King's Lynn Academy - Newsletter - Spring 2018

NEWSLETTER SPRING 2018

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Welcome Welcome to the latest edition of the KLA Newsletter, at the end of yet another hectic and interesting term!

It seems like much longer than a few months ago that we returned to KLA following the Christmas break only to discover that a total network failure had left us with no working computers at all!

The six weeks that we had to endure without ICT facilities while the necessary investment was made in replacing and upgrading our equipment was challenging to say the least. I had been blissfully unaware up until that point of the extent to which schools are now reliant on the beeping kit that sits in the server room! We had to make rapid contingency plans for everything from the phones (it turns out our phones require working computers too), heating and water (ditto for our building management system), school information system to exams! Fortunately, we managed to do all of these very quickly and staff worked exceptionally hard to ensure that this challenge did not interrupt our important focus in school. We are now enjoying the benefit of the trust’s £150,000 investment in an entirely new ICT infrastructure and look forward to implementing an exciting new ICT strategy over the coming months.

At the beginning of March I celebrated a year in post as Principal of KLA. It continues to be a huge thrill to be asked to lead such a special school, with our amazing pupils, dedicated staff and supportive community, and I feel we are still making good progress in improving our school.

Confirmation of this came as we had our, now predictable, end-of-term Ofsted inspection on the 14th March – this was our third in the year I have been leading KLA. Yet again, the senior inspector who monitors our progress concluded that we are continuing to make good progress in improving the academy, and he set us some challenges to help us continue to do so. The ambition we hold for KLA is to be out of Special Measures before Christmas of 2018, and we continue to challenge ourselves to be a ‘good’ school in Ofsted’s judgement by that time. By the time this newsletter is printed the report itself should have been published and shared with you.

Otherwise, we continue to be focused intently on the important events that lie before us. Our Year 11 students have completed their mocks, which have been very encouraging and are now being supported to meet their individual ambitions and targets for the summer. Mid-year exams in Years 7, 8, 9 and 10 have been completed, analysed and fed back, with many excellent performances among them. We are preparing for the annual KS3 Trust Diploma awards later in the year with great numbers of students working towards successfully achieving this award.

I am absolutely delighted to report that our transition team is working with the 204 students we are expecting to see join KLA in Year 7 in September (we have agreed to take all students who have applied to us).

As always, we are keen to have the closest working relationship we possibly can with parents, families and the local community; please do get in touch if there is anything you would like to discuss. We are very grateful to you all for your support as we strive to create the great school we all want to see here at KLA. Alan Fletcher Principal

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STUDENT VOICE

As ever the Student Commissioners have been involved at the Academy in their usual ways, however, the most exciting of these was before Christmas when they planned a Christmas Afternoon Tea for local pensioners. They did all of the planning and decision making as well as decorating the room and hosting the event on 18th December 2017. The event was small, but perfectly formed as those that attended had a brilliant afternoon, including good food, good company and a raffle. We were incredibly proud of what they had achieved and the way in which they conducted themselves. They received a lot of compliments from our guests.

Another piece of exciting news is that ten students from Year 10 have been accepted onto the AQA Unlocking Potential Programme in conjunction with the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust. These students were selected because there are elements of their life outside of school that can make school difficult, however, they continue to try their best to achieve and progress. This mentoring programme sees them working with an ex-Olympian who will mentor them with advice on reaching their full potential and work with them on creating, organising and running a social action project. We are incredibly lucky to have our students included with this as there were only 70 places nationally. We are also lucky to have Joanne Jackson, Olympic Bronze Medal winning swimmer, with us again this year.

She worked with some of our students a few years ago and she is an excellent mentor, so we are really looking forward to seeing the results of their mentoring and projects this summer term.

BRILLIANT CLUB

On Saturday 3rd February I had the delightful task of taking our students to the University of East Anglia, Norwich for their graduation day. This was due to successfully completing their 3,000 word assignment.

