Date Month Year

Newsletter

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#Aspire360 8th December 2019

Dear Parents and Carers

Christmas is coming and festive celebrations are beginning in earnest. Fowey Town has started the celebrations in style with their famous Christmas market and the music department was able to add to the atmosphere with some students involved in singing and playing this weekend. More of this performance work will be available to view at our Talent Show on Wednesday evening. Do come and see students in action. Tickets are available from our website.

There will be many other Christmas traditions to watch out for including a Christmas card competition, our annual Christmas meal for the community and our tutor group decoration. Competition to name just a few events. Staff and students will be looking forward to the holiday in two weeks time after a very busy term with an Ofsted Inspection and mock exams for years 11 and 10 students.

Important News The start of the new term will be Wednesday 8th January for all students. Staff have two training days on the 6th and 7th January. They will be spending Monday 6th January developing a new curriculum that focuses on sequencing and providing stretch and challenge as identified by the Ofsted report. On Tuesday 7th January the staff will be focusing on helping students with special needs to enable everyone, whatever their additional learning need, to achieve their potential. This is second area that Ofsted identified as an action point in September.

We will also be welcoming a number of new staff in January including two Assistant Headteacher’s who will have a clear school improvement brief to develop literacy and build a reading culture and to ensure that there is a culture of excellent teaching and learning in all lessons. We will be also be welcoming a new art teacher from Canada and a new Spanish teacher who is from Valencia. Closer to home, we will be welcoming back Mr Luke Chapman who was a Higher Level Teaching Assistant a few years ago.He has now trained as a teacher and will be providing additional opportunities for students and helping out when there is staff absence. I would finally like to thank parents for the very positive feedback that I have had over the last few months and I look forward to continuing the task of improving Fowey River Academy with the Governors by making sure every day counts.

Best wishes

Sara

CEO Report by Sara Davey

2000 MILES 40 CHILDREN 20 PORTS 1 LIFE CHANGING VOYAGE

An innovative partnership has been launched between Fowey River Academy and Morvargh Sailing Project CIC. The partnership will see a team of up to 40 young people from Year 9 take part in a life changing voyage as they sail 2000 nautical miles around the coast of Great Britain & Ireland.

The crew of young people from Fowey River Academy with no yachting experience will sail the route in 4 legs with 10 students on each leg.

Captain Matthew Barraud said; “The young people will swap the comforts of home for single bunks, a moving deck and having to learn how to cook, clean and look after each other as they get used to their new home. At 57 feet, and weighing 30tons, our Tall Ship, Helen Mary R is as long as five cars and weighs the equivalent of two double decker buses! The largest sail, which the young people will have to manually hoist, is 60ft tall and 40ft wide.

It will be a challenge which will see them battle strong winds, freezing temperatures and rough seas at times throughout the trip; as well as marvelling at our beautiful coastline under sun-drenched skies. It will be a feat of pure physical, mental, emotional and academic endurance, but one which will leave the young people changed forever.

They will make strong bonds with their crew mates, increase their own understanding of themselves and their boundaries and most importantly have the confidence that they can try and excel at anything!”

At the heart of ASPIRE360 are a number of educational objectives; not only will the young people be encouraged to push their personal boundaries throughout; they will also learn about themselves as individuals; in their relationships with others and importantly improving their academic skills.

Jon Rolls, Community Enterprise Director from Fowey River Academy said, “We are really excited about this ground-breaking partnership. Not many schools are lucky enough to be situated in such a beautiful location near the sea, and we must be one of the first to hold a round Britain challenge for our students. This is part of a strategic direction for the Academy, to put outdoor activity and the natural environment at the heart of what we do.”

From the outset the challenge will use several social media platforms, along with web-based ‘ships logs’ written by the participants to engage with a wider audience. At each location events and visits have been planned to allow the participants to gain a greater understanding and appreciation of the importance of the sea to our country as well as discovering more about our rich history and geography.

Helen Mary R will be fitted with a satellite tracker allowing live position updates to be displayed on an interactive chart on the school and Morvargh’s websites.

Year group updates…

Did you know that this is a German tradition? If you love your baking, give this competition a whirl. Ms Bennett has a recipe that you can use or feel free to use your own recipe. Bring your entry in on Friday 13th December (to reception) for judging. Prizes will be awarded in the last week of term. Viel Glück!

