Academy Activities: Autumn Term 2018

Art & Design

The summer exhibition this year featured work from GCSE Year 11, 12 & 13 students’ work, which captivated a huge audience. The result was a very professional show that was so well attended you couldn’t move! Following the fabulous exhibition, two students were selected to enter The Royal Society of British Artists 2018 competition; we will find out later in the year if they were successful.

The Cumbria Society of the Arts selected work for both GCSE and A Level work to form part of their schools’ exhibition at the Theatre by the Lake. The brief said that three students from each level would be selected. The Society were so overwhelmed by the standard of work that they selected the work of all our A Level students and 15 GCSE students’ work to exhibit over the summer and during September. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Cumbria Society of the Arts, they awarded four prizes to the best pieces of art and one of our former Sixth Form students won one of the prizes, receiving her award at Hundith Hill Hotel.

We collaborated with Cumbria Development Education Centre (CDEC) hosting their fantastic interactive exhibition Hidden Stories-Shared Lives and developed this into art workshops for all to enjoy. This heritage project gathers, shares and celebrates the story of migration in Cumbria. Eight of our feeder primary schools were involved during the weeklong exhibition/workshops.

Year 12 Art students attended various Manchester art galleries. The Martin Parr Photography exhibition at the City Gallery was a particular favorite, which is currently rated the best exhibition in the country. The students now use this first-hand research to formulate their written essay and practical personal exploration that will last the duration of the course.

Year 10 GCSE students took part in research drawing/observation workshops. The students had the opportunity to photograph and draw birds of prey, snakes and lizards for their current coursework project Creature Features. Silverband Falconry put on a flight display at the end of the day for the Year 7 students and art students. It was a highly successful event, with lots of enquiring students popping along during the day.

Business & Economics

As part of the level 3 BTEC in Business, Year 12 were researching Iggesund Paperboard recently and enjoyed an afternoon at the mill in Workington. The students are analysing the structure and location of the mill and looking at external influences on the Swedish-owned company. Chris Sutcliff from the HR department gave us a tour of the factory and fielded questions on a wide range of topics such as Brexit, the Siddick and Seaton community group, environmental legislation and investment plans. The group are working hard to complete all the project requirements for distinction grades using their research material.

Chimp Management

The Chimp Management Whole School INSET (training day) on 19 October 2018 was fascinating and well received by all staff involved; the feedback was overwhelmingly positive with many staff saying it was the best INSET that they have had for years. The training was a starting point for staff to gain an understanding of the model and to promote improved mental wellbeing, managing stressful situations better and improved communication and relationships.

Computing

Year 7 students have been learning about E-Safety and have now moved on to the use of Algorithms and Flowal. Year 8 students have been block programming with Micro-bits following their E-Safety unit. Year 9 Students spent much of the autumn term learning to program in Visual basic.

All Key Stage 3 students took the international Bebras problem-solving challenge this term and we are pleased to advise that one of our Year 7 students got Best in County in his age group. KS4 and 5 Computer Science students have also taken the challenge at their own level.

At KS4, Creative Media GCSE students are working on controlled assessment tasks and GCSE Computer Science students are developing their programming skills.

a s p i r e • e n j o y • i n c l u d e • r e s p e c t • c o m m u n i t y At KS5 we have a healthy intake of A Level students this year and the group are responding well to the weekly programming challenges. A recent challenge was a cyber-security task cracking a 4 digit code.

Taiwan 2019

The Year 9 students going to Taiwan have had their weekend sleepover in the Eco Centre working with students from other local schools on problem-solving activities and learning about Taiwan, as well as getting to know each other. A cake sale was held in school at the Opportunity Knocks evening and students also manned a stall at the Cockermouth Lights switch-on, selling cakes and Christmas gifts to raise funds for their trip.

Design & Technology

Y7 students have been Y8 students are making key racks Y9 students are making dovetail boxes making balancing toys

A Y10 Wooden Spice Rack A Y12 book-end project A Y12 clock to advertise a bodycare product

Year 11 students have been working on specification development and the development of ideas. Projects are from a choice of two categories: helping the disabled or encouraging healthy living. Projects vary from adjustable backrests and tables to weight racks and aerobic steps.

Drama

Year 7 students have been busy rehearsing their modern Nativity plays called “Nativity Remix” which is a Devising unit of work. Each Year 7 class have created mini theatre companies and will be performing a scene extract before the Christmas holidays as part of their final half termly assessment. They are in charge of their own costumes, music and props and have been engaged in lighting and sound practices to enable their scenes to come to life.

