Sports News - George Spencer Academy

George George Winter Newsletter Spencer Winter Newsletter Spencer 2015 Academy 2013 Academy

George Spencer Academy Executive Principal: Susan Jowett M Ed BA Principal: Fraser Mitchell BA, NPQH 11-18 school, number on roll: 1490 1350

Arthur Mee Road Stapleford Nottingham NG9 7EW Tel: 0115 9170100 Fax: 0115 9170101 George Spencer Academy | Winter 2015 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.george-spencer.notts.sch.uk

Principal’s message Merry Christmas All! We have been very festive over the last few weeks here at George Spencer. The Christmas flag is flying outside and we’ve enjoyed a number of events over the last few weeks. Thank you to all of our students, parents and carers who have supported these. One of my personal favourites is Christmas Dinner, which also happens to be Christmas jumper day and raises money for Save The Children. Our students get to have Christmas dinner in their forms in full festive costume with their Learning Manager. Christmas music plays proudly in the background and staff from every part of the school get involved to help out – it’s a lovely, heart-warming event and one that I wish all our parents could see. It sums up the lovely relationships at the heart of our academy. The Christmas Fayre was also very successful and I would like to thank everyone from our community who turned out as well as our FRoGS (Friends of George Spencer) and Mr Turner who organised it. As with all of their events it raised further funds for the school. I also want to thank every student and parent who turned out for our fantastic Christmas Concert in St Helen’s Church, Stapleford. You can see more about these and other events, including Strictly George Spencer elsewhere in this newsletter. Despite all the festive fun, we have been as hard at work as ever, too. Students in Year 11, 12 and 13 have all had mock examinations and there will be more to come in the New Year in order to prepare them as fully as possible for success in the summer. We will be letting you know how they have got on next term and it’s vital that your son or daughter uses their time as wisely as possible in the weeks and months ahead, so please encourage them to work hard at home, too.

George Spencer Academy | Winter 2015

We welcome your support. A reminder that we also run period 6 most nights after school to support our students with homework and controlled assessments – please encourage your child to go. Although the Christmas weather has been wet rather than white so far, I wanted to remind you that should it take a turn for the worse we will always do our very best to stay open and we are proud of our tradition of doing so – if there are any issues we use our website and groupcall service to keep you up to date – please check those first rather than ringing in. On behalf of myself, the governors here at GSA and The Spencer Academies Trust, have a lovely Christmas and a fantastic New Year – we look forward to seeing our students back on Wednesday 6th January after our INSET day on the 5th. Mr Mitchell Prinicpal

GSA Season’s Greetings! As we rapidly approach the end of a very busy Autumn Term, we would like to acknowledge the excellent response we have received from families regarding our push to raise our standards even higher across George Spencer Academy. We communicated with you in July (or September for new Year 7) regarding our expectations with school uniform. A recent ‘blitz’ on appearance has shown that 99% of the students are smartly turned out every day, in appropriate footwear and with a vast improvement on the details like shirt tucked in, tie done up, minimum jewellery, and blazer worn (all years except current Yr11). We really do look like a smart set of learners with a ‘professional’ appearance showing off our school in a very positive light. The total ban on mobile phones indoors has also succeeded in significantly reducing issues and antagonisms triggered previously. Students in Years 7 – 11 know that the sight of a phone indoors will lead to confiscation, and this policy is now embedded. Punctuality has also improved, although we still feel that we have to battle against a few individuals in each cohort who struggle with the self-discipline of being in school on time each day. This worries us, as they are not instilling the habits of a valued employee in the future, and may jeopardise their own opportunities unless they become more punctual in their time-management. From the start of next term, there will be only one bell to get the day started (8.45am Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday) with Registration being taken immediately, rather

than five minutes later which used to confuse a few ‘latecomers’. On Wednesdays, the Register will continue to be taken at the start of period 1 at 8.50am. We are still working to raise our Attendance rate above the current 95%. The average for each cohort is held back by those few individuals who take far too many days off school without good reason. We urged all students in September to get into the mind-set of not looking to take a day off when just a bit ‘under the weather’ but to come in to school anyway and give it a go. Whilst there are always a few who are ill, there are also too many students coercing their family into letting them take a day off unnecessarily. The impact on their education will be huge over time. So starting next term, we intend to run a compulsory catch–up session each fortnight, for anyone who has missed two or more days in the previous cycle. More details to follow in the New Year. Overall, as we are sure you will agree, the vast majority of our standards are what you would want from a secondary school trying to give every student the opportunity to focus on learning, whilst preparing them for the world of work in the future. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and hope that Santa is smart and punctual when the big day comes! Mr Field, Mr Doyle and Mr Hartley


