Ark Academy’s Official Magazine Summer #18
OUR VOICE
Welcome... Dear All, It has been the busiest year ever as reflected in this summer edition of Civitas which has so many elements that exemplify the sheer range of what Ark Academy does. The title also reflects the many ways we have used ‘Our Voice’ this term and this year from debating (congratulations to our Key Stage 3 debaters at the English Speaking Union) to expressing our voice on the referendum to using our voice in the many languages we proudly speak. Of course, it has also been the first y ear o f o ur s ixth f orm and the year we opened a brand new building, so very special and exciting. The sixth form have settled in so well and have worked extremely hard. I would particularly like to thank Mr Fairbairn for his sterling
work in leading our sixth form over the year. We all wish him every success in his move to headship. We now wait with bated breath for their first set of results alongside our second set of GCSE results; it will be a long summer wait for some. As we wrap up the year we have some other fond farewells to make. Mr Kirkman has been here since the very beginning of Ark Academy and has been a key founding member of our school. He has contributed in so many ways from leading the English department to his role on the senior team. So we wish him all the very best in his new post working with Teach First. Best wishes to all students, parents and staff for a really excellent summer break.
Delia Smith PRINCIPAL
Dear readers, Welcome to the 18th edition of the wonderful ‘The Civitas’ magazine. It’s now the third edition I’ve worked on and I must say it’s been a once in a life time opportunity. Thank you for reading the magazine! Dawid Soltysik GRAPHIC EDITIOR
It’s been an exciting term for our new Prefect Civitas Editors, pioneering their pieces in this summer edition! They are really excited to report this term’s news. With the house drama competition and debating events as well as the events of Sports Day, this issue is action packed for your enjoyment. We hope you enjoy reading this terms magazine. HAPPY HOLIDAYS! From Left to Right... Sara Arybou Paul Hirlav Shannon Lee Matthew Osei Khatra Hassan Joel Agyekum Anugraha Das Thanks to Veesha Gajjar, Jazmin Field, Amirah Al-Rashid & Alexandra Geszler
News
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Duke of Edinburgh This term the Year 10 orienteers took part in the final and most challenging task of their journey to achieving their Duke of Edinburgh Bronze award. This was an assessed expedition, involving walking for two days and camping for one night. To sum up his overall experience with D of E, Nathan said that it was “interesting, unique and stressful.”
Edited By: Alexandra Geszler & Darshil Budhia
Year 12 also took on their Silver award. Darshal said: I enjoyed D of E this time because on this one I could actually walk! I liked it because we all worked together as a group, the boys set up the tent while the girls did the cooking. When we were doing the map reading there we didn’t just have one person leading – there were 4 of us boys and all of us would take control over where to go and run it by each other. On the practice we got lost about 6 times but we didn’t get lost once this time! The weather was much nicer than our practice expedition and the area too – on our 3rd day we walked along a canal and even met folk dancers on our way! I found it easier because I had a decent pair of boots this time so the walking was less painful.
The students took part in a weekly after school enrichment run by Miss James, where participants got to “learn new skills that will be useful in the future,” as Nathan explained. This included orienteering skills, how to deal with emergency situations, and basic first aid skills, like putting on a bandage correctly and positioning and the recovery position. Students then focused on planning their journey, which included walking 11km in the countryside, whist being self-sufficient. During the expedition, a wave of panic hit when one of the groups found themselves involved in a bit of ‘beef’ with a herd of cows. A terrified Kira was “surrounded by a group of cows and a bull.” She said that “the gate was shut so I had to jump the gate to get to the other side. Happily, all four groups taking part passed - congratulations to everyone!
I was impressed with myself because we reached our destination 2 hours earlier on our second day. We planned to reach the campsite at 3.40pm but got there by 1.40pm. We all got along as a team and realized what the goal was so all worked together to achieve it.
News Professor Abrahams On May the 13th, Professor Abrahams from Warwick University kindly visited Ark Academy and gave an informative and engaging lecture on Clinical Anatomy to a selected group of talented, Year 10 PE GCSE students. It was a great chance to discover more about their bodies. Prashina said: “This gave me and the rest of my class a better understanding of muscle movement as we got to see how they worked in real life. Overall it was an extremely beneficial experience.” Such thought provoking lectures is what encourages the young developing minds of teenagers to gather interest in their chosen subjects instead of the repetitive classroom methods.
Into University Edited By: Sara Arybou
Basketball player Matthew-David Tate, said it was an: ‘amazing insight on learning about the way our muscles worked and how detailed they are’. Jamie agreed that it was ‘engaging, which helped me understand the curriculum of GCSE PE even more than before.’
