HARRIS MESSENGER OC TOBER 2013
Message from the principal The first half-term of the new year has come and gone quickly. Students and staff have settled well after the summer break and good progress can be seen evidently across the Academy. Teaching and learning within the Academy is of the highest order and this can be seen by me and any of our guests who tour the Academy.
In October we welcomed current Year 6 students and parents at our Open Evenings and Open Mornings. We were delighted to receive close to 600 visitors for a mere 180 places! To cater for the high demand additional dates had to be added to enable even more parents to view the Academy ‘live’ and in action. Our students were fantastic ambassadors for the Academy, and parents who attended the Open Mornings were delighted to see, well-behaved and engaged students in every classroom as they toured the building. The high number of parents attending these events demonstrates that we are quickly becoming the Academy of choice for local parents. The half-term has laid the foundations for the year. Every student understands our high expectations for continued improvement in all aspects of Academy life. Students are expected to work hard to achieve success and we are delighted that they have started the year in this manner. Already this half-term, we have seen many students take part in Faculty events, extra-curricular clubs and use the library facilities each evening to complete homework. This is fantastic to see, however, I would implore parents and carers to review our vast enrichment offer on the website and encourage their child to attend some of the wonderful activities on offer. Each year we review our extra-curricular offer to extend student opportunities. In addition to all the wonderful activities we run, one of our new events has been a great success. This year we have introduced ‘University style’ lectures to engage students in complex and interesting debates. This half-term Mr Hacking delivered ‘Alan Turin and the Bletchley Park Legacy’ and Mrs Mathieson covered the topic of ‘Could a Holocaust ever happen again?’ We hope to see even more students attend this half terms topics focussing on ‘Learning a new language’ and ‘Feminism in literature’.
To conclude, I would like to inform you that the Academy has been successful in our bid to the Mayor of London’s - London Excellence Fund. The London Excellence Fund provides considerable sums of money to help improve the education of students and training of teachers in the London area. Our Academy has been select to lead a large project focussing on the EBAC subjects (English, Maths, Science, Humanities, Computing and Spanish). This will see our teachers work with and lead sessions for a vast amount of schools and teachers in the London area. This is a huge achievement for this Academy and demonstrates the progress we have made in such a short time. A great start to the year! Mr Mallin Principal
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ART We would like to open with a huge congratulation to last year’s year 11 students who gained 100% A*C in their Art GCSE’s last summer! They worked extremely hard, and everyone in the Art Department is very proud.
Outstanding Students YEAR 7 Sophie Berkeley Y7B Great effort and quality of homework. YEAR 8 Anissa Rosen G3 Consistent effort and presentation of work.
This September we welcomed our new Year 7 students, introducing them to the Department with some basic techniques of mark making and shading. They have been using these skills to create some fantastic sunset paintings, and we have been very impressed the quality work.
YEAR 9 Sandra Pielech R3 For outstanding homework.
Sophie russell year 10 Year 11 are currently working on portraits, using mono printing and Tpainting to create their pieces, and are now looking forward to starting their last piece of coursework which is based on self-portrait.
Natasha Allen Year 7
YEAR 10 Anna-Marie Hakim Contribution and thoughtfulness in lesson. YEAR 11 Deividas Vaitekjanas Attitude and effort.
We are looking forward to another successful year ahead!
Year 8 have been looking at the patterns, colours and techniques used in Aboriginal Art, and using a range of materials to produce their own pieces. Year 9 have been looking at natural forms, such as leaves and shells, and have developed some beautiful work in their sketchbooks. They are now transferring these images into block prints. Year 10 have been working on large atmospheric paintings, choosing their own colour schemes to evoke certain moods. They have also been using many different techniques with these pieces such as painting and stencilling.
