NEWSLINK
WAYLAND ACADEMY NORFOLK’S
SPRING 2013
German Xmas Markets Page 7
part of the
Comedy and Magic Night Page 8
Art Academy News Pages 12
NEWSLINK
Contents Welcome Page 3
Stan’s Walk Page 11
Modern Foreign Languages Page 20
Achievement For All Conference Page 4
Academy Art News Page 12
Linguastars Page 20
Wayland DofE Award Scheme Page 13
Academy on a Saturday Page 20
Harriet Dorr Page 13
The International Club Page 21
German Christmas markets and Phantasialand Page 7
BST Crest Awards Page 14 Platinum News Page 15
Rome Trip Page 21
Comedy and Magic Night Page 8
Year 7 Gold Page 15
Annual School Trip Page 8
Sports Pages 16 to 17
History – Belgium and France trip Page 9
Library and Information Centre Page 18
Rotary Young Poet and Young Chef competition Page 9
National Apprenticeship Schemes Page 19
World Plumbing Day 2013 Page 10
3D printer Page 19
Red Nose Day Page 5 Year 11 – English Page 6
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A Big Thank You Page 21 ECO BUGS Pages 22 to 23 Dates for your Diary Page 24 Attendance News Page 24
I wish to thank EVERY member of staff at Wayland Academy, the students and the Governors for all their continued hard work and dedication
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A GOOD School! This has been a very busy and exciting term with several exams having already taken place. Students have also been going on school trips ranging from visiting the Battlefields in Belgium to attending the Achievement for All Conference in Mattishall where they met Henry Winkler (the Fonz!) who was one of the key speakers. As you are all aware we also had our visit from Ofsted. Ofsted provides challenge and accountability for all schools and for the last few years Wayland Academy has made continuous improvements in all areas. The culmination of the hard work from all of our staff has been recognised with a ‘GOOD’ rating in every aspect of school life.
This is a tremendous achievement and I wish to thank EVERY member of staff at Wayland Academy, the students and the Governors for all their continued hard work and dedication. I also wish to acknowledge the importance of our partnership in Transforming Education in Norfolk, not only helping focus on the quality of learning and development but giving us the support and capability to now move towards outstanding.
May I finally thank all our parents/ carers and the members of our community for their continued support and encouragement. We all look forward to another exciting learning journey.
Michael Rose Headteacher
Wayland Academy offers a unique personalised learning environment where children of all abilities are catered for and where we expect improvement to continue for all of us.
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Achievement For All Conference Wayland Academy was asked to speak at the Achievement For All conference at Mattishall on Thursday 7th March 2013. We were selected to share our good practice with other schools in the region. Mrs Learoyd delivered a presentation highlighting the successes of the programme in our Academy to date including the immediate impact on progress in English and Maths, particularly for the Year 8 students. Six of our students: Jamie Fox, Connor Hoggart, Cameron Hudson, Liam Tosney, Sam Wheeler and Sean Grix spoke about their experiences and how they felt the programme had beneďŹ ted them.
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They answered questions in front of 100 delegates made up of Head Teachers, Principals and other leaders. The students were praised for their performance and invited to lunch with the conference delegates.
One of the highlights for the students was the photo shoot with Henry Winkler (The Fonze) who was one of the key speakers (pictured top).
RED NOSE DAY: Do Something Funny for Money Wayland Academy joined in with the rest of the country on Friday 15th March to raise money for Red Nose Day. Well done to all the students and staff who helped raise over ÂŁ1000 (not ďŹ nalised by time of print).
Mr Fudge had his hair shaved, Mrs Harris joined the Bake off at City College Norwich, Mr Halliwell, Mr Allott, Mr Coats and Mr Dyer all had their legs waxed, Mrs Martin and Sequoia Mallet (Head Girl) were in the stocks, having wet sponges thrown at
them, Mrs Faulkner made dinosaur cards and crayons, Reception sold Red Noses, Yr 7s made cakes and everyone else sponsored or contributed towards the day.
