FEBRUARY 2017 ISSUE No 3
West Coventry Academy A New and Exciting Beginning
Head Girl Holly Hawkswood and Head Boy Alex Jones STUDENT LEADERS
Woodlands Academy and Tile Hill Wood Student Leaders have got off to a flying start this academic year and have taken part in numerous activities both in and out of school. A group of Student Leaders worked with the local Police as part of the Commissioner Take Over Day presenting their ideas about the local area to Coventry City Councillors and the Police. The Council is now looking into a crossing on Tile Hill Lane based on the group’s findings. Key Stage 3, 4 and 5 Student Leaders took part in the 11 Million Day Summit at Coventry City Council discussing their ideas on healthy eating, pastoral care and mental health, to name but a few, which will now be used to plan effective service provision for young people in Coventry. A school wide £100 challenge was launched for all tutor groups to plan a charity event to raise the most money, with all proceeds going to Zoe's Place and Myton Hospice this year. They also organised a Teacher Lip Sync battle where lots of teachers took part raising £206 for Zoe’s Place through ticket sales. Still to come... • Four members of the Head Boy and Girl team will take part in a project aimed at creating a PREVENT app to help vunerable children who may be at risk of radicalisation. The project is in conjunction with the Home Office, Coventry University and Action for Children. We can't wait to hear their ideas and see the final app. • Year 9 Lead Ambassadors are arranging a trip to a local care home where they will serve tea and biscuits and chat with the residents. • Student leaders will join the Tile Hill Litter pick morning on Saturday 4th March which has been organised by the Tile Hill Village Residents Group. • The next student leaders assembly will allow Key Stage 3 students to pose questions to some of our teachers. The student voice sub group are busy roping teachers in to sit in the hot seat and we are hoping that the students come up with some good questions that really put the teachers on the spot. The Student Leadership team have worked well as a group this year and are excellent ambassadors for the school. They are working hard to make a positive difference to the school community and wider community. Well done to all involved.
Page 2 Issue 3 Message from the Head Boy and Head Girl As Student Leaders at the heart of the school community, we’ve had a really positive year so far, working hard to be helpful, constructive and to put as much as possible back into the school as a whole. Within our five Student Leader sub-groups we’ve already organised and taken part in lots of exciting events and projects, both within the school and the wider community. These include ‘Switch it off Fortnight’, a peer mentoring scheme with our Personalised Learning Centre and a Year 9 project involving a loal care home. There have been lots of exciting charity events including cake sales, a very popular Teachers Lip Sync Battle, the launch of the £100 challenge and writing a children’s book in conjuction with Christ the King Primary School. We feel like we’ve worked really well together as a team during a year of change but a very rewarding one, and are looking forward to seeing what the future brings! Taken from a piece written by Holly Hawkswood, Head Girl and Alex Jones, Head Boy.
Student Leaders meet the Director of Education Student leaders took part in the Young People Shadow Board Meeting, where they had the fantastic opportunity to discuss education with the Director of Education for Coventry. They were asked to give their opinions on the current state of education in the UK and give suggestions as to how they felt it could be improved. The students enjoyed the chance to discuss issues that mattered to them and came up with some excellent ideas, including the use of the internet in exams and more vocational courses such as brick laying.
Year 10 student wins the design a new logo competition
Hinnaa Hassan in Year 10 created the winning design for our new school badge soon to be launched. The logo will be used on all the school paperwork from September 2017 and will signify the new beginning for West Coventry Academy on the Nutbrook Avenue site. Watch this space!
Sports Club for Year 7 and 8 Kian Hamer in Year 8 has set up and organised a lunch time Student Leaders Sports Club for Year 7 and Year 8. Students can play indoor football at dinner time and Kian has introduced an element of competition. The club is proving to be very popular. Well done Kian for all your hard work. Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award
Students from Year 10 and Year 11 enjoyed a lovely presentation evening at Coventry Cathedral after completing their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh award this year. Hopefully next year we will have both boys and girls completing their Bronze and Silver awards.
