Aston Manor Academy Newsletter Spring 2019

ASTON MANOR ACADEMY 2019

PART OF EQUITAS ACADEMIES TRUST

HEADTEACHER

It is remarkable just how many activities, trips and visits have taken place in this half term! I am so proud of the achievements of our students, from sporting, musical and academic success to our fundraising activities organised by the student council. Our sports academy is continuing to grow from strength to strength, with national successes in basketball and athletics. Our parent group now meet every two weeks with Ms Coleman and so far we have met with the local police and been introduced to Firefly (the school learning platform). Parents suggest the agenda for the meetings and all issues discussed are fed back to the school governors. Any comments or suggestions from parents are always welcomed, and we would love to have more parents get involved in school life.

I hope you enjoy reading this newsletter as much as we have enjoyed putting it together. I wish all of our students the very best of luck for the forthcoming exams; I am sure they will do their absolute best and will prepare as well as they can.

I wish you all a restful break. Jill Sweeney

GET RAISING Easy Fundraising is the simplest way to raise money for Aston Manor Academy!

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CARNEGIE CLUB

Every MONDAY KS3 lunch time in D15 Can you read all eight fantastic books by June?

Only Carnegie members can take these exclusive books home See Miss Rowley for details!

s t r a t s e R

DEBATE CLUB

Welcome to our spring newsletter.

10,000ft in the air! Engines Explode! The captain escapes leaving only one parachute!

Whose will it be?

The Aston Manor Debate Club has kicked off to a great start, with students taking on the roles of various celebrities and then locking horns in a series of fierce debating rounds. The prize? The remaining parachute!

This is one of the many debating games students will get the chance to play if they attend the club, which is well worth doing if you want to hone your critical thinking skills.

It’s also a great way to gain more confidence as a speaker, something that is a fantastic asset later on in life.

Debate Club takes place 15:15 Fridays Week 2 in E11, with Mr Lawlor.

BREAKFAST Our first customer for Breakfast.

Our school have introduced a healthy eating programme to make sure that all the children that do not eat at home can eat at school. Good nutrition is an important part of leading a healthy lifestyle, which is why our school have made breakfast arrangements for us. The breakfast programme consists of bagels and cereal.

Aston Manor’s bagels are nutritious, delicious and appetizing. The programme starts from 8:00 and ends at 8:40 (when the klaxon rings) so if you come late, it can still be possible for you to have some breakfast. Combined with physical activity, your diet can help you to reach and maintain a healthy weight, reduce your risk of chronic diseases (like heart disease and cancer), and promote your overall health.

Free Breakfast Bagels for all pupils!

From 8th January, our school has joined the government’s National School Breakfast Programme (NSBP), which is being delivered by the charities Family Action and Magic Breakfast.

As a NSBP School we are now pleased to offer a healthy school breakfast of free bagels and cereal available to all children in school.

It will offered in the school kitchen from 8.00am to 8.40am. Let’s enjoy the benefits that it brings, with children settled and ready to learn at the start of the school day.

The popularity of the ‘Magic Breakfast’ has grown and grown and many pupils are taking the opportunity to grab a healthy breakfast in the morning. A good healthy start to the day improves concentration and sets our pupils up for a successful day of learning. The breakfast club has also created some wonderful friendships and social groups as they take part in conversation and creative activities.

Breakfast club runs every morning from 8.00am –

8.40am. Please encourage your child to attend.

Quotes from pupils and staff: ‘I’ve seen a nice number of early morning social gatherings as kids get stuck into the bagels together’ – Mr Goodlet ‘My form enjoy eating their bagels whilst doing to some quiet reading’ – Mr Black ‘Bagels taste nice and everyone enjoys eating them’ – Tahani Yr8 ‘The bagels are super soft and I always have them in the morning’ – Megan Yr8 ‘A boost to my education’ – Arif Yr8 ‘This was a good idea as it improves my learning’ – Alexander Yr7

SPORT

t n e m e v e i Ach

BASKETBALL The 2018/19 season for Aston Manor Basketball Academy has been a hugely successful one in their 3rd year in the invite only National Academy League.

Fresh off a summer of recognition, Aston Manor’s Zack Powell, Mo Abushego (Deng Top 50) and Conroy Hayden (GB under 18’s and Deng Top 50 nationally ranked 18) got off to a flying start winning their first game 104-64. This set the tone for the rest of the season by going unbeaten 14-0 in the Central Conference to be crowned champions for the first time. With an average of 109 points per game and only allowing 69 points, Aston Manor lead the country in scoring and shooting percentage.

