Knutsford News
Welcome to the March edition of Knutsford News 2024.
I hope that you enjoy our spring newsletter. This has been another bumper term for our students where they have been able to showcase their talents in the creative and performing arts as well as represent the school in their academic subjects and in a wide variety of sports. I am enormously proud of all of our students, who are ambitious for themselves in both their academic studies as well as the extra-curricular life of the school.
I wish you and your family a happy and relaxing Easter.
Dining Hall Extension
Workisprogressingwellontheextension ofourcateringfacilitiesatUpperSchool. Theareaisbeingdevelopedintimefor Septemberandwillprovideadditional indoorseatingplusanexternalcovered areawithoutdoorseatingandtables.
Ski Trip - Les Deux Alpes
Ourannualskitriptookplaceduringhalf termwithoverahundredstudentstaking totheslopesin‘LesDeuxAlpes’.They enjoyedperfectingtheirskiingat‘ski school’eachday,aswellasenjoyingthe eveningswithourstaff,leadingactivities suchasbowling,fancydressandlasertag.
ALL THE LATEST NEWS FROM KNUTSFORD ACADEMY AND CHESHIRE STUDIO SCHOOL
March 2024 - Issue 8
Mrs Karen Key - Headteacher
Youth Speaks Competition
Our senior team won their heat in the Youth Speaks competition; Sophie Symes, Elise Higham and Naomi Newitt were all fantastic and competed against two sixth form teams. Not only did they win their heat, but they won the best Vote of Thanks (Naomi) and best Chairperson (Elise). They also performed exceptionally well at the regional finals at Macclesfield Academy and got certificates of achievement for taking part.
Berlin Media Studies Trip
Sixth Form Media Studies students jetted off to Berlin at half term and enjoyed an exhausting but fantastic few days visiting the Berlin Museum of Film, the Modern Art Gallery, a Film Festival premiere and a four-hour walking tour of the city!
Spanish Exchange
OurExchangestudentspaidtheir returnvisittoMalagaandtheirSpanish partnerfamiliesduringhalfterm.They enjoyedvisitstolotsoflocalsightsand somesailinginthesunshine.
Conway Arts Weekend
20 Art and Textile students took part in the Conway Arts weekend where they produced some outstanding work based on the themes, Nocturne and Celestial. They worked extremely hard, including a 12-hour day learning new skills such as wire sculptures, 3D paper cut structures and drawing in the dark! The students were a pleasure to work with, a brilliant weekend was had by all.
2 Enrichment
Enrichment World Book Day
Year 7 students dressed up to celebrate World Book Day earlier this month. There were some excellent costumes - we even had a student who made his own ears! Ms Hurst’s creative writing club got involved with a book review stall at break time which proved very popular with queues of students waiting to review books.
Fashion Show
On 13th March our student Fashion Show exhibited garments from across all of our year groups. From David Hockney printed dresses to tie-dye pom poms, there was a huge variety of projects on display. We are very proud of the hard work every student put into their creations.
Operating Theatre Live
Operating Theatre Live came into school to create a unique and immersive experience and a real operating theatre for our GCSE and A Level Biology students who are considering careers in medical sciences. They became surgeons for the day and carried out several medical procedures.
Future Vets & Medics Programme
Year 12 students Mia, Matthew and Eva had a fantastic time last month on their vets and medics programme with Dr Greenstein at Manchester Royal Infirmary, in preparation for their medicine, dentistry or science related UCAS applications.
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Careers
Sport Entrepreneur: Herman Dange
Year 13 Assessment Centre
Several of our Year 13 students attended a Mock Assessment Centre at Shrigley Hall to prepare them for application for jobs and apprenticeships. The feedback from the organisers has been very complimentary of our students who participated really well in the events.
On 14th February our Year 12 and13 Enterprise, BTEC Sport, A-Level PE and Business students attended a talk from Manchester Sports Entrepreneur, Herman Dange. The students had the opportunity to hear Herman’s story and pitch their own business ideas to him!
Business Ownership: Mark Lee-Kilgariff
Local entrepreneur and owner of Tatton Perk, Mark Lee-Kilgariff, visited us to share his experience and advice with GCSE Business students. Mark very kindly gave up his time and talked to the students about the realities of running your own business.
Media Studies: Nathan Palmer
We were visited by former Knutsford Academy student Nathan Palmer last month, who gave a talk to Media Studies students about his many years working on reality TV shows such as The X Factor and Real Housewives. He kindly took time to come and share his tips and experiences of the media industry.
Photography with Sarah King
Sarah King kindly came and spoke to Year 10 media students about taking photography for their coursework projects. The class must create a music magazine and Sarah showed them some great examples of photography which would be appropriate for magazine front covers. Thank you for giving us your time and expertise.
