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Collingwood
Chronicle
EXCELSIOR
AC
AD
EM
Y NEW
CA
ST
LE
April 2015
PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE
A warm welcome to the spring edition of the
Collingwood Chronicle. I have been very
impressed with the Collingwood pupils
throughout what has been a successful term.
Both the current academic attainment and
the attendance of the pupils are at their
highest levels, which demonstrate the pupils'
positive attitude towards learning both inside
and outside of the classroom. The pupils have
enjoyed participating in a range of
enrichment activities. Highlights include: a
skiing trip to France; the BBC School News
Report project; Spainovision and World
Book Day. Next term the Year 11 pupils will
sit their GCSE examinations and their
revision programme is fully underway with
the assistance of their personal academic
mentor. None of this is possible without the
support of the staff who work tirelessly to
achieve the best possible outcomes for your
children.
I hope that you and your family will have an
enjoyable Easter break. The new term starts
on Monday 20th April at 8:30am and we
look forward to seeing your child ready for the
summer term in their full school uniform.
M Connolly
Talented Writers
Year 7 Collingwood writers
delved deep into their
imaginations to fill in the pages
of a literary mystery left blank
for more than 60 years. They
answered the call from Love
Literacy North East for young
writers to create their own
imaginative explanations of
classic illustrations from the
story written by American author
Chris Van Allsburg.
He wrote the story of a
mysterious man called Harris
Shaun, Craig and Liutauras
www.excelsiornewcastle.org.uk
Burdick who walked into the
offices of children’s book
publisher Peter Wenders in 1953.
He brought 14 images with him
that day to illustrate 14 stories
he had written. Wenders was
both fascinated and intrigued by
the stunning images and their
teasing captions and he asked
Burdick to return with the rest of
the work as soon as he could.
Love Literacy North East invited
schoolchildren to write the
stories that Burdick never
brought back to the children’s
book publisher all those years
ago. Shaun Anderson and Craig
Sanderson were awarded two of
the top 20 places from more
than 1,000 young entrants.
Liutauras Balciunas was judged
overall runner-up for his creepy
interpretation of the novel ‘The
Mysteries of Harris Burdick’,
winning a Kindle for his literary
skills.
BBC School Report
On Thursday 19th March, pupils
across Britain took part in the
BBC News School Report Day.
7C1 were chosen to work on this
project and have been busy
developing their journalistic skills
by participating in Practice News
Days.
Prior to the day the pupils
worked with BBC producer
Katherine Roberts who helped
them to improve their reporting
skills.
The reporters interviewed two
Year 10 pupils about their
involvement in local music
What does
Home
mean to you?
Reporter Alice Castle interviewed a select group of
Collingwood School and Marden High School pupils
for the BBC Radio 3 flagship arts and ideas
programme ‘Free Thinking’, which was broadcast on
Thursday 19th March as part of the BBC School
Report Day.
groups. Other stories included:
the effects of social media; the
solar eclipse and star signs.
It was a fantastic day and pupils
worked extremely hard to be
noticed by the BBC, with
Excelsior Academy being
mentioned three times on the live
news feed!
The topic ‘What home means to me’ allowed
the pupils to explore the idea of ‘Home’ and
how it changed due to where you are from
and the language you may speak.
During the workshop session the pupils
formed their own news teams and they then
had to create a news bulletin. Each pupil was
assigned a role including: editor, producer,
reporter, weather presenter or broadcaster.
They then held an editorial meeting to decide
on programme content before going live to
broadcast their own news bulletin for the day
to their classmates.
Alice recorded their bulletins and said: “They
were two excellent teams, led by two really
good editors who were told what programme
needed to be delivered and they managed
their teams very well to deliver them.”
Year 9 pupil Shakira said: “It was interesting
to hear numerous translations for the word
home and how they mean such different
things. A common feature was that it is
somewhere your family is and you are loved.
Home could be anywhere as long as you have
that.”
World Book
Day
Books, books, everywhere. World
Book day took place on Thursday
5th March this year with
Collingwood pupils taking part in
a number of activities both
during English and CMADT
lessons. Even the staff got in on
the act this year with ‘Who’s
behind the book’ posters lining
the Collingwood corridors. Pupils
also had to guess the cute
childhood photographs of staff
and match that up to their
favourite childhood book.
The day was a great success and
promoted everyone’s enjoyment
of books. The day ended with all
Key Stage 3 pupils being given
their very own World Book Day
book to keep and take home.
Next year Mr Connolly has
hinted at staff dressing up as
their favourite book character,
now that sounds interesting!
Handwriting
In English lessons this term there
has been a cross academy
handwriting competition to
promote neat presentation and to
remind pupils of the importance
of legible handwriting.
