Courageous Hound DAYS ALL OF BOLINGBROKE ACADEMY WOULD LIKE TO WISH OUR YEAR 11S ALL THE VERY BEST OF LUCK IN THE GCSE EXAMS, WHICH BEGIN MOND AY.

Transcription

1 Volume. 5 Issue. 15 Friday 12th May Dear Parents / Carers and Friends of Bolingbroke, The sun was shining and the grounds were a hive of activity. Thank you to the enormous number of volunteers who enabled our 4 th Spring Fair to be our best yet. Thank you to Patti Gnoato and her team for raising a significant sum for our children s resources and mini bus funding. As we approach our first written GCSE examinations on Monday I would like to say well done and all the best to all our Year 11 pupils who are studying extremely hard for the examination period. Our Year 11 deserves so much success. We are so proud of them and how they will excel this summer. Examinations are only one part of every child's education and as you can see from another bumper issue, so are all the opportunities your child can enjoy and experience; from Duke of Edinburgh activities, spelling bee competitions, our first Year 7 & 8 production Blood Brothers to university preparation, work experience and athletics championsh ip s with a speci al congratulations to Amir Sultan-Edwards fastest in the country! I feel exhausted thinking about it all, but it is all possible because of our amazing staff at Bolingbroke Academy. I wish you all a wonderful weekend, Ms Edis Principal GCSE EXAMS COUNTDOWN 3 DAYS ALL OF BOLINGBROKE ACADEMY WOULD LIKE TO WISH OUR YEAR 11S ALL THE VERY BEST OF LUCK IN THE GCSE EXAMS, WHICH BEGIN MOND AY. 1

2 Dear All, SPRING FAIR - 6 MAY 2017 A huge thank you to everyone who made the fourth Bolingbroke Academy Spring Fair such a great success. Funds raised including Sponsorship from Rochford Stokes totalled 9, (expenses to be deducted) - a fantastic result! Our main sponsors Rochford Stokes were ever supportive both financially and by their physical presence (with lots of red balloons!) From the Friday night through to the start of the Fair the Academy was a whirl of action with Parents, Carers, Staff and Pupils helping to set up and get involved on the day. It was particularly nice to see the staff presence whether it was selling 3D art, making (very) gory and realistic wounds, or manning some of the sports related activities. A big thank you to Mr. Constantine who one minute was setting up the karaoke, the next finding more tables and then fixing a leak - all with a smile on his face! The food on offer gets better and better every year with many countries represented and showing the rich diversity of our school community: Ecuadorian, Lebanese, Italian and Indian food as well as Cakes, Hotdogs, Popcorn, Healthy Juices and Candyfloss all making an appearance. Well done to all the Competition Winners: Nia Dale created a wonderful picture that won the Poster competition and graced the Rochford Stokes Boards. Winner of the Cake Competition was Eva Burnett (Year 10) who made the most amazing Rainbow Cake I have ever seen. Apparently, it tasted yummy too! The defending Champions from 2016 won the Table Tennis Competition Freddy Birkett and Kapinga Bellamy. The Raffle was tremendously well supported; a big thank you to all our sponsors (who are far too many to mention as we had over 50 prizes but were listed on the map.) First prize went to Keith Martin, second to Ben Burnett and third prize to Anita Grant. 2

3 SPRING FAIR - 6 MAY 2017 A few specific people to thank: Oddono's Icecreams are unwavering in their support of school events. Honeywell and Belleville Schools for helping us out with various pieces of equipment. Open Air Fit - Thank you to Melvyn Capleton for giving up his time and doing a sterling job at Penalty Shoot-out. The Finance Team at the Academy Facilities at the Academy Martin Smith for keeping the tunes going all afternoon. A special thank you to the energetic Patrizia Gnoato for her unswerving dedication and hard work in organising the Fair and ensuring it was yet again a success and to Dawn Evans and her team for organising the finance and staying up late counting all the proceeds. I would like to thank all members of the Parent's Association including those Committee Members not yet mentioned (Katy Kinch, Sandra Janssens and Stanislas Faure) as well as the wider parent/carer pool for all their hard work and for making it such a memorable day. I have had many comments from parents and local residents saying what a great event it was and remarking on the lovely atmosphere. It was truly wonderful to see a mix of people from parents through to local MPs and neighbours/residents turning up on the day. Thank you again and see you all next year at the Fifth Bolingbroke Academy Spring Fair! Justine Aspey Parent Governor/Chair of the Parent's Association 3

