Newsletter 62 - Army Cyber Challenge
Edition 62 – 4th October 2019
Army Cyber Challenge
On Wednesday, eight of our Year 11 pupils were invited to represent Sarum Academy at a British Army Cyber Challenge STEM event hosted by The Royal Signals at The Defence School of Communication and Information Systems at Blandford Camp.
Pupils were given the opportunity to learn and compete against 12 other schools using AIpowered online cybersecurity training platforms that mirror actual networks and programmes used by the Royal Signals Cyber Protection Team.
Our fantastic team spent the morning working together to figure out how to use the extremely complicated systems to complete four ‘Battle Room Missions’. Despite some technical difficulties at the beginning, the team were able to remain in third place for most of the morning but were sadly pipped to the post by the end of the session.
The afternoon session gave the pupils a chance to try out some of the games that the Cyber Protection Team use to keep their knowledge up to date. They were also able to make key rings and try on some extremely heavy equipment that the Army have to carry in the field. Huge congratulations to the pupils for giving their absolute all to complete the exceptionally complex challenges and for doing their absolute best to represent the Sarum values. Check out Science at Sarum Academy Facebook page for more photos! – Miss Dibling
Senior Prefects 2019
We are incredibly pleased to confirm our Senior Prefect team this year, after a series of tough interviews (tough to make a choice that was!) we are very pleased to appoint the following as senior prefects. Each prefect has been assigned a year to support and will be working with the Head of Year to mentor specific pupils along with the rest of their responsibilities. Stina Emplassary Sony Year 7 Chloe Yates Year 7 Abbi Perry Year 8 Will Thompson Year 9 Chloe Bradley Year 10 Sophie McIntosh Year 11
For our Head Boys and Girls, the decision was harder again, but having demonstrated themselves as outstanding candidates and with their contributions over the last few years we are proud to announce the following appointments; Deputy Head Girl – Millie Stanley Deputy Head Boy – Louis Austin Head Girl – Rebecca Wyatt Head Boy – George Carthy Congratulations to all! – Mr Jones – Head of Sixth Form
Stonehenge night photography
On Thursday 26th of September Sarum Academy photography pupils were invited to take part in a once in a lifetime opportunity of a night photography session at Stonehenge. This is a rare opportunity and not something that is normally given to pupils or the public without a high cost attached.
Working with the education officer at Stonehenge and Photographer Josh Dury, we were taught about how to use our cameras to capture the night sky, stars and the monument in the dark. We also did some light painting using our torches and people in the group. We learnt some in-depth skills about manual camera settings, ISO, shutter speed and white balance.
We took some incredibly detailed shots, light trails, stars and the international space station, at one point we could see the milky way over the top of Stonehenge. The skills we learnt will now be able to help us push our own photography further and also give us confidence to do a new type of photography we wouldn’t have considered before.
While at Stonehenge itself we had a quick masterclass in the education centre, before heading up to the stones on the bus, we got there around 7.30pm so it was very dark but the sky was lit up and the A303 traffic was lighting up colours in the distance. We stayed up on site until 10pm, we were so lucky to be able to go in to the centre circle, by torch light to take photos that even on a day to day basis are normally not able to be done.
Thanks to Josh Dury and Stonehenge for giving up the time and resources to ensure we had this wonderful opportunity and if we ever get the chance again we would grab the chance and tell other pupils to take up this incredible opportunity. It is something we will remember forever and cherish the opportunities we are being given locally. An exhibition will be held in Term 2 of the work.
World Mental Health Day – 7th October 2019
This coming week it’s World Mental Health Day on Thursday 7th October. This week is a good opportunity to raise awareness of mental health issues, to help fight against social stigma and is a brilliant reminder for us all to take care of our mental and emotional wellbeing.
The Sarum Academy safeguarding team recently ran a mental and emotional wellbeing day for the whole of Year 7. As part of this day we looked at ‘5 to thrive’. Five things we can all do that are proven to boost our emotional wellbeing. My challenge for you next week is to try and do something new each day from one of these five areas. Here are some of the ideas that Year 7’s suggested for each of these 5 areas:
- Active – take the dog for a walk, cycle to school or work, play football.
- Connect – Sit next to someone new at lunchtime, message a friend you’ve not spoken to for ages, say hi to someone at school you don’t know.
- Give – give a smile, kindness, buy something for the food bank.
- Notice – have a go at mindfully eating a chocolate button!!
