Academic Tutoring Day Thursday 10 May 2012

GCSE Exam Period Starts

Monday 14 May 2012

Army Cadet Trip Monday 21 May - Friday 25 May 2012

Non Uniform Day - In aid of Freebrough Garden Project

Friday 1 June 2012

Half Term Holiday Monday 4 June - Friday 8 June 2012

Drama Youth Theatre performance - The Witches

Thursday 21 June 2012

National School Sports Week Monday 25 June - Friday 29 June 2012

Year 6 Students join Freebrough for early transition

Monday 2 July - Friday 20 July 2012

Science and Engineering Club trip to Cornwall Monday 9 July - Friday 13 July 2012

Last day of summer term for students

Thursday 19 July 2012 (20 July will be a staff only PD day)

Year 6 uniform collection day Thursday 16 August 2012

Superstar Student We were tuned into to ITV 1 on Saturday 28 April to see Freebrough’s very own Adam Torka (Year 9) starring in Keith Lemon’s LemonAid! Adam made it through the auditions for a chance to develop his magic tricks alongside Keith Lemon and Emma Bunton. Whilst filming the show Adam enjoyed a full weekend of VIP treatment with his new celebrity friends.

Netball Success

On Thursday 19 April the Year 8 girls came second in the Redcar and Cleveland League and have gained Freebrough (also known as Jamaica) ten extra points towards the Redcar and Cleveland Olympics!

The team: Shannon Forrest. Olivia Ward Niomi Tinkler Megan Gale Georgia Grant Kirsopp Molly Robinson Shannon Higgins Jessica Barker Chloe Phillips As Laurence Jackson came last in this tournament we are now narrowing the gap and currently in second place out of all of the secondary schools in the area.

In terms of the league, final positions are as follows:

Year 7 - 5th Year 8 and 9 - 2nd Year 10 and 11 - 2nd

This is an amazing achievement for our school as we go up against all schools in Redcar and Cleveland throughout the first two terms. Well done girls!

Superstar Students

Congratulations to 9F for doing their Chemistry, Biology and Physics GCSE exams in year 9 which is two years early!

Local and affordable venues for hire Are you planning a birthday party or need a venue for a special occasion? Coast & Country’s community centres are perfect for all types of functions and events. The affordable and convenient centres are fully equipped with modern facilities. The centres are open 9.00 am to midnight, seven days a week. Your two nearest centres are: Wykeham Court located in Skelton and Luke Senior Hall in Loftus , please visit www.cch-online.org.uk or call Tanya Spedding from Coast & Country Housing on 01642 836060.

Superstar Student

Well done to Stephen Passman who recently travelled to London with the East Cleveland Under 11 Football Team. Stephen coaches the team who took part in a tournament at Chelsea

Football Club’s training ground.

Drama Youth Theatre take on The Witches

Drama Youth Theatre are busy reheasing their next production, “The Witches” by Roald Dahl which will take place on Thursday 21

June 2012. Tickets can be purchased from the school office for just £2 per person. A great evening out for all the family! Once their performance is perfected they will be inviting local primary school children to come in to enjoy it.

Superstar Student Molly Broughton, Year 9, is a true Freebrough superstar! She has gained 3 A* grades in science and an A in maths despite taking her exams a full two years early!

Call: 01287 676305 Text: 07624 811963

email: info@freebroughAcademy.org

Please also take a look at the Freebrough Academy website:

www.freebroughAcademy.org

where you will find a whole host of information including good news stories, information on what each faculty and subject has to offer, downloadable homework sheets, details on after school enrichment activities and much more!

Parents can take a look at important calendar dates, access a range of Academy policies and use our ‘Ask a Question’ form to send in any queries.

You can also keep an eye on the progress of our Post 16 Enterprise Centre which is currently under construction.

Our website is continually updated to keep it vibrant, informative and relevant. If you have any comments, questions or suggestions for improvement our Marketing and Communications Officer, Mrs Forteath, would love to hear from you (forteathk@freebroughAcademy.org).

