THE OFFICIAL KENSINGTON ALDRIDGE ACADEMY MAGAZINE
SPRING TERM 2018
#10 Spring 2018
Dear Parents & Carers,
IN THIS ISSUE... House Competitions House Music House Debating Interim Competitions
3 4 5
Performing & Creative Arts Performing Arts Showcase Playground Theatre Workshops Theatre Trips A Level Drama Practical
6 7 7 7
Literary Festival
8
Family Breakfast
10
Head Boy & Girl Elections
11
Careers & Universities Sixth Form Lecture Series University Offers Access Project Trip Business in Focus Trip Academic Societies
12 12 13 13 13
Sports Sports Relief Charlie Hayter rugby session Lion Lions vs Bristol Flyers Rowing News
14 14 14 15
Parent Calendar
I’m delighted to welcome you to our spring issue of INTREPIDUS, which is as full as ever with the achievements and successes of our fantastic students. I do hope you enjoy reading about all the wonderful things our students have been up to this term. This edition is so packed with news and events there is barely space to mention everything - so I will take the opportunity here just to mention the wonderful Year 12 Geography Field Trip to Slapton Ley (in the snow!) and a group of our students meeting HRH Prince William and Professor Green at BDA - both pictured below. My personal highlights this term have been the House Debating competition - which was live streamed to all students in their form bases - and the Performing Arts Showcase at the Print Room in January. My thanks to all family and friends that joined us for what was, quite simply, a show stopping performance by every student involved. There is plenty to look forward to next term, with our school production of Little Shop of Horrors in July, our first ever House Rowing competition on Tuesday 17th July, House Drama in Summer 1 and Sports Day in Summer 2, as well as our usual array of trips, workshops and activities. On the academic side, Year 9s will be selecting their GCSE options in the summer term, and our Year 12 and 13 students will sit their AS and A level examinations in May and June. It will be, as ever, a busy term at KAA. A reminder that the progress meetings next term before the all important end of year exams in July are as follows:
Thursday 26th April - Year 8 Progress Meetings, 4.30pm - 7.30pm Thursday 7th June - Year 10 Progress Meetings, 4.30pm - 7.30pm Tuesday 12th June - Year 9 Progress Meetings, 4.30pm - 7.30pm Thursday 21st June - Year 7 Progress Meetings, 4.30pm - 7.30pm
With best wishes,
David Benson Principal
Back page Some of our year 10s meeting HRH Prince William
Year 12 Geography Field Trip - braving the snow!
2
On Thursday 8th February, at the close of the Spring 1 term, over 150 students across all six year groups took part in the House Music finals. Each house had 5 minutes to showcase their musical creativity in front of judges from the Royal College of Music. With Franklin in the lead for the House Cup at the close of the Autumn term, Angelou, Honeyball and Pankhurst were all eager to snatch the 20,000 house points for first place. All four performances were spectacular, with choreography and composition well thought out by each house. Our special guest judges from the Royal College of Music were thoroughly impressed. Winners were announced in the end of term assembly on Friday 9th February. The winning house was Pankhurst, taking 20,000 house points, but current leaders Franklin were awarded second place and left the scores neck and neck at the top. Thanks must go to our guest judges and Mr Rigby and Miss Cockell for all their work rehearsing with the huge number of students involved this year.
1st - Pankhurst (20,000) 2nd - Franklin (15,000) 3rd - Angelou (10,000) 4th - Honeyball (5,000)
3
Our second major house competition for the Spring term was our annual House Debating competition. Heats took place on Thursday 15th March, with the top debaters from each house going head to head debating the motions “This house believes people caught with a knife should serve a life sentence”, “This house believes that capital punishment should be legalised for people who commit murder”, “This house believes that plastic surgery should be banned” and “This house believes that people should have to pay to stay in hospital.” Angelou and Pankhurst were victorious in the heats and progressed to the final on Thursday 8th February, with Franklin and Honeyball competing in the finals for 3rd and 4th place. With Franklin still in the lead for the House Cup at the close of the Spring 1 term, Pankhurst and Angelou were keen to take full advantage of this opportunity to win 20,000 house points to help close the gap.