On the 16th- 18th May a group of Year 9 students were selected to take part in a three-day programme that teaches leadership, skills and raises aspiration, self-esteem and motivation. Munasar, Nikhil, Musse Abdi, Maryam F and Liban learnt about teamwork, different careers, leadership and confidence. One of their favourite activities was ‘Don’t drop the ball’ where in groups of seven they had to stand in a circle and use rope attached to the ball to place the ball in the cup without dropping it. There were other activities similar to this which greatly developed their teamwork skills. Marayam learnt that ‘confidence is key’, while Nikhil said ‘Try, try, try’ and Liban now knows that ‘Leadership, confidence and creativity are the keys to success!’ All of them said that the programme made them want to start a business in the future with Nikhil declaring ‘ I definitely want to be a businessman!’
Edited By: Veesha Gajjar
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Year 9 Paris Trip As part of the MFL curriculum a selection of Year 9s were taken on a residential trip to Paris, from April the 15th to the 19th. This eye opening trip was a chance for students to familiarise themselves with French culture, and practise the skills they learnt in class. The students began their trip with a morning start and a long coach ride before boarding the Eurostar train to France and then continued their journey to Paris. The 8 hour journey was long and tiring so students were given a rest before the next day, which was when the fun began. Whilst there, students engaged in a variety of activities to challenge their French skills and broaden their understanding of the language. Through participating in a photo challenge students had to stretch their French skills to identify objects from other places and people they took pictures of. Another new experience that left the students feeling a little more sick than excited was the escargots tasting: also known as snails. Joana Hoxha said: “It was quite a weird experience tasting snails because I had always seen people eat them in movies and on tv and they didn't look very nice but when I tried them I was surprised to find they were actually alright.” Students were given the opportunity to explore the city and visit iconic monuments such as the Eiffel Tower, Cathedrals and the Parc Astérix (Amusement Park). Alexandra Bazaban was a big fan: “Parc Astérix was my favourite part about the trip as we could have fun with our friends whilst speaking French” The MFL Trip was a memorable experience that allowed the students to indulge in the luxury and beauty that Paris had to offer. It gave students the opportunity to practise their French skills and put them to use outside the classroom environment. It was mixture of both fun and educational, so a big thanks to the MFL department!
Edited By: Matthew Osei
Primary News
Year 5 Tudor Triumph One of the highlights of the summer term for the Year 5 students was their terrific Tudor performance. They worked incredibly hard to create a performance that consisted of singing, dancing and acting which was not only entertaining but described by students as ‘very educational’.
Edited By: Jazmine Field
such as ‘trying to fit in rehearsals amongst everything else going on’ and Ms Maloney said ‘you really have to stretch the children but they rose to the challenge and did such an amazing show.'
There were many aspects of the performance which students enjoyed. Both Amelia and Zahra who played Catherine of Aragon and Kathryn Howard -two of Henry VIII’s 6 wives- agreed that it was really nice that they ‘got to transform into whole new characters and experience the Tudors’. However there where not only acting roles available, Tanayah was given the role of Director and thought it was really interesting to see things from a director’s point of view. The whole performance was created in only two weeks by the wonderful Ms Capon and Ms Maloney who said they ‘did quite a lot of research around Tudor songs and cherry picked the best ones and then decided which children would deliver them in the best format’ then they used this to create a script for the performance. During the rehearsals students had a lot of fun, Amelia told us ‘there was a lot of joking around’ as well as a lot of funny lines – although there were still many people who forgot them! However, as you can imagine, creating the performance was not all fun and games, the teachers described many challenges
The differences between our society and the Tudor one was something that became apparent to many students when learning about the punishments that happened to people when they did when someone did something wrong; instead of just going to jail Zahra told us about how people could be ‘put in sacks with animals and thrown in rivers’. Overall this educational performance taught the year five students how lucky they were to live in the 21st century. Tanayah told us that ‘the Tudors had a very different life style to us and we are lucky to be born now and not then.’
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Year 6 & 7 Literacy Day It was a Year 6 & 7
literacy workshop where Theodora: It’s good to work with Year 7 so we get did lots of fun activities. to see what they’re learning in class, get used to the curriculum and timetable. They’re really nice!. Theodora said: ‘We had to decide which character from Frankenstein could stay in the balloon. I thought that Frankenstein should have stayed because although a lot of people thought he was a bad character, if he had stayed in the balloon people would have seen what he was like, which was really good.’ Cyrus said: I enjoyed mostly the comic book strips. We played a game where there were 3 slots and we had to draw a head, body and the legs so it was fun not knowing what the other students had drawn and when we unfolded them all the different combinations on the paper were really funny monsters!
