Civitas Magazine - Autumn 2018

The Civitas ARK ACADEMY’S OFFICIAL MAGAZINE Autumn 2018

CREATIVITY IN ARK

Dear Parents/Carers and Students, As I write this letter, the excitement is really mounting for our annual Charity Week with the students are voting for which charity their house will support. As we reach the end of term we are also adding up the commendations, silver and gold merits to see how these will contribute to house points. Pleasingly, we have seen a real increase this term in the number of merits awarded to our students, over 30,000!

So a long term, Autumn assessments are completed and students are receiving the crucial feedback they need to improve further.

Our focus on learning and the delivery of a rigorous curriculum lies at the heart of what we do. We do, however, do so much more that brings a wealth of experiences to our students. I hope that in reading this edition of Civitas you can appreciate the breadth of provision we offer from opera, poetry and Shakespeare to art and maths competitions. We want all Ark students to be open to new experiences and appreciate the richness of the world of learning.

Wishing all of your family a peaceful and happy Christmas break.

Delia Smith OBE Principal of Ark Academy

European Day of Languages On Wednesday 26th September, Ark Academy became a cosmopolitan hub of languages and cultures as the MFL department pulled out all the stops to celebrate European Day of Languages. This date has marked the importance of learning languages for 17 years now, and so many exciting events were organised to showcase how speaking another language can make life more vibrant.

At lunchtime, pupils had the opportunity to get to grips with the basics of German, Italian, or Russian; the enthusiasm for pronouncing these new words (and in the case of Russian, seeing them written in a different alphabet) was sky high, and so many pupils left with a silver merit for excellent participation and curiosity about a new culture.

We also celebrated the creative side of language learning, as Ms Figueroa ran a very popular Spanish karaoke session where pupils honed their pronunciation and had some fun at the

same time. Additionally, with some help from the Art department, pupils could proudly show off their heritage and the languages they speak through flag face painting.

To continue the conversations about languages and cultures throughout the week, the canteen served food from France, Spain, Germany, Italy, and Russia each day. As the menu was written in the respective language, pupils had to apply their learning to a real context whilst also sampling tasty dishes from around Europe. Finally, to highlight the diverse experiences that language learning can lead to, pupils completed a quiz about members of staff, which involved interviewing teachers to find out which languages they speak, which countries they have lived in, and what links they have to other cultures.

All in all the day (and week!) was a huge success and a real eye opener for our pupils to how languages extend beyond the MFL classroom and can enrich your life. Following pupil demand, we are now thinking ahead to run follow-up sessions for the new languages studied on the day – watch this space!

Mr Neill

Seeing Double Not a pencil or paintbrush was in sight at the launch of this year’s Art competition. The only thing required was a camera phone, a creative mind and a vision.

The challenge? Recreate a famous portrait painting, iconic photograph or even an album cover using nothing but a camera phone and a few props.

Never deterred by a challenge, the Art department were first to show everyone how it was done.

Armed with a straw hat, a few pieces of cloth and an old Hawaiian necklace, Mr Paton, Miss Sandeman and Miss Mchaffie transformed themselves into famous portrait paintings.

It wasn’t long before everyone wanted their time in the lime light. Our photography studios were brimming with staff and students recreating iconic images, from pop stars to sporting legends. A personal favourite was Yash as Donald Trump, Mr Vick as The creation of Adam and Mr Hazledine as Han Solo.

The competition culminated in a final image, which saw each house create a group picture of their choosing.

Over 100 people entered the Art competition with great spirit, and as every year, the department was astounded by the level of creativity displayed. It was a resounding success and thinking caps are already on as to how to exceed such an excellent all round competition.

Miss McHaffie

ART PAGE 3

pera takeover Ark Academy was given a very operatic treat as the English National Opera came to take over the school on Friday 12th October. Teachers were the first recipients with a surprise pop up performance of the “Count’s Aria” in the staff room.

This was swiftly followed by an instrumental workshop and choir session, where musicians played a mash up of Rage Against the Machine and the famous Queen of the Night Area; whilst the singers worked on a song from a Philip Glass opera. Both ensembles joined together in a sharing session straight after; two Year 8 forms provided both the audience, and the opportunity to provide a body percussion accompaniment to the main performance.

Break time showcased a plethora of performances from every corner of the school; singers surprised school crowds by popping up in the Sixth Form, the atrium and interrupted line up to serenade Year 7-10 whilst dressed in silly wigs.

It was then the turn of the Year 9 and 10 Drama and Music students who had prepared by visiting the London Coliseum the previous Tuesday to watch the ENO’s latest production; Porgy and Bess. They were able to workshop some of the themes from the opera and work in groups to perform their own interpretation of specific points of the plot.

Lunchtime saw more spectacles around the school, such as the canteen, hall and outside, but also featured a very special pop up costume area, giving students the opportunity to try on a huge array of wacky costumes ranging from a doughnut costume to a frog prince.

The day culminated in a huge assembly with all of Year 7. As well as getting to hear several performances from the cast, the whole year group were coached to then sing Gershwin’s Promised Land from Porgy and Bess together! It was a truly unique and special day for all students & staff.

Ms Sharp

‘To watch the live backstage performance of it Takes two: Strictly Come Dancing it was quite enjoyable as I was able to come out of my comfort zone and do something with people I wouldn’t usually. It was a fun event which I hope to participate in such trips further as it extended my knowledge on how live shows are recorded. Thank you Mr Robinson!’

