Lord Grey Academy Christmas Newsletter

AUTUMN TERM NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 2023

LGA NEWS The official newsletter of Lord Grey Academy

Contents:

Celebration of Year Group Success Sporting Success outside of Lord Grey Year 12 PSG pathway has begun Lord Grey wins 3 awards in MK Education Awards

Staff generosity and donations for Hampers.

DETERMINATION : AMBITION : CURIOSITY : CIVILITY : INTEGRITY

Welcome to our Autumn Term newsletter.

Thank you for all your support this term and hope you enjoy reading it. .

A message from our Associate Principal A big thank you to you all for your continued support and encouragement of all our young people at Lord Grey Academy. This term has been quite a long term however another fantastic time for our community as we go from strength to strength. I feel very privileged and proud to be working alongside some very special and talented individuals. As such we are all committed to securing the best possible outcomes and successes in all that we do.

We are so proud to have won 3 awards in the Milton Keynes Education Awards - Secondary School of the Year, Maths Team of the Year and Lifetime Achievement Award for Stuart Hoggard. We were also finalists in the National Education Today Awards held last week in London for Secondary School of the Year and Overall School of the Year.

Our Year 12 students have started their PSG pathway which is going very well. I hope you have seen the MK Citizen article on this unique opportunity on offer at Lord Grey. We are very proud of our young people.

Well done to our amazing Year 11 students for their hard work in their mocks. They also hit 98% percent in one week for their attendance which was phenomenal. Did you know if you attend school every day at Lord Grey you make a third of a grade progress in every subject by the end of year 11- that means your progress is in the top 30% in the UK!!! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year and winter break. Looking forward to seeing you all on 9th January 2024!

Samantha Satyanadhan

Paris St-Germain- Pathway at LG PSG Pathway in Sixth Form launched in September.

Academic Study + PSG Football the Parisian Way

Associate Principal

I chose LG as I felt it would provide me with an exciting opportunity to carry on my studies and I knew I'd have a strong and helpful staff to help me when I need it.

I chose the PSG course because I wanted to improve my footballing game with top-quality coaching.

I chose the PSG course I wanted to improve my skills in football as well as my knowledge of the game and I knew this would be the perfect way to do it.

Interested in our PSG pathway for September 2024-Book on our Open Evening- See our website for more details.

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LORD GREY CAN!

!

Lord Grey Academy won three awards at the MK Education Awards: Secondary School of the Year Maths Team of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award- Stuart Hoggard

Finalists in the National Education Today Awards!!

Many congratulations to Cadet Cooper at her passing out parade last night, completing her basic training successfully and receiving her beret pin and her 1 star badge.

We couldn’t be more proud of her, she’s worked hard to achieve this goal and now has her eyes set on joining the Army which we know she will be just as successful at achieving.

Food items donated by Staff and community for hampers for our community.

Alfie raised £117 for The Little Princess Trust by cutting and donating his hair DETERMINATION : AMBITION : CURIOSITY : CIVILITY : INTEGRITY

Inclusive Learning Faculty- Food All groups originally started with the understanding of where our food comes from i.e. ground, on trees, hot and cold countries and identifying healthy and unhealthy foods. All participants evidenced this with tasks where they had to identify such foods and they also learnt the basic rules of hygiene and how to conduct themselves in a safe environment when using implements and food ingredients.

We have been working collaboratively with our language dept when carrying out our life skills lesson where the cooking element of the week is linked to Spanish speaking countries and their foods. We have been researching and producing a fact sheet on the weekly task using IT. During our lesson we have been using our reading skills and comprehension to read and be directed with the list of ingredients and directions for the recipe. We have been using our numeracy skills to weigh and measure our ingredients plus oven temperatures. We have been using our physical skills mixing and co-ordinating the items being created.

We also did a session using our sensory system when we got to hold and feel fruits from Spanish speaking countries. They were able to taste them and share their experience and thoughts about how they smelled, tasted, felt. They researched facts about the fruits and what Spanish speaking country they originated from.

All pupils are able to talk about the hygiene around cooking, their experience of tasting new fruits, working collaboratively and sharing equipment, the foods we have made and why they were chosen. Lots of really good learning was done in a fun way where the barriers to learning were minimised and students' fears were overcome.

Thank you Mrs Murphy !

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LGA Sports Success Congratulations to Year 11 students: Amber and James who are demonstrating outstanding abilities in their individual sports.

Amber has been named as one of the top Wakeboarders for her age in the country and has been asked to attend the GB Wakeboard preseason training camp at Lunar Park in Spain. This could allow Amber to be selected for the National Team representing the Country. Amber also came 3rd in the National Championships.

