programme, which gave her an unrivalled choice of universities. Several students are now studying at Russell Group universities, which are the top ranked universities in the UK, including Ruslana Mamedova-Eldar, who is studying Biology at York University, and Harrie Jensen, who is studying Drama at Guildford School of Drama, which is part of the University of Surrey. Subjects being studied by our alumni from 2019 include Computer Animation, Policing, Quantity Surveying, Environmental Science, Accountancy, Engineering, Nursing, Forensic Science, Pharmacy, Business Management, English Literature, Fine Art, Photography, Politics, Fashion Design, Psychology, Aviation Operations with Pilot Training, Primary Education,Law, Criminology and Economics. Staffing Structure in Post-16

Thanks to the rapidly growing numbers in Post-16 and the demands of the new Ofsted framework, we have been able to expand the Post-16 Team to include Miss Marshall & Ms Shepley as new Coordinators of Post-16 Learning. Miss Smith has moved on to become Acting Assistant Head of Darwin College and we thank her for all she has done for Post-16 over the years. We warmly welcome Miss Marshall & Ms Shepley to the team.

Within the new structure, responsibilities have been split as follows:

Director of Post-16: Mr Forcella-Burton - Quality of Education (including curriculum, teaching and learning and outcomes) and Post- 18 options (including university, apprenticeships and employment).

Coordinators of Post-16 Learning: Ms Shepley (Year 13) and Miss Marshall (Year 12) - Behaviour and Attitudes & Personal Development.

Post-16 Pastoral Liaison: Miss Austin

Post-16 Administrator: Miss Maxwell

Lee Forcella-Burton, Director of Post-16

GCSE Dance Workshop

The year 11 GCSE Dance students spent a day in an intensive contemporary dance workshop working on their two solo examination pieces; ‘Shift and Breathe’. The students worked exceptionally well and put in 100% effort throughout the day. Every student improved their timing, extension and dynamic skills as well as the movement memory of the dances. The year 11 students will be sitting their practical examination for these dances this module and we wish them the best of luck. Keira Keveth, Dance

Academy parking

A polite reminder to all parents and carers. At The Leigh we have six disabled parking bays. These parking bays are distinguishable by the accessible parking sign. These parking bays are located close to the main academy entrance and are restricted to those who are a registered ‘Blue Badge’ holder. Those found parking in the bays without their Blue Badge will be asked to move. Thank you.

Julia Collins, Principal

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Cross Country

On Thursday 14th November the annual Leigh Cross Country Championships took place with 18 schools from across the borough and over 400 runners taking part in this challenging course. This year the attendance at The Leigh Academy after school cross country club have been the highest for some years and this showed in the results, with 7 students finishing in the top 15 within their respective races, to qualify for the District team that will be competing in the Kent championships in January. The stand out performance from the Leigh Academy was from the ever-reliable Brandon Barrance (Da Vinci) who worked his way through a very competitive field to finish 2nd in the year 8/9 boys race. This was an evenbetter achievement, bearing in mind that Brandon is still only a year 8 student. Please see below other excellent results from Leigh Academy runners, that resulted in District selection:

Omario Antigua-Noble 8th in the year 7 Boys race Jasmine Crossley 12th in the year 8/9 girls race Brandon Barrance 2nd in the year 8/9 boys race Kye Rossiter 14th in the year 8/9 boys race Daniel Fowler 10th in the year 10/11 boys race Rory Ghatauray 13th in the year 10/11 boys race Joe Rose 15th in the year 10/11 boys race

Andrew Pickett, Co-ordinator of Learning—P.E

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English Literature

This year our Year 10 cohort have been working on developing the skills to compare unseen poetry for the English Literature paper 2. In previous lessons, they had 'speed dated' poems they had not seen before, identifying the 'perfect match' for the poem they were given. Students were able to build comparisons and contrasts between the poems across language, form, structure and themes. In this lesson, the knowledge gained from the exercises was transferred into imaginative writing, linked to English Language paper 1. The students were tasked with creating a 'guide to speed dating' and their responses were very imaginative indeed! Working in groups, the students were encouraged to use their creativity to complete the task. All they had were their brains, a board pen and a table; the outcomes, as you can see, were imaginative and humorous. The students were thoroughly engaged in the task and a lot of fun was had as part of their learning. There could be only one winning table though, and the winning team were delighted with their festive chocolatey prize!