Get creative! This month's theme is "Perspectives". Please send your entries to: year7photocomp@fracademy.org or year8photocomp@fracademy.org

Don't forget to include your name and form tutor when you send your entry. Deadline for entries is Wednesday 18th December.

A massive thank you to the Eden Project who very kindly treated each of our year 8 students to a free

skate and hot chocolate this week. We had a great time at Eden during our recent project week. The students were absolutely great and we made lots of memories, particularly out on the ice rink! It was a lovely surprise to receive vouchers for all years 8s to make a return trip to the rink. If you missed out on your voucher, please see Ms Bennett this week

Year 7 and 8 Photo Competition

Gingerbread House Competition- Make, Bake, Decorate

Finally…

Year group updates…

“We can now use the photos in our art or photography, the colours were amazing, and the smell a bit disgusting!”

Students in science were 'investigating' atoms, elements and compounds, making iron sulphide, but also took the chance to practise their photography skills as they liked the colour combinations!!!!

Experiments in Science

This week year 9 have been taking inspiration from our beautiful surroundings and utilising Morden drawing techniques by creating fantastic landscape drawings on their iPads.

Year 9 Art Launch

Year group updates…

Year 11 Science: Launching Tassomai

Tassomai is a learning program for GCSE Science. It works by breaking down specific content into bite-sized chunks and producing quizzes for each student. It is responsive to the answers the students give so the quiz targets the areas each individual needs to work on. The more it is used the more responsive it becomes. Students only need to complete a few minutes on Tassomai each day as they will be set daily goals. Using it daily will also reduce their daily goal...and then they can continue and gain extra credit.

Please encourage your child to use it every day as it has been proven to improve exam success.

Friday afternoon we had the pleasure of Lynn Gould attending to talk to year 8’s. They have been brilliant. Super polite and courteous, a great audience.

It was a super afternoon where she told us all about local heroine Daphne Du Maurier. We learnt lots of interesting facts which will be included in our current REAL project.

Year 8: Daphne Du Maurier

Year group updates…

I love to watch the little bees, Long before the winter cold. They pounce on each petal Like hunters, quick and bold

But the garden has no buzz When the air is bitter cold. Do bustling bees wilt away Like the yellow marigold?

I hope they hide in sturdy hives, Where waxy walls keep out the cold, And spend all winter sipping The honey they guard like gold.

By Harry Roberts

#Bigthanks to @eolasplus for collecting our new beehive!

Are you a local #beekeeper? If so, we’d love a bit of help!

Winter Bees

How to achieve great success…

Steps to great success and high-performance learning for everybody

At Fowey River Academy we believe that everybody can achieve greatness and as Aristotle once said, ‘We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit’. • We aim to teach our students the values, skills and learning habits that will

equip them for success beyond their school career and enable them to deal with the unexpected and whatever their future holds.

• We nurture students to become responsible, confident and keen to improve the world around them. We want our students to be creative, innovative and not afraid to try new things or present new ideas.

• We ask our students to make the deliberate decision to try, to be prepared to work hard, take risks, know that mistakes are ok and ask for help if needed

Each week we will bring a new focus for our students to master to help them along their journey to success.

This week we focused on work.

Hard work is the key to achieving success it teaches us discipline, dedication and determination. It is only through hard work that we can achieve the goals of our life. Our students this week who have shown outstanding levels of hard-work, resilience and perseverance:

Reece Allen, Caitlyn Matthews, Louis Brewer, Lola Hoffman, Gideon Palmer, Archie Billing, Cassidy Bidmead, Maisie Cunningham, Maddie Miller, Millie Van De Broek, Orin Taylor, Grace Love-Williams, Evie Hermes, Gemma Pasmore, Maddie Morcom, Kyle Taylor, Michael Day, Ciaran Monoghan, Joe Hill, Emily Nunn, Emmie Bulley, Mikey Pearce, Dan Lindley, Bailey Moone, Danny Chapman, Ebony Doney, Emma Sweet, Ebony Alison, Oliver House, Ffion Jenkins

We will continue this week with empathy.

