Term finishes on Wednesday 23^rd July. The day will end as usual at lunchtime and students will be dismissed in the following year groups:

Year 11 .....................12:10pm

Year 10 .....................12:15pm

Year 9 .......................12:20pm

Year 8 & 6^th form......12:25pm

The academy recently received a Section 8 monitoring visit from Ofsted. These are interim reviews of progress following on from the Ofsted report last March. The purpose of the first visit is to look at the impact of action taken since the inspection and to ensure that the improvement planning is, in Ofsted’s view, able to take the school forward. The HMI, Zarina Connelly, visited on the final day of the activity week and after a walk around the academy she commented on how engaged and enthusiastic the children were. It was a lovely atmosphere around the site with many students thoroughly involved in the varying activities provided. Although it will not appear in the report, informally she commented about the value that weeks like the one we had just held are for schools in extending learning and building confidence.

Below is the link to the official letter of the visit. She will visit again in the autumn.

July 2014 Section 8 Letter

The arrangements for the start of the new academic year are as follows:

3rd September –

Only Year 7 will be in school for this day. They will arrive for 8:30am, ready for the beginning of the school day. There will be an extended Guidance session with their tutor before moving to the normal timetable later in the day

4th September – 

8:30am: Year 7, Year 8 and Year 11 arrive for the beginning of the school day. Guidance in Period 1 will be an extended tutor time.

1:10pm: Year 9, Year 10 and Year 13 arrive. Period 4 will be tutor time.

5th September – 

Year 12 registration is on Friday 5^th September. Students should come in at the time indicated below:

9.05am   - Surnames A-H

10.05am - Surnames I-R

11.30am - Surnames S-Z

Year 12 start on timetable on Wednesday 10^th September and should be in school at 8.30am. They will need to report to tutor rooms (they will be told these on registration day).

As part of the GCSE Hospitality course, students are required to research, plan, carry out and evaluate an event of their own choosing that fits into the exam board brief.

There have been two large classes studying GCSE hospitality this year, so the students were split into three groups per class to plan their events which had to cater for a minimum of 10 guests.

Each group planned a different event and these were all held at the Academy over a three day period.

The groups hosted an Italian buffet for school staff, a cake sale for staff and students raising money for British Heart Foundation, an afternoon tea party raising money for Cancer Research, a gourmet meal for senior citizens in the local area with profits going to AgeUk, a mad hatters tea party for staff and a party for children from a local infant school.

The students all worked exceedingly hard and really enjoyed the events. The feedback from the guests was all very positive. All six events have raised nearly £300 to be split between AgeUk, Cancer Research and the British Heart Foundation.

Well done to all GCSE hospitality students.

On Saturday 5^th July, Emily Bramley year 9, competed in the British Gymnastics Tumbling NDP Finals, held at The International Centre, Telford.

It had taken Emily a lot of effort and dedication to qualify for the finals. She had qualified at the county and regional finals and then gone on to be successful in two national semi-finals in March and May to gain her place at finals. Her achievement at gaining a place in the finals ranked her in the top 8 tumblers of all ages in her category in the whole country!

In the final Emily had to complete three tumble runs, linking together a series of ‘flic flacs’ and turns proving she deserved to be there with a final display. She performed brilliantly and finished first, winning a gold medal! She made club history by becoming the first female National Champion in tumbling.

She now holds the title ‘British National Tumbling Level 1 Champion 2014’, a truly excellent sporting qualification. A phenomenal achievement, Congratulations Emily!

‘Merit points’ are awarded for a wide variety of attributes which recognise a positive attitude to learning, hard work and excellent behaviour.

Teachers have been awarding students merit points since the beginning of the academic year and during the second week in July we were delighted to award over 1,000 Certificates during our ‘Rewards and Celebrations Week’ to students who have excelled at the Academy and collected significant numbers of merit points ranging from the Bronze Certificate for 100 merit points to the Ruby Certificate for over 750 points.

The top three girls and boys in each year group received Amazon vouchers as well as their certificates and eight lucky winners in year’s 7 to 10 - one girl and one boy from each year group were delighted to be presented with an iPad mini!

