NEWSLETTER www.cowesec.org info@cowesec.org
Friday 14th December
Dear parents and carers, The term has flown by for me and here we are sending out our penultimate newsletter of the term already. We have had so much to celebrate in our newsletters and there will be much to celebrate, we are sure, for your child and their personal successes so far this academic year too. Thank you for all of your support, as always. Students succeed at school when home, school and child are pulling in the same direction, something which happens for most students, for most of the time, we are pleased to say. I would like to congratulate our sixth formers for winning the Crown Court mock trial competition last Saturday. Our amazing team worked incredibly hard and it paid off as we won against 5 other teams from island schools, including the private schools. We are delighted to bring the coveted trophy to Cowes and are determined to hang on to it! There has been much in the newsletters this term which reflects the achievements of our students – GCSE and A Level results day and the excellent news that our progress 8 was above the national average and in the top 20% of results for Hampshire schools and top for the Isle of Wight is definitely worth us celebrating. That’s quite an achievement and we look to continue to build further on this every year. It’s been good to see so many of you at the various evenings we have put on this term: information evenings, parent evenings and tutor nights in particular. Our parent evenings are a particularly important feature of our school, putting you in the picture as to how you can support progress. Next week I look forward to many of you joining us at our Carol Concert and school production. A highlight of the term has been being one of only three schools in the South to be featured by Ofsted as part of their National Annual Report. We have also had a rich and wonderful set of activities beyond the curriculum going on, ranging from students performing at the Albert Hall, to workshops with visiting authors and rappers, to charity events, sporting fixtures and the Noel Turner Physics Festival. A reminder that on Tuesday afternoons I am always available to meet with parents with attendance by pre-booked appointments only. With best wishes, Rachel Kitley
Students will have the opportunity to wear their Christmas jumper on
Wednesday 19th December (the day of our festive lunch). Students are invited to wear their festive jumpers with their normal Academy uniform, blazers can be substituted for the Christmas jumper.
Students should wear either a Christmas jumper or a plain black jumper as per our uniform policy. A voluntary donation of £1 towards Save The Children and The Toy Appeal would be much appreciated but is not essential
Arabian Nights coming soon…. Tuesday 18th, Wednesday 19th, Thursday 20th December at 7pm. Our school play this year is Arabian Nights adapted by Dominic Cooke for the RSC. A wonderful series of stories originally from Persia and India. The play celebrates the power of storytelling and imagination. We are working very hard to create a colourful and extraordinary version of these amazing stories. What is all about well…. King Shahrayar’s heart is broken by his wife’s betrayal and his anger ripples through the kingdom as he reaps revenge on all “the daughters of the city… Curse life, curse the world and curse all women!” His Vizier (the Kings right hand man) has two beautiful daughter’s Dinarzad and Shahrazad. Shahrazad knows she can save the King; she has the most magical stories to melt his heart, if only he would … listen!
Tickets still available from Reception. £5 adult tickets and £2 student/child tickets. Cash accepted
Arabian Nights rehearsals: Saturday 15th December—10-4pm Monday 17th December—Lunch time onwards
Poppy Appeal Total Raised Cowes Enterprise College and Cowes CCF have raised a grand total of £300.56 for the Poppy Appeal!
Don’t forget that you can view recent letters on our website!
Click here to view. Click here to read our Sixth Form prospectus!
CEC TRIUMPH AT MOCK TRIAL Huge congratulations to our Sixth Form team who took part, and won, in the Mock Trial competition this weekend! The amazing team have worked so hard with the rehearsals and won against the five other teams from island schools.
Additional congratulations to Emilia who was found 'not guilty' - a triumph for justice! Well done to Ellen, Jess, Kieran, Jenny, Ben, Esme, Angeline, Beth, Millie, Miss Wisniowski and Mrs Cody for their hard work. Here is a selection of items brought in by 9JHG for the Isle of Wight Foodbank. It’s great to see students thinking of others. Well done everyone!
Last week students from the Isle of Wight College came to CEC to perform for some of our Year 7 students. The play aimed to help young people deal with stressful moments in their lives, such as moving to a new school and coping with loss.
Last week we were delighted to be joined by Blue Peter Book Award winning author Kieran Larwood. Students from Northwood Primary School joined some of our Year 10 students to take part in a creative writing workshop and an art session where they brought their characters to life through mixed media art. We were so impressed at the work of all the students and had such an interesting and insightful morning with Kieran Larwood.
THE TWELVE READERS OF CHRISTMAS Your Christmas challenge is to identify our selected ‘Twelve Christmas Readers’ from CEC staff. Who likes Sci-Fi? Who doesn’t? Post your answers in the Christmas box at Reception.
