It’s the end of another busy week at Oriel and we finished on a high note with the fundraiser for the Haiti earthquake appeal. I feel very proud of all of you for thinking of helping others less fortunate than yourselves.

This week, I’m handing over to Jamie Skinner (Year 8 ) who worked tirelessly to ensure that Oriel did its bit to support this good cause. Jamie also took some photos of the most outrageous hats, so the pictures will follow. We’re really proud of you, Jamie! Thank you for the report. 

Haiti Non School Uniform Day/ Hats For Haiti

On Friday we held a non school uniform day to raise money for the recent Haiti Earthquake.We started in the morning by making sure that everyone was charged the correct amount as we halved the price of non-uniform for students and staff who wore a hat for the day. 

We got going and lots of people were wearing non-school uniform but some were wearing the most weird and wacky hats. This included Miss KB’S (our school librarian) bookmark hat and a lot of sombreros in Year 11! 

All in all, the day was a huge success and we raised over £500!!!! We hope to send the money to the Haiti Earthquake Appeal by next Friday! Thank you to everyone who donated so generously to this event.

Report by Jamie Skinner

Two principals have been appointed as Principals Designate for the proposed Academies at Costessey and Oriel high schools as they move towards academy status.
Rachel de Souza and Nicole McCartney, currently Principal and Vice Principal of Barnfield West Academy will take on the leadership of the Proposed Academies in Costessey and Gorleston respectively in September.

Barnfield West Academy in Luton was named as The Most Improved School and Academy in the UK by the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust after 100% of students achieved 5+ A* to C grades in their GCSEs this year and tripling the number of students achieving 5A*-C with English and maths.

Ms de Souza, one of the country’s top Head Teachers, will also be Executive Director of Ormiston Trust’s eastern region academies which include the Proposed Academy in Gorleston and Ormiston Bushfield Academy, Peterborough. As an Executive Director, she will be overseeing the other Ormiston Academies in the region.

Ms de Souza and Ms McCartney became Principal and Vice Principal of Barnfield West in 2007. As part of a strong leadership team, they have seen the school gain an Ofsted rating of ‘outstanding’, awarded with the Education Business award of ‘outstanding academy 2009′ and it has experienced the sharpest rise in GCSE results recorded on performance tables so far.

The Academy has also seen continuous proof of achievement through various awards including International Schools Award, ICT mark, 15 national awards for transforming learning and raising attainment, Healthy Schools Status, First Place in the world Mathletics Competition and the Gold standard Every Child Matters Quality Mark.

Ian Cleland, Chief Executive of Ormiston Academies Trust, sponsor of the proposed academies said “We are thrilled to have two outstanding Principal Designates for Gorleston and Costessey. Both Rachel and Nicole bring a fantastic track record to the area and we are very confident that they will both drive for the highest standards. Ormiston Trust has worked with Barnfield West Academy since it was created and knows well the outstanding qualities of its leadership team which will now be supporting the transformation of learning in the new academies. We are looking forward to building on the successes of the predecessor schools and to building relationships with all stakeholders.”

Councillor Shelagh Hutson, Norfolk County Council Cabinet Member for Children’s Services said: “These excellent appointments will help us fulfil our ambitions for both schools. We look forward to working closely with the Ormiston Trust and other partners – and to the contribution Rachel de Souza and Nicole McCartney will make to these academies, as well as to children and young people’s learning and education in Norfolk as a whole.”

On Tuesday 15^th December, Oriel College celebrated its annual achievements in PE and School Sport with its Sports Celebration assembly.

Over 150 students who have represented the college in sport, attended and cheered on the 30 or so individual winners. Medals and certificates were awarded to a ‘Player of the year’ in all of the established sports that were played at Oriel over the last year.

Students were presented with Out of School Hours Learning data as well as Key Stage 3 expectations and GCSE PE predictions.

The winners of the prestigious Sports Personality of the Year trophies were:

• Hayden Ingram – Year 7
• Bradley Goldsmith – Year 8
• Nikki Renee-Smith – Year 9
• Claire Nobbs – Year 10
• Dean Pretlove – Year 11

Congratulations to all those nominated for an award as well as medal and trophy winners. The future of sport at Oriel is in your hands so make the most of it.

The message was ‘if you are committed, train hard and practice the right skills, you will be good enough to compete and beat anyone!’

Oriel has a new Principal for the proposed academy which, we hope, will open in September 2010. If Oriel’s future as an academy becomes secure (and we hope this will be approved within the next month or so) we can look forward to so many opportunities for improved facilities and exciting learning resources.

I would like to congratulate Miss Haddleton on becoming part of the Sinnott Fellowship programme. She has worked hard over several years to secure a strong partnership with Gresham’s in Holt and now her time to help many more students benefit from this is funded by Sinnott! Check out the EDP and the Advertiser for evidence of our Oriel celebrity! She will also have more time to develop our links with English Heritage and Morston Hall – fabulous news.

In light of the recent modular test results and the final grades for some students in English Language in Year 11 we have tailored our mentoring programme even further to make sure as many young people as possible leave with good GCSE grades in English and maths. This week we will also be introducing increased staff mentoring to make sure Year 11 are on track and understand fully how to revise. Details will be out to staff and students this week. The Class of 2010 Yearbook details have also reached Form Tutors via email, so make sure you jot 22nd Feb in your planners because that’s when Erwins will be in for the photo shoot!

I sincerely hope everyone enjoyed last week’s Flexi-Friday – those of you involved in the Camouflage Learning activity seem desperate to know when they will be returning!

2 weeks to go until half-term and lots of work to be done before then. Year 11, I’ll say this again, your evenings must be spent revising, not deliberating as to whether to revise or not! If you are still unsure of how to revise or what to revise, please talk to your teachers – there are so many after school sessions running to support you – take advantage of them!

Ten photography students were very fortunate to be able to visit the Sainsbury centre in Norwich, this museum is housed on the UEA site and is open to the general public on a daily basis.

The students brief for the morning was to explore the exhibits and take profile pictures of the faces and figures in the museum, this was to help the students complete a section of their coursework. The trip was very interesting for all involved and the museum is certainly worth a visit, not only for the thousands of interesting pieces to look at, but also for the relaxed feeling you get as you walk through the door.

 The Sainsbury Centre is one of around a hundred university museums in the UK which are regularly open to the public. Sir Robert (1906 -2000) and Lady Lisa Sainsbury (1912- ) donated their collection of world art to the University of East Anglia in 1973 and the Sainsbury Centre first opened its doors to visitors in 1978. It was the Sainsburys’ hope that students, academic staff and the general public would grow to appreciate the works on display in much the same way as the Sainsburys themselves had done, by being able to look frequently and closely at them without the distraction of too much museum-style text and labelling.