Insight 10

News from Highgate Wood School arts college

CONSIDERATION COOPERATION COURTESY CONTRIBUTION

Issue No 10 February 2013

RESTAURANTERS OF THE FUTURE

MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR OF GOVERNORS Charles Wright writes: Winter is here – and nowadays that inevitably means snow, and Liz Whitlock writes: the debate about whether to close the school As part of its wider remit to enrich the life of the or not. This is never an easy decision, and as school, Highgate Wood School PSA is proposing governors we are very aware of the impact running some one‐off events to inform parents on a closing the school has for parents. So the variety of subjects. starting point is always that the school should We are planning a 2‐hour "Heart Start" course, run not close if at all possible.

But, as you know, we do have a large, sloping site, with steep by the London Ambulance Service, to learn some basic life‐saving skills. Also there is the possibility of access, and we have to take into account the welfare of our students and staff, as well as whether staff can actually get to running some self‐defence workshops. At this stage work – and get home again, which is often some distance we do not have firm details about cost or timings, away. We’ve reluctantly closed on one occasion so far this but would like to know if this is the sort of event winter, although we were able to open the next day after that parents/carers would find useful and would fantastic work by the site staff to make the school safe and attend. accessible.

If you are interested please could you reply to the I hope parents will understand that decision, and will be PSA email address, hwoodpsa@gmail.com stating assured that we will do all we can to keep the school open if which events you would find useful and the there’s more bad weather. This includes talking to the Council to make sure that Montenotte Road and pavement Steering Committee will make the appropriate are gritted as top priority. enquiries.

Apart from braving the bad weather, the Spring term is also The PSA welcomes comments and feedback from an extremely important time particularly for students with parents and carers. Please use the email address exams coming up. Governors have recently been looking in above to contact us. The next PSA meeting is on detail at how we are doing – not just in terms of overall Tues 12th March at 7.30 pm results but also in terms of progress and improvement. I’m confident that we are on the right track to continue to meet our aim to be an excellent community school serving all the Congratulations to Chris Tully who has been appointed young people in our community.

Having talked about closures, I’d like to end by mentioning as a new Parent Governor to the Governing Body. attendance. It is extremely important that students are at school, and that parents and carers support us by reinforcing HIGHGATE WOOD SCHOOL GOVERNING BODY this message. That way we can all work together to give our Chair of Governors: students the best possible educational opportunities.

Charles Wright (Community Governor) I hope you all have a great half term.

Cover picture: Ms Went writes: The Year 11 Food group have now reached the point in their controlled assessment project, , where they have trialled ideas for dishes that they might develop to meet the design brief – to produce a dish that would be suitable for sale in an internationally themed restaurant. The students have now identified the national cuisines for their chosen themes and have been creating and testing fabulous food dishes from all over the world, including dishes from Morocco, Italy, Guyana, Greece, Jamaica, Ghana, Iran, Turkey and China. Students featured include Darnell John Mckenzie, Best Moshwe, Daniel Musabi, Denise Ozeler, Jack Boone, Lizzy Gerasimou, Ashya Broomes, Zara Ali, Luke Leone, Marianne Gerasimou and Madi Vincent.

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Vice Chair: Imogen Pennell (Representative Governor)

Representative Governors: Cllr Eddie Griffith • Oliver Blackaby • Brenda Allan

Parent Governors: Andrew Boardman • Diana Brown • Philip Cavendish Caroline Conlon • Elizabeth Hess • Rob White

Community Governors: Phil Cocksedge • Violet Hazelwood‐Henry • Chris Parr • Carol Vincent

Headteacher Governor: Patrick Cozier

Staff Governors: Tristan Ashman • Jack Fitzgerald • Saad Gul Mohammed

If you wish to contact the Governing Body please write to the Chair of Governors, c/o Mrs K Ozturk, Highgate Wood School, Montenotte Road, London N8 8RN

February 2013

MESSAGE FROM THE HEADTEACHER Welcome Back to Successful Learning at Highgate Wood School.

I wish to start this edition of Insight by taking this opportunity to wish you all a very belated Happy New Year! As always however, time flies and instead of reflecting on the festivities of Christmas and the New Year celebrations, we have already reached the spring half term break. This represents the mid‐point of the academic years for schools and as such a critical juncture for assessing progress and ensuring that we are on track to achieve our aims – both individually and collectively.

There are a couple of significant thank yous that I want to announce before for events that have taken place since the last edition.

I need to thank Mr Harlow (Head of Music), his staff and our fantastic students for the amazing finish to 2012 with a very high quality and entertaining Winter Concert. The standard that we set year on year is impressive and it is very special to see our young people demonstrating their talent and commitment on stage. Thank you and well done to all!

In addition, I also wish to thank Ms Payton (Head of Maths) and her team for the amazing commitment that they have shown in preparing our Year 11 students so successfully for the November entry GCSE Maths exams. We now have the results, and they are very impressive – more details on this below.

