EXAM DATES - SUMMER 2019

The Summer 2019 exam season begins on Monday, 13th May 2019 and the last day students will be required to be available for exams will be Wednesday, 26th June 2019.

These dates exclude the practical exams such as speaking tests and Art & Photography which would usually take place in advance of the main exam season.

KOOTH

Kooth is a free counselling support and advice for young people aged 11-15. It can be used as a 'drop in' service or for regular booked sessions with a named counsellor.

It also offers things such as emotional health message forums to discuss emotional health related issues hosted by a qualified counsellor, and an 'Ask Kooth' feature which enables young people to ask questions about anything of concern to them.

• Monday to Friday 12 p.m. to 10 p.m.
• Weekends 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.
• 365 days of the year

CHALLENGE DAY

Thursday 27th September, 8.50am - 2.55pm

Break - 10.00 - 10.20   |   Lunch - 11.30 - 12.20  |  Break - 1.30- 1.45

Students will be taking part in various activities:

• Year 7 – Warwick Castle (Social Sciences) – offsite

• Year 8 – Dragon’s Den (Science)

• Year 9 – Enterprise Day (ICT & Business)

• Year 10 – Creative Writing (English)

• Year 11 – Technology Day & Prison Life (Technology) 

• Year 12 & 13 Tutor Review Day

Please note the earlier finish time of 2.55pm for the Challenge Day. 

GCSE SUCCESS

George Spencer Academy is once again celebrating excellent GCSE outcomes for its students. Building on consistently high level performance over many years, this OFSTED recognised 'Outstanding' school has today celebrated its successes with its 2018 Year 11 cohort, whose overall headline results are in many cases some of the best in the region.

Year on year, students at the school surpass the national expectations and the headline results are improving at a greater than expected rate. The Progress figure for the year group is once again illustrating that GSA students achieve, on average, a third of a GCSE grade better than all students nationally taking the same combinations of subjects, and starting from similar backgrounds. This places George Spencer in the top 20% of schools in the country once again."

" 'Strong' GCSE results (Grades 5 – 9) for both English and maths are once again really pleasing," said Principal, Andrew Field. "Our students and staff work very hard and we have shown that despite the new specifications and the numerical grading systems now implemented across nearly all subjects this year, we are more than capable of giving every child who comes through our doors the opportunity to succeed."

Scott Doyle, Vice Principal, added: "We are, once again, pleased with such excellent results for the school but more so for each of our young people. The increased demands of the new courses has received a deal of media attention this year, as such we are proud that students have taken this in their stride and secured grades that are truly reflective of their potential and set them up for the next stage in their career. As a Teaching School we are privileged to have a climate where all staff and students embrace lifelong learning, resulting in a dedicated, professional staff team and the development of the most talented trainee teachers. This has undoubtedly helped us to stay ahead of the curve and prepare our students fully for the new courses and more challenging examination content."

George Spencer Academy is part of the Spencer Academies Trust, which includes five secondary schools in the region. CEO, Paul West said: ""At Spencer Trust we are delighted to celebrate the continued strong performance of GCSE Students at George Spencer Academy. The school has not only delivered consistently high results in many subjects including English, Maths and Science, credit goes to the school leadership, teaching and support teams and the supportive community of students and parents. Congratulations to all."

"Examination results are not everything at George Spencer", commented Mr Field. "We aim to prepare young people for the fast changing world of work, and give them the breadth of experience for their lives beyond education. That said, we also encourage them to give something back – only two weeks ago, a group of 20 Year 11 students returned from a working expedition to Tanzania. Here they contributed labour to the construction of a rural school for orphans, having raised funds to support this charitable cause, before then adventuring on safari and to the island of Zanzibar. All these experiences make a GSA student a more rounded employee of the future, with world class life skills and aspirations. We welcome positive young people such as these into our Sixth Form to further their education."

POST-16 SUCCESS

Once again, George Spencer Academy Sixth Form students are celebrating great successes on their Post-16 courses...

