Maths Student of the Week

Akosua 11T - Akosua has been coming to lessons full of energy and enthusiasm.  She applies herself to every question and is always alert and engaged in the lesson.  She is also a very helpful and kind person, always showing consideration for others. She continues to grow with confidence in maths and has approached this difficult GCSE year with a lot of courage and commitment.  Well done Akosua, you are a great role model for your peers and the younger students!

Well Done!

 Year 7 Reading Success

Year 7 students have one English lesson each week devoted to individual reading. During this lesson they are helped to choose appropriate books and encouraged to read at home. 

To give their reading some structure, all students work towards bronze, silver and gold awards.  For the bronze award, students have to read 5 books by 5 different authors and complete a short written activity for each book.  We expect most Year 7 students to gain this award.  For the silver award, students have to read 10 books, each from a different genre and complete a short written activity for each book.

The focus of the Gold award is literary merit.  For the gold award students must read 10 books chosen from a list of suitable books and complete a short activity for each book.  Only a few students gain this award each year.   I am pleased to congratulate Indigo and Xanthe both from 7R who have completed their Gold Award.  Below are examples of the activities they wrote in response to their reading.  Well done!

Ms Green
Librarian

 

Indigo read A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett and wrote a poem about the book.

What is this magic that transforms my room,
Every blessed night.
Who is this friend  I never see,
Who comes in the moonlight?

My room was bare and wintry,
My bed was cold and hard.
You pitied me and came along,
To give me warmth and comfort.

You gave me back my happiness,
And all I could do to thank,
Was write a card with my gratitude,
And give you all of my love.

Xanthe read Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli and wrote an alternative ending to the story.

At the end of the book, Star girl goes to her school dance alone, having been rejected by her boyfriend Leo because she refuses to behave like other girls. She arrives flamboyantly and soon becomes the centre of attention; much to the frustration of the most popular girl. The popular girl starts assaulting her but Star girl just kisses the girl on the cheek and dances to all the songs without a care in the world. At the end of the evening, Star girl leaves; never to be seen again…

My alternative ending is that Star girl turns up and gets assaulted by the popular girl. Star girl gives her a kiss on the cheek and the whole student body realises that she is the bigger person and  that our differences should be celebrated. The popular girl realises that what she did was wrong and she graciously apologises to Star girl. Star girl accepts. Everyone cheers. From the crowd emerges Star girl’s ex boyfriend Leo. He says that he never meant to hurt her feelings and that he only fell in love with the real her. Leo also said that he should not change for anyone in the world and that she should always be herself no matter what! Star girl smiles and asks Leo to dance. Leo accepts and brings her onto the dance floor. They all dance the whole night through, including the popular girl, the football player and the headteacher. Everyone enjoys themselves and has lots of fun.

Near the end of the night, Star girl, Leo and the popular girl stand up on the stage and sing ”You will never walk alone” and “Lean on me“. The whole school rejoice and sing along. Everyone sways to the music. In every students mind, they make a promise : They will never be apart again.

Photography

Last term we visited The Barbican to commence the Yr12’s introduction to traditional Photography. The students have now completed a whole term of shooting with film, processing and printing in the darkroom. Sam (Y12) our subject ambassador has realised an exceptionally strong set of images from this day, the results of which we would like to share with you.

        

 

    

Ms Miller
Photography Teacher

Art History

Whitechapel gallery visit 
Theaster Gates, A clay sermon, History of Art year 12

On Thursday 6th January for the first class of the year, History of art year 12, went to the Whitechapel Gallery to see the exhibition Theaster Gates, A clay sermon. The exhibition which as the Guardian described contained “beautiful things and broken things, horrible racist figurines and gorgeous pottery slathered in tar. Bricks and pots and a west African female ancestor figure fired at such a high temperature it cracked and warped and the head fell off. A rickshaw laden with bowls and plates, an old brick-press from Ohio, piles of glazed bricks and a pallet of bricks waiting to build a wall or a house. “It was an intriguing show, a mixture of formalist sculptures and identity politics made clearer through an excellent tour by Kirsty Lowry the Curator for education at Whitechapel Gallery

ARTiculation Prize 2022

On Thursday 6th January Grace Year 12, Art history who had been selected in December at the interschool heat with Highgate School, gave her presentation for the ARTiculation Prize 2022 on Frida Kahlo’s painted corset at the Whitechapel gallery. The Adjudicator Dr Richard Martin praised all speakers for their ‘amazing presentations’, describing these as well-researched, well-delivered, compelling and engaging. He acknowledged the courage and bravery it takes to not only deliver a presentation in front of an audience, but to also have the courage to share personal thoughts and beliefs and applauded all presenters for having passion and curiosity. 