On Thursday 22nd March the whole school tuned in to watch the finals via live stream - a KAA first! Students watching from their form rooms cheered their fellow students and watched with anticipation. As ever, everyone was impressed by the quality of the debates - with each house selecting their top four debaters from across all year groups. The motion for both the final and the 3rd place play off was “This house believes that the police should have access to all of our social media for public protection.” Staff and students alike were keen to know who had won the 20,000 house points, but the results were not announced until today’s end of term assembly. Many congratulations to Pankhurst for their victory helping, them to close the gap on Franklin!
1st - Pankhurst (20,000) 2nd - Angelou (15,000) 3rd - Franklin (10,000) 4th - Honeyball (5,000)
4
Many thanks to special guest judge, Governor Dunstan Hadley, for joining the panel for the Angelou-Pankhurst debate. Thanks also must go to Miss Green and the English department for organising a riveting house competition.
4
STEM Challenge 1st - Angelou (5,000) 2nd - Franklin (3,750) 3rd - Honeyball (2,500) 4th - Pankhurst (1,250)
RE Essay Writing 1st - Angelou (5,000) 2nd - Pankhurst (3,750)
Maths Problem Solving
1st - Franklin (5,000) ‘Is a picture worth a thousand words?’ 2nd - Honeyball (3,750) 3rd - Angelou (2,500) 1st - Angelou (5,000) 4th - Pankhurst (1,250) 2nd - Franklin (3,750) 3rd - Honeyball (2,500) Literary Festival - Photo Competition 4th - Pankhurst (1,250) 1st - Angelou (500)
Literary Festival - Treasure Hunt 1st - Pankhurst (500)
Literary Festival - How Many Books? 1st - Angelou (300)
Literary Festival - Bookmark Design Reciting PI 1st - Franklin (5,000) 2nd - Angelou (3,750) 3rd - Pankhurst (2,500) 4th - Honeyball (1,250)
Capital Cities Quiz 1st - Franklin (5,000) 2nd - Angelou (3,750) 3rd - Pankhurst (2,500) 4th - Honeyball (1,250)
House Football = 1st - Franklin (5,000) = 1st - Pankhurst (5,000) 2nd - Angelou (3,750) 4th - Honeyball (1500)
1st - Honeyball (400) 2nd - Pankhurst (300) 3rd - Franklin (200)
Poetry Slam 1st - Angelou (5,000) 2nd - Honeyball (3,750) 3rd - Franklin (2,500) 4th - Pankhurst (1,250)
British Science Week: Periodic Table Competition 1st - Pankhurst (5,000) 2nd - Franklin (3,750) 3rd - Honeyball (2,500) 4th - Angelou (1,250)
House BMX Time Trials 1st - Franklin (5,000) 2nd - Angelou (3,750) 3rd - Pankhurst (2,500) 4th - Honeyball (1,250)
5
PERFORMING & CREATIVE ARTS 6
On Thursday 11th January over sixty students performed for a packed audience of students, parents, staff, governors and friends of the academy at The Print Room Theatre to showcase drama, music and dance at KAA. The night included performances from the KAA choir, the Intrepidus Dance Company, the winner’s of KAA’s Got Talent 2017, A level dance students and GCSE drama students. The audience were blown away by each and every act, showcasing KAA’s commitment to excellence in the performing arts. Our thanks to all those who joined us on this evening for a fantastic celebration of performing arts at KAA. Special thanks to Mr Kavanagh, Miss Miller, Miss Gurnell, Mr Rigby, Miss Cockell, Mr Dunning, Miss Grace, Miss Lamson and Governor Lucy Morris for their hard work organising the event.
