Issue two Spring Term 2006

In this issue HSBC Visit3

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10

Young Enterprise

Sports News

Netball Festival4

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11

Parent Director

Joseph

Local Trips5

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12

House News

Home Grown Talent

Six months of hard work came to fruition in March when Trinity Academystaged its first major production, Joseph and the Amazing TechnicolourDreamcoat. Hundreds of parents and friends enjoyed the show andnearly £350 was raised for charity.

I was walking home from school when I heard a woman’s voicecalling for help.

I asked if I could help her and she said she needed an ambulance,so I climbed over the fence to get to her. She said she hadbeen there for half an hour and it was raining, so I askedif I could go into the house to get a blanket. I didn’t wantto move her in case something happened. It just came intomy head what to do.

I went next door to get a neighbour to help me call theambulance, then I unlocked the side gate to let theparamedics in. They took the lady into the house.They said well done to me.

Kieran Wright, 9Stanley

14-YEAR-OLD Kieran Wright was honoured with Trinity’stop award after rushing to the rescue of a neighbourwho had fallen in her garden. Kieran was presented witha Principal’s Commendation in front of the Academy’s1,250 students and staff in assembly.Mr Brew said that Kieran’s actions meant he fullydeserved a Principal’s Commendation, only the second tobe awarded so far at the Academy, and £25 in bookvouchers.

He said: “We are all incredibly proud of Kieran. Not onlywas he selfless in acting quickly and going to see whathe could do to help, but he kept a cool head and tooksome very responsible decisions. He is a credit to himselfand the Academy.”

Kieran does the Wright Thing!

THETRINITYTIMES2

WELCOME...Head Boy’s

I am thrilled to write this preface to the second edition of the TrinityTimes, which celebrates the end of a busy and challenging butrewarding second term at Trinity Academy. Since the start of theAcademy, I feel that many students have adjusted to the changes fromThorne Grammar School extremely well and are beginning to excel inall sorts of new areas. In my opinion, the best change has been theintroduction of the house system, which allows each student to beinvolved in sports and arts activities. The house competitions areexciting and highly competitive, with each house determined to takethe points. Another huge difference from Thorne Grammar School, isthat we are now able to enjoy the very best facilities that a school could offer. We have state of the artcomputer suites, a well resourced library and a fantastic lecture theatre. In the near future, we will alsobe able to enjoy using an amazing floodlit Astroturf pitch. Some people feel sad when they see the oldGrammar school being demolished, but it’s also fantastic to know that we’ll be able to boast some of themost incredible sports facilities in Yorkshire, as soon as the building work is completed.

Aaron Hodkin, 12Glover

Trinity students are banking on asafe financial future after gettingan exclusive peek behind thescenes at their new high streetbank. During last term’s EnterpriseWeek, Trinity formed a partnershipwith HSBC, with bank staff offeringstudents advice on careers inbanking and tips on saving.

In January, ten students from Year 7were invited into the newlyrefurbished HSBC branch in theMarket Place. The visit formed partof the students’ BITE course whichincludes personal finance, bankingand money management.

Bank branch manager BridgetLewis and her staff explained aboutsecurity and staff safety, how thecounter operates, the differentmethods of modern banking andhow cash machines work. Thestudents were given the chance toopen their first Livecash accountand were taken through thesecurity system to see the vaultsand safes. Ms Lewis said: “Thepupils’ behaviour was excellent andall seemed genuinely interested inlearning about banking and lookingaround the branch.”

In a special prize draw on theevening, lucky student HayleyHolden won four courtside tickets toa Sheffield Sharks basketball match.

Year 7 Visit the World’s Local Bank

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“I learned the difference between adebit card and a credit card. Openingmy first account was really good.”

Natasha Gardner, 7Bryant

On 19th January, my class went to HSBC bank in Thorne. When we arrived we metMs Lewis, the Bank Manager, who showed us round and gave us a brief talk on whatwe would be doing. She asked us who was going to be the first person to open theirbank account. Chelsea Card (7Emmerson) was courageous and volunteered quickly.When it was my turn I felt scared but excited. I opened a Livecash account anddeposited £10 in it. I was proud to be trusted to be responsible for my own actionsand to look after important possessions. After we had opened our accounts we wentbehind the scenes of the bank and looked at the offices and cameras and, best of all,the vault! It smelt fusty and damp because we were underground and it was acethinking about all the people above us in the market place walking around and goingabout their business and not realising that we were underneath them. The best thingabout the trip was seeing the vault and opening a Livecash bank account. And every-one would agree that the visit was both educational and enjoyable.

