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December 2016

We are in the season where lots of things are being wrapped up for Christmas. This year, our

school is no exception, but for us it is our main building which is currently wrapped in polythene

sheeting. This is allowing our window replacement contractors to work through all weathers to

replace the windows in the Robertson and Aveling blocks. In parallel to this work there is also

significant re-roofing work progressing very well over the Main Hall, Dining Room, PE Changing

Rooms and, after Christmas, the Aveling block as well. This refurbishment programme will cost

more than half a million pounds and will also include new ceilings, lighting and blinds in all of the

Robertson and Aveling rooms. This is the largest capital investment in upgrading our facilities in

more than a decade (funded through the Department for Education’s Capital Improvement Fund

for Academies) and will deliver huge benefits to the learning environment in school, with the

works due to be completed by Easter.

A visit from Nick Gibb MP (Minister of State for Schools) and Dr Caroline Johnson – the newly

elected MP for Sleaford and North Hykeham - was a pleasant surprise for us all at the end of

November. Our school had been recommended to them by Robert Jenrick (MP for Newark) and

with less than 24 hours’ notice we made our visitors welcome through a meeting with our pupils

and a tour of the school. We thanked the Minister of State for his letter back in February which

congratulated us on being one of the top 100 non-selective state schools in terms of improving

GCSE outcomes and he commented that he doesn’t write to many schools in this way!

This year’s production of Grease is proving to be another storming success. With a huge and

extremely talented cast of students, Sir William Robertson has been transformed into Rydell

High School. If you were fortunate enough to see the production you will know that it was a fan-

tastic performance and particular thanks are due to Miss Burrough, Mr Willson and Mrs Jex for

all of the hours they have committed to making the show a huge success.

As you may already be aware, Bassingham Primary School is currently consulting on joining our

Multi Academy Trust. Bassingham is an excellent school and we look forward to working with

their staff, pupils and governors increasingly closely in the future for the benefit of local children

and families.

In the Christmas edition of our newsletter it is difficult to express in words our extreme sorrow at

the passing of Mae Shaw from Year 8. Mae was a truly inspirational pupil who will always be

remembered for her courage, her ‘can do’ attitude and her commitment to living life to the full.

Although Mae is no longer with us, her life will be celebrated at a memorial service at St Mary

Magdalene Church in Newark on Thursday 22nd December at 12.45pm. Our thoughts are with

all of Mae’s family and particularly with her brother Jake in Year 11.

Mark Guest Headteacher

SWRA News Page 2

In this issue:

Business Studies Bio Science Day Page 4

Geographers visit Pembrokeshire Page 5

Upper School Awards Page 6/7

Ridgway Scholarship Page 8/9

Sport News Page 10/11

Year 7 Castle Making Project Page 12/13

Children in Need Fundraising Page 14

BTEC Sport training Page 16

Swimarathon 2017 Page 20

Grease Workshop at Primaries Page 21

Dates for your diary Page 22

Tuesday 10th January 2017 Year 11

Tuesday 25th April 2017 Year 10

Parents’ Evening Dates 2017

The building work is taking shape...

See P21 Grease Workshops

*Grease Show report in the next issue*

SWRA News Page 3

Surprise visit from Minister of State for Schools

The school received an unexpected visit on Thursday, 24th November, from Nick Gibb MP, the Minister for

School Standards accompanied by the then Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Sleaford and North Hyke-ham, Dr Caroline Johnson (and now MP). Mr Gibb spent considerable time chatting to pupils about their career aspirations and about their thoughts on democracy and the current system before embarking on a tour of the school. The pupils enjoyed talking to the Minister and were a real credit to the school. Mr Gibb then discussed the fairer funding for schools issues with Mr Guest and Mr Brian Lucas, the Chair of Governors before heading back to London.

The school was recognised earlier in the year as being one of the ‘Top 100 non-selective state-funded schools in England’ and congratulated by Mr Gibb in a letter to Mr Guest.

