3rd March 2017 STANDING OUT THE MAGAZINE FOR MOUNTS BAY ACADEMY Cover: Bushcraft, Trevaylor Woods 22nd November 2019 PRINCIPAL’S REPORT We Can Change The World... It’s Project Week here at Mounts Bay, which means that the curriculum takes a different shape. Students have been undertaking a series of activities that will help them explore and develop essential skills to flourish in the ever-changing world around them. We have been developing our curriculum over many years and offer our students the opportunity to participate in a rich and diverse range of activities that stretch, challenge and develop their enquiring minds and independent learning further. Even walking through the mud and rain allows time for reflection on the wonderful opportunities for learning through experiences they have constructed and taken responsibility for. Each Year group has focussed their activities around a different Global Goal. Being able to offer adventurous and challenging learning opportunities, is enriched not only by our strong network of community links, but the many national and international partnerships we have developed. I hope you enjoy reading about the fantastic and diverse experiences both the students and staff have enjoyed this Project Week which have been truly outstanding. It was a great pleasure this week to welcome back many familiar faces at our annual Academy Awards Evening hosted by Andy Harvey. We celebrated the achievements and success of the Class of 2019 students during their time at Mounts Bay. It was great to hear how well they are progressing in their post 16 choices. As ever, we look forward to hearing about their future adventures. I had the pleasure today to meet with our student eco-committee. We discussed ways of promoting a sustainable life-style. They asked me if I would mind featuring an ‘Eco Top Tip’ every week in the newsletter. I was thrilled with this suggestion and am fully supportive of young people taking the lead on such an important issue. Here is this week’s top tip: E c o Did you know that every single plastic toothbrush you’ve ever used in your whole life is still here! It takes over 400 years for a plastic T o p toothbrush to decompose. Why not buy a bamboo one next time? Tip These will be available next Thursday lunchtime at MBA for £1.50. Best wishes It’s Your Time To Change The World... Les Hall Academy Principal Hot Chocolate Friday THE MBA WAY Students from Years 7-10 have been completing a day long mini-project this week focusing on what makes the ideal school. To begin with students considered some of the stereotypes around schooling and schools. They considered whether some of these ideas were outdated in modern education and what they might do to improve their current educational environment. Students also learnt about the role the government plays in education and the influence it has on what students learn in schools. Students will present their ideas about what makes a great school in crew meetings next week. Report by: Mr Yeates “On Monday during period 1 and 2 we explored different school set-ups. We “discussed general rules, whether we would even go to school and what lessons would we have. Uniform was also taken in to account. Our designs were done on different coloured poster paper to make them stand out.” - Alfie ” BE CURIOUS Ocean Focus Year 7 have spent the week researching threats to Life Under Water. They have investigated a number of threats ranging from pollution of the oceans by plastics and waste to the issue of ocean acidification. They created 3D shapes showing diverse threats to the ocean before focusing on a specific threat in their small groups. They have created advertising campaigns to persuade people to work together to protect our oceans and their fragile ecosystems. “It’s been an exciting and creative week, if I could only use one word I’d say fun! I've learnt that if humans keep overfishing, we could actually run out of fish!” - Ruby “I liked this week because we got to be creative. What surprised me this “ week is that 2.7 trillion fish are caught every year.” - James Report by: Miss Parvin” BE CURIOUS “This is part of our presentation and it explains all about marine pollution and how we need to help. I am really enjoying Project Week so far as I have worked with “people I wouldn’t normally work with and learnt more than what I thought I would.” - Val, Brianna and Summer ” MBA FUTURES “I Love My Job!” Year 7 students had the opportunity to find out why people love their jobs! Individuals employed by a variety of organisations including Cornwall Wildlife Trust, Liberum Financial Banking, The Royal Navy, Software Cornwall and Surfers Against Sewage shared their career journeys and their passion for what they do with our students. Students engaged really well with our visitors, asking them lots of questions and starting to form important networking skills for their future. They then compiled their own presentations to share with fellow students about what had inspired them from the session. "The presenter (from Software Cornwall) was very kind and informative. He presented in a very fun way.” Lily ““Surfers Against Sewage was very informative, especially how they use the plastic they collect.” Oliver “It (The Royal Navy) was really interesting, so I found myself wanting to find out more after the presentation.” Rosie “The magazines Cornwall Wildlife Trust provided were very interesting and helpful for our presentations.” Darcie “As he explained it more it was very interesting.” (Liberum) ” Report by: Mrs Masters BE CURIOUS Farming and Food This week Year 8 students were given an insight into Farming, Food, Catering and Hospitality. Students gained an insight into the exciting range of opportunities in Catering and Hospitality from Mike, the Sous Chef, and Callum, the Chef de Partie, based at the Eden Project. The chefs shared their love of their job and the rewards their career offered in terms of a great career, the opportunity to travel and work in some amazing places and the creativity that goes into delivering good quality food. This was followed up with a presentation from the Hive, a charitable organisation based at RNAS Culdrose, whose aim is to tackle food poverty and address the abundance of waste food from our supermarkets. Perfectly edible food is thrown away due to a short shelf life and vegetables, like cauliflowers, are discarded because they are too big. Royal Marine and Royal Navy Chefs Tristan Merrick and Tom Coulson prepared pulled pork rolls and banana bread for our eager students who relished the opportunity to enjoy the delicious food and appreciate the enormity of the food waste problem in Cornwall and the UK. Our students were challenged to think about how they would tackle food waste. They came up with some great ideas. BE CURIOUS Farming and Food Students immersed themselves in the agricultural session with guest speaker Emma Parkyn from the Royal Cornwall Agricultural Association. She explored the variety of jobs in this industry from Plant Breeder to Urban Farmer and the skills needed in different professions. Students learnt about the global and national effect of imports and exports within the farming industry and also the effects on biodiversity and wildlife. Year 8s also explored their own career aspirations with Kudos, matching themselves to careers they might want to do in the future. This is just a first step on their exciting career journey ahead. Report by: Mrs Masters BE CURIOUS Cooking up a Storm This week Year 8 students spent a session in the Food rooms developing their baking skills. Report by: Mr Bromfield BE ADVENTUROUS Coastal Walk On Tuesday 8 Chamaleon went on an adventure from Kelynack to Botallack via Cot Valley. We started off with high spirits and dry coats, but by the end we were glad to see the minibuses pull up! On the way we passed by a bronze age burial site, Cape Cornwall, a really awesome memorial bench and some arsenic tunnels. The trip brought us together as a tutor group and we all had a great time. It was a great start to our John Muir Project Week! Report by: Ivy BE ADVENTUROUS Marazion Beach Conservation This week as part of the John Muir Award, Year 8 have completed a beach conservation day at Marazion. The Year 8 students did a fantastic job of clearing the beach of micro plastics and rubbish. Both students and staff were shocked by the amount of plastic and litter that was collected from just a small section of the beach. They are then planning on using the plastic to create some artwork that can be displayed at school. In order to keep us warm and fuelled some students were on hot chocolate duty! Great job guys! Report by: Miss Veall BE ADVENTUROUS Moorland Walk Another way for students to interact with their natural surroundings was to explore an area of wilderness. For the first time, the John Muir staff decided to take the teams a little further afield to Bodmin Moor. Students made the ascent up to the summit Rough Tor where they could admire Cornwall from one of its highest points. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t too favourable. However, they followed Mr Raggett’s advice of “There’s no such thing as bad weather, just a bad choice of clothing” and came prepared in their waterproofs and boots. Report by: Mr Lane BE ADVENTUROUS Bushcraft Students took the footpath to Trevaylor Woods, thanks to Toby and Ethan for getting us on the right path.