Latest News Stories from Brooke Weston Academy
Brooke Weston’s guitar teacher Mr Paul Balmer is searching for more students to become involved in his youth projects in music and creating podcasts and short films about Corby.
Congratulations to our amazing students who won awards at the Brooke Weston Trust Sports Award Evening.
Hania Mazur was named Brooke Weston Trust Leader of the Year in KS3, Sophia Shorrock was named SportsLeader of the Year in KS4, Annabel Thompson was named Sportswoman of the Year in KS3 and the Year 11 Futsal team was named as BWT Team of the Year for KS4. We also won Sports Festival for Year 7 and 9, U-14 Rugby and U-14 Cricket.
Congratulations to Sixth Former’s Andrei Kzan, Shehan Retnasingam and Keoni Southwick who were successful in coming first, second and third respectively in a chess tournament against Corby Business Academy.
Brooke Weston’s chess club hosted the tournament, which consisted of three rounds of classic chess, suicide chess and checkless chess with points awarded for a win loose or draw and averaged out from the amount of games that the students played.
Congratulations to Mrs Karen Hearne who has been appointed the Trust’s first Director of Science. Mrs Hearne is a very experienced teacher, having been at Brooke Weston Academy since it opened, and Head of Science for the past three years.
She is looking forward to working with colleagues from across our Trust secondary schools to improve outcomes for students, sharing ideas and best practice between departments. The new role is about building relationships and offering support where needed:
Congratulations to Year 7 students Matthew Russell, Anna Bredenkamp and Finlay Short who won prizes for their written book reviews on titles they chose from the Bookbuzz programme at Christmas.
After weeks of dancing, singing and acting rehearsals students put all nerves behind them to perform their first night of ‘Grease’ to a packed out Weston Theatre.
Students from all year groups auditioned for the show in January and have worked together acting, singing, and dancing and assisting back stage with directing, managing, choreography, and costumes.
Brooke Weston’s restaurant manager, Christine Gray, is retiring after 25 years in the role, having worked with thousands of our students over the years.
Christine started working at Brooke Weston as a general assistant in the restaurant and has seen a lot of changes in the school. ‘When I first began working here 25 years ago there were only 350 students, since then the restaurant has been extended, the library has been built and we have had a brand new extention for performing arts.
‘Brooke Weston has been really good to me during my time here. I left school when I was 15 and since working here I have completed my Level 3 NVQ management course and learnt how to use a computer, which terrified me at first! My role here is slightly different to other catering managers within the trust I do all the finance myself, which includes bacs runs, ensuring suppliers get paid, and reconciling the students lunch money. I used to do it all in books but now it’s done on the computer. I have a fabulous team of 18 who have all worked with me a long time, some of them 15-20 years and I will miss them all so much.
Five Sixth Form students from Brooke Weston will be taking part in a sponsored ‘Heart of London Bridges Walk’ in London on 9th July in aide of CRY (Cardiac Risk in the Young).
The walk is the 11th annual CRY ‘Heart of London Bridges Walk’ and offers the opportunity to show support for CRY, remember young people, raise funds and help raise awareness of young sudden cardiac death.
Brooke Weston’s careers adviser, Andy Primmett, is retiring after 20 years in the role, having worked with thousands of our students to help them form their career ideas.
'There have been major developments in the world of work during this time: a dramatic rise in self-employment, zero hours contracts, outsourcing, fixed-term contracts, off-shoring and a huge increase in university applications. Young people can also now consider the new Higher Apprenticeships which have been developed by leading employers, and these offer well-paid professional careers without incurring large debt.
The Year 10 and 12 girls netball team were invited to take part in a two day tournament at Condover Hall in Shropshire where the Year 12 team succeeded in winning the entire tournament.
Games lasted for 20 minutes, 10 minutes each way with a quick one minute turn around in between. Both teams only had seven players which meant they had no substitutes and played in the same league as each other due to other teams pulling out of the competition prior to the weekend.
Former student Sub Lieutenant Emma Turner returned to Brooke Weston to give a presentation about life in the Navy and advise students interested in a career in the Armed Forces.
Emma, who left Brooke Weston in 2015, talked about her experiences so far within the Royal Navy and the opportunities that are available within the the military. She said ‘I only decided to apply for the Navy at the last minute as I realised university wasn’t for me. The opportunities I could gain from joining the Navy were just too good to miss. I already have a degree in Management and Leadership after only one year and have also qualified as a ski instructor which the Navy paid me to do during my two-week annual Adventure Training. To join the Navy you need to be a logical thinker, a team player and a natural leader, someone that can take charge when things are going wrong. People in sports teams are often really good examples as they have been used to working as a team so think logically and tactically. I was always into sport when I was at Brooke Weston, which I think, stood me in good stead.
Year 7 girls have been working towards their Brooke Weston Leadership Level 1 Award during their PE lessons and have all been successful in completing the course.
The Leadership unit takes place over a three week period and is designed to help the girls understand sportsmanship, teamwork and fair play so that they can make friends with students they don’t normally work with. It also allows students who are not as physical to demonstrate their qualities in leadership.
Coomb Road , Great Oakley, Corby, Northamptonshire, NN18 8LA
01536 396366