TheClaptonReview
In this issue:
Breaking records Tea at the palace On the beach In the community
p3 p4 p7 pp9-10
Jan 2016
2015 our best ever A-Level results!
31% A*- A
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Message from
Dr C Day, Headteacher As usual this edition of Clapton Review contains a fabulous round up of some of the most exciting activities our talented students have been involved in. I particularly enjoyed reading about our academy's amazing successes in music and PE this term (see pages 6, 10 and 11). Given our sporting achievements, it was no surprise to find out that Clapton Girls' Academy has been awarded Secondary School of the Year in Sport this year. The PE staff and all our students work hard to produce high quality performances (including at national level) and organise inclusive activities: all with a commitment on fitness and health. Well done to you all!
Stubbers Activity Centre
CGA students taking off
Sixth Form students, Kevser Kilinc and Shazmin Khan have celebrated completing an intensive residential two-week gliding course at the London Gliding Club. They arrived having never flown an aircraft and finished the course able to fly a glider solo. The course, which the students completed was organised by The Air League and sponsored by Boeing, British Airways and Linklaters.
It was great to see new Year 12 students come out of their shells at the start of their time in the Sixth Form, working as a team, building their confidence and getting to know one another at Stubbers Adventure Centre. Highlights of the day included the amount of girls conquering their fear of heights, staff taking leaps of faith and Ms Baker getting soaked by a primary school student on the rafting challenge.
Maths A-Level results best in Hackney!
43% A*- A
A-level results best in borough!
61% A*- B
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Open House This September’s Academy Live tours and Open Evening were busier than ever. Over 400 families came to see our outstanding academy, many leaving saying that CGA is definitely their first choice for a Year 7 place in September 2016. Shown round by Year 11 tour guides guests at Open Evening were given a flavour of life at CGA. From chromatography, an erupting mini-volcano and a Van de Graaff generator in science to handson making with origami in maths and creating robot pencil holders in technology to board games in humanities, French songs in languages and getting messy with collage based on Eduardo Paolozzi’s work in art there was something for everyone. One visitor summed up their experience saying, “Thank you for such a brilliantly orchestrated morning (and evening) at Clapton Girls' Academy. It was a delight see the school and meet some of the teachers and girls - it's clear you have created a wonderful, energetic and stimulating environment for the students at Clapton.” News of CGA’s fantastic ‘best in borough’ A-Level results this summer has got round as more than 250 Year 11 students from CGA and other local schools came to the Sixth Form Open Evening in November. They discovered more about courses, as well as the support and wider experiences on offer in Years 12 and 13 that will ensure their next step beyond school into university, employment or apprenticeship is a success. Applications are already rolling in, so those thinking of making CGA Sixth Form their choice don’t miss out - visit the website for details on how to apply.
CGA has been re-accredited with International School status.
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World record attempt The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park hosted Active August this summer, providing an opportunity for young people to try new activities for free. I went down to try out paddle boarding. My instructor showed me the technique and I quickly improved my balance and also my arm strength! Despite the terrible weather, it was one of the best experiences I have ever had. My instructor was so impressed with my efforts that I was invited to help break the Guinness world record for the most people SUP paddle boarding at once.
On the day of the world record attempt I was extremely nervous as it was only my second time on a paddle board! Having completed the mile-long course I was exhausted but very proud that I had taken part and had also raised over ÂŁ90 for the Big Stand, an organisation who help young adults to take part in water sports. Soon after the event I received news that I am now a world record holder as we had broken the previous record and I received a certificate to prove it! Hadiyah Patterson 11C
A class apart
Representatives from CGA attended the World Class Schools Quality Mark (WCSQM) award ceremony on 12th November where the latest batch of schools to successfully complete the accreditation process were announced. This is only the second year that the World Class School status has existed. CGA was privileged to be amongst the first group of schools last year to receive the award, qualifying to participate by exceeding the challenging threshold requirement for Key Stage 4 performance. Selected CGA students then had to develop a compelling case for accreditation through detailed auditing of CGA’s capabilities, creating video submissions to support their application, and participating in an assessment centre event at which their performances were assessed against a rigorous framework. They did us proud - demonstrating that CGA far exceeds the highest Ofsted inspection grade and is a class apart.
Commendation for our creative teaching of international education & links with partner schools in France & Jordan.