- Learn – we learn all day every day at Sarum Academy…
Please take a photo and tweet us and let us know how you get on.
At Sarum Academy we take emotional and mental wellbeing seriously and we have a lot in place to help promote positive wellbeing including a daily lunchtime drop-in. If you would like to find out more about the support in place, please don’t hesitate to contact myself (Mrs Futcher) or Mrs Dawson who are the Safeguarding Officers in the Academy. I’d lastly like to take this opportunity to remind everyone about online counselling at Kooth. Young people aged 11-25 can log on to Kooth.com and speak confidentially to a trained counsellor free of charge.
We look forward to seeing how you get on with the 5 to Thrive challenge. Mrs Futcher – Safeguarding Team
Post 16 Sports
Parkwood Partnership –‘Hot Yoga’ Last week our Year 12 sixth form sport students were put through their paces at Parkwood Leisure Centre. Having established a partnership between the academies sixth form sports programme and Parkwood we were able to take part in an excellently ran ‘hot yoga’ session. The session comprised of a variety of different core balance exercises exposing the students to new forms of exercise. All students thoroughly enjoyed the session and came out having developed a new sense of understanding within sport. We thank Parkwood for their support and look forward to inviting them to the academy in a few weeks’ time for a guest lecture
Male Sixth Form football
Firstly, giving thanks to Bemerton Heath Harlequins for partnering with the Academy to allow our male sixth form team to play their home fixtures at their excellent venue, a special thank you to Andy Nash from BHH. Having the partnership with the club allows our students to have a sense of professionalism to the football side of the programme. Having had a tough introduction to life in the Tactic League the team have shown some real character in recent weeks during training and established a clear character about the way we play as a team. Although losing our first home game 6-4 to PDA Dorset, the opposition coaching staff couldn’t compliment the team enough for their “determination and dominance during the game and were surprised that we didn’t walk away with all 3 points”. We move forward with games coming up against Havant & Waterlooville and Eastleigh in the coming weeks. We are Sarum….
Female Sixth Form football
The female team have made an excellent start to life in the Tactic League travelling to United Select for their first fixture. The first half saw a 3-3 thriller take place with Sarum clawing back a three goal deficit to come in at the break tied. The girls character continued to shine through the second half with the game coming to a close the game was tied 6-6, with a matter of minutes left Sarum showed the tenacity to leave Buckinghamshire with all 3 points when Molly McCarthy slotted home to win the game 7-6. Well done to all of the team for their efforts. We are Sarum….
Mr Hindle – The Manager
Tae Kwon-do Champ!
Last month Aimee Edwards attended the Tae Kwon-Do Association of Great Britain (T.A.G.B.) Tae Kwon-Do Grading in Andover. Although she sustained an injury on the Friday in PE (not great timing), she was determined to participate as she had missed the previous Grading due to roaming the Pewsey Vale on her Bronze D of E Expedition and has worked for the last 3 months to ensure she would reach the standard required to grade.
She soldiered on and ended up not only with an outstanding A Pass and obtaining her Green Belt, she was also presented with the Amesbury T.A.G.B. Grading Award.
A week later, Sunday 22nd September she participated at the British Tae Kwon-Do Council (BTC) Championships in Worcester. There were a total of 750 competitor entries for the National Championship at the Worcester Arena from the 14 Associations that are in the membership of the British Tae Kwon-Do council.
After three rounds in the individual sparring, Aimee is now the 2019 Girls Yellow Belt Middleweight BTC Champion, winning Gold. Not only that she got Gold for Tag Team Sparring in the Girls Green/Yellow belt category. Then back to Amesbury Sports Centre later that afternoon and back to training so she could learn her next grading pattern.
Well done Aimee and thanks mum for sharing. Please send me your stories.
Sports round-up
In other sport – Cross country race 1 and 2 have happened (Salisbury School competition) and we have two pupils ranked in the top ten at the moment - Dexter Smith in Year 7 and Dylan Antunovic-Fry Year 11. Two more races to go in this term and next but all pupils who have run have been amazing.
The Year 11 Boys Football team played Leehurst Swan last week and beat them 10-0. Great start to the football season. Up next they have a Wiltshire cup game against Hardenhuish School.
Netball – Year 11 girls played Leehurst Swan in netball and in an entertaining game narrowly lost out by one goal 10-9.
Lots of opportunities to get involved after school through our Enrichment Programme.
Mr Pearce – Head of PE