Year 8 are currently working on their Harry Potter Unit of work inspired by “The Deathly Hallows”. They have created their own mini theatre companies to collate sound, lighting and costume elements for their final performances as part of their final half termly assessment.

a s p i r e • e n j o y • i n c l u d e • r e s p e c t • c o m m u n i t y Year 9 have been rehearsing monologues and focusing on expression, timing, voice projection, intonation and diction and are communicating a character through body language and movement too based on Monologues and Duologues. We have been pleased with their commitment so far and look forward to seeing their final monologue show within each class before the Christmas holidays. Miss Sykes has been trialling a production elements project with her Year 9 classes which deals with using Mark Wheeler’s play “Too Much punch for Judy” which allows the students to build a model set design using shoe boxes. This is developing their vocabulary prior to GCSE based on back-stage elements rather than purely performance.

Year 10 have been studying a mock unit of work based on Component 1 Devising. They have carried out a unit on Journeys and are now working on a second mock unit based on the theme of loneliness. This is allowing them to develop their inquisitive minds in terms of exploring a variety of stimuli to devise an original piece of theatre prior to starting their actual Component 1 in January 2019. They have been learning how to use a myriad of skills in GCSE Drama and have been working with different people in order to strengthen their life-skills, such as collaborative teamwork, listening skills, problem solving and analysing.

Year 11 have been revising for their January mock for Component 3: Written exam which comprises Section A: The Crucible and Section B: live Theatre Evaluation of The Wiper’s Times based on the recent production we saw in Glasgow in November. They will sit their mock exam in January 2019.

Year 12 have been reading and learning about the play Metamorphosis by Steven Berkoff and have started devising their own original pieces of theatre for their Devising Unit: Component 1. They are to perform these before we finish for Christmas; their portfolios will then be written and make up 40% of their final A Level qualification. We will be examining them practically and will be marking their portfolios after their final performance on this day.

Miss Mossop has been leading the LGBT club every Wednesday after liaising with Mr Richards and has taken on a project on Wednesday lunchtimes working with Cumbria Police and Cumbria Youth Alliance working with Year 11 on tackling Hate Crime through drama, with a view to making an online film hopefully by the Summer of 2019. Students are excited and passionate about this initiative, which extends to our own Computing Department, the University of Cumbria’s Media students and several other agencies who are working collaboratively on this exciting project.

Extra-Curricular clubs, also including the School Musical Production of Hairspray: Rehearsals are going well and the student backstage team are working exceptionally well with Mr Ulyatt, Miss Mossop and Miss Sykes.

We raised a lot of money for costumes from a cake sale held on 2 November. Ethnic diversity is a key theme through the show, being shown through costume.

Duke of Edinburgh Award 2018

We are currently recruiting for the Bronze Award and expect to have about 40 participants. This year we will also run the Silver Award and believe there will be at least ten students involved at this level. From 2020, we hope to offer the Gold Award.

English

Miss Quine chaired and hosted the area network meeting for English and presented at the Year 11 Information and Guidance evening for Year 11 parents. Information was sent to all parents of Year 11 students outlining how they could support their children whilst preparing for the English GCSE exams.

In a push to improve cultural capital, the English department have:  Introduced a weekly non-fiction reading task centred on newspaper articles to encourage engagement with issues in society/the wider world.  Screened a live RSC production of Romeo and Juliet to the whole of Year 9.  Taken 160 Year 10 students to see the National Theatre production of Macbeth in Newcastle.  Organised to take all of Year 7 to the Theatre by the Lake for their retelling of Beauty and the Beast.

A group of students from Years 8-13 thoroughly enjoyed a visit to meet Markus Zusak, writer of The Book Thief, in October.

a s p i r e • e n j o y • i n c l u d e • r e s p e c t • c o m m u n i t y With a view to improving students’ ability to retain information and strengthen long-term learning, the department are starting to embed a range of research-based strategies such as: retrieval practice, dual coding, interleaving, concrete examples and elaboration. Firefly resources explaining these strategies have been made available to all Year 10/11 students and will also be being rolled out to KS3. Revision strategy cards have also been produced for all students in Years 10 and 11. Display materials have been issued to staff for each classroom. The skills are also to be taught explicitly and modelled.

The above point is one aspect of a progress plan for Year 11 being implemented by the department. Ongoing intervention work continues for PP in all years – rolling targets and reviews of progress are continuing. Year 12 students are supporting lower-school students in Accelerated Reader lessons to improve reading skills.

We are currently planning workshops with Matt Dickinson (author), Wordsworth Trust, Ben Crystal and Joe England (Autism, Drama and Shakespeare specialists).

Food & Nutrition

This has been a positive start to the new academic year with all members of the department enjoying and appreciating the double lessons for Year 9 and smaller class sizes for Year 8, which has resulted in increased engagement of the students and improved teaching and learning.

Students undertaking the Year 11 Technical Award in Hospitality and Catering enjoyed a visit to the Trout Hotel where they were shown how their classroom learning is implemented in real life. James Briggs, Assistant Manager, gave an excellent talk before the students looked around the hotel. This really brought the students’ learning to life. A mature and appropriate vote of thanks was given by one of the students.

