ASPIRE, LEARN, SUCCEED
“ This is an outstanding Academy. Central to this is the relentless pursuit of excellence by leaders and managers and the highest aspirations for every student.� Ofsted 2012
Your daughter’s
education Thank you for requesting a copy of our prospectus. We are a strong school where students have consistently made rapid progress in their learning for a number of years now. I am proud of what our students achieve. We are now regularly surpassing the national average for academic achievement. Equally, I am determined that we continue to progress. We have established links with a series of top universities and employers and constantly encourage students from Year 7 right through to Sixth Form to have the drive and ambition to succeed. Our new King’s Scholars partnership with King’s College from September 2015 will offer our most able students even more opportunities to progress through to top universities when their studies with us conclude. We want our students to be well-educated, and we also want them to be well-rounded individuals ready to take on the world beyond this Academy. Private singing and musical instrument lessons are offered free of charge to all students, including the provision of an instrument, and our Harris Passport ensures that students receive a wide range of opportunities throughout their time with us. Each year we organise all manner of trips in London, across the UK and abroad. A number of these are fully funded or subsidised. Our Academy has been transformed step-by-step in the 9 years since it opened. Please do visit us on our Open Days and chat to our students and teachers about their experiences here.
Jane Fletcher, Principal
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Now solidly established as a consistently high-performing Academy:
Outstanding Rated
in every single category inspected by Ofsted
“ The teachers are dedicated and of a high standard. Each teacher takes a genuine interest in encouraging the girls to achieve their full potential.� PARENT
100% Top 3%
of all Sixth Form students on LEAVING SIXTH FORM go on to ATTEND UNIVERSITY, FURTHER TRAINING OR EMPLOYMENT
of all schools in the country for academic progress over four years consecutively
Harris Federation Sixth Form sent students to
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top Russell Group universities including for Law, Medicine and Maths
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We keep classes small – the average size is around 21 students. Consolidation and regular checking of learning are key features of lessons in our Academy. We encourage students to be studious, articulate and resilient learners who understand that we are all on the same side and who are passionate about doing well.
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Our
Curriculum
Girls are divided into sets, which they can move between at different stages of their academic career depending on their needs. This means that whether your daughter needs to be stretched, is struggling or is somewhere in the middle, we can always work to inspire the best in her. In Year 7, your daughter will have lessons in English, Maths, Science, History, Geography, Religious Education, Art, Design Technology, Drama and Music. Students start with Spanish, but they can choose between Spanish, French and Italian for their GCSEs. We also offer a range of other languages for those who might speak them at home – such as Polish, Portuguese, Bengali and Urdu. There is also one hour of Sport per week and an hour of Computer Science. We have a formal reading scheme in which your daughter will read a book each week throughout Year 7, Year 8 and Year 9. The result of this is that our girls are able to become confident readers with good knowledge of the classics and contemporary literature. Your daughter will begin studying towards her GCSEs in Year 9, which spreads her workload over 3 years instead of 2 and gives her the best chance of success. GCSE option selections are made in individual meetings with you, your daughter and a senior member of staff.
We go to every length to ensure lessons are engaging: we’ve even installed a real life ambulance in one of our classrooms where students interested in health and medical careers can get hands on experience to supplement their theoretical learning. There is one-to-one and small group tuition for students who need it. And, through our work with key professionals, universities and PhD students, our outstanding students have university-style tutorials and learn to craft high quality extended essays from as early as Year 8. As part of this experience, we aim to give the majority of our Year 9 students a taste of university life through visits to a Russell Group university or an Oxbridge college or through visitors in to the Academy – this gives them a taste of what is to come if they work hard and apply themselves. Teachers deliver Period 6 lessons two nights per week and weekly Masterclasses for older students, to support readiness for public examinations. Our Library is open from 7.30am until 5.30pm so that students can do their homework and other private study with Academy staff around to help them. The Academy also offers Saturday morning tutorials in English and Maths which are free of charge to participating students. We send reports home six times a year so that parents always know how their daughter is progressing.
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Developing students’
interests
Opportunities outside the classroom are endless. As well as an annual skiing holiday, there is a joint residential trip for Year 7 with the Harris Boys’ Academy – these run during Academy holidays. Many of our students love the arts, something we do everything we can to encourage. There are trips to the opera, theatre and ballet, as well as to art galleries across London.
of trips, performances and workshops designed to develop a love of literature that will stay with students for the rest of their lives. This year’s highlights included a performance of Romeo and Juliet by the Young Shakespeare Company, the great-great grandson of Charles Dickens putting on his one-man show, workshops with poets and an evening with the author, Adele Geras.