Judging staff were overwhelmed
by the high number of quality
entries.
Competition
From Collingwood there were 3 winning entries:
> Year 9 Winner: Wendy Sibanda
> Year 10 Winner: Caitlin Tams
> Year 11 Winner: Martina Kurinova
Each pupil was awarded a certificate and a £20 voucher.
A Suitcase
for Survival
Year 9 pupils are working with
ceramics specialist and trainee
teacher, K. Hodgson, on a
memorial project about the
Holocaust. Pupils have been
discussing ideas around the
topic involving emotion and
values. They have made clay
luggage tags featuring key
words connected to their own
fears and what the fears of
people in the Holocaust must
have been. They are currently
working on a ‘Suitcase for
Survival’ which relates to the
piles of belongings found at the
site.
Nabila Ferdowsee said:
“I like this project because I
think it’s very interesting and
different. It’s fun to use clay.”
Daniel Broadwith explained:
“I think the experience of this
project has been successful and
educational. I have thoroughly
enjoyed it.”
Artwork by Irena Kotlarova and
Diana Bazova.
Year 7 Art
Year 7 pupils have been working
hard learning about the Formal
Elements of art this year. They
have covered Colour Theory with
these Franz Marc inspired
paintings (see right) and are now
working on a project about “El
Dia de los Muertos” to look at
pattern. Pupils are now experts
on colour mixing, gradient, tints
and shades.
Artwork by Viktoria Cikalova and
Gurbani Kapoor.
GCSE Exam
Year 11 GCSE Fine Art pupils
have been developing their skills
and working hard in preparation
for their exams in April. Pupils
will undergo a ten hour exam in
which they will create a final
outcome for the project they
have been working on since
January. They have been
responding to questions set by
the AQA exam board including:
Human Condition; Ritual; Mixed
Media; Food and Fantastic &
Strange. Pupils are perfecting
their skills using a range of
materials such as pencil, paint,
pastel and photography.
Hopes are high for all pupils to
achieve their targets and above.
Artwork by Jodie Holmes, Niomie
Nisbet and Zoe Milburn.
Spainovision
This term, in KS3 Spanish
lessons, pupils have been
developing language and skills on
the topic of family through the
hit Disney movie ‘Frozen’. It was
decided that the annual Academy
Spanish singing competition this
Krishnan and Mrs Dalgleish. They
chose 7C3 as the overall
Collingwood winner and they
represented the school in the
Academy final against choirs
from both Hadrian and Milburn.
Congratulations go to the
Milburn singers who were
declared the winners after 900
votes were cast. All of the pupils
who took part said they had lots
of fun learning the words and it
has helped them with their
pronunciation of Spanish.
year was related to the song “Let
it Go” – Libre Soy. All KS3
classes who learn Spanish took
part. Each class recorded their
performance with the voting
being passed onto unbiased
judges including Mr Connolly, Mr
A Tale Of Two Schools
Pupil councillors helping to shape the future
Pupils whose ideas and drive are
helping to shape life for all pupils
at Excelsior Academy and
Marden High School cemented
their friendship during a meeting
of their school councils.
A dozen representatives from
Collingwood’s school council
gave their counterparts from
Marden High a guided tour of
Excelsior before talking about the
changes they have helped
introduce.
The get together was the latest
chapter in a positive relationship
between Excelsior and Marden,
which is located in North Shields.
Pupils from both schools recently
took on the role of newshounds
working together with Radio 3 as
part of BBC News’ School Report
project, forming their own news
teams to deliver a bulletin in a
workshop session.
Collingwood school councillors
have a regular opportunity to air
their opinions to teachers and
propose changes to school life.
“The school council is really
important, we value their voice
and their impact into how the
school is run,” said Mr Smith
who oversees the school council.
Excelsior youngsters have a
strong track record of political
and campaigning success as they
won seven seats on the
prestigious Newcastle Youth
Council last year after a
spectacular electoral success for
the school.
Show Racism
thinking about their own world.
They were surprised to learn
accurate statistics about
immigration and jobs and had a
chance to reflect on where they
were getting their ideas from.
They then enjoyed an exercise
called ‘Whisper Down the Line’,
which illustrated how rumours
and inaccurate information can
be spread.
After a quick energiser led by exprofessional footballer, Gary
Bennett, the young people
watched Show Racism the Red
participated in a lively morning
Card’s educational DVD.
of discussion about racism and
At the end of the morning the
immigration.
pupils left with a selection of
The morning started with an
anti-racist literature and football
interactive presentation and quiz posters while also gaining a
to give pupils a better
greater understanding of what
understanding of what racism is racism actually looks like and
and to start the young people
how to stop it!
