Rockwood Academy - Newsletter - 10th Edition December 2019

The

Rockwood Standard

The Newsletter of Rockwood Academy 10th Edition December 2019

HEADTEACHER CONTENTS 01

Section 1 Headteacher Message

02

Section 2 Core Values

03 - 04 Section 3 Features 05 - 08 Section 4 Curriculum 09

Section 5 Pastoral Managers

10

Section 6 Parental Engagement

11 - 15 Section 7 Partnerships 16

Upcoming Events

17

Building Update

18

Governors Head Boy / Head Girl

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Section 1

DEAR STUDENTS, PARENTS AND COMMUNITY, As we approach the end of another busy and successful term, I would like to take this opportunity to thank parents and carers for your continued support of the Academy. We are thrilled to end the autumn term with the Ofsted judgement that Rockwood continues to be a “Good” school. The Ofsted report makes special mention of the good work we are doing in all aspects of educating your children, not just academically but also with regards to their wider personal development.

As a CORE school, we are very proud of our excellent school and it goes without saying that we will continue to ensure that Rockwood is a place where students come first.

The report is available to download from our website and paper copies are available from the Rockwood reception.

I would like to thank the students for their hard work and achievements so far this term. Once again, we have many success stories to share and good news items to celebrate together. I would also like to thank the staff for their dedication and commitment to excellence.

I am pleased to announce that the £14 million expansion programme is on track and there will be opportunities to attend meetings with our contractors Morgan Sindall in the spring term for further updates.

I’d like to share some of the amazing highlights from the autumn term which you can also read more about in the Academy newsletter.

• The students have nearly hit their target of raising £2000 for charities including MacMillan, Children in Need and Save the Children through various fundraising events including a whole school Christmas fair.

• Our choir performed as part of Black History Month to various audiences,

singing about being strong and looking to the future.

• Our theatre club continues to go from strength to strength as they enjoy several productions at the REP this term.

• MFL students took part in the annual European Day of Languages, a great opportunity for the students to explore, research and learn about languages around the world. In addition, they organised a cultural enrichment day celebrating the Arabic language contribution to the common heritage of humanity.

Students raised their cultural awareness of the Arab world including: clothes, music, traditions, calligraphy and much more.

• Year 8 Rockwood students have been competing in a Junior Engineering Engagement Programme (JEEP) with the Transformation Trust.

Students worked on a range of STEM challenges as well as developing their research, communication and presentation skills.

• The Echo Eternal project continues with the filming in memory of the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda.

• We are extremely proud to have gained Refugee Welcome School status last month in recognition of the commitment to improving the lives of refugees.

• I’m pleased that our year 11 students will be visiting Oxford and other Russell Group universities.

Thank you for your ongoing support to the academy, and on behalf of everyone at Rockwood, I’d like to wish you an enjoyable Christmas break and happy new year.

Yours faithfully, Ms Sofia Darr Headteacher

CORE VALUES COLLABORATION ECHO ETERNAL PROJECT Echo Eternal performance On Wednesday 13th October, a team of students from Rockwood Academy and Nansen Primary School performed an artistic commemoration of the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

They have been working on the performance for several weeks, collaborating with the professional artist Richard Shrewsbury.

The performance was based on the testimony of Marie Chantal Uwamahoro, a survivor of the genocide who has recently shared her story. Students used a mixture of sounds and visual expression to bring her story to a new audience.

Over seventy people attended the performance, including parents, pupils, teachers, governors and representatives from other schools. In the Q&A after the performance, the students emphasised how we must all work together to ensure genocides like this one never occur again.

Echo Eternal is a commemorative arts, media and civic engagement project delivered in schools for children of all ages, inspired by the testimony of survivors of the Holocaust and other genocides.

Trip to the Botanical Gardens A team of students from Years 8, 9 and 10, together with Year 5 students from Nansen Primary School, travelled to Birmingham Botanical Gardens on the 20th November to make a film about the experiences of Marie Chantal Uwamahoro, a survivor of the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

The Botanical Gardens were chosen for the filming as, during the genocide, Chantal was able to survive by hiding in bushes. We sought to capture this experience using the foliage of the Botanical Gardens.

The students worked alongside a professional film

crew, and director Paul Vyga, to make the film.

Students took on acting roles and also learnt about the technical side of film-making.

The trip formed part of the Echo Eternal Project.

Echo Eternal is a CORE-funded project which works with nineteen schools to commemorate and spread awareness about the Holocaust and other genocides.

Echo Eternal Project This year, as part of the Echo Eternal Project, students at the academy will be looking at the “Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda”. As a part of the project, students have already attended a journalism workshop in London, where they had the opportunity to work alongside renowned journalist Natasha Kaplinski. Students learnt about how such a topic would be covered in an interview. Students learnt about the planning which journalists carry out before they actually interview someone.

As a part of the Echo Eternal project the academy have been gifted the testimony of Marie Chantel Uwamahoro. Students had the opportunity to visit London and take part in the interview process working alongside Natasha Kaplinski who interviewed Marie and other survivors.

OPPORTUNITY SPANISH PEN PALS A group of Year 8 students are expanding their Spanish skills by becoming pen pals with a school in Málaga, Spain. 60 students have written letters to “El Platero”, a secondary school in the south of Spain.

Our students have written introductory pen pal letters including basic information about themselves and are eager to receive their replies from their pen pals after Christmas.

The idea behind the project is to impassion and engage students in learning Spanish. This is an

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exciting opportunity as is the first time that our school has been involved in a pen pal project.

Having written their first letter, the hope is that the students will be in regular correspondence with student from Spain. This will allow students to exchange linguistic skills and will broaden their cultural capital.

