arkelvinacademy.org @ARKElvinAcademy Autumn 1 2015: Building on successes Although August now seems like a long time ago, we returned to school during the summer holidays to celebrate exam results with our year 11, 12 and 13 pupils from last year. We are immensely proud of the hard work and dedication shown by our pupils to achieve their exam results. There are some lovely examples of these successes in this newsletter. I know how crucial the support provided by parents, carers and families for their children when they are going through exams is. Thank you all for working with us to get there. We are now focusing on ensuring that our current year 11, and those in sixth form, are ready to meet and exceed their targets for their exams at the end of the year. In December we will hold our first series of mock exams so that pupils can be even better prepared and ready for the experience of exams. Key to this is our dialogue with you about their progress. All pupils will receive an update on all of their grades and levels during the first week back, which they will put into their planners alongside their targets. Please do look at these and talk to your child(ren) about how they are getting on. We will also have a number of Ark Elvin Academy Newsletter Autumn 1 October 2015
Transcript
arkelvinacademy.org
@ARKElvinAcademy
Autumn 1 2015: Building on successes
Although August now seems like a long time ago, we returned to school during the summer holidays to
celebrate exam results with our year 11, 12 and 13 pupils from last year. We are immensely proud of the
hard work and dedication shown by our pupils to achieve their exam results. There are some lovely
examples of these successes in this newsletter. I know how crucial the support provided by parents,
carers and families for their children when they are going through exams is. Thank you all for working
with us to get there.
We are now focusing on ensuring that our current year 11, and those in sixth form, are ready to meet and
exceed their targets for their exams at the end of the year. In December we will hold our first series of
mock exams so that pupils can be even better prepared and ready for the experience of exams. Key to
this is our dialogue with you about their progress. All pupils will receive an update on all of their grades
and levels during the first week back, which they will put into their planners alongside their targets. Please
do look at these and talk to your child(ren) about how they are getting on. We will also have a number of
Ark Elvin Academy
Newsletter Autumn 1 October 2015
parents evenings in Autumn 2, where we will explain how you can use grades and targets to support your
child(ren) to make progress.
I am delighted to say that last night the Brent planning committee voted unanimously in support of the
plans for our new building. There is still a great deal of work to do to ensure that things move ahead as
planned but this is undoubtedly positive news for the school. I will now be meeting with builders,
colleagues from Brent and teachers to make sure that we can get started on the building quickly and create
a far better learning environment for our children. I look forward to sharing more details of this with you
in the coming months.
Thank you all for your support over the past half term. I wish you all a relaxing half term break and look
forward to seeing you soon.
Best wishes,
Half term ends on high with house singing competition
Pupils celebrated the end of the Autumn 1 half term with a house competition in true Elvin style. Each of
our six houses – Angelou, Farah, Mandela, Malala, Rowling, and Sutton – took it in turns to sing Bill
Withers‟ Lean on Me. All pupils and staff were involved in the performances, and all 1000 of us packed into
the hall to watch. It was a great event, with a wonderful atmosphere and fantastic examples in all houses of
community with pupils singing together, and courage with soloists taking a lead.
The school waits with baited breath to hear Miss Bates announce the wining house after the holiday!
INTEGRITY COURAGE COMMUNITY MASTERY
Pupils celebrate excellent exam results
Pupils came together at Elvin‟s first awards evening at the start of September to celebrate some excellent
GCSE and A level results. Prizes were awarded for all subjects based on outstanding effort and
achievement, with special prizes awarded for pupils who demonstrated our motto – magna aude – through
integrity, courage, community, and mastery.
GCSE prize winners included Regina with 7A* grades, Olufunke with 5A*s and 5As, and Kristof, whose
3A*s included English Literature despite him speaking only a few words of English at the start of the course
two years ago – an achievement that has now earned him coverage in newspapers from the Guardian and
Independent to Hungary Today!
Olufunke, who was last month appointed as head girl, hopes to become a teacher or doctor and said “I‟d
like to study either medicine or psychology but I‟m still not sure. I‟ve been advised to go to Cambridge
because they focus on science-y things but I‟m also looking towards UCL and Imperial because they are
pretty good at medicine”. Meanwhile, Kristof, who is also interested in becoming a teacher, put his success
down to hard work and practice: “I started GCSEs without actually having much English knowledge, and
during those years I‟ve been working extra hard. I started by memorising 30 to 40 words each day and
practised speaking, writing, because it wasn‟t easy. In the second year I stayed at school until seven o'clock
sometimes.”
Our A level awardees this year included pupils going on to study at top universities including Birmingham,
King‟s College, and Loughborough, following an increase in pupils achieving at least three A level passes,
from 74% to 89%. At GCSE, our modern foreign languages pupils led the way, with 95% achieving an A*-C
in Spanish, and 90% in French.
INTEGRITY COURAGE COMMUNITY MASTERY
2015-16 Pupil Leadership Team appointed
Miss Bates today announced the sixth formers that will be making up the new Pupil Leadership Team.
These sixth formers will each lead a team of pupils from across year groups, to work on improving areas of
the school and local community. This follows the appointment of our Head Girl and Head Boy, Olufunke
Moronfolu and Faizan Haider-Raja, earlier in the term. All members of the Pupil Leadership team
underwent a competitive process that included a written application and interview with a senior teacher.