Lisa Bodle, Director of Learning - English

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Year 10 Geography visit

Our year 10 GCSE Geography field trip to Whitstable took place on the 15th September. All 65 students braved the wet and windy weather along with the staff with enthusiasm.

Students had a train journey to Whitstable and carried out both physical and human geography investigations both of which are linked to the current specification. As Whitstable is a large shingle beach maintained by timber groynes, students measured the height of the sediment on the east and west side of the groynes using a measuring tape to investigate “How well is beach management protecting Whitstable?”

For their human geography inquiry, students collected data on three different sites in the town centre of Whitstable to Investigate “How sustainable is transportation in Whitstable?” They collected data on pedestrians and moving vehicles for five minutes on each location. Students really enjoyed both parts of the investigation and data collection. Well done to all year 10 students for working together and representing the academy impeccably.

Nazima Farukh, Geography

Fitter Stronger (Recharge)

The Leigh Academy is committed to ensuring its students have the best possible foundations for emotional well being and mental health support throughout their time with us. The recent national award for the PSHE Healthy Minds program demonstrates a commitment to supporting students to be more resilient and deal with any underlying mental health con- cerns. We're also delighted to have welcomed back Paula Kerr and her Fitter, Stronger company who supported a large number of our students during the past academic year.

Paula and her team worked with a group of year8 and year9 girls to offer support, interventions and guidance on how to deal with anxiety, stress or low mood. Through enjoyable practical nutritional workshops, inspirational guest speakers, team building games and some hard fitness sessions the girls were put through their paces. The aim was to improve the students self confidence, improve their body image and self belief and create a mindset that enables them to deal with any anxiety, stress or low mood.

The girls all had a fantastic time with all of them benefitting from the array of activities. The aim now is to continuethis work with the new NHS Trailblazer scheme. The Leigh Academy have teamed up with the NHS and have agreed to have three staff from their 'Emotional Support Team' working with students from the academy from January. The team will spend one day a fortnight working with our vulnerable students and those who need extra support in school.

The aim now is to create a similar program for some of our older students as well as a specific vulnerable boys group. If you feel you would like your son/daughter to benefit from taking part in a similar programme in the future please feel free to contact Mr Lindars via email at: [email protected]

Stuart Lindars, Head of Darwin College

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Remembrance Day

On Monday 11th November the Leigh saw its students, staff and members of the local community came together to honour the service and sacrifice of our Armed Forces community, the British and Commonwealth veterans, the Al- lies that fought alongside us and the civilian servicemen and women involved in the two World Wars and later conflicts.

The Remembrance service consisted of laying of wreaths from Leigh students and staff as well as pupils from Cherry Orchards Primary Academy, Dartford Primary Academy & Milestone @ The Leigh. Readings from Senior members of Leigh staff and the Trust CEO Simon Beamish presented poems and a reading and as always a two minute silence was had. We are also very fortunate to have four ceramic poppies that were the original poppies from the Tower of London display that formed the ‘Blood Swept Lands & Seas of Red’ which were laid in each winter garden by our students. Students have also been learning during the week what Armistice is and why we wear poppies. It was a truly memorable occasion as we all remember those who gave their lives to allow us our freedoms today.

Julia Collins, Principal

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Mobile Phone Policy

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Mobile Phone Policy

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Be Bright, Be Seen

Be Bright, Be Seen is the message for youngsters now that the clocks have gone back. Kent County Council is reminding all road users to be extra vigilant as the darker mornings and evenings make it more difficult for pedestrians and cyclists to be seen by drivers. With children travelling to and from the academy during the darker hours, the KCC road safety team & the Leigh want to ensure children are more visible to drivers by wearing something reflective. A joint venture between the Leigh andKCC, we have launched the ‘Be Bright Be Seen’ campaign. Over the module we have been reminding students how important it is to be visible and how best to stay safe when travelling at dusk or in the dark. We have also given away reflective key rings supplied by the ‘Be Bright Be Seen’ campaign for students to use, which will also help students walking along the pavement or crossing roads to be more visible to passing motorists.

Matteo Stamato, Assistant Head of Da Vinci College

Macmillan—World’s biggest coffee morning

Every year in September The Macmillan Nurses charity encourage people to run a special coffee morning to support their fantastic organisation. This year, DV6 decided to raise as much as they could for this worthy cause. They made chocolate rice crispy and cornflake cakes and strawberry and chocolate milkshakes and Mr Hardacre donated some splendid sponge cakes and muffins! All these goodies were sold at breaktime on 30th September and we are so happy to report that in total we raised £126.52. We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone in the academy who helped us in this venture. All monies have been donated to the charity. We hope that our efforts will make a difference and help a little to bring support and happiness to those in need.

