3rd March 2017

23rd March 2018

THE MAGAZINE FOR MOUNTS BAY ACADEMY

STANDING OUT

Cover: Tate St Ives

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

It’s all about you...This has been an exciting week for all of us for many reasons. For me the excitement started after I had written the Principal’s Report last week when the the Governors and our Executive Principal, Mrs Davey, formally invited me to take up the position of Principal until September 2019 to help provide a stable period of transition for the Academy now that Mrs Davey is leading our new Multi-Academy Trust.

The trust is a group of like minded schools working in Partnership with the aim to inspire and delight the learners of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly by establishing unique and idiosyncratic schools that provide world class education and high performance learning skills for all. This will allow all of us to benefit from the shared perspectives of each other whilst maintaining all of the great things that make Mounts Bay such a unique and great “place to be”.

Another new perspective for the Academy has been our recent adoption of our commitment to the Global Goals initiative. This is a fantastic opportunity to help us prepare ourselves for a future that recognises that the whole planet needs to have the same rights and living standards that we all enjoy in a sustainable way for its communities and resources. Our first step has been to raise the awareness around the campus and make it the focus of our new Reception lobby and Madeba Avenue.

Of course I cannot let the week go by without mentioning the disruption the return of the extreme weather caused everyone on Monday. We recognise that everyone has a series of plans and routine in place for a normal weekday and whilst our aim is always to keep the Academy open as much as possible, sometimes things get the better of us. As such we eventually had to make the difficult decision to close the Academy on Monday morning after an on-site risk assessment meant we could not make sufficient areas safe for staff and students before 08:30. This disruption was of course further heightened by the “spoof” email sent to everyone by somebody announcing we would be closed for the whole day. Whilst this was remedied within a few minutes and the perpetrator identified, it is right to acknowledge the additional confusion this may have caused.

Les HallAcademy Principal

Best wishes

You will start to see a few changes over the coming months, the first of which will be our acknowledgement of our membership of the partnership by using their logo on many of our communications and learning materials.

At the Academy we embrace the fact that we live in a digital age and as such we attempt to give our students all of the skills that they need to achieve in the world around them. It is also important that we acknowledge that, on occasion, our communication is tested by factors that lie outside our control. This is one of these occasions. As you know we were already almost at the point where we would be announcing a new single source and secure way of communicating with students, staff and parents and you will be seeing this very shortly.

Our most popular means of communication is, and will remain, this newsletter which as usual is brimming with news of our student achievements. And remember that unlike many schools, this happens every week at Mounts Bay, which is the best news of all!

Look out for the MBA LIVE app

on your iPad soon

Inspiring IT

In Finance students have been using their iPads to set up revision quizzes in preparation for their exam on Monday.  The Kahoot

quizzes are interactive and give the students instant feedback whilst being fun!

Miss Tripp magically transformed a green wall in Room 34 into a French Bistro on Wednesday lunchtime as part of the French Café with the

help of a green screen app and some willing students. The end results were great with students being whisked away to a fancy café somewhere in the French countryside. 

Students studying Macbeth used ‘Staging It’, an interactive film maker, to understand Shakespeare’s text from a director’s point of view. We focused on Macbeth's soliloquy, "Is this a dagger I see before me?" Actors perform four versions of each line delivered in four different ways: disbelievingly, fearfully, confidently and excitedly. Students watch each of the clips and add their choice to a dynamic storyboard to build up a final scene. Students really enjoying comparing their choices.

Year 7 students were investigating streamlined shapes in Science by dropping different plasticine shapes through wall paper paste and recording video that could then be watched in slow motion with a stop clock in frame so an accurate time could be measured.

This week’s Teach WoW was 'Inspiring IT'.  At MBA we believe we need to prepare students for the future and what better way to do this than by using the fabulous IT facilities we have at our finger tips. 

Having created ink monopints on colourful creative backgrounds, students in 7 Orange used Pixelmator on iPads to re create their outcomes through editing, layering and re editing. Careful and considered artistic judgements were made at each stage and the outcomes are beautiful!

