Endeavour News Highlights from around the Academy

No 16

Defoe Road Ipswich IP1 6SG Telephone: 01473 464545 Website: www.ormistonendeavouracademy.co.uk http://twitter.com/WeEndeavour

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Academy Principal, Mrs Woods

Message from our Principal

In this issue:

2. Message from our Principal

3. Exams

4. Create

+ Arts evening

5. Science

+ Maths

6. Discovery

7. Go 4 Schools

8. Lifestyle

+ Year 7 netball

9. Uniform

10. Term Dates 2017

+ Dates for your diary

+ School library

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Dear Parents and Friends,

A huge thank you to those who attended the recent Parents’ Forum.

We are delighted with all of your positive responses regarding the

experiences your children are having at the academy. Your thoughts

have been posted on the website to share with others.

We recently introduced ‘Endeavour Club’ on a Wednesday afternoon

for year 6 students and are really pleased with the response. Children

from our three main feeder schools have been invited to experience a

sample of high school lessons prior to September. The club is open to

all year 6s, regardless of what secondary school they have chosen to

attend, as it will help alleviate any worries young people may have

about what happens in a secondary school.

Since Ms Morrow (our Assistant Principal – Support for Learning) has

joined the school, attendance has increased dramatically due to a

number of additional incentives that have been introduced. Attendance

is the biggest determining factor when it comes to exam performance.

Some parents may have heard about a recent addition to our school.

Eddie the Teddy is presented weekly to the form group with the highest

attendance. You can follow Eddie’s experiences on his twitter page:

@eddieteddyoea.

Talking about exams, our year 11s have just started their final exam

experience at this school. They are well prepared and are expecting

great things from them. They certainly deserve it and we couldn’t be

more proud of their attitude towards this particularly challenging time.

We are looking forward to our Activity Day on the last day of this

academic year. You will have received a letter about the trips available

to your child this year. There are no school based activities taking place

so please ensure your child chooses the trip they will enjoy the most.

Please contact your child’s Assistant Head of House if you have any

questions regarding the day.

Have a wonderful half term break.

Christine Woods

Principal

Exams

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The exam season is now in full swing! Students in Year 11 have been working their socks off when it comes to great preparation for exams, making use of GCSEpod and revision activities like past paper questions to ensure they are confident and ready to do their absolute best! The information below includes advice for the night before and the day of an exam, as well as reminders on what to bring with you and what you should leave behind! The night before the exam It might seem tempting to stay up late into the night revising for an exam. A good night’s sleep is important though as it will mean you are refreshed and thinking straight when you get to your exam. Make sure you go to sleep at a reasonable time and have an alarm set for the next day. The morning of the exam Make sure your alarm is set so that you have enough time to have breakfast before you leave for school. If you prefer, you can have breakfast at breakfast club when you get to school. Having something to eat in the morning is important as it will keep your energy levels up and stop you being overly tired during the exam. You need to be alert to be your very best! What to bring to the exam Basic equipment: Clear pencil case containing black pens, pencils, highlighters, a ruler and a rubber. Maths equipment such as calculator (calculator paper only), a protractor (angle measure) and pair of compasses will be needed in some exams. These are also provided by the school whenever needed in exams, however some people prefer to use their own equipment as they are used to using it. A bottle of water (you will need to remove the label from the water bottle). A watch. There are clocks in the exam hall so that you can carefully time your work in the exam. Many students prefer to bring their own watch with them and find this easier. What you cannot bring with you You will be asked to leave your bag and coat at the side of the exam hall in an area by the door. This will be safe to be left and will be collected by you when you leave the exam. Exams that run over morning break Longer exams may run over into morning break. When this happens, you will have the chance to have a supervised break in the dining hall and then go to your next lesson a little later. It is important that you feel refreshed after your exam and get the chance to have a break before carrying on with your lessons that day. And don’t forget GCSEpod for reminders and recaps on the things students have learnt in school. If any students in year 11 have forgotten their login details to GCSEpod, they can get these changed by seeing Ms Hart or Miss Theobald or by sending a quick email. And don’t forget – the timetable for all exams is on our website.