We are now in the last term of our second year as an Academy. This is a special term as we work with Year 11 to sit their final examinations and complete final assessments in many subject areas. This year group have already gained qualifications in a number of subjects. We are hoping for a significant increase on the results we achieved last year and to achieve again the best results that

Freebrough have ever had. Currently 47% of students have achieved A*-C grades in Maths. This is a fantastic achievement at this stage in the year and a significant increase on 2011. We have had some staffing changes over the last term. The following staff have now left the Academy and we wish them good luck in the future; Dr O’Neill, Deputy Principal Mrs Redshaw, Vice-Principal Mr Johnson, Teacher of ICT Mrs Smith, Teacher of English Miss Williams, Additional Educational Needs Co-ordinator Mr Maphosa, Teacher of Maths Mrs Calvert, Teacher of Technology, has left us after 40 years as a teacher in the East Cleveland area. Miss Wilkinson joined the Academy at Easter as our new Director of Learning for Additional Educational Needs. Mrs Athey is currently Acting Deputy Principal and Mr Thompson Acting Vice Principal. They are both experienced senior members of staff and have worked on various initiatives in Freebrough since we opened so are well known to staff and students. We have advertised the following posts:

Teacher of ICT Teacher of Graphics Teacher of Maths Teacher of Business and Enterprise (new post) Deputy Principal We have had a good response to the adverts and will appoint those staff before half term to begin in September. I would like to ask parents and carers for their support with an issue emerging within the Academy. A number of students are choosing to buy large quantities of energy drinks on their way to school and are drinking them throughout the day. We are concerned about the health implications for those students and also the effect of the drink on their abilities to concentrate and apply themselves to work. Energy drinks are no longer allowed in the Academy. If students are found to have them they will be removed and poured away. I have contacted local shops and asked them not to sell the drinks to students on their way to school. I would appreciate it if you would speak to your child about the importance of making healthy choices and support the Academy decision not to allow energy drinks in school. Work has now begun on the building of our Post 16 Enterprise Centre. The proposed timescale for completion is 32 weeks. You can follow the progress on the website by looking at the blog set up by Mrs Rich, our Director of Post 16. Work is currently on-going to complete the new timetable. This will begin in June and all students will move forward a year. Year 6 will also join us as our new Year 7 in July. This was a very successful strategy last year and really helped students to make a smooth transition into their next year group. I look forward to seeing you in the Academy for Academic Tutoring Day on 10 May 2012 to discuss your child’s progress. I would like to thank you for your continued support. Best wishes, Mrs L Halbert Principal

Perfect Planters Our Friday@Freebrough youth club provision has proved very popular with well over 100 students in attendance each week.

One of the projects has been to construct mosaic planters, with the help of a local artist. The mosaics are now complete and in the next couple of weeks the students will be making the planters, two of which will be situated in the community.

Fantastic Fundraising

Friends of Freebrough held a quiz night with pie and peas in the Academy to mark the end of the spring term, raising a fantastic £272!!! The event was attended by parents, staff and students with a good time had by all. Big thanks to all who supported the event especially Mr Cameron, who was a made for the job of Quiz Master and to our chef and his catering team for providing the food. Would you like to become a Friend of Freebrough? Please see the advert on this page for more details.

Freebrough Against Bullying Miss Vodden and the Freebrough Against Bullying team have been hard at work with Kate Hillyard, anti-bullying consultant, to form ‘Friendship Group’ - a group of students who have sometimes faced difficulties working together to support each other. So far the group is going from strength to strength. One student who is part of the group told us: “It’s been great! Kate taught me how to stick up for myself; she gave me ways to respond to other students and taught me how to keep people informed. It really works! I’m much more confident and feel stronger in sticking up for myself; I’ve made new friends, I don’t get picked on and I’ve even joined some afterschool clubs and the Youth Club. It’s great!” Another said: “I’ve really changed. I’m much more confident, I love school, I’ve made new friends, I don’t get picked on and I’ve even joined the Youth Theatre at Freebrough and performed in front of large audiences.”

Can you spare a couple of hours each half term?

Friends of Freebrough is a small group of staff and

members of the local community who are dedicated to raising funds for the benefit of our students.

The group urgently needs new members to help with

the organisation of fundraising events.

All money raised by the group is used to supplement extra curricular activities and to provide subject areas with additional resources. Students can also bid for

investment in their ideas during a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style panel.

All parents and members of the community are

welcome to join the group. For more information please contact Mrs Evans on 01287 676305

Volunteers with an interest in Arts and Crafts are also needed for our Friday@freebrough youth club. Please

contact Mrs Bowmaker on 01287 676305.

