ACADEMY NEWS14th NOVEMBER 2014

EXPLORE

PROJECT WEEK SPECIAL

BE YOURBEST

Best wishes

Once again this week I have been reminded why I am proud to be the Principal of an Academy with such a talented, enthusiastic and community focussed set of students.

This week has been one of the most diverse weeks imaginable and the newsletter is packed with a few examples of just how fantastic both the staff and students that make up our learning world are. The week started with us remembering those who gave their lives or suffered injury for the freedoms we enjoy today and giving thanks for those who continue to do so.

We then embarked on one of our most ambitious Project Weeks yet, with every year group taking part in activities designed to either extend their understanding of the topics they have covered this semester or reinforce the skills they need for their GCSE courses.

There are too many activities to mention but as you read the forthcoming pages you will get an idea of just how much incredible learning you have all had the opportunity to be engaged in this week.

On top of this the Academy welcomed back some familiar faces for our annual MBA Awards evening hosted by Mr Harvey. The evening celebrated the success of our 2013/14 Year 11 students and as usual was extremely well attended by both former students and their parents.

There were awards for Achievement and Endeavour in all subjects, a presentation of certificates and some special awards. We then moved on to our three most coveted awards.

The Heather Award for Academic Excellence was won by Embla Hocking.

The Beckerleg Award for Contribution to School Life was won by Dan Chappell.

Principal’s Report

My own Principal’s Award was won by Johannes Black.

Finally we were treated to a few reminiscences from our former Haed Girl Ella Upton and the ever popular Year 11 leavers video featuring a larger than life performance from Ms Osborne .

We finished the week by showcasing our work both here in the Academy and to the outside world. Some of the things this week have been truly outstanding and I never cease to be amazed by the way you rise to the challenges we set you. Our Year 7 students have opened a Pop-Up Shop on Market Place. Please come down and support them, you will be amazed at some of the things they have in store for you.

Sara DaveyAcademy Principal

BEINSPIRED

Ludgvan

Ludgvan Church held its annual Remembrance service on Sunday at 11 o’clock. Mrs Davey read the First Lesson from the Bible followed by Ross Allen and Sophie Elkin who read their poems with distinction. Joshua Boase and Elowen Wallis laid the wreath on behalf of the Academy just as hail stones came down!

The service was a real community event this year with the Primary School as well as the Guides, Scouts and Cadets all being involved. It was also the 100 year Anniversary Service for The British Legion and we are grateful for the honour of being invited to such an important event.

WE WILLREMEMBER THEM

Madron

On Sunday Madron Church held its annual Remembrance service.

Mr. Blackabey, Mr. Payne, Isabel Dalgleish, Molly Kewn, Beth Trevithick and Charlie Woollock represented Mounts Bay. Isabel laid a wreath on behalf of the Academy.

The service was well attended by the Royal British Legion and the Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall Colonel Edward Bolitho OBE.

Remembrance Day

On the 11th hour of the eleventh day of the month eleventh Mounts Bay Academy fell silent as students and staff observed the two minutes silence. All students and staff halted their normal activities and came together to remember members of the armed forces who have lost their lives in the line of duty. Representatives of the Academy also attended a short service held at the Heamoor Royal British Legion, marking the armistice of the Great War. The Rev Tim Hawkin, Vicar of Madron took the service and two of Mounts Bay students, Tanisha McCreadie and Finley Jewell, were asked to read short poems as part of the service.

This year marks the centenary of the beginning of the Great War and is a time of great reflection with the ending of British troops serving in Afghanistan. Thanks to the British Legion for the honour of being invited to such an important event as the Centenary Anniversary Service. As ever our students must be thanked for the maturity they showed; they are always great ambassadors for the school.

BEINSPIRED

Hello Darkness by Anthony McGowan

This book was one of the best I've read in a while. When I did put the book down to eat or sleep, it kept you thinking about what was happening like you were actually the character. It would seem slightly crazy if I gave you an overview because for it to make sense you have to read the book. One of the reasons I liked this book was because of the amount of clever and witty similes there are. Some of the comparisons make you chuckle, others set the scene. I would recommend this book to anybody who can read. 5/5

Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve

Mortal Engines, by Philip Reeve begins brilliantly and keeps getting better. What about this for an opening?

