This year, as part of the NA6 RAG week, the Student Union led by Sophie Pay, Amelia Beresford and Szymon Swiatek and Head Students Tommy Storr and Emily Adshead, took a vote across NA6 and the decision came back to support the charity ‘Children with Cancer UK’. They aim to fund research, help families, and raise awareness and their mission is to:
‘determine the causes, find cures and provide care for children with cancer’ and ‘to save and improve young lives.’
We believe at NA6, that Christmas is a special, key time, to provide our support to such an important cause.
We were overwhelmed by the support we received for this cause as we managed to raise nearly £200 in the first two days! This was raised by the ‘Wax a Teacher’ event where Mr Elland, Mr Taylor, Mr Fisher and Mr Tozer and X12 student, Szymon Swiatek, had a strip of their legs waxed. We also sold Candy Canes throughout the week.
We also had a ‘Christmas Jumper Day’ on the last day of term as well as the main event, the ‘Lip Sync Battle’! Our thanks go out to all the acts that put on a spectacular show for all students! A special well done to the winning act from Wednesday, Mr Deller, Mr West – Mullen and Mr Watt with help from the NA6 Back Street Boys (Jack Bailey, Isaac Zemontas, Tommy Barnes and Dominykas Samulaitis) who performed an incredible rendition of ‘I want It that way’ and the winning act from Thursday, Mr Fisher and Mr Taylor who were joined by Willis Hern in year 11 who put together a very impressive, improvised performance of ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’.
The NA6 Student Union also accompanied the Newark Academy choir to visit and sing some carols to our elderly residents in our community at Red Roofs! This was a really special moment and we were joined by Mrs Hamilton-Smith, Mrs Brown, Mrs Rossall, Mr Fisher, Mr Williams and Mr Whitehead from the Academy. Grace Phillips presented a beautiful Christmas cake made by our very own and extremely talented Ms Mcluckie. Sophie Pay also handed out heart-warming Christmas cards with messages from students across the Academy and Tommy Storr our Head Student also did a reading from A Christmas Carol!
We want to thank everyone who has donated to and supported this charity over the past week as we continue to support our Newark Academy Community and look forward to your support for future events.
This year we are happy to have continued our yearly tradition of supporting the wonderful work of the Newark Food Bank. We would like to thank all of our families who have been able to help us in donating some much needed food and household items that will go a long way to support those most in need throughout our local area. We would like to say a special mention to our Head Students, Emily Adshead and Tommy-Lee Storr who have spearheaded this agenda this year; leading on promotion through assemblies, creating posters that have been shared around the school building and collecting and sorting the donated items each morning before school.
Thank you for your very welcomed help and support.
The Christmas Concert took place on Thursday 8th December! The concert saw over 80 students and staff from across the school take the stage in a variety of acts; choir, solo singers, string quartet, Dixie band, barbershop quartet, orchestra and much much more! Students have all been working hard this term with enrichment opportunities to make this sold out show an excellent evening of festivities.
Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year from Newark Academy Expressive Arts Department.
During our KS3 Book Club, we have completed reading Animal Farm by George Orwell - which proved to be the first book that divided opinion between members. Moving on from a fierce debate, we are halfway through Nisha's War - a novel that focuses on a young girl's recovery after fleeing Malaysia in the Second World War for life in northern England. We have also created book recommendations for the library. Reading for pleasure is really taking off at Newark Academy! Mrs Horner, in the Library, will recommend books of all genres for all readers.
KS4 English Department Walking Talking Mock: 180 students sat down to a supported GCSE English Language Paper 2 on 6th December. It was a huge feat of organisation - huge thanks to the site team, Mrs Beverley and Mr Brown. The students were amazing - focused and purposeful from 8.20 - 10.10am. The tenacity of Year 11 was palpable - we are certainly on the road to success!
A level mathematicians participated in the Senior Maths Challenge in October – 25 multiple-choice questions that encourage mathematical reasoning and precision of thought. From the challenge, 8 of our students achieved the bronze – well done to these students and all who participated:
Elizabeth Gibson, Ethan Rice, Emily Walls, Josh Curt, Oscar Marek, Stuart Munn, Sophie Pay and Tommy Storr.
Can you answer this question from the challenge?
Answer = C 6
In celebration of Children’s mental health week 2023, NottAlone is going to showcase student’s creative work to over 1000 attendees. The competition is to create a piece of art work along the theme of ‘Growing together’, the entry should be positive and empowering, strengthen student’s mental health and help people come together to make a change. This is such an exciting opportunity for our students at Newark Academy!
For more information on NottAlone please see https://nottalone.org.uk/?a=yp
How to get involved!
Email a photo of your piece of art to MHSTNottsCity@nottinghamcity.gov.uk including your name, age, school and a contact name of the staff member supporting you (Ms Daw). Please include a short message behind your creation or a short caption to explain what it is about. Deadline is Monday 2nd January 2023. If chosen please come along to the event with Ms Daw!
