Tuxford academy life issue 9 (2)

ACADEMY Life

The official magazine of Tuxford Academy

Issue No. 9

Summer Term 2017

“Year 7 Football Team start as they mean to go on”

Follow us on twitter: @TuxfordAcademy

Welcome to Academy Life Academy Director’s introduction As this year draws to a close, it seems the perfect time to celebrate the many successes we have seen during the year at Tuxford Academy, both as a whole and individually.

I have enjoyed this year in my role as Academy Director; it’s a genuine pleasure to work at Tuxford and spend my days in amongst such wonderful, inspirational students.

I hope that you enjoy reading about what they’ve been getting up to as much as I’ve enjoyed hearing about their various achievements.

This has been an exciting term to finish the academic year on and I hope that all students have enjoyed the extra-curricular activities that have taken place: from sampling the chocolatey delights on the Year 7 Cadbury World trip as part of a marketing scheme of work with English, to making dens and surveying the area at Sherwood Pines with maths, there have been a plethora of opportunities for our students and it makes me proud to see how well everyone gets on when outside, representing our academy.

Meeting our new prospective Year 7 students during transition week is always something we look forward to here, and the way the older students step up to guide their new, sometimes unsure and lost, peers around is heartwarming. We hope they all enjoyed their time with us and are as excited to come in September as we are to welcome them.

Finally from me, I hope that you have a wonderful summer and I shall see you all, ready and raring to go, in the next school year!

Mr Dave Vernon, Academy Director

Dates for your diary

Many thanks to all students and staff who contributed towards articles. Thank you also to Walker Hutchinson, Year 7, who provided some of the background photos.

JULY

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24th

School closed – Inset Day – First day of Summer holiday

25th

School closed – Inset Day

31st

Y6 Summer School (until 4th August)

11th

DALP Games (Harvey Hadden Stadium)

12th

Sports Celebration Event

14th

Sports Day

14th

A Midsummer Night’s Dream (evening)

15th

A Midsummer Night’s Dream (matinee & evening)

17th

Y7 Camp 1 depart

17th

Y10 York residential depart

17th

P16 university residential trip departs

18th

Y9 London residential depart

18th

Y10 York residential return

18th

Uniform sales in ‘Pop-up’ shop: 4.00 pm – 7.00 pm

19th

Y7 Camp 1 return

19th

P16 university residential trip returns

19th

Y7 Camp 2 depart

4th

Inset Day – Uniform sales in Academy Shop: 10.00 am – 2.00 pm

20th

Y9 London residential return

5th

First day in school for Years 7, 11 & 12

21st

Y7 Camp 2 return

6th

First day in school for Years 8, 9 10, 13 & 14

AUGUST 9th

Uniform sales in ‘Pop-up’ shop: 10.00 am – 2.00 pm

16th

Uniform sales in ‘Pop-up’ shop: 2.00 pm – 4.00 pm

17th

AS, A Level and BTEC L3 results day

24th

GCSE results day & collection of Yearbook

30th

Uniform sales in Academy Shop: 10.00 am – 2.00 pm

SEPTEMBER

www.tuxford-ac.org.uk

Author sparks interest in Year 7 students

News

she undertook for the novel which included meeting with several ‘child geniuses’ by contacting the Mensa organisation.

She also appeared on quiz shows - Eggheads and The Chase in preparation for a scene in which the character takes part in a quiz show himself.

Eleven students from Tuxford attended the talk, having been chosen based on their excellent performance in English by Mrs Hooton and Mr Bingham.

A group of gifted and talented students from Year 7 were given the chance to meet a multi-award winning children’s author.

Ali Sparks, who has written 30 children’s books to date, invited her fans for an exclusive reading of her most recently published novel, Car-Jacked. The event, hosted by Retford Oaks Academy, was also attended by students from Retford Oaks itself, as well as two of its feeder primary schools and Queen Elizabeth’s Academy in Mansfield.