“It was a dark, blustery afternoon in spring, and the city of London was chasing a small mining town across the dried out bed of the old North Sea.”

London is a traction city devouring smaller suburbs in its quest to dominate what remains of the world after the Sixty Second war.

I think Mortal Engines has one of the most intriguing, feisty and independent female action heroes in children’s literature in Hester Shaw. Before Katniss Everdeen and ‘Tris Prior, she was the troubled, wronged and vengeful young woman with a mission to complete.She is a scavenger, living off remnants of a past society destroyed in the Sixty Second war. Tom Natsworthy, is a third class apprentice historian working in the museum of London curating the big plastic statues of the animal headed gods of lost America: Pluto and Micky.

Tom and Hester are flung together against their wills and in order to survive must work as a team despite their initial feelings of antipathy. Along the way, they work to discover Valentine, the head historian’s secret, avoid Striker (a robotic/human stalker) and figure out what threat The Medusa Project holds. Read this series: You won’t regret it.

You will find The Mortal Engines series in the white section of the library.

Mrs Marsden

Last chance Angel by Alex Gutteridge

This book was very intriguing and made you feel like the main character, going through their emotions, extracting you from your own life and placing you in hers, feeling the trauma she felt. This book can make you change your attitude about living, making you think about the consequences and the effect your actions have on other people. 4/5

Book Reviews

BEINSPIRED

Latest results from Mrs Marsden

Here is the latest update on the inter-form Accelerated Reader competition. Well done to Red House who are in first and second positions with 7 Red and 8 Red receptively. There is plenty of time for other forms to catch them. We expect you to read two books a month so that is at least one, if not two quizzes you can take to help your form move up the table before Thursday 11th December. There are so many fantastic new books in the library that you won't have a problem finding something good to read. Come and see me, Miss Knowles, your English teachers, the librarians or your tutor and see what we can recommend, if you need a bit of inspiration.

Lots of you are enjoying reading your books but are forgetting to take an Accelerated Reader quiz at the end of it. Don't forget to take a quiz within 48 hours of finishing your book to give yourself the best opportunity to gain 85% or above. Remember, quizzes will only count if they are within your ZPD reading level.

Accelerated Reader

Printed Friday, 14 November 2014 07:36:16Team Standing Chart 1 of 1

Reporting Period: 05/09/2014 - 14/11/2014 (2014-2015 to today)

School: Mounts Bay School

Team Set: Classes

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

7Blue

7Cool

7Green

7Orange

7Purple

7Red

7Warm

7Yellow

8 Green

8Blue

8Orange

8Purple

8Red

8Yellow

9Blue

9Green

9Orange

9Purple

9Red

9Yellow

% of Percentage Correct Target

Blockbuster Graphics

As part of their Year 9 Creative options, the Creative iMedia students have been working on producing DVD covers for a block buster movie! The students have looked at all stages of the process from designing their product to making and evaluating it.

Looking at the results, we have some budding graphic designers on our hands!

BEINSPIRED

Care for the Community

Mounts Bay students worked on Saturday at Alverton School to make their outdoor learning space bigger and better for the nursery. It was called the Big Dig. Eddy Hall, Alfie Hall, Oscar Clive, Joel Bick, Will Harbot and former student Beth Willcox helped along with me and teachers and parents from Alverton School.

Team 10

Year 10 have enjoyed a highly productive week engaged in courses preparing for future employment. From Sports Leadership to film-making, musical performance to website design and child development, staff and students alike have been passionately enthusiastic and full of praise for this first of six weeks of focused learning.

We have seen some real stars emerging over these five days as our students develop many of the skills required for future careers.

Well done, Team 10!

Web Wonders

This week, a group of year 9 and 10 students have been learning web design.

Starting from a blank page, they learned to customise their typography and styles to create an individual design for a personal "ePortfolio" to show off their work.

"In a connected world, skills such as web design will be important for students as they move to the world of work. With most companies having websites, the ability for employees to update information will allow those businesses to keep their online presence up to date without always having to rely on web designers."

