Anti-Violence Campaigner's Visit

Talented mathematics students from The Avon Valley School and Performing Arts College have recently been presented with certificates following their participation in a national Maths Challenge.

Each year the UK Mathematics Trust, a registered charity whose aim is to advance the education of children and young people in mathematics, run a junior, intermediate and senior maths challenge for students across the United Kingdom. The challenged is entered by around 700,000 pupils each year and is the UK's biggest national maths competitions.

Students from The Avon Valley School were entered for the Intermediate Maths Challenge which is a 60-minute test that encourages mathematical reasoning, precision of thought, and fluency in using basic mathematical techniques to solve interesting problems. In total over 120 students from The Avon Valley School took part in the challenge, of those who took part one student received a gold certificate, nine students received a silver award and nineteen students received a bronze certificate.

Year 10 student Ola Krajewska who received Avon Valley’s only a gold certifcate. In addition Emelia Awang, Abdul-Hadi Baig, Nataniel Ulanicki, Connie Wallis, Charlotte Amer, Ruo Lin, Lily Melia, Eleanor Warren and Maciej Wisniewski all received a bronze certificate.

Maths teacher, Esther Quarmyne, who organised the challenge at Avon Valley School, said: “We were very pleased to receive 29 certificates and we’re really proud of all the students who took part in the challenge.”

Headteacher, Alison Davies, said “Once again it is good to see so many of our students getting involved in this opportunity. I am proud of everyone who took part and I am delighted to see so many students receiving a certificate.”

Students at The Avon Valley School and Performing Arts College recently heard first-hand about the impact knife crime and violence can have when they were visited by a high profile campaigner.

Award winning campaigner, Alison Cope, spent the morning at Avon Valley School and delivered her anti-violence presentation to all students in Years 8 to 10. In her presentation Alison explained the dangers of being associated with gangs and how young people can portray themselves negatively on social media.

Later in the presentation Alison shared the tragic story of her son, Joshua Ribera, an aspiring and rising grime artist, who was tragically murdered in 2013. This brought home the reality of knife crime to the students listening in the audience.

Since her son’s death Alison has campaigned on social media and has spoken to hundreds of thousands of young people and parents in memory of Josh, also known through his music as Depzman. In addition Alison has also launched the Joshua Ribera Achievement Awards, recognising young people who are not in mainstream education.

Alison’s Cope’s visit to The Avon Valley School was made possible through a project with Aspire in Arts and was funded by Warwickshire Police and Crime Commissioner. Alison was joined by youth workers and music mentors from Aspire in Arts who worked with a number of students in break-out sessions, during these sessions the students were told about opportunities to be involved in positive activities locally.

Headteacher, Alison Davies, said: “We are very grateful to Alison for visiting our school and speaking to our students about how her son tragically lost his life. The assemblies were very emotional and at times difficult to listen to. However, this was a very important message for our students to hear. It’s clear the students took on board Alison’s message as many of them were talking about the assembly afterwards. We have also given students opportunity to discuss this further through a number of subsequent activities.”