Students were each given a copy of the book beforehand which was signed by Sparks before she gave an insightful talk on her life as an author. Car-Jacked is the story of a young boy with an IQ of 170 who, when accidentally abducted, finds himself as clueless as everyone else.The author spoke of the extensive research

“I already write books in my spare time at home, but I’ve never been motivated enough to actually finish one. Ali’s talk has given me the motivation I needed,” said Oskar McCormick.

A few English teachers here at the academy used the bubbling excitement surrounding the novel to their advantage, and began to integrate it into some lessons, where students were always keen to hear more. Miss Court is one of those teachers and told us that “I’ve genuinely not seen students so excited to hear more of a novel for quite a while. Every lesson would begin with requests to hear more, which was so lovely!”

Oskar was joined on the trip by students: Jessica Adby, Isaac Bee, Daniel Chambers, Sam Downing,Thomas Horsman, Beth Huddart, Zackary Pearson, Oliver Osborne, Abbie Ramsdale and Ariella Smith.

Students jetted off to Barcelona to play football and take in the sights 59 students and 6 staff departed on Monday 3rd April for the trip to Barcelona. Following a day of travelling, they arrived at the Hotel Surf Mar in Lloret De Mar. On Tuesday morning the students headed to Espanyol FC training ground to have a 90 minute coaching session, led

by Espanyol coaches. Students loved their time with the coaches and took a lot away from it to then implement in their first competitive fixture of the trip: that afternoon the three boys’ teams played against Villadecavalls and the girls against Manu Lanzarote.

On the Wednesday, following a further coaching session (delivered by our own Post 16 Sports Leaders), students headed off for an afternoon sightseeing in Barcelona city centre, where they visited Las Ramblas. The final evening saw all students play their second competitive fixture against a very friendly local club called UE Sant Fost. Lee Bingham, who led the trip, said, “It was a very enjoyable and competitive evening. All teams got really involved and it was a pleasure to watch.”

Academy Life

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News

Shows galore as students set off to the big smoke During February half term the Drama Department took 70 students to London for a jam-packed three days of theatre-related activities. The annual residential was a huge success and, as always, students were a credit to the academy.

During the trip students were treated to three West End productions: The Kite Runner, The Comedy About a Bank Robbery and the classic musical Les Miserables. Each production provided students with a contrasting and unique theatrical experience and were thoroughly enjoyed by all.

One of the highlights of the trip was a workshop based around the musical Les Miserables and an all-access tour of the theatre that hosts it. Professional actors helped our students re-create a classic scene from the musical and we were able to use props and costumes from the show to make it look authentic. We re-created one of the classic battle scenes from the show and worked on replicating the movement and staging from the West End production. We were able to explore the costumes worn by the current actors and gained an insight into how a typical show runs from a backstage perspective. Students were able to stand centre stage and learn how the many theatrical elements come together to make the show work.

GCSE students were also given the opportunity to take part in two workshops, both of which were led by professional West End performers. One of the workshops was led by an actor from the production of War Horse and students were taught the art of puppetry and alternative ways to explore the art of storytelling.

A-level students spent a morning at Shakespeare’s Globe and were able to perform a line or two on the stage itself, whilst also enjoying a backstage tour of the venue.

They were then involved in a workshop based around the text The Winter’s Tale.

It was not all hard work and theatre; we had plenty of down time to enjoy the sights our capital city has to offer. Along the way we also paid visits to Leicester Square, Covent Garden, The Southbank, Trafalgar Square, Shaftesbury Avenue and, of course, enjoyed a spot of shopping on Oxford Street!

Preparations are well underway for next year’s drama residential, although this time we will be heading across the pond to the enjoy the many wonders New York City has to offer!

Mr Nick Cox, Head of Drama

“...a unique theatrical experience ...enjoyed by all.”

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www.tuxford-ac.org.uk

Academy Focus

‘The Demon Headmaster’ performed

by KS3 students Our February KS3 production this year was the classic tale ‘The Demon Headmaster’, the story of an evil hypnotic head teacher hell-bent on turning his students into lifeless number machines. The story follows three young friends as they try to uncover the truth behind the strange happenings at their school. Together with other like-minded students, they form S.P.L.A.T. (The Society for the Protection of Our Lives Against Them) and attempt to foil the head’s evil plans.

