Welcome everyone to our brand new Newark Academy Newsletter!
This edition captures a number of the key successes our amazing students have secured this term. Despite the ever present challenges it has been wonderful to see students and staff working together to deliver some absolutely fantastic achievements.
I am continually amazed by our students and couldn’t be prouder to be sharing some of their fantastic achievements with you.
On behalf of all of our staff team here at Newark Academy I would like to wish you and your families a happy and safe Christmas and a prosperous New Year
Chris Fisher
Head of School
Newark Academy has welcomed a new talent within the music department, and we are thrilled to provide the equipment for Kiva to continue as an excellent musician.
Kiva started to play the guitar at the age of 10, he plays it everyday and has come to really enjoy it. He isn’t sure where this talent will take him but for now he just enjoys the music. We hope to see you playing in one of our theatre performances in the New Year, Kiva!
Keep up the great work.
Denis Coleman
The first half term of this academic year was dedicated to learning about Mental Health during Personal Development lessons.
Students gained a real insight into how to manage their own mental health, how to support others and how to recognise worrying signs. At the end of the learning journey we welcomed a young, up and coming singer to our Academy, Denis Coleman, who came and shared his experiences of mental health and sang his new songs in a way to inspire our students. Denis got our students smiling, singing and dancing up, and even signed gifts for them.
He was uplifting and talented and definitely scored a few new fans here at Newark Academy!
School of Sex Education
As part of our sex and relationships education curriculum we have been working with a very exciting external agency called 'The School of Sex Education’.
Our students have had the opportunity to learn about many important issues through a dynamic and engaging group of facilitators who really connected with students.
Currently year 7, 8, 10 and NA6 have had sessions with this group, covering a wide range of important topics such as consent, media influence on body expectations and relationships, safe sex and STI’s. We are welcoming them back into the academy next term to run sessions with our year 9 and 11 students.
In November Lord Cashman visited our Academy, he was originally going to speak to students who attend our LGBTQIA group session during lunch time where our students have been learning about his amazing impact across Europe within LGBTQIA rights. However, we got more than we bargained for! Lord Cashman attended 3 special assemblies lead by Ms Daw, Mr Fisher and Mrs Rae on LGBTQIA appreciation within our community. He shared his own experiences as a gay man in the public eye and how important it is to appreciate the position of standing in the shoes of others and reflecting on how they might feel. A true and very real opportunity to reflect on the importance of celebrating difference and empathy.
It was a special and unique experience to hear from him. Students said it was "a really eye opening experience" Sam B in year 9 said "he really spoke to my soul."
This term saw students at Newark Academy take part in the election campaign for our new Head Students - Ethan Rice and Jack Bailey!
The campaign included some of our usual elements, such as a Q&A session, marketplace stalls and campaign videos. A fantastic week, culminating in the voting day, which was supported by NSDC Electoral Services. We have no doubt our newly elected head students will make a huge impact on our school community, starting with recruiting students for positions across each of other leadership roles across school.
Hi, we are the Head Students here at Newark Academy, we are Jack (left) and Ethan (right). We are proud to represent this school as your Head Students and cannot wait for the year ahead, filled with excitement and new ideas and we just want to make sure your voices are heard. If you have any suggestions please send them our way!
We held our second STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) Fair this month, with many local FE providers and local employers attending to offer students a range of interactive activities. The aim was to encourage our young people to consider the world of STEM for their potential future education and career pathways. The STEM industry has a huge projected growth, with estimations of 3.5 million jobs requiring to be filled by 2025!
NA6 attended this event to help them decide on potential post18 pathways. Exhibitors included many Russell Group Universities and other competitive institutions. Our X12 students had a great day and came away with some ideas for further research to support their aspirations.
A very important and thought provoking visit, one which we hope students enjoyed.
On Remembrance Day, our Academy came together to acknowledge and remember those who had given their lives in conflicts. We showed our respect through readings, musical performances which culminated with a performance of ‘Last Post’ & ‘Reveille’. The choir also performed a musical setting of the poem, ‘They shall grow not old’ by Laurence Binyon.
Some of our proud students representing the Forces in their uniform.
Year 11 students attending our local careers fair, which was organised by N&SDC. Many local employers, FE & HE providers attended providing our students with a fantastic opportunity to gather information, enabling them to make well informed decisions about their post16 placements.
Many of our year 11 students are well on the way to having applications in at their chosen destinations, however don’t worry if this isn’t the case for you, our1:1 career interviews are still taking place so if we haven't seen you yet we will do in the New Year.
Students and staff embraced magic and mayhem during #STEM club, which is one of our amazing Enrichment activities, practising their potion skills and casting spells!
Students of Crew 7 were set the inter-crew challenge to select a 'bake off' style treat to plan, prepare and make. They were also required to document the whole process from idea to final product using a story board format.