Our choir have sung at a dinner for the Prime Minister and they perform for a wide range of audiences. There are clubs every day after school, such as Trampolining, Pottery, Italian and Ballet.
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Our annual East Dulwich Literary Festival offers all students the opportunity to participate in a wide range
Students have also created a social enterprise company, called HOPE. They have raised over £20,000 for charities by selling products they have made such as cupcakes and silk scarves. You can sample their merchandise by visiting their online shop: www.hope-harris.org.
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Many of our students opt for private singing or musical instrument lessons. Piano is one of the most popular. We subsidise the lessons in full to ensure that everyone can participate.
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Sixth Formers
We are part of the Harris Federation Sixth Form and therefore education here is co-educational in Years 12 and 13. Our Sixth Formers are role models for our younger students. The Sixth Form offers everything our students love about their Harris education in an environment where they are treated as young adults. It involves a step change and a new relationship with teachers: our Sixth Formers wear suits not uniform and plan for a working day that fits in with a new type of learning. We aim to give our Sixth Form students access to top level professionals. For example, our English department organises regular A Level conferences on key texts and authors, bringing a range of professors and other specialists in their fields to present to our Sixth Form delegates. Our students look at Sixth Form as the race to the finishing line of their pre-university education. This period of their education is filled with opportunities to develop their experience and to work with leading practitioners in the field they are interested in.
Children at Nabiswa Community School reading easy readers in their community language (Lugwere) for the first time ever, thanks to students at Harris Girls’ Academy East Dulwich who worked with Professor Coates (Emeritus Professor of Linguistics, Roehampton) to understand the construct of the Lugwere language and to create these books. The orthography for this language has only been written down in the last 7 years and these are the first children’s picture books ever created.
For example, the Evelina Children’s Hospital offers three internships a year to our A Level students wanting to study Medicine. We also have links with top London universities including King’s, Imperial and Goldsmiths, enabling our students to attend university lectures and conferences. The Harris Federation Sixth Form has progression agreements with several good universities in London and the South East and is continuing all the time to expand this list. This means that, if our students can make the grades, they are guaranteed an offer of a place at these universities. The Sixth Form regularly sends students to top Russell Group Universities, specialist Arts, Drama and Stage Schools and direct into training for the careers of their choice.
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Harris Federation Our Academy is sponsored by the Harris Federation, a not-for-profit charity with almost 25 years of experience in running schools. The Federation runs a family of Primary and Secondary Academies in and around London. The Harris Federation has an exceptional track record, with academic progress outpacing the national average by 3 or 4 times each year and more than three quarters of its Secondary Academies so far judged as ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted – this is unmatched by any other education body. The work of the Federation is made possible through the generous financial support of Lord Harris of Peckham and is brought to life by a team of excellent teachers and leaders. You can follow the Harris Federation on Twitter: @HarrisFed.
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Each year for Sports Day, the Harris Federation hires the Crystal Palace Sports Stadium. With well over 10,000 student and staff spectators in attendance, Academies compete in team and individual sports. The sound of students cheering each other on is so loud that Team GB athlete Louise Jukes who happened to be nearby tweeted: “Can hear hundreds of kids screaming from the stadium at Crystal Palace! What a great noise! Kids loving sports day! Wish I was a kid again!”
From the Chief Executive The Harris Federation is a London charity with more than twenty years of experience in education. Our Academies combine the traditional values of good manners, strong discipline and smart uniform with the best of modern teaching and technology. Harris Girls’ Academy East Dulwich is an outstanding Academy producing confident, articulate and successful young women. Working closely together in and around London, Harris Academies are able to offer a far broader range of opportunities, far better training and professional development for staff and real success for our students. What makes this Academy so successful? Students who enjoy learning and look forward to coming to school each day; teachers and support staff who are genuinely ambitious for every student; a senior leadership team that consistently sets standards of excellence. If your daughter wants to come to an Academy with drive and ambition, then I hope you will attend one of its open events to find out more.
Sir Daniel Moynihan Ed.D, M.A., B.Sc. (Econ) Chief Executive of the Harris Federation
From the Sponsor As an employer and a father I strongly believe that a good education is the best start in life that you can give a child. Harris Girls’ Academy East Dulwich promotes hard work, curiosity of mind, integrity and ambition. It works tirelessly, in partnership with the other Harris Academies, to ensure the greatest success for every child, regardless of their ability or aptitude. I hope you will come along to our various Open Day or Evening Events to see for yourself the difference the Academy is making. Lord Harris of Peckham
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Homestall Road, London SE22 0NR T: 0207 732 2276 F: 0207 277 7785 Email: info@harrisdulwichgirls.org.uk www.harrisdulwichgirls.org.uk
www.hope-harris.org