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Tea at the palace
Our Wings of Hope semi-finalist students from 2014-2015 had the fantastic privilege of visiting Buckingham Palace earlier this term in appreciation of their hard work fundraising to provide an education for children in India and Malawi. A private tour guide had been arranged who explained the history of the magnificent state rooms, the backdrop for ceremonial occasions, and gave great detail about the priceless paintings hung on the walls. The girls also viewed a room full of gifts presented to the Queen. The afternoon was topped off with special royal tea provided by the palace.
Jack Petchey Awards The music started, the lights flashed and our Jack Petchey award winners Chay'Ne Hearne, Maddi Vass, Zoe Sunu, Glory Erigbuo, Safiya Patel and Gioya Ikar went on to the Stoke Newington Town Hall stage to huge cheers and clapping. They collected their award and had their photograph taken with Councillor Sade Etti, the Speaker of Hackney Council before making their way proudly back to their seats. The monetary award will be used to buy various resources for CGA.
The awards were interspersed with entertainment throughout the evening and included a spoken word piece called ‘Still I Rise' by Kyanne Richards 10A.
CGA’s annual prize giving evening was on 22nd October.
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Take Note On 25th November the CGA music department hosted the launch of the Take Note workshop with the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO). Students from Haggerston and Petchey joined our Key Stage 3 violin students for the launch workshop. The Take Note project is a series of collaborative creative workshops which will culminate in a performance next year featuring members of the LSO and students from Hackney’s primary and secondary schools at Stoke Newington Town Hall.
You can’t stop the beat!
Students have been rehearsing intensely, since the start of term, for this year’s CGA musical, Hairspray. Separate singing, dancing and acting rehearsals have been taking place and the Expressive Arts department has been a hive of activity! After the winter break, the girls will come together to slot all the elements of the show together, ready for the performances in March! Some of the cast will perform a sneak preview from the show at our Winter concert. Billie Williams 10A will perform the song ‘Nicest Kids in Town’ along with the dancers, backing singers and Fenella Sanderson 10P as Link and Evie Carricker 9P as Amber. The West End better be ready for some competition, as our students are already offering some strong confident performances which promise to be very polished indeed by showtime!
Through the lens
Script writing, manning a camera, handling a boom are all new skills The Tuesday Programme students now possess. Having created the plot and allocated the starring roles for their blockbuster production they went on location to film around the academy site. The atmospheric backdrop of the Portico building set the scene for their movie ‘The Camping Murders’, although it looked like the most tricky part was not remembering their lines but figuring out how to put a tent up!
106 awards were presented to 92 students.
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Every drawing tells a story Year 7 joined in with the Big Draw in October – the world’s biggest drawing festival with over 1800 events organised in 26 countries! The students produced monoprints to the theme of ‘Every Drawing Tells a Story’ aiming to prove that a picture is worth a thousand words, communicating ideas in an instant.
When words speak Fresh from his sell-out tour of the UK and the Americas, Nego True, a local spoken word artist took on the challenge of exploring ways of communicating experiences and feelings through this art form with twenty very fortunate sixth formers in November. The workshop was a resounding success as spoken word novices, as well as seasoned enthusiasts made exceptional progress, grew in confidence and completed a full written piece that they then performed in front of their peers with poise. Sixth formers commented that the session was ‘inspirational’, ‘thought-provoking’ and thoroughly enjoyable!
Polished Performance On 5th November, CGA students performed once again to resounding success at the Schools Music Gala at the Hackney Empire. This year we collaborated with Cardinal Pole and Haggerston School with whom we all share the same vocal tutor.
Lighting the way National Poetry Day Winning poem Who would care if someone stole the night, Stole the darkness, Took it from the world, No one. Who would care if someone stole the sun, Stole the stars, The day, The sky, Took that from the world, Everyone. We rely on the sun, On light and stars, But we need the night, The dark, As well. Our lives are balanced, For a reason. Bethany Milsom, 8T
The collaborative group performed a version of Paramore's 'Only Exception' and two of the three soloists were our own Aggie Higgott 8N and Hannah Brown 10T. CGA also provided the band for the group; Caitlin Wren 11N (piano), Maya Feldman 10T (guitar), Rhoneece Patterson 10T (bass) and Rose Franjou 10P (drums). They did a fantastic job of holding the larger ensemble together. We were all very proud of the group, and those in the audience were impressed too. As one parent said: "I was hugely impressed by all of the musicians who performed so professionally. The band got the volume just right to complement the vocalists and choir, and the soloists had such beautiful, clear voices. Getting the choir to sway in time must have been a challenge!"
