Dear Parents/Carers/Students,
Welcome to the final edition of our Academy Newsletter 2022! I am very excited to share the growing number of examples of how students demonstrate our GREAT value of 'excellence'. There are some truly inspirational examples throughout this edition, I hope you enjoy reading them.
It has been a fantastic term at Newark Academy where staff and students have continued to work incredibly hard. There have been many proud moments to celebrate and I would like to thank our amazing students and staff for all they have done. Navigating a successful examination period for year 11 and NA6 students, having a fantastic Celebrate Success Evening, Academy Prom and 650 students at Alton Towers are just a few examples of our successes.
However, when we return in September, staff across our Academy will have spent three INSET days pulling together their strategic plans to support our continued journey to make Newark Academy 'GREAT'. We recognise, whilst we have many recent successes, that we still have lots more we want to do to achieve the ambitions we have for our Academy community, and we are firmly set on stepping closer to achieving these ambitions over the next 12months. The staff team at Newark Academy are a committed group who work incredibly hard, and we will continue to do so; our students and community deserve that.
A significant part of our ongoing work requires the support of a dedicated parent group. We will be working hard to develop better partnerships with our families to ensure you feel part of our journey, including an uplifted 'Home:Academy' agreement which will provide better clarity around how to achieve this - we cannot achieve our ambitions without your support and will be providing more opportunities for you to get involved in our Academy improvement work next year.
Thank you, as always, for you continued support.
On behalf of Newark Academy colleagues, I wish you and your families a safe and enjoyable summer break,
Best wishes,
Chris Fisher
Head Teacher
Recently, Year 9 student Lewis Gill had a fantastic opportunity to be part of the ball crew at the Nottingham Open Tennis Championships. Lewis performed amazingly well and even got to be on court during Emma Raducanu’s match. Well done Lewis!
It is wonderful to see students such as Lewis shining beyond the classroom by giving their time and dedication to something they are passionate about. Please do share your child’s successes – in whatever capacity – with their crew leader as we want to congratulate them on their achievements too.
Toby has been selected in the Midlands U15 Squad to take part in the Bunbury Festival, which is at Loughborough University. This is a fantastic achievement as Toby is still only an U14 player.
This is the first step on the England player pathway and he will now be monitored by national selectors over the next few years, furthermore he can attend the Festival again next year!
Mr Elland, Finley Poole, Joseph Carlin, Lewis Monks, Jacob Blant and Harrison Morgan lead on a whole school initiative to help support our local community.
On Monday 4th July many of our students and staff wore red to show their support for the anti-knife crime campaign ‘Wear Red’. Our Year 9 students were able to raise awareness around knife crime and spark conversations focussed on positive choices and not allowing fear or pride to put us in vulnerable positions. Wearing red and money raising break time activities such as penalty shoot out, the very popular ‘soak a teacher’ as well as a cake sale, we managed to raise over £340. This money will be partly used to purchase severe bleed kits for Newark Academy and other local schools. All proceeds were donated to the Daniel Baird foundation.
During PRIDE month (June) our school continued to welcome all students through our doors and made sure we celebrated Pride month with compassion and education.
Across the course of two weeks students celebrated Pride with a welcoming balloon arch and informational display board created by Emily Walls, Molly Sims and Tola Olusi-Mason from NA6. Assemblies were delivered over the week to celebrate pride and the achievements that the LGBTQIA community have made over the last 50 years. We also celebrated out first Pride and Diversity Rewards evening where students who are champions of diversity around school were invited for an evening of food, celebrations and a silent disco!
Mental health will always remain an important focus at Newark Academy and one that we always engage students with. Lily Saywell, Liana Mountcastle and Robin Lukjanova helped create and maintain our mental health display board
These students are champions of mental health and diversity across the school and took time to ensure the display board was engaging, supportive and one that would help members of our crew to thrive.
During PD lessons this term students have been exposed to all different ways to be mindful and help maintain positive mental health. Our year 8’s took part in a range of different activities from chair yoga to dancing.
We continue to teach that the mental health of the body works alongside our physical health. If we look after our physical health it helps nurture our mental health and vice versa. We hope students continue to exercise, in anyway they can, to release endorphins and support healthy minds.
Our year 10 RS students took part in a wonderfully serene and welcoming trip to Southwell Minster led by Ms Daw.