Special mention must also go to Year 10 drama student Wesley Clark, who took on the role of stage manager during the process.

Mr Vernon said: “It was a great show. I was really impressed by the quality of the performances and how much fun the cast seemed to be having on stage.”

Rehearsals for the play started in September and involved a range of students from Years 7, 8 and 9. Year 9 student Tom Cook took on the lead role of Lloyd, accompanied by Ayla Merson Davies as Dinah and Oliver Broxton as the formidable Demon Headmaster himself. Mr Cox and Miss Smith were joined by some A-level drama students during rehearsals, who provided support with the direction of the piece and backstage on the night.

The KS3 play allows our younger students to experience a full-scale play without the added pressure of working with our older, more experienced students. It is always a treat to watch the confidence of our KS3 cast grow during the show and rehearsal process and our cast certainly did us proud this year. Many of the students started work on our full-academy production straight afterwards.

Astronomy Club help spread the joy This academic year has been a busy one for our Astronomy Club.The club has helped over 100 local Brownies, Cub Scouts and Scouts gain their stargazing/astronomer activity/astronomy badges. Between November and May we had visits from: Ordsall Brownies,Tuxford Cub Scouts,Tuxford Scouts, Retford Cub Scouts, Retford Scouts and Collingham Cub Scouts.

With special thanks to our amazing Astronomy Club members who were fantastic ambassadors of the school: Isaac Bee, Christian Archer, Sam Barnett, Jack Bee, Josh White, Adam Taylor, Daisy Stringfellow, Alice Hopkins and Sarah Whitfield.

Take care and be safe – lessons for playing safely outside

Academy Life

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Academy Focus

Discover Your Future Wednesday 26th April saw us host our ‘Discover Your Future’ fair and it was a real success.

Over 40 organisations attended on the evening, “It was particularly pleasing to see so many former students coming back to support their younger peers as part of the event too,” said Chris Wray, Post 16 Transition Leader. Organisations included: Rolls Royce plc; Edmond Shipway; all Armed Forces; Bakkavor; Lindum Group; several universities, including the University of Cambridge; Brackenhurst NTU; and many, many more. It was a fantastic evening, bustling with genuine interest and enthusiasm from both students and their parents.

The evening was open to students of all ages and we saw over 580 people pass through our doors, from Year 7 to Post 16 and others from outside Tuxford Academy too. We believe the evening gave off a very powerful message to our students:

Oliver Meakin, former student, is currently doing an apprenticeship with construction company, Lindum Group

“It showed them just how far they can go with their careers so quickly with the right information, advice and guidance, and subsequent motivation to work hard and succeed.”

Paul Simpson Assistant Principal, Post 16 Strategy

Year 9 Students are taught to be Money Wise We have all been there at some time in our lives. We need to replace something that is broken, past its best, or simply yearn for a newer, more up to date model.The only problem is, we don’t always have the funds available straight away.The consequences of making poor financial decisions can have a huge negative impact on our lives and Year 9 students have been given an insight into the dangers and consequences of using Loan Sharks to borrow money from.

Students in Year 9 are taught how to be ‘Money Wise’ and avoid debt thanks to a Children’s Safety Education Foundation (CSEF) campaign, which is sponsored locally by A1 Housing.As part of the programme, a group of Year 8/9 students delivered a play about the dangers of borrowing from illegal loan sharks.Adapted and directed by Year 13 students, George Bartlett and Amelia Polkey, the play centred around a young girl, played by Lucia Migliore,Year 8, who yearned for an iPhone 7 and turned to a loan shark for the money to buy one.Although there was a happy ending for the

loan sharks. I’m sure this was a valuable lesson to help prepare them for making informed financial decisions throughout their lives.”

Pictured on the photo are the students involved together with Jenny Rowe, Income Recovery Manager for A1 Housing,

“I’m sure this was a valuable lesson to help prepare them for making informed financial decisions throughout their lives.” girl in the play, students were left in no doubt about the possible consequences of borrowing from loan sharks.