After the half term break, we will be inviting pupils from all year groups to join the various pupil leadership
teams led by these sixth formers. The 2015-16 Team Leaders are:
Aisha Ali Mentoring Team Leader
Karrar Almousawi Lead Councillor
Simren Fernandes School Environment Team Leader
Melissa Pereira Citizenship Team Leader
Iman Hussein Magazine Team Leader
Pallvi Raghvani Learning and Teaching Team Leader
Adila Shahzad Community and Languages Team Leader
Nassir Jama Charities Team Leader
Ridhima Dhima Reading and Library Team Leader
Think Pink, Go Green!
Think Pink Go Green is the new marking policy that we have introduced at Ark Elvin since September. It is
a way of marking that enables teachers to comment on specific aspects of pupils‟ work and to provide
immediate feedback.
As parents you will have noticed that your child‟s book will have a pink box or section that the teacher has
highlighted and below this a green box where your child should be writing a responses to the teacher‟s
comment. This green box must be filled in as it demonstrates that your child has followed the advice and
guidance of the teacher and is acting on this in order to make progress. Sometimes the green box is an
opportunity to answer a question that the teacher asks but sometimes it is an opportunity to re-draft
work in order to improve its overall quality.
As parents it would be helpful if you could check to see if all the boxes are complete to keep an eye on the
progress your child is making and impressing on them the importance of working hard and following the
advice of the teacher in order to make progress. Below are some examples of marking taken from books
in school:
INTEGRITY COURAGE COMMUNITY MASTERY
2015-16 starts with great purpose with induction days
Pupils were excited to get back to school at the start of September with their induction days. This
followed over a week of training for staff - part of our commitment to the highest quality of learning for
our pupils - and a week of work experience for our new year 11 pupils. The summer also included summer
schools for our new year 7s and selected year 11s.
Malgorzata (year 10) wrote this account of the year 10 induction days:
"A brand new school year means new opportunities. For us year 10s, it's the beginning of a whole new
chapter in our lives. Jumping from KS3 to KS4 is a pretty big deal, that's why teachers organised two days
of induction so we can get familiar with all the changes that we will experience over the next 2 years. We
listened to a number of teachers during assemblies speaking about 'raising our game', making absolutely
sure we give 100% of ourselves in everything we do, along with relevant tips and advice for GCSEs.
Apart from that we took part in a range of activities that taught us about working as a team and how to
communicate well with each other. These activities weren't just great fun but also showed that as a team
you can go further under two conditions: you listen to each other with respect (which shows integrity) and
you help each other out (another of our four values – community). I hope that this year will be full of
achievements and that everybody will hit their personal goals and targets by the end of the year."
Elvin community impresses at Open Evening
On 7th October the Elvin community held its second open evening for families of year 6 pupils interested in
joining us next year. Staff put in great effort and enthusiasm to show the school at its best, and were
rewarded with a 400% in attendance compared to last year. But the highlight was undoubtedly the
wonderful pupil volunteers from across all year groups – thank you to all that helped out on this important
evening!
INTEGRITY COURAGE COMMUNITY MASTERY
Year 10s embark on ‘TalentEd’ programme
A group of 24 year 10 pupils are working with tutors from
TalentEd programme for two hours after school every
Thursday. They will be working on different skills each week to
help with revision, study skills, interviews, and preparing them
for higher education and employment. It was great to see the
pupils working in teams from the very first session, competing
to create the highest structure using spaghetti, jelly babies and
a marshmallow! Photographed is the winning team of Joshua,
Shai, Issa, Rutvikumar, Nour, and their fantastic structure!
Last year a group of year 10s on the programme (then called
„Spire Hub‟) won a place in the finals of a national competition,
and travelled to a top marketing agency in central London to
present a marketing and advertising plan that they had created
for the TalkTalk telephone brand.
How are we doing?
Please provide us, and Ofsted, with feedback on the school via the Parent View website at
parentview.ofsted.gov.uk
If you have any concerns, please do get in touch with the school office or your child‟s Head of Year.
Autumn 2 Key Dates
Please put these dates in your diaries:
Monday 2nd November: Staff training days (no school for pupils)
Tuesday 3rd November: School starts for all pupils
Wednesday 4th November: Year 10 parents‟ information evening
Wednesday 11th November: Year 12 & 13 parents‟ evening
30th November – 11th December: Year 11, 12 & 13 mock exams
Wednesday 2nd December: Year 9 parents evening & options information
Monday 7th December: Year 7 – 10 assessment week
Monday 14th December: Review week
Wednesday 16th December: Year 11 controlled assessment deadline
Friday 18th December: Last day of term
Year 11 interventions
Selected year 11 pupils need to be in school for intervention sessions over the half term. These pupils have
been identified as needing extra support in order to achieve their target grades. Pupils must come in
perfect uniform, on time, and follow all usual school expectations – for example, no mobile phones or
jewellery.
The schedule for the sessions is as follows:
Monday Science
Tuesday Science and English
Wednesday History
Thursday Drama and Business
The following pupils will be attending the sessions:
Monday 26th October: Science (9am-3pm)
ABDALLAH, Hamza AL SHAMARI, Eman AHMED, Ahmed OANCEA, Stefan
ABUBAR AHMED, Halimo ALAWIA, Rim BANDYOVA, Michaela PRABAHARAN, Pruntha
