NEWSLETTER Friday 29th November Dear parents and carers, I am proud to report to you today that our whole school election question time on climate change has been a fantastic event for the school community, which you may have followed on our live twitter feed this morning. I would like to thank the 5 local election candidates for joining us this morning for our hustings: Bob Seely of the Conservative Party, Vix Lothian of the Green Party, Richard Quigley for the Labour Party, Carl Feeney and Karl Love, both independent candidates. It was really quite something to have 1200 students together to experience our wholly student-led hustings. Students wrote and democratically selected questions which they asked themselves to candidates and every moment of the entire event was run by sixth formers, ably led by Beth Pitts, Head Girl. The chair for the hustings was our Head Boy Kieran Wetherick. I would like to pay particular thanks and congratulations to Kieran for demonstrating such accomplished compering skills – he ran the event with real brilliance and confidence and is clearly a David Dimbleby of the future. The entire school community were wholly focused on the event and you could have heard a pin drop during the entire session. Questions written by students from across every year group included: ‘How can we help you and how can you work with us to achieve a more sustainable future for the Isle of Wight considering the lack of time we have?’; ‘What has been the biggest change you personally have made to your lifestyle concerning climate change?’; ‘What would be the first thing you focus on, regarding global warming, if/when you get into power?’ and ‘Are you going to reduce bus prices on the Isle of Wight to reduce car emissions?’. Bob Seely fed back to us at the end of the event that it was the best hustings he had ever taken part in and I thank everyone involved for making this event receive that kind of acclaim. The British value of democracy and also considering environmental questions and the issue of climate change are both key priorities for our curriculum here at Cowes Enterprise College. With best wishes, Rachel Kitley Click the arrows or swipe to turn pages
TERM DATES FOR CURRENT ACADEMIC YEAR Fri 20th December
Last Day of Autumn Term
UPCOMING EVENTS
23rd Dec 2019 — 3rd Jan 2020 Christmas Holiday
Mon 6th January
Staff Development Day
Tues 7th January
Start of Spring Term for all students
Fri 14th February
Tuesday 3rd December
Robin Hood performance 7pm
Weds 4th December
Robin Hood performance 7pm
Thursday 5th December
Robin Hood performance 7pm
Last Day of Half Term
17th February—21st February Half Term Holiday
Mon 24th February
Start of second half of Spring Term
Friday 3rd April
Last Day of Spring Term
6th April—17th April
Easter Holiday
Mon 20th April
Start of Summer Term
Fri 8th May
Early May bank holiday (VE day)
Fri 22nd May
Last Day of Half Term
25th May—29th May
Half Term Holiday
Mon 1st June
Start of second half of Spring Term
Mon 15th June TBC
Staff Development Day
Fri 17th July
Last Day of Summer Term
Sat 18th July
Summer Holidays Start
UNIFORM REMINDERS Please could we remind all parents and carers of our uniform expectations. We are beginning to see non-uniform trousers appear in the Academy. Please ensure that trousers are loose fitting and about the same width from knee to ankle, as stated in the Academy Uniform Requirements, available on the website. A reminder also that black jumpers should be completely black, V-neck with no visible logos. They should not be round necked sweatshirts. Skirts should not be rolled up and should be fitted to knee length or below. Jewellery and facial piercings of any description are NOT allowed. This includes nose piercings. The only jewellery allowed in school are one simple stud or sleeper in the lobe of each ear and a wristwatch. Any additional jewellery will be confiscated and securely stored to be collected by students at the end of the day.
Thurs 5th December until Year 11, 12 and 13 Mock Exams Friday 20th December Thursday 12th December Christmas Concert 7pm Friday 13th December Friday 20th December
Christmas Jumper Day for Save The Children
Last Day of Term (Early Closure) Free Christmas Jumper Day
TERM DATES FOR 2020/2021 ACADEMIC YEAR 1st September 2020
Staff Development Day
2nd October 2020
Staff Development Day
26th October to 30th October 2020
Half Term Holiday
18th December 2020
Last Day of Autumn Term
21st December 2020 to 1st January 2021
Christmas Holiday
4th January 2021
Staff Development Day
5th January 2021
Start of Spring Term
15th February to 19th February 2021
Half Term Holiday
26th March 2021
Last Day of Spring Term
29th March to 9th April 2021
Easter Holiday
12th April 2021
Start of Summer Term
3rd May 2021
Bank Holiday
31st May 2021 to 4th June 2021
Half Term Holiday
14th June 2021 (to be confirmed)
Staff Development Day
16th July 2021
Last Day of Summer Term
PARENT VOICE Caterlink, the academy’s catering provider will be joining us for our next parent voice meeting. This will be held on Friday January 10th 2020 from 9am – 10am. If you would like an opportunity to speak to their representative, find out what the provision is and give them some feedback then you are very welcome to come along and join us. Please email parentvoice@cowesec.org if you will be attending.
