Realising potential through partnership

FAoS—HIGHLIGHTS—EDITION 1

Realising potential through partnership

Welcome from the Chair of Faringdon Academy of Schools’

We formed our academy over 4 years ago, and indeed we were amongst the trail blazers in Oxfordshire. We had little to tell us how we should progress, how we should work together or how our organisation should or would grow.

Inevitably, our concentration is always on the things that don’t go as well as we would hope. But when we do reflect on what we have achieved as a group, I am constantly amazed and very proud of our Academy. This in never more evident than when we speak to other Academies and those still deciding which way to go.

From business management, central services, governance structure, teaching and learning - we are constantly asked for advice and help, which we are always happy to give. Our senior leaders are much in demand at networking events, not just across the county but nationally, but yet there is still much to do.

The world of Academies just does not stand still and we must constantly be aware of the politics and the fluctuating range of opportunities that present themselves, and decide just how we want to develop and change in the light of these.

Your Board consistently reviews our own progress and the national picture as we set the forward strategy, but it is vital that all our LGBs contribute their ideas and thoughts to inform our decisions. Effective communication is key – and this year, I hope you agree, that we have seen major strides in creating a far more dynamic mechanism across the Academy, notably through our newly appointed Academy Secretary.

And now, as part of that, we launch our new Academy newsletter to add yet another conduit to keep you up to date – I hope you find it useful and interesting

So, as we come to the close of another challenging and rewarding academic year, I wish you all a great (and sunny) summer and look forward to working with you all again in September

Very Best Wishes

Bob Wintringham

Chair, Faringdon Academy of Schools”

BUCKLAND C OF E PRIMARY SCHOOL

We have enjoyed a whole school visit to Cadbury’s World this term. The children say this was the best trip ever – in part because they were all given a pot of melted chocolate to add their own treats into! This visit led to our mini-enterprise work in which each class has designed and made a product for sale at the Young Traders’ mar-ket in Faringdon and our own summer fete. This work has worked really well for our curriculum values this term: Friendship, Cooperation and Responsibility.

We celebrated the Queen’s 90th birthday with a whole school picnic and by flying our Union Jack kites. Every

child made a kite and they flew beautifully!

During one of our mixed age days, older and younger children wrote recounts togeth-

er. This apprenticeship approach to learning is very successful for us and our children

look forward to working alongside each other. We do this every term.

Our school prayer space is now complete and in use. This peaceful space offers an opportunity for children to

visit, think and talk to God if they wish. The Venerable Judy French came to bless our prayer space. We are

proud to be an outstanding church school.

A visit from Zoolab enabled children to experience the awe and wonder of mini-beasts and to test their courage

by being out of their comfort zone and trying new experiences. We also hatched two chicks in our incubator and

are watching them grow up!

Wisdom Responsibility Kindness

Faringdon Infant School

We have had another busy year at Faringdon Infant School with a wide range of enrichment and curriculum opportunities

for our children. These have included Science Day, Gambia Day, RE Day, International Week, Book Week amongst others.

We also hosted BBC Radio Oxford again this year and our children performed two songs as part of their “Countdown to

Christmas”. We enjoyed listening to their performances on the Radio. We hope you did too.

Earlier in the year some children from Faringdon Community College supported our action

packed Gambia Day organised by Miss McAleer. They provided a drumming workshop for

our children as part of our day.

On Science Day, Jack and Jill again returned to our school having

played tricks on lots of familiar traditional characters. They trapped

Incy Wincy in the drainpipe, threatened to drop Baby Bunting from a

tree, knocked down Rapunzel’s tower and much more. The children

across the school thoroughly enjoyed helping to resolve all the problems. The children enjoyed telling

Jack and Jill off the following day in assembly after they had explained how they had solved all the

problems.

Miss Hallmark, our Reading Champion, arranged a

fantastic Book Week. The children enjoyed spending a

morning in a different class finding out about a new

author and many children across the school took part

in her Story Box competition. Some examples can be

seen here.