Mrs O’Connor, Mrs Powner and Miss Feeney were proud to be a part of the evening with one of the largest representations from Coventry schools.
Page 3 Issue 3 PSHE Day
PSHE Day was a great success again this year. All school years took part with very positive feedback on how useful they found the wide range of PSHE related activities.
The theme for Year 7 students was Healthy Lifestyles, Year 8 looked at Personal Safety while Year 9 students learned about Mental Health and Relationships. Students in Year 10 had a fabulous Enterprise Day working in teams and Year 11 looked at Careers and Sexual Health issues.
Year 7: Healthy lifestyles including breakfast and a swim.
Year 8: All Year 8 were off timetable to take part in different sessions including internet safety and Road Safety. They also enjoyed a walk in the local community looking at Road Safety issues. Page 4 Issue 3 Enterprise Day
Year 10 took part in a fantastic Enterprise Day with each Tutor Group forming their own business to produce cookies with a unique theme. The students costed their proposals and agreed prices to produce a profit, create prototype packaging, and produce marketing materials. They also produced a newsletter outlining what happened during the day. Each company had a Managing Director and an Assistant Managing Director along with departments for Production, Publicity, Marketing, Packaging and Finance. The companies were judged on their originality, attention to detail, knowledge of the product and their overall presentation. 10E won the best stand and 10H won best overall company. Well done everyone!
Page 5 Issue 3 Careers Focus Skills Show Experience A group of students travelled to the NEC in Birmingham where they had the opportunity to experience a number of hands on activities and also to see the fantastic work and skills that young people are engaged in within vocational occupations.
This event brings many people together where students could speak about and learn what their future options are such as Universities, College Courses and Apprenticeships. The students found it a very fun and informative experience.
A look at Engineering Apprenticeship Opportunities Students enjoyed a very successful morning when they visited two Employers/Training Providers offering Engineering Apprenticeship Opportunities. All our students engaged well, asking some really insightful questions, which will hopefully result in some of them becoming our Engineers of the Future. Our thanks go out to MGTS – Midland Group Training Services and MTC Academy for giving up their time and showing their facilities to our students.
Page 6 Issue 3 Careers Fair This year’s Career Fair at Tile Hill Wood Jaguar Landrover, National Grid, Coventry related careers. School & Woodlands Academy was a great City Council, the Army, Police, Belgrade The event was open to students in Year 11 success once again. Building upon last years Theatre, PCMS Group and a local Vet. and the West Coventry Sixth Form – all at event, we expanded the event to include not important stages of their career planning The event was extremely well attended only visitors from Universities, 6th Forms, and choices. and included a large STEM area for all the Colleges and Training Providers but also All students had a very interesting and students to visit and find out about STEM employers such as British Telecom, BMW, informative time.
A look at Engineering Apprenticeship Opportunities
West Coventry Sixth Form Support the Coventry Cyrenians Charity Students from West Coventry Sixth Form once again this year supported the local Cyrenians charity by donating food, gloves, hats, scarves and toiletries for use by Coventry’s vulnerable people.
Science News... Science Club runs every Tuesday after school and we have made a fantastic start conducting different experiments each week. Year 7 girls and boys are all invited to join in the fun! We have made and fired paper rockets with a prize for the furthest reaching. We have extracted DNA from kiwi fruit very successfully and carried out lots of examples of chemical reactions.
Think Science Conference - As part of our aim to encourage all students studying Science subjects to consider pursuing STEM subjects at Higher Education, all students studying A-Level Science subjects were invited to attend this conference which was hosted by the Think Science team at Warwick University.
