TheCityTimes February 2014
@cityacademynews
www.thecityacademy.org
Key Stage 4 book review Aaron Owusu, 10 LGL This term our Key Stage 4 students have been writing book reviews of the books they have chosen to read. Year 10 student, Aaron Owusu, reviews his chosen book, Animal Farm by George Orwell:
Read all about it
George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm is based around the Russian Revolution, and demonstrates the dilemmas a country encounters when controlled by an incompetent dictator. The allegorical novel begins with Old Major, a matured pig, giving a speech to the farm animals. During this thought-provoking speech he talks about a dream he had where all animals are equal, and how he believes that the animals should strive for rebellion against the human race. He ends his speech with ‘Beast of England’, a song intended to motivate and persuade all the animals to overthrow the humans...
An audience with Chris Bradford, author This half term, The City Times focuses on reading as we look ahead to World Book Day on Thursday 6 March with a series of literature-related articles including a book review and our students’ top 10 books, but first... Every term, our library invites an author to visit the academy and talk to our students about their work, their writing, their inspiration. This term the visit was a little more action packed.
For his new Bodyguard series, Chris embarked on an intensive close protection course to become a qualified professional bodyguard. With this in mind, Chris guided our year 7 students through a passage from one of his books, interjecting with combat training, bodyguard techniques and he even found time to chop a paper ninja in two with his samurai sword, bravely held by Melissa and Stanley.
... I recommend this novel to anyone who has a passion for learning about the past, and would also like to develop their vocabulary at the same time...
Enter self-proclaimed “method- For more information visit, www. writer” Chris Bradford. For his chrisbradford.co.uk award-winning Young Samurai series, he trained in iaido (samurai swordmanship), karate, ninjutsu and earned his black belt in Zen Kyu Shin Taijutsu.
To read Aaron’s review in full and for more of our Key Stage 4 students’ book reviews visit the award winning, student-led blog sharpmag.wordpress.com.
Top 10 books of 2013 Literacy Every student knows that spending time reading is an important part of life at the academy, and every student knows that this half term they should have achieved 50% of their Accelerated Reader target, but what books are our students reading? Series are clearly very popular; five of the top 10 have prequels and sequels including the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series that tops our chart for 2013. Also featuring in our top 10: The Dirty South by Alex Wheatle who visited the academy, and actor David Walliams’ The Boy in the Dress. Number of loans (Jan ‘12 - Jan ‘13)
59
42
41
38
36
35
34
33
32
30
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The City Academy, Hackney Values and Success
Half term highlights
Food tasting
Our newly-appointed Head Boy, William Bradford, and Head Girl, Amani Banemeck were invited by Lord Mayor Fiona Woolf to attend a banquet at the Mansion House. Mayor of London, and guest speaker for the evening, Boris Johnson met with our students as well as students from the two other City of London academies in the capital.
Members of our Student Council joined food critic - and Master Chef judge - Charles Campion for a food tasting; trying new dishes for our canteen menu. Chefs from our catering provider, Pabulum, were on hand to explain how their recipes are nutritious, healthy and tasty too.
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Tutor group of the week
13 Jan Week 17
Aldgate P 463
60
20 Jan Week 18
27 Jan Week 19
Newgate G 780
Newgate G 338
72
82
03 Feb Week 20
YO
10 Feb Week 21
U
ARE H
Half term Week 21
Moorgate L 839
76
Top merit winners
Merits
Newgate M 178
February
E ER
January 06 Jan Week 16
Our students teamed up with students from Bethnal Green Academy to present a series of short drama and physical theatre performances exploring diversity and inclusion, reflecting the experiences of our students growing up in London. Well done to all the students and staff for what will hopefully be the first of many shows as part of this project.
A group of 70 lucky students and staff will be heading to the Italian Alps this half term for our first ever ski trip. Photos coming soon.
Zip It!
Ski trip
Mansion House
Friday 14 February - Sella Nevea, Italy
It has been a very busy start to 2014 at The City Academy, Hackney. We have appointed a new Student Council, conducted admission interviews for our Sixth Form - opening this September - and hosted a typically broad range of events including drama productions and parent taster classes. As always, we also like to celebrate our students’ achievements by highlighting our top merit winners and readers from each week of the past half term.
Discover Young Hackney Throughout February Vasviye Topril
Austin
Onwuzuruoha
Christina Ulus
Tomisin Oyedoyin
Vasviye Topril
Kalila Hickson
Charmaine Nyarkoh
Key: Ludgate Newgate
Tomisin Oyedoyin
Aldgate Moorgate
Wendy Zeta
Accelerated Reader
Sam Kilwin
Hackney’s youth arts festival returns this year with a whole month of events including the Alter Ego competition featuring our talented band, Young Brasscals (see right). Looking for something to do or try this half term? Visit, www. discoveryounghackney.com for a full list of events including dance classes, industry insider workshops and film screenings.
TheCityTimes February 2014
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Key dates for the half term ahead
Student Council
Next half term we begin with a Parent Day and Consultation Week at which our Parent Staff Association will be selling second hand uniform. The PSA will also be hosting an education discussion evening and we look forward to World Book Day on Thursday 6 March.
Our newly-elected Student Council attend their first meeting at the offices of our joint sponsor, KPMG. Minutes are available online.
Year 7/8 Parent Day Monday 24 February
We begin the half term with a Parent Day for year 7/8 students and parents. Similar to our Parent Day for year 11 at the start of the calendar year, parents are invited to attend one of four sessions between 12.30 and 8 p.m. The PSA will also be selling second hand uniform.