Sandra Pielech year 9
! s s e c c u s E S C G C * A % 100
English Outstanding Students Year 7 - Tessa Eveleigh has made an outstanding start to the year with most correct spellings, impeccable attitude and beautiful presentation of work in her book. Well done! Year 8 - Anisha Islam has demonstrated an excellent attitude to learning and incredible effort and presentation in every piece of work. Year 9 - From the get go, Savannah Macridis has demonstrated a real desire to achieve and improve in English and her hard work is paying off with some excellent Level 7 work produced. Keep it up! Year 10 - Lea Ebanks for being forthcoming with original ideas, which often astound her peers and open great classroom discussions. She is humble and endearing to all students and willingly supports those around her. Year 11 - Kate Vasiljeva displays an outstanding attitude to learning in every lesson, and has produced some very impressive assessments.
This summer was witness to a soar in the English GCSE results, up 18% on the previous year - this is thanks to the hard work of all our English teachers and the dedication of the Year 11 students. Well done! Over the last seven weeks, it has be a hive of activity in English. Year 7 has seen the successful implementation of the new Content-Led Curriculum with students studying the Phillip Pullman play Frankenstein and discussing the medical ethics surrounding the story that are still relevant today. Elsewhere, students have explored and discussed the effects of homelessness in our city whilst others explored the representation of women in 1930s America. Last week saw students go head-to-head in a our second Inter-Faculty Spelling Bee. Many students attended the events, either to participate or cheer on their faculty. We are delighted with the enthusiasm of the students and are even more thrilled to report the winners of this competition – the Yellow Faculty! It was wonderful to see each and every student working so well as part of a team and encouraging their fellow faculty members.
Ms Cotton and Ms Catanzaro are creating a theatrical masterpiece in their Shakespeare Schools’ Festival rehearsals. Students will be performing an abridged version of Romeo and Juliet at the Secombe Theatre, in Sutton, on 15th November with a number of other local schools. National Poetry Day allowed students in Year 7 through to 10 experiment with water-themed poetry. We have a number of students whose work was admired by their teachers and will soon be put on display for the rest of the academy to appreciate. Year 11 have been demonstrating their determination in surpassing the 2013 results in English intervention sessions to improve their Controlled Assessment grades and by attending after-school sessions to support them in succeeding in their summer exams. Other clubs the Department runs are published on the website but include: homework support, book clubs, creative writing and one of the most popular Mr Gardner’s Young Reporters club. Sign-up today!
Maths The first half-term in the Harris Morden calendar has been busy, challenging and rewarding for everyone involved in the Mathematics department and we make a special welcome to our new numeracy co-ordinator Ms Juszczyk.
The maths department is also interested in finding out who will take the home the prize of ‘Mental Maths Master’. A KS3 competition that awaits us on the last week of term. We are looking forward to another successful year ahead!
Our shared computer suite has promoted the use of My Maths and many of our students have completed 100% of tasks available across all the areas of mathematics. We have had the good fortune of a Harris Federation maths consultant joining our team for two days a week and he has helped 18 students, on rotation, achieve rapid progress in achieving the very best GCSE grades they can. We look forward to taking a carefully selected group of y10s to UCL to take part in a ‘Maths Uncovered’ day next term.
Music In Music this half-term Year 7 have been creating rhythms and writing their compositions using traditional notation whilst Year 8 have been performing the theme from ‘Peter and the Wolf’ and composing music for one of the animals from the piece. In Year 10, BTEC students are planning a musical piece to launch ‘Chimp’ the new fragrance by Bruno Mars and Year 11 BTEC students are performing in ensembles. Year 11 GCSE are working towards a composition in a classical style and completing solo performances.
Outstanding Students Year Year Year Year
7 - Tommy Arnold 8 - Rowan Barrett-Douglas 10 - Rejine Boswell 11 - Izzy Mann and Lingsha Rana
Outstanding Students Year 7 - Eduard Ivan A magnificent clear-thinking mathematician who makes thoughtful contributions to learning. Year 8 - Roberto Da Silva A significant improvement in achievement and attitude in maths. Year 9 - Harry Logue A mathematician who shows a daily dedication to being the best in his group. Year 10 - Biraj Joshi A student who loves a challenge and can apply higher level knowledge to solve problems. Year 11 - Alaa Abdalla. An extremely hardworking and dedicated student who is learning a range of strategies to solve a range of problems.
