Northampton Academy Newsletter - Winter 2012

United Learning Inside this issue

Awards Evening

Drama Production

Parent Voice

Principal’s Message

Poetry Competition

Sporting Success

Design & Technology

Open for Business

Christmas Bazaar

Enterprise Week

Twitter!

Enterprise Week

Christmas Lecture

Tom Davies

Build a Boomerang

Me, Prison, No Way

Sixth Form Open Even-ing

Science Trip

Key Dates

First ever Awards Evening is a huge success

Northampton Academy celebrated its first ever Awards Evening on 14th November 2012. The evening highlighted the fantastic work and effort that the students consistently put into their lessons and extra curriculum activities. The evening was held in the Travis Hall and students, parents and carers watched as students were awarded from different subject areas. The evening also showcased some outstanding performances by Vocal Jazzers and an Advanced Vocal group as well as the Year 7 & Year 10 Drama club. In total 44 awards were given out, these can now be seen in our Awards cabinet situated in main reception. The evening was supported by special guest speakers Mr Michael Ellis MP and our Chair

of Governors, Mr Michael George. Students, parents, carers, speakers and staff had a thoroughly enjoyable evening and look forward to next year’s Awards Evening.

Northampton Academy Winter 2012

Newsletter

Parent Voice

We are always looking for

feedback from parents and

are inviting as many parents

as possible to join our

Parent Voice group.

The group has been

launched to help us gain a

better understanding of

what you think about what

we do.

We would love you to join

our group, if you would like

to , please give us a call.

Year 12 Drama Production 'A Handbag' by Anthony Horowitz and 'The Real Inspector Hound' by Tom Stoppard, showed off the talents of some of our amazing pupils. 'A Handbag' presents a bunch of disparate youngsters 'having a go' at Oscar Wilde's play 'The Importance of Being Earnest' in somewhat inauspicious circumstances. All is not as it seems as the characters reveal more about themselves than about Oscar Wilde's pristine masterpiece, as Algernon Moncrieff (Sulaiman) pronounces on dear old Oscar. A handbag is the least of their worries. Performed with panache and much wit the outstanding cast including Katie (Lady Bracknell) and Jason (Jack Worthing) work miracles, gleefully deconstructing the said masterpiece. Gwendolyn (Aaliyah) fills the air with certain 'bon mots' that certainly have us realising that this is no ordinary cast of characters. Francesca and Abigail reinforce admirably even as the butt of some wicked humour. 'The Real Inspector Hound' had Moon (Charlotte) and Birdboot (Tanaka), two pomp-ous theatre critics, getting more involved than intended whilst the other cast mem-bers ruminate on who has shot one (or two) of the others. Typical Tom Stoppard with his ability to wordplay to delight and confuse. Charlotte and Tanaka, outstanding, whilst Mrs Drudge (Kirsty) the housekeeper, sees and hears all; Simon (Tom) saunters in without a care on the world; Felicity Cunningham (Molly) is 'anyone's for tennis'; Lady Cynthia (Caitlin) plays it cool; and the Major, played by Matthew, literally bursts onto the scene with daredevil wickedness; and last but not least, an inspired outra-geous Inspector Hound played by the ebullient Gabriella rounded off a thoroughly entertaining evening. 2

Poetry Competition

The 2012 Library Poetry

Competition winner was

Sophie Rosetti (7T1) for

her beautiful acrostic poem

‘Stars’, and the runner up

Hina Hothi (8T1). Sophie

was presented with a £5

National Book Token and

both girls received a

certificate and letter writing

set. The annual competition

is held to celebrate National

Poetry Day, a national event

of poetry readings,

competitions and

web-based activities for peo-

ple young and old through-

out the country. Northamp-

ton Academy students were

invited to write a poem with

this year’s theme of ‘Stars’.

The competition was judged

by a small group of A Level

English students.

A Message from Anne Hill, Principal

Welcome to our new look newsletter. I do hope you like the format and content and that it gives you a real flavour of Academy life this last term. This is an extremely busy time of year and there have been many events at the Academy and beyond which students and parents have enjoyed enormously. At the end of a long term, I must thank our hard working staff who have spent time organising and taking students on trips, given up many hours after school for revision sessions, rehearsing plays, practising music ensembles, coaching our sports teams and delivering a huge range of extra-curricular activities. I would also like to congratulate our students on their behaviour when representing the Academy on such events, we receive many positive comments about their exemplary attitude. We have hosted several parent information evenings this term and I would like to thank you for your attendance and support for the Academy. It was particularly pleasing that we were full both nights of the year 6 parent information evening and again for the sixth form opportunities evening. We are all so proud that due to your support and confidence in us the Academy continues to be successful and oversubscribed. Our first awards evening, attended by our Local Governing Body and Michael Ellis MP, was a huge success and such a proud moment for us all. If you have not yet done so, pop into reception to see our glittering awards cabinet and trophies, kindly donated by the LGB. Looking forward, I would like to ‘plug’ our parent voice meetings and encourage you to attend so we can learn your views on the Academy and what we can do to improve. Details are on the website and we will also offer more sessions as a result of parents’ requests for help. Coming in January will be a session on how to understand reports and grades and details will be issued with the December reports due out after the break. I wish you all a very happy and peaceful Christmas and look forward to seeing you in the New Year.