SEN PARENT SURGERIES SEN Parent Surgeries will be held on Thursdays 3pm—5pm. If you would like to book please email EDowner@cowesec.org
LETTERS
Recent letters can be found on our website, under the ‘Communication’ heading and then selecting ‘letters and communication’.
Click here to view recent letters. Recently added: •
Sports hoodies letter (for PE and extra-curricular clubs)
•
Sports Leaders Level 1 and 2 letters We are now recruiting students for the new Level 1 and Level 2 Sports Leaders. If any students are interested please could they sign up and collect a letter from the PE office. Sessions are likely to start on a Wednesday after school in January but timings will be discussed further once students have signed up.
CAR PARK SAFETY 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 do not use the Academy car park to drop off and collect students without prior agreement from the Academy for you to do so.
Please could we also remind parents that the disabled bay spaces are for holders of valid Blue Badges only.
Festive lunch Friday 13th December Bookings and payments of £2.75 in cash need to be given to Reception.
Students eligible for Free School Meals will need to please let Reception know if they want a Festive Lunch and which option they would like. Please bring payment and menu choices to Reception before
Wednesday 4th December.
CHRISTMAS JUMPER DAYS On Friday 13th December we invite students to wear a Christmas jumper in place of their blazer. Only Christmas jumpers may replace a blazer. If students do not wish to wear a Christmas jumper they should wear their blazer as normal please. This will be for a suggested donation of £1 which will go to Save the Children. We will have another Christmas jumper Day on Friday 20th of December, no donation needed. Again, only blazers are to be replaced by Christmas jumpers and only Christmas jumpers are allowed. The rest of students’ uniform should follow the uniform guidelines as normal for both days.
If a student is absent, parents and carers should telephone the academy on 01983 203103 and select Option 1 before 8.30am on each day of absence, informing of the reason of absence and when their child will be returning to the academy, leaving a message on the voicemail. Phone calls need to be made every day of the student's absence. Parents are required to send a letter of explanation of absence when their child returns to school. This should be handed into reception. This letter should detail the duration and reason for absence.
We are very grateful to the five Isle of Wight Parliamentary candidates who joined us for Cowes Enterprise College Question Time on Climate Change today! Thank you to all students for their hard work in tutor time and for producing the questions below. Also thank you to Oriol in Year 8 for his live-Tweeting of the event on our Twitter feed which you can see here: https://twitter.com/CowesEC. How can we help you and how can you work with us to achieve a more sustainable future for the Isle of Wight considering the lack of time we have? - Lotty, Year 11
What would be the first thing you focus on, regarding global warming, if/when you get into power? - Lily, Year 7
Are you going to reduce bus process on the Isle of Wight to reduce car emissions? - Fin, Year 8 What has been the biggest change you personally have made to your lifestyle concerning climate change? - Georgina, Year 9
If you were elected in December, in your first year of power what will you do to improve the perception of residents island wide over the reduction of plastic waste? - Marcus, Year 11 How can we retain the limited green spaces we have on the island when more housing is always being built? - Jared, Year 11
How does leaving the EU affect the UK’s environmental policies, in particular the Paris Climate Agreement? - Marcus, Year 13
U12 Girls' Indoor 5-a-side Football Tournament Last Wednesday, Cowes hosted the annual 5-aside tournament for Island schools - the first round of this national competition. The first match was played between The Bay and Cowes - with very little to separate the 2 teams and ended as a goalless draw. From this point on, both teams went on to secure convincing wins over their respective opposition, with plenty of goals being scored. Cowes beat Medina 4 - 0 and Carisbrooke 3 - 0. In order to challenge for the overall top spot, a victory had to be achieved over Ryde. Unfortunately - despite several shots on goal - Cowes were not able to hit the back of the net while Ryde, who put up a strong defence, managed to score a well-taken break-away goal just before the whistle went. The Bay were declared winners, going through to the Southampton finals, while Ryde and Cowes were left on joint second place, needing to compete in a play-off match to decide who should get the silver medals. After 6 minutes, there was still no goal but, after an additional 5 minutes, Dani scored the decider. The Cowes girls - who were missing a couple of players - acquitted themselves really well throughout and played excellently as a team.