To go alongside the conference league title, Aston Manor are in the 1/4 finals of the National Premier Cup and narrowly lost out by one point in the Playoff semi-final to St Charles, from London.

Aston Manor Academy players dominated the end of season stats by having Ryan Anglin (3rd in the country) Conroy Hayden (4th in the country) Zack Powell (7th in country) in the top ten of efficient players, with Conroy Hayden also leading

the country in rebounds and Zack Powell led the country in steals.

In other league awards, Head Coach, Curtis Xavier was handed the Central Conference Coach of the Year, Conroy Hayden - Central Conference - most valuable player, Ryan Anglin - Central Conferencemost improved player and Zack Powell, Ryan Anglin and Conroy Hayden all earned All-Conference first team honours.

FOOTBALL

ATHLETICS

Trials have been taking place and numbers look really good for next year. The students will play in the highly competitive EFL league playing against other professional clubs. Players will take part in strength and conditioning sessions and will see video analysis of each game.

Alwayne has had a great start to the 2019 athletics season.

At the Midlands Championships, 2019 in Birmingham Alexander Stadium on 10th February, he posted a time of 6.88 seconds in the 60 metres to become the Midland Champion.

In the same month, he was the 60 metre bronze medallist in the England Championships at Sheffield’s Institute of Sport.

Then, in March, he was selected for the England U20 Athletics Team, which was his first international race and took place at Cardiff Metropolitan University, where he got silver in the 60 metres.

Congratulations to Alwayne, but the hard work really starts now.

Well done!

I’M PART OF THE MANOR #MADEINTHEMANOR Zack Powell

Roland Grodkowski

Farah Abdullahi

Conroy Hayden

Hani Ali

Ki-Jana Thomas

Alwayne Campbell

MUSIC

s o i d u BCU ORCHESTRA t s e t a r i P

DJ Workshop

We were delighted to have a visit from Pirate Studios who led a DJ workshop with the Y10 musicians.

They experienced the technical skills required to DJ and enjoyed the experience.

BCU DIGITAL MEDIA

Workshop

Thank you to Jeremy from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire for helping us launch our new school orchestra.

BCU MARCHING Drumming Workshop

Congratulations to Holly Taylor for taking part in the Viva Vocal Workshop & Performance Day at Birmingham University. This event was organised by the Birmingham music service and involved singers from schools across the city. Holly thoroughly enjoyed the day and her family enjoyed her performance. Well done!

ART

Zara Khan Year 7 Mini Monster Project

Salaina Gokou Year 8 Emoji Project

Schools Concert at Symphony Hall

Year 7 enjoyed an afternoon at the KS3 Schools concert to watch the CBSO perform and learn about the instruments of the orchestra.

WORLD BOOK DAY

On Thursday 7th March, Aston Manor Academy celebrated World Book Day! Lots of staff dressed up as famous characters from books and pupils had to guess who their teachers were dressed up as!

Prizes and House Points were awarded to the best dressed staff and to the pupil who guessed the most correctly.

Pupils also had special World Book Day lessons during English and had a chance to enter ANOTHER House Competition in which they had to design a poster, poem or an essay on the importance of reading.

On Friday 8th March there was ANOTHER House Competition in the form of a World Book Day Quiz.

This was held in the library to round off our week of celebrations for World Book Day. A HUGE thank you to everyone who turned up and eagerly participated.

Keep an eye out for the winner’s announcement of all the above competitions and to find out which house came out on top! Miss Rowley

Ircile Mavinga Year 8 Mug Design Project

Daniel Masamba Year 7 Bobble Head Project

Humnah Zainab Illin Khan Year 8 Mug Design Year 8 Handy Project Hook Project

Masuma Aktar Year 8 Emoji Project

Fahima Aktar Year 7 Bobble Head Project

Year 10 musicians spent a day at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire taking part in a Digital Media workshop.

They spent time creating music for electronic drum kits, using sequencers and getting to grips with new and exciting music technology.

Y7 CBSO

Design and Technology Rewards and recognition

Well done to the following pupils for their hard work and effort in Design and Technology this term. Pupils have produced some fantastic products with great determination.

