Our First Year

by Vashti Turner  on July 21, 2015  in  Academy News Creativity Drama House Competitions Performance and Creative Arts

On Friday 17th of July KAA celebrated the final day of our founding year at the End of Year assembly. Staff and students were joined by Creates entrepreneurs, parents and governors to celebrate the achievements of our students this year.

The assembly began with an energetic performance by a group of students who recently came second at Dance Showdown, run by EPIC. We look forward to the dance troupe competing in a lot more competitions next year.

Mr Benson then announced the students that have earned the most commendations, silver, gold and Intrepidus merits this half term. Special mention must go to Miles Constable for earning the most commendations across the entire year – he collected an incredible 91 Commendations and earnt over 2000 House Points for Honeyball!

The next section of the assembly saw Suad, Melos, Charlie G and Parmida talk about our first year at KAA. They gave very full and inspiring reflections on our founding year, talking about the transition from primary to secondary school, House Competitions, the Kingswood Residential trip, and the school production.

The House Captains & Vice-Captains were then announced and presented with their badges. These are the highest positions available in the student leadership structure. Students applied to their Head of House for the role in the last week of term – the successful students will lead Year 7 and 8 in the house competitions next year, help coordinate events, and supervise family dining seating arrangements. They will set an example by showing creativity, citizenship, excellence and resilience each and every day, and of course these students will live Intrepidus in everything they do.

Governors of the school presented the awards for half colours and full school colours in Sports and Performing & Creative Arts. The ‘Most INTREPIDUS Reader’ award (and 100 additional House Points) was given to Daniel Velosa, for improving his reading age by 44 months in 10 months by regular reading and curiosity in the face of new vocabulary.

Academic Excellence awards (earning an extra 150 House Points) were presented to pupils who gained the highest mark in each subject this term, with a number of students achieving 100% in their end of year exams. Academic Resilience awards were presented (with 150 House Points) to pupils that increased their assessment results by the largest margin.

There was one award at this special end of year assembly that stands above all other awards. It is presented annually to just 2 students. The INTREPIDUS badges were awarded to Yusra Mrimou for her excellent attitude and multitude of achievements this year, and Yahya Hashim for being involved in Trailblazers, House Competitions, assemblies and every activity offered to him.

The newly appointed Pankhurst Captain and Vice-Captain were presented with the Sports Day trophy by Carol Aldridge, following Pankhurst’s win on Monday 13th July at the Linford Christie stadium.

There was an air of excitement as Mr Benson began the build up to the announcement of the first ever KAA House Cup. With Mr Daley’s drum roll it was revealed that Pankhurst were the 2014-2015 House Cup Champions with 49,180 House Points. The celebrations from Pankhurst really show how our House System has taken off in our first year.

Mr Kavanagh’s video summary of the year brought laughs, cheers and applause, set to the KAA song ‘Sing.’ We ended the assembly with a live rendition of the school song performed by the choir and entire school.

Our founding year has been a wonderful and exciting journey. Thank you to all students, parents, governors and staff members for contributing to such a fantastic first year at KAA.