The experience offered to students will be further enhanced by the news that Freebrough has been selected to be a Regional Hub for the prestigious Peter Jones Enterprise Academy.  A team of staff from Freebrough journeyed to Amersham, Buckinghamshire to pitch for the post 16 centre to become the regional hub for the Cleveland area.  As the regional hub we will recruit ‘spokes’ – pre and post 16 education providers in the Tees Valley who would like to deliver the PJEA qualifications, alongside offering the courses both pre and post 16 in the Academy

The Peter Jones Enterprise Academy offers an opportunity for aspiring entrepreneurs to realise and achieve their business dreams. Set-up by Peter Jones, CBE, star of ‘Dragons’ Den’, the Academy was the first to offer further education courses in enterprise and entrepreneurship in the UK where students are actually required to set up and run their own business. Whether students want to own their own business or work for someone else the BTEC Enterprise and Entrepreneurship qualifications offered through PJEA and Freebrough Academy will help them to succeed.

Construction work will begin on the post 16 centre building early this year.  The centre will have state of the art facilities with large and small flexible spaces which can be used for a number of purposes allowing creative teaching to take place.  The centre will also have up to date ICT facilities in all teaching and social areas.  There will be rooms specifically designed for the teaching of Business and Enterprise, Digital and Creative Media, Engineering and Performing Arts with the most up to date equipment and software available at Post 16, much of it industry standard.

Alongside the teaching areas we will have a dedicated business incubation unit where students can fulfil their dreams of running their own business.  The area will house several start-up businesses and mentoring and support will be available to ensure the businesses are given every opportunity to thrive.

At Freebrough Academy we aim to instil a ‘can do’ attitude in all of our students from the moment they step through our doors in year 7 allowing them to have the confidence and skills to excel in their chosen career. We are also working with our local primary feeder schools to start this journey at an even younger age.

Kelly Rich, Director of Post 16 Provision at Freebrough Academy said, “We are very excited about becoming a regional hub for the Peter Jones Enterprise Academy.  We feel these entrepreneurial qualifications are essential in ensuring our students have the skills to be able to deal with the ever changing world of work whether their career choice be employment or self-employment. We believe these qualifications will put our students ahead of the rest.

This is a fantastic opportunity for the communities in East Cleveland as well as the borough wide opportunities it presents.  In the current economic climate entrepreneurs are the people who will support the improvements in the economy needed to bring us out of recession.  Freebrough Academy is proud to have a key role to play in this within our region”.

A competition is currently running for one lucky Freebrough Academy student to have the honour of naming the new centre.  Students are currently putting forward their ideas.

The post 16 centre will also house a community cafe, which will be open to the public and will serve a range of refreshments and light snacks.

About the Peter Jones Enterprise Academy

The Peter Jones Enterprise Academy has a mission to train and motivate young people, unleash entrepreneurial talent and create opportunities for young people to realise their potential.

They are building a nationwide network of colleges and providers to transform attitudes to entrepreneurship and enterprise education.

The academies offer BTECs in Enterprise and Entrepreneurship in partnership with Edexcel; these are the first qualifications of their kind for 16-19 year olds in the UK.

The course structure is business-led and involves partnerships with a range of companies and entrepreneurs providing leadership and hands-on business experience.

The courses prepare students for an entrepreneurial career, whether they plan to set up their own business or to work in an entrepreneurial workplace, helping an established business to grow.

The Enterprise Academies offer a unique approach, focusing on learning by doing and supporting and encouraging students to realise their ambitions and to turn their own business dreams into reality.

The Peter Jones Enterprise Academy is supported by Everything Everywhere, Alpha Romeo and Grant Thornton.

The Department for Education has provided funding to enable Freebrough Academy to provide an Enterprise Centre to enhance their buildings and support plans to deliver post 16 education onsite from September 2012.

Carillion Construction has been appointed to carry out the works and they have now developed initial design proposals.

The Academy Principal, Mrs Halbert, and Projects team would therefore like to invite you to a drop in session to be held at Freebrough Academy, Linden Road, Brotton, on Wednesday 25January 2012 between 6.00 pm and 7.30 pm to find out more.

At this event you will have an opportunity to view the initial design drawings for the Centre, the teams involved in all the development will be at the event to answer any queries you may have.

