Chestnut NewsDate: 23 Nov 2018 Issue No: 80

MESSAGE FROM THE HEADTEACHER

Dear Parents and CarersThank you to everyone who attended International Evening last Tuesday. It was a wonderful event that brought our whole community together through music, dance, drama and of course food! Thank you to Sharon Noble, our fundraiser, who co-ordinated the event with the help of sponsorship from Aviva.

Presentation EveningLast night the school celebrated the hard work and achievement of our students in Years 8-13. It was a fantastic evening – it’s always very special to celebrate our amazing students. Thank you to students and their parents for attending and making the event such a success. A special thank you to our Chair of the Local Academy Committee, Judi Dumont-Barter and our guest speaker Rosena Allin-Khan. Rosena gave an inspiring speech about her journey to becoming a Member of Parliament. The entire sports hall was captivated by her honesty and openness.

Singapore Headteachers VisitOn Tuesday we welcomed 24 Headteachers from Singapore who are visiting the UK as part of a study visit. They spent the whole day with both Chesterton Primary School and Chestnut Grove Academy learning about the English education system and the distinctiveness of the Chestnut Grove curriculum. They visited a number of lessons and were extremely complimentary about the school, the teachers and of course the wonderful students.

Safeguarding Your child’s safety is of paramount concern to us. If you have any concerns over the personal development, behaviour or welfare of your child or any other child within Chestnut Grove Academy that cannot be resolved by the child’s teacher, tutor or RSL, please contact the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) Ms Jackson on 0208 772 2510 or Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead Mikayla Jolley on 0208 772 2545. Should either of these be unavailable and you have an urgent safeguarding concern, please ask for the other Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads, Mr Buchanan (KS3), Ms Verber (KS4) or Mr Taylor (KS5).

Christian Kingsley, Headteacher

Students are expected to attend the Academy every day with the expectation that each student should achieve a minimum 95% attendance.

Sickness:

If for any reason a student will be absent then Parents/Carers are requested to phone the Attendance Officer (Ms Ramsay on 0208 673 8737 option 1) before 08:30 on the first day of absence. If the absence is for more than one day, you will need to phone the school each day of the sickness. A doctor’s note will be required after three days absence.

Lateness:

Morning registration starts at 8.45am. Students arriving after 8.45am will not be admitted to class and will be marked late by the Attendance Officer. Parents will then receive a text informing them that the student has a same day detention to make up the number of minutes late. Students who are late and have a note from their Parent/Carer explaining the lateness, should report directly to the Attendance Officer before going to class. Students who arrive after 10am with no parental explanation are considered absent and are recorded as such on the Academy roll.

Appointments:

The Attendance Officer should be alerted to appointments attended during the school day, by a note in your child’s planner, which should also be accompanied by the appointment letter or copy of the confirmation text received.

Please do not call, email or text the school if your child needs to leave school early for an appointment as their note will suffice, which they will need to have authorised by their RSL (Raising Standards Leader) before they can leave.

Ms Ramsay, Attendance Officer

ATTENDANCE

MY CHILD AT SCHOOL - UPDATE

The MCAS App is now fully launched and we are very pleased with the feedback we have received so far. We currently have over 200 student accounts being accessed via the App and we are hoping to get more of you on board in the next few weeks and months.

If you are using the App you will start to receive push notifications with important updates from the school over the next month. These will for the people who have the App replace the text messages. To down load the App please search for “mychildatschool” or “MCAS” on the apple app store or the google play store.

The website will of course still be an important part of our MCAS system, but with most people having smart phones we feel the App will give you faster access to your child’s activity’s at school. If you have not yet had a chance to login to My Child at School we would recommend you do so as it will give you a clear, simple way of accessing your child’s reports along with a live update of any Proud points, behaviour incidents or their attendance. Or for the website go to www.mychildatschool.com

If you are struggling to get access to My Child at School or need your user name and password then please email:- MCAS@chestnutgrove.wandsworth.sch.uk

As with last year all student reports are only being uploaded to MCAS, you will not receive a paper copy of a report, this is allowing us to significantly reduce down the printing we do by around 14000 less prints a year and the environmental and cost impacts this has. If you would prefer to receive your child’s report by paper then please email the address above and we will add you to the paper mailing list.

