July 2017

DEAR PARENTS/CARERS

With Year 11 and Year 10 exams finally over we have a wide range of events and opportunities

happening across the academy: Sports Day, Year 10 work experience, History, Geography and DT visits,

an articulacy project, college taster days, careers events, the Belgium residential, reward trips etc.

Special congratulations to the Year 10 students who have been selected as prefects for Year 11. Head

Students will be Georgina Rockett and Yasmin Tatchell. Deputy Head students will be Charlie James and

Uttam Magar.

As we finish this year we would like to thank you for your continued support and wish you a sunny happy holiday.

Wonderland Winners

Buckler's Mead Academy's talented writers

have done it again. Pictured are some of the

33 talented writers who have been selected

to be featured in a book called 'Welcome to

Wonderland' published by 'Young

Writers'. Miss Wadham, who ran the

competition said, 'Once again, I am

delighted that Buckler's Mead has been

selected to appear in this prestigious

publication, reflecting our students' many

story writing talents.'

Winners: Lauren Nicole Bagwell, Hannah Bailey, Hope Greenslade, Emma Gage, Eleanor Mary Kirk,

Melissa Johnson, Pedro Alves Ferreira, Louis Samuel Batson, Liam Collins, Kenneth Seterra, Georgia

Leanne Ring, Drew Willow Verhoest, Joshua Kay, Cerys Leigh Barry, Alphi Baby, Kayleigh-Anne

Dare, Isabelle Basstone, Holly Elizabeth Brown, Sophie Beverley, Candice Pitman, Evie Callaghan,

Lewis Rose, Eve Perry, Jake Hooke, Corey Stobbs, Chelsea Smalling, Cortez Louise Barton, Jasmine

Mitchell, Summer Sophia Lloyd, Nina Michelle Massey, Lucy Smith, Katie Batty, Layla Meredith.

Miss Wadham

Headteacher Deputy Head Deputy Head Assistant Head Assistant Head Assistant Head Business Manager

Steve Lawes Visit

Buckler’s Mead Academy are delighted to continue to work with Steve Lawes, who is coaching and mentoring a group of high-achieving pupils in 'essential life skills', to prepare them for success in further education and the world of work. Steve Lawes is an ex-student of Buckler’s Mead and now operates as an Associate Director with a small consultancy based in Bristol, specialising in UK Defence. Steve is pictured here on the Mentoring Induction day with the Academy cohort he will work with throughout Year 11.

Miss Wadham

Figurative Sculptures by Year 9

Year 9 Art students have been exploring how to create human form sculptures using wire and mache techniques. These little figures are designed to show correct proportions, movement and a personal meaning in their pose—see our website for more artwork.

Amy Bowden Jess Miles Jay Evans

GCSE Year 11 Final course work and exam pieces

Congratulations to Year 11 on some extremely talented Art and Photography work. Here are just a few of them.

Rachel Toogood Sian Dennet Sandra Zeiba

Happy Retirement

After 18 years of service at Buckler’s

Mead Academy, Sue Burrows has

finally decided to hang up her oven

gloves and will be retiring from the

Academy kitchens on the last day of

term. We wish Sue the best for a

long, happy and healthy retirement.

Buckler’s Book

Swap

Monday 17 July Lunch in the Atrium

Do you have any books collecting dust on your shelves?

Do you need a new reading book before the summer holiday?

If so, come and get involved in Buckler’s first ever Book Swap!

To get involved you will need to search at home for any unwanted books. Then, take your books to your tutor by Friday 14 July. In

return, you will receive a token for each book you bring. On Monday 17 July, you will be able to use your tokens to purchase a

range of reading books. See Miss Egan for more information.

Year 6 G&T Federation Event

Year 6 Pupils from a range of local primary schools attended Buckler’s Mead Academy to take part in a Gifted & Talented Project with the theme of COLOUR.

W o r k a t t h e Academy, which lasted a number of weeks, was delivered through ICT, where they looked at the different seasons, how animals use camouflage, created their own company logos and packaging boxes and on the final presentation evening delivered a speech on their work as well as carrying out a Dragon’s Den sales pitch, to their parents and teachers.

Mrs Bell

HEARTS AND MINDS COMPETITION

Pride students from Bucklers Mead have entered the N A S U W T Hearts and Minds Diversity competition. Students designed motifs to represent letters of the LGBTQ alphabet on fabric. The piece was stitched together by local seamstress Janet Bird and is the culmination of a month long project by the club. Miss Wadham

Year 9 have something to talk about!

Year 9 students had a fantastic week putting their vocal talents to good use as they undertook an intensive week long ‘Articulacy’ course. Students were taught how to become more

confident when talking to an audience, how to become fluent orators and sat the Articulacy exam. Team games were used to encourage the students to talk and listen to each other. Students were expected at all times to express themselves and talk about

themselves and each other in a positive way. The Academy would like to thank Articulacy tutors Trevor Bradshaw and Darren Parr for a dynamic week which thoroughly benefited the students.