Hayley Holden, 7Emmerson

“It’s important that young people learn about how to handle their own financesand visits like this help them to understand about how banks operate as well asstarting off their relationship with their local bank. All the children enjoyed thevisit and we will be following up what they learned in the classroom.”

Mr McCrossan, Head of BITE

“The best bit was seeing the vault and the counter.” Samantha Roberts, 7Bryant

THETRINITYTIMES4

One Saturday at the end of January, Trinity Academyhosted an intensive day of netball coaching for over sixtystudents from the local primary schools. The event washeld in the sports hall, where there were many differentactivity stations set up to introduce different netballing skills.

Four Trinity girls took part in the coaching sessions. As wellas myself, there were Vicky Clark and Katie Brough, whoare both in Year 10 and Kerry Downing, from Year 13, andwe each monitored a different skills station.

We focussed on coaching the primary pupils to interceptand to shoot, as well asintroducing many other newskills. The students were fullof enthusiasm and it was ajoy and a pleasure to teachthem. They put100% effort

into every throw or catch, and it was clear from theirbeaming smiles and infectious laughter that each studenthad a fantastic time. Following the time on the activitystations, the students were put into teams and played aseries of mini three minute long games. The other Trinitystudents and myself umpired these games. The primarystudents were a lot of fun, highly competitive and eager,which was clear as they didn’t always wait for the umpire’swhistle before beginning!

We felt it was a genuine pleasure and an honour to havetaken part in the coaching session, set up by Miss Parsons.

It was evident that there were somepromising young netballers, who will

undoubtedly steal our positions in thevery near future!

Tanya Sullivan, Year 10

Netball FESTIVAL

The English department took 31 Year 11 studentsto the Poetry Live event, held at the newlyrefurbished Sheffield City Hall on the 1st February.

It was an enjoyable day and provided the students withthe inspiration to complete the poetry sections of theirGCSE examinations in the summer. It was also a rarechance to listen to some of Britain’s and the world’s mostcelebrated modern poets. The students watchedperformances by John Agard, Carol Ann Duffy, GillianClarke and Imtiaz Dharker amongst others, with each poetgiving insights into why they had written the poems.

There was also an opportunity to listen to a relativelyunknown poet, named Choman Hardi. The audiencelearnt that Choman had lived a difficult life as a Kurdishrefugee, but had chosen to express through poems herfeelings about that time and the Iraqi dictatorship whichforced her to flee her home.

However, it was Simon Armitage who stole the limelight onthe day, as he chatted with ease to the audience of Year11 students, from a range of schools across South

Yorkshire. Stacey Bagnall in 11Eades thought that he ‘wasfunny and used different tones of voices to present eachpoem’, whilst Linda Dickens, in 11Law, was also a fan ofSimon, stating ‘he was funny and actually made poetryseem interesting.’

The Year 11 students were a real credit to themselves andwill have undoubtedly picked up some vital tips, to enablethem to be successful in their GCSEs.

As part of our VCE Business course wehave been given responsibility for doingall the administration for the Academyplay. We organised a competition todesign a poster advertising theproduction of Joseph and the AmazingTechnicolour Dreamcoat. The contestwas open to students from Years 7, 8and 9, and the entries were judged by

the school art department. Jack Aveyard won thefirst prize, whilst 2nd prize went to JordanHardman and 3rd prize was awarded to HayleyHolden. All three received cash prizes whilst theother entries that didn’t win received a merit. Thewinning posters have been displayed around theAcademy to promote the play.

Andrew Wooldridge& Daniel Phillips Y13

Students Compete to Advertise Joseph

Poetry Comes Alive in Sheffield

A group of Year 12 students, including Glenn Waters, AnnaPriestley, and Sam Wood, accompanied Mr Bryant on a visit toDrax Power Station on Wednesday 1st February. Theywere researching material needed to enable them tocomplete their examination coursework.

The students were presented with many interestingfacts about the power station and were informed thatDrax has the capability to supply all of the electricitydemands for the whole of Yorkshire. The visit provided agood opportunity to see scientific theory, which they hadpreviously studied in class, put into action.

Despite the freezing cold temperatures, the studentsthoroughly enjoyed themselves and were appreciative of thewarm welcome they received from the power station staff.

Year 12 Experience the Power of Science in Action

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Lipps Inc are all Smiles asthey Win the Dating GameA group of Year 12 students, studyingAS Level Business, have been given thechance to produce and run their ownbusiness this year. The opportunity hasgiven them the independence to dealwith money and customers from acrossthe school and the wider communityof Thorne. More importantly it gavethem the hands- on experience ofrunning a company.