CGA achieves Gold with Science Mark.
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Shaping tomorrow, today Year 11 geography students went to Walton-on-the-Naze in September to gather data for their controlled assessments. They were out and about during the day canvassing views of local people on the impact tourism has had on the seaside town, counting traffic, plotting the land use in the main street, conducting an environmental quality analysis in five sites within the town and along the coast, measuring vegetation cover along footpaths to assess the extent of erosion from trampling and drawing field sketches among other things. Despite cold winds, everyone kept their positive attitude and really enjoyed themselves whilst collecting vital information for their geography GCSE.
Footprints in the sand Year 13 biologists were hard at work on the Dale peninsula in Pembrokeshire in October investigating lichen distribution on rock surfaces; energy flows and marine species distribution on a rocky shore; associations between abiotic factors and various species of topshells (a crustacean) and species richness and evenness of a salt marsh. They solidified their understanding of biodiversity, succession, feeding relationships, biotic and abiotic and their ability to use a variety of statistical tests. Over the four day residential the curiosity and enthusiasm of the students grew as they made links between what they learnt in the classroom and the natural world of the beach surrounding them.
Attendance Awareness Month 7th December - 15th January Be a ‘Here - O’ with +96.5% attendance.
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Grand Designs
During lessons we have been learning about the effects of forces by carrying out experiments and dancing to work out resultant forces. We were then given the task of creating a foldable - an origami structure holding information. We had to research Newton’s Laws of Motion and include our own examples to show our understanding. This was a fun piece of homework to practice origami and learn about Newton. Hopefully Newton would have been as proud of our creativity as Ms Bugtti is. Katia Bennamane 8C
A STEM Grand Designs club for thirty students across Years 7 to 9 ran from September to November. A structural engineer and an architectural engineer were invited to judge their final creations and talk about what their jobs entail. 7T students Ummhaani Mulla-Bala, Sascha Gething and Sarah Stranger said of the project, “It was very exciting. We enjoyed creating the structures and adding to them during STEM club. We put in lights, made furniture, decorated our houses and even created gardens. Ms Surridge supported us through it all and for the grand finale experienced judges came and chose the best house. It was really interesting to talk to a woman who did engineering for a living.” Ummhaani Mulla-Bala was even more pleased she had taken part in the club when her design was declared the overall winner.
Staff donated cakes for Macmillan Cancer Support and raised £110.
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Open minds
Having our say
Camilla Allwood, our Chair of Governors recently dropped in on Personal, Social & Health Education (PSHE) day expecting to see some interesting activities. She was not disappointed. Observing Year 9 students working with arts organisation, ProArt to produce a ‘Play in a day’ on the theme of good and bad relationships, she was impressed by the groups as they listened to one another and showed respect and consideration even when giving opposite opinions on potentially difficult and controversial subjects. They showed real maturity as they engaged with, considered, tested and discussed viewpoints very different from their own.
During half-term CGA opened its doors to the community, hosting the Age UK East London’s 15th annual conference. The theme was ‘Having our say’ and over 100 of our more senior citizens came to find out about the services, health care and support available to them in the area. Family Mosaic, Hackney Health Hubs, Hackney Volunteer and Befriending service and Action on Hearing were just a few of the many stands where delegates received expert advice and information. There was even a free blood pressure and heart rate check on offer from the NHS. At age 107 Irene was the oldest delegate and two old girls from the day when CGA was called John Howard School were also spotted in the crowd. The afternoon ended with a very entertaining performance from Silver Comedy.
