Newsletter 1

2014 / 15 RIVERS Message from Ms J Costello, Principal

In this first newsletter of the new academic year, I would like to take this opportunity to formally welcome all our new Year 7 students and families to Ormiston Rivers Academy. I hope that you have settled in well and are enjoying your experiences with us, and look forward to continuing to build positive relationships with you throughout your journey through the Academy. Also, I would like to welcome back students in all other year groups, including our new Year 12 students in Rivers Sixth Form who are now embarking on their further studies at AS and A2 level.

As always, we are delighted to share with you the diverse range of achievements and activities which our enthusiastic and talented students are involved in, and we hope that you enjoy reading about these for yourselves. We are looking forward to the rest of this term and to sharing with you our continued successes and accomplishments as we progress through this year and beyond.

Philosophy and Ethics students in Year 8 study a unit on Religious Persecution, particularly focusing on the treatment of Jewish citizens during the Holocaust. The Academy was delighted to welcome Rudi Oppenheimer, a Holocaust survivor, to speak to our students. This was a rare and exciting opportunity to understand the impact of the Holocaust, and it linked in to various current day issues of racism, prejudice and discrimination that some people in society still face.

Rudi spent the afternoon with our Year 8s and a number of Rivers Sixth Form students; sharing his harrowing experiences and answering some of the many questions they were eager to ask. Feedback from the students has been extremely positive; Kobe Lynam said, “I liked the fact that we got to meet Rudi, because we heard a real person telling us real stories, rather than from a book. It was quite intense and sad at parts, it was really amazing in general. My favourite part of his story was when he was telling us about stealing food to survive; it really made me think he literally would have starved to death if he hadn’t done that.” Grace Brocklebank added, “I thought that it was very touching, it made me think about the past, and made me realise that all the things we learn in RE and History are so important, as it shows how one man can change everything. I liked the fact that Rudi got a job helping to feed people in the transit camp he was in, because without him, other people could have died too.”

Miss Nickson, Subject Leader, Philosophy & Ethics, was delighted with the impact of the presentation, “This visit has benefitted our students in such a positive way. I am thrilled with the feedback, every single student treated Rudi’s visit with the upmost respect and considered the sensitive issues seriously. They were a credit to our Academy.”

Ten students from Years 7 to 9 represented the Academy at

the Local Democracy Week Conference hosted by Essex County Council at the County Chambers on 16th October. Students took part in a Question Time session led by Chairman Norman Hume where they had the opportunity to ask questions about democracy and local government. Activities included a budget setting challenge where students from schools across the county worked in teams to prepare and allocate Essex County Council’s budget for local and regional services.

The winning team of the budget setting activity was led by ORA Year 8 student, Laura Spackman. The following Ormiston Rivers Academy students were highly commended: Nathan Gay, Oliver Nicholls and Danielle Olliffe. Year 9 student, Nathan Gay commented, “The best part was the question and answer session with many questions from the younger members of our community about our democratic institutions.”

Local Democracy Week

“In July 2014, I had the pleasure of accompanying twelve wonderful students from Rivers, as we embarked on a four week expedition adventure to Ecuador. The expedition was run by a company called ‘Camps International’ who put together ethical journeys for students in order to help them develop a number of key skills, whilst benefitting local communities. We joined together with eight students from another school; Seaford College in West Sussex. Very quickly everyone became firm friends, which was a joy to witness and resulted in the group being fondly renamed as ‘Sea Rivers’

We travelled all over Ecuador, setting up in different camps in the Amazon, the North Mountains, Coti Paxi National Park and the Cloud Forest. We experienced a diverse range of scenery and weather conditions, ranging from the hot and humid, to the dry, dusty and cold. We worked on several different projects, many of which were physically demanding – carrying freshly chopped bamboo through the Amazon Rainforest was some feat! It was not always hard work, as we did get a few rest and relaxation days, which enabled us to experience the culture Ecuador has to offer.

One of the key highlights of the expedition was our five day trek through Coti National Park; summiting a 4600m high volcano on day four! An incredible achievement for all of us, which was very much down to the support and encouragement of our expedition leader Brad Jarvis.