Our Reception children have enjoyed Forest School, a visit to the library and a wonderful Bug Day

including the opportunity to handle some very sticky creatures. Nursery and Reception children had

a visit from a mobile farm; they learned so much about farm animals up close.

Year 1 children have enjoyed trips to the Cotswold Wildlife Park and the Folly Tower. They have also

hosted some snakes and crocodiles in their classrooms.

Year 2 have just finished their overnight residential at Hill End which they thoroughly enjoyed de-

spite the mixed weather this year.

Over the year we have taken part in a range of Sporting events including Quad Kids, Ultra Olympics and the Dance Festival.

As part of our Sports Premium funding, we have had a range of coaches in school providing the children with the oppor-

tunity to learn new skills in hockey, athletics, dance, cricket and gymnastics.

The outcomes for our children have been positive. We have again seen a rise in Reception children achieving a Good Level

of Development. The phonics’ results have risen from last year. We have been externally moderated for our assessments in

Reception and Year 2. Moderators were highly complementary about the school’s provision for children and our assess-

ment procedures.

FARINGDON JUNIOR SCHOOL Year 5 have written a book – and it

is now available to buy on AMAZON! It is called “The Master

of Stormfire”. This follows the success of last year, when Mr Saunder’s (a published author

himself) did this for the first time with pupils who are now in Year 6. Not many pupils can claim to have

written a book by the time they leave Junior school; we are

immensely proud of both them and their teachers.

YEAR 3 BREAD AND BUTTER PROJECT Since the beginning of the year, all of our Year 3 pupils have been involved

in a very special project with a farmer from Buckinghamshire called FARMER LIAM. The aim of the year-long initiative was for them to make

their own bread and butter, by producing their very own wheat in our school field. Farmer Liam even brought May the cow to school one day! This has been a huge success and something we will continue next year.

Thanks to the Year 3 team for all their efforts.

BY ISIS PINKER, SIENA VINCENT, LEO WHEELER-STANTON and PAIGE GRAVER

HILLEND

Awesome activities

Bridge Building Letter hunt Pizza making Nature art Blind trial Free play Talent show

HILLEND HIGHLIGHTS

Pond dipping

Year 5 did some awesome activities one of them was

pond dipping which involved nets and small plastic boxes

for them to look at the creatures they had caught.

Bridge building

Year 5 went down into a

Little ditch which use to be a river but now it’s a muddy.

Year 5 had to build a good stable bridge but the bad thing

is that it was so muddy but it’s the type of mud where

you get stuck. It was horrible and some silly people in

year 5 got stuck in it so they had to be lifted out.

The dormitories

You may be wondering where they slept, like outside in

the rain, or in a tent, well your very wrong year 5 slept in

a building called a dormitory which is a room with only

beds. (Boys and girls were in separate dormitories in case

you were wondering.) The boys dorms were up on the

hill the girls were down by the carpark.

All the children enjoyed Hillend and they are looking for-

ward to next time in year 6.

What an exciting year we have had at John Blandy! There have been so

many things happening across the school and the wider community. We

are a Values school. The children at John Blandy say they really enjoy

coming to school here and their parents are really happy with the varied

and interesting curriculum that we provide.

Our whole school themes of Our Origins, Epic Explorations and Glorious

Globe allowed us to study topics such as Ancient Greece, The Olympics,

Australia, Raging Rivers & Wild Water, and the Munch Bunch to name a few. We enjoyed some one-off days

within these topics and year 5 and year 6 even travelled back in time and met a Stone Age Man!

We’ve celebrated various events across the year and held theme

days and exploration events. Many of these were celebrated

throughout the school with the children joining across the classes in

their houses of Armstrong, Drake, Earle and Hillary to work together.

We particularly enjoyed our May Day celebrations which we linked

with the Queen’s birthday, Our Space Day when the explorer dome

visited and took us across the Universe, as well as our inaugural

‘Great Blandy Bake Off!

There are some very talented writers here who have succeeded in hav-

ing some short stories and poetry published as well as being in the BBC

short story competition. We are continuing to build as a story-telling

school and we’re really looking forward to even more author visits and

book days.