Miss Wadham

Sports Day 2017

Another great Sports Day took place on Thursday 13 July at Yeovil Recreation Athletics track. The perfect weather saw some great individual and team performances, with 5 school records being broken and 2 new records being set for a new event. They were:

Records broken:

Year 7 Girls 800m Hazel Lock 2m 52s Girls Long Jump Hazel Lock 4m 20cm Girls Javelin Charlie Guppy 15m 08cm

Year 8 Girls 300m Kayleigh Dare 50s.34

Year 10 Girls 300m Charlie James 51s.16

Records set:

Year 7 Boys 300m Cory Kennedy 49s.56

Year 8 Boys 300m Jack Mills 48s.09

All those students who came 1st, 2nd or 3rd received

medals from Mrs Gorrod.

Green Power Car Event

On 22 June we attended our first Green Power Car Race Event in Newquay. We are very proud and happy to announce that with our car “Buckler’s Enigma” we won t w o t r o p h i e s : “ B e s t Newcomer” and “Spirit Of Green Power”. Our success is

down to some great team work and advice from our teachers and of course help that our sponsors have been able to give! After a successful practice we started Race 1. We had 3 pit stops and a record lap of 4:10. We came 13th overall. During the pit break we removed and refitted the nose cone and changed the batteries ready for the next race. Race 2 was a little slower but again we had another fastest lap time of 4:33:75 and came 20th in the race. Overall we were very proud and pleased at the outcome and cannot wait for our next race in September at Castle Combe. We would like to thank all of our sponsors for their support we will arrange a date for them to meet the team, watch a presentation and a demo of the car up and down our car park. Official photos will be issued in the next two weeks. Green Power Car Club/ Mr Tofts

At the time of writing I am unable to give exact points

for each year group but a particular mention must go to

the Year 7 Falcons team and the Year 8 Kestrels team

who both won their respective Year group’s competition

for the first time. Combining the results from Years 7-10 meant the overall results were:

Eagles 1st Hawks 2nd Kestrels 3rd Falcons 4th

This will contribute to the other Inter-House events that have taken place throughout the year to decide the overall House Winner for 2016 — 2017. Mrs Thomas

Engineering Challenge Day Fleet Air Arm Museum

Twelve Year 7, Year 8 and Year 9 students took part in the Engineering Challenge Day at the Fleet Air Arm Museum. They had to design and build a flight deck for all weather use to launch an aircraft by catapult with the deck rolling and pitching and build an aircraft. There was also an electronic switch system with LED Lights to control the launch System.

Each team consisted of six students each with a task to perform. The team consisted of Leader, Designer, Electrician, Purchaser, Skilled Operator and Presenter.

Team Scimitar consisted of Chris Lintern, Ollie Beagley, Rory Jennings, Adam Reed, Drew Verhoest and Hannah Bailey. Everyone was kept busy right to the end and produced a good product with a power point and all the information on a laptop.

Team Lynx was made up of Liam Parry, Stacey Gavin, Ethan Smalley, Holly Lewandowski, Ryan Collins and Chelsea Smalley. They worked hard at building the flight deck and aircraft, with both teams managing the electronics quite easily.

At the presentation and test of the product both planes launched successfully despite a few technical issues for Team Scimitar.

Team Lynx came 6th overall out of twelve teams and it was very close at the front with only 5 points separating 1st and 3rd. Team Scimitar came third, a good result considering a lot of team members had never completed this type of task before. A great day out was had by both teams and although they found the task hard they all rose to the occasion and had an enjoyable day.

Mr Tofts

Year 10 Imperial War Museum and Old Operating Theatre Trip

On 11 July the History department took 45 Year 10 students to London to support their classroom learning. We visited both the Imperial War Museum and the Old Operating Theatre. These helped reinforced the GCSE studies on the First World War and Health through time. At the Imperial War Museum the students were able to examine over 1300 objects from across the conflict, including a restored bi-plane, a range of deadly weapons as well as handwritten letters from the front. One of the highlights of the exhibit was being able to walk through a reconstructed front line trench which really brought home to the students the sights, sounds and emotions the soldiers would have felt a hundred years ago. The Old Operating Theatre gave the students an opportunity to see what it was like to go through medical procedures in Victorian times. One brave volunteer demonstrated the equipment used to amputate a limb without any modern anesthetics and equipment. This trip gave the students a chance to get hands on with the past as well as give them knowledge and experiences that will benefit them in their exams next year. Mr Coulter

Maths Workshop

Ex student Ruairi Fox returned to Buckler’s Mead Academy to flex the grey matter of a High Ability maths group. His thought provoking workshop involved exploring ’Maths Hacks’ and how to find patterns in Maths to solve problems quickly. Ruairi has just spent two years at Exeter Mathematics school and will be starting a Computer Science degree in September. Miss Wadham

Buckler’s Bards enjoyed a writing workshop by the talented marine Anne Boaden, where they explored the five senses. Pupils were asked to write about their surroundings using inventive, sensory language.