I’m very pleased to say the students who completed the course all passed with a 2-2 and have been working very hard as A-level students.

Parents were also asked to accompany their children, we had a wonderful day. We started the day with an information and guidance session for parents and students on what courses are available to them and how a degree works. The key note speaker was Dr Richard Harvey who really made them reflect on what the future holds for them.

After lunch we all had a tour around the University with pupils already studying there, they were full of good advice about what university life is like.

It was then time for the graduation to begin, it was a formal certification ceremony. We all had an interesting day and the students were all talking about attending university in the future.

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HOMEWORK MATTERS Homework at KLA is currently recovering from the IT related issues we experienced last half term. Due to the lack of IT across the academy it was very challenging to set and track the completion of homework on Show My Homework and as a result I have no data to share with you. However, it was very pleasing to see staff and students setting and completing homework during this period despite these issues. I am delighted to announce that since our return after the February half term break Show My Homework is once again the main resource our teachers and students are using for homework.

The gap in consistently set and tracked homework has had some effect. It is credit to the majority of our students that despite the momentum of homework being partly lost for a half term they are right back on it and are completing and submitting the homework tasks being set by their teachers. However, there are some that have lost some of the homework routine and it is vitally important that this is once again built into their daily learning.

I will be analysing the setting and completion of homework very closely over this half term to ensure that the improvement we were showing over this academic year so far continues to progress at the same rate.

Schedule for Homework Key Stage 3 •

Core subjects English, Maths and Science will set one piece of homework every week

•

History, Geography and MFL will set one piece of homework every two weeks

•

RE, Art, Music, Technology and Food will set one piece of homework every three weeks

Key Stage 4 • •

Core subjects English, Maths and Science will set one piece of homework every week All option subjects will set one piece of homework every week (RE will set one piece of homework every three weeks)

Expectations for homework time Year 7 - 8

20 to 30 minutes per piece of homework

Year 9

40 minutes per piece of homework

Year 10 – 11

45 minutes to 1 hour per piece of homework

If you have any questions regarding homework or Show My Homework please do not hesitate to contact david.endersby@kla.eastern-mat.co.uk

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We came together as a whole school to celebrate the end of term and to present our final rewards. We were very lucky this year to welcome a visitor to KLA, DJ Simon Rowe who hosts the breakfast show on KLFM. Mr Rimmer read out the names of the staff who were nominated by students for blazer badges, he also read out the comments from the students which were lovely to hear. We had the winner of our talent show Freddie Burt Y7 who made us all laugh with his regional jokes (I feel he is a Michael McIntyre in the making) what a confident young man, well done Freddie!

I read out the number of reward points from each year group over the last half term: 5th Y11 with 7,810 4th Y10 with 9,365 3rd Y9 with 16,236 2nd Y8 with 16,678 1st was Y7 with 17,913, Mrs Germaney received the trophy from Simon.

REWARDS

Our last week of term was a very exciting and busy one for rewards. We had so many things to celebrate, our blazer badge winners, and the students who received highly commended certificates for their efforts throughout the term. The High Street vouchers were awarded to the students in the Top 100 and to finish the week off, the presentation of the Endeavour cup, Behaviour and Attendance trophy and then our new prize of a laptop notebook with case.

Since September 68,002 points have been awarded to our students, 445 praise postcards sent out in the post and over the two assemblies 168 blazer badges awarded and 103 highly commended certificates. The Endeavour trophy was next, there were two students nominated for this award, Sophie Couzins Year 11, Y7 James Lanham Y7. The winner was Sophie Couzins.

Finally, with the help of our student commissioners and Simon Rowe, we were ready for the last reward. This year we have changed the prize to a laptop notebook with case. So, the Top 100 student’s names were placed inside balloons, as the student commissioners released the balloons from the balcony, the music began to play and all the students names flashed up on the board. Simon then picked a single balloon once they had all landed and announced the name inside the balloon which was Summer Rose Y9, a very deserving winner.