The students got to experience first hand the different types of sacraments and ways to worship God that happen in the Cathedral. Students had sessions led by 3 female priests, including Alison Milbank. Students were welcomed with open arms to learn more about Christianity, the impact faith has on believers and also have the opportunity to ask a vicar about her faith and ask testing questions which encouraged thought provoking discussions.
On July 7th at Kelham House Hotel we had the chance to say goodbye and good luck to our year 11 cohort.
With over 100 students attending the balmy summer evening it was a wonderful event enjoyed by all.
We wish that all students have a wonderful summer and are looking forward to their results that they have worked so hard for this year despite 2 years of uncertainty with Covid19.
Results Day will be on Thursday 25th August and students are welcome to collect their results from 8.30am.
More details to follow.
Ready to transition into Year 11, our Year 10 students have sat their first two weeks of Mocks this term with incredible ambition. Students have stepped up and worked amazingly throughout the process, demonstrating their thirst for success.
We are so proud of the maturity they have shown along with the strong subject knowledge they have retained so far throughout their NA journey.
Our ambitious Year 10 students were given a fantastic opportunity this term to visit Brackenhurst College and discover what they had to offer them once they progress onto Post 16. It was a fantastic opportunity for the students to gain not only an understanding on what options are available to them when they leave NA but also a real insight into what the college can offer them. The whole day was engaging, students enjoyed each activity such as, pond dipping and flower dissection. Students where able to ask questions relating to their specific study interests and left feeling excited about this potential route into further education.
A group of Yr7, Yr8 and Eco club were shown the year in the life of dairy cow and had hands on experience of making butter and milking ‘ Jenny ‘ the model cow. Alongside the lifecycle of a sheep, with felt making from Marino wool to produce flowers.
Those involved from Crew 7: Sonny Wright, Mason Horan, Roxie Saul, Roman McTigue, Tony Kelly, Liam Williams, Tyler Fincham.
LEAF - Linking Environment and Farming Work to engage, inspire and motivate young people through experiential learning, in order to equip our future generations with balanced and informed insight into food production, farming and the environment.
We are so proud of the achievements of the students in STEM Club, they did an amazing job making it to the finals and we hope they have enjoyed taking part in the challenge and visiting the Big Bang Fair! They had some great feedback on their group presentation, which was focused on how we can use solar panels in space with robotic maintenance, to improve sustainability on our planet. A huge congratulations to David, Eli, Ben, Edward and Skye.
In April this year, a group of year 7 and year 8 students participated in the Junior Maths Challenge – 25 multiple choice questions where students have to use their mathematical reasoning and problem-solving skills. From this challenge, the top Y8 and top Y7 student were invited to participate in the subsequent Junior Kangaroo Round. Luca Cosgrove (Y8) and Casper Kitchen (Y7) both performed incredibly well in the challenge – well done to both of them!
An excellent two shows of Romeo and Juliet took place at the end of the summer term. Miss Reynolds, Miss Bailey and Mr Williams would like to give a huge thank you to all involved for their responsibility and tenacity shown to the performance – you were brilliant. A GREAT show!
On Monday 11th July 25 students from year 8 visited the Nottingham Trent University city campus. The purpose of the visit was to give the students a flavour of university and higher education life.
They had a tour of the various buildings that comprise the campus and then were asked to complete some research based on the buildings they had visited.
The University staff praised the students application and conduct throughout the day, and it was brilliant to hear from current University students about the different courses and societies they are involved in!
As part of the Asdan course Yr 7 and Yr 8 were taken to Veolia MRF at Mansfield. A Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) is where recyclable materials that are collected from households are sorted into different types (e.g. plastics, cardboard, paper, metal) using a mixture of manual and automated methods. When the materials have been sorted they are sent to reprocesses and manufacturers where they are used to create new products.
Grace Cooper, Jess Peck, Keira Dixon, Alfie Warriner, Billy Warriner, Lewis Feeney, Lewis Bradley, Alina Selipova, Sam McAleese, Sonny Wright, Mason Horan, Roxie Saul, Roman McTigue, Tony Kelly, Liam Williams, Tyler Fincham.
This was an excellent opportunity for the students to experience 'first hand' what happens to their daily waste. It enables a greater depth of understanding, whilst also being creative, informative and raising environmental awareness.
Jessica (Year 8) has enjoyed a wonderful term in music. A competent and enthusiastic classroom musician, Jessica has begun undertaking weekly clarinet lessons despite having only been learning for a matter for a short time. Jessica can already play a couple of challenging pieces, including ‘Amazing Grace’.