James competed in the National Schools South Championships in October to represent Lord Grey Academy. He won GOLD and has become the National School Snowboarding Champion. What an inspirational young man you are and we are so proud of you!

🙂 Libby Leigh - Year 11 Trampolining Regional Champion

Alfie James and Ben K had rugby trails with u14s Midlands Academy (Bucks) the old Wasps club.

Year 11 basketballers won the MK Schools West basketball Tournament. Winning their group and beating St Pauls in the Final.

🙂

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Upcoming events and dates Year 11 Parents

First Day back

evening *

Tuesday 9th January

Thursday 11th

6th Form Open Evening * Thursday 25th January

January

Year 12 and 13 Parents Evening *

Monday 19th -

Thursday 8th February

Sunday 25th

Thursday 28th

February

March

Easter Friday 29th March - Sunday 14th April

HALF TERM

*

Year 8 Parents Evening (remote)

Denotes these events are face to face at Lord Grey. Please book via schoolcloud.

Top half: Old style uniform can be worn until needing to be replaced.

Lord Grey Green Blazer purchased from Maisies or Kedalph.

White collared shirt (can be worn short or long sleeved) tucked in.

Lord Grey coloured Tie - to be purchased from Maisies or Kedalph.

Black V neck plain jumper or plain black sleeveless V necked jumper.

(Not to be worn in place of the blazer) Bottom Half: Choice of the following: Black trousers - straight/boot cut style No jeans, no leggings, no jean style trousers to be worn.

Black Knee length plain pleated skirt or the Lord Grey Kilt knee length.

Tailored grey or black school knee length shorts.

Plain all black shoes/trainers with no different coloured logos etc.

Skin tone or black tights (not footless).

Additional items School bag large enough to carry A4 books.

Pencil case with the basic required equipment.

Knowledge Organiser Folder- Issued by Lord Grey

Uniform

PE Kit - Compulsory

Optional - LG Black and Emerald from Kedalph or Maisies

Black Plain shorts Black plain t shirt

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Science

Royal Institute come to Lord Grey STEM in Action

rigb.org./christmaslectures- Lord Grey are invited to the Royal Institute Christmas Lectures "Professor Mike Wooldridge will tackle the big questions and unravel the myths of AI research in the 2023 CHRISTMAS LECTURES from the Royal Institution, supported by CGI, to be broadcast for children aged 8 to 18, and adults, on BBC Four on the 26th, 27th and 28th Dec at 20:00.

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Creative Technology It has been an exciting term in CT, but not without a few challenges!

Finally the transformation of the DT block has been completed. This took slightly longer than expected but the results were definitely worth the wait. We now have 3 practical classrooms, and 2 computer rooms. Students are so impressed when they walk into the revamped DT block. It is a fantastic environment for them to learn new skills and develop their independence.

All CT subjects have run GCSE targeted intervention sessions, to help students make the necessary progress needed to achieve the grades they deserve.The CT staff have worked tirelessly to ensure the sessions help to close the gaps, and target the pupils who will benefit the most. As always the staff go above and beyond.

In Art we took all the Art and Design students in year 11 and 13 to the Tate Modern Gallery. Students explored the collection, sketched and photographed their favourite pieces, ready to add to their sketchbooks, as well as to help them to develop their own ideas. It was a thoroughly successful day and a big shout out goes out to Mr Kravec for his amazing organisational skills.

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Careers In September, the Careers Team started collecting the destination information for all our leavers ( Year 11/12/13). A big task to track down students, but really useful to find out what they have gone on to do and to celebrate their successes.

Early in the term, the Careers Team delivered a Year 9/10/11 assembly. Focus for Year 11 was on Options, Year 10 on work experience and DHL Outward Bound Programme and Year 9 on GCSE Options. This year goes by very fast for Year 11 and 13.

Year 11 Passport to Success Evening This year we ran a very successful evening for all year 11 parents/carers and students to attend. The attendance was 94%. A very good mix of Further /Higher Educational establishments, employers and training providers were invited to attend. Paul Thompson from SEMLEP delivered a talk on local/regional LMI and Mr Killen talked about life at LGA. Feedback from both parents and exhibitors was very positive and encouraging.

Year 10 Work Experience/DHL Outward Bound Initiative.

We are hoping to offer work experience to our Year 10 students in May 2024. Letters and application forms for parents/students have been sent out by parent mail. The Careers Team is compiling a portfolio of employer contacts. We will be using staff, alumni and any other contacts locally for support. DHL are offering 24 Year 10 students to undertake their outward bound initiative. This will take place at the same week as work experience week.