We will be very pleased to see you at this event and you are welcome to come along at any time between 6.00 pm and 7.30 pm. However, if you can’t make that date but would like the opportunity to comment please give the team a call on 01642 524984.

All local residents are welcome – you do not have to be the parent of a child who attends the Academy

 We will be working directly with students to increase college attendance and attainment levels, reduce the number of exclusions and provide practical and emotional support to students to help them manage better within the Academy.

Edd Harford has recently been appointed as Behaviour & Support Manager for the off-site provision and he is working very closely with Heads of School, Pastoral Leaders and other staff in order to make a real difference to the lives of some of the more vulnerable students at the Academy.  The next few weeks are a very exciting time as Mr Harford and the team are currently setting up systems, ordering furniture and equipment, and working very hard to identify the students who will attend.

The site will fully operational after the February half term break and 2 members of staff will be working from the base with a small number of students at all times during the school day.

We will update everybody about our progress on a regular basis through the Freebrough Flyer and are very keen to develop positive and active links with the community of Brotton and across the whole of the East Cleveland area.

If you have any questions or comments about Sycamore Drive then please contact Mr Harford at harforde@freebroughacademy.org

Our youth club, friday@freebrough, has proved very popular since it’s launch in the autumn term.  Frequently attracting more than 100 students per session, the club is supported by representatives from outside agencies alongside Freebrough staff.

We are now seeking volunteers to deliver art and craft activities to groups of students who attend the club.  All volunteers will need to under go a CRB check but this will be free of charge.

If you think that you can help us to deliver this valuable provision please contact Michelle Bowmaker on 01287 676305 bowmakerm@freebroughacademy.org

 JJ is one of 24 mentors nationally who visit schools through Sky Sports Living for Sports.  He will be competing in the London 2012 Olympics and hopes to beat his personal best of 8.04 metres.

Whilst in the academy JJ spent his time delivering an assembly to students who attend after school sporting enrichment activities, those who are members of school sporting teams and those in years 10 and 11 who take PE or dance as an option.  His inspirational talk about his background, training and successes helped to motivate our students to ‘dare to dream’.

He also worked with a number of Gifted and Talented PE students to motivate and inspire them to reach their full potential.  Using the British Athlete Commission’s ‘Six Keys to Success’ he worked with the students to help them develop in the following areas: mental toughness, a hunger to achieve, people skills, sport/life knowledge, breaking barriers and planning for success.

Our Freebrough Heroes are students from years 9, 10 and 11 who have chosen to participate in the Heroes Journey; a leadership programme which helps them to develop personal, social, workplace and creative skills.  Throughout their journey the Heroes are encouraged to work with younger students in the academy and in our feeder schools in a role model capacity.  Humanutopia, the company helping us to deliver the Heroes Journey and other interventions are a people-first development company who encourage students to stop and reflect on their lives so far.

During the year 5 HU R U? session primary students were encouraged to think about how their actions affect others and about their hopes and dreams for the future. Humanutopia and the Freebrough Heroes will continue to work with our primary schools to develop positive relationships and to help primary students make the transition to the academy.

The event was attended by over 80 parents, staff and students with raffle prizes donated by local businesses and staff.  If you would like to donate a prize for the next raffle, please send it into the school office.

The club has been running for a number of months and students have been learning how to use special effects make-up to create gory injuries and other amazing effects. The club will be working on their first project this term which is to make a short film about burns victims . The film will identify the problems which burns victims face in society today and will be a sensitive yet educational film about their lives. This idea was inspired by the burns victim Katie Piper who was injured in an horrific acid attack.

Teams of 5 students were set the challenge to construct a robust yet attractive bridge using only a select range materials including; cardboard, drinking straws, newspaper and string.  The teams were given two hours to construct their bridge which had to have a span of 600mm with no central structures to support the span. Their bridge also had to be strong enough to support a 200g weight in the middle for over a minute.

Judges were looking for team work, organisation, creative ideas, accurate construction, strong and stable design and a bridge that was aesthetically pleasing.  Each team was supported by a year 10 Engineer from Freebrough Academy.

Every student who took part received a certificate and the teams in 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place were awarded gold, silver and bronze medals.

The winning teams were:

1^st – The New Brunels (Skelton Primary)

2^nd – Lingdale Legends (Lingdale Primary)

3^rd – The Fantastic Bridge Builders (St Peters C of E Primary)