TheClaptonReview
April 2015
In this issue:
Sporting success, p8 Dance spectacular, p2 Trips abroad, pp4-5
CGA has five student buildings: who are they named after?
Florence Nightingale
The Pankhursts
2 A message from
Ms C Day, Headteacher I do hope you enjoy the ‘new look’ Clapton Review as much as I did. The new layout is vibrant and fresh. Well done to the Clapton Girls’ Academy design team. The articles are as interesting as always, with our students continuing to be involved in so many exciting activities.
Dance, dance!
HTSA schools put on a show Our HTSA primary PE programme has continued to flourish. A variety of events have given young children the opportunity to learn new skills in new ways, ranging from in-school classes and workshops to larger events and sports days. The HTSA (Hackney Teaching Schools’ Alliance) is an outstanding partnership that works to improve the quality of teaching and leadership through effective collaboration and personalised support.
This year’s PE programme culminated in a fantastic dance show in March, themed around the use of props. Bringing together students from CGA, Rushmore, William Patten, Millfields, Gayhurst, Kingsmead, and Nightingale, this wonderful celebration of movement and music was supported and led by many of CGA’s own young dance leaders, who worked tirelessly alongside the primary pupils to create and rehearse a truly spectacular show.
Valentina Tereshkova
Marie Curie
Rosa Parks
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Girls Like That
A Level students question stereotypes In March, our A2 Drama students performed their devised piece of theatre as part of their A2 exam. The piece was influenced by the practice of Bertolt Brecht and utilised many of his alienation techniques, such as multi-role playing and overt storytelling. The girls created a piece which explored the stereotyping of teenage girls and investigated why specific labels are used to define young women. The girls’ performance style was also influenced by Girls Like That by Evan Placey, which they saw at the Unicorn Theatre earlier this year. The girls spoke directly to the audience throughout and manipulated them into becoming characters within the drama to provoke a consideration of how much we are all responsible for constructing a limited identity for women in society.
Bridging Worlds
Photography at the Barbican Each year, the Barbican produces a photography book comprised of images taken by London students. This year’s book, Bridging Worlds, features images taken by 27 CGA students. The book was launched in March and Year 10 students Eleanor Cook, Georgia Jarvis, Nolia Lumley, and Ozlem Halibryan took to the stage to speak about their work.
Spoken Word
Students shine at schools showcase
On 24th March, a group of young poets from CGA performed at Gnome House, a community and creative space in Walthamstow, as part of SpokenWordEd’s all school showcase. Our students performed poems inspired by International Women’s Day and really impressed the audience with their confident, dynamic work. Check out our Facebook and Twitter profiles for videos of their performances.
Into the Hood
National Theatre: Connections Project The Year 10 cast of Hood worked tirelessly in after-school drama club to create their own version of Katherine Chandler’s Hood, a play about a family pulling together, despite the odds, and about how we can all be masters of our own destinies. The play forms part of the National Theatre: Connections project, which sees hundreds of schools and youth groups perform their choice of one of ten plays in a UK-wide theatre festival for young people. All the plays have been written especially for young casts and the project has seen well-known playwrights such as Dennis Kelly, Edna Walsh, and Sarah Solemani contribute material in recent years. Our girls performed four times in school and, following a visit from a theatre director from the National, have now performed the show at the Arts Depot in Finchley. The director complimented the girls on their clear story-telling and confident interaction with the audience.
CGA is one of the top 90 schools in England for the greatest sustained improvement in % of students achieving 5+ A*-C GCSEs.
Top 90
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Beyond the classroom
Taking on the world one trip at a time A learning adventure On 6th March, our Year 12 Geography class set off on an expedition to the Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage site in Dorset. We visited different sites and collected data to aid us in our studies of rivers and coasts. We measured the depth and width of a river along its course, completed questionnaires by speaking to locals and tourists, and had morning and night lectures. We stayed at an adventure centre for four days, which gave us everything - great food, a shop stocked with perfect late night snacks, and beautiful views of the sea from our windows. Geography came to life as we saw for ourselves how the landscape has been formed.
Aisha Zaheer (12C)
Art on the canals Eight Year 12 and 13 Art students went to Amsterdam in the February half term with Rydens Enterprise School. Students enjoyed a packed itinerary that included visits to Rijkmuseum, Stedjilik, the Van Gogh Museum, the Kroller Muller Museum, and the Anne Frank Museum. The trip was an ideal opportunity for students to work on their sketchbooks. Many friendships were made between the schools and the students hope to visit each others’ A Level exhibitions!
