Westbourne News - Westbourne Academy

Westbourne
News
Dec 2012
Page 1
Westbourne Sports College
Marlow Road, Ipswich IP1 5JN
www.westbourne.suffolk.sch.uk
Email: [email protected]
Telephone:
01473 742315
Absences:
01473 466145
Student Services Reception:
01473 466161
Academy Decision
As you will know we have been consulting with parents, students, staff and others regarding whether to
convert to being an Academy supported by the Academies Transformation Trust (ATT); a big thank you to
the 93 parents and 75 students who gave us their views.
At the full Governors meeting of the 10th December, the governing body considered the
outcomes of the consultation and voted unanimously to support the move to convert Westbourne to an
Academy with the ATT.
In considering the name of the future academy the feelings of continuity, history and sentiment
outweighed those of innovation and the name chosen was WESTBOURNE ACADEMY.
In terms of future uniform, although there was support from parents and students for a more formal
uniform, it was decided that the planning of this including the actual uniform, timing of its introduction,
expense etc. should be considered by a governor, parent, student working group. We would be interested
to hear from any parents who would like to work on this with us early in the new year.
We are now working to complete the conversion for the 1st February 2013, but it is most likely that we
will delay the introduction of any new uniform until the Summer of 2013 or for September 2013.
End of Term Arrangements
The school will break up at the end of term on Friday 21 December at 1pm. All parents
should have received a letter with the full details, but if not the letter is available on our
website. Just go to the main page, click on the ‘Parents’ tab, then click on ‘Letters’.
Students return to school on Tuesday 8 January. We would like to wish all our students and
parents a very restful and enjoyable holiday, and we look forward to seeing you next year.
Inclement Weather
The closure of the college under severe weather conditions follows a precise procedure.
In a time of severe weather (flood, fog, snow, high winds etc) we will update our website
with regular information as to whether the school is closed. The decision is normally made
around 7am on each day. We will then contact all parents via our text messaging service If we haven’t got your correct number, you won’t get the message! Updates regarding the
situation will be placed on our website.
The Local Authority also has a website dedicated to providing information on any school closures, and
this can be found at http://schoolclosures.suffolk.gov.uk.
Announcements will also be given on local radio stations; Heart FM 97.1 FM, BBC Radio Suffolk 103.9
FM,Town 102 102 FM.
Goodbye!
At the end of the term we will be saying goodbye to Mr Wilmot from Science. Mr Wilmot has made a huge
contribution to the school, not only through his teaching, but also through his extra curricular work with
the Samba band, a group he set up himself. The band has won recognition from far afield and has
performed all over the county, with a pinnacle achievement being a performance at the Snape Festival.
Mr Wilmot is leaving to follow his passion for community farming – we wish him every success. Also
leaving is our Design Technology technician, Ken Barker. We would like to thank Ken for all his hard work
supporting staff and students. Amalia Burgos, our Spanish Foreign Language Assistant will also be
leaving at the end of this term.
Personal Possessions
Many of our students arrive in school with expensive mobile phones
and other related gadgetry. We also have numbers of students who
bike to school. Unfortunately these items sometimes get lost and
stolen. We do all that we can to ensure that our site is as safe as we can
make it, for example we have recently improved the bike rack area with
permanent fencing. In the event of something expensive getting lost or stolen
we cannot accept responsibility – students bring them in at their own risk.
Our advice is that if something is so valuable it is difficult to replace if lost,
broken or stolen, then it would be better to leave it at home.
Westbourne
News
Dec 2012
Page 2
Building Works
Building work on the new catering facilities has started, with contractors starting to
prepare the foundations for the new building. As this new building is right in the
heart of our school site, we have worked very hard with the contractors to ensure
that noise levels are limited as much as possible so as not to disturb lessons.
The completion date for the whole project is September 2013, and so between now
and then we will give plenty of updates on the progress of the works.
Swearing In Ceremony for New Police Commissioner
On Wednesday 21st November two of our students attended the
ceremony at Martlesham Police Headquarters, for the swearing in of
the new Police Commissioner.
