All their hard work, dedication and practice paid off today, January 31, when these three sportsmen took part in a Boccia competition at Newham Leisure Centre playing against three other local schools and were declared the overall winners.

The team will now go on to represent Newham in the finals of the London Youth Games.

Mr Gilbey went along with the boys and was thrilled to share in their joy when they found out they had won.

Boccia is a Paralympic sport similar to bowls or pétanque.

It was a close final match and Mr Gilbey said the boys were over the moon with their performance.

So are we! Well done from everyone at school.

Year 12 Psychology students have begun studying the topic Attachment and Mr Rahman has asked his students to conduct a fun and eggs-iting experiment to demonstrate how attachments are formed and maintained.

The psychologists were tasked with caring for an egg for two weeks and they embraced the challenge with their eggs accompanying them everywhere.

Eggs will soon be seen in the library, on the bus and even in their Psychology and Sociology lessons.

They were asked to name and personalise their eggs to begin to form an attachment and were issued with a 14 day diary to detail what their wards get up to. This will help them to link back to the topic later on.

Mr Rahman explained to students that their eggs had to accompany them absolutely everywhere unless they could arrange suitable childcare. This will help them to learn about multiple attachments.

We wish them lots of luck in this cracking assignment and we look forward to meeting the new oval visitors around school.

Headteacher Commendations were given to these Cipher Club students thus week for their codebreaking skills in a nationwide competition – The National Cipher Challenge.

This is an annual cryptographic competition organised by the University of Southampton School of Mathematics and our boys completed all ten challenges set in the exciting task for schools that was called ‘The Lighthouse Conspiracy’ this year.

The challenge this year was to track down and defeat the Lighthouse Conspiracy by solving encrypted messages and our students loved the challenge and solving the codes.

Fifty Year 12 students took part in the virtual launch of ‘Take the Lead’, a leadership project run by The Old Vic Theatre.

The project will help to develop five core employability skills: communication; teamwork; problem solving; self-belief; self-management.

In the past, many of our students who have taken part in the initiative have gone on to be a part of the Senior Student Leadership Team and to successfully apply to Russell Group universities.

“The students are really looking forward to their first in-person workshop next week” added Ms Corriette.

Year 10 students are pictured with their certificates from 15billionEBP for successfully completing work experience during October’s Half Term holiday week.

15billionebp brings together schools, employers and other partners to inspire young people to achieve their potential and thrive in their careers.

The 28 students used the week’s break from school to work for a variety of employers, including Doctors’ surgeries, Accountancy and Law firms, Pharmacies, Garages and Retail organisations.

They picked up new skills, built contacts, gained confidence and discovered what it was like to work in a real job. Invaluable skills.

Feedback from both employers and students was extremely positive.

Mrs Raja, our Careers’ Adviser said she was really impressed with the students’ enthusiasm and motivation.

Mr McCormack presented the students with their certificates on January 25. 

A talented group of lads from Year 9 had their first session on the Bon’s Scholars programme this week and it went really well.

Over the next term, they will have a variety of enriching sessions, visits, lectures and seminars to get their teeth into.

Session One required students to think outside the box, use teamwork and communicate effectively to create a tower out of marshmallows and spaghetti with the winning team produced a tower 61cm tall.

Mr Rahman Is really pleased with their attitude too.

This week teachers Ms Roddy and Ms Salau were interviewed for the Anna Freud podcasts about Race and Young People.

In Episode 4, Assistant Headteacher and our Director of Wellbeing, Safety and Resilience, Ms Roddy, speaks about why representation matters in school both on the curriculum and staffing. She chats about “making sure the curriculum is representing those students accessing it right across all subjects.”

She also talks about the impact “the lack of representation has and the lack of aspirations and how this affects some students and teachers as well as the need to support staff.”

In Episode 5 Assistant Headteacher and Director of English, Ms Salau, discusses Black British Culture and Language in Schools. In her conversation with the host she explains about language and colloquialisms and the need for expression and adjusting language to effectively communicate.

The excellent podcasts are very informative and highlight the way schools are changing and constantly assessing and improving their ways of working to benefit students and staff.

Please listen here for the full interviews.

CLICK HERE FOR PODCASTS

Our TELCO Team’s session this week was all about how they go forward in their listening campaign.

They have contacted staff, students and parents and are getting ready to present their research to the Mayoral Assembly where they can discuss this campaign to the Mayor of London and the Mayor of Newham candidates.

Ms Ali added: “They are passionate and understand how not being paid the London Living Wage has in impact on the lives of the community.”

As the weather has turned really chilly we all need ways to keep warm so you’ll be pleased to know that our school woolly hats are back on sale.

Costing a reasonable £3.50, they can be picked up from our Reception at breaktimes and lunchtimes and Mrs Gough and Mrs Norman will accept cash or ParentPay.

Stay cosy!