Newsletter Newsletter of Heartlands Academy
Issue 22 Autumn Term 2016
Best Exam Results Ever!
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hursday 25th August 2016 will remain long in the memory of the class of 2016 at Heartlands Academy. For this was the day that, as a year group, they officially achieved the best ever results that Heartlands Academy (and indeed Heartlands High or Duddeston Manor) had ever seen! The class of 2016 achieved 62% 5 A*-C grades including in English and Maths. With a long
line of eagerly awaiting students at main reception, anticipation for all involved grew. And, although we had nerves, tears, laughter and jubilation, all can be proud of their
personal achievements. I hope that the class of 2016 are able to look back on their time at Heartlands Academy with immense pride. I hope that they are able to take long lasting memories away with them. I hope that they have learnt life lessons that they can apply for many years to come. Most importantly, I hope they use this success as a mere stepping stone to future greatness. The class of 2016 demonstrated what it takes to be a successful year group: hard work, determination, supporting others and resilience. Let’s hope future year groups can follow in their footsteps! Mr Hanson, Year 11 Learning Manager 2015-16
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As we come to the end of a very long term, I would like to thank everyone for their support over the last few weeks. We are unfortunately saying goodbye to a few members of staff: Mrs Bailey Green, Ms Yousaf, Ms Sheikh and Mrs Rutter. Mrs Rutter has been working with our students for the past 23 years and the extended Heartlands family wishes her every happiness in her retirement. I am looking forward to next term where we will be starting parent workshops, Mrs Blackham has more information on these and I look forward to welcoming many of you into the academy. In the meantime, I wish everyone a restful holiday wherever that may take them and for everyone to come back rested ready to start, what will no doubt be, another busy term. Merry Christmas, Miss Tanner
Birmingham University CPR Training.
Twenty-nine students from Year 9 completed their CPR training and were presented with a certificate and a badge for all their hard work. Heartlands Academy is now pleased to say that they are all
School Lifesaver Ambassadors. Hopefully in the future they will be able to support other students achieve the same goal. A big thank you and well done to all the students who took part. Mrs S Blackwell, Welfare Officer
Here’s what some of the students thought:
“I enjoyed doing the CPR training as it can help me save lives in the future.” Natasha Sajad 9 IANS
“I really enjoyed the CPR training. I found it very useful and know it could help me in the future.” Mohammed Shajim 9TLEJ
“I enjoyed learning the CPR, the learning was very active and helped me be aware of what to do if I needed to help somebody in the future.” Aamirah Shajim 9TLEJ
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From Miss Tanner, Interim Head Teacher
Introducing the Heartlands Academy MyEd App!
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eartlands Academy is pleased to announce that we are now using the MyEd app to connect with all of our parents and to keep you up to date about all aspects of your child’s life at Heartlands Academy. It is really easy to download the MyEd app – just follow the link under the Parents section of our new Academy website. MyEd will tell you all about your child’s activities during the day, it will keep you up to date about your child’s attendance, allow you to complete forms and receive letters. It will keep you informed about any school news, key dates and the Academy will be able to send you messages through the app. My Ed has lots of powerful tools within it to make your life easier and help you, as a parent, ensure that your child receives the best education possible. Remember, follow the link on our website (or go directly to your app store) and download the MyEd app now. Miss Clegg, AVP
DISCOVERY CENTRE Mathematics, Science, Health & Social Care, PE. Best Exam Results Ever! Heartlands GCSE Maths Attainment Vs National Averages 2015-2016
Girls Football Champions
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eartlands Academy’s Year 9 Girls’ Football Team have recently been celebrating their success after becoming champions of the Aston Villa Girls U13s tournament. The academy had two teams taking part in the competition: Year 9 girls A team and Year 7 girls B team. Both played exceptionally well and worked extremely hard throughout. Each team played five matches against schools from the West Midlands. This was the first ever fixture played by the Year 7 girls and they loved it. Even though they did not make it into the
final stages of the tournament, they watched on the side-line, cheering the A Team on to win. Five matches on, the A Team were in second position meaning they would face Barr Beacon in the final. After what felt like the longest 15 minutes of the day, the A-team won 1-0, Toni scoring the goal and also making an amazing tackle in the final seconds keeping out what was sure to have been a definite equaliser. The A Team will now go on to represent Aston Villa in a further tournament against other schools who will be representing other clubs. Miss Hands, PE
The mathematics department celebrated its greatest success to date last August where Heartlands students outperformed their peers nationally, as the graph above shows. The GCSE and A Level results were exceptional with 100% of students passing A Level Mathematics and most students went on to higher education to pursue careers in medicine, engineering or accountancy. Following on from the successes of the previous year, the mathematics department is stretching students further than ever with support in and out of lessons. Dr McQuillan, Head of Mathematics
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exploration CENTRE History, Geography, Religious Education, Sociology and Psychology
Re-generation on Our Own Doorstep.
