Intrepidus Magazine - Summer 2020

THE OFFICIAL KENSINGTON ALDRIDGE ACADEMY MAGAZINE

#17 SUMMER 2020

Our summer art exhibition goes virtual

KAA @ HOME

Year 10 & Year 12 return for Supplementary Sessions

In this issue of

CONTENTS Principal’s Welcome

1

KAA@Home

2

House Competitions

3

Intrepidus Badge Winners

4

Summer Art Exhibition

5-6

The “Lockdown Choir”

7

Grenfell Mosaic Workshops

8

KAA News

9

Creative Writing

10

Supplementary Sessions

11

Summer Stretch Project

12

Parent Calendar

Back page

Dear Parents & Carers, So, we arrive at the end of the 2019-2020 academic year and find ourselves in quite unusual circumstances. It has been a positive and productive year for so many students and in so many ways. However, it has also been an incredibly difficult and testing one in so many others.

Our students, staff and the wider community have had to contend with so much over the last few months. Along with the rest of the country, we found ourselves transitioning to a much more remote way of living. This has included online lessons - a new experience for both staff and students! All I can say is I’m in awe of the way students have responded to this. The speed with which they have adjusted to this way of working, and the way they have maintained the high standards of work they set for themselves, is impressive.

Testament to this can be found inside this magazine.

Despite working remotely, students have still held an art exhibition, recorded news broadcasts, competed in sports competitions, came together as a choir, as well as all the usual subject and form group collaboration. This is impressive and my thanks to all of the students and staff that have got involved in these events.

Since the government guidance was relaxed slightly, we have had Year 10 and Year 12 back in school for some face -to-face lessons (see page eleven). I know I speak for all staff when I say how wonderful it has been to see you! The remote work students have done has been impressive, but it is just no substitute for proper classroom discussion. My conversations with students tell me that you feel this too – making us even more excited about the return for all students in September.

It leaves me then, to wish everyone a very happy and healthy summer break. Please keep looking at the school website for any summer updates and we look forward to seeing you all very soon.

With best wishes,

David Benson Principal

On Friday 20th March, like every other school across the country, KAA had to close it doors due to the COVID-19 lockdown in the UK. On Monday 23rd March we launched KAA@Home lessons using Google Classroom on our KAA Online portal. The academy issued over 500 chromebooks to students who needed them in the first week, followed by over 40 Wifi internet dongles to support students in accessing their learning online.

Students showed incredible resilience and excellence attending Google Meet seminars and completing their Google Classroom lessons in order to continue their education during this difficult time.

Students completed 65,826 individual sessions on KAA@Home between 20 March and the end of the summer term. This included 585 individual active Google Classrooms, 23, 982 lessons posted by teachers, and 2,764 individual Google Meet seminars, virtual mentoring sessions, tutorials and form time meets.

Above: KAA@Home lessons via Google Classroom went live on Monday 23 March Below: In addition to the provision of timetabled lessons, students & staff have also participated in Year 6 & Year 12 induction day lessons and transition work, as well as the Anti -Racism lessons & podcasts made available in the Sum2.

In addition to these timetabled virtual lessons, students have competed in numerous interim house competitions, contributed to the virtual summer art exhibition, recorded new episodes of KAA News and created new choir performances to share with the school community. Without a doubt, our students have exhibited our core values of resilience, excellence, creativity and citizenship in the way they have dealt with the circumstances this term.

Whilst all of the staff at KAA are looking forward to seeing our students back at school in September, we are also very proud of the way our students have risen to the challenge of learning online for the latter half of this year.

Our thanks must also go to our fantastic IT department and committed teachers for the creation of our online school.

Last, but by no means least, a huge thank you to our parents for supporting us in the delivery of KAA@Home for the past four months.

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Since lockdown began, we sadly had to cancel three of our major house competitions: House Drama, House Debating and Sports Day. We are really looking forward to returning to school next academic year and being able to run some of our fantastic competitions again.

During the summer term, we’ve definitely missed the full programme of interim house competitions we would usually have running at school each week. However, staff have continued to run online competitions, which students have submitted entries for online.