Shakira

Shakespeare Schools Festival 2018 Our Year 10 Drama student’s performanced 11 minutes of Much Ado About Nothing after only two weeks of rehearsal and preparation, to an audience of 120 adults in celebration of Shakespeare Schools Festivals 18th birthday at the London Museum.

Audience members included professional actors one of which performed with our students.

John Heffernan who has recently stared in a BBC 2 Drama, stated at the end of the performance, ‘That was seriously one of the best things I have ever been part of…’

‘I got to meet many different celebrities and ask them various questions. I was able to have a very humours conversation with the presenter, Zoe Ball. She allowed me to take her place in presenting in front of the camera for a little while’ Avery

Such a comment is totally down to our students: Persistence to learn lines in such a short amount of time.

Participation by auditioning for their part and attending after Ms Gatford

Sing into Spring

Twenty of Ark Academy’s keenest singers descended on Central London to join forces with other Ark schools and take part in an annual One Voice singing day. The sessions were led by professional singer Dominic EllisPeckham who introduced the session with an array of creative warm ups.

After this introduction, students then

school rehearsals.

Excellence in their acting and Civitas by supporting and motivating each other to be the best they can be.

The full performance took place at the ArtsDepot where the students performed with such creativity, professionalism and energy. The audience reaction was fantastic and showed the students brilliant comic timing.

Amari Kwaw and Jimmy Howard’s collaboration was outstanding, they worked together to produce an excellent interpretation of Claudio and Don Pedro. I congratulate the whole cast on learning such rhythmical dialogue and having the ability to communicate comedy is a tough ask but they did it.

Ms Gatford

learnt and performed as a mass choir a wide range of songs from many different genres; they then had the opportunity to create a mash up performance made up of their own choice of songs in small groups. It was a joyful day of music making and left everyone enthused about singing.

Ms Sharp

THE ARTS PAGE 5

POETRY SLAM On National Poetry Day, we had the pleasure of spoken word artist Koko Brown joining us for a day of workshops and activities! Born and bred in North-West London, Koko’s work focuses mainly on race, gender, mental health and identity.

Offering inspiration and words of wisdom, Koko showed the students how to write poetry on topics that matter to them. They had the opportunity to hear some of her work as well as research the great poets of our time – including Maya Angelou, Oscar Wilde and Emily Bronte.

Koko gave advice on avoiding clichés and how to evoke real emotion in a reader or listender.

Our poets particularly enjoyed the ‘I’ challenge, in which they had to write continuously without lifting their pen off the paper. There was no rule as to what they could write, as long as each sentence began with ‘I…’, and as long as they kept writing! One boy’s quirky take on the challenge had everyone laughing: ‘I wish I was a cactus. I wish I was prickly.’

Koko Brown was also on hand during break and lunch time to talk to aspiring poets and performers about her journey to becoming a spoken word artist.

Poetry workshop participants ended their sessions with the opportunity to share some of their work. This gave them the chance to experience what it is like to perform in front of their peers, and gave them the platform to express themselves and have their voices heard.

This was brilliant practice especially for those who took part in Ark’s eighth annual Poetry Slam, which Koko Brown helped to judge. This year’s Slam was a hotly contested tournament, with over 50 students from Years 7, 8 and 10 competing for house points and the coveted title of Ark Slam Champion 2018! Demand was so high that the event took place in two parts, over two consecutive days! Introducing each act was Bathseba Fesehazion-Mahray, who stepped up and did a fantastic job of compering proceedings and keeping the audience entertained. Bathseba

also treated spectators to a reprise of the showwinning performance that earned her first place in last October’s Poetry Slam.

As always, it was a fantastic showcase of the creative talent at our school. Acts ranged from emotional to humorous, and covered a diverse range of topics – including family, feminism and Christmas turkeys! Many of our brave entrants had never slammed in front of an audience before, but all wowed the audience with their performative prowess. The judges faced a nigh impossible task in choosing the winners, but standout favourites included Elizabeth Bangura’s powerful poem on race and identity, Mehmedali’s politically-motivated performance, and ‘Wishing Star’ by Akshainie Rajan – a narrative poem about a lovesick merman! The final results were as follows: 1st = Elizabeth Bangura (Year 10) 2nd = Mehmedali Ramaxhiku (Year 8) 3rd = Rebekah Tate (Year 7) 4th = Akshainie Rajan (Year 7) An enormous congratulations to the winners, and to everyone who performed! A huge and heartfelt thank you to everyone who helped to make this term’s events as enjoyable and successful as they were.

Mr Vick and Miss Green

REAL PEOPLE READ October brought Hallowe’en and our first ‘Real People Read’ of the year!

Scores of spooked-out students were treated (or should that be tricked?) to a lunch time dedicated to horrorthemed storytelling by an array of frightfully civitas teacher volunteers.

The author is well known for his use of inventive language, and the Spelling Bee round saw participating chiddlers proving their spelling skills of weird and wondercrump Dahlisms like ‘snozzcumber’, ‘splendiferous’ and ‘gobblefunk’.

The stage was set for a suitably spine-chilling spectacle, with the library decked out with real pumpkins, flickering candles and spooky shining spiderwebs.

