COMIC RELIEF

News and gossip from inside the Academy walls

Issue 2

More awardsFOR BURCU

A PAIR OFTRAINERS!Our caption competition

Morton Does

£500Raised!

PAGE 3

02 THE ACADEMY

TheRichard Rose MortonAcademy continues togo from strength to strength and is my verygreat pleasure to open this fantastic newsletter,

created by our very own students to show everyonewhat an inspirational place this is to learn.

So why are we getting better? We have had record numbers ofprimary school students wanting to join us inSeptember and we are full in every year group,having accepted students from other schools inand around Carlisle and people new to our area.The majority ofYear 11 has chosen to continuetheir studies in our Sixth Form College, whichwill have a new look in September. One of themost exciting changes will be dedicated space forsixth formers which we are going to design afterEaster.

Another good news story is that our exam results look reallypromising. Many of our students have passed their GCSE English,Science and Adult Literacy and Numeracy exams already, givingthem 3 GCSE’s. Year 11s are working really hard but thesestandards could not be achieved without a very committed staffwho are dedicated to each individual succeeding.

Generally, around ourAcademy, life is good. Students enjoy theirlearning with us, it is calm and settled and the new cross-yearteams have had a good impact on how the students care for each

other. As a result of this student attendance has improved,whichis great news, and our plans for improving learning should onlygo to make it even better.

We have a huge amount of support from our parents. OurParent Voice group has been established and held their firstmeeting. We are honoured that so many people are giving us

their support, time and effort. Our future can onlybe made brighter by their hard work, challenging usto provide the best education for their children.

Finally, we are beginning the process to design ournew building! Students, staff and parents are allgoing to have a part of play, designing the bestAcademy for, not just this generation of students,but many more to come. This summer we willhave a few changes in order to get the site ready

for the new build. Part of the front block of the school has tobe demolished and we have to move back into some of thebuildings currently inhabited by the County Council in order tomake back up the space we need for our increased roll inSeptember. When we have finished on our site we will have aspectacular building, an amazing sports village and be a placewhere all our community will be able to learn, develop andachieve.

It is a really exciting future. I look forward to sharing it with youall.

Message from THE HEAD

IDENTITYThe sixth form Young Enterprise group have been working very hard

promoting their company “Identity”. They are designing and makingpersonalized products.There was a sale in school for staff and students

to buy t-shirts, choose the pictures and wording to appear on them and collectthem by the end of the day, at a bargain price!They also took part in a trade fairon Saturday 28th February at Carlisle Cathedral.The whole group have beenworking very hard to promote their business and produce quality products.

All Year 11 students arrived in school one day “suited andbooted” ready for their formal interviews. All studentstook part and experienced a “real life” job interview. They

all prepared by completing a CV and application form, everyonelooked really smart in their suits and enjoyed the experience.

All year 10 students have been enjoying 2 weeks ofwork experience. They have been working in avariety of establishments from mechanics to

massage.

Year 10 Child Care students have also been enjoying workexperience in some local nurseries. They have all beenputting the theory they have been learning into practice.

Many thanks must go to all the local businesses who havegiven the students this invaluable opportunity.

INTERVIEWS WORK EXPERIENCE

PPoooorr qquuaalliittyy

iimmaaggee

Burcu has been given a prestigiousaward recognizing all her hard workfor The Young Enterprise scheme she

was heavily involved in last year. The awardwas for her “Outstanding Contribution to theCity of Carlisle”. She was treated like royaltyat a reception at the Civic Centre. We arevery proud to call her a student at RichardRose Morton Academy and wish her lots ofluck and happiness for her future ventures.

BurcuWINS AGAIN

03

Introducing...

YEAR 9 MAKE A BIG DECISION

Iwould like to take thisopportunity to introducemyself. My name is Helen

Horne. As the CountyCouncillor for Yewdale Ward(the ward in which the schoolsits) I have been nominated bymy Local Authority colleaguesto be a governor on the Board ofRichard Rose Academy. At thelast Board meeting I was morethan happy that I was designatedthe ambassador for MortonAcademy. A designation I amdelighted to champion. Myaffiliation with, and loyalty to,Morton goes back a long way. Somuch so that I feel almost joinedat the hip.

I first became involved with MortonSchool nearly ten years ago. Mybackground is in education but I wasemployed by the school in 1999 as afreelance journalist. The school hadbeen through a difficult time. My taskwas to get as many positive stories inthe media as possible. Working withstaff and students we successfullyraised the profile of the school,helping Morton to improve itsfortunes. In 2001 I was elected to theCounty Council and placed on thegoverning body where I served untilthe advent of the Academy. I think thething I am most proud of in relationto the school is the fact that, as aCounty Councillor, I was able tosecure the funding to re-open theswimming pool. Later we were ableto obtain extra finance from otherpartners to open the leisure centre.Both these facilities not only benefitthe school but also the widercommunity.

