Easter Newsletter 2012 - Whitley Academy

Whitley Academy’s momentous day with
HRH The Princess Royal

Dear Parent / Carer
A welcome to our 2012 Spring Newsletter. All our Key Stage 4 & 5
students have been working hard this term, building up towards their
final exams in the summer term.
The newsletter shows many of our extra curricular events, especially the
fantastic official opening of our Academy by HRH, The Princess Royal.
We are all very proud of our success and will work hard to maintain this
into the future.
A big thank you to Mrs Helen Smith who leaves us this term, she will be
missed by many staff and students here at Whitley Academy. Likewise
to Mrs Michelle Stewart our Year 7 Caseworker who leaves us to join
Ash Green School in Warwickshire
I wish you all a Happy Easter, hoping you have a great break.
L. Allen
Principal

Officially Opens Whitley Academy
On Tuesday 13th March, HRH, Her Royal Highness, The Princess Royal came to officially open
Whitley Academy.
The Princess Royal is the President of the Royal Society for the Arts, Manufacturing and Commerce
(RSA); we were delighted when she kindly agreed to officially open our school as the first
“Outstanding” school in the RSA Family of Academies.
During the visit the Princess was introduced to many staff, Governors and students. She watched a
presentation by our Opening Minds year 7 and 8 students, on the theme of the Olympic Tradition,
and had an interesting conversation about Pentathlon Competition with our Silver Sports Ambassador,
Parris Allen who, like Princess Anne before her, will be representing Great Britain in this event in
Germany in June.
The Princess watched an African dance display by our year 9 girls; this was to celebrate our link with
New Orleans High School in Paarl, South Africa, where Whitley students will be visiting again at
Easter. The Princess then unveiled a plaque to mark the opening of the school before she said her
goodbyes.
The events was extremely successful and an excellent day. The pride our students and staff showed
in their school to our visitors was genuine, heartfelt and openly expressed.
A never to be forgotten day in the history of Whitley Academy!

For a full look at our photographs
and video please refer to our
website:
www.whitleyacademy.com

Our girls dance for the Princess and do the school proud!

February 2012
The 8th iNet International Conference was based this year in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, there were
delegates attending from 10 countries including the United Kingdom, Pakistan, Netherlands and the United
Arab Emirates.
Mrs Allen, Principal of Whitley Academy, Coventry and Ms Hammond, Senior Vice Principal attended the
conference on behalf of Whitley Academy and Coventry.
The focus of the conference was students as global entrepreneurs, schools as global enterprises; this theme
fits well with Whitley Academy’s Business Enterprise specialism.
Exciting presentations by keynote speakers, Principals, leaders, students and business colleagues shared
ideas to help improve the enterprising skills of students of all nations as global entrepreneurs.
Workshops and discussion sessions shared ideas, practices, issues and problems that students and adults
have in common around the world with a view to enabling progress to help transfer the life chances of students
worldwide.
Atekah Girls School, Al Ain
The Geography display,
Khaleed Ben Al Waleed Boys School
Promoting the Police and the armed forces
at Al Zayedia Girls School
Inside the 8th iNet International Conference:
Students as global entrepreneurs schools
as global enterprise

Whitley Academy students
make £30,000!
Five Year 10 students took part in the annual Stock Market
Challenge at Coventry University and made an impressive
£30000 profit after trading stocks and shares in a virtual 5 day
period.
Out of 25 competing schools, Whitley Academy finished a creditable 4 th place beating the likes
of Bablake, Caludon Castle, Sidney Stringer and Coundon Court (…but it’s the taking part that
counts...right)
Our students also won a prize for the best ethical investment report, and overall, outshone
many of the other competing schools.
As a bonus, in the afternoon our students had the opportunity to have a guided tour of Coventry
University and all were impressed with the atmosphere and culture of student life, and they are
now even more determined to go to University themselves.
A MASSIVE WELL DONE goes to Lilli Watton, Yasmin Jama, Ajeen Namiq, Faron Forbes
and Tom Holmes for representing the school so well and being like tenacious tigers in the
trading pit!
Mr Bandhan

On the 8 th March we hosted our first challenge event. Dads, stepdads or carers of year 7 and 8
were invited to form a team with their children to score points by completing mini challenges.
There were seven challenges including Wii Golf, table tennis, a penalty shoot-out against a PE
teacher, and a maths challenge set by our maths department. The top prize was two tickets to
see Coventry City football team play at the Ricoh Arena, the prize for best team work was £10
cinema vouchers, and 2 nd and 3 rd place each got £5 cinema vouchers, and everyone had a
certificate for taking part. This was a very successful evening, that everyone enjoyed families
and staff from school. We are hoping to do another one in a similar format in the future.
Mrs Trivedi