Mr. Chandler and Miss Tarling brought the dark fantasy world of Neil Gaiman to life – with readings from ‘Coraline’ and ‘The Graveyard Book’. Meanwhile, Dr. Beadle unnerved all with a classic Victorian ghost story, and the suspense was palpable during Miss Oyeniran’s nailbiting rendition of ‘The Tell Tale Heart’

by Edgar Allen Poe. A horror-filled Hallowe’en was enjoyed by all!

We kicked off the Autumn term with a marvellous and magical Roald Dahl Day competition, to celebrate the birth anniversary of the world’s number one storyteller. On 13th September over 40 students from Years 7, 8 and Primary took part in our biffsquiggling Big Quiz, with whizzpoppingly tricky trivia questions testing their knowledge of the wonderful world of Roald Dahl!

Other quiz rounds had students hunting the library for hidden Quentin Blake character illustrations, and guessing Roald Dahl books based on cryptic video quotes featuring Ark teachers!

Congratulations to gloriumptious winners Mohammed Mirza and Lokmen Cherfi in Year 7! And to runners up Swallah and Yahya in Year 7, and Azka, Misha, Nitya and Priyansha in Year 8. You are all most amazing human beans!

Mr Vick and Miss Green

Mr Vick and Miss Green

ARK T ALER

Meet our fantastic new student librarian team for the academic year 2018-19!

Check out our new fortnightly student newsletter, Ark Alert, with articles on a wide range of topics.

Copies available from the library, your Form Teacher or on the school webiste under School Life.

LIBRARY PAGE 7

Dear Primary School children & parents, As usual, it has been a jam-packed Autumn term with lots going on all around the school. Firstly, there was the momentous occasion of Ark Academy’s 10th birthday! We are all very proud to have been part of the school’s development and our founder cohort of Reception children are now making their way towards their GCSE’s in year 10.

There is a real power in being an all-through academy; we see our former primary pupils and share in their successes as they go through secondary.

Soon, they will be in our Sixth Form and planning their further education and their careers, all at Ark Academy.

Something for everyone to be proud of.

In the Autumn term, we have been focusing particularly on “routines”. These are the things that we do every day such as line up or give out exercise books – that can actually be done to an excellent standard. The children have shown that they can really apply effort to these seemingly small aspects of school life and, as we all know, attention to detail is a key to success. We talk about “sweating the small stuff” here at Ark Academy, knowing that by looking after these small details, we begin to form a bigger picture of high expectations that we hold for ourselves and each other in all aspects of school life.

It’s not all just routines though – Friday afternoon enrichment has been such a pleasure this term. Every Friday, teachers and teaching assistants lead groups of children in a very varied programme of enrichment. To name a few, we have Italian and German lessons, dance and multisports, lots of art and creative projects and an increasingly competitive board games enrichment in year 3 and 4.

Walking round the school on a Friday afternoon reminds me that while we will always approach academic achievement with rigour and great effort, there is more to life as a whole and taking part in new, “enriching” activities should be something we all do, children and adults alike.

Looking ahead, the New Year seems like a timely point to re-state our aims for Healthy Eating in the school but for now we can enjoy our festive treats and reflect on a term of hard work and great achievement in many areas for many, many children. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Peter Watkins Primary Headteacher

So far this year, Year 5 have been on many amazing trips. We have attended a Greek workshop at the British Museum for our history topic, went to Fryent Park and completed an autumn walk and some of our ’50 things’. We have gone

out into our local area to look at the buildings around our school linked to our art unit. We have also had a planetarium come to school linked to our brilliant science unit on earth and space. By far the most exciting trip we have had so far

Trips Galore ure t n e v d A n A e Around th World

In term 1, Year 1 learnt all about the Seven Continents of the world in their Geography lesson. After learning about the climate, food and landmarks for each continent; Year 1 cemented this knowledge through an interactive Drama experience. We had the Freshwater Theatre Company come to our school to take the students on an adventure

this year was when some of us went to the Royal Albert Hall to attend the Primary Proms, a musical event held for children every year. The tickets are tricky to get but we were lucky enough to receive some this year.

Ms Ryan

“It was really wonderful and the best thing was all the lights and songs. The building was really cool too!

We got to sit in the boxes!”

Mishka

around the world. The students pretended to be explorers and had to reveal facts about each continent before they were allowed move on to the next continent by taking the Trans-Siberian train to Asia or flying to South America.

This experience opened up the children’s imaginations and allowed them to learn in a fun, creative and engaging way.

Ms Tracey

50 things to do before you leave primary school As a child, I vividly remember a life outdoors.

I remember building fires on tin cans with the Girl Guides, looking for natural treasures on a beach in North Wales and climbing steep-sided dells. I paddled in rivers, went crabbing, built sandcastles, rolled down hills and climbed trees. I recall experiencing the childlike feeling of wide-eyed excitement, spontaneous appreciation and being full of awe and wonder at this magnificent universe.

Now I am a mum to three beautiful boys.

Everyday is an adventure involving sticks, mud, bugs and bike rides, woodland walks and puddle jumping.

As educators we are so often programmed to think of outcomes solely in terms of grades.

Forensic analysis of test papers, scores and data are integral to ensuring we deliver on our promise at Ark to deliver academic excellence, by placing teaching and learning and expert teaching at the heart of our endeavours. But our job is about so much more than that.