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Year 11 lead the way in Speaking and Listening With an increased desire for functional English skills in the workplace, our Year 11 students have shown that they have the necessary ability to compete in the world of work. Nine representatives of Year 11 agreed to help the English department when a visiting assessor from the examination board arrived at school to check the standards were being applied rigorously across the Academy. The highest marks were awarded to one of the group discussionssomething that Mike Carter, Senior Advisor in the examination board, told me he sees very rarely as
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often students are slightly intimidated by the whole process. Our students were not at all distracted and I was pleased to be told what I already believe to be true, that our students are excellent role models and exhibit conďŹ dence and perception when discussing many different topics. I was very proud to view such a purposeful oral performance from these students and would like to thank all those involved. The students were: Sequoia Mallett, Liam Sayer, Beth Ann Singer, Michael Freeman, Chantelle Samuels, Phil Bone, Jordan Bracey, Danni Turner and Karl Duke. Mrs Sheppard
Year 11 make a good start to GCSE English Language/ English Literature We have just had some encouraging early entry GCSE English Language results from Year 11. For those of you who did well, congratulations and for those of you who would have liked to have done better, keep being positive and prepare yourself effectively with advice from your teachers. Saturday Academy is one method that some of you may have to keep improving your chances of achieving a good GCSE grade when results are out in August.
German Christmas Markets and Phantasialand A group of 53 linguists braved the cold last December to savour the delights of Cologne’s Christmas Markets.
Phantasialand, as always, provided a packed day’s amusement and was rounded off with some impressive ice skating.
We also visited its amazing Cathedral and the former Nazi Documentation Headquarters, LD House, where we were given a fascinating guided tour. In contrast, the Lindt Chocolate Museum gave us an insight into how chocolate is made and also an opportunity to stock up on Christmas presents.
There was a quiz evening back at the Düsseldorf youth hostel, which tested students’ knowledge of Germany and ended with some interesting challenges involving balloons, sherbet and mummification! Details about this year’s visit will be out very soon – see Mrs Ward for details.
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Comedy & Magic Night Our Comedy and Magic Night which took place on 6th March 2013 was a huge success and a lot of fun. We had a big audience who thoroughly enjoyed the spectacular entertainment. We had hilarious comedians to breathtaking magicians; even a magic bin. It featured many staff and students from Wayland Academy who took part on the night and in the making of the 500 miles. We all had great fun in the making of the stunning show. The host, Karl Green, said; “Many thanks to all that took part in the making of a fantastic evening, Really enjoyed making this night memorable, hoping a lot more to come”. A member of the technicians that helped and ran the show, Karl Duke, said; “The comedy
and magic night was amazing it was one of the best shows I have worked on”. A big thanks; to all who participated, the audience, Karl Green, technicians and KSD Mobile Discos for the hire of some equipment. It was a lot of fun and everyone enjoyed it. We look forward to the next show, all we can say now is that the...
Annual School Ski Trip to Tonale, Italy Monday 1st to Tuesday April 9th Looking forward to some great pictures in the next NEWSLINK 8
History Belgium and France trip 45 Year 9s travelled to Belgium and France on 27th February to 1st March 2013 to visit the Ypres Salient and the Somme Battlefields sites. Pupils were able to gain an insight into the horrors of the First World War and one of our group even managed to find the grave of one of his ancestors who lost his life in the Great War at the age of 18.
I would like to say how proud we are of our pupils – they acted with humility and respect and were a credit to the Academy. They deserved the treats purchased in the chocolate shops of Ypres on the last day! Mrs Thuell Head of History
Rotary Young Poet and Young Chef competition Well done to the Winners and Runners up of the Young Poet and Young Chef competition. Certificates and vouchers were presented by The Rotary Club Chairman Peter Semlyen.
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World Plumbing Day 2013 To celebrate World Plumbing Day, nineteen of our Year 9 students took part in an event in the Skills Centre on Monday 11th March 2013. In teams of three, the students were given the challenge to move water from one tank to another in the most creative way possible, including in their design two clear plastic boxes and a funnel. To help them do this they were also given an electric submersible pump, compression fittings and as much recycled copper pipe as they needed. The final rule was that each design had to include an isolation valve immediately after the pump. With very little input from the staff (barring a Health & Safety briefing) the students dived in to the challenge (no pun intended!) and quickly produced sketched designs of their final products. Their true colours came to light, however, when they started actually making their final pieces. Soon, the simple sketched designs had been ‘tweaked’ and more creative and imaginative solutions were coming into play. A simple question from staff about how the water was going to arrive in the final tank resulted in drilled pipe forming a showerhead. Multiple runs of pipe were configured so that water ran out of the end of one pipe, only to be collected by a funnel below. The plastic boxes were drilled in multiple directions, connected to pipework, stuck together with sealant and integrated into designs in a myriad of ways. By period 5, the boards were ready for testing. Up to this point, students had not been allowed to run water through their creations, so this was a tense moment!