Mr Guest commented: “We were delighted that the Minister of State for Schools chose to visit Sir William Robert-son Academy along with Dr Caroline Johnson. It was a great opportunity to showcase the significant develop-ments we are making as a school which already place us amongst the best performing non-selective secondary schools in the county and within the East Midlands region. The Minister has an extremely busy schedule and we were the only school he chose to visit, staying on longer than expected to continue discussions.”

Nick Gibb was appointed Minister of State at the Department for Education in 2014 and has been Conservative MP for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton since 1997. Dr Caroline Johnson is a local doctor from Sudbrook who stood in the by-election following Stephen Phillips MP’s resignation of the Sleaford and Hykeham seat which he has held since 2010.

SWRA News Page 4

They explained what they did in terms of the products they sold as well as how they ran themselves as a busi-ness in conjunction with Stevenage Bio Science. It was fascinating to learn how all the small and big business-es pooled their knowledge together for the greater good at this open innovation centre. After the presentation we were then split in to three teams and were given the task of researching a disease of our choice and creat-ing PowerPoint presentation to sell some form of treatment to that disease.

Soon after creating our PowerPoints we were given another task, which was to produce as many pills as we could (out of Play-Doh) and beat our own team target. The rules were clear, points would be deducted if the pills were of poor quality or if you achieved beneath your target. The purpose of this task was to test our team working skills as well as our business understanding. In each group there was one leader including a quality manager. The rest of us were on production making sure we met our target. During this task we were constant-ly making decisions on how to improve our efficiency and quality. After this task we went and had lunch while they totalled up the scores and we found out who the winners were.

After the competition we were then given a tour around the facility and shown why the Stevenage Bio Catalyst site was the leader in the world for innovation, specifically medicine. We were shown the labs of small busi-nesses that started out with £100,000 and now have funding of £12 million. They also showed us the new building that was under construction that was going to be used for future stem cell treatments. It was a fun and insightful day on how business and innovation can work together.

Oliver Cann, Sixth Form student

Business Students visit Stevenage Bio Science Catalyst

On Wednesday 23rd

November Years 12 and 13 em-barked on a business trip to Stevenage Bioscience Cata-lyst. The bus journey took us 2 hours, however fortunately we were able to watch a film and within no time it seemed, we had arrived. We were welcomed and taken through to a room called the incubator. This resembled a stretch of office rooms and impressive laboratories; it felt like the perfect mesh between business and science.

The first activity of the day was to watch a presentation by Glaxosmithkline (GSK) who is one of the leaders in the pharmaceutical industry.

SWRA News Page 5

Pembrokeshire Geography Field Trip

On Monday the 17th October our Year 12 and Year 13 geographers, a drone, Mr Phillips, Mr Titmus and a large

saucepan of Bolognese undertook the 8 hour drive from Welbourn to the back end of Pembrokeshire. The stu-dents spent the first evening learning important life lessons linked to appropriate clothing and Welsh weather! The pupils were forced/encouraged to cook for themselves and they possibly would have starved if it wasn’t for the deft hands and culinary skills of Erin Draper and her posse of sous chefs /minions.

The purpose of the week long trip was to allow the pupils to formulate hypotheses, produce data tables and questionnaires and undertake primary field work. The trip was hugely successful as they all collected the data and failed to fall off any high cliffs.

Mr Phillips, Head of Geography

See some of the highlights of the trip to Pembrokeshire includ-

ing some amazing footage on the beach taken by our school

UAV video camera and piloted by Mr Phillips! https://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Juk5kiVN2iI

SWRA News Page 6

Former Head of RAF Celebrates Student Success at Awards

We were delighted to welcome locally born former Commander of the RAF, Air Chief Marshal Sir Andrew Pulford as our guest of honour at the Upper School Awards Ceremony on Tuesday 29th November where the school celebrated the success achieved by individual pupils in last year’s Year 9 and Year 10.

Sir Andrew helped present students with their subject awards of gift vouchers recognising their progress and achievement through the year before going on to present a number of special trophies for outstanding achieve-ment and attendance. Sir Andrew addressed the audience of almost 200 people giving them inspirational thoughts, advice and praise.

