Newsletter 47

13 November 2015

INASecondaryNewsletter

Newnham College, Cambridge

Pg. 10

We need more Work Experience placements!

Do you work in a career that would interest our students? If so please contact us: info@

isaacnewtonacademy.orgYear 10 students will complete a work experience placement from Monday 20th June 2016 – Friday 24th June 2016 and we need your help! If you feel you can offer a placement please read the placement guide below and contact Mr Crowther-Green by email: [email protected] with the title Work Experience. Please provide a work address, brief details of the type of work, potential duties and include a contact name, telephone number and email. Placement guide• Employers must have a Health and Safety policy and Public

Liability Insurance• Placements should be easily reachable from INA by public

transport• Students should not be working in a confined space with a single

employer (safeguarding reasons)• Employers offering placements will need to complete an

agreement and send details of dress, days, times, tasks and any specific information

• Students will complete a project which they will work through during their placement

We welcome friends and family of INA students to offer placements to INA students. We want students to broaden their horizons and we want students to be completing a work experience that they could not easily organise themselves. Therefore students cannot complete work experience with family and friends. If you have an questions please contact Mr Crowther-Green by email: [email protected].

Mr Crowther-Green

Can you support INA?

2 INA Newsletter

Dear Parents and Carers

I hope that our Hindu and Sikh families enjoyed a happy Diwali. The fireworks in the Ilford skies were certainly really impressive!

This week has served as a reminder of how lucky our students at INA are with the wealth of rich additional opportunities offered to them by our staff. In this week’s newsletter you can read about:

· The Teen Tech winners visiting Buckingham Palace to receive their award from the Duke of York· A group of Year 9s spending the day at Newnham College, Cambridge· The upcoming visit of author Rohan Gavin to address the Year 7s.

In addition to that, on Wednesday a group of our Year 8 and 9 students had to opportunity to perform an abridged version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth on the RADA stage in Central London to a packed audience. The cast had been directed and the play produced by Year 10 students, supported by Ms Field and Ms Rayner, and they brought the house down. This was part of the Shakespeare Schools Festival which a number of Ark schools were participating in. Congratulations to all the performers and back stage crew: it was a truly memorable evening.

With best wishes,

Rachel MacfarlanePrincipal

INA Newsletter 3

STEM CLUB: WINNERS CEREMONY AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE

On Wednesday 4th November our Teentech winners for the health category were invited to attend

a winner’s ceremony at Buckingham Palace! It was a real privilege to be able to attend the ceremony with the three boys, Chirag Shah, Muaz Nawaz and Daanyaal Ali, who were super excited to be able to go and see what Buckingham Palace looked like! They were awarded their winning certificates by the HRH Duke of York, Prince Andrew. They were also given a complimentary tour of the Royal Mews, a part of the palace which holds all the transportation which has been used over the years for special occasions by the royal family. It was a really lovely event for the boys to attend and they should be really proud of their achievements. As an educational institute it has been excellent achievement to have been the only state school to have won one of the categories at the Teentech Finals. We are proud of you boys, well done!

Ms AhmedHigh Attaining Ambassador

4 INA Newsletter

INA Newsletter 5

6 INA Newsletter

PE AT ISAAC NEWTON ACADEMY

Redbridge Handball Girls under 15s Championship

NA hosted the tournament this year again and entered two teams into the competition. Both INA teams showed great desire to improve during the build up to the tournament by attending lunch time practices. INA girls showed unbelievable team spirit throughout the competition and a real determination to win. One of the INA teams only lost to the winners of the tournament 2-1; this shows how close the teams were. A special mention for their perseverance and bravery goes to Reem Shoaba 10E with a superb goalkeeping display and

Year 7 Netball

On a dark, breezy evening we travelled to Ursuline

School for our first away fixture! The girls were buzzing with excitement at the thought of getting to travel on the minibus and go to play a match away from home soil. Unfortunately they found themselves up against a very quick Ursuline team, who had a very accurate GA. Their excitement and buzz soon dimmed down as they found it hard to settle into the match. The overall result was soon something that we soon tried not to focus on. The Ursuline team were gracious in victory and nominated Glory Mondua player of the match for INA.; a nice touch to finish the game on positive note. Our girls were in total agreement that their WA was their player of the match. As we travelled back to school on the minibus their spirits were soon lifted as they had a good old sing song to the radio!