BEST AWARDSOn 16th October Ms Verber and Ms Sturrock were delighted to be invited to see students who completed their work experience placements in Year 10 and Year 12 be recognised for their exemplary conduct, enthusiasm and engagement whilst at their placements. The awards ceremony was held at Ernest Bevin school and attended by winning students from schools across Wandsworth as well as employers who had hosted the students on their placements. Students were awarded their certificates by local Councillors and members of the BEST work experience board. We are extremely PROUD of them!

Ms Verber, Assistant Headteacher

YEAR 7 PARENTS EVENING

Year 7 Parents Evening will take place on Wednesday 12th December from 5-7pm.

Our parents evenings follow an appointment-based system; students will be arranging appointment times with their teachers over the upcoming weeks.

Students will be receiving a letter to take home with the full details of the evening; this will also be emailed to all parents and carers. Prior to the evening you will be able to access your child’s most up to date assessment data through MyChildAtSchool. If you are having any difficulties with this system, please email mcas@chestnutgrove.wandsworth.sch.uk.

Alternatively, if you have any other questions then please do not hesitate to contact myself or Ms Fletcher (RSL Year 7).

Mr Buchanan, Assistant Headteacher

Netball

The Y7 & Y8 girls Netball team continued their league campaign with a home fixture against Ark Putney. The girls have been training well and were well prepared for the game. The girls were able to reduce basic mistakes from previous games and managed to secure comfortable wins in both games. Y7 won 4-1 and Y8 won 10-3.

Ms Smith

Football

An excellent start to the season for Chestnut Grove’s Year 7 soccer team.It didn’t take long for the CGA boys to gel in their first ever game together and within 5 minutes we had taken the lead with a goal from Ruben. Angus netted a second and solid defending ensured we went in at half time two goals to the good. The second half didn’t start off quite as well and within 5 minutes the opposition had scored a goal. However, the captain, James, galvanised the boys who all responded well to his encouragement. We managed to maintain good possession of the ball and Angus’s wonderful strike from the edge of the box made it 3-1. With less than 10 minutes to go the opposition scored again to make it 3-2 and the game was now on a knife edge. CGA were not to be denied the victory - a sublime through-ball was slotted from Elijah into the path of Ruben who kept a very cool head, and fired home to secure 3 points.

FINAL SCORE: 4-2 - Great effort, attitude and team spirit. Well done Year 7!

Mr Gulley

PHYSICAL EDUCATION

After weeks of trials and training sessions, the Year 8 boys played in their first competitive football match of the season last Tuesday, beating Ashcroft Academy 7-2 in the Wandsworth Schools Football League. The first 15 minutes saw both teams have plenty of chances in what was quite an open start to the game. The breakthrough came after a great piece of one touch play down the left which was superbly finished off by Jaiden Ray-Daniel who swept the ball past the keeper in to the bottom corner. Two minutes later the boys made it 2 nil and they then started to take a firm grip of the game and dominated possession, which saw the boys go in to half time leading 4 nil. The boys started the second half with some superb intricate one touch football and they soon found themselves scoring a fifth, we made it 6 nil from a free kick which saw Maxwell Emmery curl the ball with his left foot in to the top corner of the goal. Ashworth did score a couple of late consolation goals before we scored our 7th to seal what was a fantastic performance from the boys on their very first match together. The Manager of Ashworth said what a fine young team the boys were and said he fully expects Chestnut Grove to do very well for the coming season. The boys did themselves proud, I was very proud of them and most of all they did the school proud. Our next match is against Ark Putney at home on Wednesday the 28th November.

