POLY PERSPECTIVE WINTER 2015
Contents Welcome..............................................................................2 Girls’ Secondary School.............................................................3 Out & About..................................................................................4 Skills & Jobs....................................................................................5 Drama and Music News...........................................................6 ICT and Library News..................................................................7 Science Club...................................................................................8 PE News........................................................................................10 New Buildings.............................................................................12 Year 8 News.................................................................................14 Art Gallery....................................................................................15 Sixth Form News....................................................................16
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arent View
Welcome
As we come to the end of another very busy term we have much to celebrate. Our students continue to shine not only academically but also in the fields of sport, drama and music. September saw the introduction of the grammar school intake (GSI) for our current Year 7s and we are pleased to report that this is proving very successful. Our most exciting news is that we have been asked by our Regional Schools’ Commissioner and the Local Authority to open a girls’ school in Thamesmead. The school is due to open in September 2018 and we will shortly be asking parents and carers to register their support for this project. The final phase of our building project is near completion which means the English department will be teaching their lessons in state-of-the-art facilities from January 2016. We have recently submitted bids to the DfE for funds to repair the school roof and for a new 8 classroom science block to be built. We believe our students deserve the best. Finally, we would like to thank our staff and governors for their hard work and resilience and our parents and carers for their unwavering support. Success like ours doesn’t happen by chance, it’s the combination and hard work of all stakeholders working as a team for one common goal. We hope you have a peaceful and restful break and look forward to all the challenges that we will be faced with in the new term.
Calling all parents and carers, at Woolwich Poly we are always interested to find out your views on how we are doing; your opinions are very important to us. Ofsted have developed a website where you are able to answer questions on the school, which allows us to shape our future priorities. We kindly ask that you spare a few minutes to complete the form found at the following website address: http://parentview.ofsted.gov.uk/ Please contact the school office for more details.
Tim Plumb
Byron Parker
Extraordinary school closure: December 2015/January 2016 We are in the process of building Phase 3 of an 8-room teaching block which will house state-of-the-art classrooms. These classrooms have been designated as English rooms and will be equipped with the latest technology. We believe students will benefit greatly from lessons in this area. The construction of this block is due for completion during the Christmas and New Year closure period. When completed, arrangements will have to be made for the packing, transfer and setting up of equipment and teaching materials from many classrooms in the existing building into the new block in readiness for the students to return. This move involves six major departments and affects over twenty classrooms and in order for this extensive movement to take place additional time will be required. To this end, we have taken the decision to undertake an extraordinary closure of the school to all students. Thus, the school will be closed on: Friday 18 December 2015 Monday, 4 January 2016 Tuesday, 5 January 2016 These are additional closure days to the term dates originally published but will enable the staff of the school to ensure that the teaching rooms are set up for the students’ return on Wednesday, 6 January at 8.30am. This is not a decision taken lightly but such is the size of the move there was no choice but to provide this additional time and also ensure the safety of students whilst movements are taking place. Thank you for your support.
A girls’ secondary school is coming to Thamesmead.
PolyMAT is proposing to open a girls’ school in the heart of Thamesmead in September 2018. Statistics show that the number of school age children is growing rapidly and that there are not enough secondary school places in Greenwich now and the situation is due to become much worse over the coming years. Woolwich Polytechnic School for Girls will be a six-form entry school with an intake of 180 Year 7 students in September 2018. Each year we will recruit to Year 7 and eventually, when the school is full there will be a total of 900 pupils. Our vision is that the girls will receive the same outstanding education as the boys in Thamesmead.
Did You Know?
Woolwich Polytechnic School for Boys was runner-up for Secondary School of the Year, 2013 & 2015.
Did You Know?
Woolwich Polytechnic School for Boys is the first school in the country to offer a Maths degree with qualified teacher status.
Did You Know?
Woolwich Polytechnic School for Boys is ranked first compared to similar schools with 72% of its pupils achieving 5+ A*-C including English and maths.
Did You Know?
Woolwich Polytechnic School for Boys is 20% above national averages for English and maths.