This morning, George Spencer Academy has been delighted to have so many individual achievements to applaud, and the overall outcome means that for the third year running the Sixth Form has attained the highest of grades for well over half of all entries. A phenomenal third of all grades achieved were A or A* at 32%. The average Points Score per Entry was 36.9 points, equivalent to a grade B.

Andrew Field, Principal, said: "Our staff and students have thoroughly deserved the results which our Year 13 has gained today. With so many courses being examined under new specifications, there was always going to be concerns about accuracy of predictions and so we are delighted that, once again, we have proven that we can prepare our students to have every opportunity to succeed, and that those students have done themselves proud through their hard work and determination!"

Karen Fawcett, Director of Sixth Form, added: We love to see the excitement and sense of accomplishment on the faces of so many of our students who will be able to take up employment, apprenticeships or university under-graduate places, and look forward to seeing them embark on their chosen career routes.

Paul West, CEO of The Spencer Academies Trust shared in the school's celebrations, "The Spencer Academies Trust are delighted for the students here at George Spencer Sixth Form. We're also thrilled that across our family of schools, more sixth form students than ever before have achieved higher grades, opening doors to their futures. This is testament to dedicated staff and hardworking pupils and families committed to education."

For students in years 7-11 only

One of the reasons you have chosen to send your child to George Spencer Academy is for the high expectations we have of our young people, as well as our academic prowess. The introduction of the blazer six years ago has increased how smart our students look.

It is important that we maintain these high standards and it is only through positive relationships with yourselves that we achieve this. We wanted to make you aware as early as possible to some alterations, as we are mindful that you maybe updating your child's uniform before the end of term.

The changes that will be in place from the beginning of the new academic year in September will be:

• Students are not allowed to wear 'skinny' or 'cropped' trousers,
• Students are no longer allowed to wear the 'Bootleg air Suffolk' trainer style shoe from Clarks, or any other 'trainer' style. All shoes should be formal style shoes.

The planner and uniform guide for the new academic year will be updated to indicate these changes. Students wearing inappropriate uniform in September will be removed from circulation until the situation is resolved.

The high expectation with regard to student's attire will remain in place throughout the year. Please ensure that you child continues to wear the correct uniform for the remainder of the academic year.

Thank you in advance for your support and co-operation.

Mr A Field

Principal

YEAR GCSE SCIENCE & UPCOMING ASSESSMENTS

Many thanks to everyone for all of the positive comments and interest shown in student progress in Science at the recent progress evening. We had some excellent questions about the content studied so far in the GCSE science courses as well as the upcoming end of year assessments.

For Year 10, this will be W/C 9th July 2018 

You will be able to access the specification for GCSE Trilogy (combined) Science here.

For the Separate Science course, you will be able to access the specification for... 

• GCSE Physics here 
• GCSE Chemistry here 
• GCSE Biology here

Topics studied: All year 10 pupils will have completed the following topics (during the course of Year 9 and Year 10)

The Physics equations sheets (GCSE Physics & Combined Science) – all students in combined Science will need to be able to recall 21 Physics equations, and 23 equations on the GCSE Physics course. Please be aware that not all of the equations have been taught to pupils yet – as there are still topics to teachin year 11.

Revision Resources

BBC Bitesize (You need to select either, Biology, Chemistry, Physics for the separate courses, or Combined Science and then AQA for the correct exam board – this can also be downloaded as an app.)

Specimen Papers & Mark Schemes

• Combined Science Trilogy AQA
• GCSE Physics
• GCSE Chemistry
• GCSE Biology

Revision guides can be purchased on Squid portal– they are CGP and can be purchased for Separate Science (all three books) or for combined (one book) – students can collect these from us in the Science office when they have purchased them.

Kerboodle

Al of our GCSE Science textbooks are available on Kerboodle – which all students have now used, a guide for accessing Kerboodle can be found here.