Mr Mark Guest, Headteacher commented: “It was a privilege to welcome Sir Andrew to the school. His address to students and their families was captivating and inspiring and we were delighted he was able to join us at such a special event. It was a very memorable occasion celebrating the hard work and achievement of our Upper School students over the last academic year.”

Special Awards/Trophies

Mary Booth Award (Spoken English)

Jack Fawkes

Alan Brown Award (PE)

Abbie Bennison

John Hammond PE Award

Jordan Howard

Darren Donoghue Award (SEN)

Ronan Matts

Janet Morton Cup (Food Technology)

Barnaby Howorth

Iain Pellett Award Services to School Music

Jack Fawkes

Ideas in 2 Action Award (D&T)

Jessica Chen

MFL Award (Outstanding Linguist)

Alethea Meachem

Science Award

Sophie Cooknell

Maths Challenge 2016

Chloe Sloan

Eric Hall Award

Jake Shaw

Martin Burton Award

Celia Davis

SWRA News Page 7

Sir Andrew is a former Commander of the RAF and helicopter pilot who was born and educated in Newark up-on Trent. Sir Andrew assumed the command of his Service as Chief of the Air Staff in the rank of Air Chief Marshal in July 2013 and served a full three years in post, overseeing the Royal Air Force’s contribution to op-erations in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. He was commissioned into the Royal Air Force as a pilot in 1977 and after flying training, joined No 72 Squadron, flying Wessex helicopters, beginning an association with the RAF Support Helicopter Force which would last 25 years. During his flying career he accumulated over 5000 hours on both Wessex and Chinook helicopters, serving primarily in Germany with No 18 Squadron but including ex-change tours with the Royal Navy’s Commando Helicopter Force and the Royal Australian Air Force. He has commanded in every rank and has seen operational service in Northern Ireland, the Falkland Islands, Lebanon, the Balkans and the Gulf.

Chairman of Governors, the Venerable Air Vice-Marshal Brian Lucas opened the Awards afternoon and en-joyed having a fellow RAF colleague to help with the special event. Head Boy & Head Girl, Joshua Kilcullen and Emily Andrew gave the vote of thanks and presented Sir Andrew with a gift at the end. Sir Andrew is the brother of Vice Chair of Governors, Mandy Moran and her daughter, Libby was presented with an award for Girls’ PE Progress.

Musical entertainment was provided by Year 10 student, Charlotte Pearce who sang a fantastic rendition of Sam Smith’s ‘Writing’s on the Wall’ from the James Bond film, Spectre. Charlotte is appearing along with more

than 85 of her fellow pupils in the school’s production of Grease on 14th,15th and 16th December.

Ideas in 2 Action Award (D&T)

Jessica Chen

MFL Award (Outstanding Linguist)

Alethea Meachem

Science Award

Sophie Cooknell

Maths Challenge 2016

Chloe Sloan

Eric Hall Award

Jake Shaw

Martin Burton Award

Celia Davis

Outstanding Attendance Certificates 2015-16

Joseph Ablewhite Alethea Meachem

Loki Bateman Jack O'Malley-Dempsey

Jessica Chen Joshua Osborn

Michael Cory Lina Pereira

Celia Davis Devonnie Proctor

Joshua Dolby Mack Ranshaw

Mollie Donohoe Jamie Redmond

Jack Fawkes Lottie Shelbourn

Lucy Finch Elise Souter

Daisy Hardwick Shaw Zak Spencer

Katie Harrison Tommy Watson

Fleur Hutton Morgan Whittaker

Caitlin MacNeill Ellesha Worrell

Kerry May Samuel Wright

Charlotte Pearce entertaining the audience with Sam Smith’s ‘Writing’s on the Wall’.

SWRA News Page 8

Would you like to study at University in America in 2017/18?

SWRA News Page 9

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Keeping your Child Safe Online

As your child grows and becomes more independent, it is only natural that they take this independence online. In our teenage years we explore, try new things and sometimes push boundaries and take risks, this is an essential part of growing up.