Create

Year 11 GCSE Photography students have been working hard on refining their coursework and preparing for their end of course exhibition. A variety of photographic styles can be seen across their work including landscape, studio, experimental, documentary and 3D. This clock image by Brooke Compton, Year 11 has made it onto the cover of this newsletter! Seascape below by Brandon Flanigan, Year 11.

The Arts Evening takes place on Thursday 15th June 2017 from 4.30 - 7.00pm. This is a great opportunity for students to showcase their work in Art, DT, and Photography to parents and family. We look forward to seeing you all at this celebration of student creativity.

Including Music, Food Technology, Art, Design Technology & Photography

Arts Evening

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Science

This year has seen the introduction of the new GCSE to Year 9 and 10 students. As they continue into next year, students undertake a number of compulsory practical experiments in lessons, alongside learning about all the important knowledge they need for their final exams in Year 11. After half term Mr Aspin, our new Head of Science, will be joining the department; he’s really looking forward to getting to know our students at Endeavour and planning ways to make learning in Science even more inspiring and effective. Students in Year 7 and 8 have been working more and more with the community outside the academy. Mrs Gould has taken some students to Highfield Nursery to help the young children there start learning about science and grow an interest in experiments, and she’s also started taking some Year 7 students into our local primary schools to work with Year 6 students there. Students have really enjoyed it and we’re looking forward to even more community links into the new school year. And finally, students in year 11 have been working incredibly hard in preparation for their final exams. If you are a Year 11 student (or parent!) don’t forget that GCSEpod is great for revision, as well as all of those past paper questions you’ve been working through in lessons – good luck from us all!

Whitton Primary School Trip

By Ade Lawal, Jorge Ribeiro, Clara Brame and Shannon Hatton, Year 7.

On Friday the 21st April, Ms. Cunningham took us to our old school, Whitton Primary, to help the Year 6 students in their maths lesson.

Their teacher, Mrs. Edwards, wanted Year 6 to experience a high school maths lesson before their transition day so they knew what stuff we were learning, and how. We did a lesson on converting fractions, decimals and percentages.

The reason we wanted to help Year 6 is because they were having their SATS a week later, and we remembered that before our SATS we felt scared and nervous! So we talked to Year 6 about SATS, maths and high school to help them with their education, and to make sure they didn’t worry so much.

What we found difficult was talking to the shy children, because they were too shy to tell us what help they needed, and so we couldn’t help them. This made us realise that when we need help, we have to ask for it and help our teacher to help us better. It was easy to communicate with the students generally though because we understood the things that they were doing at school, and we had a lot in common because we understood their school and their worries.

We wanted to encourage students from our old school to come and join us at OEA, so Ms. Cunningham let us do a talk to the classes to tell them what we liked about our school.

We would love to do something like this again, it was great visiting our old school and seeing our old teacher.

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Maths

Discovery

Discovery department have had the pleasure of receiving extremely dangerous volcanoes from the recent homestudy project set. Year 7 certainly have not disappointed in their creations! We have had some superb explosions in lessons from students who have created volcanoes with deadly lava flows (vinegar and baking soda!) Below are just a few that have been received from both physical volcanic structures and booklets explaining the workings of volcanoes to supplement their current study in Geography on “Restless Earth”. Certificates will be awarded in the final assembly before half term! Keep up the great work Year 7!