24/01/012: At Sidney Stringer Academy to meet author Sophie
McKenzie
29/02/012: Chris Bradford - Author of Samurai Series
demonstrating how to use Japanese swords at Cardinal
Wiseman School
24/01/012: At Sidney Stringer Academy to meet author Sophie
29/02/12: Chris posed for group photo with Matthew and Ryan of 7D

9/01/2012: Georgina and Jamie at the Ricoh Arena interviewing
Tom Clift and Vaughan Pollard as a catch-up of the 2012 Olympics
development in Coventry.
20/01/012: Chloe and Amina of 7D and 7A interviewed David Long.
He knew a lot about our school Whitley Academy!
1/3/2012: Interview Martin reeves and John Mutton at Council
House.
1/3/2012: Interview Martin reeves and John Mutton at Council
House.
1/3/2012: Interview Martin reeves and John Mutton at Council
House.
20/01/012: at the Hub of Coventry University interviewing David
Moorcroft and David Long (2 ex-Olympians). The team posed for a
photo with Will Bastin of Coventry 2012.

1/3/2012: Interview Martin Reeves and John Mutton at the Council
House.
15/3/2012: BBC School Report Day. At BBC Cov-War radio station
posing for a photo with Andrew Nicholson - Chief Superintendent of
Coventry.
13/3/2012: We were the reporters when Her Royal Highness Princess Anne came to school.

Girls PE
It has been a positive term for girls PE, with huge effort
and determination being demonstrated.
The year 8 girl’s netball team took part in a tournament,
where all girls played exceptionally well demonstrating
outstanding team work throughout the cold Saturday
morning.
Commitment & perseverance was shown when the year 7
netball team played against President Kennedy this month,
ending in a 1-1 draw. The girls played very well and are
beginning to mold themselves into a successful team.
Year 7, 8 and 9 girls participated in the Coventry schools
swimming gala last Wednesday, coming 5 th place overall.
This was a brilliant achievement and pupils really enjoyed
the afternoon competing. Some expert performances were
had by Eva Vicary, Paris Allen and Shannon Turnball
leaving spectators speechless.
A big well done to the year 7 girls athletics team (Rachel
Downing, Eva Vicary, Karys McConnell, Yazmin Abdi) who
took first place in the first round of the Sportshall athletics.
They participated in at least 3 track/field events each, to
take first prize and enter the next round.
On the 15 th March year 7 students participated in a
Paralympic event in which they had a taster of six different
Paralympic activity events including: wheelchair
basketball; goalball; boccia; paralympic table tennis; sitting
volleyball and curling. Pupils thoroughly enjoyed the day,
developing their empathy towards Paralympic athletes and
achieving ‘Olympic Values’. Wheelchair basketball was
that much fun that pupils are very keen to incorporate it
into the PE curriculum. But, we need some wheelchairs
first!!
Raising money for Sport Relief this Friday was a huge
success with committed pupils in Y7, 8 and 9 taking part in
the 1, 3 or 6 mile run. Year 9 students led interesting
enterprise activities for Y7 & 8 pupils in the afternoon with
a competitive edge. Competition got exciting with posters
and other advertising tactics being used as each year 9
group was trying to raise the most amount of money for
sport relief. Overall, a day enjoyed by all involved and all
for an incredibly good cause.
We have recently purchased 2 x football kits for a KS3 and KS4 team, but would like to
have the Whitley Logo and numbers printed on the back. If anyone is interested in
sponsoring the teams and can pay for this, we could arrange for your company logo to
be added to the shirts. Please contact a member of the boys PE team if you are able to
help.