Year 6 Ark Great Debate Anjani in Year 6 tells us about their successful day of arguing! ‘The first motion was: This house would ban zoos and would release all animals into the wild. Cyrus opened the debate with a powerful argument. Ark Tindal responded strongly too. We gave our summation and then it was up to the judge. Luckily he called out the winners are... ARK ACADEMY.” We celebrated discreetly, we felt awesome and jubilant. Sadly we didn’t win our 2nd debate but feedback was positive and we took our defeat maturely and congratulated the winners. Unfortunately, we were beaten by two points in our 3rd debate, but could leave with pride saying we had won our first one. We also had a workshop to improve our skills – delivered by the past world’s best debater!’ Miss Vellacott said: During the debate on ‘This house would abolish SATs’ Nimai made a notable speech attacking our opposition's argument, and was awarded a gold star from the workshop facilitator in recognition of this. The day was thoroughly enjoyed by all who participated!
Summer Rewind
First Give
Edited By: Anugraha Das By presenting in front of the judges, they have gained many skills such as public speaking. It was a very rewarding experience, especially because their team was awarded £1000. The charity used the money to enhance their provision for homeless people, their scheme provides help by ‘providing a safe home and food and also by finding jobs or new homes for the homeless.’ Jasmine said: ‘It has helped us acknowledge the situation homeless people are in and the challenges they face.
First Give was a presentation which involved different groups of students convincing the judges to give £1000 to the charity they were supporting, the winning group included Jasmine, Alexandra, Zahal and Lashbal, in Year 8. They chose to support homeless charity ‘Ashford Place’.
House Drama Lights, camera, action! On 21st of June one of the schools most spectacular events took place – House Drama competition. The celebration of the vast amount of talent that we have here at Ark was a great success. This year’s house drama competition was by far the best ever with a massive contribution from the year 7s, who have been so admirably involved this year in the schools events and have really fit in with the rest of the school. Hamza Arybou who played ‘Mr Fainty’ in Socrates’ performance said: ‘Our performance was about a student (played by Hadeal in 7 Truth) who doesn’t do well in school but becomes inspired and changes her life. It was really fun to perform.’ The competition consisted of three other performances, Curies performance called Narkolepsy, Annie performed by Newton and The Wiz performed by winning house Plato which was truly a fan favourite., The audience were laughing, smiling and were really into it.
There were quite a lot of young people and it made us realise that in a few years time we could be in that position. So we really want to help them now while we can.’ By doing this presentation the groups have learned many things, including the privileges they have and the value of assisting others who need it. Edited By: Sara Arybou
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Ark Speaks
On Friday 22nd April, 4 teams of Ark students put their advocacy skills to the test as they competed against one another, in Ark Speaks – the challenging inter-House debating competition. Each team represented their house and competed in a bid to win house points. It was held in Ark Academy’s new sixth form and the event was electrifying. The first rounds of the lower school debate competition saw students tackle the motion “immigration is overwhelming Britain”. Curie and Plato house took a firm stance against the motion and made some effective arguments, their main focus being that “foreign doctors were vital in British hospitals”. Whereas the opposing
London Debate
London’s Debate Challenge was a triumph for Ark Academy’s debate team. The team comprised Nadia and Joana in Year 9 and Elisha, Meesha and Bipanshu in Year 8. They won their borough heat in Brent against Kingsbury and Ark Elvin. The interesting motions they prepared for, included “This house would abolish trial by jury” The team presented their arguments in an adroit manner – with both effect and passion and on Monday 4th July were invited back to compete in the grand finale at Dartmouth house, the headquarters of the English speaking union. The team faced ambitious competition from schools including Moss Bourne Community Academy. It’s here where Meesha believes she learnt the most from watching the other debaters present arguments with such confidence and conviction and from Ark’s team said she enjoyed Bipanshu the most as he ‘brought the sass!’ Nadia expressed how proud she was and added “at first we were worried about the competition but we then realized that we had actually improved to that level as well!”. The final saw Ark compete against the fierce Tiffin Girls High school , debating the motion ‘ This house would ban advertising aimed at kids’ Ths was an electric round but sadly Ark finished in 2nd place.
Edited By: Katra Hassan teams, Newton house and Socrates house where in favour of the motion and argued that the scale and speed of immigration was beginning to “put a strain on essential public services”.
