Ama news autumn 2014 by Aston Manor

ASTON MANOR ACADEMY Part of Equitas Academies Trust

AUTUMN

moments.

It is hard to believe that we are partway through the Autumn Term already; last year was a year that had its challenges as well as many more enjoyable

We began last year to find that the Government had decided to put a stop to early-entry GCSE - something our students had been so successful at. This left us with a cohort of Year 11 students who had worked extremely hard in preparation for GCSE examinations, which they had hoped to take well before the summer, only to find that they were unable to do so. However, the students demonstrated great maturity; continuing to work extremely hard and finally getting the results they deserved. 55% of our students achieved five A*-C grades including English and mathematics. Although this figure is slightly down on last year, it is still a tremendous achievement considering all

14 0 2 R E T T NEWSLE A Technology and Applied Learning College

of the changes to the exam system. Our Sixth Form students have also done us proud this year; Year 13 results have been excellent, with 100% of the students going on to university including an unprecedented sixteen students achieving places at Aston University. Our vocational subjects have gone from strength to strength, with the average grade now being a ‘distinction star’. Last year’s Year 7 students settled in quickly and have moved on to Year 8. We welcomed our new Year 7 students last week and, although there were a lot of nervous children, they all appear to be settling in well and enjoying their start to life at Aston Manor Academy. I’ve been at this school for seven and a half years now and I still look forward to seeing our students develop and progress each year as the terms pass; it really is a privilege. Finally, on behalf of myself and the staff at Aston Manor Academy, I would like to thank you all as parents and carers, for the support you continue to give us.

EXECUTIVE HEADTEACHER’S MESSAGE It certainly has been a very busy start to the term already! Just to reiterate what Mr Salt has stated, we are all very proud of Aston Manor students and their achievements last year. I am delighted that everyone who applied to university got in, with students going to Kent, Manchester as well as a number who are staying in Birmingham. We welcome all our new Year 7 students and our new Sixth Form students who have joined us from other schools. Once again, it will be a very busy but exciting year and as always I look forward to working with you all.

NEW STAFF APPOINTMENTS - SEPTEMBER 2014 (Pictured right) Adam Shah Teacher of ICT Ryan Pitt Trainee Teacher of English Sanita Sanghera Teacher of Maths Rubi Begum Teacher of Child Care Reza Mashadi Teacher of Maths Sam Williams Teacher of English MaxTully Teacher of PE Jessica Smith Teacher of Psychology/Sociology Neil Turner Assistant Headteacher We also have the following staff who started in September 2014, who are not shown in the photograph; Naheed Yousaf Emilie Lounis Shafique Begg Mahruf Khan Rabia Khawaja Anzelika Lebowska

Teacher of English Teacher of MFL Minibus Driver Senior IT Support Officer Teacher of English Teacher of Maths

I would also like to inform you of some internal appointments that we have recently made. Mrs Sweeney has been appointed to Deputy Headteacher, following Mr Salt’s appointment to Headteacher. Mrs Hussain has been appointed to Assistant Headteacher with responsibility for Years 7-9. Mrs Oubhie has been appointed to Head of Year, but she will still retain her responsibility for links with Primary School. Well done to all of you!

ALL DIFFERENT . ALL EQUAL . ALL ACHIEVING

INTRODUCTION BY CHAIR OF TRUSTEES - PROF. RAY LINFORTH Members of the Trust Board

Prof Ray Linforth Chair of Trustees

Mr Simon Spencer Vice Chair

Mr Roy Jesson

Dr Zaffer Khan

Prof Alex Lofthouse

Dr Danielle Carey

A big welcome to our new Trust Board, which encompasses Aston Manor Academy and Chilwell Croft as part of Equitas Academies Trust. The new Trust Board consists of 11 members from a variety of employment backgrounds. We work as a team with the Executive Headteacher and Headteachers, for the benefit of all the pupils at both Aston Manor and Chilwell Croft Academies. We are all volunteers and have a diverse background, from education, to safety, transport, I.T. and Law. It is our job to give the

Mr Jonathan Moore Mr Michael Bartley

Mr David Jones

Ms Victoria Camﬁeld

Mr Errol Lawson

school a strategic direction and to act as ‘a critical friend’ - helping to guide the school to improving the standard of education for all of our pupils. We ensure that local and national government legislation and targets are met, that we spend our school budgets wisely, that the curriculum is delivered in an engaging way and that the safety of pupils is at the forefront of everything we do. If you need to contact us, please feel free to do so through the Clerk to the Trust Board; minsular@astonmanoracademy.com

Members of the Local Advisory Group We also have two Local Advisory Groups for Aston Manor and Chilwell Croft Academies who meet every half term. Below are the members who sit on these groups.

