The Aylesbury Vale Academy - Success Beyond Belief

SKYITL climb mT sNOWDON for charity

Report by Gareth Whyley, Year 12.

On Friday June 18th 2010 SKYITL left the Aylesbury Vale Academy grounds at 1pm to travel all the way to North Wales to do climb Mount Snowdon Saturday morning. Very little faith was taken into account on Mr.Webb’s behalf as just after leaving the school turning right he asked how do we get to the Bicester Road from here.

Anyway 6 and a half hours later we had finally made it to Wales near to the accommodation where we was staying, but before turning in for the night thought paid one of the local pub’s a visit to watch England play. With a rather depressing result we then went and turned in where we would sleep for the night. Before going to bed though we had a team meeting discussing how everything would run in the morning and packing our bags ready to take up with us.

The next morning with the early wake up call at 4:30am we got up had something to eat before packing the school bus and turning up to the bottom of Snowdon bright and early at 6am.

We set off to climb Snowdon at 6:05am where it took us just over 3 hours to get to the summit of Snowdon with 10-15 minute breaks every 45 minutes. The climb was fantastic and the views was just something none of us have experienced before, cameras where going off all the times taking pictures of the great environment Snowdon had to offer. As we got to the dying hour of getting to the top that’s when it really did start getting tougher, having to make sure that we place our footing in the right places as it go narrower, but when we could see what was the café at the top of the mountain which motivate us to push that last bit to pull ourselves up and to stand at the top of the summit, where congratulations where passed round with photos once again being taken.

We maybe at the top but now it was time for the epic journey back down again, 15 minutes after we started walking back down all cloud level had gone and the view from the top would have been magnificent. However we carried on walking back down to the mountain until we got to a curtain point and then myself, James, Mathew, Kelly & Andy then decided that we would run back down and meet the others down the bottom, at a point though we departed with Kelly leaving her with the others as she decided to want to walk again. Everyone then caught back up with us all meeting down by the school mini bus again at around 11:30am before everyone getting changed then heading back home.

Overall the experience of climbing Mount Snowdon has been fantastic, we’ve never done anything so great and even more so for charity with all the money that we raised going to The Thomas Ball Children’s Cancer Fund. Also already there are now talks about doing the 3 peaks some time soon.

sNOWDONIA CHARITY CHALLENGE success

GRUELLING CHALLENGE RAISES OVER £2000 FOR REGAIN

Four members of staff including Mr Poland, Mr Bacon, Miss Hennessey and our very own Principal Mr Johnson successfully completed the Snowdonia Charity Challenge on Saturday 12th June.

The team took 9 hours and 45 minutes to complete the gruelling course which included cyclying for 40 miles, climbing Mt Snowdon and canoeing across Lake Gwynant.

Many weeks were spent in training, preparing for this enormous physical challenge. On the day their courage, discipline and commitment were outstanding.

The team have raised over £2000 for REGAIN, an organisation dedicated to supporting men and women who become tetraplegic (severely paralysed) as the result of a sporting accident.

Video footage of the challenge can be found here.

SKYITL WIN COMMUNITY AWARD

Congratulations to SKYITL who have won the community award at the Town Mayor’s presentation, on Friday 30th April. The cohort were awarded a certificate and a trophy in addition to £100, which they will be donating to the Thomas Ball Children's Cancer Charity. Excellent work team!

further success for 'funky teds'

On Thursday, 29th April, a presentation and award ceremony for Young Enterprise was held at Aylesbury College, where participating students delivered a 4 minute presentation.

The Academy's Young Enterprise team, Funky Ted's, picked up the following awards:

• Best Marketing Campaign 2010 – Ben Bird
• Customer Service Award Winner
• Runner Up Trade Stand Award (for Spring Trade Fair)
• Overall Runner Up Spring Fair
• Overall Runner Up for Presentation Evening
• Our Business Advisors were awarded for Best Business Advisor Support

Marketing Award Runners-up - Bucks & Milton Keynes Strategic Board Finals

Out of 54 Young Enterprise companies in Bucks, Funky Teds were among the last 8 and went forward to the Bucks and Milton Keynes Strategic Board Finals on Friday, 7th May 2010 where they were awarded runners-up for the Marketing Award - what a fantastic achievement!

