NBA Newsletter - Feb 2011 - North Birmingham Academy

FOCUS ON ENGLISH
TECHNO-
LIBRARY
Following a recent audit
of student
requirements, there
was a clear request for
more use of ICT to
encourage reading
across the whole
Academy. To this end,
we have purchased
three Kindle E readers
and Year 11
students (at first) will be
LITERARY
SPECIALISTS
The Academy is
currently recruiting
students in Years 9 and
10 to become 'Literacy
Specialists'. These
students will expand
their own understanding
of Literacy and then
able to borrow these
exciting resources to
take home and read at
their leisure. The
students have also
requested the range of
books they would like
downloaded, as well as
a selection of key
revision material, which
will all be available
soon.
As an extra support to
students who find
plan and resource
activities be used in a
lesson.
Once these resources
are complete, teaching
staff will be able to book
a Literacy to come to
their lesson at an
agreed time to shares
their expertise.
reading challenging,
some of the
downloaded novels
feature a Text to
Speech feature which
'reads' the text to you
as you follow the words
on screen. If the trial is
successful, then more
Kindles will be
purchased and
the opportunity to
borrow them will be
rolled out to all year
groups.
STORY BOOK
Year 7 have been
working with Miss
Hopkins writing
stories which will be
published in a North
Birmingham Academy
Year 7 story book
later this year.
CONTROLLED ASSESSMENT
Year 10 English have produced some
excellent work in English lessons.
Students have been awarded the
highest band for speaking and
listening and the creative writing
element of their controlled assessment
BOOSTER SESSIONS
Year 11 booster sessions will be taking
place for selected C/D borderline
students and F/G grade students.
Students will receive letters inviting
them to attend. All students who
attend all of these sessions will receive
a reward for their continued hard work
and progress.
INNOVATIVE LITERACY
PROGRAMME
Our specialism in English continues to be a
priority for the Academy and this half term has
seen a focus on improving vocabulary and
challenging students to increase their reading.
As part of this, the English Department have
developed an innovative rolling programme of
key words and challenging vocabulary which are
displayed prominently on television screens
throughout the Academy. These words have
been carefully selected to develop students’
spoken vocabulary and also their written
responses in exams and assessments. Staff are
also being asked to get involved. If the whole
Academy community uses thoughtful, mature
and analytical language, then students will see
an increase in their performance across all
subject areas.
As part of this initiative, the new Academy
website now features lots of information for
parents on how they can support their children
with their literacy.
ALIEN INVASION!
Dreadlock Alien visited NBA in February and helped show the
power, the passion and the fun of poetry to selected pupils in
year 7 and 8.
The day started with a poem challenge with the pupils thinking
up words for Dreadlock Alien to incorporate into a free styled
poem that also included the names of every pupil involved.
Students were entertained by stories and modern rhymes from
the internationally respected poet on topics from school and
childhood to sports stars. The fast delivery style and wide range
of topics helped students to see that poetry does not necessarily
mean sonnets or love poetry but an expression of their lives
and their experiences.
Students worked at a fantastic pace when they were
writing their own poetry and were using their new found
confidence to try using
poetic devices in their
own work. Their work
reflected the expert's
and the topics of the
students' work included
England's failure at the
recent world cup, pain,
fashion labels and
emotional pain.