The whole experience was truly amazing and I feel extremely lucky that I had the opportunity to share this with some fantastic young people who represented Rivers so magnificently. Each camp we stayed at only had good things to say about the attitudes, work ethic and friendliness of the students, which makes me very proud of each and every one of them. We hope you enjoy some of our memories.” Miss Lowther, Head of Science.

A special thank you to Mrs Head for helping to organise the expedition and her involvement with fundraising.

Ecuador 2014

Our first day, taken after a trip on one of the Amazon tributaries

Project work - finishing a play park.

Students and locals, after a hard day’s work rebuilding a community centre

6am on summit day - not the best weather to wake up to

“The highlight for me

was finishing work on

the climbing frame and

watching the local

children playing on it

straight away”

Bridget Bellamy

“Gave me the greatest achievement

of my life so far. An experience I

will never forget.” Kathryn Ponder

“It’s made me want to travel

the world. I don’t worry so

much about what to do

anymore… I just do it!”

Joshua Collier

“One of my most memorable moments was walking

into the bathroom at Camp… and coming face to

face with Tyrone the Tarantula! Not something I

would want to repeat ever again! However, despite

this, going to Ecuador was one of the best

decisions I have ever made.” Natasha Smith

We reached the summit! The whole group on top of Ruminahui Volcano

At the equator

“The most incredible part of the expedition

was summiting the Rumanhui Volcano. I

developed many valuable skills, such as

teamwork, leadership and communication.

However, the most important lesson I learnt

was not to stand too close to the backside of a

donkey!” Charlie Barclay

Keeping warm in the North Mountains

“I enjoyed the

whole trip. I would

recommend doing

something like

this. My favourite

part was the final

football match at

Camp Maqui,

where we won the

inter-galactic

world cup of

nations!”

Harry Bush

Football match against the locals whilst staying at Camp Maqui View across Quito - Capital City of Ecuador

Ormiston Rivers Academy held its Open Evening on Thursday 18th September. It was an opportunity for potential new students and parents, together with members of the wider community to see what the Academy has to offer and to view the amazing new facilities and build programme.

In the new Science department, biology students participated in experiments to discover ’what’s in our breakfast’ whilst chemistry students checked out flame tests and chromatography.

The Physical Education department showcased their brand new fitness suite and its impressive state of the art equipment. Throughout the Academy there were vibrant and exciting activities during the evening and a variety of sample lessons put on to give a flavour of life at the Academy.

Ms Joan Costello, Principal, said “It was wonderful to welcome so many visitors to our Academy and we have received tremendously positive feedback regarding the work we are doing to make Ormiston Rivers an outstanding educational provider.”

Open Evening

Here are the results for ORA Rugby fixtures; please congratulate our students on their achievements:

Year 8: 25th September: ORA 12, Sir John Payne 12

1st October: ORA 41, Becket Keys 0

Year 9: 24th September: Becket Keys 5, ORA 32

6th October: ORA 22, Anglo European 0

9th October: William de Ferrers 0, ORA 35

4th November: Plume 0, ORA 33

Year 7 students participated in the Thorpe Hall School 13th

Invitational Cross Country Relay championships on Friday 24th October. The course was 4.8km long with teams made up of four students each covering a distance of 1.2km before the relay change-over was made.

Eleven schools across Essex and the surrounding counties took part in the relay event including Thorpe Hall School, Southend High School for Boys, Cambridge International School, Southend High School for Girls, Eastwood Academy, Shoeburyness High School, Ormiston Rivers Academy, William Edwards, Cornelius Vermuyden and Colchester High School.

Miss E Williamson who accompanied the students to the event said, “The competition was very strong and this was our students’ first cross country event; however, they did the school extremely proud. Students had been training hard for the event at our after school cross country club held on Wednesdays.”

The Girls A team - Fern Webb, Aimee Freeman, Daisy Hogger and Maisie Randall, finished in fifth position. The Boys A team - James Rashbrook, Harrison Scofield, Sam Cook and Harry Duck - narrowly missed out on a podium position, finishing in fourth position. The Boys B team - Ethan Smith, Mackenzie Craddock, Lucas Newson and Taylor Tuckey finished in seventh position.

Cross Country

Year 9 girls have been fortunate enough to have played many of

their MESSA league games early within the Autumn term. There have been some outstanding performances from all players in the team and some excellent results. Despite an early and close defeat to Moulsham at the start of the year, the girls have since been undefeated, beating Brentwood School, Becket Keys and Brentwood County High. With a few more games to go, the rest of the season is looking promising for the team.