We have a wide range of lunchtime and afterschool clubs. Credit should

go to our gardening club whose tireless efforts have made our school

grounds bloom and have some very green fingered members who were

Village show winners.

John Blandy children have taken part in a huge number of Academy

and Vale sporting events this year. We have some really talented sports

men and women who excel in a wide range of sports. We reached the

Vale finals in Cross Country, Hockey and Quadkids as well as taking part

in basketball and gym competitions. Our afterschool sports clubs have

included Archery, Athletics, Dodgeball and even Quidditch!

The Friends of John Blandy have run some very successful events again

this year such as film nights, Christmas Fayre and our Summer Fete. The

money they have raised this year has allowed us to do so many things

including paying for trips/visits, buying some ipads and exciting items

for the classroom such as bean bags, rugs and wet lunchtime games like Lego and Knex.

John Blandy Primary School

Shrivenham C of E Primary School We Play, We Learn, We Achieve

The start of the year saw our new temporary classroom in place! The year 4 children named their new class ‘Silver Birch’ and we now have 7 classes – one class per year group across the school. The Reception class outdoor area has also had significant

development this year with new raised beds, mud kitchen, playhouse, patio and path as well as investment in other outdoor equipment and storage. Our youngest children have also been enjoying some Forest school sessions during the summer term.

We have enjoyed a great deal of sporting success this year with wins at partnership level in Netball, Athletics and Tennis and at Vale level the Hockey team and Gymnastics team finished 3rd. We also took part in some new sports this year including Boccia and Tri Golf. There is excellent after school sporting provision at the school with all the clubs very popular and we are hoping to continue to maintain our Sainsbury’s School Games GOLD award for sport this year.

In December we had a SIAMS (church school) inspection which we were very proud to say graded our school OUTSTANDING! At Easter, year 5 led us through ‘A Journey through Holy Week’ around the village and we are looking forward to our Leaver’s service at St Andrew’s church in July.

Class trips and visitors this year have included year 1/2 to Sevington Victorian school, Y3/4 to the Natural History Museum in London, Y6 Junior Good citizen, Y1/2 Jungle Jonathan’s roadshow, whole school Anti bullying ‘Power of One’ show and our upcoming residential trip to cheddar for y5/6.

We held a very successful maths open morning with parents joining in with their children during regular lessons in classes. Our Science day and International day engaged our children in their learning and our musicians performed at our termly recital morning. We are particularly looking forward to the production club performing ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ on our outside stage in July.

The Academy tried a new project for the children this year with Public Speaking the focus. Students from FCC presented at each school and the eventual teams took part in a final competition held this term. Our three year 6 pupils spoke confidently and persuasively about the rights of 16/17 year olds to be allowed to vote and finished in 3rd place!

The outcomes for our children across the school remain strong and this year in particular we will again see a rise in the Good level of Development and phonics standards for our youngest children and the progress of our most vulnerable groups has been excellent.

It has been another very busy, but fun-filled year for the children and staff at Watchfield Primary School! The long-awaited opening of our Early Years and Year 1 block of four brand new classrooms happened in October, increasing our capacity to two-form entry and providing a wonderfully bright and spacious learning environment for our children. The addition of a new multi-use games area (MUGA) has further enhanced our sporting facilities and opportunity for pupils’ participation in extra-curricular PE, with netball, football and Key Stage 1 multi-skills clubs, to name but a few, proving very popular.

Watchfield Primary School ‘A place where happy, confident children show care and respect for others, believe in themselves

and take pride in their achievements’. ‘Unique and Successful. For now and Forever.’

Indeed, we have had on-going success in the ‘sporting arena’, with children from across the school having the opportunity to participate in inter-school competitions, such as the Y3/4 Quadkids athletics event, following which some of the children involved went on to represent Watchfield at the Vale Finals. We will also be undertaking a whole-school Olympics Topic in July, hoping to help inspire the next generation to sporting success.

