Head's Corner

150 Seymour Road, Leyton, London E10 7LX Website: www.lammas.waltham.sch.uk Email: [email protected] Tel: 020 8988 5860 / Fax: 020 8988 5861 Friday 16th November 2018 ISSUE NO: 378

Head’s Corner

In this edition of the newsletter, just like many other editions, you will see several examples of Lammas students being offered – and taking up – great opportunities provided by the school. For example, there are articles and information about expanding our students’ horizons in a variety of sports, on the stage in a professional theatre and in school meeting an eminent Professor of Cardiology. In all that we do, we want to provide an insight for our students into the world beyond school to ensure our girls and boys grow up to have choices and take their place in their world as confident and caring citizens with a great deal to contribute. If each opportunity we provide inspires one student about their future aspirations and pathway, we are delighted.

The Shakespeare Schools Festival is a unique opportunity that provides a great way for students to learn the language, themes and context of Shakespeare’s wonderful writing. It also enables students to meet new people, learn about the craft of performance from actors in workshops and in the theatre, make new friends and find a new passion. The opportunity to perform on a professional stage could be a once in a lifetime opportunity! It was great to be in the audience at Stratford Circus last week and witness the product of the hard work put into this by our students, supported by Mr Daintry, Ms Ferguson and Ms King. I was very proud of every one of them and thrilled about the excitement they felt! Please see the article in a few pages for the names of all the participants.

All the hard work by students and staff to focus on improving levels of attendance is really paying off now as we see percentages rise regularly. Congratulations to everyone who manages to get to school every day, and to battle through any minor ailments to show dedication to your studies.

It is now only 2 weeks until the Year 13 students start their Pre-Public Exams – an important milestone in their preparation for their final A level papers. We know you are working hard but I want to add another reminder about making the very most of the time you have in school and out of school for additional support, intervention and revision. Good luck with your exam preparations!

Year 11s also begin their practical exams soon – in 4 weeks’ time, or 20 school days, in PE, Art, Food Technology. Then, a very short time after this, the written PPEs begin. These are now only 30 school days away (even though you have the Christmas holidays as a break). Now is the time to make the most of the support and advice from your teachers and Tutor to get on top of your own revision, fill any gaps in your knowledge, go back over difficult concepts or topics – and build your confidence. If you have any questions about this, do not hesitate to ask someone for help – your Intervention teacher, your Tutor, your SPL, your subjects teacher, or a friend.

Best wishes,

Shona Ramsay Headteacher

Attendance- Monday 5th October to Friday 9th November

Number of students Number of students with 100% Overall attendance per with 100% BEST attending tutor attendance since the team since the start of attendance last groups for the week start of the academic the academic year week year BLACK 42 73 Black 1 – 96.7% 95.3% BLUE 34 77 Blue 4 – 94.8% 94.6% GREEN 36 85 Green 3- 98.5% 95.1% RED 54 93 Red 4- 94.8% 95.2% YELLOW 42 84 Yellow 5 – 96.7% 95.6%

208 412 95.2%

A Lammas our attendance has dropped quite significantly… We have moved away from the precious Green zone!

We’ve gone down this week from to this week.

We now have a lot of work to do to get that figure back up.

Our elite ‘Blue BRAG’ group of students (those with 100% attendance since their start date or the start of the year) has also dropped quite considerably this week; from 271 to 208 students. Hang on to your Sapphire Attendance Lammas! If you have a day off, you lose it.

1) Black 1 are the winners of the title for the tutorial with the best overall attendance percentage last week with 96.7%. Well done Ms Chirimuuta and tutorial for the second week running!

2) Red Team is the new title holder for the most students with 100% attendance last week with 93 students. Possibly one of our lowest totals to date though…

3) Red Team holds on to the title for the Team with the highest number of 100% attendees since the start of the year, with 54 students!

AND SO, THE BATTLE FOR THE TEAM WITH THE BEST OVERALL ATTENDANCE CONTINUES…

 The title for BEST TEAM ATTENDANCE since the start of the academic year stays with Yellow Team for the fifth consecutive week. With an overall total of 95.6%! Black Team are still very close behind with 95.3%!!

100% Outstanding

96-99% Good

91-95% Requires Improvement

<90% Cause for Concern

Punctuality

Please can we remind all students and parents that school (and therefore lessons) start at 8:30 am. Students are expected to be on the school premises for 8:25am at the latest but BEFORE the first bell. It is NOT APPROPRIATE to be arriving at 8:30 am or indeed after that time. Students who arrive late are expected to attend a break time detention and those who are repeatedly late will receive longer detentions and additional sanctions. Please RESPECT our school hours and get here on time.

