Civitas Magazine - Spring 2012

ARK ACADEMY’S OFFICIAL MAGAZINE Issue #5 Spring Term 2012

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Kingswood Reflection Pages 12‐14 The Top Ten primary moments of the year so far Pages 6 and 17 Word Maths and Book day and NSEW fun Lead stories School Council Election Results 1

Dear All

This spring term has been a short one, but packed with activities and events. We have had world book day, maths day and science week and so for our pupils it has been a very rich time, full of action and competitions (house points abound). These events have also taken place right across the academy from reception to Year 8, as age is no barrier to participation.

Then there was the Year 7 trip to Kingswood – wow! Year 7 never gave in to the dreadful weather and participated in everything. By all accounts they are a pretty remarkable bunch of young people. What else occurred in spring term? House competitions in mathematics (with an Olympic theme), house music (which was fabulous) and as I write we await the contributions of our house thespians. What pleases me most about all these events is the real allegiance that all students have to support their house and they all want to be the most CIVITAS!

This has also been the most remarkable term for sporting achievements. Ark Academy made a clean sweep in all things basketball – Brent champions for both boys and girls in Year 7 and 8! I also love the fact that we are also developing new areas of sporting skills, such as indoor rowing and handball that encourage even greater engagement. I suspect that both of these are going to be big in Ark Academy.

Of course the start of 2012 has seen a tremendous build up to the London Olympics, the 32nd Olympiad. The whole academy has been preparing for this, from adopting continents, to our fertile questions, to visits to the Olympic park. So we are right on track to be behind the biggest sporting event and reflect the Olympic ideals in our daily lives. We are really looking forward to the summer term, so the next edition of the CIVITAS will focus, naturally, on the Olympics and Ark!

Finally, I have to end by celebrating our pupils’ love of learning and their participation in all the learning Ark has to offer. They certainly engage in everything and we look forward to big steps forward next term. Please just keep asking them about their end of year targets and what they need to do to achieve them. Together we will all move forward.

Best wishes

Delia Smith

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Spring Term News In this edition of The Civitas we are highlighting just how much fun and learning takes place in our wonderful academy ‐ and the primary school certainly set the standard. Take a look at photos from the recent Olympic Torch designing and Victorian School experience students had.

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Spring Term News

WE

READING!

At Ark Academy we all know the importance of reading and how it can be transformational to learning ‐ so when we get the chance to celebrate our love of reading we do it in style!

This year’s world book day was great.fun.

Collaboration between primary and secondary played an important part this year so we could share our love of reading across the school.

The Manga drawing workshop was great fun!

Some students ‘dared to wear their winning words’ ‐ attaching their favourite quotation to their uniform for all to see.

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House Perspective As a classically trained singer herself, English teacher Miss Sutton is the ideal person to reflect on Curie’s most recent demonstration of excellence through the recent House Singing competition and their wonderful rendition of such a powerful and anthemic song.

Of course, as it is one of our Core Values, every student at Ark Academy is expected to strive for Excellence in everything they do. As a proud member of Curie House I have seen every single student in Curie strive for and achieve Excellence during this term. My favourite example has definitely got to be Curie’s dazzling performance at the House Singing Competition.

For the House Singing Competition this year the song that Curie elected to sing was Something Inside So Strong

by Labi Siffre. The song was inspired by a TV documentary Siffre viewed in 1985 in which a white soldier was seen shooting at black children. Appalled, he penned the song as an anti ‐Apartheid anthem, which was a very serious issue at the time, advising Africans to stand tall in the face of adversity.

As I’m sure many people would admit (students and staff alike!), singing in front of an audience and singing competitively can be a very daunting experience and I am pretty sure that a few members of Curie felt a little apprehensive in those first few rehearsals.

However, due to the strength of the message behind Curie’s song, the feeling and the importance of the song was immediately picked up on by every member of Curie and all students sang with conviction and enthusiasm at every rehearsal.

Over the course of the rehearsal process Curie House transformed into a real choir, with students encouraging each other, enjoying the amazing feeling of being part of something very special and singing about an issue that they all truly believed in. The result of this was a very emotionally charged performance at the competition, with every student singing to the very best of their potential and in one performance displaying all of our Core Values: Excellence, Participation, Persistence and Civitas.