Did You Know? Woolwich Polytechnic School for Boys is the only Ofsted rated outstanding secondary school in Thamesmead.
This can only happen with the support of our local community, parents and carers. We need 400 signatures before we can be considered. If you are willing to register your support please visit our website and complete our parental survey questionnaire.
BERLIN VISIT
OUT
&
ABOUT
From 5 – 7 November, fourteen students from Years 8 to 11 visited Berlin, Germany. They were given the opportunity to visit key sites such as the Reichstag, the Olympic Stadium and Sachsenhausen concentration camp, all of which related to their current studies of history (either at Key Stage 3 or GCSE). Both students and staff had a great time exploring the sites and landmarks of Berlin in what was an incredibly rewarding visit. Our first day began with a visit to the Reichstag building where our guide discussed the origins of Germany and how the Reichstag building had changed throughout the decades. This was followed by a visit to two contrasting memorials, the Soviet War memorial and the Holocaust memorial – both thought provoking, but in very different ways with the Soviet memorial using the image of a soldier to remind the German people of their place following their defeat in WW2. The Holocaust memorial consists of a series of stones to provide a place for contemplation. Our second day was spent visiting the Olympic stadium, touring the arena that held the 1933 Olympic Games. Throughout our guide discussed how Hitler used the games to advertise Nazi Germany. We were then taken to Sachenhausen concentration camp, which made us realise the terrible conditions that some people had to live (and die) through during the Nazi regime. Our final day was spent looking at the East German museum, looking at how the communist state operated during the Cold War, from the TV shows that the East German people watched to the cars that they drove (the Trabant). We capped the visit off with a visit to the remains of the Berlin Wall, where we found out about the struggles of every day Berliners to live their lives in a city that was divided in two. We returned late on Saturday night, weary and welltravelled, but with the knowledge that we had experienced a visit that was highly rewarding and fun, in large part due to the impeccable behaviour of the students.
SWEDEN VISIT During half term, eight students from Year 9 visited Vasteras, Sweden as part of the EU Erasmus exchange programme. The purpose of the trip was for students from London to interact with Swedish young people and to learn about the differences and similarities of  life in both Sweden and England. The trip included sports coaching across a variety of sports including football, rugby, ice skating and the traditional Swedish sport, Bandy, as well as a variety of recreational activities in the evening. It was a pleasure to see the boys develop their relationships with the Swedish children and become more confident as the week progressed. All in all, the week was a tiring but extraordinary experience and all involved commented on how it was one of the best weeks of their lives.
SKILL UP for SKILLS LONDON A group of Year 10s had the opportunity to learn how to network and ask relevant questions for the Skills London event (13th November 2015 at ExCel London). We travelled to the London Transport Museum, where a range of industry experts made themselves available for our students to ask questions about their roles, companies, and routes into their industry. Companies present included; Crossrail, Network Rail, London Underground, and South Eastern Bus Network.
SKILLS LONDON A group of one hundred of our students were taken to London’s ExCel Centre to visit the annual careers fair. We were one of 156 schools from England to attend. Having visited this event for the past few years, this was definitely the best one yet. Students were able to meet football apprentices from Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, try out engineering experiments, and meet servicemen from the Royal Airforce, Army and Royal Marines. They even had the chance to practice various hospitality roles such as cooking, waiting, and serving food and drink. Many students used this opportunity to sign up for more information about university courses, higher education providers and apprenticeships. We travelled up to the centre using the Docklands Light Railway, and a big thank you to all the staff involved. The students were all very well behaved and were a credit to the school.
WHAT IS SKILLS LONDON? Skills London is London’s biggest jobs and careers event for young people and next year’s event takes place at ExCeL London 9-10 December 2016. Aimed at 15-24 year olds, this two-day event will provide young people and their families with a rare chance to discover careers through interactive, inspirational activities and demonstrations, and help young people visually bridge the gap between what they enjoy doing and what they could potentially do as a career. Skills London 2015 took place on 13 & 14 November and we had a massive 33,026 visitors through the door and over 200 exhibitors. We would like to thank all of our visitors, exhibitors and partners and we look forward to the 2016 event.
