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The Environmental Future

Did you know that rubbish attracts unpleasant and unwanted animals such as rats and seagulls? It does! And that is why we all need to be aware of where we throw our rubbish.   How can we prevent being surrounded by such unwanted animals and birds? The answer is relatively simple: throw rubbish in the bin instead of on the ground! If you really want a clean environment then you should use the bin and keep doing it! Our generation and the next to come will benefit from your small gesture to the environment.  If we have a clean environment, we are also protected from terrible illnesses and diseases which the pest animals bring with them. This assumes of course that you do not want to suffer from any illnesses which could come from the animals. So be aware of where you throw your rubbish; and always keep in mind that it should go in the bin!

    Louise Jallbjoern & Christiane Hoerstge

 

 

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Posted 06 March 2009 § Enrichment for Learning § Learning to Grow ‡ Comments (0)

Phenomenal Mathematics

On Monday 2nd December, eighteen students from Years 11, 12 & 13 accompanied Mr Hardy and Mr Smith from the Maths Department to a lecture at the Open University in Milton Keynes. The lecture entitled “Phenomenal Mathematics,” provided by Professor John Mason covered many mathematical phenomena that are evident in everyday life today, and have been through the ages. His interest and enthusiasm for his subject is inspiring and was a great insight into what is waiting to be discovered when delving deeper into the world of mathematics.  Professor Mason began his Mathematics career at the age of fifteen when he was asked to tutor a fellow student at school, and continued when he became an ‘official’ tutor for students in years below himself while still studying at college.   Examples that Professor Mason highlighted included:  

·         The use of gears in vehicles and other mechanisms, and how through the ages these have been used less than effectively. Our ancestors’ farms, vehicles, and pumps could have been far more productive if they had thought about the maths! 

·         The relationship between two coins, one rotating around the other. How would size and proportion affect the number of turns the rotating coin would make?

·         The Gossip Problem – Using algebra, how many conversations would it take for ‘p’ people to all know all of the gossip?

·         The midpoints of curves on quadratics – some unusual relationships highlighted by manipulation.

·        Newton’s Cradle – What is the mechanics behind this piece of apparatus? How does it work? Why does it work? What if it is adapted?

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Newton’s Cradle

A key pointer from the lecture was that in Mathematics one of the most effective means of learning is to question and reason. Make a conjecture, form an opinion on why you believe your particular answer is correct, and then step back. Make an argument for and against your answer. Break it down. Flip it round and look at all angles. Argue with yourself and if you haven’t come to a proven outcome or correct answer, your understanding of the process and stages of reasoning will still be greatly increased. This is how we progress and enhance our knowledge, getting our brain cells actively debating rather than following the trends.  

G.Smith Dec’08

Posted 14 January 2009 § Enrichment for Learning § Learning to Learn § Teaching and Learning ‡ Comments (0)

Northampton Academy Multi-Sports Festival

On Friday, 26th September, year 12 BTEC PE students were involved in helping with 3 schools that came to Northampton Academy to take part in the multi-sports festival.  

 Year 6 students came from Bellinge, Saint Andrews and Lings to take part in the festival. They participated in 3 different sports, and including mini basketball, indoor athletics, and tri-golf.  

The BTEC students were split into groups and then were allocated to a group of year 6 students. These students were from mixed schools, and had different abilities. The Year 6 students learnt the basics of mini basketball, participated in indoor athletics and tri-golf activities. Mini basketball involved passing, dribbling and shooting drills. The indoor athletics consisted of the long jump, triple jump, and javelin; to finish off the indoor athletics, the students raced against each other. Finally, they did a number of activities in tri-golf, starting with basic putting, then moving on, trying to get as many points as possible by hitting the balls in the designated target. 

The Year 6 students developed their skills within mini basketball, indoor athletics and tri-golf.  Also, the 6th form students learned more about how to take control of a multi-sports festival, as well as the skills and the motivation needed to manage a group of year 6 students.

Posted 13 January 2009 § Teaching and Learning ‡ Comments (0)

Northampton Academy Art Department Sponsored by Tate Gallery

Since February 2007, 12 Northampton Academy pupils in years eleven and twelve have been chosen to represent our school through the art department. They attend meetings and hold discussions to build a more ‘Creative Britain’. We are very proud to be one of 12 schools that the Tate Modern sponsors.  