Well done to everyone who has received a certificate or award.

As an additional reward, during the last full week of term, all Sapphire (500 merit points) and Ruby certificate (750 merit points) holders attended a celebration breakfast with Principal, Robin Fugill and Head of Academy, John Cox. A total of 369 students received these top two certificates and enjoyed the breakfast, the highest points gained by Angus McLaughlan, year 7 was 955 – only 45 points away from Diamond! Well done to Angus for this huge achievement.

Merit points have now re-set for the new academic year with the start of the new timetable and some students are already half way towards the Bronze certificate of 100 merit points. 

On Tuesday 15th July, ten of our year 9 sports day winners competed in an athletics competition at Joseph Whitaker School with everyone tasting some form of success. They all performed brilliantly;

Girls results:

Ava Burrell won the 100 metres

Leah Moodie won the Javelin

Sabine Foyster won 800m very comfortably and finished second in the high jump

Emily Browne finished third in the 200 metres

Charlotte Dawson competed in the long jump and was part of the team that finished 3rd in the relay

Boys results:

Matthew Jackson finished first in his 200 metre race and first in the long jump

Jack Hopewell finished first in the 400metres

Luke Duffy won the 1500metres

Kian Mills finished 3rd in the 100metres

Rob Taylor was part of the winning relay team

Unfortunately the Year 8 event had to be cancelled the previous week after a couple of events because of heavy rain showers but students were showing strong signs of some good results there too. Well done to all.

On Thursday 3^rd July year 8 boys were split into two halves to compete in a charitable football match. They were raising money for the Macmillan Cancer Support Charity. The game was very well supported by many Year 8 students, staff and tutors and also parents, which made for a really super atmosphere. The game began pretty evenly, with both teams testing each other but by half time team ‘Y’ had a heavy lead over team ‘X’. The score 4-0.

At half time Year 8 got revenge for all the Maths homework they had been receiving with a penalty shoot-out against Mr Tock. To his credit Mr Tock saved a number of penalties but succumbed to the power and accuracy of the mighty Year 8. Sabine Foyster made Mr Tock look silly with an incredibly elaborate trick shot that had the crowds laughing!

The second half saw team ‘X’ pull back to 6-4 and with 10 minutes to go, they were dominating the game, but with a few tactical changes, team ‘Y’ again pulled away and made it 7-4 at full time.

Thank you to all staff, students and parents for supporting the fundraiser.

From Saturday 28^th June to Friday 4^th July 45 students and 5 staff went to Argeles-Sur-Mer in the south of France on an action packed watersports trip. Whilst on the trip students did 2 days of beach watersports and a day of white water rafting and hydrospeeding as well as having some free time in the pool.

On the beach days students took part in wind surfing, paddle boarding, kayaking, sailing and as an added bonus snorkelling – where on both days we saw an octopus as well as star fish and sea cucumbers.

The white water rafting and hydrospeeding were some of the best highlights of the trip, going up into the mountains to see spectacular scenery whilst coming down the river.

The evenings were not boring either – after some free time in the pool, a quick shower and tea – it was off to the evening entertainment which included capture the flag, slack lining and some team games.

Voyager Travel identified 2 students who throughout the trip were fearless and always positive in their outlook when participating in all activities. These students were Mae Buxton and Joe Woodcock, who were presented with T shirts by resort manager Adam.

On Tuesday and Wednesday of activities week year 7 got to grips with their creative side! Councillor John Parr set the Art department the task to create a mural to commemorate World War 1 as part of the 100 year celebrations.  On Tuesday year 7 stepped up to the challenge and created an army of poppies – all made in a day! They were crocheted, felted, sewn, cut and stuck - who would have thought there were so many ways to make a poppy?!

Elsewhere the tapestry was being made combining some of the wonderful designs created by the students in response to the tapestry competition set to the students earlier this year. The finished articles will all be arranged together to make a fantastic display honouring our veterans, men and animals who died for Britain in World War 1. The finished piece will be available for all to see in Arnold. Thanks to Councillor Parr for involving us in this exciting project. We are excited to see the finished article on display in the town centre –We shall keep you informed on its location and when it is ready to be viewed.