This Term – The Key Focuses A reminder that during this term our learning and teaching focus is on the development of Literacy across the school. Chrissie Ronay (Learning Support Department) was appointed to the post of Literacy Coordinator last term and she has been doing some fantastic work and sharing good strategies with staff to develop this aspect of our work.

Maths GCSE November Entries: 74% A* ‐ C Grades 76% students achieving expected levels of progress and beyond February 2013

Year 11 – Getting those grades If you are the parent of a child in Year 11, you will be aware that our students sat their Year 11 Mock Exams before the Christmas break. Since we have come back, they have received their Mock Exam Results (you can read more about the Mock Exam Results Day later in this edition) and as a result they all know on an individual level how well they are achieving – and what else they need to do to hit their personal targets across each of their subjects. All of our Year 11s are putting in the maximum amount of effort and we expect to see many of them over half term doing extra study (in addition to the after school and weekend sessions that many currently attend. It is also a testament to dedication of the staff members who are making themselves available to help support our students.

What is pleasing for us as a school is that both individually and collectively, our Year 11s are broadly on target to achieve and exceed what we believe they are capable of. A reminder of our results for the last ten years and our target for 2013 is shown below.

5 A*‐Cs (EM) 80% 68%

70% 60% 50% 40%

42% 39% 40% 41%

47% 46%

51%

72% 73%

46%

30% 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

As can be seen, we are rightly proud that our significant jump in 2011, was maintained and improved on last year – and this year we expect to do even better! We know what are students are capable of when backed by our excellent staff and supportive parents. Let’s ensure that we continue to work together to help them achieve their best.

Comparisons with Other Schools The DFE has also released the official statistics this year for all schools GCSE performance. Below is a table that shows the results of Highgate Wood School in comparison to the other schools in West Haringey (Highgate Wood, Hornsey Girls, Alexandra Park, and Fortismere).

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5 A*‐C (inc. English and Maths) GCSE Results at West Haringey Secondary Schools from 2009 to 2012

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Hig hga te Wo o

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H

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You can see the HWS performance in red. We have improved significantly in relation to our nearest neighbours – and in fact have overtaken Alexandra Park and almost matched Fortismere. Our recent upward trajectory is testament to our belief and conviction that we are a school that is constantly improving.

Progress of Our students in the 6th Form are in the top 20% in the country ‐ Official We have received official confirmation that for the third year running, the progress that our students makes at Post 16 is in the top 20% of 16‐18 schools/ colleges nationally. Later in the edition, this is explained in more detail.

For me though, the key message is that we are consistently gaining recognition and approval for the quality of our provision in the 6th form and the good outcomes that our students achieve. We are proud of our 6th form and look forward to seeing another record number of our current year 11 students performing excellently in the summer GCSE exams and then progressing on to do well with the teachers that know them best in the 6th form.

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Curriculum Update – Some Changes for 2013/14 You will no doubt have picked up various stories in the news about the Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove’s vision for the schools in England. One such agenda has been the discussions around the English Baccalaureate – not a qualification in its own right, but a particular combination of GCSEs which requires achieving 2 sciences (which could include computer science), English, maths, a humanities (history or geography) and a language.

It was announced last week that the introduction of proposed new qualifications in the subjects mentioned above has been abandoned, and hence the GCSEs will remain. However, Michael Gove also committed to reviewing those GCSEs and making it harder to achieve the top grades in those subjects.

With this in mind we have been looking at the curriculum offered at Highgate Wood, and considering where we ought to respond to the national agenda that is being set for schools.

We have made some decisions for the curriculum in 2013/14 which begin to respond to this, but which are not in themselves, big changes.

The key changes are summarised below: Year 7  Increase in the curriculum time offered to history, geography, science and English  Removal of Enrichment from the core curriculum – this will instead occur as a series of ‘drop‐down’ days once per half term and led by subject areas Year 8  Introduction of ICT into the curriculum – we currently teach this in year 7 and year 9, but not year 8. We have decided that we need to offer it in year 8 as well  Increase in the curriculum time offered to maths  Reduction of the curriculum time offered to art, music and drama Year 9  Redistribution of curriculum time between maths and science; a reduction in maths and an increase in science Year 10  Introduction of Philosophy and Ethics GCSE  Increase in the curriculum time offered to maths  Redistribution of the time available for the delivery February 2013

of core Religious Education (ECS) and Citizenship – an overall reduction shared between both curriculum areas Year 11  No curriculum changes Year 12  Introduction of an ICT Vocational Qualification  Some changes to the nature of the Languages offer (enriching the experience that students receive)  Some possible changes to the nature of the Technology offer (with an added Textiles dimension) Year 13  No changes

Importantly, we have taken the decision not to enforce that any of our students in year 9 to follow an English Baccalaureate Pathway for their GCSEs (as other schools have). We will resist this as we do not feel that it fits in with the spirit of free choice that we have embraced up to now. However, we will keep the situation under review in light of further future developments.

Overall, we felt that it was important not to do anything too significant at this stage, as it remains important that Highgate Wood maintains it’s commitment to offering a broad and balanced curriculum to all students with a wide range of qualifications that cater to the needs of our students.