For further enquiries you can also email Miss K. Hancock at khancock@george-spencer.notts.sch.uk or Mr N. Baker (Curriculum Leader for Science) at nbaker@george-spencer.notts.sch.uk

A MESSAGE FROM THE (NEWISH) PRINCIPAL

End of Spring Term 2018

During this Spring Term of 2018 we have experienced some most unorthodox events:

• the closure of the school for two days due to the extreme weather conditions (for only the second time in 15 years) as even George Spencer succumbed to the ‘Beast from the East’, not before stout resistance from our heroic caretaking team
• sporting successes, particularly in Table Tennis and Netball , with national and county finals reached
• a team of sports leaders ‘stepping’ their way up and down Kilimanjaro, and still having the energy to also ‘reach’ Paris!
• two exhilarating overseas school trips, to countries previously not on the GSA ‘empire map’ – Morocco, to conquer the highest peak in North Africa, and to Lithuania to study the geography of one of the Baltic states; as well as our two regular German exchanges taking place
• Lots of other events for students, including STEM Week, Maths Challenges, Valentine’s disco, Fix Up for Year 11, and theatre trips

All the while, we constantly strive to do all that we can to help every student progress and attain to the best of their ability, and we continue to professionally develop our staff through innovative CPD. The efforts and dedication of all our colleagues continues to make GSA.

We will be sorry to see the departure of Mr Paul Hynes (Vice Principal) at Easter, after 7 years as a member of the Core Leadership team of George Spencer. Paul has been our timetabler in recent years, and brought considerable knowledge of curriculum design and assessment to the table in leading many aspects of GSA’s transition during the introduction of new specifications across Key Stages 4 and 5.  He has also taught many subjects, most notably Business Studies, to great effect and has always been most willing to ‘fill the gaps’ in any teaching need – most recently the ECDL qualification last summer. However, we have never actually utilised Paul for his original teaching subject (which can now be revealed as ….Chemistry)!

We wish Paul all the best in his new position as Deputy Principal at Woodbrook Vale School in Loughborough, and appreciate that he will be coming back to GSA twice a week during the next half term in order to fulfill his Year 11 teaching commitment and guide his successor with the new timetable, Mr Allen.

We are also saying goodbye to MsHymke Moens, as she emigrates to the Netherlands with her partner. She has been a fabulous Science teacher in her 3 years here, and even had time to coach some of our Chinese speakers with one of her many languages. She also holds the distinction of being the only GSA member of staff to lift the ‘glitter-ball trophy’ of Strictly Spencer (after fierce competition from Mr Titley) and her grace and poise on the dance floor exemplified her approach to life and teaching in general.

Also leaving us will be Ms Alice Ryrie, our specialist teacher who handles the transition for certain Year 7 students. She is taking up a new post at Longdon park School, Eggington, and we wish them all the very best in their future careers.

It has been a short and intense term at the school, and we now break for Easter before the examination season gets underway. There are lots of Revision Sessions being run in school during the holiday (timetables have been issued to relevant students) and we urge parents to encourage their children to take up all the opportunities for additional support that we offer. In this day and age, qualifications from school are still the ticket to having a range of career options, amid increasing competition in the job market. Whilst we do all that we can to inspire and focus young minds, there are so many distractions in the world today that sometimes it needs all the adults in a young person’s life to be saying the same thing together….the effort you put in today will pay dividends tomorrow!

GSA intends to switch to its ‘Summer Routine’ from the end of April, so after the first two weeks of the new term we will open up the fields for student access at Lunch. This year, public examinations for GCSEs will be sat in the Sports Hall as we have invested in new carpet matting in order to protect the flooring, so this will be a new experience for us all.

Happy Easter, and let’s hope warmer weather beckons.

YEAR 11 ENGLISH REVISION MATERIAL

There are revision materials available on the English section of the student hub in addition to the screen casts. Students are encouraged to watch all the screencast videos and to look at the separate pages for Romeo and Juliet, the poetry

Anthology (Love and Relationships), unseen poetry, An Inspector Calls and A Christmas Carol. Students have also been issued with revision booklets for each of these Literature topics.

• Click here for more information...

YEAR 7 & 8 ENGLISH & MATHEMATICS MOCKS

Year 7 and Year 8 will be sitting an English Language mock and a Mathematics mock in the forthcoming weeks.

