Under 12’s Staffordshire Schools Rugby TournamentTrentham Academy – Losing Cup Finalists - Silver Medal Winners

On the Thursday before the Easter break, the year 7 rugby team travelled to Lichfield Rugby Club to take part in the Staffordshire Schools Rugby Competition. The squad are pictured with Trentham RUFC coach Mr Martin Almond. They had a fantastic day of rugby and came away as losing Cup finalists, picking up a silver

runners-up medal for their efforts with 28 schools in attendance.

Morning Group GamesTrentham Academy 5 – 0 The Ace AcademyTrentham Academy 3 – 0 John Taylor High SchoolTrentham Academy 4 – 0 St. John Fisher Catholic College

Afternoon ‘Cup’ GamesTrentham Academy 3 – 0 Walton High SchoolTrentham Academy 3 – 0 Erasmus Darwin AcademyTrentham Academy 3 – 1 St. Edward’s School - LeekTrentham Academy 3 – 0 St. Joseph’s College ‘A’ TeamTrentham Academy 1 – 1 King Edward VI School - LichfieldTrentham Academy 0 – 1 Newcastle-Under-Lyme School

The final game of the afternoon was the actual final. Winner takes all! It was too against Newcastle-under-Lyme School, who like Trentham had not lost a game all day.This was an epic encounter with both teams flying into each other from the start. The opposition managed to squeeze over for an early try after some fantastic defence by the Trentham team had held them at bay. The remainder of the game saw Trentham

24TH APRIL 2018

TRENTHAM TALKSNEWSLETTER

mount phase after phase of attacking rugby against the Newcastle try line but they held firm and won by one try to nil! The Trentham team were incredibly disappointed but they could take pride in the fact that they had performed exceptionally well during the day. Well done lads on an outstanding day of rugby having scored 25 tries and only conceding 3. This is a fabulous achievement well done.

Under 12’s Football - South Stoke Schools League

Trentham Academy 6 – 2 Blythe Bridge High School

Once again, in a brilliantly supported location the Titans rose to the task and really turned on the style in a 6-2 victory over Blythe Bridge High School to assure progression from the Stoke South group.

The day started with concern when the Titans realised very late in the afternoon

that their goalkeeper Firkins was absent. It was Myles Hubbard (with no keeper gloves) who was drafted in at lunch time. Within seconds of the kick off, he took a cross nicely and started a Trentham counter attack that lead to the first goal of the day. Well done today Myles!

Once again it was the Trentham front 3 that were in deadly form. Blythe couldn’t cope and Trentham’s Bryan got himself another brace in quick time. Hayden Cordall scored the goal of the day after some trademark jinks were followed up by a curling shot into the top corner that got the Trentham fans out of their seats. Harry, who has adjusted nicely to life in central midfield with his partner Matt Skelton, rounded off the scoring of the half to give the Titans a 4-0 lead at the break.

The second half saw a number of changes and the Titans lost their flow slightly. Cordall showed the importance of why you always follow shots in as he got his brace with a tap in. When the score went to 5-2 panic could have set in, until Jacob Turner rifled a sweet strike into the side netting from 25 yards.

Just OSSMA to play in our group now.

Also a big thank you to Callum Ralston who did an excellent job refereeing at late notice.

Under 16’s Basketball

St. Margaret Ward Catholic College 38 – 42 Trentham Academy

The under 16’s basketball team travelled to St. Margaret Ward Catholic College on the Wednesday before the Easter break. In a very competitive game, both teams played some excellent basketball on the evening, with the Trentham outfit coming out on top. Well done to all the students who played on the evening.

Stars of the Week

Our Stars this week have all shown ongoing commitment to reading since the start of the school year and currently have the highest word totals in their houses. Some students are word millionaires and some have read more than 2 million words and are Word Multi-millionaires. Congratulations on this fabulous achievement.

Centaur:  Word Millionaires - Ajay Bansal, Sophie Lees and Iwan Harvey. Word multi-millionaires - Emily Guest and Michael Ludford

Dragon: Very nearly a Word-millionaire - Lucas Pancheri

Griffin: Word Millionaire - Hannah Pirie and Word Multi-millionaire - Adam Williams 

Phoenix: Word Millionaires - Elliot Middleton and Jack Locker and Word Multi-millionaire Jude Fraser

Salamander: Word Millionaire - Anise McCausland

 Good Eggs

Congratulations to the following students who have been recognised by their teachers as being especially helpful in class.