However, some changes were necessary in line with the level of curriculum decisions that we always make at this time of year.

I will keep you informed of any future changes.

Staffing Update I reported to you in the last Insight in December that we had a number of members of staff who are on long term absence. I am pleased to be able to update you on the situation Dawn Spence (Assistant Headteacher):

Mrs Spence is doing well and we are anticipating her return some time (although not immediately) after half term. In the meantime, Jess Canty continues to cover her Assistant Head Role and Mary Findlow taking on the Child Protection Liaison work.

John Howley (Head of Learning for Year 9): We do not yet have a date for Mr Howley’s return – but in the meantime, Di Breed has taken over as the Acting Head of Learning for Year 9 – following Ryan Pryor’s (the previous Acting Head of Learning) departure Kevin Brokenshire (Head of Learning for Year 10): Mr Brokenshire is now back at work. However, his Head of Learning role is currently being covered by Anna Ryan until Easter Leon Mitchell (Pastoral Mentor for Years 7 and 8): We are still not able to put a date on Mr Mitchell’s return – but in the meantime, Mohammed Hussain Ahmed and Katarina Roberts continue to be the Pastoral Mentors for Years 8 and 7 respectively Deborah Wilson (English Teacher and Post Holder within the English Department): Ms Wilson is now back at work.

... And Finally – An Appreciation Display A year ago, I introduced an appreciation display wall in the main reception of the school. It is a display of positive comments that we have received from parents, carers and other members of the community or visitors to the school. We regularly receive lots of positive feedback from our community, and the appreciation display gives us an opportunity to show these off to those that visit us.

If you wish to say something positive that can be put on display about your experiences of Highgate Wood, please send comments in for the attention of the Mrs Kiymet Ozturk, PA to the Headteacher or alternatively, e‐mail her on koz@hws.haringey.sch.uk Thank you as ever for your continued support!

Regards

Patrick Cozier Headteacher

February 2013

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COMENIUS NEWS

Ms Christodoulou writes: We have now almost come to the end of our Comenius supported project ‘Healthy Lifestyles: Outside In and Inside Out’. Early next half term Mr Contor (Head of Drama) and Ms Harris (Deputy Head of English) are travelling to visit a partner school in Romania. The purpose of the visit is to provide an exciting professional development opportunity for our staff.

Whilst they are there, Mr Contor and Ms Harris will be delivering workshops for staff and students using strategies and techniques that will help our partners to further develop their practice. They will also participate in opportunities to extend their learning and teaching repertoire.

The penultimate activity as part of our current Comenius partnership is a trip to Hungary for eight of our Year 10 PE students. The visit will be led by Ms Howard (SSCO/PE teacher) and Mr Ibrahim (Head of PE) in late April. Students will participate in a range of outdoor sporting activities and they will also have an opportunity to visit the beautiful city of Budapest. A full report of the visit will be available in Insight next term.

Who was Comenius?

Jan Amos Comenius lived five hundred years ago and is sometimes called the “Father of Modern Education”. He was born in the Czech Republic and became famous throughout Europe because of his writing on education, including some of the first pictures books for children. The Comenius Project of European collaboration is named after him.

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TUNISIAN PARTNER SCHOOLS TO VISIT

Ms Christodoulou writes: Highgate Wood School has been involved in a British Council sponsored ‘Connecting Classrooms’ programme that links schools in the UK with schools in Tunisia for the last eighteen months.

To further develop the partnership, a group of eight colleagues representing Tunisian schools, the British Council in Tunis and the Ministry of Education will be visiting us next month. As part of their visit to the school they will have an opportunity to meet students and staff, attend assembly and observe lessons. We also hope to devise some new project ideas that will be developed in all the schools represented.

LEAGUE TABLES CONFIRM OUR SUCCESS

The Department for Education league tables, which have just been updated with the validated exam results from last summer, confirm Highgate Wood School’s continuing success ‐ with 72% of our students achieving 5 A* ‐ C (including English and Maths) at GCSE. The government website also contains a vast amount of other data about the school and can be accessed either through the school website or directly from: http://tinyurl.com/hwsdfe2012 February 2013

YEAR 7 ARTISTS ‐ IN THE STYLE OF CHUCK CLOSE

Ronan O Grady

Carla Wicker

Joe Williams

Oli Buchan

Hektor Rafuna

Ronan O' Regan

Mr Maclaren writes: Students created a portrait of themselves using American artist Chuck Close for inspiration. The portrait were broken into squares. Within each square students created patterns that represented their Identity ‐ images in‐ cluded national flags, hobbies, games, favourite food and other cultural symbols. The results were fantastic, stu‐ dents developed skills in portraiture drawing, painting skills and knowledge of colour (and also learnt a bit more about each other!)

THE COMING TERMS KEY STAGE 3 HOMEWORK PROJECTS

PE PERSONALISED JUMPERS

The coming half‐term sees the following homework projects being set: Year 7: ECS:‐ Religious Festivals

D & T:‐ Graphics Year 8: Music:‐ Compilation Album Year 9: ECS: ‐ Families in the Media

Drama:‐ Script Writing

D & T:‐ Textiles Information to help you with these will be available on the MLE.