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Primary Perspective Year 2 teacher Hollie Prescott and year 3 teacher, Finella Parmar, were asked to countdown their top ten moments of the year so far. Here are the first 5.

What will be at number 1? Read on to find out!

Since starting at Ark in September 2011, so much has happened in the short space of 6 months. Here is a count down of our top ten highlights.

History Hype What fun we have had teaching History this year. Year 3 children travelled back in time to a school in the Victorian era, with costumes, canes and cake. What a shame schools aren’t like that anymore! While Year 2 drew their own Viking warriors to jump aboard their Viking long ship.

Power of Reading Our focus on the ‘Power of Reading’ sparked the creativity of all staff. Classroom book corners have been transformed into forests, castles, science laboratories and the solar system. We love that as you enter every classroom, we enter another world of imagination.

The 2p Coin Trail The smell of copper fills the air as you stroll down Ark Academy’s corridor! It’s a reminder of the overwhelming effort all pupils and staff put into celebrating World Maths Day in March. We are now missing our classrooms filled with giant potatoes and matchboxes!

Assessment Week As the half term draws nearer and reflection is upon us, as well as black circles under eyes, a breakout of stress spots and hair turning grey, it’s always astounding the progress and achievement of every child at ARK Academy, who always keep their promise to try their best to do their best.

World Book Day Where are all the children? It was difficult to spot any familiar faces in the sea of jungle animals, superheroes, witches and wizards and traditional tale charac‐ ters. Our favourite costume was Mr King dressed as a giant “teddy” bear!

Turn to page 17 to find out what made the top 5!

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Spring Term News

Being one of our specialisms here at Ark Academy, maths is taken seriously by students and teachers alike. Our half termly competitions our always exciting and World Maths Day this March was another hit with a whole host of games and challenges Including riddles, a live chess game and competitions to find the heaviest potato and the number of items you could fit into a match box.

World maths day was fun because it was challenging but it was also quite a random thing to do ‐ I managed to fit 45 items in my matchbox ‐ including a spring from a pen and rubber band. We did it as a family so that was great!

Karolina , 7Thompson

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Spring Term News

Scientists in the making!

National Science and Engineering Week is quickly turning out to be on of the most exciting events on our school calendar ‐ and this year was no exception, with events happening everywhere including bridge building, science badminton, forensic science investigations and the annual table quiz!

I designed my own Olympic flame. It was scientific because we had to think about the col‐ our of the flame and how that would be pro‐ duced and how it was structured. It was great fun.

Hashim, 7Hoy

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Spring Term News

SLAM DUNK! Ark are Brent Champions in Basketball Ark Academy demonstrates excellence in every field ‐ with sport being no different. One of our biggest success stories is basketball where we currently hold all the year 7 and 8 titles for both boys and girls. Go team Ark!

Winning the basketball final was an amazing experience. I think we won because we worked well as a team, we had a great technique, we defended well and Mr. O’Carroll is a great coach who taught us how to get better at basketball and showed us how to be sportsmanlike.

Amaree, 7Pendleton

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House Perspective Fatima is in 7Pendleton and therefore Newton House and in her article she talks frankly about her disability ‐ but inspirationally about how it has not stopped her participating at every opportunity.

My name is Fatima Ali, and I am in 7 Pendleton. I was born with a slight damage in my spinal cord. Specifically, the fluid around my spinal cord is more than normal, this has compressed against my spinal cord which means that I cant move my arms/hands and my legs/feet in the right way.

Unfortunately, the doctor's don't know when this happened ‐ they have no idea if it was before I was born or after I was born. They say that this is a rare damage, therefore they are still struggling to find a cure for me. It's that rare that the doctors estimate only 20 people in the whole world have the same thing as me!

Carol singing was one of my first after school activities. At first I felt a bit nervous but It was fun because we got to sing different Christmas carols. Miss Ryan, Mr Kirkman, Miss Deacon came with us. Miss Ryan and the other teachers supported me to join the competition. Miss Deacon was funny she kept laughing and was making us laugh too. We got to wear different head bands and wigs, which made everybody laugh at us!