Sue Johnson,Work Related Learning Leader said “The students did an amazing job.They really got across to the Year 9 students the dangers and possible consequences of borrowing money from

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Adam Mills, Money Advisor for A1 Housing, Don Spittlehouse, Managing Director for A1 Housing, who sponsored the booklets, Michael Fitzgerald from Children’s Safety Education Foundation, who provided the play and also provided Money Wise booklets to the academy and Sue Johnson,Work Related Learning Leader at the academy.

www.tuxford-ac.org.uk

Academy Focus

A willingness to help people I asked him what the most challenging aspect is of being an MP. In response to this, he said that it’s finding the right balance between the party you support, their principals, the needs of your own constituency, and your own individual opinions. I also asked him, “What kind of person makes a politician or, can anyone take on the job?” He replied, “You have to like people, have empathy, a fighting spirit, a yearning for justice, and the willingness to help people as best you can.”

In early February,Tuxford Academy was visited by Conservative MP for Newark, Robert Jenrick. After a question and answer session in global awareness with the Year 12 students, I got the chance to discuss with him what life is like being a politician.

Mr Jenrick stated that from a young age, watching the news and keeping up with current affairs was what originally sparked his interest in politics. After graduating from Cambridge University with a degree in history, he went on to become a lawyer.Through this, he developed a passion for representing people and campaigning against injustices.

Robert Jenrick frequently does work experience placements for 16-18 year olds in both his Newark office, and Parliament, and has already taken students from Tuxford in the past! You could also consider campaigning online, contacting your local MP, or joining a youth party.

Mr Jenrick said that the main message of his party is to help people live fulfilled lives, achieve their aspirations and ambitions, climb the ‘ladder’ for opportunity, and support people to be the best they can be. By engaging in politics, you could help shape this future too.

Catherine Whitfield, Post 16 student

Advice for young people for a career in politics Following a talk by the MP for Newark, Robert Jenrick, John Mann, MP for Bassetlaw, also came in to talk to our Post 16 students.

Mr Mann told Oliver Pridmore, one of our students, that he believes it is a myth that young people are not interested in politics.

“I think younger people are more interested in politics now than they were before. Personally, I would be in favour of the voting age being reduced to 16 and I will continue to vote on this in Parliament until it happens,” said Mr Mann.

“It’s a matter of principle that if you’re old enough to fight in the army then you should be old enough to vote. It’s very important that younger people are engaged with politics.”

Mr Mann also went into his life as an MP, discussing the difference between his duties in his constituency and his duties in Parliament.

“The two are very different; you can be dealing with the United Nations one minute and then dealing with a car parking ticket the next. But I like the variety, variety is very good, it keeps you level headed.”

Mr Mann’s advice for those wanting to get into politics was: “I would say start early and get involved, not just for people wanting a career in politics but everyone should try to get involved.”

Oliver Pridmore, Post 16 student

Academy Life

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Academy Focus

Out promoting healthy living…

Healthy lifestyles workshops/ assemblies have been delivered across local primary schools by Oli Tatterson, School Sport & Extra-Curricular Co-ordinator.

The main focus has been on informing pupils of the sugar content in foods, the importance of having a healthy balanced diet, healthy lunchboxes, exercise and sleep.

Practical demonstrations were

involved in order to help pupils see the visual impact of eating/drinking certain foods. “It is really important to have a healthy balanced diet, participate in regular exercise and reduce the intake of sugar; the benefits for our bodies are endless!” said Mr Tatterson, who feels strongly about educating the young to help them make informed, healthy decisions.

Year 10 girls help primary pupils This year saw us pilot a project where a group of Year 10 students went out to local primary schools to work with targeted groups of pupils on their reading.

Having spoken to the volunteers, one thing they all agreed on was that they felt they’d have benefitted from such a scheme when they were younger and they thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. They commented that they could really tell that the pupils they were reading with were growing in confidence, something that made them feel like they were genuinely making a positive difference.

We would love another course as our pupils are gutted it is ending!”

One group even performed the hugely popular number ‘Let it Go’ during an assembly which went down really well - the group are clearly multi-talented!