Upcoming fixtures

16th November• Year 9 Netball vs

Mayfield (away)18th November • Year 7 Netball vs

Palmer Academy (home)

• Year 7 Indoor athletics at Beal School

19th November • Year 8 Football team

vs Loxford (away)

Fixtures and Results

INA Newsletter 7

PE AT ISAAC NEWTON ACADEMY

After school Lunch timeDay 1st Lunch

(Year 10)2nd Lunch (year 7,8 &9)

Mon Boys Handball (Year 8 &9)

Tues Basketball club (Year 8&9

Wed Basketball club (BH)

Girls Handball Year 8 & 9

Thur Year 7 Handball Boys and Girls

Fri Handball Club (BH)

Basketball (Year 7) Girls and Boys

PE department extra-curricular and enrichment clubs

Improve your skills! Try something new! Keep fit!

Make new friends! Unleash your energy! Increase your

chances of getting into a team!

DAY CLUB TEACHER VENUEMon Handball DB Sports Hall

Netball EH MUGATable Tennis GW Activity

StudioTues Judo Club External Sports HallWed Yr 9 S+C BH Sports Hall

Rugby Club OT Knox Field/MUGA

Thur Yr 10 Football

AT MUGA

Table Tennis BW Activity Studio

Yr 8 Basketball

JL Sports Hall

Seated Volleyball

MB Activity Studio

Football/Cricket Yr 7

TB MUGA

Fri Badminton club

External Sports Hall

Girls’ Sports club

AN MUGA

Bike Club EC, DH, BB MUGAFootball/Cricket Yr8

AG Knox Field

This week’s Mathematicians of the Moment

Elanah Summers (9A)

Ekam Sehmbi (8S)

Sajjad Ali (7A)

Israel Vallejo (9N) Kisanth Ravi (7I)

Well done to the following students who are this week’s Mathematicians of the

Moment. Please collect a merit from Mr Dukes

7I 30 7S 7A 40 7C 7N 40 7E 70 7W 110 7T

8I 8S 60 8A 170 8C 30 8N 8E 8W 8T

9I 9S 9A 430 9C 9N 600 9E 160 9W 530 9T 560

Announcement!Mathematician of the moment can now be found on fronter

8 INA Newsletter

Announcement!Mathematician of the moment can now be found on fronter

The Mathematics department would like to encourage all students to enter next week’s Mathematician of the Moment competition. Have a look at the problem below.

Answers to be written on a Maths postcard to be placed in the Maths post box no later than 4.10pm on Wednesday 11th November. Good luck and may the best form win!!!

Answers on a postcard to be handed to Mr Dukes (G42) by Wednesday 4.10pm latest!

Monday 16th November to Wednesday 25th November YEAR 7 - PROBLEM OF THE WEEK

How many triangles?



James was looking through the family photograph album, which has a photo of each of his parent, each of his

grandparents, all the way up to each of his great-great-great-grandparents.

How many photos is that?



Using four straight lines join all nine dots together without letting your pencil leave the paper.

INA Newsletter 9

Year 9 Physics experience at Newnham College Cambridge

On Monday the 9th November, the following year 9 students were selected, based on their high levels of attainment in Maths and Science, to visit the prestigious Newnham College in Cambridge and walk the same hallowed halls as alumni such as Rosalind Franklin, Jane Goodall, Sylvia Plath and Emma Thompson.

Zaynab Mahiya 9AAmal Sohail 9SHaider Waqar 9COmar Gill 9IIsahni Punj 9SAlfie Southall 9TAnushri Menon 9TGurinderjot Singh 9THusna Umarji 9WTahsin Waher 9W

“We arrived at the University and listened to an encouraging talk about the courses universities offer. We went on a tour around

a campus which made us think about the aspects of life at a university. We also participated in experiments and a talk on

Astronomy to experience the manner of teaching at a university” – Amal Sohail 9S

“The trip to Newnham College was a good experience for me to learn about the life of a student for the future. On this trip I learnt

many things such as what it is like to live at a college. We also went to the Cavendish laboratory which is one of the best research

laboratories in the world. The best part of the trip was definitely when we got to do experiments with giant Jenga blocks!” –

Omar Gill 9I

As always the students were a credit to our school and upheld the values we have come to expect from students at Isaac

Newton Academy. It was a pleasure to accompany them to such a highly regarded scientific institution.