You can watch our YouTube video documenting the rehearsals and run up to the evening by visiting www.kaa.org.uk/ performing-creative-arts. 6
PERFORMING & CREATIVE ARTS
Our GCSE drama class in Year 10 and a group of 30 students interested in selecting GCSE drama were selected to attend a drama workshop at the Playground Theatre in Latimer Road. A great taster for our Year 9s as they near the time for their GCSE options!
Reward Theatre Trips Every term the drama and dance departments lead a number of theatre trips to give students the opportunity to enjoy live performances. This term’s trips have included Matilda the Musical the night before World Book Day (left), Things I Know to Be True at the Lyric Hammersmith, Romeo & Juliet at the Orange Tree theatre, and Matthew Bourne’s Cinderella at Sadler’s Wells. We look forward to plenty more performing arts trips in the summer term!
A Level Drama Practical On Thursday 8th March our A level drama class performed their practical assessments to an external examiner and an audience in the drama studio. Staff and students in the audience were amazed by the quality of performances and we are confident of some fantastic results from our A level drama students. Well done to all of our A level drama class!
7
LITERARY FESTIVAL 2018
KAA is a school that loves to read so it’s no surprise that rather than just celebrating World Book Day, the English and library departments hosted a week-long literary festival from Monday 26th February to Friday 2nd March, coinciding with World Book Day on Thursday 1st March. The week was packed with workshops, including visits from poet Adisa the Verbaliser and authors Steve Tasane, Sophia Bennett, Kate Moore and Natasha Farrant. Classes across years 7 to 10 visited the library for sessions during their English lessons.
Local writer Sophia Bennett, author of the Threads series, talking to Year 7 students in the library
Workshops got students reading, writing and performing their work. Our special thanks to all of these visitors for giving us their time to make our literary festival such a success.
Natasha Farrant, author of The Children of Castle Rock and After Iris running a Year 8 writing workshop
Steve Tasane, writer of Blood Donors working with Year 9
8
Adisa the Verbaliser creating poetry with Year 7
Kate Moore, author of Radium Girls, speaks to our Year 10s
8
A - Learning Support Department
B - Geography Department D - English Department
C - Mr Todorovic
E - MFL Department
H - Science Department
F - DT Department
G - Library Department
ANSWERS: A - Mister Men, B - Cat in the Hat, C - Wolverine, D - A Christmas Carol, E - Hansel & Gretel, F - The Great Gatsby, G - The Borrowers H - Charlie and the Chccolate Factory
The literary treasure hunt - discovering what the staff are currently reading!
LITERARY FESTIVAL 2018
Can you guess the books for each staff costume? (answers below)
8 Murray reading in the snow!
As well as author visits and workshops during English lessons, the lirerary festival was celebrated with staff fancy dress and an array of competitions and activities during break and lunch times. Students took part in a literary treasure hunt, a bookmark design competition and a ‘Reading Selfie’ competition amongst others, all with house points up for grabs. The competition finale on Friday was a Poetry Slam run by the English department, won by Angelou house.
Reading selfie winner, year 7 Admed Bashir
8 Grey-Thompson’s ‘reading selfie’
9
FAMILY BREAKFAST
The launch of Family Breakfast in the Autumn term has been a fantastic success and continues to grow as more and more students join us each morning to eat breakfast, catch up with homework, play board games and socialise with their friends. Thanks to our generous donor we have been able to continue to provide a free breakfast to all students.
Family breakfast runs from 8am - 8.30am each morning. The menu includes porridge, toast, fruit, cereal and hot rolls (bacon, egg and sausage) - so there is something to take everyone’s fancy.
We love the atmosphere of Family Breakfast and would love it to continue to expand. All are welcome to enjoy some quality time over a game of Chess or Guess Who. We look forward to seeing more and more students join us for Family Breakfast over the summer term.