Funky Teds are the first Young Enterprise group from the Academy and its pre-decessor Quarrendon School, to ever reach these finals. Congratulations to Andy, Taffy, Ben, Hannah, Kerry, Katie and Maxine and a huge thank you to Liz Perrin for the time, support and encouragement she continues to provide for the group.

London Marathon Run for Parkinsons

Jan Fitchett, Performance Manager at Aylesbury Vale Academy, is running in the London Marathon on 25th April 2010 in order to raise funds for Parkinson’s Disease Society. Parkinson's is a progressive neurological condition affecting movements such as walking, talking, and writing. In the UK one in 500 people, around 120,000 individuals, have Parkinson's. About 10,000 people in the UK are diagnosed each year. Symptoms first appear, on average, when a patient is older than 50. One in 20 of those diagnosed each year will be aged under 40.

Ray, Jan’s husband, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2007 at a relatively young 57. It had been his intention to run in the Marathon but Parkinson’s together with a hip replacement proved to be a step too far and having started out as Ray’s training partner (never having run before) Jan took up the challenge to run in his place and continue to raise money for a cause very close to their hearts.

It has been incredibly hard training; the picture on the left was taken during the Silverstone Half Marathon-obviously early on in the race as Jan is still smiling! She completed the 13.1 miles in 2 hours 35 minutes and is continuing building up the miles to complete the 26.2 miles on 25th April.

If you can spare any money to this worthwhile cause please visit our fundraising page www.justgiving.com/rayfitchett or put your name down on the Sponsorship Form behind main reception.

Thankyou for your support.

CONGRATULATIONS "FUNKY TEDS"

success at spring trade fair 2010

Our Young Enterprise company “Funky Teds” attended the Spring Trade Fair 2010 on Saturday, 06 March competing against other Buckinghamshire schools. They had a very successful day of trading and were awarded with the following:

• Joint Winners for Customer Service (2nd time they have won this award)
• Runner-up for Best Stand
• Overall Runner-up

Some excellent comments received from the judges included:

“Very knowledgeable about product. On top of financials – excellent website for product company/ordering options”.

“Good attitude and professional, friendly but proactive and focussed”.

“Only team to show conditions for VAT change”.

“Great stand and products, bright and attractive”.

“Nice bright stand. Matching tops on students good.”

Funky Teds now have to prepare for their presentation to Young Enterprise on 29 April 2010 which hopefully will see them through to the Regionals.

Check out Funky Teds merchandise here

Academy Links up with West Bengalese School

Strong Partnership Formed between Aylesbury Vale Academy and School in West Bengal

In November our Vice Principal, Ms Froment and Director of Specialism, Ms McManus, travelled to West Bengal to work in a school for a week to begin a partnership, organised through the Youth Sports Trust, in conjunction with the British Council in Kolkata. The main focus of the visit was around developing sport and cultural activities between the two schools, as part of the "International Inspiration" programme (a British Council initiative).

Nimpith Ramkrishna Ashram, a boarding school for underprivileged boys, gave an exceptionally warm welcome and introduced the visitors to their culture, school and local community through a variety of displays, trips and engagements. Ms McManus and Mrs Froment taught the host students how to play rugby, rounders and also delivered some English lessons. To see a video of the trip click here.

A return trip to The Academy was hosted in February which welcomed Head Teacher, Panchu Chowdhury and PE Teacher, Dhananjoy Sardar. In addition to spending time with students and staff observing lessons across the curriculum, the visitors experienced a taste of our own culture and heritage with a week long itinerary including a trip to London, a basketball game, ski slopes in Milton Keynes, a visit to the National Space Centre, Warwick Castle and even a trip to see Avatar, at the cinema, in 3D.

This fantastic partnership has led to a three year plan to further develop relationships between students via newsletters and email, help develop physical education in Nimpith Ramkrishna Ashram and provide students with a better understanding of the cultural differences between the two countries.

Next on the agenda is a return trip back to West Bengal for the Academy. From the 17th - 24th April, Ms McManus will be returning to the boarding school accompanied by PE Teacher Ms Gibbs. Ms McManus and Ms Gibbs have a busy week scheduled including further rugby and rounders activities for the students.

Student Appeal

Ms McManus would like to appeal for the donation of any lightweight sports tops (e.g. football shirts) and any old unwanted DVD's (good English only) to help the Bengalese students improve their English language skills. If you have any that you no longer require (and are appropriate) please bring them to reception before the Easter break.