Boys PE
The boys have had another packed term with
many fixtures and activities taking place after
school. The football season has restarted, and
although there has been a mixed back of results
all the teams are making improvements. The most
successful team has been the year 9’s having only
lost 1 game.
The year 7 footballers have shown some moments
of brilliant play and superb technique on the ball,
and will develop into a great footballing side. Jack
Burton and Jack Smith have both put in some
great performances in the middle of the pitch, and
Jamie Hastings has shown a relentless work rate
from left back. Unfortunately due to the size of
some of the year 7’s from other teams we have
struggled to out strength teams and conceded a
few silly goals. I still firmly believe that the year 7
team will develop into one of the best teams we
have had at Whitley, and encourage other
students to come to practices and training.
The year 8 team have shown some encouraging
signs and real improvement this term. The players
are more committed to the team but would still like
to see more students training. The outstanding
players have been Hugo Hildreth and Rhys
Wignall
The year 9 team have won 2 out of their last 3
matches beating Coundon Court and Grace
Academy. The team still need to work on passing
and working for each other to allow them to really
challenge the stronger schools. They currently sit
third in the Coventry table.
The year 10 have been the most improved team
across all years. Some tactical changes and a new
manager seem to have helped!! The team have
now got their first points in the league table having
secured a confident draw against Blue Coats. Dale
Hemmings has worked hard at right back and
helped to solidify the defence, and Rhys “shoot
from anywhere” Robbins has scored some
valuable goals.
The boys acquitted themselves really well and
came away with a well-deserved 47-26 victory. It
was great to see all of the lads that took part get
themselves on the score sheet. Special mention
must go to Josh Brown who was the leading
scorer and Corey-Jay Woollaston who had several
good baskets. The boys are developing their
basketball skills well and I look forward to seeing
them improving further at training on Wednesdays
after school. We have also had professional
coaches taking the KS4 students and working
through some of the more complex skills in
basketball. These skills have been on show in their
matches against Grace.
The first Whitley Academy football tour leaves on
good Friday to Barcelona. We are taking 31 pupils
to play matches against local teams close to
Barcelona, and are looking forward to watching
Espanyol play. We will also be visiting many of the
tourist attractions in the local area and spending
time soaking up the Spanish sun and culture. All
the staff and students are really looking forward to
the trip
The year 7 and 8 boys took part in the sports hall
athletics at the AT7 centre back at the start of the
half term and put in a great performance. Students
took part in both races and indoor field events and
then given an overall team score. Adam Wilson
performed particularly well for the year 7 boys
especially in the field events where he won the
triple jump. Jahniyah Whittaker of year 8 also did
really well in the boys relay events coming placed
high up in the order despite some very fast
runners from other schools. Well done to all the
boys who took part.
Whitley shown in light blue going so fast they
are blurred!!
The year 11’s won their first game of the season
against a strong Caludon Castle team, the final
score being 2-0. The team played extremely well
and hardly gave the opposition a chance. Lewis
Buck and Reuben Chohan at centre back (a new
partnership) played very well together. Nathan
McGarrity again scored the goals for the team
taking his total for the season on a par with Messi!
Well done to the whole squad who we hope will
continue to play for teams once they leave school.
The KS3 boys basketball team took on a strong
Grace Academy side over at Grace on 14 th March.

Alpe D’Heuz January 2012

During half term Ms Gale and Mrs
Secker took A Level English Literature
students for an evening of culture at
the Belgrade. Theatre The students
watched RC Sherriff’s play Journey’s
End which forms part of their AS
English Literature covering literature
of The First World War. Students said
they “got a better understanding of the
characters and events of the play”, as
well as a deeper understanding of the
performance. Both teachers and
students had a very enjoyable
evening.
On Thursday 26th January Mrs
Secker’s Year 9 English group went to
the Showcase Cinema in Coventry to
see ‘War Horse’, a film by Steven
Spielberg. The students had been
reading the novel in their English
lessons and the film added to their
knowledge of what it was like to be a
soldier in the First World War. The
students made sure they were well
stocked up with food and drinks before
the two-hour film began. They really
enjoyed the film and said that they
“really understood the characters
more and what happened to the
soldiers and to the horse”. Everyone’s
favourite bit was when Joey, the
horse, was reunited with Albert and
Mrs Secker (and some of the
students!) had a lump in their throat.

In January 2012 Year 11 students studying GCSE English Literature , along with Mr Phillips and
Mrs Secker, went to ‘Poetry Live!’ at Symphony Hall in Birmingham to watch six of Britain’s best
poets perform live reading of some of their poems, including ones being studied for the exam in
May.
The poets performing were Simon Armitage, Gillian Clarke, Imtiaz Dharker, Grace Nichols, John
Agard and the poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy. The performances took place in the beautiful auditorium
at Symphony Hall and the poets performed brilliantly! Listening to poems being read is a
different experience to reading them in a classroom and many of the students changed their
minds about some of the poems they had already read.
The students also had the chance to ask the poets questions to gain further insight into how or
why they had written the poem. As well as the poets, an experienced chief examiner was also
present on the day giving students invaluable tips for the exam. One student described the day as
“like Glastonbury for poets”!!
Good luck to all the students taking the English Literature exam at the end of May.
Mrs Secker