Drama In Key Stage 3 Year 7 students have been developing their performance techniques by working on Phillip Pullman’s stage adaptation of Frankenstein, they have been working on their understanding of how to stage scenes and develop knowledge of explorative strategies. Year 8 students have been developing their understanding of characterisation through work on ‘status’. Using both script and improvisational techniques we have explored power in relationships and how this is gained and transferred. Year 9 students have been working on the theme of ‘Heroes’ to consolidate their English work. In Key Stage 4 Year 10 GCSE Drama students are currently working on the theme of ‘Outsiders’ in order to develop their knowledge
and understanding of explorative strategies, drama elements and drama mediums. Students have been working on vocabulary that Year 7 - Ella Barrington-Bailey for helps them to take a methodical her effort and positive attitude in approach to all the aspects of Drama lessons. drama contained in the assessment Year 8 - Karim Berrada for his total commitment in both extra curricular requirements of the performance work and enthusiasm in three units. lessons. On Thursday 17th October the Year 11 Year 9 - Adele Smith for total Drama group went to commitment and enthusiasm in see a performance of both extra curricular performance Willy Russell’s ‘Blood and producing outstanding work in Brothers’ at The New lessons. Wimbledon theatre. The three hour show Year 10 - Bailey Jones for her tells the tale of two contribution and commitment in brothers, separated drama lessons. at birth, who find Year 11 - Hannah Mu for her serendipity drawing the back outstanding enthusiasm and together in adulthood. As they grow contribution in lessons. older, leading ostensibly separate lives, they begin to gravitate back towards each other, until they eventually become friends. However the touching story of unconditional and instinctive brotherly love is tarnished forever by tragedy. On the whole we would recommend Blood Brothers for a fun and entertaining night out. The story is at once emotionally gripping, funny and heart-rending. A potent combination that serves to captivate its audience and leave them wanting more.
Outstanding Students
Media On Thursday 10th October 2013, five high achieving Media students from Harris Academy Morden were invited to participate in the BIMA Digital Media Day at Kingston University. This event gave students the chance to meet real industry professionals whilst having to develop their own digital media products in a pressurised environment. Students from each school were asked to develop a new app that could solve a problem for their teenage target audience. Our students decided to develop a new app called “spotlight” that would enable you to treat spots using the light on your mobile phone.
The team had to present their ideas to the large group who sat before them, a nerve-wracking experience for the most practised professional! The Harris Morden team were brilliant and a particular mention must go to Akshay Chundunsing, who was congratulated by everyone for his comedic presenting style. The students also had the chance to experience a guided tour of the university campus. Helpful ambassadors answered questions about their experiences and helped to reaffirm our students’ desire to go to university.
Modern foreign languages final speaking exams on a special occasion and their free time. It will all be worth it in the end, so keep on working! Year 7 students have settled and adapted well to learning a new language! After only a few weeks they can participate in a conversation about themselves and their families.
European Day of Languages 2013: All tutor groups participated in a quiz to test their knowledge of languages across Europe. I would
Year 10 students have been working towards their first Written Controlled Assessment on the theme ‘My Life’. Congratulations to a number of students in 10B for achieving a grade C in their first ever Listening exam! íSimplemente maravilloso! Year 11 students continue to be a pleasure to teach! With only 7 months left of their GCSE course, students are working hard towards their
Spanish Year 7 - Ella-Hope Barrington-Bailey has made an impressive start to Spanish. She has worked hard to demonstrate her excellent Spanish skills. Year 8 - Sophia Dixon for her excellent behaviour, hard work and determination to achieve her target this year
Year 8 students have been open and courageous in sharing about their positive and negative family relationships in Spanish. They have also explored different personality traits. Year 9 students have worked extremely well this term. They have been discussing and learning about the importance of family. Class 9Y1 have made great progress this year as they strive to reach their targets! İBuen trabajo!
