3rd March 2017

THE MAGAZINE FOR MOUNTS BAY ACADEMY

STANDING OUT

10th January 2020

Cover: REAL Project at Exchange Gallery

PRINCIPAL’S WELCOME

Making a big difference one small step at a time…

Les Hall Academy Principal

Best wishes

Hot Chocolate FridayAlways Doing The Right Thing...

This can be a stressful time for students as they may not always get the results they expect. However I would ask everyone to be aware that these are not the final results. To paraphrase Charles Dickens novel a Christmas Carol, it’s never too late to be “as good a man, as the good old city knew”. In other words, a few small steps now, will lead to better results later.

We started our week with our Year 11 students receiving their “Mock GCSE Examination” results and as ever we tried to re-create the environment that our young people will be in on 20th August.

Welcome back after a well deserved Christmas Break. It has been great to see you all again and whilst touring the campus with visitors they have all commented that the whole Academy felt warm, welcoming and focussed, with everywhere buzzing with the lively bustle of enjoyable learning.

You are all aware that we have been steadily looking at adding a 7th E to the 6Es we use as part of our Academy values.

My colleagues and I have spent the Christmas Break and our Inset day this week working on extending our 7th E into our daily teaching and learning practices.

Our Revision Evening later in the day was well attended and it was gratifying to see the commitment everyone showed. As such, if we all pull together, I’m sure that we are on course for our best results for the fifteenth year in a row!

You will start to see the symbol above wherever we want our learning community to think about the environment when they do something or use something that will affect our environment. That means we are looking at everything, from how we segregate our waste to how we aim to produce less of it. We are also looking at the energy we use. We already buy our energy from a sustainable source and are moving our lighting to lower energy solutions.

We are proud of being one of the few iPad One To One schools in the country and we have been looking hard at how we can reduce the amount of necessary printing we still do around the site. Our IT Team have been busy, removing all of the existing printers from our campus and replacing them with fewer and more environmentally friendly print solutions.

MOUNTS BAY ACADEMY

So a new year has already brought many small changes which will make a big impact, please help us by making a few small changes too.

This week Year 7 students visited The Exchange gallery, to gather resources in preparation for the making of this

year's REAL Project books. This year students are investigating galleries in West Cornwall that had different functions in the past; The Exchange gallery used to be a telephone exchange, which was built in 1939. During their visit, students documented the gallery, the architecture, and had a session with Cat Gibbard, the Education Officer at the gallery, who answered their questions about the function

of the gallery and the transition the building went through over time. It was a great day- well done Year 7! 

Report by: Miss Green

REAL Exchange

BE CURIOUS

Year 8 have been incorporating actions and dynamics into their dance pieces. This is helping them introduce depth and feeling into the dance. 

Creative Industries

BE INSPIRED

Report by: Mrs Murray-Lambrou

In RE students have been looking at the importance of meditation in Buddhism. This included having a meditation session. It was a pleasure to be in such a peaceful classroom! Hopefully, students will use these techniques in order to be restful, which follows on from this week’s Crew meetings about sleep patterns.

Report by: Mrs Murray-Lambrou

Meditation

A big thank you to anyone who put a shoebox full of goodies in our Shoebox Tree at the end of last term.

We made a huge contribution to the Penzance Foodbank and they were very grateful.Big quantities of food went to the Penzance Street Food Project, who were also able to feed homeless people over the Christmas period. A big selection of toys and toiletries went to the Centre at Newlyn.

Further contributions went to people of St Just who attended a lunch for single folk at Christmas.

‘Christmas Day was a great success with 35 guests who had an excellent meal and good company. The hampers that they took home were really well appreciated and our thanks to everyone involved at Mounts Bay Academy. When we opened the boxes we were astounded by the quality of the contents in them. Thanks for everything that you did and here’s wishing you and yours a healthy and successful New Year.’

Chris Goninan, St Just

Interact Group Update

BE INSPIRED

You are encouraged to give it your all in 2020 and as a reward you could receive E codes, HPL stickers or Da Vinci Awards. All of these awards

equate to points for you and for your House. You can keep track of these using the Firefly student portal. However, watch this space for new ways of tracking your achievement points (and behaviour points and detentions!) as the Academy is trailing a number of new systems for sharing this information with students and parents. If you check out the new display cabinet in reception, you will have an idea of what you can buy with your points - sports

equipment and stationary are all for sale, and 200 points will even get you a personal lunch date with Mr Hall! 

Report by: Mr Royle

Report by: Mr RoyleRewards

BECREATIVE

What is my child been studying?

