Issue 3, 2014/15 24th October 2014

Leytonstone News

It’s been a wonderful half term and as you can see from the news items there has been much

happening: open evenings/mornings; trips to France, the theatre and the ‘Young, Gifted and Black’

awards; and an array of sporting, musical and artistic extra-curricular activities. We are incredibly

proud of all the young people who represented our school in so many ways over the last few weeks

and proved to be outstanding ambassadors.

I was particularly proud of some of the analytical and conceptual thinking shown by students in

years 7,8 and 9 who helped design the signage of the new building. They showed not only pride in

what we do well but also real ambition for the future and what we can be. We will see the fruits of

this work over the coming months.

Year 11 have a number of important events rapidly approaching. On the first Tuesday back (4th

November) there will be a ‘drop in evening’ for those changing to a BTEC Science course. We will also

be supporting Year 11s with a comprehensive timetable for revision/intervention classes after school.

Please see the website for more details as they become available. Mock exams begin in November.

Coursework and controlled assessment dates for both Year 10 and 11 will be available to download

from the website soon. Please watch out for these the first week back. On 14th November, Year 11s

will have a ‘mock interview’ day, helping to support and prepare them for the next stage in their

educational journey.

In addition, predicted grades for all year 11 students are currently being compiled. They will be sent

to parents and carers the week beginning 3rd November. These will be updated at key points during

the year.

I’d like to thank all the parents who attended the Friends of Leytonstone School (PTA) AGM and all

of you who have contributed your time and effort to supporting the school through this group. FOLS

are an important voice for the parents and wider community of the school and they are an important

driver for school improvement. Please do watch out for future fundraising events - including the quiz

night on 13th December - and also strategic meetings when all are welcome.

Thank you all for your support over the last eight weeks. It’s been much appreciated

Ms Grainne Smyth

Headteacher

Wishing you all a pleasant half term break!

School resumes Monday 3rd November, 8.50am

Issue 3, 2014/15 24th October 2014

A return to Lycée Léonard de Vinci for KS4!

On the 10th October, as part of their GCSE study, 44 KS4 pupils went to visit French school Lycée

Léonard de Vinci in Calais. This is part of an ongoing exchange with the school, which has already

seen trips both to their campus in France, as well as to ours here in London.

Leytonstone students were an absolute credit to the school and had an incredibly busy day: speaking

French and listening to French pupils; having lunch in a very different environment (with quite

different food); watching, listening to and also conducting science experiments in French; and finally

observing and participating in lessons in French. We look forward to the students of Lycée Léonard

de Vinci visiting us in the spring term! Mr de l’Eprevier

Leytonstone Students excel at

Young, Gifted and Black Awards

On Friday 17th October, 33 year 10 students and 20 of

last year's year 11 of African and African-Caribbean descent received commendations at the Young, Gifted

and Black awards at Walthamstow Town Hall.

Students was recognised for their hard work and

achievements in English and Maths at year 10, and following GCSE results for our alumni.

Many congratulations to all of you for your hard work

and commitment to you learning - well done!

Year 10 students: Ashara Bennet, Augustine Doudu-

Amade, Melisane Lopes, Lhuan Sweeney, Zayd Abdi,

Mohamed Habib, Mohamed Adde, Nana Osei-Kofi,

Mariana Marques, Eunice Neto, Devante Hudson, Maia Matthews-Apleby, Kuba Bennett, Di-Andra Morris,

Shamari Newell, Tyrese Bakare, Shelby Black, Rasida Gerald, Tobey Izuchukwi-Okoli, Kyra White, Jennifer

Osagwu-Rodriguez, Zanica Blair, Kimberley Guduza,

Bradley Cogheil, Islam Fessih, Roni Weir, Siobhan Martin, Judah Richards, Romain Wedderburn, Alice Connolly-

Taylor, Ben Kerr and Tyla Lord-Stamp.

Year 11 Alumni 2014: Savannah Adams, Bernard Adjei, Mohamed Ahmed, Rayan Awas, Md. Ibrahim Ayub,

Hannah Balogun, Velvet Brandon, Joshua Burrowes,

Jordan Byfield, Nathan Campta, Shanai Charlton-Taylor, Simeon McKenzie, Elsie Minnah, James Morton, Jodie

Pearson, Lashahn Ramikie, Jordan Rose-Herrero, Caitlin Walkinshaw, Nathanael Warren and Shailen White.

Issue 3, 2014/15 24th October 2014

Students set their designs on the new building

On Friday 17th October a group of students, from year’s 7,8 and 9, gave creative and thoughtful ideas

to the designers of the new building, with particular focus on the signage that will be used.

They followed this up with the launch of the Time Capsule Project 2015 - to bury a time capsule in

the new building and landscape to tell the future about our today. What ideas do you have to include

in it? Watch out for requests for your ideas - that's parents and carers, teachers and governors -

as well as students!

