HEADTEACHER’S UPDATE

Home Learning Champions P.2 Y12 Author P.3

Stevenage Music Festival P.4 Cheerleading Competition P.5

Upcoming Events P.7

this issue

The Thomas Alleyne Academy Issue 16 — June 23rd 2017

Welcome to another edition of our newsletter. Thank you to

everyone for coping so well in the recent hot weather. We are

looking forward to slightly cooler temperatures for Sports Day!

Well done to our home learning success stories in this week's

newsletter. Miss Levett's class have produced excellent work

about Fairtrade. I was able to see some excellent discussions

taking place in her lesson about Fairtrade and the chocolate industry this week.

Congratulations to TAA Roses for their first cheerleading competition. They returned with silverware and new

confidence having represented our academy with pride at a new sport for Thomas Alleyne's.

Our musicians performed superbly at the Stevenage Festival of the Arts this week. It has been described as

the best secondary school music event yet and our talented students and Mrs Mercer should be very proud

of their achievements.

Mark Lewis

Headteacher

At The Thomas Alleyne Academy we place great importance on home learning and are pleased that our students take great pride in their work. We view home learning as an invaluable tool in enabling all of our students to make progress with their learning. Home learning provides opportunities to reinforce the skills being taught in school whilst providing opportunities for creative and extended approaches to topics. In each edition of the newsletter we celebrate some of the high quality home learning which has been completed by students at the academy, focusing on a small number of students who have impressed their teachers with their work. The students have been congratulated on their efforts and will receive a ‘Create & Succeed’ reward postcard.

Home Learning Champions! Our students have completed some fantastic Home Learning

projects over the past fortnight! Below, you can see some of

the brilliant work that has been done.

This week’s Home Learning Champions are:

8H1 for their Fairtrade homework. Highlights include: A Fairtrade cheese cake courtesy of Megan

Knott and Melody Brown, a rap courtesy of Jago Foord and a yummy Fairtrade chocolate cake from

Katie Houlihan and Abbie Ellet. The whole class made a great effort and really showed their

understanding of what Fairtrade does for farmers in developing countries.

I also asked my Year 7 classes to come up with a

creative piece of work based on the Google Expedition they took part in, and the winner of this competition was Emma Chapman. I have attached a

photo of her model.

Well done to all involved!

Mrs Cook

Deputy Headteacher

I've always been a writer, I've known it since I was a child, and have been in and out of writing all kinds of stories in my early teens, I remember writing a really childish one when I was 13. After dropping it for a while, suddenly the passion came back to me, and for years began writing the first in my self-publishing series, The Shadow Girls.

I chose to self-publish because I realised after a lot of research that most publishing companies are reluctant to take on unknown authors, plus my young age doesn't help. So here it is, after years of hard work, ready and available!

My book is the first in a series I'm planning, with book two already finished and book three well on the way. It is set from the point of view of Kitalei Coleman, a young girl determined to change the corrupt world she lives in. Each novel will be written from a different main viewpoint, the three main characters being Kitalei Coleman, Akira Tsuiyama and Yasmine Kuunichi. The story is a fantasy, and commences when the girls find a portal to another world, a world

Talented Y12 Publishes Book

that mirrors their own, but is all ruled by one man.

The people in this world are also genetically advanced, enabling them to 'awaken' - unlock their own unique fantastical abilities once they have passed their maximum pain threshold. Soon our girls may learn that they have felt that they never belonged on earth for a reason...

Book one on amazon Theshadowgirls.wordpress.com Chloe Walker Y12

Karting Club

Another great race day on Saturday 17th June, where students from Thomas Alleynes Karting Club raced at Lydd racetrack. All drivers drove extremely well. Molly Heaps and Molly Nicolas-Biles lap times are improving every time they drive on to the track. Sean Conway is driving very hard and getting quicker all the time and Julian did extremely well for his first run out and improved massively by the end of the day. Reese drove very well, coming second overall. We would like to extend a massive thank you to Graham Miller and Robin Kingham for being parent volunteers and running the club. Well done to all, keep it up.

