Word on the Street

Welcome to issue #112 Weekly news from Bethnal Green Academy.

This half term Word on the Street continues to keep you entertained and informed about what’s been happening and what’s to come...

Black History Month How Bethnal Green Academy celebrated Black History Month this October Black History month was the focus of some engaging and exciting assemblies at BGA! Mr Messam, learning mentor, delivered inspirational assemblies to all year groups focusing on courage, he talked passionately about the importance of celebrating your heritage and focused on the lyrics of Bob Marley's Redemption Song. Students were asked to listen and reflect on what the lyrics meant to them.

The following week the student council delivered equally informative assemblies discussing black role models and again focusing on the struggle and determination faced by some of them to stand up for causes they passionately believed in. The assemblies were well planned and presented by the students and we really have some budding public speakers in our midst!

Current Tower Hamlets Doubles Key Stage 4 1st and 2nd place champions.

Front: Syeed Ahmed and Duel Ahmed.

Back: Ujjoll Ahmed and Samuel Miah.

Issue #112 - Monday 12 November 2012

Mr. Messan

On Thursday 25th October BGA welcomed Shantelle George, a PhD candidate from the University of London, to run a Black History Month workshop with year 10 and 11 students.

The workshop centred around the lyrics of contemporary music which talk about the importance of African history, namely pre-colonial empires. Students discussed notions of history, music, identity and the interlinking relationships between them. The final part of the workshop was a 'journey through pictures' with illustrations from empires such as Nubia, Timbuktu, Axum, Zimbabwe, and Kongo. "

Amazing ambassadors for BGA Ms. Donnelly praises students who got busy during half term with ThinkForward.

Last Saturday a small group of ThinkForward Students were invited to a private screening of the new Skyfall Bond movie, hosted by a company called RR Donnelly. The students who attended were excellent, this was Muataz, Vinan, Aisha and Rebecca and represented thee school and the ThinkForward programme wonderfully. They were mature and professional at all times.

Melda attended The Young Employable course in childcare, she absolutely loved it. Melda was fully engaged and made lots of new friends from other schools in Shoreditch, to be honest she was the star student. Melda is sure she wants to spend her future working with children.

James (right) attended his first 2 days at London Zoo Academy, the theory and practical of Insects and reptiles were covered, he was an absolute dream. All staff and kids adored him and he made a whole host of new friends from other schools.

James didn't think he wanted to be a zoo keeper before the course, but it is now an option he would like to investigate further.

Kubra, Larisa, Caroline and Jemima attended the first 2 days of hair and beauty course. It was brilliant and very practical and was based in a working hair beauty salon. The students were brilliant and very engaged.

Caroline and Kubra have decided they want to follow a career in Beauty Therapy. Larisa wants to pursue a career in Hair and Beauty.

Michael and Khaleda (above) attended a catering course, they

Remember, remember, it’s...

were based in a working kitchen and produced a meal for over 20 people. They worked really hard and were excellent. Michael wants to be a chef in the future.

These students were absolutely brilliant - they were all great ambassadors for the Academy and the ThinkForward Programme.

Student Voice Team Volunteering:

Shalpa Choudhury (year 9) won an award for her efforts with the Bethnal Green Academy City Safe Campaign. PC Duncan Evans also won an award for his efforts. The City Safe Campaign has now converted 15 shops in the local area into City Safe Havens.

A shop on Hackney Road, which is now a City Safe Haven (which BGA students converted) was used by someone who was going to be attacked! That's a result of the shopkeeper keeping true to their commitment and it's all down to the students that someone was saved from attack. Well Done BGA Shoreditch Citizens.

Coming up: BGA FoodBank: How much food and money can we raise in the run up to Christmas?

Team Learning: Mr. Moss, Mr. Palmer, Mr. Lynch and Mr. Brown have all signed up to support Movember. To highlight the importance of what they are doing, take a look at these statistics: • 1 in 9 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime • This year 40,000 new cases of the disease will be diagnosed in the UK • 47% of testicular cancer cases occur in men under 35 years and over 90% occur in men under 55 years Find out more about the type of work they will be helping to fund at: http://uk.movember.com/about/funding-overview/

Student Leaders have been paired up with faculty areas across the school attending faculty meetings to provide more of a student insight into the curriculum. This term students have worked with MFL, English, Creative Technologies and Humanities.

In MFL students have focused on student engagement, what makes languages exciting for them. In Creative Technologies, students focused on how marking could be improved. In Humanities, students evaluated schemes of work with teachers.

Coming up: Students to create a learning tips handbook.