Uniform

In accordance with our school Learning Charter we would like to remind students that they should attend school in full uniform, and dressed in a ‘business-like’ fashion.

- Shirts should be tucked in. We shouldn’t have to keep asking… - Ties should be worn long, not very short. - Trousers must be blue, not black - Trainers are not permitted in school except in PE class - Blazers should be worn at all times - Hoodies, if seen worn instead of blazers (or underneath blazers) will be confiscated - Jewellery is not permitted (with the exception of a sensible watch and one pair of stud earrings in the ear-lobes.

Behaviour for Learning and Mutual Respect

SHAKESPEARE SCHOOLS FESTIVAL MACBETH

Last Wednesday 20 students from Lammas performed their production of Macbeth on stage at the Stratford Circus Theatre as part of the national Shakespeare Schools Festival. Stratford Circus is a professional theatre and the production played to a packed audience.

The students had been rehearsing in school since early last half term and have shown great commitment and dedication to the play, including attending rehearsals in half term and on Saturday.

Their performance was outstanding and they did the school proud. The play was attended by staff from Lammas, who had these comments to make:

“It was fantastic to see the students embody their roles – it was clear that a lot of hard work was put in and I really enjoyed the performance!” (Ms Meza)

“It was a fantastic performance that was pulled off by a bunch of hard working and talented students. They should be very proud of themselves. I was very impressed and absolutely delighted to have gotten the chance to see everyone do so well!” (Mr Berkeley)

I was very proud of the cast and delighted to see how much they enjoyed the experience. Huge congratulations to them all:

Tanae Bixby, Roksana Ochedalska, Ioana Popa, Enje Sewell, Stevie Shannon, Ky-Mani Ballie, Tashae Harriott, Chaney Bourne, Darren Esuka, Safiyah Bugtti, Mounia Lakhal, Kadaisha Smith, Cristian Gherman, Dontae Gayle, Halle Herdsman, Dominique Griffiths, Angel Heron, Aurona Ujkaj, Daniel Dutulescu, Lilly Eade.

Special thanks to Rida Imaan, who was unable to perform at Stratford but who came to all the rehearsals and worked very hard with us throughout.

Mr Daintry

Lammas School and Sixth Form Communication Arrangements Important information for Parents and Carers

Paperless school - Year 7 Trial Over the past few months the school has been running this advert encouraging parents and carers to sign up to and use the My Ed app, which is used as a means of quickly informing and updating parents and carers of any issues affecting their child in school. The app which is free is the most cost effective, quick, easy and secure way to keep you informed of issues generally but more importantly enables us to inform you of any particular issues that may be affecting your child straight to your mobile phone. From 1st January 2019 as part of a trial school communication, Year 7 students will only be sent out information using the My Ed app. There will be no more paper letters to parents and carers and should the trial progress as expected the whole school will go paperless from 1st March 2019. It is therefore important that all parents and carers download and start using the My Ed app now by going to www.myedschoolapp.com or by visiting the school office, between 8:30 am and 4:00 pm Monday to Thursday and 8:30 am to 3:30 pm Friday, where we would be happy to help you sign up. By moving to this paperless system we will be saving money that can be better used on your child’s education and it will enable us to communicate with you much more quickly and effectively. Thank you for your support. Graeme Cornell

Kacper Cybulski – Year 13 visits St Andrews University in Scotland

"Earlier this month I decided to visit St Andrews University in Fife, Scotland in order to help me decide whether it is a university I want to apply to - and I can comfortably say that that is now the case. The journey to St Andrews was quite long as expected but it was definitely worth it. The town and university themselves are beautiful, especially for someone interested in history like myself. While at the University I went to a few talks to get a feel of student life, accommodation and study abroad opportunities. I also went to a talk about studying modern history at St Andrews which gave me an insight of what studying at university is like and what the course covers. Overall - I'd say this was an amazing trip even if it meant I had to travel for several hours. It gave me a chance to finally explore on my own and I plan to revisit Scotland in the summer as there is so much left to see. I will definitely be applying to St Andrews to study history and hopefully I can return in September for more than just a day. " Kacper Cybulski, Year 13

Speakers for Schools Professor Stephen Adam Timmis

Adam Timmis is Professor of Clinical Cardiology at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University London. He qualified from the University of Cambridge and St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College. His cardiology training was at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston and at Guy’s Hospital, London before taking up his current post. He visited Lammas on Tuesday 13th November.

Omar Lecointe was one of the students who benefited from the talk. Here’s his report.