Well done to all involved, especially the year 7 students. Despite the fact that they are only in their

seventh week of their time at Leytonstone School, they demonstrated how very proud of it they are,

as well as their ambition for it to be the best!

Student consultants: Morgan King, Kaine Hamilton-Mills, Jed Abichou, Phoebe Sarfo, Andrew

Baillie, Florrie Jones, Absar Hossain, Jay Shotter, Louis Okunbowa, Avantika Yeka, Amy Lall,

Sahaadat Ghani, Harry Craddock, Anastasiou Thoedorou, Sofia Pingueiro, Lester Lyall, Holly

Hubbard, Ved Ramluckhun and Markus Johnson.

Well done to you all!

Ms Woodroof & Mr Barks

Issue 3, 2014/15 24th October 2014

School ambassadors shine at open events

Thanks and congratulations to the many students and staff involved in the recent open day and

evening events. As many of you will remember from your own experiences, the first half of the

autumn term sees year 6 students at primary choosing their secondary school places. As part of this

transition, Leytonstone School has held an Open Evening and a series of Open Mornings, allowing

year 6 students and their parents to visit the school. During these events we had many students

volunteering to represent the school, either as tour guides for visitors, or by representing different

departments around the school.

As part of the Open Evening, we asked visitors to fill out a questionnaire to see what they thought of

Leytonstone. There were an overwhelming number of prospective parents who praised the Year 10

tour guides that escorted them around the school! Kimberley and Joseph both got a special mention

from their group, saying that they were informative to the parents, kind to the young year 6 children

and above all else were a credit to the school - well done both of you!

Alongside the Open Events, we also had several year 8 students recruited by Mrs Norman, Mrs

Martin and Miss Masters to be the Primary Roadshow Crew. This group of students worked

incredibly hard on creating a speech that will be presented at many local primary schools over the

coming year. All the students involved showed a passion for their learning, and true pride in

representing their schools. Their speech was so good, in fact, that they were invited by Ms Smyth to

deliver it to parents at Open Evening!

Thank you to everyone who took part in these all of the open events. We look forward to our next

year 7 joining us in September 2015.

Special thanks to the Primary Roadshow

Crew and Open Evening Tour Guides

Primary Roadshow Crew

Jay Shotter, Jack Snell, Jahiem Hunter, Hanna Bras-Genfoud, Megan Stockwell, Igli

Metallia, Matthew Smith, Owureku Osei-Kofi, Brandon Zhang and Sid Ullersperger

Open Evening Tour Guides

Shamari Newell, Shelby Black, Savannah Wolfe-Scott, Katerine Chauca, Jasmine Froyze,

Tanicia Francis, Rasida Gerald, Di-Andra Morris, Tobey Izuchukwu, Megan Doman, Patrick

Adams, Ismail Ahmet, Rhea Teape, Megan Hack, Kayn Thompson, Rima Begum, Gurpreet

Kaur, Kalesha Hanson, Priya Jadeja, Heena Hussain, Salma Badul, Rania Hussain, Alex

Nikitorowicz, Lhuan Sweeney, Melisande Loopez, Elif Saridas, Jason Kizomba, Deanna

Wrighton, Mohamed Adde, Minhaaj Ahmed, Hassam Arshad, Josef Bras-Genfoud, Aisha

Butt, Inshirah Chaudhry, Joss Foot, Rina Gobin, Aaminah Khan, Rio Kylole, Adam

Mahmood, Mariana Marques, Mubashera Pathan, Aliya Raja, Joseph Balogun, Bradley

Cogheil, Summayah Younis, Shantosh Santhalingham, Juan Ocampo, Stacey Johnson,

Kimberley Guduza, Zanica Blair, Jennifer Osagwu-Rodriguez, Rhea Lempert, Julia

Marianska, Kate Daly, Dilara Tufa, Wiktoria, Wojcik, Linetta Szoke, Zilan Yavuz, Hana

Boriyawala, Kyra White, Nazmeen Zamir, Tiarna Thomas, Tyla Lord Stamp, Judah

Richards, Rebecca Limani, Alice Connolly-Taylor and Naailah Akhtar

Issue 3, 2014/15 24th October 2014

Report from The Doon School

As reported in Leytonstone News in the summer term, Year 10 Joss Foot, and his brother Toby, had

the opportunity to attend an Indian boarding over the summer holidays. This is a rare opportunity

for British students, and Toby has very kindly written the following piece on his experience.