The PE department’s “Lockdown Games” in the Summer 2 term saw students completing home sports challenges and submitting their scores on the tracker. Franklin stormed into a first place finish in this competition. Franklin also managed to take first place in the RE competition this term. The drama department challenged students to create a 2 minute video of extracts from their favourite films and compiling them together to create a video called “Lockdown Pictures presents…”. The winning entry was by Gabriel (8 Pinter) in Pankhurst house. Last but not least, the maths cipher competition saw a joint win with tied highest scores from Franklin & Angelou house.

Franklin topped the tables for overall points collected from House Competitions in the summer term.

Students also had an opportunity to continue collecting merits for their accomplishments on KAA@Home in the summer term. Again, Franklin smashed this and collected more points than any other house. However, it was Honeyball who topped the table for house points earned for Gold and Silver Merits!

The winners of this year’s House Cup were announced in our virtual End of Year assembly on Friday 17th July. A huge congratulations to FRANKLIN house for absolutely dominating this year’s competition and beating second placed Honeyball by a margin of 41,150 points.

This year Franklin collected an incredible 318,375 house points. Well done to Franklin staff and students, and of course Head of Franklin House, Miss Cockell.

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We can’t wait to start next year’s competition back at school in September!

The Intrepidus Badge is the highest accolade in the academy, awarded to just one boy and one girl in each year group at the end of each school year. Previous winners have included Yusra (12 Ibrahim) our current Deputy Head Girl, and Taif (11 Chaplin), who has since been elected this as the Deputy Youth Member of Parliament for RBKC. Students can be nominated for the award by any staff member, and Mr Benson then carefully selects the winners from this shortlist.

A huge well done to those chosen at this year’s winners (in the table on the right) for showing dedication to their academic studies and extra curricular activities, as well as being fantastic ambassadors for the school and role models for their year groups. As our End of Year assembly was a virtual one this year, our Intrepidus Badge winners will be given their badges when we return to school in September.

Award

Winner

Year 7 Girl

Indigo (7 Euler)

Year 7 Boy

Robel (7 Reason)

Year 8 Girl

Sina (8 Hansberry)

Year 8 Boy

Casper (8 Wertenbaker)

Year 9 Girl

Agape (9 Bonhoeffer)

Year 9 Boy

Mozamel (9 Hume)

Year 10 Girl

Rolyn (10 Lewis)

Year 10 Boy

Benny (10 Lewis)

Year 7

Year 8

Year 9

Year 10

Indigo (7 Euler)

Sina (8 Hansberry)

Agape (9 Bonhoeffer)

Rolyn (10 Lewis)

Robel (7 Reason)

Casper (8 Wertenbaker)

Mozamel (9 Hume)

Benny (10 Lewis)

Abdimajid (7 Lovelace)

D’Jordelle (8 Parker)

Zackie (9 Carter)

Tyiem (10 Farah)

Pol (7 Reason)

Paige (8 Beckett)

Jouad (9 Tatchell)

Alex (10 Moore)

Katie (9 Jones)

Salma (10 Radcliffe)

Gabrielle (7 Fibonacci) Olivia (7 Gauss) Ella (7 Turing) Eden (7 Lovelace)

Manar (10 Moore)

INTREPIDUS BADGE WINNERS

During our virtual End of Year celebrations, which students and parents can watch on KAA@Home from today, we announced our 2020 Intrepidus Badge winners.

Anna (7 Mirzakhani) Aya (7 Fermat) Salma (7 Turing)

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PERFORMING & CREATIVE ARTS

A r t D e p ar t m e n t H o s t S u m m e r E x h i b i t i o n

In response to the lockdown, the Art Department decided to host our annual summer exhibition online.

In May, the art department invited students, staff and members of the community to reflect upon this time and create artworks that represented their own or a collective experience.

In addition to the wonderful submissions we received for This Time in Lockdown, the online gallery also showcases work by our students from this academic year, including Year 11 GCSE pieces, artwork created with artists from the Mosaic rooms, and other student work.

By Ariana (7 Fibonacci), Student

The following pages showcase just a small selection of the work in the full summer exhibition, which you can visit by visiting https:// sites.google.com/kaa.org.uk/ kaasummerexhibition2020.

