Knutsford Multi-Academy Trust Newsletter March 2018

Easter 2018

ACADEMYUPDATE The latest news from Knutsford Academy and Studio@Knutsford

EASTER 2018

OXBRIDGE SUCCESS

I consider myself very fortunate to be principal of Knutsford Academy. I’m delighted that we go from strength to strength as our students achieve such notable successes on the local, regional, national and international stage.

I’m optimistic that our already very strong GCSE and excellent A level results will improve again this year. This is testament to the talent, hard work and enthusiasm of all our students and staff.

I was delighted to launch a new regional initiative last month which will bring teaching and expertise from the University of Oxford to our students. The Target One Cheshire partnership will give our students great experiences of one of the best universities in the world.

Our performing arts go from strength to strength, with the annual Beswick Music Festival celebrating its 40th anniversary last week; and one of our Year 13 performing arts students, Sam Rees, has been feted recently for his starring role in the Oscar-winning short film "The Silent Child" - an astonishing achievement.

Our sports teams, too, are doing very well in regional and national competitions which I’m particularly pleased about.

Last but not least, many students are working hard preparing for their GCSE and A level examinations.

I’m sure Year 13 students will achieve the high grades they deserve. Similarly, I’m confident that Year 11 students will do very well at GCSE and I look forward to seeing most of them back here in September in the Sixth Form.

We were delighted that four of our Year 13 students received offers from Oxbridge Josie Brookes to study vetinary science at Cambridge, Rowan Perry, English at Cambridge, Iona McGarvey, English at Oxford and Alexander Lunnon, history at Oxford.

I am so excited to have received an offer to study at Cambridge. The application process was a challenging but rewarding experience and the Sixth Form staff supported me throughout the whole process which helped me immensely.

Rowan Perry

RHS FLOWER SHOW Plans and planting are underway with a team of Year 7 students and staff busy working on the Knutsford Academy School Garden for this year’s RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park in July. This is the first time the Academy has entered the show and the RHS have set us a theme based on the award-winning film director, Steve McQueen, and the Oscar-winning film, "12 Years a Slave". With initial designs agreed the team presented the plans for the garden to the RHS at a workshop on 16th March.

Mike Cladingbowl Executive Principal

The Year 7 RHS Team

Knutsford Multi-Academy Trust

The U15 Rugby Team who made it to the last 15 of the National Natwest Vase

Students from local schools attend the Target One Cheshire launch with Dr Peter Claus from the University of Oxford

DUKE OF EDINBURGH SUCCESS The annual DofE awards evening held on 8th February recognised the achievements of no fewer than 90 students who received their Gold, Silver or Bronze DofE awards.

We were delighted that ten Academy alumni who completed their studies here last year were able to return from their studies to the Academy to receive the highest accolade - DofE Gold.

The Academy’s DofE award scheme has grown from strength to strength, and sees students focus on developing a new skill, testing themselves physically and taking part in overnight expeditions and volunteering work. Over the last 12 months alone, our DofE students have accumulated almost 4000 hours of voluntary work in the local community.

The awards were presented by adventurer, Alex Staniforth, who made two attempts to climb Mount Everest.

Alex delivered an inspirational talk, sharing his experiences from Everest to his more recent 100 Peaks Challenge.

BLOODHOUND WORKSHOP In February, Year 9 students took part in a Bloodhound Project workshop – a unique project that sets out to design and build a car that will break the 1,000mph barrier, setting a new world land speed record. The Project’s mission is to share their engineering adventure and inspire young people by bringing science, technology, engineering and maths to life in the most exciting way possible.

We were also joined by consultants from multi-national computer tecnology company Oracle to have helped to design the car.

The students were tasked with designing their own miniature jet-propelled cars to compete against each other, this was then followed by an activity to project manage a test run of the actual "Bloodhound" car on its race track in South Africa.

This is a great chance for our students to gain hands-on engineering experience with challenging elements of mathematics and science.

To be given the opportunity to work with Oracle and The Bloodhound Project and to be part of such an amazing project is a unique opportunity - students will be able to take a tremendous amount from the experience, both academically and personally.

Ryan Walker - Teacher and STEM leader

CONGRATULATIONS SAM! We were all absolutely delighted for Year 13 student, Sam Rees, who featured in the Oscar winning film "The Silent Child". Sam will be recognised by many having played lead roles in several Academy productions over recent years.

The Silent Child was a brilliant opportunity that I was very proud to be a part of.

