News

Before half-term, our three winners from the Foreign Language Spelling Bee School competition, Jenisha C, Jenefa R and Janelle S, participated in the Regional Final against other schools in the Southeast of England. They had to learn a total of 200 words in preparation for the competition. During the competition they had to correctly translate and spell as many of these words as possible in a minute. All three students did an incredible job, particularly as the competition took place in the week before their end of year assessments. I am delighted to announce that Jenisha and Jenefa both made it through to the National Final. Jenisha was the overall winner of the Regional Competition. A superb achievement.

The students have a further 100 words to learn for the National Final, making it a total of 300 words that they could be tested. Please congratulate them and wish them luck.

For Stage 2 of the Spelling Bee competition, students had to correctly translate and spell in Spanish as many words as possible in a minute. This time students had a total of 150 words to learn.

The students participating in Stage 2 of the House Competition were:

• Cindy O – Leyh
• Jago L – Leyh
• Jenisha C – Marshall
• Janelle S – Marshall
• Joshua M – Rutherford
• Jenefa R – Rutherford
• Gabriel M – Laine
• Simina G – Turing
• Camila T – Turing

The 3 students with the highest number of words correctly translated and spelt in a minute were:

• Jenisha C (8)
• Jenefa R (8)
• Janelle S (8)

The total number of words correctly translated and spelt in a minute by each House was:

• Joint 4th – Leyh and Laine – 7
• 3rd – Turing – 10
• 2nd – Rutherford – 12
• 1st – Marshall – 16

The winners will now compete in Stage 3 – Regional Competition. Please wish them luck as the winners from this stage may then compete in a National Final.

Well done to all those who have taken part. It is great to see everyone spelling words in Spanish using the Spanish alphabet. This will really help you with your learning in general.

The House system is at the heart of what we do at Watling Academy. Throughout their time at the Academy students will earn House Points in lessons and compete against each other in a range of events. These include subject based challenges, sporting tournaments and competitions based around our core values of Respect, Responsibility and Kindness and our curriculum themes of STEM, Milton Keynes and Sustainability. 

The first Watling students were responsible for choosing the house names. As part of their induction they were asked to nominate people who they felt represented the Watling Academy core values, they chose-

• Laine
• Leyh
• Marshall
• Rutherford
• Turing

As you have probably spotted these are all people who have made a significant contribution to Milton Keynes.

Our students were also involved in the design of our House Logos, each House group was tasked with producing a design brief of what they wanted their house logo to look like. Our very own Ms Piper acted on the design briefs to produce these fantastic logos.

Students have been earning points throughout the year in a variety of events and we look forward to crowning our first Watling Academy House champions at the end of the year.

Today at the end of breaktime students had a surprise visitor come into school to drop off their certifcates that they achieved for attending The National Museum of Computing virtual trip.

The Starship robot came into the playground drove around the students, who were all lined up and then answered questions from the students. Johnny Jeywright, 7RST, accepted and took the certificates from the ‘boot’ of the robot.

This was a great way for students to end their first half term at Watling Academy.

Students at Watling Academy have taken part in two virtual trips to The National Museum of Computing this half term. Over the two weeks students participated in a different theme each week. The two themed sessions that students took part in were:

• World War 2 Codebreaking
• This includes a tour of the famous World War 2 codebreaking machines the Bombe, Tunny, Heath Robinson and Lorenz. It includes an activity using a Python program to act as Lorenz keys to decipher messages or a virtual reality session to create a Virtual Block H.
• Modern Electronic Computing
• Modern Electronic Computing includes a tour of EDSAC, WITCH, Elliot 803 & 903, Large Systems and PC Computers. It gives and insight into the development of computing over the last 70 years and covers key concepts in the computer science curriculum. The interactive sessions offer the choice creating a program using the BBC emulator or CoSpaces Virtual Block H. Both sessions cover the same content as a full day visit to the museum.

Mr Bartlam, Computing Hub Lead and Computing Teacher for Watling Academy, who’s class participated in the remote learning pilot programme, said: “Our students were very responsive to TNMOC’s remote learning programme. They described it as fun and felt like they were actually in the museum. The museum’s presenters were informative and clearly knew their stuff, answering all the questions the students had. It was a fantastic activity that gave our students that field trip feeling, from the safety of our classroom. We would highly recommend it to other teachers.”

Watling Academy opened with a flourish on Monday 7th September welcoming new students through the gates for the first time. The Chair of Governors, Mrs M O’Brien and Governor, Mrs R Edwards were present for a ribbon cutting to mark the occasion along with representatives of an enthusiastic student body, Mr Bacon, Head of School, Mrs Barford, Deputy Headteacher and Andy Squires, CEO of the Denbigh Alliance Multi Academy Trust.

Opening a new school is an exciting challenge and the first week was a joy with staff and students getting to know one another and settling into their temporary surroundings at Fairfield’s Primary. Mr Bacon said “We have been delighted with the exceptional behaviour of students who all look so smart in their new uniforms and have arrived as the first cohort of Watling with a ‘ready to learn’ attitude”.

Andy Squires, CEO added “This is an important step in the Watling Academy journey and has involved three years of hard work from when the initial concept and vision began. It is wonderful to see students arriving this morning and we look forward to relocating into our new School building during the Spring”.