Hornsey News March 2015

Inspiring

London’s

Women

of

the

Future

ICELAND TRIP

CIVIL SERVICE POLICY CHALLENGE

SCIENCE WEEK SCIENCE AND FOOD

Wish you were here..!

NICK CLEGG VISITS HORNSEY

Flatford Mills Trip Hornsey School for Girls really is the most fantastic school; the girls are amazing here!

MESSAGE FROM THE HEADTEACHER As we approach the end of this highly successful term at Hornsey School for Girls I would like to say how much I have enjoyed my time here.

It has been a real pleasure to work with such eloquent, confident and bright young women. It’s been great to see the amazing impact that our dedicated and outstanding staff have had, which has led to Hornsey School being in the top 6% of high achieving schools across the UK. I would like to thank all of our students, staff, parents and governors for their support and encouragement in helping us to achieve our very best!

Good luck to Year 10, 11, 12 and 13 for your exams, I know you will work hard and I look forward to receiving news on your fantastic results this Summer.

As you will read in this bumper edition of Hornsey News, we have had a very busy term.

For International women’s Day we had a very

high profile visit from the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg and the local MP, Lynne Featherstone, both were impressed with the school’s and students’ work on FGM and their event celebrating women in non-stereotypical careers.

The Science Faculty ran lots of exciting activities and experiments for Science Week.

A number of fabulous events have taken place run by the Geography Department who took a group of students to Iceland and others to Flatford Mill on fieldtrips.

The English Faculty hosted a talk from the author of the book ‘Kindertransport’. Students were able to gain a valuable insight into the lives of one of the rescued children as they spoke with someone that had been rescued from Nazi Germany.

Year 11 Business and Enterprise students ran mini businesses and Post 16 students have visited a number of universities and are working hard on their preparations for university.

Best wishes Della Gibbins Acting Headteacher

MESSAGE FROM THE NEW HEADTEACHER Dear Parents, Carers, Students and Visitors I am delighted to introduce myself as the new Headteacher at Hornsey School for Girls commencing after the Easter break. The school is in a fantastic position, and its results are rightly the envy of many of our local schools. I am unashamedly a fan of the School and the fantastic staff who are committed to ensuring your child pushes herself to achieve the best that she can.

It is natural for some parents and carers to feel a little apprehensive about a new Headteacher in place, particularly as we near the exam season. I want to reassure everyone that my focus will be on ensuring that our amazing students continue to achieve above national averages in all areas, and that the excellent foundations that Ms Jones and Ms Gibbins have put in place are continued to be built upon. The most successful people are well rounded with a strong sense of social purpose, as well as academic, and at Hornsey School for Girls we are encouraging and respectful of this.

I look forward to working further with you all.

Kuljit Rahelu Headteacher

ICELAND TRIP On Sunday 15th February 24 students and 3 teachers, from the Geography department, began their journey to Iceland - the Land of Fire and Ice for the opportunity of a lifetime and an experience they will never forget. Students Ama Konneh and Sabra Clark tell their story.

Upon arrival we visited the bridge between two continents and stood right between the North American and Eurasian plate boundaries. It was amazing to think that within a few steps you were able to be in a totally different continent.

After braving the cold and hopping back on the coach with our trusted driver Christian, we made our way to the Blue Lagoon Spa (our favourite part). The beauty of the lagoon was breath-taking. We were so relaxed you’d think it was our natural habitat! Everywhere you looked people were smiling.

They were laid back enjoying a drink and a head massage. As it got later, and daylight slipped away, the beauty of the lagoon only became more mesmerising, something words cannot describe!

After our trip to the spa, we were greeted with a pizza buffet at a nearby restaurant. We ate and we ate … and we ate… and we ate until we couldn’t eat anymore.

With filled bellies and smiling faces we were back on the road and finally reached our hotel at 11pm.

We spent the remaining four days slipping, sliding and being sprayed by the most spectacular waterfalls we have ever seen such as Gullfoss waterfall. We went swimming as hailstones hurtled towards our faces. After dinner we spent the remaining hours before bed relaxing in our hotel’s hot tub.