Visitors This term has really highlighted the value of external visitors: Passport to Success evening, career assemblies and career related events we have been fortunate to take students to. This term we took 12 Year 12 students to the Law Festival at the University of Buckingham, 15 Year 12/13 students to Aimee / Teen Tech at Land Rover, 18 year 9 students to the STEM Festival at MK Innovates. University of Oxford came to deliver a talk on Russell Group Universities to Year11/12/13 students in the lecture theatre - 22 students attended. 12 year 9 girls enjoyed the day at Nifty Lift as part of the STEM initiative.

All students have enjoyed learning.

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New Sixth Form study area

New Sixth Form Kitchen

We are really proud of our site and wish to maintain a good level of maintenance across all our facilities which span across the school campus.

To aid us with this students are asked to respect the property and refrain from causing damage. Students are asked to report any damage, graffiti or mis use to an adult as soon as possible.

The whole school community works well together and we are proud of our high standards and the wonderful young people we have in our community.

Keep an eye on our Social Media, Facebook and Twitter. We aim to promote events, circulate vacancies and above all celebrate the achievements and efforts of our young people.

Social media is a wonderful tool to celebrate the outcome in class, inspiration gained from trips, visits and visitors to school and show the students determination, curiosity and civility in all that they do in school, after school and across the local community.

Year 12 BTEC Level 3 HSC students to the Tutor2U HSC Unit 1 Grade Booster Revision Conference yesterday in London.

Vocational Studies

They were exemplary throughout the day, and showed curiosity, determination and ambition when taking part in the tasks given. They were forthcoming in contributing to answers, taking part in multiple choice quizzes and playing the role of examiner, by marking 10 mark questions, which they will face in their forthcoming exam in January.

The students demonstrated maturity and civility, which enabled them to enjoy some shopping time during their lunch hour at Westfield Shopping Centre, and returned to the conference on time, ready to carry on learning.

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Performing Arts

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Humanities Faculty

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Library and Reading The LRC has undergone an amazing transformation over the past year and is looking better than ever! With a brand-new class area which houses a class-set of ChromeBooks and many soft-seating areas for students to enjoy their love of reading, the LRC is offering more and more exciting opportunities.

NOVEMBER Neil Gaiman – Online Author Workshop : In November, Miss Daglish hosted a live, online Q&A session with Neil Gaiman – author of best-selling books ‘Coraline’ and ‘The Graveyard Book’. Thirty of our students had the chance to learn about Gaiman’s writing journey and ask questions about the role and processes of becoming a writer.

Q&A session with Neil Gaiman in the LRC this morning.

Stuart LawrenceAuthor and brother of Stephen Lawrence attended LG

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Library and Reading SEPTEMBER – PRESENT - Reading Lessons: This term Miss Daglish has hosted two incredibly successful reading sessions with KS3 students; these have offered our students an opportunity to explore the significant cultural events of ‘Black History Month’ and ‘Diwali’. During BHM students engaged with a range of rich and vibrant texts from over fifteen Black authors and explored the powerful messages behind their writing. During Diwali, students explored the history of Diwali and the beautifully illustrated text ‘Ramayana: The Divine Loophole’ by Sanjay Patel. These sessions will continue to celebrate significant cultural events on a halftermly basis.

DECEMBER - STAR Reading Assessments: KS3 Students undertook the first of three STAR reading assessments this academic year. These assessments are important in helping us to gain an understanding of students current reading abilities and for us to measure their progress across the year.

At Lord Grey Academy, we recognise that reading has one of the largest impacts on academic outcomes for students and therefore we strive to ensure all students are given the best possible chances of success in their studies and lives.

These reading levels will be shared on Go4Schools in January – please take some time to look at your child’s reading attainment and support them in celebrating their successes. If student attainment comes out significantly below their chronological reading age, we will be launching reading intervention sessions to support our students in developing their comprehension and decoding skills. If your child is selected for these sessions, home-contact will be made in January.

DECEMBER - Stuart Lawrence’s Author Visit: On December 14th, Lord Grey Academy was delighted to welcome Stuart Lawrence, author of Silence is not an Option and brother of Stephen Lawrence.