Summer Rewind
GCSE Art Exhibition Rocks The annual Art Exhibition is upon us and the teachers of Ark Academy were really proud of the fantastic our GCSE Art & DT students produced. The qualities and skills the students produced were fantastic! Interestingly, this year the attendees of the exhibition were exposed to many interesting pieces by the GCSE students, focusing on the themes of identity, connection and time. Noor Balash commented on her experience of the demanding art GCSE course and admits that “at first it was difficult to juggle all the work for my other GCSE subjects. However, I found the GCSE art insightful as I was able to explore a subject that I love in depth.” Moreover, Mr Matsangouras, art teacher, mentioned Alex’s piece: a painting of a goat's head, which was used as the artwork for the exhibition's promotional material. Mr Matsangouras said that “the reason this stood out to me is because Alex has a condition which makes him see colour different to the rest of us. This often results in him unintentionally using surreal and psychedelic colour themes into his paintings which have now become part of his style." Furthermore, DT technician Miss Whittaker noted that: 'It's so nice to see the students' work in an exhibition setting.” She commended Daniel Hunt as a stand out saying: “his final piece that was a water feature in the shape of a well, which turned out brilliantly and his folder work was incredible.” Ali Alaliaoui, graphics and art GCSE student believes that: “the skills that I developed in art were versatile and this helped me because I was able to adapt and use in his other creative subjects.” In addition, he exclaimed his “excitement and delight as it is my first time publicly displaying my work for others to see.” Edited By: Heba Musharrat
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A Prom Night to Remember Prom season is upon us once more as schools gets ready to close their doors for the summer. 25th of June 2016 was certainly an unforgettable, and truly magnificent experience for the Year 11s. The Ark leavers partook in a bittersweet exchange of dance moves and laughs that emphasised the sadness of those who will be leaving some of their life-long friends as they go their separate ways. The Crown Hotel was exposed to the very well dressed students who were able to let their hair down at the end of year prom. The girls arrived in a variety of glamorous gowns, with the boys equally smart in their suits and tuxedos; all were prepared to party the night away and make it one to remember whilst enjoying each other’s company for the last time together as an entire year group. Dressed to the nines, the young men and women made sure they made the most of their well-deserved night after working hard for their GCSE exams. Jake and Ali both mentioned how ‘underrated’ and ‘unexpected’ it was. The boys also emphasised that “it was the best night of our lives so far” and that “although unfortunately some people could not attend, it was still brilliant.” However they mentioned that “they do not regret the cost of the
suits, makeup and entry ticket as it was all worth it”. The organisers Tia, Kandice and Jamelia were congratulated for their amazing efforts in creating such a night to remember. Tia noted that “although it was a long and tedious process to find the venue that everyone agreed with, it still paid off and rewarding to see everybody enjoying and celebrating their successes.” We will be eager to see how 2017’s batch of Year 11s surprise us and if they can outshine this year’s cohort.
Sixth Form Dear Students, Parent & Careers,
The Care Bear will be missed! d lk to an sy to ta n a c u o He is ea y rate and ou have y conside if go to him d he will always n blems a ro p ra any out. - Sa m e th sort
Dear Sixth Form students and parents, It has been a truly brilliant first year for the founding members of our pioneering Sixth Form. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with every student and have been impressed with how they are rapidly developing in to responsible young adults. This term we have moved in to our new £3 million building which has exceptional facilities and state of the art equipment. It provides an excellent learning environment for pupils and supports the growth of the Sixth Form in 2016-17. So far we have had over 500 applications for next year and we are delighted to be so popular; our outstanding reputation is clearly spreading already! This term, students have been looking at what courses and universities they will apply for 2017 through a structured ‘Progress to University’ scheme of work delivered by tutors. The UCAS process will continue in the Autumn Term of Y13 so I hope all students are fully prepared for this exciting next step. On a personal note, I am sad to say I will be leaving Ark Academy this year to take a Principal position at a school in North London. I have had a wonderful time at Ark Academy and would like to take this opportunity to thank you for all the incredible hard work and support you have put in as students and parents. Have a wonderful summer – your future is in your hands!
