Ark Elvin Academy Newsletter Summer 2 July 2015 Well done on a ‘great’ first year at Elvin! What a busy, successful year! A huge thank you from me to all the pupils, teachers, parents and members of the wider school community in supporting us during our first year. There are so many fabulous examples of magna aude which I could share with you from over the course of the year. Some of my personal favourites include: Demonstrating mastery in sport in so many ways, most recently at sports day and when our year 10 cricket team recently won the Brent cricket cup Our excellent spelling team demonstrating courage and mastery by winning the Ark Spelling Bee Coming second place in the Ark Chess Championship, after only two weeks of practising Showing what a welcoming community we are at Elvin when we hosted the Ark Maths Challenge Three of our fabulous year 13 students being awarded Marshall Wace 3 year awards to support them through university arkelvinacademy.org @ARKElvinAcademy The integrity and courage demonstrated by all of our year 11s in their final efforts to get the best results they could in their GCSE exams The strength of our house communities as they took part in a variety of house challenges and competitions Being humbled by all of those pupils and colleagues who gave up their Saturday morning to pack bags and raise money for Sufra foodbank Making the final of Spire Hub – see inside this newsletter for more details I hope that you have all enjoyed this year as much as we have. We are excited about our plans for September and I look forward to welcoming parents into the school again next term. In the meantime, have a wonderful summer break and thank you again for your support. 2015 Elvin House Cup It has been a close battle all year with singing competitions, science week, merit collecting, audience participation, magna aude awards and many more events being totalled up to decide who would win the coveted Elvin house cup. The leader board has changed every term, as our pupils earn more and more house points. After totalling up all of the scores I’m delighted to announce that this year’s cup winner is: Well done to all pupils and colleagues in the house. Let’s see if they can retain the title next year or whether another house can beat them to it. Best wishes, Fantastic efforts and atmosphere at Elvin Sports Day On Friday June 17, we had our first ever Elvin Sports Day. It was a fantastic day where our pupils tried their best in every event and behaved brilliantly throughout. It was wonderful to see so many pupils and staff dress in their house colours and get into the ‘Magna Aude’ spirit. The competition between the houses was very close and it pupils waited with baited breath to find out the final winner in assembly this morning. It was very close between the houses, but Rowling eventually came out on top, with Angelou second and Farah third. There were some outstanding individual performances and new school records were set for every year group in every event. However, the real highlight of the day was how our school came together as a community to not only compete against each other but also support and cheer one another on. It was a real testament to the hard work our pupils and staff have put in this year and was a shining example of how close we are as a school community. A special mention needs to go to Mr Odutayo and the rest of the PE team for their hard work and preparation for such an enjoyable and successful day. We’re looking forward to next year already! INTEGRITY COURAGE COMMUNITY MASTERY Year 10 team wins the Brent cricket cup Well done to our year 10 cricket team, who won a historic victory on 15th July to lift the Brent cup and bring Elvin our first piece of sporting silverware. In the final they defeated Kingsbury High, who had held the cup since 2012. Arunan and Kushal report: “Elvin's first game was against Jewish Free School (JFS). Elvin batted first and scored 191 runs off 20 overs. Lestor scored 87 runs striking a lot of sixes. Afterwards Elvin bowled them out for 43 runs. Dhruvik bowled a great spell of fast bowling but it was Lestor who got man of match. The second match was against Preston manor. Elvin bowled first and Kushal and Jamshed bowled tightly and with the help of others restricted Preston Manor to 41 runs. Elvin chased the total comfortably with 8 overs to spare and losing only one wicket through a run out. Jamshed was man of match for picking up 4 wickets. The next match was against Alperton which was by far the closest match in the whole tournament for Elvin. Bowling first Alperton made 125 runs off 18 overs. Unfortunately Elvin got off to a bad start as the opener got out first ball. However Yankesh, Arunan, Lestor, Nirmal and Dhruvik got the runs in time. Arunan was man of match for high scoring with 38 runs. The final match in the group stage for Elvin was against Claremont. Batting first Elvin made 72 runs off 15 overs. Krutik played an excellent innings scoring 38 runs and anchoring the innings when wickets were falling at the other end. Perfect fielding and accurate bowling meant Claremont was all out for 49 runs. The final was against Kingsbury High School. Batting first the top five batsmen got starts but could capitalise on it. Nirmal Ramesh high scored with 20 runs and the team scored 131 runs which shows how much of a collective effort it was. Vyomesh and Krutik bowled aggressively to start the defence of 131 runs but it was Niraml’s 5 wicket haul that won Ark Elvin the match and tournament.” School improvement, team building, and water guns: year 12 induction comes to a close Our new year 12 pupils completed their induction by presenting their recommendations for improving the school to a panel led by Ms Bates and also including our Chair of Governors. This team research and strategy challenge was just one element of their four week induction period which included a range of inspiring, interesting, and enjoyable experiences. One of our year 12s, Olufunke, writes: “On the first day of the induction, we were making tall buildings out of sticky tape and newspapers. We were given all kinds of opportunities such as helping out with the year six's induction. I found this really exciting as the children quickly overcame their shy stage and became more confident in themselves. In addition, we learnt several important skills such as how to present yourself in an interview and answer the questions asked in them, how to write CVs and personal statements, and researching, scripting and executing presentations. Not only that, but we were also given the authority to observe lessons and write reports on them, which allowed us to develop a deeper insight into how schools work, and the importance of things that we may have initially thought was unnecessary and even annoying. We were also given subject time which was a brief introduction to the A Level courses offered, enabling us to make our decisions. We even went on trips to AXA, an investment bank, and Bloomberg, a computing organisation. This thus helped us to develop transferable skills. The induction wasn't all heavily based on education; we not only played rounders out in the field, but also Ms Bates' version of the Highland Games, hopping round on space hoppers and skipping ropes, and getting soaked by water guns! INTEGRITY COURAGE COMMUNITY MASTERY A few people came in to speak about their careers or university, including Tazeem Ahmad, a famous journalist and presenter on Dispatches. I found the question and answer session very interesting as we found out so much about her. One thing I loved about the induction was how much freedom that we were given. We could choose which trips we went on, how to carry out our projects and what we did or where we went during lunch breaks. I really did enjoy the sixth form induction, and I found out a lot of useful information about A Levels, and life skills.” Kristof, another year 12, adds: “I learnt a lot from the four weeks as I got advice that I never had before. For example, when we went to the AXA investment bank it gave me a very clear perspective on how to achieve anything we want in life no matter whether it is saving money, getting a job, or just becoming a better human being because the main idea is that we have to start as early as possible. This concept created an even more interesting ideology for me about A- level, so that I will begin to study my subjects in the summer, especially Maths and Geography, therefore in September I will be able to make my short term goals. Some people said to me that maybe it is too early, but I must stick with the fact that "It is much better to be way ahead, than way behind". Another essential thing that I got out of this programme is to work effectively as a team and also to be an effective team leader and organiser. As a result of this, in the future, I will never be scared of any interviews and it will be pleasure to speak in front of any audience regardless from how many people are watching me.