Imagine then my pleasure now withall the exciting plans to build on that

concept and develop a Sports villageon the Morton Site. From smallbeginnings larger plans have grown.Morton Sports Village Project waslaunched at the end of February andis hoped to attract £50 millioninvestments at the school. The plansinclude a gymnastics centre, an icerink as well as a new swimming pool.There will also be two new sportspitches and a floodlit pitch withsynthetic grass. These new facilitieswill be enjoyed by the wholecommunity.

I am delighted to be involved at thisvery positive time in the history ofthe school. The new Chief Executivehas both the experience and thevision to make the Richard RoseAcademies among the best schools inthe County. With Katie Robinson asthe Headteacher Morton Academycan only build on its success. I wouldlike to congratulate all the staff fortheir professionalism and dedicationand the students for their maturityduring this time of change. I wasworried that Morton would be thepoor relation to the central sister butnow the latest plans have beenunveiled my fears seem groundless. Ilook forward to being theambassador for Morton Academy.

Helen at school

On Thursday 19th March all Year 9students and their parents attendedschool for an “Options Evening”.

All students were given a booklet beforehandto assist them in making their crucial decisionsabout which subjects to chose to study in Year10 and 11.

Staff were available on the evening for supportand advice. All students have now made theirfinal decisions and are keen and eager tolaunch into their GCSE studies.

“I really liked looking atthe army tanks”

On Thursday 12thFebruary Year 7students had a

wonderful trip to TullieHouse Museum andCarlisle Castle. One of thetasks was to compare oldphotographs of the Castleand see what had changedtoday. The tour of theCastle also included a lookaround the dungeons.

The tour of Tullie Houseincluded looking at somevery interesting displays andlovely paintings and thestudents also watched avideo. The highlight was theirmission to unlock the swordfrom the cursing stone bytrying to crack the code.

04 THE ACADEMY

Jess Phillips

Sean Lymer

AT THE CASTLE

DJ Lemasonry

The Big Step

Year 11 students have all been facing big decisions about theirfutures and many have opted to take the plunge into sixth formlife. The students have all completed applications and attended

interviews. They have sought advice and support from subject leaders andhave now made their final decisions..

Year 10IN THEARMY?

MORE HISTORY MORE CONFERENCES!

Manchester was the venue for the GCSE history studentsconference as 7 students made their way to the Printworkscentre for their next revision session with Keynote Education.

The recent trip followed the conference ‘From peace to war 1919 – 1939’and this time covered two countrys case studies of USA 1917-1941 andGermany 1918 – 1939. Although this trip was for a day only, students feltit was worth while, even if being slightly late due to a delayed train meanttrying to sneak to our seats in front of 500 people. The conference involvedtwo speakers of enormous reputation in Chris Culpin and examinerMalcolm Chandler and both produced sage words and great techniques forexams.

PPoooorr qquuaalliittyy

iimmaaggee

INTO SIXTH FORM

Year 7

“The artefacts in the museum were amazing”

In January the Army visited Morton Academyto give Year 10 students a flavour of what it islike to work in the armed forces. Their

presentation was very interesting and factual.

The discussion was based around the differentcareers available in the Army and the excitingopportunities it can bring.

There was also some group work throughout theday. One activity involved lots of team work. Thegroup had to make a free standing tower that wasat least one metre high.

Another group looked at map work and how it’spossible to communicate through maps.

All students really enjoyed the experience

“I thought the exhibits were great”

PPoooorr qquuaalliittyy

iimmaaggeess

GCSE HISTORIANS“DO” LONDON

05

AT THE CASTLE

DJ Lemasonry

The end of January is normally a time of zeroexcitement and even fewer reasons to be cheerfulunless, that is, you were a history Student visiting

London with Richard Rose Morton Academy.

Five Year 11 students accompanied Mr Graham and I, staying astones throw from St Paul’s in the heart of London. On arrival ourfirst outing was to the BBC which provided an insight into the newscentre and television production – with Michael Townsley winninga close quiz featuring a live TV studio tour. The following dayincluded visits to the imperial war museum and Cabinet War rooms,centre for Churchill’s war time cabinet. This was followed by aprivate tour of the Foreign and Commonwealth office organised bytheir archive service and although the finer rooms were in use thewhiff of Jim Hacker was evident as we all stood outside the ForeignSecretary’s office with it’s twin doors and fine murals.

Thursday was rounded off with a trip on the majestic London Eye,giving students a birds eye view of the capital.

Friday was the business end of the trip with a conference for GCSEstudents on ‘from peace to War, Europe 1919-1939’. This gavestudents great insight into examiners thinking with the Ex head ofexam boards giving advice as well as offering the lecture stylerevision.

By Mr Hill

On Monday 23rd February students in Years7—10 became film stars for the day. They alltook part in a “Ready, Steady, Cook” event

called GET REAL. The aim of the day was to promotethe benefits of school meals and the dangers of junkfood. There were camera crews filming all day whichadded to the excitement. Allstudents really enjoyed the day andmany used the website after theevent to discover more interestingand eye opening facts and playthe online games.