Netball training takes place on Thursdays at 3.20pm; the next fixture will be on December 2nd.

Year 9 Netball

We are pleased to report that the Girls Football team have sailed through the first round of the Essex Cup, beating Greensward School by an impressive 7-0. Their next game will be at home against St Martins.

U13 Girls Football

Rugby Inter-mentor Games

Students in Years 7 to 11 participated in the Academy’s first inter-mentor competitions for this academic year; each mentor group entered a team of seven girls for hockey and a team of seven boys for rugby. The results so far:

Year 8 Girls Hockey - 1st place 8JWA

2nd place 8KBA

Joint 3rd 8AWO & 8HAB

Year 8 Boys Rugby - 1st place 8JWA

2nd place 8HAB

Joint 3rd 8AWO & 8KBA

Year 9 Girls Hockey - 1st place 9MMA

Year 9 Boys Rugby - 1st place 9ZBA/ MMA

2nd place 9KRU

Year 10 Boys Rugby 1st place 10RNI

2nd place 10EMU

On 24th September, ORA students Charlie Barclay and Emma Welham attended the

prestigious Pixl Celebration Event held in Westminster to celebrate excellent achievements in their GCSE examinations. Students were invited to go on stage and receive a certificate and £20 WH Smith gift voucher; they met double Paralympic Champion, Hannah Cockcroft, and then enjoyed an evening of music and entertainment.

Emma commented, “Two of the students attending the event received a special award because they had achieved excellent GCSE results whilst overcoming great adversity in their lives. I thoroughly enjoyed my evening and would like to thank ORA for the nomination. The WH Smith vouchers will be very useful in buying revision books for my A Level courses.”

Emma Welham is the first ORA student this year to complete one of

the new MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) available through the Sixth Form.

“One of the opportunities that we have been given at Rivers Sixth Form has been to sign up to a website called FutureLearn which hosts a wide variety of online courses designed by universities all over the world. There are many courses that you can sign up for, such as Science, History, English, ICT etc. I have found that some of these courses complement my A Level courses well, extending and advancing my knowledge of the subject. I have finished one MOOC and now I am currently studying three MOOCs in addition to my A Levels; I am learning about cancer, heart disease and the formulation of different medicines. The knowledge I gain from these MOOCs is aiding my understanding of the topics I am learning about in class, therefore helping my education. The courses only require a couple of hours per week and run for between two to eight weeks; therefore they are manageable with all my other studies.”

Rivers Sixth Form Prospectus for September 2015 intake is now available and those who attended the Information Evening were able to discuss subject choices with their teachers.

Any Year 11 students who do not already have a copy of the prospectus should contact Mrs Head, Sixth Form Student Support Administrator.

Rivers Sixth Form students studying the Certificate of Personal Effectiveness course (CoPE) organised the Academy’s annual

Macmillan Coffee Morning on Friday 29th September. Elsa Baudart, Nealie Deacon, Josh Oxley and Alanis Surridge served tea, coffee and a cakes to Academy staff; raising over £70 for Macmillan Cancer Support. This is the first of many fundraising activities being organised by Sixth Form students taking the CoPE course, so keep your eyes peeled...

Macmillan Coffee

Morning

MOOC RIVERS Sixth Form

Pixl Celebration Event

Three Sixth Form students, Rose Newman Clark, Clare Thurtle and Lee Murray-Thompson are raising money for a plaque to be made and displayed at the Academy in memory of Private John Thrumble who was a former pupil at the school. This project is forming part of their CoPE course and the students commented, “Private John Thrumble was a local guy, in ‘B’ Company, 1st Battalion, The Royal Anglian Regiment. He and two other soldiers, Private McClure from Ipswich and Private Foster from Harlow were killed in a ‘friendly fire’ blast. Once we have purchased the plaque, the remainder of the money will be donated to The National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire; a year round centre of remembrance in honour of the fallen. The centre has over 40,000

trees, many of them are dedicated; there are also 300 memorials. John Thrumble’s name is engraved on one of the memorials at the centre.”