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Were all the joints tightened? Would the water do what they expected it to do? Would the pumps be strong enough to get the water all the way round? (That last one was our concern as this was a totally new exercise for us too!) The judges were present, the students crowded around the first design, staff looked on from a slightly more prudent distance (just in case the leaks were enthusiastic) and the first pump was switched on. After a short pause, while the water worked its way through the pipework, there was a distinct dripping noise and a puddle
started working its way speedily across the floor, to general hilarity from the group. In their defence, a significant amount of water also worked its way through the rig and ended up in the final tank. Moving round the room, every single one of the designs worked… to a degree! Firstly, congratulations go to Steven Gale, Andrew Waddingham and Joe Watts who built the winning design. However, I would also like to congratulate all students who took part in the event on their amazing attitude, motivation and teamwork. Happy World Plumbing Day!
A new path between Watton and Griston has been officially opened called Stan’s Walk Safety, health and the environment were put at the top of the agenda in Wayland this weekend as a new walk and cycle path was unveiled. A new path between Watton and Griston has been officially opened called Stan’s Walk. The mile-anda-half route, linking the village of Griston and the town of Watton, was the result of a public vote and was funded by a £25,000 grant from the Big Lottery Fund. Plans for the path were formed as early as 2000, with the grant allocated in 2007. Campaigners have advocated that local people should be able to make everyday journeys without having to rely on a car or walking along main roads. John Rogers, county councillor for Watton, said: “Cycling and walking has gone from being difficult and unattractive along busy roads to easy and very attractive along a dedicated path.” He said the area had waited a long time for the path and emphasised the safety and health benefits of its opening. He added: “I think this is, by far, the best footpath in the whole of Norfolk.” The former MP for SouthWest Norfolk, Baroness Gillian
Shephard, officially opened the path in Griston by cutting the ribbon. She said: “There is so much enthusiasm [here], and lots of local skills used for people to be able to use this cycleway.” The route runs through the former RAF airfield and is aimed at walkers, cyclists, joggers, or any other non-motorised vehicles. It is part of a national project, managed by Norfolk County Council, by sustainable transport charity Sustrans, who enable people to travel by foot, bike or public transport.
Sustrans’ regional director for the East Nigel Brigham said: “These new links are going to make a real difference to how people make their everyday journeys in Watton and Griston. We hope to work with Norfolk County Council in the future to deliver even more routes like this locally, making it safe to get around on two wheels.” Watton-born 15-year-old Declan Davis, the national 10-mile cycling champion for his age group, was at the opening. He said he was pleased about the new route, adding: “I will be using this path and I hope other people will get out on their bikes to keep active too.”
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Academy Art News Year 7 and 8 students have started a new project this term called ‘Colour Theory’. They have been producing Primary, Secondary and Tertiary colour wheels, learning to mix colour, using watercolour paints and learning how to create tints and shades. They are currently studying the life and work of artisteducator Josef Albers, recreating his ‘Homage to the Square’ using the techniques they have been practicing.
Year 9 students have been studying Portraits, looking in particular at the works of Leonardo da Vinci. This project is designed to give the students a taste of the ‘Contextual Studies’ element in GCSE Art and Design as they prepare to choose their Pathways for Year 10.
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Year 10 students are working hard at the moment and are looking forward to a study trip in June to The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (pictured above). They will be guided through the contemporary Sculpture and Still Life Galleries and doing Observational drawing in the Dutch and Flower galleries. All work will be included in their ‘Still Life’ projects.
Year 11 students are two weeks into their Externally Set Task. This is 40% of their final grade and a chance to show off their skills. Good Luck to the Year 11 Artists!