Chris Fairbairn DIRECTOR OF SIXTH FORM
During my A levels I was really stressed out and he let me revise in his office he is just amazing. - Shadia
He’s been a very caring teacher to everyone and looked out for ade everyone. He’s m for sy ea ng hi everyt He t. en ud st y er ev makes life much y m ’s e H easier. Bilal r! He a e b r Fai ies s repl alway emails to my ryah - Maa
He i s of al the nice st ou l the t tea and he’s chers, ver enc Whe ouragin y n yo g. smil u e he need a j up! - ust pop s Ro
da
He is awesome because he is so supportive of us… and he is the best footballer that I know! - Dhruv
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Year 12 visit 10 Downing Street Our Year 12 Government and Politics group were fortunate enough to get a guided tour of one of the most influential buildings in the country. The students met and quizzed the Prime Minister’s adviser and speechwriter about his experience on the night of the historic EU referendum vote. They also spoke with him about how to pursue a career in public service and politics and the importance of work experience. Marwa said: ‘This was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Everyone I told that I was coming didn't really believe me!’
through the Rose Garden – where the Coalition Government was famously announced to the world's media. They were also actually allowed into the Cabinet Room – where the most important decisions about the future of our nation are decided. Nuradean was in awe: ‘Everything we learnt in politics was literally brought into life! It really put it into perspective.’ Ambitious Suhaib wondered: ‘So, when can I move in?’ We think Theresa May might have something to say about that Suhaib, but we like your thinking!
The lucky teens were also taken around the fascinating inside of Number 10 behind the black door. This included things such as Churchill's favourite chair, a Turner original painting, art by Tracey Emin and the book collections of different PMs. Sahil told us: “It was a privilege to learn about the history of the building and the fascinating stories about the various Prime Ministers’ Our inquisitive Sixth Formers also had a stroll Edited By: Nuradean Arreythe
Year 12 mentoring Year 2 & 6 Working with the primary school to help Year 2 and 6 students prepare for their SATs has been something the Sixth Form have been doing this year as part of our Ark Diploma. It's a great way of not only helping the younger students but it was also a great way for us older students to learn key skills such as patience, as working with younger students can be challenging at times. As a mentor you start to feel very proud of your student when you see your efforts pay off, especially when you see how much of an impact you've had with the child's maths. You look at how much they've progressed over the few weeks you'd been helping them and Edited By: Maaryah Siddiqi
you understand that the time you've given up to help has actually made a difference, it was very rewarding. Overall it's been a great experience to work with primary children and I hope they all receive the SATs results they wanted.
Sixth Form
Nietzsche’s Nepalese Niceties Nietzsche have epitomised Civitas this year by sponsoring a 9 year old Nepalese girl named Sujina. Faith and Aliyah: As a form, we found a charity called Stand By Me and we donate £2 each per month. The £20 goes towards the sponsorship and anything else we use to buy gifts to send to her. The last letter we got from her she talked about her exams and how they’re going. She’s made some new friends and is doing particularly well in her dance studies. It’s little sweet things about her everyday life and we also get Easter cards and Christmas cards.
Edited By: Aliyah Leshini - Ewing
We specifically chose Sujina because she was struggling paying for her books and pens. The money we send her goes towards her stationary, hairbands and things we take for granted that she couldn’t afford before. It has definitely brought our form together as we’ve delegated roles when it comes to Sajina and we’ve all come together for a good common goal and cause. She loves dance and English and Science so hopefully the next Nepalese dancer, writer or Scientist may be Sujina!
Around the World in 60 minutes
FFaheema: ‘I’ve learnt about other cultures and now have an idea of Bollywood dancers. I really liked Nesrine’s poem in French about her Grandad as it was emotional and nice.’ Master of Ceremonies Ammar agreed: ‘It’s a great opportunity for us to showcase who they are and what their culture is and to be open with their peers in that way. It’s especially important since we live in a multi-cultural city, Miss Paw told us: This proves how as a school we can promote and celebrate linguistic and cultural diversity and have fun at the same time.
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Ciara’s Half Marathon On Sunday 3rd July, I ran a half marathon in aid of Mind, a mental health charity. To prepare, I got up at 6am every other day for a few months to run in the mornings then did a longer 6-7 mile run on the weekends. The day before, I used it as an excuse to eat LOADS so I'd have enough energy. The most daunting part was that I'd never gone as far as 13 miles before so the race was the first time.
A marathon has been on my bucket list since Year 8, thanks to my thenform tutor, Miss Ozeke, who made me think about what I wanted to achieve by the end of school. Of course, I didn't think I'd actually fulfil it at the time which makes me even more proud to have done it. The race itself was so much fun. Their website is www.mind.org.uk
When Nuradean met Obama... I learnt that watching such an influential person speak really helped me develop as a person, because seeing someone so great and who has changed the world in such a way speak about issues that you’re facing in your real life – it really resonates with you. It helps you change yourself for the better. He talked about us as a youthful generation and how we are open to many opportunities around the globe. I’m a young person aspiring to be someone like him so it really gave me the motivation and the courage to do well in life and become something great myself. Obama answered everyone’s questions fully and not waffling, he gave us straight answers which was excellent!