Stuart delivered three poignant and inspiring talks to our KS3 students, who got the chance to learn about the power of empathy and hard work, about the day to day role of respect and the importance of perseverance in overcoming the obstacles we are faced with in our lives. Some of our ‘Social Justice’ competition entrants also had the chance to have one-to-one meaningful conversations with Stuart, during which they learned about his reading preferences, his experience as a writer as well as his meeting with Nelson Mandela. #IamaRevolutionary

DETERMINATION : AMBITION : CURIOSITY : CIVILITY : INTEGRITY

DETERMINATION : AMBITION : CURIOSITY : CIVILITY : INTEGRITY

Year 7

Year 7 students have sailed into Lord Grey Academy with full steam! It has been a busy 14 weeks, making new friendships, getting used to new systems and surroundings, achieving all this whilst embracing the Lord Grey Way. The students have successfully transitioned from primary to secondary and enjoyed the mature style of learning with independence. New vocabulary in the classroom and hundreds of opportunities to join in clubs and activities. A lot of the time it has been hard to choose for the Year 7 students when there are so many opportunities.

Pictured here are Mrs Maxwell and Mrs Gulati's tutor group grasping the 'Artemis Fowl' reading challenge. A few hat props made it more interesting.

There is much excitement as the Lord Grey Performing Arts faculty are putting on a production of 'Matilda Jnr' in the Spring Term and rehearsals have been particularly noisy, with the cast learning songs and lines from the show. 'Revolting Children' can be heard resonating from the practice rooms.

Mrs Wasway, Mr Crook and Miss Koracevic are particularly proud of our new community and their Lord Grey Can attitude.

Here's to a magnificent festive end of 2023 and we look forward to even more adventures in 2024 together!

DETERMINATION : AMBITION : CURIOSITY : CIVILITY : INTEGRITY

Year 8 A huge well done to Oliver, Millie, Kai and Dylan for stepping up and taking part in an activity during our assembly with our Anti Bullying Ambassadors, this takes great courage, Well Done!

Year 8 have done a fantastic job of making this term a successful one; they have demonstrated impressive levels of Determination and we are very proud of everything they have achieved so far.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

We are looking forward to seeing you again after a well-rested break, raring to be full of more Curiosity in 2024.

Year 8, continue to be Awesome!

🙂

Year 8 enjoying the Lily Jo Assembly, organised by the Ethos Team.

With the courageous Jayden taking a step out of his comfort zone and completing a challenge in front of the whole of Year 8, Jayden showed true determination.

Joshua, Oliva, Emmaline, Maria, Lexi, Andy have shown how Amazing they are showing true Ambition by constantly working hard in Maths.

We are so proud of you

This term, we have an unexpected but very welcome new member of staff in year 8 - Jack has been stepping up and leading the class during his Science lessons!

In an ambitious leap, Jack guided students through the world (and tricky language!) of bio-robotics.

He followed this by encouraging curiosity and developing their understanding after a practical activity showing diffusion in action.

Jack's fairness and consistency when managing students showcased his civility and integrity, and the rest of the class are so proud of what he has achieved, and can't wait until he can lead them again!

It is so lovely to see students on their path to a bright future, and Jack is yet another example of how Lord Grey Can!

A Huge well done to Cody, Oliver, Destiny, Emmaline, Maureen, Emily, Jacob, McKinley, Ailsa, Kayleigh, Habiba and Chizara, who were all nominated by their Form Tutors, Miss Bruin and Mrs Bowen for following the Lord Grey Way. They all show true Determination to work hard and show Civility.

🙂

Riley went above and beyond to look out for another student to ensure that they were being looked after, this shows such a kind and caring nature, We are so proud of Riley for showing true Civility.

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Year 9 Year 9 has had a very great start to the academic year, with lots going on, including many volunteering to be a part of our recent open day on 12th October.

At the moment year 9 have had 2380 Determination Value Points 2826 Ambition Value Points 515 Curiosity Value Points 1542 Civility Value Points 789 Integrity Value Point Well done to Julia attendance prize draw winner for this term

Well done to RubyOverall student last half in Year 9

717 Collaboration Value Points

Also, as a year group we have been working on creating a charity group, who will work together to fundraise for a charity of choice. We are working towards gifting the local residential homes with a lovely gift for Christmas. So far we have fifteen year 9's who have volunteered to be a part of this charity group!

Thank you to all those students who have volunteered.

Our year 9’s have been working very hard in lessons and have shown much determination!

Several year 9 girls went to Niftylift to experience what it is like to work in the Lastly, well done to Mohammed who has achieved a engineering sector. This took place on new grading at kickboxing. We are really proud of him!

Wednesday 15th November. We heard Congratulations to Alfie and Ben as who have recently that the girls loved this experience and taken part in the u14s Midlands Academy (Bucks) , thoroughly enjoyed being in an the old Wasps club. environment that boosts their understanding of the working world. They were able to experience going onto the machinery, reaching heights of 92 ft! Miss Awojobi and Mrs Stevens are very proud of them all for taking this opportunity and representing Lord Grey so well, whilst they were there.