WAYLAND DUKE OF EDINBURGH (DofE) AWARD SCHEME UPDATE Soon Wayland’s DofE Award Silver group will be going to Derbyshire to complete their practice and qualifying expeditions. They will complete 3 days, walking, camping and living in the outdoors. They will have lots of fun and a great experience.
In other news, Wayland DofE award group now has Twitter. You can follow us by searching for: @WaylandDofE. Follow Wayland DofE Award Group’s Twitter feed for; news, events and details of our award group.
DofE DATES
Harriet entered the Fashion Design Competition - Design for a 1950s Icon launched by ICHF Events and supported by Inkberrow Design Centre in Worcestershire on the last day; Jan 31st. On Feb 23rd she received a letter to say she was a Finalist in the competition. Harriet had competed against 32 schools as an independent candidate and is one 15 finalists.
SILVER 9th to 12th April: Silver practice expedition to Derbyshire 22nd May, 6pm to 7pm: Silver pre qualifying expedition meeting 28th to 31st May: Silver Qualifying expedition to Derbyshire 18th June, 6.30pm to 8pm: Silver presentations and kit return BRONZE 10th June 8pm: Enrolment 6th July 9am to 4pm: Sponsored walk 14th July, 9am to 4pm: Expedition Training day 20th to 22nd September: Practice expedition to Suffolk 11th to 13th October: Qualifying expedition in Suffolk
Harriet Dorr
CLIMBING CLUB 6.30pm to 8pm: in the Sportshall Free on the following dates 16th April, 7th May, 21st May, 10th June and 3rd July. 20th to 21st July – Climbing club trip to Derbyshire – open to climbing club participants only!
Harriet must make her fashion design idea into a dress to fit herself. She will need to be at the catwalk by 11am on Friday 22nd March at the NEC. She will need to model her completed dress in front of the crowds and judges at the Fashion, Embroidery and Stitch Catwalk. The winner will showcase their work and also receive prizes.
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BST Crest Awards Fifty Year 9 students from Wayland Academy have received Bronze Crest Awards for their ‘Green Bag’ Textiles Projects from the British Science Association. The aim of the nationally recognised Crest Award Scheme is to inspire and engage students in a range of science, technology, engineering and maths enrichment activities. Wayland Academy is the only school in Norfolk engaged in the Crest Award in Textiles. Ms. Valerie Wenham, Teacher of Textiles at Wayland Academy Norfolk is proud of the success of her students.
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The Green Bag Project is an environmentally friendly project in which recycled fabrics are used to make patchwork. It also promotes cultural awareness as students design and make their own Batik decorated fabric using African Tribal patterns for inspiration. Batik is a technique using hot wax and a special tool called a tjunting. The hot wax is applied to cotton fabric using the tjunting in the form of drawn patterns. The spaces not covered by the wax are coloured by being painted with dyes. The wax is ironed out of the completed Batik. The students then manufacture the bags using their own original fabrics; the Batik and patchwork.
Work is to a high standard. Mr. Dick Palmer, CEO of TEN, and Mrs. Jan Cockburn, HR & Project Manager of The Norfolk Education Business Exchange Ltd., presented the certificates.
Platinum News This half-term, Platinum 11 have been working to complete their BTEC Units, reviewing their puppet show performance, and having some fun designing and producing mobile phone holders. Thanks to Ms Pitt for her help in achieving this. They are also looking to begin filming a documentary about their time in Platinum as a guide for future students. Platinum 10 continue their work on the World War One trench resource – despite the horrible weather. They have also
been decorating their workroom, and designing a 3D display to illustrate healthy living, using one of the students as a model. Looking ahead to next term, they are currently in talks with growing local business Anglia Free Range Eggs to enter the Norfolk Food and Farming Challenge at the Royal Norfolk Show in June.
Year 7 Gold Year 7 Gold students are currently studying British History from 1930 onwards. They have compared life then and now and understand how different our lives are. They know when World War 2 started and why, who the leaders of the Axes (Germany, Japan and Italy) and Allies (Great Britain, The United States, China and the Soviet Union) were.
Chamberlain when he stepped down from power and Winston Churchill took over. They have also listened to the famous speech “We are at war with Germany”.
They are also learning why the reserved occupations were needed, why the Land Girls where important and why there where evacuees.