10
“All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast”
10
Our 2018 candidates for Head Boy and Head Girl are Alexander (12 Maathai), Murtadha (12 Nightingale), Rostom (12 Ibrahim), Dua (Gladstone), Emma (12 Ebadi), Amber (12 Roosevelt), Luana (12 Ibrahim), Shouq (12 Nightingale) and Aminata (12 Gladstone). The successful duo will work alongside our current Head Girl Titilayo (13 Maathai) and Head Boy Kai (13 Sirleaf) during the summer term before taking up the leadership positions full time in the autumn term. Monday 19th March to Friday 23rd March was a week of campaigning with all 9 students give campaign speeches to the entire school in assemblies throughout the week, as well as meeting students during lunch breaks and displaying their campaign posters around the school. Election day on Friday 23rd March saw a fantastic turnout, with over 800 votes cast - a brilliant turnout from our keen voting student body. The elected candidates have not yet been revealed as Intrepidus goes to print but the announcement will be made in the end of term assembly. Watch the website and our Twitter feed for the latest news at www.kaa.org.uk and @KAA_Intrepidus.
STUDENT ELECTIONS
H E A D B OY & H E A D G I R L E L E C T I O N S
Well done to all candidates for a brilliant campaign from all.
11
CAREERS & UNIVERSITY
SIXTH FORM LECTURE S ERIES
Nobel Peace Prize Winner visits KAA
On Tuesday 6th February, KAA was honoured to host a visit from Nobel Peace Laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel. Adolfo Pérez Esquivel is an Argentinian activist and artist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1980 for his criticism of Argentina's civil-military dictatorship, which lasted from 1976 to 1983. During this time, Adolfo was detained, tortured, and held without trial for 14 months. He spoke to our Sixth Form students about the importance of diversity, how education is the key to bringing about peace and how we should all never stop “smiling on life”. Students and staff found his message of hope particularly moving; for someone who has endured such extreme hardship, he spoke with a huge amount of optimism about our capacity to effect social change. It was fantastic to see our students asking Adolfo thoughtful and articulate questions after his talk, particularly those students who were able to ask questions in Spanish! Amongst them were questions about how he was able to have such a positive mind-set, and how he has managed to overcome such significant challenges in his life.
Baroness Shami Chakrabarti speaks to Sixth Formers On Thursday 22nd February, KAA welcomed Shadow Attorney General and eminent human rights lawyer Baroness Shami Chakrabarti to deliver a talk as a part of our Sixth Form lecture series. This was a fantastic opportunity for our students to hear from a leading figure within UK politics. Shami spoke about her own career journey, from studying law at the London School of Economics, to working at the Home Office and becoming director of Liberty, a human rights advocacy group. She also spoke passionately about key political issues, such as student tuition fees, Labour’s position on Brexit and tackling global wealth inequality. After the talk, students asked some intelligent and insightful questions. One student asked whether Shami thought that Jeremy Corbyn’s stance on Brexit needed to be made clearer; another asked if she thought there were any positive aspects to the Conservative Party. Shami commented that she came away from the visit “invigorated and inspired by KAA students and staff.” Our students were certainly inspired by what Shami had to say, so our thanks go out to her for giving such a fantastic lecture.
OX B R I D G E O F F E R S We are delighted to announce that three of our Year 13 students received offers to Oxford University for September 2018. This is a fantastic result from our first year of university applications with our “founder cohort” of sixth formers.
12
Kai (13 Sirleaf) was offered a place to read Spanish and Linguistics at Oriel College, Titilayo (12 Maathai) was offered a place at Magdalen College to read English Literature, and Abdullahi (13 Maathai) was offered a place to read French and Russian at Christ Church. Students across Year 13 have been offered high quality offers from top universities. Congratulations to all those in our Sixth Form 12 and we wish them the best of luck in their upcoming A level exams.