Boulogne Sur Mer The France trip was fantastic because we went to loads of places that were really interesting. The places that we went to were an aquarium (Nausicaa) and Boulogne city centre and a shopping centre called Auchan where we bought nice things. I loved it because we saw loads of different things that we do not see at home. It was a great experience as everyone was talking in French and we had to speak French too to make a conversation with the shopkeepers! It was great to go to France because it helped us learn French in a new way!
Lizzie Peacock (8T)
775 2013
782 2014
In 2014, our A Level students achieved the academy’s highest ever average point scores, up on 2013.
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C’était très beau! Bonjour! Nous sommes allées en Normandie, en France; c’était un voyage incroyable! Nous avons visité le Mont-Saint-Michel et la cathédrale á Rouen. C’était très beau! Après, nous avons visité Omaha Beach, où beaucoup de gens sont morts dans la Deuxième Guerre Mondiale. La nourriture dans l’hôtel était unique, mais le chocolat chaud était délicieux! In Mont-St-Michel, there were lots of tourist shops, but also lots of lovely streets and tiny passageways. This was an amazing experience! The teachers particularly enjoyed seeing the group bond over an ABBA revival one evening.
Eleanor Cook (10T), Jasmine Charlton (10C), and Georgia Jarvis (10L)
Snow, sun, skis! During the February half term, 40 students embarked on a 24-hour coach journey to the Pal ski area of the Pyrenees in Andorra. Every student had the opportunity to go to the top of the mountain and appreciate the spectacular views, as well as to ski down to the gondola lift, an amazing achievement, especially for the new skiers. The advanced group had no fear and skied on some very tricky terrains, taking on the challenge of skiing around some 2-foot high moguls and skiing off-piste. Apres-ski activities included relaxing in the Caldea spa, tasting the local cuisine, and boogying at a disco-themed bowling hall.
Exploring the trenches The Year 12 trip to Ypres on 13th March was very interesting as we are studying World War One Literature. It was amazing to see the real trenches in which the soldiers fought, as well as cemeteries such as Essex Farm, where poet John McCrae, who wrote ‘In Flanders Fields’, is commemorated. It was rewarding to see the places that we had read so much about; the trip was definitely worth the 6am start and 11.30pm finish, as we got to experience a Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate. This really highlighted the reality of war and brought home how many lives were lost.
Fauziya Lakhi (12C)
On our recent non-uniform day, students wore blue and we raised an amazing grand total of £972.85 for WaterAid.
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Young Enterprise winners DIY decor is a hit
On 23rd March, Year 12 students travelled to UBS for the Young Enterprise Area Finals. We were working in three groups: Dy-Fusion, Make It Happen, and Sparks & Co. Over the last six months, we have been working hard to come up with a creative, innovative product and create a company report, presentation, and product before the finals. Dy-Fusion made DIY decor using recycled jars; Make It Happen, phone cases using craft paper; and Sparks & Co., candles using coffee jars. At the finals, we set up our trade stalls, gave our presentations, and were interviewed by the judges. Dy-Fusion won Best Presentation and Best Company!
Sarah Bakayoko (12C)
Election Fever
Mock election at CGA
Last term, a group of Sixth Formers worked with Citizens UK to establish a Clapton Girls Hackney Citizens group. The students learnt about methods of community organisation and running a listening campaign. They found that many students feel ignored by politicians and do not know what the different political parties stand for. In response, they encouraged every student over 16 to register to vote and ran an internal hustings to inform their peers about the political parties’ priorities. Five students took on the roles of the key prime ministerial candidates and spoke at the hustings. Attendees wrote on Post-Its the issue that they most cared about. The most common issues were youth unemployment, affordable housing, harassment of young women, and student representation. These Sixth Formers are now working with young people from across Hackney Citizens to run a political assembly with the prospective parliamentary candidates for North Hackney. This will be the first entirely student-led assembly in Hackney of its kind!
