The Basildon Academies

VOICEThank you to all the students for embracing our refined attitude to learning by supporting 'Chance Choice Consequence'. The feedback from students, staff and families has been very positive; these changes represent the continual improvements we make each day.

FOOTBALL SUCCESS FOR LOWER ACADEMY GIRLS TEAMCongratulations to our Lower Academy Girls Football Team who finished runners up at the annual EFL Girls Cup Tournament.

The competition was organised by the Southend United Community Trust who played host to 21 teams from schools in Essex.

MESSAGE FROMHEADTEACHER

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Year 8 student Caitlin Duffy was recognised for her performances throughout the day receiving the prestigious ‘Player of the Tournament’ award. Caitlin was delighted with the accolade; “I felt really proud to captain our team and to be part of the Girls Cup competition. It was a great feeling to be awarded Player of the Tournament.”

“Playing against other teams in such a big competition was very inspiring. I would encourage other girls to play football because it is great being part of a team and it keeps you fit.” Holly Godsafe - Year 8.

Each girl received a runners up trophy as memento of the day.

Our team played fantastically well and were unbeaten in the group stages; winning matches against Beauchamps (5-0), Castle View (2-0) and James Hornsby (2-1).

Having progressed to the semi-final, the girls beat St Martin’s in a tense penalty shootout. The reward was a place in the final where they were defeated by a strong Shenfield High team.

Back Row (left to right): Caitlin Duffy, Summer Burgess & Lilly-Ann Hiscock. Front Row (left to right): Morgan Horvath, Rebecca Ogilvie, Ruby Gray, Hannah Bates & Holly Godsafe.

I would urge everyone to read our Anti-Bullying Accreditation report that we have gained from The Diana Award. It acknowledges all the fantastic work our students and staff put into our RESPECT ethos at the academies. It is fantastic to have this work validated. The full report can be viewed on our website: w w w . b a s i l d o n a c a d e m i e s .o r g . u k / d i a n a - a w a r d - r e p o r t Well done to all our students for this!

Each girl received a runners up trophy as memento of the day.

Caitlin Duffy, pictured with her Player of the Tournament shirt.

Year 10 AP1 Assessments19th - 27th November 2018

Gary Smith

November 2018

Congratulations to our Young Leader Mentors at the Basildon Community Games, Lower Academy girls football team (and player of the tournament Caitlin Duffy), Respect Ambassadors, and Chris Hawkins for their successes this month. Well done to you all.

Also it is great to see our active learning ethos come to life with Jack the Ripper, our Year 12's supporting Lower Academy students and the Lower Academy creative writing workshop in action.

Year 8 AP1 Assessments3rd - 7th Decemeber 2018

Echo Freer & Year 7 student Elizabeth Atkins during the Q&A session.

Then the students began to create their main protagonist, from their physical features to their personality and their strengths and weaknesses. Some of the students came up with extremely strong and highly original characters. We also played `in the hot seat’ where students had to come to the front as their character and answer questions from the rest of the group. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day and the students produced some excellent work. Echo Freer.

AUTHOR WORKS WITH EXPRESS GROUPRecently I was invited to Basildon Lower Academy to speak to a group of mixed Years 7-9 followed by a creative writing workshop on Creating Original Characters. The students listened intently to the talk which was about my life, my career as an author and the process of writing a book from idea to bookshelf. And, although they were a bit shy about asking questions initially, once they warmed up, some of the questions were extremely interesting and searching.

After break, 52 of the students took part in a workshop in which they had to each create their own original character from scratch. First they had to think about the type of story they would want to write and then the character that would be best to lead that story forwards. We discussed the differences between a story and the plot of a story: plot is the series of events that take the story from beginning to end and relies on the main character’s reaction or response to the problems and obstacles they encounter.

“Having Echo come in was a fun and interactive experience and I would love to do it again.” Megan Dunn - Year 8.

“Echo told us about her life and how she became a writer, her books seem very interesting. It was a very inspiring day.” Amber Yoozooph - Year 7.