It’s about nurturing our pupils to become thoughtful citizens. It’s about providing our children with a plethora of rich experiences through trips and workshops, themed weeks and visitors. It’s about affecting the way our pupils “turn out”.

There is a huge amount of evidence that our nation’s children are missing out on the pure joy of the natural world and we know that this is exacerbated for children living in inner city areas. There are countless examples of the mainstream media reporting on and bemoaning the current state of Britain’s children. And yet despite all of the heat generated by this debate, little has been done or achieved to reconnect our children with nature.

As an established member of Ark Academy’s senior leadership team, I had the means, motive and opportunity to make a significant change. Motivated by the research, my own drive and my desire for as many children as possible at our school to experience a natural childhood, I embarked upon the Ark Academy 50 things – a list based loosely on the National Trust’s campaign, 50 things to do before you are 11 ¾. Each experience has been woven seamlessly into the curriculum to ensure that every single pupil completes all 50 things by the time they leave us at the end of primary

school, some of them many, many times over.

During their time with us, our pupils skim stones, build sandcastles, jump over waves, catch crabs and collect shells. They paddle in and sail paper boats down rivers, play pooh sticks and fly kites. They make mud pies, clay sculptures, wild art and paint stones.

They build dens, hunt for minibeasts, climb trees and make fires and rafts. The list goes on.

One of our year 6 pupils, Asmagh, tells us of her love for our outdoor learning. She is also a member of our Ark Adventurers outdoor learning club which runs each week.

“I love school and I love learning, but I love the fact I’ve had the chance to experience the outdoors. I loved climbing trees and den building. Once we saw a hedgehog and another time we saw a baby rabbit sitting in one of the dens we’d made. In year 6, fire-making was awesome although scraping the steel and flint together was my biggest challenge in perseverance. Building dens, scavenger hunts and building a catapult needed us to combine our skills and work as a team. I’ll leave primary school never forgetting this stuff and will be forever grateful and happy that I got to do it.”

At Ark Academy we champion outdoor learning and provide children with a richness of experiences beyond the classroom, not by adopting a tokenistic ‘forest school’ label, but by creating a sustainable approach to outdoor learning embedded through whole school involvement and enthusiastic staff and pupils.

We have ensured that our pupils have the childhood experiences that all young people deserve, and for that we feel very proud.

Mrs Harrison

PRIMARY PAGE 9

Students tackle FA over low wages at Wembley Stadium

Ark Academy students made national news in November when they petitioned the Football Association for higher pay for Wembley Stadium workers.

The students marched to the stadium, met with an FA executive and handed over hundreds of letters written in form time. Channel 4 News and The Daily Telegraph covered the event.

“Children … deliver sack of 500 letters to FA chairman to shame organisation into paying Wembley workers Living Wage,” the Telegraph said.

The students argue cooks, cleaners and stewards earning the minimum wage of under £8 an hour are unable to afford London rent and other living costs. They urge the FA to pay the London Living Wage of £10.50 to all workers at the stadium.

This year the FA agreed to raise hundreds of its own employees to the London Living Wage. But it stopped short of lifting 2,000 contractors’ employees off the minimum wage. Many of the lowest paid are temporary staff hired by agencies for work only on match and concert days.

School renews campaign over cost of UK citizenship

Year 11 petition organiser Zainab told FA executive James MacDougall she visited classes to collect petitions.

She said relatives of Ark Academy students work at the stadium.

MacDougall argued that the FA is a national organisation and therefore Brent-based activists have little say in its management decisions.

Year 10 student Hadeal struck back, saying people earning the minimum wage cannot afford the London cost of living. MacDougall disclosed that 2,000 of the FA’s 6,000 workers live in the borough.

The students believe the FA could set an example for major employers in Brent. They will meet again with the FA in January.

Mr Wanklyn

Ark Academy students demanded lower fees on applications for British citizenship at a rally at the Home Office in October.

The students say the £1,012 fee for a child’s application is excessive.

The fee includes £700 profit for the Home Office. There is no consideration of an applicant’s income and no refund if the bid is rejected.

“This requires a sense of urgency,” student Hadeal Abdelatti told a crowd of 160 protesters. ”People cannot claim an identity which is rightfully theirs.”

The Home Office has commissioned a review of fees, which is expected to be complete this year. Changes would require government approval.

Citizens UK coordinator Tahmid Islam said: “This affects 120,000 children across the UK. They have a sense of power about this.”

Ark Academy is a founding member of North London Citizens, a group of schools, religious organisations and neighbourhood groups that receive training in civic activism from Citizens UK. Mr Wanklyn

LEST WE FORGET Remembrance Day is a day of reflection. It allows us to remember or think about all those people who are affected by wars, both in the past and now. It allows us to think about all those people who suffer in wars all around the world. And it reminds us how important it is to work for peace.

We wear a poppy to remember those whose lives have been affected by wars and active Service. That day is 11 November, and the fighting stopped at 11 o’clock in the morning.

So at 11 o’clock on the 11th day of the 11th month of the year we wear a poppy to think about those men and women. 1500 students fell silent at Ark Academy on Friday 9th November to respect the dead and wounded of two world wars and later conflicts.

