Mascalls Academy Update
Dear Parents and Carers,
I hope this update finds you and your families well. We have reached the end of the second term of the academic year and despite the rain continuing, it is certainly nice to have seen a little more sunshine appear over the past week or so!
I would like to welcome the parents of our 24/25 cohort of Year 7 students who we are sharing each update with in the build up to their child starting their journey with us. Hopefully these updates will support you in the transition process and enable you to feel part of the community prior to starting and understand what is on offer to Mascalls Academy students. We have increased our provision of transition activities this academic year and we look forward to meeting you all over the next term, details of these dates will be be shared shortly after the Easter break.
This module has seen the introduction of the first round of IB MYP learner profile nominations taking place for both students and staff alike. Miss Dunne - Assistant Principal and MYP lead has rolled out a nomination system where students and staff have been nominating one another for demonstrating the IB learner profiles of caring, communicator, reflective, risk taker, principled, balanced, open-minded, thinker, knowledgeable and inquirer. Teachers and support staff can nominate students via BromCom so that you as parents can see on MCAS which learner profiles they have been nominated for. The students who receive the most nominations for a particular learner profile will recieve a badge to wear with their nominated profile displayed on it. These positive logs run alongside our already existing positive progress logs and Golden Tickets etc. These will be shared with students in the first assembly back after the Easter break in our College celebration assemblies. Students have also been nominating their teachers, the categories that staff have been overwhelmingly nominated for are caring, knowledgeable and communicators. There has been a great sense of competition in the staff room amongst the staff for their nominations also!
Student progress has been captured via assessments for all MYP Criterion over this module for KS3 students, and assessments grades gathered for all KS4 and 5 students also. The results of these assessments will be reaching you in the 1st two weeks of the new term and will be accompanied by a summary which will explain each aspect of the gradings and what they represent. The report will also contain the numbers of positive and negative logs your child has accrued throughout this academic year thus far, as well as their attendance. Following the parent feedback questionnaire, reports and explanations of their content and the frequency of them was raised as an area of improvement, and as a result we have amended this to hopefully support you in understanding where your child is in terms of progress.
This afternoon we are holding a student briefing which will remind students of our expectations regarding required equipment and uniform for each day, the purpose of this is to ensure that all students are prepared for their return on the 15th April. Please click here to access the full uniform list. All students must bring their Chromebook fully charged, and their charger each day, as well as a pencil case with pens, pencils and a ruler, a scientific calculator and a reading book. At the start of each day advisors will be continuing to check that each student is fully prepared for the day. If a student has forgotten an item of uniform or equipment then they should enter the Ready to Learn gate at the entrance to the Academy where members of the College team can ensure they are 'ready to learn' and equip them with what they need with no sanction. Girls skirts should be unrolled and blazers need to be worn at all times around the academy. If a students then arrives to lessons throughout the day without these essential items, with an issue with their uniform or late, they will receive a negative log on BromCom for parents to see on the MCAS app.
If a student accrues 5+ negative logs within a term, they will receive a College after school detention, if they receive 10+ logs in a term they will have a Friday after school Principal detention. 20+ logs will result in a day in the Inclusion room. The system is in place to ensure that teachers can teach and students can learn and not be distracted by a lack of equipment or lateness that ultimately delays teaching and impacts the whole group. As always we are hugely grateful for your support as parents in ensuring that students are organised, know their timetables and have their bags packed ready with the equipment they need for the day.
Thank you for all of your donations for the non-uniform day today, we are raising funds for the On-Mas Festival 24, so if you haven't donated yet, please donate whatever you are able to via your ScoPay account.
I wish you all a relaxing Easter Bank holiday and we look forward to welcoming the students back on the 15th April on a week 2 timetable.
Many thanks
Mrs Brooks
DT F1 STEM Trip
The Design and Technology department took a group of students to the Williams F1 headquarters for a STEM trip. The students continued to show their resilience and determination as they were mixed into groups and had to create an F1 brand, code a race car and film it racing around a track before then presenting their pitch to the group. This is a fantastic opportunity for not only F1 fans but also for those interested in STEM subjects. It was a great opportunity and the students represented the Academy exceptionally well.
Yr 11 Spanish Trip
Last Saturday 23rd March, a group of Year 11 Spanish students had the opportunity to go to Barcelona. They were exceptional ambassadors for Mascalls, not only demonstrating respect in all elements of the trip, but moreover excelling in their Spanish communication skills by putting all they have learnt into practice when conversing with Spanish staff and public, which was fantastic to see and hear. It was a fun filled, non stop tour of some of the best highlights of this beautiful city which allowed our students to immerse themselves in the culture and language which they took full advantage of. Well done Year 11!
British Science Week
British Science Week ran at Mascalls from March 11th-16th. We had lectures on medicine through time and an assembly about time. There were science themes in the canteen throughout the week, teachers shared their moments in time with their students, and students were able to see examples of how science is used in various careers. We appreciate the participation from everyone during British Science Week and if you want to continue the science fun at home - check out this scientific recipe: https://veggiedesserts.com/blackberry-cookies/
Rising Stars Concerts
On Wednesday 13th and Wednesday 20th March, the Music Department hosted their Rising Stars Concerts for Years 10-13 and Year 7-9 respectively. The audience were treated to a wealth of dazzling talents including instrumentalists and singers.
For some students it was their debut performance, whilst for others it was another chance to represent Mascalls Music and how far they have come since their last performance.
Mr Gosling and Miss Couch are incredibly proud of everyone who took part and are thrilled to run concerts where anything goes from thrash metal anthems to Cantonese pop songs.
Mascalls Academy Football Update
The last few weeks have seen each year group at Mascalls compete in the league cup semi finals. It was a fantastic achievement for all year groups to reach the final, the first time in our history that this has happened. We first saw our Year 9 and Year 7A team lose to Knole Academy and our year 8 team just miss out on a place in the final after a narrow loss to St Gregs. We are proud to announce that our Mascalls Year 10 Boys Football Team are through to the final. After a nervy 2-2 finish at full time in the final we went through on penalties, courtesy of a man of the match performance from George who saved 4 penalties in the shootout! A massive thank you to all parents, pupils and staff who came down to support and cheer on the boys. We await the news of who will face in the final, either: Leigh Academy Tonbridge or St Gregory's. Also to announce this week the year 7 b team beat St Gregs in their semi final. A cooly taken penalty by Tyler is the last few mins won the game 4-3! Massive congratulations to both teams.
Mr Charman and Team PE
Maths Challenge
Remember double sided sticky tape?! Well Mascalls’ students could really have used some in the LAT trust Interschool maths competition Facing numerous maths challenges including making rhombic dodecahedron using only card and cellopte, our 4 year 10 maths students successfully completed the task and answered challenging questions .
18 teams from across the trust converged on Ebbsfleet Academy for 3 hours of solving real world maths problems on the 14 th March to co-incide with international Pi day and part of the wider drive to improve numeracy in society. Whilst the Mascalls team didn’t win the competition it was clear that our students learned the far more valuable lessons of teamwork, persistence and the willingness to just have a go!
Mr Harper
Marwood Electrical Careers Talk
On Thursday 7 th March - Marwood Electrical Ltd (based in Paddock Wood) came into the school to inform our students of the career opportunities that await them after they finish their time with us.
Nick Woodward, Managing Director, gave our students insights into his own career journey from finishing school to the present day some 40 years later. The words, ‘hard work’ and ‘persistence’ resonated amongst the audience of over 100 students. Nick commented on how receptive and engaged our students were and they were a credit to the academy. To conclude his presentation. Nick has invited a number of our students to have a work experience day at their premises in the coming months.
More careers assemblies have been planned throughout the rest of this academic year demonstrating our commitment to developing meaningful dialogue between local businesses and our students.
Library Update
This has been a really busy and successful semester in the library with two of our main events of the year both being celebrated in March. We started the month by marking World Book Day with a full programme of events, including a book quiz, a bookmark competition, a short story reading for the whole school, and a free World Book Day book for all of our Year 7 and 8 students.
This year’s chosen short story was a spooky thriller set in a dusty stately home – The Attic Room by Phil Hickes. Thank you to Mrs Brooks, Mr Charman and Miss Degotte for capturing the story so well and bringing it alive by each reading and recording a section of it for the students to watch at the beginning of lessons throughout the day. We were particularly honoured and delighted that Phil Hickes, the author of the story, read the final section of his story for us and made his recording especially for the students at Mascalls. The twist at the end had many students – and staff – on the edge of their seats!
Thank you also to the winners of the bookmark competition for their amazing and inspiring bookmarks: Matthew (Yr 7), Evie (Yr 7), Sienna (Yr 7), Lily (Yr 8), Emily (Yr 8), Lacey (Yr 8), Jacob (Yr 8), Mhairi (Yr 8), Pixie (Yr 8), Rafferty (Yr 10), Chloe (Yr 10) and Taylor (Yr 10). This week, each of these students has chosen a book as their prize and their bookmarks will all now be printed and handed out to visitors on our open days after the summer break.
Our second big event was the Page Turners Book Awards Gala that took place at the Weald of Kent Grammar School in Tonbridge. This is an annual event organised by local school librarians which this year was sponsored by CooperBurnett and Leadership and Learning Ltd. The futuristic theme for this year was ‘Turning the Page to Tomorrow’ and the shortlist included some exciting, adventurous and thought-provoking books which look towards the changing future of our planet. The winning book, voted for by the students of the schools taking part, was ‘The Survival Game’ by Nicky Singer.
We are also extremely proud that the Creative Response competition, in which students were invited to create something inspired by one of the books they had read, was won by one of our very own Mascalls students – Mhairi (Yr 8). Mhairi created an incredibly intricate and amazing animated trailer of the winning book and was awarded first prize out of more than 80 entries. Many congratulations to Mhairi for such a wonderful achievement – we are all extremely proud of you!
With best wishes from the library – Ms West and Mrs Wickham
Dates to remember:
Module 5
Wednesday 17th April - Champions League Trip
Wednesday 17th April - Year 13 Geography Field Trip
Tuesday 23rd April - Performing Arts Spring Showcase - 6pm - 7.30pm
Wednesday 24th and Thursday 25th April - Year 9 Td/IPV Immunisations
Thursday 25th April - Year 7 Parents' Evening - 4pm - 7pm
Monday 6th May - Bank Holiday
Tuesday 14th May - Wiesbaden Schule German Students Visit
Wednesday 15th May - Year 13 Celebration Evening - 6pm - 8pm
Thursday 16th May - Year 10 Parents' Evening - 4pm - 7pm
Thursday 16th and Friday 17th May - Year 9 - Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Expedition
Thursday 23rd May until Saturday 25th May - Silver Duke of Edinburgh Expedition
Friday 24th May - End of Module 5