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Open for Business

Would you like to hire

Northampton Academy for

your event?

We have first class sporting

facilities, ideal spaces for

conferences and perfect

places for lectures.

To discuss your

requirements in more detail

please give us a call on

01604 402811 or pop in one

evening and we’ll show you

around.

Sporting Successes

Northampton Academy students have had some

incredible sporting successes this term.

We have successfully qualified for the Level 3 School

Winter Games in Year 7/8/9 Boys Badminton. The

county finals take place next year at Kettering Leisure

Village and the winners go to the National Finals in

Nottingham.

Our Year 7/8 boys & girls table tennis team won the

Level 2 competition organised and hosted here at the

Academy.

Our Year 7 and 10 boys football team reached the quar-

ter finals of the county cup.

Our Under 16 boys basketball team travelled to Derby to

play their first fixture in the National Schools

basketball Premier Central league.

Our U12, 13 and 14 boys and girls basketball teams

competed in the school games Level 2 competitions at

various venues around the county.

Year 7 girls finished 3rd in the town’s football

tournament

We competed in all of this year’s town cross country

championships and the following students finished in

the top 16 and gained entry to the County

Championships in January: Connor finishing 6th (U15

boys) and Chris finishing 12th (U17 boys), both will now

be invited to represent the Northampton Cross Country

Team at the Town Championships.

4

Year 7 Design & Technology Year 7 have been busy again making their brilliant Animal Notebooks as part of their Year 7 Textiles rotation in Design and Technology. They have spent 12 weeks designing and making a useful notebook that they have designed themselves, printed, decorated and then used the sewing machines to put together. They have learnt lots of new skills in this project including some new practical skills and how to design for purpose. Their design skills this year have been outstanding, a very talented and crea-tive year group!

5

Year 7 Christmas Bazaar

Year 7 hosted their first Christmas Bazaar on 13th December to raise money as part of a business and enterprise scheme. Year 7 will spend this money and invest it either into a new project or spend the money wisely towards some new equipment for their year group. Tutors spent lots of time preparing for this and the students made some wonderful things. They made cards, decorations, cakes and parents also contributed by donating items that were also for sale. Parents were invited after-wards to come along and see some of the fantastic craft items that they had made. It was a very busy and suc-cessful day that the children thoroughly enjoyed and after all their hard work they managed to raise a brilliant £238.84.

Follow us on Twitter!

Many of you have noticed,

but Northampton Academy

is now tweeting!

We use it to pass on

immediate pieces of useful

information and we are

picking up new followers

daily.

To join the conversation

please search for

northacad, that’s us!

Year 8 developed their entrepreneurial skills during our Enterprise week by

project managing the building of a pyramid commissioned by the Pharaoh,

under the guidance of Barclaycard and Young Enterprise; students gained

team work and leadership skills as well as money making skills.

The Work Experience

Programme for 2013 was

launched for Year 10, ena-

bling for the first time,

students to organise their

own placement and think

about their lives after they

leave the Academy

Enterprise Week

Tom Davies

Year 12 student Tom Davies

has won the Northampton

Leisure Trust Young Leaders

Award.

As if this wasn’t enough,

Tom was then shortlisted

for the Northamptonshire

Sport Awards in November

where he was up against

some great young leaders

from across the county. He

beat them all to become

Northamptonshire’s Young

Leader of the Year.

From the county awards

Tom's nomination form was

put forward to the BBC East

Sports Awards, where he

was shortlisted for the

'Young Unsung Hero Award'

Build your own

boomerang!

www2.eng.cam.ac.uk/

~hemh/boomerangs.htm

www2.eng.cam.ac.uk/

~hemh/lectures.htm

www.ice.cam.ac.uk/

madingleylectures/

dambusters-and-the-

engineering-behind-the-

bouncing-bomb

Enterprise Week

Northampton Academy aims to “inspire and challenge” students and one of the ways we do this is through Enterprise within the school. During National Enterprise and Employability week in November our aim was to develop our students’ skills and employability for the future through the concept of entrepreneurship, realisation of skills and to encourage students to think about their life when school ends. Year 11 students went to The Skills Show Careers exhibition at the NEC Birmingham on Thursday 15th November where they had the opportunity to meet with prospective

employers and learn about a wide variety of careers. The students made the most of their visit by talking to representatives from Universities, Apprenticeships, and engaging with the interactive activities – chocolate making, hairdressing, multi-media among others.