French and Spanish exchange trips. UPDATE: there are a few spaces still left on the Spanish and French exchange trips so come and collect a letter if you are interested. The deadline has been extended to 6th December! Following the success of exchange trip to Spain in June this year, we are delighted to be able to announce that we will be working again with our partner school in La Rioja on another exchange trip for June 2020. We are also excited to be introducing a French exchange trip this year to give our French students the same enrichment opportunities as their Spanish counterparts. The letters have been given out this week and spaces will be allocated on a first come first served basis. If you have any questions about the trips, please let either Miss Doughan or Mrs Rajasingam know.
U19 Girls' football league match Thursday, after school, and in the drizzle, a depleted Cowes U19 team faced Medina - as the only 2 colleges who were able to field a team for this league. None of the year 11 girls were available and several 6th formers had dropped out before the match. Thanks to support from a couple of younger year girls, however, the match was still able to be played: 5-a-side against 2 separate teams from Medina, with the scores being accumulated from four 10 minute quarters. The Cowes girls worked together really well and put up a valiant display, drawing one quarter and narrowly losing the other 3 but Medina came out on top, leaving the Cowes girls to pick up the well-deserved silver medals.
Schools Badminton Tournament This year’s Isle of Wight Schools Badminton Tournament was held in two stages with KS4 on 21st November and KS3 on 28th November. Cowes Enterprise College was represented by eight pairs in total. All teams played really well and to the best of their ability producing some excellent and close fought matches against pairs from Medina College, Christ the King, Bay Academy, Ryde Academy Carisbrooke Academy, The Free School and Ryde School. Results for Cowes students were as follows: Key Stage 3 girls’ pair, Isabelle and Lily finished a convincing first in the final against a pair from Ryde School with Gloria and Zara reaching the final. These girls will be playing in the next level in Hampshire next term. Key Stage 3 boys Martin and Liam, and Toby and Josh played really well facing strong opposition from older pupils and have really benefitted from the experience. In the Key Stage 4 competitions girls’ pair Jess and Holly finished as runners up against a strong pair from The Free School in the final. Tia Kirwin and Lauren Rayner also played very well producing some enjoyable matches. Key Stage 4 boys all played extremely well with Will and Harry emerging as eventual winners against Curtis and Harvey. These boys will also be going to Hampshire. Thanks must go to Mr Hughes for organising a great competition and also for the other teachers and volunteers who helped to make it run smoothly. But an especial well done to all competitors for representing Cowes Enterprise College in such a creditable, sportsman -like manner, we look forward to their future success.
ACADEMY CLUBS Club Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Time
Location
Cowes Combined Cadet Force (ages 12-18)
5-7pm
Capstan House
Chess Club
Lunch
BT11
Homework Support
2.50—3.30pm
DE10
Oasis Board Games
2.50—3.30pm
Oasis
Ukulele Club
2.45—3.30pm
MU02
BTEC Business Coursework Booster Sessions
2.45—4.30pm
BU11
Isle of Wight Radio Newshounds and Communication Club
2.45—3.30pm
Reception
Homework Support
2.50—3.30pm
DE10
Oasis Board Games
2.50—3.30pm
Oasis
Science Club
2.45-3.30pm
Science IZ
Chess Club
Lunch
BT11
BTEC Business Revision
2.45—3.30pm
BU11
Homework Support
2.50-3.30pm
DE10
Oasis Board Games
2.50-3.30pm
Oasis
Warhammer and Model Club
2.45—4.00pm
DE06
Burnet News Club
2.45-3.45pm
ET13
CEC Glee Club
2.45—3.30pm
MU02
SPORTS CLUBS Club
Time
Monday
CCF in Capstan House
5—7pm
Tuesday
Boys Football (All Years)
3-4pm
Netball (All Years)
3-4pm
Wednesday PE Intervention (GCSE and BTEC, Years 9—Sixth Form)
Thursday Friday
3pm onwards
Girls Football (All Years) on Field or 3G Pitch
3-4pm
Badminton (All Years)
3-4pm
Military Skills for Year 7 in ED11
3—3.30pm
Basketball (All Years)
3-4pm
Tickets are available to pre-order through ScoPay online or payments can be made with cheque to Reception.