Some students held a cake sale in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support which raised just over £100 for the charity, they took ownership of the production and sale of the cakes in such a successful way for the benefit of others. Our thanks go to Miss Mitchell for overseeing the event and the Teaching Assistants for their support.

One of our former GCSE Food students was so inspired by his food lessons that he is now training to be a chef and is working at the Cottage in the Wood. He was lucky enough to be selected for his own demonstration slot at the recent Cockermouth Food Festival, where he showed the public how to make a local beef dish using the sous-vide method of cooking.

Along with the rest of the school, the Food and Nutrition department took part in the Year 6 Open Evening with a group of Year 10 GCSE and Technical Award Students working from straight after school to 9pm producing a range of bread products for the visitors to sample. The students were a credit to the school on what was a long and tiring evening after a full day at school. Through their efforts there was a continuous aroma of freshly baked bread permeating the corridor and a constant stream of prospective students and parents sampling the produce. We were very grateful again to Andy Walsh from Coffee Kitchen, who is such a keen supporter of our department, for his generous donation of some artisan bread for display on the evening. A lot of interesting conversations were held with parents with much focus on the importance of learning not just about food and nutrition but the teaching of practical skills throughout KS3 – which compares favourably with some other local schools. Several parents admitted to not cooking at home but all were very keen that their children, as one parent so eloquently put it, learn this ‘lost art’.

Geography

The autumn term has been a busy one in the geography department. The Year 10 students had their first fieldwork day visiting various locations in the Whinlatter area to investigate the changes in bedload size as you go downstream. We also experimented with a wide range of techniques that can be used to measure other river characteristics in order to prepare students for their skills paper. We were very lucky with the weather as it stayed dry despite it being very windy.

Year 11 had their last GCSE fieldtrip at the start of November. Students spent a few hours in Cockermouth practising a range of human fieldwork techniques including questionnaires, traffic counts and land-use surveys. They will be using this information in the coming weeks to prepare for their mock exams. We were very impressed with the manner in which the students conducted themselves, and there were several positive comments from members of the public in relation to their manners and confidence.

a s p i r e • e n j o y • i n c l u d e • r e s p e c t • c o m m u n i t y Our 17 new A Level geographers had their first two fieldwork experiences this term. Dr Suckling led a physical geography trip to Easedale tarn for the students to see glacial landforms first-hand. They also carried out fieldwork measuring and mapping rôche moutonnée, and carrying out till fabric analysis, both techniques they may want to use themselves when they do their individual investigations later this year. Miss Lynn led the human geography trip to Carlisle where the students investigated the pattern of environmental quality across the city. The students also performed surveys to see how the centre of Carlisle had changed in response to globalisation.

Students have also had two opportunities to enter competitions to showcase their geographical skills. The current Year 10 students each completed a poster to explain the uniqueness of the Arctic landscape. Mr Rankin, Vice Chair of Governors, kindly agreed to judge a section of the posters and the best examples were awarded prizes in assembly and entered into the Royal Geographical Society – Young Geographer of the Year competition. Our Year 10-13 students were also given the opportunity to enter the Royal Town Planning Institute’s annual schools competition where students write an essay or complete a poster to predict what their local town centre will look like in 2030.

History

The first cohort of the new history GCSE received their results this summer. Whilst a thorough analysis of these exams has taken place the overall picture has been that our students are continuing to improve in the amount of progress they make, with the highest ALPs score yet. There are still many areas that we wish to focus on as a department, but overall the signs are positive that we have managed the transition to a new exam board, with new unit of study and the new demands of the reformed GCSE.

The A Level results once again showed that students across the range of target grades were well prepared and made excellent progress, with a good number achieving the highest grades. Strategies are in place to ensure all achieve their potential in the summer of 2019.

Health & Social Care

This term Year 10 students have been getting to know the course and the opportunities available to them, such as university taster events in the summer term. They have been carrying out research into development across the life stages and learning about what happens as children grow and develop into adults. They are looking forward to a guest speaker visiting from Age UK, who will be talking to them about older adults and the changes that they go through.

Year 11 have been working towards their exam in January, using their skills to carry out research into how the care values and legislation apply in different settings. They will be presenting their information to the rest of the class over the next few lessons.

Year 12 have been working on their coursework looking at relationships and communication in health and social care settings and have been thinking about possible career choices and options. To aid with this, they have had a talk from the University of Cumbria about potential course options post-16.

Year 13 have been considering their futures in terms of university applications for health and social care courses. Both year groups are also working towards an exam and have been studying Anatomy and Physiology. They have made blood cells and the circulatory system out of sweets and enjoyed eating them at the end!

Languages

German: The A Level group is coming every Thursday lunchtime to support Year 11 students with speaking practice in particular, but also offering any other help that is needed. All members of the group are also coming to lessons as part of their enrichment and we are using them like foreign language assistants, to help with speaking work in Key Stages 3 and 4.

