WILLIAM ELLIS SCHOOL NEWS July 2019 The last week of the summer term saw the boys off timetable for our final Deep Learning Day (DLD) of the year “More in Common”, with the message hope not hate, co-ordinated by Mr Pratt and Ms Conway. Groups were put into houses, giving a mixture of ages to work together, rather than form groups. An image from New Zealand earlier this year after an attack on a mosque. During DLD boys in Year 7 concluded the Oracy project they have been working on over the school year with Mr Singleton and Ms Neve. The project was filmed and will be edited into a Camden’s Oracy Hub film which will be shared with other schools and our parents later in the year. WILLIAM ELLIS SCHOOL NEWS July 2019 AWARDS EVENING The annual Awards Ceremony on Thursday was the final external event of the school year. It was great to celebrate the achievements of our students and share their delight in winning awards. WILLIAM ELLIS SCHOOL NEWS July 2019 GRAND OPENING OF THE WILLIAM ELLIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE Founder’s Day this year saw a gathering of guests, familes, staff and local press to see the official opening of the new William Ellis Performing Arts Centre. The ribbon was cut by Ms Georgia Gould, Leader of Camden Council and governor at the school along with Fiona Millar our Chair of Governors. There was a tour of the new music and drama rooms with boys performing dance and music for the visitors. WESPA provided refreshments throughout the event and followed up with a Summer Social. Thank you to WESPA and Mr Forbat, Head of Music and Mr Pratt, Head of Drama for rehearsing the boys to put on an excellent show and to WESPA for their support. The WESPA summer raffle was drawn at the end of the evening by Mr White. There were some lovely prizes donated and quite a lot of money raised. The new building demonstrates the school’s commitment to the arts which has been sadly lost at many schools. WILLIAM ELLIS SCHOOL NEWS July 2019 LaSWAP Drama Production – Blood Wedding, RADA 8th & 9th July Sarah O’Keefe from La Sainte Union School was instrumental in organising a whole LaSWAP consortium play at RADA this month. WILLIAM ELLIS SCHOOL NEWS July 2019 As well as the actors, students were involved in all aspects of the production - from stage management (costume changes, setting stage and props) to designing costumes and sets and posters, programmes and tickets and producing. Sam White said: “What a fantastic production! Colleagues if you can, I really recommend going to see the LaSWAP production of Blood Wedding at the RADA studios. (Goodge Street, 2 minutes). A sharp, energetic and impassioned performance. Very relevant to today - an urbanised rural tragedy with humour. Excellent, polished performances from all the across the consortium. Cast includes Pablo and Adam Congratulations to cast and crew. WILLIAM ELLIS SCHOOL NEWS July 2019 Get to it - you won’t regret it!” LaSWAP Volunteering Trip to UGANDA For the 10th year running, Mr Mangham took a group of students to Uganda, accompanied this year by Ms Kreizman, to continue volunteering with the charity, The Great Generation, in the rural area of Jinga a few hours away from Kampala by road. As usual the school community helped raise money for goats to be bought during the visit to be given personally to the locals so that they can have a supply of fresh milk and also breed the goats to provide an income to pay for school fees. Schools are not free in Uganda and families not only have to pay for their children to go to school but also for a school uniform. This takes a large proportion of their income. The volunteers help with different projects such as building/stocking libraries, making playgrounds, painting classrooms and teaching. Students receive a warm welcome WILLIAM ELLIS SCHOOL NEWS July 2019 . Mr Mangham and students hard at work and of course a goat! The Year 12 activities were supposed to be rounded off with a LaSWAP 5 a side football competition at ABS. Teams were to include both boys and girls – encouraged by the success of the Lionesses but alas it had to be postponed. Let’s hope the momentum can be kept up for for a competition next term. LaSWAP Sports and Training Programme Lee Davis, the NVQ Officer of London Borough of Camden, based at Talacre where many of our LaSWAP students are based, sent the following message along with a long list of awards and statistics: “A special thank you to the team, LaSWAP and partners for their contribution in helping these young people make the best possible start to their careers within the sports, play and educational