Loren Trevorrow (Year 9) and Sabastian Astley (Year 10) completed their sites and documentation with a whole day to spare and achieved the standard required for a Level 2 Certificate in Web Design.

Mr Elliott

BEINSPIRED

Science is Awesome!Report by: Miss Weightman

Year 7 and 8 were set the challenge of producing one minute videos to show why they think science is 'awesome'. As well as developing their scientific literacy this allowed them to showcase their creative skills and give them the opportunity to include their families in the project. One brave mum even agreed to taking part in the demonstration of gravity, which involved an egg!

The students stepped up to the challenge here and the resulting videos are, well...awesome!

*No children were harmed in the making of the films and an adult was present for all demonstrations*

Click here to view some of the videos on our website

STEM ambassador joins MBA for Faraday Challenge Week.

Year 7 students this week had to work in teams as Engineers to design, make and test a device that could move water uphill in the Flood Defence Challenge.

On Wednesday they were joined by Ken Gibbs, a water engineer and STEM ambassador, who has designed and built hand pumps in Bangladesh. Ken shared his extensive expertise with the teams before they went on to plan their own solution using a limited range of materials, money and time.

The most successful groups used good problem solving and communication skills as well as applying their Science, Maths and Technology knowledge. The final result will be announced next week, however the student learning logs can be found in the Curiosity Shop, so come on down!

Well done Years 7 and 8!

Fruitilicious!

This week Year 7s rediscovered fruit! Pupils learnt about the nutritional benefits of eating fruit and how a balanced diet helps maintain your health and protect against illness and disease. They designed and made their own fruit kebabs using bananas, kiwis, melons, strawberries, apples, pears and satsumas. Some taste combinations worked really well (strawberry and banana was the favourite) but everyone thought their own kebab tasted the best!

In the end we all agreed that eating fruit is healthy and can be lots of fun too!

Moral FibreReport By Mr Yeates

Over the last three days, each Year 8 tutor group has visited Porthcurno Telegraph Museum on a very important mission: to try and prevent the end of the world!

After an urgent briefing by Mr Hall on Monday morning Year 8 students were informed that, after an alien attack, communications across the world were down and it was their job to devise a new encoded telecommunications system to save the human race as we know it.Therefore, Year 8’s visit to Porthcurno Telegraph Museum has been a vital part of their mission. During their day at the museum pupils have experimented and learned about communication methods that have been used throughout history including Morse code and fibre optic wires. To their surprise, they also discovered that Porthcurno beach contains several underwater cables that link Cornwall with other countries in a chain of international communication.

This is something they will need to think about carefully if they are going to be successful in their mission!

Click here to see more photos on our website

BECURIOUS

A Balanced ViewReport By Mr Smith

During the first three days of this week, year 7 MBA pupils were tasked with the challenge of finding out whether there was BALANCE or IMBALANCE in nature – so where better to visit than the Eden Project?

Pupils had an activity that connected biomes around the world with us here in Cornwall; and others tried to find pattern in nature.

The pupils’ discoveries were impressive. Lots of our household goods and everyday items come from thousands of miles away in the tropical rainforests, from rubber on the soles of your shoes to peanuts in your packed lunch (which incidentally grow underground!).

Others found out that nature held some spooky patterns. Flower petals, cactus ribs, pineapple scales weren’t random they all seemed to follow a pattern… the Fibonacci sequence!

“It was great because we got to learn new patterns that we haven’t seen, and we worked so quickly that we got to explore all of the biomes and learn more about the biomes. It was a great trip and hopefully we can go again!”

Kai Chapple (7 Purple)

Swamp Circus

Mr B and the members of 'Swamp Circus' came to show year 7s how posture and balance play a vital role in our lives. Students completed a carousel of activities, including riding a unicycle, hoola hooping, walking on stilts and even walking the tight rope!

They thoroughly enjoyed themselves and worked together to demonstrate some very impressive circus skills.

BECURIOUS

For more pictures click here to see the website

Academy Awards

Year 8 have been looking at the IMYC theme of Relationships. They have been exploring communications and the way in which we could communicate without the existing technologies.