With all of the potential that the online world and new technology offers, young people now have access to huge opportunities. They use technology to express

The internet has changed all of our lives, and your child has grown up during this change. Many of the things that confuse, baffle or even scare us, are part of the everyday for them. For many of us, this can all be a bit too much.

Whether you’re a technophobe or a technophile, it’s still likely that you’ll be playing catch-up with the way your child is using the internet. You might wonder whether what they are doing is safe, and you might also be thinking how can I be as good a parent online as I am offline? For advice about keeping your child safe online, please see the ‘think u know’ website:

https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk

This website is run by CEOP, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre. Should you have any questions or concerns, please contact myself.

Mr S Grant, Child Protection Officer & Deputy Head

The Ridgway Scholarship offers an opportunity for a student who is normally resident in LINCOLNSHIRE or HUN-TINGDONSHIRE (before the boundary changes of 1974) to study for an academic year at the University of Ev-ansville in the United States of America.

The scholarship is usually most attractive to those students completing their last year of secondary education and looking for a 'gap-year' opportunity to study and travel in the USA; although all applications from anyone in full-time secondary (final year) or tertiary education will be considered.

The Ridgway Scholarship pays international air fare, all tuition costs, and room and board accommodation for a year of study at the University of Evansville in Indiana, USA. As a major international scholarship, the grant offsets educational costs of more than $40,000. The Ridgway Scholarship is a gift of Dr. William Ridgway, a trustee of the University of Evansville, whose ancestors are from this region of England. Dr. Ridgway also purchased the leased Harlaxton Manor in the 1980s and gave it outright to the University, who has conducted Harlaxton College since 1970.

Further information and a copy of the application form can be downloaded from the website (see advert).

Anne Hollick, the College Secretary at Harlaxton has said that if any student wishes to know more information about the Scholarship, then please feel free to contact her on the details in the advertisement across.

We have been alerted to this fantastic opportunity by Mr Tim Kelway, SWRA Governor

Keeping Children Safe

Safeguarding children is at the heart of all that we do at Sir William Robertson Academy. If you have any con-cerns about a child’s welfare, or would like some advice or support, please do not hesitate to get in touch. Please take the time to read through our safeguarding policy which is available on our school website, or available from school on request.

E-safety

Keeping children safe online or on social media is an increasingly important part of the work of parents and teach-ers. If you would like any advice or support in this area, there are some useful links to explore through our school website under the ‘Parents’ section. Our Designated Safeguarding Lead is Mr Grant, who can be contacted on 01400 272422.

Ridgway Scholarship

SWRA News Page 10 Sports News

Keep up to date with match fixtures, pick up times and match news on our Facebook page ‘Sir William Robertson

Academy’

Cross Country Championship Success

Year 9 Basketball

Our Year 9 basketball team have come runners up in the Kesteven cham-pionships. Despite only practising over four lunch times the boys were nar-rowly beaten by Carre’s in a fantastic final game.

Well done to all the cross country runners at the Kesteven & District Schools Cross Country Championships held on 17th No-vember at Burghley House, Stamford.

Pupils who qualified in the top 15 of their race were then invited to represent the District at the County Championships in the New Year.

A special mention must go to Finley Bass, Frankie Ward and Celia Davis (pictured) who have all made the District team. Top work! Congratulations to every-one who took part in this event. We are very proud.

Mr Quincey

Rugby International Trip

Mr Symmons and Mr Gordon took a group of Upper school boys to Twick-enham recently to watch the Rugby International between England and Fiji. 90,000 attended the match which saw a comfortable England victory. Despite the long journey and early start a good time was had by all!