• Year 8 will sit their mock in the week beginning 29th January.
• Year 7 will sit their mock in the week beginning the 5th February.

The exact times and details will be given to the students by both their subject teachers and Learning Managers. These mocks will take place in the classroom.

Click here for more information. 

Year 9 progress evening

S Half (JGW, JT, OS, RLH, TW) – Thursday 18th January

P Half (CSP, CRM, AME, EMR) – Thursday 25th January

You are warmly invited to the above event, which will be held in the Maths block on the Lower Site. The evening will run between 4.30pm and 7pm, you only need to attend the evening for the half year group your child is in. Students are welcome to attend and are required to wear full Academy uniform. Students are asked to make their own appointments for you to see members of staff.

The aim of the evening is for you to meet with your child's teachers and discuss their progress and achievement, it is also a good time to clarify any queries regarding subject selection for options. The deadline for the Guided Pathway Options form is Friday 2nd February.

Parking is available on Lower Site only.

HAPPY NEW YEAR AND WELCOME BACK!

I hope you have all had restful and restorative breaks and enjoyed the holiday period. The new year always brings about new resolutions and is a time of new starts for all of us. For our students in examination years, it is the chance to either build on successes already accrued or to use the new year to really push on. In this email there are details for Year 11 of the support and intervention in place to help make that difference in this key term. Please also note the dates for mock and public exams. It's also a time of new starts here too and I wanted to take this opportunity to write and inform you about them:

Change in role for Mr Mitchell - Mr Field now leading the Academy:
From this term, I will become full-time Director of Secondary Education for The Spencer Academies Trust. Many of you will know that I have been supporting our other schools as well as George Spencer for a couple of years now. However, from February we will have a total of five secondary schools in the Trust across the East Midlands with about 5,000 secondary pupils in total. This is now obviously a full-time job and I am sure you understand that I am excited to take on this new opportunity.

I am enormously proud of what's been achieved at George Spencer in the last four and a half years – we have recorded our best ever GCSE and A-level results; been named as one of the top ten teacher trainers nationally; become 'World Class' and a Maths Hub as well as retaining 'outstanding' status. More importantly, I have loved working closely with wonderful children, supportive parents, a phenomenal staff and great governors. It has been a privilege to be part of this team effort. Thank you to all of you who have been part of it. My heart will remain here and I will continue to work with George Spencer as I will with the other secondaries in our Trust in an Executive capacity – so you may still see me around.

I will be handing over the leadership of the academy to Mr Field who has been 'Head of School'. He brings a wealth of experience, a commitment to high standards and passion for the best for George Spencer that I will be proud to support. I know you will give him the same backing. As with all heads, he will put his own stamp on the Academy, so please look forward to more communication from him.

I look forward to seeing George Spencer move onto even greater success and celebrating this with all of you.

With best wishes and sincere thanks.

Year 11 Key Dates

• Early January - Sixth Form Interviews for Year 11 students
• Thursday 11 January at 9am - Travel and Tourism exam (top tips at 8.40am)
• From Friday 19 January - Year 11 Languages mock examinations
• Monday 5 February - Year 11 photographs
• February - Year 11 AP 3 and reports
• Tuesday 6 March - Challenge Day 4
• W/b 5 and 12 March - Year 11 Mocks all GCSE subjects

Year 11 Intervention Sessions

• Monday after School - Photography / Graphics / Food / GCSE PE / ICT-Computing-iMedia / Textiles / Music / Electronics
• Tuesday Tutor time - Maths
• Tuesday lunch - GCSE PE / Music
• Tuesday after School - Science Tassomi / Graphics / Food / Resistant Materials / ICT-Computing-iMedia / Art / Music / Electronics / Textiles / Drama / Music
• Wednesday after school - Art / Spanish week 2 only / Art
• Thursday tutor time - English
• Thursday after school - Art / Drama / Maths / Resistant materials / Electronics / Graphics / ICT-Computing-iMedia