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Year 13 Social Enterprise Week Community
Year 13 students organised and ran seven different fundraising events across the school for all year groups during Social Enterprise Week, 12th – 16th February.
They raised a profit of £235 which is wonderful and will be split equally between their chosen charities: Ukraine Red Cross and Kidneys for Life.
Charity Event: Valentines Ball
Our Sixth Form Musical Theatre ensemble opened the prestigious charity Valentines Ball at Mottram Hall in support of The Sick Children’s Trust and East Cheshire Hospice. The group performed ‘Seasons of Love’ setting the tone beautifully for the evening.
Performing Arts
Stoke & Crewe Dance Festivals
Our senior dance company Ignition has been busy, performing at both the 024 Festival 'Dancing Through the Decades' at the Regent Theatre Stoke and the ‘Gotta Dance’ festival at The Crewe Lyceum, where they were joined by our junior dance company, Fusion. Our A Level dancers also performed a routine from Peaky Blinders at Crewe. Well done to all the students and staff.
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Performance Showcase
Over 100 pupils took part in our annual Key Stage 3 Performance Showcase sharing pieces they have been working on in our enrichment clubs. It was a fabulous evening with a wealth of different forms and styles of performance on offer.
Beswick Music Festival
The final of our annual Beswick Festival was held this month. All students performed fantastically. Congratulations to our winners:
Junior Musician - Charlie Butters
Junior Vocalist - Elise Higham
Contemporary Musician - Sophie Orton
Senior Musician - Owen Ng
Senior Vocalist - Amy Rice
Ensemble - Orla Deane, Toby Hui, Gabe Perry, Amy Lomax
Key Stage 3 Commitment to Music - Charlie Butters
Upper School Commitment to Music - Amy Lomax
Composer of the Year - Charlie Gratton-King
Year 10 GCSE Dance
Our Year 10 GCSE Dance students travelled to Leeds to work with Phoenix Dance Theatre where they had the privilege of watching the company perform Shadows by Christopher Bruce, followed by an intensive repertory workshop. Well done to all of our dancers for working exceptionally hard throughout the day!
Cheshire East Young Musician of the Year
Two of our GCSE Music students attended the Cheshire East Young Musician of the Year competition hosted by Love Music Trust at Sandbach School. Toby Hui came 2nd in the Instrumentalist category and Elise Higham came 1st in the Vocalist category.
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Cheshire Studio School
Year 10 Hospitality & Catering
The Head Chef and Sous Chef from Clayton Hotel at Manchester Airport came in to school and treated our year 10 Hospitality and Catering students to a masterclass, where they were taught new techniques and tasted delicious Tandoori Salmon and Caramelised White Chocolate Panna Cotta.
They have since spent the day at the Clayton Hotel to learn more about career opportunities in the Hospitality industry.
Rewards
Thank you to our sponsors for their continued support and funding of our termly prizes. One lucky student in each year group, who has been awarded Star of the Week since Christmas, will be announced the winner of their Year’s prize on the last day of term.
Good luck!
Sport
Indoor Rowing
17 students from Years 8 and 9 competed at the Youth Rowing regional competition. The girls team won silver and Phoebe qualified for the National Finals! She attended this in London with Mrs Ince 1st March. There were around 2000 competitors involved and in her individual race she finished 104th from 281, beating many rowers from private London schools who have their own boat clubs. Phoebe went on to take part in the relay where her team beat the other two teams. Well done!
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Year 7
Football
Athletics
In January, we took part in the Years 7 and 8 Macclesfield & District Sports Hall Athletics Competition.
The Year 7 boys team finished 1st and the Year 7 girls team finished 2nd! They progress to the County finals in March.
In January, some of our Year 7 footballers went to The Cliff for The Manchester United Emerging Talent Tournament. They played 4 matches and won 4! They were ecstaticcongratulations to all involved.
Football Academy Champions - twice!
Thank you to our sponsors McHale & Co Solicitors for their continued support.
AfterbeatingSirJohnDeanes4-0inthesemi-final, ourSixthFormFootballAcademyteamwon1-0ina tightly-foughtfinalagainstPriestleyCollegeto becometheCheshireCountyChampionsforthe thirdyearinarow.
TheyhavesincetravelledtoMemphistotakepart inaninternationalcompetition;theJohnTallyCup. Afterwinningalltheirgames,andfinishingtopof theirgrouptogothroughtothefinal,our incredibleFootballAcademysquadwentontoa 2-1victoryagainstMetroAlliancetobecomeJohn TallyCupChampions2023-24.
Follow us on
Theyhavebroughtthecuphomewithpridecongratulationstoeveryoneinvolved!
We are delighted that our Female Football Squad joined this trip for the first time.
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