Clapton Review, Summer 2014

Review Summer 2014 Message from Cheryl Day, Headteacher Once again our students are involved in a huge variety of activities and they excel time and time again. It is great to see the girls face outdoor challenges and succeed despite the rain that seemed to follow them about this year (see Page 3)!

I am always impressed by the amazing talent our students display but also the hard work they put in. Many girls are involved in the debating initiatives and I would recommend this for all of them. Debating develops skills that will be useful throughout life and the ability to speak eloquently and powerfully are useful tools in many careers, and of course help you get that important college/university place, apprenticeship or job.

Gold Partner CGA has become a Youth Sport Trust Gold Partner School for its commitment to PE and school sport. Youth Sport Trust Partner Schools demonstrate delivery of high quality school sport and improve the PE experience for all their students. Importantly, they also use sport to raise achievement levels. As a partner, CGA will receive additional training and development opportunities and can become involved in national education and sport initiatives.

Headteacher, Ms Day said: “We are thrilled to become a Youth Sport Trust Partner School. There is a whole range of educational, health and wellbeing benefits from delivering high quality PE and school sport. We see on a regular basis that when sport is delivered well it transforms the lives of many of our students.

Graduation Celebrations

Left: Year 9 Centre: Year 11, Above: Year 13

Summer Review 2014

Poetry Slam Year 8 took to the Dining Pavilion in July for a Poetry Slam, a spoken poetry competition where participants recite their own poems in a limited time. Winners are chosen on the quality of writing, performance and audience reaction, which in this case was exceptional! There were banners flying, rehearsed chants and 8T had even created their own calland-response group poem. Many competitors had memorised their poems, which ranged from Edie Kench-Andrew’s recollections of her grandmother to Upasana Sayania’s tour of the mirror via loom bands and arguments with her sister.

Everyone was impressed with the confidence and lyrical skills of the brave challengers.

Kyanne Richard’s poem ‘Life’ won the attention of the visiting judges, including Chantelle Micheaux, co-ordinator of the Spoken Word Educator project. Runners-up were Jehlani Asantewa-Philip with ‘We Don’t Need Make-Up’ and Rumaysa Brooks, with ‘Knowledge is Power.’ Overall 8A claimed the 2014 title of Year 8 Poetry Slam winners.

On 28th June we participated in the ESU-Ibstock Place World Schools Style Debating Competition run by the English Speaking Union. In our round we had been given a motion in advance about whether indigenous people should be convicted within their communities or by the state. This was quite an interesting topic and one we researched into at length in preparation for our debate, which we won. We were congratulated on our argumentation and given expert feedback from World Schools judges and coaches. It was a great experience meeting new people and debating topics currently in the news.

Written by: Salimah Bilal 12F

International Speakers Nine students were in Slovenia for the World Schools Debate Academy in June.

They had intense instruction on various aspects of debating including argumentation, public speaking, researching and case building. The girls debated with national teams from other countries such as Canada, USA, Germany and India and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience.

One student commented, “I am very glad that I came. I was not able to speak for 8 minutes on a topic before but now I can. My confidence has grown enormously.”

The top four winning competitors went on to represent CGA on stage in the WORDCUP2014 Team Poetry Slam on 12th July at Stratford Circus where they won the trophy for the best striking lines.

Primary Debate Since the beginning of the Spring term Primary schools have been attending debate sessions every week at CGA run by Sixth Formers and other students. The participants have developed into strong speakers and have learnt the skills of argumentation while becoming more confident and having a wider understanding of the world. The finals on 16th June were an amazing success. Participating schools took part in semi-finals with the motion, ‘this house would ban child beauty pageants’. All teams presented engaging arguments and were eloquent and passionate speakers. William Patten and Harrington Hill went on to face each other in the final in which William Patten won with the motion, ‘this house would bring back the death penalty for serious crimes’ and left with the Clapton Debate Championships Cup. Written by: Beth Foster-Ogg 12A

We are the Champions The Hackney Secondary Debate Challenge took place at CGA on 8th July. Our team, consisting of Kowther Mohidin, Hadiyah Patterson, Amina Omar all of 9C, and Caitlin Wren 9N, debated 2 motions against Petchey Academy. Kowther, Hadiyah and Caitlin all demonstrated excellent debating whilst Amina helped to prepare and chaired a debate for CGA. In the final feedback we were told that Petchey narrowly won the first debate but we won the second debate by a considerable amount of points to become the Hackney Secondary Debate Challenge winners!

