A Year at Pool Issue 6

February 2014

Kirkland Rowell Survey— a summary from Mrs Hill We have had our annual Kirkland Rowell Survey in and I thought it important that I give you

some highlights from the survey. First of all—what is Kirkland Rowell? It is a company that

surveys parents and students anonymously, then feeds back a great deal of information to us.

Kirkland Rowell work with over 500 schools and they are able to compare and grade what our

parents and students think about the school compared to other schools. We take a great

interest in these findings and we do respond to issues that are consistently brought up. Here

are the main findings from the survey…

I will be writing a more detailed analysis of the findings in a letter. Mrs Hill

Parents

support

us on…

Many parents were very supportive of iPads, and we scored very highly in the fol-

lowing areas; availability of resources; school facilities; school discipline; computer

access & school security. Support was high in every other area, but most noticeably

truancy, exam results, control of bullying, developing moral values and community

spirit. All scores here were outstanding when compared to other schools.

Parents

challenge

us on…

Communication could be improved, with this being bottom of the parental non

academic survey, homework is too little and not often enough, iPads are an issue in

the home, reporting could be improved, challenge for the middle ability student is

not enough, control of bullying was an issue for some parents, and Careers advice

was rated most problematic overall. Parents were least happy with choice of sub-

jects and social health education, however these were still rated good compared to

other schools by Kirkland Rowell.

Students

support

us on...

We had an outstanding result for: school facilities, community spirit; availability of

resources; school discipline; control of bullying and social health education. All

scores here were Outstanding compared to other schools.

Students

challenge

us on...

School communication was the bottom of the student non academic survey along

with developing confidence and developing moral values and teaching quality. All

scores here, though bottom of the students’ estimations were good compared to

On Tuesday 11th February Pool Academy once again took part in the worldwide ‘Safer Internet Day’. Students were taught how to use the internet carefully and the security settings available to them on social networks like facebook, instagram and snapchat during break and lunchtime sessions with our E-Safety experts.

We've also had E-Safety assemblies all week based around the theme of keeping con-trol of your photos, messages and profiles secure on the world wide web.

Our E-Safety Reporting App written by the school IT team has been released to all stu-dent iPads now. By tapping it, students can quickly and easilly report anything that has made them feel uncomfortable online or elsewhere to the school. It also has links to websites full of advice on how to avoid problems such as cyberbullying.

As a school we take E-Safety extremely seriously. If you have any questions or would like any advice or help about what you can do at home please feel free to call the school or email our IT Manager Phil Jones (phil@poolacademy.co.uk) who would be only too happy to help.

INTERNET SAFETY

WELL DONE LAUREN–

SW Swimming Silver!

Congratulations to Lauren Prouse - she

represented the south west in swim-

ming at the weekend. She won the sil-

ver medal for the 800m Freestyle race

at the Plymouth Life Centre. She is cur-

rently 2nd in the county in her age

group! Her time was 10.47.80 for the

800m Freestyle. Well done Lauren! We

are proud of you.

County Champions at

Boccia!

Friday 17th January Dom Morris, Ben

Mewton and Jordan Tonkin were crowned

county champions at Boccia.

They managed to beat last year’s champi-

ons Newquay Treviglas in the group stages

and beat last year’s runners up ,St Ives, in

the final.

Conner Goldsworthy, Harris Economides

and Jack Oettinger came a very close 2nd.

Also, can we say thank you to Mr Fuller for

all his efforts with our students over the

past few years. He has been a brilliant addi-

tion to the team

Pool Academy, Church Road, Pool, Redruth, Cornwall TR15 3PZ

www.poolacademy.co.uk email: enquiries@poolacademy.co.uk

Telephone: 01209 712220 Attendance line: 01209 722333 (24hrs)

Since the age of 8 years Joanna has been actively riding BMX bikes, racing in events across Cornwall and the South West region initially, then riding in National and British Championship events. Joanna regularly trains at her home club track of Cornwall BMX Racing Club, based at Blackwater.

During 2013 Joanna has become a national-ly accomplished rider with fantastic results wherever she has competed. Aged 15 she became the National Cruiser 24” BMX Champion, riding up into the age group of 17-29 years.

She further competed in the National 20” BMX UCI Race Series achieving 10th place overall. More locally Joanna has been able to secure Cornish Champion in 20” BMX and crowned SW Regional Series Champi-on. The South West Championships 2013 event saw her achieve Cruiser Champion

first place and 5th on 20” BMX.

Joanna’s performance has enabled her to qualify for the World Championships in Holland during July 2014. This will be the second time that Joanna has been a World Qualifier in BMX Racing, the previ-ous time in 2012 achieving World 14th on

20” BMX and World 17 in the Cruiser cat-egory. In recognition of her exceptional achievements British Cycling invited Joan-na to attend the Leigh Day Awards in Bir-mingham on 8th February 2014, where she was presented with an Outstanding Performance Award. The award was made by Liam Phillips World Champion BMX racer in front of a 500 strong audi-ence from all over the UK.

Joanna Kistle—Outstanding Performance Award