Knutsford News Issue 2 by Knutsford Academy

ALL THE LATEST FROM KNUTSFORD ACADEMY AND CHESHIRE STUDIO SCHOOL March 2022 - Issue 2

Knutsford News Welcome from the Headteacher Welcome to our 2nd edition of Knutsford News. Term 2 has continued to see our students flourish, both in their academic studies and wider school opportunities. You can see from our newsletter that students have participated in a variety of experiences here at Knutsford Academy and Cheshire Studio School all of which have seen them achieve success, develop confidence and learn; we think that deserves to be celebrated! On behalf of the staff and governors, I would like to wish our students, families and wider community a Happy Easter. Mr James Whittaker - Headteacher

Champions Congratulations to our Football Academy who with an unbeaten record won the U18 North West Colleges Sports League Central Conference for the 2021/22 season. Pictured is the successful squad with Captain Ben Lawson lifting the trophy. This team is on track to win the double when they play the final in the Cheshire County Cup on Thursday 31st March.

Stars of the Week Our rewards programme has continued to recognise and reward the fantastic achievements of our students. Well done to all our students who have received ‘Star of the Week’ and entered the end of term draw for some great prizes. This term students have the chance to win the following: Year 7

- £100 voucher, sponsored by Irlams of Knutsford

Year 8

- £100 voucher, sponsored by Version 1

Year 9

- £100 voucher, sponsored by Rix Motors

Year 10

- £100 THG voucher, sponsored by The Hut Group

Year 11

- £100 voucher, sponsored by Redrow

Year 12/13 - Black Card, sponsored by Burrito Picante

Broadening the Curriculum Some of the fantastic opportunities that students have had to broaden their knowledge beyond the curriculum.

Ecology Club This half term, Ecology Club have been investigating starch in leaves, making leaf peels, looking at minibeasts with the microscopes and looking after the school stick insects. Science Club have been having lots of colourful fun doing flame tests with the Bunsen burners and making funky foam!

Science Live On Wednesday 9th February Year 10 & 11 Triple Science students attended a GCSE Science live event. They were lucky enough to listen to Professor Robert Winston, Professor Alice Roberts, Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, Professor Jim Al-Khalili and Professor Andrea Sella.

English Sixth Formers, Leo Davies, Scarlett Bancroft, and Ryan Smith won a ‘Youth Speaks’ Public Speaking Competition. They wrote and performed a speech on ‘The daunting prospect of growing up in 2022’ and they were fantastic; the members of the Rotary Club were very impressed.

Languages Students continue to enjoy enrichment in languages in the form of ‘Blooket Club’ and ‘Film Club’. The film club have just finished watching ‘Les Choristes’.

Congratulations Matilda! Congratulations to Matilda Clempson in Year 9 who beat a strong selection of shirt designs from across the country to win the Playstation FC School’s Cup Kit Design competition. Her design was voted for by the public via Instagram and will now be made in real life. Thank you to all those who voted, and here is Matilda pictured with her fantastic design. 2

STEM ‘Fluid Dynamics’ Photography Competition The Year 7 Art Club students had a blast responding to the competition from Leeds University. They spent a session after school photographing various experiments and examples of ‘fluids’ in the Science department. Huge thanks to Mr Fung for setting up some fabulous experiments for the students to focus on.

Our new STEM logo has been designed by Sean Manning in Year 12.

Football Academy on Tour – Memphis, USA The Sixth Form Football Academy travelled out to Memphis on the 15th March through our partnership with Soccer Scholar USA. They took part in an international tournament, the John Talley Showcase where they made it through to final, narrowly losing 2-0. The tour was a great success with many of the students now considering scholarships in the USA.

Work Experience Update We are very proud of the Work Experience we offer our students in KS4 and KS5. Mariya (pictured) is one of our Year 13 Studio School students currently completing a work experience placement at a Doctors surgery. These placements enable students to transfer knowledge from the classroom to real life situations in the workplace. For some of our students this is in an early years placement for example at a nursery to enhance their learning of BTEC Health and Social Care, for others it may be in a finance company observing financial advice being given to customers and some of our students are providing construction services to customers as part of a placement working in construction settings. Year 10 and Year 12 students will be completing work experience placements in the summer. If you can offer work experience opportunities to our students, please do get in touch by emailing gss@knutsfordacademy.org.uk. 3

Careers and Employability Skills at Knutsford Academy and Cheshire Studio School AIM Day During our Year 9 AIM day we introduced our new Careers and Employability logo brilliantly designed by Year 9 student Eilidh Munro. AIM day which stands for Ambition, Inspiration and Motivation was an opportunity for students to learn more about the GCSE options process as well as starting to think about their future careers. Students were visited by representatives from universities, apprenticeships, NHS, construction industries, Manchester Airport and Tatton Park to gain a valuable insight into these career sectors and further education.