Reece Cattermole (SSU4) and Kai Tunbridge (9H) were chosen to
attend by Positive Futures – a youth organisation working to engage
young people through sport.
The photograph shows the boys with Tim Passmore. Well done to
them both for their participation in such a prestigious event.
Dresses, Ties and Mince Pies Reward Event
This year's Autumn Term Reward event will be a Christmas Disco on
Thursday 20th December 2012, 7:00-10:00pm.
Qualifying students have been sent an invitation to attend.
Anyone who has attended these events before, such as Strictly Come Christmas,
will know what a fantastic time is had by all —staff and students alike!
Home/school communication
One of the easiest ways for us to communicate with parents is via email – if you have an email address
(mainly for us to send general announcements, newsletters, etc) please email your details including your
child/s name to [email protected] and keep us informed if you change it. We
also use text messaging for sending urgent/targeted information to parents (snow closures, changes to
trips etc)
– so please also keep us updated with your mobile number(s).
We are continually reassessing how we communicate with our students, parents and the community.
Should we use Facebook, Twitter, email, SMS or something else maybe?
Please help us out by letting us know, email us with your thoughts [email protected] or
Westbourne College Production - Return to the Forbidden Planet
News
Dec 2012
Page 3
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday saw interplanetary visitors arrive
from the future to play out a drama crafted in the 17th century. If
you didn’t see it – you missed a treat, from the high energy song
and dance routines, to the eloquently spoken verse, to the high
tech wizardry only Westbourne can hope to stage. Return to the
Forbidden Planet was a massive success and a real vehicle to
demonstrate the extraordinary talents of our students and staff.
Many many congratulations to all concerned. Students and staff
have been working on this production since September, with
hundreds of hours put into rehearsals, set design and construction,
lighting and music practice to name but a few of the skill areas the
show required.
The Director, Mr Smith, said before the final performance:‘to be honest, at this point we are living on a mixture of exhaustion
and elation. The show has taken so much out of us, but it has also
given so much. I am so proud of what we have achieved, and of the quality
performances our students have played out to parents, friends, governors and
staff. The skills the show requires has pushed us, but we have met that
challenge with considerable confidence – I would like to thank everyone
for all they have done to make this happen.’
ART DEPARTMENT NEWS
Art trip to the V & A and
Natural History Museum
Tues 20th November
Pupils in Y8 had the
opportunity to create
a personal piece of
artwork based on a
country of their choice.
They supported this
with research about
the traditions, arts,
history
and culture from their
chosen country.
It was a pleasure to take 44
students in years 10 and
11 to both museums to
experience responding to
real life artwork.
They were superb
ambassadors for
Westbourne and produced
stunning work which will go
towards their GCSE Art
coursework.
Pupils in Y7
created excellent
drawings from life
developing their
skills in
observation,
placement and
detail.
Report of The Winter Music Concert on Monday 3rd December 2012
On Monday
3rd
December, we had our annual winter music concert.
Westbourne
News
It was amazing with brilliant performances from everyone involved. The concert
was opened by the samba band (who also closed it) and had lots of
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ensembles, soloists and groups as well! Brilliant solos were performed by
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Claudia Conde, Juliet Onuoha, James Startup, Amber Gooding and Eleanor
Rumbold which were all thoroughly enjoyed by everyone there. As well as this, Jazz band performed She
Said and Seven Nation Army featuring Tom Winder and Lucy Watson on vocals. Also the Singing Club
entertained the audience with Skyfall, Read All About It and Wings. The Keyboard Club also did a great
performance of Your Song.
With 'Return To The Forbidden Planet'
being only just over a week away when
we did the concert, some of the main
cast joined the show band in
performing Wipeout, Yeh Yeh,
Teenager in Love and Born To Be Wild
in costume. It was great to have a
'Sneak Preview' of the show – and to
see it looking and sounding as good
as it did! The audience made the
evening even better by joining in
wherever they could and really making
all of the performers feel confortable.
A big thank you goes to Miss Robinson and Miss Last in the music department and also Mr Wilmot who
put so much into making the night a success, with technical support from myself, Shaun Barber, Sam
Bultitude and James Startup and also a big thank you to everyone who worked on front of house – the
refresments are always a great start to the evening.