Today we had a professor from Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry who talked to us about medicine and cardiology in particular. After the talk we were given the opportunity to ask questions about his experience and knowledge about medicine. We learned the average pay of someone who studies medicine, and how long it takes from college to when you officially become a consultant.

We talked about his experience of being part of the panel who accepted medical students and told us about the things they were looking for in order to accept you into medical schools. This ranged from having really good A- levels and experience working with local GPs, to showing a caring attitude in general, and volunteering with your local community. This advice he gave can apply not just to medicine but all forms of further education. He told us that as competition was high with many people applying to get into medical schools it is important to do things that make you stand out from the crowd.

We learned about the different types of diseases that cause deaths these days and also about things that influenced them for example coronary heart disease death rates increased after World War 1 due to the increase in people starting to smoke. He showed us a graph which informed us about the number of deaths by coronary heart disease as the years go on which have decreased from around 25% to 5% over the last 30 years. Professor Timmis said he enjoys cardiology because of the satisfaction of being able to help people and also told us that there has never been a better time to become a doctor than now. This is because the industry has become a lot more diverse than it used to be when he was a child where it used to be mainly white males.

Overall, I found the talk really informative and look forward to having more visits from other speakers from other professions in the future.

Thank you Professor Timmis for taking the time out of your busy schedule to visit us here at Lammas.

Precious Tokossi, a Sixth Former reports.

Although I’m not interested in pursuing a career in medicine, Professor Timmis mentioned some things that I can apply to my everyday life. He highlighted that heart problems are the second most common cause of death amongst men and women, and it can easily be prevented in our teenage years. This can be done by reducing the amount of foods you eat with saturated fat and exercising regularly; this is to prevent a build-up of cholesterol in your arteries. He also stressed the importance of GCSEs (for those who are interested in medicine), as those are the only recent exams you would have done before applying, and many universities demand the highest grades.

PE WEEKLY BULLETIN

WEEK COMMENCING 19/11/18

FIXTURES RESULTS

MONDAY Yr8 Girls vs Kelmscott (a) Basketball -

Yr9 Girls vs Forest (h) Yr7 Girls lost 12-16 vs Willowfield

Yr7 Boys Borough 5aside Yr8 Girls won 32-4 vs George Mitchell tournament Yr10 Girls won 46-24 vs Holy Family TUESDAY Yr7 Girls vs Holy Family (h) Yr9 Boys won 64-17 vs Walthamstow Yr8 Girls vs Walthamstow Academy Academy (a) Yr9 Boys won 56-34 vs Fred Bremer Yr9 Girls Football 6aside at Ive Farm Yr10 Boys lost 41-48 vs Holy Family

Yr10 London Cup football vs Mossbourne (a) Football - WEDNESDAY Girls National Cup Football 2nd round vs Raines (h) U13 Girls football lost 3-0 vs Mossbourne Lammas 6th Form vs Leyton 6th Form indoor cricket @ UEL Yr8 Girls football (London Cup) won Yr10 Boys vs Buxton (a) 3-2 vs Charter East

THURSDAY Yr8 Boys vs Holy Family (h) U16 Girls 6aside;

FRIDAY U16 Girls football vs Passmores (a) Drew 0-0 vs West Hatch

Lost 0-3 vs Heathcote

Star of the Week

Tasneem (Year7) - Worked to the best of her ability in her first basketball game never giving up. She scored lots of baskets despite being one of the smaller players on the court!! Well done :)

MORNING/ BREAKTIME/ LUNCH TIME/ EXTRA CURRICULUM CLUBS

BEFORE SCHOOL BREAK TIME LUNCH TIME AFTER SCHOOL

MONDAY BASKETBALL ALL YEAR 9/10/11 YEAR 7 Basketball Basketball Matches YEARS 7.30-810AM BASKETBALL

TUESDAY YEAR 7/8 YEAR 8/9 Basketball Basketball Matches BASKETBALL

WEDNESDAY BASKETBALL ALL YEAR 9/10/11 YEAR 10/11 Basketball Matches

YEARS 7.30-810AM BASKETBALL Basketball

THURSDAY YEAR 7/8 TRAMPOLINING/ INSPIRED BASKETBALL BASKETBALL/ TRAMPOLINING (£3.50 BADMINTON (Girls only) PER SESSION) FRIDAY BASKETBALL ALL YEAR 9/10/11 YEAR 10/11 GIRLS YEARS 7.30-810AM BASKETBALL Basketball BASKETBALL(2.30- 3.30)

Please Look out for other sporting events

Year 9 Girls 5 aside Football Team at the new Ive Farm facility after a great evening including two impressive wins!!