Aston Manor Academy

Mr Kuldip Braich

Ms Sonia Clarke

Mr Carl Salt

Chilwell Croft Academy

Mrs Heather Roberts

Mrs Imene Affane

Ms Juliet Young

Mr Mark James

Ms Andrea Garcha

Mr Herville Hector

Mrs Heather Roberts

BENDRIGG RESIDENTIAL APRIL 2014 Last Academic Term, some our students were lucky enough to take part in the Bendrigg Residential. Bendrigg Lodge is a fantastic multipurpose activity centre based on the edge of the Lake District in Kendal. This was a 5 day residential involving a variety of outdoor adventure and activities including: canoeing, rock climbing, caving, abseiling, waterfall walking, as well as experiencing daily living as one big happy family! As with all the previous Bendrigg Residential trips, we were joined by pupils from Welford Primary school. This partnership between the two schools goes back many years and hopefully will continue through many more. Pupils are selected and nominated by staff for many reasons and it is always an experience they will never forget. This year pupils were again praised by the Bendrigg staff for their enthusiasm and excellent behaviour. The pupils gain valuable experience throughout the week working as teams, overcoming fears and finding the determination to complete some of the most challenging tasks. Congratulations to the following pupils for another successful visit to the Bendrigg Lodge; Renulde Lubinga, Year 8 Winner of Outstanding Achievement Award 2014 Bobbie Deane-Cox, Year 8

Syeda Ali, Year 10 Winner of the Bendrigg Centre Award 2014 Tyrique O’Garro, Year 9 Chadene Woodstock, Year 8 Khadija Mehidi, Year 7 Aaron Reddington, Year 8 Kasharnae White, Year 8 Winner of Most Inspiring Award 2014 Yayhe Liban, Year 7 Mikayla James, Year 8 Dylan Nolan, Year 9 Winner of Outstanding Achievement Award 2014 Levon Rhule, Year 8 Winner of Team Leader of the Future Award 2014 Fahimur Rahman, Year 7 Shania Bailey, Year 8 Jhonar Smith, Year 7 To find out more about the Bendrigg Trust you can visit their website www.bendrigg.org.uk

HARRY POTTER CASTS MAGIC OVER YEAR 10 BUSINESS STUDIES STUDENTS A group of Year 10 Business Studies students had a delightful and eye-opening tour of the Warner Brothers Studio, which gave students the opportunity to explore the magic of the Harry Potter films. The visit took students behind-the-scenes and showcased a huge array of beautiful sets, costumes, props and facts about the special effects and animatronics. After magically entering the actual Great Hall, walking through the famous cobbled street of Diagon Alley and exploring Dumbledore’s office, students investigated the different stakeholders involved within The Harry Potter franchise brand and the impact of these stakeholders on the business. Students thoroughly enjoyed their visit investigating the studios and were not only a credit to the Business Studies department but also to Aston Manor Academy.

Business Studies Department

DRAMA

CELEBRATION STUDENTS SHINING AT MOSAIC CELEBRATION

In October, Year 11 GCSE Drama students will be going to see the musical ‘BLOOD BROTHERS’ at the Birmingham Hippodrome. To prepare for the trip in Year 10, they have had the opportunity to work with one of the West End stars of the show - Michael Southern. Playing the character of ‘Sammy’, Michael has performed in the touring production, as well as appeared in the show for ten years in London, performing with Mel C’ from the Spice Girls and Marti Pellow from Wet, Wet, Wet. This has been a great experience and we are all very excited about the trip next year.

Twenty Year 10 students have been mentored by Mosaic, an organisation which is made up of business mentors. Business mentors have different careers and their aim is to inspire, as well as to give pupils an opportunity to link what they learn in school to what they want to do for a living.

THE PEER MENTORING PROGRAMME

Our students; Cassandre, Amar, Rawan and Amir have helped younger pupils in Year 7 and Year 8 to read on Wednesday afternoon. It’s very rewarding and really helps younger pupils. They mentor a pupil oneto-one or sometimes run a reading session and then record achievements.

Kumbirai Sangombe and Danish Mohammed are two of the twenty students mentored by Mosaic, who have really flourished. They felt that mentoring has made a massive difference to them in terms of thinking about future careers.