SKILLS
&
JOBS
DRAMA AND MUSIC NEWS Miss Rudden’s Year 10 V-Cert Drama group successfully completed a four week mask work shop at Linton Mead Primary School. The students planned and delivered a professional and exciting workshop for Year 5 students. The Year 10s were amazing, also the Year 5 students really enjoyed learning about mask work. Because of their professional and fun workshops the school has asked for us to return later in the new year to do more exciting drama workshops. The students were: Luke Ripley Ashley Noble Jamaal Nelson Jeffrey Stewart Josh Cashford Ryan Edwards
Y11 GCSE Drama Showcase On 23rd and 24th November, the Year 11 GCSE cohort performed their devised physical theatre exam pieces to a packed crowd. Each performance had been created by the students and focused around different themes such as injustice, the loss of time and shadows to name but a few. The performances were well received by staff, family and friends who came to support the boys and see the incredible work they produce in drama. The boys then performed these pieces on the Wednesday for their exam and did themselves and the Poly proud!
Poly music students strike a chord at the Music Mark conference The Poly’s music department were invited to the biggest music education conference of the year in Northampton. The way we are teaching music at KS3 and the assessment system we use (which is based on the journey towards becoming the complete musician) has become widely-known; we were sponsored by Trinity College of Music to deliver a typical music lesson to 12 of our Year 7 students in front of an audience of music educators from around the UK. Ours was one of four sessions open to delegates at the conference and was the only one involving students and a “live” lesson. The innovative way we are delivering whole class instrumental and vocal teaching and how we assess the students using our own system meant that our session was the only one to be oversubscribed and we delivered our lesson to a packed auditorium. The students did themselves proud and there were very positive comments from the audience about the behaviour, engagement and enthusiasm of our boys.
ICT NEWS Queen Mary University of London Masterclasses In September, Queen Mary University ran six Masterclasses for Year 9 pupils who are enthusiastic and has a love of computing. Each of the classes are in the form of short lectures and discussion interspersed with small group work, with hands-on activities and opportunities to further review and consolidate what they’ve learnt in each class. Abdul Rahman Jacob (9 W2) and Kevin Lu (9T2) were nominated and lucky enough to be chosen to attend the classes, and below is what they’ve said about their experiences.
In week 5, we looked at the magic behind computers, algorithms. The professor did 3 magic tricks that were performed by famous magicians. They used algorithms like a trick that can change the amount of people just by changing the heights. This lesson taught me about the hidden magic of the programming of the programs. In week 6, a professor came and taught us how to make programs. We used a program that allowed us to make app for an iPhone. This app had an image of a person dancing and music playing in the background. There was also and information page and a switch that could turn the music on and off.” Abdul Rahman Jacob (9 W2) and Kevin Lu (9T2)
Ms Y Tipper (Head of Computing) “Every Saturday at 10:00 to 12:30 we went to Queen Mary University of London to take masterclasses for computing. For the course of 6 weeks different professors came in to talk and teach us about different topics in computing and how it works in the real world. In week one ,we learnt about wearable technology. Wearable technology is technology that can be worn. For example, the google glasses and the icebreaker jacket. This jacket was designed as a study tool to understand the behaviour of shy people when meeting a strangers. In week two, we learnt about artificial intelligence which is when computer scientists try to make computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, such as speech recognition, which is used in software like Siri. There are also websites that uses artificial intelligent like the Akinator which guesses the character you are thinking of. In week three, we learnt about the flexagon. The flexagon was a hexagon that could undergo different layer thus changing it colour every time. We also did two puzzles. One was hard and the other was easy. At the end we figured out that there were both the same and the only different they had was the layout. Though the puzzle and the flexagon we learnt about the computational thinking of algorithms. Algorithms are the patterns and steps a computer uses to do thing. With the help of this we used the computer to create our own algorithms of the flexagon colour pattern. In week four, we learnt about how technology helps and works in the musical industry. We first used the computer which was equipped with lots of the technology used in the music industry. Some of the equipment were the pressure pad which senses pressure and more. We used a software that could connect to the hardware and we could change the frequency and amplitude using these devices. Then we did some wiring to make our own guitar using technology.