Throughout the year, we have continued to enrich our curriculum with a range of class trips and visits. Some of these have included a Year 5/6 visit to Sevington Victorian School and Year 3/4 trip to Stonehenge. The annual Year 5/6 residential visit, this time to ‘Manor Adventure’ in Shropshire, provided the children with the opportunity to take part in a range of outdoor and adventurous activities, developing their confidence and team-building skills, whilst for example completing the high ropes course.

Our annual International Week in May, which is a particular highlight of our school calendar, was a huge success once again. Typically, Watchfield welcomes around a hundred children every year from around thirty different countries, speaking over twenty different languages. It is, therefore, an opportunity for our international families to provide an insight into their country and culture, with food from around the world, presentations about all of the countries we have represented at school and a fantastic evening ‘Fashion Show’. We also hosted pupils from other Partnership schools who joined in the daytime activities.

In June, some of our Year 5 children participated in the ‘Dare to be Different’ programme, run by the Williams F1 team and aimed at encouraging girls to get involved in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths). This has supplemented our work in this area of the curriculum, which has also included a whole-school STEM week in February and watching Major Tim Peake’s launch into space in December.

June has also seen our annual Arts Week, this time with its focus being ‘The Beatles’. We were fortunate to have a visit from the New Theatre in Oxford with the cast of ‘Let it Be’, who gave a special performance to the children. Classes throughout the school have also worked alongside staff and pupils from FCC, Commonweal and Warneford secondary schools to undertake some fantastic shared art and music projects.

Over the 2016 summer holiday, we will be transforming one of our classrooms into a brand new whole-school library. We anticipate that this purpose-built resource will further promote pupils’ love of reading at Watch-field, which we are really excited about. We will also be further developing facilities for the provision of pasto-ral support across the school, building on the success of our Family Support Worker, who has been working hard throughout this year to further develop links with our neighbours in the local community. We are looking forward to another fantastic year in 2016-17!

Junior Maths Challenge

On Thursday 28th April the Year 8 top sets sat the Junior Maths Challenge. The challenge involves answering 25 multiple choice questions in one hour and is sat in school under normal exam conditions. We are pleased to announce the following results: Gold (1 student) and Best in school: Isaaq Malik Silver (11 students): Daniela Joseph (2nd best in school), Devon Sansom, Molly SCRASE-KINGS, Brandon Vanhinsbergh-Perez, Theo Barron, Cameron Stewart, Rebecca Howard, Jonathan Brusch, Pippa Eastburn, Holly Hunt and Archie Brown. Bronze (17 students): Louis Clarkson, Rhys Ford, Thomas Didcot, James Arlott, Lexie New, Zak Trivedi, Immy Sanderson, Lucy Redford, Louis Pavy, Joe Kemp, Callum Taylor, Alanis Vaughan, Lani Ward, Thomas Bilkey, Finn Mullen, Ben Haines, Will Sperrin Well done, Mr Marcucci

CONGRATULATIONS

Vale Aquathon teams, who participated in a Swimming, Cycling and Running

Competition, with the U13 team coming 2nd and progressing to the Oxfordshire Aquathon.

Great team spirit shown by the U15 team

COUNTY CROSS COUNTRY

Congratulations to the cross country runners who took part in

the County Final just before Easter. Special mention to the Year

7 girls who came second and Katie Scott who won by a mile!!!!

CONGRATULATIONS

TO 213 STUDENTS WHO HAVE RECEIVED THEIR 100% ATTENDANCE AWARD BADGE

Attendance was recorded from 2nd September 2015 to 5th February 2016

Congratulations to Tom Selway

who achieved the Party Leader’s award following the Year 7 visit to Croft Farm last week.

His group leader, Mrs Viggars described him as being a student who would not give

up. He showed great perseverance in all of the activities despite finding many of

them a challenge.

On the last day the windsurfing instructor made a point of seeking me out to say

how impressed he had been with his positive attitude, his grit to keep going and his

determination to achieve success.

He was a really positive role model to his peers and thoroughly deserving of the

Party leader award he received .