The conference was a day-long event aimed at A-Level students looking to study STEM subjects at university. It featured academics from all STEM disciplines presenting seminars tailored to the A-Level curriculum. The students were able to participate in some of the interactive activities which were presented during the sessions. Page 7 Issue 3 Talented Netballers The Year 7 Netball squad have played matches against a variety of schools and had a mixture of results. Turn out to games and training are consistently excellent. This group of girls are going from strength to strength and there is a great amount of talent amongst this squad. The Team: Ellie Reid, Ruby Pointon, Olivia Gardiner, Kelsie Tolley, Chloe McCormick, Amelia Dodd, Emily Downes, Emily Crilly, Emily Knott, Rosie Johnson, Olivia Cunningham, Jamie Callen, Ruby Chapman, Tia Tulloch, Bryanna Donaldson. Also in the team are Jade Joyce, Libby Jones, Beth Harrison, Hadia Iqbal, Charlotte Sycamore, Megan Lawman and Molly Lawman. Cross Country In January Tile Hill Wood and Woodlands Academy took part in the West Midlands Cross Country Championships. The races were held at Warley Woods in Smethwick. We had great success with our runners. The results were; Inter girls age group - Amelia Starling came 9th, Amy Wood came 15th and Amie Miles came 18th. The Coventry team came second overall for inter girls. For the boys races we had an outstanding run by Ryan Hand coming first in the younger age group and Jack Harrison came 2nd for the inter boys. Well done everyone what a great success! Football Success Our Year 7 and 8 girls football team celebrated their first win of the year with coach Eilis after training in all weathers after school on Thursday. The girls worked collectively as a team against Blue Coat School and held a solid shape throughout. Keep up the good work girls! Congratulations! This month our Athlete of the Month awards go to: Ryan Hand for his exceptional performances at cross country winning the regional final race held at Smethwick and also competing in the King Henry VIII relay. Ryan was the youngest member of the team competing but finished his leg in the fastest time - a phenomenal achievement!
Sports News... Amy Wood took part in the cross country relay at King Henry VIII and despite losing her shoe half way round the course, she continued to run the rest of the lap in an effort not to let the team down. She finished her lap with only one shoe on, resulting in a broken metatarsal! We are all very proud of Amy for her effort and determination to continue to the end of the race.
We are very proud to congratulate Year 10 student Ben Barwick who is playing Rugby with the Wasps Academy. Congratulations also to Tom Keay, Well done Ben! Kieran Hazell, Ollie Clark and Jack Sarjeant who are all representing Warwickshire playing Rugby. PagePage 6 8Issue Issue 13 Ski Trip to Austria
Our Annual ski trip will be taking place again during the Easter holidays this year. We will be taking a group of 26 students to Oberlungau in Austria for a week packed with learning to ski and plenty of fun in the snow. All students are really looking forward to a week of skiing.
Sports Leaders have been busy... Year 10 Sports Leaders have been working hard over the term to develop their skills towards their Level 1 qualification. Hard work has paid off, they have organised and delivered a fantastic morning of sport including mini sessions and a tournament for Year 7 girls. The morning was a great success with some superb feedback from all the Year 7 students and staff. Keep up the good work girls, you are becoming fabulous young role models!
Flying Start for Year 7 Footballers Footballers in Year 7 have had a successful start to the year with three wins in a row: v Ernesford (won 4-2) v Barrs Hill (won 8-1) v Heart of England (won 2-1) v Caludon Castle (lost 4-0) They train every Friday and further friendly matches are planned.
Page 9 Issue 3 Languages News...