Memorial fund raising

The Science Department are absolutely thrilled with their new facilities and are enjoying working in such modern laboratories. The whole ethos of the department is incredible and visitors have been suitably impressed. Teachers are also making use of the huge open space we now have available to help teach students. Miss Neary’s Year 8 Science class have been looking at the links between exercise and the action of the heart.

A Level Science students have been busy utilising the A Level designated laboratory, both in terms of lessons and as a quiet study zone when it is not in use by teachers. Our brand new Science ICT suite is now up and running for students to use.

Year 7 students have made an excellent start to their Science course, the majority recently completing a cell model homework challenge. The effort students have gone to this year is incredible. Here is a sample of work from 7Q2.

Science club for Years 7 and 8 takes place on Tuesday lunchtime in S03. A growing number of students are attending and thoroughly enjoying the projects they have been working on. Any student wishing to join should speak to Mrs Anderson or Mrs Sexton.

Year 11 students have been busy completing their Science Controlled Assessments and have demonstrated excellent work ethic and determination. Students in P population start their Additional Science Controlled Assessment after October half term. Year 11 drop in clinics are available every Wednesday lunchtime in S07, for any students who wish to have some quiet study time over lunch or require additional support with their Science studies. Additional support clinics will be running, so keep an eye on the Science notice board for more details.

Science News

Art students at the Academy were invited by Fr Mark North, The Parish Church of St

Mary the Virgin, to create a piece of work suitable for an exhibition entitled ‘Hope’; a commemoration of the beginning of World War One.

Twenty five students, many attending the Art Club on Mondays after school, produced a wonderful piece of work based around the theme of WW1 dazzle ships - a painted camouflage designed to confuse enemy U-boat captains and therefore protect and give hope to the ships crew. Students spent time reflecting on what hope represented to people during WW1 and then created individual pieces of work that were joined together to make the dazzle ship image.

Year 9 student, Dylan Collingbourne described his painting as showing “how men died for their country… the fallen poppies represent the silhouetted soldiers walking home and hoping for the end of the war.”

The preview evening for the exhibition was a time to reflect, to hope and to remember the brave men and women of the Great War. Other centenaries and anniversaries of 2014 were also commemorated. “These young men were hoping to be home by Christmas and that this terrible human tragedy would be over” remarked Fr Mark North in his opening and welcome address.

Hope

“My amazing week on the seas” by ORA student, Ben Griffiths.

I have just returned from one of the most amazing and memorable school trips in the South of England. I, and my friend Jay, were selected to take part in the Cowes Small Ships Race 2014, Isle of Wight.

For the first five training days we had the chance to get to know everyone on board the ship and within the first couple of hours all fourteen children aboard became really close friends. This was an opportunity to meet people from different parts of England and from other Academies. We learnt many new skills; how to tack, jive, steer and become familiar with nearly all of the language phrases and words significant to sailing. In the evenings, as a crew, we played games such as spoons and cards; all students on board will have great memories of this astounding experience!

Our boat, called Queen Galadriel, was a Baltic Trader made in 1937 and over 32 metres long. She was originally built for trading between Denmark and Norway. After 1956, her sails were taken down and she was then purely a motor boat. In 1983, the Cirdan Sailing Trust bought her and reattached her masts and sails. The crew were exceptionally welcoming - we had a Skipper called Alan, a Mate called Tom, a Boson called Sam and a Fourth Hand called Izzy.

The weather for the Cowes Small Ships race day (Saturday) was not the best - it was raining and cold. However, there was a reasonable amount of wind in the morning that whizzed us across the start line at a whopping 8 knots. By the afternoon, the day had got clearer and the wind died down. We finished slightly earlier than 5pm. It was the first time that this boat had finished a race, ending up in eighth place out of twenty eight boats. After the race, in the evening, we celebrated with an awards ceremony. Sadly, we didn’t win an award as we came eighth in the race, but the night was still young, so we participated in the party, on the dance floor, throwing all of the moves we could, until 10.30pm!

The trip ended on Sunday 6th September. The crew of the boat gave us our Queen Galadriel certificates and our Competent Crew certificates. Our chaperone took a group photograph. It was then time to say our goodbyes, and to say the least, we all had a blast!