Amazing Monoprints

BE INSPIRED

William Wallis

Caitlin StephensAiva Carr

In English we have been working in pairs to create PowerPoints on a famous children's author. We had authors ranging from Lewis Carroll to David Walliams. We have used our iPads to find out interesting information, key facts and even insert a video or two. The slides app was really useful as we could work together on the same presentation.

Famous Author Presentations

Report by: Emilia Wood

Report by: Mrs Dale

Students were using Japanese plastic toy figures called GoGos to model methods of estimating population sizes in ecology. One particular method called the ‘mark, release, recapture’ method involves collecting a sample, devising a safe method of marking the organism in a way that doesn’t impact its survival chances, releasing them and then leaving enough time for them to reintegrate with the main population. Following this a second sample is taken. The proportion in the second sample that were marked should be the same as the first sample to the whole population, thereby giving an estimate of the total population. Our students used the GoGos to practise this method.

Working out Population Size

BE INSPIRED

Report by: Mr Rodgers

Year 7 Real Project have been refining their internet searching skills by finding the best ways to find the most effective results. In groups students were asked to find the most interesting facts about Penzance, Cornwall, the UK and the World! By refining their key

words using their glossary they were able to use the internet to support their research.Here's what they found:

Report by: Miss Walters

Inspiring IT in Year 7 Real Project

BE CURIOUS

"No-one in the world can snore and dream at the same time."

"The largest pasty in the world was made in 2014 and it was 1900lb and had

175000 calories."

"The largest Welsh cake was baked in Cardiff, the capital of Wales, and was five feet wide and was sliced into 200 slices to share"

"Customers at the Godolphin Arms, Marazion, have witnessed an old Sea Captain walking up and down the Causeway, exactly where his ship crashed and sunk."

“

”

BECREATIVE

Well done to the MBA dancers who have performed magnificently while taking part in the Carrick Dance Project. This week they have performed at both

Penryn College and the Hall for Cornwall.

The Carrick Dance Project is a student led, collaborative schools dance project involving students from over 20 local schools who work together to create enchanting pieces of dance. Dancers aged 5-18yrs, perform a programme of multi-genre, truly innovative and exciting dance.

BE CREATIVE

Dancers Do Us Proud!

BECREATIVE

Year 10 GCSE Art and Graphic Design students visited the Tate Gallery in St Ives this week.  It was a great opportunity to visit the newly reopened gallery with its fabulous new exhibition space.

BE CREATIVE

Tate St Ives Trip

A key aspect of both GCSE courses is to research and critically analyse the work of artists and designers and to apply this research throughout

the development and creation of their own work. Students were tasked to gather information from a broad range of selected pieces and to record their observations through sketchbook work. Students enjoyed discusssing and critiquing the range of work on show in particular the more abstract paintings by Piet Mondrian, Naum Gabo and Paule Vezaley.

BECREATIVEBE CREATIVE

Having explored the 'Modern Art' galleries students moved onto the amazing exhibition of paintings, photographs and video installations inspired by the writings of Viginia Woolf.  After a quick lunch in the beautiful sunshine on St Ives harbour, Year 10

completed a few mini landscape sketches of the view across the harbour before heading back to the Academy to collate their work from the day. 

Well done Year 10, we look forward to seeing how your work has been inspired by your Art History day!

Report by: Mrs Dale

BECREATIVE

This week, Artist of the Week is awarded to Asha Sykes in 9 Yellow. As part of her fast-track GCSE, Asha has produced a creative and insightful

body of work in response to the exam theme of 'Fragments'. 

Asha has been exploring the relationship between the visuals of the sea and it's contrast with the geometric shapes in boats. She has explored many materials and processes, leading to the creation of mixed media responses using inks, collage, acrylic and graphite. 

