Principal: Ms Janice Farrell Lower City Road, Tividale. B69 2HE Tel: 0121 552 5501 .Fax: 0121 511 1326

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas

and a Happy New Year

The Academy closes on Friday 16th

December 2011 at 1.00pm The Academy re-opens on Tuesday 3

rd January 2012 at 8.35am.

Lower City Road, Oldbury, West Midlands B69 2HE

Tel: 0121 552 5501 Fax: 0121 511 1326 Email: principal@ormistonsandwell.org.uk Web: www.ormistonsandwell.org.uk

Dear Parents and Carers, The end of term is approaching and as our thoughts turn to Christmas we have been promptly reminded about others who are less fortunate. The 6th Form have organised shoeboxes filled with non-perishable items for the needy and the homeless. They have also supported Warren’s Hall residential home by hosting a Christmas craft event for residents and guests. Inside the newsletter you will find details of what the students have been doing this past half term. On Friday 16th December we officially launch our ‘Teacherlab’. We have invited the Children’s commissioner, Elizabeth Sidwell to open our innovative teaching space. Next year we will start to work on plans for the refurbishment and remodelling of the academy buildings. This will be an exciting opportunity to develop more innovative teaching spaces and inject a vibrant atmosphere into our tired buildings. Next term we welcome two new staff Mr Chris Byrne, our new Curriculum Leader for Science and Technology faculty and Mrs Elizabeth Schilds as our Curriculum Leader for Technology. On behalf of all the staff here at OSCA may I wish you a peaceful Christmas and good wishes for 2012.

Janice Farrell Principal

Ormiston Academies Trust trading as OSCA. Registered in England and Wales No. 113326

2011 – 2012

OCCASIONAL DAYS FOR TEACHER TRAINING: Friday 30th March 2012

AUTUMN TERM 2011

Tuesday 6th September – Friday 16th December Main Holidays:

Monday 19th December – Monday 2nd January 2012

SPRING TERM 2012

Tuesday 3rd January – Thursday 29th March Half Term Holidays:

Monday 13th February – Friday 17th February Main Holidays:

Monday 2nd April – Friday 13th April (Good Friday 6th April/ Easter Monday 9th April)

SUMMER TERM 2012

Monday 16th April – Friday 20th July Half Term Holidays:

Monday 4th June – Friday 8th June

May Day Holiday

Monday 7th May 2012

Free School Meals Application Do you receive either:-

Income Support?

Income- Based Job Seekers Allowance?

Employment & Support Allowance (Income Related)?

Guaranteed Pension Credit (Inc Child Tax Credit)

Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999

Child Tax Credit, with an annual income of less than £ 16,190

If you have answered Yes, your child may be entitled to free school meals.

If you receive Working Tax Credit regardless of annual household income

you will not qualify for Free School Meals.

The Academy relies on funding from

Free School Meals to provide resources for your child,

therefore we urge you to please apply for them whether

your child wishes to take a meal or not.

If you require any further information please contact the Academy

on 0121 552 5501 and ask to speak to Mrs Rowlinson.

Students from Ormiston Sandwell Community Academy visited the Training and Development Centre in Oldbury, to experience activities dedicated to the English Baccalaureate. All students worked really hard all day and took advantage of the free food provided!

On Ebacc day we were split up into groups where we had to try and solve the mystery of Paradise Island. We had to use our English, Maths, Geography, History and French skills to work out why the inhabitants had left the Island. We all learnt how to work well as a team, which I think we did well. I improved my French skills by listening to the videos. I also learnt that volcanos occur on tectonic plates and about tropical storms and other natural disasters.

Half term is a perfect opportunity for students to look for work experience placements, we ask that students do this as a matter of urgency due to the current economic climate and

competition for placements from other schools.

We would also like to remind students to hand in their parental consent forms as soon as possible.

Any queries or concerns regarding work experience by students or parents

please contact Ms Yates at The Academy.

Thank you!

