Newsletter Issue 13 - Bedford Academy

Arts and SportsSummer 2012Leaders allYear 10 BTEC students took on a challenge for NationalSchool Sports Week and became Young Sports Leaders forthe day, teaching a variety of athletics events to Year 7 pupilsfrom Harrowden Middle School.The boys spent the morning learning, planning andpracticing how to teach mini lessons in shot putt, 100metres and triple jump. Each member of the group wasgiven a specific role to play in the group from describing theevents to measuring distances and recording times, with themore confident boys taking a lead role.The BTEC Sports Leaders learnt valuable lessons inorganisation, preparation, and communication.Raiqwan Joesph commented: ‘It was a great experience andI understand now the need to be prepared, and how thingscan change unexpectedly and how to adapt to the changes.’Each group of Sports Leaders taught their event to threedifferent groups of Year 7 pupils on a rotation every twentyminutes. The students recorded all times and distances fromthe events and awarded a certificate to each pupil whichrelated to their best individual score in all three events.The BTEC Sports Leaders did a fantastic job and deserve allthe credit they get for the hard work and effort they put in.The day seems to have sparked an interest in this group ofboys to continue participating in sports leader’s events andactivities.Tomasz Burzynki and Gary Townsend commented:“We really enjoyed the challenge and would now like to organiseand run a football tournament for middle school students.”BTEC sports class steps upAlso stepping up to the coaching challenge were our Year 12BTEC Sport class which went to Shortstown Lower School toteach Year 3 and 4s.The students who took part were Vitale Taverna, Luke Adde,Ashard Miah and Tinashe Chibanda.Over three weeks these students coached and helped theShortstown students develop skills in different sports and theyclearly made an impression as the Shortstown teachers wereso impressed they invited the class go back and coach them inthe future.Race for lifeOn 1st July Miss Powell,Miss Webb and 13 studentstook part in the RussellPark ‘Race for Life’ event.They participated in the5km race and completedthe course to receivetheir medals. All studentsinvolved had a really good day and have already shown aninterest in taking part in next year’s race aiming to complete the10km course.In addition to this students from the Aerobic enrichmentgroup were selected to open the event following its successfulperformance last year. The girls spent a number of hoursin rehearsals preparing their new routine and performedconfidently to over 4000 people on the day. And they havealready been invited to perform in next year’s event which theyare all very proud of.Puppets on a stringStudents took part in a ‘Junk Puppetry’ workshop in Aprilrun by professional puppeteer and artistic director forGomito Productions, Amelia Bird.This was an excellent workshop providing an excitingopportunity for students to learn about a new performancestyle. All students were fully involved in the workshop andtook the opportunity to perform with puppets as well ascreate improvised scenes. Students created very entertainingperformances.Comments from pupils after the workshop demonstratedhow much they had enjoyed the experience:Emily Cherry (Yr 9):“I really enjoyed the workshop, I got to learn about a lot of newthings and I would love to have the chance to do it again.”Sanam Harrinanan:“I got to learn about a whole new style of performance. It wasreally good fun.”‘Twas brillig’The Year 10 BTEC Performing Arts enrichment group and theYear 9 Drama Club joined forces this year to work on a devisedperformance based on the poem The Jabberwocky. This piece ofwork will go towards the Year 10 BTEC qualification.The two groups have worked together very successfullycreating an imaginative piece of work and have also introducedjunk puppetry, creating and operating a large puppet of theJabberwocky. The project has given students the opportunityto work on a wide range of drama skills not just those of acting,but also devising and puppetry.Team Masai Award fundraising updateTotal raised to date £364 by Arts & Sport Village CharityThis year we have been raising money to contribute towards theschool fees for both the male and female athletes of the the yearat Bishop Okiring School, Kenya. And what an exciting prospectto think that we are contributing to the education of a potentialfuture Olympic champion. As you may already be aware BishopOkiring is the school that was attended by Olympic ChampionLinat Masai.Fundraising activities to date include a sweet sale, samosa sale,henna tatoos, cake sale, sixth form mufti, ice cream sale andInternational food sale as part of National Schools Sports Week.Still to come is a pottery sale.Singing the bluesThere have been some pretty significant changes to the waymusic is taught over this term. We have been utilising the newtechnology the school has provided using the iPods in lessonsfor our coursework and are very excited about moving in to thenew building and exploring the new equipment and technology.This term 10C has been focusing on Blues Music, not onlyin composition but in theory and performance as well. Forcoursework, we have been using the garage band app on theiPod Touches. We have been graded on our work so far, andsome people have come back with impressive results forperformances.Music is contributing to the gym and dance showcase. There willbe several solo singers who are contributing to the evening byproviding solo pieces and support music. The Bedford Angelswill also be performing and everyone is looking forward to whatwill be a fantastic event. A dramatic adaptation of Jabberwockywas performed live on the 10th of July by the Year 10 BTECenrichment group, accompanied by some exciting percussivemusic, performed by Sherrylee Dutoit, and led by guest musician,Malcolm Smith.That is all for this year in the music department, keep an eye outfor enrichment updates so you don’t miss out!OWZAT!Phemy (L) & Benson (R) receive the Team Masai AwardStudents from Bedford Academy travelled to Northants CountyCricket Club to watch them take on Warwickshire in a T20 cricketmatch. T20 is the limited over cricket competition played underfloodlights with lots of big hitting and lots of wickets!Runs and wickets were greeted with loud music and dancing aroundthe ground. The match certainly didn’t disappoint with Warwickshirefinishing up easy winners chasing Northants total of 153.More cricket trips will be planned next year as everybody reallyenjoyed the evening.A fond farewellThe Art Department says goodbye to a great Year 13BTEC group. They all had a great work ethic and producedsome outstanding two and three dimensional work. SoniaMasih is continuing with her Art studies at university, andKim Hyndes has a place studying motorcycle design andengineering. Others in the group have offers of universityplaces in London. This was a group that we can honestly saywas a pleasure to teach.