Each semester we give students the opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of their learning by allowing them to create something that can be shown to an audience to convey what they found out.

This semester we are doing this by learning the skill of animation. Students have created a series of short animated films which were screened at a glittering awards ceremony in the Savoy Cinema.

Films were judged in a number of categories by our special guest judge from Spider Eye animation, who have produced some iconic animation for film and television.Mr Hall said afterwards “...the standard of work was fantastic. I can see we have some budding animators here at Mounts Bay”.

YOU’LL BE AMAZED ATWHAT WE HAVE IN STORE

MOUNTS BAY ACADEMYPRESENTS

THE NEW CURIOSITY SHOPMarket Place, Penzance, Cornwall

This week our Year 7s have teamed up with Pop Up Penzance to open the new Curiosity Shop for one week to showcase their findings on this semester’s Big Idea of Balance.

What is the Big Idea?Things are more stable when different elements are in the correct or best possible proportions.

Pop Up Penzance was formed in 2013 to take the opportunity of using empty shops in which to create a variety of activities in the town centre, giving people new reasons to come to town and support local business.

They have created a varied programme of events, from retail opportunities to organisations having a presence on the high street, to community cultural happenings working in partnership with many different local groups. Their aim is to forge new partnerships and keep bringing new and interesting opportunities to the high street.

“We were very impressed and delighted with how MBA has transformed the pop-up shop. Well done...” Rachel Martin

Pop Up Penzance CIC

The shop is only open until this Saturday 15th November, so please make sure you pop down and support the excellent work that has been achieved

BECREATIVE

Project Week

Our studios have been a hive of activity all week with everyone learning new skills and creating some fantastic outcomes. Below are just a few examples of what we have been up to.

Cross Country

On Sunday the 9th of November Archie Vingoe, Ellie Ringwood and I took part in the County Championships at Newquay Sports Centre. There were a few rain showers throughout the day but luckily it was dry for both the under 15 girls and boys races.The course was around 4000m and fairly hilly with around 30 people competing in each race. I was very happy to achieve 2nd place as I can still compete in this age category next year. Ellie finished 4th in the race and Archie finished 5th in his race. This means we have all qualified to run for Cornwall at the South West Championships on the 4th of January.

BECOMPETITIVE

Report by Grace Brock

Year 8 Netball

Report by Megan Pengelly

This week the Year 8 netball team played away at Humphry Davy. It was an amazing game filled with tension and suspense but when the game was over Mounts Bay had emerged the winners by a close score of 9-8.

Well done to everyone who played!

Squad: Megan, Megan, Louisa, Chloe, Esme, Heather, Jenny, Erin, Charlotte.

On Thursday 13th November, the Year 9 Mounts Bay netball team played against Humphry Davy School. Thanks to a great defence and some amazing shooting, the final score was a 22-5 win for Mounts Bay. We will put all the hard work and experience gained into the county fixtures on Saturday.

Team:

Esme DaleRenae CaddyMollie KeoghSteph SampsonSofia Thomas

Olivia JenkinRosie Saddington Eva HawkenChanice StonesHannah Jones

Year 9 Netball

Report by Esme Dale

Year 7 vs Humphry Davy

On a sunny, but cold and windy day, the Year 7 rugby team took on opponents Humphry Davy. Mounts Bay started well and before the half time whistle blew had scored a series of tries putting them into the lead by 27-0.

In the second half Humphry Davy put a lot of pressure on but MBA managed to not concede any tries. The team then got really stuck into the game and pushed on to a final score of 54-0 to the Academy. Everyone played brilliantly as a team putting in a fantastic away performance.

BECOMPETITIVE

Year 7 vs Camborne

On Wednesday the Year 7 rugby team played a match against Camborne.Mounts Bay kicked off and won the ball back straight away starting a move for Frankie Nowell who dived over the line to score Mounts Bay’s first try. Alex Barrett took the conversion making it 7-0.

Next Jaidan Prowse ran the length of the pitch to score, Frankie Nowell got the conversion before Harvey Beckerleg went over for Mounts Bay’s third try. Frankie Nowell went over again and Alex Barrett got the conversion.

