25 september – NEWSLETTER

Dear parents and carers, 

I hope you are well and that your child has been enjoying their first few weeks back to school. We have made an exceptionally strong start to the new academic year, where students and teachers have hit the ground running in our work towards ensuring we are a community where everyone enjoys academic and social success.  

Academic success 

The climate for learning is extremely focused in school: across subjects teachers are expertly breaking down new content and skills for students; students are attending school at record highs and whilst in school are showing high levels of effort and commitment to their learning in lessons; there is a real positive energy at social times as students enjoy catching up with friends and teachers alike. It is an absolute joy to be a part of; and it is this hard work, day in day out, that leads to the amazing GCSE and A Level outcomes that Mr Fox talked about last week. 

Social success 

With the routines for academic success firmly established, we are this week starting our launch of a variety of careers and enrichment opportunities where all our students, over the year and beyond, can develop their REACH characteristics: responsibility, effort, ambition, contributions and honesty. 

Students in Year 9 have started making contributions to our school community through our internal work experience opportunity where they get a snapshot of what it is like working in a front facing role with our school reception team- it is a tough gig! However, our students are undertaking their duties with real aplomb. 

Students in Year 8 embark on making their contributions to our wider community through a work experience opportunity where they will be supporting our local church with lunchtimes for older adults. Students are very excited and I know they will gain a lot from this type of connection with the community. 

Student leadership hustings are well underway across all year groups, with a line-up of phenomenal young people positioning themselves to represent their peers on the student leadership team. I wish everyone who has courageously taken the step to put themselves forward the best of luck. 

And lastly, this week sees the opening of our sign-up to the school’s clubs programme, so if your child has not done so already, please take a look at the clubs schedule and sign them up.  There are a variety of exciting clubs on offer from sports, to music, to philosophy and the arts. Clubs go live from next week. 

It has been a real pleasure to open this week’s newsletter and share some my highlights from the new term. Please enjoy. 

Best wishes, 

Kavita Vishnuram 
Senior Deputy Headteacher 

The children’s commissioner’s Big Future survey is asking children and young people about their lives, their experiences and their hopes for the future. The Children’s Commissioner will be using what they tell her to build a national picture of what matters to children today and to ensure their views are heard by Government

The survey takes just a few minutes to complete and can be accessed here:

This week Year 9 students started their work experience where they supported our Reception and Office Team while developing key employability skills linked to our careers education programme and REACH characteristics.

Masa and Aisha were the first students ever to have worked in our reception area and did a sterling job.

Here is some feedback so far:

Masa and Aisha – answered the reception phone and created posters for Go Ape. Aisha was surprised by the amount of work the office does Masa said it had been fun and enjoyed learning about something different other than the classrom.

Iman and Samiya – learnt how to use canva for poster designs and learnt how to organise themselves with work.

Olivia and Ritaj – helped organise Year 7 locker keys for Ms Joseph. Both students said they would consider working in a school office! – watch this space!

This week, Year 10 students explored the richness of Jewish culture and traditions by learning about Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, helping them develop an understanding of the values of reflection and renewal that are central to Jewish faith and identity and our community. In form time, through PSHCE sessions, students learned about how trust is built in relationships and how to recognise who or what is safe to trust. They will identify warning signs that a relationship or situation may be unsafe or harmful. In addition, students will also learn how to seek support and who they can go to if they need help or have concerns. We are particularly proud of Year 10s’ self-development and look forward to the coming week sessions. 

Year 7
7/Ada Lovelace – Asila
7/Andrea Levy –Tayah
7/Isatou Ceesay – Molly
7/Kelly Holmes – Soliyana
7/Margot Fonteyn – Molly

Year 8
8/Helen Sharman – Serafina and Juwariah
8/Junko Tabei – Ayla
8/Winona LaDuke – Eliza, Teayanna, and Julie

Year 9
9/Alicia Keys – Viole
9/Margaret Atwood – Lara
9/Marie Curie- Ariella
9/Serena Williams – Nahidah

Year 10
10/Maya Angelou – Surayah and Roxanne
10/Wangari Maathai – Ella and Hanna

Year 11
11/Angela Carter – Araya
11/Jacqueline Du Pre – Amira
11/Nicola Adams – Ellie
11/Sylvia Earle – Khairuni

Year 7
Olive, Amaya, Alexandra, Masty, Eleanor, and Aimee

Year 8
Alisha and Tanem

Year 9
Lily-Rose

Year 11
Luel

The government has introduced new Enrichment Benchmarks to support schools and colleges to offer a broad range of high-quality activities.

The new funding will help participating schools put these benchmarks into practice, making sure more children can benefit from enrichment opportunities, regardless of their background or where they live.