They have listened to various radio broadcasts of the time, including a broadcast from Neville
The students are working their way through the major events that happened during the War years.
The students are busy working on displays to show off their hard work.
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Norfolk Winter Schools Games 57 students from Wayland Academy qualified to represent Breckland in this years Winter School Games.
Some fantastic swimmers took to the swimming pool, at the UEA Sportspark including our very own Lauren Dade, well done.
They joined over 2000 other students throughout the county. Breckland is one of 8 School Sport Partnerships along with North Norfolk SSP, East Norfolk SSP, South Norfolk SSP, West Norfolk SSP, West Norwich & Dereham SSP, Norwich SSP and Norwich East SSP to compete in different sporting events such as Indoor Athletics, Swimming, Table Tennis, Tag Rugby, Badminton and Skiing.
Enola Cuffe, Sam Holland and Harry Johnson took part in the table tennis against some formidable players and our Athletes Ben Andrews, James Beaumont, Sam Bray, Tamika Bustin, Kayleigh Eagling, Oliver Kerrison, Millie King, Tamara Levin, Liam Owen, Elisha Poole, Josie Rumer, Ben Walker, Korben Willis, Kiara Wilson, Will Hume and Jodie Thompson took part in the Indoor Athletics, competing in Long jump, triple jump, vertical jump, throwing, javelin, shot putt, sprints and relays.
Congratulations to Megan Hassey who represented us in the KS3 Skiing on the dry ski slopes in Trowse. The U14 Boys Ty Bond, Steven Gale, Oliver Mowles and Scott Parodi took part in the Badminton and finished 6th. The U16 Girls Natalie Coogans, Hannah Gill, Abbie Johnson and Sophie Allibone also took part in the Badminton and finished 5th at the UEA Sportspark. 20 of Wayland Sports Leaders, Todd Pitcher, Jamie Purnell, Joe Russell, Charlie Spinks, Adam Taylor, Joe Wood, Dave Wooding, Sergey Bell, Mathew Bennett, Jacob Bowman, Ryan Easter, Jack Flory, Jamie Foster, Lee Grix, Perry Gutteridge, Lewis Hart, Josh Leveridge, Kyle McGee, Hudson McKie and Jordon Parodi assisted with the Tag Rugby Event at Diss Rugby Club. They worked tirelessly to make the event run smoothly.
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Well done to the following pupils who won their races (pictured bottom right): William Chew Connor Townsend Luke Armstrong Rebecca Cockman Harvey Eales Tyler Fellows Carla Miu Kira Richardson-Merry
Well done to all the students who took part.
U14 Boys – Badminton Team Ty Bond H1 Steven gale M2 Oliver Mowles M1 Scott Parodi N4 Finished 6th out of 8
Family cycling sessions
Indoor cycling Coaches from Activating CiC ran indoor cycling sessions to promote the after school club at Wayland. A brilliant opportunity for pupils to experience bike racing indoors.
Congratulations for reaching the South Norfolk Cup Final
U13 Football Team Asher Duncan S1 Kade Bond N3 Liam Owen N4 Oliver Kerrison H5 Jonathan Breen H4 Kieran Lount S4
Ben Walker H1 Sam Bray S1 Josh Walker M2 Korben Willis M2 James Beaumont H5 Joseph Dorr H2
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LIBRARY AND INFORMATION CENTRE A major event this term was the judging of the Watton Rotary Club ‘Young Poet of the Year’ competition. David Branson and Peter Crowling both local members of Watton Rotary Club, visited Wayland Academy on several occasions to short-list the entries on the theme of ‘Seasons’. After much deliberation Catlin Malt was awarded 1st place and James Kerrison and Roxanne Rudd were awarded joint second place. We went on to attend a combined Young Poet and Young Chef Presentation Evening on 24th January at The Hare and Barrel and were treated to a lovely 3 course meal. The winners read out their poems and were awarded certificates and gift vouchers by the Chairman, Peter Semlyen. We would like to say a HUGE thank you for a lovely evening that was enjoyed by all. A selection of the poem entries have been on display in the school library and are now on show in a Rotary Club display board in Watton Sports Centre.