French: We had a Wild Zucchini event at the end of November for Year 10/11/12/13 students. There was French food, music, culture and conversation. French practice speaking is offered to all A Level students during lunchtimes.

Spanish: The Year 13 students enjoyed a very successful week in Salamanca. We have a Year 12 student helping out once a week with various Year 10 classes. Mrs Millne and Mrs Pickavance offer Spanish practice speaking sessions in their free periods to all A Level students.

a s p i r e • e n j o y • i n c l u d e • r e s p e c t • c o m m u n i t y All our students in KS4/5 have been offered the opportunity to subscribe to a regular MFL magazine. We continue to offer Language Clinic to all KS4 students during a Thursday lunchtime; this is proving to be very popular.

Learning Support

One of our students has been attending work experience 1 day per fortnight at Café West since September. He prepares and cooks food in the café, serves the food to customers and loads the dishwasher. His mum reported that since working there his communication and interaction with strangers has significantly improved as well as his social skills. He has an increased confidence and a belief of self-worth. The student has said he really enjoys it as it is not too busy and he likes the people that work there. We are delighted that we are able to support students in developing a range of skills that will be invaluable to them in their futures.

Library

The new Library Management System, AccessIt, was launched just as the summer term ended.

During this period, the following also continued:

 Y7 library induction sessions were run  Y7 Lit Quiz teams were arranged for each form and the whole evening event organised  Kids’ Lit Quiz teams were chosen and trained (this year our teams came 4th and 11th in the North West heat but still performed well compared to some other local schools)  New stock was acquired, catalogued and classified  Shelving was rearranged to make more space for the fiction section  Additional training on the new Library Management System was undertaken  A small group of students were taken to the Kirkgate Centre to meet internationally acclaimed author Markus Zusak who was launching his new book, Bridge of Clay.

The AccessIt app is now functioning and is accessible by all members of the school community via the home page of Firefly. There is a lot of potential for students and staff to manage their own accounts, to see what other resources are available, to renew their books, to access online resources and many more things. Please visit the home page of AccessIt and see how interesting it looks; you can also explore the library stock from here. https://uk.accessit.online/cck01

You can also see from the corridors surrounding the library our new book clock, designed by a Y13 student as part of a Graphics project back in 2017. Each of the numerals is inspired by a book with a number in the title. There are two more pieces to be mounted either side of the clock, which she also worked on with the Librarian. It looks wonderful and many students have commented on it.

Maths

Within the Maths Department we have been hard at work embedding elements of practice to support students’ retention of knowledge, especially with the change in final assessment for A Level Mathematics (in addition to the recent GCSE changes). We have a number of students who are preparing for the UKMT maths challenges, some of whom are spending lunchtimes in the department to develop their problem-solving skills ready for the challenge. We have a number of Post-16 students who are supporting students’ learning either through supporting students in classes or through peer-mentoring in their non-contact time, setting an excellent example for our younger mathematicians.

Music

Celebration of Achievement Evening: Our second Celebration of Achievement Evening took place at Hundith Hill on 6 September, and music performances were provided by our students who gave individual vocal and instrumental performances as well as Total Eclipse of the Heart, This is me and Human.

Opportunity Knocks: 25 acts - singers, dancers, instrumentalists, a magician and an actor, made it through the auditions to provide a wonderful evening’s entertainment at the start of the second half-term. Compered by a Y10 student and judged by ten members of staff, it was won by a Y13 student who performed ‘Come fly with me’ by Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn. The audience vote was won by two Y13 students who sang a mash-up of ‘Perfect’ by Ed Sheeran and ‘All of Me’ by John Legend.

a s p i r e • e n j o y • i n c l u d e • r e s p e c t • c o m m u n i t y JS Bach - St Matthew Passion: 9 singers took part in this major event, which took place on Sunday 21 October in St John’s Church Workington, organised by English Touring Opera, who provided the conductor (Jonathan Kenny), orchestra and soloists for the performance. It was performed mainly in German, but with chorales sung in English set to words by contemporary writers. Local adult and student choral groups also took part in addition to our own singers; we sang the chorales and one longer movement. We had previously worked with ETO on the St John Passion, and this event likewise proved to be a wonderful experience for our performers, as well as a considerable challenge to learn the music in a limited amount of time. Our singers rose magnificently to the occasion and were commended by the conductor as well as the soloists and members of the audience.

Rotary Young Musician Competition and Composition Competitions: Our third YMC took place in the Eco Centre on Thursday 1 November, with singers and players from Cockermouth School and Cockermouth area performing in front of members of Cockermouth Rotary Club.

She’s in Floods: The school choir, conducted by Fiona Weakley, performed two songs at the start of this event, organised by Cumbria Youth Alliance, on Friday 23 November at Christ Church and were very well-received by the appreciative audience. Some stayed on to see the rest of the play, a piece of forum theatre based on events surrounding the 2015 Cockermouth floods. Each scene was repeated and the audience were then invited to suggest how the plot could move in different directions, which the cast then improvised.

