The Under 16 Football team are having a successful league campaign. In October they traveled to Groby College and came away 4-3 winners. After taking a commanding 3-0 half-time lead the team quickly threw this lead away in the second half to allow Groby to level up at 3-3 however in the last five minutes Bosworth managed to notch a winner to claim the points. On 27th February they entertained John Cleveland College and strolled to a comfortable 7-1 victory including a hat-trick from Ellis Bollen. The team is well lead by captain Ellis Smith who works hard to sort the team out and liaises with the manager, Liam Grest to get messages to players. On 5th March the team travel to King Edward VII Coalville for the penultimate league match ahead of the final game versus Hind Leys of Shepshed.
If the team can finish top of the league they will progress to the League Cup semi-final representing the West Leicestershire district again the winners of either the North or South Leicestershire league.
In recognition of their commitment to the three age group rugby teams operating at Bosworth Academy 15 players were lucky enough to take up a place on the trip to Headingley Carnegie Stadium to watch an England training session in preparation for the upcoming 6 Nations. The players saw Stuart Lancaster putting the England players through their paces with match simulation drills and set piece plays. Following the hour long training session England players took time out to reward the travelling fans by signing shirts and balls. Bosworth Academy students collected autographs from 5 or 6 different players and even got the chance to stroke the beard of local hero Dan Cole.
With book shelving the length of a football pitch, enough paint to fill two bath tubs and over 2km of cabling the brand new library at Bosworth Academy is complete. First damaged in the summer floods and then winner of a nationwide competition to refurbish part of their school building, the Academy nominated its library and adjoining classrooms for a transformational makeover courtesy of Styles & Wood, the property support services group, and their supply chain partners.
The library is firmly back at the heart of the school and has been renamed as The Compass. Designed as a vibrant research facility to encourage independent study and foster a love of reading, the project radically improves the tired 1960s building through a new layout, improved environmental control and a superior lighting scheme.
The Compass name was selected through ballot by the 1300 pupils at the school, who were involved from start to finish: putting together the original entry, creating design requirements and even briefing architects and engineers. Compass cleverly integrates new technology and the latest furniture designs into a flexible area divided into five key zones: research, presentation, independent study, reading and teaching. The Academy is investing in new technology – increasing the number of pcs, including a set of iPads, for use in The Compass. The catalogue of books within the library is expanding in parallel to keep the pages turning for pupils.
Simon Brown, Vice Principal at Bosworth Academy, said: âWe started out wanting to encourage more children to use the library, for reading and study. But this refurbishment is so much better than we could ever have dreamt of or afforded out of school budgets. The Compass will help generations of students find the direction they need to be successful in whatever they want to do. We are hugely grateful to Styles & Wood for their vision and everything they have achieved.â
The makeover competition was part of Styles & Woodâs education offer, Revision and was run in conjunction with their community support programme. A team of employees has volunteered their time and expertise, coordinating 20 suppliers who donated their services. In total over 2,100 hours were worked on site to bring the studentâs wish-list to life.
The company chose Bosworth because of the passion they demonstrated. Having recently become an academy they clearly showed they were taking their future into their own hands. According to Gideon Levene, Head of Education within Styles and Wood, the student video put together for the entry was particularly inspirational. He comments: âThis has been a challenging refurbishment project, keeping disruption to a minimum in a fully working school. We saw huge potential in the library and used our expertise in refurbishment including ventilation, acoustics and design to create an amazing space to inspire the students. We believe refurbishment is an exciting process to transform spaces, it is what we do and we do it well. The Compass should build aspirations for young people in Bosworth for years to come.â
Below you can see our stop motion video of the whole development from start to finish:
Staff uniforms, sweatshirts, hoodies, polo shirts – when a school changes its name inevitably there is a lot of out-of-date sports kit. Bosworth Academy, which became an academy earlier this year, has found a solution to the dilemma of what to do with good but unwanted items. Rather than discarding it to landfill, 198 items of clothing are on their way to the deprived region of Amizmiz in Morocco.
The school has a long association with Morocco; in the past seven years over 200 pupils have been on expeditions in the Atlas mountains, as part of their leadership and learning outside the classroom. Amizmiz lies at the foot of the High Atlas mountain range and has many small Berber villages nearby without electricity or running water. Struck by the need in the area, these groups have often ended up giving the shirts off their backs to local communities or taken small gifts for children in order to help.
Pupils and staff have been busy collecting and now three massive cartons of children and adult clothing are being sent to a region where winter temperatures can plummet to -20 âC. âWe encourage a strong sense of community and an understanding of the wider world,â explains Chris Parkinson, Principal of Bosworth Academy. âWe are very proud of our new name, but even prouder that we can make a contribution to an area which has been so welcoming to us, but doesnât have the benefits we take for granted.â
The clothing will be distributed directly to the most needy communities with the help of World Challenge Area Manager, Daniel Seton. World Challenge organises the Academyâs annual expedition to Morocco.
Athletes staying in the Olympic and Paralympic Villages during the London 2012 Games will have the chance to admire special artwork created by students from the Get Set network school Bosworth Academy. This initiative shows how even more schools are playing their part in London 2012.