A Clift-MatthewsHead of Science

10 INA Newsletter

A Warm Invite to INA’s Awards Assemblies – Friday 18th December 2015

On Friday 18th December we will be holding our first awards assemblies of the year. This is an opportunity for the staff, students, governors and parents/carers to formally celebrate our students’ achievements at the end of the autumn term. There will be a separate assembly for each year group. Please note the times as follows:

Year 7 12.00-12.45pmYear 8 11.05-11.50amYear 9 12.00-12.45pmYear 10 11.05-11.50am

At the assemblies we will be presenting awards in recognition of students’ academic progress and attainment, personal progress and the development of their BRIDGES dispositions. Excellent attendance and punctuality will also be celebrated. It is also a great opportunity for you to see some examples of the activities and events your child has been participated in this term.

We believe that it is important that every student is represented by a parent at the Awards assembly for their year group and would like to invite one parent to attend on behalf of the family. If you would like to attend, please ask your son/daughter to collect a ticket for the awards assembly from his/her form tutor. Please request your ticket by Friday 11th December.

Due to limited capacity in the viewing gallery, we are unable to accommodate very many additional family members. However, if you would like a second place, please notify the school office and we will do our best to allocate an additional ticket.

I look forward to seeing you on the 18th December.

Jo SpencerVice Principal.

GCSE French and Spanish Controlled Assessments - Speaking

Year 10 students will do their first Speaking controlled assessments during Friday 4th and Monday 7th December. This means that any student in Year 10 who is doing Spanish or French GCSE will be required to attend a 1:1 Speaking assessment with their language teacher for about 10 minutes. The controlled assessments will take place in formal exam conditions.

The focus of the controlled assessment is sports and leisure. Students are preparing for the controlled assessments during their French or Spanish lessons. Students should also spend time as part of their independent learning revising and practising key vocabulary and phrases to ensure that they fully prepared and can approach their assessment with confidence.

If you have any questions please contact your son/daughter’s MFL teacher.

Jo SpencerINA Newsletter 11

Community Languages GCSEsDoes your son/daughter speak a language other than English at home e.g. Italian, German, Russian, Urdu, Bengali, Polish, Turkish, Mandarin, Arabic, Portuguese? Can he/she read and write the language to a good standard?

If you answered ‘Yes’ to these questions, your child may be able to take an early entry GCSE in the language at INA.

Students will need to study independently for the exam. The school will supply past papers for students to practise and will pay the exam entry fees but we are unable to offer any tuition in the language. Students will need to make a commitment to studying independently for the exams.

What happens next?

Ms Spencer will be talking to students about the process in assemblies in the week beginning 17th November. Any students interested in finding out more should attend a meeting with Ms Spencer and Mr Crowther Green on Tuesday lunchtime. Ms Spencer will distribute a past paper GCSE paper and a mark scheme for the language for students to do at home. Parents will need to mark the paper and students should return it to Ms Spencer by Monday 23rd November. The school will then make a decision as to whether the student can be entered for the exams next summer. Mr Crowther-Green will contact parents directly to discuss the decision. Should a student not be deemed ready to take the exam, he/she may be able to take it the following year.

If you would like to would like more information or you would like to discuss the matter further, please contact Ms Spencer or Mr Crowther-Green.

Sa

ve t

he

da

te! Friday 27th November

2015INA DISCO for Secondary Students

More details on buying tickets next

week!

All funds will go to support student opportunities.

Ms Alibhai-Watson & The FOINA Team

12 INA Newsletter

Thanks to the generosity of Mr Griffin, Ms Ahmed and Ms Rudd both had the privilege of visiting his old school, Phillips Exeter, during the second part of the October half-term holiday. During the two days that they spent there they observed a total of fourteen separate lessons between them, ranging from Physics to Philosophy, alongside their own subjects, Maths and English, of course!

In every lesson they saw students leading their own learning through the use of the Harkness method, which students here at INA use in their subjects once a half-term at least. While no two Harknesses were the same, they did have some key things in common, including the impressive preparation students were doing for I/L before arriving to each lesson; students' willingness to make both educated guesses and mistakes; and students' insatiable curiosity, which spurred them on to make some truly fascinating discoveries.

Inspired, Ms Ahmed and Ms Rudd spent one more day out in the States, visiting the prestigious universities MIT and Harvard, where they were blown away not only by the beauty, but also the opportunities available to students from all over the world, including INA!

Year 10You will be sitting your first

GCSE Mathematics Mock ExamTuesday 17th November Period 4/5

1hour 30min paperNon Calculator

This paper will provide us with your current GCSE working grade. It could include any content from the new GCSE specification (some of which you will

not have covered yet).