Employee Readiness Programme Year 13 students took part in a CV Workshop ran by The Pledge as part of their Employee Readiness Programme. This endeavours to prepare our students for their next steps following sixth form studies. Students learnt what employers are looking for on CV’s, hearing first-hand from employees at a local tech company Portswigger. I thoroughly enjoyed the CV workshop, I felt really engaged and learnt a lot from Tony. I am now able to enhance my CV to make myself more employable in the future. I recommend this workshop to anyone who is looking to improve their CV or write one from scratch. Ella Parker-Rothwell Year 13 Students then went on to attend a workshop on preparing for Interview and Assessment Centres - learning from Astra Zeneca apprentices about the application process.

Our thanks to Portswigger and AstraZeneca for all their support and help with our students

Army Visit The Army visited the school this term as part of our Careers and Employability Education. Students took part in a variety of team building and problem-solving tasks. They also listened to a careers presentation detailing the various roles and opportunities within the Army.

Enrichment Enrichment Visit from Odd Arts Our Year 10 students in both the Academy and Studio have been fortunate this term to work with a fantastic organisation called Odd Arts. This company use theatre to challenge and change behaviours and empower young people to make a positive contribution to society. Our theme was criminal exploitation and the students were brilliant; demonstrating focus, empathy and improved confidence. Those involved have now achieved an Arts Award for their hard work.

World Book Day Year 7 celebrated World Book Day on Thursday 3rd March by dressing as their favourite characters from a book and participating in a variety of different literacy based activities.

Charity Work Year 7 raised money for The Toy Appeal by hosting a Cake Sale with a Valentines theme. Mr Bagri and his team of volunteers helped plant over 700 trees in a Tree Planting project at Dog Wood in association with the Town Mayor and Knutsford Town Council.

British Sign Language Over 80 students and staff are signed up to completing the British Sign Language course. All are working through it independently and students will be able to use it towards their Duke of Edinburgh Award. Pictured here are Rory Ryder and Ava Klages in Year 9 who are successfully making their way through the course. Well done to all taking part.

Sport at Knutsford Netball Our netball teams have been competing in the Macclesfield & District League and Mid Cheshire Festivals. Well done to all involved for your commitment to training and fixtures. Year 10 team pictured, won all their 4 games at the Mid Cheshire Netball Festival.

Indoor Athletics Well done to the Year 7 and 8 Indoor Athletics Teams. Results in the Macclesfield and District Sports Hall Athletics Competition were as follows:

Year 7 Boys – 2nd place

Year 8 Boys – 2nd place

Year 8 Girls – 3rd place

Year 7 Girls - 4th place

Girls Football The Year 8 Girls Football Team were bronze medal winners in the Macclesfield and District U14 Football Tournament. Congratulations to Hattie West who earned Players’ Player and Coaches’ Player of the tournament.

Indoor Rowing Competition On Thursday 10th February students from Years 8, 9 & 10 took part in an indoor rowing competition. There were some fantastic results, the drive and determination that every student showed in each of their races was very impressive. Congratulations to: Anna Fletcher in Year 10 who achieved a Silver Medal Maddy Woolf in Year 10 who achieved a Bronze medal

Year 10 Girls Team won Gold in the relay

Year 10 Rowing Team won Silver in the relay

Year 9 Lily-Sue Hine competing on the rowing machine

Rugby The rugby teams have been training well. This has allowed us to develop the players’ skill set and they were finally able to put all the training into practice with 2 games against well-established rugby schools. Both the Year 7 team and the Year 9/10 team came away with 2 wins each.

Specialist Sports Evening As part of our Good to Great initiative, students studying PE and Sport were invited to an evening with fitness and conditioning experts from G2G Training. Students discovered more about how to rehabilitate from an injury and gained an insight into the career of a physiotherapist. Our huge thanks to Scott, Pip and Dafydd for hosting such a successful evening.

Performing Arts It has been a busy few months for the Dance Department. It was great to be back at the Stoke Regent theatre with IGNITION participating in their 022 Dance Festival. Rehearsals are also well underway for both IGNITION and FUSION ahead of ‘GOTTA DANCE’ at the Crewe Lyceum and Mrs Scott is putting the newly formed Boys Company through their paces ready for our own Dance Festival at the end of term. Both the DANCE FESTIVAL and the BESWICK MUSIC FESTIVAL are making a welcome return and we look forward to hosting you as we continue to celebrate extra-curricular Performing Arts here at Knutsford.

The newly formed Boys Company preparing for the Dance Festival

Students at Regent Theatre for the 022 Dance Festival

Amy Lomax & Grace Moran. Grace was recently scouted by London Studio Ctr for her dance talent.

KNUTSFORD ACADEMY

Kyle Baron Year 13, Ignition Dance Performer