Stevenage Festival of the Arts

Look Who's Got Talent! Musicians from secondary schools across Stevenage took part in the "Look Who's Got Talent" concert on Monday 19th June, including our own TAA Choir and boomwhackers group: BoomTAAstix! The Stevenage Festival is a bi-annual event and provides a showcase for the wealth of local artistic and performing talent in and around our town. Students were given the opportunity to perform in a professional setting on stage at the Gordon Craig Theatre in a very enjoyable evening of musical entertainment organised by Herts Music Service. TAA Choir sang "Read All About It Part II" by Emile Sande followed by "Count On Me" by Bruno Mars, ably accompanied on the piano by former TAA student Jonathan Price. In the second half of the concert BoomTAAstix! gave a very well-received performance of a medley of James Bond themes arranged by Ms Merser. As always, our students were a credit to our community both through their excellent performances on stage and their outstanding behaviour backstage. Special thanks go to Mrs Luchies from Stevenage Music Centre for all her hard work organising everyone and making the

event so successful. Many of our students have taken part in the Stevenage Festival several times and we are already looking forward to being back in 2019! The next opportunity to hear our wonderful TAA musicians perform is at the Art & Music Showcase on Tuesday 11th July. The Stevenage Festival and Fringe Festival continue throughout June and July, see http://www.stevenage-festival.co.uk for more details.

Science Primary Visit We were very excited to invite Year 5 students from Almond Hill Junior School to take part in some engaging Science activities. The aim of the session was to provide leadership opportunities for our Year 9 students and to provide some hands on Science experience for the Year 5s. Our students were fantastic Science ambassadors. They led the Year 5 students through a variety of experiments including a heart dissection. The Year 9 students had to adapt their activities to ensure they fitted into specific time frames and worked to ensure that every student took part in each activi-ty. This was a great opportunity for all of the students involved and we are looking forward to work-ing with other primary schools later this term.

TAA Roses Cheerleading Competition

On the 10th of June, a group of 18 Year 7 to 10 students took part in their very first cheerleading competition. Since the beginning of September the girls have worked extremely hard and dedicated a lot of time to perfecting their routine. On the day of the competition the girls were a little nervous but for the most part excited. After a fantastic warm up, the girls were ready to put on a show. During their performance the team showcased jaw dropping stunts and executed their tumbles to perfection. The girls left the arena feeling elated. Although the team were the only ones in their division they managed to bag scores between 4.4 and 5 out of 5 for the different elements of their routine. After managing to place within the top half of

the scores of the day the girls are ready to increase the difficultly of their routine ready for their next competition. Congratulations to TAA Roses!

Welcome to the fortnightly Sixth Form News. Here you

will find everything that has been going on in our fantastic

Sixth Form Department and any upcoming events/dates

that you may need to know about.

The public exams are well under way and all our staff have been delivering additional revision sessions, and students have been working very hard. Our Year 13 are preparing their final sessions and we will be wishing them all the very best at a special Leavers’ Breakfast on Wednesday 28th June. It will be sad to see them go but we will only be saying ‘au revoir’ as we are sure they will be back to say ‘hello’ and let us know all about university and apprenticeships.

Degree Apprenticeship

We congratulate Tayla in Year 13 who has just secured a fabulous apprenticeship at Vauxhall, Luton, and will be studying alongside her work for a 3 year Business Administration Degree at the University of Hertfordshire. Tayla beat strong competition for a place in several rounds of telephone interviews, team building events and final interviews. Congratulations Tayla!

Further congratulations are in order as our Year 12 student Chloe has just published her first book, Shadow Girls. The book is about a place called Haden, the earth’s secret side consisting of organisations, agents, super powers and baddies. The two main characters, Yasmine and Akira stumble into this hidden world, unlocking their destinies and discovering that they in fact never belonged in the world they were born in….

SIXTH FORM NEWS

To read more buy the book at: https://

theshadowgirls.wordpress.com/buy-the-books/

New Year 12 Taster Day – Thursday 6th July 2017

A letter regarding Taster Day was posted to all new students on 12th May. All Year 11 students who wish to join Sixth Form should attend the day as this will give them an opportunity to meet their new teachers and discover more about their chosen subjects. If your son/daughter has not applied to Sixth Form, but would like to join our taster event, please ask them to drop into the Sixth Form office for full details.

Year 12 Enrolment into Year 13—Friday July 7th 2017

Please note that there will be no formal A’ Level teaching on Friday 7th July. A letter has been sent via Schoolcomms to parents and students reminding them that all Year 12 students have appointments to discuss progress and progression into Year 13. There will also be an opportunity to discuss progress into Year 13 for students taking unreformed subjects after A level results day. Parents will be informed by August 18th if an additional meeting is required.

ISSUE 16 JUNE 2017

The Thomas Alleyne Academy

1 High Street

Stevenage

Hertfordshire

SG1 3BE

01438 344 344 ph

www.tas.herts.sch.uk

Upcoming Events and Notices

Help us to restore out pond!

We desperately need parents or friends who are willing to

come in or loan us their chainsaws/shredders. We need

help to dispose of all the trees

inside the pond. If you can

spare a day or a couple of hours

to help and support the school

Parental Forum

Thursday 29th June 2017

Year 11 Prom and 6th Form Prom

Friday 30th June 2017

Thomas Alleyne Summer Fayre

Friday 14th July 2017