Corley Centre Summer 1 2015
Dol-y-Moch visit
This half term, twenty three of our students travelled to Plas Dol-y-Moch, Outdoor Education Centre, in Wales. Dol-y-Moch provides outdoor residential experiences to young people in Coventry. Twelve of the students were on three
day residential visits and nine were on a six day visit. Students slept in dormitories together and were responsible for keeping them clean and tidy with dorm
inspections each morning. During the daytime they went on a range of activities; a canoe journey down the Dwyryd Estuary, a slate mine adventure challenge and rock pooling on Criccieth Beach. The six day students also went on a
day of mountain biking followed be an overnight camp at Bothey. In the evenings there were joint activities with a Coventry mainstream secondary school
including orienteering in Llyn Mair Woods. Students also had the responsibility
of doing chores within the centre; sweeping floors, clearing away crockery after
meals and cleaning the minibuses.
Summer Art Exhibition
To celebrate the creative achievements of Corley Centre artists, the Art
Department is holding a Summer Art Exhibition. All students are invited to
enter a piece of work. The private view for students and guests will be
held in the Training Room at Corley Centre on Friday 10th July from 3.30 5pm.
Please come along and celebrate the achievements of our student artists.
Important Information
Summer terms ends on Friday 17th July 2015
Summer 1 2015
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Corley Centre Summer 1 2015
Whole School Focus Day: Industry Day
Wednesday 1st April 2015 was the Spring Term Whole School Focus Day. Groups of students visited
different sites across the county; Crow recycling, Cheylesmore Partnership Centre, Coventry Air Museum, Birmingham Airport, Ricoh Arena and The Herbert.
In the morning, the group who
visited Crow recycling got to experience first hand how cans
and paper are recycled. They
worked together as a team.
In the afternoon they went to
Ryton Pools where they made
and tested out wind socks.
At the Herbert, students learnt about the history of weaving and the ribbon industry in Coventry.
They also learnt about the historic importance of portraits in a time when there were no cameras.
At the Air Museum students had the opportunity to learn about the aeroplanes; the statistics and
history of a range of aircraft. The students especially enjoyed learning about the Vulcan Bomber. In
the afternoon they made model aircraft in the airport education centre.
Corley Centre Summer 1 2015
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Industry Day continued
At the Cheylesmore Partnership Centre, students created a production line to create bird
boxes. They completed 5 bird boxes which were
brought back to school and will be put up
around the grounds.
They also met with Mr Benfield (owner of Benfield Homes) and were able to ask him questions
about the house building industry.
Students travelled by rail and then sky train to get to Birmingham Airport. Once there they learnt about
the workings of the airport as well as having a talk from Airport Security Police Officers.
The manager of the Ricoh Arena conducted an hour long behind the scenes tour filled with fascinating anecdotes about the sporting and music events that have happened at the arena. Students also learned
about the development of the site to include a new train station.
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Corley Centre Summer 1 2015
Trampolining
On Tuesday 28th April 2015 4 Key Stage 3 students from Corley Centre took part in a Trampolining Event
at Warwickshire College, Rugby against mainstream schools. To make it even more nerve racking they
were in the first group to compete in front of a large sports hall full of fellow competitors and PE teachers. They all got medals for participating and were a credit to the school.
GCSE Drama Visit
As part of the GCSE Drama qualification, students are required to experience a live theatre production and evaluate it in a written exam. After researching productions currently running in the local area, we decided to
see ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’, a play based on
the award winning novel by Mark Haddon. We thought it would be a fantastic opportunity for other KS3 and KS4 students who have shown a particular interest in Drama and some who have studied the book during
mentor lessons to experience the production as well at The Royal and
Derngate Theatre in Northampton. The play was very close to the plot within the book and was a wonderful way to see the book come to life. The set was highly visual, with grids of lights flooding the floor and
walls, and a cast that managed to make the same space feel like so many different environments for a
huge range of scenes.
The narrator of the story is a character called Christopher. He is a 15-year-old boy with autism, who gives
us a unique view into the world as he sees it. He enables us to follow his amazing journey during which his
quest into finding the murderer of his next door neighbour’s dog leads to many more discoveries and secrets. As the play came to an end, Christopher came back onto the stage and explained the Pythagorean
Theorem using a huge visual display (as it linked to part of a speech earlier in the play). Some of our students were excited as they said they had recently learnt this in maths and were able to follow the information; it was an impressive display of knowledge in a really fun and engaging way. The play was gripping
from start to finish and really impressed us all. When we discussed the play after the show, a great comment was made capturing why the characters had created such an impact upon the viewers: “Miss, it
helps you understand what it’s like to live with autism but I relate to it”. Miss Brooks, Mrs O’Keefe and
Mrs Lewis were highly impressed with the students proving that they are great ambassadors for the
school. We all recommend reading the book and/or going to see the play if you want to be inspired (it is
being performed at Birmingham Hippodrome soon!).