Dr Richard Martin praised Grace for launching her presentation with a personal impact of an exhibition and for fully taking ownership of the stage and of the presentation (for example, asking us to close our eyes). He praised Grace for reading the work by thinking about bodies and disabilities and for not being afraid of reading against other voices in the discourse of Kahlo’s work. Grace was selected from the speakers from this stage for the London Final which will be held at the V&A Museum on 8 March, 2-5pm. 

Parent Governor Election

Thank you to all nominees and voters for participating in our recent parent governor election.

Esther Windsor has been elected as parent governor with effect from 5 December 2022, for a four-year term of office.

Congratulation to Esther.

 

New Foundation Governor

We are also happy to announce the appointment of a new Foundation Governor, Tanvi Gokhale, in December 2021.  You can find her brief biography in the Governors section of the school website.

Thanks to you all for your interest in and commitment to our school and governing body.

I hope you consider involvement in any future parent governor elections.

Duska Cutler
Clerk to Governors & Fundraising Assistant

The Sixth Sense

The Winter Edition of the Sixth Sense Magazine is out

Weekly Wellbeing

Challenging our inner voice

Most of us have an internal voice that narrates our stream of thoughts. At times, this voice can be quite critical and can negatively affect our self-esteem. It might tell us that we’re not smart, or that we’re unattractive, or not good enough. It’s likely this critical inner voice developed at an early age, after hearing hurtful things being said towards us or others. These critical thoughts don’t do us any good, they just hold us back and make us unhappy. The only way to stop them, is to stop believing them, which takes practice. Every time a self-critical thought pops into your head, you have the right to challenge it:

• Is this thought true?
• Where did the thought come from?
• Respond to the thought the way you would if it was a friend who had said this about themselves, with compassion and kindness.
• What are these thoughts stopping you from doing?
• What thoughts would be more helpful to have? Try to replace the negative thoughts with helpful thoughts.

Stand up to that inner voice and tell it that you are important, you have value, and you can achieve anything you set your mind to!

 

Are you of British Asian Heritage?  

Would you like your writing published in a new book?

Scholastic has teamed up with First News to launch a search for a new young British writer.  Enter your story for a chance of featuring in our new book, Bedtime Stories: Amazing Asian Tales from the Past.   This will be an inspiring book of stories based on real historical events that celebrate and share British Asian experiences.  

Stories must be:

• By writers aged 7-14
• 1,500 words maximum
• Based on real history – perhaps based on your family or local history near to you

The competition will be judged by a panel including an editor from Scholastic Children’s Books.

The writer will receive a huge inclusive collection of books for their school. 

Closing date 14 February 2022 

Email your entry to publicity@scholastic.co.uk with the subject line:

Bedtime Stories entry for Amazing Asian Tales from the Past

Susan Green
Librarian

A free maths learning platform to boost maths confidence, improve grades and win prizes!

 

Dear parent,

Eedi has offered all Year 5 to Year 11 families at our school free access to the Eedi platform, a free maths learning platform designed to motivate children to build maths confidence and improve maths grades.

With the Eedi tutoring platform, students will get unlimited access to practice questions, review videos made by teachers, and the chance of winning prizes & rewards for their commitment and consistency. You'll also get weekly reports from Eedi on how they're doing.

As part of all free subscriptions, Eedi are also holding live weekly classes on key GCSE maths topics that students find challenging to help them prepare for their exams.

The first of these live classes start in two weeks. Here are the details:

• Monday 17 January - Year 9 - Expanding double brackets
• Tuesday 18 January - Year 10 Foundation - Speed, distance, time
• Wednesday 19 January - Year 10 Higher - Rounding to significant figures
• Thursday 20 January - Year 11 Foundation - Writing expressions

Your child can access each class from within their Eedi Family account. Eedi is designed to feel more like a fun game rather than extra work. Your child will earn Streak points by setting a Routine and sticking to their weekly learning.

Eedi holds weekly competitions and prize draws to boost motivation and engagement, giving away real prizes (from iPads to Amazon vouchers) for students and schools as they build their streak scores and earn coins to spend in the Eedi Shop.

Families new to Eedi will also have a 7-day trial to their unlimited on-demand tutor plan, Eedi Plus, which usually costs £4.99 / month (note that this is optional and complimentary).

To sign up, create your parent account here, https://family.eedi.com/signup/parent .

Signing up is easy and takes less than 5 minutes.

If you have questions on the invitation, please contact Eedi directly on family@eedi.com.