Get Real

Congratulations and goodluck go to Simon Little inYear 9 who has got throughto the National Finals forCross Country.

The Year 9 Girls Netball team played in a tournament atTrinity School, sadly they didn’t win but werecommended on their behaviour and were awarded the

friendliest team. The under 16’s did have some success and in a very close matchthey beat Newman school..

SIMON IN THENATIONAL FINALS

NetballPPoooorr qq

uuaalliittyy iimm

aaggee

www.getreal.uk.com

Congratulations to all involved.

Poor quality

images

Morton doesComic Relief

06 THE ACADEMY

The Richard Rose Morton academy had an extremelysuccessful comic relief 2009, with various events goingon throughout the day, these included: A wear something

red non-uniform day, Cake sales, Guess how many sweets werein the tub and guess how many chicks where in the basket. Wehad two huge teddy bears, which we used for a guess the bears’name, one during school time, which was won by Sam Chalk, andone on a Bingo evening, which was won by Yvonne Stables. AlsoMrs Buck hand knitted some chicks with cream eggs inside,which went down a treat. The bingo night, which was open tostudents’ families and friends, was great fun. There were lots ofprizes that were donated by local companys, many thanks tothose who supported the evening. The main part of the day was

the Cadillac car, which was rented out to us for free. SophieReed, Emma Humpleby, Emily Hartness and Rebecca Normangot a lift home in the car, and they thoroughly enjoyed theexperience, it was great to see students being recognised fortheir excellent behaviour within the school.

Overall, we made a smashing £500.

Many thanks the Richard Rose Morton Academy Student Voice,for all the hard work and effort they put into organising theevents and for giving up their own time. Thanks also to theteachers and dinner ladies who gave their time and effort inorder for the events to go ahead.

Morton doesMr Richardson has been very busy training the Year

7 boys football team whose hard work paid offwhen they beat Trinity School 3-2, Caldew

5-1 and the derby match between Central Academyended in a very impressive 9-0. These fantastic resultsensure the boys a place in the City Cup Semi-finals.Good luck to them all !!

CLIMBING CLUBAND FORESTSCHOOL

07

Mr Richardson has also established aClimbing group who visit the climbingwall at the Sands Centre on a weekly

basis. The group are really enjoying theexperience, any new members are welcome tocome along and see for themselves.

Another exciting project is the up coming“Forest School” any students who are interestedneed to see Mr Richardson.

Special mentions to the following studentsfor their great sporting success in achievingcounty level status:

Rachel Connelly and Becky Osgood -TRAMPOLINING.

Lisa Battersby - NETBALL.

Tasha Scott, Ketie Marrs andCarly Stevenson - FOOTBALL.

Simon Little and Cloe Moore -ATHLETICS.

Abbie Cuthbertson, Simon Little,Carly Stevenson, Tom Barker,Jordan Irving and Rob McCartney -CROSS COUNTRY.

Rebecca Norman, Emma Story,Hannah Beal, Katie Bradley, HannahBrown, Rachel Dalton, Rachel Irving,Amy Haughan, Nicole Clark, BeckyOsgood, Beth Reid, Katie Porter andAmy Frith - GYMNASTICS

FOOTBALLYear 7 boys

The under 13 girls gymnasts won the County Schools GymnasticsTournament and the over 13 girls came a very impressive secondplace. Rebecca Norman came second in the Individual County Schools

Gymnastics.

Interested?

FANTASTIC GYMNASTICS

The under 13 girls football team won their quarter final match of theCounty Cup against Ullswater 3-2. They went on to face Trinity inthe semi-finals but sadly lost. They had to play this tie in awful weather

conditions so praise was duly awarded for their efforts and determination.

The same team of girls also played in an indoor tournament at The SandsCentre. They won 4 matches, lost 2 and drew 1. A great achievement. Welldone to them all.

GIRLS FOOTIE

Mr Wilson has started a Basketball team for students in Year 10, 11and 13. The three Under 18 teams went to a Carlisle PanthersBasketball Tournament on the 26th January at the University of

Cumbria, Fusehill Street.

Although none of the teams won the tournament, they all displayed massesof effort and even managed to win some games, a great achievementconsidering it was the very first competitive basketball tournament any ofthe pupils had been to. Well done to them all.

BASKETBALL

COUNTY LEVELSTUDENTS

PPoooorr qquuaalliittyy

iimmaaggee

Well done to all the girls involved.

08

WRITTEN BY

CCaappttiioonn CCoommppeettiittiioonnYou could win yourself a new pair of Vans Trainers, All you have to do is think of a caption to go with this photoAll entries to Mrs Scholey by 31st May 2009.

Your Caption

Sophie James

Amy Walker

James Noble

Sean Hamilton

Mati Sobolewski

Lee Purdham

Alex McGeorge

Joe Uttley

PPoooorr qquuaalliittyy

iimmaaggee

www.richardroseacademies.org

Your Name

�

The Academy Express Team