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Bringing Books to Life Top children’s author Katherine Rundell helped judge a Hackney schools’ literary challenge, the Carnegie competition, in June.

Students from the 8 participating secondary schools chose a book from this year’s Carnegie prize shortlist on which to make a presentation using art, drama, dance, music and moving images to express their thoughts and feelings about the work.

Congratulations to our students who won the trophy for best choreography.

Summer Review 2014

Camp Fires Last term 70 Year 7 students travelled to the Phasels Wood campsite in Hertfordshire for an action packed few days of adventure. The girls learnt a lot about each other and themselves whilst living under canvas and taking part in challenges where they had to tunnel, climb, problem-solve and make fires in the rain!

Flatford Mill A group of Year 12 Art students went to Flatford Mill, Suffolk from 27th-29th June. They learned to refine their painting skills as all attempted “plein air” painting. Mr Purday, Mr Pinn and Ms Gentles also worked on this style of painting outdoors in the fields but there were many challenges, such as retreating into the studio when the rain came on Saturday afternoon!

An extended critique of the work was given on Saturday night followed by a quiz. The evening was rounded off by a member of staff from another school reciting Edgar Allen Poe’s “The raven” in the dark in the middle of the woods!

The finished artworks produced during the weekend were exhibited alongside Year 10 pieces in ‘119’, a coffee shop in Lower Clapton Road.

Navigation Skills The weekend of the 5th-6th July saw 40 students from Years 11 and 13 make their way to Epping Forest to complete the practice expedition for their Duke of Edinburgh Award. Despite rain and wind the students worked together to navigate their way through various check points in the forest, alongside setting up their own tents, preparing a substantial meal and carrying a heavy rucksack.

After a day’s rest 21 of the Year 11 students returned to Epping Forest for their qualifying expedition. Apprehensive, but well prepared having completed the practice expedition, the girls remained upbeat despite again experiencing an unfortunate downpour. During this 2 day expedition students were required to give a presentation about their journey to their assessors and on the first evening all 3 teams created a fantastic drama piece reenacting Day 1 of the expedition.

Students woke early the next day to find it still raining, but their positive attitude ensured the day remained a success.

Keeping an Eye on the Ball On 16th May selected Year 7 students went to Arundel Castle as part of a cricket festival along with Year 6 pupils from Baden Powell.

When we arrived we were warmly welcomed. We started off with 2 types of fun, energetic games, a throwing game between 2 teams and a cricket/rounders game. I really enjoyed these activities because I was able to work with other people whilst learning new skills.

Written by: Fome Owasu 7T

All 3 groups passed their qualifying expedition for their Bronze Award.

Keeping an eye on the ball with Jonny Barclay, ex-England and Sussex cricket star

The Silver Group

The Bronze Group

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Summer Review 2014

Up in the Air As part of the ongoing work within the Hackney Teaching Schools Alliance this year, CGA hosted 60 Year 2 and 3 pupils from partnership schools in a trampolining competition. The pupils learnt a completely new skill with many of them demonstrating high levels of performance.

They were also fortunate enough to witness our trampolining team showcasing their range of skills.

During the session visitors from EdComs, who work in partnership with the British Olympic Authority, arrived accompanied by something very special - the Sochi Olympic Torch. CGA was the first school in Hackney to view the torch in person.