Miss Wadham explained “Anne is a writer and helicopter plot and her experiences have given her a perceptive and unique teaching method. We are delighted to have her working with us”.

Anne was presented with a Buckler’s Bards trophy which was kindly donated by Timpsons.

Buckler’s Bards would like to thank Marcus Bishop, manager of Yeovil Waterstones for a great talk on his favourite books. This was a very timely talk on the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter and Marcus explained to us the power of Potter and how it had transformed the way book shops operate. Many thanks to Mrs Clark and Mrs Hopkins in the study centre fo r keep ing Buckler’s Bards fed and watered this year.

Miss Wadham

Buckler’s Bards

PRIDE CLUB Pride club were fortunate to be visited by Jenna Powell who works at BAE

Systems as a systems test and integration engineer. Jenna conducted a Q&A

session on working and family life as someone who has experience of some of

the issues faced by members of the LGBTQ+ community and said of Pride

Club, ‘You have a great group. Whatever they do in life- any organisation will

be lucky to have them.' Jenna was an inspirational visitor and proved to the

group that determination does pay off.

Miss Wadham

Important Dates

Last Day of Term– Friday 21 July—finish at 1:05pm.

First Day of Term– Monday 4 September (inset day)

First Day of Term for students—Tuesday 5 September.

8:30am Y7 only. 9:50am Y8-11.

Changes to the management of Buckler’s Mead Leisure Centre

LED Leisure Management Ltd has been selected to manage Buckler’s Mead Leisure Centre from 1 September 2017.

LED manages leisure and entertainment facilities throughout East Devon and South Somerset, including Goldenstones Leisure Centre and Westlands Sport and Fitness Centre in Yeovil. LED membership gives access to all LED facilities. See www.ledleisure.co.uk for full details.

Sara Gorrod, Buckler’s Mead Academy Headteacher, said “It is a great pleasure to announce that we are entering into a partnership with LED for the management of the Buckler’s Mead Academy Leisure Centre. Their range of venues will add value for our existing members. We have carefully chosen LED for their experience, expertise and approach to leisure.”

Following the successful introduction of the secure on-line payment system, WisePay, in July 2016, the Academy is keen to further reduce the amount of cash collected for trips and other resources.

Using your debit or credit card, payments to the Academy can be made via WisePay conveniently from your home, office, or anywhere that has an internet connection, at no cost to you. Payments can be made 24/7 so you do not have to wait until the Academy is open and you do not have to write cheques or find cash. In an instant, parents are able to see what has been paid, what is owed and balances held for school meals. Parents are also able to view all purchases made in the school canteen.

With effect from September 2017, the Academy will be introducing a policy limiting cash payments for everything to £10. The Academy’s aim is to go ‘cashless’ in the future. Mr Wood– Business Manager

Lost Property

We have a huge pile of lost property in reception. Please

ask your child to come and have a look before the end

of term if they have lost any clothing or equipment. All

unclaimed items will be donated to charity.

Buckler’s Mead Academy is extremely fortunate to have the support of a strong and dedicated Board of Governors. The group is diverse and made up of parents, staff and members of the local community. Governors bring both their interests and transferrable skills to the Academy and are key players in:

Planning the direction and future of the Academy.

Making sure the Academy provides for all its students via the curriculum.

Deciding how the budget will be spent.

Making key staffing decisions.

Making decisions on the maintenance and development of the Academy premises.

If you feel you have skills to bring to the team and you would like to be considered as a Parent Governor at Buckler’s Mead Academy, please contact Mr Wood (Clerk to the Board) for more information on 01935 424454. Mr Wood – Business Manager

Buckler’s Mead celebrates local literary lives

Buckler’s Mead Academy has celebrated a year of local literature. English teacher Miss Wadham set up a year-long Literary festival which celebrated Yeovil’s own literati. She explained, ’’After visiting Yeovil Literary festival with some students, I wished to extend the experience and invited speakers into school. It has been a phenomenal success and we have attracted the finest figures from our own community to work with our very talented students.’

Event s have invol ved Yeovi l Communi t y Ar ts Association’s Liz Pike, who came and spoke of her writing journey since attending Buckler’s Mead; The Western Gazette’s Len Copland who gave a lively presentation on his career; Anne Boaden, a local helicopter pilot who ran writing workshops; Deputy Mayor David Recardo who spoke about a locally written novel and Marcus Bishop from Waterstones on his favourite books. Buckler’s Mead has also entered numerous writing competitions and workshops and over 100 students have been published this year. The event was sponsored by Julian Bird, manager of Yeovil Timpson who supplied trophies and visitor awards.

Miss Wadham Main Office