o Thank a Teacher Day
o Revision Tips
o Scholars Programme
o The Glitch competition
o Y10 Pastel Art
o Rap school visit
Together with our community, we can achieve extraordinary things.
Welcome to our seventh newsletter highlighting the fabulous work taking place in secondary. Appleton has been its usual busy self with a wide array of trips, visits and activities taking place and students have been taking full advantage of our wider curriculum offer.
In each newsletter we will share a flavour of what has been happening in the academy, including insights into the fabulous work taking place in classrooms.
In this issue we have the launch of our National Thank a Teacher day that we would love you to get involved with We are delighted to see that a student has won a prize in a National Young Writers competition!
We also have our usual library update, an article on our many trips out this term for students and our first scholars programme article along with much more!
If you have things you would like to see featured in the newsletter, please let us know.
Improving attendance to school is a national priority and a key focus for the school. We are excited to launch our summer attendance challenge.
Challenge 1: 8th April to 24th May
7 weeks = 34 school days
Challenge 2: 3rd June to 19th July
7 weeks = 35 school days
The challenge is in 2 parts on the dates above.
Attend school for a full 5 days to get 1 prize draw entry for £50 shopping vouchers
Attend school for a full 10 days to get 1 prize draw entry for £100 shopping vouchers
Maintain an attendance streak beyond 2 weeks and get a prize draw entry for £150 shopping vouchers for each week students keep their streak!
This means that students can earn:
-7 entries into the £50 prize draw
-3 entries into the £100 draw
-6 entries into the £150 draw
-1 extra entry per week for no lates into the £50 draw!
-This is in addition to the mini prizes available for Perfect 10 You will receive a text message each week to let you know if your child is on track to meet the attendance challenge.
The UK-wide celebration of all teaching and support staff is back. National Thank a Teacher Day will be celebrated on Wednesday 19th June!
Recently supported by celebrities such as Will Poulter, Dame Helen Mirren, Dame Joanna Lumley and David Walliams, don't miss your chance to join them in saying thank you. As always, we will be celebrating all the amazing teaching and support staff in our schools but in particular shining a spotlight on support stafffrom the dinner helpers to the classroom assistants and librarians. They deserve the spotlight for everything they do to keep things running smoothly.
Want to make someone's day? If you know a special teacher, dedicated support staff member or even the whole school team, let them know how grateful you are by sending a free e-card at www.thankateacher.co.uk. Or alternatively, you can fill in our form link here: https://forms.office.com/e/HRQ5dtLe8g
We also have a design a thankyou card competition open to all secondary school students and 2 winners will be chosen who will have their cards printed for use in school.
With the warm weather & exam season upon us, it is easy to feel overwhelmed & normal to feel quite nervous. Here are the top 6 revision tips for students & parents / guardians to make the most of this time the best you can, and it comes from simple steps...
1.
Keep yourself hydrated! Water helps to increase concentration & improve memory. It also reduces risk of cramps & tiredness, helps with healthy skin, bones, hair/nails as well as providing extra energy.
4. 5.
Create a mind map – Write all the things you can remember and add more details after you have finished your mind map using textbooks/revision guides.
2.
Make a list of all the subjects- + topics you need to revisit /struggle with. Your teachers / tutors / year managers can help you with this! By facing your areas of development, you gain more confidence!
3.
Make simple flashcards! Keep them short! Write a word or short question on one side and the answer on the other.
Revise with someone – Quizzing each other in a small group is likely to lead some people to remember more. Be careful to stick just to revision talk!
6.
Balance times – you can spend 5 minutes or more than an hour revising but balance this out. You do not have to do things all at once so be sure to take regular breaks!
By the Appleton Academy Scholars team
The Scholars’ programme at Appleton Academy is a programme that identifies students with the potential to go onto a higher-level apprenticeship or university degree course and provides opportunities to build their knowledge, attitudes, skills and habits along with stretch and challenge in order to prepare them with the skills and confidence to succeed in a higher education environment. It has been a busy term (as always!) and Year 9 & Year 10 scholars started the term with an exciting film review based on a book they were assigned to read outside school. The session was led by Andy Griffiths, a consultant on motivational learning and innovative, high impact teaching. Appleton scholars and mentors are excited to collaborate with Andy and his expertise alongside Miss Ford, Assistant Head of English who also led this session.
After watching the film, the students started to brainstorm ideas and explore other critically acclaimed film reviews before starting to write their own
Visit to the University of Huddersfield… Year 9 & Year 10 scholars had the opportunity to visit Huddersfield University in the final week of the term. The visit was designed to inspire and motivate the students by exposing them to the rich, academic environment of the university and broaden horizons.