Empathy is the ability to understand how someone else is feeling or to understand the situation they are in. It is the ability to “put yourself in someone else’s shoes” and to understand the way a situation might make them feel.

Please watch this video on why empathy is so vital https://www.youtube.com/watch?

On Tuesday 3rd December we took Ellouise, Rhiannon and Amelia to the ‘Game of Our Own’ programme where they became football activators for the school.

Their aim is to get 150 girls active through football.

On Thursday, we took years 7-10 girls netball to Penrice. They played exceptionally well and managed to score many times against them. The year 7 and 8 team's end results were very close to Penrice and we look forward to playing them again after Christmas after more time training together as a team and more competitive fixture experience.

Sports update…

Game of our own

Who is the next big thing?

After a series of tough auditions, the line up for the Fowey River Academy Talent Show has been decided - and have we got some amazing acts lined up for you!

The show will feature an exciting mix of musical acts, dance, acrobatics and even a very special non-human performer. The featured acts are now rehearsing and perfecting their acts with their allocated mentors, ready for our evening performance on Wednesday 11th December.

It will be a show not to be missed so please snap yourself up a ticket.

TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE: https://www.facebook.com/events/1504033469750292/

The Arts Update…

TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW

FRA Talent Show

River Fowey Gig Club is one of the most

successful clubs on the gig rowing circuit,

regularly placing at big competitions and

with a Junior section that has swept the

board in recent years. However, rowing

is about fun & fitness whilst still being

competitive, and so we welcome

everyone to try this fantastic sport. We

row from Caffa Mill car park in Fowey all

year round.

We have many crews including

Juniors, Novices, Mens, Ladies, Vets

and our social rowers, everyone is

welcome regardless of your fitness

level and experience.

At Fowey we understand you don't

want to give up your entire evening

to rowing so crew rowing slots of 1

hour each are assigned to reduce

waiting times, we supplement this

with inter-club events/social evenings so you can meet everyone.

Juniors currently train on Sunday mornings. If you are interested in giving

rowing a go, email through our website for more details or message us via

facebook. @foweygigclub

We look forward to meeting you.

Local Club Spotlight

Fowey Gig Club

www.foweygigclub.org.uk

Fowey Sports Table Tennis

Fowey Sports Hub boasts a

number of table tennis tables,

available for hire for groups or

just a game with your friends.

Table tennis is a fantastic game

for skill and dexterity.

We would love to boost participation in this brilliant game and we are looking for

a volunteer who loves the game to help us develop a local table tennis league.

We understand the commitment this requires and we will help as much as we

can, and can potentially offer free

membership for someone willing to

take this on.

To book a table or to volunteer

please contact our manager Paul.

http://foweysportshub.co.uk/

Dear parent,

For Christmas 2018, the generosity of people in Fowey, Par, Lostwithiel and St Austell gathered over 300 boxes - given out not just at Christmas but throughout the year to people in need.This Christmas we are running the appeal again from Mon Nov 4th to Fri Dec 13th.

The idea is a box or bag containing useful gifts for a homeless person - for example hat, socks, gloves, toothbrush & paste, babywipes, hair brush, (for women) sanitary products, a torch etc. You can also include a small gift and Christmas card (no alcohol, money, razors, painkillers or lighters please).

This year we are also collecting boxes for children. Please mark whether your box is for a man, woman or the age/sex of child.

Drop off points in Fowey (several more in Par, St Austell and Lostwithiel which can be found on our Facebook Page) from Nov 4th, last pick up Dec 13th.

• Fowey Church • Fowey Primary School • Fowey River Academy • Squires Field Community Centre

These are being donated to: • Cosgarne Hall in St Austell who provide temporary accommodation and

support. • St Petrocs in Truro and the Salvation Army who work with single

homeless people. • Cornwall Refuge Trust for families fleeing domestic violence (childrens

boxes also needed) • Seamens Mission who offer help and support to seafarers from around

the world. Last pick will be on Friday December 13th.

Your gift will make a real difference to someone's Christmas.

Thank you.

Sinead Hanks (Fowey) & Hannah Prior (Par).

In the community…

HOMELESS SHOEBOX APPEAL - MID CORNWALL

Coming up…

We Are

The Leading Edge Academy Partnership