Friday 19 July 2019

From the Headteacher……...

Dear Families

Term News

A big well done to all of our students who have recently finished their exams. We feel that the students worked well and

the exams were conducted in an exemplary manner by all. From Year 7 to 13 our students have done really well and should

congratulate themselves on a hard years’ work.

As well as the academic work, a large number of enrichment activities have taken place at the school since Easter with a

real obvious commitment to ensuring a wide and balanced curriculum.

The term started with our GCSE students doing some last minute maths work at City University. Our maths work has

continued with both the junior maths challenge and the Reach for the Line competition taking place this term.

We had a visit from Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London in support of

his new funding initiative for young people, as he visited our Football

beyond Borders provision. Our students spoke beautifully and

eloquently about their experiences of growing up in London. Mr

Khan, Helen Hayes MP and Jack Hopkins the Leader of Lambeth

Council listened attentively to their presentations and the Mayor then

joined the students for a game of football (no tackling allowed). I was

very proud of our school on that day.

Football Beyond Borders also invited Crystal Palace star Aaron Wan Bissaka in and he talked to our young people about his

footballing journey. He was a very quiet and humble young man. Since his visit he has signed for Manchester United. We

wish him well although I would question his choice of club!

We were also visited by Naomi Campbell and entrepreneur Jamal Edwards.

Ms Campbell wanted to come and talk to students from her local area and we

were very happy to facilitate. A genuine game changer in British society over

the last thirty years, she was firstly interviewed by Mr Edwards and then

took questions from our Year 10 and 12 students. She was utterly compelling,

particularly when talking about the barriers around ethnicity and never ever

giving up on something. As I said to her, education is absolutely about

achieving excellent grades, but those moments where you meet Naomi

Campbell or Sadiq Khan are part of that depth of experience that a great

education should provide as well. Both events were shrouded in secrecy and

had complex security around them but it is testament to the fantastic staff

here that they both ran like clockwork.

The school has hosted the Herne Hill Film Festival and the Jack Petchey Awards final in the

last term and we have been out and about ourselves with trips to universities the V&A,

London Zoo (Year12 Psychology!), Dulwich College for the final of the Carnegie Book

Medal and many other places. Our main enrichment activity in the summer term is of

course the Duke of Edinburgh award with nearly 100 students taking part. In fact we now

have the highest level of participation of any Lambeth state school and this is a testament to

Ms Hickey and her team of volunteers. It is also wonderful to see the full breadth of the

school’s population building resilience, getting into the countryside and doing important

volunteering work.

continued…..

Our Arts also continue to impress and Ms Coll, after her triumph with our International Evening Celebration helped

plan with Harris Invictus in Croydon for their inaugural evening. Our Year 7 Steel Pan band played at the event and

it was an excellent example of schools collaborating together. Our

Competition Band also came second in the Classorama competition. Last

week also saw our school production of “We will Rock You” hit the stage. It

was amazing. Mature performances and students from Years 7 to 13

represented. It also sounded fantastic due to a generous donation of new

microphones from the Parent Promoters Foundation. Well done to Ms

Foster, Mr Gravett and the rest of the team. We also had a superb Art,

Media and DT Exhibition on 10 July celebrating the amazing creativity that

we have across our Arts subjects. Again, the standard raises year after year.

We had another busy Parent Council meeting with a Mental Health Practitioner and Parent leading a powerful and

thought provoking discussion.

Sporting News

In sport we had a term of nearly, but not quite. Even so there are some great

achievements here.

In Football, the Year 8 boys, having won all their previous matches lost 5-4

against Ernest Bevin in the Semi-Finals of the South London League.

The Year 7 boys, again previously undefeated, lost against Bishop Thomas Grant

School in the Finals of the South London League.

In Volleyball, the U18 boys and girls represented Lambeth in the London Youth Games this weekend and came

second, a stunning achievement.

In Table Tennis, the U12, U14 and U16 squads played in the 2019 Cippenham Young Table Tennis festival weekend

in Slough.

In Cricket, the U12 Boys and Girls’ cricket teams visited The Oval on Tuesday for

a tour of the stadium followed by workshops, sadly the day after the England

team paraded the trophy!

In Basketball, we had a very successful half term with the Year 7 girls reaching

the Greenhouse League Final Fours. The Girls beat Harris Academy St John’s

Wood in the quarter finals and Harris Academy Crystal Palace in the Semi Finals.

Unfortunately, we lost in the Finals against the reigning champions Clapton Girls

Academy. The Girls did very well and they have been recruited to various club

teams around London. The rest of the basketball programme continues to grow; now that the season has ended, the

students are working on their skill development and the 8 selected have been preparing for an international trip to

Spain with Greenhouse. Elia in Year 9 in now considered one of the top prospects in the country.

We are really looking forward to next year. The development of Netball across the different key stages will be one of

our key focuses for next year.

continued……..

Coming Up

Just a reminder, although I’d imagine that most people won’t need reminding, that we have some key dates during the

summer holidays as shown below.

A Level Results Day Thursday 15 August

GCSE Results Day Thursday 22 August

New Year 7 Summer School Wednesday 28

August to Friday 30 August

We will see Year 7 and Year 12 students on Tuesday 3

September and everybody else on Wednesday 4

September. Have a very restful and relaxing summer.

Yours faithfully

Dominic Bergin

Headteacher

School Term and Holiday Dates 2019 - 2020

Term 1

Holiday Monday 21 October 2019 to Friday 25 October 2019

Term 2

Holiday Friday 20 December 2019 to Friday 3 January 2020

Monday 2 September 2019 Academic Year Begins

Professional Development Day (No school for students)

Tuesday 3 September 2019 Year 7 start / Year 12 Induction (am)*

Wednesday 4 September 2019 Years 8-11 Return

Thursday 5 September 2019 SL6 Induction*

Year 13 Lessons begin*

Friday 6 September 2019 Year 12 lessons begin*

Friday 18 October 2019 Term Ends

Monday 28 October 2019 Term Begins. All students return

Tuesday 19 November 2019 Professional Development Day (No school for students)

Thursday 19 December 2019 Term Ends

O n the 10, 11 and 12 of July the annual school production took place in the hall. A specially adapted thrust stage

allowed the actors to ‘rock’ out the songs as well as giving the audience a fantastic immersive theatre experience.

‘We Will Rock You” is a futuristic musical which tells the tale of a massive corporation, Globasoft, which sends computer

generated music to the planet. We Will Rock You was written by Queen and Ben Elton and played at the Dominion

theatre in London for several years. Creativity is banned but a group of rebels, known as The Bohemians set out to find the

lost music and bring down the Globalsoft Corporation. The show is filled with the songs of Queen .... Flash, The Show

Must Go On and of course We Will Rock You to name just a few.

An exciting show from start to finish. Well done to everyone involved the Performing Arts Staff, the dedicated cast and the

hardworking crew.

A massive thank you to the PPF who this year bought the Performing Arts department a professional set of microphones.

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