LIBRARY NEWS Woolwich Polytechnic School library welcomed Vanessa Woolf, a professional storyteller. This is the first time we have had a storyteller at the Poly, but it will not be the last! Vanessa presented to Years 7, 8 and 9 students over the course of the day with short dark tales of the creepy kind. Each story was told by Vanessa using only her voice has a tool to engage and excite the student’s imagination. The boys listened, eyes wide mouth gaping and every now and then a small shudder running through them! This was a fantastic way to encourage use of their imagination, creative writing and listening skills. “I thought the storyteller Vanessa Woolf was creative, she told brilliant stories and she set the mood and scene really well, with lots of detail. Her stories made my imagination go wild!” Jack Dickinson Year 9
Science Club PFG Club Science club have been doing a range of topics from making sparklers to dissection and chromatography. The boys were keen to make their own sparklers and to understand what goes into making a firework. We have a range of chemicals that can be used safely with the boys in showing various colours chemicals make. Sparklers are very easy and only contain 3 important metals to give the ignition and spark we see from normal sparklers that are bought. We have also covered a lesson on dissection, this shows on a small scale the organs we all have to be living. We used a specimen of rat that had been preserved for dissecting and the students watched as we showed each organ and location on the rat. We have also dissected whole mackerel fish to show the difference between vertebrates and nonvertebrates. This was a very smelly lesson and the students were very good with the dissection, they each found various parts of the fish and compared it to the organs other animals have. We gave the students the opportunity to create their own image for a pumpkin carving for Halloween. The students were very enthusiastic about this and the pumpkins turned out to be a work of art. They were placed in our garden over the Halloween weekend.
PFG club has been a real success with all key stages within school. As it has become a popular club we have introduced responsibility roles to give the students a chance to look after a particular animal. We have handlers and keepers whom have different roles and we aim to change every few weeks so all students can have a go. We have been watching our guinea pigs grow into friendly pets. We have added another rabbit to our garden called Tim, he is a very placid bunny. Hannibal Humphry and Ambiguity Andrew are new members to the reptile and amphibian club. They are giant African land snails and will grow to be as big as a hand within a year. Since being born Hannibal has grown 3.5cm and Ambiguity has grown 2.5cm. The students measure and weigh them weekly to monitor growth. We have a new terrapin called Dinky who is a smaller species (stink pot musk terrapin) than our yellow bellied terrapin Leah. We have been very kindly asked to look after ‘Flake’ a very pretty corn snake who is about 4ft long. He has his own vivarium with a cosy heated pad and likes a lot of attention. The latest addition to the PFG family are Mila, Leelu and Cookie they are our ‘fancy rats’ they have only been with us for a week and are adjusting to our busy school life. They will soon be joining our animal clubs through the week.
Astronomy The astronomy club has been going from strength to strength, with lots of new interest and new members from Year 7. We have been working on our LED light boxes, the culmination of a longer term project on constellations and studied topics beyond the curriculum such as our own planetary system, stars, galaxies, the distant universe, early forces and inflation, UFOs, and pseudoscience. All members are incredibly keen and their work keeps learning creative and fun.
Extra Curricular Science Clubs
PE NEWS FOOTBALL BLOG Year 7 For the first time in its history, Woolwich Polytechnic have both an A and a B team. Both teams have made strong starts to their Poly careers with the A team losing narrowly in the National Cup and the B team remaining undefeated all season. Under the leadership of Charles Nduwuisi and Habeeb Olagunju, the team are growing in to potential London champions and they now play local rivals ‘Erith’ in Round 4 of the Kent Cup. Taemor Salum was the hero in the last round of the London Cup, saving 2 penalties in a thrilling shoot-out, to send the Poly boys through. It is always nice to win local derbies and the Poly did that in beating Crown Woods 13-0 away from home, with Sonny Carroll scoring 4 and Emmanuel Brown scoring 3.