Celebrating 15 years! The Anna Fiorentini Theatre & Film School, based at Clapton Girls’ Academy is entering its 15th year, having been busier than ever in 2015. There have been opportunities in TV, Film and theatre productions including Swallows and Amazons, Bugsy Malone, Oliver!, The Lion King, Matilda and Emil and the Detectives. The performance troupe also entertains at hospitals, care homes and hospices and will soon perform at Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland. Despite all these accomplishments the most important thing has been seeing students succeed in life because of the confidence and communication skills gained through performing. Zoe Sadler, former CGA student now studying at Bristol University is a prime example of this. She says, “I wouldn’t be where I am today without the Fiorentini School. I was transformed from an incredibly shy, introverted child into a confident and high achieving young woman.” There will be a taster day for the Fiorentini School Hackney branch on 9th January. Email hello@annafiorentini.com to reserve your place (CGA students get 10% discount or 20% discount if on free school meals). More information at www.annafiorentini.com
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Secondary School of the Year in Sport Huge congratulations go to all last year’s sports students. You helped us win Hackney's Secondary School of the Year in Sport award for our success in the London School Games. Individual awards went to: Evelyn Dumbleton (Pride of Hackney award); Jade Guidolin-Duncan (individual silver award in recognition for her basketball skills) and Yasmin Navsa (Young Volunteer of the Year award).
Ex-students receiving awards were Vanessa Humphrey (Youth Sports Fund award for her prowess in kayaking); Wura Ijelu (runner-up for U16 Sports Personality of the Year, again for talent on the basketball court); Sobelema Atemie (Young Volunteer of the Year award) and Charlie Dash and Jessie Feeney-Davies (cycling award).
Basketball
We are so proud of our U14 and U16 basketball teams who are reigning Hackney champions again! Also a massive well done to Jade Guidolin-Duncan and ex-student Wura Ijelu who were called up for England basketball training in November. Jade was spotted for the U15 camp despite being only 13 years old and Wura for the U18 camp.
The Year 7 basketball team won their first game of the season with biggest score of all the teams so far, 42-8 against Heartlands High School.
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Orienteering
Football Year 8 and Year 10 orienteering teams put CGA on the map this term. Map and compass at the ready they competed in five events at Haggerston Park, Springfield Park, Wick Woodland, London Fields and Hackney Downs. Both teams had enough points to be placed first in their year groups but sadly missed out on first place overall by only two points! In the Girls’ Championship overall Ella Collins & Ruby Greensides tied for Year 8 with 295 points and Sukie Jenkins for Year 10 with 299 points. Paris Henry & Ruby Greensides led their teams brilliantly. Well done girls! Year 11 students have also been discovering the joys of orienteering – successfully navigating their way round Lee Valley Park.
Cross Country Fantastic performances by our students in the London Youth Games Cross Country event in November. Individuals who were ranked highly in the Hackney team were Evelyn Dumbleton (3rd in U13s), Francesca Beaumont (4th in U15s), Ezelina Owens (7th in U15s), Maisie Harrison (1st in U17s) & Loula Paizi (2nd in U17s).
Tennis
The new Greenhouse tennis programme at CGA is proving to be very popular.
7.30am: Breakfast club Twenty dedicated students working at cardio-tennis in the heavy rain. Students who had shown excellent commitment and attended most or all of this term’s tennis sessions went to watch the ATP Tennis Finals at the O2 Arena
Rowing Seven Year 10 students have rowed their way to success in the first ever London Youth Games Schools Indoor Rowing Challenge at UEL Greenwich SportsDock. Individual team members came in 5th, 7th & 8th places with the team placed second overall.
Our football teams have met their goals this term. The Year 7 and 8 team kicked off by winning their first game 1-0 against Petchey with Paige Stevens scoring a fantastic free kick from outside the box. In their final games of the season they played five back to back matches at Haggerston Park, winning 4-2 against Bridge, 2-1 against Highbury Grove and drawing against City and Our Ladies. The U16 team finished their season with four matches played on the same night winning 6-1 against City and beating Bridge 2-0. Scoring the goals were Kirsty Young, Myfanwy Worman, Xazal Ozcan and Fatima Munye. Congratulations to all our star players.
Upcoming dates Jan 21
Y11 Parents’ Evening 4.00 - 7.30pm
Feb 4
Feb 11
Y9 Parent’s Evening 4.00 - 7.30pm
Y12 & 13 Parents’ Evening 4.00 - 7.30pm
Feb 15
Feb 25
Half Term 15th - 19th February
Y10 Parents’ Evening 4.00 - 7.30pm
Mar 1
Hairspray Musical Opening night
Please visit our website for a full calendar of events and holiday dates.
@ClaptonGA /ClaptonGirlsAcademy www.clapton.hackney.sch.uk
Mar 11
Non Uniform Day
Mar 17
Y7 Parents’ Evening 4.00 - 7.30pm