Christine Britton & Kim Steele, DV6 Tutors

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Evolve Skateboard Talk

On Tuesday 8th October the BTEC year 11 engineering cohort were given a fantastic opportunity to have a visit from the team at Evolve Skateboards who are a global electric skateboard company. The visit was of great value to the students as it complimented the coursework being completed by the students at the moment, the Component 2 of the BTEC course.

The crew from Evolve explained in detail about the global company they work at. This widened the students knowledge of the sectors and industries that could be a possible career avenue. They also discussed in detail how the Evolve Skateboard has evolved over time and what the components of the board are, such as the Truck and King Pin. Whilst the technician Matt disassembled the board we found the most interesting component was the battery cell pack, which used similar cells to a Tesla car and had no wiring. Also the Skateboard remote control was a talking point in regards to speed and safety and students asked questions such as“ What is the top speed?”

Surprisingly we found out that many Evolve Skateboard customers actually ride the boards into London for work instead of catching the train. Maybe we will see ex Leigh students commuting into London on Electric skateboards in the next twenty years, but for now I think we were really pleased to receive such a fantastic presentation from Evolve that will really help the students to improve the quality of their coursework & think about careers in engineering.

Anastasia Fairs, Design & Technology

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Cycle Safety

Car park safety

I would like to remind you about safety in the academy car park.

There is a speed limit of 5 miles per hour in the car park and the flow of traffic is one way. These two points are to ensure everyone’s safety.

It is all parent’s/carer’s responsibility to drive carefully and safely within these guidelines whilst on site.

Unfortunately, there have continued to be occasions when safe and courteous driving has not taken place, which puts students and staff at risk.

You will have noticed that ‘speed bumps’ have been placed in the car park and I ask for your co-operation in driving safely and considerately.

We are now investigating strategies to improve safety in the car park and have applied for funding and planning permission for additional fencing and gates as safety measures. I will keep parents/carers updated with progress made, in the meantime I ask for you all to follow these guidelines and thereby support us in keeping our children and staff safe.

Thank you. Julia Collins, Principal Art visit to Whitstable

As part of their current coursework pieces students have been working on location in Whitstable, each group of students with a different focus. Fine Art students took a range of photographs on their way to the beach as illustrations to the poem they are currently exploring visually and then settled down on the beach to make a watercolour painting of the sea, pebbles and a crab! The Graphics students went to visit the Tourist board to collect information as well as taking photographs for their piece on Cell. The photographers spent their time doing ‘street photography’, landscape and seascape shots and urban architecture photographs for their theme of Fragments . These were excellent resource trips. The students’ behaviour was exemplary and we had lots of positive comments from members of the general public. We are so very proud of our students.

Christine Britton, Jade Smith, Rachael Blackledge, Kathryn Matthews & Karen Firmin, Art

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Post-16 Expressive Arts Visit to Margate

Post -16 Fine Art, Graphics and Photography students were literally blown away by Margate’s beautiful skyline, even in the cold and windy weather of November. Students studying Fine Art created beautiful watercolour paintings on the seafront. Graphics students researched the rebranding of ‘Pop-Up’ Margate and Photography captured images of life at the seaside. We took shelter for lunch at the Turner Contemporary and explored the shops and roads. The students started to understand why JMW Turner had tied himself to a ship for four hours (in a night snowstorm) to better his work and felt that experiencing the weather of the day came close to this! Jade Smith, Art

Children in Need

We are very proud to announce that Hallie Willis, year 7 Da Vinci was selected to dance on this year’s Children in Need show, which is broadcast by the BBC every November. Hallie has been dancing for many years and currently represents the Knights Academy of Dance. It was through this dance company that Hallie and others were selected to dance live at Addington Castle for the show. The dancers performed in a total of three dances, one of which was aired on the BBC news and the others were broadcast live on the show. Hallie was also very fortunate to have met Pudsey and taught him some new dance moves! What a fantastic achievement and well done! Matteo Stamato, Assistant Head of Da Vinci College

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Mentoring Morning

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Swimming Gala

On Thursday 21st and 28th November 2019 students from years 8-11 took part in the inaugural Leigh Academies Trust swimming galas, held at Sir Joseph Williamson’s Mathematical School in Rochester. There were 8 races in total for both boys and girls which included breaststroke, freestyle and backstroke races in each of the two age groups and a freestyle relay race in both age groups. From the 8 races, the Leigh qualified for 6 of the finals which was a fantastic achievement.