175

NON-SCHOOL

DAYS FOR HOLIDAYS,

ATTENDANCE

MATTERS ON TIME. FIRST TIME.

EVERY TIME.

OUTINGS + APPOINTMENTS

ÂŁ60

F I X E D F I N E

PER CHILD PER PARENT FOR UNAUTHORISED HOLIDAY Spring 2018.indd 5

It is essential for every student that their school attendance is good and that they make the best of their time at KLA. With your support and our expertise we will shape our students into conscientious, enterprising young people with every opportunity before them.

With good attendance, learning really does have no limits!

420 STUDENTS WITH GOOD ATTENDANCE

75

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T H O S E

H AV E 1 0 0 % ATTENDANCE

11 FAMILIES FAST-TRACKED TO PROSECUTION

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ATTENDANCE

THERE ARE

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PE & SCHOOL SPORT P X-Country Championships On Monday 4th December KLA students from Years 7 – 10 went to Springwood to represent the school in the West Norfolk X-Country Championships.

Well done to all the runners that came to the event and worked really hard to complete the challenging course.

Two students stood out from the crowd on the day. Arabella Gingell came 10th and represented the West at the Norfolk Championships in January.

Richard Newell was the only Year 10 student to run from the school and competed against 14 – 18 year olds in the senior boy’s event and came a very respectable 15th, narrowly missing out on going through to the next round. The students that came in before Richard, were predominately sixth formers. This is a fantastic achievement and one we are very proud of.

West Norfolk Basketball Tournaments Every year KLA hosts the West Norfolk boys and girls basketball tournaments from Years 7 – 11.

Each tournament ranged from 6 – 12 team entry. In many age categories for both boys and girls, KLA came in the top three positions.

As a school we thoroughly enjoy running these events to enable so many students to take part who may not necessarily have chosen basketball as their first sport and witness them achieving to a high standard.

Angling Competition On Monday 14th May 2018 there is an opportunity for 3 KLA students who are interested in fishing to represent KLA at the West Norfolk Angling Competition held at Narborough Lakes. The competition is always well attended and places will be based on a first come first served basis, then taking into consideration achievement points and attendance records.

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T PE & SCHOOL SPORT Clubs and Activities Here are the clubs and activities that will be available during the summer term.

There will be rounders and cricket teams, athletics and tennis competitions.

If you are interested in joining one of the teams or representing KLA at a competition please see one of the PE staff.

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KS3 ROUND UP I have lived in King’s Lynn all of my life and it is an ongoing conversation that the Mart always brings the bad weather and it sure did this year! We had our first snow days since I have been at the academy, which I am sure the students were happy about! We managed to keep things going for the first day of snow and it really was a lovely sight seeing the students at break time playing outside and having fun with their friends.

After a couple of postponements, we finally got around to having our Y8 Options evening in March. Thank you all for joining us, as I am sure you will agree it is very important to talk to the subject teachers to see what is involved for GCSE’s. I know many of you found the talk very helpful to understand the options process. It is scary for me to see them making their options ready for Y9 as it only seems like yesterday they came into Y7, so as parents it must seem daunting. I know they will all do us proud.

I took 7 students to a workshop held at Provident Street this term, as part of the ‘We Love West Norfolk Project’ we were invited to participate in the activity day. We all had great fun and the students showed off their talents and of course they all represented themselves and the academy very well. The staff often commented on how lovely they all were. Thank you Emily Ballantyne, Emma Beech, Bertie Gathercole, Kirsty Goodrum, Leah Filmer, Jack Reddington and Caitlin Baterbee for joining me for a fun day!