Workshop

Aisha Attique Rahman Year 7 Mechanical Toy Project

Levi Wilson Megan Brennan Year 7 Year 8 Mechanical Toy Handy Hook Project Project

WATERSTONES

Trip

On Wednesday 27th March, eleven lucky Year 8 pupils travelled to the Waterstones Book Store in Birmingham City Centre as part of the school’s ongoing World Book Day Celebrations. There, they went on an exclusive tour of the Children’s book section, listened to an informative talk and were able to explore the shelves at their own leisure. At the end of the trip they were able to swap their World Book Day token for a brand new book – absolutely free! Mrs Maguire and Mrs Prasetyo really enjoyed accompanying the pupils on the trip and commented on how well behaved and engaged the pupils were, which is absolutely excellent.

Overall, the trip was a huge success and all pupils thoroughly enjoyed themselves!

We look forward to planning many more English trips in the future.

Miss Rowley

Mahisha Begum Shakara Dixon Mohammed S Ahmed Abida Sultana

Year 8 - Food Technology Year 8 - Food Technology Year 7 - Food Technology Year 7 - Food Technology

Bianca-Maria Fuiorea Year 9 - Visual Communication Nassren Drou Year 9 - Child Development Fatima Choudhury Year 9 - Child Development Idil Abdirahman Year 9 - Child Development Cameron Ramsey Year 9 - Food Preparation and Nutrition Mohammed S Ahmed Year 9 - Materials Technology Courtney Martin Year 10 - Child Development Mosammet Hami Year 10 - Materials Technology Rimsa Ahmed Year 10 - Textiles Technology Wafa Ahmed Year 10 - NCFE Level 2 Food and Cookery Samuel Rahman Year 10 - Food Preparation and Nutrition Marihah Thunveer Year 10 - Child Development Kareema Johnson Year 10 - Visual Communication Pupils were selected by their teachers as ‘Stars in Design and Technology’ this term and they have, received a Design and Technology Certificate and Head Teachers TRIC that is worth 50 points. Keep up the hard work!

GLOBE TRIP On Thursday 7th March, 48 Year 7 pupils travelled down to London to watch a performance of Romeo and Juliet at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.

Pupils were able to stand outside in the famous yard to watch the performance and get closer to the stage than anyone else! It was a fantastic production and a wonderful opportunity for the pupils, who all had a great day out.

A HUGE thank you to Miss Smith, Miss Oubhie, Mr Lawlor and Miss Cox for their invaluable help and enthusiasm on the trip.

Pupils are reminded that they can collect a free programme from the event from Miss Rowley in D15. Miss Rowley

using teamwork, communication and motivational skills.

Aston Manor Academy had another fantastic time engaging with Employers from the world of work.

A workshop for Year 9 on Enrichment Day from IGD Feeding Britain’s Future, where students were encouraged to find out as much information from business professionals including; Waitrose, Aldi, Molson Coors, Mondelez, KP snacks, 2 Sisters, IGD, Greencore and Tulip.

9 Year 10 and 5 Year 9 boys visited EEF now called ‘Make It’ where they enjoyed a tour of the engineering training provider and learnt how to change a wheel in the fastest amount of time

6TH FORM

As we enter the end of the second term at Aston Manor Academy, an air of relief and anxiety surrounds the Sixth Form student body. For Year 13s/ 14s, this marks one of their (hopefully) last terms attending the AMA Sixth Form; for Year 12, this marks only the beginning of the journey really, with their last set of mocks coming up and hopefully a set of grades that will catapult them into Year 13, ready for a year of success and achievements!

The last two terms have gone by fast and you’d never be able to tell the difference between the internal and external students; we are all part of the Academy’s furniture now. Thank you to Mr. Preston, Mrs. Kaur and all of the sixth form staff for easing our transition into sixth form, reassuring us of our worth and honing our abilities. We feel very lucky to be a part of this wonderful place. Congratulations also to the brilliant Aston Manor Sports Academy for their incredible work. We have all been excited to see a new set of eager, talented and resilient individuals growing into excellent sportspeople over the last two terms.

These will surely be memorable years for our students and staff and we are very grateful for them. We wish the Year 13s/ 14s all the best with their A-Levels and achieving the futures they deserve.

Thank you for an interesting couple of terms, and and here’s to a few more!

Humayra Begum, Year 12.

and possibly win £250 to take home.

Good Luck AMA. Students have also enjoyed being involved in the Diana Award, where they raised money to support a homeless charity.

Year 10 girls also enjoyed visiting South and City & Bournville College, introducing them to lots of post -16 STEM courses.