Stand out performances came from Rory Ghatauray, who won the gold medal in the 25m breaststroke race and also by the relay team that finished in silver medal position. All members of the swimming team deserve huge credit for the exemplary way that they represented The Leigh Academy, showing excellent determination and teamwork throughout.

Swimming Gala Team: Rory Ghatauray Alfie Young Kyan McDonald Jack Coleman Samyog Karki Madeleine Mullin-Jones Ezmi Hasleham

Andrew Pickett, Co-ordinator of Learning, P.E

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Dickens Day

The 19th December 2019 marked the 176th anniversary of the publication of Charles Dickens’ novella, A Christmas Carol, and what better way to celebrate than with our very own Dickensian Christmas celebration! During the day, students and staff participated in various activities all based around Dickens and his works, with Victorian parlour games during tutor time, quizzes, readings in the library and even some character sightings throughout the building. Staff members across all colleges dressed up as famous Dickens characters or in their Victorian wear for the day and got students talking about Dickens and the Victorians at Christmas. The Ghost of Christmas Past read Christmas stories in the library, Bill Sykes wandered the academy looking for young Oliver, and even Mr Ebeneezer Scrooge cracked a smile! The day was a great success, with many students learning about why Dickens’ work was so important in the Victorian era and why it is also still relevant and studied today.

Katie Blackamore, English

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Senior Awards

Monday 16th December was a special evening where we celebrated the past successes of our students from the 2018-2019 academic year. We were very happy to welcome back many former and current students from last year’s Year11 & Year13 cohort. It was an opportunity to celebrate the great exam achievements of many students. The students were very pleased to receive their awards and to meet with our special guest Phillip Fashanu. Philip gave a very motivational speech to our students focussing on them being champions and how they have the power to influence their future. Thanks should also be given to the worshipful The Mayor of Dartford; Mr Roger Perfitt and our master of ceremonies Mr David DiCara who made the night so eventful.

Year 13 Award Winners Year 11 Award Winners

The Ingrid Hutton Award for Drama ~ Harrie Jenson Fine Art ~ Jessie Stanhope

The Lawrence Award for Modern Languages ~ Chloe Overton Art Graphics ~ Peter O'Brien

The Leigh Academies Trust Science Award ~ Ewan Adams Business Studies ~ Samuel Judge

The Lord Coe Sports Achiever Award ~ Eloise Harvey Business Studies ~ Sindija Laudama

The Brunel Award for IT ~ Bence Benko Drama ~ Charlotte Gunyon

The Waterhouse Outstanding Award for English ~ Kiera Bexley D&T: Engineering ~ Bryn Glass

The Rita Huxley Award for Mathematics ~ Harry Aylmer D&T: Food ~ Amrita Kaur-Atwal

The Chaucer Award for Business and Enterprise ~ Ben Warling D&T: Product Design ~ Jetsun Nouv

Apprentice of the year ~ George Anderson D&T: Textiles ~ Mathooriha Kisho

The Shutter Award for Creativity ~ Megan Yeoman English Language ~ Diane Adebayo

The Darwin Award for Humanities ~ Megan Walsh English Literature ~ Frankie Viday

The Da Vinci Award for Art ~ Kiera Bexley Ethics ~ Julia Bednarczyk

The Lady Leigh Award for Technological Achievement ~Ben Pendrigh Geography ~ Sam Bates

The Sandhu Award for Outstanding Service to the Community History ~ Kate Danston

~ Jamie Greenfield Information Technology ~ Amrita Kaur-Atwal

The Leigh Academy Award for Head Boy and Head Girl Mathematics ~ Kufre Etuk

~ Sam Pope and Bibi Okunowo MFL ~ Kate Danston

The Steven Chalk Award for Courage in the face of Adversity Music ~ Radhika Francis

~ Bethany Morgan and Frankie Box PE ~ Adewole Oyekunle

The Sir Geoffrey Leigh Award for Academic Achievement Separate Science ~ Nadia Grant

~ Kiera Bexley Combined Science ~ Diane Adebayo

The International Baccalaureate Award ~ Abigail Firmager Health & Social Care ~ Brooke Harman

Media Studies ~ Shakhai Estwick

Matteo Stamato, Assistant Head of Da Vinci College

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Senior Awards

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Christmas Jumper Day