During Crew time students used this opportunity to plan and create the instructions for their chosen bake. Crew leaders gave students a storyboard and design sheet to use. Students were to then use their instructions to create and bake the chosen treat at school.
Finally, students then needed to print the photos and stick them to their bake off storyboard to complete the bake off challenge.
The winners of the challenge are as follows - congratulations!
1st place - Oscar Smith from Crew Bushell
2nd place - Charlie Carr & Grace Chamberlain from Crew Quick
3rd place - Julia Razny from Crew Bortone
In November this year, members of our Newark Academy Community Arts club were kindly invited by the Newark and Sherwood District Council to do some work alongside ImageSkool, creating graffiti arts murals on the Sustrans cycle track in Newark - spreading positive messages to the local community. The murals the students were helping decorate had previously been vandalised by members of the local community and as such the students were asked to come along and support spreading more positive messages, covering up what was there beforehand. The students had an absolutely amazing time creating these fantastic pieces of artwork.
Sophie (Y7) has joined us from Barnby Road and chosen to continue her cello studies. She also enjoys performing in our Academy Orchestra.
Eli & Lewis (Y7) have thoroughly enjoyed their guitar lessons this term. Well done both and great start!
We now have a String Quartet. This group rehearses each Friday morning and provides our emerging string players with a chance to perform in this historic ensemble!
Alice (Y9) has made a fabulous start in learning the flute this term. Despite only beginning recently, Alice has been able to join the Orchestra and apply what she has been learning in her weekly lessons.
Well done Alice, we couldn’t be more proud of you!
Henry (Y7) has also joined us from Barnby Road and brought with him, superlative percussion skills. He is also a fabulous trombonist when he’s not performing in the Orchestra as our drummer!
Paige (Y7) is continuing to enjoy studying the trombone and has enjoyed a super term developing her instrumental skills. Well done Paige, keep up the good work.
2021 has been a truly amazing year for Year 11 student Sam Hardy. Despite the disruption that COVID and lockdown has caused competitive sports this year, Sam has worked tirelessly throughout and kept himself fighting fit and ready to perform whenever he's had the opportunity - with outstanding results!
Sam loves the sport of boxing and works relentlessly outside of school to perfect his craft. This year has cultivated many accolades for Sam which can be seen below:
Congratulations on all of your achievements this year Sam and here's to a prosperous 2022!
We are so incredibly proud of the start our Year 10 Rugby team made this year getting off to a smashing start, beating both Will Rob and Magnus at their first meet. After finally being defeated in the quarter finals last year, Miss Isaac is determined to take them all the way to the championship this year!
Leah Trotter, a sports enthusiast who doesn't only play Rugby for Newark Academy but is also a key member of our Football team too has shone really brightly this academic year, contributing to both disciplines with some amazing performances. It was clear from the start of Year 10 that Leah would continue her passions for Sports, “I play to demonstrate the power I have, the strength my team has as a Crew and because I enjoy spending time with them”.
Congratulations to everyone involved in our Sports clubs this year!
Race for Life and Prostate UK
Back in October our students took part in a charity run in aid of Race for Life and Prostate UK. The event was organised by our NA6 Sport students as part of their vocational course. The whole school took part throughout the morning, and they wore blue or pink in aid of the charities. In total we raised over £1000. It was a fantastic event which saw the comeback of whole school events.
Sport at Newark Academy
Since September it has been amazing to see the Sports teams back in action. We have had competitions for year 7 – 11 boys football, 7 – 10 girls football, 9, 10, 11 & NA6 Netball and rugby festivals for 7 – 10 girls and boys, and our annual district cross country. There were 8 athletes that have qualified for the County finals in February 22. Such an important part of our extra curricular programme.
We are looking forward to next term where we continue with the Netball, football, rugby, and cross country and will hopefully see the addition to Sports Hall Athletics before we head to the summer sports.
Year 8 Football Team
The year 8 boys football team played some great football in the first round of the County Cup but unfortunately lost a very close game on penalties. A talented group of students who show exciting potential.
Year 9 Netball Team
The year 9 netball team played some amazing Netball at the Central Venue League (CVL) and the counties. They have shown great progression through the course of the competition and played well as a team.
Year 7 Football Team
The year 7 girls football team played an amazing first round and have welcomed the chance to continue the winning streak into the second round. Some excellent performances and excited to this team develop through their time at Newark Academy.
NA6 Netball
The first competition of the year was for the NA6 girls who took on the rest of the county in the County Finals at Nottingham Trent University. A wonderful competition for a very talented group of players. The played their own game and soared through to the semi-finals finally finishing an amazing 4th place. We were one of the youngest teams there and played some very established teams.
Well done NA6!
Newark Academy
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