My parents support me most when it comes to trips and competitions. For example the Kingswood trip, my mum came with me because she knew that I wanted to participate in the Kingswood trip. Although I couldn't join in all of the games, I still had fun cheering other team mates on the other activities.

Joining Ark Academy has helped me with a lot of things, especially with my confidence. In primary school I did not participate in any activities, after school clubs nor competitions. However when I came into this school I learned that there are four principles which are: Excellence Citizenship Persistence Participation. So I knew that this is my chance to participate and persist in every activity possible because I know that I will never have this opportunity again in life.

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Primary Perspective Primary teacher of Year 3’s Archimedes class, Kevin McKenzie, reflects on his year so far at Ark Academy and the things that have made his time here so far so special.

It seems like only a wee while ago I was sitting in Kings Solomon Acad‐ emy at my induction week, meeting for the first time my new colleagues and learning about the possibilities of the year ahead. So as we reach the end of the spring term (yes that’s right folks, the end of the spring term!) I’ve finally got some dedicated time to sit down and reflect on the year so far.

Personal highlights for me have been the collegiate environment of Ark Academy. Both new and existing staff have amazed me with their gdedication to the cause, “To try my best and do my best and help oth‐ ers when I can” at all times. It would not have been possible to survive this year without everyone in the Academy, from support staff to management, adhering to this mantra. This attitude has led to yet another successful year in a school still technically in its infancy.

A personal highlight of mine has been the link‐up opportunities with the rest of the school. I love hearing the words, “we could do something with secondary” as you know it’s going to help both parties involved teach an excellent lesson, create an enthralling activity or perform a superb show. Despina Giannarou has been teaching weekly in Year 3, helping the pupils and teachers (!) improve their French which has been a fantastic opportunity. Likewise, the regularly secondary reading sessions during Science Week and National Book Week among others has been well received by all primary pupils.

The numerous trips undertaken by Year 3 this year have been nothing short of eclectic. From an overnight stay at outdoor adventure centre PGL, to a visit to antique‐laden Reveley Lodge Victorian House Museum to a groundbreaking trip around the fried chicken/ McDonalds‐laden Wembley Park area!

The wonders have never ceased!

So at the end of this dedicated time to summarise my year so far at Ark Academy I will paraphrase the words of a Year 2 child I overheard when facing a 3 column addition maths problem...’

It’s a little bit difficult but I like it that way’.

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Spring Term News

KINGSWOOD! If all the great lessons and great opportunities outside of the class‐ room weren't enough, Year 7 were taken on a 4 day trip away to Kingswood ‐ and by the look and sounds of it, had a great time.

Here are just some of the highlights (3 pages worth!!).

“At the en d of Aero ba were exp laining wh ll when they at they ha learnt abo d ut themse lves, I wa teary bec s a bit ause I wa s so proud them. Th of ey taught me that h courage a uman nd kindne ss is at th tre of eve e cen‐ ry s glad to kn tudent here and I’m ow them a so ll.”

Mr Coope r

ood was w s g in K f o y

e memor ercome my v o o t My favourit e m d g g ‐ it helpe n and excitin the 3G swin u f s a w t i d ‐ hts an hallenge be fear of heig c m a e t e h liked t er to do. I also rk with oth o w o t w o o nt h he chance t cause I lear t d a h ’t n d a e at I h me to mak students th d e lp e h It . efore work with b pson Alyx, 7Thom friends.

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Spring Term News

s gswood wa in K f o t r a e p se I got to My favourit u a c e b m iu uilibr ere and w the High Eq le p o e p r e ve oth o see how bra he top! I als t o t t o g I ‐ rs face my fea wing. dgrave like the 3G s Shakai, 7Re

They are t he reason that I had They mad such a lo e me laug vely time o h at every aged me t n the trip. p ossible op o take pa portunity rt in all ac own targe , tivities an ts and ach d pushed m encour‐ ieve them 3G swing, e to se (e.g getting up onto the h . going to the top o t my they shar f the igh equilib ed things w rium bala ith each o thusiastic nce etc.), ther, follo ally and s wed instr howed m individuals u e c h tions en‐ ow lovely but more they all a importan team.” re as tly how gr eat they a re as a Miss Dea con

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Spring Term News

I loved do ing the m ini‐ Olympics . I learnt t hat if you work as a

team and listen to others, yo u can solv e y problems . I can now our apply this to school!