The silence ended with a moving rendition of the Last Post. Myself, Primary Head Mr Watkins, Head Boy David Muja and Head Girl Heba Mushattat then laid wreaths at the Ark Academy memorial garden.

Mrs Smith

Together we Remember On Thursday 15th November, we were invited to the Lycee International School to take part in a joint service to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of the armistice.

We joined the Mayor of Brent along with members of the local Royal British Legion and staff and students from the Lycee. Iyas Mohamoud and Salma Abbas from Year 10 gave a faultless reading of the worldrenowned poem ‘In Flanders Field’ by John McCrea while students from the Lycee International read letters from soldiers at the front.

The service ended with a few words from the Mayor of Brent about his own family’s involvement in the war and the importance of remembrance.

Students from both schools then laid remembrance wreaths. It was a wonderful occasion and a great privilege to be involved.

Mr O’carroll

REMEMBRANCE PAGE 11

National Young Mathematician’s Award Nitya Srivastava, Misha Malik (Year 8), Salma Metwaly and Kabas Al azzawi (Year 7) took part in the first round of the National Young Mathematicians Awards 2018-19.

This was a team maths competition run in collaboration with the NRICH project at the University of Cambridge. The

girls performed extremely well and the judge commented on being, ‘particularly impressed with how methodical their approach to the challenge was, with their system of alternating parts of the challenge between two pairs, crosschecking each other’s working, and swapping parts of the challenge with each other when they hit mental blocks.

Having been successful in making it through to the second round of the competition, where they will now be competing to be crowned as the regional champions and for a chance to be entered into the grand final as one of the top 5 teams across the country. A huge congratulations to the girls!

Ms Burney

Maths

Challenge Day On the last day of half-term in October, 12 ARK Academy sixth form students participated in a network wide Senior Team Maths Challenge day hosted by Mr Triantafilidis and Mr Skehel. Ten teams participated from ARK schools in London and Birmingham with top prizes up for grabs.

Evenly poised after the first round, the ARK Academy teams stayed in the fight for top place during the crossnumber round. With only minutes to go in the third round it looked like Shannon, Hani, Saida and Sucdi would pull through for the school, but unfortunately fell short by a few points at the end. Team BDA were worthy winners in the end, taking home the coveted prize of a collection of maths popular fiction books and, more importantly, a supply of sweets and chocolates.

Shout out to Anugraha, David, Laura and Nikul for stealing second place in the last seconds from Shannon et al. The day finished with Mr T giving a talk about the maths behind the TV show Futurama and with a demonstration of the mind-body-switching theorem proved in a recent episode.

The first of many to come, ARK’s hosting of the Senior Team Maths Challenge was well-received by the students and made for a very enjoyable end to the half term.

Mr Triantafilidis

Manga High Madness In the build up to exam season, the Maths department re-launched their re-vamped house maths competition Manga High Madness. The online platform allows students to revise using questions that are adapted to their current level of understanding.

RESULTS

Several classes were impressive, in Year 7, Ms Bowley’s class completed over 100 hours on the platform earning 2000 points – vastly more than any other in the school!

In Year 9 Mr Skehel’s class claimed victory. Competition in Year 8 was hotly contested as Mr T’s class started in first place only to be beaten by Ms Russell’s class and then Ms Alwan’s class who ended victorious!

Stand out students were Zaharra Alshabani and Ishank Kolte in Year 7 who fought bravely for first place. In the end Zahraa claimed victory earning 500 house points for Plato.

Ishank was only 6 points behind and earned 250 house points for Socrates. In third place was Sirapa Nakarmi earning 150 points for Newton and finally Zain Shafqat earned a further 50 points for Socrates.

1st Zaharra Alshabani

500 House Pts

2nd Ishank Kolte

250 House Pts

3rd Sirapa Nakarmi

150 House Pts

4th Zaharra Alshabani

50 House Pts

Ark Academy was also competing in a November’s national competition and in the space of a week climbed all the way from 31st place to 4th place.

Furthermore our momentum has propelled our school into first place for the December competition.

The question is, can we keep working hard and claim victory over the Christmas holidays?

Mr Skehel

Gelosia House Competition At Ark Academy all students learn multiplication through the Chinese grid method known as Gelosia. To kick off the year of House Maths Competitions, last half term students from across all years got involved in our Gelosia Shootout competition. Students competed in house teams to complete as many Gelosia multiplication questions as possible. The multiplications got bigger and bigger with each round culminating in the attempt of a 10 digit by 10 digit multiplication.

The excitement and screams filled the sixth form hall as students raced to get their correct answers to the judges and there was certainly a mass of mental multiplication taking place.

The victors were Plato house taking 500 house points for their win.

Mr Skehel

MATHS PAGE 13

Dear Sixth Form students and parents,

Upon our entry to the House of Commons, an aroma of individuality and cohesion captured my attention. In an increasingly fragmented society, often undermined by materialism and individualism, the sight of cohesiveness between the male and female genders has been ignored. The ability to create a functionalist environment in which the works of both men and women are needed to permit the body of political institutions to function, and achieve the common good, truly resonated with my understanding of equality.

What a fantastic term it has been.

We started the year looking forward to where we wanted to be at the end of the year and asked our Sixth Formers to commit to making their target grades a reality through their hard work and commitment and not just another letter on a piece of paper. With the first mocks for Year 13 and the Autumn Assessments for Year 12 just finished, now would be a great time to look back and adjust the change or refocus our minds on it for the start of the Spring term.

