NEWSLETTER
George Green’s School
Principal’s Welcome When Ofsted last visited George Green’s School in April, they rated us as ‘good’. This was an achievement without doubt and testament to the hard work of all the staff and students. My job now is to ensure that the next time Ofsted visit, they judge us as ‘outstanding’. We have already put in place changes to help this happen.
One change I want to tell you about is amendments to the uniform. Blazers were introduced some time ago and had the immediate effect of making the students look smarter. You will also know that we have introduced a new school skirt from September with the same aim. A further change from September is that I want students in Year 7 to 11 to wear a shirt and tie. Although the polo shirts are comfortable and have our badge on them, I feel that a shirt and tie would complete the smart look and help our students to wear their uniform with pride. A number of them have requested this change and I want to support this request. This change would also reduce the cost of uniform for parents and carers: the current polo shirt costs about £14 per top whereas a pack of white shirts can be purchased quite cheaply from a number of supermarkets. I have spoken to all students in assemblies this week and the reaction has been largely positive across the year groups. We will be asking our students to design a tie and make decisions about whether all ties will be the same or whether year groups will wear different ties. They may also decide that girls will wear a shirt with reveres instead of a tie. We will be looking at the original ties that used to be worn in George Green’s. Some of our ex-students still have them! We have also consulted some parents and their reaction has been mainly positive too. If you have an opinion, please feel free to email or write to me. Whilst this in itself won’t make us outstanding, it will signal a change to the students and community that we can be proud of our school and all it has achieved and will achieve. Jill Baker
Important notice - School Closure
The building works on the school are nearly finished! We are really excited about getting our school back after a long time of moves and dust and temporary classrooms. This will mean that we have 38 classrooms and offices to pack up and then un-pack. We need time to do this without students on site for reasons of health and safety. So on 13th and 14th of February the school will be closed. This will mean that the half term holiday will last a week and two days. The students will return to school on Monday 24th February at the usual time. We will be announcing a day when you will all be able to come in and visit our lovely newly refurbished school, so please look out for the date in the newsletter. Issue 19 - 24th January 2014
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Ms Gainey’s year 7 humanities class completing excellent information leaflets about London to teach another pupil
Mr Watson’s class science 7.2 working fantastically on an experiment.
Kodu KS3 Competition Computing Kodu KS3 We have just started a new module called Kodu – Microsoft Game programming as part of the computer curriculum, I think Kodu is a place you can create your own game, you have access to doing anything you possibly could imagine. It’s fun programming as Kodu is a great way to teach students how to programme their own games. We have gone home and downloaded this onto our laptops, I like the fact this is free and accessible at home not just school. We are looking forward to entering the competition for Kodu Kup! Zaynah, Kainat, Edrisa, (students of 7E)
MFL Mentions Top Merit Scorers this week in MFL Nazifa Jahan(7T) Overall –By year group Year 7-Syed Newaz(7T)
Year 8-Niamot Hussain(8R) Year 9-Ubah Abdulle(9H) Year 10-Jeban Choudhury(10O) Year 11-Amrit Kaur Virdee(11S) Miss Hurley would like to say good luck to year 9-11 students in FROPT2 for their CA this week. Well done to SP72 who received a positive SLT on call last week for their excellent pair work in preparing role-plays for restaurant scenes. I have been very impressed with Yassine Dur 8U in the last 2 lessons after the class changeover. Well done and keep it up. Miss Di Fraia would like to mention Harry Clique in my Year 13 Spanish Ab Initio group for doing really well in his mock exam! Miss Abdi would like to mention her IB13 group that are taking their upcoming Individual Orals very seriously and working very hard to ensure they do well!
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What’s on in Music?
Tuesday- GCSE Band Rehearsals
1st and 3rd WednesdaysKS3 Piano Club (Mr. Finch in T13)
2nd and 4th WednesdaysBeginner Guitar Club (Mr. Finch in T13)
Thursday- Vocal Group (Ms. Green in T14)
Thursday- Music Tech Club (Mr. Finch in T13)
Friday- Advanced Guitar Club (Mr. Finch in T13)
ALL WELCOME! Isle of Dogs Parents in Partnership Island Schools working in Partnership
GEORGE GREEN’S MOTIVATIONAL COFFEE MORNING
WALKING WEDNESDAYS Every Wednesday 9am – 10am We meet in George Green’s School reception and then we walk around the Island for an hour.
Also…
Fitness Fridays Starting 7th February 2014 9am-10am
Get Fit, Stay Fit Leading a healthy life can be a challenge, but Dee our local Health Trainer is here to help, come and have a coffee and chat and enrol onto some healthy activities from Pilates, Zumba, Gym access to giving up smoking. Dee will be delivering 2 enrolment sessions registering parents/carers onto the NHS programme and subject to income you may also be entitled to a FREE leisure pass (bring along proof of benefits and ID)
Thursday 30th January 9am-10.30am
Gain knowledge to help you get fit and stay fit. You will also be able to access advice on quitting smoking and other NHS services.
