News 2009 News 2008 News 2007 Staff Calendar School Forms
Youth Cabinet & UK Parliamentary Elections Time to start applying! Art students visit the Laing Gallery and the Hatton Gallery MP Visits School North East Teenage Book Award
Youth Cabinet & UK Parliamentary Elections
Young People at Astley had the opportunity to take part in the democratic process when election time came round for the Northumberland Youth Cabinet and UK Parliament. Seaton Valley Youth Service and Doxford Young People's Project joined forces to ensure students at Astley had a polling station available to them over the lunch period on Wednesday 10th February. Both organisations felt it was important that students from Astley had the opportunity to vote for candidates that could represent them at county and national level.
The candidates in the running were all supporting issues that were important to young people including addressing transport issues, more money for local youth projects, more youth centres and clubs, cheaper activities and entry fees for young people, more sports facilities, better advice about courses and careers, more school outings and lots more. Posters explaining each candidate manifesto points were displayed all over school to help pupils make a decision about who they would wanted in office.
The result was that over 140 young people across all year groups from Astley voted, which means they helped to get the people they wanted in to office. The results of the election were as follows...
Youth Cabinet and Youth Parliament Election Results
Thank You to all those who voted in the elections before half term.
The results are as follows...
The Following candidates were elected for the YOUTH PARLIAMENT of Northumberland
Nathan Van Doorn
Tom Brooks
The deputy(s) for the YOUTH PARLIAMENT are
Charlie Trotter
Bridget Donaldson
The following candidates were elected for the YOUTH CABINET in Northumberland
Bridget Donaldson
Sean Saville
Finola Fitzpatrick
Luke Robson
Bryony Porter-Collard
Calvin Willis
From February onwards Training Providers and employers begin the search for potential Apprentices to begin working with them in either summer or September. Connexions have been holding workshops on Wednesdays from 2pm until 3:15 (advertised through the bulletin and on their notice board outside the Connexions and Health Room) to support young people in applying for advertised apprenticeships as well as to complete CV’s to send out to prospective employers.
It’s important to begin your pursuit for an apprenticeship early as closing dates soon creep up, with some employers only opening a vacancy for 4 weeks as there is so much competition! You should also have a “back up” plan in case you are not successful this year.
Ensure you have a good CV as this will be useful for apprenticeships and both full time and part time jobs.
Remember to check out the bulletin for information on forthcoming workshops held by Connexions as well as checking out their notice board for new apprenticeships. This list is not exhaustive, you need to research yourself, use the internet and check the local jobs pages (Evening Chronicle-Thursdays)
Start applying now, before it’s too late!
Lindsey Taggart
Connexions
Art students visit the Laing Gallery and the Hatton Gallery
On 9 February, a group of Year 11 Art students went to Newcastle to the Laing Gallery and the Hatton Gallery. They were hoping to boost their grades in their final examination preparation by accessing primary sources, looking at original artworks. They studied symbolism and the composition of paintings. They saw a variety of types of art - from the very traditional to the very contemporary and gained many creative ideas for making their own art.
As usual on trips out, Astley pupils were a credit to the school and hopefully they will see the rewards of their learning when they receive their Art GCSE certificates in August.
Mrs Rayner
 |
|
MP Visits School
On February 8th 2010 Ronnie Campbell, MP for Blyth Valley, met with the Youth Intelligence Campaign Team at Astley Community High School. The MP visited the school to give support to the Campaign Team and to help them to address local issues.
Mr Campbell discussed his life as an MP and his background in local and national campaigning. The students took the opportunity to ask searching questions and found the afternoon and an extremely positive event.
North East Teenage Book Award
Reading for this year’s North East Teenage Book Award took place between September and January. The six short-listed books were Guantanamo Boy (Anna Perera); Life Interrupted (Damian Kelleher); Blood Ties (Sophie McKenzie); Newes from the Dead (Mary Hopkins); Bang, Bang, You’re Dead (Narinder Dhami); and The Carbon Diaries 2015 (Saci Lloyd)
Students from Astley took part and met every Thursday to discuss the novels on the shortlist: Hayden Brown, Ashleigh Woolf , Matthew Dean, Nigel Douglass, Maddy Dalziel, Derie Harkins, Brooke Sheret from Year Nine and James Railston, Neil Stafford, Courtney Black and John Paul Dickie from Year Ten. Mr Knight was an honorary member of the judging panel.
The group were rewarded with book vouchers and, joining over 300 students from other schools, invited to the prize-giving ceremony at the Centre for Life on 29th January.
By the way, the winning book was Blood Ties.