Next term Year 8 Arabic and French students also will start their pen pal project.

REMEMBERANCE DAY

All staff and students at Rockwood Academy honoured and showed their respect to those individuals who gave up their lives for our freedom during Remembrance Day. The History department created an SMSC form time activity which allowed form tutors and all students a chance to reflect on the noble and courageous contributions made by many during the

World Wars and explore the overall significance of Remembrance Day. A two minute silence was also held so that staff and students could have their own personal time for reflection and mark their respect for those that sacrificed their lives to uphold fundamental British values that we all love and cherish like: mutual respect, tolerance, liberty and democracy.

EXCELLENCE WINTER FESTIVAL On the evening of Tuesday 10th December, we were wowed by the talent of Rockwood’s music and drama students at the annual Winter Festival.

We welcomed a big audience into the main hall and raised money for our collection Winter Homeless Appeal. We will be donating to the Salvation Army, along with our shoeboxes, to make sure that homeless people in our area are supported over the cold winter season.

We really enjoyed watching a wide range of different

performers who played instruments, acted and sang beautifully. These included showcases from our brass, violin, steel pans, dhol and guitar Music Service teachers and from our fantastic year 10 drama BTEC students. We also heard the school band, school choir and lots of vocal soloists. It really was a spectacle, with excellent music, brilliant lights and decorations and even “real” snow!

We are looking forward to next year already!

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FEATURES SMSC With our continued focus on embedding SMSC (Social, Moral, Spiritual, Cultural) issues, pupils at the academy were involved in Black History Month. Black History Month is an opportunity for our pupils to celebrate the successes of so many different people and backgrounds contributing to the world we live in. Our pupils celebrated Black History Month between the 21st to 25th October 2019 by engaging in a range of different opportunities. Pupils explored the impact of Black History Month in form time, visited the Black History Month exhibition set up in the main hall, and undertook a number of curriculum lessons celebrating the achievement of the Black community to a wide range of academic areas.

As many of you will be aware, homelessness in Birmingham has become

a major issue in the city. Recent statistics have confirmed that up to 18 people declared homeless died in Birmingham, in 2018. In order to really highlight this issue in our Academy, the Winter Shoe Box appeal has been running throughout December. Staff and pupils have been busy in organising bringing in essential items that will be packed in shoe boxes ready to be delivered to our charity partner The Salvation Army.

The Tapestry play house will be visiting the academy on the 17th and 19th December to explore key themes and issues linked to extremism and radicalisation. The Tapestry play house has now been visiting the academy for the last three years and supports pupils to reflect and think about the dangers of different extremist groups aiming to radicalise young people.

On Thursday 19th December years 7-11 will be engaged in the first of three SMSC drop down days. Pupils will be working on a range of activities to explore the four main strands of British Values and how this impacts their daily life living in Britain.

STEM Finding the right opportunities to raise aspirations in Science has been a central facet of our work at Rockwood Academy.

When I first joined the school in 2017, our female students were predominantly choosing humanities over science subjects – in the 2018 cohort only 29% of girls took a STEM subject at A-level.

To resolve this we have embedded a curriculum that encouraged our students to develop a love of Science. This came from the school leadership team and Science team TLR holders who were keen to promote STEM subjects, as well as our Science teaching staff who wanted to promote these subjects to female students.

We want to develop academic skills but more than that, to empower our female students. Our parents want their children to progress into higher education, but the ethnic makeup of the community means that boys are often given more of an advantage than girls. We work with the community to reassure them that their girls were just as able and deserve the same levels of support. The students themselves struggled with a lack of female role models in STEM subjects; especially female students in Physics, having a female Head of Department teaching Physics helped to break down stereotypes.

We also work with external partners, finding them on social media or community outreach schemes. One project that developed our students’ scientific knowledge, as well as their softer skills, was a partnership with an international engineering and design company. The project involved 22 Year 10 students,

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deliberately chosen so that 60% were female, and split into teams. They chose between two projects, either one linked to HS2, where they had to design an engineering solution to do with railway construction, or designing a stadium for the Commonwealth Games.

The project was embedded into the curriculum and ran for the academic year, with students meeting with engineers on a monthly basis as well as visiting the company headquarters. This enabled them to put their academic learning into a realworld context, as well as spending time in a working environment.

At the end of the programme, both teams designed a prototype and then presented it to a team of professionals.

The corporation supported the students at all times, with engineers assisting in the design stages, the HR teams helping refine the presentations and offering feedback, and even helping with C.V. writing workshops and refining communications skills.

For students who will now happily describe themselves as “passionate” about a career in science, these opportunities are invaluable. They were clear that this insight into engineering careers and spending time with professional engineers helped develop their confidence, prepare them for college applications and interviews, and shone new light on the options available to them.

We build on these experiences by providing our own internal enrichment opportunities, like the weekly science club which has more than 35 Key Stage 3

students. This has been a feature of the curriculum since September 2018, and despite having launched initially with fewer girls than boys, is now made up of 55% female students.

Our focus on promoting the sciences is working. Last year 41% of our female students took an A Level science subject as a result of the weight we place on these subjects. Of the leavers, 21 out of 52 girls, 40%, applied for STEM courses this year.

What’s more, the 2019 GCSE cohort performed fantastically across the sciences, with half of our grades in Biology and Chemistry achieving grades 9-7. 92% of all students entered achieved a grade 5 and above. The previous year we didn’t even have a cohort for triple science, but the proportion of students getting 9-4 in combined science was only 55.4%.

But we don’t just measure our success by our results. One of our recent school leavers, a young lady who is going off to pursue a career in engineering, has explicitly told us that the experiences she had at school were what gave her the courage and conviction to follow her dreams. For me, that is more powerful than anything.

