3rd March 2017 STANDING OUT THE MAGAZINE FOR MOUNTS BAY ACADEMY Cover: Exploring Amsterdam 1st February 2019 PRINCIPAL’S REPORT If you see someone with a smile, give them one of yours! One of our most important values at Mounts Bay Academy is ‘empathy’. Through the MBA way, we encourage our community to care for others by ensuring that everyone treats each other with respect and builds positive relationships. Empathy is the experience of understanding another person’s thoughts, feelings and condition from their point of view. We interpret how people are feeling about us by the expression on their face and body language. When we are learning, our classroom is our venue and the people within it (both staff and students) are our audience. When our audience is happy and positive, we perform better, so when we are all performing with smiles on our faces, everyone feels included and experiences a better lesson. Of course, empathy is also about listening and I would like to thank everyone who has completed our Communications Survey so far. We are already gathering some very useful information about how you wish to engage with us in the future and I am pleased with some of the constructive feedback received. Click here to complete the survey We are committed to being a visible and vibrant member of the community and as such, embrace the use of social media to showcase the adventurous learning our students undertake every day. Over the coming months, we intend to increase our social media presence, through Facebook and Instagram. The purpose is to give parents, carers and the community the opportunity to engage with our Academy. However, in turn, this in no way condones the use of or engagement with social media by our students and young people. As an Apple Distinguished School, we appreciate that we live in a ‘digital world’ and every device connected to our network is filtered to exclude inappropriate content. We recognise that it is our responsibility to equip everyone with the tools they need to live in thisGood digital Luck Mollyworld and our staff and students receive regular e-safety updates. Most importantly, there are no social media apps on any device we issue and we ask parents and carers to ensure these apps cannot be used by students without supervision. “It is nice to be important, but it is more important to be nice” - Anon Finally, it would not be Friday without spending valuable time sharing a hot chocolate with some of our remarkable students. What a lovely way to prepare for what might be a chilly weekend! Have Best wishes Hot Chocolate Friday Les Hall - Academy Principal Dynamic Dialogue Dynamic dialogue encourages students to use their writing to bring their learning to life, making their work more vibrant and memorable. We encourage our students to brainstorm ideas in groups and act out learning conversations with each other before putting pen to paper. At the end of their second project, Year 7 Element students worked in mini teams to present their final presentations to one another. The presentation foci was on the Essential Question ‘How can a plastic bottle impact the world?’. Students used research and investigation of case studies, as well as the development of their own designs to deliver their pitch about marine litter, its impact and how we can help make a change. Miss Veall’s and Mr Cross’ REAL Project groups teamed up for an end of semester showcase. The students had the opportunity to peer assess each other’s work for the book ahead of its publication. They discussed each other’s end project against the criteria and identified feedback and feedforward. Here is the ‘Cabinet of Curiosity’. Mr Troup allows the students (every now and then) to write any science question on a sticky and place it on the Cabinet of Curiosity. This encourages them to ask questions and be curious about the world around them. Then he takes a spare five minutes of a lesson to pick a few questions to answer and we discuss them as a class. Dynamic Dialogue or what! Year 8s have been enaging in some dynamic dialogue as they speed date each other with facts and questions about their ‘Man or Machine Topic.’ Speed dating is a fast paced revision activity in which students have 30 seconds to ask a question and state a fact to their partner before moving on. BE INTERNATIONAL Visiting Amsterdam A week ago a small group of Year 10 students travelled to Amstelveen in Amsterdam to take part in the last leg of the Erasmus Student Exchange Project which started back in November 2017 with our first trip. It was also great to catch up with some of the teachers at Hermann Wesselink College who have previously visited Mounts Bay Academy over the past few years. On behalf of all those involved in the project I would especially like to thank all the students who have taken part in the exchanges. They have all embraced the purpose of the project, which has been to explore other countries, cultures and school life, looking at the different themes of Technology, Sustainability, Inclusion, Diversity and the Future of School. It has been great to see everyone gain confidence, try new things, be ambassadors of the Academy (and Cornwall) and ultimately demonstrate that Mounts Bay gives students opportunities to grow and develop into young adults who care about each other, their school, locality and future in a global community. Report by: Mrs Rodgers BE INTERNATIONAL Visiting Amsterdam When we first arrived at Holland Airport I was very excited for the week to come. The girls and I met our host students’ parents and siblings, who were lovely. Then on Monday morning we cycled to school, which was very cold, but the sunrise was beautiful. After our first day at school doing Science and Drama lessons, we went to a trampoline park. It was very funny to watch people attempt tricks. Each day was great fun and I especially enjoyed Tuesday because it snowed and we visited Amsterdam. On Wednesday we took a coach to ‘Futureland’ in Rotherham which was very cool and had a tour around the port which was reclaimed from the sea by moving sand to create land. It was interesting to know that the largest boat could take 21,000 containers. In the afternoon we walked over the Erasmus Bridge and around Rotterdam and we went to a shopping centre; the architecture of the building was unique. Thursday was our last day and our last bike ride to school and back. In the morning we made a Kahoot to play at the leaving party later on that evening. During the day we cycled to a cheese farm and a klompen (clog) workshop. When we entered the clog- maker needed a volunteer and picked Lucy to make her own ‘klomp’. It was great to see how they were made. Later we went back to the school for a farewell party to say goodby to the Dutch, Spanish and German students we had spent the week with. I was really grateful to go on this trip to see the different cultures and their ideas on sustainability. I really hope to go back there one day and see the exchange students that I met. Report by: Bethany BE INSPIRED Comic Book Research This week in Creative iMedia, Year 9 students have been exploring how scripts are used in comics in preparation for creating their own. In response to a client brief, students are required to create a multi-page comic book to promote a new brand of trainers. In this lesson, students were provided with a collection of different comics where they were required to work together in pairs or threes, to read out the dialogue as the comic book characters presented themselves in the storyline. By doing this, students were able to understand when to use narration, speech and onomatopoeia within their own storylines. Year 10 Textiles Report by: Mr Lane Year 10 GCSE Textiles have been presenting their work to each other in a university style ‘crit’ session. This forum environment has allowed all students to vocalise their ideas, receive instant feedback and further ideas in a supportive space. By collecting, presenting and verbally summarising their work, they have shared and realised new ideas while reflecting on their learning throughout their project so far. Report by: Miss Taylor BE CURIOUS International Year of the Periodic Table 2019 has been designated by UNESCO as the International Year of the Periodic Table (IYPT), marking the 150th anniversary of the Mendeleev periodic table, which is an iconic image and a vital tool to all who learn and work in science at all stages of their learning and careers. During the course of the year we will be writing about some elements and what we do with them at the Academy and what they are used for in the ‘real world’. 10 Neon Ne Atomic Number 10 Neon Neon is colourless and odourless. It is an inert gas meaning it does not undergo chemical reactions under a set of given conditions. Neon is relatively expensive. Neon is often used in signs and produces an unmistakable bright reddish-orange light. Although tube lights with other colors are often called "neon", they use different noble gases or varied colors of fluorescent lighting. Report by: Miss Wheeler BE CURIOUS Geography Revision with Seneca The Geography Department has been trialling a new interactive resource to support GCSE revision. Seneca allows students to access revision materials and then answer a series of questions on a specific topic.