Year 11 Faculty 'Drop In' Sessions

**Students will need to speak to the teacher of the specific discipline for Technology**

GCSE FRENCH/SPANISH/GERMAN MOCK EXAMS

January 2018

There will be four GCSE French/Spanish/German mock examinations in January. They are:

• Friday 19th January – GCSE French/German Speaking examinations for students of Ms MacKenzie-Scott, Miss Rowlands and Mr Wright.
• Monday 22nd January – GCSE Speaking examinations for students of Miss George, Mr Hallam and Miss Arnold.
• Wednesday 24th January pm – GCSE French/Spanish/German – Writing paper.
• Thursday 25th January am – GCSE French/Spanish/German – Reading paper.

Students will also complete a mock GCSE Listening examination which will take place during lesson time. Their individual teacher will advise the date.

It is important that students take these mocks seriously and prepare accordingly. In order to revise, students should look over all of the topics that they have covered in lessons alongside the grammar that they have learnt. They should use  their Speaking booklets and folder full of resources, paying particular attention to verb tenses and knowing a wide variety of vocabulary. Students who have purchased revision guides will also find the books useful to help with preparation. These are still available for purchase on SQUID by logging on to portal.squidcard.

Students are aware of the examinations and are preparing with their teachers. Thank you for your help and support. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Miss L George.

scholastic book fair

From Tuesday 12th until Tuesday 19th December we will be holding a Scholastic Book Fair in the Library during break, lunch time and after school until 4pm. There are over 200 titles for students to browse through, and with fantasy, thrillers, chick-lit, non-fiction, comedy and lots more, there's sure to be a book for everyone to enjoy. If you'd like to take a look at the range of books available there is a leaflet that can be downloaded from the Book Fair page on the Library website: https://sites.google.com/george-spencer.notts.sch.uk/library/clubs-events/book-fair-2017 

Every book sold will help to get FREE BOOKS for the School Library. There will also be a range of stationery and posters available. We will be taking cash at the Book Fair. Alternatively you can visit https://bookfairs.scholastic.co.uk/gift-vouchers to find out about Book Fair Gift Vouchers. These offer a 20% discount when you buy online meaning a £12 voucher costs only £10, a £6 voucher costs only £5 and so on. Vouchers can be purchased up until midnight on the last day of the book fair.

CHRISTMAS JUMPER DAY/CHRISTMAS DINNER

Friday 15th December is Christmas Jumper Day/Christmas Dinner.

• Students should wear normal uniform and wear a Christmas Jumper instead of their blazer/jumper. They pay £1 at the gate and the money goes to Save the Children. 

We will also have Christmas Dinner on that day.

• Christmas dinner will be £3.00 per student.
• Christmas dinner will be paid for via sQuid in the normal way (sQuid accounts need to be topped up in advance to have available funds).
• There will be no other food available on Christmas dinner day and no tuck at morning break.
• There will be no food available in the vendors.
• Only those students who have said they want Christmas dinner will receive it.
• Any student not requiring Christmas dinner will need to bring a packed lunch (students with packed lunches will be invited to eat with those having Christmas dinner).

parents forum

The next parents Forum takes place on Wednesday 8th November at 6pm in the Conference Centre. The Parents Forum takes place each half term, usually on a Wednesday evening from 6pm. It is a chance to meet other parents, chat to some of our staff and ask questions about the way the school works, give feedback and influence policy making in the school. Over recent years the Parents Forum have instigated the change in uniform suppliers, changes in reporting, improvements in the website, changes in communication to parents and helped with the development of the the PARS rewards system.

All parents are welcome to attend, there is no commitment to attend all of the meetings and the agenda will change each half term - this will be decided by the group. If you can't make it, but would like to attend future forums, the dates are below:

•  31st January 2018
•  28th March 2018
•  6th June 2018

Year 11 MOCK EXAMINATIONS

November 2017

GSA October Bulletin

Dear Parents/Carers,

Welcome to our pre-half term bulletin.  We’ve enjoyed an excellent start to the half term and I wanted to thank all of you and your children for your support in this.  We hope all our new Year 7 and Year 12s have settled in well and have their feet firmly under the table (or classroom desks!) now.

