Word on the Street

Sports News from Bethnal Green Academy

Football Update The boys football have squads have started the year with some very positive results. The teams have been training hard and the players all have been given contacts regarding rules and regulations.

The team captains have also been announced with D'andre Davis (Junior), Fraiser Scott Wilson (Inter) and Daniel Gbadgan (Senior). The girls team have also started training with 14 girls attending the Wednesday after school session. The girls will have their first fixture in s

Junior Boys (yr 7 and 8) BGA 15 v 0 Oaklands (friendly) BGA 6 v 3 Bishop Challoner (London League) BGA 3 v 4 Mossbourne Academy (London League) BGA to play Lammas Sports College away on Wednesday 15th October (English Schools FA 2nd Round)

Inter Boys (yr 9 and 10) BGA 5 v 1 Oaklands BGA 3 v 0 Bishop Challoner BGA 1 v 5 Rydens Enterprise School (Woking) (English Schools FA 1st Round)

Senior Boys (Under 16) BGA 1 v 0 Rydens Enterprise School, Woking (English Schools FA 1st Round) BGA 3 v 2 Langtree School, Oxfordshire (English Schools FA 2nd Round) BGA to play home v Ibstock Place, Richmond (English Schools FA 3rd Round) before 8th November.

On Thursday 9th October the Senior boys football teams travelled to Oxfordshire to play in the English Schools FA Cup. After a fantastic start BGA lead 3v0 at half time with 2 goals from George Bruno and the other from Silvio Marcello. In the second half the boys battled against a strong wind and held on to win 3v2.

E T A UPD

Badminton The badminton club has started with large numbers playing each week on a Thursday evening. The team captained by Savio Sam will start with fixtures after half term.

Female Only Fitness Club The female only fitness club that occurs every Friday after school. The numbers have been fantastic so far with both female staff and students working alongside each other in activities such as bleep test and circuit training.

Here are some photos from the Year 9 inter-form handball competition, the first of our half-termly inter-form challenges of the year

Dates for Student Leadership Meetings 2nd October

15th October

Student Leadership Meeting • Community Reps • Subject Reps • Student Council period 4

SIXTH FORM LEADERS meeting Period 6

8th October Student Leadership Meeting • Community Reps • Subject Reps • Student Council period 6

14th October

16th October Student Leadership Meeting • Community Reps • Subject Reps • Student Council 3-5PM

22nd October • Community Reps • Subject Reps period 6

STUDENT COUNCIL Meeting Period 4

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Coming Soon....

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Monday 13th October . Issue 135

Word on the Street The Newsletter of Bethnal Green Academy and Sixth Form

Busking in the Street

Coffee and cakes for charity On Friday 26th September BGA held a coffee morning to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support.

September 22nd was the start of a week of music in the Street. The BGA school community were invited to watch and participate in a series of lunchtime live music sessions which included a solo performance from Theo Gilbert, the

staff choir and a Jazz band. Students were able to drop in and try instruments, sign up for music tuition or perform to an enthusiastic audience. A big thank you to Mr Slater who organised the week of events.

The World's Biggest Coffee Morning is Macmillan Cancer Support's biggest charity fundraising event. BGA joined in to raise £205.00 which will go to Macmillan to help support people affected by cancer. Thank you to the many parents and staff who dropped in for coffee and cakes, to the staff who baked all the delicious cakes and to the students who served them.

Summer Jam-tastic!

On Saturday 13th September BGA opened its doors to staff, students, parents and local residents for the 2014 Summer Jam. The day was a fantastic success and managed to raise an incredible £1,143.72 which will be put towards our student entitlement fund. There was a live music stage with special guests, food stalls, face painting and a soft play area to provide fun for visitors of all ages. We can’t wait for next year’s event!

Royal Academy Art trip

Sixth Form and Year 11 Art students were invited to the Royal Academy to see an exhibition of paintings by German artist Anselm Kiefer. The paintings were huge and imposing (some taking 11 years to complete). It was a great experience to see the work in real life and to get a sense of the scale, the artist’s process and the materials he used to create the works.