Goalscorers were – Maxwell Emmery 3 Jesse Ngoma 2 Jaiden Ray-Daniel 1 Issa Virtue 1

Mr Giddings

Upcoming Fixtures

• Year 8 & 9 Netball V St Cecilia• Year 8 Football V Ark Putney• Year 10 Football V Ashcroft• P16 Football V Ashcroft

PERFORMING ARTS

On the 19th December at 7pm we will be hosting our annual Winter Concert in the Sports Hall.

This is the culmination of our hard work in the Music department over the last term. We will be hearing from a variety of groups and soloists over the course of the evening, including our ‘amassed’ year 7 choir. It is Chestnut Grove Tradition that all of Year 7 perform at this event as they sing the three songs they have been learning this half term. We are really excited to welcome our year 7 families to this event to see the rich musical variety on offer as their children move up the school.

The Friends of Chestnut Grove will also be in attendance, selling refreshments and tickets for the raffle, the bar will be open before the concert starts, doors will open at 6:45pm. Tickets are £5 for adults and £3 for concessions and are available from the Performing Arts office, they are not on ParentPay. Your child will receive a letter this week with instructions on how to order tickets. Tickets do sell out quickly for this event so you are advised to purchase early to avoid disappointment.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Ms Durban and the Performing Arts Team

PBE

In Year 7, students have made human rights campaigns whilst, in Year 9, students have campaigned against hate crime. Here are some of the excellent examples of work produced! Well done to Arthur, Naadia, Sienna, Rachel, Arastoo, Nami, Aliya and Anouk in 7 Da Vinci, and Izza, Ioana, Matilda, Leonie and Alessandra in Year 9 for their outstanding campaigns.

Ms Taylor, Head of PBE

STUDY INCENTIVE CLUB

Last week, students in the study incentive club took part in a cookery workshop ran by local supper club hosts South West Kitchen. They made Italian pizzas and French tarte tatin (from scratch!) in preparation for International Evening, where they showcased their food. Well done everyone, a fantastic effort!

Ms Vanstone and Mr Miller

Levi Godbehere Brown: Tarte TatinTheomoy Straker: Pizza

ICT AND BUSINESS DEPARTMENT

Can you help the ICT Department?

The ICT department would like to place some of our KS5 BTEC Level 2 Technical Certificate in IT Support students in an organisation where they are able to shadow an IT Support Technician for a period of 2 weeks in June 2019 or for 1 day a week (Wednesdays) over the course of 2 month starting from December 2018.

Students will need to understand IT network features and functions, common practices in network security, and the function and features of the main network appliances; including:

• using a range of operating system (OS) security functions and associated features • talking to clients to get details of faults • deducing reasons for faults and explaining them to the client • logging client calls, recording problems and solutions • restoring processes in computers and peripherals • setting up new equipment and upgrading existing systems • testing and servicing equipment recording problems • working as part of a team to support business IT networked and online features and functions

There are 19 students in total but they can complete above tasks in small groups depending on your organisation’s capacity.

Can you help the Business Studies Department?

The Business Studies department would like to place some of our KS5 BTEC Level 2 Technical Business Administration students in an organisation where they are able to complete work experience in an administrative environment in order to develop the skills required for the successful completion of their course. This work experience can be for a period of 2 weeks in June 2019 or for 1 day a week (Wednesdays) over the course of 2 month starting from February 2019. Students will need to carry out routine administrative activities to meet requirements, use office equipment safely and in line with procedures and demonstrate skills including:

• Handling mail • Managing diaries • Supporting meetings • Making and receiving telephone calls • Making travel and accommodation arrangements • Greeting and looking after visitors • Operating office equipment safely

There are 19 students in total but they can complete above work experience in small groups depending on your organisation’s capacity. If you are able to accommodate some or all students for either business studies or ICT please email Mr. Solate: : esolate@chestnutgrove.wandsworth.sch.uk

Mr Solate, Head of Computing and Business Studies

ART

Art Specialists

Around 55 Art Specialists from Year 8 & 9 took part in a workshop run by The Linnean Society this Tuesday. Students were introduced to symbiotic relationships between organisms and asked to produce prints based on these relationships. Students came up with a broad range of ideas from alligators and the Plover bird with allows alligators to get their teeth cleaned and the bird a source of food, to squid and bacteria with the squid working as a food source and the bacteria creating a light source for the squid to hunt. Students produced beautiful prints, all of which have been entered into the BioMedia Meltdown competition for this year with a chance to win prices for both the winning students and their school.