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n Friday 18th November, the Geography department took Year 10 GCSE students on their first fieldtrip. We had been studying urban regeneration and sustainability in class in the previous half term, so the regeneration occurring on our doorstep at
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Birmingham Eastside was a perfect opportunity to see for real what we have been learning in the classroom. Students collected primary data by completing questionnaires, field sketches and environmental quality surveys. We were also lucky enough to have Paul Barber, a member of the
team regenerating the area, to give us a back stage tour of areas not yet accessible to the general public. Year 10 approached this with maturity and represented the Geography department and Heartlands Academy really well. Mrs Hanson, Head of Humanities
expression CENTRE
English and Modern Foreign Languages. Extracurricular Highlights
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tudents across the academy have been using their favourite texts to work on improving their writing skills in English. Year 7 pupils Yaseen Yehia, Hamza Ahmed and Mobasher Hussein explored Roald Dahl’s character of Mrs. Twit to help develop their sentence writing skills and even wrote about their own villain to show their understanding. All three pupils were keen to learn and quickly developed their creative writing skills by the end of their intervention sessions. Well done! Mr McDonald, English
Creative Writing
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mongst the many after school activities provided for Heartlands students during the Autumn Term, six Year 9 girls were the first to participate in the Camera Club. They were very enthusiastic and eager to learn. During their classes, they were able to talk about the importance of photographs to them, and share some of their favourites, learn how cameras work, and have hands on experience using different cameras. They learned the basics of focusing the camera and framing their subjects, and were then able to put these skills to use when they visited other extracurricular classes and photographed the students at work and play. Mr Heath, Photography
Science Club Photo by Photography Club
Badminton Club Photo by Photography Club
Photography Club
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On the 2nd November, twelve of Heartlands’ Gifted and Talented students in Year 8 attended the launch of the Brilliant Club Scholars Programme at Nottingham University, the same university where both Mahatma Ghandi and Albert Einstein have given talks. The day gave the students a taster of university life, including a tour of the campus, an introduction to the range of societies and a university styled seminar. The ambassadors and PhD lecturers were amazed by the high level of discussion our students participated in about the French Revolution. Since then, the students have been attending weekly seminars in school and they are now hard at work completing their final assessment. As a reward for their dedication and success throughout the programme, the Year 8 students will be celebrating at their own graduation ceremony in one of Britain’s top universities in January. Mrs Dawson, Geography
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The Brilliant Club The Brilliant Club is an award-winning charity that exists to increase the number of pupils from under-represented backgrounds progressing to highly-selective universities. They do this by mobilising the PhD community to share its academic expertise with state schools. http://www.thebrilliantclub.org/
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imagination CENTRE Art, Drama, Music Heartlands Factor Concert 2016
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ifteen fantastic acts took part in a variety of singing, dancing, drumming and band performances hosted in great comedic style by sixth former Naa Adei. Performances included two new groups: The Drumline and Dhol Band as well as 2015 champions Rock Band (whose lineup was extended to three singers), and Heartlands Windband.
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Other performances included five different singers and four other bands. Alongside the musical performances there were two hugely crowd-pleasing dance acts who made the competition very difficult to judge. Judges Miss Hawkins and Mr Hussain had the unenviable job of trying to choose a winner eventually deciding on runner up Daiyan, who wowed the audience with his awesome keyboard skills, and winners
Alex and Sabrina, who rocked out to ‘System of a Down’s Toxicity’ on drums and guitar respectively. A massive well done is due for all of the performers and a big thank you to all who have helped put the show together. Everyone has worked incredibly hard! Look out for more exciting concerts soon! Mr Mee, Music
innovation CENTRE ICT, Business Studies, Design Technology, ASDAN Programming Model Hotels
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ear 9 students have been working on the ‘Lake Garda Project’ which involved researching holiday destinations in Italy and then designing suitable promotional material. Examples included a brochure and TV adverts. Going one step further, they have also been working on constructing a model hotel which could be situated on the popular resort of Lake Garda. The students employed skills learnt
in DT to construct their hotels from a cardboard frame and then added a fully working interior. After planning the structure of the hotel, they then decided how it should be set up, such as what they wanted on each level as well as the materials they would like to use. Once the exterior was completed, they added the furniture for the hotel and the finishing touches to the décor. Later, they added LED lights and will be utilising their IT skills to programme them using ‘Python’ to
switch them on and off. The next stage will be to make elevators for the hotel and they will again be using their programming skills to make this work by employing a generator. Lastly, the students will be learning how to use micro bits to display text and images on a screen which will be used as billboards to advertise the hotel. This has been a great crosscurricular project; the students have enjoyed learning and putting their skills into practise. Mrs Nawaz, ICT
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NEWS FROM THE SIXTH FORM recent political events. As part of their day, students were also given the task of making a revision film which they have enjoyed editing and putting together, evident of the productive day that the students had. Miss Brock, Law
Law Trip to Parliament
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s part of the AS Law specification, students learn about how our legislation is made and the influences that are placed on Parliament to implement new laws. The tour helped students visualise the legislative procedure in a logical perspective, as we went from the House of Lords to the House of Commons. Helping them place their learning into context, it was a fascinating and stimulating tour (especially in the current political climate). Students benefited from being within Parliament and listening to other discussions about
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“ Primarily, I enjoyed the trip as we were able to study in an environment other than the classroom. The highlight of the trip, for me, was the different monuments we were introduced to as the visual representation of the different Prime Ministers provided me with a feel of the historical edge to law. We were not able to take cameras into the House of Parliament which was an unexploited opportunity for I would have liked to take my own photography of the different Houses. The trip allowed me to acquire an impression for how laws are established and will help me further my studies. Overall it was a remarkable opportunity for the
” Iza (Year 12)
law students."
