Chestnut News Date: 29 Jan 2016 Issue No: 29

MESSAGE FROM THE HEADTEACHER

Dear Parents

STEM

Yesterday morning Mr Ting took a group of students to a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) programming and computing event at the Royal Institution. This was a fantastic opportunity for our students and the fact that they were all girls demonstrates our commitment to ensuring that more of our girls are encouraged to pursue careers in STEM subjects. Not only was the day incredibly enjoyable for all concerned, but we featured on the ITV news and were trending 3rd globally on Twitter. Please check #girlsinstem. Thank you to Mr Ting for organising this event and for giving our students the opportunity to participate in such a prominent event. We have a very active STEM club in school, which is run by Ms Barnett and Mr Stokes, please encourage your children to get in touch with them if they are interested in getting involved.

Priority School Building Programme

Next week marks the long-awaited started of our new build programme. The construction company Kier will arrive on site on Monday and will begin preparing the site for the demolition of the old sixth form block. I will keep you updated about the building programme throughout the construction process through the newsletter which you will continue to receive every two weeks.

Bomb scares

You will be aware from recent news items that there has been a spate of bomb scares at local secondary and primary schools. I would like to take this opportunity to reassure you that these have been treated as hoaxes or malicious communications by the police and have not had any credibility as serious bomb threats. Every incident will be treated on its own merit and we have robust protocols in place should such a threat be received by Chestnut Grove Academy. In the event of the school being evacuated it is likely that the police would need to search the building and therefore, I would have to send students home before the end of the school day, possibly without their belongings. I have drafted a letter which I would issue to all students enabling them to travel free of charge on Buses. It might also be wise for you to have contingency plans in place .

Mr C Kingsley Headteacher CHESTNUT GROVE ACADEMY STUDENTS IMPRESS LONDON MPS

On Thursday 21st, January Chestnut Grove sixth form students travelled with Mr Taylor to central London to attend a select and highly exclusive drinks reception held at the London Capital Club, near Bank station.

The guest speakers for the event were the Rt Hon Mark Field, MP for the Cities of London and Westminster, and Dr Tania Mathias, MP for Twickenham, who spoke on the theme of This Government’s Priorities and the Economy, under Chatham House rules.

Hearing two MPs speaking candidly and being in a position to probe them with incisive questioning, was a fantastic opportunity for the students, who responded brilliantly by asking searching questions on topics as diverse as Britain’s need for more social housing, whether the notion of ‘one-nation’ conservatism was dead, whether the Conservative party had a strategy for dealing with an ageing population and whether opportunity only exists for the academically successful.

The evening ended with the requisite glad-handing of the assembled great and the good, but the learning experience and insight into how politics happens was immeasurable for this group of sixth formers. All guests commented on the quality of our students, on their mental agility and their ability to articulate their views in an unfamiliar, and fairly daunting, setting.

Well done to those who attended and gave such a positive impression of the Chestnut Grove community.

Mr Taylor Assistant Head/Head of Sixth Form

Pictured left to right: (Back row) Cedric Akrong (Head Boy), Jacques McClean, Ephraim Conteh. (Middle row) Orla McBride, Chloe Burridge, Dr Tania Mathias MP, Sara Aouane (Head Girl).

LONDON INDOOR YOUTH ROWING

On Thursday 21st January, 12 students, from Year 7 and 8 represented Chestnut Grove at the Row 4 Results London Indoor Youth Rowing Competition. This year’s competition was held at the London Sea Life Centre, which gave the students involved the opportunity to explore the aquarium before the event.

In preparation for the competition, we had the opportunity to take part in two training sessions given by experienced London Youth Rowing members. In these sessions they covered basic technique and students had the opportunity to race competitively. The equipment provided for these training sessions was a linked system of eight rowing machines, connected to a big screen. To replicate the experience of the main competition for our students who have had no previous experience of indoor rowing. The competition involved individual races, where every students’ distanced covered was recorded and went towards a team total. Year 7 students rowed for two minutes, and Year 8 students for three minutes. This made every students’ final distance vitally important for the overall team score. The students showed great resilience and determination in maintaining their effort levels in all races trying to gain every extra metre for the team total, even when not in contention for the race lead. Once all 12 students had raced, we nervously waited for the results, many of the students felt initial disappoint in their performances as we had not won many races! When the results were announced this disappointment soon changed, as Chestnut Grove had placed second, being only 26 meters behind the eventual winners. This was a great performance for a group of students who have only had two sessions using indoor rowing machines.

With a second place finish, unfortunately we did not qualify for the national finals as a team. The coaches from London Youth Rowing were very impressed with the performances of the team as a whole and noted some remarkable performances of some individuals. Our second place finish has given the opportunity for the coaches to return with their indoor rowing equipment to run another session, giving students the opportunity to attempt to qualify for the national competition as individuals. Following on from the success, London Youth Rowing will provide the opportunity for students to have an experience of an on-water rowing session later in the summer term.

