Winter 2015 - Crofton Academy

NEWSLETTER
ISSUES NUMBER 16- WINTER 2015
NEWS FROM THE ACTING HEAD
It’s been a long and busy term since we returned in September. I must start by thanking everyone of you; parents, relatives,
friends of the school and the wider Crofton community, for your kind wishes and support following the death of Mr Horsley.
As you will see from this newsletter, we have had lots of activities, visits and visitors during this term. Our Year 7s are now fully settled
and are active members of our school community and our Year 11 have just taken their ‘practice’ examinations as they begin their
preparation for next year.
All our pupils are thoroughly enjoying our new outdoor sports facilities; it is also being used by our junior pyramid schools. We are
further looking forward to the opening of our refurbished changing rooms in the New Year.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support and I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas break and
wish you all a very happy New Year.
Regards
P Walker
Acting Headteacher
www.croftonacademy.org.uk
WDH GARDEN DESIGN
The excellent links between Crofton Academy and Wakefield District Housing
are continuing to flourish.
In Summer we entered over 80 designs from our students for a community
garden that is to be constructed on the Hawthorne Estate in Crofton.
The winning design was from Declan Ainsworth (last year’s Year 11) and
runners up were Lauren Hopkinson-Hall, Ashleigh Davis, Stephanie Smith and
Sophie Glew. They received their prizes on 7th December from Chris Croxall,
Tenant Involvement Officer at WDH.
Mike English will design the garden using ideas from all the winners and we look forward to supporting WDH in its
construction and planting in Spring/Summer 2016.
Mr Oxley
CROFTON CREW
This year we began an exciting new initiative within the Performing Arts departments. This initiative, known as “The Crofton
Crew”, is an opportunity for pupils to be fully trained to operate as part of a small team responsible for the production of all live
music and drama events held at school.
Industry expert Jamie Vizard guided pupils through all aspects of the role and the Academy provided detailed health and safety
training. For five weeks we ran a successful course to prepare our pupils for this exciting new role and on completion the
students were presented with brand new Crofton Crew uniforms and safety equipment to allow them to carry out their new
responsibilities and be easily identifiable as part of this team. The new team has already been working on the Christmas
Pantomime and we are looking forward to preparing Crofton Academy’s first pupil lead rock concert in the spring term.
Crew member Daniel Burgin writes; “During the weeks that we did the course we all learnt many new things, whether it was
learning how the Crofton Academy PA system works or learning the ropes of the mixing desk. Not only did we learn how to lift
heavy objects, but we also learnt the different types of microphones and cabling. At the start we were told to take a health and
safety course. After we had completed it, it gave us the opportunity to safely set up equipment in the hall. Overall we did around
3 setups of microphones and other instruments. We even mic’ed up an entire drum kit!”
Please look out for the team during the next performance here at the academy. They will be the ones looking cool in their crew
shirts. The Crofton Crew Team: Keegan Rimmington, Benjamin Hickey, James Elliott, Oscar Wade, Daniel Burgin, Toni Hugill
and Tom Kirby. I would personally like to thank Jamie Vizard for sharing his vast knowledge with our pupils over the past term
Mr Hull, Coordinator of Music
SPONSORED RUN
What a successful event! The 3km run went without a hitch,
which considering the weather we have had this last term is
incredible. All competitors deserve a pat on the back for
completing the course comfortably within a PSHE lesson.
I would like to offer my thanks to all those who competed and
to all those that helped by sponsoring them. It was an
incredible job.
Mr Sweatman (History) glided around the 3km course with the
grace and poise of a great cat and was a great help to the
Legacy Leaders and the Pupil Leadership Team who helped
run the event.
We have raised a massive £900 which we will be split,
with £550 going to Memusi and £350 to the school’s
sensory garden.
The top tutor group prizes for raising the most amount
are as follows: 7SWD, 8LLF, 9LTR and they have
received their chocolate fix as a prize!
Once again a huge thanks to parents/families for your
support and those who helped in any way.
Mr Oxley
CREATIVE CHRISTMAS
INTER-HOUSE COMPETITION
Creative Christmas @ Crofton Academy
This term has seen the re-launch of the inter-house
competition for Tutor Groups in Years 7, 8 and 9.
Houses are Ennis-Hill, Farah and Beckham and
competitions run every lunchtime covering a number
of activities from table tennis to art!
for up to date news and
correspondence visit our
website:
www.croftonacademy.org.uk
So far this term the leaders are:
Y7 NKH, Y8 JST and Y9 ESC
Overall the winning house is: Ennis-Hill 108 points,
Beckham 105 points and Farah 97 points
SPRING 2016
Pupils in the Art & Textiles club have got into the
Christmas spirit this year making decorations and
greetings cards. The pupils have enjoyed using
arrange of techniques, including hand embroidery and
printing to decorate their products. Lunchtime clubs will
be back in the New Year with even more exciting
projects planned. (Art club – Wednesday lunchtimes,
Textiles club – Thursday lunchtimes).
Monday 4 January 2016
Start of term
Friday 5 February 2016
Last day of term
Monday 8 February - Friday 12 February 2016
Half term
Monday 15 February 2016
Start of term
Friday 18 March 2016
Last day of term
Monday 21 March - Friday 1 April 2016
Easter break
ROOM 97
Six Year 10 pupils have been attending
Room 97 Creative Hairdressing, part of
which has involved learning plaiting and
weaving techniques. The results of their
work were brought into school this week as
their session took place on site as opposed
to their usual salon experience. The styles
were based around a Christmas theme with
Sydney Mills’ design being voted the best
by salon staff.
HATFIELD
In Year 7 Aspire, we went on a school trip to Hatfield
Water Park in Doncaster. We did lots of activities
involving the water which we did sailing on. As you
enter you can see the gigantic park and climbing wall,
plus behind the building there is a massive lake with
the life guard boats just in case you panic or if you
sink! There are lots of different canoes to paddle on
and everyone liked the canoeing and the climbing
walls.
Some people had fears but conquered them and they
were really proud of themselves, but as all children
do, they all liked having their food at dinner time!
There were lots of adults around to help us. There
were lots of activities and very few people didn't take
part. If anyone was afraid of water or climbing, it was
okay. We weren’t forced to do anything we didn’t
want to do.
Some children who were very scared tried things like
climbing or going on the water and found that actually
it was really fun, even though the water was so cold!
Kane Whitaker (7AMi)
Ben Johnson (7AMi)
Chloe Bradley (7EOu)
www.croftonacademy.org.uk