The facilitators commented on the enthusiasm and skill level of our artists, as well as their independence and creative thought, with some students researching symbiotic relationships that they themselves knew of rather than using provided resources. They were a true exemplar of Chestnut Grove’s Creative Learning Community.

CHESTNUT21International Evening

Thank you to everybody who contributed to and attended the International Evening. We had a very enjoyable evening of wonderful food, dance, culture and mingling. The best part was that, thanks to funding from the Aviva Community Fund, the event was totally FREE!

Our very own Steel Pan Band opened the event, followed by a wonderful collection of dances by our Year 8 students (arranged by Ms Atkinson). We then enjoyed a variety of acts that had come in especially for the event, as well as the opportunity to try some Chinese calligraphy and (who could forget) the food made by some Year 10 students, the Friends of Chestnut Grove, parents and of course, the White Eagle Club in Balham. Information about all of the acts and businesses that came along to help are listed below, along with their websites.

We noticed a wide demographic of families attending as well as lots of students and teachers supporting

Year 9 - Patterns in Nature

Year 9 are working on a project called ‘Patterns in Nature’. We have studied the texture and tone of natural forms and have moved on to create splat bugs. The students are ensuring they are including each body part and applying their knowledge of how to draw three dimensionally. Next, we will be studying the work of Glasgow designers The Timorous Beasties, and developing our own response.

Art Department

which was fantastic, and we had some lovely feedback too:

‘Fantastic array of events and dancing and delicious food’‘It was a great event. We all really enjoyed it!’‘Enjoyed. Good idea to celebrate the community and cultures’‘It was very well organised. Thank you for the dances, it was fun. Love the story teller’‘Very impressive display of diverse cultures! We very much enjoyed the entire evening! Looking forward to the next one!’‘It was amazing – well done’‘Fabulous event. Great fun and lovely atmosphere. Well done’‘It was a really lovely evening. Well done and a big thank you to everyone involved in making it happen’‘What a brilliant event! We had great fun and there was such a lovely atmosphere. Thanks to everyone who helped’‘We loved Ian’‘Thanks for a wonderful, well organised event. Our family LOVED it and the food by the year 10’s was A-MA-ZING!!!!!’

Thank you again! Hopefully this will be the first of many!

IROKO - African Story telling http://www.irokotheatre.org.uk/projects.php

Funky Moves - Dance workshop http://www.funkymoves.com/

McGahan Lees – Irish Dance http://mcgahanlees.com/

Zlatni Pendari – Bulgarian Dance https://www.facebook.com/Zlatni.pendari/

White Eagle Club – Balham (Polish Sausages and Dumplings)

http://whiteeagleclub.co.uk/

WenLin Chinese School – Chinese Calligraphy http://www.wenlinchineseschool.org.uk/

Sharon Noble, Development Manager

FRIENDS OF CHESTNUT GROVEWinter Raffle

Raffle tickets will be going out to all students early next week. If you would like to buy raffle tickets, please make sure the stubs and money are returned in the brown envelope attached to the raffle tickets and prize list to the school office no later than Monday 17th December.If you haven’t received them (or would like to buy more), please contact the school office as they have spare books or email friendsofchestgrove@gmail.com. The draw will take place at the Winter Concert on Wednesday 19th December and the lucky winners will be notified by phone (if not present at the concert). Good luck!

