Samuel Ward Academy
LATEST NEWS
Issue 17
SeptemberOctober ‘15
Year 12’s examine career opportunities Y
ear 12’s had a chance to meet with employers, universities and recruiters face-to-face at this term’s careers fair, learning about a wide range of sectors and the opportunities available within them, from further education courses to placements or Apprenticeship opportunties. This year saw outreach teams and recruiters from Adam Harrison solicitors, Suffolk Fire and Rescue services, University College Suffolk and the Armed Forces.
Students swim the Channel & beyond T
wenty-three Year 8’s are quickly surpassing their aim to swim the equivalent of the English Channel by November for BBC Children in Need - so much so that they will now be seeing how far around Europe they can get instead! The students will now continue to swim every week to complete the ten week challenge. Aiming to raise £1 per length, the group will complete the finishing lengths on this year’s Children in Need day, which is due to take place on Friday 13th November. Nigel Snape, Manager of Abbeycroft Leisure’s Haverhill Centre, said: “We are delighted to support the Samuel Ward Academy students in their bid to swim the English Channel...I understand they have already had a fantastic start in clocking up lengths for the challenge and gaining donations for BBC Children in Need!’. If you would like to donate to the students’ challenge, visit www.justgiving.com/Samuel-Ward-Academy-Haverhill Alternatively, you can send a cheque made payable to Samuel Ward Academy to Wendy Jeffrey, Children in Need Swim Challenge, Samuel Ward Academy, Chalkstone Way, Haverhill CB9 0LD
School choir unveil Town ‘Victory Clock’ L
ast week a new town clock was unveiled in memory of Councillor Gordon Cox, who initially proposed the construction back in 2013, but sadly passed away before the project came to fruition. Samuel Ward Academy’s school choir were there, along with Haverhill Town Mayor Betty McLatchy, to unveil the clock, which features three angels, each representing the school’s surrounding counties of Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire. The design was developed by Samuel Ward students, along with Art teacher Mr Williams and a team of structural engineers, with faces designed by Photography teacher David Harwood and Media technician Russ Bennett. Cllr Cox’s daughter said her father ‘would be delighted with the clock. Myself and my family feel very honoured to have the clock in his memory’. Town Mayor Betty McLatchy commented on the day, ‘It was Gordon’s idea for a clock and against opposition for a while he stuck to his guns. He was so pleased when the design went to Samuel Ward Academy...As far as I am concerned, Britain has always had the best engineers in the country and with the design and engineering that has gone into this clock shows that the students at Samuel Ward Academy are following in their footsteps.’ The school choir, directed by Drama teacher Mr. Russell, performed a duo of songs chosen to fit with the clock’s theme’s of ‘time’ and ‘pride’, which led
to their naming of ‘The Victory Clock’. It has now been erected in Jubilee Walk, replacing the former town clock. We would like to thank Haverhill-based company Metcraft engineering, who kindly offered their services for free throughout the design and construction process.
Sixth Formers fundraise St Nicholas Hospice This September Sixth Formers conducted a cake sale and paid for the privelege of wearing pyjamas to college in aid of local charity St Nicholas Hospice Care. The Sixth Form has a history of fantastic fundraising, raising over £200 for the hospice last year with a catwalk fashion show.
House Cavell celebrate namesake’s legacy 2015 marks the centenary of WWI nurse Edith Cavell’s death. Students chose to commemorate the nursing pioneer, who is celebrated for saving the lives of soldiers from all sides during the war, with an exhibition and activities day. Cavell, along with Belgian and French colleagues, helped some 200 Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium during the First World War, for which she was arrested. She was subsequently courtmartialled, found guilty of treason and sentenced to death and shot by a German firing squad. Students were able to explore the conditions under which Cavell treated and provided refuge to wounded soldiers in Belgium, as well as examine the place of nurses like Cavell in the wider context of the First World War. Following on from the school’s hugely successful WWI exhibition last year, students created their own displays and stalls alongside visitors, exhibiting their own work and getting into role to engage others.