GSA Bake Off! The first ever George Spencer Bake Off took place over two weeks in December. The first session was a Technical Challenge. Students were not aware of what they were cooking until they arrived on the day and were given a basic recipe to follow with limited ingredients. The challenge they had been set was to produce a yule log. Students worked in groups of two supported by a member of staff to produce a festive yule log. The winners of the Technical Challenge week were Zak Morris and James Hendy (Yr 10) supported by Mr Glover with runners up Tara Pigott and Nakita Tailor (Yr 11) supported by Mr Thorpe. The next week saw the Show Stopper Challenge take place. Students were given a Victoria sandwich and basic cake decorating ingredients and were allowed to bring ingredients from home to produce a masterpiece in 90 minutes. Sophie Catelain and Ellie Finnerty (Yr 9) supported by Mrs Eddy won first prize closely followed by Ella Matthews and Charlotte Cushing (Yr 7) as runners up supported by Miss Taylor. All students who took part did amazingly well producing some amazing cakes. The judges were impressed with the quality of the cakes produced. Well done to everyone that took part and thank you to the staff who gave up their time to support students. Here’s looking forward to the Easter Bake Off… Miss Read


Two Christmas Bake Off challenges to choose from: 1st December 8th December

| Technical challenge | Cake Show Stopper challenge

Open to all year groups | Prizes for winning team Limited places available Come and see Miss Read in FO2 for more information and an entry form


Strictly George Spencer took place on Friday 11th December and what a fab-u-lous evening was had by all! This year’s contestants were students Fenton Edmonds; Archie Layfield; Ethan Fletcher; Emily Paling; Emma Snow; Emily Parker-Ward; Hayden Fletcher; Kerryn Kinsey; plus staff members Mrs Jane Brown; Miss Phillippa Aram; Mr Adam Spate and Mr John Wilson. After only 10 hours of tuition from Robert and Louise Aldred of the Duesbury Aldred Dance School, during which they had to learn 3 dances, the contestants took to the floor to show us a group Paso Doble, and either a Waltz and Cha-cha-cha, or a Quick Step and Rumba. The sell-out evening was hosted by Mr Chris Haggett, alongside Louise Aldred, and was a very glamorous affair. We were also privileged to watch a performance by last year’s winner, Jack Hardy, and a demonstration dance by two experienced dancers from the dance school. This year the standard was exceptionally high and the judges, including Mr Andrew Field, must have had a very difficult time picking the 6 finalists. However, in the final we were treated to some superb dancing from Emily Paling, Emma Snow, Emily Parker-Ward, Miss Phillipppa Aram and the Fletcher brothers, Ethan and Hayden. After a tense and closely fought final, Hayden Fletcher and his experienced dance partner, Lydia Widdowson, were announced as this year’s winners with their brilliantly danced ChaCha-Cha.


The evening was brilliant from start to finish and thoroughly enjoyed by all those who took part or came to watch. Planning for next year’s event are already under way, so watch this space!

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Sports News

George Spencer Academy

The GSA Cheerleading Squad have had some brilliant highlights in the past year and are looking to shine even more this coming year, with the view to compete in a national competition in 2016. The cheerleaders completed their second annual performance at sports day, which went brilliantly and really raised the profile of the squad and their ability with all of the other students. In addition to this, we were approached by Mr Doyle and the prefects to be the ‘flash mob’ in their opening video for the Prize Giving Evening and the squad spent a lot of time preparing and recording this. Then, on the night of the Prize Giving, the cheerleaders did a surprise performance for the crowd following the opening presentation. They were all so delighted with themselves and their achievements and it has really created an even closer knit squad that new Y7s have been welcomed into. TRAMPOLINING

1st 3rd

Olivia Mascarenhas finished 3rd in the U19 Intermediate East Midlands competition. She has now qualified for the Central final in Cardiff on Saturday the 23rd of January in Cardiff. She was very pleased as she just missed out last year finishing 4th.

Lauren Gillman, Chloe Ashley, Sophie Attwood and Isabel Hobson became the East Midlands U19 novice champions and have qualified for the Central finals in Cardiff on the 23rd of January.


