Piano Masterclass with Mr Richard Meyrick

Piano students at Hayle were treated to a Master class with renowned concert pianist Mr Richard Meyrick.
Three of our GCSE music students performed for Mr Meyrick; Peter performed Satie’s Gnossienne No. 1, Nafisa played the Brahms Intermezzo and Charlie finished with The Theme from Star Wars. Criticism and advice was then given, in front of a select audience of young pianists. In front of the selected . The master class will certainly help our GCSE students in preparation for their final performances and hopefully inspire the younger students to continue working hard at their studies. Peter said ‘”it was really useful to think about the music alongside the composer, helping to give an insight into the music we are playing”.

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Jeff Kinney Writes Back

About Eighteen months ago a group of Year 5 students, visiting Hayle Academy for the communication day, wrote letters to their favourite authors. This week one of the authors replied!

It was a long wait, but this author sent his replies all the way from Dakota, USA. The writer is the bestselling author Jeff Kinney who is most famous for the series of Diary of a Wimpy Kid which is so popular.

In the letters he apologizes for the delay and thanks the students for their letters. Each letter has some illustrations and has been personally signed. Students, who are now in year 7, were delighted to receive them. One student said: “I was so excited. I couldn’t believe he had actually written back.”

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PTA Meeting 29th January

We have our next PTA meeting on Wednesday 29th January at 5.30pm until 7pm. New members are warmly invited. Come along for tea/coffee and snacks. We will be focusing on a plan for the Academy’s summer fete.

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Student Council Restructure

In January we will be restarting the school council. This council will meet once a month during tutor time and period one. In each meeting the council will hear from the different iCouncils about the work they have been doing and the council will also discuss important school issues. I caught up with the Head Boy, Tommy, to get his views on how this will help decision making overall.

“Within the old structure, there were 4 sub-councils iCare, iSite, iFit , iLearn, who sorted out the problems regarding their sector and reported their main problems to iCommunicate, who then dealt with these problems alongside those raised from within their group.

The new structure replaces iCommunicate with an overall school council, which will consist of our Year 11 leaders, but we are also looking for representatives from other year groups, ideally at least one boy and one girl from each year group. The School Council will deal with similar problems to iCommunicate and focus on Mr Mather’s new school agenda.This new arrangement should improve efficiency as we will have targets to meet and instead of just dealing with problems, we will be improving the school.”

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE BENEFITS TO BE GAINED? This new Council should represent the student voice better due to the variety of students standing from each year.

WHAT IS THE PROCESS TO APPLY AND DEADLINE?

If you would like to apply to be on the council please write a letter of application. In your letter you need to discuss the following:

– Why you think having a school council is a good idea.

– Why you think you would make a good school counsellor – What are the main issues with the council should be looking at next term?

WHAT TYPES OF PEOPLE ARE YOU ON THE LOOKOUT FOR?

Reliable enough to turn up to all the meetings, hardworking, sensible and know if there is anything in their year that needs change or improvement.

HOW WILL YOUR ROLE CHANGE WITHIN THE NEW COUNCIL?

Eve and I will still be influential in the Council and bringing about change in the school, but Mr Mather will be leading/directing us more than in the old iCommunicate.

Students from each year are invited to apply for positions on the new Student Council by applying in writing.

Letters of application should be no longer than one side of A4 and can be written or typed. Please remember to put your name and tutor group on the letter clearly. Letters must be returned to Mr Mather by Friday 17th of January.

If you have any questions please do see Mr Mather. Good Luck!

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THE YOUTUBE ARCHITECT

Duke of Edinburgh participants need to show a skill or do volunteer work as part of the programme. Roxy in Year 9, decided to show skill and built a model house. Having previously watched YouTube videos on this feat, she thought it had looked difficult but it was something she had wanted to try for a while. Her first plan was to make the whole house from cardboard, but this idea was scrapped as it was too flimsy, so it was the perfect solution when she found a basic 3D plywood model in a craft shop to set her off. The conditions of the skills test were she had to dedicate an hour a week for 6 months. Once finished, Roxy then had to pick an assessor to write a review of her handywork. She chose Hayle Academy Head of Art Alison Tranter. Who thought she’d done an amazing job! Asked what she had enjoyed most Roxy beams saying, “Painting the finished house. The most difficult part of the project was making all the furniture out of cardboard.”

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