SWRA News Page 11

Sports News

Stunning Year 11 Football Match Despite only having the trial to select the team on Friday lunchtime the Year 11 B team produced a stunning per-formance to draw with Carre’s B team. The team bonded incredibly well, mainly down to the captain’s music choic-es on the journey to Sleaford!! Harry Costa opened the scoring with a calm finish and the boys dominated the first half. Substitutions were made at half time but once again SWRA were the better team. Eventually Carre’s saw themselves through on goal and despite half blocking the shot the ball hit the back of the net. SWRA had 2 fantas-tic chances to seal the win but were thwarted both times by the Carre’s keeper who made two worldie saves! De-spite not winning spirits are high in the squad and a rematch is being arranged.

House Matches

Lower school Benchball House winners went to Chitral House! Well done! 2nd place was claimed by Dragoon, 3rd slot Simla and 4th place went to Lancer.

Well done to Dragoon for their huge win in the Y8+9 Netball House matches. With 3 out of 3 wins and no goals conceded they were comfortable winners. Lancer grabbed 2nd spot with Simla and Chitral picking up 3rd and 4th.

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Year 11 Netball Wins

Congratulations to the Year 11 Netball

team on 4 wins out of their 6 tournament

games at the Kesteven District Competi-

tion.

There was some outstanding game play

with high intensity passing.

Well done ladies!

Mrs Davison

Simla crowned

Year 10/11

Basketball

Champions!

SWRA News Page 12

Keep up to date with school events and news on our Facebook

page

‘Sir William Robertson Academy’

Amazing Castle Creations from our Year 7 pupils

Educational Visits/Off-site Activity Consent form

Last year we asked parents to complete an educational visits/off-site activity consent form for academic year 2015/16. Due to the success of this form we have taken the decision to carry this consent over for the remainder of your child’s time with us. This will reduce further the number of forms parents are requested to complete.

As always school will send you information regarding trips before they take place and you can, if you wish, tell the school that you do not want your child to take part in any particular activity. You will also be able to give consent when paying for trips via Parentpay. Parents are reminded that they are required to keep their child’s medical infor-mation up to date and you should inform the school office of any changes.

Mrs Rawding’s Class

SWRA News Page 13

Amazing Castle Creations from our Year 7 pupils

As part of the Medieval Britain scheme of work Year 7 has recently been tasked with creating a model of a castle. Students had the choice of making either a Motte and Bailey, Square Keep, Concentric Castle or Fortified Manor and could make it out of any material they liked. Students have researched in class the development of castles over time, the different methods of attack and defence and local and national examples of castles. We love letting students loose with their creative powers especially when they make such fantastic models!

Mr Hollingworth, History Teacher

SWRA News Page 14

See School Life in Videos

See some of the school activities by watching the various videos on our YouTube channel

‘SWR Academy’. Videos include:

Mudathon The Movie Sports Day 2016

Fashion Academy 2016 Activity Day 2016

Hill Holt Wood Year 7 Adventure Sixth Form Induction Day

Da Vinci Day at Nottingham Castle Pembrokeshire Trip

Thank you to Mr Mann for putting together some great videos to help show school life.

Year 7 pupil, Dylan Leggett has built an amazing bird box which he has kindly donated to the school. Dylan is a member of Eco-squad, a small team of volunteers who work hard to make our school a better place.

After selecting an appropriate location for the box, Eco-squad will be watching closely to see if birds choose to make it their home. With a bit of luck, we might be able to have our very own Springwatch…

Mr Grant

Clever Craftwork

Thank you to everyone who helped raised a fantastic £739.58 for Children in Need on Friday. Our catering team entered in the spirit of the day by dressing up 'cowboy/girl style' a long with some of the other staff and pupils and featured in the local newspapers!

Fantastic Fundraising of £739.58

for Children in Need

SWRA News Page 15

Amy Winehouse Foundation Resilience Programme

@SWRACADEMY

@performingSWRA

Holiday Activities

Ideas for activities to do over the holidays are available on the

Family Services Directory at www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/fsd

Click on ‘What’s On’

Sixth Formers taking part in the recent Amy Winehouse Foundation programme

The Amy Winehouse Foundation Resilience Programme is a ground breaking drug and alcohol awareness and prevention programme for secondary schools delivered in partnership with Addaction.