4 DUKE OF EDINBURGH ROWING Ms Orchin Each Friday, a group of Year 8 students venture to Barn Elms Boat Club on the River Thames to learn to row. They receive excellent coaching from London Youth Rowing every week and are improving rapidly. Recent weeks have seen Florence rowing in a single scull (without falling in!) and the others making it all the way from Putney to Hammersmith Bridge and back. There is so much enthusiasm, resilience and determination in this group - they're a credit to themselves and to the school when representing us on the river. Well done rowers! 7 BELL RECEIVE A FLYING VISIT FROM BRITISH AIRWAYS PILOT 7 Bell were joined by assembly guest speaker, British Airways First Officer James van der Hoorn. It was an exciting lesson for 7 Bell, as their regular Friday Geography lesson was suspended, and they were instead invited to a Q&A with a record breaking pilot! Year 7 had the opportunity to ask James any question they may have ever had about travel and flying planes, and they certainly made the most of it. They listened intently as James answered their questions for an hour, and topics ranged from the recent United Airlines scandal, to questions about how Captain Sully managed to land his aircraft on the Hudson River. First Officer James was incredibly impressed at the variety of inquisitive questions, such as What was the worst flight you have ever had? to Is it true that the captain and the first officer cannot eat the same food? Bella Grimsey discovered that this rule used to be true, but with excellent food hygiene now it is not the case anymore. James was particularly impressed with Freddy Birkett s question regarding the risk of radiation from flying, which put some of Ms Austin s questions to shame! 4

5 BOLINGBROKE SPELLING BEE Ms Green Last Friday was the Grand Final of the Bolingbroke Spelling Bee All pupils across the school participated in a spelling bee in their civitas group in round 1, completing both a written and verbal test to find their civitas representative for their house assembly. In round 2, each civitas representative was entered in to a sudden death round where one wrong spelling meant they were eliminated from the competition. Intellect counted more than age with Year 7s Mabel Shepherd and Scarlett Coote-Sandling demonstrating excellent spelling skills as the youngest competitors, with Scarlett becoming the Erskine Key Stage champion and going on to represent her house in the whole school assembly. In the final, Erskine were represented by Salma Awale and Scarlett Coote-Sandling, Smyth were represented by Charlie Colson and Destinee Sinclair, Klein were represented by Alexa Scutt-Thomson and Nia Dale, and Verbiest were represented by Glen Trevis and Hettie Shepherd. Nia Dale was the last Key Stage 3 pupil to survive before leaving the final two - Charlie and Alexa - to battle it out for the title. Alexa was crowned winner after successfully spelling 'quarantine', which Charlie had faltered upon. She was the happy recipient of a pair of Beats headphones donated by a previous assembly speaker, Paul Crisp, regional sales director for EE. All the competitors lived up to their Be Bold values by showing such bravery and determination in competing in such a nerve wracking situation in front of the entire school. Well done to all our competitors! NOTICES PARENT VOLUNTEERS REQUIRED! The Humanities department are taking 85 Year 7 pupils to Rochester on Thursday 25 th May and we need some volunteers to help on the trip. If you are a Year 7 parent and you would like to volunteer, please contact Ms Oliver e.oliver@arkbolingbrokeacademy.org by Tuesday 16 th May We will be leaving school at 7.45am on Thursday and returning at approximately 5pm. YEAR 11 BREAKFAST Breakfast will be available to all Year 11 Pupils during the GCSE exam period. It will be served in the Dining Hall from am. ACADEMY PHOTO POSTPONED Unfortunately due to the weather conditions this morning the whole Academy photo has had to be postponed until a later date. New rearranged date TBC. YEAR 8 GIRLS IMMUNISATIONS The second HPV immunisations will be taking place on Tuesday 16th May. If you are concerned about your child missing out, a catch-up session may be held at a later date. 5