There will be a festive prize for the winner! Remember that ‘CEC staff’ may include anyone who works here!
Closing date for entries: 19th December 2018
LANGUAGES MAGAZINES The magazines have arrived… just in time for Christmas! If you have subscribed to the French or Spanish magazines please collect your first two issues from Mrs Jackson in SK03. Happy reading!
Year 9 Weekly Praise!
Year 10 Weekly Praise!
Weekly Attendance Winner:
Weekly Attendance Winner:
9ENR with 96%!
10CMU with 98%
Year 9 Stars of the Week:
Year 10 Stars of the Week:
Kimberley Whiten (9ANW) Bradley Morris (9ENR) Freddie Cox (9LNC)
Joe Tombleson (10HAW) Lucy Calloway (10HAW) Harry Keith (10JLS) Jessica Browne (10JRC) Brooke Morey (10KRB) Isabelle Crawley (10SMH)
Well done to all of the Year 9s who got reward cards this week as there were so many of you!
Duke of Edinburgh Cookery Skills
Well done to the Young enterprise students Mohammed Aziz, Reece Nicholls and Will Young. They did a decoration-painting stall at the Christmas market to raise their start-up funds for their business venture. Our thanks also to Mrs Nicholls for the photo.
Year 9 business students have been completing their Apprentice challenge to design a holiday park on the Isle of Wight aimed at teenagers. 4 groups overcame their nerves and successfully presented their ideas in assembly. All students in year 9 voted for their favourite ideas and the winner will be announced in the celebration assembly next week. The brief that the students were working to was:
A pitch without using PowerPoint
A name for your resort.
A plan / map of your resort
How your resort fills a gap in the IOW tourism industry.
Any other information you think is relevant.
The apprentice challenges will continue throughout year 9 as part of the business and enterprise curriculum. A huge well done to Sonny, Megan, Daniel, Mitchell, Max, Bess, Tyler, Brody, Abdul, Mia, Vincent, Luke, Tillie, Charlie, Lottie-Rose and Kade.
Year 9 students have been designing some fantastic storyboards for their anti-bullying websites in their Media Production / IT lessons. Some of the best ideas are here (zoom in to view). It will be very exciting to see the end products of their baseline projects for this course. Well done everyone from Miss Gibson
CHRISTMAS FAYRE It was a delight to see so many people at our Christmas Fayre on Thursday evening! Thank you to everyone who came to support the academy.
Our huge thanks go to everyone who kindly and generously donated items for our tombola, baked goods stall and raffle
REMINDERS & INFORMATION Attendance
Our whole academy attendance this week was 94.1%
Attending is the first part of succeeding!
Even in or last week of term, is it important to remember that our attendance and punctuality expectations remain as high as ever. Students should be in the building by 8.25am for a 8.30am prompt start in their tutor class. Any student arriving after 8.30am will be considered as being late. A reminder that the procedure to report a student absence is to call the main Academy number (01983 203103), select Option 1 and leave a message on the Student Absence Line before 8.30am. There is no direct number for the absence line. Phone calls need to be made every day of the student's absence. Please do not call any other number to report a student absence. This term’s review of attendance has shown that many students are taking several ‘odd days off’. These odd days off seem to be for minor ailments and appointments, these absences are having a negative impact on your child’s progress. Missing just one day is not just one day, it’s five hours of learning content missed. Following one day off means your child may not fully understand the content of the next lessons. It can be likened to ripping a chapter out of a book.
EARLY CLOSURE (and Christmas Jumpers!) FRIDAY 21ST DECEMBER A reminder that on the last day of term on Friday 21st December, staff will be meeting during the afternoon and therefore all students will leave Cowes Enterprise College at 12.10pm. Friday 21st is a second day for our students to wear a Christmas jumper if they wish. Christmas jumpers should be worn with their normal Academy uniform, blazers can be substituted for the Christmas jumper. Students should wear either a Christmas jumper or a plain black jumper as per our uniform policy. There will be no request for donations for wearing Christmas jumpers on this day (on Wednesday we are asking for voluntary donations of £1). Students who receive free school meals will be able to collect a packed lunch from the canteen at 12pm, if you require one for your child please contact us to arrange. We have arranged with Southern Vectis that school buses will collect students at 12.10pm instead of 2.45pm.
UNIFORM REMINDER Even in our last week of term, our standards for uniform remain as high as ever as we approach the end of term.
LOST PROPERTY
Trousers should not be skinny, leggings should not be worn and skirts rolled to the correct length. Support from parents is appreciated with this.