As Year 6 SATs got closer, some of the students also helped to do practise sessions with their primary school peers.

Tierney Jackson, one of our Tuxford helpers, got involved initially because she likes young children and says that the whole experience has helped her realise that she “would definitely like to work with them in a future career.”

The girls have also had offers of future work experience which is testament to the positive relationships they built up with the schools. Joanne Hall, the Headteacher at North Wheatley Primary, said: “It was fabulous. Our pupils loved reading to older students as it made them feel valued.

Students help to spread the joy of reading Year 7 students have raised £520 as part of a readathon they participated in. The money raised went to Read For Good, who fund deliveries of books to all of the UK’s major children’s hospitals, reaching 100,000 hospitalised children every year.

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As well as being a lovely charity to support, the initiative also encouraged students to get reading. With the added incentive of being sponsored, as well as a little healthy competition between classes, many students were proudly reporting having read more than they had before.

www.tuxford-ac.org.uk

Academy Focus

Curriculum Day sees Holocaust Survivors come and share their experiences with a captivated audience Tuxford Academy students benefitted from a bespoke and unique series of learning experiences on Wednesday 15th March.

Year 7 and 8 students had the opportunity to listen to Holocaust survivors talk about their experiences;Year 9 students benefitted from exposure to a number of guest speakers on the theme ‘Enterprise Day’, which helped to develop awareness of the skills required in the world of work;Year 10 students visited the ‘Big Bang’ at the Birmingham NEC as part of the national celebration of ‘Science Week’ and Year 12 students also received a number of bespoke lessons on finance, studying abroad, revision techniques and coping with stress. The students participated fully in the alternative curriculum and the guest speakers were very complimentary about their enthusiasm and involvement in the various activities.

The two Holocaust survivors who kindly visited the academy as part of the day, Simon Winston and Steve Mendlesson, spent time explaining their experiences of World War II and our students then had chance to ask them questions.

Simon Winston was born in Poland and his family escaped the Nazis and came to England (Nottingham) after surviving life in the ghetto. They were helped by a number of people in ‘safe houses’ before making it to England. Simon was born in 1938 and his father recorded a lot of what happened to the Jews in his home town in a diary, which Simon still has.

The afternoon speaker was Steve Mendelsson (90 years old), born in Poland, and he left his home aged 12 with his 8 year old brother, Wally, as part of the Kindertransport.

His father had been sent to Buchenwald concentration camp and released and later his mum and dad escaped to join Steve and his brother in Kent, just 36 hours before WWII was announced. Both still regularly speak at the Holocaust Memorial Centre, Laxton.

We are very grateful that the two men gave up their time to come into school. Many students told us it was a very moving experience and it really helped put what happened into a more understandable and relatable context.

Some of our students pictured with Simon Weston and Steve Mendlesson

Academy Life

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Achievement & Awards

Gardener of the year Evie Baker,Year 9, has contributed to our community here at Tuxford by designing a beautiful space in the grounds for all to enjoy.

When out with Mrs Walker, Evie’s Teaching Assistant, she found an empty patch of land down by the bottom gate and her interest was sparked. Evie then went to Mr Cotton and pitched her ideas to get funding and so the fun began. Two fellow students helped with

the construction after the design had been completed and flowers chosen.

Evie has received the annual ‘Gardener of the Year’ award for her efforts and we hope students, visitors and staff will continue to enjoy taking in her creation.

Evie is pictured with Mr Hardy, the Academy Gardener, Mrs Baker and Mr Vernon, Academy Director.

Chess champion of Tuxford attended the county megafinal In order to qualify, Sam Barnett,Year 9, had to become the Tuxford Academy chess champion. He was entered into the 14-18 age group, meaning he went up against some players with many more years’ experience. This didn’t faze him, however, and out of a possible six wins, he won three matches and drew one.

Sam told us: “I did the best I’ve ever done. I learnt a lot and look forward to hopefully attending again.”

He now has his sights firmly set on making it into the gigafinal next year; he was only one draw away this time so we’ll cross our fingers and wish him the best of luck!