Trained and accredited volunteers use their own experiences of substance misuse and recovery to educate stu-dents, parents and teachers about the triggers for substance misuse and what can be done to prevent it. These volunteers have all overcome significant personal issues and now live substance free lives, helping others to make informed choices.

It’s this approach – putting real life experiences at the heart of drug and alcohol education – that makes the pro-gramme so effective. The Foundation with Addaction have recently been in to school to do several sessions with different year groups including our Sixth Formers. They engaged students in discussing their thoughts, feelings and behaviours to help address any issues such as low self-esteem, poor body image, racism and bullying with-out turning to drugs or alcohol.

But the Programme isn’t just for pupils. Everybody in a young person’s life needs to be properly informed about drugs, alcohol and their related problems if we’re to create an honest and open environment in which informed choices can be made. As part of the Programme, clinical staff from Addaction work alongside the Amy Wine-house Foundation to help teachers better identify pupils who may be living with parents, carers or siblings who are misusing substances.

SWRA News Page 16

Did you know that you can set an alert so that your child doesn’t run out of money for school dinners?

Since the introduction of Cashless Catering we are finding that a small number of pupils are trying to purchase school meals with insufficient funds on their accounts. In the first instance we will encourage your child to call home to get their account topped up online.

In order to ensure that the canteen runs as smoothly as possible may we suggest that you set and receive automated alerts from ParentPay for low balances and other purposes! It’s quick and easy to set up giving you peace of mind that your child/children will not get to the till only to find they have insufficient funds.

Go to the ‘I want to…’ area of your home page View/edit profile>Alert settings

Balance alerts: simply choose the type of alert you wish to receive (Email or SMS text) and set the ‘Threshold’ for each child. We recommend that this is set to cover the cost of meals for 3 days in order that you have time to top-up. Other alerts that may be of interest include:

New item alerts: you can choose to receive an alert when your child’s school sets up a new payment item for your child.

Payment alerts – cheques and cash: you can set up alerts to tell you when a cash/cheque payment has been recorded against your child’s account in school ensuring you know the payment has been received safely.

Should you have any queries please contact Finance on: finance@swracademy.org

Helping you manage school dinner money allowances

BTEC Sport Students

Our BTEC Sport students have had a busy term including a visit from guest speaker, Mr Matt Evans who came into school on 1st November and spent some time with our Year 12’s talking about his role as School Games Organiser for our Central Lincolnshire Sports Partnership. He shared his knowledge and experience which will aid them in organising the 2017 Swimarathon on behalf of the school. Mr Evans is a PE teacher based at Carre’s Grammar School at Sleaford & Mrs Mower has worked with him on a number of projects over the years. The students worked with Mr Evans on 15th November at Carre’s helping to run the Primary Schools Indoor Athletics Competition. This will be their second case study. Many thanks go to Kerry Sowerby-Jones from Daisy 1

st Aid for coming in for the

full day to run a first aid workshop and getting the students prepared for their first assignment in Injury Manage-ment. Keep up the great work!

Mrs Mower

First Aid training day

SWRA News Page 17

Income Support

Income-based Job Seeker’s Allowance

Income-related Employment & Support Allowance

Support under Part VI of the Immigration & Asylum Act 1999

Guarantee Element of State Pension Credit

Child Tax Credit with an annual household income of less than £16,190 & do not get Working Tax Credit

Cashless catering*– there is no differentiation between who pays and as a parent you can track your child’s meals online. An additional sum of money has also been allocated to pupil’s daily allowance above the pre-scribed floor value.

Trip subsidies – for all curriculum based off site events to ensure they can participate fully in all learning oppor-tunities.

Easter revision classes* – to ensure your child is prepared for their final examinations by accessing additional sessions based on examination technique and content linked to a wide range of courses.

1:1 Tuition in Maths and English* - to bridge any barriers to making progress in these key areas of the curricu-lum.

Learning Mentor* – provided to support pupils who are struggling to make progress or who are having difficul-ties at home or school.

For a full list of the interventions the school is providing please see the school website (under Parents, Pupil Premium).