Ms Howard writes: If you train or play for a school team, you can purchase a personalised red hooded jumper.

Please see Miss Howard in the PE office for a letter. Form submission deadline ‐ 8th March.

February 2013

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SIXTH FORM TASTER DAY

Mr Charlesworth writes: On Wednesday 6th February students in Year 11 embraced the opportunity to spend the day as 6th Formers. Each student had selected 4 lessons from the A Level timetable and were able to enjoy lessons with those teaching AS Level next year. Before deciding which subjects to choose students took part in two activities in Citizenship designed to help them put together an A Level pathway and understand how universities feel about groups of subjects.

As 6th Formers for the day students were able to use the 6th Form Common Room and Study Centre at break and between lessons.

They were also able to see how it feels to have a ‘free’ period and were pleased to be able to use the canteen between lessons, as 6th Form students do.

There were opportunities to experience A level teaching in a wide range of subjects, including those that Year 11 students had never experienced before.

In terms of the lessons staff reported enthusiastic learners keen to understand the difference between GCSE and A level. For some the choice of lessons work well to confirm which they apply for while for others they found that options changed as the subjects chosen were not what they expected them to be.

A taste of Product Design A Level—an already established course

I was pleased to see students having a go at subjects that they have not been doing at GCSE as often students start on A levels that they have not really understood.

ALPS AWARD FOR ACHIEVEMENT Highgate Wood School Sixth Form has again been recognised for our achievements in securing good exam results at A Level.

Alps have placed us in the top 20% of schools and colleges nationally in terms of value added attainment.

This means that you are more likely to do better at Highgate Wood School Sixth Form than in most other Sixth Forms in the country.

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Textiles at A Level—something new for Highgate Wood.

Students are now in a better position to complete application form and be ready to discuss choices at interview.

The first round deadline for applications to the Highgate Wood 6th Form is Friday 15th February.

February 2013

THE WINTER CONCERT ‐ an insider’s view Pat Hegarty‐Morrish writes: The smell of the greasepaint, the roar of the crowd, and most importantly the music of the annual Winter Concert is something that the performers look forward to. The talent of Highgate Wood is shown in no better way then these three nights of musical mania.

What I love about the Winter Concert is the vibe you get from performing, and the feeling that everyone is a team working to achieve a common goal: to entertain. And even if you go wrong (and I did!) everyone will still be positive. Also, what’s great is the new friends you make who aren’t in the same year as you; this rarely happens in school as you are with people your own age.

It all starts with months and months of practising to get your pieces up to scratch before the auditions.

You need to be able to play the song backwards and with your eyes closed in order to perform in front of the music department. This year the auditions were a huge success. More than 60 acts tried to get in to the concert, giving the music department a really hard job choosing which to select, but giving them loads of performances to choose from.

For me and Yoshiki playing guitar, the auditions came as a surprise – they were much earlier than usual. We had only just finished learning the piece when we had to perform to the music department, but somehow we still got through.

There is an easier way to get into the winter concert.

If you’re not in a band with friends or not confident enough to audition and perform on your own, join one of the school bands (Choir, Brass Ensemble, Orchestra, Jazz Band or Funk Band) and then you can get in the winter concert audition‐stress free.

(Unfortunately, you do have to wear uniform when performing.)

The whole‐day rehearsal is another high point. It’s pretty amazing to see how many talented people February 2013

there are at Highgate Wood School. So many people auditioned this year, this meant we definitely got the best line‐up we’ve had since I’ve been at Highgate Wood.

Walking through the doors on the first night, I felt elated. Backstage, I remembered what it was like at my first Winter Concert in Yr 7; the first night everyone was hyper, especially after the interval fuelled with crisps and coke. The second night was not quite so sugar rushed. On the final night everyone is tired, but for me it is always the best night – sad because it is the last night, but happy having had such a great experience.

Walking to the stage each time you perform, I am always trembling, and it gets worse and worse the closer you get. The performance that I found most nerve‐racking was my duet with Yoshiki, because there were only the two of us and there were so many opportunities to make mistakes.

It’s hard to describe what performing in the guitar duet was like. Just before I start playing I feel exhilarated and really nervous, but when I start performing I am in a state of extreme concentration, just blocking every other thought out of my mind and focusing completely on playing guitar. It’s a beautiful feeling, and everyone deserves to feel it. The other performances I did this year were with school bands; they weren’t as scary as I was with many more people and the songs weren’t as hard.

Performing in the Winter Concert is one of the best experiences you can have in Highgate Wood School.

Having access to all the wonderful equipment available through the music department is great, and having the chance to show off to your friends in the rehearsal and then performing to over 2000 people over the three nights is brilliant.

Now many of the performers are looking forward to the amazing Lake Garda Italy Tour. (My friend is already making his ‘Italy playlist’ for the journey.) And of course, sights are also set on MADfest and Winter Concert 2013.

A whole gallery of pictures from the 2012 Winter Concert are now available on the school website.

