Sandwell to the Best of Our Knowledge
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December 2012 Edition No: 8 The Phoenix Collegiate Newsletter Education Changes Lives at Phoenix Phoenix was privileged to host the Pearl of Africa children’s choir this term after securing the final date on their UK tour. The choir has been in the UK since September and returned to Uganda in early December. Whilst watching a group of hugely talented school children and hearing of the real hardship that their communities endure from day to day, I reflected JUMP TO IT on how in the UK we often take for granted the new portal provides even availability of clean water, a hot meal everyday and more information for of course, schooling. Beyond the essentials parents. of life, like food and water, the young Great news! We have up-dated the FROG Ugandan children recognised that a parental engagement portal and we will be good education was essential if they posting out your new access details early in were ever going to break the cycle of the New Year. Log on to the portal to examine depravation that they find themselves in. I am proud and delighted that the community of Phoenix was your child’s attendance, behaviour and able to help them, help themselves. (More on page 6) progress reports. In addition you will be able If you haven’t visited the school website lately, you’re in for a surprise! Miss Kapoor and Mr Sankey to share your opinions with us, access the have been burning the midnight oil to make sure that our Website is fit for purpose. You will find it more school calendar and up-date your personal informative, easier to navigate and up to date… It is from here that you can log on to the new parent contact information. portal. Have a look now, go to www.phoenixcollegiate.org add us to your favourites or why not make us your home page? Finally, can I remind you that ALL students return to school on Thursday 10th January 2013. I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year, Gary Hill Headteacher Phoenix Smartphone App on the way! Phoenix is pleased to introduce a new method of staying in touch with the school. The Phoenix smart phone app which will be available free of charge very soon, will be the first in Sandwell to the best of our knowledge. The app contains term dates & calendar, news from the school, a link to the school website and other information. There will also be a chance to provide feedback to the school. What’s more you will be able to contact school directly to IN THIS EDITION notify us of your child’s absence from within the app using your phone’s School closure procedure…………….... page 2 native functionality. The app is free on I-Phone and Android and will be Our new Literacy centre………………... page 3 available later in the school year on Windows and Blackberries. You Charity events………………..……...... page 4 will find more details on the school website. We do hope you find this Performing Art and Music news….... pages 6 & 7 new development an extremely helpful way to stay in touch with the Foreign exchange students…………........page 8 school and your child’s education. If there are additional features that Reforms to the examination system….........page 9 you think could be incorporated into the app please get in touch! Sports update…………………….pages 11&12 Teaching inspires and engages Achievement is good Literacy ; literate ; literary Knowing how to improve www.phoenixcollegiate.org 1 SCHOOL CLOSURE due to poor weather conditions Closure due to poor weather conditions are very rare and will be avoided where possible. In some cases we may decide to open later than normal to allow time for the site to be made safe, again this will be announced on the radio and the school website. There is no need for parents to contact the school to check whether or not the school is open. Unless announced on the Radio and School Website, the school will be open. School Closure Procedures: Additionally this announcement will be posted on the school website, www.phoenixcollegiate. org (details will also be posted on the LA website following notification by the school to the LA). If the school is to be closed, there will be an announcement on the following radio stations to If the school is closed BEFORE the start of School Day - Please refer to the procedures state this: outlined above. Radio WM If the school closes DURING the School Day - Pupils will only be sent home if there are FREE Radio (formerly BRMB) satisfactory arrangements for them to return safely. Should any parent/carer wish to make any Heart FM alternative arrangements for their child they should put these in writing to the Head teacher. Beacon Radio Developing Drawing Skills Through the Use of Trip To London New Technologies On the Phoenix