Copy
Churchill Academy - Newsletter
View this email in your browser

Newsletter

22nd January 2021

From the Headteacher

This week, we have seen some fantastic achievements from our young people. I have seen the awards for Young Designer and Young Chef going out, along with 25 further Headteacher's Commendations and our first three Trustees' Commendations. You will see all these, and more, celebrated in this week's newsletter. I know that these high-profile awards are underpinned by the daily acts of kindness, curiosity and determination, from all of our students, which are sustaining learning through lockdown. We continue to draw strength and inspiration from our brilliant students. 
In my weekly update letter to all families, I gave a further summary of "what we know now that we didn't know last week." You can read a copy of that letter on the website here, or view the video version if you prefer
Stay safe, everyone. 

Headteacher's Blog: testing, testing, 1, 2, 3...  

There has been much made of COVID-19 testing in schools over recent weeks. Having got testing up and running at Churchill this week, we thought it would be helpful to demystify the process. Therefore, in this week's Headteacher's Blog, we take you inside the Testing Centre (aka Academy Hall) to walk you through the process of a lateral flow test for coronavirus. Advance warning: the testing stations are named after Taylor Swift albums. Click here to read the blog
Read the Headteacher's Blog

The Annual Careers Convention – Part 1

This coming Thursday (28th January) is the first part of our Annual Careers Convention, focused on ‘Education and Training’.  This year the Convention is online, where over 20 different education and training providers have prepared some excellent resources for you to find out more about what they offer and the opportunities ahead at 16, 18 or after.  There are a few extended talks about some bigger topics too.  In Term 4 we will focus our second part of the Careers Convention on ‘Employment’, we’ll send you details about that closer to the time.  Please check your emails on Thursday for the Careers Convention launch link, we hope you find it useful.

The education and training providers involved this year are: Weston College, Bridgwater & Taunton College and Strode College, Churchill Academy & Sixth Form, ACM - The Academy of Contemporary Music, BIMM Institute, Bristol City Robins Foundation,  dBS The Sound and Music Institute, Outdoor College, Aberystwyth University, Bath Spa, Cardiff University, Plymouth Marjon University, Royal Agricultural University, University of Dundee, University of Southampton, University of Winchester, UWE Bristol, University of South Wales, University Centre Weston and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. We also have a talk by Thatchers Cider about apprenticeships.
                                                                                                                  Mr Morgan

Art work of the week

Year 8 have been working on pencil drawings of endangered species with some fantastic results. This lion is by Benjamin Johnson. 
More art can be seen on the website.  

Food & Nutrition news


Home Learning

As always, we have been very busy in Food & Nutrition home learning; offering live cook-a-long sessions, uploading video demonstrations for students/parents to access and giving the students the opportunity to engage in Food & Nutrition BINGO challenges (Years 7-9), with thanks to Mr Butcher for sharing this resource with us. Students seem to be enjoying all activities and have been sharing some lovely outcomes with us..... Take a look at some of these home cooked outcomes. Team Food have been very impressed and we hope you continue to keep up this level of challenge and determination. 
Lockdown no yeast bread

Young Chef 

It is with great pleasure we announce that the follow students have been awarded with 'Young Chef' for their home learning efforts so far this term. As a department, we are going to continue to recognise the students that are going above and beyond, and continuing to challenge themselves with the tasks that have been set. Well done to the following students:
  • Year 8: Betty Clarke, Heidi Critchley, Milly Pearce, Meggie Lee, Jack North, Bea Hardy, Annabelle Isgrove, Morgan Lukins
  • Year 9:  Kimi Powell

Congratulations! and keep uploading all your wonderful work.   
                                           Team Food

Headteacher Commendations

Many congratulations to the following students who have reached the conduct points threshold for Headteacher's commendation certificates this week:

Year 7:  Ben Fellows, Natalia Hernandez-Garcia, Arwen Kuipers Von Lande, Chloe Mees, Rupert Mitson, Eleanor Rees, Izzy Russe, Zoe Seymour, Nate Slough, Elizabeth Titerickx, Sadie Turner, Maisie Vowles
Year 8:  Marlene Pringle, Kacey Watters
Year 9: Woody Gilson, Owen Griffiths, Wills Orme, Eve Simson, Benedict Skudder, Kaitlyn Smith, Jodie Wright
Year 10: Lily-Em Spearing
Year 11: Emma Cekaj, Ella Hamlin, Rebecca Riches

Four of our commendation winners were able to receive their certificates from the Head in Frontline on Friday this week!

Trustees' Commendations

The first three students to reach the required number of conduct points for a Trustee's Commendation received their e-certificates this week. Many congratulations to Year 11 students Emma Cekaj, Ella Hamlin and Rebecca Riches - who also received their Headteacher certificates too!

Year 9 Parents' Evening 

Wednesday, 27th January 2021
The Year 9 parents' evening is an important evening, providing you with the opportunity to discuss with your child's teacher, the progress they are making and the next important steps for them.  As part of our Covid-safe procedures we will be using a new online system for parents' evenings, called 'schoolcloud'. Schoolcloud will allow you to have a virtual, face-to-face meeting with each of your child's teachers. You can book online, choose you own appointment times and you will receive an email confirmation. Letters have been sent home with further information, including the booking procedure.  If you have a child in Year 9 and you have not received a letter please contact Zoe Clements.
Mr Davies

Somer's first birthday

Our Guide dog puppy, Somer, is one year old and will hopefully soon progress to the next stage of her training, but this may not be until she is 15 months old as all puppies progress at different speeds. We will update you when we have any further information. Happy Birthday Somer!