Famous Faces Some of the Academy KS3 students have worked hard to produce work for the 'Face Britain' project. The students each had to produce a self portrait which was then sent to The Projection Studio, headed by visual artist Ross Ashton, who used them to design and create a record-breaking piece of video artwork featuring 32 animated mosaic portraits of HM The Queen which was then projected onto Buckingham Palace. The ‘Face Britain’ project was started by The Prince’s Foundation for Children and the Arts and brought to life by PhotoBox. Over 200,000 children across the country have contributed their self portraits. It is the first time that video projections have ever been used on the front of the Palace.

Superstar Student Nathan Pinkster has been an absolute star since transferring to tutor group AKRI this term. Thank you also to the rest of this tutor group who have also been stars welcoming him in!

Freebrough Bids a Fond Farewell to Mrs Calvert

The end of the spring term saw the retirement of one of Freebrough’s longest serving members of staff. Mrs Calvert taught in the Academy, and it’s predecessor schools for many years with her teaching career spanning more than 40 years in total! In many cases Mrs Calvert had taught two generations of the same family and her expertise will be missed by the Technology Faculty. We wish Mrs Calvert a long and happy retirement!

How we are suppor ng primary schools in our area

New Build - We’ve Broken Ground! A lot has happened with regards to the building of our brand new Post 16 Enterprise Centre since the Easter break. We received the go ahead after the planners approved the scheme and on the 10 April 2012 our first JCB entered the site. We now have the top layer of turf removed across most of the building site and things are moving very quickly. Our estimated handover date is just 32 weeks away! I am now starting to look at an action plan for all the other things we need to do to be ready to open in September. I’ve started some of the less interesting things like policies and procedures and also some of the more interesting things like looking into the qualifications we are going to offer in more depth. We are also hoping to advertise our vacancy for the Business and Enterprise Manager over the next few weeks. The successful candidate will coordinate all the work placements, visits and speakers for the courses to make them as interesting and relevant as possible. They will also get involved in lots of other things which will help us move at a faster pace. I met with Jane from Carillion and we are developing the student focus group who will also follow the build but in a slightly different way so hopefully we will have a video blog soon to run alongside my written one! They will get to visit the steel makers and other suppliers for the build to look in greater detail at the materials we are using and where they come from. All in all, a busy few weeks! Mrs Rich Director of Post 16 Education

Amazing Improvements in Maths Results!

Students and staff at the Academy are celebrating a huge increase in the number of students achieving grade C or above in maths. In their recent maths exam, taken only half way through the academic year, the vast majority of year 11 students improved their GCSE result by one grade or more. 47% of year 11 students achieved a grade C or better, a massive 18% increase on the previous year! Dan Trowsdale and Marty Wilson both achieved a fantastic A* grade! The exam was also taken early by the top three year 10 maths sets with 42 of these students banking a grade C or above. All of the students involved are keen to take the exam again to improve their result before leaving the Academy. The remaining year 10 sets will take the exam later in the year. Top set will now move on to study for an additional qualification containing aspects of A Level maths. Notable achievements include those of Hannah Clayton and Greta Timar who achieved A* Grades over a year earlier than expected. Still more impressively, the exam was taken two years early by the top set in year 9 with two students achieving a grade A, one getting a grade B and 16 banking a grade C. One remarkable student, 14 year old Molly Broughton, was just one mark off an A* grade. Impressive results from Freebrough’s most competitive maths class, with many students eager to surpass Molly’s success next year! Helen Stockwell, Director of Maths, said: “I am extremely proud of the students who took part in the March exams. Their effort and determination has led to these fantastic results in all three year groups, which are thoroughly deserved. The maths team at Freebrough will always have high expectations of our students and we give our all to enable students to meet them. I would also like to say to those year 11’s who were still doubting themselves the day before the results came in maybe now you will have the confidence in your maths ability that we have always had!” The huge jump in results comes hot on the heels of a positive OFSTED report which praised the improvements in the Academy and graded it as having Good Capacity to Improve.

Promoting Primary PE Mrs Bell, School Sports Co-ordinator, who is based part time in Freebrough Academy, will be continuing her work in our primary feeder schools this term through the Cleveland School Sports Partnership . Activities on offer this half term include: volleyball, football, tennis, hockey, athletics and kwik cricket. Mrs Bell is supported in her work with our primary schools by a number of Freebrough Academy students who have undertaken training as Sports Leaders.

Dance and Drama Workshops Miss Beasley and Mrs Parker will be spending time with students in Skelton Primary to support them with their dance and drama skills in preparation for their summer production of “Joseph”.