Year 10 also enjoyed the company of HSBC, being involved in a ‘Speak Out Challenge’ where students were trained in delivering talks about their chosen topic. The students were judged and five students will now deliver their talks in front of their year group in an assembly. One student will then be selected to represent Aston Manor Academy at the University of Birmingham, Regional ‘Speak Out’ finals

On 14th March 2019, sixty Year 7 students were given the opportunity to do an investigative project as part of the British Science Week (11-15 March). Aston Manor was one of several schools to successfully bid for funding in an aim to promote the appeal and wonders of Science.

Students took part in a project called “Who’s the Alien?” and had to use a range of scientific techniques and skills to determine who was the alien based on evidence. They carried out a range of practicals such as food tests, chromatography and chemical analyses such as the gas tests.

Wearing lab coats, goggles and

gloves, our intrepid scientists got the feel of working in a professional science lab and had first-hand experience of the scientific method; as they diligently collected evidence to support their theories as to who was really a visitor from another planet. Students thoroughly enjoyed the day. Here are a few comments from our young scientists: “I think that the science fair was a great opportunity that I had the pleasure to take part in. It was a fun way to learn new science skills that perhaps you may not learn in a science lesson. I hope to see more people getting involved and selected to do this event again and hope that we do more of them in the future.”-

At Aston Manor, we like to promote creativity and deep thinking. Within the Science curriculum, one of the most thought-provoking and aweinspiring topics is the study of Space and the Universe; this has become a focus on the new Triple-Science GCSE, with students studying theories behind the origin, nature and future of the Universe.

One of our Year 9 students has taken this further and written his own predictions based on his own reading around the topics we are currently studying. Here are some extracts from our budding Physicist’s (Yusuf Iqbal 9HG) paper on the nature and future of the Universe. A full copy of his

work will be available on the school website to download and read.

Prediction 1 “…We know that the Universe is expanding though so there is more energy pushing the Universe outwards than the gravity trying to collapse on itself. This would mean before this outcome would happen the Universe might transfer or move the dark energy in the Universe. The dark matter which is scattered around the Universe will be attracted to the edge of the observable universe causing continued expansion and acceleration…”

Prediction 2 “…In addition, if there is not enough dark energy in the Universe to cause all parts of the Universe to expand at same rate this

Parent Portal for Firefly

Parents can now access our Firefly Virtual Learning Portal, where you can get information on your child’s homework and all the information that we share with students, including lots of curriculum resources.

Our portal address is astonmanor.fireflycloud.net or you can access it via the school’s website.

All you need to log in is have your personal email address on our system and follow the onscreen instructions. If you have any problems logging in, please contact myself at the school (nturner@astonmanoracademy. com) and we can arrange support for you.

Yashial 7T “I would just like to say that the Science week project was one of the best experiences that I have ever taken part in. We were able to perform a range of different experiments using scientific method such as chromatography, glucose tests and using acid/alkali indicators. It made science fun and interactive. In the future, I hope more people will have the opportunity to participate in events like this.”- Saira 7T The Science Department would like to thank all who participated and special thanks to the teaching staff and form tutors who were so supportive in making this day a success.

Ms Gumbs Head of Science could mean parts of the Universe will collapse on its own gravitation force and some will carry on expanding, due to there not being enough dark energy to act against the gravitational attraction caused by the collective mass of the visible matter in the universe…”

Yusuf’s research has been forwarded to Professor David Fairhurst of Nottingham Trent University and we are currently awaiting feedback on Yusuf’s work. Suffice it to say, the Science department is very proud of Yusuf’s work and we foresee great things for him beyond his studies.

Mr Dowe Teacher of Science

SUMMARY OF CHILD PROTECTION FOR VISITORS AND VOLUNTEERS Aston Manor Academy is committed to the highest standards in protecting and safeguarding the children entrusted to our care.

If you have a concern that a child is being harmed, is at risk of harm, or you receive a disclosure (intentionally or unintentionally), you must contact the following staff members as quickly as possible.

SANDRA COLEMAN Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) (Assistant Head Teacher)

EMMA SMITH Designated Senior Safeguarding Person (Pupil & Family Support)

STACEY LANDER Designated Senior Safeguarding Person (Deputy Head Teacher)

NEIL TURNER Designated Senior Safeguarding Person (Deputy Head Teacher)

ASTON MANOR ACADEMY . PHILLIPS STREET . ASTON . BIRMINGHAM B6 4PZ TEL: 0121 359 8108 www.astonmanoracademy.com

DAN PRESTON Designated Senior Safeguarding Person (Sixth Form Assistant Head Teacher)

If these staff are not available, please contact Head Teacher: JILL SWEENEY

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