Sixth Form Applications & Interviews

If you have sent in your application to us recently you will have received an email confirming we have received it over the last week. We will then be scheduling interviews over Terms 3 and 4.  Please do not worry if you don’t hear about your interview date quickly, there is a large number to process and it will take several months to interview all applicants.

Interviews in Term 3 will be conducted over Zoom. It would be normal for students to be excused from lessons for a Sixth Form interview during the school day so the same will apply with remote learning.  We hope that, by Term 4, we will be able to resume interviewing in the normal way. 

We will be planning our curriculum option blocks around applications received by the end of Friday, 8th January. Whilst we cannot guarantee to provide all subject combinations, we aim to make sure that students who have applied by this deadline have the best chance of studying all the subjects they have chosen.

We are still accepting applications so if you have not yet applied, please use the Word application form and send it, when completed, to 6thform@churchill-academy.org.   
 
Mr Morgan
Visit our Open Evening page for all the information about applying to Sixth Form

FareShare

Churchill Academy & Sixth Form are proud to have been able to support our families with FareShare parcels for the past four years.  We collect the food and toiletry donations on a Wednesday and distribute them to our families on a Thursday morning.  If there are any local organisations who have excess food, toiletries, household cleaning products etc, that they wish to donate to our cause please contact Mrs Mckay at the Academy to arrange collection/drop off.  Likewise if there are any families who wish for our support in these challenging times please contact us confidentially and we will respond.

Free School Meals

All families eligible for Free School Meals should have received an email about the voucher system which will be in place throughout this national lockdown. If you have any queries, please contact Stephanie Franklin at the Academy. 

Prayer Meeting

The next Academy prayer meeting is at 7.30pm on Monday, 25th January via Zoom.  If you would like to attend please contact Mrs Briffitt who will forward the meeting link. 

Update from Frontline: now at capacity

Frontline is our in-school provision for the children of critical workers and other eligible students. The government guidance has been updated to say: "children with at least one parent or carer who is a critical worker can go to school or college if required, but parents and carers should keep their children at home if they can." Our Frontline provision is now at capacity, so we are undertaking needs-based assessments for any new applicants and we are not able to offer any further full time places. Therefore we would urge families only to apply for places in Frontline if you meet the criteria and you cannot work without them. We will do our utmost to meet the demand from our Academy community, to support the education of those families who need us the most. However, please remember that, even if you are eligible for a place, you are not entitled to one.  
To enquire about places in Frontline, please email Frontline@churchill-academy.org. Please do not send students in to school unless you have a place confirmed.

Remote Learning

Students should continue to follow their normal timetable when learning from home. All students are expected to "attend" the lesson via the links provided by their teacher in Google Classroom. The "live" element may be a short introduction to the learning task, or may last longer, depending on the lesson content. Attendance and participation will be monitored closely every lesson as part of our daily engagement check, with any issues picked up by tutors in the weekly check-in.

Please see the website for details of our full remote learning offer and expectations

 

The Churchill Challenge!

The Churchill Challenge is now five weeks in, with 500 students and staff signed up and over 4,000 activities recorded. Collectively we’ve covered a whopping 29,000 kilometres - the equivalent of traveling from Churchill to Chile, then onto Tanzania via Timbuktu!  Lancaster still lead the pack with Windsor chasing them down, followed by Tudor, Stuart, Hanover and the 6th Form.

The challenge has been extended until Sunday, 21st February which is the end of the half-term break. This will give everyone time to get involved and make a contribution.

This is an inclusive challenge for students of all ages and abilities. However you choose to move, for example walk, cycle, run, skateboard, it’s all about getting involved. Thanks again the continued support from  Challenge Hound  who have made this possible. 

Students can sign up throughout January. Here is a brief reminder of what to do:

  1. Download the Free Strava or Under Armour App
  2. Click the relevant link below and join the challenge 
  3. Use the ‘Apps’ tab in Challenge Hound to link your chosen App.  Click here  to see how Challenge Hound and Strava work together.
  4. Record and save all activities using your chosen App!

Students that are unable to use the Strava or Under armour App to their phones are welcome to join the challenge and add their activities manually. Click here  to see how this is done. 

Finally, here are those all important links: 
Good luck!
Here is what the staff team has been up to in the Churchill Challenge!

Opportunities Fund

Our Opportunities Fund is supported by donations in order to provide the "extras" which will enrich and enable students' experiences at school. Full details on the ways in which you can support this are on the Opportunities Fund page on the website.
School Lottery:  Our school lottery is open for tickets and the jackpot is £25,000. Last week's winner was Mrs T from Winscombe who won £43.20.  Congratulations!  To join and purchase a ticket, click here. 
The Giving Machine:  You can help to raise money for the school by signing up to The Giving Machine, by clicking on this link: Churchill Academy & Sixth Form on TheGivingMachine

Diary


January 2021
25th  Prayer Meeting, 7.30pm, contact Mrs Briffitt for Zoom meeting link
27th  Year 9 Parents' Evening -  SchoolCloud online event
28th  Careers Convention Part 1: Education providers - virtual event

February
w/c 1st  Year 13 Mock exams - postponed
3rd  Year 9 Options Evening - SchoolCloud online event - 4pm-6pm
10th & 11th Year 9 HPV and meningitis vaccinations - postponed
12th  Inset Day - no lessons/students in school 
12th  End of Term 3
22nd  Start of Term 4
Next week is Week 2
Facebook
Facebook
Twitter
Twitter
Website
Website
Instagram
Instagram
Copyright © 2013 Churchill Academy & Sixth Form. All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you chose to receive information about Churchill Academy and Sixth Form
Our mailing address is:
Churchill Academy & Sixth Form
Churchill Green,
Churchill, North Somerset BS25 5QN
United Kingdom

Add us to your address book

Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp merge tag
unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences