www.thepeakacademy.org

Chocolate Making goes

MESSAGE FROM MR LEWIS, OUR PRINCIPAL Christmas is nearly here and this newsletter is packed with information about all the exciting events that have taken place since October half term. I hope this will confirm to us all that the Peak is moving up-wards and onwards on its journey out of Special Measures. Every day our school website is updated to show all that is going on at the school and looking back on it, even I am amazed we have managed to pack so much into one half term! Please take the time to look at our school website to see so many pos-itive events and comments about our school community. The Academic Review Day on 20th November was a stand out hit for me with lots of our parents and carers taking the time to come and visit the school and see and hear all the progress their child is making. The feedback we have received from parents in the visitors book and in answering the parent’s questionnaire make delightful reading. Another special moment was our Remembrance service. I was so proud of our students that day. They handled the service with maturity and respect. Please read the very thoughtful poems written by the students in L2L about remembrance on the school website. The Christmas party season is just beginning and we have lots of fun activities planned. Parents and carers are welcomed at all of these, particularly our carol service in the local church on Tuesday 16th December. I hope everyone has a peaceful and happy Christmas and New Year. Kind regards Mr Lewis

THE PEAK AND THE LOCAL COMMUNITY

Our students have been working hard to improve the reputation of the Peak in the local community.

We entered the ‘decorate a reindeer’ competition and our entries will be displayed in local busineses.

On Friday 12th December students did two hours of bag packing in Dursley Sainsburys to fund raise for the garden project

Students have followed on from last year’s tradition and filled Christmas hampers with produce. They will be delivered to Hollies Care Home in Dursley on Wednesday 17th December.

The Peak Academy Newsletter

December 2014

Inside this issue:

1. The Peak and the Local Community

2. Message from Mr Lewis

3. Back to School Date

4. Headteacher’s Blog

5. TGI Friday Activities

6. Rockets Away

7. BMX Morning

8. Curriculum Update

9. Year 11 Update—what’s happening at the Annexe?

10. Friendly Football v Queenswood

11. Visitors to the Peak

12. Celebrating Positive Behaviour

13. Christmas at the Peak

14. 3 Course Dinner at Annexe

15. New in Learn2Learn

16. BBC Children in Need

Issue 3

Page 1

BACK TO SCHOOL

School begins after the Christmas holidays on TUESDAY 6TH JANUARY

HEADTEACHER’S BLOG Please keep checking the school website—

www.thepeakacademy.org to see Mr Lewis’ very regu-lar blog about all that is going on at school.

Merry Christmas from everyone at the Peak Academy

www.thepeakacademy.org

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CURRICULUM UPDATE

BTEC Construction has begun

DT Department will be ready for business by January with our new DT teacher Mr Davies. Mr Davies is planning lots of very exciting activities to engage our students in this curriculum area.

The quantity and quality of art work being produced at the Peak is fantastic.

TGI FRIDAY ACTIVITIES

TGI Fridays have been a big success and the range of activities available to the students is growing.

Activities include: drums, pool,

archery , monopoly and so much more. Soon there will be horse riding and swimming added to the list for those who reach the gold level of TGI reward.

Some students have even been to Laser Tag in Gloucester as a reward trip.

Rockets Away

On 5th November we had our Rockets launch day on a crisp, sunny, clear sky day—perfect! The organizer who ran the day was very im-pressed with the behavior of the students. Further learning was done in Science

about space and rockets, enhanced by the current news about the Euro-pean Space Agency’s Rosetta Mis-sion—landing a probe onto a comet millions of miles away in space—awesome!

BMX MORNING

Visitors from the skate park at Rush Park in Stroud gave the students a demonstration of BMX, scooter and in-line blading. Links with Rush Park are developing well and this

will be another future TGI activity with opportunities to link to other areas of our curriculum learning as time goes by.

WHAT IS HAPPENING AT THE ANNEXE?

Simply put…. Lots! Our new Key Stage 4 Manager, Ms Andrews is keen to ensure every Year 11 stu-dent leaves the Peak having fulfilled their potential with appropriate and relevant qualifications and work experience. Here are some of the courses being undertaken at the Annexe:

BTEC Sports and Active Lei-sure—the stu-dents have been doing kick

boxing classes

Art—as part of the GCSE Art Year 11 pupils have visited Gloucester cathedral

BTEC Wider Key Skills—a visit to a farm to see animal care in action was enjoyed by one student

FRIENDLY FOOTBALL VS QUEENSWOOD SCHOOL

On 25th November a friendly football match was played against Queenswood School at Bentham Country Club, Gloucester. This match was was one of a number of friendlies organised for the students before the West Country Schools League begins in January. This league is being organised and

run by The Peak Academy and involves BESD schools from Glouces-tershire, Bristol, Wiltshire and Herefordshire. Something which the students are really looking forward to and I'm sure they will contin-ue to take pride in representing The Peak Academy throughout the season.

www.thepeakacademy.org

Page 3

VISITORS TO THE PEAK We have had so many visitors to the Peak to give talks and advice to the students this half term. They include:

Healthy eating

Anti Bullying

Decision making

E Safety awareness

More visits and talks are planned for next term.

CELEBRATING POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR This half term exclusions are at 0! Attendance has increased dramatically in every year group. Students have attained enough points to become prefects Every week there is a Manners Matters raffle prize to be won Thank you to all our staff for creating this culture of good behaviour. Special thanks must go to our new behaviour manager, Mr Dearsley, our safeguarding officer, Ms Rogers who has made lots of home visits and to all staff at the Annexe.

CHRISTMAS AT THE PEAK

So much is going on in the last week of term!

Staff v Pupils rematch!

Monday 15th December—let’s see if the staff can clinch another victory!

Christmas carol service

St James Church, Dursley Tues-day 16th December at 10.30am

Christmas hamper delivery to Hollies Care Home

Wednesday 17th December

Christmas Dinner

Thursday 18th December at 1.30pm

Santa’s Grotto and Christmas games and competitions

Last day of school! Friday 19th December

NEW IN LEARN2LEARN

Weekly updates of all the learning that goes on in our L2L unit are available on our school website. The students are making fantastic

progress here.

Future plans include developing one of the houses in the school into a Primary Learning Zone called Base Camp and our current L2L into a specialist Girls Learn-ing Zone called Serenity. More information will follow on these developments in due course.

BBC CHILDREN IN NEED

All our students and the kitchen staff participated in the Record Baker competition and baked 100’s of cup cakes to try to break the record of the longest run of cup cakes at Staverton Airport as part of Children in Need.

However, the highlight of the day was when Pudsey came to visit the school— It was a magical moment!

3 COURSE DINNER AT THE ANNEXE—by Ben, Clayton and Kieren

As part of the BTEC Jamie Oliver, Year 11 students invited staff and governors to a delicious three course meal at the Annexe. We were treated to warm sausage rolls with apple, 3 different home made piz-zas and Eton mess in a chocolate basket with meringues. The boys cooked and served the whole meal fantastically! Well done!