Mercury Write Up

This week at Clacton Coastal Academy we have had the great pleasure of welcoming the Mercury Theatre Residency into our Drama Studios. 30 students in Key Stage 3 have been selected from both sites to take part in this learning journey. Our students have the opportunity to explore and experiment with the play, ‘Grapes of Wrath’. They are working towards a performance that will be performed Friday afternoon. The three actors, Kelly, David and Tim have commented on how they are extremely pleased with the students and that they have exceeded their expectations. During the course of the week students have learnt about their individual skills through drama, games and exploration of the script and the themes within it. As a Performing Arts teacher myself I have really enjoyed watching our students grow and develop, the skills they are gaining will help then throughout their studies in all the Performing Arts disciplines.

“It’s been really fun, and I feel like I have gained a lot more confidence and the games are also really fun to do.”

Lauren Moon Year 7 Student

“The experience has been brilliant and we have learnt a lot of new skills and we have learnt to work together as a group”

Siobhan Bone Year 8 Student

“It has been a great chance to work with professional actors and to see what sort of job I could be doing in the future”

Matthew Sullivan Year 9 Student

This week has been a huge success; I am already looking forward to next year’s venture.

Caroline Partridge – Performing Arts Teacher Road Safety

CCA – CELEBRATION

Tuesday 8th June was a perfect summer day and a lovely time to celebrate the success of Health and Social Care students at the Coast Site who contributed to our community during April and May on Work Experience. Students had chosen placements working with children and the elderly so they could put into practice the principles they had studied on their BTEC course. Parents and employers gathered to celebrate their success, acknowledge their contribution, while Steve Miller, link Governor for Community Cohesion awarded Certificates.

Hannah Fountain, who helped at Shorefields School and Little Pals Nursery, said that the placements helped her decide her future career. Jade Gillick and Alison Stratford were grateful for all the support they received from staff at The Willow Tree Day Nursery. Cerys Somers enjoyed every minute of helping out at Family Support while Shannon Joslin learned about resilience and “creating a conversation” with clients.

Work Experience is one stepping stone that leads to a wider view of the community, career paths, and the future – and well worth celebrating.

Coastal Athletics Success

On Thursday 6th May the PE Departments from both campuses took our talented athletes to the annual Coastal Schools Athletics Tournament, at Colchester Garrison. The day was a real success, with the Academy coming 4th, just points away from the 3rd place spot. Every student who took part was a credit to the Academy and proved that hard work and perseverance does pay off, as overall we took 11 first place finishes along with many second and third places. There were also three Coastal Schools records broken by Coastal Academy students in the triple jump, discus and javelin, which was an amazing effort!

Achievements

Arts and Film Festival Success

This year saw the launch of our biggest Arts and Film Festival yet, with over 150 visitors flooding through the doors of the Academy to celebrate the work of our students.

Always a great event, this year did not disappoint with an excellent exhibition of GCSE and A Level Art and Photography work. Demonstrations were given by students in Drama and parents were able to watch rehearsals for our up and coming High School Musical performance.

This year, we were pleased to entertain guests with our fantastic music students, who played live sets in the lobby and within the Art block. This really added to the wonderful ‘festival’ atmosphere of the occasion.

The events then moved into the West Hall for the fashion show where students strutted their stuff wearing designs created by Textiles Club.

To finish the evening, a selection of twelve short films created by students were shown on the big screens and Oscar style awards were presented for best advert, best young animator, best animation and best short film.

The evening was a great success and guests were impressed by the high standard of work on show. Plans are already in place for next year’s festival which promises to be bigger and better! Well done to all students involved who were, as always, a credit to the Academy.