Welcome to the March edition of Knutsford News 2025.
This term has been another busy one with lots of extra-curricular events, classes, trips, sporting events and performances. We are proud of our extensive enrichment calendar and all that our students achieve, both inside and outside the classroom. I hope that you enjoy reading about their successes in our Easter edition of Knutsford News.
Mrs Karen Key, Headteacher
This term Year 7 and 8 Student Ambassadors have been running assemblies to introduce our Westfield Drive charity ‘Street Buddies’, who support homeless people. They have collected Easter Eggs at Lower School and want to say THANK YOU to all of the parents and carers who have supported them - 150 eggs have been donated for the homeless people in Manchester.
We hosted this year’s Rotary Youth Speaks Competition in February and entered three teams against Didsbury High School, The County High School Leftwich and Weaverham High School. Our Year 10 team won the Seniors category, and our Year 9 team were runners-up, well done!
This month we hosted a Heart Screening which checked the cardiac health of 92 students, thanks to the fundraising by Knutsford Academy parent Georgina Hodge, in memory of her husband. The screening was carried out by Knutsford Community First Responders Trust and the amazing team from Cardiac Risk in the Young. Thank you everyone for providing this special opportunity for our students.
Every week students are nominated for upholding our school values of Ambition, Respect and Kindness. All ‘Stars of the Week’ are entered into a draw to win the termly sponsor prize of £100 Amazon Voucher per year group. Thank you to our generous sponsors for making this possible:
Year 7 - Irlams Estate Agents
Year 8 - Sytner Land Rover
Year 9 - Marketing Signals
Year 10 - Manchester Airport
Year 11 - Rix Motors
Year 12 - Rules Of Faith
Year 13 - KDR Talent Solutions
Our Careers Fair in January was a huge success! We had 31 companies and colleges attend the event from a variety of sectors, providing students with information on STEM careers, careers in the armed services and careers in agriculture. We also hosted technology firms, professional services and hospitality,aswellassomelocaluniversitiesandcolleges.
We are very lucky to have been paired with Cottons Hotel & Spa this year, through the Hotel and Schools Programme, which links schools to hospitalityestablishments.
This term our Year 10 Hospitality and Catering students visited Cottons to take part in several workshops. They made alcohol-free mojitos with the Food and Beverage Manager and watched a butchery demonstration by the Head Chef, who showed them how to cut a side of beef. They were then treatedtoafantasticlunchpreparedby theCottonsChef.
Later this half term, staff from Cottons visited the school to deliver workshops linked to the Hospitality and Catering curriculum and to finding out more aboutthehospitalityindustry.
Year 10 students visited Manchester Airport to learn about potential careers in the aviation industry. They had a tour of Terminal 2 and listened to guest speakers about the finances and infrastructureofManchesterAirportGroup,witha focusonartificialintelligence.
Students could then explore the Aerozone, a carousel of interactive experiences which included a role play as a member of the cabin crew, fire crew, security and duty-free teams. Students also attempted landing an aeroplane on a flight simulator-withmixedresults!
In February Year 10 Triple Science students attended ‘GCSE Science Live!’ Event at Bridgewater Hall where they had the chance to see and hear five of Britain’s top scientists, all working at the cutting edgeoftheirspecialisms.
Our Year 12 Mathematicians took part in a workshop as part of British Science Week, with globalengineeringfirmAmentum.StudentslookedathowMathswasprevalentintheNuclear industryandhowchangesandadaptationsareconstantlyhavingtooccur.Theyhadtoidentify a real-world problem and solution. Suggestions included changing how we build houses, sustainability of land mass for food production, changes to fuels for cars and the creation of bio-degradablesanitaryproducts.
We had a wonderful trip to Berlin at half term with Sixth Form Media Studies students.
Highlights included attending a film premier, a trip up the TV tower for spectacular views of the city and the most popular attraction by far was the video games museum where students played a variety of arcade and console games from bygone eras.
More traditional landmarks included the Holocaust memorial, Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie Museum and Reichstag.
A group of our Year 12 students visited Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. They had an exciting day experiencing one of the colleges in Cambridge, had a tour of the site and completed workshops on preparing for Higher Education.
Year 12 Spanish students visited Liverpool University to take part in workshops, a Q&A session with a masters student as well as learning a bit of Catalan!
