Two hallfulls of amazing talent

Our annual Gym and Dance Display is one of the real high points of the Sackville calendar. This year’s did not disappoint, with more students than ever involved, from years 7 to 10. 

In both halves of the evening there were superbly choreographed ensemble pieces together with virtuoso solo performances. The quality on show was testament to the work all of the students have put in this half term. We would like to thank all of the staff who made the evening possible, and of course the students for their amazing efforts!

Maths masters at work in Brighton

Four intrepid year 9 Sackville students completed maths mastery classes at the University of Brighton on Saturday October 19th.

The students certainly came away feeling challenged, as the problems they were set were of a different nature and standard to their usual classroom work. They are all now much more aware of how to approach a difficult maths problem.

Thank-you to the team at Brighton for hosting!

Pictured here are Olivia Matthews, Iwan Hudson, Thomas Salter and Toby Sheridan.

Year 8 PiXL Edge Ambassadors celebrate success

The year 8 Pixl Edge Ambassadors met on Friday October 19th for a celebration launch of Pixl Edge. The Ambassadors will be developing their leadership skills through championing Pixl Edge across the school and assisting with the Year 7 students and their tutors as they start the programme after half term. 

PiXL Edge is used in the school to allow students to build up a record of extra-curricular activities which show leadership, organisation, resilience, initiative and communication – vital skills for lives in the twenty-first century.

Year 10 and 11 scientists achieve CREST Awards

Congratulations to our CREST award winners who collected their certificates this week.

This was in recognition of completing a long-term science project of their choice, researching, developing and analysing the data collected.

Each project was presented at the Big Bang Fair competition at Ardingly in the summer.

Maths is not just a lot of hot air …

There was so much laughter coming from Mr Collins’ year 7 lesson on Wednesday October 16th that our Mrs Brown, Transition Co-ordinator, had to take her camera and investigate.

It turns out that as a reward for doing so well in a milestone test, Mr Collins had planned a maths-based ‘treasure hunt’ lesson with a twist: all of the questions were hidden inside balloons, and these had to be inflated to bursting point before the question could be answered.

The students had an enormous amount of fun, and won’t forget their lesson of calculated cacophony any time soon.

Government confirms Sackville’s outstanding exam results

The government has confirmed how well our year 11 students performed last year with the first release of its performance tables. These show we have achieved the the much sought-after ‘above average‘ classification.

This is based on our ‘Progress 8‘ score of 0.31, showing that one in every three GCSE grades last summer was a full grade higher than those achieved by similar students in other schools.

We knew how hard our 16 year-olds worked last year; we are delighted to see this confirmed by these official figures.

You can see more details of our achievements on the Department for Education website.

Sackville success at the Netball Nationals

Congratulations to our U16 and U19 netball teams, the only representatives from the state sector at the netball national heats at Roedean on Saturday.

The U16s, with many year 10s in the team, came 5th, and the U19s came 9th – against some very strong competition (and a lot of rain). Well done girls!

Mid-Sussex applauds Head Boy Ayo

Congratulations to our head boy Ayo Odeyinde, who has been named Young Volunteer of the Year at the Mid-Sussex Applauds Reception at Eastcourt on Sunday October 13th.

The judges were impressed by Ayo’s many volunteering exploits. During the last summer holidays he arranged a sports summer club, obtaining all of the necessary permissions, arranging for DBS checks for helpers and securing funding. Twenty primary aged students each day had their holidays enormously enhanced by his efforts. 

Ayo regularly volunteers as a sports leader at Estcots Primary School, offers his services to the Welcome Cafe at Trinity Methodist Church and also accompanies members of his scout troop to Charters Retirement Village to support residents there.

Well done indeed Ayo – all this and still time to play a key role in the annual Sackville-Imberhorne Memorial Game.

Thank-you also to Mr Heatley, Seren Foulds, Toulah Morgan (pictured), Jamie Bland, Ali Cumpatescu, Saskia Crumpton and Chloe Harman who gave up their Sunday afternoon to play some wonderful music at the event.

Year 11s celebrate superb progress with a croissant

Congratulations to our top value-added students in year 11, who were recently invited to breakfast with Mr Grant under our new dining canopy.

These are students who have done particularly well in their year 10 exams compared to their ‘minimum expected grades’.

Year 11 have made a great start to the new academic year – keep this up!

The skies clear for the first observatory open evening of the year

One of the great consolations of the shortening days of autumn is the return of our school observatory open evenings. Led by the redoubtable Mr Bush, but with a growing band of helpers, the Sackville community is invited to lift their eyes to the darkening heavens and wonder.

After our first open evening of the year, Mr Bush was able to write:-

It was great to see lots of new faces, (and some stalwarts) at our first observatory open evening of the season on Wednesday. Our main telescope tracked to Moon and allowed some amazing photo opportunities like those here by Stephen Baldwin and Keiran Colvill. Meanwhile, supporters Steve Pond and Max Goddard used separate scopes to wow children and parents with the rings of Saturn and splendour of Jupiter’s atmosphere and moons.

For more details, see https://www.facebook.com/SackvilleObservatory/