BE CREATIVE

Artist of the Week

BECREATIVE

Asha has been inspired by the work of Piet Mondrian, as well as other contemporary artists. Mondrian was interested in the

theories of; 'simplification of abstraction', and the 'psychology of line', to capture the essence of objects through minimalist composition. Asha has carried out a thorough process of deconstruction; analysing her primary photos in depth, then drawing and recording the repetitive lines and shapes that reoccur to create her final exam plan. 

BE CREATIVE

Report by: Miss Green

Asha has consistently worked with great effort, but has made such rapid progress because of her

willingness to take risks, explore, and learn from her broad and dynamic experimentation. This body of work is mature, thought provoking, and a huge achievement for any GCSE student- but particularly for a Year 9. 

Well done Asha! 

  Unfortunately, it is this best friend who is meant to be living with

Flora for a week, while her parents have to dash off on a family emergency. Do you think this is likely? Left home alone, Flora sets off to see if she really can keep a memory alive on a journey which takes her from Penzance to Svalbard. It is a great read and guess what? It’s in our library so come in to borrow a copy.

BE ENTERTAINED

Word Millionaires

Well done to Joshua Mann (7 Red), Freesha Fryett (7 Yellow) Freddie Banks (7 Cool) and Ruby Stankovich (7 Warm) who are our most recent Word Millionaires.

Report by: Mrs Marsden

Amongst the books they have read is the fantastic The One Memory of Flora Banks, which is set in Penzance. Flora lives near Morrab Gardens, and it is really

interesting to follow her around Chapel Street and down to Jubilee Pool as she wanders around her hometown. Flora is nearly seventeen, but her mum can’t help but treat her like a seven year old; she cannot remember anything before the age of seven….until she remembers kissing her best friend’s boyfriend on the beach.

BE ENTERTAINED

Year 8 Accelerated Reader

It has been a brilliant month for Year 8 Accelerated Reader, all students have been engaged and showing great progress and effort.

The winning tutor group for February is 8 COOL. With an amazing 853,372 words read and 35 quizzes completed, all with 100% pass rate, they have definitely taken the crown this month – well done.

Well done to Issy Hoyes in 8 COOL, Harvey Allen 8 COOL and Enzo Favata in 8 YELLOW who have all become Word Millionaires for the second time. Between them they have read a staggering 6.8 million words during their time at the Academy.

February’s Accelerated Reader of the Month for participation, effort and achievement is Kerra Buzza in 8 COOL who completed and passed five quizzes

and read 240,570 words. A brilliant effort Kerra, well done.

Keep up the fantastic effort Year 8.

Remember, points mean prizes!

Report by: Miss Walters

At this weekend’s National Schools Judo Competition Joab Brighton-Boyns came away with an impressive Bronze Medal. The competition, held in Sheffield on Sunday, attracted a strong

field of competitors from schools all over the country. Joab, who was representing MBA, competed in the Age 10 - 12 U42Kg

category. Joab trains with Penlee Judo Club.

“It was very hard because two of my fights lasted for three minutes, which is three times longer than the average length of a fight. The other competitors were a very good standard with a lot more experience than me, so I was very happy with my Bronze medal.”

National Judo Bronze Medal

BE COMPETITIVE

Recently the Mounts Bay High Performance Programme attended the Penzance Cross Fit Gym for some fundamental conditioning workouts.

Understanding the body and movement is key to any athlete’s performance at the highest level, something we ensure our athletes try to understand to maximise progress in their sports.

The second session saw the Penwith Primary PE cluster schools attend a similar session. The session involved lots of fun games, movements, strength skills and many more. The primary students thoroughly enjoyed the experience and coming together with other high performing young students.

High Performance Sports

Report by: Mr N Eddy

Jennifer and James Midgley-Payne both PASSED their Karate Grading this week! Unbelievably hard work but they did it, even their Korean was on

point; they even impressed with their language skills.

Jennifer and James are now officially Tang Soo Do Red Belts with one tag. Just one belt to go between them and 1st Dan (black). In Tang Soo Do they have midnight blue instead of black.