Students were given a tour of the campus and a summary of the wide range of courses the university has to offer.
Scholars had the chance to see the university labs and gain an insights into the university’s cutting-edge research into blue algae.
Students were given a budgeting activity to complete and the chance to design their own university. They also had the chance to present this to the university ambassadors.
‘Thistriphasmademeconsideruniversity asanoption ’ – Y10Scholar
By Mr Halston
The iDEA (inspiring Digital Enterprise Award) is a nationally recognised certificate at bronze, silver and gold level, awarded for completing a range of digital and life skills badges online. It is so useful for post-16 applications and is looked on by UCAS as being the equivalent to the Duke of Edinburgh’s award.
All secondary students are signed up to the bronze level award and are expected to complete certain badges as homework in Y7-9. In 2023, we have had over 30 students complete the full bronze award and a further 5 completing silver. The gold award has just been released so we eagerly await who will crack it first! This term’s winners:
Bronze
Y10 Jamie Greenwood
Y9 Jason Dawson
Y8 Ruby Darbey
Y8 Pagan Peddar
Y7 Berenice Ofuifeme
Y7 Chase Midgley
Y7 Charlie Welsh
Silver
Y11 Paige Fawthrop
Y8 Amy Ortola
Y8 Hitesh Naramreddy
Congratulations to all these winners! Certificates will be awarded in your assembly.
This term, Year 8 students have been tasked with designing a book cover for the secondary anthology produced in the school library. Named ‘A Banquet of Words’, the brief required some skilled Photoshopping to create one front cover image from a range of separate images. There were dozens of amazing designs to choose from across Year 8, but in the end the library team went for this brilliant design by Alice Pruchnik. It is now being printed in conjunction with Huddersfield University press.
A group of adventurous year 9 students took on the challenge of a multi activity expedition to Keswick in the north of the Lake District during May. During the trip, the team took part in lots of activities including a mountain walk up Catbells that stands at over 450M tall; this however was only the warmup. The second day was filled with a mountain bike ride at Whinlatter forest, another walk to a Lakeland summit and an afternoon was spent rock climbing, followed by dinner in the youth hostel with an early bedtime. The final day was enjoyed in the sunshine as the group walked through Keswick to the shore of Derwent water, where we had one last view of Catbells that we had conquered on the first day. Then we had one last chance for an ice cream then headed back to the academy. All the students tried their very best and got so much from experiencing the environment and culture of the Lake District, hopefully one day they will revisit and explore independently.
During April and May, sixty GCSE Geography students went on a two-night residential trip to the Cranedale Centre in North Yorkshire. Whilst the weather was mixed, students embraced the challenge and collected excellent data to use in their GCSE fieldwork paper.
On the first day in Bridlington, students collected data along the sea front, enjoying the chance to explore the offerings of the seaside shops. They then had a chance to unwind in the evening playing ball games and having a 3-course dinner.
On the second day they bravely waded into the River Derwent to collect flow rate data, with some getting a bit more wet than others!
A fantastic time was had by all, and it was a pleasure for staff to see how much the students got out of the experience.
After weeks of rehearsals, our Year 11 GCSE students finally got the opportunity to showcase their hard work and creativity to staff, students and an EDUQAS moderator. Our students gave the moderator a warm welcome and were fantastic representatives of the students at Appleton Academy. We had creative and strong performances from our students including some who opted to showcase lighting and costume design and we thoroughly enjoyed watching performances of The Woman who cooked her Husband, Bouncers and Girls Like That.
A special thank you goes to their Drama Teacher Miss. Lamb for her support and guidance to our students. Congratulations to our Drama students on the completion of Component 2 and we wish you all the best of luck with your final written examination on May 9th.
By Mrs Parr.
Students from Years 7 to 10 are meeting in the library on Monday lunchtimes to shadow the Carnegie award. The award is given for the best young people’s book of the year and shadowers read, review and discuss each of the books on the shortlist.
This year we have invited teachers to read and share their opinions on the books. Pictured below is Mr Pianigiani sharing his views on ‘Away with Words’ by Sophie Cameron and students' interpretations of the book. You can find out more about the Yoto Carnegie Awards here: https://yotocarnegies.co.uk/writing-shortlist-2024/
This half term we welcomed Katch 22 Theatre Company in to do some dynamic performances of An Inspector Calls.
