Sackville School wins national award for performance

Sackville School has been recognised nationally for its excellent results in 2018 based on data from the Department for Education and Ofsted, analysed by SSAT (the Schools, Students and Teachers network). Sackville was found to be among the best performing secondary schools in the country, receiving an award for being in the top 20% of schools nationally for progress. The SSAT Educational Outcomes database compares all state-funded schools in England and the highest performing schools for a range of key measures are awarded SSAT Educational Outcomes Awards. Sackville will be presented with their award during the summer term at a ceremony attended by winners from across the region.

Sue Williamson, Chief Executive of SSAT said: “I am delighted that Sackville School has won an Educational Outcomes Awards. This recognises one important aspect of the school’s work but at SSAT we believe an outstanding school has deep social justice at the heart of its plan; it subjects that plan to constant challenge and innovation; and it liberates teachers to perform brilliantly in the classroom. SSAT is pleased to recognise the quality of leadership and the hard work of all staff to ensure the success of every child. A big thank you and well done to students, parents, staff and governors.”

Amber’s amazing debut

If you are not already one of the million-plus viewers of year 10 student Amber Titchener’s debut single ‘Tick Tock‘, check this out!

Year 12 geographers work into the holiday in Wales

Dune Survey

Counting Species

Beach Profile at Freshwater West

Freshwater West Dune Survey

Tenby Tombolo

Skrinkle Haven

Raised Beach Broadhaven South

Green Bridge of Wales

Our year 12 geography students left for their field trip on Thursday April 4th. The usual full-on geography experience awaited them, starting with a stop in Port Talbot for some look-see geography.

The team are based in Saundersfoot in Pembrokeshire, and have been able to look at the incomparable physical geography of that county, including the Green Bridge of Wales, the raised beach at Broadhaven South and the amazing cliff features around St Govan’s.

Human geography is used to analyse core-periphery problems, and the challenges of industrial decline and redevelopment.

An action-packed few days which will make a significant difference to the students’ understanding. Thanks to Mr Johnson, Mr Latus, Mr Gerretsen and Ms Bishop for giving up part of their holiday to make this happen.

The end of a big term for our eggcellent year 11s

The end of a long term is here for all of our students, and it has been particularly hard for our year 11s. As well as their second set of mocks, it’s been revision, revision, revision and they have risen to the challenge magnificently.

All teachers were given brightly coloured card eggs to give out to students who they feel have gone the ‘extra mile’ in the last week before we break up. Students visited the year office to swap their eggs for some chocolate ones. As you can imagine it has gone down a treat and was a lovely way for the year staff to congratulate students for having done so very well this term.

We know they will be revising hard over Easter, and many will take advantage of the full programme of revision classes laid on by staff over the coming fortnight. Thank-you to everyone for their efforts, and good luck to all!

Year 7 Easter Fair raises over £300 for Friends of Lindi

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Year 7s raised almost £300 for our chosen charity Friends of Lindi by holding an Easter Fair on April 2nd.

Each form had their own stall and these ranged from tombolas and raffles to sponge the teacher and hook a duck.

Steve and Sue Scorer, who founded and run the charity, were also on hand to tell students about the charity and to give them a go an pounding rice and carrying buckets of water on their head. Much fun, laughter and enthusiasm all round!

You can read more about Friends of Lindi here.

Year 9 and 10 French trip

Winners of the Puzzle

At French school with partners

French and English partners

Making croissants

PE lesson at French school

A group of 35 year 9 and 10 students visited Pas de Calais for a French language trip during the last week of March. Our visits included to an artisan chocolate maker, an old-fashioned sweet maker, a boulangerie (with a terrifying baker!) and a morning in a French school.

All visits and even the instructions at the hotel were conducted in French and we were were delighted by the students’ positive response to this challenge.

A last night disco and the chance to buy Mothers’ day presents at the market on our way home rounded off the trip nicely. Félicitations à tous!

Sackville welcomes Sophie Bray to present our annual sports awards

Wednesday 27 March was a busy day for our PE department. It began with the year 7 interform, finishing three days of internal competition during which the students showed exemplary dedication.

In the evening was our showpiece Sports Presentation Evening where we celebrate the efforts and achievements of our sports and PE students. We were delighted to welcome Olympic gold medallist Sophie Bray MBE to make the presentations. Students were awarded for both efforts in lessons and for performances on the sports fields, with both individual and team achievements recognised.

Tim Cox presented the Matt Cox Memorial Award to Joe Sheridan – a very deserving recipient. Tim talked of how sport allows you to make lifelong friends, and that we should cherish the social side as well as the competitive.

The award for the ‘sports personality of the year’ went to James Young, an equally deserving choice. James has represented the school at pretty much every sport over his five years at Sackville, and would play tiddlywinks for us if we had a team.

In her speech, Sophie Bray talked of her journey to the top, and how important it is to have personal goals. That’s a message our young sportspeople have all taken to heart!

Alex Baranowski visits year 10 musicians

Our year 10 musicians were extremely fortunate to be visited by Alex Baranowski on March 26th. Alex came in to the music BTEC lesson to share his experiences of working as a composer.

The students were enthralled as he discussed the ins and outs of working on Broadway, the West End and the film industry.

He is currently composing the music for the new Christmas Carol film due for release later this year which the students await with great anticipation. He also arranged the theme tune for the BBC’s 2018 World Cup coverage.

Many thanks Alex for coming in to inspire our young musicians.

You can find out more about Alex’s projects here.

Sackville honours the victims of the mosque attack in New Zealand

Sackville students held one minute’s silence on Friday 22^nd March to honour the victims of the terrorist attack in Christchurch. The silence was organised by the school Head Team, who emailed every student with the following message:

At the end of period 2 on Friday (22/03/19), there will be an organised minute of silence to remember those who lost their lives in the recent shootings that took place in New Zealand. This minute of silence has been organised by us, the Head Team, and will fall exactly a week after the horrific attack. If you aren’t already aware of what happened, two mosques were attacked in New Zealand by an armed gunman in what can only be described as an act of terror. 50 Muslim men, women and children were murdered in cold blood within a 17 minute period at their place of worship.

We feel that this tragedy is of equal significance to previous terrorist attacks, for instance the Manchester and Paris attacks, and so would like to set a marker as a school that such senseless killings are NOT justifiable. In such controversial times, we believe it is important to take a minute to reflect and recognise the awful, discriminatory violence that is happening around the world.