Jennifer has only just turned 12. They’re all so proud of her at the karate school

and have big plans for her and her brother. Jennifer’s strength is formidable. James took one opponent clean off his feet!  Tang Soo Do isn’t like traditional Japanese Shotokan Karate, it’s a hybrid and particularly fierce, using weapons such as staff, knife and sword. All in the interests of sport of course!

They also practise a technique that is

known as ‘shark tank’ in class, where multiple opponents attack at once.

Both James and Jennifer defend themselves against all-comers really well as a result of constant practice.

Karate Grading Success

BE COMPETITIVE

The final boys County Championship of the season saw MBA Year 7s narrowly missing out on the title. The team played the best hockey of the day, looking strong throughout the event, but sometimes that’s how sport goes. We narrowly drew our

final game against Truro School, scoring just after the final whistle which would have seen us win the overall title.

Well done to all the players who played excellent hockey.

This season MBA, out of four competitions, have won two events and have twice beenrunners up. We will try and win all four next year.

Hockey Action

Report by: N Eddy

BE COMPETITIVE

PiXL Maths App

BE INSPIRED

The PiXL Maths App is a great revision app and website we are using with Year 11 during registration time each week.

It has proven results with students across the country

and includes a combination of questions, videos and help sheets.

All students have the app on their iPad automatically. They can obtain their login details and more information from:

Report by Mr Kent

Well done to:

SAWBRIDGE M

WILLIAMS J

MARTIN A

RICHARDS L

JACKSON-ROBERTS T

MADDOCK E

MCNALLY K

MOON I 

KEMP E

BRUNSDON N

PEARSON B

CURNOW L

RICHARDS P

RUSTON C

HOLLOW C

BILLINGER O

EMPSON Z

SUMMERS M

COMPTON C

PROWSE J

This week the top form using the PiXL Maths App was 11 Red.  

Each week we will publish a list of the top 20 students in the Academy as well as the top registration group. This is not a list of students who have achieved the highest scores,

it is an engagement score, as we want students to be challenging themselves. The top 20 students are listed below. Keep up the great work Year 11.

maths

https://mountsbay.fireflycloud.net/mathematics/revision/pixl-app

This Week’s Puzzle:

   

Last week’s solution: 20

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

Click here to submit

Closing date for Entries: Thursday 12:00

BE A WINNER

Maths Quiz

House Competition

Blue: 140 PointsRed: 75 Points

Yellow: 72 PointsGreen: 72 PointsPurple: 63 PointsOrange: 62 Points

Win an Amazon voucher

Each entry (maximum 1 per week) will get your name into the prize draw at the end of the semester - the more times you enter the greater your chance of winning!

POINTS MEAN PRIZES!

This Week’s House Totals

Which of the cubes would the net shown form when cut and folded?

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

Competition

Congratulations to Poppy Geyman who wins 10 VIVO points.

Click here to enter the competition

This week’s word is: Exuberant

Definition:  full of energy, excitement, and cheerfulness.

BE A WINNER

Etymology: late Middle English (in sense ‘overflowing, abounding’): from French exubérant, from Latin exuberant - ‘being abundantly fruitful’, from the verb exuberare (based on uber ‘fertile’).

BE CHARITABLE

MONDAY 26TH MARCH

TUESDAY 27TH MARCHYear 9 Rugby 7s11:00 - 1 6:00, Pool AcademyU12 County Girls Cricket09:00 - 16:00, Truro SchoolU13 Hockey 09:00 - 16:00 Truro School

WEDNESDAY 28TH MARCHChildren’s Hospice South West non-uniform dayDonations of £1U15 Rugby 7s11:00 - 16:00 Redruth School

THURSDAY 29TH MARCHBreak up for Easter HolidaysSchool day to finish at 13:15The normal contract buses and school mini-buses will be ready to take students home at 13:15. However, those who travel with 'First' buses will need to make alternative arrangements. Should that be a problem please let us know.

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