Overall, it was a great night –
and I can't wait for the next one!
James Aleksic, 10W
Children in Need
Our students once again took part in a very successful
Children In Need charity day.
Along with the usual non uniform event, staff and students were encouraged
to wear either fancy dress, or reflect the spotted nature of Pudsey’s eye
patch.
Cakes were baked by staff and sold at break time in the staffroom and at
lunch in the youth club.
Finally a staff vs student netball match took place – in fact two matches took
place, one primarily between the males, and the second between the ladies colleagues of Westbourne.
Thank you all for playing and supporting – it was another lovely day to be part of Westbourne.
French Eurovision Competition
The Year 7 French classes have recently competed against each
other to produce a pop video based on a French song. Each class had
to learn a different song which had been chosen by their teacher.
They all worked very hard to learn the words and as you can see
some groups made some fabulous costumes and resources.
The results will be announced shortly and the winning class will be receiving certificates and tucking into
a large tub of chocolates.
Westbourne Sporting News – December 2012
News
Dec 2012
Page 5
This autumn has been particularly competitive with Westbourne
students representing the school in over 50 fixtures in events
including badminton, netball, football, cross-country, gymnastics
and table-tennis. Thank you to all our pupils – and their parents
- who have given us their support and commitment to extracurricular activities this term.
Congratulations to the winners of our monthly Sports Person Awards:
September: Jordan Williams 11T; October: Callum Stone 10L; November: Jack Purdy 9H
Our U13 mixed football team are the last Westbourne squad to compete in the Suffolk County Schools’ Knock Out
Cup; the rest have unfortunately fallen by the way side. The U13s will play Hardwick Middle School in the
quarter-final on Thursday 10th January 2012, 2.15pm KO. They are a strong team, beating Northgate 7 – 4 in
their first cup game back in October and celebrating two draws and two wins in their league games. Our U12s
played Hardwick away in a Danone Cup quarter-final game last month and excruciatingly lost 5 – 4 on penalties.
Our U13 girl’s squad (pictured left) recently played in an Npower Girls
Football Tournament at ITFC Charitable Trust, Portman Road. Mr Moore,
Head of PE, said “they were amazing to watch and very skilled”. They beat
Thomas Mills, Westley & Felixstowe Academy in their group coming up
against Kesgrave HS in the semi-finals; they held on resolutely to 1 - 1 but
sadly lost on penalties. Congratulations and well done to the team
however: Katie Biggs 7D,
Hollie Walden 7W, Chelsea Caley 8K,
Marley Curtis 8H (5), Mia Etheridge 8N (1), Phoebe Jones (3), Destiny
Minors 8R (3) and Morgan Smith 8R.
Next term, football league games continue apace for years 8, 9 & 10 as
does netball for year 8/9 girls. Suffolk Basketball Cup games start in
earnest on the second week back after Christmas for years 7 and 8, boys
and girls.
There will be some slight changes to extra-curricular sports clubs for the
spring term - updated programme will be posted to the college website.
For team news and all things sport, follow us on Twitter @WestbournePE
Photography GCSE Course News
A new Photography GCSE began this term for Year 10 Westbourne students
and they have really been getting stuck in to the course!
Students visited Christchurch Park and the Ipswich Waterfront to take
photographs for their first coursework and thankfully we were blessed with
good weather for both trips! In November the students were invited to the
London National Portrait Gallery to see the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize and
here they enjoyed working in a studio with a professional fashion
photographer to take portraits of each other.
At the very end of November a small number of students were invited to join
Suffolk One Photography A-Level students on a night shoot in London where
they enjoyed visits to Somerset House, Covent Garden and the Winter Wonderland
Christmas Fair in Hyde Park, giving them many opportunities to experiment with light
trails and night photography.
Students have
produced many
fantastic images
already, here is a
small selection of
work.
Reading Enrichment
Reading Enrichment takes place after school on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday
from 14.50 to 15.20. Students will have the opportunity to read aloud with one of our
Teaching Assistants or Literacy Leaders. Students who have participated in the
Reading Enrichment programme have made good progress with their reading.