Being a member of this film opened my eyes to the importance of sign language and gave me great experience of working on-set. Thanks to The Silent Child I've had an offer to work on another short film. This is great as after finishing at Knutsford I'm spending a year, before I apply to drama school, to gain more work experience.

Sam Rees - Year 13 Student

ESTHER MCVEY MEETS ACADEMY PARLIAMENT Once the current Academy Parliament had been established, I wrote to the recently elected Tatton MP, Esther McVey, to invite her into Knutsford Academy. We were very grateful she could find the time to come into our school and meet with students.

We first held a meeting with Ms McVey, which senior members of our Academy Parliament and the Head Boy and Head Girls attended. Ms McVey was keen to know more about us, as Sixth Form students from the local area and offered her full support to any projects we undertook. Similarly, we asked her about her work both in parliament and in the Tatton constituency.

She then met with the full Academy Parliament as well as the Year 13 politics class. Younger members asked her about her role as an MP and now as a Minister and also the British political system, while the older students probed her about current political affairs including policies affecting students in higher education and also local activity, such as the Crown Estate developments.

All the students thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Iwan Rees – Year 13

THE 40TH BESWICK MUSIC FESTIVAL Our annual celebration of musicianship here at the Academy took place on 22nd March, with the 40th Beswick Music Festival. The Beswick was established to recognise the musical talent of our students and the evening saw 35 performances, including ensemble, instrumental recitals and vocalists.

WINNERS 2018 Composer - Elizabeth Fraser

Contemporary Musician – Matthew Flint

Junior Musician – Anna Waters

Senior Vocalists – Elizabeth Fraser, Cameron Cook

Best Beginner – Emily Isaac Ensemble Players – The Stevie Blunders with Josh McClenaghan, Josh Barker, Nathan Fearns, Alex Fairhurst Junior Vocalist – Jess Gayton

Senior Musician – Josie Brookes Shorrocks Award – Daisy Bolton Wallace Rose Bowl – Sam Rees

What a wonderful evening last night at the 40th Beswick Music Festival.

Outstanding performances from our talented students. From the Junior Choir, who opened the evening so professionally, to the eventual winners and all the brilliant performances in between, it was a joy to experience. Congratulations to all who participated and thank you to Mr Sharp, Mr Leigh and Miss Good for the great work they do in music at the Academy.

Helen Mayne - Head of Performing Arts

ACADEMY WINS MAGISTRATES COMPETITION A team of Year 9 students have been celebrating their win at the local regional qualifier for the national Mock Magistrates competition. Competing against 5 other local schools and hosted at Warrington Magistrates Court, the competition is run by the Citizenship Foundation and aims to promote public speaking for teenagers in real world environments.

The students were given a mock magistrates trial case back in November and spent Friday lunchtimes preparing both sides of the case for the trial as well as attending the event at Warrington Magistrates Court on 10th March. Each pupil took on a different role, including magistrates, lawyers, witnesses, legal advisors, ushers and court reporters.

The students were superb on the day, winning the case when we both prosecuted and defended.

They demonstrated confidence, poise and were an excellent representation for the school. We are all very proud of their achievement and look forward to receiving the next case for the regional heats.

Clare Bond - English Teacher

CAREERS FAIR GETS EVEN BIGGER We were delighted to host our second Careers Fair on 21st March when we welcomed over 40 businesses, universities and colleges to the Academy. Those attending included large corporate organisations such as Siemens through to more locally known such as Tatton Park.

Over 600 students visited during the day with parents then joining after school.

Students have numerous options available to them when they leave school and the key aim of the Careers Fair is to help them understand their options and open their minds to what is out there and how they can take the next step towards getting to where they want to be, whether that’s university, an apprenticeship or even a gap year. It was really interesting to see how many exhibitors were promoting apprenticeship degrees which is a rapidly growing area.

Jaydeen Pickford - Careers Manager

SUMMER TERM KEY EVENTS Year 7 Parent Study Skills Evening 6-7pm

19 April

Year 10 Parents' Evening

26 April

Year 13 Study Leave Starts

16 May

GCSE and A Level 8 May-26 Examinations June

Year 11 Study Leave Starts

25 May

Half Term Holiday

w/c 28 May

School Production 'Mary Poppins'

11-14 July

Sports Day

17 July

Last Day of Term

20 July

ACADEMY FACILITY HIRE Did you know, the Academy has a range of facilities available for private hire?

Meetings, training events, performing arts or sports activities.

Further details can be downloaded from our website at knutsfordacademy.org.uk/facility-hire

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