TheCityTimesMonthly

On Thursday 18 April The City Academy, Hackney marked 100 days to go until the start of the Olympic Games with a very special book launch. Entitled, “Sam and Ruby’s Olympic Adventure” our students worked collaboratively with our neighbouring schools and children’s author, Tony Bradman to create a fun-packed story inspired by the Olympics as the London 2012 Games count down begins.

The story unfolds with Sam and Ruby being given an ultimatum by their teacher: either they present a project on the Olympic Games or they will not be allowed to go on their school trip! Creating a time machine, using Sam’s spare wheelchair, they travel from the beginning of the Olympics in Athens to the Beijing Olympics of 2008 in an exciting story which presents the history of the Olympic Games in a fun format.

Student, Lorenzo who took part in the creative writing workshops said, “It was a good challenge as I’d never done anything like it, we were able to meet the author and I’m really pleased with the end product.”

The book has proved so popular that the first edition has already sold out and publishers Barrington Stoke have had to do a reprint! If you’d like to order a copy, it is available in local bookshops, libraries and even on Amazon.co.uk.

As part of Science Week our students entered a competition to design a “renewable racer” to take part in a global race. The ten best entries from within the school were then entered into the national competition. There were nearly 20,000 entries nationally and the amazing news is that Elton in Year 9 won the senior category. This is a fantastic achievement considering the vast number of submissions to this national competition.

All the winning entries can be viewed on the British Science Association website.

Sakib, in Year 9 summed up the experience, “It’s only 100 days until the Olympics and it’s going to be so exciting as it’s right near our school. Writing this book has helped us to feel part of that excitement.”

Making Olympic history

Eco Warrior

Olympic book launch

National Science and Engineering Week

Monday 7 May 2012Issue #43

We began the summer term with a brand new competition, our first annual Spelling Bee Challenge. The event, organised by Ms Donoughue and Ms Sumpter from the English department, saw representatives from every house and every English class compete against one another in a war of words. Lots of house points were awarded for the exceptional spelling skills of our students. The winning houses of our Spelling Bee Challenge were Ludgate and Newgate. Well done to all the students involved and congratulations to our first ever winners. We are very much looking forward to the next clash of consonants!

Diary dates

Magic spellSpelling Bee Challenge

Monday 7th MayBank Holiday - school closedWednesday 9th May3.40pm - Library closed

Wednesday 16th May5.30pm - PSA Meeting

Thursday 24th MayPSA Subject Evening

Friday 1st JuneYear 7 & 8 Parent Day

Thursday 5th JulyYear 6 Induction Day

Cut

out

and

keep

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Mr. McGuigan’s class were pleased to welcome a surprise guest bearing paperback gifts to their English lesson. As part of the “big give-away” for World Book Night, local resident and World Book Night supporter Matthew Kleebauer arranged to have a class set of books donated to The Academy from Homerton Library.

World Book Night, which sees tens of thousands of people gift books within their community, is an annual celebration of reading allowing anyone to share their love of books with their local and wider community. From a shortlist of approximately 20 books available as part of this year’s campaign, Mr. Kleebauer chose to donate 25 copies of Steven King’s Misery to the class, a book by an author Matthew remembers enjoying as a student when he was at school and ignited his own passion for reading. What makes these special copies unique is that each book ends with the first two chapters of another book to help

entice our avid readers and begin a chain reaction of reading.

So, what happens to the books after our students have read them? Well, each book also contains a unique code which allows the World Book Night organisers to track it as it is handed from reader to reader around the country and even the world!

For more information about World Book Night events and the list of books available this year, visit www.worldbooknight.org.

Fully bookedWorld Book Night Donation

Nine students from our City Conference Business visited the Mansion House on Thursday 19th April 2012 to deliver their sales pitch to a panel of judges. Prior to the visit, students worked tirelessly to prepare for their presentation. They all had a role to play in the presentation. It was delivered very professionally using key business terminology. The judges were extremely impressed by the quality of their presentation. One judge said “I was impressed by your presentation, particularly the amount of details you’ve included and the way you presented it”. Mansion House will now be working closely with our Conference business to develop and deliver events at The City Academy, Hackney.

At the end of last term, our incredibly talented theatre group performed in a pilot production of Barbican Box. Our students not only showed that they are clearly a talented group of actors as individuals but as a group they are a truly excellent ensemble. Visiting theatre practitioner, Ged Simmons said, “I have rarely seen a group of actors rise to the occasion - and respond to an audience - in the way that you did. You all surpassed my (already high) expectations as I watched you all grow as performers and as people.”

For more information, please see Ms. Rajoo or visit, www.barbicanbox.org.uk. A gallery of photos from the event will be online soon.

We mean business

Amazing acting

Top merit winners

Accelerated Reader

Mansion House City Conference visit

Barbican Box theatre group

26th MarchGrace45 MeritsAldgate K

26th MarchTaha45 MeritsNewgate Y

16th AprilShannon25 MeritsMoorgate G

23rd AprilAustin42 MeritsNewgate T

16th AprilJoelLudgate T

23th AprilTojuLudgate P

26th MarchKaneAldgate L

Congraulations to all of our top merit winners over the past month.

The City Times is available in print and online on the last Friday of every month. Subscribe to our mailing list or browse our archive at www.thecityacademy.org.

If you would like to include an article, submit a photo feature or promote an upcoming school event please contact our Communications Manager, Adam Smith (Adam.Smith@thecityacademy.org).

Best Year 9 netball team in the South East

Borough netball squad

South East England Academies Cup

London Youth Games

SportsNews

TheCityTimes

On Monday 23 April our new Year 6 students, joining us in September, paid their first visit to The City Academy, Hackney for a taster English class with Ms Valizadeh.

Exploring descriptive language and communication skills, in pairs, students took it in turns to memorise elements of a Vettriano painting hung outside the classroom before coming back in and describing the image to their partner, who would then draw what they thought it should look like.

This was a great test of the students’ descriptive skills as they gradually pieced together the composition, first explaining how many figures there were, how many men, how many women, and then adding as many details as they could spot.

The students’ attention to detail was excellent. Nearly all the groups had included a small white handkerchief in their drawings, as well as bowler hats, umbrellas and even the clouds in the background.

Everyone enjoyed their visit as it gave them a great opportunity to make new friends. We look forward to welcoming them all in again next week.

The Year 9 Netball team finally got their hands on the South East England Academies Cup after competing three years in a row for it. The girls demonstrated just how much they have developed as netball players and as a team by winning nine matches, drawing one and losing none. They are now officially the best Year 9 Academy netball team in the South East of England. Well done to the whole team, pictured (above) with their individual trophies and Captain, Zainab with the team’s silverware.

Following on from The Academy’s recent netball success at the South East England Academies Cup, our squad were given the chance to try out for the Borough team, representing Hackney at the London Youth Games in June. We are very proud to annouce that the following students were selected by the professional coaches from Britannia Youth Netball Club to join the Borough netball team: Taiwo Adegbola, Reisha Boyce-Daniels, Katie Briggs, Jayan Clarke, Mariah Darko-Coby, Olivia Eastwood-Gray, Penar Eris, Chantel Hesse-Bradley, Allysa Mikaella Taniajura, Kyana Morris Diedrick.

A picture paints a thousand wordsYear 6 Literacy Workshops