Mr. Tobin Head of Physical Education

FOOTBALL BEYOND BORDERS

Believe in yourself and hard work: this was the message from this week from ’s World Cup star Lianne Sanderson as she sat for an interview with 9 Turner Debra from Football Beyond Borders. Sanderson gives excellent advice about believing in yourself and chasing your dreams. A confident Debra started the interview well, getting Lianne to cheekily admit she only came to the interview for the chance meet Debra. Check out the rest of the interview below.

Football Beyond Borders is an organisation that uses football to help young people in London. Debra was rewarded for consistently practicing FBB values.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je4GjRdsYZw CHESTNUT GROVE MAKES THE NATIONALS WITH THEIR PRIDE CAKE!

Chestnut Grove students competed during Anti-Bullying Week to create a rainbow cake in aid of Educate and Celebrate, an LGBT charity that seeks to educate young people about rights for all. Our students produced a range of outstanding cakes and a small group of students secured a place in the finals. They will have to make a cake live in front of an audience at Urswick School in Hackney. The theme this year is LGBT History and the cakes will be judged on originality and the ‘wow’ factor.

LGBT History Month is a month-long annual observance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans history and the campaigns that have taken place, and continue to take place, to secure human rights for all. This half term, Chestnut Grove students will be learning about LGBT history and wearing badges to raise awareness. Our LGBT society, called ‘Embrace the Rainbow’, is run by Sixth Former Mia Burgess and takes place every Wednesday. We are proud to announce that Mia has recently been nominated for Wandsworth Young Person of the Year for her work in this field.

Jo Taylor ‘EDUCATE AGAINST HATE’ GOVERNMENT ADVICE

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan presented a new government website last week called ‘Educate Against Hate,’ comprising of advice for parents and teachers on how to protect children from radical views. She promoted the site in a speech she gave last week at Bethnal Green Academy, an East London school that has been working hard to promote best practice in this area, since 4 girls from the school left for Syria. The site offers guidance from different charities including the NSPCC.

Extremism comes in many different forms and can be defined as a form of violence, or a situation in which people hold violent views, that serve to further a political ideology. At Chestnut Grove, we recognise that young people may be vulnerable to pressure to adopt views that might be deemed radical or extreme. Protecting children is paramount at the school and, as such, students learn about different factors that can make someone vulnerable to gang involvement, sexual exploitation and extremist ideologies. Students in all year groups consider issues of identity and belonging, how to discern propaganda and recognise that the media may be biased, and how to respond to others with kindness and respect. This year we have already focused on disability, race and LGBT awareness in our ‘Equality Focus of the Half Term’ campaign and will consider issues of gender, immigration and belief for the remainder of the year.

Any parents who are concerned about these issues or the safety of their child or peers in general should contact the school safeguarding officers: Ms Jackson or Ms Jolley. For more details of our health curriculum, where these issues are discussed in depth, please contact Ms Jo Taylor.

Ms Jo Taylor

PERFORMING ARTS

‘We’re all in this together!’

On Friday 22nd January we had well over 100 students to learn the audition material for High School Musical (This summer’s musical). It was great fun and we know you’ve been practising hard!

We will audition on 28th January so watch this space for updates on who we cast.

The show will be from 28th-30th June and we are always on the lookout for parent helpers! Thank you

Our sincere thanks to Alfie and George Clayton’s family for the fabulous donation of a set of timpani!

Our sincere thanks to the Banasiak family for their generous donation of a violin! We are so grateful for the musical donations we have been receiving – thank you all so much!

Stunning Evening of Dance

Thank you so much to all of our fantastic dancers who performed on 21st January 2016. You really did provide a fitting send-off to Ms Crawford, who is soon to go on maternity leave. The dance show was also a welcome to our new dance teacher, Ms Hodkinson; we are so pleased to have you on board and thank you for all of your help.

Our dancers performed an evening of self-choreographed pieces; a range of ages performed, from Year 7 to 11. The evening centred on GCSE performances and we were truly blown away by the standard and power of your work. You were a credit to the school and we were immensely PROUD of you. You completely encapsulated the ‘creative’ part of our Learning community. Well done ladies and gentlemen. In need of a venue...

If you know of a good venue with excellent ‘footfall’ then the community choir wants to hear about it! We are on the lookout for a venue for a performance – around the middle of April. We would like to perform for around 40minutes. If you have any contacts then please email me on [email protected]. We are also still on the lookout for new members, thank you to those who have already decided to come along. We are now opening the call to Year 13 students to welcome them into ‘The Voice of the Grove’.

Date for the diary

Spring Concert is on 23rd March this year.

Reminder

All students who are in receipt of peri lessons should be attending the relevant clubs. Singers should be in at least one choir, string players in string group, brass in brass group and / or jazz band etc. It is part of the reciprocal relationship between the school and your children.