With a little while to go both teams fought hard but then Curtis Salter scored and Frankie Nowell made the conversion. Frankie Nowell then went over for his hat-trick which was converted by Harvey Beckerleg. However, Mounts Bay weren't finished andCurtis Salter went over one last time which was converted making the final score Mounts Bay 55 - Camborne 0 .

Report by Noah Goros

Report by Frankie Nowell

BEA WINNER

Translate the word of the week from either French, German, Spanish or Italian and send your answer to ktripp@mountsbay.org to be entered into the weekly competition.

Use the word of the week in your Language lesson and get a credit from your teacher!

Maths Quiz

This Week’s Puzzle:

If you have 7 sticks which measure 1cm, 2cm, 3cm, 4cm, 5cm, 6cm and 7cm is it possible to make two lines of the same length?

Closing date for Entries: Thursday 20/11/14 at 12:00

Last week’s solution:

There are 100 x 100 x 100 = 1,000,000 cubic cm in a cubic m.

Could you write next week’s puzzle?If you would like to set the numeracy puzzle for a future week click here. You will win house points.

For each correct answer throughout this semester we will put your name in the hat for a chance to win an iTunes voucher. The more correct answers, the more chance of winning.

House Competition

Purple: 20 PointsOrange: 15 Points

Red: 12 PointsYellow: 12 PointsGreen: 11 Points

Blue: 5 Points

Click here to submit your answer

Last week's answer was Parsnip

The winner was Lily Wadham-DukeWell done!

Win an iTunes

BEA WINNER

To enter, simply write an original sentence correctly using the word twighlight. Send in your sentence using the link below.

Competition

Congratulations to Sidney Rainbow who wins a WH Smith Voucher.

Click Here to enter the competition

This week’s word is: twilight

Definition:

•The soft, diffused light from the sky when the sun is below the horizon, either from daybreak to sunrise or, more commonly, from sunset to nightfall.

•The period in the morning or, more commonly, in the evening during which this light prevails.

Etymology: Origin: 11th century late Middle English: from Old English twi- ‘two’ light

BREAKINGNEWS

British Council International School Award

The Academy has just been awarded the British Council International School Award for the third time. The Award is an internationally recognised accreditation, awarded to schools which forge links with partners overseas and add an international dimension to the curriculum. Through working on joint projects and adding international elements to lessons, students (and teachers) are given a fresh perspective on the world and their place in it.

Taking part in the Award:• links schools with others around the world• teaches students about other countries and cultures• prepares students for living and working in the global economy• enhances teaching standards through sharing best practice and teaching methods• leads to a new outwardly facing perspective and ethos for the school as a whole

News of all our international events and opportunities will be regularly posted on the website so do watch out for the updates to be able to take advantage of these fabulous chances to widen your world with Mounts Bay.

Mounts Bay Records

This week we have launched our very own in school record label!

The project is being set up by Darren Roberts in the Cube and the aim is to record and release albums of music from MBA students out into the wide world!

The label’s first release will be a compilation of original, acoustic songs written and performed by students over the next half term. So, if you are a song writer, performer, musician of any kind or just scribble down lyrics in the back of your exercise books we need to hear your songs! If you would like to get involved there will be a signing up sheet in the Cube and Darren will be coming into assemblies to fill in the details.

We’ll be choosing 10 or 11 songs for the album, and the only conditions are that the songs HAVE to be original (i.e. written by you) and for this first album we’re sticking to acoustic instruments. Once we’ve selected the songs there will be a trip to a recording studio to record them, and the album will be released online on itunes and several other online platforms as well as on CD, and students who are on the album will sign a real record deal! Exciting stuff. If you have any burning questions you can email Darren on droberts@mountsbay.org or find him in the Cube at lunch times next week.

Available now is an album of songs from our Year 9 NCFE group. The full album can be purchased from the pop up shop this weekend, or directly from school. The price for the album is £5. Contact Mr Payne wpayne@mountsbay.org.

To preview the tracks from the new album, click here to see the website

Get writing!