St Alban's AcademyNewsletter November 2012

Message from the Principal

Acetate and card design by Divine Mbongo

Art students in Year 11 will onceagain be exhibiting at St Martinin the Bullring churchthroughout December. Thetheme this year is ‘waiting’. Thestudents have been investigatingmicro photography and lookingat animal and plant cells, sotheir idea is ‘waiting for newlife’. The exhibits will includemixed media, paintings andphotographs of ceramic pieces.

The students’ creative input hasbeen in demand recently as theyalso contributed ideas for glassdesigns in the new academybuilding, working alongside aprofessional artist and thearchitects. Everyone nowunderstands the highexpectations that are placed ondesign teams and realises whatan important contribution Artmakes to modern society!

Students’ Art Work Goes Public!

Sawir gacmeedka  ama farshaxanka ay ardadu sameeysay  ayaa loo soobandhigay dadwenaha.

The four weeks beforeChristmas is the churchseason of Advent.  Theword Advent comes fromthe Latin 'adventus' whichmeans 'arrival' or 'coming'.This time for Christians is aseason of hope andpreparation for thecelebration of the birth ofJesus.  We also lookforward to the time thatJesus will come again.

So Advent is for lookingforward with joy andexpectation.  This is justwhat everyone connectedwith St Alban’s Academy isdoing as we prepare for anexciting future in newpremises designed forinspirational 21st centurylearning and we eagerlyanticipate the opening ofour sixthform laterin the newyear.

New Building Update

Mr Dickinsonsays...

“The progress continues to accelerate, with theinternal finishes in some classrooms now complete. The floor

to the dining hall has just had its first preparatory coating and itis anticipated that it will be completed soon. The same can besaid of the Design Technology area. Carpets have now been laidin many of the other areas.Internal wall cladding is nearing completion and all looks good.External landscaping has progressed extremely well and the frontentrance outline can now clearly be seen. Hopefully, you have

noticed that the glass curtain walls are now in place.”

Medical Insights

The world of medicine is afascinating one to many of ourstudents and as the BritishNational Health Service is thebiggest employer in the country- indeed one of the top 3 largestemployers in the world - we

want to introduce our youngpeople to the huge range ofcareers available.Birmingham MetropolitanCollege offers a number ofmedical courses which qualifystudents for satisfying,interesting well paid careers inthe NHS with good progressionopportunities into more seniormedical and managerialpositions.14 Year 10 students visited thecollege in October and took partin 4 workshops which introducedthem to some lesser knowncareers in the NHS.

Students learned that there ismore to the NHS than doctorsand nurses and hopefully theywill consider a wider range ofclinical careers when thinkingabout their futures.

A Day in the Life of...

8am: Arrive at school – thebreakfast club, opened earlierby Mrs Harrison, is already buzz-ing with students. Superb sup-port from the student librarianswho ‘man the desk’ leaves mefree to support those needinghomework help or advice onwhat to read.

8.25: Students go to class. Ineed to plan the week ahead –at the moment much of thisinvolves getting ready for themove to our amazing new build-ing. I take in the papers andjournals we have delivered tothe academy and put them outin the library.9.05: I choose a new word of theweek and change the display. Iam amazed by the interest ourstudents show in this. It justproves how thirsty they are forknowledge. 9.55: First break. This is usuallyexceptionally busy. At this time,there is more of a focus onchanging books. A differentgroup of assistant librarians are

on hand to help out at the li-brary desk.

10.10: Housekeeping time. Iprocess new books to go out onto the shelves. The students atSt Alban’s love to read and reg-ularly borrow books so I need tomake sure there is a good supplyof new and interesting ones forthem.10.55: Second break. Again abusy time with Years 10 and 11.It is good to see the journalsbeing used.11.10: As the library is used as aform room, I take this opportu-nity to get out around the schoolto deliver journals to year 11and overdue reminders to tutorgroups.11.30: Phew! Finally a little qui-et time. I shelve the returnedbooks and tidy the library. Mymajor task at the moment is tosort a section of books intothose we are keeping and thosewe no longer need; these will begiven to charity.12.30: Lunch time. Although thelibrary is busy, this is a chanceto talk to and get to know the

students as individuals. I amalways ready to talk about booksand reading – my favourite topicof conversation.2.45: I contact the SaltleySchool librarian to talk aboutthe World Book Day event theCentral Collegiate Librarians arearranging for March – the plansare very exciting!3.15: A little time for one of myfavourite tasks. I go through thestaff and student‘recommended read’ forms. I

use these to help me draw up alist of books ready to buy inJanuary.4.00: Homework club. At thistime, students come in to usethe books and computers to dotheir homework; Mrs Lindsayand I are always on hand to helpif needed. I enjoy this time ofthe day as you can never predictwhat you may be asked about.Maths, English, Science, Geogra-phy, History, are all fine – but Iconfess that I am of little helpwith Spanish!4.45: I shut down the computerand start the last of the tidyingup before homework club endsat 5pm. Finally, I get to take abreath!

Mrs Butler - Librarian

The library is open tostudents every day

before school, duringbreak and at lunch

time.Come along!

Engineer of the Month

William Murdoch(sometimes spelt as Murdock)(21 August 1754 – 15 November1839)

William Murdoch was a Scottishengineer and inventor.As a young man, Murdochlearned the principles ofmechanics, practicalexperimentation and working inmetal and wood by assisting inhis father's work.In 1777, at age 23, Murdochwalked to Birmingham, adistance of over 300 miles (480km) to ask for a job with JamesWatt, the steam enginemanufacturer. Watt's partnerMatthew Boulton was soimpressed by Murdoch’sinventions that he hired him!The key invention for whichMurdoch is best known is the

application of gas lighting as areplacement for oil and tallowproduced light. Murdoch’s houseat Redruth, Cornwall was thefirst domestic residence to be litby gas. However, despite hispioneering work with gas,Murdoch never made any moneyfrom this invention due to hisfailure to obtain a patent.Murdoch died in 1839, aged 85.He was buried at St. Mary’sChurch, Handsworth. His life andworks are commemorated by astatue of himself, Boulton andWatt on Broad Street and adedicated carved Moonstonememorial outside Asda, GreatBarr.

St Alban’s AcademyAngelina StreetHighgateBirminghamB12 0UUTel: 0121 464 7811Email: info@stalbansacademy.orgWebsite: www.stalbansacademy.org

Dates for your diary

Monthly Maths Puzzle

Find four numbers, the sum ofwhich is 45, so that if 2 isadded to the first number, 2 issubtracted from the secondnumber, the third number ismultiplied by 2 and the fourthnumber is divided by 2, thefour numbers so produced areall the same.

RecommendedRead

‘Northern Lights’by Philip Pullman

“In this first partof the DarkMaterials trilogy,Lyra's friend Rogerdisappears. She and herdaemon, Pantalaimon, aredetermined to find him. Butthey need to learn the secretsof the golden compass Lyra isgiven, who is responsible forthe disappearing children andwho to trust before they arecaptured themselves. Theirquest leads them to the bleaksplendour of the North wherea team of scientists areconducting unspeakablyhorrible experiments...”

This book has won a numberof awards and was adaptedfor the film ‘The GoldenCompass’. It is a book thatshould be read for so manyreasons, not just because it isvery well written, or becauseit is set in a world close to ourown, or that the characters,especially Lyra, seem so real.I recommend it simplybecause it is an amazinglygood story.

Mrs. Butler

13th December – last day of termfor students

11th January – Target Setting Day21st January – Y11 students on

work experience this week18th January - official new building

opening event