If you would like your son/daughter to participate, please email Mrs Jacobs,
our Learning Resource Coordinator - [email protected]
Westbourne
News
Dec 2012
Page 6
Eclipse.net
Eclipse.net is our new Library system that gives staff and students access to the resources available within the
Library both at school and at home.
Eclipse.net can be found on the
Westbourne Sports College home page
under ‘for students’ - Eclipse Library
system. To log in students usernames are
the same as when they log into a computer
at school and the password is their date of
birth in an 8 digit format e.g 15th
November 2001 would be 15112001.
When students log in from home it then
gives parents the opportunity to see what
books their child has been reading and
what is available to them at school.
Students can write reviews on books,
request books and check if a book is their
Accelerated Reader level.
All staff and students can start to use the
system, it’s very user friendly but if you
require any help please see Mrs Jacobs in
the Learning Resource Centre.
Book Mastermind
We started Book Mastermind a couple of months ago in English Library Lessons. The
aim was to find a student within Westbourne that could go and represent the school
at the Area competition and then if successful he/she would proceed to the County
finals.
We decided to use students from Year Eight and this is how the process worked:

We asked students to volunteer to enter the competition.

Students ,who wanted to participate, had 2 weeks to read a book of their choice
with a minimum of 200 pages.

The students from each class were then tested against each other. The winner
was the student who answered the most questions correctly in 2 minutes.

The winning student from that class then had another 2 weeks to read a
different book again with a minimum of 200 pages to compete against each
other.

The winning student overall, in the exciting final, was Lewis Seago. He will be
going to the Area competition in February to compete against other local schools.
If Lewis is successful he will then go to the county finals.
All participating students performed really well and we are looking forward to seeing
how well Lewis does in the competition.
Well Done to: Harrold Duggan, Josie Barber, Chelsea Debman, Tia Bell, Ellie Horton,
Sophie Derrett, Maya Challen-Johnson, Lewis Seago, Reece Johnson, Jordan
Flemming, Thomas Raby, Tyler Pead, Curtis Elvin, Luke Richardson and Jakub Dahm.
Westbourne
News
Dec 2012
Page 7
Westbourne School of Samba
The Westbourne School of Samba performed at the Broomhill
Christmas Fete on Saturday 5th December. For many
members of the band this was their first gig and they got very
cold hands with all the drumming outside in freezing
conditions! They did extremely well and attracted loads of
compliments as they always do. They were an absolute credit
to Westbourne.
Well done to them all!
News from ICT department
In ICT, Year 8 students have been learning about Truth and Validity on the web. To demonstrate their
understanding some Year 8 students taught by Mrs Blanch are creating Podcasts in Plain English. These podcasts
use comedy, and hand drawn images to explain difficult concepts. The pupils have researched myths and legends
such as the existence of Minators, The Tooth Fairy and even Santa. The podcasts will be available to watch on the
school system after the holidays and will explain the unexplained.
In Year 9, students have been creating videos to promote Suffolk. As well as improving their video and learning
that Norwich, Cambridge and Colchester zoo are not in Suffolk but that Pleasurewood Hills actually is, they have
also been learning how to edit and enhance video assets to create videos to encourage people to visit Suffolk.
Some of these videos actually look really professional.
The Department are currently recruiting Digital Leaders to help shape the future of ICT
for students at Westbourne and to provide advice to staff and students
on a variety of issues including E Safety.
Please look out for more information in forthcoming issues of Westbourne News.
Advice about E Safety at Christmas
Technology and the online world are becoming a central part of many young people's lives and, just like the
physical world, is another equally real world where they can spend a lot of their time. So with Christmas looming
ever closer, many parents will be faced with the task of unravelling the complexities of their child's request for the
latest console or video game.
“What is safe? When is the right age to go online and play with others? Which video games should I allow them to
play? How can I make sure they are not taking big risks that could harm them?”
If you are worried about issues surrounding the safety of your child in the digital world then
please take a few minutes to visit http://www.saferinternet.org.uk and click on the Parents
section under advice and resources.
