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Welcome to the Spring newsletter of United Learning’s Portsmouth North Cluster. A lot has happened over the past 4 months both at Castle View Academy and our Primary schools and we hope this newsletter gives you a glimpse of some of the fantastic events which highlight all the hard work and dedication from our students and staff.

As always, there are lots more to our schools than captured in this newsletter, so we invite you to continue visiting the schools’ websites and follow us on social media for all the latest news and events happening in our schools.

It was a great honour today, to welcome back four ex KRS students to the academy. They enjoyed a tour of the new building as well as getting a chance to reminisce of their time at school with CVA staff and students.

'Fantastic experience to see how the new academy has grown' David Grant

Photo - Ex students from left to right: Bob Jeffries, Sid Rapson, Peter Littlefield, David Grant with a group of our year 9 students

Thanks to IOPLSE for the amazing Physics Roadshow delivered to our year 5 feeder school pupils, there was a definite feeling of awe and excitement in the CVA theatre this morning.

On Wednesday 13th March, a number of Year 9 Castle View Academy students took part in Portsmouth Music Hub's 'Soundsational' music concert at the Portsmouth Guildhall. Featuring performances from schools across the city, as well as the Music Hub's own Rock bands, CV students performed superbly on the prestigious Guildhall stage, and received glowing feedback from the events organisers. Students performed 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', 'Teenage Kicks' and 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams,'

Over half term, 56 students from Castle View Academy participated in an engaging and inspiring series of seminars and workshops in Disneyland Paris.

During the four day trip, the students learnt first-hand how Disney’s spectacular shows and parades are put together.  In a dance and drama workshop, they worked with casting directors and choreographers to recreate the ‘Love is an Open Door’ scene from Disneyland’s production of ‘Frozen Live’.

The trip was also an opportunity to bring other areas of the curriculum to life.  For example, the students learnt about the engineering and science behind some of the park’s ground-breaking rides.  They learnt how Galileo and Newton’s principles influenced roller-coaster design and looked at G forces, animatronics and potential and kinetic energy.  During this fascinating workshop, the students designed their own roller-coaster.

In a creative writing workshop, the students explored fairy tales and were tasked with writing a traditional tale from the perspective of another character.

Miss Nutland, who accompanied the students, said:

“What a fantastic trip!  The students learnt so much and were exposed to so many different experiences.  Throughout the trip, they were constantly amazed by what they were seeing and there was always someone saying ‘Wow’!

“This trip was so much more than a visit to a theme park; the students really got to grips with the physics and engineering behind the rides and their twisted fairytales were superb.

“As part of our commitment to deliver an Education with Character, we constantly seek to give our students an education which excites, challenges and interests them and this trip did not disappoint!”

TIME AND TIDE – Festival of the Sea

At the beginning of March, CVA Dance students took part in an emotional site-specific performance as part of Portsmouth’s Festival of the Sea festival which saw live and digital performances exploring our relationship with the waters that surround us.

Back in June 2018, Miss Nutland, Head of Dance, was contacted by Liz Weston from the New Theatre Royal in Portsmouth with a proposal for a site-specific performance at the Square Tower in Southsea. After several months of discussions and different ideas being proposed, the final theme that was decided on was The Sea, a performance involving our Year 9 dance students along with a number of elders from the NTR.

With the theme set, our Year 9 students came up with an idea to base a performance around the sadness of saying goodbye to loved ones who are leaving to go out to sea and, in contrast, the excitement of (hopefully) welcoming them home again.

Students wrote post cards to loved ones who they imaged had gone away which were then transformed into solo dance pieces. Several months and many rehearsals later, they had a piece which not only explored their postcard ideas but began the story of the whole production. The girls worked tirelessly throughout the project and were able to collaborate and work with a number of the NTR players who came in to our rehearsals on a number of occasions. The end result was simply stunning. The girls performed with passion and a clear sense of storytelling and emotion. Several audience members were left in tears during the performance and commented on how professional the girls were throughout the entire production.

Liz Weston, Director of Time and Tide said, “I am writing to you to say how much the New Theatre Royal Dancers and Players enjoyed working with you and your dance students on "Time and Tide". I have had a great deal of positive feedback from audience members saying how impressed they were with  the high standard of your students' performance and how well it worked within the overall performance. The girls worked very hard to create and perfect the piece and I was impressed seeing their commitment to the whole performance.  Their interpretation of the theme was sensitive, beautiful and moving.  Their behaviour during rehearsals and the actual performances was excellent - they were, indeed, great ambassadors for Castle View Academy!”

Yesterday Year 10 students welcomed University of Portsmouth along with PFC midfielder Bryn Morris, commercial director Anna Mitchell and marketing manager Shaun Whitmarsh in to give a motivational talk about their chosen career paths.

Fantastic favela's of all shapes and sizes have been coming in thick and fast over the past week. Year 7, 8 & 9 Art students were set a homework project to produce their own favela based on the slums of Rio. For inspiration students looked at artist Tracey Snelling and her one thousand shacks installation.