Easyfundraising:

Do you like shopping? We have raised £744.16 so far by using this scheme and there is absolutely no cost to you! Please consider logging on to do your online shopping (holidays, insurances, fashion, home, garden and more). The link is: www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/chestnutgroveacademy

Dates:

Our next PTA meeting will be on Tuesday 29th January at 6.30pm. Anyone very welcome to join.

General emails to friendsofchestnutgrove@gmail.com Follow us on our Facebook page Friends of Chestnut Grove.

HEAD’S COMMENDATIONSHeadteacher’s commendations are given for students demonstrating the PROUD ethos, either through behaviour or exceptional pieces of work. Any student can be nominated by their teacher. Students who receive a commendation get a certificate from the Headteacher and also receive 100 PROUD points. The following students have received commendations in the past fortnight:

ScienceAlishba Sultan

HistoryJosie Stern

PBEArthur AbuschNaadia AliSienna EdwardsRachel Fletcher RodgersArastoo KavianiNami RamosAliya SeniorAnouk Emma ZappaIzza AnwarIoana BusuiocMatilda MannLeonie SeniorAlessandra Wynn-Lintern

Year 11 FundraisingOceianah WilkinsonZhane Mumuni-MbakweMagnus Mackenzie

Joao Jorge RafaelJerome PalmerLili TemplemanShiloh BirminghamKairen FairbrotherAlexxis MosesJessica WilliamsKeeli Sweetman

International EveningKenaz AmponsahJaimee HyacinthSaskia MalikiJacob DobbinsNasharna ThompsonMonet DaleyIndia AdamsNeveah Burley-FearonOumaima BhallilPatryk KaczorIsabella BibajNezrin Badalov

Head’s visit India Adams

YEAR TEAMSYEAR 7

Last Monday 12th November saw the start of the Year 7 assessment week - I have received very positive feedback from staff that year 7s approached the assessments positively, demonstrated resilience and determination - Well done Year 7. I look forward to looking at the results. Thank you to parents and carers for your support, during what can be an anxious / worrying first time for year 7s

Congratulations to the Year 7 Netball and boys’ Football team last week on their competition wins. It was very pleasing to be told that both teams conducted themselves in a sporting like manner - all were a credit to CGA.

The Performance in Education company came to perform ‘ Streetwise’ to Year 7 last Friday. The performance highlighted the importance of Pedestrian Safety and the responsibilities we all have to remain safe. I was pleased to receive an email from the team’s Tour coordinator stating that ‘CGA year 7s were a very receptive, engaged and polite audience, the performance team enjoyed their visit very much! Well, I promptly forwarded the email to the Headteacher, Mr Kingsley.

I’m pleased to see so many year 7s attending the numerous clubs running before and after school, and at lunchtimes. After the Christmas holidays, I will open up HB 9 at lunchtime. This will provide a warm, quiet space for reading, revision and completion of homework!

I am delighted to see that in comparison to the other year groups - Year 7 are continuing to arrive punctually to school and dressed in full, correct uniform accompanied with a PROUD attitude to learning! Thank you to tutors for maintaining the high team’s expectations.

‘Demonstrating PROUD’ RSL 7 Reward cards over 1500 + PROUD points awarded. A prize draw will take place at the end of the term!

Date for the Diary - 19th December - CGA’s Wonderful Winter concert - We will all have the opportunity to hear Year 7 sing again!

Ms FletcherRaising Standards Leader Year 7

YEAR 8

I would like to make a special mention this week in a preview of our Presentation Evening on Thursday. This is the first time our year group is involved in the annual event and I’m extremely proud and privileged to be awarding these students for their dedication and hard work. At the time of seeing this the evening will have taken place and I hope all parents and students enjoyed the celebration.