Jessica has recognised that to support her learning, playing in the orchestra is a great opportunity and is something which will broaden her repertoire knowledge and skill set. Jessica performed in our Spring concert and has already proved she is a key member in our Academy ensemble.
Well done Jessica, a superb effort!
Our Academy Orchestra has officially completed its first year and inaugural concert. The instrumentalists we have in our fabulous ensemble have proved themselves to be dedicated, tenacious individuals who simply love to perform. The picture included in this article is of the Orchestra rehearsing during the half term break, where students committed three hours to ensuring music for our summer concert was prepared and ready.
The concert was a huge success and has set the bar high for our next spectacular. The evening was full of instrumental solos, duets, trios from our flutes through to our trombones. Sienna (Y10) and Jack (Y12) sang the famous duet, ‘Endless love’ in support of our school production, Romeo and Juliet. These events benefit from a great staff boy too so special thanks are sent to Mrs Goodman, Ms Issacs, Ms Reynolds and Ms Bailey who all gave freely of their time to help make the evening a huge success. Thanks to everyone – you were brilliant!
The Orchestra enjoyed performing at a local primary school to support their summer fair. Our invitation to St. Peters Cross Keys in Farndon saw us perform with a twenty-string Orchestra and our GCSE vocalists all of whom put on a great show despite the unpredictable weather!
It was great to ‘mobilize’ the orchestra and venture out of the Academy to share our music. Our Academy music students demonstrated superb musicianship and our GREAT values by providing a programme of music which entertained parents, Grandparents and children alike!
A GREAT afternoon’s work team – thanks for your support!
Steph (Year 8) has joined the music department as a guitar student and has made a great start with our guitar teacher, Mr Trynor. Eli (Year 7) has been studying the guitar slightly longer and is always quick to demonstrate his growing musicianship and brilliant guitar skills.
Both students can look forward performing in our Christmas concert where everyone will get to see first hand, the tremendous progress both students will have made.
Great work both – we are all very proud of your achievements.
Eve and Erin (Year 9) both now have concert experience. They performed brilliantly in our summer concert, playing music by Taylor Swift and have both been ‘swift’ in selecting a new piece to perform in our Christmas concert. Both students have approached their guitar lessons with dedication and commitment throughout the year, demonstrating exactly the qualities required of a music student at Newark Academy.
Eve and Erin have elected to study GCSE Music in Year 10 and their rapidly developing guitar skills will support them throughout this journey. Their commitment to our key stage three music curriculum has also done much to equip both students as they now look forward with anticipation to studying music in key stage four.
Wow – what a great period of work and study – well done indeed!
NA6 University of Oxford Experience
Attending NA6 provides students with the opportunity to visit universities across the country, each differing in campus type and characteristics. In June, we visited the University of Oxford, allowing us to experience a collegiate style university and different aspects of undergraduate life.
Our ‘base’ for the day was Magdalen College, a beautiful site with old buildings and a deer park. Here we received talks from the recruitment officer and had one of the law students ‘pop in’. This provided us with the opportunity to speak to a real student and ask any questions regarding university life and education. We found the talk on finance particularly useful for all students, regardless of which university they aspire to attend.
Our tours of both Magdalen and Brasenose Colleges meant we were able to explore the city and get a taste for student life alongside the many cyclists! Once back at Magdalen, we finished the day with a taster lecture regarding the Nazi occupation of France, focusing on the coding used by French resistance fighters; this was a fascinating talk, leading to many conversations on the bus ride home.
We are very grateful for this opportunity and look forward to further exploration into our post-18 pathways.
By Molly Smith and Elizabeth Gibson X12
NA6 Transition Day
On 28th June 2022, NA6 warmly welcomed the new cohort for this September. We were delighted to see the mixture of internal and external students attending.
The day started with a welcoming assembly from the head of Sixth Form Mrs Hamilton-Smith, where she introduced herself, our pastoral leader and careers advisor Mrs Brown, and our committed and inspirational team of crew leaders. She also discussed her passion and aspiration for NA6, and some of the great success stories that have passed through in previous years.
A breakfast provided by the school then followed, with the day then commencing as students went to taster sessions of their desired subjects, tours or workshops, with the support of X12 students. In these workshops, students learnt the importance of independent study at NA6, through the session on the Extended Project Qualification, which enables them to write and present on a subject they’re truly passionate about, preparing them for life after NA6, with key skills that they can use to support their post-18 options.