Mr D. Bensley, Assistant Headteacher (*This intervention is accessible by all students)

Making the claim not only benefits your child in providing a healthy meal but also releases additional funds to the school to ensure they meet their full academic potential through a range of interventions that the school has put in place. Current initiatives include:-

Free School Meals

– Are you claiming your entitlement?

According to current research it is estimated that over 200,000 pupils entitled to claim Free School Meals are not doing so in Lincolnshire! School meals offer a nutritionally balanced meal during the school day to ensure your child is ready and able to engage fully in their learning and we would encourage you to apply for this entitlement. The following eligibility criteria apply:

Sign up for Free School Meals

There is a universal checking service for free school meals which will enable us to check all secondary school pupils for free school meal eligibility. This system will also determine eligibility for Pupil Premium, which means schools receive an extra £935 per eligible pupil from central government to fund valuable support such as ex-tra tuition and learning support.

The form and further information is available on the school website and can be found under: Finance/Free School Meals and under

Pupil Premium on the Parents section of the website.

SWRA News Page 18

Welcome to Microsoft Office 365

& Bring Your Own Device

This is an exciting time to be a pupil at The Sir William Robertson Academy. Many parents will agree that education has changed

in so many ways since they were younger, and this year is truly revolutionary. Microsoft have recently offered their Office 365

product to qualifying schools for free.

What does this mean for my child?

This means that the School can now provide all pupils with access to the Microsoft Office Suite of applications in school, at home

and on mobile devices, for free.

What is Microsoft Office 365?

Office 365 consists of the following Microsoft applications Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. These apps can be used

within a web browser, downloaded as free apps onto mobile devices or even installed onto a laptop, PC or Mac of your choice at

home, for free. The service also includes 1Tb of online storage space per pupil called a One Drive, to store revision materials

and school work, which is then accessible from anywhere, on any device.

Students can use Microsoft Office software at no cost while they study or work at Sir William Robertson Academy on up to 5 de-vices. The Microsoft Office license is linked to user accounts in school. When a student leaves and their account is disabled the Office Suite will eventually go into Reduced Functionality Mode and will have to be uninstalled.

What you can get…

Microsoft Office Suite 2013 Contains: Word 2013, Excel 2013, PowerPoint 2013, OneNote 2013, Access 2013, Publisher 2013, Outlook 2013, Lync 2013, Info-Path 2013

Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 Contains: Word 2011, Excel 2011, PowerPoint 2011, Outlook 2011

Office Mobile for Android or iOS Contains: Word 2011, Excel 2011, PowerPoint 2011, Outlook 2011

How to get it…

1. Log onto your school email via the SWRA website. 2. Click the settings cog on the top right hand side of the screen 3. Click Office 365 settings 4. Choose Software 5. The page will default to the Office Options 6. Click the install button 7. Choose Run or Save 8. The installation will begin while a video explains the features

9. You will need to activate Office. Please use your school email address and your log on password as your credentials.

Mr D Bensley

SWRA News Page 19

Are you due to be deployed? As a school we recognise the strain that deployment can place on the families of Service Children and have implemented the following resources that you might want to access during this challenging time.

A learning mentor – who can be assigned to your child to offer both pastoral and academic support.

A counsellor – trained and experienced specifically in helping Service Children.

Tablet PC’s – discrete access to email and Skype has been made possi-ble to ensure that pupils can maintain strong communication with a de-ployed parent.

If you would like to make use of any of these services please contact Mr

Bensley for further information.

Help us to help you! Keep us informed

Please make sure that we have up-to-date contact information in the event we need to speak to you during the school day.

Absences:

If your child is absent from school or has a medical appointment, it would really help us if you could telephone and leave a message by 9am on the same day. Messages can be left by:

Dialling 01400 272422

Selecting Option 3 to record pupil sickness/absence/medical appointment

Selecting Option 5 to report anything else or leave a message for a named member of staff.

Alternatively, we have an Attendance email address: attendance@swracademy.org which can be used to com-municate absence and appointment information. For future medical appointments, a note can be written in your child’s Planner and should be shown to Mrs Jex at the Office in advance of the appointment.