Please note change of date. The 11 Year Prom will be held on Friday 6

th July 2012.

Letters will go out shortly Thank you.

You need

to know

our login

and

password Ormiston Sandwell Community Academy

Lower City Road Oldbury

West Midlands B69 2HE

Tel 0121 552 5501 Fax 0121 511 1326

www.ormistonsandwell.org.uk

Dear Parent/Carer,

Introducing the SAM Learning service

At school we are always looking for ways to extend our students’ learning. Part of our

improvement programme involves the use of SAM Learning, a unique online service that covers

all subjects. SAM has a proven track record; studies have shown that using the service leads to

better exam results.

Access details

Students are able to access the service at anytime and anywhere. It is available to them in

school, but also at home, in the library and community centre. All they need to do is visit the

website and enter their unique login details.

Website address: www.samlearning.com

Centre ID: B69TH

User ID: Date of birth followed by two initials: first name then last name. Example: 010896DJ is the User ID for David Jones born 1st Aug 1996.

Password: Initially same as the User ID, Learners are encouraged to change this to something difficult to guess.

It is advised that students keep a record of the access details in their homework book.

How to get involved

All students will be taught how to use the service and you might wish to ask them how it works.

The service enables homework to be set and marked which means that you can easily monitor

the progress of your child.

We hope that your child is able to take full advantage of SAM Learning and thank you in

advance for supporting the initiative.

Yours faithfully,

Mr A Qamar Assistant Principal

Here at Ormiston Sandwell Community Academy everyone likes to join in and help others in anyway

they can. The Kitchen decided to make cookies, poppy shaped biscuits and Pudsey Bear biscuits and sell

them at to the students and staff to raise money for the three different charities, raising £40.00 pounds for Help our Heroes, £50.00 The Poppy Appeal and

£55.00 for Children in Need.

Thank you to everyone who bought the biscuits and well done to all the Kitchen staff for

supporting these good courses.

Ormiston Sandwell Community Academy in Lower City Road, hosted its 7th Spectrum event on

Thursday 3rd November. This event was an opportunity for the diverse community to come

together and celebrate commonalities. The whole community came together to celebrate.

Spectrum attracted around 600 visitors and celebrated the festivals of Bonfire Night, the Hindu celebration Diwali and the Muslim holiday Eid, through performances in music and dance, crafts and food, with guest performers Choy Lee Fut Kung Fu Academy, Gospel singers from ‘Academy of Gospel Music’, Culdip Singh’s Dhol Blasters, Unique Dance Group and Spotlight Dance Group. The event ran between 6pm to 8pm and was supported by a large number of staff and students, who ran stalls, performed and welcomed our community guests. The evening also gave an opportunity for the Academy’s students to showcase their talents while local partner organisations gave demonstrations and were also available for advice. OSCA Bear made everyone smile especially the youngsters as he walked around handing out sweets and waving. Choy Lee Fut Kung Fu Academy pleased the crown with their very energetic lion dancing which was very colourful and entertaining, as lion when up close to the audience and winkled its eyes and wiggled its ears in front of them making the spectators smile. The Grand Finale of the evening was a spectacular firework display which completed a very successful evening that had provided fun and entertainment for the whole family while highlighting the way the Academy enhances community spirit. The Academy would like to send a big thank you to everyone that helped organise, helped, took part or came along and supported this fun event. Thank you and well done!