Gracie Bromley-Ridgway Griffin 2

Isaac GallowaySalamander 2

Ethan AbbottsSalamander 1

Lucy Archer Centaur 1

Charlotte Brock Centaur 1

Emily Guest Centaur 1

Myles Hubbard Griffin 1

Ella KeenSalamander 1

Kundai Mandizha Centaur 1

Fatima Nadir Griffin 1

Calum Ralston Centaur 1

Caitlin Tudor Centaur 1

Ben Twigg Griffin 1

Abigail Wood Phoenix 1

Merits

Congratulations to all students with 4 or more Merits last week who are listed below:

Sam Bentley Dragon 5

Esme Cheung Griffin 5

Parsa Mirshamsi Griffin 5

Ruby RileySalamander 5

Angel Rowley Phoenix 5

Kayleigh Walker Griffin 5

Sophie Bland Dragon 4

Joel Davies Griffin 4

Lucy FrearsonSalamander 4

Tillie James Centaur 4

SophieMcCausland

Salamander 4

Summer Palmer Phoenix 4

Trentham Academy Business Partnership Group

On the 19th April our Second meeting took place at the Academy. The Local Businesses are delighted to be involved with our Pre-apprenticeship route and are looking to get involved in the workshops of the course in September as well as offer opportunities to our students. I have met with students this week and investigated new opportunities. For example, you can now become a solicitor through the apprenticeship route following a plan of starting level 2 moving to level 3 in Legal services up to a level 7 apprenticeship which will allow you to practise. This takes around 8 years. The big benefit is that the person has a job and has no debt at the end of this, as the business will pay for the training. Apprenticeships really are a growing pathway and businesses really support this pathway as the person undergoing the training is developing high quality skills in the workplace. We have already sourced mechanics, P.E. and I.T. opportunities for students. We would also encourage any parent who owns their own business and would like to be involved in providing apprenticeship opportunities to get in touch by emailing us at trentham@trenthamacademy.co.uk.

Thank you to our partners for all the support you have given us so far; as a community, we very much appreciate this.

Mr Hall’s More effective learning

Developing Growth Mindsets at Trentham Academy

Research shows that the beliefs people have about their own intelligence can have a significant impact on their achievement. Carol Dweck, a professor from Stanford University, has investigated two ‘mindsets’ that students may hold; fixed and growth.

"In a fixed mindset students believe their basic abilities, their intelligence, their talents, are just fixed traits. They have a certain amount and that's that, and then their goal becomes to look smart all the time and never look dumb. In a growth mindset students understand that their talents and abilities can be developed through effort, good teaching and persistence. They don't necessarily think everyone's the same or anyone can be Einstein, but they believe everyone can get smarter if they work at it.”

Carol Dweck, Mindset (2006)

According to Dweck’s studies, students that are praised for their ability and ‘natural intelligence’, form fixed mindsets and perform significantly worse than other students who are praised for the effort and process by which they have worked; the latter students cultivate a growth mindset. At Trentham, we are aiming to stretch and challenge all of our students in all subjects; this inevitably takes students outside their comfort zone throughout the school day and we find most students thrive when given stretching work. However, we also find students from across the school who do not embrace deeper, more challenging learning, often through lack of effort and fear of failure. We aim to reinforce growth mindsets in all of our students by praising students for demonstrating growth mindset character strengths: seeking & embracing challenges; being persistent & resilient in achieving goals; learning from mistakes; and putting forth maximum effort in solving problems & academic performance. We do not praise for ability or intelligence.

We are asking you as parents to also help reinforce the same messages to students by explicitly praising effort and the work students put into their learning rather than natural ability. For example students (and parents) often refer to subjects they are not good at. How many times have we unknowingly reinforced a fixed mindset by telling children “I was never able to do maths”? We would therefore ask you in this example to not reinforce the misconception that we are innately poor at subjects and instead put the emphasis on how, with effort, we can grow our abilities in all subjects.

Further information on Growth mindsets can be found at:

https://www.mindsetworks.com/webnav/whatismindset.aspx

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWv1VdDeoRY

Using language to foster Growth MindsetsIf a child says ...

We could say ...

I’m no good at this

…Yet! Let’s look at the bits you could do and move on from there. “I’ve seen flashes of genius in the last few weeks, I think you can.” Practise, have a go, be brave, take a risk. Imagine what you could do with effort.

This is too hard

How can we work together to make these easier? Link to something they found hard previously and then succeeded. Talk about comfort zone and stepping outside to grow. It’s fine to get it wrong if you learn from your mistakes. Break into smaller parts, one bit at a time. It’s a challenge – Nothing is too hard - relate it to an interest of the students. E.g. video

games! Call it a challenge. Nothing is worth doing without a challenge. Imagine what you will feel when you achieve.

I give up Nothing worth having comes easily. Anyone can give up, it’s better to pick yourself up and try again.

Don’t give up. Maybe try another method. Try smaller steps to achieve the distance.

I’ll never be as clever as her

Not with that attitude. Maybe we can't see the effort the people you think are clever actually have put in at home -

is there anything more you could do? Measure your progress against your own starting point. Emphasis on individual progress and effort. We only get better if we try and challenge.