Prospective Medics Newsletter

PiXL6 Medics Bulletin November 2018

Welcome to the second edition of PiXL6’s Monthly Medics Bulletin. Those of you, who by now will have put applications in, will be waiting for replies. You may well have your patience tested as some Departments can leave it as late as March/April before finishing their rounds of interviews. All you can do, as you wait, is everything you can towards guaranteeing the grades you know you’ll need to get in those final exams next summer.

Before any interview, make sure you have brushed up on all of the following: (i) The latest CQC (Care and Quality Commission) report on your own NHS Trust (ii) A review of local provision i.e. what are local medical/ dental/ veterinary/ pharmaceutical services like? Is there good patient access? Are there local specialist units? (iii) Sharpen up on any reading and research you’ve done, or lectures/courses you’ve attended so that you can quote them accurately and precisely and say what you got from them (iv) Sharpen up on any appropriate work experience or shadowing you’ve done, what you learnt from it and what you have read and researched since then on follow up.

N.B. “What did you learn from your work experience?” means not only what you learnt about being a

doctor, dentist etc. but what you feel you learnt about yourself as a prospective practitioner i.e. what you might need to work on and develop as skills.

MOOCS — Massive Open Online Courses If you go to www.futurelearn.com, you will find taster courses from universities all over the world giving you an insight into what studying a subject at university will be like. The courses usually last between 2-6 weeks and require 2-6 hours of studying per week. They are completely free of charge. Taking one or two of these will show that you have not only used your initiative, but that you have already coped with university level work and university style learning. Appropriate ones at the moment include — Animal Viruses (Madrid), The Many Faces of Dementia (UCL), Elements of Good Pharmacy Practice (Teipei), The NHS Explained (The King’s Fund), Depression in Young People (Reading), Discover Dentistry (Sheffield) and Cardiovascular Disease (Reading).

TED Talks you might like to check out this month: Mary Lou Jepsen, an optical physicist, on how we can use light to see deep inside our bodies and brains and thus track tumours and measure neural activity (this could equal personal MRI scanners) Hasini Jayatilaka on how cancer cells communicate and how we can slow them down.

“So what health problems are there in your home area?” is a common question that stumps many candidates at interview because it’s not something they’ve ever looked into — so make sure you do. For instance, in the Thames Valley, there is a higher than average incidence of respiratory conditions (there always is in a river valley, made worse there by air pollution caused by the flight paths into Heathrow and the M3, M4, M25, M40 motorways). It is also classic commuter territory and expensive to live in so people work long hours and travel causing extra stress and heart conditions. Talk to some local health professionals and get feedback on your local area.

How do you score on the LORIC scale? Admissions tutors and employers are increasingly looking for evidence of key personal skills and LORIC is an acronym for Leadership, Organisation, Resilience, Initiative and Communication skills. Give yourself a mark out of 5 according to how far you think you demonstrate each one where: 5= outstanding, 4= good, 3= higher than average, 2= average, 1= weak.

You’ve got to get used to having assessments in your career, so getting one or two friends to give you a score would be valuable (but don’t lose friendships over it!) You should aim for an overall score of 18+ (and no 1’s). This will give you lots of evidence to be used in your personal statement, reference and interview.

This month’s research topic: Blood Cancer.

It is claimed that someone is diagnosed with blood cancer every 14 seconds. There are over 100 different types of them. 240,000 people in the UK are currently living with one of them and every year 15,000 die as a result of one. Those caused by the creation of too many white blood cells called granulocytes are being combated with drugs called TKI (Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors). Myeloma is also being combated with CAR-T therapies, which involve taking a person’s immune cells from their bone marrow, reprogramming them to target their cancer and returning them to the patient.

And questions for …. Dentists — Is cosmetic dentistry just a vanity project? Pharmacists — Is society becoming too drug-dependent? Vets — Should vets actively discourage the keeping of exotic pets?

For everyone: ‘You have 3 minutes to convince me that I should offer you a place.’ Would you be ready to answer that one? It is from a real MMI. A final word on interviews next month and we’ll look at some ethical questions. There’s a good intro to these in “A Very Short Introduction to Medical Ethics”.

Please send feedback, ideas, recommendations and examples from your own experience (especially of interviews) to [email protected].

All the best wishes, The PiXL Team.

Masterclasses for Year 12 and 13 at SOAS, Central London

1. Politics Masterclass - "Art and youth activism in the Middle East – understanding the Arab Uprisings" Friday 23rd November 10.00am - 1.00pm

The Arab Uprisings in 2011-2012 and the wars that followed and intensified in Syria, Libya and Yemen have captured international attention. What are the deeper reasons behind such uprisings and wars? How can we situate them historically to understand the region’s contemporary politics?