Year 12’s have been impressive with how they have made the ‘step up’ from KS 4 to KS 5. It is great to see them so involved with the younger year groups through the Civitas hour and it was particularly pleasing to see our Professional Pathways class fully immerse themselves in the local community through their NCS challenge and really make the difference first hand.

It is hard to believe that Year 13’s have come so far and truly heart-warming to read such excellent UCAS personal statements and references. The commitment to their desired field of study is inspiring. At the time of writing - 54 Year 13 students have applied to university, 38 of whom have received an offer form a Russell Group university.

120 offers in total have been received and an amazing 4 securing interviews for Oxbridge. We congratulate those pupils who have done so well, so far, and offer encouragement to those who have yet to submit their UCAS forms. It is exciting to see our Year 13 getting ready to fly the nest but it is vitally important now to turn those offers in realities.

With 2 weeks ahead of them out of the school environment it is vital thatyou do not let the momentum slip – the show must go on and this is the perfect chance to clarify your knowledge of your subjects, revise and revise again. Use the time wisely and while you do take time to recharge your batteries come back ready to face 2019 in a stronger position that you bid farewell to 2018.

I wish you all a very pleasant, peaceful and productive Christmas.

Tracey Keane Director of Ark Academy Sixth Form

WOMEN OF THE WORLD Three of our Year 13 students (Annie, Sarah and Nour) visited Parliament to attend a ‘Women of the World’ meeting for female MPs from across the globe.

The girls were among a very small handful of students to be invited to the meeting and were all confused for MPs themselves.

They heard about the opportunity by reading The Lark, our SF bulletin board, and then each wrote a letter of application.

Nour felt so empowered by the experience that she penned a short essay about her experience, which you can read in the next column.

The Lark www.larkacademy.wordpress.com A website for Ark Academy Sixthformers, with a focus on sharing opportunities related to careers and university.

Because we all know the early bird catches the worm.

Check it in the morning on your way to school.

Questions or suggestions, email Mr Ding: t.ding@arkacademy.org

To witness and hear women, like myself, give speeches about issues concerning the pathos of a predicament like inequality, left me with questions that must be answered. Haneen Zoabi, the first female Israeli Arab to be elected as MP, vocalised her concerns upon issues regarding discrimination and exclusion of Israeli and Palestinian women. Particularly, she raised concerns upon gun legislation and the high estimated rate of gun ownership (both licit and illicit) held by Palestinian civilians. In 2017, the number rose to 56,000 - this not only threatens humanitarianism, but it also heightens the suspicious silence of women in the private sphere. There has been a national plan to combat violence against women as more than 20 women every year are killed (50% of which are killed by their spouses). Similarly, gender segregation is also highlighted in Peru. In 2017, 7/10 reported sexual street harassment. 76% whom are raped are minors, and unlike their male peers, 2/5 women MPs have suffered assault by the media.

In comparison to more developed countries such as Norway, which, according to the UN, has been ranked as the safest place for women 13 times in a row, has argued that it is not the oil that has made Norway rich but it is the women’s workforce. Romania has also been progressively combatting issues of sexual assault. Recently, the Social Justice and Women’s rights managed to pass the first law against street harassment. This, in particular, highlights high progress in comparison to previous years. As Nikki Kaye, an MP from New Zealand, questioned, how can something as simple as giving women rights in both the public and private spheres, be so hard?

It is true, as highlighted by an Albanian MP, the one thing that unites women in such conferences is struggle, and this must be changed. As a woman, I aspire to inspire. As a human being, however, I aspire for equality. It is such thing that makes me human.

As I exit the House of Commons, thoughts spring to mind. I am now ready to make a change. I am now ready to be a woman. I am now ready to be human.

Nour, Year 13

Politics

Our First Ever

Year 13 Politics students attended an A Level Politics Conference at the Martin Lancaster Tim Petri Eccles Centre for American Studies at the British Library. The students attended lectures from academic experts on US Politics and also attended seminars with Tom Petri who was the Republican U.S. Representative for Wisconsin’s 6th congressional district from 1979 to 2015 and Martin Lancaster who was the Democratic U.S. Representative for North Carolina’s 3rd congressional district from 1987 to 1995.

Mr Coward

‘Alumni Forum’ In the beginning of September we welcomed more than 70 ex-students back to Ark for our first ever ‘Alumni Forum’.

The alumni enjoyed sharing their reflections on university life with their old friends, their older teachers and the ‘next generation’ of Y13s coming through.

The highlight of the evening was a ‘keynote address’ by the award-winning director and actor, Femi

Oyeniran, who engaged the audience with stories of his journey from a North London comprehensive to Netflix stardom.

His core message was crystalclear and very appropriate for a networking event; work hard and stay in touch with people – you never know when you might need their support.

Mr Ding

Snappy Happy

ARK Angel Economists We were welcomed to the Treasury by senior economists at the Government Economic Service (GES). Our students asked interesting questions speaking articulately and confidently to experts in front of a room of strangers.

Our group were then given an assessment center style task in competition with students from other schools. We had to pick from a list of 25 economics policies with the aim of increasing GDP whilst simultaneously decreasing inequality measured using the Gini coefficient. After surprise economics shocks and five elections cycles the “ARK angels” placed second - only 0.4 points away from first place!