Outstanding Students
Year 9 - Brandon O’Sullivan for producing a brilliant poem in Spanish about his family!
like to thank all students and staff for their enthusiasm! Finally, congratulations to Señorita Gingell and her group Y1 for winning the quiz!
MFL Clubs: A reminder that there are many clubs on offer during the week. Tuesday: Year 8 Vocab Wednesday: Year 9 Vocab and conversation Thursday: KS4 Language skills Friday: Year 7 Homework
Year 10 - Bailey Jones, Julia Bywalec and Natasha Francis for their hard work and excellent essays produced for their first GCSE Controlled Assessment. Year 11 - Sana Majid for being a great independent learner this term. Thank you for finding and sharing an excellent website for your peers to develop their listening skills in Spanish!
Spanish Year 11 - Mosope Ominiyi for showing a keen interest in French and for working extremely hard to develop his skills independently.
Gifted and talented This half-term saw the launch of the Harris Experience. This is a new and highly exclusive initiative that has been put in place across the Federation to give the most able students from Year 9 the opportunity to broaden their cultural experience and to prepare them for applying to the best universities in the country. Five of our Year 9 students – Rhiannon Hughes, Adele Smith, Antoinette Vassell,
Joshua Smillie and Jake Chittock - were selected for the programme. They all attended the launch event at Harris Academy South Norwood and got the opportunity to meet other Harris Experience students from across the Federation. Next half-term, they will be visiting Christie’s to receive a master-class in art appreciation, as well as going on a theatre trip with students from Harris Academy Merton.
Geography Outstanding Students Year 7 –Jimmy Costa Nobile has made a fantastic start in geography, showing a great enthusiasm and understanding of the world around him. Year 8 –Derrel Abdulla has demonstrated a great attitude in geography. He consistently takes great care over his work and demonstrates a high level of motivation. This has resulted in him attaining a 6c in his end of unit test and exceeding his target grade.
It has been a productive half-term for the Geography Department. Year 7 have had an excellent start to the year, working on their ‘geography toolkits’ as part of the content led curriculum. Year 9 have also had a successful start to the year and completed their first unit on tourism. This culminated in the tourism/business challenge that took place in the last week of half-term. Students worked successfully in groups to plan and sell an ‘eco-holiday’ of their choice.
Year 9 –Billy Lucas has worked extremely hard in class and in his homework and shows a real desire to do well. His work is beautifully presented and he is making good progress. Year 10 –Anastasia Nappin has made a great start to GCSE geography. Both classwork and homework have been consistently outstanding thus resulting in her ‘A’ grade on the end of unit assessment. Year 11 –Maureen Sammut has demonstrated a real desire to achieve in her GCSE controlled assessment unit.
Year 11s have had an extremely busy and challenging start to their Year 11 course, as they have been completing their controlled assessment piece that is worth 25% of their final grade. The Controlled Assessment title is: “To what extent has the Boris Bike scheme improved residents’ quality of life?” Students have been passionately collecting evidence to support their case and using the department laptops to type up their work.
Religion and philosophy Year 7 students have been thinking about personal identity and what factors have the biggest effect on who we are whilst year 8 has been exploring concepts of truth, whether we can say we know anything at all and the different ways in which Christians view the miracles of Jesus. Year 9 students have been investigating responses to the questions of whether God exists and, if so, what God might be like and how symbolism helps believers to understand God. Year 10 students have been learning about religious responses to war and suffering. Year 11 Short Course students have been exploring religious views on the world around us and how we should treat it whilst year 11 Full Course students have been learning about religious responses to war and suffering.