6 PROMOTING POTENTIAL PROGRAMME AT LSE The programme aims to stimulate interest in the social sciences as well as encourage excitement and debate, support formal and informal learning and reach new audiences not normally engaged with higher education. Pupils have the opportunity to work closely with LSE s African Caribbean Society, meet LSE academics and gain an insight into studying at university. The programme consists of: social sciences workshops and taster sessions motivational workshops opportunities to interact with LSE s African-Caribbean undergraduates an off-site workplace visit. We were lucky to have 3 applications accepted this year and below 2 of the boys tell us their thoughts. LSE is a university located in London. I went on a trip there for three days in the Easter break. Around 50 boys from state schools with Caribbean origins took part. We learnt about how Sociologists think, the history of hip hop, how to manage money and how minorities and different genders are treated. The lessons were fun (some more than others). At the end, there was a very motivational talk, which was as entertaining as it was inspiring. Overall, it was a very nice experience as I got to learn about life in university. Jamaine Scarlett. Year 8 Erskine 2. The university students and other children on the promoting potential programme were very welcoming and made the university a surprisingly exciting but laid back place for me to visit. My two other friends from Bolingbroke, Michael and Jamaine also went to the programme with me but Michael was put into a different classroom to Jamaine and I, so he probably had a very different experience. All three of us travelled to the university together with Jamaine s mother. The journey was around minutes long on the bus but when we travelled back on the overground it was a whole different story! Inside the actual university itself is very big; bigger than any other buildings I have spent time in. The university isn t just one building, in fact it is multiple buildings! I ve actually heard that loads of universities have a multitude of buildings and that LSE is actually really small compared to other universities. The university has a multitude of different layers with a big red ball sculpture in the middle of the new building. This is where Jamaine and I had to split with Michael; the group I was in had very funny and active people compared to the other groups which were very quiet. We learned about interesting subjects like law and sociology and my group were highly praised by the visitors that came and taught us. I can t say enough how much I loved the programme. Damari Hanson Year 8. Smyth 6. Feedback from the Widening Participation coordinator at LSE We were delighted to welcome Damari Hanson, Jamaine Scarlett and Michael Adomako to LSE s Promoting Potential programme on Monday 3 Wednesday 5 April. It was a really successful three days and we received a lot of positive feedback from our students. 6

7 MUSIC AND DRAMA 7

8 UNIVERSITY AND CAREERS SUCCESS: WORK EXPERIENCE What is Work Experience? Work Experience is an opportunity for Year 11 pupils to spend one or two weeks with an employer in the workplace. It gives them an opportunity to gain experience within a business environment, learn new skills, gain confidence in their abilities, relate their learning to the workplace and help them make decisions about their future. What are the Aims and Objectives? Work Experience placements offer our pupils many benefits and learning opportunities: Employability and key skills: insights into skills and attitudes required by particular sectors and employers; and an opportunity to develop, practise and demonstrate key skills in a working setting, in particular, in working with others, communication and improving own learning and performance. Careers education and guidance: better understanding of changes in the world of work and the implications these have for their own careers. Personal and social development: development of increased maturity, with improvements in aspects such as motivation, self-confidence and interpersonal skills. What does it involve? The School delivers a full programme of preparation during Civitas from January. This includes: Guidance in contacting to employers to find placements. Explanation of the School Work Experience procedures. Working through a preparation programme, which includes information on interview skills and Health and Safety. Completing a diary while on placement. Half day to attend interview with employer. Civitas tutors will visit the pupil while on placement to monitor their progress and speak to the employer. In addition a half day reflection workshop is held when they come back from placement during which pupils evaluate their experiences. Finding a placement Pupils are encouraged to find their own placement, or as parents you may be able to source a suitable placement for your son/daughter. Work experience placements will be checked by BEST the Wandsworth Education and Business Partnership for their suitability in terms of Health and Safety. Pupils will receive contracts directly from BEST which should be signed and returned to school as soon as possible. These BEST inspections include checks on Insurance (all employers must have Employer s Liability Insurance without exception) and the Health, Safety and Welfare of the pupil. It is important that when organising an own placement you are satisfied the company has the correct insurance status and are aware of welfare issues for students under 16 years of age. i.e. Not being left alone with a single adult or travelling alone with a single adult. 8