Year 10s on The Access Project mentoring programme visited St Catharine's College Cambridge on Thursday 15th March to give them an idea of what studying at a top university is like. The students participated in taster lectures, a tour by a current Cambridge student (including a look at his surprisingly pristine room), lunch in the Formal Hall, a hands-on visit to Gonville and Caius' library and an explanation of what 'punting' is! Along with students from other Access Project schools in London, they were able to challenge any preconceived notions they had of Cambridge and ended the day better able to imagine themselves studying at Cambridge in a few short years.
BUSINESS IN FOCUS TR IP
CAREERS & UNIVERSITY
AC C E S S P R O J E C T C A M B R I D G E T R I P
On Friday 16th February, 30 year 9 students travel to central London law firm Mills and Reeves for a business simulation day run by IntoUniversity.
Students were split into groups representing different cities, and each team had to work together to develop a bid for their city to host the ‘Global Games’. This involved high pressure meetings with the Global Games Committee, a debate and a ‘campaign showcase’ to finish the day.
Mills and Reeve corporate volunteers enjoyed working with the students and were really impressed with their enthusiasm, creativity, professionalism and teamwork. Some stand out students identified by staff and volunteers were Aya (9 Lennon) and Tyler (9 Chaplin) for writing a high quality professional letter to their chosen sponsor, Janette (9 Baker) for keeping her team focused and on task throughout the workshop and excelling in the debate, CJ (9 Chaplin) who sang a solo during the final performance and Kinzi (9 Nijinsky) and Isha (9 Hepburn) for following and exceeding expectations.
AC A D E M I C S O C I E T I E S - C A R E E R S TA L K S Sixth Form students have had the opportunity to hear a variety of careers talks this term, through our programme of academic societies. Some highlights included;
Siobhan Campbell, Deputy Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department for Transport, visiting the psychology society. She spoke about her own career journey and how her department uses psychological research to inform government transport policy. Wanda Wyporska speaking to the geography society about her work as director of The Equality Trust. Wanda told students about the challenges she’d overcome to get to where she is now; from caring for her mother at the age of 12 to gaining a scholarship to a private school, where she struggled to fit in with her wealthier peers. She said that ultimately, students should celebrate what makes them different and unique, as it means they can often ‘see things in ways that others might miss.’ Amrit Malhi, Graduate Project Manager at TFL, visiting the biomedical society. Amrit gave students an insight into her experience studying biochemistry at Warwick and why she chose to pursue a career not directly related to her degree subject.
13
SPORTS
S P O RT S R E L I E F
Sports Relief is a biennial charity event run by Comic Relief in association with BBC Sport to raise money for vulnerable people in the UK and around the world. The KAA PE department organised Bubble Football on Tuesday 20th March to raise money, which goes towards supporting more than 2,000 projects in the UK and around the world. Bubble Football - good exercise and a lot of fun - was thoroughly enjoyed by all who either had PE or ventured over to the astro at lunchtime to give it a go. As well as releasing some energy during assessment week, the PE department raised ÂŁ40 during the lunchtime session for Sports Relief.
RU G B Y TA K E S O F F AT K A A The KAA rugby enrichment had some very special guests visit on Monday 5th February. The students were extremely excited to welcome England Seven’s Charlie Hayter who delivered a very engaging training session. The session was well attended with students from years 7-10, some who attend the club every week, and others who just wanted to give it a go. It was clear from the smiles on their faces that they had a great time, both our students and the players. The rugby club at KAA is building in numbers quickly. On Monday 26th March our Year 7s played their first exhibition match against Burlington Danes Academy, (pictured below) and we look forward to many more competitive matches soon!
R E WA R D T R I P The PE department and 17 students from years 7 to 10 made their way to the prestigious Copper Box arena on the 13th March to watch a professional basketball match. London Lions are currently 7th in the league and they faced Bristol Flyers who are closely behind in 8th position. The game, however, was not close with London Lions dominating from the start to win 84-55.
14
Our very own Jeriel (10 Kidston) and Kyle (9 Matisse) got a call up at half time to take part in the shooting competition. Both students showed fantastic courage in taking a set shot in front of 300 people, but despite great effort they unfortunately both missed. Regardless, the KAA students cheered loudly for them in the crowd!