Outstanding Students Tessa Eveleigh has made some particularly insightful comments and produced an excellent assessment. Demi Lewis has been a consistently positive influence in her class and also produced a fantastic assessment. Roman Kuznecovs has been an extremely thoughtful member of the class and has achieved a fantastic assessment grade. Ashley Beatty has been attentive and disciplined in his approach to RP showing some excellent thinking skills. Kenan Smith and Kadirye Karapinar have both made lots of positive contributions in class and have performed well in their assessments demonstrating the required attitude for them to succeed in the GCSEs this summer.
History It has been a very exciting halfterm for the history department. It has been great to welcome such enthusiastic and hard-working Year 7 students to our history classrooms. They have had a very successful start, following our content led curriculum, which has challenged them from the outset, encouraging students to practise and refine the difficult historical skills that will be needed throughout key stage 3 and beyond.
The Humanities Department has been lucky enough to gain 30 brand new laptops to help support student learning. They are an
We had a fantastic turnout to the first history lecture delivered to Harris Morden students. The lecture investigated and explored the question ‘Could a Holocaust ever happen again?’ Many students gave up their own time to experience this ‘university style’ lecture and we very much look forward to offering more in-depth investigations that challenge and inspire students in the future.
amazing resource and students have already been using them to improve, structure and present their work.
Mr Dipple has been promoting Black History Month throughout October. He has helped students to explore influential black historical figures throughout his tutor time activities each week and he has had a high level of response to his Black History Month quiz.
Outstanding Students Year 7 – Kamile Jarasiute has made a fantastic start to history, showing great enthusiasm and determination in every lesson. Year 8 – Madison Nappin has demonstrated a great attitude in history and has produced good quality work throughout the halfterm.
Finally, we are very excited as a department to be offering A-Level history for the first time at Harris Morden. Students have made an excellent start and are working very hard to complete a challenging but extremely interesting unit on the Nationalist Challenge of India between 19001947.
'could a holocaust ever happen again?'
Year 9 – Charlie Harris has demonstrated a good work ethic and has contributed well in all his history lessons. Year 10 – Ryan Blake has made a great start in GCSE history. Year 11 – Abigail Koranteng has demonstrated a real desire to achieve well in her GCSE controlled assessment unit. Year 12 - Michelle Sebele has made a super start to A-Level history showing a maturity and commitment to her studies.
EAL In September, The Language Centre welcomed our prospective students and their parents during the Open Evening. All of the visitors complimented this pleasant and versatile space that will hopefully soon become the heart of our multi-cultural student community at Harris Morden. The beginning of the year found the EAL department busy testing all of our new EAL Year 7 students. This task was a logistical challenge, but we’ve managed to complete the testing by the scheduled deadline. Once the Language Centre opened to students, all of the EAL interventions have started to take place. All of the EAL KS3 students who took part in the intervention classes have worked extremely hard this half- term, exploring a variety of topics such as: ‘Hopes and Dreams’, ‘Talents and Hobbies’ and ‘Cultural Festivals Around the World’. They were focusing on developing all four language skills and the half- term has finished with the students delivering power point presentations about their favourite festivals.
EAL science lesson
Outstanding Students Year 7 - Karolina Zambrizkiene for her effort and positive attitude in EI lessons. Year 8 - Sujan Budha Magar for his outstanding focus and attention to detail in EAL sessions. Year 9 - Adeel Nasir for his consistently producing outstanding work in EAL sessions. Year 10 - Siyana Boneva for her positive attitude and willingness to help others. Year 11 - Mohammad Alfarough for his amazing effort in EI sessions and being a great school tour guide for our new EAL students.