Tiffany, 7A dlington

“It was a privilege to share in this experience with our wonderful year 7 and our inspirational staff. I'm sure we've all learnt so much, as we've faced the challenges of the activities and the weather!”

Dr Lemon

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Spring Term News

Never a Dull Moment!

It’s impossible to be bored at Ark Academy with such a fabulous array of trips and learning experiences including visiting the Museum of Childhood, Reveley Lodge, The Transport Museum, World Maths and Science days, visiting Imperial College ‐ this list is endless.

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House Perspective Elliot Howard from Plato House and 7Hoy reflects on how our third core value, participation, has not only played a vital role in the house’s current success ‐ in terms of overall points, they currently sit at the top –but also how it has benefited him as an Ark Academy student.

To me, participation means you take part and try your hardest in activities you enjoy and sometimes activities that you wouldn’t normally get involved in. In Plato house we love participating. We take part in everything we can and enjoy celebrating our achievements afterwards. Participation is a key to our success so far.

Since joining Ark Academy I have participated in lots of activities and events which have helped me gain confidence and make new friends. I have taken part in house maths competitions, am a member of our winning year 7 basketball team, have read aloud in assemblies, visited a local care home during charity week, supported school events such as the teachers basketball match and earned lots of merits and awards for my efforts in lessons. Being involved in so much so far has been fun and challenging.

The year 7 trip to Kingswood was lots of fun and involved lots of participation.

I was very good at taking part, helped by the excellent motivation shown by my fellow students and teachers. I repaid them by motivating all my friends in every activity we participated in. The 3G swing was probably the scariest challenge and pupils needed lots of extra encouragement to face their fear.

One thing I have learnt from the experience is that conquering your fears alone is harder than conquering them with other people. Another thing I learnt is that participating in challenges can bring people out of their shell when they are supported.

We have been given loads of opportu‐ nities so far and I think every pupil should participate as much as they can because participation builds leadership skills and without participation, life would be very dull.

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Primary Perspective

Here is the top 5 of Miss Parmar and Miss Prescott’s top 10 moments of the year!

Science Week Miss Joseph did it! Year 2 and 3 became crime scene investigators to solve the mystery of a missing Miss Steele. The children enjoyed investigating fingerprints, footprints and pen ink to solve the case. We are not sure whether Miss Joseph will ever be able to shake of the stench of crime.

London Eye Having never been on the underground before August, and finding the underground map a daunting experience in itself, Miss Prescott loved the excitement of taking 60 Year 2s to Westminster at peak time. Here they enjoyed a view of the clouds from the London Eye. Luckily the 4D experience was much more thrilling.

PGL Parents Get Lost! Indeed this was a true statement as we watched Year 3 grow into responsible Key Stage 2 pupils. Year 3 ignored the butterflies in their stomachs as they climbed, abseiled and orienteering around Marchants Hill. Mrs Parmar was definitely kept awake all night by the 5 girls next door to her, while Miss Steele, Mr McKenzie, Miss Flack, and Miss Dunne enjoyed a relaxing sleep.

Class Assemblies Use the force! We have watched amazing assemblies on Vikings, Chinese New Year, Scotland, Olympics and the Victorians, but it was the Life is Science and Dancing Around the World assemblies that kept us awake at night, singing and dancing in our sleep. A bloopers reel could have been made from the practices of Dancing Around the World, we had burps on camera, skirts falling down and children falling off the stage! Waka Waka eh eh!

Christmas Carol Concert The Bells Ring Out for ARK Academy! What a performance! Simon Cowell, are you watching? ARK Academy has talent! It was a truly magical Christmas, the perfect ending to our Autumn term at ARK, and perfect memory to leave you with.

Here’s to another 6 months of memory making at Ark Academy Primary!