Cowes Small Ships Race

Thirty six Year 9 Geography students visited Abbotts Hall Farm near Colchester where they undertook various habitat investigations. They participated in several interactive learning challenges including salt marsh sampling and hedgerow studies along with a sea wall breach debate. Students also learnt how a salt marsh develops and changes over time. Ms L Judge, Head of Geography said, “Some students were unaware of what a salt marsh was or how ecologically important this natural resource is to habitats along the Essex coastline. It was a real pleasure to broaden the experiences and knowledge for these students.” Year 9 student, Chris Lloyd, added “I didn’t realise how many bugs and plants could be found in a simple hedge.”

Geography

Year 7 students were invited to write a piece on ‘how they can be outstanding learners.’ This initiative is part of the Academy’s ethos of

encouraging and developing outstanding learning attitudes amongst students in all year groups. There has been an excellent response to this challenge with many students writing wonderful essays. Here are a few paragraphs from their work:

Outstanding Learners

“To be an outstanding student I work to be the best that I can be. I try my hardest in all of my subjects and I set myself challenges to help me work to the highest of my ability. Being an outstanding student means I should never give up especially on my first try.” Milly Guilfoyle.

“I will do my best to achieve my goals and I will have self belief. I will always put my hand up and contribute well to class discussions. I’ll understand the targets I’m expected to achieve… I will always take in new challenges with pride and be ready for anything.” Bethany Robertson.

“I enjoy finding out new things and furthering my knowledge on a wide variety of subjects. I like to listen or learn from people that are good at what they do and how they got that far in life. I would like to think that people find me as a responsible eleven year old and hope that I can do well throughout my school life at Ormiston Rivers Academy and continue this through to my adult life.” Aron Aldous.

Ormiston Rivers Academy

Southminster Road

Burnham-on-Crouch

Essex CM0 8QB

Tel: 01621 782377

Fax: 01621 785445

Email: info@ormistonriversacademy.co.uk

Website: www.ormistonriversacademy.co.uk

Ormiston Rivers Academy has been a hive of activity during the summer, with the build programme really gaining momentum.

Students have already enjoyed the benefit of the new Performing Arts Centre, which opened at the end of May, and returned from the summer break to a state of the art Science department. The area has been completely renovated, inside and out, with fully equipped laboratories, a new preparatory area, breakout learning space and ICT suite.

In addition, much of the Academy has been redecorated with new flooring, ceilings and more eco-friendly lighting. The reception area has been completely re-modelled, as has the front of the building. Roofs have been re-layed, windows replaced and new heating units installed. The dining area space has been increased and has received an amazing uplift with new windows and floors, improved insulation to walls and redecoration throughout.

November 2014

18th / 19th OAT National Conference

24th Year 12 Performing Arts trip to Cliffs Pavilion, Southend

28th Year 12 History trip to Beveridge Hall, Senate House, London

December 2014

1st Year 10 Parent’s evening

2nd Year 12 /13 Student Finance Meeting

2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th Academy production of Hairspray

3rd Year 12 /13 Geography trip to London University

10th Sixth Form trip to London

17th Rotary Young Chef competition

19th Christmas Jumper day in aid of Save the Children

19th Last day of term - 1.30pm finish

January 2015

5th First day of Spring term

13th Year 11 Parent’s evening

20th Parents meeting for trip to Naples

23rd /24th Year 12 /13 Residential Geography field trip

Dates for your Diary

Learning Resource Centre

As building works continue at the Academy, we are looking forward to an exciting and brand new Learning Resource Centre for students and staff. This is due to be opened in early 2015 and will incorporate new and improved facilities and equipment, dedicated activity areas, quiet reading zones, information centre, a state of the art teaching wall and ICT provision.

Following our recent Scholastic book fairs, we are pleased to report that we will be purchasing some new text and fiction books for the library; we have also received a quantity of reading books from the Book Trust.

Additionally, the Academy would like to thank Burnham on Crouch Library for donating a wide range of art reference books which will provide a valuable resource for our GCSE and A Level art and design students.

More news will follow when the LRC is up and running - details of our launch date and opening ceremony will be available soon.

Academy Build News

The Academy’s musical production of Hairspray takes place on Tuesday 2nd, Wednesday 3rd, Friday 5th and Saturday 6th December. Doors open at 6.45 and the performance starts at 7.15pm.

Tickets are available from the Academy and via our Hotline 01621 787820; Adults £7, Children/ Concessions £5, Family £20 (2 adults & 2 children).