GCSE Progres

I’m proud to let you know that provisional Progress 8 figures are out for GCSE performance and we have done very well.  George Spencer students, on average, make a third of a grade progress better than similar students nationally.  We’re also proud to have the highest Ebacc score in the county.  A huge well done to all of our Year 11 students and staff!

Sixth Form Open Evening - Thursday 19th October

A reminder that this is on Thursday next week starting at 6pm – we’d love to see lots of you there to show you what’s so fantastic about our sixth form.  As you will know, we enjoyed some of our best A-level results ever this summer.  More details are on the website.

Stay Safe Procedures

Just to give you a ‘heads up’ we will be doing a very gentle practice across the site on Tuesday morning about what we would do to stay safe if an event occurred that would compromise the safety of students around the site.  This will be a very low-key walk-through of our routines so students and staff would know what to do in the unlikely event of this happening.  We do not want any students or parents/carers to be worried by this and I want to reassure you that it will be done sensitively.  You will know that keeping children safe is always at the top of our minds.

Extra-Curricular Sports and Activities - Autumn 2017-2018

A schedule of the sports and activities which are currently running can be downloaded here.

• If students wish to attend a lunchtime club they MUST have their lunch at break time as they only have 30 minutes, including changing and therefore are very limited on time.
• PE kit is required for all clubs except table tennis club.
• Most clubs are free, with the exception of the badminton clubs, volleyball and dodgeball which are led by outside coaches. (Letters are required for these from Mrs Walker – Swalker@george-spencer.notts.sch.uk).

Message from the FrOGS

Thank you to everyone who came to our sell-out Cheese and Wine Evening.  It was a great success and a lot of fun was had.

Please find the downloadable poster containing details of our forthcoming Bonfire Extravaganza and our Christmas Craft Fayre events. Tickets for events can be obtained at Reception on Upper Site, SQuid or PayPal: friendsofgeorgespencer@gmail.com
and also at the following places:

• Toton Tesco (Customer Service Desk)
• Chetwynd Primary Academy
• Bramcote Farm Shop

We also have spaces available for stalls at our Christmas Fayre, so please get in touch if you'd like to book one.

More information on all of our FrOGS events are available on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, GSA Website or please contact Mr Turner - rturner@george-spencer.notts.sch.uk  (our teacher representative).

We are always looking for any company services/parents who may be able to help with sponsorship, advertising and raffle gifts - please get in touch with Mr Turner if you can help.

Thank you for your continued support.

Events this Term...

See the below links for more information.

•  Social Media Awareness Evening
•  L2L Evening

PARKING

For all events can you please park in the dedicated spaces on lower site (Toton). It makes life really difficult for our neighbouring residents on Arthur Mee Road, Wellspring Dale and other nearby streets when people park on them – especially when pavements are mounted or driveways are blocked. If you need to visit upper site reception during the school day, either for a meeting with a teacher, or to collect an ill child, then please press the buzzer on the gate and we can allow you access, again, please do not park on Arthur Mee Road or Wellspring Dale.

share your views

Through the Parents' Forum & Parent View

Parents and carers are invited to our Parents' Forum meetings. The meetings takes place at 6pm in the Conference centre. Parents and carers can also give their views of our school at any time of the school year and at the time of a school inspection using an online questionnaire called Parent View. When our school is notified of its next Ofsted inspection, parents will be invited to give their views about the school to inspectors using the Parent View online facility as this has replaced Ofsted's paper questionnaire. Please make sure we have your most up-to-date contact details.

Please register with an email address and a password here . Once your login has been activated, it only takes a few minutes to complete answers to 12 short questions about aspects such as bullying, the quality of teaching, level of homework, etc. Your views are important in helping inspectors make a decision about our school, and to help us know what is going well and what could be improved. If you do not have a computer or an email address or if you would like help to use Parent View, please come into school and ask at reception.

A MESSAGE FROM THE (NEWISH) PRINCIPAL – end of Spring Term 2018