Issue 35

In pursuit of excellence

King’s Oak Academy, Brook Road, Bristol, BS15 4JT Tel: 01179 927 127 Email: principal@koac.org.uk

Website: www.kingsoakacademy.org.uk King’s Oak Academy is part of the Cabot Learning Federation

King’s Oak News

Careers at KOA

A very successful Careers Event took place in October for students in Years 8 and 11.

Students chose to visit different business organisations finding out about careers opportunities within the

businesses. Commercial awareness is an important employability skill and many were surprised to learn about the vast amount of opportunities available.

Art trip to the Arnolfini

On 11th October, a group of Year 9 students visited the Arnolfini in central Bristol. The day started with a tour of the current Grayson Perry exhibition by the gallery’s education team. Following this, the students took part in an exciting architecture workshop. They were given the challenge of designing a pavilion for their neighbourhood. They came up with some really imaginative ideas and their 3D models were very inventive as you can see. Well done to all who participated.

Gardening Club at KOA

It is never the wrong season to start gardening, as the stalwarts of the gardening club have

proven. Twice weekly, they have dug, composted, manured and planted. In seven weeks they have managed over thirteen varieties of vegetables and flowers germinated, and planted. So prolific have they been in the seven weeks of the term we will have plants and produce to sell at our “Christmas Fayre” week commencing 4th December. Well done to all the gardeners.

Welcome back after what was (hopefully) a restful half term.

Starting the academic school year of 2017- 2018 has been exciting; with our best ever GCSE results, best ever Post 16 results and, to complete the hat trick, excellent EYFS results, King's Oak Academy has made an extremely strong start.

It has been an absolute pleasure to see both the Acorn and the Secondary school buzzing with new faces as they have hosted their open days and evenings across the last few weeks - my thanks go out to all the staff and student helpers who warmly invited many new young people to come and see what we can achieve here together.

Our core purpose does not falter - we have also been working hard in the classrooms - students in Years 7, 8 and 9 have sat their first round of online assessments. Also, our Year 11 students have been working hard across Term 1 and go away to prepare themselves for their first full round of mock exams in November. We have every confidence that they will build upon their marks from the summer mock exams. We wish them every success at the beginning of Term 2.

At the end of last term, we also enjoyed our first Enrichment Day of the year; with workshops and guest speakers geared towards developing our students as community citizens. Students were involved in building an anti bullying charter, exploring possible career pathways and checking their own road safety.

At the time of writing our Olympus students and staff had celebrated an average of 97% attendance with a day of non school uniform - we look forward to Pegasus, Hercules and Orpheus competing hard to gain that kudos themselves!

Best wishes and we look forward to seeing you at one of our many parent evenings across the next two terms.

Train to Teach with the CLF Did you know that you can train to teach with the Cabot Learning

Federation? If you are a graduate and are interested in a 1-year full-time training course to become a Primary or Secondary teacher, please contact Scitt@clf.ac.uk or phone 0117 244 6233 to find out more. You could be eligible for a training bursary of up to £25,000 for some subjects. Your training placements would take place in CLF or other local schools. Many of our successful trainees go on to teach in our schools. We still have places available for 2017-18. We would love to hear from you; please pass this message on to relations, friends or anyone else who might be interested. Thank you.

Term 1

2017-2018 “We’ve had our best ever GCSE results, best ever Post 16 results and excellent EYFS results.”

A reminder that Term 1 finishes for students on Thursday 19th October. Term 2 starts for students on Tuesday 31st October

Richard Clutterbuck, Principal

Maths at KOA

As from Term 2, all students at KOA will be expected to have a scientific calculator. If they do not already have one, they can be bought from the Maths Department for £5.00. All students who have free school meals will automatically receive one.

Winter Road Safety

On 11th October we were privileged to have Ginificent Theatre Company perform a powerful award winning drama about road safety to Year 7. We hope all our students will now be extra careful when near or crossing the roads.

The clocks go back in the early hours of Sunday 29th October and as the nights draw in and the mornings get darker we would like to remind students to wear bright or fluorescent clothing during the day and reflective clothing at night which shows up in vehicle headlights. Always use your lights after dark—remember it is illegal to ride a bicycle on the road with no lights after dark.

Sports at KOA

Netball The Netball teams have done fantastically well this term. We have Year 7,8,9,10 and 11 teams participating in weekly matches. The teams have played Mangotsfield and most recently John Cabot Academy. All year groups are doing fantastically well in their games, demonstrating fair sportsmanship. Training continues on a Tuesday after half term and our first match is away against Abbeywood on Wednesday 1st November.

Cross Country

We have some fantastic runners in the Cross Country team this year. In the first run of the season, 15 students took part at Downend School with some good finishing positions. Their next race is at Blaise Castle in November. Good luck to those involved in that race.

Rugby

Year 7 and 8 Rugby teams competed at Bristol Brunel Academy in a round robin tournament. The boys showed fantastic gamesmanship,

and it was enjoyed by all involved. Well done boys!

Rugby training continues on a Tuesday after half term.

Upcoming Events

You can find more information on the website calendar

Thursday 19 October Year 7 Parents’ Evening

Thursday 19 October Last day of Term 1 for students

Friday 20 October INSET—school closed to students

Monday 30 October INSET—school closed to students

Tuesday 31 October First day of Term 2 for students

6—17 November Year 11 Mock Exams

Thursday 9 November Year 9 Parents’ Evening

Thursday 23 November Year 8 Parents’ Evening

Thursday 7 December Christmas Concert at the Colston Hall

Thursday 30 November Year 7 Bikeability Workshop

Thursday 14 December Year 7 Bikeability Workshop

Thursday 14 December Enrichment Day 2

Friday 15 December Last day of Term 2

Tuesday 2 January 2018 INSET—school closed to students

Wednesday 3 January First day of Term 3

Thursday 4 January Year 11 Parents’ Evening

Students who have had items of clothing confiscated for not being correct

school uniform are expected to collect them from the school office at the

end of the day. Many items of clothing are never collected. Two weeks

after the start of every new term the unclaimed items of clothing will be

donated to charity, so please encourage your child to collect their non-

uniform clothing as soon as possible if it has been confiscated.

Christmas Concert

Our annual Christmas Concert at the Colston Hall is on Thursday 7th December. As the Colston Hall is closing for two years from May 2018 for re-modernisation, this concert will be our last for a number of years. Mr Warren would like to make this concert even bigger and better than in previous years.

Can you remember performing or watching a previous concert? ... Think about the Camel Boogie Woogie!! All your memories will come flashing back.

We are calling for Kingsfield or KOA ex-students, friends and parents to join us. Ideally this would be by participating on stage, but assistance and support in any guise is sought.

Please contact Mr Warren by email: warrent@kingsoakacademy.org.uk or by phoning KOA on 01179 927127. It would be very helpful if you would pass on this invitation to anybody you know who would possibly be

interested. Thank you.

Would you like your business/service information to be seen by over 2000 people from our local community?

Why not place an advertisement in our Colston Hall Concert programme?

Contact Trevor Fowler or Tim Warren at KOA for more information.