Our year 11 and NA6 students participated in sessions delivered by The School of Sex Education team on the 21st October. The sessions were aimed at educating our students on the myths associated with sex, sexual activities and gender. Students had the opportunity to unpick common tropes and misrepresentations of sex and gender in the media with subject experts. The aims of these sessions are to help our young people to be confident in making healthy and appropriate choices that support keeping them safe. Excellent maturity and engagement from every - well done!
To support and acknowledge World Mental Health Day (10th October) all students took part in the ‘Hello Yellow’ day, organised by ‘Young Minds’, a charity that supports and raises awareness of the importance of young people’s mental health. On this day students and staff wore a yellow badge to show their alliance and took part in activities across the week dedicated to support positive wellbeing and understanding. A lot of staff and students continue to wear their yellow badge to show their continued support and dedication to young people’s wellbeing.
For more information on World Mental health day please visit – https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/our-work/public-engagement/world-mental-health-day.
If anyone is looking for extra support on mental health please visit our school’s website which has a list of useful websites - https://www.newarkacademy.co.uk/page.php?p=mental_health.
Last half term our Year 7 and 8 students had a musical guest visiting for the afternoon. Belle is a young break out star, only 17 years old, who sang some of her own music and shared insight and tips about looking after our mental health and the damaging impact that social media can have on young minds. For many students this was their first chance to hear live music, she autographed pictures and helped our students to let go and have fun!
Link to her music - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWvKzEHKgOw
Our year 10 and 11 students welcomed a local man into school last term to deliver a powerful story of redemption and reform. Jacob Dunne shared his powerful story with our students and helped them to reflect on the importance of reform and making informed and healthy choices as young people. He spoke openly about his past and the mistakes made and the power of forgiveness.
Jacob Dunne’s story - https://www.nottinghampost.com/news/nottingham-news/one-punch-killer-jacob-dunne-7328752
Our year 7 students took part in a spiritual experience last term. Their first unit with PRE (Philosophy, Religion and Ethics) introduces them to ancient religions and spirituality from Egyptians, Native Americanism to Religious Experiences and Sufism. As part of this learning they were introduced to the concept of a Sound Bath. Students had the opportunity to explore the concept of mediation and connecting to their inner self through this method.
For more information or an example of a Sound Bath please visit - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDBKREP3LkU.
The Y9 Boys Football team have got off to 3 wins from 3 games this year with a 5-2, 5-0 and 2-1 wins across both of our cup competitions. Our top goalscorers are Alfie Fell and Luca Cosgrove with 3 each but there have been 6 different scorers across the 3 matches! Man of the match awards have gone to Morgan Haywood, El-Jae Shorrock and Riley Andrews-McGregor.
This puts them into the Quarter Final of the County Cup and the 2nd Round of the South Notts Cup.
The Y10 Boys Football team have also got off to an unbeaten start this season with 2 wins from 2 with a 4-1 victory over National and an extra-time, hat-trick completing, winner from Owen Redgate to make it 3-2 against Ashfield. Man of the match performances have come from Fin Poole and Charlie Chamberlain in the two matches to ensure wins against tough sides.
They now face Minster in the Quarter Final of the County Cup and Hall Park in the 2nd Round of the South Notts Cup to be played after Christmas.
Finlay Haseldine is an amazing year 9 student who has a passion for shepherding. Here is a overview of Finlay's achievements during the last year at agricultural shows with his sheep. Amazing ……
Finlay placed well with his sheep and in his young handler classes through the show season and qualified for the Rare Breeds Survival Trust Young Shepherd National Final which took place in November at the English Winter Fair at Staffordshire. Just 40 young people qualify (20 Juniors and 20 Seniors). Finlay competed with the qualified others - age 13-16 in his senior category with a borrowed sheep due to the rules of breeds allowed at this national final and to our wonderful surprise, Fin placed Reserve Senior Shepherd 2022.
Huge congratulations from us all.
In preparation from their future aspirations, the Year 11 students were able to take a look at a different field of further education at Newark Show Ground this month.
There were some incredible opportunities for the students to be involved in and helped widen their education horizon.
This term has seen our NA6 Digital Media students out and about in Newark Town Centre photographing some of the stunning and historical landmarks to accompany their coursework. Our students all enjoyed collecting all of their assets, which have then all been cleverly edited and now form part of their wonderful pieces of coursework. Students visited; Newark Castle, St Mary Magdalane's church, the Town Hall and Butter Market to name but a few. Students were a credit to the Academy throughout their visit and continue to develop as digital media content producers. Well done everyone!
As an Academy, on Friday the 11th November we took time to remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice to secure our freedom.
Students participating in the Remembrance performance service included: a Drama piece ‘Poems of War’, Uniformed Cadets, NA choir, Trombones/solo Bugler and readers, ranging from Head Students, (existing and newly appointed), to our new Year 7s. The art department provided an interactive piece of Poppy-themed artwork in which students could add their mark to.
Newark Academy
Train to teach with the Nottinghamshire Torch SCITT