Thank you to Miss John, Miss Marks, Miss Armon and Miss Savaskan for their work creating the online gallery.

By Rayne (8 Parker), Student

The artwork on this page is a collection of pieces in response to “This Time in Lockdown�

By Anonymous

By Nina Billard, Community Member

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By Tom Hill, Community Member

By Mia (11 Nijinsky), Student

The artwork on this page is a selection of work from our Year 11 GCSE art class

By Suely (11 Chaplin), Student

PERFORMING & CREATIVE ARTS

By Shanai (11 Matisse), Student

By Ayo (11 Lennon), Student

By Reece (11 Baker), Student

By Tariq (11 Lennon), Student

By Hani (11 Matisse), Student

By Zoe (11 Chaplin), Student

By Aya (11 Fitzgerald), Student

By Lasian (11 Chaplin), Student

By Tanisha (11 Nijinsky), Student

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PERFORMING & CREATIVE ARTS

By Miss Cockell Despite the obvious challenges presented by working from home, and the inability to perform in musical ensembles as usual, KAA Choir and Upper Voices continue to thrive through lockdown.

Both ensembles have rehearsed once a week via Google Meet since the start of lockdown, and we’ve even welcomed some new members.

However, there are certainly several challenges that we have overcome, including singing in unison ‘When Will My Life Return?’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA0lyPN2a4M&t=1690s despite internet delays, managing microphone etiquette, setting up backing tracks and practising warm ups from our living rooms, much to the chagrin of our neighbours!

Once we became familiar with the routines of online rehearsals, and following the success of many a YouTube viral video from other choirs and ensembles, we decided to set ourselves the ultimate challenge of making a remote choir recording and video. We selected the song ‘When Will My Life Begin?’ from the Disney animated film Tangled, and updated the lyrics to reflect our current situation, changing the title to ‘When Will My Life Return?’

‘Something Inside So Strong’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9me_QQC-ro0

The process for making recordings is anything but straightforward. Firstly, students learn the song in their online rehearsals. I then create a guide vocal and backing track for them to practise with. Then, students record themselves singing and email this to me. Using the music software Logic Pro, I combine these recordings and make sure that they are in time with each other to create a virtual choir. After editing, students record video clips of themselves performing their parts. These are superimposed over the recording and synced up to create a proper music video.

Since the success of ‘When Will My Life Return?’, the KAA Lockdown Choir (as we are now called) has continued to create virtual recordings, including a performance of ‘Something Inside So Strong’ by Labi Siffre to mark the third anniversary of the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

Most recently, we have worked on a performance of ‘Mr Blue Sky’ by the Electric Light Orchestra for the KAA end of year assembly video. We very much look forward to performing these songs together in person at the earliest opportunity!

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Subscribe to KAA Video on YouTube to catch the latest KAA choir videos. Full videos of all performances are available now!

‘Mr Blue Sky’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz-EAkXnGhI

Earlier this year, KAA were invited to create a leaf to add to the mosaic. Due to the school closure because of COVID-19, we were unable to take part in the project when originally intended in the Spring term. On Thursday 9th and Friday 10th July students and staff were invited to participate in outdoor mosaic sessions in front of the academy to create a leaf. The leaf was completed across one a half days and will now be grouted ahead of installation with the community mosaic on Monday 14th September.

Our thanks to Miss John and Emily Fuller for running the workshops with our students. It was lovely to see students engaged in practical art workshops after so long at home during lockdown.

PERFORMING & CREATIVE ARTS

The Grenfell Memorial Community Mosaic is an ever-growing installation situated at the base of Grenfell Tower and led by ACAVA in partnership with Al Manaar Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre.

Each month a different community or faith group, who were instrumental in supporting local people following the aftermath of Grenfell Tower fire, work with ACAVA artist Emily Fuller and local artist Tomomi Yoshida to create a new section to add to the artwork.

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KAA NEWS

Subscribe to KAA Video on YouTube to catch the latest KAA News Videos. Full videos of all episodes available now!

KAA News launched as an enrichment this academic year, thanks to a grant from the KAA Intrepidus Trust allowing us to purchase filming equipment for the news team.