A Parents’ Guide to Technology is an online resource providing advice for parents about the
benefits, capabilities and potential risks of smartphones, gaming devices, tablets and internetenabled media players. It introduces some of the most popular devices such as the BlackBerry,
iPhone, iPod Touch and 3DS, highlighting safety tools that are available, as well as setting out
top tips to help parents encourage their children to stay safe when using these technologies.
For further advice please email [email protected] and we will do our best to help.
Congratulations - a national champion!
To Jack Purdy in 9H, who recently won the kickboxing British Junior Lightweight Title. To win
the title Jack had to fight the existing champion, which he did with great skill and confidence,
winning four out of the five bouts.
Many congratulations Jack – Westbourne is very proud of you.
Please keep up to date with news at Westbourne
by logging onto our website
www.westbourne.suffolk.sch.uk
Also, please make sure you inform us of any changes to
important details, new address, new phone numbers & any medical
information we should know about
Westbourne
News
Student of the Month November Awards
Congratulations to all the students named below who have been
awarded a monthly award by the Departments shown
HUMANITIES
Valerio Cardoso
Olivia Theobald
Marley Curtis
Teaghan Stone
Ellie Matthews
Keiran Goodwin
Shelby Blanchard
Noor Jahan Miah
Daniel Welham
Rachel Goode
Jay Gilbertson-Saggers
Jordan Hixson
Merita Osmani
Sadiah Rahman
PERFORMER
SEPTEMBER
7K
7T
8H
8T
Martell Dacus
Harry Stephenson
Shade Abreu
Rhiannon Deveraux
Bethany Seager
8T
9D
9L
9R
10H
OCTOBER
Valerio Cardoso
Shannon McSheen
Shenaz Button
Szymon Lyzwinski
Jasmine Watson
10L
10R
11D
11D
11D
ENGLISH
Liam Mulligan
7D
Troy Sudeene
7R
Sophie Miller
7T
Megan Brett
8D
Manpreet Kour
8N
Charlotte Sutton
10D
Shaun Barber
10L
Sharna Ward
10W
Paiam Mahmoud
11D
Reema Begum
Jack Bennett
11T
11T
ARTIST
NOVEMBER
Harry Dixon
Isaac Warren
Charlie Lewis-Pryke
Sam Harris
Joe Wilson
Jacob Powlett
Georgia Brunsdon
Harry Osman
Zoe Murphy
Ashley Milne
Tom Winder
Harvey Shaw
Antonio Frost
Denise Coelho
8K
Samantha Spencer
9H
Nabard Mahmoud 8L
Teliah Turner
Katie Clarkson
10N
11R
Callie Green 9D
SPORTS PERSON
Jack Purdy 9T
10H
7D 8N 9R 10T 11H PAL/PSD
Brandon Dighton 7L
Sophia Derrett 8D
Tayla Anderson 9N
Jade Blackwell 9L
7K 8L
9L
10H 11L Danielle Fenn 10K
Conrad Ramsey 10T
Abigail Stranix 11W
Morgan Profitt 11H
AUTUMN TERM
AWARDS
7R 8H 9K 10W 11D 11T
11N
11L
11R
10K
10R
10R
10D
MFL
7R
Shelby Kirby
DECEMBER
Kane Bennett
PHOTOGRAPHER
Dec 2012
Page 8
Esme Scott 7K
HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE
Daisy Simpson 10T
Ashleigh Mark 11R
ARTIST
George Ablitt
Shelby Coleman
Adam Steele
Marley Curtis
Aaron Whittaker
Astra Myatt
Jared Birt
Danielle Fenn
Marley Wicks
Megan-Ann Stribling
7N
7R
8H
8H
9D
9N
10N
10K
11L
11H
PHOTOGRAPHY Dineth Kiri-Ellage
Ifath Rahman
10D
10N
SCIENCE
SPORTS PERSON
Darren Stansfield 7L
Ellie Matthews 8T
Liza Zujeva 9R
Amber Allen 10N
Tom Chapman 11PT
CONGRATULATIONS
Jack Purdy 9T