Ms Derouaux

Head of Year 10

THE DOON SCHOOL

This summer I spent 4 weeks with my brother Toby, at the Doon School in north India. The Doon

School is one of India’s most highly respected boys public boarding schools and past pupils include

two Indian Prime Ministers and the artist Anish Kapoor who designed The Orbit in the Olympic

Park, so Toby and I were very lucky to be invited to stay. The idea of being in a boarding school for 4

weeks was a bit daunting at first and took a bit of time getting used to, but as time progressed I soon

got into the swing of things.

At Doon, there are 45 lesson a week including 6 on a Saturday but they are only 35 minutes long. In

the lessons the teacher would teach the students and then the students would answer questions on

what was taught, during the three hours of individual study each night, called Toye.

My stay at The Doon School would have been much harder if the school didn’t have such good sports

facilities. Everyday started with a 4km run before breakfast and after lessons we had 3 ½ hours to

play sport. I played a lot of squash, basketball, and every day there was house football practice. I

found playing sport really tough as I became really tired playing sport in the searing heat of India.

Toby and I were not the only exchange students but we were the only two that did not attend a

private boarding school. When we first arrived there were two other English Boys, one from St

Edwards in Oxford and one from Eton. In our 2nd week Toby and I went to the Headmaster’s House

for lunch, with four exchange students from South Africa. It was a real treat as the food served in the

Central Dining Hall wasn’t my favorite type of food but the food served at the headmaster’s lunch

was a lot more familiar.

During my time there I took part in the DSMUN’14: The Doon School Model United Nations 2014.

School children from all over Northern India, Bangladesh and Jordan came to take part in this.

There were many different committees where they discussed global matters such as the Crimean

crisis, the Sudan civil war, and the conflict in Syria and Iraq, amongst many others. I was part of the

Security Council where the Crimean crisis was discussed. As I wasn’t a in the senior form I was a

‘Chit Boy’. It was my responsibility to pass around notes between delegations. I was surprised at how

passionately each delegate spoke, so I asked another Chit boy why it was so important and he said it

was because they were competing for the best delegate prize as this would be prestigious on their

C.V. This would help them get into universities in either the US or the UK. This intrigued me so I

began to listen more carefully to what they were saying and how they were saying it so if I was ever

involved in this I would know, in a way, how to say it.

This whole experience was a real eye-opener to a different way of learning and realizing how

independent they all are. No one forces them to do any work and yet they still get annoyed if they

don’t get over 85% in every single test. They’ll stay up to 12:30 each night studying because they

know that will give them the best chance of getting to their goal. But I still wouldn’t swap it for the

education and opportunities I get here in East London.

Joss Foot

Issue 3, 2014/15 24th October 2014

PE Club Success

Since the start of term, the clubs run by the PE department have been taking the school by storm.

Mr Sains, Head of PE, has been amazed at the number of students taking part in extra-curricular

sports. The teachers of PE run between them, a number of different sports clubs, including Girls

Football, Basketball, Fitness and Short Tennis.

There are many advantages to taking part in extra sports at school. As well as the obvious health

benefits, participating in sports helps with teamwork and leadership skills, will introduce you to new

people and friends, will help with your motor skills and is also a great stress reliever! New students

are always welcome to attend; details on available clubs are available on the PE boards, from PE

teachers and are on the school website.

From the top l-r: Short Tennis, fitness, girls

football, volleyball and basketball clubs

Basketball Trials

Year 8 & 9 Girls’ Monday 3rd November

Year 8 & 9 Boys’ Tuesday 4th November

Both trials will take place

from 3.30-5.00pm in the

Sports Hall.

Looking forward to seeing

you all there.

Mr Sains

A sticky science project for Year 7!

Congratulations to students in Mr Thompson Year 7 Science class

who were recently challenged to demonstrate the workings of a cell

in a 3D project. Mr Thompson was incredibly impressed with the en-

tries. Keep up this excellent effort towards your homework!

Issue 3, 2014/15 24th October 2014

Year 8 to receive rewards trip after

excellent start to the year

Head of Year 8, Mrs Norman, has been exceptionally proud

of her students and the excellent start they have made this

academic year.

Students have continuously shown commitment to their

learning by having exceptional attendance. Form classes in

year 8 have regularly achieved over 97% attendance each

week, with 8T achieving 100% for the week of 29th

September. This is a brilliant effort - keep it up!

Many teachers of Year 8 classes have informed Mrs

Norman of the fantastic work being completed by students,

as well as excellent attitudes to learning. This was seen in

action when Mrs Norman visited Mr Riddell’s history

classes, and saw brilliant homework on Elizabeth II’s reign.

But the excellence doesn’t stop there! “Mr Greenwold and

Mrs Bolger have been sending a constant stream of year 8

students to see me to show me the brilliant learning which

is taking place in Maths lessons.” Mrs Norman exclaimed.

“I must not forget also Mrs Jackson-Wade who every time I

see her gives me a thumbs up and tells me constantly what

a great lot they are and how brilliant teaching them is. Ms

Treacher would not let me rest unless I mentioned the work

and level of attainment in her year 8 Geography lessons. So

well done year 8 I am really, really proud of you!”

