Inspire: Issue 8

Spring 2017 Issue 8

Success, nothing less!

Around The Academy....

Aspire has been encouraged to ‘Give Up Loving Pop’ and drink water and low fat milk instead.

The GULP Campaign, supported by Blackpool Council, ran from 10th-31st March, and it’s hoped that students and staff will continue choosing healthier alternatives. The Year 9 Health Leaders designed posters which have been posted around School and have been involved in distributing water bottles and promoting the campaign with Helen Kellett (Dental Health Educator) and Anne Squire (School Nurse).

More Duke Of Edinburgh Success Three more students have completed their Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award: Adam Williams, Toby Gough and David Hurley. The award began back in January 2016 with training sessions to develop skills, and in their spare time they completed other sections of the award, including volunteer work.

In the summer of 2016 two expeditions to Bowland Forest saw the students camping, cooking, and traversing navigated routes with maps and compass. The group leaders, Mr Tock and Mr Ryder, were very impressed with their determination and Mr Tock commented that ‘they all worked very hard on this award and have helped Aspire develop its links with Highfurlong students and should be very proud of their achievement’.

Stonewall Mark Achieved Congratulations to Miss Adereti for completing her extensive training programme with Stonewall earning Blackpool Aspire Academy the Stonewall Mark and becoming a member of their School Champions programme.

As a member of the programme, Blackpool Aspire Academy will be able to work closely with Stonewall celebrating differences in school and outside too, and to educate the wider community that homophobic, biphobic, and transphobic bullying cannot be tolerated.

pRINCIPAL’S PERSPECTIVE

We have had a busy last term, a successful visit from OFSTED and just last week an extremely positive report from the Department for Education.

I am delighted with the way our students continue to be in the right place, doing the right thing and the right time! The Academy is moving forward at pace and we are ready to move to the next level and address some issues with mobile phones. I will inform you further during next term.

Inspectors spent two days at Aspire in the run up to Christmas, observing lessons, meeting staff, students and Governors, and gathering feedback from a broad range of partners, including parents. Overall, Ofsted judged that the school, which was created two years ago following the merger of two “Inadequate” High Schools, had progressed to “Requiring Improvement” overall, with a number of “Good” features. This inspection report is such a boost for everyone associated with Team Aspire, and it clearly recognises how much we have all achieved over such a short period of time. We are now looking forward to developing specific areas in order to give our students the fantastic start in life that they and their families deserve.

Every one hour lesson in Blackpool Aspire Academy is a Golden Hour where students focus on answering the Golden Question/s.

Over the last term the students have been focusing on their role within our Golden Hours. Throughout this newsletter you will see celebration of the progress being made within the Academy’s Golden Hours and how students have engaged with the learning opportunities.

Each Golden Hour begins with a GO task to ignite students’ learning. These tasks take a variety of forms but are about setting the scene for learning to begin. We have been linking the role of students to engage with learning similar to the expectations of being in the world of work. Students should be able to leave every Golden Hour with a Golden Nugget that answers the Golden Question. Over the course of a school week this equates to at least 25 Golden Nuggets, leading to ‘success, nothing less!’

Mrs L Shuttleworth-Brown Academy Principal

English Faculty World Book Day

Macbeth Trip

This is a celebration of authors, illustrators, books and reading. It is the biggest celebration of its kind, designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, and marked in over 100 countries all over the world.

40 GCSE English Literature students were taken to see a unique and original production of ‘Macbeth’ at the Dukes Theatre in Lancaster on Saturday the 25th March. Just a few weeks before their final exams in May students boarded a coach for the production.

2017 is the 20th year there’s been a World Book Day, and this year it took place on 2nd March - the main aim to encourage young people to explore the pleasures of books and reading.

Blackpool Aspire encourage reading every week with our Drop Everything And Read (DEAR) sessions, where students stop whatever they are doing and get out a book for 20 minutes of reading.

With a surprisingly young cast the portrayal of the characters was given an original twist as the witches were played by young men and Macbeth by a woman. The play was performed ‘in the round’ which gave students an up close and personal view of the play so they could clearly see Shakespeare’s original script being performed. A useful and entertaining afternoon was had by all.

