Perkin Post Sixth Edition

18/07/2016

Perkin Post Sixth Edition

18/07/2016

Intelligent engagement with the wider world.

Warm Words

Hi! As we did this time last year, we have once again used this edition of the Perkin Post to round out some of our favourite

moments of the year. As you will see, there has been loads going on. We’ve won some matches, lost some, eaten masses of

cake for charity and even got to touch rocks which have been to space. What a fantastic year! We’re sure next year will be

even more exciting. But before we get stuck into that, we thought we’d dedicate the first page to Activities Week so far.

After working so hard all year, and the stress of Q4 exams, everyone looks forward to activities week. It is our chance to have

fun, blow off some steam, feel like we are being rewarded for all our hard work over the year and maybe even learn

something along the way. The Year 7s were particularly excited about the week as it is the first since they have been at

William Perkin and many have never experienced something like this before. Most

of Year 7 spent the first three days of the week in Kingswood taking part in an

exciting range of activities. Before they left, we asked Miss Cryer what she was

looking forward to, here is what she said:

How do you feel about activities week?

‘I am very excited especially about Kingswood.’

What activities are you most excited about?

‘I really like laser tag, I am looking forward to it.’

It sounds like they’ve been having a great time, they even had a disco (guess who covered all the teachers in glitter in

preparation for it?).

While some students have been away at Kingswood, in Normandy or at Condover Hall, there have

been loads of fun trips and activities going on back here at William Perkin. We have been on trips

to the Natural History Museum, the Imperial War Museum, Hampton Court Palace and much

more. There has also been lots going on at school: cycling, music,

computing, ‘The Apprecntice’ and even a production of ‘A Midsummer

Night’s Dream.

Year 8 were very lucky to have a theatre company come in and help them

work on a production of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’

which was performed that evening. It was difficult to

make sure we all knew what we were doing in time but it

all came together in the end. Everyone had a part to

play and we were all extremely proud of ourselves

(and tired) by the end of the day. Definitely some

future stars in that cast!

A huge thank you to all the teachers who have

organised so much for us to get involved with this

week.

An Exceptionally Active Week

Amazing new Astro-turf!

You may have noticed something strange has been happening outside. William Perkin

has spent £2.5million on an amazing, huge new Astroturf! We have been watching it

emerge from amidst the rubble of the building work, like a phoenix from the ashes, for

over a term now. Everyone is anxiously anticipating the day when they will be allowed

to play on it at break and lunch; it will be amazing for football! Who will score the first

goal? Could it be you? Who will win the first interform on it? We’ll have to wait and see,

but for now, we still have the MUGA.

Literacy is Language Week

All WP students and staff, love and enjoy literacy and different languages. The

wonderful summer term started off with Literacy is languages week. Over the week

there were various activities that were planned; things like different words of the day,

one of them being ‘Carpe Diem’ meaning seize the day in Latin. Additionally, there

were also literacy foci for each day, things like: using adverbs and similes. Another

activity that was available was watching a French film called ‘The Extraordinary

Adventures of Adele Blanc-sec.’ The film was greatly enjoyed, thank you to Mrs

Bamping for organising this for us.

Not to forget the extravagant cake competition that was judged by Miss Neelands and

Miss Hewett – an uneasy duty. Some WP students and staff baked the most brilliant

literacy and languages themed cakes, some were slightly less impressive than others.

The cake sale was run by the amazing French and English teachers who, as usual, were

astounded by the amount of cake eaten (and thrilled with the amount of money

raised).

To end this week, which truly was a highlight of the year, there were

amazing speeches performed by our very own Y8 students who came up

with their own words and tried to

convince us that they should be added to

the English Dictionary.

The whole of William Perkin enjoyed this

amazing week and we can’t wait for next

year’s!

Last term the sponsored walk took place on a bright, sunny day, we were so lucky to have such a beautiful day for it. So, on Friday 27th May the entire school headed out to raise as much money as possible for charity. The whole day, the whole school, running, walking! Exhausting!

When I got there I spoke to Lea Haddad who was dressed as a minion from Despicable Me. "First we went to school at 7am for a form briefing, then lined up on the MUGA and then headed off to Northala fields—that counted as one lap. Round and round we

went and most people did 5 or 6 (in my case) laps. The runners were amazing! Miss Taccuso was like the Flash! She did about 5000 laps!" The costumes were magnificent, with cats and Marios, and even people in pyjamas!

After completing as many laps as possible, everyone headed back to school. Grace Cresswell explained "the walk back to school was exhausting because Lea got injured and we had to carry her back to school." When we all got back to William Perkin, all we could see were hunched backs and smiling faces (and some sweaty teachers!)

Cool Core Electives

The Sponsored Walk

The core electives this year have been fabulous and packed with amazing sports and rivalries (in Year 7, this has reared itself mostly between the competitive members of Isambard and Newton). During the first term Mr Harrisson took Year 7 out to the ‘old field’ to teach us new skills and techniques to improve our football skills. We all learnt a lot in those weeks which were packed with exciting football games. Year 7 then moved on to Rugby, as most had not played before, we spent some time learning the rules in order to ensure we could play properly and confidently.

Meanwhile, some of Year 9 were taking part in the Media Core Elective where they learnt about different sound and lighting skills used to create

film as well as recording some of their own pieces. They even created modern versions of the Shakespeare play ‘Macbeth’ in rap and slang.

One student said:

We like the core electives because even though we are learning all the time it is also a time for us to be creative and have fun.