9 UNIVERSITY AND CAREERS SUCCESS: WORK EXPERIENCE Finding a placement cont d Pupils wishing to place themselves must ensure that details are handed to Ms Robinson at the earliest opportunity so that any checks can be made. The deadline for pupils finding their own placement and informing Ms Robinson is Friday 23 rd March. The form attached to this information is required to be complete and can be sent by on request from Ms Robinson. When the own placement form is returned to the school, we will confirm the placement with the employer via a letter explaining the expectations we have of the pupil and the placement and giving details of the date arranged for a preliminary visit and interview The pupil will still be expected to attend an interview on the day designated by the school or employer and complete a Job Description form. How you can help Help your child find a replacement Sign and return the placement form promptly. Ensure that both the school and employer are notified if the pupil is unable to attend on the designated days. Inform us if any difficulties are experienced during the placement. Encourage the pupil to have a positive approach to the placement, even if it isn t quite what they expected. Ensure that they complete their diary while on placement. Ensure that they are wearing appropriate clothes for their placement. Look at this website for ideas: Key dates: Friday 23 rd March July 2016 Friday 25 th August Tuesday 39 th August to Friday 1 st Sept Friday 1 st September Mon 4 th Sept to Friday 8 th Sept Deadline for the return of own placement form Induction and interviews take place at the employer Check in meeting with Ms Robinson if doing optional week. In person or by telephone Optional week of work experience Check in meeting with Ms Robinson in person or by telephone Compulsory week of work experience In order to ensure that the work experience for your child is of the highest standard we have employed the support of BEST the Wandsworth Education and Business Partnership at a cost of 55 per pupil. BEST will complete all Health and Safety checks along with sourcing placements for pupils who do not find their own. We hope you have found this information useful. If you require any further information please contact: Karen Robinson k.robinson@arkbolingbrokeacademy.org 9

10 PE & SPORT WANDSWORTH SCHOOLS ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS YEAR 9 & 10 Wednesday 3 rd May saw the Year 9 & 10 Athletics Squad take on the rest of the borough in the annual Wandsworth Athletics Championships at Battersea Millennium Arena. Pupils were not only looking to compete and fight for medals, but also book places in the upcoming London Youth Games and the London School Athletics finals which lead on to the National Athletics Championships. The weather wasn t conducive for fast times or big distances, but the pupils competed to the best of their ability and in a respectful, well behaved manner. There were excellent performances all round, and the following pupils walked away with medals and places in the London Youth Games Finals: Bronze Medallists: Nneka Ozor High Jump, Intermediate girls Indra Traore Discuss, Intermediate girls Silver Medallists: Oghale Erikigo Long Jump and Discus, junior girls Joel Rooney 1500m, junior boys just missed out to the No m runner in the country! Gold Medallists: Millie Dakin 800m, junior girls. Amir Sultan-Edwards, 200m, junior boys ran a year group up and won in an impressive seconds. 10

11 PE & SPORT WANDSWORTH SCHOOLS ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS YEAR 7 & 8 Wednesday 10 th May saw the Year 7 & 8s compete against all the other schools in the borough. The weather was sunny with warm temperatures perfect conditions for athletics! The pupils represented the school and themselves in a glowing light and were superb all day. The medal winners: Bronze Medallists: Day-jon Bartley - Y7 Boys Javelin Sophie Howarth Y8 Girls Javelin Haja Sam Y7 Girls Long Jump Desiree Nicole Y7 Girls 100m Naarah Bonti-Asamoah Y8 Girls 100m Louis Faure Y8 Boys 300m Y7 Boys 4x100m relay team Jack Hedges, Paul Kerambrun, Nathan Bonti-Asamoah, Yvan Digbeu Gold Medallists: Jack Hedges - Y7 Boys 1500m. Outstanding performance. Michael Poku Y8 Boys 100m. Super run! Frankie Hutcheon Y7 Boys 200m Amir Sultan-Edwards Y8 Boys 200m (23.48 a new PB) Y8 Boys 4x100m relay team Amir Sultan-Edwards, Michael Adomako, Michael Poku, Louis Faure 11