Lights Switch-On, Lantern Parade, Carol Service and Community Performances: Music Centre Samba Band opened the entertainment programme for the Cockermouth Lights Switch-on on 17 November and were well- received by an enthusiastic audience; they will also lead the traditional lantern procession through the town on 30 November.

In the last seven days of term, we will performed seasonal instrumental music and sang carols at four care homes, the Cottage Hospital, on Main Street and in Sainsbury’s - the last two to raise money for the Great North Air Ambulance.

Myriad Project

We continue to participate in a national research project investigating the mental health and resilience of young people in the UK. Researchers from Oxford University have been in school recently working on research projects with both students and staff. Over 100 Students from Y8 completed a questionnaire about their attitudes, as young people, to resilience. The results will help the research team understand how schools can best support students through mental health programmes such as mindfulness.

The research team also worked with A Level psychology students to develop their research methods and prepare them for studying at university. They also met with members of staff to develop academic links focused on classroom based research to support teachers' professional development programmes.

Orienteering

Cockermouth School Orienteering team competed in the annual British Schools’ Orienteering Championships held in November at Witton Park in Blackburn – a venue which was almost on our doorstep compared to the distances we usually have to travel to attend these championships. Having lost some major individuals from the team, it was a relatively young team competing for the title this year. They did not disappoint – with all performing superbly; the team finished as runners up by only two points.

The previous day, selection races were held for World Schools’ Orienteering Championships, taking place in Estonia at the end of April 2019. Ten students represented Cockermouth School at the competition and our congratulations go to a Y8 and Y12 student who both gained selections, with three other students being selected as reserves

Personal Development and Religious Studies

A new foundation unit was written and introduced for Year 7 students this year in which the focus is primarily skills-based. Lessons are delivered in a workshop format and explore communication, extended writing, philosophical enquiry and mindfulness. We are delighted with the outcomes and student response to this unit.

a s p i r e • e n j o y • i n c l u d e • r e s p e c t • c o m m u n i t y On a practical level, this allows us to manage the curriculum prior to setting, which took place at October half term. All students are focusing on Personal Identity and community. Year 8 have focussed on human rights, difference, diversity and the environment. As part of the difference and diversity unit in which we explore how people can be brought together, a group of students are working with Age UK and will take gifts to the Cockermouth branch of the organisation later this month.

In order to give students a taster of GCSE RS, students in Year 9 have been following units of work on Philosophy and Ethics. We are always very impressed with the students’ ability to explore complex questions.

Year 10 have completed the first unit of work on Relationship Education – our current schemes of work will be reviewed in the coming months due to the government guidelines for RSE from Sept 2019.

Year 11 have completed a unit of work on careers education which was further supported by the World of Work day. We have a good sized mixed ability Year 10 GCSE group this year and have seen an increase in uptake. Students have explored the beliefs and teachings of Christianity and Islam. Having explored Beliefs and Teachings of the Islamic faith, Year 11 GCSE students are now undertaking preparation for the forthcoming mock examinations.

Year 12 and 13 A Level We continue to offer EDUQAS for Year 12 and Year 13 A Level students. As an examiner, Mr Richards has shared his expertise in terms of expectations of the exam board. Miss Messenger is working with Nunthorpe Academy, Guisborough for support with Hinduism.

Miss Messenger recently joined Headteachers from around the county at Trinity School for training on the Archbishop of York’s Young Leaders Award and will feedback in due course. Mr Richards continues to run the LGBT group and provide training to feeder primary schools.

Physical Education

Primary Sports Programme: We are back underway with our primary sports programme. The first half-term focussed on High 5 Netball and upskilling the students and teachers of the primary schools on skills, gameplay, tactics & rules. Nine primary schools have signed up for our programme again and we enjoyed welcoming them to the school.

During the second half term, the focus of our primary programme has been Quicksticks Hockey. Mr Charters visited all of our feeder primary schools to deliver Hockey coaching on skills and gameplay to ensure students are ready for upcoming tournaments at Cockermouth School. Quicksticks is a modified version of Hockey that focuses on 4-a-side gameplay with 2 boys and 2 girls per team. This ensures everyone has the opportunity to be involved. We are expecting 16 teams to enter from our 9 primary schools for both events giving us an approximate total of 190 students involved from our primaries across the two events. That’s almost a full year group of future Cockermouth School students.

Sports Leaders: With a new year, we have a new batch of sports leaders. Once again, as last year, we have decided to hand- pick the Sports Leaders. We are confident we have picked an enthusiastic bunch who will represent Cockermouth School in a world-class manner. They officially started their sports leaders training early in the term and will have contact with staff once per fortnight during a PE lesson. Their first event mostly involved the girls in High 5 Netball where all nine of our feeder primary schools participated. We anticipated that each sports leader will only miss Thursday afternoon lessons once per half-term and a total of six curriculum time commitments over the course of the academic year.