For World Book Day the English Department decided to hold a competition this year entitled ‘Extreme Reading’. The challenge was set for students and staff to get a photograph of themselves reading in unique and original places.

Mrs Johnson (head of English) judged the many and varied entries and finally awarded Colbie, Tyler, and Matthew, all in Year 7, first prize in what proved to be a very difficult decision. Colbie is pictured here enjoying his book in the boxing ring!

You can still get involved in World Book Day by visiting the website www.worldbookday.com to find loads of information and activities to do.

Anti-Bullying Update The Anti-Bullying team are looking to recruit new members from Key Stage 3.

Do you want to support fellow students?

Do you want to join a nationwide network of over 15,000 Anti- Bullying Ambassadors?

Do you want to make a difference?

You could help!

For more information on how to become one of our team and get exclusive privileges - please see Miss Turnbull in C5

Expressive Arts Faculty Conflict In Drama Year 7 Drama classes have been creating improvised plays based on conflict resolution.

They researched domestic, national, and global conflict which unfortunately is so topical and so prominent in our world. They were made aware of the issues that face our world today. The plays they created focused on issues such as bullying and how we can resolve friendship issues.

They also tackled issues that are faced in the home such as sibling rivalry and how children feel when faced with difficult times in the family.

The plays highlighted how conflicts can be resolved and harmony can be restored by considering everyone’s feelings and working out problems together.

Students will now go on to analyse characters, drama techniques and will perform on stage in front of their peers. They are building acting skills and techniques, confidence and are learning important life lessons on how to be more empathetic towards each other.

Cross-Country Championships Aspire Academy hosted the Blackpool schools’ cross-country championships on the 25th January in cold, but dry weather. Students from across Blackpool ran between 2km and 5km on a very wet and difficult school course.

Our students performed very well, in particular Adam Murphy and Ryan Stephenson, who finished first and second in the Year 7 boys’ race. Megan Eadie in the senior girls’ race finished third, while Caitlin Packer in the Year 8 girls’ race, and Carl Wallace in the Year 8 boys’ race both finished a commendable fourth. Overall both the girls and the boys finished third.

Finally, well done to our BTEC students who helped to marshal and manage the event with PE staff.

World Music Year 8 Music groups have been discovering World Music, such as Latin American and Indian. They have learnt about the instruments from different countries and found out how to play the music related to different genres. The background and historical aspects of each style of music have also been incorporated into each lesson.

All musical pieces are being recorded on the Music Sequencer Programme, Sequel 3. Therefore students do not only learn about music from around the world, they are also trained in music technology.

First Place For Basketball Team Congratulations to our students from Year 10 and 11 who represented Aspire at the Blackpool U16 basketball tournament recently and came first.

Games were played against Unity (14-2 victory), Montgomery (14-2 victory), and St Mary’s (8-0 victory); unfortunately, it wasn’t to be a clean sweep as the game against St George’s was lost by one basket in the last minute of the match.

With three wins under their belt Team Aspire had done enough to claim top spot.

Well done to the following players:

Megan Eadie

Chloe Dickinson

Jess Lonsdale

Leigh Bamford

Shannon Byrne

Shade Egerton

Canice Heath

Science Faculty Year 7 – Aspirational Day During British Science week 2017, Year 7 had the opportunity to immerse their creative minds into a fun packed day of “change” in science.

Pupils explored the basics of the atomic structure, in which they modelled atoms extremely well whilst conversing how the model of the atom has changed over time.

The components of blood were

analysed with Miss Eastwood and this further sparked detailed discussions on the different roles of these constituents.

Mr Dodd conducted a difficult investigation on separating salt from rock, which included an opportunity to develop the skills required in years to come.

Pupils were closely analysing different types of cells with Mr Buchanan, drawing and labelling the key components

New Scheme Of Work For Year 7 And 8 Since October, Year 7 and 8 in Science have been working from a new Scheme of Work. Students have started to learn content normally expected in Year 10 and 11. The aim of this is to increase the level of challenge our students receive in Key Stage three and ultimately prepare them over five years for the more rigorous exams they will sit at the end of Year 11.

whilst establishing functions.

the

The most exciting aspect of the day was the surgery experience with Miss Mcreath. Pupils were able to get a detailed handson experience, allowing them to establish excellent links with their current knowledge.