For Academic Achievement:Rhani Mahabir-Stokes ArtDeniz Kaya BilingualBenjamin Powell-Howard ComputingMegan Marchant D&TEleni Wright DramaOlivia Smeaton-Couzens EnglishElizabeth Goulborn GeographyNoraiz Muhammad HistoryIlyas Urgrader MathsRalitsa Syundyukova MFLSiofra Mawdsley MusicLeonii Hesse-Campbell PBERoss Wade PESophie Abrehart ScienceArt Mustafa SEN

For Progress and Resilience:Luke Budd ArtCamila Gonzalez BilingualIndigo Grant ComputingSofia Andrzejewska D&THolly Hawkins DanceJamilla Wichmann DramaJake Holloway-Hill EnglishHakeem Esmail GeographyLauren Humphrey HistoryJake Mottershaw MathsJoseph Sharpington MFLJesse Ngoma MusicFreddie Massey PBEAlexander Boon PEIvana Kuzmanoska ScienceLukas Brayshaw SEN

Head of Year Award: Zoe Spenceley

Mr O’Keeffe, Raising Standards Leader Year 8

YEAR 9 I have been visiting lessons again over the past few weeks and have enjoyed hearing from the students about their learning within the subjects. They have been exploring enzymes within science and applying this within practicals, learning about the green revolution within India and making jewellery boxes in DT. I am loving their keenness to develop skills and acquire key facts but more importantly the team effort I have been seeing within lessons is fantastic.

Again, as the end of term tests approach, I urge all students to be using the online and printed revision materials to prepare themselves for the tests in each subject. These tests will give a strong indication of the subjects they show strengths in and will help support their GCSE option choices this year.

The days and evenings are getting colder and students are now donning their winter clothes. I would like to remind everyone that these must be plain black and not worn inside the buildings. On another aspect of my role as an RSL, when parents request any time off school for medical or dental appointments, the ideal situation would be for these to be arranged outside of school hours. However, we fully understand that this is not always possible. Therefore, I must now request an appointment letter or evidence from the institution. This will ensure that the evidence is within your child’s folder and their attendance records can be updated.

I enjoyed meeting many parents and carers at yesterday’s Presentation Evening and it was great to catch up on the students’ achievements and progress with those who I met.

Mr StokesRaising Standards Leader Year 9

YEAR 10

Year 10 had an assembly telling them all about Work Experience on Monday. The Year 10 work experience dates are 8th-19th July 2019. Students need to start thinking about what they would like to do for work experience and contacting companies if they are going to try and arrange their own placements. The deadline for students to hand in Own Placement forms and make their placement choices online is 31st January 2019.

To download these forms, parents and students can visit: http://www.chestnutgrove.wandsworth.sch.uk/Academic

Mr McCarthyRaising Standards Leader Year 10

YEAR 11

It was a great pleasure to attend Presentation Evening last night and to award students from Year 11 for their hard work during Year 10. Many congratulations to the following students:

Progress and ResilienceArt - Rhian Hudson-AduBiligual - Bilal MushtaqBusiness Studies - Courtney CollinsComputing - Jose DiasD&T - Eleanor Smith-BriginshawDance - Erin RyanDrama - Zhane Mumuni-MbakweEnglishMagnus MackenzieGeogrpahy - Taona ChiramboHistory - Jerome PalmerMaths - Chanee FairbortherMedia and Film - Keeli SweetmanMFL - Danu WebbPBE - Malik SahebekhtiariPE - Unas HahnScience - Mark PetrovProgress - Natasha Harvey

Academic AttainmentArt - Viviana HoareBilingual - George Alegrias MunozBusiness Studies - Tiana De-Gale HamiltonComputing - William BaileyD&T - Shiloh BirminghamDance - Ella SwannDrama - Leianna GrantEnglish - Dam RosenbergGeography - Adam SouttouHistory - Jade GattegnoMaths - Bibi Fox-HarrisMedia and Film - Ned ButtonMFL - Andrea DaughtonMusic - Lili TemplemanPBE - Imaan HaiderPE - Kian Nash-HillScience - Euan GallagherAcross all subjects - Mark Harris

Head of Year Award - Sam Rosenberg

In our most recent assembly, I talked to the students about the importance of sleep and the impact that sleep deprivation can have on academic attainment. I have included some of the slides I showed in the assembly. I also got the students to sit in the theatre according to how many hours of sleep they had the night before. The photo I have included in this letter unfortunately shows just how few of the students in the year group are getting the recommended 8-10 hours of sleep. At least 75% of the year group were getting 8 hours or less of sleep.