In October there was an award winning night where Mr Hunter gave an exceptional speech about how proud he is of this school and his role in the art department. 

This is great news to those who are aspiring high to be creative, including the designs department, music and drama.


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Posted 13 January 2009 § Enrichment for Learning § Teaching and Learning ‡ Comments (0)

Northampton Academy Welcomes Foreign Students

This school year Northampton Academy welcomed three exchange students from Denmark, Italy and Germany, which gave all of us the opportunity of studying A-level for a year. 

We foreign students arrived with the same aims in mind; to improve our English and become more comfortable speaking the language, to try to see as many landmarks in the history as possible as well as all other significant sights, and to get a real in-depth experience in the British culture.   

The Academy achieved a gold star standard in helping us to settle in, while at the same time keeping track of all the new 6th formers, which shows how organised the staff on the school have been from the very beginning of the year. Other students who have been attending the Academy for several years but also come from other parts of the world have expressed that the Academy is very good at welcoming new students in comparison to other schools these students previously attended. Apparently the other schools have not had the same friendly and helpful teachers and students as the Academy has.     

All three of us have notice a great curiosity towards us from both students and teachers about the culture we come from and why and how we got the idea of taking a year aboard. And the most popular, if we are here with our family, and no, we are here on our own staying with English families who have opened their homes and hearts for us. It, of course, is hard and very brave to jump out in the big world all alone, leaving friends and family back at home, but it is also very exciting and much fun especially when you meet some great people on the way. 

It is without exception we on the very first day realized big dissimilarity from our school back home in Denmark, Germany or Italy to the Academy.

In general the whole school system is something completely different; just take the grading system and the fact that none of us have ever been on a school where there is a rule for school uniform.  In the meantime, all these differences have not made us regret our decision on coming to England. We have no regrets but simply live with the saying “it is not wrong it is just different,” and remembering it is all for a better future. 

Louise Jallbjoern & Christiane Hoerstge

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Posted 13 January 2009 § Learning to Grow § Teaching and Learning ‡ Comments (0)

Trip to the German Christmas Market in Birmingham

On the 13th of December 2007, 46 students from Northampton Academy travelled to the German Christmas market in Birmingham.

This market is the biggest German Christmas market outside of Germany itself, and the stallholders all come from Germany. This provided plenty of chances for the students to practise their German and complete a quiz about the various things on offer at the market . . . and yes of course, to taste the delicious German food!  Some of the more daring pupils also had a go on the giant slide and the merry-go- around.  Everyone had a grand time, and we are certainly planning on doing the same again next year!

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Posted 21 April 2008 § Enrichment for Learning ‡ Comments (0)

Local Author, Rosie Rushton visits Northampton Academy

Rosie Rushton, author of the new novel Secret Schemes, Daring Dreams recently paid a visit to Northampton Academy’s library. During the day she ran small writing workshops with some Academy Students, and was kind enough to take time out of her busy day to speak to us and answer some questions. 

Rosie Rushton used to write for a newspaper, but her interest in writing continued to grow until she finally published her own book. She has been writing books for 16 years now, and to date has had 39 of her novels published; her favourites being Last Seen Wearing Trainers and Summer of Secrets. She says that it takes her about 3 months to write each of her novels, as it is time consuming to fully develop each of her characters.   If you would like to know more about Rosie Rushton, please visit her website. 

http://www.rosierushton.com/

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Posted 18 March 2008 § Enrichment for Learning § Teaching and Learning ‡ Comments (0)

Hip Hop is History


The Academy Eye Team recently interviewed Mr Lister about his eye-catching window display:

Whats it all about/why did you start it? What gave you the idea? 

It’s a way of getting people interested in history. When I was a kid I thought history was all about old dead kings and queens!!Boring and completely irrelevant to me! History is all around us, you’d be surprised once you start looking, the types of things that have historical value; Music, fashions, magazines, tv programmes. Everyday things we’d never realise!Hip-hop, like all music is oral history. It’s a great source for finding out about the attitudes, beliefs and values of certain groups of the population. If you wanted to find out about youth culture and attitudes in the Victorian period then you’d study newspapers, school/factory records, diaries and personal accounts, look at the lyrics to songs etc. If in a hundred years times people wanted to examine youth culture at the turn of the millennium then hip-hop music would be a fantastic source in terms of what many young people enjoy, believe in and value. 