Collegiate second enrichment day, 52 students travelled by luxury coach to London. Year 12 and Year 13 students The Art curriculum now offers on IT, Media, Photography and Art courses documented the a new approach in developing eventful day in London, through the use of film, digital photography creative and artistic skills and sketching to complement their coursework. Students had a through the use of new flight on the London Eye with amazing views including a student technologies. Pupils are demonstration and visited The Tate Modern to experience art work provided with opportunities Using graphic tablet first hand, such as, Picasso and Dali. to develop drawing skills by using graphic tablets and Adobe Photoshop CS4 as part of their art education. Pupils create realistic and abstract drawings using the interactive pens and then enhance the outcomes by adding special effects and filters. Currently Year 7 pupils are producing realistic drawings of apples to gain understanding of tone and mark-making. Year 8 pupils are understanding face proportion as part of their Portraits project which allows them to draw on top of their face photos using a layering technique on Photoshop. Lastly, Year 10 pupils are producing digital artwork under the theme of Natural Forms linking to key assessment objectives as part of their art coursework. If any member of staff or pupil wish to develop creative skills through the use of new technologies please see Mrs R Kapoor. Alternatively you could attend the Digital Arts Club every Tuesday Week B at lunchtime, on south campus. Digital drawing 2 www.phoenixcollegiate.org Teaching inspires and engages Achievement is good Literacy ; literate ; literary Knowing how to improve Quite an achievement! Our Literacy Centre Since opening in October the centre has had a very busy but successful few weeks. The centre is now open from 8.00am until 3.30pm daily for pupils to come and do extra Lexia (reading software) or quiet reading on the comfy sofas and funky easy chairs. Congratulations to the following Year 7 and 8 pupils who have completed a whole level of Lexia and are now working towards their next level... Year 7 Year 8 Anna Joppek Paige Bailey Anna Joppek Rabnawaz Hussain Leon Malinowski Abdul Karim Asia Mehmi Ivan Bledy Slavo Demeter Kirandip Mattu Elizabeth Walker Manraj Sidhu Barbora Dzugova Paulina Zawadzka Chloe J Morris Shamsher Singh Raj Amit Thomas Summers Sanjay Dahri Connor Harmison Jade Henn Brozi, Desjana Anthony Crawford Tapiwa Banza Jada Saltibus Brandon Twist Julia Rzechowska Silver Achievement Congratulations to the following for achieving their Silver Achievement Certificate Singh Shamsher 8P2 Sandhu Ramandeep 8N1 Bunta Finn Fern 8H1 Sargent Courtney 8H2 Butler Chloe 9H1 Homer Eleanor 8H1 Kular Rajinder 8N2 Nicholson Joshua 10N1 Sehmar Tommy 8O1 Raj Amit 7P1 Teaching inspires and engages Achievement is good Literacy ; literate ; literary Knowing how to improve www.phoenixcollegiate.org 3 CHARITY EVENTS PAGE In addition to this, being helpful for Public Services Children In Need national drive, this Students Carry out activity also helped for the Year 11’s coursework. This was an entirely student- Watch this Charitable Endeavours lead volunteering project, masterminded space for our Written by Sam Iddles 11H1 by Harandip Sidhu (11O2) who planned final total and organised this entire event, with some As a way of ‘giving back’ to society, our Year 11 occasional help with sales etc. from the rest of money Public Service class, launched a plan to make of our class, with particular help from: Chloe raised. money for the well known and popular charity, Thompson (11E1), Jamie Russell (11H1), Children In Need. Lexus Lawrence (11O2) and Sam Iddles The types of charitable events carried out were (11H1). “This project has aided us with aspects the staff and student raffle which parents had of our coursework such as, civic engagement, been informed of via text. This charity drive was self confidence, and many more.” also been supported by the sponsored silence So far, through the multitude of events and of pupils from Year 8 and Year 9, as well as the donations we have received, we have raised Year 12 Public Service students who did street more than £350 and would love your support canvassing. with raising more! Cupcake Pupils Adopt A Panda Coup Pupil from the ‘Pupil Support Unit’ at Phoenix have collected School small change and used the proceeds to sponsor Qinling’s Giant It would seem there is no stopping Panda’s via the WWF. Krishma Kaur, Lucy Bobek and Council This adoption is allowing pupils to take an active role in world Fahmida Yasmin of 10P2 once The new school council has been wide issues and encouraging them to analysis their own they set out to do something.