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February 2013

February 2013

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HOW TO DESIGN A NURSERY TOY! Lily Owen 10I and Ellie Delamere 10A write: We began by discussing the different elements of certain toys and how these would help the baby’s development such as how mirrors help the baby discover its own reflection and numbers and letters help develop the baby’s understanding. We also discussed how sounds and textures would affect the educational value of our toy. We then put together our design brief.

We set out to design a new innovative nursery/ cot toy aimed at children aged between 0‐18 months. The toy should be safe to use, support learning and development and be fun and colourful to look at. The toy should expand sensory and experiential feelings, and should be eye catching. The cost should be competitive and fall within the normal retail range’.

The making process began by coming up with a range of ideas which we drew on a grid. Eventually we chose our final design and created a pattern to match.

We chose our material; it had to be appropriate for young children as well as comfortable and fun.

Gradually our cot toys began to form. There were quite a few obstacles but they were overcome and cot toys were produced.

The cot toys were fun to make and we all felt a great sense of achievement at the end when we realised we had created these toys entirely from scratch and completely by ourselves (with help from Mr Brown and Miss Robertson).

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JACK PETCHEY’S “SPEAK OUT” CHALLENGE

Ms Allaway writes: On the Monday before half‐term Highgate Wood School hosted the regional final for the Jack Petchey Speak Out Challenge: the London and South East wide competition in public speaking.

Lucy Newbold and Tomer Raphael were selected from the fifty five Highgate Wood students who trained for the challenge and they represented the school. Other of our Year 10 students helped in the organisation and running of the event.

Lucy and Tomer performed brilliantly. Tomer achieved third place in the final and his speech has been recorded and posted on YouTube.

The Jack Petchey event coordinators were incredibly impressed with the quality of the performances given in the competition and were also full of praise for the other students who assisted in the smooth running of the event.

They passed on their gratitude to Mr Cozier for giving the opening speech for the event, they said his was the best head teachers speech they had heard in a long time!

February 2013

YEAR 11s ‐ ON THEIR WAY TO GLORY! Ms McConville writes: This has been an eventful half term for Year 11. It has given many students a real sense of optimism and excitement for the future. For others it has given them the opportunity to take stock of what they now need to do.

Amongst those who took their Maths exam in November we have had some great success stories, with many students meeting and exceeding their MTGs. The mock results received on Mock Results day in January also gave many students cause for pride and celebration.

Those students who have done well should now have confidence and certainty that continued hard work will bring even more rewards. However, those who have not had such success, or whose results on Mock Results Day and discussions at Parents Evening gave rise to concern, will now know they must put that extra effort in to turn things around. This is a really critical time in Year 11, and all the school will be wishing you every success.

Teachers are working hard to provide opportunities to help students prepare, revise and catch up with the work that is needed. Some students have been assigned their own mentor who will guide them through the next few weeks on the Aspire , Believe, Commit programme which has been specifically designed for this intervention group. But every single student in Year 11 will be able to benefit from the extracurricular opportunities for study that we will be providing.

Mr Ashman has been busy putting material on the school website ‐ in the P.A.S.S. Section under the Learning tab, as well on the MLE, to help with revision.

Here are five quick revision tips to get you started.

1. Start your revision early. You should be spending some time revising for your exams even now.

2. Short bursts of revision (30 to 40 minutes) are most the effective. Your concentration lapses after about an hour and you need to take a short break (5 to 10 minutes).

3. Find a quiet place to revise and don’t be interrupted or distracted.

4. Make sure you don't just revise the subjects and topics you like. Work on your weaker ones as well.

5. Believe in yourself and be positive. If you think you can succeed you will; if you convince yourself that you will fail, that's what will probably happen.

SPECIAL CONGRATULATIONS Ms Payton writes: I am delighted that so many of you did so well in your Maths exam in November. I want to say particular congratulations to the following students: Zak Benefetouha who attended lots of extra sessions and got a C which was well above his target grade.

Mabast Amin who attended every single revision session and also got his C. Several students achieved higher than their targets including Amiira Dookhy, Cemal Yucel, Sam Cassells, Ella Krikler, Jack Horsfall, Conrad Lee and Ciara Mahon.

Jack Coomber, Nicole Cheung, and Chi Chim who had targets of Bs but got A*s Miranda Ziemann and Rukiye Tas who got the best marks in the whole school and A* .

The next Maths exam is February 28th and students should be attending revision sessions regularly to help achieve the same success.

Frames from the Year 11 Maths results video February 2013

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WAX ICE CREAM

PROGRESS WITH HUMANITY

Ms Burniston writes: Beth Gosschalk, Amber Patterson and Ruth Ollier represented the school in a Holocaust memorial public speaking competition.

The students presented a speech regarding ‘Progress within Humanity’.

The students were outstanding, and proved to be an asset to the school.

Well done, and thank you for all your hard work.

Michael Bull’s inventive ice cream sculpture ‐ created from wax and sand ‐ as part of the Year 10 Art exam.

Mr Lamb writes: Caitlin Davies, the author of the Ghost of Lily Painter, ran one writing workshop in the lead up to World Book Day on 7th March.