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As regular readers of THE CIVITAS will know, the academy’s house system is competitive, fun and something that makes our school community very special. House singing and house drama have been this half term’s main competitions as well as some house rowing too. Highlights are below.

Curie won with their moving rendition of Something Inside So Strong

Plato combine gymnastics, a confetti canon and great singing for their go

Newton lit the stage up with an energised and colourful performance

Budding actors lit up the stage in the house drama competition and pulled for the lives in rowing!

Socrates raised the roof singing Ain’t No Stopping Us Now 18

Spring Term News

Election Fever!

Forget the Republican primaries in the US and the London mayoral elections ‐our school council elections were just as exciting and also very relevant to the daily lives of the students. Meet our new student representatives below.

For Redgrave: For Holmes: For Ainslie: For Hoy: Christina Filon Summer Bywater Cherisse Hawkins Jamelia Campbell

Socrates For Chaucer: Faith Agyemang Lorainey

Plato

For Dickens: Ana Afonso

For Austen: For Eliot: Ella Clarke Samir Hussain

For Adlington: For Pendleton: For Lewis: For Thompson: Inva Dankshi Ugne Plekaviciute Souhaila Abdeselam Nadia Abdirahman

Curie

Newton

For Dahl: For Orwell: For Doyle: For Bronte: Kiara Taylor Serena Bramble Darshil Budhia Amanda Nzekwue 19

House Perspective Mr. Edwards started teaching in Ark Academy’s maths department this academic year and has quickly come to embrace our school’s motto ‐ but realise that it’s much more than just a word but a principle that we live by in the academy. Here are his thoughts on how his house ‐ Socrates ‐ embody civitas.

Civitas is at the heart of everything we do. Having never heard the word before joining Ark Academy, I now understand it is fundamentally what makes this school a special to work and learn. The word itself refers to a body of people living as a community and that feeling of community is embedded so thoroughly.

What really stands out and makes this school feel like a ‘community’ is not the polite students holding doors open for others or the greetings of ‘good morning’ from nearly every pupil I see on the way to my classroom in the morning. Nor is it the mature and intelligent manner in which members of the Academy listen to each other. For me it is the support that pupils give each other to succeed and help one other to be the best that they can.

In the last few weeks the Academy has had competition after competition including those organised for Maths Week and National Science and Engineering Week; countless sporting competitions and the House Drama competition on the last week of term and these competitions have been an ideal place to view ‘Civitas In Action’.

When Socrates pupils did their first auditions for the Drama competition, their entire house watched, enthralled by the talent, participation and courage of their ‘housemates’. The support the audience gave was what Civitas is all about – showing respect and admiration for the other members of their community and supporting them succeed.

At time of writing, the results of the Drama competition are yet to be decided, but win, lose or draw, you can guarantee that Socrates house members will have supported their fel‐ low students (Pragya, Carlo, Sheriyah, Jai and Faith) to be the best that they can be.

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PTA

A message from our PTA The PTA are very much alive and well in our academy and behind the scenes are working away to both bring our community together through events such as Ark Bingo and the Winter Fayre, but also to raise money for the school to make life for students here even more fun than it already is.

We're almost half way to our year‐end target of £6,000. This money will be used to supplement Ark's enrichment budget, ensuring continued educa‐ tional school trips, clubs, and enrichment classes for our children.

There are a number of ways in which you can help us right now to meet this target:

Come to our fundraising events.

We organise at least one event a term. The Winter Fayre in December raised over £2,500! Thanks to the children, staff, and Ark families who helped fill the day with food, music, and crafts!

A Bingo Night in March followed, where Ark families and staff enjoyed an evening of bingo, pizza and generous cash and gift prizes. Come along next time, mingle with other parents and teachers and prepare to be a winner!

On June 28th, with the London 2012 Olympics on our doorstep, we're cele‐ brating our cultural diversity with our annual INTERNATIONAL DAY. An exciting day of activities and food followed by a ticketed evening performance by the stu‐ dents that is not to be missed!

Join www.TheGivingMachine.co.uk today.