As our young journalists and camera crew gained confidence across the Autumn and Spring term, KAA News went from strength to strength. As lockdown began in the final weeks of the Spring term, the KAA News team continued to create half termly episodes packed full of the latest KAA and world news.

In the Sum1 term, young reporter Ella (7 Turing) interviewed the Deputy Leader of RBKC council, Cllr Kim Taylor-Smith, for episode five. The pair discussed the environmental impact of the lockdown, ways of keeping active during isolation, and how to get involved in politics. The episode also included the debut performance by KAA’s “Lockdown Choir”.

RBKC Deputy Leader Cllr Kim Taylor-Smith being interviewed by Ella (7 Turing) in Episode 5

The latest episode of KAA news (just released this afternoon as we go to press!) includes discussion of global news, including the Black Lives Matter movement, and advice from previous Intrepidus Badge winners on how to get nominated for the prestigious award.

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We can’t wait to see what our young journalists cover in the next episodes next academic year as the club continues to grow!

Mr Abubaker speaking to the KAA News team in episode 6 about the development of an Anti-Racist curriculum

CREATIVE WRITING

In partnership with First Story, during the Spring term students worked with author Adam Kammerling to create an anthology of work published in a book this summer.

First Story is an organisation working towards a society that encourages and supports young people from all backgrounds to write creatively, for pleasure and agency. First Story’s flagship programme places professional writers into schools, where they work intensively with students and teachers to develop confidence and ability. They believe there is dignity and power in being able to tell your own story, and that writing can transform lives.

Bragging Rights & Noise Complaints is an anthology of new writing by students who took part in creative-writing workshops led by First Story’s writer-in -residence Adam Kammerling.

Copies of the anthology will be available in the school library!

Foreword by Miss Duncan When I think of what First Story meant to me and the participants, I think of the students slowly coming out of their shells, growing in confidence and enthusiasm. Each week, when asked whether they wanted to share their wild and wacky creations, more and more hands shot up, and the sessions would lengthen until we were practically chasing students out of the room! The pride that students had in their work when we came round to the process of editing was obvious, and the way in which everyone worked together to create the title and front cover was exemplary.

The range of topics in the anthology is testament to the students’ ability to embrace any task with enthusiasm and an open mind, and it has been fascinating getting to know some of their interests and passions. These young writers should be very proud of their work and I hope they can continue bragging for many years to come!

Our thanks to Adam Kammerling and Ms Duncan for running these sessions and getting our budding authors published!

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AT SCHOOL SESSIONS

Whilst KAA has remained open throughout the lockdown to vulnerable students and children of keyworkers, on 15 June we were delighted to welcome back our Year 10 and Year 12 students for supplementary sessions with their teachers.

For Year 12 students, this involved seminars for all of their subjects in the COVID-secure teaching spaces created in the theatre and sports hall (top right). For Year 10, students were grouped into COVID-secure “bubbles” and visited school once or twice a week for a series of Maths, English and Science supplementary sessions in social distanced classrooms (pictured bottom right).

KAA@Home lessons continued alongside these sessions, but they provided us with an important opportunity for teachers to assess learning completed at home and adapt the remaining KAA@Home lessons to our students’ needs. In the final weeks of term, all year groups completed their usual End of Year assessments via KAA@Home and parents will receive their usual End of Year parent report shortly.

By Miss Cockell On Wednesday 6th May students attending the Contingency School were treated to a virtual music workshop by member of the BBC Singers, Ed Price.

This workshop, part of BBC's Connecting the Dots scheme, took place via Zoom, with students forming a socially-distanced audience in the KS3 library. Ed delivered a 20-minute workshop focusing on ‘rhythm’.

Students participated in interactive clapping activities to become familiar with rhythm and pulse before learning a piece of music based on body percussion. Ed then told students about his career in choral music and we were able to ask questions, including ‘did you know that you always wanted to be a singer?’ (Levi), ‘what is your favourite piece to perform?’ (Miss Cockell) and ‘have you met the Queen?’ (Tristan).

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Overall, the workshop gave students the opportunity to meet a professional musician in a novel setting and start their morning with some active music-making.