Our EI (English Immersion) group has also been very busy this half term. The groups started with only 2 students on the register, but it soon grew and now consists of 8 students. The EI students have been focusing on improving their English through a variety of language activities delivered by the dedicated teachers across different subjects. The students had a chance to build up their confidence and overcome their stage fright during the sessions with Ms Gingell and Ms Long, improve their manual skills with Mr Fort in DT, and immerse themselves in the world of science with Mr Adou. They also worked extremely hard on developing their vocabulary repertoire and their reading and writing skills with the help of Ms Gingell, Ms Sweeney and Ms Demin.
literacy This September there has been many new and exciting changes to literacy at HAMD. The Language Centre, now at the heart of the school, has welcomed students for their targeted interventions. Literacy Booster sessions have been taking place during morning registration and Ruth Miskin withdrawal sessions have been running during the day. Students have been working extremely hard this half-term and attendance has been fantastic. Keep up the good work! Our ‘Toe by Toe’ sessions, now take place in the Library four mornings a week. Literacy
prefects have been trained in ‘Toe by Toe’ are working alongside staff to deliver this programme. Well done to all of the Literacy prefects for devoting their valuable time to helping their peers! Accelerated Reading sessions have been fantastic this half term, students are really striving to achieve 80% or more in their quizzes. Many students have also begun quizzing during break, lunch or after school, demonstrating independent reading practise, well done! After half-term, the 100% data for Autumn Term 1 will be collated, and the English class that has achieved the most 100% quizzes will be published on the student message board.
Outstanding Students Year 7 - Well done to all year 7’s who have made a great start to the year, keep it up! Year 8 - Oliver Bret has demonstrated an excellent attitude to learning and fantastic effort and presentation of his work. Year 9 - Jack Parades has demonstrated an excellent attitude to learning. Year 10 - Sophie Russell has demonstrated an excellent attitude to learning and has been a support to her peers too, well done! Year 11 - Laurenzay Beckford-Miller has displayed an outstanding attitude, he has been a fantastic support in literacy as well as an excellent role model, well done!
post 16 We are proud to announce that Harris Academy Morden Sixth Form has had a very successful start in its opening half-term. In conjunction with the Harris Federation we have been able to attract students to study for AS Levels in: Mathematics, Chemistry, Biology, History, Physical Education , Psychology, English Literature, Computing, Film, Dance, Art, Music, Economics, Geography, Sociology, Religious Education, French, Further Maths, Creative Writing, English Language. We are also offering a range of BTEC subjects including: Sport, Business, ICT and Art. This year we have also developed an offer with the Fulham Football Academy which pairs academic study with coaching and leadership.
It has been a very busy start for the sixth formers as the three week induction period quickly expired before students sat their induction tests. These results then guided students with their final decision of subject choice for the next two years. Harris Federation Sixth Form is able to have a variety of subjects as there is a huge number of
Outstanding Students Physical Education - Melissa Mendez for her significant achievement , commitment and dedication to PE. Mathematics - Vasil Boychev, a mathematician who shows daily dedication to being the best in his group. Biology - Michelle Sebele, a student who loves a challenge and can apply higher level knowledge to solve problems. Chemistry - Viren Patel, an extremely hardworking and dedicated student who is learning a range of strategies to solve a range of problems. History - Michelle Sebele, a magnificently clear-thinking historian who makes thoughtful contributions to learning.
expertise that accommodates for cross site students to attend the different Academies. The arrangement for traveling between sites is provided at no extra cost to any student and has been a great success thereby offering students the subject choices that they applied for. The Open Evening for Sixth Form applicants for 2014-16 was a combined initiative between Harris Academy Morden and Merton.
lOCAL mp vISIT The academy was delighted to host a visit from Siobhain McDonagh M.P. for Mitcham and Morden on Thursday 26th September. Mrs McDonagh was so delighted with the improvement in exam results and standards across the academy, after just one year, that she chose us and our students to form the back drop for a photo-shoot for a special community calendar for 2014. During her visit she met with a group of students who revelled in sharing their experiences of the last year and who spoke eloquently about their ambitions for the future. It was a wonderful experience for all involved and we look forward to welcoming Mrs McDonagh back in the near future.