To celebrate the day Andy Robb, author of “Geekhood: Close Encounters of the Girl Kind”, will be giving a talk and signing his books during lunchtime.

World Book Day £1 book tokens will be available to all students.

You will be able to use them to get £1 off a book of your choice.

But it is probably better to spend them on one of the special £1 books that will be available in bookshops as part of the event.

The LRC are also running the Young Writer's Ghost Story competition! Even more prizes are up for grabs for those students who submit book reviews on the LRC's page on the MLE!

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Artemis Urban Debate League BREAKING NEWS

YEAR 9 AND OPTIONS Ms Pinnick writes: I have been really impressed by how efficiently Year 9 have engaged with the Options process. Almost everyone handed in their form on time, and clearly all students have put a lot of thought into deciding their choices.

Over the next few weeks Mrs Breed and I will be speaking to those students who may need to rethink their Option choices.

If you do not hear from me you should assume that you will be able to start your chosen options for Key Stage 4 in June

Mr Lamb writes: It has just been revealed that Highgate Wood School ranks joint 6th Nationally and 5th in London in the Debate Mate 2013 Artemis Urban Debate League.

Congratulations to all involved!

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALEX CARTER‐JOHNS Congratulations to Alex Carter‐Johns passed his Grade 3 Trinity Exam on Drums with Distinction.

Well Done!

CONGRATULATIONS TO JOE STONEMAN Congratulations to Joe Stoneman for achieving a Merit for his Grade 7 Double Bass. Joe has also just been accepted into the London Schools Symphony Orchestra. A major achievement!

February 2013

A VISIT TO THE BFI

MODEL UN CONFERENCE ‐ 6th MARCH Ms Dawes Knowles writes: This half‐term all Year 11 Media Studies students attended a GCSE Study Day at the BFI in the Southbank.

The students listened attentively to a number of presentations on TV Advertising including one from a Creative Director based at AMV BBDO the agency that produced the Paralympic Superhumans Advert for Channel 4. They also enjoyed a Q&A session with the Client Manager for the recent Maryland biscuit campaign.

Ms DK and Mr Mallen were very impressed with the maturity, knowledge and enthusiasm of their students and would like to thank Doug Park, Alex Williams and Adrian Hartley for their support during the trip

TEN DAYS PROJECT Ms Jones writes: Year 10 and Year 11 BTec students have now embarked on a really exciting international project with a partner school in San Francisco.

They are sharing their ideas, work and results of a photography workshop on‐line with their partner students in America through an intitiative called Shutterfly ‐ 10 Days Project.

We will update you on their progress as the project unfolds.

February 2013

Mr O’Connor writes: The 2013 Model UN Conference is fast approaching and will see two hundred and forty delegates discuss the key issue of global development.

Sixty Highgate Wood School students from Years 9 and 10 have already been selected to take part, plus our 6th formers for the Crisis Committee.

There will be a Secretariat of 30 (20 from Highgate Wood School), plus rapporteurs from our Year 8, and a press team.

Claire Melamed, who is currently Head of the Growth, Poverty and Inequality Programme at Overseas Development Institute and was previously Head of Policy at Action Aid will be the key speaker at the Opening Ceremony.

The Closing Ceremony will welcome our local MP and a minister in the Department for International Development, Lynne Featherstone.

SEX FM—exploring issues.

Ms Breed writes: All students in Year 9 had the opportunity to take part in a drama performance that explored the pressures that sometimes come into play within relationships, the dangers of STIs and the risks of pregnancy.

It was an excellent and thought provoking production and the students behaved with great maturity and common sense.

I was extremely proud of their conduct.

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HWS CHESS CLUB

DEBATE MATE

Mr Lamb writes: Highgate Wood fielded four teams in Round 1 of the Urban Debate League held at Parliament Hill on 23rd January. The teams argued with other schools about allowing extremist parties to be televised and if gambling should be illegal. At times the debates were quite heated!

With three losses and five wins the teams performed exceptionally well. They demonstrated their commitment, team work and preparation whilst also developing their speaking and critical thinking skills.

Well done to the teams!

DEBATE MATE—TEAM LINE‐UP Natalya de la Motte Faye Heron Beth Gosschalk Martha Berkmann Ruth Ollier Amber Paterson Imogen Shepperd Rosa Elson Max Berkman George Tollinson Max Aref‐Adib Liliana Ricketts Robin Cowie Conrad Pope Joe Trainer Trevaughn Jackson

(9S) (9I) (9T) (9E) (9T) (9T) (9T) (9H) (9T) (9A) (9D) (9D) (9D) (7E) (7E) (8A)

Damien Del Curto Joshua Rodney Jace Griffiths Amanda Williams Troy Nya

(8H) (8I) (8T) (7A (7A) Kerena Thompson‐Cox (7A) Savannah Mundle (7A) Lucy Sutton (7H) Talvinder Bains (8A) Joe Vinall‐Smeeth (8G) Jonah Macintyre (8G) Nat Stark

(8H) Harry Ghose Coveney (8H) Jake Canton Perry (8I) Cali Nice

(8I) Sinead Duffus (9W)

Mr Lamb writes: Chess Club has started in the LRC. It takes place after school on Thursdays. The school is building up a team to hopefully compete next term. The current rankings are as follows: 1st

Madeleine Baron (8A)

2nd

Abel Kent (8G)

3rd

Scarlett Monaighan (8A)

4th

Imaru Lewis (7I)

5th

Khalidullah Sahebzada (9S)

SCIENCE CLUB REMINDER!