Reading Uni The visit to Reading was an eye-opening experience. It not only gave an insight to what the courses would be like; it also showed me what the reality of university life on campus would be. The Ure museum of archaeology was amazing! There was a collection of artifacts from ancient Egypt and Greece which I could hold and have a closer inspection of. The most intriguing was the ram head mug. It was beautifully crafted and exuded a complicated history from Greece. Furthermore, the forensic archaeology taster lesson was very fun, interactive and engaging!
Edited By: Iqra Madni I had the pleasure of greeting the bones of a real life skeleton, along with tracking a person's origins from their sweat. However, transforming into a spy was the climax of the lesson as I revealed my finger prints on the table with a black granular powder; feeling much like James Bond. Moreover, Reading’s accommodations were excellent. The rooms were spacious, cozy and with a sufficient amount of storage space. Overall the dorm rooms were a pleasure to visit and we thoroughly enjoyed our look around the campus.
Trips & Civitas In Action
Year 12 French Trip est un succes! On the 27th of March my classmates and I met Ms Giannarou at the meeting place state in St. Pancras station to travel to Armentieres, France by Eurostar where we would stay for one week living with a French family and doing work experience. During the week, we were able to immerse ourselves within the French culture and improve our grasp of the French language. I had the opportunity to work in a bakery to improve my French. At first, it seemed really daunting, as I had to serve customers and was in charge of preparing the pastry and placing them in the oven ready for the next day. This enabled me to practise my French in a natural setting and getting used to speaking naturally using colloquial and everyday terms. On our last day we were able to spend the day in Lille before we had to get the Eurostar home. We were able to fully immerse ourselves in the French culture by experiencing the protests and riots about accommodation and how people were being unfairly evicted. To end our week in style we went to a little café where we ate mussel and chips. Not something I would ever eat again as I think that it is more of an acquired taste! For me, the trip to France didn’t just push me out of my comfort zone but catapulted me out of me. I had to grow accustomed to my surroundings quickly to benefit and make most of this once in a lifetime trip. I had to push myself over the edge to able to fulfil the true purpose of the trip. During mealtime, I would speak to my French ‘sister’ who was four years old and my French ‘mum’ about how my day was at work and about myself. At the beginning this was a hard task for me to complete, however by the end of the week, my French ‘sister’ and I were watching Disney movies in French, which exposed my undying love for Disney! Edited By: Yasmin Mahari
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Southampton University Twelve Year 10 students participated in this trip, which was designed to help students who have high potential and would be interested in attending university. This tour helped them to have a better understanding of what it entails and also to think about applying to Southampton University or any other institutions. The trip was very educational but also enjoyable for those who participated. One of the participants, Klio said ‘The visit has improved my experience and knowledge of university to help me decide about my higher education and where to apply’. Each participant gained similar experiences during the day, which consisted of many activities regarding specific subjects at university and also ways to achieve your goals. The programme started at 10:30am. First there was 30 minute introductory talk about the university and the
Your life you choose Gang. In the English Oxford dictionary this word means ‘an organised group of criminals’, however, in the day to day lives of some of the students at school it is so much more than that. A gang is not simply a group of friends causing ruckus in public places. It is generally considered to be a group of people who spend time in public places in order to see themselves as a noticeable group, and more importantly, engage in a range of criminal activity and violence. Sometimes teachers don’t understand the back story to them, the behind the scenes of what goes on in a child’s life or the reasons they behave the way they do. Now don’t get me wrong, in no way, shape or form am I justifying the actions of badly behaved students, however I do believe we all (not just teachers) need to have an insight to what students believe about gang cultures, prisons and ultimately what they believe are the right decisions to make.
Edited By: Amirah Al-Rashid & Veesha Gajjar
life of a uni student in general. Then there were great opportunities to talk with current university students and UOS alumnus, who were interesting to listen to. After the talk the schools were split up in to three groups for different workshops. There were three workshops: Engineering, Medicine and Law. Following the first workshop we had another session which included: an entrepreneurial workshop, informed choices and university admissions and employability SUSU. Following lunch, there was a campus tour and interviews with the ambassadors - the informative and friendly university students! Our final activity was to have a conversation with ambassadors about the choices we have made. Southampton University was positive, encouraging and insightful experience for all and I would recommend it.