CAREERS The careers programme continues to go from strength to strength at Rockwood Academy. Providing essential careers guidance and enabling pupils first hand experiences of post 16 opportunities has become a key tool in young people aspiring to become professionals.

Rockwood Academy’s careers programme shaped on the key Gatsby benchmark enables all pupils from year 7-11 to explore careers in a range of different ways.

We have already had a very busy first term: Year 11 have been busy applying for post 16 courses at a range of different providers. The academy benefits from working with a range of post-16 providers, who work closely with our year 11s to ensure that they make the right choices. A number of post-16 providers will be on site in the New Year to interview our year 11 pupils and offer a range of opportunities to them.

Rockwood Academy had the pleasure of hosting Professor Ian Cummings OBE (Chief Executive, Health Education England) to speak to year 10 and year 11 about

careers in the NHS. Professor Ian spoke about how STEM related opportunities are becoming more and more available for young females to undertake. It was fantastic for year 10 and year 11 to hear from Professor Ian talk about the value of the NHS and how going forward it will be providing so many local opportunities to young people in a vast amount of fields.

We thank Professor Ian and his team in taking their time out to visit the academy.

Year 8 and 9 have already benefited from experiencing a range of employment workshops exploring the essential skills

needed to become successful in the world of work.

The academy continues to work hard in bringing further opportunities to our young people. In the New Year pupils across the academy will have the opportunity to work with some of the biggest firms in the UK: Barclays, Lloyds, KPMG. We have already secured the services of a range of employers who will be coming into the academy to speak to our pupils about the world of work.

READING CULTURE This term has seen many exciting new developments within the school library – beginning with the arrival of our new school librarian. The library now offers students many new exciting opportunities, such as our ‘Reading Champions’; working with 45 students from years’ 7-10 in order to engage and promote reading across the school.

In form time, the new ‘Book Box’ initiative has provided students with a range of new and exciting texts that are selected by the students to engage their interest in reading – with copies of all of the books available in the library for students to take home and enjoy. As well as this, students can now rent DVDs from the library – offering a wide range of films that link to the books on offer in school.

Our aim is to make the library a fun and engaging space for our students, including special ‘Halloween’ decoration and dressup, as part of our ‘Trick N’ Treat’ promotions for students to read books from our ‘Horror’ section – from ‘Goosebumps’ to ‘Twilight’, to classics like ‘Dracula’ and ‘Frankenstein’.

The library is also keen to promote afterschool involvement for students, with ‘Homework Club’ on Monday and Friday, ‘Games Club’ on Tuesday and Thursday and ‘Cinema Club’ on Wednesday – where students can watch films to support the curriculum as well as community events (such as watching ‘War Horse’ as part of the school commemoration of Remembrance Day on 11th November). All clubs run from 3:15pm until 4pm and are open to all students.

Additionally, with the upcoming opening of the Rockwood Annex Library, exclusively for year 7, the introduction of many new revision texts to support year 11 students with GCSE English, Maths and other subjects, as well as our Rockwood Radio station set to broadcast throughout the school – Rockwood Library has many exciting things to come!

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CURRICULUM ART How do we interpret a piece of art work?

Our students have been working hard to creatively express themselves through the theme, “Art for Refugees and Unhomed People”, skillfully using colour and silhouettes, depicting an example of the statement ‘Into the Light’.

BUSINESS AND COMPUTING The start of the year has been a busy one for the students in the Faculty of Computer Science, Enterprise and Media. Year 11 students have made an excellent start to the academic year as they prepare for success in their studies. BTEC Enterprise students are preparing for their external examination in Promotion and Finance. iMedia students are working hard in preparation for their controlled assessment in which they will be using a variety of technical skills to create a multimedia product. Year 9 Enterprise students have made an extremely positive start to the year

and are enjoying learning about enterprises and entrepreneurs.

KS3 students have started the year in a positive manner. Year 8 have learnt about how a computer operates and are now thoroughly enjoying their unit on Binary.

They are eagerly looking forward to beginning their programming units in the spring term and are engaged with their learning. All in all, it has been an extremely positive start to the academic year. Just a final note to say well done and keep up the hard work to all students from the Faculty of CSEM.

DRAMA This term saw the introduction of drama to our key stage 3 students at Rockwood Academy. In lessons they have been learning about key drama techniques such as Angel and Devil, Freeze Frames, Choral Speech and Thought Tracking whilst developing other acting skills. This has enabled our students to think about how they can communicate their ideas to an audience in a creative and effective way.

Students have also been using drama to explore societal issues such as racism, bullying and gender equality.

I am proud to say that our students have been working incredibly hard whilst developing key, transferable skills and

attributes; such as developing confidence, communication skills, problem solving, working in collaboration and sharing ideas.

We have already witnessed our students make clear progress in these areas.

Year 10 students have been working towards their BTEC Tech Award in Performing Arts qualification by exploring the styles of acting practitioners such as Brecht, Frantic Assembly and Stanislavski.

The students have approached the varying styles with an open mind and have been exploring how theatre practitioners such as Actors and Directors approach their role in the different styles.

ENGLISH Rockwood Academy’s English department respect. Needless to say, Rockwood celebrated Black History Month by exploring Academy’s pupils aren’t afraid of debating John Agard’s poem, ‘Checking Out Me complicated questions!

History’, with students in Years 8-10. Pupils learnt about the lesser-known historical figures from the poem and listened to Agard’s performance of his poetry before working collaboratively to comment on and analyse the texts, applying the skills they have been mastering in their lessons. These lessons sparked lively discussion about cultural identity and their own education, leading them to consider the information they are given in their own history lessons!