9/10 Consultation Week Tues 25 & Wed 26 February
The first week is also Consultation Week for all year 9/10 students and parents. There will be no Additional Studies this week.
Staff training evening Wednesday 12 March
There will be no Additional Studies classes after school on Wednesday 12 March due to a staff training event; both libraries will also be closed.
March
40 students from years 7, 8 and 9 will be braving the elements as they travel to Wales for our annual Outward Bound trip. Fingers crossed it’s not too wet and windy. Have fun in the great outdoors!
Key Stage 3 residential
Week commencing Monday 24 February
24 Feb Week 22
03 Mar Week 23
April 10 Mar Week 24
17 Mar Week 25
24 Mar Week 26
31 Mar Week 27
Half term Week 21
Creative
Currency: the value of the arts in education.
World Book Day
Education Cafe
To celebrate World Book Day and share their love of reading, our teachers have volunteered to read a book from our library over the half term holiday and take an Accelerated Reader quiz on their return.
On Wednesday 19 March students, parents, staff and the wider community are invited to attend a discussion evening about the value of the expressive arts in education.
Thursday 6 March
Our Subject Leader English, Mr. McGuigan is reading Cannery Row by John Steinbeck and our Learning Resources Manager, Ms Towers is reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Find out more at: www.worldbookday.com
Wednesday 19 March, 5.30 p.m.
The PSA welcomes all parents to attend but would particularly like to hear from parents/carers who work in the creative industries: artists, actors, screenwriters, musicians, dancers etc. How did your education influence your career? Did you have an inspirational teacher? Were creative subjects undervalued? Are they still? See overleaf for more information.
Young Brasscals
The busy gigging schedule of our talented senior band, @YoungBrasscals, continued into 2014 with performances at the Mansion House before taking third place in the Alter Ego talent competition at Hackney Empire - part of Discover Young Hackney 2014.
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The City Academy, Hackney Values and Success
Our website www.thecityacademy.org What’s new? This half term we have updated some content and added some new pages too, including: Our academy - now features new statutory information about the Pupil Premium Grant, our Value for Money statement, and a year-byyear break down of our curriculum, i.e. how many hours of each subject are taught per week.
Sports News
The Sixth Form section is now live, including course guides, admissions criteria and details of how to apply. Our Students section has now been updated with our latest GCSE Options Guide and our newly elected Student Council members.
Cross Country Challenge Every year, come rain or shine, our students run our Cross Country Challenge, raising money for Sport Relief; a two kilometre circuit of the blustery Mabley Green. All told, our students and staff should cover some 1800km, more than 1000 miles. During their PE lessons throughout Sport and Health Week at the academy, all five year groups take it in turns to complete the course, competing for the top spot on the leaderboard and raising money through sponsorship at the same time.
Despite the less than favourable weather at this time of year, a number of our teachers also braved the cold and ran with our oldest students during the last lesson of the week. Ms Allen, Mr. Singh, and Mr. Duckworth were all keen to post the best, yet unofficial, staff lap time. So far our students have raised more than £1500 but it’s not too late to help us support a great cause by donating however much you can afford. You can donate online at: justgiving.com/cityacademy or text ‘TCAH50 £1’ to 70070.
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Boy
Girl
Arlow Ross
Melissa Buitrago-Vargas
08.18
09.13
8
Jardel Jones 07.47
Saharah Mendes 09.41
9
Kowiyu Tijani 07.39
Nayole Chaves 08.45
10
Ashley Leonard 08.09
Anele Komani 10.27
11
Joel Belcher 07.29
Maisie Cook 09.35
Parent Staff Association Parents/Carers sorting and cleaning all the donations and lost property. The next sale will take place during Year 7/8 Parent As discussed at our last Parent Staff Day on Monday 24 February. Assocation (PSA) meeting, our team of committed parents have Parent Taster Class supported the academy in a number of ways this past year. Thank you to Ms Ashton and Ms Sims from the MFL department Although the PSA is not primarily a who hosted our Subject Evening fundraising group - it’s main aim is taster class for parents. The hourto improve communication between long lesson was very enjoyable even parents and the school - we have though we had to line up in silence! run a couple of cake sales during the intervals of various music and drama Education Cafe productions, and hosted our annual International Food Evening. Our next event is our annual discussion evening, the Education Second hand uniform shop Cafe. The theme for this year is Creative Currency: the value of the Our second hand uniform shop is expressive arts in education. Guest going great. Thank you to Rose and speakers include Beth Schneider, Giovanna for all their hard work Head of Learning at the Royal
Stephen Webster, Chair of the PSA
Minutes from PSA meetings are published in the Parents section.
Twitter @CityAcademyNews
Donate at: www.justgiving.com/cityacademy or text ‘TCAH50 £1’ to 70070. @sportrelief #fundraising4sr The academy has its own Twitter account, posting updates including photos from trips, event reminders and job vacancies.
Flickr Academy, and David Cotterrell, parent and Professor of Fine Art at Sheffield University. There will also be music and drama performances and all students, parents and staff are welcome to attend and join in the debate.
Flickr.com/TCAH
Minutes from all our meetings and details of upcoming PSA events can all be found in the Parents section of the academy website.
The City Academy, Hackney is sponsored by KPMG and the City of London Corporation. The City Academy, Hackney is a registered company. Registered in England No. 6382192 Registered office: The City Academy, Hackney, London, E9 6EA. Registered with the Charity Commission in England and Wales. Charity No. 1121963
The last issue of The City Times had already gone to print, so visit our Flickr page to see some photos from our Christmas Concert at the end of last term. Visit our Flickr page for more photos from a range of lessons, events, trips, concerts and sports fixtures.