Furthermore, all students had the pleasure of joining the Student Union for guided tours and talks, on life at NA6 and the leadership roles they can access. At lunch time, all students came together to enjoy the beautiful weather with a picnic, allowing them to build new relationships and connections, ready for the new academic year ahead.
We believe another great cohort is coming up to NA6 and we can't wait to work with them!
By Rachel Birch and Lucy Eagles
NA6 University of Lincoln Experience
The University of Lincoln is one of the closest universities to Newark and is located near the city centre, making it ideal for students that want to stay local. On June 29th, NA6 toured around the campus to experience life at this award-winning university.
During our visit we were kindly greeted by our student guides in which we were taken around campus and through various buildings. We explored a modernist style main hall and then moved on to accommodation. Accommodation was in an apartment-like building, where each room had an ensuite, bed and desk area, at the end of the hall was a shared kitchen with a living room. Later on, we were introduced to a lecture hall, seats were arranged into a very similar way to that of our theatre hall. Students would listen to the lecture and take notes during the class, multiple screens would display PowerPoints and pictures relevant to the course.
In the latter end of the morning, we were given a talk about student finances, a crucial part of student life in the medical building. It helped to reassure us and also allowed us to grasp the scale that is starting university.
We then moved on to the psychology department of the university, where labs and scientific equipment are used by the students. This included set up rooms for psychological experiments and many labs for neuroscience and forensic students. Lastly, we sat in on a presentation by one of the psychology lecturers, on an interesting topic about perception. This not only allowed us to understand different points of view, but also gave us an insight on an everyday lecture at the University of Lincoln.
By Carla Roberts and Tola Olusi-Mason
In June, Miss Davies and a cohort of year 9 girls attended the IMA Festival of Mathematics and its applications at Sheffield Hallam University. The girls participated in many different activities, including a talk celebrating women in maths, playing MENACE at Tic-Tac-Toe and various probability games. The girls also constructed and subsequently destroyed a Dome based on the work of Leonardo Da Vinci. A fantastic trip inspiring the next generation of women in STEM!
Sports Leaders
A HUGE congratulations to all our Year 9 Sports Leaders who supported Newark and Sherwood Primary Schools in the Athletics trials. For all their hard work the Leaders were offered an amazing opportunity to run the Athletics Finals at YMCA.
The students worked extremely hard and were proud to be part of the Newark Academy Crew. Demonstrating excellence and aspiration the leaders were inspiring role models to the Primary School students.
In September we will have a cohort of Sports Leaders from year 8 up to year 13.
Watch this space for exciting events the Sports Leaders will run and organise in the community next year.
Newark & Sherwood Athletics County Championships
Well done to all the students in year 8,9 and 10 who competed in the Athletics County Championship Trials. An impressive turn out with over 40+ students heading down to the YMCA Athletics track taking part in both track and field events. The students showed a range of physical skills, tenacity and ambition to see them through the day, with some gaining exceptional results taking them into the championship finals.
Athletics County Finals
Congratulations to those students who made it into the Athletics County Championship Finals! After competing in a very busy afternoon all the hard work paid off and 14 of our Newark Academy students went on to compete in the finals held at YMCA.
On Thursday 23rd – Friday 24th June, 39 of our Y9 students embarked on their DofE Bronze Award expedition with great success. All students were required to self-navigate and walk for a minimum of 6 hours each day, set up a camp and cook their own food throughout. All members of this year’s DofE crew were absolutely amazing; passing this expedition section of the award – students will be formally recognised for all of their achievements on the DofE this year during the early part of the new academic year. Well done to everyone involved!
It is always great to hear how previous students from Newark Academy have gone on to do amazing things after their time with us. The work pictured has been produced by the fantastic Lucie Jenkins, who has just recently graduated with a BA(hons) degree from Nottingham Trent University in Visual Effects Production Technology. The level of detail, determination and skill involved in constructing pieces of work to this standard is extraordinary. Lucie’s work in this field started at Newark Academy with our Creative iMedia course and then on to The Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies and then NTU. Lucie is now considering studying for a Masters degree.
Congratulations Lucie – you’re a role model and inspirational young person!
If any prior students of Newark Academy wish to also let us know how you are getting on, and allow us to share in your achievement in future newsletters, please get in touch! We’d love to hear from you!
Newark Academy
Train to teach with the Nottinghamshire Torch SCITT