All year groups considered the poem’s themes with enthusiasm, maturity and

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GEOGRAPHY Our amazing Geographers at Rockwood Academy in year 8 have been working on weather and climate and looking at how tropical storms are formed. They have been learning about how the weather affects them and impacts the world around them and they have created some amazing pieces of work.

HISTORY In KS3, students are currently exploring the social consequences of slavery and how society reacted to treatment of slaves particularly focusing on the abolitionist movement in Britain. Year 7 students are currently consolidating their key historical skills so that they are ready to tackle historical sources in depth and provide well developed explanations to their answers. Year 9 and year 10 pupils have

been working hard towards learning the new content and skills needed for their GCSE History course. Year 10 is currently exploring conflict and tension and year 9 are focusing on America 1920-1970.

Both year groups are working hard and continually build up their key skills so they are ready to take their exams in year 11.

HOSPITALITY AND CATERING Students have been given the opportunity to lead from the front by actively leading segments of teaching and learning in the classroom. This allows students to build confidence, self-esteem and realize that they can lead through modelling. The benefits continue, as they are able to recall in detail what they have learned as they demonstrate specific concept to their peers.

Students then embrace and take ownership over the learning and further develop excellent communication skills.

Students are encouraged to help out more at home with the process of meal preparation, this will allow them to show off some of the techniques that are learning in Food Studies/ Hospitality and Catering.

MATHS Students across years 8, 9 and 10 have been working very hard in preparation for unit assessments. The present year 11 students are well into their final year of GCSE Mathematical study and have just completed their first round of mock examinations. Targeted intervention for pupils will commence early in the spring term. The new year 7 cohort have settled in well and will be following the core skills curriculum over the next three years in preparation to start their GCSE in year 10.

Upcoming events in the Mathematics faculty include: • Maths Team Challenge for year 8 and 9 pupils • Maths Feast for pupils in years 10 • Year 7 Puzzle day • Year 11 Revision Maths Relay

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MFL The Great MFL Bake Off In celebration of ‘European Day of Languages’ and to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support, our Modern Foreign Languages department held their first European themed cake decorating competition. Year 7 & 8 entered into the competition with their decorated cakes and our talented student bakers should be extremely proud of their creations and unique designs!

The three top cakes were awarded with prizes: In first place, year 7 student Iyaan Hussain 7F impressed the MFL department with his French flag themed cake. He received a personalised apron with his name and a photo of his themed cake.

In second place, year 7 student Laiba Bibi 7E who created a replica small flags on top of cupcakes of different countries.

She received a set of 84 cake decoration utensils.

In 3rd place, year 8 student Nomaan Ahmed 8B created a cake represent world peace day. He received a Children’s Baking Book.

European Day of Languages On the 26th September 2019 year 7 took part in the annual European Day of Languages through a well-established competition at Rockwood Academy. It was a great opportunity for the year 7 students to explore, research and learn about languages around the world.

Students took part in a research competition where they had to find out what language each staff member was representing around school. This was a successful event as our students had

the opportunity to explore further their linguistics skills. A massive well done to the 2019 Winner, Year 7D Aisha Irfan.

World Arabic Language Day This month all the Arabic classes and KS3 MFL students had the opportunity to celebrate the UNESCO World Arabic Language Day which is observed annually on December 18th.

In the MFL department we organised a cultural enrichment day to celebrate the Arabic language contribution to the common heritage of humanity. This was a great occasion at Rockwood Academy where students raised their cultural awareness of the Arab world including, clothes, music, traditions, calligraphy and much more.

Throughout the day students were involved in an Arabic calligraphy workshop which was preceded by a brief description on the history of the Arabic calligraphy and the different forms of Calligraphy. During the Calligraphy workshop students had the opportunity to perform some of these examples and write their own names in an Arabic calligraphy style.

The day culminated with a range of performances such as singing, acting and reading poems which were entirely linked to the love of learning Arabic. All was performed by our confident and enthusiastic Arabic students who should be proud on their performances as it was a pleasure to watch and listen to their linguistic skills of such a traditional and beautiful language.

MUSIC The Music Department has been very busy this half term, particularly with our new cohort of year 7 students! We have really enjoyed welcoming lots of excited new students to the department and it has been great to see so many students getting involved in music.

Year 7 have been starting their musical education by learning about the building blocks of all music – the musical elements!

We used these to make some brilliant vocal performances using our names as the lyrics. We’ve now moved on to looking at the music of Africa and students are doing a great job of performing rhythms in a whole class using our Djembe drums. Year 8 have been doing some performance work as well and have practised some excellent performances of the Easy Blues whilst Years 9 and 10 are looking at rhythmic music from around the world. Finally, Year 11 have been working really hard on their Concerto Through Time unit and put in some fantastic effort in their November mock

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exams – keep up the hard work boys!

Outside of the classroom we have had lots of fantastic music making happening across the week. Our keyboard club and karaoke club are full whilst our choir gave five wonderful performances as part of Black History Month assemblies. The students, from year 7 to year 11, sang a song about being strong and looking to the future instead of getting stuck looking at any problems.

We are busily preparing for a very musical time of year at the end of term!

Dates for your Diary: • Wednesday 4th December (Lunchtime) – Open Mic in the Main Hall • Tuesday 10th December (Evening) – Winter Festival Concert • Tuesday 28th January 2020 – CORE:US Choir students perform at the Town Hall

PE It has been another busy term in Physical Education. We are excited that the autumn term saw the introduction of dance on to the curriculum program, and in a short space of time it has become a very popular addition.

