Quest6 Newsletter - Summer 2021

Newsletter

In this issue:

Summer 2021

1) How have our students thrived during a pandemic?

2) Year10 Sixth Form Experience 3) Sixth Form Food 4) Y12 Tutorial Programme 5) Sports Day 6) Sixth Form Y11 Induction and Transition 7) Y12 End of Year Examinations 8) Drama A Level Performances 9) Senior Prefects

Director of Sixth Form Mr. Sam Cox Our Y13s have worked tirelessly to complete examinations which will go towards their final grades. This year they have ended up completing more examinations than they would have had without a pandemic and sightly earlier than a normal June/July exams. This was to provide the teachers with enough time to mark all the evidence.

We are incredibly proud of how the Y13s have responded to three lockdowns during their sixth form experience and remained motivated, studious and resilient. I look forward to celebrating with the students on results day which is when we will find out exactly which higher education institutions each student will continue their academic journey at.

I’m eager to see the continued impact of the new personalised tutorial programme where we are upskilling Y12 to be ready for undergraduate level study, interviews, competitive careers and more. I was excited to meet all the external applicants as they join our internal Y11s at the induction and transition week. An opportunity for applicants to experience a week in the life of a sixth former is really important to make an informed decision about course selection and how to best prepare to hit the ground running in September.

I have been overwhelmed with the maturity and studiousness of the Y10s that all experienced two days as sixth formers.

The Y12s have shown the highest levels of resilience this year and I’m really enjoying working with them individually on their UCAS applications. Looking ahead at next year, I anticipate students continuing to receive fantastic offers for Universities and Apprenticeships as our Y13s did this year.

How have our students thrived during a pandemic?

Our Y12 students have experienced a turbulent Y11 and now Y12 due to the stay at home advice from the government whether this is the school closing its doors to many of the students for an extended period of time, or the periods of isolation following occasional positive cases. These students have not sat normal GCSE examinations and had missed a large chunk of their key stage four curriculum. They have then had a large portion of their sixth form curriculums taught remotely.

Despite this unparalleled academic journey over the last two years, our students have been extraordinarily resilient and have shown maturity well beyond their years. Teachers have praised how they have adapted expertly to remote learning and in turn students have praised how their teachers have demonstrated how invested they are in the progress they make. Google classroom has revolutionised the way students make strives forward in their understanding and learning. Marking is able to be done in more detail as recorded soundbites as well as comments throughout essays on the platform.

Students were able to work in real time on google docs during virtual lessons and teachers were able to see every students work simultaneously and offer real time feedback. Every PowerPoint, worksheet or resource is able to be sequenced for students to improve their pre-reading and post-consolidation of lessons. The ability to record lessons so students can listen back to them multiple times to build their understanding of the most challenging topics has been a real success of the platform.

Through technology, we are confident in the progress and development of skills our students have made this year but the biggest challenge this year has been raising the academic confidence of our students. In a recent survey our Y12s have found the pandemic has knocked their academic confidence and negatively effected their wellbeing and mental health. Combatting this has been our challenge this summer term. We began by designing a bespoke, personalised tutorial programme. Our pastoral care is a real strength of Quest6 with our fantastic tutor team, Quest6 administrator, careers lead and achievement coordinators. Our students experience, happiness and wellbeing is just as important to us as their academic journey and skill development. The Y12 examinations week at the start of July has been a real mental challenge to overcome for many of our students, especially as this is the first time they have had examinations in an exam hall. It has taken a lot of energy out of the students but its been vital. Now the students know that their revision strategies are successful and their hard work and resilience over the period of remote learning has paid off.

We are now looking to finish off this year with a well deserved BBQ. As we look forward to a year full of opportunity the students can reflect on how well they have done during a year of challenge, uncertainty and difficulty.

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Year10 Sixth Form Experience Our Y10 students have had a two day experience of life in the sixth form at the start of July. One of the biggest changes for the students has been the small class sizes which has led to really personalised lessons. It’s a very different learning environment with a teacher to student ratio allowing for the highest quality lessons.

The experience has led to students finding out about the sixth form subjects we offer and discovering if they would enjoy taking the subject at sixth form.

Before the experience the students ranked what they thought their top six subjects would be in the sixth form. After the experience some students would rank their top six subjects really differently.

found it very different experiencing a sixth form version of a subject they do at GCSE. Really eye opening for them to then make an informed decision as they start to decide on sixth form combinations. During the experience we put on careers sessions for a large proportion of students and these students found them really informative and have helped to formulate future pathways and add a real purpose to their academic journey.