One day we visited a family affected by the 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull (try pronouncing that) and really got an insight into how these events turn people’s lives upside-down. We were even given the pleasure of boiling an egg in a hot spring (we cooked an egg in the ground) and they tasted good. You name it, we did it.

The days were long and cold (very cold) but if we were given the chance to do it all over again, we would take it in the blink of an eye.

This trip really was a great experience and we are so grateful that we were able to be a part of it.

When opportunities like this come along you always have to take them in order to educate yourself but, more importantly, gain fantastic memories with fantastic people. On behalf of all the year 10s, 11s and sixth formers that went, we would like to say a big thank you to Ms Butler, Ms Stevenson and Ms Peart for making this trip of a lifetime possible.

International Women’s Day 2015: Nick Clegg reveals gender equality policy at visit to Hornsey School for Girls

Lynne Featherstone Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat Party Leader Nick Clegg, along with MP Lynne Featherstone, visited Hornsey School for Girls on Friday 6th March ahead of the schools’ International Women’s Day celebrations.

Mr Clegg and Ms Featherstone met with Year 10 and 11 students, along with Acting Headteacher Ms Gibbins and Senior Assistant Headteacher Ms Lambert. During the meeting he announced to a room packed full of journalists and photographers a change to the Small Business Bill. This means that all large businesses will now have to publish any differences between the average pay of their male and female employees. One step nearer to equal pay for women.

Nick Clegg Ms Featherstone has a long standing positive relationship with Hornsey School as part of the school’s Citizenship campaign to raise awareness to end Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

Students and staff at Hornsey School have worked alongside Ms Featherstone at several key events including: International Women’s Day celebrations held by Hornsey School for Girls from 2012 to 2015 and the international conference to end Violence Against Women and Girls held last year in London.

Mr Clegg and Ms Featherstone were shown a short presentation by students about FGM and then took questions regarding the government’s initiatives and plans to end FGM in the future.

Students Faye Strachan Smith and Caitlin Qosja in 8T asked Mr Clegg if he thought more people were now aware of FGM in the UK.

Mr Clegg responded:

Mr Clegg then met with students who had planned this year’s International Women’s Event for Hornsey School for Girls which aimed to challenge discrimination in the work place and encourage young women to think about entering traditionally male dominated industries.

When students put it to Mr Clegg that there were not enough female politicians he agreed and also referred to a lack of ethnic minorities in parliament by saying currently MPs were, “too male and too pale”.

Mr Clegg and Ms Featherstone then sat and answered challenging questions from Year 11 Government & Politics AS students, who raised a number of issues including a lack of women and ethnic minority representation in parliament and the difficulties in engaging young people in politics.

Zainab Hannon asked him whether he supported reforms to the Prime Minister’s Question Time to control the unruly conduct of MPs in the House of Commons, which could be construed as off-putting to women wishing to get into politics.

Mr Clegg answered:

The visit concluded with Mr Clegg taking interviews from local and national media before he had to leave, although he did find time for one final photo opportunity with students. Later, he tweeted “What a great visit to Hornsey School with @lfeatherstone. We discussed many issues affecting women before #IWD2015”.

Sarah Boufenneche

This year’s annual Science Week focused on Science and Food with lessons and extra curricular activities held throughout the school from 16th to 20th March.

Key Stage 3 highlights…

In Key Stage 3 students took time out of their regular science scheme of learning to investigate the cross-curricular importance of food in our diet.

Year 7 classes enjoyed investigating the effect of colour on perceptions of taste, and its use in marketing, with many students being shocked by the results. A taste test, using unusually coloured custard and flavours, showed that our senses can easily be fooled by what we see.

SCIENCE 16-20 WEEK MARCH SCIENCE AND FOOD

consequence. Discussions held after were very constructive.

GCSE and A Level students had the opportunity to learn around the curriculum with a series of talks.

There were two well attended lectures which introduced students to new and stimulating ideas.

Year 8 students spent a double lesson entwining strawberry laces to see how strong they could make them. They were then put to the test by hanging various weights from them.

The first discussion with Dr Martin from Brunel University was about the implications of animal testing in science which produced a heated, yet constructive, discussion with students in the library.