Caitlin Burbridge, www.citizensuk.org
Medics of the future UCL Pharmacology
In February half term, two CGA students completed work experience at The Centre of Pharmacology at UCL. They gained an insight into a pharmacologist’s daily routine of laboratory research, office work, and lectures. Ruquayya Lockheart (12A) says that “observing a genotyping experiment allowed me to appreciate the amount of work involved in making new medical discoveries and the placement was immensely rewarding. It gave me a deeper understanding of what is required of someone in the medical profession and an insight into an environment where scientists are encouraged to build their own independent ideas.” Simran Nagarwala (11T) described her experience as “very enjoyable, because I got to know more about the work of scientists. It was beneficial because in the future I want to pursue a medical career and this has given me another option to consider.”
International Women’s Day
CGA students encouraged to ‘Make It Happen’ 2015’s theme of ‘Make It Happen’ ran through our International Women’s Day assemblies on 6th March. Wendy Smith, a paralympian and business woman, encouraged our young women to “take every opportunity and work hard at something they were passionate about”. Cherelle Thompson, a young woman making it happen in the business world, shared her school experiences and demonstrated the importance of determination; if you see a problem, she argued, find a solution. Our very own Ms Miln related her experience of receiving her MBE earlier this year, and Humaira Garasia (13B), a member of Hackney Youth Parliament, encouraged students to ‘shake up’ established boundaries. More information can be found on our Facebook or YouTube pages.
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Cookathon 2015 Our students cook up a storm
On 6th March, we took part in the annual Children’s Food Trust BIG Cookathon, an event which aims to get more children and families cooking and eating healthy meals together - by eating better, children do better! Following a recipe for a speedy chicken biryani, Years 7 to 9 students worked really hard to produce a tasty, nutritious meal within an hour during their Food Technology lessons. The event was part of Let’s Get Cooking, the largest national network of healthy cooking clubs in the country that works exclusively in schools. So far, more than two million people have benefited from Let’s Get Cooking - this number now includes CGA students! You can find the recipe we used (and lots more!) on Let’s Get Cooking’s website. For more photos of our student chefs, check out our Flickr page: www.flickr.com/photos/127454429@NO3.
Let’s Get Reading! Inspirational authors and illustrators visit CGA March also saw CGA participate in Booklinks, a programme that aims to ignite imaginations by connecting awesome books and inspirational writers and illustrators with school children. This year, every Key Stage 3 student at CGA read a book, discussed it in their English lessons, wrote about it - and then met the authors and illustrators who created them! Visitors included Jamila Gavin, Alexis Deacon, Richard Kurti, Sally Gardner, Andy Mulligan, and Eleanor Taylor. Richard Kurti posted on Twitter after his talk: ‘Really enjoyed all the questions from super-bright Year 7 classes at CGA’. Afsana Dina Alam (8P) said, “Jamila Gavin came to Clapton Girls’ Academy on 10th March to talk about her amazing book Blackberry Blue. She told us so many interesting things about the book and everyone enjoyed listening to her. My favourite bit was when she told us why she chose the title Blackberry Blue. Before the end of the talk, we got to ask our own questions about the book. She really helped me to understand the book properly.”
We’re top of the league! Our Years 7/8 and Years 9/10 cross country teams are the winners of the Islington Running League.
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Rowing glory In March, a group of CGA students took part in the National Junior Indoor Rowing Championships at the Lee Valley Athletics Centre. Over 2,700 students took part from over 200 schools and our girls rowed brilliantly in individual and team races, with some reaching the top three in their heat! Other activities included rock climbing and visiting careers stalls. Zemzem Kilinc (9N) said: “The day was amazing! The atmosphere was lively and full of joy. Watching different schools compete was really encouraging; by watching professionals, you learn different techniques. It was really inspiring and we did amazingly.”
Shooting stars In March, CGA’s U14 and U16 basketball teams achieved amazing success in the London Youth Games. Both teams made it to the finals and we are now officially the third best school for basketball in London at both U14 and U16 levels! The London Youth Games is Europe’s largest annual youth sports event, so this is a really fantastic achievement.
Upcoming Dates April Beginning of 13 Summer Term
April 28
New Families Evening 6.30pm to 7.30pm
April Year 8 Parents’ Consultation Evening 23 4.30pm to 7.00pm
May 11
May Bank Holiday 4 School closed
Please visit our website for a full calendar of events and holiday dates.
@ClaptonGA /ClaptonGirlsAcademy www.clapton.hackney.sch.uk
GCSE examinations begin May 11 to June 24
May Half Term 25 May 25 to May 29