AMA MEN’S 1ST TEAM ARE 5TH IN THE LEAGUE!!

Aston Manor Football Academy have finished 5th in league at the end of this season! This is an outstanding achievement especially as this is their 1st year in the competition! With wins like their recent 13-0 victory, we will be a force to be reckoned with next season!

On Thursday 12th June, the Mosaic Celebration was held at the Mac Arts venue in Cannon Park. There was a reception for 150 guests made up of active mentors, schools and business leaders from the West Midlands.

FOOTBALL ACADEMY PLAYS AT THE HAWTHORNS

Kumbirai and Danish made a speech on the impact of mentoring and the importance of businesses working with pupils, in order to inspire pupils and focus on future careers.

The Football Academy was given the amazing opportunity to play at the West Bromwich Albion stadium in a friendly match! This gave the lads a taste of the professional footballer’s life and they loved every minute of it!

One financial company was so impressed with their speech, and hearing that Danish would now like to work in the finance industry - the CEO of the company gave him his business card, telling him to call once he has finished his studies, regarding job opportunities!

MANGA!

Zeenat Bhayat, in Year 12, has been running a very successful and popular art club on Monday lunchtimes. It focuses on Manga style art and is very well attended! Go Zeenat!

Mrs Kang Business Links Coordinator

Dead bodies, meteorites, explosions, lightning strikes and 10 second ice cream were not the only things a small group of year 9 students had the opportunity to experience when they attended the Big Bang Event at Matthew Boulton College. It was an action packed day in which the students attended a variety of sessions relating to STEM subjects, allowing them to walk away with lots of goodies and an increased knowledge of STEM careers. Here’s what a few of them had to say:

I really enjoyed the virtual reality roller-coaster experience the most. The crime scene investigation was also very interesting and the Samsung curve TV was amazing! NATHAN GRANT

Today I really enjoyed the roller-coaster because it looked so real. If we had the opportunity to go again next year, I would definitely go. AHMED JAMA

The best part of the day was the ultra-HD curved TV and the gaming goggles that make you feel what is in the game, and give you a We had the opportunity to test blood samples and had fun using the latest technology on new 360 degree view of everything around you. The crime scene with the dead body was also fun. apps. ABUBAKAR FAROOQ ABDIRAHMAN MAHMOOD

The highlight of the day was definitely the HD TV’s but also I really liked the glasses that you can put on to play a console at the same time as watching a movie. MOHAMED ISSE It was really exciting to see an ultra-high definition TV which will be released in the future. BUKHARI ABDI

MUSIC

SCHOOL TERM DATES

YEAR 9 SAMBA WORKSHOP In May 2014 the Year 9 BTEC group took part in a Samba workshop with visiting musicians. They enjoyed the experience of playing outdoors and having the opportunity to play loudly!

2014 - 2015 FOR YOUR DIARY AUTUMN TERM 2014

Tuesday 02 September to Thursday 23 October Half Term Holiday: Monday 27 Oct to Friday 31 Oct (1 week) Monday 03 November to Friday 19 December Christmas Holiday 2014: Monday 22 Dec to Friday 2 Jan (2 weeks)

SPRING TERM 2015

YEAR 9 CD RECORDING

Monday 05 January to Friday 13 February Half Term Holiday: Monday 16 Feb to Friday 20 Feb (1 week) Monday 23 February to Friday 27 March Easter Holiday 2015: Monday 30 March to Friday 10 April (2 weeks)

The Year 9 group created a CD of music that boasts popular covers and original compositions. The BTEC choir is seen here recording the vocal parts to Michael Jackson’s ‘They Don’t Care About Us’.

SUMMER TERM 2015

INSTRUMENTAL LESSONS ARE CHANGING From September, we are introducing a small charge for all our instrumental lessons. There is huge value in learning an instrument and I would encourage all pupils to take up this opportunity. Here are just 10 scientifically proven reasons to play an instrument: 1. 2. 3. 4.

relieves stress makes you smarter improves your social life helps build confidence

5. 6. 7. 8.

teaches patience fosters creativity improves memory develops discipline

PSHE

EDUCATION NEWS

9. gives you a sense of achievement 10. it is fun

If you are new to teaching PSHE or would like to contribute to this section of the newsletter, please speak to Miss Dooley in room D11.

Big changes are taking place in PSHE this academic year, but we mustn’t forget to celebrate the amazing activities and trips that took place last term too! Here are just some of them:

ang Fair’ The ‘Big B Bolton w e h at Matt ge Colle

Londo cultur n exper al ience