EU Referendum Special
With the EU Referendum now behind us, and now that we are ou this once in a generation vote, as well as inform you of the statis with any party. But now, what are the views of our students? Those in the remain camp argue that Britain’s status in the world would be damaged without the support of the EU; that the flow of economic migrants fuels the UK economy and helps pay for public services. Businesses in favour see EU membership as making trade easier with other member states. I endorse those who believed that Britain should not leave the EU. According to a study by University College London, immigrants who arrived from the EU after 2000 contributed £1.34 to the U.K. economy for every £1 they took out. It is proven that the EU has had an influence on the salary of citizens within the EU; equal pay for men and women is enshrined in EU law, as are bans on discrimination by age, race or sexual orientation. This benefits Britain and British people who live in other EU countries. 350m for the NHS was one of the leave campaign’s main and most important promises, so much so that Boris Johnson and Michael Gove continually appeared on stages with it as their main backdrop. However, the morning after when all the votes had been taken in, when asked if he could guarantee that the £350m that would normally go to the EU would go to the NHS Nigel Farage stated “no I can’t” saying “it was one of the mistakes the leave campaign made”.
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ut of the European Union, we wanted to express our view on stics and numbers. These will be neutral and not affiliated As a young person it is the hostile and angry society that has surfaced from this referendum, that causes me the most concern and anxietymuch more than any result for ‘leave’ or ‘remain’ ever could. I mean call me naïve, but I thought a referendum was a means of empowering the public and giving them a voice. So it shocks me that throughout the course of this referendum we have seen people try to silence others, manipulate the respective opinions of others and ultimately just cast this grey shadow over an historic moment. We have also seen xenophobia, racism and disunity intensified in the general public and sometimes even promoted by the campaigners themselves. It seems like to me this referendum has just highlighted this “ugly” within Britain that I had never previously been exposed to. Therefore, I can’t simply state my opinion on the final result, instead what first comes to mind and what I feel compelled to write about is this larger scale of bigotry and division in the British people that I have seen emphasized during this referendum!
Edited By: The Prefects
78% TURNOUT
22% LEAVE EU
56% STAY IN EU
Our Results...
Sports
Sports Day - An Excellent Day Sports Day 2016 was an event to remember. It was sadly the last time our current Year 10s were able to participate in the event. This meant that the pressure was on for all year groups to perform like they’ve never performed before, to achieve the unachievable, and to set records that have never before been set. Overall, everyone performed to their very best, and the effort was not in vain. Not to mention that the PE teachers were thrilled about the event, especially Miss Addison: ‘The students were excellent! The large number of school records broken shows how hard they worked and there were a lot of surprise performances as well as lots of cheering. Civitas was very much in action!” With the highlights of the day being the 100m and 200m finals and the student relays after they were described as “fun”. Edited By: Shannon Lee
Cricket
This year cricket was immensely popular Arjun stated: “I felt really happy that I was the amongst Year 9 as well as the new intake of one to score the highest amount of runs, it was Year 7 students. In Year 9, Anish, Mahdi, Lau, a great experience representing Ark Academy.” Afsar, Trivek and Krish really improved their bowling, whilst Sami, Gholam, Nikhil, Swapnil and Ali continued to impress with a bat. Even though the Year 9 team didn’t prosper in their matches this season, an optimistic Swapnil said “We tried hard this season and the team looked really great; we just need to work on our weaknesses and I’m sure we can develop into potentially one of the best teams in Brent.” We look forward to seeing if the year 9 side can flourish together as a team during the next cricket season and succeed in their games. The highlight of the season came in from the Year 7 team where Arjun managed a remarkable score of 36 runs, the highest score of the whole season! His teammates were all very impressed: Rishab, Divyanshu and Dawood in Year 8 were extremely enthusiastic with his fantastic achievement.
The Civitas 21
Women in Rugby
Edited By: Joel Agyekum & Paul Hirlav
On the 27th May, the Women in Sport campaign continued with an intense Bilingual Rugby Tournament. 110 girls from across Brent came to celebrate rugby, with the introduction of the Winston Churchill International Lycee bringing a French twist to the event. The event began with our Year 10 participants showcasing their teamwork and co-operation skills against the Swaminarayan School. They came out victorious through tremendous defensive efforts from Kira Lawrence and Marina Naves and terrific tries from Prashina Harjani and Luzhjiana. Meanwhile on the other pitch despite their best efforts Team 2 just fell short in the second half to Winston Churchill Secondary school whose players were described as “very strong” by Simane Miguil. Excited player Faith said: ‘We won 3-0 against Alperton High school and the game went well. I enjoy playing Rugby as a sport as it has less rules than other sports so you get to be a bit more free on the pitch.’ However, this only seemed to make the team more determined and motivated to win their next game. Overall our Year 10 teams won 2 out of their 3 matches. Brilliant effort guys!