Date Start Len Board Component Code

Component Title Level

Year Groups

Tue 10 Jan

8.30AM 2hr 15mins

AQA ENG1F English/English Language Unit 1F

GCSE/B

Year 10

Tue 10 Jan

8.30AM 2hr 15mins

AQA ENG1H English/English Language Unit 1H

GCSE/B

Tue 10 Jan

8.30AM 1hr 30mins

AQA PSYA1 GCE Psychology A Unit 1

GCE/B Year 12

Wed 11 Jan

8.30AM 2HR OCR J512/03 Mathematics higher paper 3

GCSE Year 11

Wed 11 Jan

11.20AM 2hr EDEX FSM02 Functional skills Maths

Lev 2 Year 11

Thu 12 Jan

8.30AM 1hr AQA BL1FP Biology Unit 1 Tier F [Paper]

GCSE/B Year

9 & 10 Thu 12 Jan

8.30AM 1hr AQA BL1HP Biology Unit 1 Tier H [Paper]

GCSE/B

Thu 12 Jan 1.45pm

1hr 15mins EDEXL/GVQ RB20101 Exploring Retail PL/L2

Year 11

Fri 13 Jan

8.30AM 1hr OCR A522/01 Food Tech: Sustainable Design Written

GCSE/B Year 11

Fri 13 Jan 1.45PM

1hr 30mins AQA 47101H

English Literature Unit 1 Tier H GCSE/B

Year 11

Mon 16 Jan

8.30AM 2HR OCR J512/04 Mathematics higher paper 4

GCSE Year 11

Wed 18 Jan

8.30AM 1hr AQA CH1FP Chemistry Unit 1 Tier F [Paper]

GCSE/B Year

9 & 10 Wed 18 Jan

8.30AM 1hr AQA CH1HP Chemistry Unit 1 Tier H [Paper]

GCSE/B

Fri 20 Jan

8.30AM 1hr AQA PH1FP Physics Unit 1 Tier F [Paper]

GCSE/B Year

9 & 10 Fri 20 Jan

8.30AM 1hr AQA PH1HP Physics Unit 1 Tier H [Paper]

GCSE/B

Mon 23 Jan

8.30AM 1hr 30mins

OCR A952/21 History A: Invst Dvlp Brtsh Mdcn Written

GCSE/B Year 11

Tue 24 Jan 8.30AM 45mins AQA BLY2F

Biology Unit 2 Tier F GCSE/B

Year 11

Thu 26 Jan 8.30AM 45mins AQA CHY2F

Chemistry Unit 2 Tier F GCSE/B

Year 11

Thu 26 Jan 8.30AM 45mins AQA CHY2H

Chemistry Unit 2 Tier H GCSE/B

Thu 26 Jan 8.30AM 45mins AQA CHY3F

Chemistry Unit 3 Tier F GCSE/B

Thu 26 Jan 8.30AM 45mins AQA CHY3H

Chemistry Unit 3 Tier H GCSE/B

Mon 30 Jan 1.45PM 45mins AQA PHY2F

Physics Unit 2 Tier F GCSE/B

Year 11

Mon 30 Jan 1.45PM 45mins AQA PHY2H

Physics Unit 2 Tier H GCSE/B

Year 11 Science Study Support on Tuesdays (In addition to days arranged with their science teachers)

Years 9 and 10 should revise over the Christmas holidays

using their revision guide, BBC Bitesize, Samlearning and AQA websites.

Da Vinci Head of House - Mr Malcolm Lovatt Guidance Manager - Mr Paul Laird

Shakespeare

Head of House - Mr Andy Morgan Guidance Manager - Miss Nicky Joyce

Picasso

Head of House - Mr David Dumbell Guidance Manager - Mrs Mandy Smallwood

Dahl

Head of House - Mr James Samuel Guidance Manager - Miss Kerry Clair

Communications – Mrs Rachel Thomas

Maths – Mr Akbar Qamar

Humanities – Mrs Helen Dowen (Miss Emma Smith covering)

Science – Mrs Diane Brown (acting)

Literacy – Mr Alan Peacock

Arts - Mr Myk Wagstaff

Science and Technology - Mr Chris Byrne (starts in January 2012)

