Trentham Trampoline Success

Freya Martin Katy SaundersAt the West Midlands NDP 1-6 Regional Team Finals Qualifier held in Cannock yesterday, 2 Trentham Academy pupils competed 2 trampoline routines in an attempt to qualify to represent the West Midlands at the Barclaycard Arena in June at the Regional Team Finals.

Katy Sanders in NDP 6 17+ had an unlucky ending to her Compulsory A routine scoring her zero, but came back fighting with an impressive 25.3 in her Compulsory B routine.  Along with her team mates, Katy won team gold.

Freya Martin in NDP 6 15-16 scored 26.0 in Compulsory A, 26.45 in Compulsory B. A huge total of 52.45 won her 1st and gains her a place in the West Midlands Squad in June. Well done!

19TH MARCH 2018

TRENTHAM TALKSNEWSLETTER

Year 10 and 11 English performance

Manactco, or Manchester Actors Company, are a touring group of professional actors who specialise in performances for schools. They are well-known for their energetic, vigorous physical theatre performances where close attention is paid to language and bringing texts to life. We, at Trentham Academy, have been lucky enough to have watched two fantastic performances this week; An Inspector Calls on Monday 12th March and Macbeth on Thursday 15th March. These two performances, for our Year 10 and 11 students, are key texts for the English Literature GCSE and we hope that that they acted as enjoyable revision. The company also put aside time for a Q&A session after the performances to allow students to ask questions that may support both their understanding of the plays and their exam performance.

The Apprenticeship Bus from NULC

On Wednesday the Careers Bus, sponsored by the Newcastle and Stafford Colleges Group, arrived in school to provide advice on post -16 options. The focus was apprenticeships, although there was also an opportunity for the students to chat about college life and further study in general, as well as to receive advice on putting together a C.V. Students in Year 10 were all invited to step on to this converted American yellow bus (which was an experience in itself), and benefited from the valuable information provided, the links made, and the acquirement of useful skills.

Mr Hall’s Revision Tips

More effective learning

Proven to work revision tip 5: Concrete Examples.

Using concrete examples is one of the more obvious strategies but one that is often overlooked by students, especially when studying complex and abstract ideas. The more difficult an idea is to understand to more important it is to anchor that understanding in real life examples that are easier to comprehend. For example, the concept of ‘scarcity’ in business studies is an abstract idea: the rarer a commodity is, the higher it’s value becomes. However, when linked to the real life concrete example of aeroplane seat tickets (how the price increases as the number of seats remaining drops), it becomes simpler to understand and easier to recall and explain.

Students:

When studying something, think about your day to day life, what examples of your topic can you think of that may be an example of this.

Check that your examples are correct with your teacher or parents. You should be using the phrase “Is it a bit like this…?”.

Share examples with friends especially when studying the same topic but check they are correct first.

Use more than one source (GCSE Pod, a revision guide and a Youtube tutorial) when studying a topic as often it will use a different example or way of explaining an idea, meaning you have a more thorough understanding of it.

Teachers:

Teachers will be delighted to listen to examples that students create in class or at home, as often this is a wonderful way of identifying misconceptions and helping students to make progress.

Teachers will always try and simplify ideas and use easily understood examples especially when we know a concept is tricky.

Parents:

Challenge your child to give their own examples of the idea they are studying. If they can’t, try and help them read through the material to break it down into simpler ideas that could be understood and help them find examples of it in action.

It is important to remind them that if they can’t explain it, this is not a bad thing, but a positive first step to identifying an area for development.

Stars of the Week

Centaur (Optimism) Charlotte Davies for having the highest word count in Centaur this term.

Dragon (Collaboration) Eden Bailey for consistently outstanding performances for the school football team.

Griffin (Optimism) Hannah Seiver is a Griffin Optimist star, she is being a Rhino; taking on new challenges and stepping outside of her comfort zone - well done Hannah!

Phoenix (Collaboration) Chiara Rathukankanamalge went out of her way to help the cleaners during parents evening moving all the chairs to make their job easier. The cleaner expressed how grateful she was for the help and really appreciated Chiara`s caring nature. Well done!

Salamander (Optimism) Callum Martin for his positive attitude and his improvement with his behaviour.

 Good Eggs

Congratulations to the following students who have been recognised by their teachers as being especially helpful in class.