Sports Leaders Year 12 sports leaders represented CGA during Millfields Community Schools Sports Week in June. Every morning for a whole week the 7 students made their way to Millfields where they delivered whole school aerobics to pupils from Reception to Year 6. The girls demonstrated outstanding leadership skills. Many of the staff and pupils were impressed and Headteacher, Jane Betsworth praised our students, Nattily Nash Kike Ogunyanwo, Yasmin Navsa, Nikel Brissett, Starla Smith, Cayleigh Crowne and Ikoney Hall for their creativity and enthusiasm.

From the 23-27th June CGA students took part in National Sports week. During break times students of all ages rushed to PE to participate in a range of physical activities from football to skipping. The activities were again run

by Year 12 leaders.

Living for Sport Over a 6 week period 20 students took part in the Sky Sports Living for Sport initiative. CGA Sports Leaders Loula Paizi 9C, Xazal Ozcan 9P, Safiyah Shaikh 10P and Nell Stewart 8C assisted and led basketball mentoring sessions for Year 7 students. The Sports Leaders got to meet and work alongside professional long jumper, JJ Jegede.

Hackney Half Marathon Hackney closed its roads to cars and opened them for the very first Hackney Half Marathon on 22nd June. The CGA staff running team joined 12,000 other participants to run the course of 13.1 miles in the blazing sun.

Situated at 8.25 miles along the route were 22 CGA students who had prepared litres of lucozade. The students spent their morning handing bottles to exhausted athletes as they passed, making sure everyone was hydrated.

Sixth form students volunteering as stewards and CGA students, past and present, cheered our team on too. It From left to right: Mr Bradbury, Ms Coakley, Ms was a fantastic Fairweather, Ms Feltham, Ms Dixon-Payne, Ms Van day! The students Staeyen, Mr Webb & Mr Corke relished the opportunity to see wheelchair athletes, the elite runners and the masses compete in a long endurance race and our runners were pleased to see the finish line!

Written by: Ms Van Staeyen & Ms Whitbread Page 4

Summer Review 2014

Borough Netball

Basketball in Bosnia

In June the Year 7 netball team took part in the Hackney Borough netball tournament at Bridge Academy. The students played against local and inner city London schools. CGA played to a high standard and won 6 out of 8 games.

Coach Fe and Coach Diana accompanied Jessica Akinola 10T, Olubunmi Abbass 10L, Taitu McMorris 10L, Judith Osobaiye 10L, Loula Paizi 9C, Xazal Ozcan 9P, Wura Ijelu 11A, Seun Adeduntan 11L and Hayley Ozdemir-Lloyd 11A to an international basketball camp in Bosnia in July. For 9 days they had intensive training from 8.30am to 11pm. While improving their basketball skills they also managed to visit some historic sites and learn the odd Serbian word.

Sports Day at Lee Valley Stadium 1st July 2014

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Summer Review 2014

Express Yourself!

Year 8 music students visited Goldsmiths University for an interactive music technology afternoon as part of the New interfaces in Music Expression festival (NIME). The students experimented with different installations that created dinosaur noises when you blew through the model and created animal sounds when you altered light beams, as well as many more new inventions. They also went on a sound walk around streets of Lewisham, where the street sounds were collected and altered in real time and played back through headphones, and cycled through the park on sound bikes making them both audience members and performers as they cycled! The students came away with lots of new ideas for their own compositions and future music projects.

Top of the Pops nd

On 2 July we worked with the Urban Development Foundation in a song writing workshop. The people running the workshop were real producers who were able to give us excellent advice on how to create a single, exactly as they do in the music industry.

We started creating our songs by discussing who we admire and impressed the producers with the range of our musical knowledge which went from Nina Simone to Freddy Mercury and Taylor Swift. It was fun taking other artists’ ideas and making them our own as we wrote the lyrics and music for our songs.

We really enjoyed listening to the variety of songs, generated from the same starting chords, that had been created by the groups in the workshop. Listen out for a potential number one hit in the future!

Written by: Katherine Wilkes & Maya Feldman 8T & Avian Durcan 8P

Top Marks Congratulations to Amy Coles 10C for achieving a Distinction in her Grade 7 Cello exam.