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Year 10

Year 10 students celebrated their success in demonstrating our Lord Grey values of Determination, Ambition, and Integrity with a Hot chocolate. Well done, we are extremely proud of you.

🙂 🙂

🙂

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Year 11

Amina and Louisa - Debate - Year 11 Amina and Louisa were involved in their first debate against Year 13 boys from St Pauls. Both girls were outstanding and represented Lord Grey Academy with pride.

Country at the Olympics.

Year 11 Charity - Willen Hospice A massive well done to our amazing year 11 students and Tin Soldiers Scooter club who together have raised again more money to support the Willen Hospice.

At the present moment in time we have raised £1,446.97 and we are on our way to raise our target goal of over £2000.

Kindness in year 11 Thank you so much to Callum in year 11 who brought in a marrow for Mrs Kirby from his garden. Callum really enjoys gardening and grows lots of different fruits and vegetables at home supported by his family.

So kind of you Callum.

Fareeha Volunterring for Royal British Legion .

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Year 11 Year 11 Success - Recognition Award.

We continue to celebrate the success of year 11 who have this year shown continued determination to achieve and focus.

Year 11 students have now received personal praise from our Principal, Mrs Satyanadhan.

Well done Year 11, LORD GREY CAN.

Reward Breakfast Post Mocks for Year 11 Year 11 would like to thank our Principal, Mrs Satyanadhan for the kind gift of breakfast for the year group after they completed their mock exams.

They were so appreciative and had a great time in the school canteen with their tutors and friends.

Well done also to the whole of Year 11 for their continued focus, hardwork and determination to succeed, you are a credit to Lord Grey Academy. LORD GREY CAN.

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Sixth Form

Careers Events: Aiimi and Jaguar Land Rover

🙂 .

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Sixth Form

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Trips and Visits this Term "This has been a very exciting term at Lord Grey for opportunities outside of the classroom, students have visited Bletchley Park, the Tate Modern art gallery, attended the MK Innovates STEM festival, White City Westfield shopping centre, MK Law Fest, NiftyLift and the Royal Institute amongst many more! All of the students on the trips have embodied the Lord Grey Way and have had great experiences. It's been great to give so many students opportunities to develop outside of the classroom. Here's to more exciting trips in 2024!"

🙂 Trips and Visits this Term so far: Bletchley Park Buckingham University Howe Park Wood Aiimi Headquarters Bletchley Town Centre Tate Modern Gallery Oxford Brookes University Niftylift Westfield White City Royal Institute Cafe Ole Tapas Jeanette’s Flower nursery and farm British Library

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New phone for Christmas? How are you keeping your child safe online?

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School Council Congratulations to all of those students who have been successful in their applications to Student Council and to those students who have retained their positions. I would also like to extend my congratulations to all those students who went through the application process as we had over 50 applications with less than half getting positions. Growing the student council and student voice opportunities increases the impact that the students can have on the school so we are excited to welcome the new members, and for students applications next year when they KS3 reopen. Hannah Loveland Emily E07JBU

Amina C07CRA Megan CO7CRA Keira E07SCC Ewan LO7SPN KS4 Chloe E08MPA Hayden L10DCH Stephanie E08MPA Faith E10RBE Zainab EO8EPR Cody T10AMX Alanna EO8 ERO Paige E10DCN Caitlin L08DVA Samantha L10MMO Oliver E08ERO Megan E10RBE David EO8EPR Salma C10MCO Grace E09LKA Elise T11HLV Ruby L09FIL Giulia T11HLV Lily CO9KXH Liam T11HLV Caitlin C09LPH Isla T11HLV Julia CO9LPH Fareeha T11RRI Olivia L09NMC Imisi T11RRI Charlotte C09 MPE Dione E11HWE KS5 Abby Y12TLY Inci Y12HBR Millie Y13ALB Lilly Y13SPA Ella-May Y13SPA

Children In Need Winner of PSG merchandise.

Paulo Pereira our PSG Head Coach

Orla C11MBR Jasmine L11MHA Jade L11MHA Louisa T11JME Beverley E11JMA Jennifer L11MVI Jahdell C11MBR Kayla T11JME Robin L11MVI Sharan C10SSU

“All members of school council who are new or who have retained their seats completed some team building activities during one of their weekly meetings.

Students demonstrated great collaboration and curiosity to get to know one another so they can make a positive impact on Lord Grey Academy through run initiatives.”

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A reminder from our Attendance Officer of the importance of Attendance to School

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We have seen some fantastic experiences; a lot of determination and some real ambition this year.

What new heights will we reach in 2024?

The sky's the limit because

‘Lord Grey Can.’

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