Team Voice:

This term student council members delivered an assembly on Black History Month to their peers. Students also gathered information on students views of assessments to tie in with the assessment cycle.

Coming up: Prom Committee, more assemblies and an anti bullying campaign.

Student Leadership application forms are in the library.

Sign up today.

Petchey Award winners

Ready Made for Style Creative workshops with LCF Over the last half-term designers from London College of Fashion ran a series of workshops, as part of a project called Ready Made for Style. They worked with a group of students at Bethnal Green Academy to develop surface designs and worked with fabric, colour and texture to produce some original design work. London College of fashion are looking forward to working with students this term on more exciting creative projects.

Tahmida Khatun (Year 8), Tahmina Begum (Year 12), Mahima Khatun (Year 9), and Ishaq Hamza (Year 8)

Badminton success for BGA Congratulations to our BGA Champions.

On Thursday 25th November Bethnal Green Academy hosted the Tower Hamlets Under 16's Competition. The tournament was extremely competitive with 9 of the 12 Tower Hamlets Schools being represented.

The final was an all Bethnal Green Academy affair with Syed Ahmed and Dual Ahmed beating Ujoll Ahmed and Samiul Miah in the 21-7. In third place was St Pauls way.

Ms Dippenaar said “It’s been a great start to the Year for BGA Badminton and I was delighted with their performance. As a school we are really pleased the boys will now be attending the National Development Centre and are looking forward to the Centre Parks National Championships in December".

Vote in the election for your BGA Head Boy and Head Girl...

The election will take place on 23rd November... you decide!

Sharmin and Arif say that they will work with you to: Raise your attainment in Maths and Science by providing after school clubs and run by Sixth Formers and staff.

Improve differentiated learning to suit your own individual learning style by working with staff to review the variety of teaching methods used across the school.

Elect Sixth Form representatives on the school council who have a range of skills to support the ideas and changes you want and communicate them to teachers.

Muzakkir and Yasmin promise to help to provide more opportunities for year 10 students by: Running revision clubs, providing sixth form mentors and inviting external speakers to help motivate you.

Improve school life for year students by: organising trips, involving year 7 in activities across the school and offering support in organising new activities.

Promote talent and success across the Academy by: organising termly showcase events for you, arranging for teachers to share and model their skills and giving you the opportunity to shine!

Expand your mind!

Word of the week.

This past Thursday was the inaugural meeting of Mind Gym Club. Students did their first ever mindfulness practices, such as the 7/11 (counting to 7 in your heads on the in breath and counting to 11 on your out breath).

Mindfulness has been defined as “paying attention in a particular way; On purpose, in the present moment, and non judgmentally.”

Those present also watched a clip of Kung Fu Panda and learnt about the science behind mindfulness. Namely that we can change our brains according to how we think, to feel less stressed, more calm and better able to concentrate.

The club is open to year 10 & 11 students, on Thursdays at 15.30 in room 214.

Here’s what students said about the session: "It made me think about how the body and mind works" Sait Gultekin.

"It was really helpful because I forgot all about my worries" Azara Tahiru. "come for the biscuits!"

Ciaran Constable.

"It helps you stay in the present" Tashann McGhie.

"Why don't you give it a try, you might love it!"

Muhammed Kaya.

Location noun

a particular place or position: the property is set in a convenient location.

• an actual place or natural setting in which a film or broadcast is made, as distinct from a simulation in a studio: the movie was filmed entirely on location .

• the action or process of placing someone or something in a particular position: the location of new housing beyond the existing built-up areas.

• a position or address in computer memory.

Our Word of the week is sourced from our Focus Words list which is compiled by our teaching staff and is designed to include the sort of keywords, terms and phrases regularly used in their subject areas. The full list, complete with dictionary definition hyperlinks can be found on the Students page of our website.

Mind Gym is every Thursday from 15.30 16.15. If you are interested please register with Mr. Morris.

Tuesday 27th November

Word Fragments

In this puzzle, a word fragment is given, and you must think of an English word that contains the fragment - that is, you must form a word by adding letters to the beginning and/or the end of the fragment. You may not add letters to the middle of the fragment, nor may you rearrange the letters given. How many words can you make?

This week’s fragment is:

drob

Associated Words

In this puzzle a list of words is given. To solve the puzzle, think of a single word that goes with each to form a compound word (or word pair that functions as a compound word). For example, if the given words are volley, field, and bearing, then the answer would be ball, because the word ball can be added to each of the other words to form volleyball, ballfield, and ball bearing.

1. above 2. floor 3. walk

Last weeks answers: summertime and ground

Find us online: www.bethnalgreenacademy.co.uk