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I have been having meetings with our current Y7 cohort asking for feedback on the transition process. I think the students’ opinions on this process are vital to me helping future students joining us. I cannot believe I am already starting to plan and arrange this year’s transition interviews and the transition days here at KLA. All of the comments from the students will help me to improve the process, but it is also great to hear all of the things they enjoy and how well they feel it has been for them. Miss Tea and I will be asking them to support the Y6 students when they come into KLA and I know they will be great!

Thank you also to the Year 7’s who have been student receptionists, you have positively contributed to the school.

Have a great Easter break, I am certainly looking forward to the lighter nights and of course the sunshine that comes with the summer term.

Debbie Germaney, Head of KS3

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KS4 ROUND UP It hardly seems five minutes since I wrote the Autumn Newsletter and here we are now with the Spring term one.

Spring certainly came with a roar but it was great to see students, many who had not seen so much snow, really having fun and enjoying it.

Once again students have had opportunities both in and out of school to enhance their education and social skills. I must thank all staff that organise and support these trips.

The trip I am most envious of was run by Mrs May and Mrs Lockey recently. It was a local trip taking in a Cider farm and a cheese factory. I honestly did not know that these places were on our doorstep, well worth a visit if you have the time.

Year 11 have completed both sets of mock exams behaving themselves impeccably.

They are working incredible hard taking advantage of all the support from their teachers and other staff.

We have raised monies for charities and the Prom committee are being very inventive in raising funds towards their special evening.

I wish them all every success in their exams proper and for the future.

Well done to all students in Years 9, 10 and 11 who were awarded Student of the Month: Rosie Williams, Harry Brockwell, Kayley Emmerson, Katie Scoles, Taylor Fincham, Liam Sparkes, Thomas Green and Holly Louise Tong.

Also, to all who were nominated by their Form Tutors - too many to mention - I am proud of you all.

My continued thanks to all parents/carers for your support.

Best wishes to you all for the Easter break.

Bridie Defty, Head of KS4

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A FEAST OF A DAY On Thursday 8th March thirteen Year 11 Food and Nutrition students embarked on a culinary tour of North Norfolk. Having been set a brief for their final exam to cook a three course meal inspired by local ingredients their aim was to discover some of the area’s finest produce.

Our first port of call was Copys Green Farm at Wighton, home to Mrs Temple’s Cheese where handmade cheeses including the famous Binham Blue are made. After seeing the cheese making room, students were put to work producing their own cheese from scratch which involved separating the curds and whey. Before embarking on a tour of the farm itself we enjoyed a fabulous lunch of bread and what else but a variety of delicious cheeses!

As Mr Temple took us round the farm he explained how they produced all their own electricity using the whey from the cheese, animal waste and a bio digester. No doubting though that the real stars of the show were the herd of 131 Swiss Brown cows including calves born that very morning; it was difficult to drag everyone away and back to the minibus!

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Our next stop was Whin Hill Cider Limited in Wells. The owner Mark, talked us through every step of the cider making process from the pruning of the apple trees to bottling the final product. Everyone tried a glass of apple juice and all agreed it was the best they had ever tasted!

Back on the bus we headed along the coast to a very chilly Brancaster where we met local fishermen, father and son Cyril and Ben, on the Marshes. They told us all about the area’s rich history with shellfish and explained how muscles are grown and harvested. We also had the opportunity to take a closer look at crab and lobster pots and Cyril explained how these worked and the best bait to use.

Arriving back at school with 4 kilograms of cheese, 3 bottles of apple juice and some cider vinegar courtesy of our very generous hosts, we all agreed it had been an excellent day and we had learnt a great deal. The students were inspired by what they had seen and cannot wait to get cooking using our locally sourced produce!

A big thank you to all our hosts for making us so welcome and to Mrs Roberts, our driver for getting us there and back safely.

Mrs May and Mrs Lockey Spring 2018.indd 11

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DUKE OF EDINBURGH

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award is the world’s leading achievement award for young people. Its aim is to support young people to achieve their potential, widen their horizons, and gain a wealth of new experiences. At the heart of the DofE Award is the ethos to enable every young person of every background to experience this Award, and to succeed, regardless of any barriers.