12 PARENT ASSOCIATION Do you shop on the internet? Do you use Amazon, Argos, Sports Direct, Apple, John Lewis, (the list of retailers is endless...) Have you signed up for EASYFUNDRASING? Then why not? It's a brilliant way of making money for our children at no extra cost to you. So far we have made 560 with just 75 members. We want more parents/carers/family and friends to sign up. Our target is 100 members by the end of term. Go NOW to Bolingbroke Academy Parent Council - Wandsworth Fundraising Ideas and book you holiday flights, ferry, train, campsite etc. THANK YOU *CHANGE OF DATE* PARENT ASSOCIATION MEETING: Thursday 15th June Bolingbroke P.E. JUST GIVING PAGES P.E. AND MUSIC Many pupils enjoy table tennis whether it's in core/gcse PE lessons, socially at lunch/break times, or during enrichment. With the growing number of pupils at the Academy our current equipment needs replacing/ upgrading to sustain this offering. We had 11 tables, we currently only have 5 working tables and our aim is to raise funds to provide for 12 tables. Please help us support the pupils and PE Department with providing much needed table tennis tables." MUSIC "There are lots of pupils who we would love to give the opportunity to learn new (and rarer) instruments which would help to widen the variety of instruments in our school band. Please help us support the pupils and Music Department to raise money to buy these amazing instruments." Double bass Cello Viola Timpani Bassoon SAVE THE DATE Thursday June 15 Friday June 16 Friday June 30 Thursday July 6 Parent Association Meeting (7:30-8:30pm) Parent Association Coffee Morning Beer & Food Event Summer Music Concert St Michaels (6:00-8:00pm) 12

13 FAMILY DINING Week Beginning 15th May MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY Mains BBQ Chicken Jacket Potatoes Classic Spaghetti Bolognese Grilled Chicken Kebabs in lemon and herb sauce Battered Haddock Fillet with homemade tartar sauce Meat Free Roast Pumpkin with BBQ sauce Jacket Potatoes Quorn Bolognese Vegetable Kebabs in lemon herb sauce Veggie Fingers Sides Veggie Fried Rice Beans Cheese Tuna Fresh baked Baguette slice Pita Bread Tzatziki Chips Puddings Fruit Salad Gooey Chocolate Brownie Blueberry Yoghurt Eaton Mess Strawberry Jelly Week Beginning 22nd May MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY Mains Red Pesto Pasta Beef Meatballs in aromatic Italian tomato sauce Roasted Vegetable Gnocchi with mozzarella and tomato sauce Pork Stir fry with pak choi Grilled Chicken Baguette with pesto mayo and spinach Meat Free As Above Veggie Balls in aromatic Italian tomato sauce (Vegan and Vegetarian) As Above Vegetable stir fry with pak choi Grilled Vegetable baguette with hummus and spinach (Vegan ) Grilled Vegetable baguette with pesto mayo and spinach (vegetarian) Sides Garlic Bread Penne Pasta & Side Salad Side Salad Egg noodles Rice noodles (Vegan) Side salad Leafy Greens Puddings Fresh Fruit Sponge Cake with Orange glaze Fruity flapjack Jelly Yoghurt 13

14 KEY DATES Dates may change but we will give you advanced warning for these and any cancellations. Date Year 7 Year 8 Year 9 Year 10 Year 11 Monday 15th May Friday 19th May Geography Fieldwork Trip Monday 15th May GCSE Exams Begin Wednesday 24th May Mock Results Friday 26th May Summer Term 1 Ends Monday 5th June Summer Term 2 Begins Wednesday 7th Friday 9th June Thursday 15th June Monday 19th-Thursday 22nd June Blood Brother Performances 7pm Parent Association Meeting 7.30pm Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Practice Expeditions to Epping Forest Thursday 22nd June Enrichments Cycle 2 End Friday 23rd June Final Friday Duke of Edinburgh Session Monday 26th June Final GCSE Exam Thursday 29th June Year 11 Prom Friday 30th June ARK Gala at the Barbican Friday 30th June Parent Association Beer and Food Festival Monday 3rd-Wednesday 6th July Thursday 6th & Friday 7th July Duke of Edinburgh Silver Assesment Expedition South Downs INSET Days School Closed to Pupils 14