LEARNING RESOURCE CENTRE Open: every school day at 8:00 am

every break time

every lunchtime

and... every school day after school:

until 5:00 pm Monday to Wednesday

until 4:00 pm on Thursday and Friday 16

Ms Taylor writes: KS3 Science club is still running on Monday lunchtime 1:10 ‐ 1:40 in P8. Fun practicals and exciting science every week with help from our sixth form Science Club coordinators!

February 2013

E‐SAFETY ENRICHMENT

www.thinkuknow.co.uk

February 2013

AUSTRALIAN IMAGES

Ms Stephens writes: Kate Owen in 7I went abroad to Australia during the Christmas holidays and was set an extra task by her art teacher. She created a sketchbook of drawings and collages based on her travels.

Ms Stephens was so impressed by her drawing of Tauranga Zoo in Sydney that she showed them to year 12 who are currently creating sculptures based on animals.

CLIMATE GRAPHS

Sonny Bailey 7T

Mr Ashman writes: This year’s Safer Internet Day coincided with the ICT enrichment which meant that Year 7 were able to spend the day exploring and discussing issues of e‐safety.

As well as looking at the main issues of keeping safe on the internet, and what they might do if they have any causes for concern, they also looked at issues of bias, trust and reliability on the internet.

Students designed their own web pages for spoof websites, and fraudulent ones too. Their ideas were brilliant!

Juber Miah came up with a phishing site for Halifax Bank, whilst Levi Nice and Kerena Thompson‐Cox both design fake concert ticket pages. Kayne Parara had perhaps the cleverest idea of all. He design a website called Presents for Noth’n. “Just give me a phone number, address and your credit card details and I’ll give you anything you want for free” he wrote.

The day followed an early PSA presentation on e‐safety, reminding everyone of the e‐ safety resources on the school website and the useful “Think U Know” website, through which you can report concerns about on‐ line safety directly to the police.

DIFFERENT SURFACE

Ms Masters writes: This is Blue Weiss’ outstanding piece of work produced in the Year 10 “Surfaces” exam.

If you need the details to top‐up your lunch card account online please email Mr Ashman at: tas@hws.haringey.sch.uk

Ms Gunes writes: Year 7 have been studying weather and climate this term in Geography, learning how to draw and interpret climate graphs. We have teamed up with the ICT department where students have learnt to manipulate weather data and produce climate graphs in their ICT lessons.

The collaboration has meant students fully understand how a climate graph works and should be interpreted. The strong links with maths has meant that students got to practice reading graphs and using key vocabulary.

Well done year 7s!

Excellent effort...

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A MESSAGE FROM OUR EDUCATION WELFARE OFFICER Dear Parents, a year and so

gate Wood School for over igh t H r a fice Of are elf W ion r child.

I have been the Educat why it is so important to you nd b a y jo m I do w ho ou ll y inimum I thought I should te dance is less than a certain m en att se ho ts w en tud s s cus Every fortnight I dis ildren’s ontact parents about their ch d c an ing arn Le of ad He ch amount with ea de in ALL subjects!

5% it will result in a lower gra n 9 tha ss le e is nc da ten at attendance. If are: The options we have available s the reasons for absence A meeting at school to discus  A home visit 

s we are forced to A medical enquiry to you GP  hildren’s education sometime r c ou for re ha e s t w tha ty rescribed minimum To reflect the responsibili ance remains below certain p nd tte ’s a hild a c en wh gs undertake legal proceedin edically endorsed reasons. ment. specially where there are no m een attendance and achieve etw k b l lin ica tist sta ar cle ry there is a ve an adult.

I would like to point out that income and quality of life as nd l a oo sch at nt me eve chi k between a education, There is also a very clear lin ee times as likely not to be in thr re , a 5% n 9 tha er low se larly tho Persistent absentees, particu od attenders. e of 18 when compared to go rger number employment or training at ag r, we do have a significantly la eve ow ; h nce da ten at od go l has e. This statistic Highgate Wood School overal ed to the Haringey’s averag par com ce en abs or n f so rea as a ed by some of absentees reporting illness possibly too readily endors nd d a ke loo ver s o me eti om is s might indicate that absence parents. ir best: an help your child achieve the u c yo ich wh in ays s w ou ari There are v work regularly set day ‐ there should be home ery l ev rna ou ’s j ild ch ur yo Read  with it where possible uler, etc Discuss homework and help  pare pens, pencils, rubber, r s, s en , p kit PE s – on ess r l ipped fo ted effectively.