Year 7 Cricket Interform

The hotly anticipated Year 7 Cricket interform took place this term. The teams were well matched and the games were all competitive but fun. Lots of form tutors poured out to support their teams.

Once again, Kelvin were lacking players but fought hard against the other teams nonetheless. Newton took an early lead, storming to victory against Kelvin and then Isambard, meaning they took a solid position in the finals. Equally, Pascal won against Rutherford and Watson making them Newton’s rivals in the final match.

Pascal and Newton both fought hard in the finals, but ultimately Pascal seized victory. One Newton team member said that they were still proud of their effort “we did the best we could and we are pleased that we made it all the way to the final”. Pascal were also thrilled with their efforts, one team member stated that they were pleased to have ‘something to celebrate back in form time on Monday.”

Cricket Round-Up 2015-2016

Our football team may have suffered a few crushing defeats over the last year, however, the school cricket team has been doing exceptionally well. The Y7s got off to a great start to the season and at the start of this half term, managed to beat Twyford by a significant margin. This victory was partly down to teamwork – namely, the partnership of Farhan and Anujan who made 91 together! Amazing! The bowling was absolutely superb and William Perkin managed to bowl Twyford out for 20 runs.

William Perkin then proceeded to the next round against Elthorn, unfortunately, team WP were not on top form and with a poor batting display, they lost. Not disheartened, they went on to play a close fought match against local rivals Dormers Wells. Despite batting well and making 59 in their batting innings, it was close down to the las ball. Dormers Wells needed 3 to win the game and just managed to scrape it with 4.

The year 8s had a slow start to the season, losing to Twyford in their opening game. They regrouped and went into the y7/8 tournament feeling confident. The star player was Abish who saved the team to and led them to the bowl off. They worked extremely hard and were unlucky to lose by 1 wicket in the bowl off.

The Year 9 team has also played well this season and has been lucky to have been led by experienced players such as Krish P and Vatsal.

This year has been an amazing step for William Perkin cricket and a massive thanks to Mr. Harrison and Mr. MacDonald for taking us to our matches and arranging the fixtures for us.

In February, Professor Monica Grady very kindly came in to the PC to teach us more about our Earth and different planets in the Solar System. We were thrilled to hear her talk about space – we felt so lucky to be hearing first hand about the research being carried out by a renowned space scientist. We learnt so much about the surface of Mars and the Moon and how they can determine information about it without even going there. Did you know that meteorites bounce off the Moon and eventually land on Earth?

After Professor Grady’s talk was the moment we had all been waiting for But now is the time we’ve been all waiting for. She introduced it as a rare object, a precious object, an object no one would ever expect, and that we were going to get to touch it. What could it be? My heart thumped in my chest as she announced there were not one but two items in sealed boxes. Pieces of the Moon and Mars which we were actually able to touch! I came racing down the stairs like a cheetah running after a gazelle. I saw it, I really did – the lumps of space rock were surprisingly soft and smooth to touch. I couldn’t believe I had actually touched pieces of the Moon and Mars. I was very jovial indeed.

We Touched Macgical Mars!

Before half term, Year 9 had a very special opportunity to be given a talk by a real Holocaust survivor, Susan Pollack. In History, the Year 9s were learning about the tragic Holocaust, which was when Hitler persecuted Jewish people after World War One. As it was such a dreadful period of time, the students really sympathised with Pollack and what she went through. Susan Pollack was a Hungarian Jew that had to leave her home whilst she still was a little girl. She, and other Jews, had to live in awful conditions in concentration camps where they were beaten, threatened and given very little food. She also mentioned that her father was taken away by the Nazis and she “never saw him again.” All these events, and much more, that happened in her life left the Year 9s shocked and really helped us to understand how hard it was for someone to be treated like that and what effects Hitler’s actions had. Thank you so much to Susan Pollack for being brave enough to recount the story of such a terrible period in her life and for doing it so well! Also, thank you to Ms Gandy and the History department for organising a very interesting and moving talk!

Moving Holocaust Survivor Talk

Citizens Corner—A Year in Review

The Citizens group have worked exceptionally hard this year! Not only are they hardworking, dedicated people who truly care about what’s happening in the world, they try to get everyone else in William Perkin involved too! This year, they have been focusing on the housing crisis and how they are going to influence the direction of the development of Old Oak Common. They have done a few surveys on housing and Syrian refugees and how students and staff of William Perkin would like to see a change in the world. Also, as an impact of all of this, we managed to get a lot of people to go to the Mayoral Election at the Copperbox Arena which was a fantastical and moving night for everyone. Thank you to all

who went!

Recently, we also had a visit from real Syrian refugees who shared their stories with us. They both had different life stories but they were equally tragic; they recounted how their families were evicted from their houses in Syria and forced to move somewhere else, away from their homes. They told us about the difficulties of being a refugee and trying to restart life in another country. “The war has completely changed everyone’s lives and has had a massive impact on the people in Syria however the Syrian people are still proud of their country and there is so much beauty that the news doesn’t show and that Westerners don’t see”

As a reward, the Citizens had a fun night out with fellow school, Newman College. This was a treat for the success of the Copperbox Arena and they had a great time. The night was full of games, quizzes, movies and pizza! It also allowed the students to get to know other people who share an interest in the same issues. All in all, it was an enjoyable night!

Well done to all the Citizens, Miss Alvis and Father John for working so hard this year to make our community a better place to live. We hope that next year will be just as great and that the future will be better for everyone as a result.