There were many screams, shocks and disgruntled faces; this however, did not deter our pupils from wanting to explore more.

An example of the work is pictured here showing Year 7 describing the flow of blood through the heart. Year 7 have also been learning about atomic structure, energy stores and particle theory!

Year 8 have been learning about the properties of waves, the brain and nervous system and temperature regulation.

For the new Science GCSE, students will have to learn many of the Physics equations historically given to them in the exam. Controlled Assessment has been replaced with required practical sessions that students complete in lesson and are assessed in the final examination. We hope that if students are exposed to these earlier then it will become easier to remember when they revise for their final GCSE exams.

Coming up over the next half term, Year 7 will be learning about metal reactivity and neutralisation reactions. Year 8 will be learning about the composition of the atmosphere and global warming.

Well done to all students in Year 7 and 8 for coping with the new content. They have impressed us all with their application this year and the results that they have attained in recent assessments that contain GCSE questions. Here’s to more success in Science over the next half term!

Humanities Faculty

Learning The Hydrological Cycle Miss Stevenson’s Year 7 groups have been very busy this term as they have been investigating the hydrological cycle, producing some fantastic work explaining how rainfall finds its way to a river. They have included high level geographical terminology, usually only expected from our GCSE geographers.

Well done Year 7 – you’ve had a great term!

Religious Protest This term in Year 10 we have been studying Liberation Theology. In particular looking at the plight of the people of El-Salvador during the 1970s and 1980s. We focused upon Archbishop Oscar Romero who led non-violent protests against the tyranny of the Government and gangs of El Salvador. Oscar Romero is still seen today as a role model by many for the sacrifices he made for the poor people of his country.

Holocaust Survivor Talk On Wednesday, 29th March Mr Carter accompanied several Year 9 students to hear the testimony of Holocaust survivor, Mr Arek Hersh, at Hodgson Academy.

Mr Hersh gave a moving speech about the loss of almost all his family and how he survived Nazi occupation, the Auschwitz camp, and death marches, and all before he reached sixteen years old. After, he engaged with the audience in a question and answer session.

“Our students found the talk very educational and could not believe the hardships Mr Hersh endured during his childhood - it made them reflect on their own lives in society today,” said Mr Carter.

Reporting in Bangladesh Mr Tock’s Year 7 classes have been researching a flooding event in Bangladesh to write newspaper articles for an amazing wall display. The groups investigated the cause and effects of the flooding linking how the economic development of the country has had impact

on the country’s response.

Many of the newspaper article reporters received Deputy Principal awards for their high quality and effort seen in class.

Work, pictured right, is by Ryan Nicholls, Demi-Leigh Faulkner, Callum Alder, and Sam Hanby.

ICT and Technology Faculty Textile Recycle

Year 7 have been up-cycling old books and creating bird houses inspired by the artist Jennifer Collier. The students had to create the birdhouse from cardboard boxes and then decoupage these using old books and sheet music, and then finally using the book cover to create the roof of the house - the results, as can be seen in these photos to the right, were amazing.

Year 9 have been looking at the artist Fredrich Hunterwasser, they have now started to experiment with different techniques including lino printing and batik to recreate elements of his work.

Cake Bake Sales For Red Nose Day Mr Barnhurst and his team of Year 9 coordinators in the Food Technology Department hosted a Cake Bake Sale in aid of Comic Relief on Friday, 24th March.

Students gave up much of their own time to bake cakes which went on sale at break time, with all proceeds going to the fundraising effort - by the end of the day they had raised £105.48.

This is part of the staggering amount of £73,026,234 so far raised that will be put to work, transforming lives across the UK and the world’s poorest communities.

Welcome To Google Classroom!

Aspire teachers have been taking to this new learning tool, and none more so than Miss Matthews in ICT who explains, “Classroom is a free web service that makes it easy for students and teachers to connect inside and outside of school, with great benefits such as easy setup and sharing of information on assignments, announcements, and questions.

“Teachers are able to save time and paper by creating classes, distribute work, communicate, and stay organised, while students can see assignments on the Work page, in the class stream, or on the calendar, and all class materials are automatically filed into Google Drive folders.