The Red Card
On 11th February, fifty young
people from three local
secondary schools joined staff
from Show Racism the Red Card
in the council chamber at
Newcastle City Council. Pupils
from Excelsior Academy, Heaton
Manor and Kenton Academy
Academy Annual
Business Awards
The Excelsior Academy Business
Awards were held on Thursday
26th February. Each award was
sponsored by a prestigious local
business.
Collingwood pupils were awarded
two awards after fighting off stiff
competition. Year 11 pupils have
been busy fundraising for their
prom. Pupils have organised
themselves with a rota so that
each week on Friday break times
they hold a bake sale and raise
funds for their upcoming prom.
This showed great determination
and enterprise and won them the
award for ‘World of Enterprise’.
The second award that was
awarded to a Collingwood pupil
went to Dimitar Petleshkov for
‘Healthy Living’. This was
awarded to Dimitar for his hard
work in co-ordinating and
promoting after school clubs.
Due to his involvement the
participation in football has
increased amongst both boys
and girls significantly. This
particular award was sponsored
by ‘Making Brilliant Careers’ the
sister company of ‘Tyne Tees
Models’.
Jamie's Italian
As a reward for their hard work in
their GCSE Catering lessons,
pupils were invited to visit
Jamie’s Italian Restaurant in
Newcastle.
The pupils were given a tour of
the restaurant, showing them
where the bar area and serving
area are located. A chef called
Nick gave a detailed talk about
the Antipasti section, which
included spicy meats, garlic,
cheese and chillies, which he
said were essential ingredients in
Italian cooking. He informed the
pupils that everything they make
is fresh and made to order.
To demonstrate how difficult it is
to serve customers in a busy
restaurant, pupils had to work in
teams to take part in an egg and
spoon race around the
restaurant. This highlighted how
important team work is, looking
out for other people, while also
concentrating on what you are
doing, to ensure service is
carried out correctly and
professionally.
Also, those involved were given
the fantastic opportunity to make
fresh pasta using a very
expensive pasta machine as well
as watching a talented chef
make ravioli. This was a great
opportunity to see how differently
pasta was made in an actual
restaurant compared to our
classroom.
Lastly, pupils went into a private
dining area to ask the restaurant
manager gruelling questions
about how the restaurant is run
and how to go about getting a job
working in the hospitality and
catering industry. The final treat
was sampling fresh mozzarella
and focaccia, which were
delicious.
Overall, pupils thoroughly
enjoyed this experience as it was
fun and gave them a real insight
for the future if they were to work
in a restaurant and the different
roles available.
Ski Trip
morning for ski school and met
ski instructors, Alan and Thomas,
whose conversational skills in
English were basically limited to
'ski-jargon'.
There were a number of
extremely amusing moments as
the group were learning how to
stand and move using their skis
and all were amazed at how
quickly they became skilled.
Soon the pupils were confident
enough to attempt the
'mountain'. By the last day the
group took their 'chariot' to the
very top and experienced
spectacular views of Mont Blanc
in the distance.
The most determined skier award
must go to Year 10 pupil
Chiamaka Grace Jecco-Obi, who
never gave up.
Most stylish pupil award goes to
Sophie Chapman and the fastest
skier award goes to Raza
Hussain, both Year 10 pupils.
There was relief all round when
The coach transfer gave the
The skier who spent most time
everyone turned up on time at
travellers their first glimpse of
on the snow, by falling down, was
the airport at 4:15am on
the snow peaked mountains as
our very own Mr. Brekke.
Saturday 14th March, when 16
they were heading for their
Each member of the group
Collingwood pupils accompanied hotel, where they would spend a received a grade certificate and
by two teachers, Mr Brekke and
relaxing first night settling in.
celebrated their triumph over the
Miss Wilkinson, headed for the
Armed with skis, poles and
mountain by grabbing a last
snowy French Alps.
boots they headed off the next
supper of pizza!
In The French Alps
Relax. Unwind. Enjoy. That is
precisely what a group of
mothers did in March. The lucky
ladies enjoyed a pamper session
thanks to the very talented Year
11 pupils who are studying Hair
and Beauty. The special Mother’s
Day pamper session treat was
arranged for those mums from
the Academy’s feeder schools
whose children had won a
competition to design a Mother’s
Day card. Each mum received a
full manicure treatment. Before
leaving they were presented with
a beautiful spring flower.
DATES
Mother's Day Treat
Start of Summer Term
Monday 20th April 2015
Half Term
25th - 29th May 2015
Review Day
Thursday 25th June 2015
Inset Day
Friday 26th June 2015
End of Summer Term
Friday 17th July 2015