During the second half term, our Y10 sports leaders are working on developing their Quicksticks Hockey umpiring skills. This term has seen more of a focus on developing our sports leaders who have past experience of Netball and Hockey. During the spring term this focus will swing around to develop sports leaders who have previous Football and Tag-Rugby experience. The sports leaders have also volunteered to officiate at our extra-curricular inter-form events for rugby and netball. This isn’t a must of the course but something that the sports leaders enjoy being part of and giving back to the KS3 students.

In addition to our selected sports leaders we have also included any students who are Pupil Premium who have elected for GCSE PE. We believe this is an excellent opportunity for these students to be engaged in a programme designed to boost their confidence and employability skills.

a s p i r e • e n j o y • i n c l u d e • r e s p e c t • c o m m u n i t y Extra-Curricular/School sport success: Our programme was underway in week one with a Year 8 football tournament; the boys finished in second place of the six schools attending. Following this tournament, four boys have been selected to represent Allerdale. We have many clubs up and running in Rugby, Netball and Football. We notify students about extra-curricular activities on the sports schedule, which is available on Firefly, it is shared on year group notice boards and on our department twitter account (@CockermouthPE).

We have had 87 sporting matches against other schools so far this term; something we are very proud of. These fixtures vary from friendly competitive fixtures, Allerdale league fixtures and county cup fixtures. Highlights this half-term have included:  Y7 County Cross Country : Our boys were the overall winners of this event on 2 November with 44 points. Points are scored by adding together each position you finish, therefore the lowest scoring team win. There were some outstanding individual results and the top eight from each race are invited to compete in the Midlands Inter County Invitation on 8 December in Winsford, Cheshire. That means that out of a Year 7 boys’ team of eight runners, Cockermouth School make up 2 of them! Our girls also competed well, with a final team position of fourth.  Y8 boys’ football are into the third round of the county cup and will face a very strong Richard Rose Morton Academy side later in November.  Y9 Rugby continue their progression through the county cup having beaten Workington Academy and Netherhall School so far.  Our U19 Netballers had some amazing success in the County Netball tournament. This has been a development of the girls’ team during six years of hard work from PE staff and the students. It is testament to our team that all of the girls involved now play in the local Netball adult leagues, and hold their own!

Inter-form Competitions: Mrs Smithson is leading on the inter-form competitions this year. The focus is always on participation and we make a point of celebrating forms who have maximum numbers out.

During the second half term we have six inter-form competitions planned across KS3. During a fantastic night of rugby we had 24 Year 9 boys out competing and over 40 Year 8 boys for their competitions. Likewise the Year 7 boys competition, played before half-term, was an excellent event with many students competing who had never played Rugby competitively before. For the girls we have enjoyed inter-from competitions for Y7, Y8 & Y9 in Netball. These events have been very well attended by students and umpired by our sports leaders.

Psychology

Psychology students and members of the ‘We Will’ Cockermouth School Mental Health Group worked hard to raise awareness around mental health and well-being for World Mental Health Day on 10 October 2018. They sold green ribbons to be worn by staff and students and ran a cake sale. They raised £418 which will be donated to the Mind charity.

The We Will Cockermouth School Mental Health Group have been publicising the new Friendly Faces lunchtime support group in assemblies for years 7-11. Friendly Faces is open to all year groups, every lunchtime, in N15 and aims to offer a quiet and calm space for students to retreat to, to catch up on homework, gain additional support with homework, or read, play games and chat. The group aims to raise money over the course of this academic year to fund some resources for this initiative, such as board games, books and bean bags.

Mental Health First Aid Certificates: Half Day Lite Training: 22 year 12 students completed their Mental Health First Aid Half Day Lite Training on Wednesday 31 October. 15 of these students are members of the We Will Cockermouth Mental Health Group and will be using their training to inform their work throughout this academic year with awareness raising around mental health. Two Day Training: 6 students and 10 staff members embarked on the first half of their Mental Health First Aid Training on Wednesday 7 November. Extremely positive feedback has been received from students and staff about the benefits of staff and students completing their training together, to learn from each other. Four of these students have been selected as Coordinators for the We Will Mental Health Group and will be liaising with staff, SLT and students with regard to a range of initiatives this year.

a s p i r e • e n j o y • i n c l u d e • r e s p e c t • c o m m u n i t y Sailing Club