“Teachers can also quickly see who has or hasn’t completed the work, and give direct, real-time feedback and grades.

“The major strength of Google Classroom is that it can be used on any computer with an internet connection, so it is not restricted by hardware. It can also be downloaded as an app for Android and iOS mobile devices.”

Parents and guardians are also getting involved as they receive weekly summaries of their child’s progress, class announcements, and upcoming due dates of work. This gives a new level of engagement, for example, if a parent can see that their child isn’t doing as well as they could in a subject they could begin a conversation with the teacher about how to better support learning at home.

Maths Faculty Walking Talking Mock This half term really has been exam packed for every year group, but none more so than our current Year 11.

They were very fortunate to trial out a new revision method known as ‘Walking talking mock’. This new revision approach consists of a session where the teacher models each question using an overhead projector showing the teachers solutions. This session was completed in the hall where two classes could be taught at a time.

The teacher highlights where the marks are gained and how to set out the solutions. The students copied this into their own exam for revision purposes. A week later the students sat the same exam and aimed to gain full marks by recalling the guidance they were given by their teacher.

It has proven popular with our students and is a revision strategy we look to continue and develop.

Let us see the improvement it makes in their exam results this year…

Assemblies Recently the Maths Department has had the opportunity to showcase and share careers within mathematics in the morning assemblies; these were passionately delivered by Head of Maths, Mr Thompson.

The new grades and changes in the GCSE

syllabus were shared and explained to all year groups. Mr Thompson then went on to discuss and identify careers and professions in the real world where maths is an integral part of the job.

Have a think where would you need maths in your future career?

Recommended websites to help with your studies in Maths www.pixl.org.uk/plc http://online.justmaths.co.uk/ https://vle.mathswatch.co.uk/vle https://corbettmaths.com

Modern Foreign Languages Faculty Golden Questions In MFL Year 7 students have been learning about sports and hobbies and how they spend their free time. They have also been talking about their weekend time and where they like to go.

How can we talk about what we do on the weekend in French?

Year 8 students have been learning about their daily life and describing their daily routine.

What does your typical morning look like?

Year 9 students have been working on the topic of food and drink and have developed a good understanding of French traditions and culture.

Students can talk about their own food preferences and compare them to typical French foods. Students have been taking part in dialogues at the market and ordering food at the restaurant.

How do you complain at a restaurant?

Year 10 have been learning about their town and local region, offering suggestions on how they would improve their town using the conditional tense. What are the advantages and disadvantages of living in a big town?

Year 11 Progress Year 11 language students have been working hard making sure all their controlled speaking and writing assessments are of top quality.

With only a few lessons left for final revision sessions and lots of past paper practice‌the countdown has begun‌ GCSE French examinations in reading and listening are on Tuesday 16 May 2017. Good luck to all Year 11 linguists.

Recommended websites for French for KS3 and KS4 www.linguascope.co.uk (Username and password given out in class) www.languagesonline.org.uk www.funwithlanguages.vacau.com/french.htm

Please be aware of the new 14 and 6 Bus service routes effective from 2 April 2017

The Number 14 service will no longer run anywhere south of the town centre, so students who normally catch this bus from Central Blackpool or South Shore must now use the Number 6 service instead, on the same route and either change to the Number 14 in the town centre or continue on the Number 6 and disembark on Garstang Road (closest stop to Aspire) before it turns into Grange Park.

The same applies for any students going home - the Number 14 bus will terminate in the town centre and students will need to transfer to the Number 6 to go any further south.

Full details can be found here: http://www.blackpooltransport.com/news/view/changes-to-bus-and-tram-services

HOLIDAY CLOSURES! After the Easter holiday we reopen on Monday, 24th April, 2017 at 8.35am.

We are closed Monday, 1st May for the Bank Holiday.

We close for Whitsun at 3.00pm on Friday, 26th May, 2017.

You can find us online at: www.blackpoolaspireacademy.co.uk or Twitter: @blackpoolaspire Or contact us by telephone: 01253 353155 or email: admin@aspire.fcat.org.uk Inspire newsletter designed and printed by Mr Sheldon