In Key Stage 3, the boys have been developing their fitness knowledge and basketball skills, whilst the girls are learning about handball and dance.

The attitude shown has been excellent with students showing a real thirst for knowledge to improve their learning and development in these new activities. In Key Stage 4, the boys have been working on personal fitness and handball, whilst the ladies have been taking ownership of their learning, developing their tactical and leadership skills in football.

In Year 11 BTEC Sport, students have been developing their knowledge of the exam component in preparation for forthcoming exams. It is vitally important students build upon this knowledge in lessons by revising independently, to achieve the best mark possible. In Year 10, students are developing their sporting

knowledge in preparation for their controlled assessment.

Interform activities have been introduced this term and will continue throughout the course of the year. The healthy competition has really bought the best out of all students, with students working collaboratively in order to win points and be the best form in their particular year group.

Congratulations this term go to: 7A and 7H in Year 7, 8A in Year 8, 9B in year 9, 10A in Year 10 and 11B in Year 11.

In extra-curricular time we have seen a wide variety of activities take place during lunchtime and after school. New activities have been taking place including dance which has proven extremely popular.

Badminton, basketball and football have taken centre stage this term, with new activities taking place in the spring term.

Last week we had the opportunity to take a group of 20 students to watch the ATP Tennis Championships at the 02 Arena in London. The students thoroughly enjoyed the day, being able to see first-hand world class athletes in such an iconic setting.

The highlight was students and staff alike, having the opportunity to see one of the greatest tennis players ever, Roger Federer in action.

RE Religious Education at Rockwood Academy involves looking at beliefs and practices in all major religions. Currently, year 8 are exploring Sikhism and year 7 are learning about how beliefs vary

across all major world religion. Students have been learning about relevant worldwide issues such as stewardship, the environment and the impact actions can have on society and the community.

SCIENCE Our Science students have been exceptionally busy this term representing the school in competitions, taking part in a range of workshops, practical activities, Science shows and representing the Academy in an external STEM development programme.

Below is a flavour of what some of our students got up to during this last term.

Our Year 7 students are completing a Junior Engineering Engagement Programme (JEEP) with the Transformation Trust. Rockwood Academy is one of three schools in the West Midlands to run this programme.

Students are working on a range of STEM challenges as well as developing their research, communication and presentation skills. We are looking forward to hearing about their innovative solutions!

Some of the Year 8 students have been learning about the Physics behind rockets and future space flights! Students designed and built their own paper rockets and launched them, using an air

rocket launcher. Our students were keen to maximise the range of the rocket and hit the targets!

In the run up to Christmas, students from across the Academy are attending festive science lectures and pantomimes to learn more about Science in every day life. We are looking forward to taking our KS3 students to the University of Birmingham to learn “How to put Santa back together again�!

Our KS4 GCSE students are visiting the Arena Theatre in Wolverhampton to discover how Medicine has evolved over the times, through an interactive pantomime.

The Rockwood science team are very excited to offer our students unique and engaging STEM opportunities. Through equipping our students with invaluable skills, experiences and opportunities, we aim to prepare them for a society where STEM careers are transforming the world in which we live.

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PASTORAL MANAGERS’ MESSAGES YEAR 7 - MS SHAHEEN It is never easy leaving primary school and starting at a new school. For some students going to a school full of new faces and leaving friends and teachers they’ve known and become fond of behind, can be very daunting. Learning rules and changing your lifestyle to adjust to the Rockwood way of life can be very over whelming for some students.

As the pastoral manager of year 7, I am pleased to have been able to be a part of the transition, working with and observing our students settle in, making new friends, building good relationships with their teachers, beginning to learn new subjects and gaining new experiences.

Year 7 have enjoyed taking part in events like

Comic Relief and helped raise money to help towards changing young people’s lives. All students in year7 took part in the languages competition and it was a great way to meet teachers who wouldn’t normally teach them and practice greetings in a different language.

Some students have been a part of the Science project ‘JEEP’ and are thoroughly enjoying learning all about engineering. We have some very keen musicians, learning musical instruments once a week such as the tabla , violin, guitar and others have joined the school choir. The sportier students amongst us have joined clubs, like football and badmington and are enjoying developing new skills.

YEAR 8 - MS SAHOTA It has been a fantastic start to the new academic year; I am privileged to have the opportunity to support Year 8 on their journey this year. On a weekly basis Year 8 take part in many co-curricular activities in school. Year 8 have had the exciting opportunity to join Combined Cadets Force which includes the option to learn how to play the drums in Cadets.

In addition, a group of Year 8 students have

made an excellent start in demonstrating their resilience and building confidence as they take part in a 12 week Aim Higher programme.

As their Pastoral Manager, I am excited to be supporting year 8 to embed their academic skills to ensure they Know More, Remember More and Do More, to reinforce learning, so they are in a stronger academic position when they choose their options in Year 9.

YEAR 9 - MR KHAN Year 9, have had a great year so far with some fantastic opportunities to date. Whilst education is at the forefront of the Academy; extracurricular activities have further shaped the experiences our pupils have received.

They have been fortunate enough to be part of the Echo Eternal Project, the Year 9 Cadets

are going from strength to strength and have learned many skills that they are excited about putting into practice with the many trips they will be going on in the coming months. On a weekly basis Year 9 pupils are encouraged to take part in fitness, basketball and football which they really enjoy.

YEAR 10 - MS WALKER It has been a wonderful start to Year 10, with students going from strength to strength in their chosen GCSE subjects. I am immensely proud of the high standards Year 10 have set in terms of attendance, behaviour and attitude towards learning. We are very proud of all our students here at Rockwood and encourage

them all to be independent and resilient individuals.