Year 9 students investigated the importance of food in health and diet. They had hands on demonstrations by our catering team and looked at superfoods, researching their health benefits.

The second lecture looked at Hydrogen Fuel Cells and was discussed by Dr. Ricardo GrauCrespo from Reading University.

His talk produced a real buzz about the potential to change the

Whole School Events…

A large number of students from all year groups enjoyed watching the documentary "Super Size Me".

The film is about one man trying to live on McDonalds’ food for a month and how he suffers as a

world for the better as we look for alternative, carbon friendly fuels for the future. Many of the students who attended this lecture had also taken part in the Year 10 Hydrogen Challenge the week before, finishing a commendable 5th place out of 25 schools.

Lunchtime Activities…

With food as the topic for our Science Week, the restaurant was naturally a suitable central hub for staff and student activity.

One lunch time students tested their knowledge of spices with their taste buds, in the Spice Challenge. The competition involved guessing the names of the spices on the table, the regions where they come from, as well as an interesting fact about the spice. Well done to Aisha Nauzer who won a spice inspired cook book.

A few days later, students and staff worked hard to produce healthy smoothies fuelled by the pedal power of the “Juice-Bike”.

The various recipes of delicious smoothies resulted in healthy, carbon-neutral drinks, and even caused a spontaneous Mexican wave of thanks for the canteen

and Science staff from the students!

It was unfortunate that Friday’s cloud cover obscured the eclipse.

However many students did enjoy watching it safely in classes as we streamed from the Internet into classrooms and discussed what the eclipse was and why it occurred.

Once again Science Week was a fantastic success with students commenting on how much they enjoyed learning about food and science as well as eating some interesting food! The Science faculty would like to thank Ms Watkins and all of the restaurant staff for their support in delivering another eventful and fun Science week at Hornsey School.

Year 11 English Literature GCSE students had a visit from both the author of their set text and a professional theatre director who directed its first performance.

Diane Samuels and Abigail Morris came to share their insights into the play and to bring it to life, with the aid of some brave volunteer actresses, and Abigail's own young daughter who stepped up to illuminate the motherdaughter scenes at the start.

Project of the Year Shortlist

Hornsey School for Girls has been shortlisted alongside four other schools in the UK for the Sky Sports Living for Sports Project of the Year Award 2015.

The Dance department’s ‘Looking Back, Ms Samuels was impressed with the questions asked Looking Forwards’ project has been at the end and she stayed valiantly throughout break chosen as a leading example of the impact time, signing every student copy of the play from a that the skills learned through sport can very long queue. Abigail said it was great to be back have on young people’s lives. at Hornsey and even though they live the other side of London, her daughter has put in a request Lead teacher, Ms Ongley, has been running to come here for secondary school... Thank sessions before school to show students that you to all students who represented our school they need to commit to going the extra mile in so positively and who maximised this order to achieve their goals, implementing the opportunity.

Sky Sports Living for Sport Six Keys to Success.

Ms Wildish Teacher of English

Many of those who took part believe it was a truly life-changing experience which significantly built their confidence and determination to succeed.

An overall UK & Ireland Project of the Year winner will be announced during an exciting Sky Sports Living for Sport awards show on Sky Sports 1 HD at 7.30pm on Sunday 29 March, so make sure you tune in!

On Friday 13th March a Year 11 AS Government & Politics class took part in the Civil Service Policy Challenge at the Cabinet Office in central London. The students who are currently working with the Access Project in school, have been busy preparing for the challenge for 5 months.

The challenge is part of a scheme to attract more young people from less advantaged backgrounds, into careers in the Government and the Civil Service.

As well as being a good experience for students, the event also looks very good on their personal statements when applying for jobs or to university.

Led by teacher Ms Peart along with Ms Earl, who is the Hornsey’s Access Project Programme Coordinator, students took part in after school sessions which saw senior civil servants from the Cabinet Office visiting the school.

At the event Hornsey students proposed two new policies: to legalise marijuana for medical purposes, and a policy on renewable energy.

Out of 14 other Access Project London schools, in the competition, we came 2nd!