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National Citizenship Service - The Challenge NCS THE CHALLENGE is a once in lifetime opportunity for young people aged between 15-17. This 3 weeks summer programme involves outdoor activities, meeting new people, developing new skills, having a university experience and also a chance to design and manage a project for the community. Mohammed Islam and Nadia Ahmed in Year 12 tell us about their experiences.

The 16th of August was a bright sunny day that marked the beginning of my journey with NCS the Challenge. Upon arrival at Stamford Hill community centre (our pick up point) I was extremely excited despite the realisation that I was surrounded by strangers also present at Stamford hill community centre ready for the pickup.

Both daunted and excited by the prospect of beginning this journey with people I knew absolutely nothing about, we began our six hour long journey to CarIton Outdoor Education Centre in Middlesbrough.

Arriving at the Carlton Outdoor Education Centre following what could only be described as an awkward 6 hour journey, everyone renewed their enthusiasm about the days ahead instantly. The next three days were spent hiking, camping, rock climbing,

abseiling and canoeing. Words cannot describe how enjoyable and exciting these three days were for not just engaging in a wide range of outdoor activities, but also forming friendships with people who were mere strangers to me a short while ago. The activities challenged me physically as I conquered my fears particularly through rock climbing and abseiling. However, enjoying the countless times I was overboard whilst canoeing, bizarrely became my favourite activity of all.

Clearly, the prospect of potentially drowning failed to faze me.

During the second week, we stayed at a University campus and engaged in enterprise activities. Evenings were spent in an old peoples’ home befriending the elderly. A talent show was organised. But the highlight of the week can only be attributed to the illfated attempts of six teenage boys cooking!

The last four days were dedicated to planning for a campaign on an issue we were passionate about and preparing a pitch we would present to a panel of ‘dragons’ to secure finances for our campaign. We came up with ‘Project Proud’, which aims to improve peoples’ self confidence. Our pitch was received positively by the dragons and we were consequently given the necessary funding to run the project.

I am continuing my work with The Challenge on another new project called ‘The Real challenge’ and really excited for opportunities this will bring for me. I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience with NCS and will strongly encourage others to participate next year.

Global Classrooms London Model United Nations Conference On the 10th and 11th of July, students form Bethnal Green Academy participated in the Global Classrooms Model United Nations Conference at Mulberry School for Girls. The topic of the conference was ‘The Post-2015 Development Agenda’.

Two of our students, Mohammed Islam and Hanim Karakoc, both won awards for ‘Best Delegate’ and ‘Distinguished Delegate’ - prestigious awards given for outstanding contribution and performance throughout the conference.

Another ‘fun’ award, still worthy for the trophy cabinet, was given to Ciaran Constable for being ‘The Best Dressed’ delegate! We are very proud of all the students who delivered articulate speeches, remained engaged in debate and negotiation throughout the two days whilst making plenty of friends along the way.

Musammoth Mawa Mahima and Mohammed Islam reflect on their experience: ‘In the weeks preparing for Model UN, I learnt how hard and time consuming research is. One of the requirements of being a delegate in Model UN was that we had to write a position paper talking about our designated country's stance on the post-15 agenda. I had to find good sources from the web, and back them up with other sources. I had to translate

statistics into actual sentences without sounding like a mathematician! The thing that Model UN really forces delegates to do is to think in a way where you have to take into account what you're saying and what impact it will have all the time. Also, since the time span for speaking is so little (on average you only get thirty seconds to speak) and it takes place in a discussion, you have to always listen to the discussion happening responding to what other delegates have said on a certain topic, come up with an excellent point as well as deliver it in a way to ensure maximum effect. The environment of a Model UN conference is very formal, it makes delegates interact with each other in an extremely professional way (for example when referring to yourself in a moderated caucus you do so in third person) and the way the Chairs instruct and advise you is also with a formal tone. This gives us students a chance to experience a professional yet interactive environment. The demands Model UN has for us students in the form of research skills, excellent written and spoken communication, awareness of the global community and its principles, being attentive to the small details and debating in such a short amount of time is absolutely amazing and quite shocking. For only two days, it is incredible just how magically Model UN

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transforms us from being slightly nervous kids to wholly confident world leaders... It's definitely something that I will value in the future and the skills I've gained from this is unparalleled to any other academic experience of any such kind.’