On Wednesday year 7’s creative side turned to Drama and Music. Suddenly things got a lot noisier! Luke Gell - actor and Director of Nottingham's Inspire Academy ran improvisations all day with one of the most dramatically talented year groups the school has ever seen! He left having spotted some real talent and was hugely complimentary about the focus and behaviour of our students. Drama and Music staff delivered excellent workshops throughout the day. One workshop brought to life the World War 1 experience the students had learned so much about the previous day using the war poetry of Wilfred Owen. Another celebrated comedy and mime to great effect. In Music the students had loud and exciting Samba and Indian Raga workshops that could be heard for miles! 

Seeing students fully engaged in the Arts at Arnold Hill Academy is always an expectation and pleasure but during these two days exceptional focus, commitment and creativity was seen that has made the Arts department very proud! A big thank you to year 7 for throwing themselves into it with such gusto! 

A special thank you goes to Ethan Cole in year 7 for taking all of the photographs and video footage throughout the day.

Arnold Hill students took part in a pioneering business and enrichment celebration on Thursday 3^rd July which was a great success. It was the first time Arnold Hill had put on a whole-school Carnival event that everyone could get involved in.

In February each tutor group were given a ten pound note and asked to invest it in something to sell on this one special day. The aim - get a return of as much money as possible, with any additional funds going to a local charity. The only stipulation was to 'make your money back'.  Students and tutors set about the task with excitement, and the hope of being the next Alan Sugar!

Students set up their stalls on Main School Field to sell their products and ideas to each other. The day was full of fun filled activities including playing football, apple bobbing and face painting all ideas thought of by the different tutor groups to raise money. There was several cake and sweet stalls, a raffle and several challenges including ‘guess how many cookies in the jar’ and ‘coconut throw’. There was also a bouncy castle, a huge inflatable slide and an ice-cream van on site. There was additional entertainment from the Arnold Hill Academy band and various music and dance acts that performed on a central stage. The students had a fantastic day with some groups making well over £100 profit. It was great to see everyone not just having fun but also raising money for charity. Well done to all tutor groups for their creative ideas and making Carnival 2014 a great success.

On Thursday 26th June, twelve Arnold Hill students spent the day at Vision West Notts. College competing in the Nottinghamshire Science and Technology Challenge Day. The event was held for Year 8’s and 9’s across the country, typically for Gifted and Talented students.

The group arrived at the college and were briefed on the day. They were split into mixed school teams of four and were given practical applied science, technology-related activities to complete throughout the day. Each challenge involved planning, working together and evaluation/testing. The ‘Vehicle Challenge’ asked students to build a moving car considering friction and torque, which travelled a two metre distance in the shortest possible time. They were given elastic bands, wheels, straws and a motor to complete the challenge. A team from Arnold Hill won the challenge with their vehicle moving the 2 metres in just 0.78 seconds! The next activity was the ‘E-Fit Challenge’ which seemed to be one of the students’ favourite activities, this tested the students’ memory and awareness, as well as their computer skills by asking them to memorise the face of a ‘criminal’ and create an E-Fit of them using police software. Another challenge set to the studetns was the 'Robot Challenge’ Students were asked to program a robot using colour and infrared sensors to manoeuvre around an obstacle course, losing points for hitting obstacles and gaining them for passing over the yellow stars on the circuit. Arnold Hill students proved very successful in this task with more than one group of students' winning the task.

At the end of the day awards were given to the teams, presented by the Mayor of Nottingham. Plaques were awarded to the winners of the individual challenges. Arnold Hill was presented with the winning trophy for being the winners of the overall tasks and we have now been invited to represent Nottinghamshire in the finals. The date is yet to be confirmed but is likely to be next year.

Sarah Baggaley Year 9 is excited to have made the finals “I really enjoyed the Challenge Day, although I didn’t really expect to! I got to try a lot of new things that I wouldn’t have otherwise tried.”

Well done to all the year 8’s and 9’s who attended and represented the Academy so well. We wish them all well for the finals.