FOOTBALL •

There have been numerous games for both boys and girls with many of the teams still progressing in the National, County and South-Notts Cups

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Year 9 Boys Football – In the last 32 of the National Cup.

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Under 13s Girls Football - Got to the final of the Notts County Football League Cup, unfortunately losing out on penalties to Rushcliffe School.

RUGBY The Year 10 boys rugby team have won both of their County Cup fixtures. CROSS COUNTRY The results of the Broxtowe Championships were as follows: • • • • • •

STAFF ACCOLADE

Mr Randall Congratulations to Mr Randall who has been nominated by Athlete Mentor, Andrew Bridge, for the Sky Sports Living for Sport Teacher of the Year Award 2014-15 as a teacher that has gone that extra mile to help their students take part in this valuable initiative. He has also been selected to play for the England masters hockey team to play in the World Cup in Australia next March.

Year 7 Boys - Champions Year 8/9 Boys - Champions Year 10/11 Boys - Champions Year 7 Girls - Champions Year 8/9 Girls - Champions Year 10/11 Girls - Champions

SPORTS LEADERS Working with the Primary Schools – The Primary School Sports Hall Athletics led by our qualified Year 11 Sports Leaders took place. It was a wonderful event with competitors from 5 local Primary Schools. Winners were Bramcote Hills Primary, runners up Bispham Drive Junior School.


The Library There is lots going on in The Library this year! We have a new Comic Book Club after school on Mondays, and we’re looking forward to taking part in the Stan Lee Excelsior Award in January to vote on our favourite new books. We always need more comic books to read, so any donations of old comics to the club would be appreciated. After the Christmas Break there will be a new Book To Film Club on Friday lunch times. Then in March we’ll be shadowing the Carnegie Medal again, so keen readers should look out for information about that! It was very successful last year and we’re looking forward to a new list of great books to read.

The Reading Cloud is the new Library Catalogue which students can access from home as well as in school. They can search the Library for books and get recommendations, and write reviews for Reading Bingo as well as manage their library accounts to keep track of their loans and when they are due back in. There is also an iMLS app available which will allow them to do this from their mobile devices. As ever we appreciate your support in making sure students return their books to the Library on time! Reading Cloud/iMLS log in details are available from Miss Jarrom: [email protected] Finally, we have a Library Twitter account where you can keep up to date with what’s going on @GSA_Library! Miss Jarrom Librarian

On February 4th we will be hosting an event to celebrate the second Harry Potter Book Night. Planning has started! This was an amazing night last year, so we can’t wait to do it again.. hopefully bigger and better. In the run up we have our ‘Leaky Cauldron’ Harry Potter readathon/re-read with the challenge of 11 weeks to read 7 books (3,407 pages.. about 45 pages a day!) for those of us who need to refresh on the whole series in preparation for the quiz competition! This year will be tougher! The Reading Bingo Challenge has taken off with Year 7 this year. We already had one student achieve the Gold award for reading and reviewing 25 books! A number of others are close behind for Silver and Bronze awards. The Book Fair at the start of term in October was very successful and we made £315 in free book rewards for The Library which is amazing. Thank you so much for all the books bought, this was our best year in quite some time!

Friday lunchtimes in The Library starting in January We’ll read the book and then watch the film! War Horse , Maze Runner, Divergent, Stormbreaker, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas , The Woman In Black*, The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief and The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (Rated 15 so you must have permission from home to watch the film)

You must read and review at least 3 of the books to take part! Ask in The Library for details!


Teaching and Learning at George Spencer There have been two changes to teaching and learning at George Spencer during the autumn term. The first of these has been a shift from homework to preparation for learning which involves students being prepared and lesson ready by reading or watching a short video before the lesson. This fits in with flipped learning which was introduced to staff and students in 2014. To support students and provide them with a space to complete homework / preparation for learning, on a Monday, Tuesday and Thursday the LSRC is open for an additional hour at the end of the day. This is called “period 6 prep time” and has been very successful so far with around 30 students taking advantage of this offer every session. The student leadership team have come up with some rules for “period 6 prep time”. 1.