This term our senior dance company, Ignition, performed at both the Stoke and Crewe Dance Festivals,andgavefantasticperformancesofapiece incelebrationoftheQueenofPop,Madonna.
Fusion,ourjunior dancecompany, joinedtheminCrewe andperformedtheir piece,Lostinthe Waves,beautifully.
BTEC Sixth Form students performed their second Musical Theatre Showcase this year. It was a wonderful display of their vocal andactingperformanceskills. This contributes towards the assessed practical elements of the courseforYear13students.
Agroupofthirtyboys,representingallyear groups,tookpartinanexcitingfull-daydance workshopwithvisitingdancer,Junior Cunningham.TheboysworkedwithJunioron anoriginalpiecethatwillbepremieredatthe DanceFestivalonWednesday2ndApril.
Weheldour45thAnnualBeswickMusicFestivallastmonth,wheredozensofourtalentedmusicians andsingersperformedinfrontofthreevisitingadjudicatorsandalargeaudienceatBextonRoad. Congratulationstoourwinners:
JuniorMusician-KyraYip(Yr7)
JuniorVocalist-MadelineQuirk(Yr8)
ContemporaryMusician-GraceTurner(Yr12)
ComposeroftheYear-OwenNg(Yr12)
SeniorVocalist-EliseHigham(Yr11)
SeniorMusician-CharlieButters(Yr10)
Ensemble Players of the year -EliseHighamand ImogenHarrison(Yr11)
The Shorrocks Award forcontributiontomusic inlowerschool-JamesButters(Yr8)
The Wallace Rosebowl forcontributiontomusic inupperschool-PerrineDuchesnes(Yr12)
13ofourYear9studentshavebeenselected toplayforKnutsfordRFCU14steam,ina RugbyFestivalatthefamousCardiffArms Park,againstotherteamsfromacrossthe country.Wewishthemthebestofluck!
WeenteredtwonetballteamsintotheYear7
Mid Cheshire tournament. The A team finishedasrunners-up,havingwon4andlost 2 games and the B team won their tournament,afterwinningeverygame!
Afantasticfinalmatchperformanceagainsta verystrongandsuccessfulLeftwichteamsaw our Year 11 team crowned Mid Cheshire Champions! It was an excellent technical displayandafabulouswaytoroundofftheir schoolnetballdays.
14ofourstudentsfromYears7to11 representedMacclesfieldattheCheshire CrossCountryChampionship.Thisisthe biggestcohortwehaveeversentandare delightedthatoverhalfofourrunners qualifiedtorepresentCheshire.Theyall didafantasticjobinaverytough competition,welldone.
Welldonetoqualifiers:BeeMetcalfe, ArthurFordyce,ImmyMoran,Jonty Fordyce,JaxsonPotter,JensonCox, ArchieHenderson,JosephWatson-Hunt.
Year 8 and 9 students represented the Academy at the Indoor Youth Championships this term. Their attitude, effort and performance were wonderful across the board and all rowers achieved a personalbest.
Year 9 won the relay by 80m: Eden-Pearl, Mya,PhoebeandEve.
Year 8 finished 2nd in the relay: Sienna, Sophie,AlimaandIsha.
Individual event:Eden-Pearlfinished3 . rd
Our U13 cricketers represented Macclesfield & District in the county finals and finished in 2nd place after a superb display. Congratulations to you all - your sportsmanship and teamwork werefantastic.
After winning the Wilmslow Football Tournament, our Year 9 Girls Football team competed in the Cheshire & WarringtonU14GirlsFinals.
As well as coming 2nd after winning 3 of their 5 games, they were awarded the 'Spirit of the Games' Award by theofficials.
OurSixthFormFootballAcademysquadjettedofftoMemphisfortheJohnTallyShowcase Tournamentandreachedthefinal!Theoppositionscoredwiththelastkickofthegamemakingit2-3. DespitethisdisappointmenttheplayershavehadanincredibleexperiencevisitingMississippiand MemphisUniversitiesandtouringthesightsinMemphis.Theystayedwithhostfamiliesandtrained withSoccerScholarUSAduringtheirtimethere.
Thetourandkitis sponsoredby QuinnsCivils–thank you.Wearereally proudoftheplayers fortheiramazing achievement!
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