Headstart February 2020
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Wandsworth schools and families FEBRUARY 2020 Head start Distributed through schools across the borough Do your bit to beat climate change See pages 14-15 CAN YOU FOSTER? Be there for a child in Wandsworth... ...and we’ll be there for you Come to one of three events taking place on the dates below (10am-12noon or 2pm-4pm or 6pm-8pm) Thursday 20 February 2020 Thursday 19 March 2020 Thursday 16 April 2020 Call us now on (020) 8871 6666 Read about our foster carers’ experiences at www.wandsworth.gov.uk/carer_experiences To find out more: wandsworth.gov.uk/fostering [email protected] wandsworthfostering Designed and produced by Wandsworth Design & Print. [email protected] AD.1196 Headstart (1.20) Photos: istock, digitalvision, netnatives 2 wandsworth.gov.uk/headstart Plus eight pages of Winter listings PAGE 23 What’s hot for Wandsworth families this month Research the past Heritage Awards for Schools PAGE 5 Questions on faith Annual Faith Direct event PAGE 6 Tuck shop Paddock School feeds hungry workers PAGE 10 Climate Action Young people’s voice on climate change PAGES 14-15 School travel Safe and sustainable transport to school PAGE 13 Join the plog club Get fit and help the environment PAGE 16 Award nomination Happy Streets project is shortlisted PAGE 18 Send your comments and suggestions to Designed and produced by Wandsworth Design & Print. [email protected] CS.132 (10.19) [email protected] Design & Print. Wandsworth Designed and produced by [email protected] Follow us HeadstartWBC 3 Tuck shop job for Paddock students Students at Paddock School are selling snacks to town hall staff as part of the school’s work experience programme. Every Tuesday and Thursday in term time six secondary students from Paddock, a school for children with autistic spectrum disorders and moderate to severe learning difficulties, sell snack food and greetings cards they make themselves from a trolley. They use visual supports when they arrive at the town hall to set up the trolleys and remember the prices of the items. Class teacher Victor Carrizosa Exposito said parents enjoy seeing photos and videos of what their children get up to. “It’s amazing to see how students are motivated by selling items to the council staff and how their confidence has increased when communicating to peers and customers.” Comments from the children themselves include “I love going with the tuck shop every Thursday”, “I like selling cards that we make at school”, and “I like to take the bus to go to the tuck shop with my teachers.” 4 Research the past Interested in history? Enter the sixth annual Wandsworth/GLL Heritage Award for Schools. The competition aims to get local children interested in the history and heritage of Wandsworth and encourage a sense of community. There will be cash prizes for best class and best individual entry. Last year’s winners included John Burns Primary School in Battersea. who looked at the history of nearby Battersea Power Station and Sabrina Oliveira (pictured right) from Broadwater School for her project on the actress Dame Margaret Rutherford, who was born in Balham. Schools interested in entering should email [email protected] or visit www.wandsworth.gov.uk/ schoolsheritageawards. 5 Graveney School Questions on faith Pupils from Wandsworth secondary schools were able to fire a series of questions at representatives from the borough’s different faith groups as part of the annual Faith Direct event. Faith Direct, organised by the council and the Wandsworth Multi-Faith Group, brought together speakers from local Burntwood School Muslim, Christian, Methodist, Sikh, Jewish, Baha’i, Humanist and Buddhist communities. It aims to increase young people’s knowledge of the different It’s given me a faiths and beliefs practised in the borough and promote understanding, tolerance and respect. wider intelligence The young people were given a fact pack in advance about all the different summarising each belief, and then went on a whistle-stop tour round the room interviewing each representative in turn. The religions. I’ve learnt a questioning lasted 15 minutes before a bell was rung and the lot about them that students moved on to the next table. I didn’t know This year’s event also featured entries by pupils from Furzedown Primary school into a schools’ poster competition before. run by the Baha’is of Wandsworth to mark the bicentenary of the birth of the Bab – an important figure in their faith. Chioma from Saint Cecilia’s 6 Icelandic links Falconbrook School has welcomed a large group of delegates from the Reykjavik City Department for Education in Iceland who came to see how the school teaches its pupils. They visited on the recommendation of internationally renowned educationalist Shirley Clarke who previously worked with Falconbrook’s deputy head