Tomorrow’s Engineers 11 of our Key Stage Three students from Lego Club have recently entered ‘Tomorrow’s Engineers Robotics Challenge’ and got through to the grand final at the Birmingham NEC Arena.

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Students had to program a robot using lego and compete in a heat at Derby Silk Mill in March, which they won.

creation as part of the competition. Of course, this did not faze our keen young men and they delivered a presentation which was fluent and comprehensive. Mr Williams, who accompanied the team to the challenge, told us that the “Students did really well even though they didn’t win and were a credit to the academy”.

Throughout the course of the competition, students did a great job of completing a series of challenges with their robot.A display board was also designed and erected by the group at the NEC which featured examples/photos of the process they had undergone.They then had to do a presentation about their

The hard work and commitment that went into preparing for the competition is what makes us so proud of these boys; they really deserved to do as well as they did and we hope that they continue to enjoy any further engineering projects that may come their way.

www.tuxford-ac.org.uk

Charity

‘Excellence through teamwork’ as Colleges step up to raise great amounts for charity We have been organising College charity days for as long as the College system has existed here at Tuxford, but this year has seen them take a new turn - one that has resulted in an incredible amount of money being raised.We have also seen a huge increase in student participation, which Dave Vernon has described as making him “extremely proud, as the students have embraced the ‘excellence through teamwork’ motto we so strongly encourage.”

On the day, every tutor group within the College was encouraged to raise money one way or another. Many stalls were set up with a wonderful array of options for the rest of the school: bake sales, the ‘bottle flip challenge’ and ‘guess the baby picture of staff ’ are just a selection of the array of ideas.The days also saw students washing cars and going to forms doing raffles.Alongside these, each College brought something a little bit unique to their day and each supported different charities…

Unique way to raise money: One of the highlights for students was watching Mr Macpherson, Head of Ash College, have his head shaved.

Beech College Charity supported: Comic Relief and ‘Target Ovarian Cancer’, the latter nominated by Maddie Heighton (Year 12), as it is a charity close to her own heart.

Unique way to raise money:An inflatable obstacle course, which students loved, and a penalty shoot-out.

Oak College Charity supported: JDRF, a charity which funds research into teenagers with type 1 diabetes, helping make the condition manageable as they continue to search for the cure.

Unique way to raise money:A fun photo booth, a charity football match between staff and students and then healthy smoothies went down a treat at break time.

Willow College Charities supported:‘The Diana Award’ and ‘Ditch the Label’, both anti bullying charities.

Unique way to raise money:The night before the charity day, there was an inter-college ‘Tuxford Bake Off’ competition.All tasty treats were then sold during a bake sale at break time.

Ash College The Nottingham Hospitals Charity, championed by Alix Warriner (Year 12). The charity is raising money to build a quiet room at the Clinic Haematology day Care Unit, so patients and their families can go for some privacy after getting news. Money from this day was also donated to Neurocare – this charity was nominated by a member of staff who wanted to give something back, as Neurocare had supported a member of his own family.

Not only was a superb amount of money raised for charity, but there was also a tin collection on the day to help the Retford Lions to support food banks in Hull.This was in aid of one of the projects for their Centennial, Feed the Hungry, which aimed to line the Humber Bridge with the donations.

The grand total, just through these four charity days: £7029.96 Alongside the charities supported by each College, £250 is always sent to CHinK (Children in Kenya), a local based charity in Tuxford, as we sponsor four Ash College £2123.20 children to help Beech College £1530.85 them with their Oak College £1396.43 schooling.

Willow College £1979.48 We are incredibly proud of everybody’s efforts and look forward to trying to beat our totals next year!

Academy Life

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Sport

Tuxford students leading the way Two of our super Sports Leaders, Ben Kimble and Luke Sayer,Year 11, were both selected to represent Bassetlaw at the Nottinghamshire Leadership Academy as gold leaders.

They have given up time in their holidays to attend training sessions and have helped out at numerous sporting events throughout the year, including football and athletics.