The pictures show the flame tests Y10s did in their Chemistry experience, the tarts that were being made in the Food experience, the rat dissection and diabetes experiment that were conducted in the Biology experience.

Many of the sixth form subjects are not possible to take at GCSE, so this was a really good opportunity to find out more about these courses. Students also

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Sixth Form Food

Isaiah in Y10 produced these:

Food is an integral aspect of the sixth form. It features in the tutorial programme, enrichments, socials and as a National Level 3 BTEC course. During the Y10 sixth form experience and during the Y11 induction, food was one of our most popular courses.

Mrs Warson who is the head of faculty and the subject specialist for food said: “The Food lab was filled with a great buzz and excitement as students worked enthusiastically demonstrating their culinary skills in the making of Fruit Tart with home-made Pate Sucre Pastry, and a Crème Patisserie filling topped with piped double cream. Based on students’ level of enthusiasm and craftmanship, it was evident that some of them would do exceptionally well, having a career in the Food industry. I was really impressed with the high-quality Tarts that the students produced and look forward in welcoming the Y11s back into our food lab when they join us in September.”

Dominick in Y10 produced this:

On the Y10 sixth form experience, there were so many wonderful bakes. For example, Kadie and Muskan produced these:

Natasha in Y11 on induction produced these:

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Y12 Tutorial Programme As part of the school's Covid-safety measures, we have had adjustments to our usual daily timetable in place for most of the year to allow different year groups to arrive at and leave the school premises at different times. This has meant that, for much of the year, it has not been possible to have a daily tutor time. In the final half-term of the year, it was possible to re-introduce a daily tutor time for year 12. We wanted to ensure that this time was as meaningful, relevant, and impactful as possible so we invited all year 12 students to complete an online survey about their needs. Armed with this data, we put together a personalised tutor time plan for each student. On four mornings each week, students are assigned to small groups led by a member of the Quest6 team. On the remaining day there is a whole year group assembly, something else that has not been possible this year until now.

Every student has spent one day each week working on their university applications, supported by a member of staff with experience of the UCAS application process. The impact of this dedicated time has been clear: almost every student has completed the bulk of their application before the end of year 12. For the rest of the year, we will be supporting students in drafting their allimportant personal statements. Small supportive groups of students have worked with staff to focus on strategies for improving wellbeing and managing workload. Specific interventions have been put in place for students who needed support with their organisation after an extended period of remote learning; small study skills groups have allowed students to explore the most effective study techniques; and tutors have worked with students to develop their motivation, independence, leadership, and resilience. Students have also had the opportunity to take part in communications and oracy workshops, building up their confidence in public speaking while debating controversial issues. We are looking forward to building on the success of this innovative, customised and student-centred tutor time programme in the academic year ahead.

Student feedback: “Talking about the pressures I’ve been experiencing has helped me put them into perspective and make plans for dealing with them.”

“I was feeling behind but I didn’t know how to start to catch up. Sitting down to make a priority list helped me get started.”

In just one half term we have more highly motivated students and many less demotivated students following the pandemic.

Achievement Coordinator of Y13 Mr. Kurt Barragan

This year’s Year 13 students have had an unusual sixth form experience with prolonged periods of remote learning in both of their years in Quest6. It has been a privilege to support them as they have coped with unprecedented challenges and uncertainty. The maturity, resilience and character that they have all shown has been admirable.

One measure of their outstanding achievement has been that every student who applied to University has received an offer with over a third of applicants receiving an offer from one of the prestigious Russell Group Universities.

I congratulate each of them for their hard work and wish them well for the future.

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Q6 Administrator

Sports Day

Mrs. Philippa Robinson

Sports Day at The Quest Academy is split over two days and involves competitions in football, basketball and even dance. It also involves all the usual athletics events as well and is a great opportunity to compete within the house system. These two days decide which house wins the year and the majority of house points can be claimed over these two days. The sixth formers got the opportunity to develop their leadership skills and run events and referee games too.

Sixth formers beating the staff in the relay with Bethany handing over to George:

With the end of the academic year quickly approaching I have been really impressed by the dedication of some of our students who have utilised our facilities and their free time to engage in independent learning, group work and revision sessions, which has sometimes gone on till 6pm. In the last few months there has been a real shift in the attitudes of our students and the reality of year 13 quickly approaching, has enabled the current year 12’s to better organise and priorities their time to allow them to have a smooth transition into their final year.

In addition to this I have been working with a group of students, in a tailor made independent learning intervention over three weeks.