ICT Outstanding Students
oriented language that is suited to application and gaming development
Year 11 GCSE Computing - Rochelle Knowles for her hard work and tenacity. Year 10 GCSE Computing - Jade Smith for her outstanding attitude and willingness to learn a new programming language. Year 9 - Savannah Macridis for the way she approaches the obstacles she finds in the way of her progress and the tenacity she shows in overcoming them. Year 8 - Mollie Coates for her brilliant Google Sketchup designs.
as well as database interaction over the web, all of which is covered in our new curriculum for Key Stage 3. Our Year 8 have been focussing on a 3D modelling unit in Google Sketchup where they have been honing their architectural design
In Key Stage 4, Year 10 Computer Science students have also been working on developing their Python skills, in preparation for writing a game as part of the AQA GCSE in computer science. Some students have been tackling their AQA GCSE ICT projects in the form of a real life business scenario and other Year 10’s have been undertaking the creative digital media tasks of the OCR Cambridge course. Year 11 are continuing with the Edexcel GCSE in ICT and creating a project based around a healthy lifestyle called “Get up get moving”.
Year 7 – Phoenix Hanton for his sheer enthusiasm and his contributions to the running of the department.
The Harris Morden Computing department had some wonderful news to come back to this September. Our results surpassed even our own predictions. We are so very pleased to announce that nearly fifty students were entered for the Edexcel GCSE in ICT and 91% of those achieved a C grade or above; couple that with a similar number of students who were entered for the OCR National qualification with 100% of them achieving their goals, and together these figures have given the department a set of results that any department from any school would be proud of. We are so proud of our Year 11 for achieving these results. Well done! So…we’ve raised the bar, and we pledge that we will do everything in our power to do even better next year. In Key Stage 3, Year 7 have begun a brand new journey with the content led Computing curriculum, in line with the proposed government changes to the ICT curriculum for schools. They have started their programming adventure by delving into Python, a powerful object
skills and have produced some quite stunning plans for their houses of the future which will be displayed around the school. Year 9 have been creating databases in Access for their own choice of organisation as well as using software to produce appropriate advertising materials, such as logos and newsletters.
Looking ahead we hope for another wonderful year in the Computing Department. We relish all of the new adventures we are undertaking as we prepare our students for success in the 21st century. Harris Academy Morden is now on Facebook and Twitter. Please ‘Like’ and ‘Share’ our Facebook page: Harris Academy Morden.
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science This term got off to an exciting new start as we ran the first interfaculty challenge, where we saw teams design and build an egg carrying device. The device was designed to prevent the egg from
cracking or smashing when it was launched from the second floor window into the playground. The competition results are shown below. Well done to all teams who competed, there were some eggcellent designs! In Key Stage 3 we welcomed in our new Year 7 students. Our Year
9s will now need to start thinking about their GCSE choices and whether they would like to pick Triple Science next year as an option. We strongly recommend this if they wish to do any A Level Sciences. At Key Stage 4 we had our best ever Science results with all courses achieving an A*-C pass rate of 91% or above. We have catch up clubs running for Year 10s and Year 11s after school each week in order to give them the best possible chance of passing the exams which are now all in May/June. At Key Stage 5 we have now begun teaching A Level Chemistry and Biology and we will be offering Physics A Level from next year onwards.
Egg Drop (inter-faculty science competition)
Outstanding Students Year 7 - Sophie Berkeley for her amazing cell cookies – see picture! Year 8 - John Ivanoff who although is English is not his first language has fitted in well and is always very polite and helpful.