Our business was called Lipps Inc andwe all had individual roles fromManaging Director, Finance,Production, Human Resources,Marketing and even a CompanySecretary. Every week, on Mondayafternoons, we met as a company todiscuss what needed to be completedfor the week. At each meeting, wediscussed possible forthcomingproducts and ideas that we had. Wetalked through each individual pointraised on the week’s agenda, andminutes were taken by the companysecretary. We were also fortunateenough to be able to meet in theschool’s board room, making themeetings more authentic.

To give our business a kick start, wehad to think of a product that wouldbenefit the relative customers. Wecame up with the idea of a calendar,and some of the members of thecompany were responsible for taking aselection of photographs of Thorne.The school reprographics team helpedus by producing the final design of thecalendar and, within weeks, they wereprinted and distributed within schooland around Thorne.

During the time we spent in YoungEnterprise, we encountered a fewproblems. However, working as ateam, we overcame these under theleadership of our Managing DirectorLucy Warren.

As the weeks passed, we had toproduce a weekly diary of every eventthat happened, as well as notingdown what we had learnt from ourexperiences. We also had to prepare areport, a presentation and keep arecord of agendas for past and futuremeetings. We learned that thesepractices are not only vital to passingthe course, but are also common

practice in the real businessenvironment.

Our most recent development isthe production of a

commemorative book of theyear for leavers of Trinity

Academy. I hope that thiswill prove as successful

as the calendars!

Joanne Trotter,12Marks

THETRINITYTIMES6

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PARENTS of students at TrinityAcademy have chosen theirrepresentative on the school’sgoverning body. Martin Oldknowwon 54 per cent of the vote in anelection in which parents of all1,243 Academy students wereentitled to vote.

Mr Oldknow, who is Head of CivilProtection for South Yorkshire Fire Service, has lived in Thorne for20 years and has two daughters at Trinity, Kirstie and Gemma.

He was formerly Chairman of Governors at Thorne GrammarSchool and continues to serve on a number of communityorganisations including the Town Council and the localRegeneration Partnership, where he represents education. He isalso Chairman of Governors at Thorne Greentop Primary Schooland Chairman of Thorne Sea Cadets. Prior to the Academyopening, Mr Oldknow served on the Parents’ Consultative Group,which shared information with parents as the school was beingbuilt.

In welcoming him to the Board of Directors, Chairman NigelMcQuoid said: “Mr Oldknow has demonstrated immensededication to the community of Thorne and Moorends over theyears and we are delighted that he will be continuing that asparent governor for the Academy. The Academy is a partnershipbetween its students, staff, the community and parents and wehave always recognised the need for parents to have their voiceheard by the representative of their choice. Mr Oldknow bringsplenty of experience to the role and will be a major contributor toboth our Board Meetings and in the general advice which he isable to give to me and to the Principal.”

The other candidates inthe election for parentgovernor were MikeReeder and David Duvall-Hall, both of whom haveadded their names to alist of more than 40 otherparents who haveexpressed an interest inhelping in the work of theAcademy. This includesbeing members of theAcademy Council, anadvisory body whichcomprises students, staff,parents andrepresentatives of the localbusiness community andwhich reports directly tothe Board of Directors.

One of Trinity’s chosen charities is BluebellWood Children’s Hospice, a charity raisingfunds to build a dedicated children’shospice to serve families living in theSouth Yorkshire and North Midlands area.Currently in this catchment alone thereare over 200 children suffering fromlife-limiting and terminal conditions, whoare not receiving the support and carethat they need.

To date, Trinity Academy has raisedmore than £1,400 for Bluebell WoodChildren’s Hospice. This includes:Staff Donations £200Christmas Cards £311Carol Concert £460Sale of cakes £100Joseph £348

You can find out more about this charity atwww.bluebellwood.org

As the father of two students at theAcademy I come to the Board ofDirectors, as the governing body isknown, with a parent’s perspectiveand as the representative of allparents and the local community. Iam one of the points of contact forparents and will be happy to raiseany issues they wish the Board ofDirectors to address. I was involvedin the establishment of Trinity at avery early stage and have a goodknowledge and understanding of itsethos and operation. I’m grateful toeveryone who voted for me andlook forward to making mycontribution to the Academy’sdevelopment.

Martin Oldknow, Parent Director

Parents HaveTheir Say

THETRINITYTIMES8

HOUSE NewsHello fellow Kings. My name is James Cook andI’m your male House Captain. It is a privilege tobe the first Captain of the best House in TrinityAcademy. I’m really pleased to see that everyone inKings House has risen to the challenge of Housecompetitions. As everyone knows, we’re doingreally well in the league. If everyone keeps pullingtogether and supporting all the House events, I’msure we will bring the House Cup back to theKings House this summer.