Homeless World Cup
The Homeless World Cup is a social movement which aims to advocate the end of homelessness through the ‘beautiful game’ of football. It operates in a similar fashion to the renowned World Cup, except giving homeless people a chance to play international football. Mr Edmondson and Miss Cullen went to Grenada in October and met the Grenadian Homeless World Cup team. They were instantly determined to help them out. Mr Edmondson believes that “It was really important to continue to support these disadvantaged young men”. They organised a football tournament which turned out to be very successful. In total, 55 boys participated and the game was very close. It came down to Kysharn and Omar’s side winning the tournament with a 1-0 lead from an own goal. Following the match, an ecstatic Omar who was also part of the Goal of the Tournament outlined this experience as “one of a kind”, and that “It felt good to know that we were raising money for a special cause and it encouraged us to try even harder in the games.”
Good Deed Feed Mashael Saaed - This year we have had two new EAL students join us – Alshimaa in September, and Zainab just a couple of months ago. lshimaa and Zainab have now become firm friends of Mashael’s and it is a testament to her gentle and caring nature that she took these students under her wing with delight and pride. She has really helped these new students to settle into life here at Ark, which is made all the more difficult when you start a new school knowing little or no English. She is absolutely a Civitas star, helping out others in her stride and being a constant, calm and reassuring presence for our new EAL students. Miss Beedle & Miss Paw
Melina Dadgar – For being such a positive and perky member of the form and always getting involved; whether it’s in house competitions, international day, debates and PSHE lessons or around the world in 60 seconds. Her confidence has grown amazingly over the past two years and she is a truly invaluable member of her form, house and year group! Miss Clark
Rahul - A SUPER CIVITAS person who cleaned the whole Pupil Support. He is also very kind and brings Nasir’s iPad back to my office almost every day – and he never wants a civitas merit for that. Miss Bango
Tyreisse White - Year 10 has done some absolutely outstanding revision, both in class (GCSE PE ) and study time, hopefully this has all paid off in his mock exams. Benjamin A - Year 10 was so Civitas in volunteering his time to set up the disco including showing a simple PE teacher how to set up the partition wall and helping set up the hall ready for the younger students to party. Mr Edmendson
Balal Akbar - for his fantastic and completely reliable support of our primary school pupils. The pupil who Balal has helped with Maths has made rapid progress and is delighted to have the support and encouragement of a mature and inspiring Sixth Former. Thank you Balal. Mr Fairbairn
The Civitas 23 Ciara Barrett - for running a half marathon and raising over £300 for Mind, the mental health charity! It is testament to her character that, in addition to her fantastic work ethic and attitude in school, she finds time and energy to support people in need. Mr Ahmed
Michael Oates and Seema Ahmed - my “go to” people for anything I need doing early in the morning before school! Thank you Seema and Michael for all the chair moving, the photocopying, the card sorting, the letter organising. Mr Fairbairn Amy Toure - for being a great friend to those around her and supporting them in their times of need, helping friends through exam stresses and family troubles. Thank you Amy! Mr Fairbairn
Miss Giannarou, Miss McMillan, Miss Castillo and Miss Cooper - for all of the help, support and laughs this year. Not only are you all great teachers, but amazing people. It has been an absolute pleasure to work with you all and I will miss you a lot! Mr Gidman
Miss Giannarou, Miss McMillan, Miss Castillo and Miss Cooper and Mr Gidman - for being an amazing team and supporting the sixth form MFL Students this year. Even though you are all leaving this year, we will never forget you! Thank you for everything! Aysha, Sixth Former
Billy O’Hara - For being so helpful for the past few lessons help give out books, paint and other materials and clear them up at the end of the lesson. Mr Paton
THANK YOU Ark Academy would like to thank all the staff and students who worked really hard this year to make it so wonderful! We would like to wish everyone a peaceful, and a well deserved rest.
wonderful summer!
This Edition of ‘The Civitas’ has been designed and edited by Dawid Soltysik. Thanks to all contributors, particularly Emma Franklin & Christina Donellan for photography and Susan Mintern for content.
Ark Academy Bridge Road, HA9 9JP 020 8385 4370 www.arkacademy.org