In Year 9 students can complete a fast track GCSE

course in Art, Graphics or Photography. They develop their creative journey over the year, completing two practical units. One unit is coursework which equates to 60% of the total marks and the other is an exam unit (ESA) equating to 40% of the marks. Both units give students plenty of opportunity to demonstrate ‘High performance learning characteristics’ as they work through their creative journeys. Students document their drawings, paintings, ideas, notes and photographs in sketchbooks and design folders as

they develop the theme. This year we have developed beautiful work on the themes of ‘Structures’, ‘Identity’ and ‘Reflection’. Students learn how to respond creatively with a deep level of understanding and insight as they research how artists, designers and photographers communicate a message or concept. Students have just started their Examination unit on the theme of ‘Event’ so are working hard at research and documenting initial ideas and plans for both classwork and homework.

BE CREATIVE

Creative Arts: GSCE Art and Design, Graphic Design, Photography and Textiles.

Year 10 and 11 students complete their GCSE over two years and can choose from GCSE Art, Photography, Graphics and Textiles. The variety of

Arts endorsements on offer at MBA means that we can highly personalise the curriculum to suit the interests of the individual student. The Arts team work together to ensure that all students benefit from the breadth of staff experience and expertise. In addition, students can work across all the studio spaces which includes access to the photographic dark room, 3D workshop, textiles studio and art rooms and the Mac suites. It goes without saying that iPads are key to learning digital skills to

enhance portfolios. Students are supported by learning target checklists, work flow diagrams to

BECREATIVE

help illustrate the creative thinking process, as well as regular feedback through post it notes placed strategically in folders and

sketchbooks. Students are guided through coursework units with iBooks and documents that detail ‘week by week’ learning tasks, enabling students to work in advance of the lesson to ensure stretch and challenge.

BE CREATIVE

What does homework look like in the ARTS?

Homework is set weekly and supports project development of the individual.

Homework is one of the following:

• Weekly set drawing/design/photography tasks.

• Flipped learning research tasks in preparation for the following lesson: this helps

with understanding and allows the students to make more rapid progress during the

following lesson.

• Personalised practical coursework/exam tasks according to individual project

development.

•Time spent during an after school club session on final sustained outcomes for coursework/ESA unit.

BECREATIVEBE CREATIVE

What does feedback and assessment look like in the ARTS?

Students are provided with regular personalised verbal and

written feedback/feedforward to inform future development of outcomes in a manner of ways. Key to success is the ‘conversation and dialogue’ between teacher and student where ideas can be shared and therefore feedback becomes meaningful and valuable. ‘Post it notes’ are added to sketchbooks/design folders and placed where practical work and/or annotation must be improved/developed.

Students’ work is assessed summatively against the Edexcel assessment matrix and using a ‘taxonomy’ which describes

the characteristics of the creative work. This is completed at least once per Quadmester and at timely intervals throughout the course. On course completion all work is internally marked, team moderated and a sample of work externally moderated by the examination board. We have started to use the concept of an ‘exam wrapper’ which helps students reflect on their own success prior to receiving their unit marks. This enables students to reflect on what went well, how they approached the learning in an honest way prior to receiving final unit marks.

How can I support my child with the creative subjects?

The most important thing for us is to ensure students listen to advice, ask questions,

stick to deadlines and are organised. Encouragement from home can help enormously with supportive feedback with ideas, taking your child to museums and galleries as well as talking about and reading about artists and designers. Helping with organisation for those that struggle to keep on top of things helps too! The Arts team are always on hand for advice and offer numerous after school clubs where students can continue with the projects and use the facilities.

BECREATIVE

There is a very exciting opportunity for students to take part in a performance of OCEAN WORLD at the Minack Theatre. This is a musical which explains the story of a humpbacked whale and

her calf, as they make the dangerous journey from the south seas to the north Atlantic where humans are the greatest threat to their survival. The story looks at the negative impact that humans are having on the environment and what we can do to combat this.

This will be a joint project involving musicians from schools across the South West culminating in an exciting performance at the Minack at the end of April.

If you would like to audition for one of the lead vocalist roles, please prepare a song to a backing track and come and audition in Room 39 on Monday 20th January.

We will also be looking for instrumentalists to support this, so please let me know if you would like to join the band.

BE CREATIVE

Auditions for the Minack Theatre

Report by Mrs Brown

REAL Photography

Report by Mrs Murray-Lambrou

Year 8 students Argo and Marcus took photographs in REAL Project this week. This was to show balance, contrast, depth, pattern and using light to

change shadows and the effect angles have on a finished photo. 