Hi, I’m one of your House Captains,and I’m very proud to say so. Wehave tried our hardest throughoutthe year and now our efforts arestarting to pay off. We have had ourfirst win - the first of many, I hope. Ibelieve that, if we keep our effortsup, this will be achievable and wewill come out on top. It will only

come as a team effort though andwe need everyone to take part.Throughout the year I have seenmany of you take part in the activitiesand our standard of play is amazing.Just keep trying and we will see Poetstriumph.

Linzi Goulden

KINGS

POETS

We have had a great response fromthe Kings House to thecompetitions so far, and thisshows in the scores we havealready achieved. Even though wegot off to a slow start, we soonshowed those Shepherds and Poetswhat we are really made of. I’msure that we will continue to do aswell in the next competitions.

Amy WhiteKings House CaptainsAmy White & James Cook

Poets House CaptainsLloyd Chapman & Linzi Goulden

Motivation is the reason people have the desire to achievetheir very best. This is the mentality I want all Poets totake on board for all the forthcoming competitions. Iwould like as many Poets as possible to come and takepart and try their very hardest to win. If we all come tothese events with the right attitude I’m sure we can win.

Remember - If you do not believe you can doit, you will not succeed. So let’s start tobelieve.Winning is not everything. It’s the only thing.

Lloyd Chapman

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Being a House Captain has been anhonour this year and I’ll be sad torelinquish the title next year. I amvery happy with the commitmentshown by all the Shepherds in houseevents. I hope it continues so that wehave a successful first year at Trinity

and set the trend for future years.A big ‘Thank you’ must go to MrsTaylor; without her, ShepherdsHouse wouldn’t be half what it is.Enjoy the rest of the competitions.

Rory Hillyer Shepherds House CaptainsKerri Downing & Rory Hillyer

Hi Shepherds - As you know I’m one of yourHouse Captains. I’m very pleased with theresults so far and I know that we will carry onunited as always. I’d like to thank all thatparticipated in the events gone by.

There are plenty more competitions coming upand I look forward to winning those.Come on you Shepherds.

Kerri Downing

Year 11 PromFriday 30th June 20066.30pm for 7.00pm start ‘til 10.30pm

By Principal’s invitation to Year 11.Come and join us in celebrating the end ofyour GCSE year at Trinity Academy.

3 7.5 9 9 6 7.5 9 6 3 3 6

6 3 6 3 3 3 6 9 6 9 3

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The evening will include:• Reception• Three course meal• Presentations• Surprises!• DiscoEntry by ticket and smart dress code applies

Our first match was against The KingsAcademy. We started well withAnthony Bull scoring the first trywhich, with Shaun Roberts’conversion, put us ahead 7-0. In thesecond half, Bradley Harper showedgood strength and determination toscore a brilliant try and we finishedthe game with a 12-10 win.

Then we played Emmanuel College.This team had just beaten Kings 30-0so we were nervous. In the first half

we were evenly matched and there wasno score. Emmanuel started thesecond half by bringing on theirNumber 10. He was bigger thanShaun and faster than Anthony, sowe had trouble bringing himdown, and he scored the first tryof the game. Almost immediatelyhe was side-stepped by ZakSmith, who dived for theline to score our first try.This was quicklyfollowed by a

conversion from Shaun and a secondtry from Antony. The match endedwith a score of 19-14 and another winfor Trinity.

Antony Bull,Year 8 Rugby

Captain

THETRINITYTIMES10

The under 18TrinityBadmintonteam of GlennRobson, JamieHodges, GavinThetford andMartin Handleytook part inthe Yorkshire Schools finals at BradfordGrammar School on the 16th March.Theteam played three matches of singles anddoubles against Bradford Grammar, St Mary’sCollege and Hymers College, both fromHull.

Although the team lost 7-0 to Bradford, 5-2to St Mary’s and 6-1 to Hymers, the qualityof badminton was of a very high standardand so it should have been as these werethe best school teams in Yorkshire. The teamwill have gained great experience from thecompetition and can look forward tocompeting next year, as all the boys will stillbe at Trinity.

Badminton Boys showCourage and Determinationin the face of Defeat

Jordan shows he can stand the heatStudents studying Food Technology are being given theopportunity to be Celebrity Chef for a day.

As part of a work experience initiative organised byMrs Scott in collaboration with Mr Oldale,Trinity’s Catering Manager, students are beingencouraged to work alongside catering staff inTrinity’s kitchen, preparing, cooking andserving food.