P.E - Miss Mary McIntyre

Vocational – Ms Leigh Lovall

Head of 6th Form – Mr David McQuillan

ICT – Mr Anthony Mills

Dear Parent/Carer, Have you ever thought about becoming a Parent Governor? Becoming a Parent Governor offers you the opportunity to make a real contribution to the life and work of our Academy. Academy Governors play a key role in the leadership of the Academy and work together with staff to ensure that our Academy provides a challenging and supportive environment for its students. There is currently a vacancy for a Parent Governor on the Local Governing Body and I am writing to encourage you to put your name forward. Being a Governor can be very rewarding and will provide you with the opportunity to meet new people and gain new skills. Do not worry if you have no experience in education matters as full training and support are available from Ormiston Academies Trust and your colleagues on the Local Governing Body. Who can be a Parent Governor? All parents and carers of registered students are eligible to become Parent Governors. Every parent, whether or not you live with the student, is entitled to be nominated as a Parent Governor and to vote in a parent Governor Election. Someone who has parental responsibility or day-to-day care of a student is also eligible to serve and to vote. How long do Parent Governors serve for? The usual term of office is four years from the date of appointment. If you choose to, you can complete your term of office even if your child has since left the Academy. How are Parent Governors nominated and elected? If you would like to put your name forward, a nomination form is available from the Academy Office. The closing date and time for the receipt of nominations is 23.01.2012. If more than one nomination is received, an election will be held and the ballot papers for this will be sent to all parents and carers. If you are interested and would like to find out more, then why not contact us here at the Academy. We look forward to hearing from you. Yours sincerely, Ms Janice Farrell Principal

The Post 16

Consortium @OSCA16

Exciting news from the Sixth Form!

We have joined up with two partner schools to create one amazing Sixth Form.

The Post 16 Consortium @OSCA16 will be the place to study, the place to learn and the place to be, Post 16.

Our new consortium means we can give our Sixth Form students all of the benefits of a ‘big’

college, with more courses, more choice and more enrichment opportunities, but still have the personal support that our students value so much.

The Sixth Form area has been re-furbished and re-branded to reflect our new role as a key

campus in the consortium.

Look out for more information at parents evening and on the school website. As we are offering a number of new and specialist courses, we recommend that students should apply early as we

expect demand for places to be high.

Look out for ‘The Post 16 Consortium’ marketing campaign in local newspapers and forthcoming events.

@OSCA16 – It’s going to be big!

6th Form students from Ormiston Sandwell Community Academy are proud to be participating in charity work in the lead up to Christmas, which includes; raising funds/goods or just giving up their time to support others. Pictured above are some of the 6th Form students who have already helped two of the charities that have benifited from the commitment of the students in supporting these courses. 6th Form students took part in the national Macmillan coffee morning. They baked cakes and buscuits and sold them to students and staff. Staff also had the opportunity to have a cup of coffee or tea and a chat at lunchtime. The students had a high level of responce and raise £97.51 for the Macmillan charity. On the L4S day, the 6th Form worked with Dance4life, an organisation raising awareness of Aids and HIV. The group encourage students to take action and help in the campaign. In the last week of term students will be selling biscuits, cakes, ginger bread men each break to raise money and awareness for Aids and the work of Dance4life. Year 13 students are collecting donations of non-perishable foods and toiletries for the Black Country Food Bank. This charity provides people less fortunate, with food boxes and toiletries to help them through difficult times. The students have attended all house assemblies to talk to students in the lower school and to promote awareness for the charity. Staff and students have been asked to donate any items. In the last week of term a number of Year 12 students will be visiting Warrens Hall residential home, to lead a craft/card making activity with the residents on Wednesday 14th December. The students have been inspired to build on the good relationships within the community. Well done to all the 6th Form students for their continued support in all these good courses and thank you to all the students and staff for their support.