Is it an interesting subject to learn about? 

Man it’s fascinating! It’s so diverse and varied. Not only is it massive all over the world but there’s so many different types of hip-hop; party stuff, romantic stuff, straight up fun and jokey stuff and loads of political stuff. I actually read the lyrics of a hip-hop song to a class of mine the other day, we were studying the war on terror and the song is all about September 11th, what has happened to the world since the twin towers fell and who is responsible. It’s called Bin Laden and is by Immortal Technique. Unfortunately hip-hop does contains a lot of negative aspects (violence, sexism, bad language etc.) but there is soooooooo much positive hip-hop out there. People worth checking out are KRS 1, Mos Def, Talib Quely, Immortal Technique, these guys are revolutionary, really intelligent and innovative. These are all Americans but in terms of Brits people like Doc Brown, Low Key and Yung Gun (who’s actually a solicitor by day!!) etc. 

How long have you been listening to hip hop? 

Since day one! That’s all I listen to. My friends and family are always telling me I should expand my music horizons but I just love it.I’m not really interested in any other types of music! It’s very narrow minded I know! 

Who is your favourite Hip Hop artist? 

I like UK hip-hop, US hip-hop, I even listen to Chinese hip-hop. Actually I have a friend in Beijing who is blowing up right now, he’s on the verge of making it big. He’s about to be the first real hip-hop artist to hit the main stream in China!! His name is Young Kin! You laugh but if Eminem can do it . . . 

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Mr Lister’s “Hip Hop is History” display

Posted 14 March 2008 § Enrichment for Learning § Teaching and Learning ‡ Comments (0)

Interview with Mark Robson, author of ‘Imperial Spy’

Back in the Autumn Term, The AE team were very fortunate to land an interview with Mark Robson, author of ‘Imperial Spy’, when he visited the Northampton Academy library.  Here is what he had to say. 

What was your proudest moment?

My proudest moment was holding my daughter for the first time. 

Do you aspire to be like anyone?  

Yes-JK Rowling. Just for sheer fact of how nice she is to her fans, how long she spends at book signings actually talking to her fans and not thinking she is better than them . . . actually respecting them and just being a genuine person. 

When you were writing your first story, Due to a Throwaway Line, did you think it would be that successful? 

No, I had no idea that they would be this successful or that I was even going to publish them. It was just because I was bored and also I asked my boss what he could do to kill some time, and he said to write a book. I love a challenge, so I took it and it just carried on from there. I took it to my boss and he said that it was very good and I should think about publishing it . . . so I did. 

Does being a writer help you financially?  Yes, but it is a very unreliable job because you can have one story that is great and sells really well, but then your next story could be a total burn out and you have no money and lots of bills to pay. 

Do you write your stories on influence of JK Rowling and Harry Potter?   No, actually I didn’t. I did it from imagination because I know I could never be as successful as her, and I’m not trying to be as successful as her, even though she is a great author. 

Click here for more on Mark Robson. 

Posted 26 February 2008 § Enrichment for Learning § Learning to Grow § Teaching and Learning ‡ Comments (0)

“Way better than Auckland”

A small group of children and young adults from New Zealand visited Northampton Academy in the Autumn term. This was a big visit for both the visitors and the Academy as it shows that we are slowly becoming internationally renowned. The children came as part of a sports group to look at our sports facilities; they also visited the Northampton Saints grounds to witness the team training.  After speaking to two students from the group I found that they thought that Northampton academy was “Way better than Auckland” and that they would much rather come to school here than in their own town.  The group spent a further five days in England and were then off to explore Europe.  Thanks to Caleb Lee and Jay Khosla for spending the time to speak to me about their trip. 

Gareth Nichol

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Posted 14 January 2008 § Structure for Learning § Enrichment for Learning § Teaching and Learning ‡ Comments (0)