Come join us here at George Green’s on Wednesday Mornings and together we will get fit!
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Ms Kelly’s RE News: Ms Kelly would like to say well done to HU 7.7, her current year 7 RE class. They are doing really well and engaging with the lessons and producing some great work. The work produced on Jesus’ baptism was particularly creative and your drama performances of your own stories with meanings will stay with me forever! “I look forward to our lessons on the Five Pillars of Islam”. A massive congratulations to all Ms Kelly’s GCSE RE students who passed their recent mock exams. Well done to all of you, especially those who improved their grade and the 12 students who achieved an A* grade. For those who didn’t do so well – most of you have improved your grade, even if you didn’t pass this time. There is still time to continue to improve and pass RE GCSE in the summer. “I’m proud of you all, keep up the good work”.
Year 8 TRIUMPHs
Horizon Matt Hartley It’s the last day of the summer holidays and for one group of friends that means there is only one place to be: Horizon Shopping Centre. For some it's a chance to gossip and flirt, grab a milkshake and a bargain in the sales, earn some money and catch a film. But for two sisters it’s everything they've come to resent: an image of what their future looks like. As closing time approaches a summer of resentment and frustration can no longer be contained and two sisters stand up and fight for what they believe in.
Cast Dean Bowman Charlie McElligott Bailey Pryce Alvaro Sadowski Kieran Wall Teddy Simpson Molly Rayner Clodagh Poulton - Hoare Touhid Chowdhury Lizzi Bellinger Naomi Ojomo Cinderella Kutinyu
George Greens Theatre Tuesday 4th March
5pm
Overall Top Merit Scorers of the week is Lukas Karpavicius in 8I. Well done. Number of positive merit slips for the last 7 days Total Average per pupil Top Merit Scorer Lates Attendance 8T 719 30 Chloe Robinson 6 91% 8R 1229 49 Samirah Begum 6 99% 8I 1387 55 Lukas Karpavicius 5 97% 8U 989 40 Labonna Ali 10 91 % 8M 961 36 Ibrahim Yusuf 18 92% 8P 381 17 Valerija Lapina 6 94% 8H 1265 49 Sumayyah Umme 7 98% Which form will have the highest average by Friday ? Results will be announced in assembly next week. Year 8 motto - “A dream will always triumph over reality, once it is given the chance.” Stanislaw Lem Special Mentions this week Ms Hurley and Ms Leo would like to say, we are very proud of the maturity shown by pupils in Year 8 as well as in year 7 during PHSE day this week. There were lots of sensible and thought provoking discussions happening throughout the day. We would also like to thank year 7 and 8 tutors for planning the interesting lessons which were on offer that day. Ms Dann, Mr Bell and Ms Aziz would like to mention… Lauryn A, Shannon C, Isabella, Viet and Abir in 8M for giving mature responses during PHSE day. Ms Kortun and Mr Karim would like to mention… Cynthia, Ekram, Valerija, Luiza and Jana in 8P for great contributions during PHSE day and also for setting a good example. Ms Ahmad and Ms Akhtar would like to mention… Sakil and Safa in 8I fo rthier contributions on PHSE day. Mr Remita, and Mr Rashid would like to mention… Deanna and Lauren Lamb 8H for their mature and sensible questions on PHSE day. Ms Hoblyn would like to mention… Sara B 8H for always being ready to learn, co-operate and participate. Ms Abdi and Ms Orton would like to mention… Aurora in 8T just for being herself. Ms Bamley and Ms Daling would like to mention… Sealtiel in 8R for getting Star of the Day twice in a week and setting a new record in 8R.