Arnold Hill Academy’s Art department proudly presented the student ‘better than Banksy’ Art exhibition on Wednesday 2^nd July. The event was a huge success and many parents, students and members of the public came to have a look at the work, and even buy some of the pieces. We would like to thank the Arts faculty for helping us deliver such a fantastic event, all of your hard work was greatly appreciated!

This is the first time the Art department have created a gallery showcasing GCSE and A-level work, the feedback and positive comments were fantastic. Having invested in frames and white exhibition boards the Art department were able to showcase the student’s hard work to a very professional level.

The GCSE work on show was the students’ final piece from their coursework or exam, this meant that we had a wide range of artwork on show and were able to show very personal responses from students.

The GCSE students work ranged from tools, cakes, family tree, horses, self-portraits, animals, comic stripes and famous people. Students created sheets to show their creative thought process which led up to their final piece which was exhibited.

Students on the A-level course all had one board dedicated to their artwork. The students were able to come in and put their favourite pieces up to show case their talents. Again we had a range of projects varying from personality, nightlife, human form, ballet, crime and phobias.

We were overwhelmed with the amount of visitors that came to see the galley. Special guest, The Mayor of the Borough of Gedling, Councillor Jenny Hollingsworth came in to view the students work and was very impressed with the high quality of the pieces on show.

“It’s inspirational the work is a credit to the students. A lot of effort has gone in to the gallery and it really shows commitment and dedication. It is lovely to see such personalities shining through their work. The students should be very proud” said councillor Hollingsworth.

Well done to all our very talented students for helping put up the event and working so hard for the past few years and Thank you to all who came and supported the event.

As part of the whole-academy activities week in July, the Humanities Faculty ran an event to support the charity Malaria No More UK for all year 7 and 9 students.

The charity primarily supports the funding of mosquito nets in the developing world.

Students attended an hour’s workshop during the activity session where they learned more about the important work of the charity.
Students also took part in a creative workshop where they had the opportunity to design and paint their own mugs or design a t-shirts to help raise awareness of malaria. The event was a huge success and students had a great time. The academy has raised over £400 for the charity so far.

Monday 30^th June was a big day for Academy, Sports Day 2014!! Activities included track races, javelin, high jump, shot putt, long jump, wailer throw, tennis ball throw and discus. There were some fantastic individual performances with some long standing school records broken. All the students and staff made it a fantastic day. Particular highlights were the team relays and the Ultra Iron Fitness Challenge in the afternoon, which saw one boy and one girl from each house complete 50 press-ups, 50 sit-ups, 50 burpees and 3 laps of the track between them showing excellent team spirit to win the final points for their house.

Congratulations to Newstead on winning Arnold Hill sports day 2014!

The full team result was:

1^st Newstead      822 points

2^nd Beauvale       786 points

3^rd Rufford          776 points

4^th Thoresby       742 points

5^th Clumber         741 points

6^th  Wollaton       680 points

Lower School Hall opened its doors for Gig Night on Thursday 26^th June. The Music department and the students performing had been preparing for the event for weeks and their hard work paid off, it was a rousing success. Music was performed by students from all years, including some well-written compositions.The feedback from the audience was very positive. All acts performed to a professional standard and many in the crowd were impressed by new talent that had not performed on stage before. The judging panel - Head judge Robin Fugill, Head of Music at Quarrydale Academy, Jenny Ashby and lead singer of In Hindsight, Michael Newcombe had the difficult task of choosing the evening's winners. After some careful deliberation the winners were announced;

1^st prize of £100, recording time at Confetti Studios and rehearsal time at Psyrex Studios went to Giuseppe Venturino and Megan Solis both of year 10, who performed their own acoustic version of Only Exception by Paramore.

The second prize, recording time in Psyrex Studios and £50 went to the year 12 & 13 group, Nebuchadnezzar (Ben Solis, Jack Fisher, Tom Briars and Andrew Kempster) who performed Knights of Cydonia by Muse.

Matthew Dickinson, year 9 fought off tough competition from drummers a lot older than him to win the ‘drum off’ prize of £50.

Well done to all our prize winners and Thank you to the Music department and everyone who performed on the night for providing such a fantastic evening of entertainment.