For regular updates on what is happening / where we’re performing etc. Please follow us @CGAPerformers

STEM ENGINEERING CLUB

There was a superb turnout from the Year 9s for the first meeting of our STEM Engineering Club, with about 40 signing up to take part. SHAKESPEARE’S SCHOOLS FESTIVAL

Well done to the students involved in Shakespeare School Project and Rose Theatre Kingston. Here is the review from the organisers of our play. SHAKESPEARE’S SCHOOLS FESTIVAL CHESTNUT21

The time has come to start collecting those Sainsbury’s Active Kids Vouchers once more! Last year we did not start collecting until the end of March and we collected over 22,000 vouchers. This year we have an additional 2 months so I’m sure we can improve on that!

We will collect the vouchers in ‘houses’ (Turner, Kapoor, Kahlo, Blake, Da Vinci and Hepworth) and we will award 100 house points for the most collected each month. Vouchers can either be put in the box in reception (please make sure they are bundled together in an envelope or bag and the house name is clearly written somewhere), or handed to your form tutor.

At the end of the scheme (end of May 2016) we will then award the house points for the overall amounts collected – 600 for the most and 100 for the least.

The vouchers will then be ‘spent’ by the sports department, and for equipment for the new Food Technology Room and for the LSA teaching kitchen.

LAST YEAR WE MANAGED TO GET £3000 WORTH OF EQUIPMENT – LETS SEE IF WE CAN MAKE IT MORE!

Thanks Sharon – [email protected]

ART SPECIALISTS

This term, the Year 8 art specialists have been working on a cross-curricular project with the English department in collaboration with the British Library.

The project is focused on the old English epic poem: Beowulf. Students studied the story within the poem, alongside researching the enlightened manuscripts from this time. They then developed their own designs based on this research.

At the same time, students learnt about clay building techniques which they then used to build a large- scale coil pot. Using the designs created, students embellished the surface of their pots using a latex resist and glaze process.

As an extension to this project, which underlines the importance of institutions such as the British Library, they embarked in a new activity: book binding.

They selected some of their designs and together with sewing a small booklet they learnt how to create a multi-layered cardboard cover.

Mr Vannini and Ms Egan This term, Year 7 Turner’s theme is ‘Re-creating landscape’. They have worked on a three-dimensional project, depicting the universe, in order to learn about how to create a sense of depth, altering scale in relation to fore, middle and background.

Their final outcomes are a stop-motion animation and photographic print.

Mr Vannini and Ms Robinson HOUSE NEWS KAHLO

Last week we were able to celebrate the attendance successes of the house and handed out certificates for 96%+ attendance and 100% attendance. Kahlo remains consistent for top attendance in the school and I hope we continue increasing as we near the half term. A special mention to 11 Kahlo who have increased their overall attendance by 2%; it has had a brilliant impact on their mock results, which were promising!

We also listened to David Bowie’s ‘Let’s Dance’ in assembly. All year groups had an assembly delivered by Ms Gostling about the significance of Bowie as part of cultural change in Britain and the importance of celebrating differences in each other.

Ms Fisher

DA VINCI

Ms Verber

BLAKE

Congratulations to the top students in Blake for Vivo points. I am thrilled to see their efforts being recognised.

1. Blais, Thea , 413 2. Fitzgerald, Callum, 369 3. Casino, Samuel, 339 4. Speed, Mimi, 311 5. Perez, Renzie, 303 6. Adams, India, 298 7. Williams, Akhera, 297 8. Tovell Barry, Willow, 295 9. Bissessar, Mikael, 294 10. Velakkadan, Mohammed Shibil, 287

Keep up the good work! Ms Robinson KAPOOR

Students in Kapoor have made a very good start to the new year! Uniform is being worn correctly - top button done up, tie to the top, shirt tucked in leather school shoes and wearing a black coat only. If students are not wearing correct uniform students will be sent home to change of find. Parents maybe requested to bring missing part of uniform to school - IT’S ALL ABOUT PROPER PREPARATION FOR SCHOOL - LETS DO IT RIGHT!

As the weather becomes colder, students are encouraged to wear a base later under their House T- shirt and/or wear the School wet weather jacket with logo or a plain black wet weather jacket.

School JUMPERS or COATS are not allowed.

Attendance is very good across the House. Punctuality could be better! I would like to see this improve especially in 11 Kapoor as every minute in school is crucial at this stage!

Remember ‘together we aspire together we achieve’

Ms Fletcher

HEPWORTH

Well done to Leianna Grant in 8 Hepworth who auditioned for the West End Kids Song and Dance group and got a place! West End Kids is an elite song & dance troupe which exists to provide “on the job” Musical Theatre training, and to develop exceptionally talented singers and dancers from throughout the UK with a view to gaining places on full-time performing arts courses and who are considering professional careers. We are all very proud of Leianna’s achievement and wish her good luck with this!

Mr Wildman