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 2nd March 2018 ISSUE NO: 356 Head’s Corner This has been a hectic and special week, in many different ways. On Tuesday, I had the pleasure of hosting my Module 2 Headteacher’s Reception at break-time in the library. This is an enjoyable occasion when I provide treats for a group of students in all years who have shown outstanding effort in the previous module. This means that they have often got “1” for their effort grade. I asked the students to think about what guidance or tips they would share with everyone else and here is a sample of what they said: Always remember that grades will affect your future career Practice, practice, practice Try to sit with people who will be a good for you, not just your friends Don’t have a fixed mindset – have a growth mindset. Believe in yourself and motivate yourself At least try – if you don’t, you won’t get anywhere If you’re struggling with any subject, see the teacher after school Always think of your parents and what they want for you Congratulations to the following students for their outstanding effort: Year 7: Abdulahi Abdulle. Siddiqa Ali, Hanim Atmali, Nicholas Basoa, Nilsu Dzhanbazoglu, Marta Laukyte, Eshal Malik, Tiago Monteiro Dias Rodrigues, Felix-Nicolae Savin, Leonard-Valentin Toma, Year 8: Sabtayn Abbas, Yagmur Abdal, Mohammad Alibhai, Maria Baraboi, Melvin Chandrashekar, Alexandru Ciudin, Filip Ghita, Wiktoria Lagocka, Olivia Omard Aysen Polat, Year 9: Sultan Ali, Erica Assuffi, Branden Dervish, Gheorghe Enache, Rhianna Leclerc, Krisztina Mari, Soraia Monteiro, Florin Popescu, Madalina Stancu, Emilian Vaduva, Year 10: Iqra Abbas, Abdurahman Ahmed, Rachael Atuonwu, Malachi Joseph-Bailey, Hubert Kaliszewski, Sameer Khan, Gelito Mata, Hisham Munye, Catalina Popescu, Tudor Sula, Year 11: Suliman Ahmadi, Ashley Campbell, Klaudia Depczynska, Przemyslaw Gwadera, Samiyah Hussain, Weronika Lewandowska, Alexandra Mari, Oliwier Mikosinski, Adriana Rusu, Atanas Yanchev, We have also had the range of creative events mentioned later in the newsletter by Mr Daintry. As a fan of jazz, I was particularly thrilled to welcome the inspirational jazz orchestra from New York! It was a rare treat for our students, seeing such talented young musicians in our school who also perform on stage at very prestigious venues like the Barbican and the Lincoln Center in New York. We also hope that the students enjoyed the attempts of staff to transform themselves into fictional characters for World Book Day on Thursday. Photos and results of the competition to follow! The next round of exams have got underway for Year 11 students, and they are now showing their resilience in facing up to the challenges of GCSE. Year 12 and 13 start their next exams on Monday 5th March. Good luck to everyone! For Year 8, the process of choosing options for Key Stage 4 got underway this week. This will continue with information from subject staff in lessons and assemblies, meetings with SPLs and senior staff in Tutorials, an Options Handbook and then be concluded on the Options Evening on 15th March (4-7pm). In order to ensure staff are well-prepared for that event, school will close early for all students at 2.30pm on 15th March. And finally, of course, we have all had the Beast From The East and Storm Emma to deal with this week. Lammas has shown our resilience by remaining open in difficult circumstances, with the support of our staff who made extraordinary efforts to get into work, and our site team who worked very hard to keep the site and building safe, dry and warm. I have put together a collection of photographs taken this week for you to enjoy. Have a restful and safe weekend. Shona Ramsay Headteacher Attendance 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 RED 22 113 Red 1- 97.5% 94% YELLOW 28 110 Yellow 2- 98.5% 94.9% GREEN 22 107 Green 1- 96.1% 93.2% BLUE 22 105 Blue 6 – 96.3% 93.3% BLACK 23 104 Black 1– 98.6% 93.3% 117 539 93.7% Still 0.3% off a whole-school attendance figure of 94%!!!! Our elite ‘Blue BRAG’ group of students (those with 100% attendance since their start date or the start of the year) continues to be fairly stable. 117 of you remain in the elite group. Those of you who have maintained 100% attendance since the start of the academic year should now have earnt yourself 15 merits, well done! If you continue this into Module 3 you will earn a further 15 merits!!!! Here is a round-up of last week’s attendance successes!!!!! 1) Black 1 is the winner of the title for the best overall attendance percentage last week with a fantastic 98.6%!! Well done to you and your tutor Ms Chirimuuta! 