Attendance is monitored daily/weekly and parents are contacted about any unexplained absence.

Thank you for your help with this important communication process.

Pupil Premium change in Eligibility Please be aware that the criteria for Pupil Premium funding is being widened to include:

Pupils who are adopted but have been looked after for one day or more or were adopted from care or left care under:

- a Special Guardianship Order - a Residence Order

If you feel that you may be eligible for the funding (£1900), please contact the school office.

Mr D. Bensley

Visit the website to keep up to date on school activities, revision sessions, news, trips and clubs. All letters are available to view and download on the website - ‘Parents’,

‘School Letters’

www.swracademy.org

SWRA News Page 20

Swimarathon 2017 - Saturday 4th February

Just a reminder that your reply slips & swimming medical forms for the charity Swimarathon are due in. It’s still not too late though to get them in before Christmas to secure your place. (Replies to Mrs Mower or the PE office)

Also to those that have started to get your sponsors – well done & try to get round all your friends & family over the Christmas period – let’s make this year’s fundraising total the best to date!

And finally to Sixth Form, you still have time to sign up for the ‘Staff’ v ‘Sixth Form’ competition. See the BTEC group for more info.

Cheers & Merry Christmas

Mrs Mower & the Y12 BTEC SPORT group

SWRA News Page 21

Grease Workshop Tour with Primary Schools

Well done to Miss Burrough and the cast members for a fantastic Grease work-shop tour around the primary schools in early December. The workshops in-volved Year 5 children at four different primaries including Welbourn Primary, Caythorpe Primary, Witham St Hughs Academy and Bassingham Primary School, who were visited by 14 cast members from Grease for a drama workshop.

They even treated them to a performance of several songs from their musical 'Grease'! The workshops included more than 100 pupils during the one day tour and then two of the schools came along for a special day time per-formance of the show on Wednesday 14th December.

The Grease Workshop at Witham St Hughs Academy

SWRA News Important Dates for 2017 Page 22

@SWRACADEMY

@performingSWRA

Sir William Robertson

Academy

December 2016

19th Senior Citizens Christmas Party

19th Post 16 Awards 7pm - 8.30pm

20th Last day of Term 2

January 2017

Tues 3rd INSET training day for staff

Wed 4th Start of Term 3

4th - 16th Sixth Form Mock Examinations

Tues 10th Year 11 Parents’ Evening

Tues 17th Ski Trip Information Evening

Thurs 19th Art Trip to Victoria & Albert Museum, London Y10,12 & 13

w/c 23rd MFL Speaking Assessments

Tues 24th GCSE Revision Workshop for Y11 students/parents 6.30-8.00pm

Tues 31st WOW Day

February

Wed 1st Y12 Next Steps for Study Bishop Grosseteste University

Thurs 2nd UKMT Maths Challenge (Intermediate) Y9,10 & 11

Sat 4th Swimarathon at Grantham 9.30am - 12.00

Wed 8th Careers WOW Day

10th End of Term 3 (Half Term)

20th Start of Term 4

March

Wed 1st Y10,11 & 12 Drama Theatre Trip to Leeds

4th - 12th Ski Trip

6th - 13th Y11 Mocks

9th ICAEW Accountancy Competition

Tues 14th Y10 Memory & Recall Workshop for students/parents

(to support the new GCSE specification)

20th-24th Year 10 Work Experience week

31st End of Term 4

April

Tues 18th Start of Term 5

Tues 18th BTEC Sport Rounders Course

Tues 25th Year 10 Parents’ Evening

Tues 25th Year 12 UCAS Convention

Thurs 27th Maths Challenge (Junior) Y7 & 8

May

Mon 1st Bank Holiday

26th End of Term 5

June

5th Start of Term 6

21st Primary School Level 3 Rounders

Festival - SWRA

July

Wed 19th End of Term 6 Summer holidays

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SWR Academy

Pupils enjoying the new table tennis tables