As a celebration of their hard work and commitment, Mrs

Norman has decided to run a rewards trip to see the

pantomime ’Dick Whittington’ at the Kenneth More

Theatre, Ilford, on Wednesday 17 December. The cost of

this trip will be £11.00 and this includes ticket for the

pantomime, an ice cream and transportation to and from

the theatre.

The trip will be open to all KS3 pupils, subject to their Head

of Year approval. Congratulations Year 8; we hope you

enjoy your well-deserved trip!

Music Notice Board

Choir Club

Every Tuesday, 12.30pm in the

Music Room. All abilities welcome

for a fun and creative time!

Mr Hammers Keyboard Klub Starting 7th November for KS3

students at Friday lunch times.

Come along to enhance your skills

or practice lesson work!

Want to learn a musical

instrument?

Speak to Ms Rhomes or Mr

Hammer at break or lunch time to

find out more!

Year 10 Work Experience

Deadline

Students organising their own work

experience placements must hand

in all details to Mr Barks by Friday

7th November.

If you have any concerns please see

him as soon as possible.

Friends of Leytonstone School

invite you to

Christmas Quiz Night

Saturday 13th December

Details to follow soon.

KS4 College Roadshow - Thursday 6th November

Over 20 colleges have now signed up to take part in our

annual college roadshow event in the school hall. This event is

a wonderful opportunity for students and their parents/ carers

to speak to colleges about the courses they offer, and the

opportunities available after secondary school.

The roadshow will be open for Year 11 students from 3.30-

6.30pm, whilst Year 10 students are welcome from 4.30-

6.30pm. Please contact Mr Barks or Ms Naggea with queries.

Monday lunch times

12.25-1.20 pm

Thursday After school

3.30- 4.30pm

Issue 3, 2014/15 24th October 2014

Dates for your Diary

Half Term: Monday 27th October - Friday 31st October Year 7 Settling In Day: Thursday 13th November Year 11 Mock Interview Day: Friday 14th November Year 10 Parents’ Evening: Thursday 11th December Christmas Holidays: Monday 22nd December - Friday 2nd January 2015

Leytonstone School Colworth Road

Leytonstone

E11 1JD

Tel: 020 8988 7420

Email: school@leytonstoneschool.org

Web: www.leytonstoneschool.org

Headteacher: Ms Grainne Smyth

Newsletter Editor: Miss Laura Masters

Follow us on twitter @LeytonstoneSCH

Contact Us

A poet laureate of the future?

Well done to Marcelina Kucharska, 7F, for this excellent poem

on the school library. Ms Naggea and Mr Barks were so

impressed with the piece that it has been turned into a poster

to advertise our Learning Resource Centre. We look forward

to reading more of your poems in the future, Marcelina!

Library Everyone is welcome to walk through the door.

It really doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor.

There are books in boxes and books on shelves.

They are free for you to borrow, so help yourselves.

Come and meet your heroes, old and new,

From William the Conqueror to Winnie the Pooh.

You can look into the Mirror or read The Times,

Or bring along a toddler to chant some rhymes.

The librarian's a friend who loves to lend,

So see if there's a book that she can recommend.

Read that book, and if you're bitten

You can borrow all the other ones the author's written.

Are you into battles or biography?

Are you keen on gerbils or geography?

Gardening or ghosts? Sharks or science fiction?

There's something here for everyone, whatever your addiction.

There are students revising, deep in concentration,

And school kids doing projects, finding inspiration.

Over in the corner there's a table with seating,

So come along and join in the Book Club meeting.

Yes, come to the library! Browse and borrow,

And help make sure it'll still be here tomorrow.

Marcelina Kucharska 7F

An Old Vic Greek Tragedy

for Year 10

On Monday 13th October, 30 Year

10’s enjoyed a workshop provided by

the Old Vic Theatre's 'Young Voices

School's Club'. It is a great

privilege, as only 100 schools are

invited to join the project, which

allows students the chance to see

every show this season with a

special two hour workshop before

hand to explore the characters &

plot.

The day after the workshop, we

travelled in to the city to see

Elektra, a modern rewriting of a

Greek tragedy. Thanks to the

workshop & the excellent

performances we were able to really

understand the rather sad story of a

woman mourning the death of her

brave father at the hands of her

mother & step-father, & the role the

Gods had to play in this. It was a

real pleasure to accompany such a

wonderful group of young people -

their enthusiasm, enjoyment &

outstanding attitude was

contagious. Ms. Cole, Mr. Smith & I

went home tired, but proud and

happy.

I can already see a positive impact

on the practical work done in

lessons, so keep it up folks!

Ms. Zagni.