industries. Here are some extra stats since September 2005: Over 5000 voluntary hours, engaged 267 young people aged 16-19 years of age, 84 females have engaged with the programme, within the last 8 years 38 students enrolled have had either Education Health Care plans or have required access arrangements due to Special education needs, 489 Edexcel NVQ qualifications gained, 349 sports accredited qualifications gained, 472 NGB awards at L1 or above, 180 new jobs for students ………Our ‘Fiona Brown Award’ who so sadly passed away a couple of years’ ago will be jointly awarded to Blake J and Stanley S. WILLIAM ELLIS SCHOOL NEWS July 2019 Our ‘most improved award’ is awarded to Bradley H, fantastic performance from this young man!” Ellis Alumni Every term we receive unexpected visits or telephone calls from ex-students – “Old Elysians” and it is great to hear their stories of their time at William Ellis. Sometimes a query comes up about our school history. We do have an archive but it is not always easy to find a reference to someone in one of the many old newsletters/programmes we have. Recently we had a contact from a BBC radio producer who was interested in finding out about an Old Elysian for a documentary he was working on. “I am currently making a documentary about the life of a man named Arthur James "Jimmy" Jewell. He was a top-level football referee in the 1930s, taking charge of the 1938 FA Cup final as well as a game at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, but unusually later became a football manager with Norwich City, and then the BBC's first regular television football commentator after the Second World War. He also served in the air force in both world wars. The reason I am writing to you is that I believe he attended your school as a boy - I have found this newspaper profile from 1938 which suggests as much:” One of our Old Elysians, and compiler of our archive, Christopher Willey, kindly found some information about “Jimmy” and his war service on HMS Victory. We are most grateful to Chris, who now lives in Devon, but continues to be called on by the school for help in such matters. It was great to find out about another Old Elysian who had gone on to live a very interesting life. For more recent ex-students, we continue to work with the Future First alumni network and we display their posters around the school showing ex-students and details of their current employment. Hugh Teesdale, a more recent leaver, got in touch from New Zealand where he is taking a gap year playing cricket. WILLIAM ELLIS SCHOOL NEWS July 2019 Sustainers/Climate Change In response to many of the students, staff and our local authority concerns about sustainability and climate change, Ms Conran, Ms Cockcroft, Mr Pomeyie, Mrs Seeburn and Mr White have met together and will work with a group of students (Sustainers) to make a plan to help make the school more environmentally friendly in future. Additionally, Mr Pomeyie has been encouraging staff to take a small action to change their behaviour. He wrote to staff: “A small TV left on standby uses 1 watt an hour, so it uses 1kWh for every 1000 hours it is on. Currently 1kWh from one of the big 6-energy company costs 14 pence. It would be great if we all get into the habit of SWITCHING SCREENS OFF FROM STANDBY at the plug. A simple flick of the switch can make a small difference to school’s bills and the environment. Globally, lots of small differences can make a big difference!” There has been an all staff briefing, meetings of the Sustainers group with Camden and the leader of Camden Council and some ideas about a way forward have been agreed. The new term will see the school no longer providing plastic cups in the canteen and a greater emphasis on recycling. Further details will be shared next term as the plan progresses. The Mill There was another successful working weekend at the Mill in June to get it ready for Year 7 camp with the tents set up and the stream cleaned out amongst the many jobs tackled. WILLIAM ELLIS SCHOOL NEWS July 2019 The Mill has just received planning permission to build an open barn which will provide useful shelter for groups at the Mill when it is raining. Some parents have asked about coming along to working weekends with children and the logistics of this is being investigated. The next working weekend will be in October and details will be shared nearer the time. Careers and Networking Mr Parry, Ms Lane and Mr Wharton have provided many opportunities throughout the term for boys to consider their career choices and meet with professionals from many fields.