Musammoth Mawa Mahima, Year 10 ‘The Model UN conference was an amazing experience for me as it helped me in boosting my confidence in public speaking and it improved my knowledge and understanding in both international politics and policies. I enjoy public speaking and engaging in international affairs which allowed me to enjoy this experiences a lot. My favourite bits of conference were when we formed our alliance and when I defended my country's interests and policies whilst most of the other country delegates were against me.

The only difficulty for me in the Model UN was writing the resolution paper however, the resolution paper proved to be one of the most interesting tasks at Model UN. This experience has offered many educational, interesting and enjoyable moments.’

Mohammed Islam , Year 11

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Year 10 Art at Kew Gardens On Thursday, Year 10 art students went to Kew Gardens as part of their GCSE personal portfolio, to experience drawing from direct observation in a different environment. This helped to develop their drawing skills and Sheikh Ariful, Year 10, said “My trip to Kew Gardens inspired me because of the amazing colours and textures and the sheer scale of the plants”.

Patrycja, Year 10, said “the trip to Kew Gardens inspired me because of the different types of flowers and plants that are unlike anything I usually see.

Model Westminster – GCSE and A Level Reform On the 5th September, Five Year 12 students attended the Model Westminster Conference at the Department of Education as part of the government consultation on the GCSE and A level reforms. Students were engaged in discussion and debate on the proposed subject content reforms for a range of GCSE and A level subjects.

Farouk Guthmy in Year 12 gives us an account of his experience.

Returning to life at Bethnal Green Academy, only this time as a sixth former, a wonderful new opportunity was proposed to me by the school staff, Model Westminster. For those of you unaware of what partaking in Model Westminster entails... fear not! I was in the same boat only but a week ago.

Students were offered the opportunity to participate in a consultation commissioned by the Department of Education to discuss the proposed changes to a range of GCSE and A Level Subjects, potentially affecting the lives of every student and teacher currently at BGA as well as every other state school in the country. I quickly realised the importance and enormity of my involvement in this and appreciated my attendance there – it’s not often students are asked about changes that have everything to do with them!

Needless to say, I was most definitely the only soul on the train reluctant to get off at my destination.

As we entered the Department for Education's vicinity, we were met by a delegation of Model Westminster staff, refreshments were served, introductions were brief, and it’s fair to say we got straight down to business. At the interlude, we were treated to an inspirational speech by a 5th year medical student at king’s college who was also a Governor at a Free School introduced by the Government in 2011.

The introduction of free schools was a hot topic during the discussions due to the heavy criticism by the general public, as were grade inflations in the national GCSE exams and the lack of Basic English and Mathematical skills students were leaving school and entering the workforce with.

The day began at 9:30, I was lucky enough to make the acquaintance of four amazing sixth formers. Ms. Akthar handed me a handful of research on education reforms as ammunition in the debating phase of Model Westminster; of course it was only research to compliment the plethora of work I had done in preparation for the event (!)

Although there may have been a heated exchange of opinions during the debating phase of Model Westminster, the day came to a close in good spirits, with all participants and DfE staff joining together for a group photo... no better way to spend a Friday if you ask me!

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Celebrating Poetry at BGA

To celebrate National Poetry Day, we ran a series of workshops around creating and experiencing poetry in new settings. Every lunchtime and break, students and staff flocked to the poetry stall in the street picking up new poems to read and perhaps composing a rhyme of their own! Highlights of the week include lunchtime performances by resident poet, Mr Messam and a rendition of T.S Eliot's Book of Practical Cats by Mr Marsh and Mr Paterson. We were also priviledged to be able to welcome celebrated poet, Daljit Nagra, to work with students in year 9 and 10 on poetry writing. The week culminated on Thursday 2nd October for the Evening of Poetry. Students who excelled over the last year in poetry were awarded poetry prizes and Bayleigh Campbell Clark in year 9 was awarded the prestigious position of Poet Laureate for 2014-15. She will be writing poems for special occassions throughout the year so watch this space!

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