The Arts & Sport Learning Village is led by Miss Zoe Baines (Assistant Principal) who is responsible for the over support and academic progress of up to 240 students in the learning village, ranging from year 8 to 13. Each Learning Village has two strands: pastoral and learning.

The pastoral strand is led by Ms Amanda Henson the Learning Village Leader. Ms Henson oversees the pastoral support for all of the students in the vertical tutor groups and is ably supported by the team of tutors.

The learning strand is led by Mr Christoper Deller the Director of Learning who oversees learning and academic progress of all students undertaking Sport, Art, Music, Media and Drama.

Calling all Arts and Sports students!

We want students who are confident, who have a good work ethic, who are enthusiastic and who are responsible to become our first Arts and Sports Student Champions!

The Role of a Champion:

• The responsibility to represent that subject in whole school events and external events;
• To lead subject-focused projects;
• To be an outstanding role model to other students both in our school and feeder schools.

The Benefits:

• Additional responsibility to have on your record;
• To develop as a individual leader in a chosen subject area;
• Rewarded for hard work with a Champions trip every term.

If you think you have what it takes to become one of our Arts and Sports Champions then speak to Miss Greenacre!

Art Project: Liaison and Community

Students from each year group have created compositions that represent Bedford Academy, the local community, their hopes and their aspirations.

Students experimented with a variety of media and compositional ideas; the designs were then translated into four jigsaw puzzle pieces representing the various elements of the community working together to build a complete picture.

Year 12 visit Bedford Modern Exhibition

Year 12 Art and Design students visited Bedford Modern School on 22nd September 2011 to see the Hannah Birkett exhibition and explore her work. Students then evaluated several pieces of her work, which they later expanded upon in class and used to help inspire their own final outcomes of natural form. Bedford Mordern School's Head of Art kindly showed students around some of the fantastic permanent collection of art on display.

Culture Day

Academy Drama students, along with students from Harrowden and Abbey Middle Schools, were excited to take part in an African Drama workshop for the recent Cultural day.

Weeks beforehand Aaron Garlick, Connor Winter, Joseph Turton, Nahid Hussain, Reese Lauden and Betsy Witney had all made a sustained effort rehearsing and perfecting their roles as members of an African Tribe. The students had been working towards delivering a complicated and dramatic ‘story-based’ workshop on African Tribes; the result was a sophisticated exploration of the variety of ways in which people communicate with each other.

Connor Winter brilliantly lead the workshop ‘in role’ as the chief member of the Masai tribe; he welcomed his tribe (Abbey and Harrowden students) in a tribal meeting, delivering the critical news that the river was poisoned and the urgency of communicating this to another tribe downriver. A major difficulty, and the crux of the story, being the other tribe spoke a different language! How would they communicate this critical message?

Both workshops were vibrant and colourful, with African drumming, wooden sticks used as props, masks and other material; the students all used the props creatively to communicate the message of the poisoned river and confidently delivered a commendable performance. Well done to all involved!

BBC Studio and Imax Cinema - Media Excursion 27th June 2011

On Monday 27th June Media Teacher, Miss Greenacre, took the year 10 and 12 Media students on a trip to London to the BBC Television Centre and the BFI IMAX Theatre to develop their knowledge of the television and film industry.

At the BBC centre, the students took an exclusive look into the BBC newsroom, saw some of the famous studios where programmes (such as Strictly Come Dancing and The Weakest Link) are filmed and took part in making their own television programme in the interactive studio; Thahmid Waez and Ashley Callender proving themselves to be particularly keen and confident news readers! Most students, however, took delight in weather forecasting on the green screen and getting a sneak peek into the celebrity dressing rooms, where stars such as Jennifer Lopez had only just used months before!

The tour was not only entertaining and informative, but also enabled students to broaden their knowledge and understanding of how television studios actually work on a daily basis. Mr Philippou and his group even managed to bump into a few famous faces along the way!

At the BFI IMAX Theatre, students experienced a screen more than twenty metres high (nearly the height of five double-decker buses) and twenty-siz metres wide. With 11,600-watts of digital surround-sound and the most sophisticated motion-picture projection system in the world, the media students saw the new Pirates of the Carribean film on the largest 3D cinema screen in the UK! All students seemed to enjoy themselves and are already asking what is in store for next year's Media trip - watch this space!

