This year sixth form students elected the first ever Head Boy and Head Girl of Abbey Grange Academy. Sophie Rowe and Jacob Pyrah will be ably supported by their deputies, Ellie Fisher and James Yeadon, during their term in office. All four students are excited about developing this new role and are looking forward to working closely with staff and students on key issues. All of the team have expressed their delight at the opportunity to represent our community and have pledged to work hard to raise the profile of their role to ensure it is a position that all aspire to. Head Girl Sophie said, I would like to ensure that I leave a legacy and am able to give something back to the school for helping to shape my life. If anyone has suggestions on how to improve the school or needs advice, the team are always here to help and can be emailed on: headstudents@abbeygrangeacademy.co.uk

Starting any

new school

can often be a daunting

experience and following the six week break we

have a whole new year group joining us here at

Abbey Grange Academy. Fresh faced (and with

immaculate uniform it has to be said) our Year 7s

are settling in well. But to help the process we

interviewed a group of last years Year 7s to get

their top tips on settling in and making the most

of your first year at the academy.

Dont be afraid! The building might seem

massive to begin with but youll soon find

your way round and theres always plenty of

people who are happy to help if you get a bit

lost!

Get learning! Make the most of your lessons

(its where you spend most of your time).

You will get out of them what you put into

them so give it your all!

Get involved! There are so many extra

curricular clubs and sports to get involved in

there really is something for everyone

The

Art

Department are

very excited to unveil a new Photography A-level

launched this September. This decision was

made after the Department became increasingly

aware that traditional Fine Art doesnt suit

everyone and so is now offering a new medium

for students to express their creativity.

Photography is part of so many young peoples

lives today, said Mr McGinty, Head of Art; they

use it for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc. so we

thought this new opportunity would be a great

option for many students and will hopefully

encourage students from outside of Abbey

Grange to study with us at sixth-form. The

school has invested in all sorts of modern and

exciting photography equipment including SLR

cameras, specialist tripods and editing programs

for the computers.

Photography students

will have access to this

impressive equipment as

well as Ipads and Tablets

to use for their largely

Sophie and Jacob

leading the way!

On

5th

July the Geography department ran

their first inaugural Year 10 trip to the small town

of Helmsley in North Yorkshire.

The idea behind the excursion was to

encourage the students to experience new

places and explore the underlying

geographical aspects and features of rural

towns and villages. Bringing a real life context

to classroom theory.

Students were given tasks throughout the day

to increase their geographical skillset which

included: attending management talks on

sustainability; collecting and analysing data of

traffic and pedestrian counts of the area. Mrs

Barraclough of the Geography department

commented: All of the skills gained on day will

help the students in their controlled assessment

next year. After the students had finished

completing their work for the day, there was still

time to visit the local shops and market and enjoy

one of the warmest days of the year before their

return back to Abbey Grange.

Four of our Abbey Grange students took part in the Year Out in

India program over the summer. Naomi Priest, Hannah Jenkins,

Sophie Rowe and

Megan Dunworth

travelled to the

Western Ghat mountain

region of Kerala, South

India to take part in a

community project,

providing sanitation

and toilet facilities for

the Mannan tribal

village.

The girls worked directly with the villagers to greatly improve

living conditions whilst engaging in an incredible cultural

experience.

The girls worked extraordinarily hard to raise money to fund

their trip organising curry nights, garden parties, bun sales,

fashion shows, chocolate raffles and a whole lot more. Students,

parents and staff also played an important role in helping to

fundraise through their generous donations to the cause.

Last July Abbey Grange was privileged to play host to several Spanish

students as part of an integration programme organised by the Yorkshire Independent Study Centre. Students from

Barcelona, Valencia and Seville stayed for two weeks with Year 7, 8 and 9 Abbey Grange Buddies. During their trip

they took part in a wide range of exciting activities and visited some of Leeds most popular locations including: Kirkstall

Abbey, Golden Acre park, Tropical World and Kirkgate Market. Mrs Bose our International Coordinator said the

programme aimed to, broaden horizons enabling both the Spanish and English students to identify with ideas of global

citizenship.

Mrs Bose has also been busy

organising links with other

schools across the world. As

well as connections with the

Fairbreeze School in South

Africa, Abbey Grange is

delighted to be linked to

the OP Jindal School

in India and the

Minshan Middle

School in China. In

addition to other

International

community events

this year we are

looking forward to

Last July,

many of you may have seen the exciting

inflatables appear on the field opposite school.

This was the first ever year 12 Sports Day!

Not your conventional Sports Day by any

stretch of the imagination with sports

including an inflatable bungee run, inflatable

jousting, inflatable pillow bash, giant

Connect 4, giant Jenga, a onesie relay,

welly wanging, wheelbarrow race, as well

as the classic sack race and egg and

spoon for the traditionalists!

At the end of the afternoon the students

also enjoyed a barbeque in the blazing sun and had

the opportunity to have a go at all of the events

before the competitions took place.

Abbey Granges

Georgia Yearby competed in the English

Schools Athletic Championships for the 2nd year run-

ning, on 7th July 2013. The championships took

place in Birmingham and filmed for television by

Sky Sports.

Georgia represented West Yorkshire in the 400m.

She made the final, narrowly missing bronze with

a well placed and highly respectable 4th place.

Georgia is one of many fine sporting achievements by

Abbey Grange students over the last school year and we

look forward to many more for this one.

In its thirteenth year at Abbey Grange, the Music Festival hit our

stage once again for another fantastic evening of performances in what was one of the most successful festi-

vals ever!

Each Year the Year 10 students come together and organise an evening of music for students and parents to attend. The

six Abbeys go head to head in a round of initial performances with categories that include: solo performances, percus-

sion, string instruments, keyboard, woodwind and duets. The grand finale is the now famous Abbey Grange Big Sing in

which students from each Abbey team up in a vocal performance in an inter Abbey sing off to claim bragging rights for

the year. This year Mrs. Robinsons Easby stormed to victory with their cover of Valerie by The Zutons. Despite this

the overall winners were Fountains with some exceptional performances including that of Year 9 student, Kieran Wilson

@

At Abbey Grange we

understand the value of

offering students the chance to gather

experiences from outside of the classroom and this year has

been no exception.

Two of the biggest trips of the year were the ski adventure to

Prato Nevoso in Italy, led by the unflappable Mr. Fisher and the

Year 8 French Trip to Normandy.

Both trips were fantastic experiences for the students involved.

There are plenty more trips to come this year including a ski trip

to Sestriere, Italy, The Battlefields, The English London trip and

another Year 8 French trip at the end of the year.