A number of Year 10 pupils have now been made prefects and I would like to take the opportunity to congratulate them on their new role.

YEAR 11 - MR ALI It has been an exciting start to the New Year for Year 11 students as we continue to prepare for those very important GCSE examinations. I am immensely proud of the high standards year 11 have set in terms of behaviour, attitude, excellent attendance and punctuality.

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all students and parents in achieving another 100% turn out for Learning Review Evening. It gives me great pleasure to be leading such a great, hard working year

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group who have shown determination and hunger in trying to succeed in their GCSE this can be seen by the high number turn out to revision and support sessions after school and on Saturdays.

We are very proud of all our students here at Rockwood and encourage them to be independent and resilient individuals.

Currently year 11 are preparing for a day trip to build resilience and team building exercises going into their GCSE exams.

I know Year 7 are very excited about the Christmas festivities as am I. 2019 has really been a fantastic year for our Year 7.

Well done to Year 7 for all their effort so far this year and I hope you have a well deserve break.

PARENTAL ENGAGEMENT LEARNING REVIEW EVENINGS This term has seen us welcome all families, from all year groups to Rockwood. We have held Learning Review Evenings for all year groups, which have seen collaboration at its best between the teachers, families and the students.

One of the highlights has been the amazing turn out to Year 11 Learning Review Evening. Year 11 families and the year 11 pastoral team ensured that 100% of families know how their child is progressing, what we are doing to lead to success in the summer and what they can do at home to support. We look forward to many more opportunities to share successes in the coming term.

OPEN EVENING Year 6 Open Evening saw us welcome our potential new Year 7 students for September 2020. The evening was well attended. It is fair to say that parents and students alike, who were new to the academy, were impressed by the variety of opportunities we offer our students, as well as the broad and balanced curriculum we offer from Years 7 to 11.

The evening saw performances shared in music and drama, a cultural experience in MFL and RE, as well as many other departments set up to showcase the intricacies of their subjects in secondary school.

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PARTNERSHIPS BEACON SCHOOL Rockwood Academy, a UCL Beacon School for Holocaust Education Rockwood Academy became a Beacon School for Holocaust Education in 2018/2019, with the aim of helping to improve the quality of Holocaust education. We believe the fast pace and turbulent nature of the world we live in today means it is extremely important to provide students with a sound academic understanding of the Holocaust which is supported by research from UCL and underpinned with the testimonies of survivors. We feel this will help to both enrich and broaden students understanding of how genocides can happen, whilst helping to provide and nurture greater tolerance and respect for all.

Beacon School As a Beacon School, Rockwood Academy is working with the Centre for Holocaust Education which is a part of the UCL institute of Education. The Centre’s

researchers and experts in Holocaust education, supported by their dedicated administration team, have worked tirelessly to bring the latest research to our classrooms. This training and support has allowed Rockwood Academy to serves as a dynamic hub which helps to co-ordinate a network of local schools, helping them to develop confidence, proficiency and excellence in Holocaust teaching and learning. The collaboration and support of UCL has allowed Rockwood to use largescale research to ensure that approaches, activities and materials are specifically designed to meet classroom needs.

Collaboration with Birmingham University Rockwood Academy will be working in collaboration with the University of Birmingham and trialling the use of testimony as a medium to educate students. This is an exciting opportunity and will mean students and staff will have the chance to work with the very latest research in their studies.

CORE-US Students from CORE:US choir (A big choir with students from across all of the CORE schools) have started rehearsing for a performance at Birmingham Town Hall in January and our band and Music Service teachers performed in our showcase of talent in the Winter Festival! The turnout and support were greatly appreciated.

ROCKWOOD ACADEMY RADIO IS LIVE! Students from year 7 to year 10 have recently taken part in a training session on how to use our brand-new radio station. Students learnt how to use microphones, how to go live and how to use jingles and BEDS (Background music) to make a radio show really exciting. We thoroughly enjoyed having training from Russel, our very own radio guru!

Afterwards the students wrote their own radio show with sections on the weather, current news and interesting discussion topics. We even had a live email address with shout outs coming in from across the school!

All the students really enjoyed their time learning how to use the radio station.

These students will now be used as radio ambassadors and will help to train other students, so that the radio station can

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be used across the curriculum to enable students to gain confidence and practise their public speaking skills.

We hope to be broadcasting live to you again soon!

Upcoming events: 22.01.20 Exhibition Coventry cathedral looking at Echo Eternal Shadows work.

27.01.20 Exhibition Library of Birmingham looking at Echo Eternal Shadows work.

28.01.20 Birmingham Town Hall Echo Eternal Horizons performance 10.02.20 Exhibition Coventry cathedral looking at Echo Eternal Shadows work.

CCF The cadets have hit the ground running getting ready for a busy year of trips and training.

So far twenty five students from year 8 have joined the cadets since the start of the new academic year. They have been busy learning new skills ranging from First Aid to handling weapons safely.

As well as taking part in training after school on Tuesday, the cadets get the opportunity to participate in activities run during weekends. A group of cadets completed a day’s training on some of the rifles, used by cadets for target shooting.

This is to prepare them for a planned ‘range day’ in March, where the cadets will have the opportunity to develop their marksmanship.

The staff have also been busy attending courses to allow them to provide more interesting and exciting training for the cadets. Ms Walker completed her First Aid at Work qualification and can now teach and test cadets’ first aid skills. Messer’s Khan and Ali attended Band Camp over the October half term and learnt to play the drum. This has allowed the school to open a Corp of Drums which currently has six

cadets that attend training every Thursday after school.