ATHLETICS REPORT Throughout the first term of this academic year, the Year 8 and 9 athletic team have been competing in the South East England Lee Valley Indoor Competition. The Year 8 team performed very well competing in the age group above and finished 3rd in their group. They have a strong chance on qualifying for the B competition. The Year 9 athletics team who reached the national finals last year, performed exceptionally well, despite missing some first team athletes they qualified for the semi finals. This is the largest indoor school event nationally and as previous winners the team are aiming for another victory. Special mentions to Daniel Lumu winning the 800m in a time 2.20 and holding off a fierce battle in the relay to enable the team to finish 2nd. Another special mention to Toby Smith winning the hurdles in 10 seconds and finishing joint first in the high jump with 1.59. The team are now looking forward to the semi-finals and are hoping to add another victory to their record.
Year 8 The team are in a period of transition with many new faces joining the team. New squad members are Jayven London, Ibrahim Bello, Emmanuel Bamidele.
Year 9 The Year 9 football team have made an excellent start to the season so far. Undefeated in the four games played. The team have progressed through to the second round in the Kent, Blackheath, London and National Cups. Top goal scorer is Daniel Ogedengbe (9B1) scoring 5 goals and Daniel Lumu has had the most man of matches (2). Congratulations to Issa Mpenga, who has recently been offered a provisional contract with Fulham FC.
Year 10 The reigning London and District champions started really strongly and went on a 10-game unbeaten run, scoring dozens of goals in the process, with Dimeji Adeniran leading the way on 12 followed closely by K-Ci Allen on 10 and Junior Brown on 9. The team hopes to retain their district trophy for a fourth year in a row and make the London finals as they have managed to do in previous years.
RUGBY REPORT
RESULTS
The Year 7 and 8 rugby teams have had an impressive start to the season, with both sides only losing one game each.
Year 8 Rugby victory
The year started well , with two comprehensive victories in the MET League opening festivals. On each occasion, both sides won all of their 6 matches and returned to The Poly with the trophy. Since then each team have recorded victories against numerous schools including Erith, Bonus Pastor and Greenwich Free School. Special mention should go to Zac Thomas and Aaron O’Dwyer who have assisted in promoting the club and in helping members of staff to organise both of the sides. It has also been particularly encouraging to see many new faces attending rugby club this year with over 50 students across year 7 and 8 training regularly. If all the boys continue to practise and train regularly I have no doubts that both sides can finish strongly in both the cup and league competitions this year!
The Year 8 rugby team put in a confident performance recently beating Trinity School 53-0. The opposition were one of the only teams to have beaten Woolwich Poly last year making this result even more impressive. Stand out performances by Emmanuel Bamidele, Ashton Mckay-Sarr and Michael Ojobo all contributed towards what was probably the best performance by this team so far. All members of the team are now performing the basic skills routinely and are now beginning to display glimpses of free flowing rugby. If all members of the team continue to attend training and work hard, I have no doubts that they will be challenging for the North Kent League title come March 2016.
Y10 Basketball team wins Woolwich Poly’s Year 10 basketball team visited BBA to act as their newly formed basketball team’s first opposition. It was intended that Woolwich Poly would demonstrate the standard that the newly formed BBA team need to aspire towards and the players did not disappoint. It was a good, friendly match in which Woolwich Poly won 72-20.
NEW BUILDINGS - 2015
New Buildings - Update Four years ago we saved enough money to build an eight-classroom block. We decided that the temporary buildings were no longer suitable if we wanted our students to flourish and indeed have the right facilities to succeed. The temporary buildings were demolished and a new timber-clad, eco-friendly art block rose from the rubble. We didn’t realise back then that this would just be the start of greater things to come. Once we became an academy we found that we could access funds from the DfE. We secured funding for a second block in the same design which was finished in April 2015 and became the home of our expanding sixth form. This block has a state-of-the-art learning suite on the ground floor with computer access for all and four sixth form classrooms on the first floor. As Phase 2 was coming to an end we were then lucky enough to secure additional funding from the DfE to build yet another block. This last phase is due for completion in December 2015 and will be home to the English department; eight large classrooms that are bright and airy and conducive to excellent teaching and learning.
