Latest News

NCS are coming back to Harris

Wed 27 Mar 2019

NCS will visit Year 11s at lunchtime on 10th April to hand out t-shirts to those students who have signed up to the programme. Call 020 3510 5050 or visit ncsyes.co.uk to sign up and get your free t-shirt.

NCS is an experience designed to make you feel challenged and changed, engaged and empowered. The four-phase programme is just the beginning of an exciting journey that will give you all the confidence and skills you need to seize the future you want.

Adventure
Discovery
Social Action
Celebration

You’ve worked hard. After a busy year of coursework, revision and exams, NCS is the perfect way to kick back and try something completely different. At last you’re out of the classroom and into the great outdoors, discovering talents you never knew you had and making friends with some of the best people you’ll ever meet. Who knows, together you might even change the world a little bit while you’re there?

In 3-4 weeks achieve more than you ever imagined – all for only £50.

Harris students gain Bronze CREST Award

Fri 22 Mar 2019

Seventeen students became the first at Harris C of E Academy to be awarded with the Bronze Crest Award. Students worked in teams to design their own investigation into rocket, researching the subject and then culminating the project with setting off rockets and recording the findings. This gave them a taste of what it is like to be a scientist or engineer in the real-world. The process helped to develop enquiry, problem solving and communication skills.

CREST is a nationally recognised scheme for student-led work in the STEM subjects. Assessment and moderation is achieved via a network of industry experts from the STEM and education sectors.

Students sign up to Brilliant Club

Thu 21 Mar 2019

Students attend Business and Marketing Discovery Day at Coventry University

Fri 15 Mar 2019

On Wednesday 13th March 36 students from ThinkHigher schools, including Harris Academy attended Coventry University for a Business and Marketing Discovery Day led by Superimpose Studios. After an introduction and tour from the Faculty of Business, Ollie and Phil from Superimpose delivered a Marketing Masterclass. Focusing on case studies of their work with Adidas Originals, Stormzy and Childish Gambino. After hearing about the Superimpose approach, it was over to the students to plan, design and create their own campaign to promote ThinkHigher. The workshop culminated with each group presenting their campaign and receiving feedback from Marketing experts. The day was a real success with one student remarking “because of this trip I will reconsider my choices for the future but dream bigger!”

Herbs and Spices Masterclass

Wed 13 Mar 2019

Year 9 GCSE Food students enjoyed an exciting morning with Miss Scott from Chartwells. They experimented with different herbs and spices and used these to create their own rice and vegetable stir-fry dishes.

Another successful Careers and Apprenticeship Week at Harris CofE Academy

Thu 07 Mar 2019

For the 4^th year running, Harris C of E Academy took part in both National Careers Week and National Apprenticeships Week which took place from Monday, 4^th March to Friday, 8^th March 2019.

National Careers Week is “a celebration of careers guidance and free resources in education across the UK. The aim is to provide a focus for careers guidance activity at an important stage in the academic calendar to help support young people leaving education.”

National Apprenticeship Week is “coordinated by the National Apprenticeship Service and is designed to celebrate apprenticeships and the positive impact they have on individuals, businesses and the wider economy.”

So how did Harris participate in these two national events?

Selected Year 9 and Year 10 students attended a presentation with Heart of England Training {HOET} who talked about all of the courses they offer and apprenticeships.

Assembly for the whole of Year 10 with “The National Apprenticeship Service” to give a speech on what Apprenticeships are, where to find them and how to apply for them.

Careers Detective Workshops with the whole of Year 7, where the students had to ask questions and find out what job our visitors did. We had a number of visitors attending whose roles included an Archaeologist, Engineers, Occupational Health and Health and Safety to name a few.

Selected Year 10 and 11 students attended a presentation with the RAF.

Selected Year 8, Year 9 and Year 10 students attended a presentation with Rugby Town FC.

One of the main themes running through this years’ event was to tackle “stereotyping” in the workplace and to portray that both male and females can work in all industries and we shouldn’t make assumptions based on appearance or gender.

We also had career quotes of the day including;

“The future depends on what you do today.” {Mahatma Ghandi}

“Nothing is impossible, the word itself says 'I'm possible'!” {Audrey Hepburn}

“Find out what you like doing best and get someone to pay you for doing it.” {Katharine Whitehorn}

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” {Steve Jobs}

Tutor time activities also took place for all year groups over the week where different career based activities were designed to support the appropriate age groups.

Thank you to all of you who took part and we hope that our students got a lot of useful information and contacts from the week which could inspire and motivate them for their future careers.

Please remember, if you know of anyone who could support us with our future career events or if you yourself would like to be involved, please contact our Careers Advisor, Mrs O’Brien—obrien.a@harriscofeacademy.co.uk. We would love to hear from you!

Audacity performs in the musical Chess

Wed 06 Mar 2019

From 12th—16th February Rugby Operatic Society staged its production of Chess.

Written and devised by Tim Rice with music by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus from Abba, the show is a complex Cold War love story from the 1980s, set against a backdrop of political power struggles, hidden agendas and unrequited love between the players, their supporters and the political aspirations of the USA and USSR.

The music, which started out as a hit album before being incorporated into the musical, includes a number of hits from the mid-80s including I Know Him so Well by Elaine Paige and Barbara Dixon, and One Night in Bangkok by Murray Head.

A cast of over 70 performers – including 30 youngsters – came together under musical director David J King and director Rex Pogson.

The cast included singers from the Rugby Philharmonic, Rugby Male Voice and the Revel villager’s choirs, members of Leigh-Anne Campbell School of Dance, and Harris Academy vocal group Audacity.

Photography by Martin Pulley