I'm sure if we fitted lights to Nichol End's sailing boats, our keen sailors would continue right through the winter! We have, of course, now stopped sailing club for the winter but students are already looking forward to after Easter when we will once again start. Cockermouth School has a long history of sailing from Nichol End Marina and we continue to provide students the opportunity to learn to sail here. Sailing club is quite relaxed, we turn up, get kitted out in wet suits, upper layers to reduce wind chill and of course, buoyancy aids. We often sail to St Herbert's Island to explore and play games but we have been known to take the kelly kettle, make hot chocolate and bring snacks to eat. Swimming is also popular and we try to incorporate a race where possible. Some do progress to sailing more competitively at the well-known racing club on Bassenthwaite but many are happy to sail each week with the sailing club, quickly becoming competent enough to helm the Wayfarer and Topaz dinghies without staff or instructors in the boat. Each week brings different conditions which always adds a new challenge. The strength and direction of the wind changes which means our sailors have to be 'wind aware' and plan both their departure from the marina and how best to land on their return. Our list is often over-subscribed and I'm confident we will be sailing on Derwent Water for many years to come; what a fantastic asset to have on the doorstep of the school!

Science

A group of 16 Year 13 A Level students went to Ford Castle for the now annual Year 13 field study trip. They carried out ecological surveys at Ford Moss a lowland raised bog, carried out their own ecological investigations on the beaches at Lindisfarne and investigated succession of the sand dunes at Bamburgh. Our bus driver had brought along his drone with a camera attached, which has supplied us with excellent aerial views of our investigations.

REACT:  On 4 October REACT foundation working with the National Science Museum presented the Supercool Science show all students in KS3.  Congratulations to three students who were awarded REACT Sixth Form bursaries, including one who was awarded the big prize, the £3000 REACT bursary for students going to read sciences at university.  REACT Engineering Limited and Create Technologies Limited will provide funding to buy equipment to allow construction of a balloon with payloads for the ‘Operation Elevated Horizons’ project. The team of 10 Y12 students are tasked with design and assembly of the device, securing authorisations to launch, launch, recovery, processing of footage and data and presentation of the output to a broad audience. As part of the project, they must consider fundraising and engagement with feeder primary schools around associated topics such as space, science, the weather etc. We will also gather radiation data as the payload travels up through the atmosphere. The footage collected from the payload will be used to produce a film capable of being displayed as a virtual reality experience. It will allow the user to experience the ascent and descent as if they were sitting upon the payload themselves. Through links with the newly opened National College for Nuclear Northern facility, students from participating schools will be able to use the virtual reality suites in the college to experience the journey. Primary feeder schools will also be invited to participate. Both REACT and CREATEC will provide on-going support to school teams during the project. To date, our team has attended the project launch event at the NCfN facility and are planning their strategies for managing the project. They will also be attending a PR briefing with Kim Inglis (a local journalist) on Monday 10 December.

First LEGO League: ‘Into Orbit’ (Y7-9) For the first time the science department has entered the First Lego League. This year’s FLL theme is “Into Orbit” which involves a space themed table with challenges that the students must programme a robot to perform. We were aware from the Big Bang Near Me fair we attended in May that many of our primary feeder schools had taken part in FLL and we felt it was important to extend that opportunity to them in secondary school. There was some practical work to do to get the project up and running, including Miss Carruthers and her dad building an 8ft by 4ft table according to the specifications set out by FLL. Huge thanks to Mr Woolley for putting legs and wheels on the table so that the students can practise any time they like. We are the only school in the area with two FLL teams, one for Year 7 and one for older year groups. Miss Hardy has been liaising with STEM Cumbria for funding for our competition entries, Lego and the loan of two robots. The FLL has been so popular in school that we have now purchased our own Lego EV3 programmable robot. The teams also have to produce a project on the theme of space and a poster on how they have applied FLL core values in their work. We have a STEM ambassador from Sellafield, James Harvey, who is working with the FLL students on a regular basis.

Primary STEM Project (Y12) A group of Y12 students are planning and delivering STEM sessions in our feeder primaries (Key Stage 1). They are currently liaising with primary staff to decide upon a theme that compliments what the students are already being taught.

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Erasmus: The Science department hosted teachers and students from Romania, Czech Republic, Italy and Spain in October for a week of science-related activity. Thanks to Mr Richards and Mrs Haslam for accompanying them to the life centre at Newcastle for a genetics themed event. The visitors were also keen to adopt some of the virtual learning strategies and were given a flipped learning showcase day by Miss Carruthers on the power of Firefly. The visitors also attended a stem challenge day in school run by Sellafield.

Tour of Britain

With the Tour of Britain in town, a unique opportunity arose for some Year 13 A Level students to go behind the scenes at the Team Sky base before the time trial on Thursday 6 September. Students were given a tour of the team’s bus and able to look at the mechanics setting up bikes for the day. Representatives from Team Sky went out of their way to be helpful and spent 45 minutes answering the students’ questions. At one point they even called the team physio down after one of the students enquired about routes into physiotherapy. The highlight for all was the team bus where we got to see the whole set-up for riders, including their kitchen, shower, first aid and, best of all, their fully-reclining, swivel seats. We are very grateful to Helen Mortimer at Team Sky for setting up this opportunity for our students.

