Month: July 2023
Reflect and Celebrate
25 Jul 2023
As we finish another academic year, let us celebrate the positive changes and advancements that Park Vale has achieved whilst continuing to commit to fostering a safe and inclusive environment for all. One of the paramount aspects that warrant our attention is bullying, an issue that has gained increased awareness over the years. By addressing this concern head-on and promoting a bully-free culture, we have been able ensure that every student has the opportunity to thrive academically and personally.
Bullying is an issue that affects not only the victim but the entire school community. It hampers learning, erodes self-esteem, and can leave deep emotional scars. To counter this negative behavior, we must work together and remain vigilant, utilising a multi-faceted approach that involves students, staff, parents, and the wider community.
1. Education and Awareness: Enhanced education and awareness programs have been implemented throughout the academic year in both assemblies and as part of the PSHE curriculum. These programs have helped students and teachers recognise the signs of bullying, understand the impacts it can have, and encourage them to report incidents promptly.
Student-Led Initiatives: Empowering students to take the lead in fostering a bully-free environment is crucial. We have used student voice activities as well as the school leaders to develop mentorship programs and a safe spaces for victims to share their experiences and find support from their peers. We have also introduced an online platform where students are able to report any bullying or peer issues anomalously, this link can be found here https://forms.office.com/e/7q6BvcpL8m
Parent Involvement: Involving parents in our efforts to combat bullying is vital. We will continue to work with the wider school community next academic year raise awareness about the signs of bullying and the importance of parental engagement in resolving such issues.
Creating Safe Spaces: Physical spaces within the school have been closely monitored to ensure they remain safe and welcoming for all students. Online platforms have also been moderated effectively to prevent cyberbullying and encourage positive digital interactions.
Enterprise Event 26th May 2023
18 Jul 2023
What A Fantastic Effort.
Our Enterprise event run by business students in year 10 was a massive success!
Our students worked really hard in marketing the event to raise money for charity.
Our students demonstrated and tested their entrepreneurial skills of teamwork, problem solving, speaking, listening, decision making and aiming high alongside their business studies knowledge of the marketing mix.
Performance Poet Dreadlock Alien Brings Poetry To Life
17 Jul 2023
As a reward, those students who had made huge progress in their reading were invited to a special event with other schools in the Redhill Trust to see a performance poet called Dreadlock Alien (aka Richard Grant) on 13th July 2023. He entertained and inspired over 100 year seven students within the trust with his interactive presentations. He started his high-octane presentation by performing an improvised poem that he constructed using students’ names from a register, which had them hooked from the start. There was a huge amount of audience interaction with students being invited to submit words which he wove into instant rhyming couplets to form poetry and then guided them in writing their poems before getting volunteers to stand in front of their peers and recite their poems.
Lily Mai from PVA was voted first for her poem about her dad, although she broke down the first time she read it, she bravely got back up in front of the audience and read again with pride and determination!
Librarian Mrs Limb said, “I am extremely proud of Lily Mai She demonstrated great strength and courage, Well done Lily -Mai! I look forward to these events every year, Dreadlock Alien’s love of language is infectious and the students were really attentive. I was extremely impressed with the students who volunteered to get up and read their poems in front of their peers. It was wonderful to see just how interactive and instant poetry can be”
Dreadlock Alien has been touring schools performing his poetry for almost twenty years and this is his fourth visit to The Redhill Academy Trust. He said, ‘The most exciting thing is the changing face of poetry with spoken word and live literature. Spoken word is linked to music. Most adverts nowadays all have little rhymes or raps, so the whole explosion of poetry into spoken word in its many art forms, such as rap, grime, lyrics, that for me is the exciting thing about poetry at the moment.’
Y10 R.E. + Y11 results day – Thursday 24th August
17 Jul 2023
Year 10 GCSE R.E. results will be released on Thursday 24th August. These will be posted out to you first class that afternoon and should be with you in the next couple of days after that.
Year 11 GCSE Results day is Thursday 24th August. School will be open from 10:00 to 12:00 for students to collect their results from the main hall. Those results that are not collected will be posted out to you that same afternoon by first class post.
Friday Night Youth Sessions 7pm – 9pm
17 Jul 2023
Tuesday Youth Sessions 4pm – 6pm
17 Jul 2023
Y7 PVA Step into the NHS Competition
17 Jul 2023
Career Mapper Quiz – take the quiz to identify possible career options
NHS Staff Stories (You Tube) – see what real staff have to say about their jobs
Employee Portraits – find out more about the skills and qualifications needed
Job Advertisement guidance sheet what should your advert for your chosen job contain?
Examples of previous entries Take a look at what previous entries look like
What will you come up with ? All entries to tutors by Friday 21st July 2023
This competition will be run as an internal competition and will be judged and prizes awarded by Park Vale Academy.
Dance Academy Tour 2023
16 Jul 2023
Well done to our students for arranging this fantastically exciting tour for 2023. Every year [ except for during Covid] the entire Dance Academy (Primary, Junior and Senior sections) tour local schools. They perform their latest pieces to the whole school in assembly and give an educational talk on the meaning behind each piece.
After the performance, the Dance Academy teaches small sections of each dance to groups from a class within the school. After each group has developed the performance material, the class perform what they have learnt back to their school in assembly.
Wednesday 19th July:
Primary Dance Academy (Y4/5/6) and Senior Dance Academy (Y9) – Rise Park (am) Stanstead (pm)
Thursday 20th July
Junior Dance Academy (Y7/8) and Senior Dance Academy (Y9) – Southglade (am) Westglade (pm)
House Achievement Points w/e 14th July 2023
16 Jul 2023
Y9 Talking About Communication Impact – 6th July 2023
12 Jul 2023
Expert trainers from Talk The Talk came into school on Thursday, 6th July to work with students in Year Group 9.
Talk The Talk’s mission is to develop students’ oracy skills and their communication confidence to support positive interaction in all life situations and improved social outcomes.
Talk The Talk has trained over 115,000 students to be confident communicators across England and Wales since they began in 2013.
The Talk About Communication workshop is an exciting and engaging master class developing speaking and listening skills within a creative learning environment. The workshop provides numerous speaking opportunities and students are coached and supported throughout the day to deliver a structured two minute presentation, on a topic for which they have a genuine passion, to their peers.
‘We demonstrate that speaking out should be an experience that we CAN do – and one that is nowhere near as daunting as we might think. One of the keys to the success of the Talk The Talk programme is creating an environment of mutual respect with a supportive ethos so that when students stand up and voice their opinions, share their thoughts and present their ideas – their skill and confidence grows.’
Talk The Talk
To learn more about Talk The Talk’s work visit them at: www.talkthetalkuk.org
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