Some of our Year 12 students have completed the level 2 Sports Leadership Certificate. For this they had to complete a minimum of ten hours of leadership throughout the year and many went above and beyond. Some leaders have even been running regular after school and lunchtime clubs (rugby, football and multi sports). I hope a large number of them will continue next year to complete the level 3 qualification.

I would also like to mention the Year 10 students who have represented us at the Bassetlaw Leadership Academy as I would like to thank all of our leaders for their commitment, silver leaders - again giving up their time and supporting professionalism and dedication. They have had a huge impact on the primary school events throughout the year and I’m several events throughout the year. Ruth Moore, Tia Saxelby, always proud to see them in action.

Jathavi Jeganraj, Kryzsia Jasinska, Guy Tomlinson and Jacob Mawer have offered support with Quadkids athletics, handball, football and they have also been part of the Tuxford Academy Mr Oli Tatterson, School Sport & Extra-Curricular Co-ordinator Enrichment Student Forum.

Student went to Japan for a karate experience to remember Grace Cameron-Hellawell in Year 11 was selected to attend the WTKO GB & Ireland trip to Japan in order to represent the association and country for ten days. During this time,

Dan black belt. She trains with Simon Bligh Sensei 5th Dan at Shogai Karate Club in South Leverton and is now 4th Kyu (purple belt).

“One day, Grace would love to return to Japan” Grace trained at various locations within Tokyo and Okinawa including Keio University. In addition to the valuable training, Grace experienced educational visits, tailored to enhance the groups’ knowledge of the history of Shotokan Karate and Japanese culture.

Grace took up karate in 2015 at the age of 14 and trained alongside her mum, who was working hard to achieve her 1st

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Grace’s invite to Japan came from Scott Langley Sensei 6th Dan (author of Karate Clever and Karate Stupid) and the trip helped her as she continues to aim to get her black belt, an achievement that only 1 in 10,000 manage to achieve.

One day, Grace would love to return to Japan as she really enjoyed experiencing the culture it had to offer and would also like to broaden her language skills.

www.tuxford-ac.org.uk

Just a taste of recent sporting successes Football Captain of our Year 10 football team, Archie Vaughan, beamed as he told us: “It was a great experience, leading our team. We really stepped up and played the best we ever have,” after they won the Mansfield Town Cup. This was just one of a string of successes for our young footballers. Over three consecutive nights in May, our Year 7, Year 10 and Post 16 teams won the Mansfield Town Cup for their age groups. Post 16 went on to also win the Nottinghamshire County Cup against South Notts Academy, finishing a hugely successful year and a great way for the Year 13/14s to finish their time at the academy.

Sport

Country Championships in December, where those who ended in the top eight for their year group went through to the County Championships in February. A staggering 15 of our own students made it through and did very well.

Athletics Sam Roberts, Year 10 student, appeared in an earlier issue of Academy Life for his running and he continues to wow with his excellent times. He is now ranked first in the UK for 5k for his age group.

Twins Mollie and Amber Scott, Year 11 students, who run together, recently competed at the Nottinghamshire Schools County Athletics Championships where they both won their respective races. Morgan Spink in Year 10, was also victorious and will be joining them in the Mason Trophy Competition in Birmingham. Luke Sayer in Year 11, continues to achieve personal bests and medals in a number of events. In April, Amber, Mollie and Sam all represented the East Midlands in the mini marathon.

In the English Schools Biathlon (swim and run) Championship at Crystal Palace, Sam Templeton (Year 10) came 3rd and Meg Hunt (Year 13) achieved 5th. Jacob Screeton (Year 10) also entered and had a weekend of personal bests in both disciplines.

Basketball Our Year 7 basketball team recently represented the region after winning their East Midlands competition, defeating Nottingham Academy and Carre’s Grammar School. This meant they went on to represent the Midlands in Manchester, where they lost to Northamptonshire and Greater London but were victorious against Merseyside.

Golf Our golfers have also been particularly successful: the Nottinghamshire Schools Gold Championship title was retained by Nathan Gill, Callum Macfie and Henry Cawthorne. They were the holders going in to the event as they won the title in 2016 at Rufford Park GC. Also, Callum’s 4 under par 69 was enough to defend the title as Nottinghamshire Schools Under 18 Champion.