BBC School News Report 2012

Academy students made the news for real on 15th March with help from Stuart Pinfold of BBC World News, Miss Bye and Miss Greenacre. Thousands of schools across the UK took part in the BBC News School Report, a BBC project to engage young people in the news, but only a select few received a BBC employee to work with them.

Over the past few months, ‘Media Production and Journalism’ enrichment students in Years 9-13 have been working hard training to be top journalists, carrying out interviews and producing reports. Our new skills were then utilised on BBC News School Report day when we had to find, film and edit news stories to create a news broadcast for real.

Everyone involved has worked incredibly hard on the project, following the strict codes that govern all news reporting, and developed some great news stories for broadcast! Watch our news broadcast here: http://bedfordacademy.co.uk/bbc-school-report

Congratulations to William Dilling, Kieran Sleap, Luke Sims, Kyle Bonson, Frazer Cain, Hannah Robins, Sean Whiting, Aaron Garlic, Hannah Robins, Aaron Ghera, Ankush Sharma, Nesim Dida, Sultana Ali, Fatheha Khatun, Furjana Rahman, Nafia Kauser, Fozia Kauser, Lauren Wheatley and Aminoor Islam who all received a BBC Certificate in acknowledgment of their hard work.

Festival of Culture Day

Groups of excited Middle School students arrived at the academy bursting with excitement about taking part in the Festival of Culture day; immediately the Drama Studio was alive with musical activity, including African Drumming, Dol Drumming and a Vocal workshop. There appeared to be some competition between the African and Dol drummers as to who could make the most noise! Many thanks to Malcolm Smith and Mr Massie for their expert direction.

Students also took part in a vocal workshop, led by our vocal coach Aga Serguo-Lugo, where they performed a wide range of songs from varied musical traditions. The energy in the room was contagious and staff could not resist singing along too! We look forward to welcoming the Middle School students back in September 2011!

Easter Showcase

A very special evening was had by all in our showcase collaboration with our sponsors and feeder schools; definitely one to remember! The programme featured a diverse mix of music from different cultures and genres; thank you to all the guest groups, Abbey Middle School Choir, Chorus 229, Bedford College Rock Band and Bedford Modern School Big Band, who participated.

A wide variety of Enrichment activities on offer at the academy have enabled Performing Arts to flourish. The Showcase included five groups from Bedford Academy: Dol Drummers, African Drummers, The Academy Singers, Image dance group and our in-house Rock band, The Revolutions. Image dance group, with guest vocal soloist Terrisha Harrigan O’Connor, are positively thriving; ‘Kissing You’was an inspired performance and a fine example of the success that pupils at the academy are achieving.

Please keep an eye on the Website for details of our Summer Musical Disco Inferno!

MK Dons Trip – 27th March 2012

On a very cold evening in March the PE department ran a trip to see the MK Dons play the mighty Carlisle at Stadium:MK. A group of twenty students from years 9-11 came along to witness what was a fairly timid game in the first half – with both promotion rivals approaching the match in a very cagey fashion! In the second half the game came alive with a couple of penalties and a last gasp winner that sealed the Dons fate.

Carlisle ran out of winners 2-1 on the night, but a good evening and a great experience for the Academy faithful nevertheless. The Academy students were even mentioned in the programme! We hope to run another trip to the Dons at the start of next season and hope to see the Dons be promoted this summer.

Sports Relief Week 2012

From 19th to 23rd March 2012, Sports Relief took over at Bedford Academy with students and staff raising money for a fantastic cause. Inspiration came from John Bishop’s Triathlon and David Walliams’ Thames Swim. Back at the Academy various events took place throughout the week to raise as much money as possible. Every student ran the Sports Relief Mile in their PE lesson, followed by exciting and ultra-competitive Dodgeball tournaments.

After school a fun-packed week of Staff vs Student competitions, including Disco Badminton, Table Tennis, Cricket, Volleyball and Dodgeball, saw a wealth of awards and medals given out to the students and staff that excelled in the activities! Well done to Mr Ubhi and Miss Longridge for the highest attendance, Hareece Dadhria for outstanding and unbeatable Badminton, Mrs Henson for best comedy moment (spending most of Disco Badminton on the floor) and Suraj Singh for unbelievable dance moves.

The week was topped off on Friday lunchtime by an outstanding cake sale in the quad, where all the Arts and Sports teachers had a bake off to see who’s cakes were ‘exceedingly good’. All in all a great week – the final total raised was a respectful £311! Well done and thank you to all staff and students who took part!