Play in a Day The ‘Play in a Day’ workshop saw 20 Year 11 GCSE drama students working with professional actors and directors from the Almeida Theatre.

They spent 4 hours creating a drama piece which they then performed part of on an old 38 Routemaster bus outside the Almeida, and the other part on the main stage of the theatre!

The Almeida staff said that the material created was of a very high standard.

Rites of Passage Julia Willers 8T performed a piece by Howard Moody on stage at the Barbican as part of the LSO On Track Next Generation scheme in June. The evening performance titled Rites of Passage saw the London Symphony Orchestra joined by young East London musicians presenting their own spin on Beethoven, as well as the dynamic, 100-strong LSO Community Choir. It was an amazing concert with breathtaking tunes and melodic improvisations!

CGA is very pleased to announce that we will be silver partners with the Almeida Theatre from September.

This partnership will see our ‘Take your Parent to the Theatre’ nights, among other exciting projects.

Sounds of Success Last year, 2 CGA students secured a place at the Centre for Young Musicians (a division of the Guildhall School) Saturday School. Both Sophy Johnston 11P and Margot Johnston 8L both made outstanding progress and really flourished musically throughout the year and both received ‘excellents’ across all categories in their recent reports such as attitude in lessons, motivation and effort, approach to practice and progress.

Very well done.

Top : Margot Johnston Bottom: Sophy Johnston Page 6

Backstage In July I did a week’s work experience at the Almeida Theatre in Islington with fellow students Sebiha Sen and Kheda Dzhavatkhanova 10C. Our duties included creating a 2 minute advert on a new play that would be showing in September; watching a play called ‘Mr Burns’ and discussing what we thought of it and meeting people who worked in different sectors of the theatre. I was also chosen as co-director for the advert.

The highlight of my week was watching ‘Mr Burns’ as we went backstage to see how everything worked. I am now more certain that I want to work in theatre and I aim to keep learning about the industry.

Written by: Precious Ajulo 10T

Summer Review 2014

What a Drama!

To prepare for their written drama paper Year 13 drama students took part in a workshop based on Aristophanes’ Lysistrata. The girls really engaged with this ancient Greek comedy and learnt so many rehearsal techniques from Mark Katz of Actors of Dionysus Theatre Company. The girls also went on a tour of Shakespeare’s Globe so they could fully understand the original performance conditions and had a bespoke workshop on Othello which they also chose to write about in the exam. These practical opportunities taught students so much about theatre through the ages.

Looking for JJ! For Unit 2 of their AS Drama exam, students give a performance of a section from a published play, followed by a short monologue or duologue.

This year our talented 2 groups of students, under the direction of Mr Bergin and Ms Rose, performed two plays; DNA by Dennis Kelly and Looking for JJ (adapted) by Marcus Romer.

Although the plays had the common theme of exploring events around the tragic death of a young person they were a

Step LIVE! Eleanor Cook 9A has been a brilliant Step into Dance Ambassador this year. After attending the 2 training days she proved to be a wonderful help at the Step into Dance Tower Hamlets Borough event, and at Step LIVE! at Sadler’s Wells in July. Eleanor danced in workshops and then was an absolute star selling lots of programmes before the show and during the interval.

complete contrast in style and performance – even the stage was transformed during the interval from a ‘traverse’ setting for DNA, with an audience on both sides, to a more conventional ‘head on’ staging for Looking for JJ. The impressive performances held the attention, not only of the examiner, but the whole audience throughout the evening.

A series of short individual performances followed ranging from Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors to contemporary pieces such as Yard Gal by Rebecca Pritchard. The resulting rich mixture of work successfully displayed the wide range of talent our students possess!

City of Futures Spotlight on Governors Governors regularly meet with external specialists visiting the school to conduct health checks of certain functions, following Ofsted guidelines. Chair of Governors, Camilla Allwood was recently interviewed by the safeguarding auditor to ensure excellent practice. The auditor checked records and questioned a number of teaching and non-teaching staff and students about practice and procedures. Her report stated safeguarding at CGA was considered to be ‘exemplary’.