Ensure your child is fully equ  t homework has been comple tha al urn s jo ld’ chi ur yo ing ile Ensure after read  t disturbances from TV, mob igh e n lat no ith w ep sle of night Ensure your child has a good  their bedrooms phones and/or computers in becomes ill or if Contact us early if your child  on attendance falls for any reas dentist appointments Try and arrange doctor and  outside school hours ys during term time: it is Do not arrange family holida  eeking permission from illegal to do so without first s pplications are most likely the Headteacher and such a to be declined.

hild’s will adversely affect your c Attendance of less than 95% . grades and future prospects

mising your child’s potential! axi m s in rt u po sup lp he Please

Yours sincerely

Roger Worth Education Welfare Officer

18

February 2013

STUDENT SICKNESS Mrs King writes: If your child is off‐sick could you please call every day that they are unable to come into school.

Please phone 0208 342 7970 Could parents and carers also please ensure that the school has emergency contact numbers should your child become ill at school and we need to contact you.

MATHS TUITION AVAILABLE

Do you need Maths Tuition?

I am an A‐Level student studying maths and I can help you get the best GCSE grades at a reasonable price (£15 an hour) Email Gabriel at: gabrielneophytou@hws.haringey.sch.uk

GIVING NEWS TO THE SCHOOL If students, parents, carers or friends want to alert the school of an achievement or any good news that could be shared please contact us by email at: goodnews@hws.haringey.sch.uk We also have an email address for those who wish to make a complaint or raise a concern.

Email: complaints@hws.haringey.sch.uk

RAISING MONEY FOR THE HWS PSA

Spendandraise ‐ which you can access through the school website ‐ allows you to buy on‐ line from a huge range of retailers, including John Lewis, Halfords, Currys, Habitat, Evans Cycles, Play.com and Asda.

There are no charges for using it, but every purchase through www.spendandraise.com/hwspsa provides extra funds for the Highgate Wood School PSA. February 2013

SCHOOL MUSICAL Mr Brown writes: Countdown has begun for Return to the Forbidden Planet which will be staged in the first week of our return to school.

It is a fantastic production and tickets are already selling well. Ticket Prices are £5 for adults and £3 for concessions.

The cast is as follows:

Alice Goss (Year 13) ‐ Newscaster Shakrah Siffre‐Banerji (Year 12) ‐ Captain Tempest Joshua Riley (Year 11) ‐ Doctor Prospero Neena Afua‐Nsafoah (Year 12) ‐ Miranda Max Gerstein (Year 12) ‐ Ariel Kika Adamou (Year 13) ‐ Gloria Fionnuala Stevens (Year 11) ‐ Cookie Maya Kally (Year 11) ‐ Bosun Hannah Dalgliesh (Year 11) Navigation Officer

MAIN CHORUS: Alaine Demosthenous, Ellie Phillips, Ellie Whitlock, Ruby Cowan, Chloe Petmezas‐Walker, Holly Stott, Imogen Marks, Elsie White, Eliza King‐Lassman, Emma Atkinson, Akiha Kuniyoshi, Ashya Broomes, Isobel Agnew, Mia Clifford, Alexandra Burgess, Zoe Hutchings, and Phoebe Bennett.

19

School starts again on Monday 25th February It will be Week Two. Lessons will start at 8:35 Monday 25th February

HALF TERM BEGINS

27th—28th Feb/ 1st March

SCHOOL MUSICAL

Wednesday 6th March

YEAR 8 PARENTS EVENING

7th March

WORLD BOOK DAY (Late start following Parents’ Evening)

18th March

School closed early for Staff training

Parent Consultation Evenings

INSET DAYS and INSET AFTERNOONS

Year 7 Tuesday 7th May 2013

Monday 18th March Inset afternoon

Year 8 Wednesday 6th March 2013

Tuesday 23rd May Inset afternoon Monday 3rd June INSET DAY

Year 9 Thursday 15th November 2012 Year 10 Tuesday 29th January 2013 Year 11 Thursday 17th January 2013 Year 12 & 13 Wednesday 28th November 2012 AUTUMN 2012

SPRING 2013

SUMMER 2013

Wed 5th September

Term Starts *

Mon 7th Jan

Term Starts

Mon 15th April

Term Starts

29th Oct ‐ 2nd Nov

Half term break

18th Feb– 22nd Feb

Half term break

27th—31st May

Half term break

Friday 21st Dec

Term Ends

Thurs 28th March

Term Ends

Wed 24th July

Term Ends

The school calendar is now available on‐line at www.hws.uk.com (the exams timetable is available on the exams page of the site)

Keep informed Find out what is going on at Highgate Wood School and keep up with our news

visit us at our website www.hws.uk.com

follow us on twitter twitter.com/highgatewood

Insight is available on‐line at www.hws.uk.com Give us your news at: goodnews@hws.haringey.sch.uk School OpenCheck To see if the school is open normally 0208408 7508 and giving the school’s DfE code 3094030 We will also always endeavour to update our website, twitter feed and send text messages to keep parents informed if school is disrupted for any reason