What’s Next? The one remaining temporary building is due for removal at the end of term. In its place we hope to put a large canopy and seating area which will double up as an outdoor classroom and lunch area, weather permitting. We also envisage planters and garden areas where our students can join the gardening club and learn how plants are an essential resource for our well-being. We are in the process of bidding for another new eight-classroom block at the back of the school which would house modern science laboratories. Our current labs are old and in need of modernisation. We will keep you informed of our progress.
YEAR 8 NEWS Year 8 has ‘hit the ground running’ this autumn term. We have much to celebrate as we approach the holiday break. Here are a few of our achievements and events this term:
Jeans for Genes Day 2015 Year 8 held a football tournament to raise money for Jeans For Genes Day. 8W2 was dominant in winning both the A and B team competitions. The year group raised over £100 through the tournament to add to what we already donated totally over £300 for Year 8 alone.
Litter Poster competition Students were asked to design an eye-catching poster to raise awareness of the school campaign to reduce litter.
Cycling Dome Reward Trip For our best students a reward trip was organised, photos of the day can be seen below. In addition, Year 8 students have been invloved in peer mentoring, and also been on a geography field trip.
GALLERY
Now available: Art & Photography Department Calendar 2016 The art and photography departments have selected 12 outstanding images by our current GCSE and A Level students for the 2016 calendar. The calendar is priced at ÂŁ2.00 and is available to buy from the school. Pleae contact the office for an order form.
SIXTH FORM NEWS THEATRE VISIT
CLAY PIGEON SHOOTING
On 8th October, we were taken on a theatre trip to see a play called Slap. It was at the Stratford Theatre. The play was very different from anything any of us had ever seen. It was immersive theatre which means that we were part of the set. It was like we were sitting in someone’s lounge, some members of the audience were on sofas and armchairs and there was also a bath and a circular bed. The play was controversial to say the least, the main character, Dominique, was a statuesque transsexual, hooker with an addiction to drugs and a complicated love life. Her story was very interesting and audience members were drawn in to her seedy world from the very first scene. There were only three characters in the whole play. Dominique, along with Danny her young druggie boyfriend and her suitor John. The three actors portrayed these roles brilliantly and the play was expertly directed by Rikki Beadle Blair. This is the fourth of Rikki’s plays to be seen by sixth form students past and present. Slap was sad and funny with some real heart-stopping moments. It was an unforgettable trip. Dominic Verrillo Year 12
On 10th October we were invited on a trip to go clay pigeon shooting. We left Woolwich on a crisp autumn morning and travelled to Kent where we were welcomed by staff at JJ’s Shooting Club. We were split into two teams and each team had a dedicated instructor. After our health and safety talk, we were able to handle the shotguns and finally have a go at shooting the clay discs (thankfully, no pigeons were involved). We were taught how to hold the gun correctly and how to aim and shoot. Some people were just naturally good and got shot after shot. Others took some time to get the hang of it but pretty much everyone hit at least one of the discs. It was a very satisfying feeling when you hit one and saw it shatter in mid-air. We had three staff with us, Mr Beaney, Ms Elliott and our driver for the day, Ms Brown. They all attempted shooting; Mr Beaney was clearly an assassin in a former life, Ms Brown was decent, hitting 6 of out 8 targets. The less said about Ms Elliott’s shooting skills, the better (zero hits). We all received a medal at the end and a clay disc as a souvenir of our day. It was a great day, a great team building exercise and most importantly, it was great fun. Bolu Ogunnaike Year 12
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oolwich Polytechnic School
Hutchins Road Thamesmead SE28 8AT Email: enquiries@woolwichpoly.co.uk Website: www.woolwichpoly.co.uk Telephone: 0208 310 7000