I keep getting this wrong

That’s okay. Well if you are getting everything right you are not learning. Where do you think you are going wrong? Think of how great it’ll feel when you get it right. Well done for trying, you’ll get it right. I’d rather teach you! You learn from your mistakes. That’s how we learn. You must be getting closer? It’s okay to get things wrong if you learn from your mistakes. You never know what you

might find on your journey.I can’t do Maths

Yes you can, you’ve got to keep on trying. You’re working really hard, well done. You do maths everyday without realising. Give it a go. Find ways to help you understand – Firefly/Pod/Bite size

I can’t make this any better

Yes you can. Always room for improvement. Have you tried…? Well done for the effort you’ve made so far. What would be the next step? Well why is it finished? What might an expert say to add or change if he read it?

I can’t spell Have you considered … Yes you can! Have you tried this? Get a dictionary to help you or use an app. Break it down into manageable chunks.

Headteacher’s Notices

We would like to raise funds for Trentham Academy, please use the following link www.goraise.co.uk/talent/?refid=8097.  Trentham Academy PTA, TALENT will then get £2 for everyone that signs up. Your support with this is warmly welcomed. This will create income for the Academy, very much in the way that store loyalty cards work. It costs shoppers no extra, but will be extremely valuable for the Academy. Please also share with friends and relatives. You can also access this from the Academy website.

TALENT

We are pleased to announce following the AGM on the 8th March, the election of the following positions:

Chair: Mrs Jo Pearce

Deputy Chair: Mrs Victoria Taylor

Treasurer: Mrs Ellie Knight

Secretary: Mrs Frankie Hissey

Business Partnership Liaison: Mrs Charlotte Ainsworth

Wider Business Liaison and Coordinator: Mr Wayne Pearce

Social Media Coordinator: Mr Steve Hall

Academy Based Events Coordinator: Mr Mark Dooley

Key dates for the diary, organised by TALENT:

Summer Concert and Celebration – Saturday 14th July 2018

Christmas Concert and Celebration – Saturday 15th December 2018

As always, everyone is welcome to attend these events and more details will follow over the coming months. Our next TALENT committee meeting will be held on Thursday 26th April at 4pm; please come along and support our Academy!

Other Notices

Students should now be working hard for their exams, as GCSE’s now loom on the horizon with only 3 weeks left to go to the first exams. They should be spending time over the coming weeks ensuring they are as prepared as possible for the rigours of the new exam system.

Uniform and Standards

To ensure that our students maintain the highest standards, we will be having a particular focus on this important area at the start of the new term. If anyone is unsure of expectations, a copy of the recent letter home before half term can be reissued.

We would ask for your support in ensuring that your child always arrives in the correct uniform and that if for any reason this will not be the case, you supply a note of explanation.

We are also seeing an increased use of mobile phones during lessons. Any student found to be using one for any reason, including checking the time, will have it confiscated to be returned to parents. Again, we ask for your support in ensuring that students understand our expectations.

Changes to our Key Stage structure from September 2018

With the new examination system, a large amount of discussions have taken place within the Senior Leadership Team, staff and governors regarding the curriculum. To fully support subjects in developing the skills for our students in the new reformed GCSEs, it was felt we needed to move to a 3 Year Key Stage 4. This will benefit subjects with greater flexibility through increased curriculum time to get our students ready for their GCSEs. This will support them in ensuring they leave the Academy with the best outcomes possible.

We have also created a Pathways structure to support students with progression.

1. Which contains a strong Ebac pathway 2. Which gives some flexibility for students but again allows all students to meet

the Ebac pillars for Progress 8

3. Which has a reduced number of subjects (fewer exams at the end) and more English and Maths. This will allow students to progress through Entry level/ Functional skills and project work, all of which will support their literacy and numeracy levels. This will allow them to access the other curriculum areas and obtain higher outcomes. We feel as an Academy this is the right approach to support these students.

There are also a number of subject changes to the curriculum; the addition of Urdu, Russian, Media, OCR National P.E and BTEC Business to give students a wider opportunity to progress. There will be an opportunity to change pathways/subjects during Year 9 if students/ parents/ staff feel the wrong choice has been made.

Therefore, there will be a Year 8 Parents/ Carers Preference Evening taking place on Thursday May 10th 2018. This is a very important evening to give you the opportunity to discuss subjects you are considering taking at GCSE in Year 9 (September 2018). A letter explaining has been sent out to parents/ carers, including the times of the evening.

This will be followed by a Year 8 Tutor Review Evening on Thursday May 17th 2018 which will give you the opportunity to discuss with tutors and make any final changes.

Best wishes

Mike Whittingham

Headteacher