All around us in the world is beauty, something we likely appreciate even more in 2020 as we have a chance to start rediscovering it. For millennia, people have recorded their love of the world in music and in art… and in recent years we have developed a new way of discovering and connecting with the world using computers. And one thing that links all of these things, whether we are aware of it or not, is mathematics. For your summer stretch project, we would like you to consider the wonderful world in any way in which you like, but particularly looking at the way that mathematics exists in art, music or computer science.

Art Ideas  

Your stretch project could be some research, it could be a piece of art inspired by the ideas in the stretch project brief, it could be a song or a piece of music; a piece of coding; or it could be anything that inspires you about the “world of wonder” that is brought to you by all the different subjects you study at KAA.

   

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Projects are due by Friday 4th September. Good projects will be awarded Silver Merits, with the very best receiving Gold Merits. A great way to start the new academic year!



If you have any questions about your project, email Mr Edwards at n.edwards@kaa.org.uk.

Music Ideas How are fractions and music related?

 



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What did Pythagoras discover about the frequency of notes in the musical scale? How did this mathematician help shape music?

Research Fibonacci and his sequence. Watch these videos to see how Fibonacci’s sequence can be encoded into music either melodically or rhythmically. https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGJeGOw8TzQ & https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOMLRMfIYf0 Can you come up with your own composition using Fibonacci to help?

SUMMER STRETCH PROJECT

The summer stretch project this year is brought to you from the Maths, Art, Music and Computer Science departments and is called “A World of Wonder”…

Check out some mathematical art websites, e.g https://mathmunch.org/math-art-tools/ Produce your own explaining what symmetry you can see in your art work.

Explore who Fibonacci was - what was his sequence?

How can it be used to produce art?

Create a piece of Fibonacci art Research into M C Escher. Compile some of his work together and describe how it can be seen as mathematical.

How are colours represented using RGB colour charts? What can you find out about them?

Work your way through this set of 3 lessons on colour pixellation to see how numbers can code images: https://studio.code.org/s/pixelation/ stage/3/puzzle/3

Computer Science Ideas    

What is binary? How can we use it in a digital world?

Try this game - https://games.penjee.com/binarynumbers-game/ - How high can you score?

What is a Caesar Cypher?

Create some instructions and some coded messages - https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/ computer-science/cryptography/crypt/v/caesarcipher

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Autumn Term Parent Calendar Date Monday 20th - Friday 24th July Monday 27th - Friday 31st July Monday 27th - Friday 31st July Monday 3rd - Friday 7th August Wednesday 22nd July - Tuesday 11th August Thursday 13th August Thursday 20th August Thursday 27th August Friday 28th August Monday 31st August Tuesday 1st - Wednesday 2nd September Thursday 3rd September Friday 4th September

Time All week All week All week All week Varies 8.30am - 4pm 8.30am - 4pm All day All day All day All day

Event Art & PE Summer Camp KS3 Mental Health & Wellbeing Summer Camp Performing Arts Summer Camp Year 6 Literacy & Numeracy Booster Camp Y10 & Y12 Foundation Teaching Sessions - advertised directly to students in relevant subjects A Level Results Day GCSE Results Day & Sixth Form Enrolment Staff Planning Day (school closed to students) New Staff Training Day (school closed to students) Bank Holiday (school closed to staff & students) Staff Training Days (school closed to students)

All day All day

Monday 7th September Friday 18th September Thursday 24th September

All day 9am - 12pm 5pm - 8pm

Tuesday 13th October

5pm - 8pm

Monday 19th - Friday 1st November Friday 1st November Monday 2nd November Friday 11th December Friday 18th December Monday 21st December Friday 1st January Monday 4th January

All fortnight

Year 7 & Year 12 Induction Day Year 7, Year 8, Year 11, Year 12, Year 13 at school All students return to school Year 7 & Year 12 Photograph Day Year 6 Open Evening (subject to government guidance) Sixth Form Open Evening (subject to government guidance) Half term holiday (school closed to students)

All day All day All day All day All fortnight

Staff Planning Day (school closed to students) Autumn 2 term begins for all students Staff Training Day (school closed to students) End of Autumn Term (half day for students) School Holiday (school closed to students)

All day

Tuesday 5th January

All day

Staff Training Day (school closed to students unless invited to intervention) Spring 1 term begins for all students

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