Next we were presented with a panel of speakers who promoted the GES apprentice scheme. The scheme will be highly competitive with only 75 places available in the

2019 UK cohort. However, whilst the candidates will go through rigorous testing and interviews, application success will not be based on purely on A level grades, this is in order to find applicants with the greatest potential for success in the workplace.

Students will be paid a salary of £22,000 whilst they study with the University of Kent towards a debt free economics degree, where upon successful completion they may move onto the prestigious Fast Track scheme and move onto a salary of £27, 000. This is a phenominal opportunity that our students are now considering.

Finally we wrapped up the day on a tour of the treasury, we saw; Winston Churchill’s bedroom during the war, an original red budget box, and finally the famous courtyard that was a filming location for James Bond and Top Gear.

Miss Russell

Our A-Level Photography students took a trip to the Photographers’ Gallery in central London. This was a fantastic opportunity for the students to gather first hand resources for their project and to explore the work of Roman Vishniac, who specialised in Photomicroscopy and documented Jewish life in Eastern Europe between the two World Wars.

The students then focused on architectural photography, taking photographs in response to their research. We walked along the Southbank to the Tate Modern, taking in the vast array of architectural styles.

Ms Sandeman

SIXTH FORM PAGE 15

Ark Ambitions sets out to support our students from Reception through to Year 13 with the development of the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed along their chosen career pathway.

Here’s what we got up to...

We are delighted to have been awarded the IntoUniversity Secondary Partnership of Year Award.

We received our award at a special IntoUniversity assembly at school on 3rd December 2018. The title of the assembly was ‘Standing out from the crowd’ and students were urged to grab opportunities so that they can fulfil their potential.

A very lucky group of year 9 students were allowed access to the corporate world during a visit to the Bank of America with the IntoUniversity workshop.

The chosen students represented Ark with excellence, showing a real desire to develop the key skills required in the modern workplace. Set with the task of pitching an Olympic Games venue to a panel of experts, each team showed the necessary skillset and focus to complete tasks relating to leadership, marketing and advertising as well as budgeting appropriately.

Hadeal Abdelatti Y10 spoke passionately about what IntoUniversity means to her “Most people have to build the ladder as they climb it, but IntoUniversity provides us with as many ladders as it takes to fulfil our dreams and aspirations which once felt far-fetched and impossible”.

Salma Abbas Y10 shared her experiences from the

AWARD 3-day Leadership In Focus programme she attended last year. Her message was “Dare to be different and don’t let the voice in your head tell you what you can and can’t do. Seize every moment as it comes, second chances are very rare in life.”

IntoUniversity made the following comment: “The partnership is strong and there is high take-up for our Holiday and Enrichment programmes. We have been working with Ark Academy ever since the school opened and we have great communication with staff who are always friendly and helpful. The students are always engaged with our workshops and there is a great overlap with Ark’s values and our own.”

The students had the opportunity to work with experts in this field as well as the Into University leaders, both of which were impressed by the professionalism of the Ark students. Stand out students were Elidona Bokrugji for exceptional leadership as CEO and Hashim Akbar for superb marketing and advertisement. Overall the students conducted themselves brilliantly and were a credit to the school.

Miss Kelman

Miss Giannarou

Wednesday 10th October was the national mental health awareness day. Throughout the week assemblies focused on mental health and how we can all put strategies in place in to ensure a healthy mind.

We also welcomed The Samaritans charity into school to highlight the incredible work they do in this area.

They spoke in assembly to Years 9-11 and shared the work of the Samaritans and the importance of being a good listener to family and friends. A number of students signed up to take part in interactive workshops with The Samaritans volunteers, spending time working on effective listening skills.

Samaritans Workshop

Students were amazed at the idea of listening as a skill and reflected on the importance of being an effective listener.

Mr O’Carroll

Year 10 Insight Days at Vodaphone and Ipsos Mori As part of the Ark Ambitions program, all students will get the opportunity to take part in an ‘Insight Visit’ to one of our partner industries. During the autumn term, 60 students have taken part. Twenty students spent a day at Vodaphone while a further 40 students have visited the Ipsos Mori offices in harrow [across two days]. Ipsos MORI is the second largest market research organisation in the United Kingdom. They are behind some of the largest market research projects across the globe and many of you will have seen their work without realising it; they are behind the infographics shown on the BBC during a general election for example.

Students spent the afternoon in the Ipsos boardroom where they heard from various departments across the business. The facilities and finance team shared their role in a global

business along with insights from the team behind the surveys, the digital research team and HR department. Key messages came through from all sessions; that ‘standing out from the crowd’ on a CV is vitally important; students need to ensure they are developing themselves beyond their academic studies.

Small details like handshakes, eye-contact and body language during interviews were highlighted time and time again. Those who visited Vodaphone spent time at their Paddington offices. Vodaphone are one of the world’s leading telecommunication groups and exposed students to the power and pitfalls of social media profiles along with an interactive CV writing and interview skills workshop. The students enjoyed feeling immersed in the business world and are keen to be involved in further insight days…watch this space.