Fifteen of our Year 9 students visited the University of Warwick to Our French and German students were outstanding in their participate in a nationwide event called Languages Apprentice Day. performance and exemplary in their behaviour. We returned to school victorious with two of our groups beating a number of other Students were given the opportunity to put into practice their schools to bring home prizes of Amazon vouchers! linguistic skills garnered in the classroom. Their task was to promote their own city and sell this to tourists. They presented posters in the A very big well done to all who took part and congratulations to target language and took a grilling from the judges who questioned the winning groups Katie, Emma, Amiee and Nadia for first prize them in French/German. in German and James Brookes and James Beech for their prize in French. Japanese Pen-Pals Japanese students from Year 9 have received their first pen-pal letters from Ikueninish School in Nara, Japan. They have now replied and are eagerly awaiting their next letter while looking forward to many exchanges of news in the future. MFL Mock Success Year 11 gained a very pleasing set of results in the recent Year 11 Mock Exams in Modern Foreign Languages. Congratulations to our dual and single linguists. Congratulations to our Year 7 students Holly Hawkswood who have been awarded the most points in Lucy Paxton EVERY Languages since September. Erika Szaszova WEDNESDAY Amelia Starling French: Bryanna Donaldson LUNCHTIME Hannah-Mae Lannie Spanish: Harry Sarjeant Esha Asif German: Chizoba Akika LANGUAGES CLINIC Gladys Boudet-Rabarot Japanese: Chimere Akika Tea, hot chocolate, biscuits, raffle... GCSE practice Janeece Hylton ROOM L13 Ajantha Kirupakaran FRENCH Tahsin Ali #lovelanguages SPANISH Manpreet Galsinh JAPANESE Saskia Ganley GERMAN Page 10 Issue 3 Nijantha Kirupakaran BTEC Travel & Tourism
As part of the Travel and Tourism course a group of students manned the Travel and Tourism stand at the WCSF Recruitment evening. After creating the subject board which was designed specifically to attract people to the subject, they were prompted to adopt a bright and vibrant colour scheme for the board and this theme was carried across to the leaflets seen in the picture. Students were then asked to present to Year 11 students and parents on the evening, answering any questions they were asked.
Geographers in the Peak District
If they aren’t trekking through the Peak District, they are building paper mache volcanoes ready to explode in the classroom!
Afternoon Tea Treat As part of our rewards and achievement programme we organised an afternoon tea with the Headteacher Mrs O’Connor, for those who ALWAYS do their best and set an example to others. In Year 7, fourteen students had that privilege. They enjoyed telling Mrs O ‘Connor why they had been nominated for this tea and what they had enjoyed about Year 7 so far. In addition to this a further thirty had postcards sent home saying they were officially a Year 7 superstar!
Page 11 Issue 3 Horticulturists of the Future
Year 8 and Year 11 boys are working hard to create a vegetable Hopefully the school will eventually have a lovely area where the garden and an area to relax and chill out. They have a huge job students are looking forward to sampling the fruits of their labour. ahead of them as the area needs clearing, chopping, digging and then planting out.
Senior Maths Challenge Three excellent mathematicians from Year 12 represented the school at the Senior Maths Team Challenge at Warwick University. They competed against schools from across the City and Warwickshire struggling through problems, working hard on timed activities and puzzling over a Cross Number, securing a brilliant 9th place. Well done to Shoaib Hussain, Max Jefferson and Sher Singh Lulildia.
Page 12 Issue 3 Horticulturists of the Future
Page 13 Issue 3 XFACTOR comes to Coventry!
October at Tile Hill Wood School & Woodlands Academy means it's 'time to face the music' with our annual X Factor singing competition. This year both the girls and the boys took part in huge numbers, working their way through the audition stages in front of a panel of esteemed judges. The evening of the final saw the most successful event to date, with a full house entertained by our incredible range of talent, singing everything from Adele to Rick Astley, with dance moves thrown in for extra measure.
Page 14 Issue 3 XFACTOR comes to Coventry!
.
The Music Department would like to thank everybody who took part and made the event such an outstanding representation for Performing Arts.
The winners, were: Becca Hodson Jack Redhead & Shelton Mathe Ella Wigley Kaitlin & Hollie Berridge
Overall judges choice: Tom Keay
Photographs were taken by our Year 11 photographers Sophie Dunham and Kirsty Clarke.
More photos are available on our Twitter: THWmusic
Page 15 Issue 3 Year 5 Open Mornings w/c 26th June 2017 Details to follow
We are delighted to invite you and your family to come and see us in action
Year 7 Admissions 2018
West Coventry Academy A New and Exciting Beginning Nutbrook Avenue, Tile Hill , Coventry, CV4 9PW Tel: 02476 426200 Email: [email protected] Website: www.westcoventryacademy.org
Facebook: West Coventry Academy Twitter: @westcovacademy