6

Open University Christmas Lecture: Boomerangs, Bouncing

Balls and Other Spinning Things – Dr. Hugh Hunt

Fourteen Year 12 A-Level Mathematics students

attended the annual Open University Christmas

Lecture on Tuesday 4th December at the Berrill

Theatre, Milton Keynes. The Academy has

attended this event since 2006, the lectures

consistently delivering exciting mathematical

enrichment for students taking sixth form

courses and planning ahead to take a

mathematics-related degree.

Dr Hugh Hunt, Cambridge University Senior

Lecturer, thrilled us with spinning tops,

boomerangs, gyroscopes and rotating platforms.

Alongside these applications of Newtonian

Mechanics, Dr Hunt discussed his interest in the

Barnes Wallis bouncing bombs (which involved

spin, essentially the theme of the day) and a

reconstruction of the Colditz Castle escape glider.

Both of these topics were covered in recent Channel

4 documentaries featuring Dr Hunt as Scientific Advisor.

Liam (Year 11): ‘The day was an amazing experience at the NEC; it was great to see the opportunities available to us for our future education and jobs. I

really enjoyed the Business activities and blockbuster game; it really challenged my Business Studies knowledge.’

7

Year 13 Science Trip

On 10th October, twelve of

our Year 13 students

travelled to Paddington

Academy to attend a

Symposium on The human

brain provided by The

Oxford International

Biomedical Centre (OIBC)

and supported by The Lady

Foley Trust, Doris Field

Trust and PF Charitable

Trust.

The brain is the last

uncharted territory in the

human body posing many

questions such as ‘how do

its 100 billion nerve cells

interact to produce

sensations, movement of

our limbs, speech and

understanding?’

On hand to discuss these

issues were Prof John

O’Keefe (University College

London) and Prof Christo-

pher Kennard (Department

of Clinical Neurology,

Oxford University.

The specialist talks were

interspersed with break-out

sessions as well as a debate

at which all participants

were able to quiz each

speaker and to put their

own views forward.

Year 13 thoroughly enjoyed

the experience and left with

many more questions than

answers, which were enthu-

siastically debated on the

way home.

“Thank you for reading our new look newsletter, we wish you all a very happy and peaceful

Christmas and look forward to seeing you in the New Year.”

Anne Hill, Principal

Me, Prison, No Way! On 13th November, Northampton Academy held a Year 9 crime and safety awareness day entitled, “Me, Prison, No Way!”, designed to make pupils aware of the consequences of crime. The day started with all pupils watching a staged car accident, which involved our Year 11 pupils as actors. The pupils stole a car to go out for a joy ride but ended up having an accident. The year group watched the scene as police, ambulance and fire engines arrived and dealt with the consequences. For the rest of the day there were planned workshops which dealt with what the students had done, the students stayed in character for the whole day as they experienced being questioned by the police, faced magistrates and were given sentences. Other workshops included seeing and visiting a po-lice cell, watching a street crime scene and raising the awareness of the consequences of crime in the community.

Sixth Form Open Evening

The prospective Sixth Form Open evening took place on the 21st November and wel-

comed Year 11 students from both the Academy and other Secondary schools to two

informative talks led by key members of staff. The evening centred on making well in-

formed progression plans and students and parents were able to choose from a number

of workshops, in addition to speaking to subject staff, to support their sixth form choices.

We would like to thank: Birmingham, Coventry, Northampton, De – Montfort and Leices-

ter Universities for offering excellent advice and guidance on the evening and Student

Finance for their informative talk on how to survive university on a budget.

Thursday 3rd January Teacher Training Day

Friday 4th January Academy reopens for all students

Wednesday 9th January GCSE and A level exams begin (see website)

Wednesday 30th January Year 10 GCSE English Controlled Assessment

Wednesday 6th February Year 11 GCSE English Controlled Assessment

Friday 8th February Academy closes for half term

Monday 18th February Academy reopens for all students

Wednesday 27th February Parent Voice meeting

Monday 4th March Careers week begins

Friday 8th March Careers week ends

Monday 11th March Apprenticeship week begins

Friday 15th March Apprenticeship week ends

Monday 18th March Work Experience begins

Wednesday 27th March Work Experience ends

Thursday 28th March Teacher Training Day

Friday 29th March Beginning of Easter Holidays

Monday 15th April Academy reopens for all students

Key dates: Northampton Academy

Northampton Academy is a

high performing secondary

school in the heart of East

Northampton.

In 2012, we celebrated our best

ever GCSE results, here are

some of the highlights:

55% of our students achieved

five or more A* - C grades in-

cluding English & Maths

96% of our students achieved

five or more A* - C grades

7% of our students achieved the

English Baccalaureate

In the sixth form, 84% of year 13

students progressed to Universi-

ty, and 17% of year 13 students

progressed to prestigious Rus-

sell Group universities.

Northampton Academy

Wellingborough Road

Northampton

NN3 8NH

Phone: 01604 402811

Fax: 01604 773830

E-mail: enquiries@northampton-academy.org

www.northampton-academy.org