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The theme for fiction this term has been ‘Graphic Novels’ which are best described as book-length comics. Sometimes they tell a single, continuous narrative from first page to last; sometimes they are collections of shorter stories or individual comic strips. They show sequential visual art, usually with text, that are often told in a series of rectangular panels. This genre includes: fantasy, adventure, legends and classics and has been a popular choice amongst the students. Our first cohort of students within our paired reading scheme (UNITAS) recently attended an event here in the library; they were presented with their reward of books by head teacher, Mr Rose. Special prizes (signed copies of The Devil’s Triangle by the author Mark Robson) for excellent progress and commitment were awarded to: Tori Woolley, Adam Gibbs and Sam Munns. These students and their mentors were pioneers and the feedback
they have given has been invaluable in helping us to design our own in-house programme. Further schemes are building on their success and new groups are due to start after Easter. Additionally, we now have student mentors visiting Watton Junior School to encourage the younger pupils to gain both reading confidence and an enjoyment of books. To celebrate World Book Day on 8th March 2013, we introduced our school Reading Challenge which is being piloted by Year 7 students. It is based around an athletics theme and can be accessed by all at appropriate levels; the aim is to encourage even greater reading interest. We continue to work closely with City College Norwich. We can access their large bank of resources and have recently borrowed artefacts and posters for current library displays on the Chinese New Year, (Year of the Snake), and Faith and Diversity.
National Apprenticeship Schemes Swarm Apprenticeships is a new social business set up by social entrepreneur Robert Ashton. It will enable groups of ten sparky young people to complete an ‘enterprise apprenticeship’. They’ll be employed by Swarm and work for local small businesses. Their training will help them make an immediate impact. Businesses will profit from hiring them. They will grow their own jobs, perhaps their future too.
Alison Thomas – cabinet member for Children’s Services at the County Council and Ann Steward – cabinet member for Economic Development at Norfolk County Council to show an interest in the scheme.
Swarm Apprenticeships is supported by the Norfolk chamber of commerce, Federation of Small Businesses, City College Norwich and Norfolk County Council.
Arek has a dream of running his own restaurant business serving fresh food with fresh ingredients and is hoping that Swarm will help him gain skills and experience to succeed. Karl Duke is interested in an apprenticeship in stage work. Karl is interested in staging, lighting and music. He already helps out with events and shows at Wayland and doing an apprenticeship will pay him for doing the work he enjoys. Karl hopes to get a job out of it.
On Wed 13th March some of our Yr 11 students Arkadiusz Brzeziski (Arek), Karl Duke and George Symonds met with Robert Ashton, Tom Llewellyn – the community investment officer for Orbit East one of the sponsors for the Watton group,
Training will be delivered by City College Norwich, the Educational side will take place in the local market towns so that the students cut down on travel expenses. To find out more about the scheme check out our website www.waylandacademy.org.uk
IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR YEAR 11 STUDENTS Please ensure that you return your library books before heading off on study leave otherwise you may be asked to pay for your missing books!
3D printer A reminder that we are still collecting any unwanted CDs, DVDs and games for our recycling scheme. The collection box is in the library.
Some Year 9 students have been busy making a 3D printer from scratch after receiving all the parts to make it. This is very exciting as when students have made the printer they will be able to construct 3D plastic objects.
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Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) Year 8 Space Unit Year 8 have been studying space in German this term. They have developed their listening, reading, speaking and writing skills through a number of activities including: listening and responding to Neil Armstrong’s landing on the moon in German, reading about life on the space station and producing a creative piece of writing in the form of a book about space in German for younger learners. The students with the most creative, interesting and accurate written work in each teaching group received a prize and certificate. Here are some of the winners: Abigail Evans, Katharine Ward, Daniela Da Costa, Maddy Hall, Raquel Martins, Sean Grix, Liam Tosney and Ralitsa Katsarova
Linguastars Last term certificates were given to two students in each teaching group, one for progress and one for achievement. The photos of these students are on the Display Board in the Solar Suite outside the Language Classrooms. Watch out for the Linguastars for the Spring Term.