Former BMX World Champion Visit

Bedford Academy students were lucky enough to receive a visit from former BMX World Champion, Mike Mullen, on Wednesday 6th April 2011 as part of the Sky Living for Sport program.

The initiative aims to use sport to motivate and inspire 11-16 year olds whilst also improving self-confidence and self-esteem. As part of the project, Athlete Mentor Mike Mullen visited the academy to coach fifteen female students in BMX discipline and highlight the rewards and challenges of being an athlete.

Mike Mullen began riding BMX bikes when he was eleven years old and became BMX World Masterclass Champion in 1998 after winning the Halfpipe category at the BMX Freestyle World in Portugal. Having both won two World Champion titles and also suffered the physical and psychological drawback of injuries, Mike feels that he has learnt ‘the six keys to success’, which incorporates valuable skills and positive ways of thinking, that he can mentor students in through sport so that they may transfer these into normal life.

All fifteen students enjoyed their day with Mike, which involved classroom activity, practical BMX coaching, a progress review, question and answer sessions and goal setting.

See the video:

Academy student wins an award as a result of Mike Mullen Visit

Congratulations to Nahida Begum who collected an award for the Sky Sports Living for Sport East Region Student of the Year at Wembley Stadium from former Olympic Gold Medalist Darren Campbell. To watch the video of Nahida collecting her award, please follow this link: http://livingforsport.skysports.com/whats-our-goal/case-studies/nahida-begum-east-england-regional-finalist

Paralympic Gold-medalist Visit

Bedford Academy students secured yet another visit by a world athlete on Tuesday 10th May 2011. The academy was awarded the visit by Tim Prendergast, a Paralympic three-time gold medalist, for loyalty to the Youth Sports Trust program.

The program aims to build brighter futures for young people through physical education and sport and inspire all youths, regardless of their age or ability. As an ambassador, Tim Prendergast visited the academy to work with the academy’s Sports Leaders to maximize their potential and encourage them to succeed in their future sporting careers.

Tim Pendergast, who began to lose his vision when he was eight years old and lost over 95% of his vision by the age of thirteen, overcame the troubles of his new impairment to continue his passion for running. Tim persevered despite numerous failed junior races to become a three-time gold medalist through wins in the 800 metre race at the Athens Paralympic Games in 2004, the IPC World Indoor Champs in 2006 and in the World Blind Games in 2007. Tim now has his sights set on winning Gold in the 1500 metre event at the London 2012 Paralympics.

Tim shared practical advice and training wisdom with the academy students, including his best piece of advice, ‘limits are in the mind of those that set them’ and life motto, ‘make your dreams more than a vision’.

District Athletics

Year 9 and 10 athletes have made the academy proud through their excellent athletic performance in the local Athletics League. Every Wednesday, students have been travelling to Sandy Upper School to compete in the League against other local schools in both track and field events ahead of the District Athletics Day at Bedford International Athletics Stadium at the end of this month.

Notable performances were made by Eden Washington, who came third in the 100m race, Ben Gay, who came second in the 100m race and Justin Nwogu who came second in the Long Jump. Congratulations go out to Lequan Wilson for coming first in the Long Jump and Kaiya Glynn for coming first at Discuss.

 See the video here: District Athletics Video

Big Rock Visit

The Academy was lucky enough to receive a visit by the Big Rock climbing centre on Tuesday 11th October 2011, who brought their mobile climbing wall to the site. 6th Form students and Year 10 BTEC Sport students were able to learn climbing skills and also race one another up the seven meter wall! Once at the top, students pressed a button to set off a horn to show who had got to the top first. It was a fantiastic morning, which students and staff enjoyed thoroughly.

Following the success of Bedford Academy’s Sports Leaders at Biddenham's Sports Festival last term, our Sports Leaders have now secured the opportunity to attend a Sports Leaders Conference at Bedford High School where they can further develop their personal leadership skills and qualities. The event is for young people aged 14 years old or above who have shown a desire to participate in leadership or volunteering activities within their school or community.

Our students will be awarded a 'Young Leaders Award' of their choice, enjoy an inspirational talk from an athletic role model and experience an introduction to 'Safeguarding children' and 'Working with disabled children'.

The Sports Leaders of Bedford Academy are a great bunch of hard working, committed and reliable students. Their efforts will go a long way to developing lifelong skills and qualities employers look for in job candidates. They have so far been a credit to Bedford Academy, the local community and are great role models for other students to aspire to.