To prepare you should:

• Review all learning from Units 1-3• Use ActiveLearn to complete additional learning on target topics

Visit to Phillips Exeter

INA Newsletter 13

Year 7 Year 8 Year 9 Year 10T 632 C 421 T 558 W 168 C 545 S 360 E 338 E 115W 454 A 355 N 208 N 112S 432 E 354 W 159 S 99E 371 N 351 C 138 A 96N 333 I 343 S 134 T 90I 325 W 294 I 132 C 78 A 315 T 220 A 92 I 63

The fourth awards have been decided by the previous week’s winners.

Ahmed was well known for being kind, for helping others and for being extremely polite. He was also someone known for his hard work and absorption; the idea, therefore, is that the winner should be someone that encapsulated one of these qualities in that week.

Year 7: Isha Haque 7S

Year 8: Shaaista Patel 8S

Year 9: Omar Gill 9I

Year 10: Aqsa Bano Rafiq 10C

Good Deed Feed

Nomination from Ms Coates: Amir Chergui is doing a super job helping out with tag rugby at the primary school. The children have told me it’s their favourite part of the week!

Praise &Recognition

Merits

Ahmed Al-Khafaji Award (Peer Commendation Award)

Jennifer ByrneYear 9 Pastoral Leader, i/c Praise and Recognition

14 INA Newsletter

Regular attendance is a crucial factor in students’ educational development and ability to achieve their full potential.

At Isaac Newton Academy every student is set the target of 100% attendance. We know that attendance has a direct link to progress, and would urge you to really consider if a day off school is necessary.

Well done to 7C and 7S and 9A for meeting their 100% target!

It is still possible for any tutor group to take the lead, so keep giving your form the chance to win by being here every day!

Ms. Abbott-JonesLead Pastoral Leader

7C 100 8A 98.9 9A 100 10I 98.8

7S 100 8S 98.9 9E 97.8 10N 98.4

7A 99 8E 97.7 9T 95.7 10A 97.8

7N 98.9 8W 97.7 9C 95.5 10C 97.7

7E 98.3 8C 96.4 9I 95.5 10T 97.2

7T 97.7 8T 95.8 9S 92.9 10W 96.7

7W 97.7 8N 95.3 9N 92 10E 96.2

7I 95.5 8I 93.2 9W 91.3 10S 94

ATTENDANCE

Year 7 98.4%

Year 10 97.1%

Year 8 96.7%

How we build learning power and develop character at Isaac Newton Academy

“We build too many walls and not enough bridges.” Isaac Newton

The secondary BRIDGES programme commences on Monday 14th September. BRIDGES are habits of mind or learning characteristics that develop a student's character and learning power and enable them to grow into well rounded individuals and resilient learners.

On a two weekly cycle throughout the year, Year 7 and 8 students are introduced to one or two new habits of mind or learning characteristics that will permeate throughout the curriculum. This will take place through a range of interactive activities. In addition, the students will experience BRIDGES learning objectives in each and every lesson throughout Isaac Newton Academy. Year 9 BRIDGES lessons will focus on strengthening certain BRIDGES learning characteristics through exploration of PHSE topics and themes.

Each fortnight you will find top tips in the newsletter of ways of supporting your child to develop the BRIDGES habits of mind and learning characteristics within the home.

B R I D G E S

INA Newsletter 15

I N A B R I D G E S P l a n n i n g a n d P r i o r i t i s i n g

16 INA Newsletter

P l a n n i n g a n d P r i o r i t i s i n g

INA Newsletter 17

Key Dates for the Autumn Term 2015: Secondary

Wednesday 18th November Rohan Gavin, author, visiting Year 7Thursday 19th November Parent Workshop re LiteracyWednesday 25th November Staff Training: school closed to studentsSaturday 28th November Saturday Stretch: PsychologyTuesday 1st December Year 9 Options EveningTuesday 8th December Community PartyFriday 11th December Christmas LunchSaturday 12th December Saturday Stretch: GeographyThursday 17th December Winter ConcertFriday 18th December Awards Assemblies. Term ends at lunch time.

Spring TermMonday 4th January - Thursday 24th MarchHalf Term 15th - 19th FebruaryINSET days: Monday 4th January and Friday 12th February

Summer TermMonday 11th April - Wednesday 20th JulyHalf Term 30th May - 3rd JuneINSET days: Thursday 23rd and Friday 24th June, Friday 8th July

18 INA Newsletter

Documents

Newsletter 47