No. 81 Friday 5th April 2019 The Weekly Word

A note from the Principal

Link to calendar

I hope you enjoy reading this bumper edition of the

Weekly Word. Your children have been involved in so

many exciting opportunities over the last two weeks

and we wanted to share all of these with you. I have been as proud

as punch with feedback I have had from every trip they have been

on – I have had emails from strangers to the school commending

both the way our students present themselves and their behaviour

when out of school. I know that often teenagers get bad press but

our students are great ambassadors for both our school and our

wider community. I also wanted to share that I spent a wonderful

evening at the Grimsbury Mosque last night seeing the great work

they do – isn’t it great when you get to spend a couple of hours

with students in a different context and get to know more about

their lives and their faith.

Keep up to date with the latest information about what's going on in school.

Please follow us on twitter and Facebook or visit the academy website

Easter Break Monday 8th April - Friday 19th April

Monday 22nd April - Bank Holiday (school closed)

New term starts Tuesday 23rd April

I wonder how many of you are aware of the Community Fridge that

they have developed which I have seen being used on a regular basis

when I go down to Dashwood.

Thank you for all of your support this term and we wish you the best

of Easter breaks and look forward to welcoming your children back

to the campus on Tuesday 23rd April (8.40 a.m. normal time).

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Heading Year 7 Football Success

Congratulation to our year 7 football team! Last Thursday our year 7

football team were crowned Champions of the North Oxfordshire District

Football League, congratulations from Mr Merrick, Mr Hayden and

everyone at Wykham Park Academy.

Pictured below with My Hayden: Jacob, Alex, Josh, Oliver, Tojat, Christian,

Rowyn, Charlie, Charlie, Ethan, Luke, Kian, Oliver, Sam, George, and Cody.

A Level Theatre Studies

Our A level theatre

studies group

performed their

final C2 performance

exam on the 25th

March. They

performed selected

monologues from

DNA by Dennis Kelly,

Blue Stockings by

Jessica Swale and Shakers by John Godber. They then took on a big

challenge to perform the tricky text 4.48 Psychosis by Sarah Kane as a

group performance, they performed with creativity and complete

professionalism.

Well done

Charlotte, Gina

and Georgia!

Mrs White

School Production - Joseph

The costumes are being created for our

main school production of Joseph! It looks

like it is going to be a riot of colour- here is a

sneaky look at the fabric we are using!

If you would like tickets you can either buy

them online via ticketsource or via

reception with our order form, available on

the next page.

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Art and Design Department - Year 11

Year 11 Art and Design students

are currently working hard to

complete their examination unit

of work.

Featured artwork by

Marshall

Featured artwork by Presley

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Art and Design Department - Year 11

This term year 8 have been exploring

different stage configurations. They have

learnt about what it is like to perform ‘in

the round’ like Shakespeare’s globe and

most recently in ‘traverse’ where they got

to create their own couture fashion and

put on their own fashion show! Well done

Year 8, I am so impressed with your

efforts! London Fashion week here we

come!

Mrs White

Featured artwork by Husnain

Drama - Year 8

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The Sonnet Man

The Japanese students that came to SSB on

Monday showed us some of their Japanese

traditions. One of the traditions is origami.

They showed us how to make a Japanese

bird called a crane along with that we

made a rose and a ninja star. We even got

to have a go at making them. Fatima says,

“Thanks to the Japanese students who

made our day! It was really nice having them here and they were really

friendly.”

They got to explore VR with Mr Yeap and

build Lego spacecraft with the students

who had been to NASA . Together we got

to do boro. This is another Japanese

tradition that reuses old fabrics. We had

collected old jeans and the Japanese

students brought some fabric with them.

Together we made a patched hanging.

“Having the Japanese students in was so fun, it was so interesting how

much English they knew and how much they interacted with us. They

presented themselves towards us was in a friendly and caring way.” -

Cordelia

Y7 bronze Arts Award students were privileged to work with Devon Glover aka

The Sonnet Man on Monday. The Sonnet Man flew in all the way from

Brooklyn to help Wykham Park students explore the links between

Shakespeare and Hip Hop; writing their own rhythmic sonnets and performing

them to The Sonnet Man in true Bard style! Later on in the

day, Y10 joined the Y7 students to watch The Sonnet Man

perform some of Shakespeare’s most famous sonnets to a

hiphop track. The performance not only emphasises how

relevant and cool Shakespeare is, but how to read

Shakespeare correctly using iambic pentameter. A truly

inspiring day that has got students engaging with some of

the more challenging Shakespeare exam texts and inspiring

them to start penning their own thoughts and feelings.