14
Year 10 boys meet Oxford & Cambridge rowing teams ahead of the annual boat race
SPORTS
R OW I N G N E W S
Our partnership with Fulham Reach Boat Club began in January with our year 10 students starting rowing lessons in their core PE lessons. Students have shown true Intrepidus going out on the water and giving it their all.
The annual boat race between crews from Oxford and Cambridge took place on Sunday 25th March, and ahead of the race a class of our Year 10 boys enjoyed a meet and greet with the rowing teams. On Monday 19th our Year 10 students had a question and answer session, followed by an indoor rowing session with members of the crew. It was certainly an inspiring afternoon hearing how the rowers have transferred lessons learnt in sport, such as resilience and perseverance, into their university studies. Sanaa continues KAA’s history of Indoor Rowing success with gold medal KAA rowers competed in two indoor competitions in the Spring term in January and March. In January our Year 8 boys won a bronze medal and Saana (7 Tambo) won gold for her age category. In March Saana triumphed again placing 22nd out of an massive 192 competitors - just 61 metres behind the winner. We look forward to our KAA rowers entering competitive races out on the water in the near future!
Follow KAA__PE on Twitter and Instagram to keep up with all the latest KAA sports news!
KAA’s first annual House Rowing competition The PE department are delighted to announce we will be holding our first ever House Rowing competition on Tuesday 17th July at Fulham Reach Boat Club. We are delighted that the rowing provision at KAA continues to grow and cannot wait to add this annual race to the house competition schedule.
15
Summer Term Parent Calendar Date Tuesday 17th April Thursday 26th April Monday 7th May Tuesday 8th May - Friday 11th May Thursday 10th May Monday 14th May - Friday 18th May Monday 14th May - Friday 29th June Monday 21st May - Friday 25th May Thursday 24th May
Event Sum1 term starts for all students Y8 Parent Progress Meetings 4.30pm - 7.30pm May Bank Holiday (school closed to students) Sum1 Revision Week Duke of Edinburgh Expedition Parent Evening 6.30pm - 7.30pm Sum1 Assessment Week AS & A2 Exams
Monday 28th May - Monday 4th June
Sum1 Review Week House Drama Final 8.45am - 9.40am End of Sum1 Rewards Celebration 2pm - 3pm Half Term (school closed to students)
Tuesday 5th June
Sum2 term starts for all students
Friday 25th May
th
Thursday 7 June Tuesday 12th June Thursday 14th June
Monday 18th June - Friday 22nd June Thursday 21st June Monday 25th June - Friday 6th July Monday 2nd July - Monday 16th July Wednesday 4th July Monday 9th July - Friday 13th July Tuesday 10th July Wednesday 11th July Thursday 12th July Thursday 12th July Tuesday 17th July Thursday 19th July Friday 20th July Monday 23rd July - Tuesday 4th September
Y10 Parent Progress Meetings 4.30pm - 7.30pm Y9 Parent Progress Meetings 4.30pm - 7.30pm Grenfell One Year Memorial (staff and students only)
Sum2 Revision Week Y7 Parent Progress Meetings 4.30pm - 7.30pm End of Year Exams Sixth Form Summer Art Exhibition Manilla Exhibition Space, 4 Maxilla Walk, London, W10 6NQ Y6 Parent Information Evening 6.30pm - 7.30pm Sum2 Review Week School Production - Little Shop of Horrors 6pm - 8pm School Production - Little Shop of Horrors 6pm - 8pm Sports Day - Linford Christie Stadium (students only) 8.45am - 3.45pm School Production - Little Shop of Horrors 6pm - 8pm House Rowing Race starts at 4.30pm Sports Award Evening 6.30pm - 8.30pm End of Year Awards Assembly 11am - 12.30pm Summer Holiday (school closed to students)
16