Samuel Barton Phoenix 2

Tia Firkins Phoenix 2

Rosie Gibbs Phoenix 2

Caitlin Hine Phoenix 2

Ella KeenSalamander 2

Thomas Levey Griffin 2

Benjamin Almond Dragon 1

Eduard Angelov Phoenix 1

Sasho Iliev Angelov Phoenix 1

Millie Angunoby Dragon 1

ChloeArmstrong Simcock Phoenix 1

Brooke Ayre Phoenix 1

Connor Bettany Dragon 1

Courtney Bloor Griffin 1

Andrew Bradley Centaur 1

Charlotte Brock Centaur 1

Daniel Burgess Phoenix 1

Alyson Carr Phoenix 1

Siobhan Challinor Griffin 1

Leah Clowes Dragon 1

Fletcher Cotton Phoenix 1

Ebony Davies Griffin 1

Lucy DennisSalamander 1

Liam Fairclough Phoenix 1

Sarah FrearsonSalamander 1

Joe Greensmith Phoenix 1

Jaiden Hallam Centaur 1

Daud Hanif Griffin 1

Isabel Harding Griffin 1

Samuel Hawkes Griffin 1

Pubudu Herath Centaur 1

Ben Hingley Phoenix 1

Katrin Hookway Griffin 1

Myles Hubbard Griffin 1

Samuel Latham Dragon 1

Thomas Latham Griffin 1

Ebony Lovatt Centaur 1

Michael Ludford Centaur 1

Mohammed Mustaqeem Phoenix 1

Joshua Peake Dragon 1

Izzy Roden Phoenix 1

Alfie Smith Dragon 1

Olivia Smith Dragon 1

Adele Marie Stewart Phoenix 1

Ella Stone Centaur 1

Ben Twigg Griffin 1

Jessica Walker Griffin 1

Bethany WebberSalamander 1

Lucy Woolley Dragon 1

Sami Zahoor Griffin 1

Merits

Congratulations to Haleema and Lucas for being the top performers for Merits this week with 6 achieved in a week. All students with 4 or more are listed below:

Haleema Butt Griffin 6

Lucas Firkins Centaur 6

Indiana Archer Dragon 5

Chloe Ball Phoenix 5

James Bates Salamander 5

Ryan Cadwallader Salamander 5

Libby Finney Salamander 5

Lily-May Halket Salamander 5

Michael Harris Salamander 5

Kelsie Hart Phoenix 5

Amanda Heath Griffin 5

Kelly Lin Centaur 5

Evie Pearce Phoenix 5

Samuel Reeves Salamander 5

Natasha Shah Salamander 5

Imethra Aluthge Don Griffin 4

William Cooper Griffin 4

Jessica Denby Salamander 4

Emily Fox Griffin 4

Jude Fraser Phoenix 4

Rosie Gibbs Phoenix 4

Alfie Hopley Salamander 4

Tillie James Centaur 4

Ella Jones Salamander 4

Emily Jones Griffin 4

Ella Keen Salamander 4

Sophie McCausland Salamander 4

Emma Morley Griffin 4

Jessica Proctor Dragon 4

Scarlett Robinshaw Salamander 4

Danyal Shah Salamander 4

Holly Skelson Griffin 4

Adele Marie Stewart Phoenix 4

Gabriella Twigg Salamander 4

Kayleigh Walker Griffin 4

Ben Weston Phoenix 4

Tom Wheeldon Griffin 4

Georgia Wright Salamander 4

Headteacher’s Notices

We would like to raise funds for Trentham Academy, and have attached the link to our ‘Goraise’ page: https://www.goraise.co.uk/talent/ . We would like you to register on this and, when you do your online shopping, do it through this page. This will create income for the Academy, very much in the way that store loyalty cards work. It costs shoppers no extra, but will be extremely valuable for the Academy. Please also share with friends and relatives. You can also access this from the Academy website. Your support and encouragement with this is warmly welcomed.

Date for your diary: 27th April, Coffee Afternoon for parents/carers to drop in and have a chat at 2pm. Please contact reception if you would like to book a place.

Again a lot of activities have taken place last week with revision sessions, high quality intervention sessions for P.E at Stoke College, the Apprenticeship bus and Keele University Maths Mastery sessions on Saturday. There are now only 6 weeks until the first examination for Year 11 and students should now be working hard at home to complement the sessions taking place in the Academy. Please refer to the revision tips posted each week in the Newsletter from Mr Hall.

We have the spring concert taking place on Thursday 22nd March starting at 7pm and we hope to welcome you all at the Academy on that night. There will be a matinee performance on the Wednesday for Priory students and our Year 7 students.

New Appointments

We have recently appointed 3 English staff, 1 for after Easter and two starting in September, Mrs Clarke, Miss Philips and Mr Mellin we look forward to welcoming them to our Academy. We have also appointed Mr Platt as the new ICT Technician starting after Easter. Miss Beech has been appointed as our new Leisure Assistant supporting the sports centre functions of the Academy, starting after Easter.

Best wishes

Mike Whittingham

Headteacher