Bronze This year, we have welcomed a new cohort of Bronze candidates, who will be taking on their first expedition in April, and their assessed expedition in May. These candidates have already shown great enthusiasm, and as part of the award have begun taking on a range of exciting projects and activities, such as ice-skating, volunteering with the Cats’ Protection, archery, rugby, playing the piano, cooking club and many more.

Bronze candidates will soon be receiving their first training sessions, where they will be learning basic first aid, campcraft, meal-planning and navigation.

Silver This year’s Silver candidates faced their first practice expedition back in October. This was a real step-up from Bronze, but was a challenge which our pupils met with enthusiasm and determination.

They are now preparing for their next expedition, which will take place in the much tougher terrain of Derbyshire.

This year’s Silver candidates have shown fantastic commitment, and to complete their Award have taken part in various extra-curricular activities, such as: motor sports, basketball, fishing, sports coaching, Scouts, badminton, art, cooking, and volunteering for a local library.

Equipment Excitingly, we have secured a grant to buy some additional school equipment for candidates to use on exhibitions. This includes rucksacks, compasses, tents and stoves, and will allow us to take on additional candidates in the future, as the size of the Academy continues to grow.

Congratulations Congratulations to Charlie Gray, Lily Davidson, Josh Roberts, Rhys Younge and Alex Grimes, who have all completed each section of their Bronze Award, and are now awaiting their badges and certificates. All five were fantastic candidates who battled their way through very tough expeditions, and showed great dedication to all four sections of the award. A huge well done.

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WEST NORFOLK UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE CONFERENCE At the end of last term, our highest achievers in Year 11 were invited to attend the West Norfolk University Challenge Conference (WNUCC) at the College of West Anglia’s University Centre. This was a fantastic opportunity for our students to get a feel for further and higher education, and to meet peers from a variety of other local schools.

Throughout the day, pupils were assigned into teams without anyone else they knew. They had to work together to complete various challenges, and the top three teams were awarded medals at the end of the day. Some of the challenges included were: a maths relay, a poetry quiz, and a science challenge. The students worked with current sixth formers from Springwood High School, and it was great to see their confidence, problem solving and teamwork skills grow throughout the day.

In the morning, we welcomed guest speaker Sophie Jewry, from the company Ladies that Plan. Sophie shared her experiences of education, and how she built her own design company from scratch. This was a really motivational talk about utilising your skills, and having the confidence to believe you can be successful, and to achieve your goals.

We were also lucky to hear a fascinating guest speaker from Ince & Co Law Firm, London, who talked about the route she took to becoming a successful lawyer, and the advice she would offer students who were embarking on to further education.

Finally, the Springwood Sixth Formers gave us an incredible speech about their journey competing in the Mock Trial programme. This group has had great success in both national and international Mock Trial competitions, and have twice competed in America. Their message to our students was to always be open to new opportunities, as you never know where they could lead you. The group are now heading in separate directions, with some Oxbridge candidates, and a successful candidate to an Ivy League university in America, as well as several other exciting projects. A truly inspiring group of young people.

The feedback we had from our Year 11’s was overwhelmingly positive -it was an enjoyable, educational and inspiring day.

INTERNATIONAL TRANSITION We are very lucky to have been selected to participate in an International Transition Programme with a small group of other schools in Norfolk. As part of the programme I was flown out to Sweden with 12 other members of staff from Norfolk Schools to see how the highly rated Swedish Schools do things.

The experience was amazing, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and was fascinated by some of their teaching methods. The buildings were very similar to ours here at KLA with the large windows and open spaces but were used very differently. It made me realise how lucky we are to have such a great space here, for example, we have at least 8 Science classrooms for just over 700 students, they had one for 570 students! Our students are also very fortunate to have a vast variety to choose from in our canteen, in Sweden the students simply have one meat and one vegetarian option everyday, with milk or water to drink! (I am not sure how our students would respond to us taking away their milkshake and paninis).