Every time you shop online with over 350 retailers, by visiting www.TheGivingMachine.co.uk first, you enable retailers to make donations to Ark students, at no cost to you. We will soon be announcing details of a contest to see which classes have signed up the most users to TheGiving‐ Machine, so watch out for that.

Check if your employer has a Match Funding scheme: This is a scheme where employers donate or “match” event fundraising totals. We raised £1,300 at the Christmas Fair through match funding with only two parents. It works!

Engage your year group Parent Representative or contact the Parents’ Association to discuss how you can help. We appreciate your feedback, so look out for a survey canvassing your views in the Summer term.

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Trade Secrets

Let’s Get Cooking: Easter Special Our Let’s Get Cooking enrichment is hugely popular so in this edition of The Civitas, Miss Falconer and her team of aspiring chefs share two of their favourite Easter recipes.

HOT CROSS BUNS Ingredients  675g (24oz) strong white bread flour  1tsp salt  75g (2 1/2oz) butter  1tsp ground cinnamon  1tsp ground mixed spice  1/4tsp grated nutmeg  50g (1 1/2oz) unrefined light muscovado sugar  200g (7oz) mixed dried fruit  25g (4/5oz) candied peel, chopped  1,7g sachet easy‐blend yeast  325ml (2/3pt) warm milk  2 eggs  75g (2 1/2oz) plain flour (for the crosses)  4tbsp milk 2tbsp Unrefined golden caster sugar

Method  Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl.  Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.  Stir in the spices, candid peel, dried fruit, sugar an yeast  Make a well in the centre.  In another bowl, beat the milk and eggs together.  Pour into the flour.  Mix well to a soft dough then turn out onto a floured surface.  Knead for about 10 mins until smooth and elastic.  Divide into 14 pieces and shape into buns.  Place well apart on greased baking sheets,  Cut a cross in the top of each bun with a sharp knife.  Mix the flour for the crosses with enough water to form dough and roll out thinly and cut into strips.  Lay them in crosses on top of each bun.  Bake for 15‐20 mins at 200ºC / 400°F / Gas 6 until golden.  Remove from oven and glaze with syrupy sugar and water.

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EASTER CUP CAKES INGREDIENTS (makes 10 approx)  100g of soft margarine  120g of self‐raising flour  2tbsp of cornflour  110g of white caster sugar  1tsp baking powder  2 large eggs 1tsp of vanilla essence

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2.

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METHOD Cream the sugar and margarine together until smooth and creamy.

Add the vanilla essence to the mixture and stir.

(This takes away the taste of the egg!)

Add the corn flour and baking powder to the self raising flour.

Combine both mixtures together and stir until there are no lumps.

Spoon your mixture into paper case then place in the oven for 20 minutes.

Remove from the oven and place on cooling rack Decorate with Betty Crocker icing and mini Easter eggs.

Summer 1 term begins Welcome back assembly led by the Principal on the theme of Excellence No enrichment this week House Meetings to launch house debating competition Scientists in sports Olympic Event – King’s College London Y7 Boys Badminton vs Copland Year 7 trip to France Year 7 trip to France Y8 trip to SOAS Y7&8 Girls Badminton vs QPCS Y7 Geography trip to the Olympic Village Y7 Geography trip to the Olympic Village House meetings May Day bank holiday English Schools Athletics Cup (Nationals) English Schools Handball Championship House Meetings Y7 trip to Victoria and Albert Museum House Debating Competition during enrichment SCHOOL CLOSED – day owed due to Queen’s Jubilee bank holiday falling in half term Half term Summer 2 term begins

Monday 16 April

Monday 23 April

Tuesday 24 April

Thursday 26 April

Wednesday 2 May

Friday 4 May

Monday 7 May

Wednesday 16 May

Friday 18 May

Tuesday 29 May

Wednesday 30 May

Friday 1 June

Monday 4 – Friday 8 June

Monday 11 June

Thursday 3 May

Friday 20 April

Event

Date

Parent Calendar Summer 1 2012

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Everyone here at Ark Academy would like to thank you for all your support and wish you a happy Easter.

With special thanks to Emma Franklin and John Kirkman for compiling, editing and designing The Civitas 24