First performed in 1944, this GCSE set text is set in the fictional town of Brumley but was heavily inspired by what the writer JB Priestley saw around him in early 20th Century Bradford.
Watching live performances of the play really brought it to life for our year 10 and 11 students and helped to secure their knowledge of the plot and characters.
The actors then provided a Q+A session for students, giving a new perspective on the characters, their motivation and behaviours and the writer's intended message to his audience.
This half term we were lucky enough to receive our own published copies of the The Glitch. This book was produced by The Young Writers following a national creative writing competition.
Appleton Academy had an amazing 96 students' stories published! A fantastic achievement for all students involved.
Some of the wonderful short stories can be seen below. We were gifted 8 copies of the book for our school library, students can look at these at break or lunch and see theirs and their friends' names in print.
THE GIRL WHOSE DRAWINGS PREDICTED THE FUTURE
SUN'S ABSENCE
One day, when Helen woke up, she realised one of her drawings came to life. She was so shocked that she went downstairs, wanting to tell her mum, but when she shouted, "Mum?" she wasn't there After realising she had the power to make drawings come to life, she decided that she was going to do something really bad. She decided to draw a battle. After, when she finished, she went to bed, wondering what would happen The next day, she woke up to a battle happening outside her house "Oh no!" she screamed. She grabbed her rubber to try rubbing it out...
Maisy Kerr (12)
Appleton Academy, WykeThe date is 1846 in the South of Asia, where the mysterious disappearance of the sun has come to everyone's attention Five long days; nobody has seen a glint of the sun, the air is heavy with a sense of anticipation as time itself has been suspended. The sun has risen after the time returns, the sky darkens as the sun's brilliance is overshadowed by the moon's presence.
Pedro awakens, etched with worry lines, and eyes bright and lively now hold a hint of melancholy as he realises night and day have been disrupted "The spell was cast!“ remarks Pedro. Silence...
Owen Hart (15)
Appleton Academy, WykeWe are particularly proud of Nihal Bathula in year 10, who was chosen as one of only five grand prize winners nationally for his excellent short story.
He was awarded a £50 cash prize and a trophy to commemorate his outstanding achievement.
Well done, Nihal!
We were delighted when some of our year 9 learners were given the opportunity to take part in the Go Higher West Yorkshire Uni Connect Programme.
The first of the Half day sessions took place in school which was delivered by Rob Bradley from The Rap School with support from GHWY Outreach Officers. The session was aimed at concentrating on the asprtations and values of the learners involved, as well as highlighting the skills and values they admire in others whilst building upon a sense of community. The group of learners involved were taken completely out of their comfort when they were informed that they would all be writing and performing their own rap during the session.
Things quickly got underway with a demonstration of Rob's skills. The group had the challenge of coming up with some random words for him to use in his rap and an interesting title of 'Suitcase Rolling Down a Hill'. Of course, Rob managed this effortlessly which was impressive and gave the learners a good reason to want to aspire to their challenge of creating their very own rap.
Next came the step-by-step guide of how to create their rap. With the tools in place, the learners were given time to develop their ideas and work on their masterpieces. They were still feeling doubtful about being able to perform their rap at this stage as the nerves started to kick in!
After a break for lunch, feeling revitalised and refreshed, work resumed on the development of their creative pieces. The time came to perform the raps and I am both pleased and very proud to say that every single one of our learners in the group, performed their own rap in front of their peers and adults running the session - they were amazing and each and every one of them should be very proud of themselves for having achieved so much in this short session.
The next stage of the programme is a visit to Leeds University - watch this space!
Each newsletter we feature amazing artwork created by our students
This Term, Year 10 have been focusing on a natural form project looking at producing artworks from nature. They have been working on their oil pastel skills to create the different Artwork, combining blending and textured areas.
Ava
Jayden
Ellora
Jorgie
Sofia
Dylan Emma
Isla
Eliza Jesika
Thomas
Sophie
Amelia
Thomas
Amy
Molly
Tegan
Leah
In each newsletter we have a focus on a service or services that can support our students and/or their parents. These services may be something we offer through the school or something that an external provider can deliver. If you have any questions about these services, please contact the school. In this newsletter West Yorkshire Police asked us to highlight information in relation to the online activities of young people and where you can find advice if you are concerned.
At Appleton Academy we highly value our connections with former students. We like to celebrate their achievements and experiences with students, staff and the local community.
We would love to hear from former students and hope to be able to work with them, in the capacity of volunteer, mentor and/or inspirational speakers. If you are a former student and would like to be contacted about the possibility of working with us, please complete the form on the link below or alternatively