Fun time had by

all at the Y7

water sports

activity week

WELL DONE TO THE DRAMA STUDENTS WHO RAN AN AMAZING 1960’S WORKSHOP AT WATCHFIELD

PRIMARY SCHOOL

FCC students were interviewed by the year 6s as part of their arts week and Alex gave a fantastic

performance of the Beatles classic ‘Hey Jude’.

AKSHAYJACOBALEXAILSA

NIAMHCECI

IMOGEN

CAPTIN SCOTTGEORGE BESTJOHN LENNON

MODS AND ROCKERS

LADY PENELOPETWIGGY

YEAR 7 & 8 VALE ROUNDERS COMPETITION

Congratulations to the girls who played in the Vale

Rounders competition on Tuesday. They all played ex-

tremely well, especially the Year 7’s who won and will

represent the Vale in the County competition in July.

Mrs Kenyon. Miss Davis, Miss Wilcock

In May 2016, 16 students from across Years 7-9 attended a GIFT (International organisation that organises residential trips for gifted students) weekend at Grendon Hall in Northamptonshire. The students had been selected by their tutors on the basis that they had demonstrated the kind of personalities and characteristics of Able and Ambitious students - hardworking, inquisitive, possessing analytical thought processes and determined. We were delighted that many students responded so enthusiastically to the invitation! The weekend provided a unique opportunity for students to select a number of enrichment workshops which included topics as diverse as, responding creatively to Kandinsky's art work, investigating the concepts of politics with a reference to 'fairness' and exploring basic architectural and engineering concepts before applying them to individual design and 3D

structure construction. The feedback that we have received from both students and course facilitators has been very positive and we look forward to being able invite more students to similar events in the near future. Molly Appleby (9MT) gives her perspective on the course and shares a photo... Grendon Hall, Northamptonshire. Beautiful grounds, amazing seventeenth century manor and inspiring talks with enthusiastic lecturers. GIFT provide residential and day courses for the able and ambitious, one of which I was lucky enough to take part in. I stayed at Grendon Hall, and loved every minute of it. We had two day courses; my Saturday talk was on the Paradoxes of Time Travel, whilst my Sunday course focussed on the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. We had plenty of free time to explore the grounds and sports facilities, and we were also graced with amazing weather which helped. The entire trip was absolutely fascinating; it was fantastic to be able to talk to people who were so obviously interested in their subjects. Gorgeous surroundings, inspirational company- what better way to spend a weekend in May?

Double Runner-Up spot for

Matt Chapman at

Thruxton elevates Ginetta

Challenge Rookie

CONGRATULATIONS

TO YEAR 11 STUDENT

MATT CHAPMAN ON

RECENT RACING SUCCESS

Last week the PE department treated our

FUNdamental leaders and KS3 award winners with a

trip to Wimbledon. The students spent the day on

Court 1 and thoroughly enjoyed their day.

On Thursday 30th June we had a lovely afternoon celebrating the KS3 awards.

Whilst students in Years 7, 8 and 10 receive effort prizes the event is mainly to celebrate the Year 9 students

before they move into Year 10. In total, 33 awards were given, including subject awards and awards for

perseverance and English as an Additional Language. It was such a positive afternoon and it was lovely to have

musical interludes from different year groups including an incredible performance from the 9RA boys, Alfie

Griggs, Euan Stamp, Niall Jones and Matt Kingdon.

Events like these go to show how incredibly hardworking the year group is and every student nominated and

awarded fully deserved the recognition.

Tom Walsham, Ashleigh Thorne and Lenny Traynor

represented Oxfordshire in the England Schools’

Team Championship on 6th July at Woodhall Spa Golf

Club in Lincolnshire competing against 34 teams from

across England.

4 current FCC pupils, Charlie Sansom (Yr 11), Zoe Bazen (Yr 10), Tom and Olly Cooke (Yr 9) and one future pupil , Matthew Banbrook, represented Bowmoor Sailing Club at the Weymouth Byte National Competition on 9/10th July. The conditions were particularly difficult on Saturday and they all did really well. Charlie was the first Youth and Zoe was the first overall female.