As you will see from the picture the main entrance to the school is similar to ours!

I learnt so much from the trip and have lots of ideas on how we can incorporate their styles in our school day, however, the biggest thing I brought back with me was a confidence that we have great teachers, amazing students and a wonderful learning space!

Debbie Germaney

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SYCOL We are fortunate enough to be following the Sycol (www.sycol.com) education programme – a three year plan that is instrumental in supporting us as we continuously seek to innovate and improve what we do.

As part of this, our school, staff and governors have worked together to agree on a clear and challenging vision, mission and set of core values that are now firmly established at the heart of everything we do. This is our culture manifesto, and we use it to drive innovation and continuous improvement within our organisation. With Sycol, we will build, embed and sustain our intended culture of high-performance and trust.

You may have noticed some of our staff wearing Sycol lanyards! These indicate the staff leading the Sycol programme within our organisation. A Green lanyard indicates a leader in their first year of Sycol; Blue that they are in their second year and Black (belt) that they are in their third year. If you would like to learn more about this exciting programme and maybe get involved, please do not hesitate to ask any one of the Sycol leads.

WHAT WE ASPIRE TO

WHAT WE WILL DO

THE NEW CORE FRAMEWORK

WHAT SUPPORTS THE VISION, SHAPES THE CULTURE, AND REFLECTS WHAT OUR SCHOOL AND WE VALUE

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LIST OF CLUBS - SUMMER TERM Club

Time

Room

Teacher

Homework Club

3pm – 4pm

N6

Mrs Fysh

Tennis

3pm – 4:30pm

Tennis Courts

Homework Club

3pm – 4pm

N6

Mrs Fysh

KS4 Science Revision

3pm – 3:45pm

S17

Mr Endersby

Rounders

3pm - 4:45pm

Sports Hall

Cricket

3pm - 4:45pm

Sports Hall

Homework Club

3pm – 4pm

N6

Mrs Fysh

KS4 Science Revision

3pm – 3:45pm

S16

Mr Cooper

Tennis

3pm – 4:30pm

Tennis Courts

Cookery Club

3pm – 5pm

N21

Mrs Lockey & Mrs Parry

Art Club Yr 7 & 8

3pm – 4pm

N1

Miss Culley

Art Club Yr 9, 10 &11

3pm – 4:30pm

N1

Miss Culley

CRE8@KLA - Drama

3pm – 4pm

S2

Mr Hodkinson

H.I.I.T

3pm – 4:30pm

Sports Hall

Multi Sports

3pm – 4:45pm

Sports Hall

Homework Club

3pm – 4pm

N6

Mrs Fysh

KS3 Science Club

3pm – 3:45pm

S11

Mrs Harper

KS4 Science Revision

3pm – 3:45pm

S12

Mrs Bell

S13

Mrs Jordan Miss Drewery

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Yr11 Graphics Revision/ Catch Up Session

3pm – 4:30pm

N21

Tennis

3pm – 4:30pm

Tennis Courts

Rounders Fixtures

After school

Sports Hall

Cricket

3pm - 4:45pm

Sports Hall

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Term Dates Monday 16th April Summer term begins Tuesday 24th April Year 7 Parents evening Monday 7th May Bank Holiday Monday Monday 14th May Year 11 exams start Monday 28th May to Friday 1st June Half term Monday 4th June Back to school Tuesday 19th June Year 11 exams end Friday 6th July Prom Monday 9th July to Friday 13th July KLA Olympics Tuesday 24th July Last day of academic year Principal: Alan Fletcher King’s Lynn Academy Queen Mary Road, King’s Lynn, PE30 4QG 01553 774671 enquiries@kla.eastern-mat.co.uk

Keep up to date with us on our website kingslynnacademy.co.uk Why not follow us on Twitter

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