Finally, many congratulations to the Year 11 students who have completed their SIlver Duke of Edinburgh Awards.

•Ella Swan•Louis Szemalikowski•Adam Valentine•Danu Webb•Grace Murray•Nakieah Maye•Elizabeth Dow•Finn Dempster•Elliot Murray•Jack Banasiak•Ned Button•Aidan Evans•Jade Gattegno•Rosa McDonnell•Martha McDonnell•Sam Rosenberg•Isabelle Smart•Eleanor Smith Briginshaw

Ms Striesow

Raising Standards Leader Year 11

SIXTH FORM

Year 13 Higher Education Day

On Tuesday 13th November Year 13 were off timetable and were involved in a Higher Education & Apprenticeship Day.

The purpose of the day was to ensure that as many students as possible had completed their UCAS personal statement and had paid and sent their UCAS application form to their referee.

Students who had expressed an interest in applying for apprenticeships experienced an action packed day of workshops and assessment centres run by a representative from ‘Amazing Apprenticeships’, a company linked to ‘Apprenticeship Support and Knowledge for Schools (ASK)’ and to ‘Inspiring Futures.’

Independent careers adviser, Mr Tierney, also delivered a CV clinic to ensure that interested students were given relevant support, information, advice and guidance on how best to present their unique experiences to potential employers.

A big thank you to all involved.

Oxbridge/Dentistry Preparation Event

On Wednesday 14th November our seven Oxbridge/Dentistry applicants received outstanding support from our PiXL6 Associate, Peter Rawling. All seven students have already submitted their UCAS applications and are now in the process of being called for interviews.

In preparation for these interviews, Peter Rawling, who is the Higher Education lead for PiXL6, ran a series of mini-interviews mirroring the types of questions students have been asked in recent rounds of interviews for these prestigious universities. The seven students were offered bespoke support and guidance, and were probed to think on their feet, a skill which is honed over many years of practice both within the classroom and in extra-curricular debates and discussions.

Next will come a series of practice interviews with members of our Local Academy Committee to sharpen up the applicants and to see if they can relate their chosen courses to current affairs. This will focus on establishing political, social, economic and cultural links across and between themes covered in lessons and applying them to real world scenarios and settings.

Student Finance England Parents’ Evening

On Wednesday 14th November the Sixth Form held its annual student finance talk, with over 50 parents, accompanied by their young adult, in attendance.

The talk was designed to inform parents about the student finance application process for those who are applying to university this year, and to explain the current costs involved.

As was explained on the night, application forms from Student Finance England will be available online from late February/early March 2019. By this time the government will have announced the new arrangements for how much student finance will be for 2019-20. Currently, tuition fees are fixed at no more than £9,250.00 per year and repayment of student maintenance loans is set at 9% of income on salaries over £25,000.00.

The deadline for completed student finance application forms is no later than 31st May 2019.

Sixth Form PPEs - 19th to 21st NovemberYear 12 and 13 students have been on three days of study leave while sitting their first round of Pre-Public Exams (PPEs). These exams seek to gauge how the students are progressing on their AS, A level and BTEC level 3 courses, and to highlight areas in need of further development as we move towards the end of a busy term. This will then inform and direct revision to be completed over the Christmas holidays to plug relevant gaps in knowledge.

Year 12 and 13 students will sit further PPEs in March (week commencing Monday 18th March 2019) to prepare them for their final exams in May and June 2019.

Mr Taylor, Head of Sixth Form