Each student was awarded a certificate for their hard work as well as a reference from the Cabinet Office.

These were followed by talks from the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and from Baroness Stowell, member of the House of Lords, with students having the chance to quiz them and Hornsey students asked some very thoughtful and intelligent questions.

Congratulations to everyone who took part.

Ms Peart & Ms Earl

As judges we were very impressed by how both policy making groups presented in a high pressure environment in front of senior civil servants Andrew Berwick The Access Project Director and competition judge

Both year 11 groups planned, set up & ran mini businesses during January of this year. Students sold waffles, pancakes, smoothies and other products.

The girls decided amongst themselves that the profit generated would be donated to the Year 11 end of school prom.

Particular mention to the following groups run by Klea, Sajida and Faith who all earned more than ÂŁ30 profit each.

Well done all - see you on Dragons Den! Mr Davies HOD Business & Economics

The Year 12 Business group attended City University for a Business Master Class. This involved spending a day at university, attending lectures, as well as working with other students from other sixth forms, to create a business plan for a new product.

All students performed really well, with 3 Hornsey students being on the winning side. Special mention to Isi and Dilan who were praised for boundless enthusiasm and excellent presentation skills.

Congratulations to all of these Business students. Well done.

Mr Davies HOD Business & Economics

Flatford Mill Trip

Flatford Mill is located in the heart of Delham Vale, a typically English natural landscape built in 1733. The mill and its immediate surroundings were the subject to many of John Constable’s paintings and the title of one of his most iconic paintings, Flatford Mill.

From the 18th March to the 20th March one class of Geography Year 10 students along with Geography teachers Ms Stevenson and Ms Butler, along with Ms Evans, went as part of Geography GCSE coursework based on coastal landforms.

The Experience - A diary by Esther Oyekunle DAY 1- 18/ MARCH 2015 The arrival. After a very interesting hour and 30min journey we arrived. We made our way to the mill and immediately saw the river with ducks swimming and not too far off Willy Lott’s Cottage. We were then introduced to everyone at the centre, assigned to our rooms, made our beds and unpacked. After settling in we got down to business and began our work.

DAY 2- 19/ MARCH 2015 We all prepared ourselves for the day, starting off with breakfast then packed our lunches for later as we were heading to the beach! We had a very quick mini lesson in the classroom clarifying what we were going to do, discussed health and safety issues and then off we went.

We were driven in mini vans to the town

Walton-on-the-Naze. It was really charming and everyone there was very friendly. Once we got to the beach- I have to say, I've never been so cold. It was freezing! Fortunately, we were prepared and had already put on extra layers, we needed them! We then began our investigations, testing sediment size, infiltration rates and gradients on the beach as well as on wave-cut platforms. We sketched a cliff by the crag walk, it was awesome because you could see the colours of red crag and London clay. Once we had all our data we headed off to town, with some time to explore, there was even time for a little bit of shopping.

We then headed back to Flatford Mill to work on our investigations. After that we were able to hang out, explore or just chill till lights out.

DAY 3- 20/ MARCH 2015 Last day- I don't wanna leave!!! We all got up, stripped our beds, packed our stuff and took it downstairs. We ate our breakfast and prepared our lunch for the long trip back to school. At around 9:15am it was lesson time. We presented the data we had collected as a graph then plotted it on computers using Google Earth. Once completed it was time to head home.

P.S. Many selfies and pictures were taken and we all enjoyed the experience!

Wish you were here..!

On Friday 15th March students from 9L, along with Ms Wiggins and Year 12 student Rodja Akyol, raised money for Comic Relief.

By dressing up wearing red noses and silly faces they went around school collecting money as well as raising awareness of what the money was being collected for and why.

To donate to the cause please visit: www.rednose.com

Are you interested in making new friends?

If so, come to the Circle of Friends where we prioritise students with SEND (Special Educational Needs & Disabilities). It is a platform for students to come together, have fun and build relationships.

We meet every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays in C2 at lunch 4A and 4B Help students who have SEND meet other students and share their experiences

ÂŁ2 entry per person An entertaining evening for our parents, carers, teachers, staff and Governors to attend.