These students have all made massive improvements to the quality and quantity of their work. Devising a weekly study timetable has allowed these students to focus on the quality and effort put into each of their chosen subject choices. Better preparing them for their July mock exams.

Sadie Terrett who supported the dance competition and athletics events said: “It was so nice to see everyone come together and cheering each other on, especially after the tough few months of pressure we have all been put through. It was a nice experience for me to use management and organisation skills which can help me in the future.”

Jasmine Mwamba said: “I volunteered to help out in Netball for the morning of sports day. It was a great experience whereby I umpired, organised, and even took part in matches. I had the chance to see the young talent in years younger than me while improving my personal skills such as leadership and organisation. It was an overall enjoyable experience.”

We would like to say a huge thank you to all Quest 6 students, whom not only attended sports day but supported our sixth form students, while they supported lower school. Your support was so very appreciated by the students, especially seeing you there and cheering everyone on.

Everyone in Quest, particularly the sixth form team, can echo that they did a fantastic job. Lower school really look up to our sixth formers and aspire to be just like them, studying towards their goals and dreams in their chosen A Levels. Therefore it is very important for lower school to see sixth form students in all capacities that support the school and elevate their successes.

Our sixth formers were extremely efficient with timings of races, organising students and general solidarity by getting into the spirit of the events. Ms Blankson said “As their head of year, I can proudly say that they are born leaders and I am super proud of them!”

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Sixth Form Y11 Induction and Transition From the 5th-7th July, we put on a three-day induction and 60 students from The Quest Academy mixed with students from 14 other schools during the induction. These Y11 students will be part of our Y12 next year along with the students that couldn’t make it to the induction. During the three days students experienced 100 minutes of our tutorial programme which is a real strength of our sixth form. They also experienced a double lesson of up to six different subjects. The induction was finished off with dodgeball, zone volley-ball and a BBQ. The social sports was a real hit and we anticipate this continuing to be popular during the Wednesday enrichments alongside other enrichments like coding, gaming, debating and more.

The pictures show the sketchbooks being made in the art induction and to the right the maltose being made in the Biology induction.

We wish the students a really restful summer and we look forward to celebrating their results with them on results day. The induction students showed great maturity during the week, they will all be great assets to Quest6.

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Y12 End of Year Examinations The Y12 students have had a lot of their education this year disrupted and this has led to a lack of academic confidence. Our subject specialists have helped raise the students confidence through a range of innovative revision strategies. For example in History there has been some really impressive work produced during the lesson to help students visualise their knowledge and understanding of concepts taught.

Miss Pierson, one of our History specialists said: “As part of Year 12’s preparation for mocks, we created some revision activities to visually represent the changes and continuity in the Soviet Union 1917-1985 and the stability of the GDR. It was a great chance for students to work collaboratively, sharing knowledge and clearly identifying changes over time. The students really enjoyed this activity as it boosted their academic confidence and enabled them to see that they have learnt a lot.“

Mr Boundy, one of our History and Politics subject specialists said: “We are delighted that students critically engaged with these activities and understood the wider impact of these strategies in terms of analysis and evaluation.

All students need to understand what revision activities work best for them, and in this instance through visualisation we have seen students understanding of second order historical concepts. Well done, know that with application and effort you can succeed and activities like this will on see you develop further from strength to strength.”

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Achievement Coordinator of Y12

Drama A Level Performances Mr Russel who is the subject specialist for Drama said: “The Year 12 A-Level Drama & Theatre Students had their first taste of a real performance exam as they approach finishing 40% of the course before the end of the Summer Term. Over the past 5 months, Briony, Celesty, Sima & Tommy have been working on developing their own new piece of Theatre in response to a given stimuli. The text that they were using was ‘Normal’ Antony Neilson which explores the historical story of the The Düsseldorf Ripper and his journey of becoming a gruesome antihero. The team also had to use the style of Theatre Practitioner Antonin Artaud and his ideologies of the ‘Theatre of Cruelty’. The aim of which is to be cruel to the audience in various ways which should result in a cathartic release of self-realisation with graphic themes in todays society.”

Tommy Pace who is pictured in the right image below said: "Our A Level Drama Component 1 was a group performance with Sima Ipek, Briony Gater and Celesty Matuwidi. There were 5 or so characters, the Therapist, The Psychopath (Ember) , Lynn (Therapist's wife), the Voice inside the Psycho's head and the abusive dad, who was also played by me. The play is about the therapist falling in love with a Psycho, whose goal is to manipulate him into breaking her free from prison and killing his wife. He is struggling to choose between two sides of a coin - two opposites. He tries to hang on to his love for Lynn, but eventually succumbs to his feelings for Ember.