Ormiston Sandwell Community Academy is strongly committed to improving literacy and knows the importance of reading for pleasure. There is good evidence to suggest that young people who read for pleasure daily perform better in reading tests than those who never do. We want to encourage our students to enjoy reading and to read a wide range of good quality literature. I am delighted to inform you that the Academy has recently made a significant investment in our library with the introduction of a new online version of our library catalogue. The new system allows pupils, staff and parents to view our Academy library catalogue online and pupils are encouraged to use this to help with research, to write reviews about books they have read and search for new books and other library resources. You can access the system via the Academy website or directly using the following link https://u012617.microlibrarian.net/ If you have access to an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, then you can also download a new App called ‘iMLS’ to access the library from those devices. The app is now available free from the iTunes App Store. Having the library accessible in this way and having parents engaged with reading will help to support our commitment to improving literacy standards. More information is available on our website and there are also document’s available for download to help you install the App and use the software. We hope you find the new facility useful and welcome any feedback.

Well done to to all the staff and students that gave what ever they could to this worthy cause and help raise the

of total £101.99 in addition to the biscuit sales of £55.00 making a grand total of £156.99

Well done!

A group of year 9 students represented Ormiston Sandwell Community Academy at the Public in West Bromwich on Thursday 8th December. Karina Wyroba, Olivia Jordan, Rebecca Carter, Hattie Barnfield and Jessica Bagley performed their poem about themselves in the Final of the Poetry Slam. This event followed a day’s poetry workshop at school and a boot camp for finalists. The girls have worked extremely hard to write and perform their creative work over the past few weeks. They finished second overall and came away with a trophy and real sense of achievement for the poetry and performance they put together.

Proud Year 9 students with the runners up cup for 2nd place.

Well done to them all!

Many of the Academy’s students took part in a spine-tingling themed week of horror in the Learning Resources Centre during the month of October. The High Witch – Mrs Rixson – began the week as compere of the Fantastical Festering Horror Quiz. Congratulations went to the student librarians who won the competition by demonstrating their extensive range of knowledge relating to supernatural folklore, in addition to screen and literary horror. The following day, several teams scrambled to match clues describing real and fictional haunted locations, to the correct locations written on symbols throughout the library. Many mismatches and scrums ensued before the bell had signalled the end of lunchtime! To complete the week, students were given the opportunity to sew and raise zombie felties. Several of these little critters had adorned Mrs Rixson’s witch’s garb at the start of the week. Bad luck to those who missed her on that day! A keen group of seamstresses took up residence to successfully create characters such as the Classic Zombie Feltie, Dead Ducky, Zombie Kitty and Pumpkin Head. Well done to those students who became the proud parent of a zombie feltie!

OSCA COFFEE (held twice per term)

Discussion, Networking and a light breakfast Date: 13th December 2011 Time: 9.30am – 10.30am Booking preferable for catering numbers

Welfare Benefits and Money Advice Drop In Date: Monday 16th January 2012 Time: 4pm - 6pm Venue: Ormiston Sandwell Community Academy Booking required.

OSCA VOICE – Parents Group

Have your say in the Extended Learning and Community Services in the Academy Date: 18th January 2012 Time: 4pm - 6pm Venue: Ormiston Sandwell Community Academy

Getting Engaged in Learning Join us on 16th January 2012 along with other guest providers for an afternoon of exiting opportunities to help you to keep your New Year Resolutions. Guests Include: Open Learning University, Adult Education, Sandwell Homes, Think Local, Beauticians, Stressbusters, Photographers, money advice and many more. Date: 16th January 2012 Time: 4pm - 6pm Venue: Ormiston Sandwell Community Academy Please book a place - This event is open to Academy Parents only

Booking Details t: 0121 552 5501 ext 5 e: extendedservices@ormistonsandwell.org.uk Event organiser: Deniece Gabriel, Extended Learning and Community Services Director Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Extended Services Team.

WE OFFER A WIDE RANGE OF FACILITIES, AVAILABLE FOR HIRE EVERY

EVENING AND WEEKEND:

Christmas card designed by Year 9 student Daria Bekierza

who loves photography

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR FOR A TOUR OF OUR FACILITIES

LEASE CONTACT US ON 0121 552 5501 BETWEEN 6-9 PMORMISTON