In the new year cadets from years 9 and 10 will have the opportunity to achieve their Duke of Edinburgh’s Bronze Award. Employers have emphasised how important it is for schools to enable ‘life skills’ to be developed, indicating that a course of ‘life skills’ development activities, pursued by an applicant, might make a positive difference in selecting the applicant for interview.

The MOD sponsored Cadet Forces are widely recognised as being among the most successful uniformed youth organisations in the UK. They provide a safe place for young people to develop key life skills such as resilience, self-confidence, and leadership, through undertaking challenging activities, underpinned by the values and standards of the Armed Forces.

The Cadet Forces make a significant contribution to the development of our youth and change many young people’s lives for the better.

UK EMPLOYABILITY WORKSHOP In October, Rockwood worked in collaboration with Employability UK; a West Midlands based educational charity.

Employability UK have a simple mission which is to help facilitate employer engagement to enhance the aspirations, opportunities and career prospects of enthusiastic and committed young people.

A team of staff from Employability UK facilitated a workshop for our year 10 students. The session focussed specifically on: • Helping students to improve their confidence and interpersonal skills.

• Help with applications and understanding the various pathways to employment

•

Hints on how to improve employability skills.

• Presentation and group work skills.

Students thoroughly enjoyed the workshop which has given them an insight into what employers look for in their employees.

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UNICEF Rockwood Academy promotes the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Rockwood has continued to promote the Unicef Convention on the Rights of the Child. Rockwood has a partnership with Unicef, who have already awarded the school the Bronze Award for being rightscommitted. This academic year Rockwood is looking to achieve a Silver Award by embedding children’s rights in the school’s policy, practice and ethos. The Convention on the Rights of the Child contains 45 articles, and this term we have focused on a number of these articles.

Students have covered a range of topics is assemblies. For example, students have recently been asked to think about hate crime and ensuring incidents of this are minimised in their communities. This is in line with Article 2 of the convention: this states that all children’s rights should be protected, whatever their ethnicity,

gender, religion, language, abilities or any other status.

In form time, students have also covered a range of matters, including the prevalence of “fake news”. It is important our students know how to get reliable information. Under Article 17 of the convention, every child has the right to reliable information from a variety of sources.

The school’s extra-curricular activities and partnerships have also contributed to our work in promoting the convention.

Under Article 6, all children have a right to life. Through the Echo Eternal project, our students have been studying the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda – when this right was taken away from thousands of children – and considered how we can ensure such horrific violations of the convention do not occur again.

CHILDREN IN NEED

Students and staff across the Academy give big for Children in Need.

Staff and students across Rockwood took part in a number of fundraising activities in support of Children in Need.

Students held cake sales, participated in cooking challenges and attended school in Pudsey related clothing to help raise money for charity. This year students helped raise the fantastic amount of £675.24!

The donations raised will be used to help change the lives of disadvantaged children across the UK.

SCHOOL RAISES RECORD AMOUNT FOR MACMILLAN CANCER SUPPORT Macmillan Cancer Support The first ever Macmillan Coffee Morning happened way back in 1990.

It was a rather small affair with guests gathering for a cup of coffee or tea and then donating the cost of their drink to Macmillan. The format proved so popular that the following year it went national. Here at Rockwood we have been collaborating with Macmillan Cancer Support for many years. This year we raised a record amount for this event!

Students in all year groups worked

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collaboratively with staff to put on our largest coffee morning to date with an enviable range of cakes for sale. Here at Rockwood we encourage our students to be good citizens and this includes taking part in events which support charities. It also demonstrates to them that raising money for charities can be fun and enjoyable.

This year the school fundraising totalled: £794.24 A fantastic amount of money all going to an incredibly worthy cause.

THEATRE CLUB The Theatre Club has gone from strength to strength, with more students having the opportunity to attend various productions. Year 9 and Year 7 student have had the opportunity to watch the fantastic production of the Snow Queen at the Old Rep in Birmingham. It was a fabulous experience and the students enjoyed the costumes and music.

We are already full to capacity for our next trip to watch the wonderful King and I. If you are interested in attending the next theatre trip please speak to Mrs Sahota.

AIM HIGHER Here at Rockwood, we are always encouraging our students to work hard to achieve their best, but sometimes it’s difficult to motivate yourself if you don’t have a goal to aim for. There are so many higher education and career options out there, that it can be a bit overwhelming to decide which is path is right for you.

This term, some of our Year 8 students have been taking part in the Aim Higher programme, working with student mentors from Birmingham City University to figure out what their options are, and how to get where they want to go in life.

Each week, the hour-long mentoring sessions give students the chance to think about the bigger picture. Where do they want to go to university? What course will they study? Which career path should they pursue, and what will they need to get there? It turns out, once they really think about these questions, some bold ambitions shine through. Our students aspire to everything from being a championship boxer, to working in midwifery, and the mentors are helping them take practical steps towards achieving their dreams.

Nwor and her mentor have devised a “Weekly charter” to help her improve her productivity and turn studying into a habit.

She explained, “Every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday if I had homework, I would do half an hour of homework, then ten minutes break, and if I needed to go back to the homework, I would do another half an hour.” Implementing these strategies in her daily routine has really made a difference to her work and self-belief.

Nwor has found that the mentors are really great at “Reassuring you that you can do this”, regardless of the obstacles that lie in your way.

Each mentoring session is tailored to the specific student’s personal goals, and in Adam’s case, developing his self-confidence is a priority. In their sessions, Adam’s mentor has been focused on finding strategies to help him to “be himself” and build confidence and determination. Last week, he was tasked with “writing everything you know about your strongest subjects in a mind map” to remind him of all the things he does know, and strengthen his belief in his abilities. Next week, he will be giving a

short presentation on this knowledge in his session, to improve his public speaking skills. Adam has really appreciated the chance to reflect on everything he’s learned so far, and is looking forward to future sessions.