Year 11 Success Club Visit to Disney Fifteen Year 11s from the Success Club had the opportunity to visit the Disney EMEA HQ. When we arrived, we were struck by the amazing building! We headed to one of the boardrooms, where we left our belongings and

we headed down to the first floor cinema room. This room is often used for private screenings of Disney films and client showcases.

As we passed the entrance to the cinema, we were able to take photos alongside the replica millennium falcon (the famous

Mr O’Carroll

mode of transport from the Star Wars films). Our next stop was the 3rd floor, home to both Disney’s ESPN and ABC studios. We visited the green rooms and the ESPN locker room where we took some more photos with a few of the NBA and NFL standees (cardboard cutouts).

After our tour we returned to the boardroom where Yabs Macauley (Head of UK Digital Sales) and Matthe Marvel (Creative Lead) gave presentations about their journeys into their roles at Disney.

We learnt about the importance of being open to new opportunities and not being afraid to work hard.

We finished off with a Q&A where we asked specific questions about their careers and sought advice

as to how we could potentially approach and develop ours. We thoroughly enjoyed our day at Disney!

Miss Giannarou

ARK AMBITIONS PAGE 17

House Rowing Results

Girls Football

Socrates 1st Curie 2nd Plato 3rd Newton 4th

Girls football is forever growing at Ark Academy. We are very fortunate to have Watford FC working with our girls’ football team every Tuesday after school for one hour. Our season starts in December and the girls have already been training tirelessly every week since September! We have also had our first preseason friendly which was a great success. Special shout out to the following pupils who attend on a weekly basis and are always civitas at training: Rebekah Tate [Yr7], Temi Sobayo [Yr8] and Noelanni Agyeman [Yr9].

The first Ark House Sports event of the year was House Rowing and was very successful. Using indoor rowing machines and virtual boats projected on the wall students competed in their houses in 400m races. The event was very well attended by all year groups with the following results below. Students who performed well at this event have been selected to represent the school at an upcoming London indoor rowing event. Let this be the start of a long and successful rowing enrichment at Ark Academy.

Mr Parkinson

Miss Gallagher

Football Fun... continues to be phenomenally popular with children from across the school, we have on average 60 students starting their weekend with some highly competitive and skilful showings, including an often epic end-to-end Year 8 match. Memorable goals have been scored by Omar Abbasi (Ronaldo freekick) and Amir Kadem Salem (swirling over the shoulder volley!), whilst at one point we had 32 Year 11’s in a 4-way tournament. Year 11 shoutouts to Kamal, Kevin, Joel, David and Shammi. Keep it up!

Mr Edmondson

Boxing Mr Chanda has been working with the PE Department since September to deliver boxing sessions to both boys and girls.

It is evident that the pupils who attend each week are growing in confidence and physical fitness. If you have not yet attended one of Mr Chanda’s boxing sessions we would highly recommend it … after all, he is a professional boxer.

Miss Gallagher

The KS3 mixed badminton tournament provided the perfect opportunity for the younger pupils to showcase their excellent badminton skills. It was fantastic to see such a high turnout and all pupils participated with tremendous enthusiasm as well as a positive, friendly attitude.

Performance levels did not disappoint either with some extremely tense and completive battles between houses. After competing tirelessly in doubles matches for over an hour the final results were as follows:

Badminton

Mr Foster

Participation Results:

Match Results:

Socrates 1st Curie 2nd Plato 3rd Newton 4th

Plato 1st Curie 2nd Socrates 3rd Newton 4th

Boys Football Ark can celebrate a great Footballing term with over 20 fixtures taking place from Years 7 – 11. Gaining a spot in the football team has never been harder with over 30 students trying out for each team and practice numbers the highest we have ever had at Ark Academy. Participation is at an all-time high but so is Excellence with the following boys standing out in their respective year groups: Erjon

Bokrugji (Year 7), Miguel Camara(Year 8), Tyrique (Year 9).

Well done to all students who have represented Ark at Football this term and keep up the participation. Our school sits in the shadow of Wembley and it would be great if one day one of our students gets to play on the famous Wembley Turf.

Netball Ark Netball have had an excellent turnout this year with several new players joining at each year group – in particular the Year 7’s have been full of enthusiasm to represent Ark Academy in fixtures. With such excellent levels of participation students have had to work exceptionally hard in training and this has reflected in their performances against other schools with all year groups having success in tournaments.

A big shout out goes out to the Year 9 team who are yet to lose a game and also to the Year 7’s for representing the school with Civitas. Well done to all the students who are part of the netball team – fingers crossed we have some finals coming up!

Miss Gallagher

Mr Parkinson

British Basketball All-Stars Championship

On the 14th of October the basketball team went on a trip to the copper box arena to watch the BBL All-Star Championship Games. We were fortunate enough to watch the best basketball teams in the England professional league (BBL) play a tournament - the atmosphere was electrifying. We saw amazing plays from every team with some amazing dunks and spectacular 5 point shots (as the scoring was different than a normal game). We also got to meet and greet a few of the players courtside. They stressed how important it is to work hard not only on the court but also work hard to gain an education.

They also said that is important to be a leader and treat people well by respecting everyone’s opinion - especially those that are trying to help us improve our skills to play the game.

The final All-Star match was a very close and exciting one.

All together it was a fantastic day and I want to thank Sheffield Sharks and Miss Rees for this opportunity.

Tshala Kabala

SPORTS PAGE 19