Harry’s Hardware!
Each Wednesday Harry takes a class of mixed
year groups and takes them through the process
of actually building custom computers. He
demonstrates how the actual components are put
together and how they might improve the
performance of their own computers with the
confidence of being able to take them apart and
put them back together again! In other words, our
students are learning to build their own computers!
Harry Preece - Year 12
Year 7 Enterprise Day
Post-16 students helped our Year 7 pupils to enjoy
an Enterprise Day where they became board game
designers, manufacturers and profit seeking
moguls!
Post-16 took charge of the resources and kept shop
with the local currency of polo mints and sound
business advice. A thoroughly enjoyable day and
well done to all our young entrepreneurs.
ICT Challenge March 2012
In recent weeks, ICT students have taken part in
the BCS Coventry Branch “Challenge ICT”
Competition. The students were from years 8 and
13 and had been selected as finalists for the
competition. At the event on Thursday 15 th March,
the finalists had attended the competition event at
Coventry University to be judged on our pieces of
work. There was tough competition from schools
across Coventry all competing to win the awards
for their category which were “Website Category”,
“Digital Animation Category”, “Mobile Phone App
Design” and the “Entrants Choice Award”.
Unfortunately, we had not won any awards but we
were proud to have progressed as much as we
had as finalists to take part in this exciting
competition.
Rahul Chauhan
Vaughan Masawi- Community Radio
DJ
“The radio industry is where I’ve always wanted to
be and where I aspire to be. Being on the Hillz FM
Radio has been a great opportunity for my own
personal development. I volunteered to be a radio
presenter on one of Coventry’s community radio
stations where I now have my own show mostly on
Fridays from 10:00 to 11:00 am. I was in a real
radio station with real problems to solve, real
challenges to take on and real experience to gain.
My favourite part of the experience was that I got
to spend the day in the Hillz FM studio. It has
influenced me to begin a career in the radio
industry, something that I am really passionate
about.”
Vaughan Masawi
Post-16 supporting school
assemblies.
Thanks go to our Post-16 students for supporting
school assemblies in the lower school. Daniel
Hague, Harry Preece, Drew Fivey and Alice Kennell
have all contributed to themes such as ‘Heroes’ and
‘Determination’. We look forward to many more!
Mr Price

UK Recycling
Year 9 recently enjoyed a Business trip to UK
Recycling, a tyre recycling organisation, owned by one
of our Business Studies parents, Mr Johnson. The
students were given the opportunity of a tour around
the plant and a full, detailed explanation of the entire
manufacturing process.
In essence, they recycle tyres from local garages and
process them in to bales for selling on to their
customers. We were particularly grateful to Mr Johnson
for the unfettered access to his operation and we hope
to renew our link next year for a new cohort.
Air Atlantique
Our Year 10/11 students recently took part in a Business trip to Air Atlantique, a charity that aims to
preserve our flying heritage by renovating classic aircraft and offering pleasure flights.
Their operation works out of Coventry Airport and the students were given a full and thorough response to
their questions on the importance of a website in running a concern such as theirs. Once again, we enjoyed
full access to their charity and how it is run, this is extremely useful for our student’s coursework and,
indeed, their wider awareness of business in the current climate.
Primary Schools
We continue to deliver our Primary school Enterprise workshops to our local feeder schools. They remain
as popular as ever, with schools now moving on to their third option of board game manufacturing. It
continues to engage their imagination, sparking discussion, with it culminating in their visit to our
Conference Room to present this two day module of work.
All our local schools have been involved in this initiative, although due to its popularity we cannot fit in
working with every school on an annual basis rather having to establish a two year rolling programme!
Mr Price

Fri. 6th April
Mon. 23rd April
Tues. 24th April
Thurs. 3rd May
Fri. 1st June
Mon. 11th June
Fri. 29th June
Fri. 6th July
End of Term
Teacher Training Day
Term Starts
Year 9 Subject Review Evening 4pm-7pm
End of Term
Term Starts
Post 16 Summer Ball
Year 11 Summer Ball
Please help us to collect vouchers for
our school! Tesco vouchers to be
handed in at the LRC and Sainsbury’s
vouchers in the staffroom

Fire Evacuation Procedures and First Aid (For Visitor’s)
Whilst on school premises, if you detect a fire please break the nearest fire break
glass and alert the nearest member of staff. Upon hearing the fire alarm, please
make your way to the nearest fire escape and follow the signs to the fire assembly
point which is located at the front of the school. If you require first aid please alert
the nearest member of staff who will happy to assist you.
Skateboards
If your child brings a skateboard to school, please remind them to obey the Health
and Safety rules and not to skate on the road/pavement whilst at school or at the
school gates.
Cycling
To ensure the safety of our students with regards to cycling, could parents/
guardians please ensure that:
During Autumn/Winter term, check
that your bike has lights/reflectors for
cycling at dusk or in the dark.
Take extra care when cycling in the
first rain fall after a dry spell as the
roads will be very slippy at this point.
Free cycle maps are available from
Coventry City Council (Also via
website) with advice on Cycle routes
etc
Advise children to use the pedestrian
path provided and NOT to clutter
around the school entrance gates
(7.30am-8.45am and 3.15pm-
4.00pm)
Mr Singh

Newly refurbished
auditorium available at
Whitley Academy for
hire in the evenings and
school holidays.
220 fixed seats,
new sound system,
large display screen
projector
Suitable for :
conferences,
presentations
performances

(Cook a meal for 4 and take home – class and all food FREE!)