Including Ethics, Geography, History, French & Spanish

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Go 4 Schools

Thanks to all parents who have already logged into Go 4 Schools to check details about your child’s progress and attendance. So far lots of you have made the most of this but there are a few people who haven’t yet logged in and had a look. Here’s a reminder on how to log in and what you can find once you do: Parent Update - Access to Go 4 Schools · Real-time attainment information – projected grades and target grades for all subjects. · Homework – Homework tasks due in the next 7 days. · Attendance – Shown from the start of the academic year. · Progress Reports – Full written reports which are published each half term. Students have already been shown how to access Go 4 Schools using their academy email address. Parent access: To access Go 4 Schools it is important that we have an up-to-date email address. Once we have this, you can follow the steps below. Logging in to Go4Schools Parental Access To access the site, please go to www.go4schools.com and click on the Parents icon at the top of the main page to arrive at the log-in screen. The email address you use to enter the site must be the one we have registered in our database for you. Please contact us if you need to update us on your email address: · Email: data@oeacademy.co.uk · Telephone: Main reception, 01473 464545 To request a password for GO 4 Schools, please enter your email address into the First-time User field and click ‘Please send me a password’. A randomised password will then be generated and sent to your email address. You will then be able to log into the site and view your child’s page. If you have any questions about your child’s progress please contact their form tutor.

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Year 7 Netball Champions!

We are extremely proud to announce that our Year 7 netball team won their league. They have had an exceptional season, only losing one of their games by a slight margin. They will gain promotion and we hope that they have continued success as they move into Year 8. WELL DONE GIRLS!

We are pleased to see so many students attending the tennis lunch time sessions, having a game with friends and developing their skills. We would love it if a few more students came to the after school Rounders club, being held each week on a Tuesday. Everyone is welcome and we hope to get some ‘friendly’ matches organised next half term. Just a reminder that our Sports day will be held next term too and further information will follow regarding this. We hope that we will soon see an improvement in our weather!

Lifestyle

A plea from the PE department—We want to know about your son’s/daughter’s success in their chosen sport. We don’t always get to hear about how well our students are doing outside of school and we would love to celebrate their sporting achievements alongside them. We therefore ask you to tell us what they have achieved, write a brief report and if possible attach a photo. Many thanks for your continued support. The PE Dept.

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Uniform

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Firstly I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself. I have recently taken over the post of Assistant Principal: Support for Learning at Ormiston Endeavour and I am thoroughly enjoying working with the staff and young people. It is a privilege to work in a community where all stakeholders are working together to ensure excellent outcomes for our students. As the Summer holidays approach and the need to replace school uniform comes around, I thought it prudent to remind Parents and Carers of some of the rules regarding appearance that we have at Ormiston Endeavour Academy. At OEA, we believe that positive reinforcement of a dress code helps to prepare our young people for the world of work and promotes confidence and self-esteem and so I would like to take this opportunity to remind you of the following points which can be discussed with your child;

• No skinny trousers, jeans or leggings are to be worn – trousers are to be straight fit or bootcut

but not tight to the legs. • Skirts are to be worn at knee length and again, are not to be skin tight. • Blazers and ties must be worn at all times, with shirts tucked in. • Shoes are to be black and leather or leather look – no trainers or logos are to be visible. • Only subtle make-up should be worn – this includes not wearing false eyelashes or lash

extensions. Students will be asked to remove these. • Nail varnish is not be worn in any year group, including gel polish or acrylic extension; again

students will be asked to remove this. • No facial piercings are to be worn - clear plastic retainers can be used. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your cooperation with the above points. If you have any questions regarding uniform or dress code, please speak to your child’s Head of House or Assistant Head of House in the first instance. Ms. K Morrow

Assistant Principal: Support for Learning

Excellence is standard

Term Dates 2016-17

Half term break Begins Monday 29th May 2017 Ends Friday 2nd June 2017 Summer term Ends Friday 21 July 2017 Summer break Begins Monday 24th July 2017 Ends Tuesday 5th September 2017 Autumn term Begins Wednesday 6th September 2017 Ends Tuesday 19th December 2017

Dates for your diary

26 May Finish for half term break 5 June Students return to Academy 15 June Arts evening 16:30—19:00 26 June Academy sports day 11 July Form tutor parents evening 16:30—18:30 12 July Summer Fayre 14:30—17:00 21 July Finish for summer break 5 September Students return to Academy 3 October Year 5 & 6 open evening 18:00—20:00 20 October Finish for half term 30 October Students return to Academy

Library activities

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The school library is open to students every lunch time—but not just for reading books!

There are a variety of different activities available in the library so students are encouraged to visit at lunch time and join in.