She then manipulates him in killing his wife, which results him in turning crazy. We created this play from scratch, and it was one

of the best things I have done, it was very enjoyable, and we worked incredibly hard to make it the best we can. It is truly something that I will remember for the rest of my life."

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Mrs. Blankson Although this academic year has been very challenging for Year 12, I am extremely proud of their resilience and motivation towards making the year a success. As a year group, Year 12 have truly embodied what it is to be a student at sixth form, working towards their aspirations and dreams. We have had a lot of successes throughout the year, particularly with academic achievements. Students have been awarded in every subject for a variety of reasons including top scorer for academic merits, superb piece of classwork or homework towards their qualifications and for being a model student in a variety of ways, setting an excellent example to their peers and indeed lower school. We have also had many success stories with Year 12 Work Experience, in which the majority were conducted virtually.

Students have completed successful sessions with huge name companies such as Allianz, Birchwood and Prestolites, to name a few. The feedback for all our students was sensational. Companies were extremely pleased with their work ethic, engagement, collaborative working and outcomes of presentations, campaigns, and projects. Overall, I am very proud of the achievements throughout Year 12, and I look forward to a very successful Year 13 transition.

Q6 Information •

Information video: Here

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Application Form: Here

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Quest6 Prospectus: Here

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Quest6 Supplementary Pack: Here

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Y11 Transition Work: Here

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Quest6 entrance criteria: Here

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Contact Quest6: Here

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Quest6 Newsletters: Here

Upcoming Dates: 26/07/21 Summer Holiday 10/08/21 Y13 Results Day 12/08/21 Y11 Results Day 07/09/21 Y12 Induction Day 08/09/21 Y13 return 14/09/21 Q6 BBQ

21/9/21 Open Evening 30/09/21 University Fair 04/10/21 Y13 Mocks Week #2 20/10/21 Thorpe Park Trip 17/11/21 Parent Evening 22/11/21 Y13 Mocks Week #3 26/11/21 Y12 Careers Trip 21/02/21 Y13 Mocks Week #4

Senior Prefects Our senior prefects have done a fantastic job during such a difficult year, we want to wish them all the best in the future for the next chapters of their academic journey. Please read about five of them below: Jawaad studied Biology, Mathematics and Physics and is now waiting for results day to find out which University he will be reading Physics at. He said: “One of the many privileges of studying A levels at this Sixth Form is being guided to study independently. The ability to discuss areas of weakness with teachers provides a diplomatic environment which makes it easy to progress. My advice to myself 2 years ago would be to make the most of the availability of teachers.”

Hannah studied English, Politics and Sociology and is looking forward to reading Journalism and Politics at University. She said: “At Quest6, I have become tenacious and organised with my learning. I would like to thank Ms Minns and Mr Boundy for pushing and stretching me to try harder in Sociology and Politics. The advice I would give myself 2 years ago is to consistently revise English literature to prevent being overwhelmed by mock exams. Overall I am happy that I was able to achieve in my A-levels as it has made be more focussed and consistent with achieving my goals.”

Mahamed studied Chemistry, History and Mathematics and is looking forward to reading Computer Science at University. He said: “I have learnt many skills at Quest6, such as CV witing and other career related skills. I would like to thank all my teachers, especially: Mr Boundy, Miss Pierson, Mrs Dean , Ms Joomun and Ms Saleem. My experience was very appreciated, as each day brought me something new to enjoy. What I liked the most was the time I had in the common room which I used both to revise and socialise.”

Nathanael studied French, Geography and Information Technology and is looking forward to reading Software Engineering at University. He said: “Studying at Quest6 has driven me to become more focused and dedicated to improving my work every day. The tireless effort from the teachers and the resources that the Quest6 team provides has motivated me to become more self-disciplined with my personal revision outside of the classroom. Also, Quest6 has created a friendly environment for me and regularly checks on students welfare to stop anything affecting their school performance.”

Yagmur studied Economics, Information Technology and Mathematics.

She is looking forward to reading Economics at University and said: “At Quest6, I went from knowing very little about Economics to wanting to study it in even more depth at University, all thanks to Mr Barnard. From his consistently great lessons to helping me improve my personal statement and giving me useful careers advice. I also want to thank Ms Joomun and Miss Saleem. Even though I struggled at the beginning of A Level Maths, they never gave up on me and helped me improve my grade drastically in two years, even with a pandemic going on.”

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