8. You are not allowed to leave before Period 6 ends (4:20). The second change has been a move from learning reviews to student led learning conferences. All students still have at least two yearly meetings with their Learning Manager and their targets are sent to you. However students now lead the meeting, showing their work and achievements to their Learning Manager. This is an opportunity for them to celebrate their excellent work, demonstrate their ownership of their learning and develop their critical thinking skills. It is great to see the care the students put into preparing for these and the maturity they display during the learning conferences themselves. The aim is to encourage students, as they progress through the school, to become excellent independent learners and, indeed, leaders of their own learning. Miss Gordon and Mrs Laskowski

There will be minimal talking allowed (library volume).

2. There will be no mobile phones on show. 3. No non-educational games on the computer. 4.

Only one person per computer.

5. You are allowed to listen to music through earphones you have to bring yourself. 6.

No food or drinks can be consumed.

7.

Extra-curricular work can be completed.


Music Department George Spencer Academy music students and staff have had a busy term, once again providing musical entertainment for events in school and out and about in the community. We started the year well with a fundraising evening at Costa Coffee in Chilwell back in September, helping raise over £400 for the Costa Foundation. The Jazz Combo and soloists provided over three hours of entertainment for a very appreciative audience. We were invited back again in November for the launch of their Christmas drinks menu which proved to be a very busy and well-received evening for Mrs Musson and her soloists. This event was closely followed by our Swing Band Challenge Day which took us out to perform for both staff and pupils at Ash Lea Special School in Cotgrave. Students at the school had been completing a project about WWII and wanted to experience ‘live’ swing music. The Jazz Combo once again represented our Academy at the annual Prize-Giving evening at the East Midland’s Conference Centre where many of our musicians received awards and the Ceilidh Band played for a charity fundraiser at Bramcote C of E School in early October. FrOGS events this term have included staff performances at the Wine Tasting evening, soloists at the Christmas Fayre and the Rock Band at the Bonfire Night Extravaganza. Our most recent Challenge Day involved morning rehearsals in school for the Swing Band and then a visit to the Intu Centre in Derby in the afternoon to perform for Christmas shoppers. We have been invited back early next year to help raise money for their chosen charities. Jazz Combo provided music by the food court for shoppers the weekend before.


The choir, wind band and musical theatre clubs all performed for the Mayor at Stapleford Christmas Light Switch-on and last week had an appreciative audience at the Herons Residential Home in Toton. This trip was organised by Mr Potter and Miss Pell. Our term was rounded off with an evening at Derby Amputee Club’s Christmas Party and our own celebratory Christmas Concert at St Helen’s Church in Stapleford. In addition to our group music-making, our students have had personal success when taking ABRSM, Trinity and Rock School examinations this term in a variety of instrumental disciplines. A big well done and ‘thank you’ to all students and parents for supporting our musical programme this term. Mrs Brown

GSA SCITT The trainee teachers of the George Spencer Academy SCITT (School Centred Initial Teacher Training) have completed their first term of training and have enjoyed getting to grips with all aspects of teaching. They have participated in training sessions focusing on topics such as behaviour management, assessment for learning, learning technologies and Special Educational Needs. They have also been working hard on their PGCE assignments and will be submitting their first ones in the new year! They are now looking ahead to spending the half term after Christmas in a contrasting second placement school. Good luck and best wishes for the holidays everyone! If you are interested in becoming a teacher, recruitment for the next cohort of trainees is well underway with some places still available for Maths, English, History, Physics, Chemistry, D&T, MFL, Computing and Primary. For further information please contact [email protected] or follow the link on the George Spencer website. Mrs Arnold

GSA Vacancies We have a vacancy for a midday supervisor here at George Spencer Academy working 5.5 hours a week over the lunch break to assist with supervising the students in the dining rooms and playgrounds. For more information please see the vacancies page on the school website http://www.george-spencer.notts.sch.uk/index.php/vacancies Closing date: Monday 4 January 2016 at 12 noon, please submit the application and a covering letter by post or email [email protected]


Student and Staff broadband Now offering up to 40mb, wireless fibre broadband to local GSA staff & students Our wireless technology allows us to provide broadband services at fibre speeds to your home. This means there is no need for you to pay BT line rental, instantly saving you money every month. As well as saving you up to £16.99 a month on line rental costs, you will have full connectivity to George Spencer’s infrastructure. This will allow seamless access to any of the network or resources from home. To find out your eligibility all we’ll need is your postcode. Which you can email directly to us at: [email protected]

There is no obligation to continue with AIT broadband after the trial. However, if you are looking to continue with us the cost in total is £22 a month there after. George Spencer Academy | Winter 2015