“Echo gave us some really good descriptive writing advice to help us create our characters. It was a really enjoyable day.” Helen Wade - Year 8.Year 7 student Summer Atherton

describing her character to Echo.

YEAR 13 BEGINONLINE MENTORING

ACADEMY RECEIVES ANTI-BULLYING ACCREDITATION

Year 13 students aspiring to go to university have been given further assistance with the introduction of an inspiring online mentoring scheme.

We are delighted to announce that the Academies have become the proud recipients of The Diana Award Bronze Level Anti-Bullying Accreditation.

Since January 2018, our student and staff Respect Ambassadors have worked in partnership with The Diana Award Aftercare & Accreditation department, to strengthen and evidence all of the Anti-Bullying Ambassador work that has been achieved.

To support our whole school message that bullying will not be tolerated, our Ambassadors have implemented some initiatives;

The programme is run by education charity Brightside, who have connected university graduates with our students in order to offer tailored advice towards their future goals.

Through a secure website, each of our students enlisted in the programme communicate with a trained volunteer mentor. The scheme is designed for the mentors to share their knowledge and experience in order to help our students to make informed decisions about their future. Such personalised advice can include what university life can be like, careers, money and part time jobs.

Sixth Form students Kris, Gabriele, Rodney & Michael working with Aye from Brightside.

Rodney Zokli, who has ambition to study Medicine at University, has found the mentoring programme very inspiring; “My mentor has given me some really helpful tips on revising, for example even if a question is correct on one of my past papers, he has suggested that I try to see if I can improve on the answer and understand it even more.”

Year 13 students alongside John & Aye from Brightside.

• Student led Respect Assemblies.• Creating an easy to follow and highly visible Anti-Bullying Charter.• The Bubble - an area at each Academy where students can go for extra support.• Planning and supporting the integration of Year 6’s into the school.

Left to right: Ms Kansaran, Ugne Saulyte, Lucy Halls, Cameron Loring & Mrs O’Neill.

CHRIS COMPETES IN INTERNATIONAL SWIMMING GALACongratulations to Year 11 student Chris Hawkins, who competed in a winning team that represented Britain at an international swimming gala.

Chris’s passion for swimming started at an early age. During the 2012 Paralympics he learned about the S14 swimming classification which is part of a structure that enables people to take part in competitions if they have an impairment. Inspired by this, Chris became a member of Runnymede Swimming Club.

Since joining Runnymede 2 years ago, Chris has competed for their team in local gala events and individually at a national competition in Norfolk, where he won the Silver Medal in the 25 metres backstroke.

In his latest competition Chris was part of a team that represented Britain against teams from Belgium and Germany at the Schwimmfest International Gala in Cologne.

Swimmers took part in individual races with points awarded to their team for the finishing position. Chris showed his versatility by taking part in 3 races; Front crawl, Breaststroke and Backstroke. The British team were victorious, amassing the most points and winning 20 of the 30 races.

The Schwimmfest tournament is hosted biannually, and Chris is keen to compete in the next gala, which will be held in Belgium.

“Initially when I joined I wanted to become a better swimmer and become more confident in the water. Due to the progress I have made, my coach suggested that I may want to compete.”

Speaking after the event Chris added; “I really enjoyed the experience, although it was my first time away from home without my parents. I was a little apprehensive before the start of the tournament but am proud that I have overcome barriers to take part.”

JACK THE RIPPER COMES TO LOWER ACADEMY

“I found it interesting because I found clues about who the killer is by using information around the school” Kevwe Okotoghaide - Year 8.

“I liked it because it was a really good way to learn about the different murders that were committed. The active lesson helped me a lot more because you go and investigate.” Sasha Marchant - Year 8.

Jake Heywood & Tyler Barton investigating the crime scene.

Year 8 students Hannah Bates & SashaMarchant looking for clues.

AMBASSADORS SUPPORT LOCAL CHARITIES

Respect Ambassadors from The Lower Academy have chosen Little Havens and The J’s Hospice as the charities they will actively support over the coming school year.