It has been wonderful to see students so enthusiastic about planning their futures and developing skills which will allow them to flourish in the world. We are very thankful to our volunteer student mentors for helping them increase their understanding of further and higher education options, and grow in all areas of their life, both personal and educational.

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JEEP Rockwood Academy is one of three West Midlands schools selected to participate in the 2019 Junior Engineering Engagement Programme. The programme is being run by the Transformation Trust.

Through this initiative twenty of our Year 7 students are developing their understanding of facilities management and sustainable engineering. The students will be taking part in four in-house workshops between November and February as well as a site visit.

In their first two workshops, students have been learning about the importance of engineering in building design and the uses of motors to generate sustainable energies.

Students were eager to investigate and discover the impacts of different types of sustainable technologies; this lead to a fruitful discussion on the design of the new Rockwood Academy building!

Throughout the workshops students have been exposed to different STEM disciplines and skills, which will help them to develop their project skills. As part of their project, our students have been working collaboratively to come up with

MACBETH This term has seen a number of collaborations with Nansen Primary School.

One of the most memorable was the year 6 students from Nansen performing the Shakespeare play Macbeth for our year 11 students. Nansen students demonstrated overwhelming resilience and confidence in the performance, and the year 11 students saw their GCSE text come to life through the performance. The event was mutually beneficial for all students involved.

SHOEBOX APPEAL December has seen the return of the Rockwood Academy Shoebox Appeal.

The charitable activity is organised by The Salvation Army. Each December, we ask our students to donate items of food and clothing to benefit homeless people in Birmingham. As in previous years, the response from students and their families has been overwhelming. As a community, we are happy to be able to offer some good wishes and comfort to those less fortunate than ourselves during the winter months.

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their own sustainable engineering solution for Rockwood Academy which they will be showcasing to school leaders and other schools in the J.E.E.P programme.

“I didn’t know much about facilities management before I started the programme, but now I have learnt how facilities are run in different businesses.

I also have learnt that I want to work as a motor engineer in the future”. (Year 7 student)

“I really enjoy the J.E.E.P workshops; they help to me to develop my presentation skills and confidence. I love working in the science laboratory on the different practicals”. (Year 7 student)

UPCOMING EVENTS Coming soon! International trips for years 7-10 to the Opal Coast, France, in March and Barcelona, Spain in February.

For further information, please contact Ms Rida, Head of MFL.

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BUILDING UPDATE The ground beams and the ground floor slab have been installed. We are currently installing the drainage around the site and have placed tarmac hardstanding around the building for access in the New Year for the construction of the upper floors.

As can be seen in the images, retaining walls have been installed, some concrete and others timber and steel.

The timber frame has started and the first few panels will be erected prior to the winter break. The crane was on-site on Monday 16th December 2019 to start erecting the frame of the building.

The site is currently being cleared of soil and cleaned in preparation for the next phase of building in the New Year.

Following the Christmas break, works will re-commence on 2nd January 2020. The building will soon begin to take shape.

AWARDS This term has been an incredibly successful one at Rockwood Academy.

We are pleased to announce that all of our hard work and dedication has been

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recognised in the form of two awards. We are now a Refugee Welcome School and have also been awarded the Music Mark

by Birmingham Services for Education.

GOVERNORS Chair of governors Steve Ball is pleased to welcome several new governors to the governing body. They include two governors that represent CORE Education Trust, one staff governor and one parent governor.

“As a governing body, we are incredibly pleased by the outcome of the recent Ofsted inspection. Rockwood Academy continues to be a Good school.”

Adrian Packer, Chief Executive and Founder of CORE Education said: “We are absolutely delighted with this judgement from Ofsted – Rockwood really is unrecognisable as a school from when they joined us in 2014. The early years were incredibly tough for staff and students alike, but the school has gone from strength to strength, and we are proud of the education that is now on offer. Not just academically, but in

every aspect of school life, Rockwood excels. Huge congratulations to the whole Rockwood team: this result is richly deserved.”

We are pleased to welcome our newly elected staff governor Mr. D Tucker to the governing body.

HEAD BOY / HEAD GIRL We have been given outstanding privilege as taking the position as head boy (Abdulahi Adan) and head girl (Zaynab Mushtaq). With great pleasure we have taken part in supporting our peers alongside Mr Ali and Mr Malik, with difficulties or pressure students face due to their GCSES. We have encouraged them to attend after school revision sessions and Saturday school, which have been

well attended. We are extremely proud of working as a team to achieve 100% in Learning Review Evening. This is the attitude we must maintain as a year group to succeed and achieve greatness in our GCSE results.

Can we also take this opportunity to thank the Headteacher Miss Darr and staff that are continuously providing opportunities and supporting students in taking part

in activities. There have been many opportunities such as charity events, winter festivals and raising aspiration assemblies across the whole school. This has all contributed to our great Ofsted inspection outcome judged as ‘a good school’.

We would like to wish the community and staff at Rockwood Academy a happy restful break.

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Rockwood is an exciting place tolearn, grow and achieve. There is areal sense of community amoungpupils and sta.

Pupils are genuine ambassadors for their school.

They believe that it is a privilege to attend their school.

- Ofsted

Please follow us on

Twitter @CORERockwood

Rockwood Academy Naseby Road, Alum Rock, Birmingham B8 3HG Tel: 0121 566 6500 Email: enquiry@rockwood-academy.co.uk www.rockwood-academy.co.uk

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