Skills, skills, skills.
The Year 12 Cohort attended the NEC on Friday 18th November 2016. The students gained valuable insight into Apprenticeships, training and other educational pathways. The event enabled students to speak to careers advisor, specialist lecturers and industry experts so the students can make informed choices about their future. The feedback provided by Zarah Khalil (12HNM) was “it was exciting to speak to famous CBBC presenters such as Karim Zeroual and Katie Thistleton. I was able to find out about their journey to becoming a television presenter and the routes into the media, a route that I may consider in the future”. Mahat Nur (12ROB.) agreed with this and added that he enjoyed the interactive sessions and the advice provided on future career. Year 12 enjoyed the experience of liaising with employers and professionals from local and national areas and felt that it has given them insight into the possible routes post16. Miss Bhuttay ( Deputy Head of Sixth Form.)
Thanks to a Sportivate Grant the academy has secured 30 places for students to attend an 8 week afterschool boxing club. Girls from the Sixth Form are now having fun and getting fit through boxing.
COMMUNITY EVENTS
Heartlands Academy is interested in community or business projects. If you are a parent, member of the local community or a business who would like to be involved, please contact Mrs Blackham, Community Manager. Telephone: 0121 464 3931 or email: Bina.Blackham@e-act.org.uk
Welcome to the Community Page
There have been lots of community activities going on this term. Here are just a few of them. Thank you to all those people who have got involved.
New Library Resources
Children in Need
The Skills Show
Employability Day
Thanks to an £11,000 grant received from Millennium Point, our library has had a massive injection of new resources such as newspapers, magazines, up to date non-fiction books for research and a range of pleasure for reading books which has been massively welcomed and appreciated.
Fifty students and some parents attended the nation’s largest Skills Fair at the NEC in Birmingham to explore different career paths. Students were able to talk to a host of professionals from a variety of industries as well as trying out a variety of hands on activities.
Saffie and Aisha with their team of helpers worked really hard to raise awareness of Children in Need. They put on a week of activities to get Heartlands students involved. Well done to the team for raising £251.45.
Price Waterhouse Cooper volunteers have been working very closely with our students. Through a series of workplace visits, activity days, young apprentice type events and employability workshops our students have learnt a great deal about skills needed to be successful in the world of work.
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Calendar 2017 Spring Term
Saturday 8th July 2017 (tbc)
Volunteers needed.
Can you help out or organise an activity for the next community fete? We are looking for community members to get involved and help make the day fun for all. If you think you would like to take an active part, please contact Mrs Blackham for more information. Tel: 0121 464 3931 or Email: Bina.Blackham@E-ACT.org.uk Free Fitness for the Community Calling parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents. Do you want to get fit? Run Birmingham are looking for people like you. No experience necessary. All levels of activity ok. Sessions are free and will take place at a time and place to suit you. Activities are fun and friendly and no-one is left to run alone. Free T-Shirt and water bottle for anyone who attends. Contact the Run Birmingham Activator, Tahir on 07903 789665 or Mrs Blackham on 0121 464 3931 for more details.
Term Starts Tuesday 3 January Year 7 Parents’ Evening Thursday 12 January Teacher Day Wednesday 1 February (academy closed to students) Year 10 Parents’ Evening Thursday 9 February Half Term Monday 20 February to Friday 24 February Years 12/13 Parents’ Evening and Year 11 Review (targetted students only) Thursday 2 March Year 9 Parents’ Evening Thursday 16 March Year 8 Parents’ Evening Wednesday 29 March Term Ends Friday 7 April
Summer Term Term Starts Monday 24 April Year 7 Parents’ Evening (targeted students only) Thursday 18 May Half Term Monday 29 May to Friday 2 June Term Ends Friday 21 July (for students) Teacher Day Monday 24 July (academy closed to students) Teacher Day Tuesday 25 July (academy closed to students) For up to date announcements, follow us on TWITTER @Heartlands_Acad
Would you like to sponsor our newsletter? We are very proud of Heartlines. It is produced three times a year at the end of each term and goes out to 900 parents, members of the community and all our visitors. It is also available on our website. Printed in full colour on high quality paper, it is packed with lots of good news and success stories, useful information for parents and with excellent photography throughout! We want to continue production for the benefit of all our stakeholders and we are now offering the opportunity for someone to be a sponsor for Heartlines. This could be you! In return you can use this space for your company logo and to promote your business. For more information please contact the Reprographics Manager, Sandra Burden on 0121 464 5532 or email sandra.burden@e-act.org.uk.
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© December 2016 Heartlands Academy, No 10 Great Francis Street, Birmingham B7 4QR