World Challenge

The World Challenge 2019 team braved atrocious weather conditions over the weekend of 3/4 November at the Ennerdale Scout camp, to complete their expedition training. The teams met their World Challenge Leaders and learnt about a range of skills such as emergency shelters, putting up tents and hammocks and cooking with trangias. The teams showed enthusiasm, stoicism and a high degree of team spirit, even when they were soaked through! The teams raised funds for their expedition at the Cockermouth Light Switch On event on Sunday 18 November. We are very grateful to the Cockermouth Rotary Club, who have kindly donated £600 to the Cockermouth World Challenge Expedition, which will be used to cover the costs of transport to Manchester Airport.

Young Enterprise

This year’s Y12 Young Enterprise team of 22 are currently developing recycled products for sale. They are re- purposing old jeans as bags including both shopping bags and hand bags. At present they are developing the product from prototypes into something that can be made on a slightly larger scale. One of the team is the ‘expert’ machinist who will train other team members. Products will be offered for sale in the next couple of weeks, with a Trade Fair coming up at Dunmail Park on Saturday 15 December, where we will compete against teams from Netherhall and UTC.

December 201r

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SIXTH FORM STUDENT LEADERSHIP TEAM REPORT

JANUARY 2019

WHAT WE HAVE ACHIEVED

FROM SEPTEMBER 2018

 We have now established a management team within school of both Year 13 and Year 12 students. Roles in the team include: Year 11 engagement, events team, charities officers, teaching and learning, secretary and a treasurer. As well as this, we have created a noticeboard in school to inform students of what the leadership team is doing.  We have pursued our aim to improve mentoring and advice within school by asking all Year 13 students to put forward subject guidance they would give to Year 12 students. This advice has been distributed among Year 12 students.  We have delivered an assembly to Year 12 students, giving them advice on how to be successful in Sixth Form.  We have helped the Sixth Form team establish systems that aim to involve every Year 12 student in volunteering activities in the school.  During lunchtimes and form times, we have sold Poppies in aid of Poppy Appeal to students across the school.

FROM OCTOBER 2018

 We have delivered a series of assemblies with the aim of inspiring students to approach everything they do with enthusiasm and to view failure as a stepping stone to success. We have put the quotes used in these assemblies on our noticeboard to remind students of this message.  With the help of our excellent Management Team, we have raised £200 for Macmillan by doing a cake sale. This not only raised funds for the charity but it has also furthered the links that our school has with the community as Macmillan is our town Mayor’s chosen charity for this year.  In the last week of term, we had our Christmas Jumper Day where students across the school donated contributions to the Foodbank. This event was a huge success and we are very grateful to the time and effort given by students and staff alike to help us organise the event. We hope that through organising this we have broadened student’s worldview and encouraged them to consider the importance of caring for the people in our community. Some of our Sixth Form students volunteered at the Foodbank and commented that the experience was ‘eye-opening’.  We have established a school council which includes students from across the school. At our last meeting we discussed: ways that our school can support extended opening hours for our town library, the Christmas Jumper Day and ways we can promote extra-curricular activities in school. As a result of this our year reps have written a letter, showing views provided by each form, on the benefits of having a town library and they have delivered an assembly to their year groups about the logistics of the Christmas Jumper Day. We also came to the conclusion that as a student body we should be encouraging students in school to set up their own clubs with the help of their subject teachers.  We have been part of the ‘Top Tips for Learners’ group who are currently delivering a series of assemblies to Years 7-11 about New Year’s resolutions that will help their learning. We have provided input and have supported the process that led to the delivery of these assemblies.  During the second half of the autumn term, we have been collecting stamps in aid of the UK air ambulance.

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 We have established a link between students and marketing, setting up a work experience opportunity for pupils in Sixth Form to work with our marketing officer. This has been an enriching experience for students who are considering doing business and marketing professions.

WHAT WE ARE CURRENTLY WORKING ON

 We are currently focusing our fundraising on raising money for the Cockermouth Mountain Rescue Team. The Team is an integral part of our community and as we have many members of the Rescue Team in school we decided it would be a great charity to support. We are in the process of arranging for the Mountain Rescue Team to deliver a series of assemblies about what they do with the aim of informing students about what the team does and inspiring students to think about whether they could perhaps be a member of the team in the future. Furthermore, in aim of strengthening our DofE programmes, we are considering ways in which the Mountain Rescue can do workshops with the students that highlight motives such as Health and Safety in the Fells.  We are currently organising ways in which we can encourage Year 11s to come to Sixth Form. This includes: organising subject drop in sessions and delivering assemblies to Year 11s on topics encompassing daily life as a Sixth Former.

OUR AIMS FOR THE FUTURE

 In the future, we would like to work with the school council to raise Money for charities such as Save the family and the British Heart Foundation.

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