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Academy on a Saturday? Are you serious!! During this half term, a group of dedicated Year 11s who need to improve their work in order to try and get the all-important C grades in their English and Maths, have been attending Saturday Academy. They have been filtered to doing either extra English with Ms Street or Maths with Mrs Goldie. The extra hour has allowed them to work in small groups, look at specific areas they find difficult and have time to discuss their issues that they may have in these subjects. It isn’t all work; the play comes in the form of a choice of rugby, Zumba or archery. A treat worth working for! Well done to those hardy few who persevered with the rugby on the rainy Saturdays… which also gave some of the girls some extra entertainment as some of the boys had a go at Zumba instead!
Rome Trip Year 10s are looking forward to their trip to Rome on 22nd to 25th April. They are planning to visit St Peter’s Basilica, The Vatican, The Sistine Chapel, the Coliseum and the Roman Forum.
The International Club Come and join us in the library for some fun and games. Every week is different. Be creative! Be international! Be part of it. We play games, create crafts, chat, laugh... and much more! Mondays from 1.35pm to 2.15pm The International Club was started to bring together our many nationalities represented at Wayland Academy. Students come together and have fun, learn about different cultures and enjoy each others’ company. So far we have decorated the library for Halloween, created Christmas decorations, learnt about cake
A Big Thank You to our Parents/ Carers
decorating (and ate all the cakes!) and made a poster to show all pupils a little bit about all the different places in the world represented at our school. This term we have been busy making Valentine’s cards and creating collages. Of course, not all the boys have found their creative side yet. They enjoy playing card games instead. If the volume is anything to go by we can be assured that they are enjoying themselves. What does the future hold? Well, we are busy making Easter decorations for the library and home and will be starting all sorts of seasonal activities. Cakes will most likely play a part again.
We would like to take the opportunity to thank Parents and Carers who took the time to attend Parent Consultation Day on Thursday 28th March. It was an excellent opportunity for each parent, to have a fifteen minute appointment, in school during the day, to discuss their child’s progress across all subjects, with their child’s Form Tutor and discuss any concerns they may have.
Our students will be in Rome during a special point in history with the election of a new Pope. The city will be full of pilgrims and full of atmosphere. We may even get to see the new Pope for ourselves! In previous years, this trip has been highly popular and successful for Wayland students and this year will be no exception. We are hoping for good weather while they are walking around Rome to visit the sites but the weather in Rome in April can be changeable, they can expect to see daytime temperatures between 15-24˚C falling significantly in the evening. They could also get wet but are hoping that won’t be the case! We look forward to the pictures in the next edition..!
We look forward to meeting you again on the Citations afternoons in July when we celebrate the achievements of our students (days in Dates for your Diary).
Have a great Easter!
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LOCAL FOOD GRANT – ADDITIONAL FUNDING
E BU C GS O
We have just heard from this Big Lottery Funded programme that we have been selected to receive further funding to enable us to purchase an outdoor classroom; quotes are already with us so watch this space for more details of our classrooms arrival. With this additional facility we can open the Eco Garden up to all students and subjects – roll on the summer months. We shall be having a classroom similar to the picture to the right.
LITTLE DIGGERS CONTINUE DIGGING THROUGH WINTER We continued to garden through the winter, some weeks we were forced inside the poly-tunnel where we created spiders, decorated paving slabs, made lacewing lodges and eco cans as bug habitat and a totem pole. All of these were made from recycled materials. Our last session was a Christmas party held outside with the cob oven lit. Diane from the SureStart Centre enjoyed toasting marshmallows for the children to sample. A great time was had by all. January 2013 saw us plant our Golden Delicious apple tree, kindly donated by Bonnie Robertson from
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Watton, many thanks Bonnie we are sure the children will enjoy the apples over the coming years. February 2013 we made bird baths. To try this at home you need a dome of damp sand, covered with savoy cabbage leaves, then mix some
ready to use mortar and mould over the cabbage leaves, cover with cling film and leave to set for a couple of days. Once dry turn over, remove the leaves which by this time will have impressed into the mortar and created a very attractive pattern.
A NEW SEASON OF SOWING AND GROWING This year we’ve decided to try some new additions alongside our usual favourites in the veg garden, TURNIPS being one of those. We’ve never grown these before, along with some different SQUASHES and PUMPKINS. We’ve also gone for lots of PEPPERS, CHILLI’S and HERBS. Many of these plants will be grown on for selling in the Staff Room as well as local carnivals, fetes and fayres that
we will be attending over the summer months. In addition to the veg we are growing flowers for drying for a customer. Discussions started earlier in the year and we wanted to try to supply locally produced flowers. We’ve sown lots of seeds and turned over one of our veg beds to cutting flowers for drying. This has been an exciting experiment and we hope to be supplying quality goods very soon.