BECREATIVE

This week’s business book is one that shows the timeline of success of a small

company to a global empire while also focusing on an individual, his successes and failures. ‘I, Steve’ is a book about Steve Jobs by Steve Jobs. Drawn from more than three decades of media coverage - print, electronic, and online -this tribute serves up the best, most thought-provoking insights ever spoken by Steve Jobs. It includes more than 200 quotations and is essential reading for

everyone who is seeking inspiration as a budding entrepreneur. 

Report by: Miss Walters

"How important is it for us to recognise and celebrate our heroes and she-reoes."

BUSINESS BOOK SHELF

Business Book of the Week.

In the fast paced world of Business it is important to stop and reflect on the successes of others in order to motivate and help us grow. In the Business Department we encourage innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship through

influence and inspiration. Each week we will focus on a particular piece of literature linked to Business, Finance and Economics, ranging from Level 3 Textbooks for College to Alan Sugar's Autobiography. Where do you want to go and who do you want to be?

- Maya Angelou.

In June last year I travelled to various hockey trials and was selected to play and co-captain the West England Panthers Hockey team. I then played in a tournament at Nottingham against other teams from all over the the UK. Following this tournament a

team was selected to represent the United Kingdom Lions. I was delighted to find out that I had been selected to play for them in the upcoming season.

Recently I traveled with the UK Lions to Malaga (which is in Spain) for warm weather training and a match against a Spanish team. The match we played we won 3-0.

Just after Christmas I traveled up to London to play in the Copper Box Arena, which is in the Olympic Park,

in an indoor tournament. We came second.

I am looking forward to this Easter when I will be travelling to Holland to play in an international tournament. I will also be attending multiple training sessions throughout the country and I will be playing in other tournaments.

I am really enjoying this whole experience and it is amazing to be part of it.

International Hockey

Report by: India, Year 9

BE COMPETITIVE

Well done to the Year 11 football team who played against Truro this week in the County Cup. They put a brave battle losing 4-0 but only conceded some goals in a couple of minutes either side of half time.

Report by: Mr Veal

Year 11 Football

Tassomai Top 20

The Tassomai App has been used by our Year 11 students as part of their revision in preparation for their Science GCSEs.

Feedback from previous year groups has been overwhelmingly positive and statistics have shown that if students complete more than 80% of the Tassomai course, then they could achieve one grade above their target! Keep up the good work!

Top 20 based on Total Progress through Tassomai so far...

Report by Miss Weightman

Max

Emmy

Ismay

Harry

Asha

Charlie

Marlene

Tara

Dolcie

Jacca

And this week's winner of chocolate as chosen by the random name selector is... Marlene!

Henry

Adam

Lewis

Matthew

Molly

Grace

Elsa

Benjamin

James

Ben

This week’s word is: deciduous

Definition: Of a tree shedding its leaves annually.

Etymology: Late 17th century: from Latin deciduus (from decidere ‘fall down or off’) + -ous.

To enter, simply write an original sentence correctly using the word

deciduous. Send in your sentence using the link below.

Click here to enter the competition

Dear Parent, Mounts Bay Academy is taking part in the 2020 Revision Census, a major piece of scientific research designed to measure how effectively school students are learning in their own time, in particular, when revising for tests and exams. Your child will be asked to complete a 10-minute online survey during Tutor time in the week of January 20th, which will include questions about:

-        How they study and revise currently

-        What they understand about effective ways to revise

-        Their attitudes towards doing well in exams

-        Demographic data such as their year group and ethnicity

Your child’s answers will be anonymised: they will not be asked to give their name or any other personal information as part of the survey. No questions are compulsory, although we do encourage students to engage with the questionnaire as fully as possible, as a useful opportunity for your child to reflect on their approach to their studies today. 

 

Revision

You can read the study’s Data Policy at www.revisioncensus.com/datapolicy. Please direct any questions towards Mr J. Rodgers jrodgers@mountsbay.org

The responses from Mounts Bay students will be combined with responses from 50+ other participating schools around the country in what is expected to be the largest study of its kind ever undertaken, and will be used for two primary purposes:

1.     Advancing scientific understanding: the researchers intend to publish findings on the extent to which school students are using effective learning techniques, and what might be done to help accelerate the adoption of more effective revision techniques.

2.     Mounts Bay will receive average results for our own students, which we will use to inform efforts to improve the quality of independent learning among our students, helping them to achieve their potential in exams.

WINTERQUADMESTER

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KMONDAY 13TH JANUARY 2020

TUESDAY 14TH JANUARY 2020

WEDNESDAY 15TH JANUARY 2020

Scholars Programme Launch Event

@Exeter University

Year 7&9 boys & girls football

@MBA 3:30-5pm

THURSDAY 16TH JANUARY 2020

Year 8 & 10 boys & girls football

@Humphry Davy 3:30-5pm

FRIDAY 17TH JANUARY 2020