The masterclass will highlight the creative mobilisations of ordinary people, particularly youth activism during the uprisings and how space was used creatively to convey messages of change. The masterclass will be led by Dr Rafeef Ziadah, Lecturer in Comparative Politics of the Middle East in the Politics and International Studies department.

Participants will explore the mass social mobilisations, art and activism which helped to reshape the Middle East region. They will evaluate how a focus on social and political mobilisation help us to rethink and challenge the dominant paradigms used to understand the Middle East? Participants will develop their critical thinking, discussion, and analytical skills.

This masterclass is for students in year 12 and 13 attending state schools and colleges within the UK. Priority should be given to those who would be the first in their family to attend university in the UK; this is a widening participation activity designed to give students a first-class experience of study at HE level.

There are a limited number of places available for the masterclass and a mixture of academic and widening participation criteria will be used to allocate places. The deadline for applications is Wednesday November 14th 2018.

Application forms are attached, these can either be emailed to [email protected] or posted to Beth Oliver, WP Team - RG01, SOAS, University of London, Thornhaugh Street, London, WC1H 0XG.

Further information about this masterclass will be added to our website over the half term break.

2. Law Masterclass Wednesday 5th December 10.00am - 1.00pm

This masterclass will be led by Dr Mayur Suresh and will focus on the law in South Asia. Participants will further develop their critical thinking, analytical and public speaking skills.

There are a limited number of places available for the masterclass and a mixture of academic and widening participation criteria will be used to allocate places. The deadline is Monday 26th November 2018.

Application forms are attached, these can either be emailed to [email protected] or posted to Beth Oliver, WP Team - RG01, SOAS, University of London, Thornhaugh Street, London, WC1H 0XG.

3. English Masterclass Friday 14th December 10.00am-1.00pm

This masterclass will be led by Dr Katie Reid. Participants will further develop their critical thinking, analytical and public speaking skills.

There are a limited number of places available for the masterclass and a mixture of academic and widening participation criteria will be used to allocate places. The deadline is Tuesday 4th December 2018.

Please see Mr Eley for the application forms.

Opportunity for Year 12 - Ashurst Law Work Experience Programme 2019

Ashurst is a global law firm that specialises in commercial law. In week one, you will spend two days in one of Ashurst's legal or support departments and two days in skill and insight sessions focused on a securing a career in law. During the second week of the work experience placement, students will visit five well-known organisations including Harlequins Rugby Club, BT, Amazon, Nomura and ITV, to learn more about their businesses and the range of career opportunities available. Students will gain an understanding of the role of an 'In-house' lawyer.

The key information is:

* Students must be available to attend week 1 and week 2 of this programme. * Be in Year 12. * Be considering a career in law. * Either be of the first generation in their immediate family to attend university or should be (or have been) eligible for free school meals. * Have achieved or be predicted to achieve a score of 5.5 across 5 GCSE subjects (inc. English & Maths) * The work experience isn’t paid, but the students will have all of their expenses covered

For an application form please see Mr Eley

Apprenticeship Opportunities with KPMG

KPMG is one of the world's leading employers. They have asked us to contact teachers and careers advisors to let them know about apprenticeship programmes for their sixth formers. It is absolutely crucial that bright, ambitious students consider all the options available to them when leaving school, and KPMG have some very exciting opportunities.

Please read on to find out what KPMG have to offer, and forward this message on to students, parents and fellow colleagues who may be interested.

Kind regards,

Pure Potential www.purepotential.org

KPMG360º Apprenticeship Programmes

Our KPMG360° Apprenticeship programmes offer apprentices the opportunity to work with a variety of clients across different industries, whilst being supported to achieve a professional qualification and earning a salary.

Our range of programmes have been designed to support students with the transition from school to the workplace, offering a practical way to build an exciting career.

Apprentices will gain broad work experience, be supported to build professional skills grow their confidence, and build exceptional future too.

Hear what it’s like to be an Apprentice at KPMG, from KPMG360° Apprentices Emma, Ihsan, Mark and Precious. https://cdn.uploadlibrary.com/purepotential/181109_KPMGVideo.jpg

About KPMG

KPMG in the UK, is part of a global network of firms offering Audit, Tax & Pensions, Consulting, Deal Advisory and Technology services. We work shoulder-to-shoulder with clients, from small start-ups to multinational organisations, helping them to solve some of the most complex business challenges.

If you know ambitious students interested in an Apprenticeship Programme with KPMG, please direct them to find out more and apply via our careers website.