Sarah Pieniek-Jones on a research project. N Kristin Christiansen said: “We are so grateful that Shirley Clarke encouraged us to visit your school. It was admirable to see how professionally you and your staff are working there and we were overwhelmed seeing how happy, well behaved and motivated your students are. We learned so much from our visit especially how important it is to have great expectations for all students.” Westbridge pupils go green Pupils from Westbridge Primary School in Battersea ditched school uniform for a day and wore an item of green clothing in exchange for a £1 donation to Macmillan Cancer Support. Westbridge Head Diane Thompson said: “We are delighted that our pupils got behind such a worthwhile cause. We teach all our pupils about the wider world that awaits them so they can take an active role in their community and become true global citizens.” 7 Celebrating work experience The achievements of young people and the support of local employers in successful work experience placements have been celebrated at this year’s BEST Awards. BEST (Business and Education This year’s event was hosted by Sixth former Hassan Ahmed, from Succeeding Together) is the Ernest Bevin College and was Ernest Bevin College, talked council’s education and business attended by students from Ernest about his work experience at Fleetline Coachworks and the partnership and works with about Bevin College, Graveney 700 employers to give value and support he received, Academy, Burntwood Academy, Wandsworth’s young people giving special thanks to his boss at Chestnut Grove Academy, and access to around a thousand work Fleetline, Steve Harris. Nightingale Community experience placements a year. Find out more about work The awards celebrate the work of Academy. Entertainment was experience in Wandsworth at motivated students and provided by a saxophone quintet wandsworthlifelonglearning. committed employers. from Graveney Academy. org.uk 8 More school places An extra 1,000 school Southfields, which specializes in form places for its A level students. music tuition, will increase its places are being created At primary level, Brandlehow intake by one extra class – and add School in Putney will admit an across the borough in an extra 50 sixth form places. extra class as part of a £3m project time for the 2020/21 Chestnut Grove Academy in to meet growing demand from academic year. Balham, which specialises in art parents in this part of the borough. and design, will increase Additional resources have also Funding worth a total of around admissions by the equivalent of £15.4m has been set aside to pay 1.5 classes, while the investment been invested in special for extra classrooms at some of the in new facilities will also enable educational needs provision to borough’s primary, secondary and the school to expand its sixth form support children with a range of special schools, including an provision by 50 places. disabilities. additional 825 places at secondary The council has spent more than level and a further 150 sixth form Ark Academy in Putney will £17m constructing new school places. add two new classes to its intake by using available space in its facilities for Greenmead School, At secondary level the following existing building which was while a further £2.5m has been schools are to expand – at a cost of recently upgraded as part of a invested in refurbishing and around £12.4m. £30m school modernisation expanding Paddock School in St Cecilia’s CofE in scheme, and provide 50 extra sixth Roehampton. Care leavers succeed Wandsworth has been celebrating the achievements of young people leaving its care. The annual Future Awards were organised by the council’s participation team working with looked-after children, and by Future Voice, a forum of care leavers that come together to create a strong voice and influence services that affect them. As part of the package of support for care leavers called the Local Offer, young people leaving the care system are provided with a personal advisor and the council pays their council tax bills until they are 21, wherever they chose to live. Young people still in the council’s care have their voice heard through the Wandsworth Children in Care Council (Click). The council’s cabinet member for education and children’s services, Cllr Will Sweet, said: “We take our jobs as corporate parents very Sardam was a winner in the seriously, and we are as proud as any parent would be when our young Contribution to Society Category people do well.” 9 Seeking top Wandsworth young chef Last year’s final Students from St Cecilia’s CE School and Burntwood, Southfields and Graveney Academies are competing in this year’s Wandsworth Young chef of the year competition. Since it launched last November, the schools have held ‘cook-offs’ to find finalists who will compete in the grand final this spring.