Ambassadors recently met Charlotte Winder, who is a member of the Havens Hospice Fundraising Team. Charlotte spent the afternoon with our eager students, commenting; “I talked with the Ambassadors about who we are and what we do. They seemed really engaged and interested and understood how a little bit of money goes a long way to give the patients the care they need.”

“The two charities are so important. They help offer children with life threatening conditions a place to go and live life with care and support. I am really looking forward to helping raise money.” Helen Wade - Year 8.

During Active Humanities, both year 7 and 8 students were transported back to 1888 to help Scotland Yard's lead investigator, Sir Charles Warren, investigate and hopefully solve the reign of the infamous Jack the Ripper. For three months fear and panic stalked the streets of London’s East End, and it was down to the super sleuths of The Lower Academy to help stop this criminal before more women were murdered and horribly mutilated.

Students walked 'the streets of London' collating and analysing evidence from each murder scene. They listened to key witness accounts and examined forensic evidence on each victim's butchered body. They became police sketch artists and finally made an arrest of the suspect they believed was capable of such a gruesome crime.

Did we catch the Whitechapel butcher?... who knows!

Lower AcademyTimberlog Close, Basildon, Essex SS14 1UX

Tel: 01268 552 536

Upper AcademyWickford Avenue, Basildon, Essex SS13 3HL

Tel: 01268 552 536www.basildonacademies.org.uk

YOUNG LEADERS INSPIRE ATBASILDON COMMUNITY GAMESA group of Upper Academy students excelled at being given the role of Young Leader Mentors at the Basildon Community Games.

In the weeks leading up to the event, our Young Leaders received training in order to prepare and plan the support they would be required to provide. On the day of the competition our students were given the responsibility to supervise over 200 primary school children, taking part in 6 different sporting activities.

SportInspired run events centered around team spirit, ensuring complete inclusivity. The Young Leaders made sure that, by interacting and encouraging children in their groups, everyone taking part had a fun and enjoyable day.

The multi sports competition for local primary school pupils was held at Basildon Sporting Village and organised by the charity SportInspired.

“It was a good opportunity to improve our leadership skills and boost the children’s confidence.” Siobhan Aksoy & Marcia Chinamora - Year 11.

“It helped with my communication and organisational skills. I enjoyed coaching students in Kung-Fu. A few students needed encouragement due to lack of confidence and I was able to help them by offering positive advice and support. It helped me realise that all people have different abilities.” Toke Iziren - Year 11.

“Part of the role was to keep my group on track. I really enjoyed helping and interacting with the children.” Colby Nicol - Year 10.

“It was great opportunity and a beneficial experience for both myself and the children.” Sharleen Onyia - Year 11.

“Mentoring gave us and the children more confidence as individuals and as a team.” Tega Atomre & Charyl Obeng - Year 10 .

Our Young Leaders will be taking part in further training, building on skills learnt and to reflect on their development, as well as seeing how these skills can be applied in the future.

“It was a pleasure to work alongside such inspiring leaders, they should all be incredibly proud. I look forward to continuing the legacy training and watching them develop further.” Millie Downes, Young Leader Manager - Sport Inspired.

On Friday 2nd of November, our Year 12 students came to The Lower Academy to assist with the launch of our English Reading Programme. This Programme was designed with the intention of improving literacy skills, supporting students to overcome misconceptions and, preparing students for their AP exams. Strong fundamental literacy skills are essential for students’ success!

Our Lower Academy students aspire to be as successful as our Sixth Formers, and thus, this opportunity instils passion and enthusiasm into our younger learners. It is also a fantastic opportunity to receive guidance and support from students who fully understand the pressures of school life and will encourage and motivate our students in conjunction with the English team.

YEAR 12 MENTOR LOWER ACADEMY STUDENTS

Year 9 student Scander Bouslama & Sixth Former Alesha Cull.

Sixth Former Katie Clifton & Year 9 student Dylan Carroll.

“The session was very focused. The one-to-one help was brilliant.” Scander Bouslama - Year 9.

“It was great to spend some extra time practicing my writing.” Radiye Eminsel - Year 9