2) Red Team are the title holders for the most students with 100% attendance last week with a very impressive 113 students! Well done Red Team! 3) Yellow Team are still the winners of the title for the Team with the highest number of 100% attendees since the start of the year with 28 students! Well done Yellow Team!!! BUT…. The title for BEST TEAM ATTENDANCE since the start of the academic year is also STILL Yellow Team with an attendance figure of 94.9% Congratulations yet AGAIN Yellow Team and Mr Heatly!!! Well done to you all; students and tutors too!!! It’s about time we mentioned all the fantastic yellow team tutors who are working hard with the students in tutorial: Ms Folkes, Ms Bham, Ms O’Riordan, Ms Hogben, Mr Layton, Ms Argyle, Mr Khurshid, Mr Williamson and Mr Sharma! Thank you! 100% Outstanding 96-99% Good 91-95% Requires Improvement <90% Cause for Concern Find out more about your responsibilities as a parent/ carer with regard to your child’s/ childrens’ attendance at: https://www.gov.uk/school-attendance-absence Behaviour Charter and High Expectations I am delivering our new ‘Behaviour Charter’ in assemblies this week so here is a reminder of our new classroom and corridor code of conduct. As usual I am calling upon the Lammas Team spirit to ensure that our expectations are met and a friendly, family atmosphere reigns in our school. Internet safety An important message to parents and carers regarding the internet game ‘Roblox’: Children have enjoyed playing ROBLOX since 2011 where they can create characters and play in open online worlds which are also created by its users. The app specifies that a kid-friendly chat system limits the amount of engagement younger players have with strangers. However, as with all social networks, it does not eliminate engagement with strangers and children often receive friend requests from people they do not know. Kent police raised concerns about ROBLOX after speaking with children in schools and finding that most of them had not told their parents about friends they have on ROBLOX. They also told Kent police that they had received many in game messages and had spoken to strangers via their headset and they had not told their parents. Many children also said their accounts were ‘maxed-out’, meaning they have 200 online friends. MESSAGE TO PARENTS We advise every parent to: Check their child’s ROBLOX account, as well as any other online games that they play. Check that their online friends are known. Speak with your child about staying safe online and monitor their usage. Parents, raise any concerns with your school. More information For more information and advice for parents and carers go to - https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/advice- centre/parents-and-carers Young people can find advice here - https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/advice-centre/young-people Safeguarding In Tutorials this Module all students are learning about Mental Health, its impact and the stigmas associated with it. In support of this work, please see the advisory poster below for support and guidance on how best to deal with mental health concerns… Sixth Form News After the introduction of PIXL Independence last half term, Sixth Form students have been completing independent learning on a weekly basis. The students are able to choose what type of learning they do and pick the level of learning. The tasks and learning is related to a certain number of credits but they all must do a minimum of 100 credits per week. For the past 4 weeks, students have been involved in the PIXL Independence League 2018 and after a student voice meeting it was agreed that we would reward the top 5 students with the highest amount of credits on a half termly basis. We also agreed that we would award a weekly spot prize! The results are in for the previous half term and our PIXL Independence Champions are: 1. Sibghah Khan 800 Points 2. Nicoly Azevedo de Oliveira 750 Points 3. Martin Fanev 640 Points 4. Airidas Biliunas 600 Points 5. Yuzhao Cao 560 Points Well done to them – They all received £10.00 Westfield Voucher! Spot prizes went to the following students for completing the highest number of credits in one week: Sibghah Khan with 500 in a week and Kacper Cybulski with 300. The race is now on for the PIXL Independence League 2018 round two! Good luck to ex-student Halime Kamber who has been shortlisted by Lammas School and Sixth Form for “Love Your Borough – Young Citizen of the Year Award”.