Year 9 - Jake Chittock for his 7c in the latest assessment. Year 10 - Anastasia Nappin for moving up a set due to all the hard work she has put in this term. Year 11 - Lavina Mclean for her determination and attendance in completing her BTEC coursework
Physical Education This half term has been extremely busy for the PE Department. KS3 students have embarked on their journey through a new and improved KS3 curriculum, and KS4 students are receiving a much more tailored curriculum based on their options. Most students have started the new term with an improved work ethic and the department are pleased with the commitment and dedication students have shown to their learning.
the introduction of trampolining club, and the return of football and basketball. Fixtures have started with cup and league games being played in a variety of age groups for basketball and football, and year 7/8 girls competing in the Merton girls football competition. The Year 10 boys football team progressed through the first round of the county cup, beating Glyn School 5-3. They have also had success in the league against Raynes Park winning 2-1. We look forward to building on the success with some more wins next half term.
Outstanding Students Year 7 - Nicole Lecky Commitment to lessons and extracurricular clubs. Year 8 - Patryk Molka Continued commitment. Year 9 - Sandra Pielech Effort in lessons. Hamzah Shoble and Stephen Edet Outstanding commitment and leadership skills. Year 10 -Clement Uzoukwu Outstanding attitude, effort and commitment.
Wimbledon Ball Boys/Girls
This half term has seen the start of a new and improved extracurricular timetable and a record number of students are attending clubs as a result. We have had over 100 students attending clubs on Thursdays alone with
This half term saw the 1st of the trials for year 9 students interested in becoming a ball girl/ boy for the 2014 Wimbledon tennis championships. Successful students from this open trial will be invited by letter to attend weekly training sessions in preparation for the 2nd trial session in November. There is also a taster session planned at
Wimbledon on 11th November for a few selected students.
Inter-Faculty Basketball
This half term we kicked off the interfaculty PE tournaments with the basketball competition. There was a great turn out for both the Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 events, and some impressive play from those involved.
Primary Schools' Partnership Thursday 24th of October saw 9 teams compete at Harris Academy Morden in the MSSP Morden Cluster Year 5/6 Best Team Football tournament to decide on which schools from Abbotsbury, Benedict, Cranmer, Haslemere, Liberty, Malmesbury, Morden, St Teresa’s and Singlegate would go through to the Borough finals in December. Only 4 spots were available so the event was bound to be competitive! Congratulations go to Morden for winning the tournament and Morden, Cranmer, Abbotsbury and St Teresa’s for qualifying for the finals on the 5th December!
A massive thank you goes again to Harris Academy Morden for hosting the tournament and more importantly to the 6 leaders who did a fantastic job refereeing all the games and keeping the tournament running smoothly!
dESIGN AND tECHNOLOGY The Design and Technology department has been enjoying a wonderful start to the new term. The students have been working hard in all areas, improving their progress to produce some really pleasing results.
to manufacture a prototype coffee table of their own design. The level of focus among the students is strong and we eagerly anticipate the next few months as their tables begin to take shape.
Year 11 textiles students are developing their designs to start making some of their wonderful stage costumes, which will see some wonderful embellishments and creativity from our hard working students. The F1 club has proved hugely popular and we look forward with anticipation to some amazing speedy results from them and Mr Fortt. ‘Fun with food’ has been a great success with Year 7 and Year 8 and students are cooking a wide range of delights such as sticky toffee apple cake with Miss Hutson. Year 9 are attempting to complete an entire GCSE Graphics Products course in one year. They are doing fantastically well and producing work that will be the envy of some Year 11 students. We look forward to sharing their design work with you in a future bulletin. Year 10 catering have started off on the course with some difficult challenges which they are taking in their stride. They have been working on knife cuts and tackling puff pastry, making quiches and Bakewell tarts. Progress in Year 11 Resistant Materials is good and students can feel rightly proud of the wide range of designs that they have produced for their projects. Each student is going
Outstanding Students Year 7 - Ally Horne Gold for consistent hard work. Year 8 – Oliver Brett For quiet determination. Year 9 – Yazmin Ahmed For hard work and application to the course. Year 10 – Abshar Ahmed For hard work and effort Year 11 - Jenny Minzako For determination to succeed and supporting others.
PSHE Day - November 2013
COURAGE, CHALLENGE, SUCCESS