A group of Year 10 and 11 students were involved in this year’s Barbican Box project, curated by Complicite. The project involves a box of stimuli given to us by the Barbican to spark creativity from which a 20 minute show is created. As the students explored the contents of the box they received they were taken on a journey of migration and many different characters emerged. Actress Naomi Frederick (soon to star in Made in Dagenham in the West End) was attached to CGA to give guidance and help. The girls’ final piece City of Futures dealt with what it means to migrate to London, and was performed to great applause on the main stage at the Barbican in July.

CGA governor, Marita Ludlam has also met with the Academy Improvement Partner auditing Leadership and Management. Marita identified areas she is involved in, including governor link and monitoring visits, staff reviews and interviews and chairing and attending committee meetings. The auditor could see that governors are very open to the business of governance and take their responsibilities seriously.

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Summer Review 2014

Sold Out! rd

On Monday 23 June 9T ran a very successful Bake Sale to raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital. The students’ hard work organising publicity, planning the sale, baking and encouraging staff to bake cakes paid off as on the day everything was sold in about 15 minutes flat! A count-up of donations gave a total of over £150 raised for the hospital.

Mentoring Works Year 10 students who participated in the Linklaters Mentoring Works Programme were awarded certificates at a recognition event in June. The students had been travelling to their mentors’ workplace after school for an hour every fortnight throughout the year.

Glory Erigbuo, Hodo Saleh and Sally Hammond of 10P said, “We are now more confident and can speak in front of a group of people. We also know a lot more about the world of work, how to write a CV and we hope to keep in touch with our mentors.”

Trench Warfare We have recently focused on trench warfare during our World War One history topic. We studied trench structures and discussed the advantages and disadvantages of trench warfare. We researched the topic in groups then presented our findings to the rest of the class in whatever form we chose. The results were fascinating with many groups choosing to make model trenches.

Meg’s group made a miniature size model of a trench, using cake and various food items. Also, by reading letters and reports from World War One, they constructed letters sent by soldiers to their families and loved ones, letting those at home know the conditions in the trenches and events at the frontline.

Jasmine’s group put together a newspaper resembling one that would have been printed during the war, including features such as a real Victoria Cross recipient, an agony aunt column, contemporary adverts and war effort drives encouraging people to help the soldiers at the front by knitting socks and other such items.

The project was a great success and helped us realise the sacrifices made by those who fought in the war.

Written by: Jasmine Charlton 9C & Meg Grant 9L

‘Maths’terminds Over 3,000 schools took part in the Intermediate Maths Challenge this year.

CGA had 18 students taking part and we achieved 1 gold and 9 bronze certificates.

The Junior Maths Challenge took place in the Summer term where CGA was one of 3,700 schools taking part.

Of the 22 students who entered we achieved 5 silver certificates and 10 bronze.

Years 7 & 8 also took part in the Hackney Secondary Schools Maths Challenge on 2nd July at Queen Mary College, University of London. Our teams completed all 12 questions correctly with no passes and within the allocated time. After a challenging tie break question our final position for both Year groups was 4th out of 9 schools.

TERM DATES Year Group Key Information Meetings, 5.30-6.30pm Year 11: 10th September Year 10: 11th September Sixth Form Welcome Evening: 16th September Year 7: 17th September Year 8: 18th September Year 9: 24th September Year 6 Open Evening: 29th September, 5.30-7.00pm Prize Giving Evening: 23rd October, 6.00-7.00pm

Year 9 and 10 More Able and Talented mathematicians went to the theatre at the end of term to be entertained by some talented mathematicians who were also authors, TV and radio presenters as well as one, Matt Parker, who is a magician and comedian. The speakers used some very interesting and hilarious examples of maths in the real world, including how maths is used to track down major criminals and how maths and triangles were used to construct the Shard.

www.clapton.hackney.sch.uk

Professional Learning Day Friday 17th October: School closed to students

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