28 schools from across the United Kingdom including Bosworth Academy were invited to work with professional artists and photographers to create artwork that will be displayed in the Villages throughout the Games. The images are set to provide a great addition to the accommodation making athletes from all over the world feel at home.
Bosworth Academy took inspiration from artist Tine Bech who was commissioned to work with the students to create the artwork using light to create the engaging and exciting images. Five out of the seven images submitted were selected to be mass produced and housed within the athleteâs apartments.
With the country basking in the afterglow of London 2012 and the Paralympics continuing to impress, Bosworth Academy is learning lessons from elite sports and applying them to the world of education. And with rugby 7s set to be an Olympic sport in Rio, who better than Emily Scarratt, England and Lichfield full back and centre, to help staff learn from top coaches and athletes?
Scarratt, 22, is a former pupil of Bosworth Academy and has been capped over 20 times. She will address over 100 of the Academyâs teaching and support staff at the first training day of the new academic year on 28 August 2012, sharing insights into team working, athlete centred coaching, the use of feedback and the role of analysis in performance improvement.
âJust as we saw the cycling or swimming teams supporting each other to achieve fantastic results, we want to create a team culture within the school leading to continuous improvement in teaching standards,â explains Chris Parkinson, Academy principal. âI want the staff here to achieve their personal best. Not in terms of time or distance, but by giving our pupils the best start in life.â
Staff will be encouraged to develop a questioning style and coach each other to improve their teaching. Emily will explain that âstatistics donât lieâ and show how the use of GPS tracking in rugby has transformed performance, likewise the latest web based technology will have a similar impact on teaching, so that staff can analyse their lessons and get peer review.
The school achieved Academy status earlier this year and has just seen its best ever exam results. Chris concludes: âBy looking outside of education for inspiration, our staff can learn from world class performers. This day will set the tone for the year ahead and will keep the Academy at the forefront of education.â
The quick thinking of Bosworth Academy students has been praised after they went to the help of a seriously injured cyclist and now their community spirit has been recognised by the Desford School.
The cyclist, who prefers to remain anonymous, came off his bike close to the Academy. Seven students rushed to his aid. While one called an ambulance, several returned to the school to summon a first-aider, other looked after the cyclist until paramedics arrived, while another called the cyclist’s wife to alert her. She said: “What impressed me was the speed with which they acted and also that they followed up a couple of days later to check how he was.”
The man, who was a keen cyclist commutes 25 miles each day by bike, was kept in hospital for two nights with concussion, lacerations and a fractured elbow. He is recovering well after the accident, but is still badly brusised. The couple were so struck with the concern of the students that they sent gift vouchers to be given to them. Their quick-thinking and compassion was recognised by the school as they received their vouchers and a Silver Community Award from the Academy.
Chris Garnett, senior assistant principal of Bosworth Academy commented: “We try to encourage a strong sense of community, so it is wonderful to see our students putting this into action and keeping their cool in an emergency. We are very proud of them.”
The students, who are all studying in the sixth form, were: Sarah Brecknell, Liam George, Jess Hudspith, Amber Hyde, Tom Kirk, Josh Mooney and Emily Prince.
“I am sure we did what any pupil here would do – There was no way, I would just stand by if someone needed my help,” said Emily Prince on behalf of the group. ” We are very pleased that he will be back on his bike soon.”
Students from Bosworth Academy in Desford formed a Guard of Honour to line the route as athletes made their way through the Olympic Park into the Olympic Stadium, for the London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony.
At the start of the Athletesâ Parade, during the athletesâ procession from the Olympic Village to the Olympic Stadium, the students who joined 249 other schools from across the UK and made up the 2,000 student Guard of Honour lining the route, holding lanterns and banners they had created. Bosworth Academy was selected through the reward and recognition programme of the Get Set network, the official London 2012 education programme. The photo below shows the scene when the Jamaican team including Usain Bolt paraded past our students during the Guard of Honour parade.
Award-winning teacher, Dave Bennett MBE, is joining Bosworth Academy at the start of the school term as an Assistant Principal. He brings with him over two decades of teaching experience and many accolades, including being named secondary teacher of the year in 2001 and being awarded an MBE for services to education in 2002. He is a qualified Ofsted inspector and his mission is to further develop and support teaching staff to ensure they deliver the best lessons possible at the 1300-strong co-educational academy. He is passionate about ensuring that every student has the best opportunity to succeed.
As an Assistant Principal, Dave will inspire and build on the quality of teaching and learning across the whole school. He moves from Babington Community College, where he was an advanced skills teacher sharing his own high standards of classroom practice with other teachers in the college, in Leicester and beyond.
He sees his new role as a natural progression: âBosworth Academy has a great reputation for not doing things in the same old way. They learn from the best in education, industry and sport and really focus on quality. I hope to make an impact across the school and influence the already excellent teaching standards to become outstanding.â
Chris Parkinson, Principal, is delighted to welcome Dave to the leadership team: âWith over 90 teaching staff we need to attract and develop world class performers in our profession. Only then can we inspire each pupil to achieve the best they are capable of and give our young people a flying start in life.â
Dave is a keen sportsman, having played rugby for Leicester Lions and Leicestershire. He plays cricket regularly, is a level 2 cricket coach and an avid cyclist.