WELCOME TO OUR NEW RECRUITS January saw Mr Green hosting an Eco Assembly, which was the Year 7s opportunity to sign up and become members. We are delighted to say that 37 students took up this opportunity and we look forward to working with you.
RHS CAMPAIGN FOR SCHOOL GARDENING We are delighted to have received our prize of a Plug and Play Microscope for completing our Level 4.
This is to certify that
We shall continue to work towards opening the garden up as a teaching resource; this will then allow us to apply for our Level 5.
BIG WILDLIFE GARDEN
WOODLAND TRUST GREEN TREE SCHOOL AWARDS
In the Eco Garden we garden with wildlife always in mind.
We are delighted to say we’ve reached our Gold Award for this programme; our wooden plaque takes pride of place on our shed. We shall now look ahead and move onto working towards our platinum award.
Eco Garden has achieved Green standard in their Big Wildlife Garden!
Over the years we’ve introduced bird boxes, bat boxes, bird feeders, a pond, long grass area, bug hotels and a hedgehog house to name but a few. We applied for our Green Award earlier this year and were delighted to get recognition for our efforts and a certificate to display.
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Dates for your diary MARCH Thur 28th – Staff Development Day — Parent Consultation with Form Tutors Day Academy closes for Easter Holiday APRIL Mon 1st to Tues 9th – Ski trip Tue 9th to Fri 12th – DofE Silver Practice Expedition to Derbyshire Mon 15th – Students return Thur 18th – Yr 8 Parents evening Mon 22nd to Thur 25th – Rome trip MAY Wed 1st – Bag 2 School collection Mon 6th – May Bank Holiday Tue 7th – Yr 8 Girls HPV Vaccinations 3 Thur 9th – Yr 10 Parents evening Tue 21st – Lost Property Display Wed 22nd – DofE Silver pre-qualifying expedition meeting 6pm to 7pm Fri 24th – Academy closes at 3.15pm for half term Tue 28th to Fri 31st – DofE Silver qualifying expedition to Derbyshire JUNE Mon 3rd – Students return Mon 10th – DofE Bronze enrolment Tue 18th – Silver Presentations and kit return 6.30-8pm Fri 21st – Primary Languages Festival Thur 27th – Staff Development Day JULY (Yr 11 Prom date to be arranged) Mon 2nd – Yr 6 Transition Day Yr 6 Transition Evening Wed 3rd – Sports day Thur 4th – Yr 7 Parents Evening – Sat 6th – DofE Sponsored walk 9am to 4pm Thur 11th to Thur 13th – ClassAct Production Sun 14th – DofE Bronze Expedition Training day 9am-4pm Mon 15th to Thur 19th – Citations Afternoons Tue 16th – Lost Property Display Thur 18th – Sports Presentation Evening Wed 24th – Academy closes 3.15pm for Summer Holidays
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Attendance news Our sincere thanks to all parents who have been working so hard with us to improve attendance at Wayland Academy Norfolk. We still have a way to go to achieve our goal of 95%. At present our overall attendance stands at 92%: Year 7: 94% Year 8: 94% Year 9: 92% Year 10: 92% Year 11: 90% Please remember to inform the Academy if your child will not be attending. You can leave a message on our Voicemail (01953 881 514) or send in a letter. We require a letter explaining absence upon your child’s return to school so that we can place it on his or her file. Please inform us of any medical or dental appointments which occur in school time.
Lateness has been something of a problem for some of our students. Students should be in registration at 8.50am. If they arrive at school after 9.20am they will receive an unauthorised absence mark against their name (U). The authorities consider this to be missing half a day of school. If at all possible, please do not take holidays during term time. We appreciate this is sometimes difficult but the Academy will not always be able to authorise such absence, especially if the student already has a poor attendance record. The Academy is not able to authorise more than five days holiday leave for any student. We believe that good attendance promotes good academic and social progress and it is our wish to see all students achieving 95% attendance.