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All different, all equal, learn today, succeed tomorrow
WELL DONE TO MISS HURLEY’S Y7 SPANISH GROUP Last Friday I made a positive on call to 7.2 Spanish. When I entered the room every student was speaking in Spanish! The students were working in pairs, practising ordering a meal at a restaurant. There was a very positive vibe in the room and every one of the students was taking part. I walked around to each table and everyone was eager for me to listen to their conversation. I thanked the class for letting me into their lesson and they all replied back in Spanish! Well done Y7. Keep up the excellent work. Miss Barthram
Year 7 Form of the Week
This weeks form of the week is 7 Giant Panda. They have out done themselves with the top attendance and 3rd in the merits cup. Fantastic work 7P keep it up. Well Done 7P! The Merits cup 1st 7H 2nd 7R 3rd 7P Year 7 Attendance Attendance is much better than last week, well done Year 7. However it is still below the 95% we want as a minimum for the year group. At the moment that equates to more than 50 absences in a week! Let’s make Year 7 the best year group George Green’s has ever had. At the moment year 7 are attending less than they did in term 1. However some good news we have form that have stepped up to the challenge and are showing the rest of the school how to do it. Well done to 7P, 7D and 7O all achieving the 97% target for a form class. 7H were almost there with 96.98%. But in the race for the attendance cup 7P are storming ahead this week. Well Done 7P! Attendance cup 1st 7P 97.69 2nd 7D 97.6% 3rd 7O 97.2%
Birth 0th m all 5 y p ro Hap ouise f een’s r L G y da eorge l at G Schoo
Year 7 attendance by term 96.65% Autumn 1 attendance 95.4% Autumn 2 attendance Year 7 attendance Last week 92.93% 6/01/2014 – 10/01/2014 94.78% 13/01/2014 – 17/01/2014
All different, all equal, learn today, succeed tomorrow
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Year 12 Mediation workshop
Drama Club – develop your performance skills, enhance your communication skills and most of all have fun Tuesday 3.30pm in the T4 Ms Williams/Mr Vanstone
On Wednesday 22nd January. the Year 12 IB and IBCC cohorts attended a mediation workshop at Clyde and Co. in the City of London. The students spent the day developing skills such as active listening, showing empathy, impartiality and finding solutions to disagreements. They were a credit to both themselves and the school and many of the coaches that worked with them voiced just how impressed they were. ‘It was amazing how quickly they picked it up and stopped being judgmental, started really listening and coming up with solutions’. The workshop is part of the Aim to Attain programme which complements the students’ developing the attributes of the International Baccalaureate’s learner profile, namely: knowledgeable, inquirers, thinkers, communicators, principled, open-minded, caring, risktakers, balanced, reflective. Mr Williams and Dr Glen saw the attendees demonstrating these qualities over and over during the course of the day. Congratulations to all the students that took part.
KEY STAGE 3 STEM CLUB LAUNCHES. MEMBERS WILL HAVE OPPORTUNITY TO PARTICIPATE IN THE LEGO ELITE ENGINEERING PROJECT In anticipation of the arrival of the Lego Mindstorm Robots later this month the science club is now relaunching as the KS3 STEM club. STEM CLUB is a cross-curricular club it stands for ‘Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths’. To pull all these subjects together requires students to show a great deal of creativity and learn lots of problem solving strategies. The first project is ‘Snacktory Factory’ with STEM CLUB members learning about how chocolate bars are made. The students will design and make a prototype chocolate factory and will be entered for a CREST award from the British Science Association. Members of the club will then have the opportunity to take part in our Lego Robot Space project to design and programme a robot for a Mars Mission. They will take part in a National competition this year with many amazing prospects for the future too as the Elite Engineering Project has links with Cambridge University. The club will be held on Wednesday in Lab 5 3.15- 4.30pm. The first project runs for six weeks. If you need further information please speak to Dr Glen (Lab 8) or Mr Butcher (Lab 4). We look forward to meeting all George Green’s future scientists and engineers.
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All different, all equal, learn today, succeed tomorrow
Woodwork at the Farm Students that have shown an interest in improving their knowledge and skills of woodwork and design are participating in a new woodwork project at Mudchute Farm. The students are using specialist tools to make items for the animals and staff at farm to use and even sell to the public! The students are working in the newly built woodwork workshop and shown great responsibility around the equipment and materials. A big thanks to Quddoos who supports the students so well. Mr Orton Head of Foundation Learning
Working hard at the Urban Gym! Students from FL1 and the Nuture group spent the afternoon at the Urban Gym in Mile End Park. They all worked really hard on the fitness equipment and worked up a sweat! We were also able to use the interactive wall and floor games which worked on improving reaction times! Big thank you goes to John Martinez for organising the transport as well as Kerrin, Liz and Mr Ferreira for supporting the students so well. We look forward to going back to the gym soon! Miss Moore FL Teacher
All different, all equal, learn today, succeed tomorrow
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Girls’ and Young Women’s Group on Ice!
We had a lot of fun on our trip to Canary Wharf Ice Rink. There were twenty girls ranging from years 7 to 11. Some girls were experienced skaters and some had never been on the ice before. This didn’t matter because all the girls helped each other and the good skaters shared their skills with others. Everyone agreed that it was a lot of fun trying something new, and we are looking forward to more activities and trips like this for the group. The Girls and Young Women’s Group will be meeting every Wednesday after school so come and get involved to make sure you are on our next trip. A special ‘well done’ to Mahima Begum from 8M and Jessica Smith from 7T who both won prizes for being the most helpful to other girls by teaching them how to skate and supporting them. Thanks to Miss Chanade Rabess for coming along and joining in, and to Canary Wharf Group who gave us the complimentary tickets.
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All different, all equal, learn today, succeed tomorrow