Cross Country Many of our students entered the Bassetlaw Cross

Academy Life

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News

Awards Our very own Lyndon Stocks, Associate Leader at the academy, has been presented with two awards this year for his commitment to volunteering.

Since June 2013, the Clumber Park parkrun has operated every Saturday morning and Lyndon, the race director, has only missed three sessions in that whole time. In addition, Lyndon is chief marshall at The Worksop Half Marathon, is starting The Clumber Park Torchlight runs and is establishing a new Clumber Park Trust 10 km once a month. For this he won Senior Sports Volunteer of the Year at the Bassetlaw Sports Awards.

He then went on to be given Volunteer of the Year Award at the Nottinghamshire Sports Awards.

Angeline Degan,Year 10, and Ella Turlukowsky,Year 11, were

awarded an award at the same ceremony in the category ‘Under 15s Sports Team’.They both play for Newark Rugby Club Under 15s. Ella only began playing rugby at the beginning of 2016, but it’s in the blood as her father and brother are no strangers to the rugby pitch. Angelina has a further 12 months experience and has been playing for the team for nearly two years.

Finally, our academy was one of five schools shortlisted as finalists for the Sporting Secondary School of the Year Award (Nottinghamshire Sporting Awards) and we hope you agree that it is well deserved following the dedication and commitment of both our PE staff and students when it comes to striving for sporting success.

Lifesaving We have a fair few lifesaver swimmers in our midst. Jacob Screeton and Jordan Ferguson, both Year 10, recently entered the National Speeds Life Saving Competition at Ponds Forge, Sheffield, where they achieved personal bests and were placed in all four team events with three bronzes and a gold. Sam and Georgiana Templeton in Years 10 and 9, Jessica Newton in Year 11 and Ruth

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Moore in Year 10, were also part of the team and equally succeeded in improving most, if not all, of their personal bests and medalling.

One of our dinner ladies, Karen Moore (who last year won gold in the World Championships), also successfully won gold at this event.

www.tuxford-ac.org.uk

Teaching School

Tuxford Academy and Trent Valley Teaching School Alliance accredited as a ‘Designated Olevi Centre of Excellence’ We are extremely proud to announce that we have been recently accredited as a ‘Designated Olevi Centre of Excellence’- one of only 10 in the country! Our accreditation is the culmination of five years of collaborative work, planning training, discussions and a final assessment day earlier this year with the Olevi team. The assessment day included a tour of our academy and the team (Richard Lockyer and Eddie Hannifan) were blown away by what they saw: “Phenomenal!”

“Like a primary school- in the best sense a nurturing environment” “Superb behaviour” “We would like to send our children here!”

“A sense of trust and opportunity exists on many levels- for students and staff”

Olevi has been at the forefront of innovation in Teaching and Learning for over 20 years. During the late 1990s, they explored how school leaders could create a learning community which retained and valued excellent practitioners and facilitated them being able to share their skills and knowledge. This Teaching School concept led to the development of various Teaching and Learning programmes (Improving Teacher-ITP and Outstanding Teacher Programmes-OTP,) which were created to raise standards and build and share knowledge. Between 20042006 these programmes were the driving force behind the London Challenge, which helped raise previously struggling schools to levels of outstanding achievement. Ofsted’s 2010 report on the London Challenge was unequivocal in its findings of the positive impact the ITP and OTP had on raising standards. Building on the success of the ITP and OTP, Olevi designed the Outstanding Facilitator Programme (OFP) and Power of Coaching Train the Trainers (POCTT) both of which are offered by TVTSA. We are looking forward to working with Olevi and our amazing facilitators to help our staff move beyond ‘Outstanding.’

Academy Life

15

Oskar McCormick, Max Wall, Harvey Ford Simms

took part in the Readathon

Marnham Road, Tuxford, Newark, NG22 0JH

Tel: 01777 870001

Fax: 01777 872155 Email: office@tuxford-ac.org.uk

www.tuxford-ac.org.uk