Japanese Students

The school has arranged for a variety of revision sessions to take place during the second week of the Easter break (Monday 15th – Thursday 18th April) to help prepare students for their GCSE exams. All students are welcome and expected to attend all revisions sessions of the subjects they are taking at GCSE. Students will have been specifically invited to attend by their subject teacher and this information will have come home in a letter along with a copy of the timetable. Students should make every effort to attend.

Students do not need to wear uniform and may bring a snack and a drink with them. If a session is for the whole day, students will need to bring a packed lunch as there will be no catering available on the school site during the Easter break.

If you have any questions please contact Mrs Timms on ext. 127.

Year 11 Revision

Banbury Mosque is also offering GCSE Revisions sessions during the first week

of the Easter holiday.

Last week Year 11 food

technology students

completed part of their

exam by cooking a range of

party food. Miss Smith and

Mr Merrick are seen here

sampling the culinary

delights.

Well done Year 11.

Food Technology - Year 11

As we start to move towards exam season, Young Minds have launched advice

for parents about supporting their children.

A full guide can be found here on the Young Minds website.

Some top tips include:

Encourage your child to take revision breaks and find a balance between

studying and doing things they find enjoyable and relaxing

Make sure they are eating and drinking at regular intervals

Reassure them – reinforce that you are and will be proud of them no

matter what happen

Anxiety is often worst at night and this means it is useful to encourage

good bedtime routine

Let them know their feelings are valid and normal, but also offer support

and solutions where possible

Remain positive and hopeful!

Young Minds (2019). Supporting your child during exam time. Retrieved from

https://youngminds.org.uk/find-help/for-parents/parents-guide-to-support-a-z/parents-guide-

to-support-exam-time/

On the 27th March a selection of year 7 and year 8 students went to Sibford

school for an author talk.

We joined other students in the area to hear an inspiring talk from Carnegie

nominated author, adventurer and award winning Director/Cameraman

Matt Dickinson.

Matt showed the students dramatic images from Everest, Antarctica, Africa,

Central Asia and the Arctic, bringing his intrepid adventures alive. Matt shared

with the students how these experiences have inspired his writing and read

exciting extracts from The Everest Files trilogy, the Mortal Chaos series and

Lie, Kill, Walk Away. A quick fire Q & A session rounded off the talk and gave

the audience the chance to ask those burning questions.

Exam Stress - Young Minds Matt Dickinson

NASA Sixth Formers Making Rockets

On the 15th March, our

NASA Sixth Formers made

a much-anticipated

return to Harriers

Banbury Academy for an

exciting rocket-making

session after their

assembly a few weeks

ago.

Toben, Callum, Soniya and Jonathan were

immediately recognised by many of the Year 4

pupils ('It's the NASA people!'), which must have

made them feel a little bit like celebrities. It was

clear that the excitement of their first visit had not

yet faded, as the students were still full of

questions that our SSB students were keen to

answer. After a short introduction to the session

(accompanied

by a wonderfully put together instructional

video, showing that the process was not

exactly rocket science...), the Year 4 pupils

got on with making their paper rockets,

practicing their cutting and sticking skills.

The Sixth Formers were incredibly supportive and ensured the children were

working safely. Once the rockets were all finished and decorated, we headed

to the playground

for the grand

finale: the rocket

launch! The

children all joined

in with the

pumping of the

launchers and the

countdown to

take-off, before watching their creations be blasted across the playing fields

at high speed. Overall, the afternoon was a fantastic success!"

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The Duke of Edinburgh's Award

Last week the final DofE group

completed their training to use

the stove to allow them to cook

warm meals for their expeditions. I have seen different meals being

cooked from

hotdogs to plain

pasta, and with only

one group spilling all

their food it was a

great success. They

are all getting excited for their

practice expeditions, with

Silver on the 25th – 27th March

and Bronze on the 3rd – 4th

April.

Well done to the 48 Y7 and Y8 students who supported the Year 2 Multi-Skills

Festival on 28th March. It was a huge event with 360 children from 7 local

primary schools attending. The leaders did a great job of creating a safe but

fun environment where the children tried out lots of different activities based

on developing fundamental skills.

Lucie Smith-Childs (SSCO)

Multi-Skills Festival

To find out more information visit the website