We have a lot of lost property in Reception. Please ensure your child comes to check this before Thursday 20th December or it will be donated or disposed of!
Piercings are not and never have been acceptable in a nose. A clear spacer must be worn or the stud removed. Earrings should be studs, hoops are not allowed and studenst will be asked to remove them
Students are welcome to check lost property before school, during break and lunch times or after school.
Click here for further information on uniform.
REMINDERS & INFORMATION Drop off , collection and car park safety Please be aware that our local community police have been monitoring cars outside the academy that are stopping illegally on the zigzag line. The reason we continually ask parents not to stop here is for the safety of all students and those arriving for our on-site nursery. A letter has been emailed to all parents from our community police to inform parents that to ensure the safety of all our community, if there are cars stopping on the lines outside, they will be issuing fines as this is against the law. Many thanks for your continued support. Please do not use the Academy car park to drop off and collect students withour prior agreement from the Academy for you to do so. Drop off and collections should be made on Crossfield Avenue remembering that that no parking is permitted on the white ZigZag lines surrounding the pedestrian crossing outside the Academy. Please could we also remind parents that the disabled bay spaces are for holders of valid Blue Badges
Term Dates
Upcoming Academy Dates Monday 17th December
Carol Service
18th—20th December
Arabian Nights Performances
Friday 21st December
Last Day of Term (early closure)
HPV Vaccinations for Year 8 Girls HPV Vaccination Session for 2nd dose: Wednesday 1st May 2019 Catch-Up Session: Friday 17th May 2019
Year 11 - BTEC Online Sport Exam On Tuesday 22nd January 2019 all of Year 11 will be sitting the BTEC on-line Sport Exam which is the external exam element of the course. There will be three sittings throughout the day at 9.00am, 10.30am and 12.30am. The exam is 60 minutes long. Unlike the CIDA exam on Tuesday 8th January students do not need to be kept isolated under exam conditions so they will be able to attend lessons when they are not in their test. There will be seating plans on the Examination board in the MIZ on morning of the exam. Year 11 form tutors and the year team will also have lists of student’s exam rooms.
Year 11 CIDA IT Exam On Tuesday 8th January 2019 (the first day back after the Christmas break) the whole of Year 11 will be sitting a CIDA IT exam. All Year 11 students should have received an exam statement of entry in tutor time.
21st December 2018 22nd December 2018 to 7th January 2019 7th January 2019 8th January 2019
Last Day of Autumn Term (early closure) Christmas Holiday Staff Development Day Start of Spring Term
16th February to 24th February 2019 25th February 2019
Half Term Holiday Return following Half Term Holiday
6th April to 23rd April 2019 22nd April 2019 23rd April 2019
Easter Holiday Bank Holiday Start of Summer Term
6th May 2019 25th May to 2nd June 2019 3rd June 2019
Bank Holiday Half Term Holiday Return following Half Term Holiday
Monday following the IW Festival – TBC
Staff Development Day
19th July 2019 20th July 2019
Last Day of Summer Term (early closure) Summer Holidays Start
Find term dates for next year on our website: https://www.cowesec.org/partners-and-new-starters/term-dates
ACADEMY CLUBS Club Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Time
Location
Cowes Combined Cadet Force (ages 12-18)
5-7pm
Capstan House
uCECLele Training Band
Lunch
MU02
Chess Club
Lunch
BT11
GCSE Art Catch Up Session
3-4pm
CA12
Year 7 Military Skills
3-3.30pm
CCF Office
Oasis Homework Support
2.45—3.30pm
Oasis
Child Development/Health & Social Care Support
2.45— 4.00pm
BT12
STOMP (jazz percussion group)
2.45—3.45pm
MU02
Jazz Band
2.45—3.45pm
MU02
Science Club
2.45—3.30pm
SRC
BTEC Business Revision
2.45—3.30pm
BU11
GCSE Art Catch Up Session
3-4pm
CA12
Communication Club
2.45—3.30pm
Reception
Oasis Homework Support
2.45—3.30pm
Oasis
CPLD/HSC Support—Years 12 and 13
2.45— 4.00pm
BT12
uCEClele (auditions required)
Lunch
MU02
Chess Club
Lunch
BT11
Badminton Club
2.45pm—4.00pm
Winder Centre
Props, Costume & Scenery Club
3-4pm
CA15
Oasis Homework Support
2.45—3.30pm
Oasis
BTEC Business Revision
2.45—3.30pm
BU11
Choir
Lunch 3-4pm
MU02
Basketball Club
Winder Centre