Mr Oldale said “The experiment withstudents in a working kitchen helpsto give them a brief insight into theworld of catering. From a personalpoint of view, I’ve found thestudents’ enthusiasm andwillingness to learn veryrewarding, and this can onlyhelp develop the relationshipbetween ourselves and ourcustomers. I hope thisinitiative will continue anddevelop in the future.”

TRINITY TRIUMPHS at Emmanuel Schools Rugby Tournament

Year 8 Boys - Captain Antony BullPlayed The Kings Academy Won 12-10Played Emmanuel College Won 19-14Year 10 Boys - Captain Andrew BarrasPlayed Emmanuel College Won 12-0Played The Kings Academy Won 14-0

Jordan Barwell, 8Dalby, proudlydisplays his pizzas

I recently took part in the school play, alongwith other members of staff and students atthe Academy, including Mrs Steele and MrMapletoft. The lively version of ‘Joseph and

his Amazing Technicolor DreamCoat’ took place over three days,from the 1st to the 3rd March.

The play is a musical version of theBiblical account of Joseph, who was

a young boy sold into slavery byhis family. He became a slave in

Egypt, where he found favour inthe Pharaoh’s eyes.

I played the part of the Pharaoh, butvery originally in the style of the rockand roll King, Elvis! It was an honourto be asked to take part in the

production, let alone to take on such agood role in the play.

This opportunity allowed me the chance toget to know the students and to have funat the same time. I found that gettinginvolved with the students away from theclassroom shows that we are not justteachers, but are also humans, who canhave a laugh and even swing their hipslike Elvis.

The play was hard work, but I enjoyedevery single moment of it. The students

were great throughout rehearsals, risingto the challenge brilliantly. It was apleasure to work with them and towitness the final performance; anamazing spectacle in which all thecast shone.

Just one more thing to add,the costumes were fantastic

and I even got thechance to wear a wig,which was the first

time I’ve had hair forthe last twenty years!

Mr ‘Elvis’ Kendell

11

At the beginning of January I wasapproached by Mr Mather andasked if I would play the lead role

in the school production of Joseph.He added that it was only seven weeks

away! I agreed to do it and, with such ashort deadline, I found myself with no time to

be nervous.

I found the rehearsals very difficult at first becauseeveryone else had had more time to learn their parts.

But I received lots of support to learn the words and,with the help of with some students who came from localtheatre companies, I even managed to drop some actingin too.

On the night of the first performance we were all reallyexcited and, before we knew it, the three nights wereover. I really enjoyed myself playing Joseph and am gladthat the show proved to be such a huge success.

James Bunce, 10Topham

NathanPorritt, aYear 11student at

the King’s Academy,got his first EnglandU16 ‘call-up’ inOctober 2005 to playfootball against Wales,since then he hasgone from strength tostrength, scoring thewinning goal againstScotland to win 2-1.The England U16squad are now jointwinners, with Wales,of the Victory Shield.

Nathan Porrit Y11

Emmanuel Schools FoundationIs nurturing home grown talentin all three of its schools

Trinity AcademyChurch Balk Thorne Doncaster DN8 5BYT: 01405 813 000 E: enquiries@trinityacademy.org.uk

THETRINITYTIMES12

The Junior Great North Run is heldannually at the Gateshead -Newcastle Quayside and attractshundreds of young athletes. I

was feeling nervous before the race andhad butterflies in my stomach. TheCBBC presenters were there and it wasgoing to be broadcast on TV, whichmade me even more nervous!

But when the gun went off, my nervescompletely disappeared! I was at the frontrunning alongside my training partner, Jamie.He ended up winning the Boys’ Race and camefirst overall! I won the Girls’ Race and came infifth position overall. I was awarded a huge trophyand then I was interviewed on the television.

I was so happy, and my mum and dad were veryproud of my achievement!

Sigourney Bell, Y8

Yorkshire cricketer James Pickersgill has been watching closelythe fortunes of the England team in India - because the youngplayer will soon be heading there himself. James, 15, has caughtthe eye of selectors to be picked for a training camp in April.

He will represent his county and his country as one of only two youngYorkshiremen on the ten-day international camp.The camp will be based inMumbai and will include one match against a local side as well ascoaching by the Indian Cricket Board.

Bowler James comes from a family of players, led by his dad Robert, whoplayed for Yorkshire under 21s and 25s, and his brothers Jonathan, 17 andDavid, 12. James, who has represented Yorkshire in all age groups so far,said: “I’m really looking forward to it. It will be a great experience.”

James Pickersgill, Y10