Portland Place School Newsletter July 10

Portland Place School

Weekly Buzz

10 July 2017

Wishing everyone a happy summer!

What happened during Celebration Day

Key dates for next year!

Academic and Sports fixtures 1

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Letter from the Headmaster Dear Parents,

Portrait of Editor

Portland Place School was founded with a particular purpose in mind: to be an alternative to the intense, large, examinations focused independent day schools of which there are many in London. Part of our ethos is to be small, be nurturing and be relaxed. We do not demand academic excellence simply to join us: we will encourage and enable our pupils to achieve their very best academically. We do not impose the relentless practice of essay–problem set–test paper: we will give our pupils time and space to develop and express their creativity and athleticism. We will empower our pupils to better understand, and celebrate, their differences; to make the most of a privileged position in the centre of one of the world’s great cities. We are a school for lively, engaged kids!

Those are, and will remain, my principles when looking at how Portland Place grows in the future.

Informed by those ideas we will always seek to offer the best education for our pupils, always in the context of each pupil as an individual who has individual strengths and needs.

Some things will change. For instance, with the revised, fully linear, GCSE and A level courses now running some of what we do in future years may seem more “academic” than in the past. That will reflect the demands of those new, overtly more academic examination courses we have to teach.

Other changes will be in better use of new technology, to improve communication between us and to keep our teaching challenging, exciting and engaging. Still others will be to help reaffirm and strengthen our mutual ties as a school community: pupils – parents – staff.

All that is for September and beyond. In the meantime, may I wish you all a very enjoyable, relaxing and peaceful summer.

David Bradbury, Headmaster 3

Notice board Music Tuition September 2017 Mr Hill, Director of Music Parents and Students - just a reminder that we have a whole variety of instruments to learn at Portland Place School next year. Whether you are a beginner or want to return to an instrument you've played before.

If you would like lessons to commence in September, please download, complete and return the application form from the Portland Place Music website (https://portlandplacemusic.com/individual-music-tuition/) as soon as possible. All details, terms and conditions, fees are on the form. The music department also has a supply of instruments that can be loaned to students having lessons in school, free of charge.

If you have any queries about music tuition at PPS please email Mr. Hill, Director of Music, at steve.hill@portland-place.co.uk

Career Workshops Joe Kubik, Head of Year 10 Dear Parents/Guardians, From September 2017, we are looking to offer Career Workshops to some of our senior students on selected Friday afternoons from 1.30pm until 3.45pm.

We are hoping to raise aspirations and inspire positive decisions in relation to student destinations.

The aim of our Career Workshops is to: · ·

raise awareness of key qualities and skills required for our students’ recognised career pathways help our students to take personal responsibility for their own decision-making We plan to continue with previous initiatives which have been to invite speakers from universities and local businesses.

We are aware, however, that within our school community there are parents and former students who are well-equipped to share their business acumen and career experiences with our students. This would very much enrich our current programme and we would therefore like to invite current and past members of our school community to become involved in our Careers Programme.

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We will be running workshops for both year 10 and 11 students and are looking for speakers who are able to deliver one, or potentially two hour sessions. If you would like to participate by sharing your experience of a particular career path, please contact me via email at joe.kubik@portland-place.co.uk.

Notice Board SAFEGUARDING LINKS Ms O’Neill, Deputy Head Teacher Dear Parents / Guardians The School will be closing for the Summer break. Wherever you go during the holidays, keep safe, look after loved ones and take a rest. Here are a few useful links; How safe are our children 2017 (NSPCC) Last week the NSPCC published their latest survey of child protection in the UK. This is the fifth in the series 'How safe are our children' and provides the most comprehensive and consistent view of the myriad of statistics available.

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Further details: www.nspcc.org.uk/services-and-resources/research-and-resources/2017/how-safe-are-our-child ren-2017/ Sexting Privacy Apps Sexting amongst young people continues to provide a safeguarding challenge. Almost every secondary school reports a concern about 'sexting', and, occasionally, it appears in primary schools too. There are a number of apps that allow a user to hide any photos they don't want others to see, including parents and teachers. Many of these apps are disguised as calculators, and often use an icon which is similar to the inbuilt app. One popular 'secure' photo store is Calculator Vault.

Responding to sexting in schools and colleges – UKCCIS Guidance The key guidance supporting schools in managing incidents of sexting is the UKCCIS document published last summer. You can find further information and download a copy here: www.safeguardinginschools.co.uk/responding-sexting-schools-colleges-ukccis/ Health behaviour in school age children (Public Health England) Public Health England have published three thematic data documents, Intentional self-harm, Wellbeing of adolescent girls, and Cyberbullying. The documents contain a wealth of useful information. . The main themes we address in school Citizenship programmes are; personal and social skills, a sense of belonging, positive relationships with staff and peers, and feeling safe.

You can see a slide set of the key messages from the data here: www.slideshare.net/PublicHealthEngland/health-behaviour-in-schoolage-children Further information: www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-behaviour-in-school-age-children-hbsc-data-analysi s Summer Safety Here is a good link to a website put together by Manchester Fire Brigade. Whilst some of the site is dedicated to local information and things to do in the holidays, there is lots of good advice for all of us on: Barbecue Safety, Countryside Safety, Water Safety, Fire Safety, Water Safety Website: www.safe4summer.com

News Celebration day Mr Hill, Head of Music Celebration Day this year once again showcased the talented students of Portland Place School Music, Drama and English departments, providing interludes between the presentation of awards from each Faculty area. Following the Headmaster’s welcome, PPS Chamber Choir gave a gentle and calming performance of ‘The Seal Lullaby’ by Eric Whitacre, which was contrasted by the PPS Staff Choir (who have been rehearsing after school every Friday) who sang a 3-part arrangement of ‘Walking on Sunshine’ as performed by Katrina and the Waves after the English and MFL prizes.

Next came the turn of some individual items, with Albie Marber (Year 10) reciting the poem ‘Ozymandias’ by Percy Bysshe Shelley either side of the Science and Maths Faculty awards, and then Year 13 A-Level Music student Cora Hilliard, singing the comical solo song ‘The Girl in 14G’ by Tesori which tells of a girl who believes that she has found her perfect flat, until she discovers a wannabe opera singer living below, and an aspiring jazz singer living above!

After the prizes presented by Mr Jones for the Creative Arts Faculty, the PPS Choir performed ‘It Don’t Mean A Thing’ by Duke Ellington before the Drama department took to the stage with an extract from the Lower School play ‘Alice in Wonderland’ featuring Lucas Martin, Vitan Kostomaj, Freya Francis-Baum and Felix Rivadeneira, all in Year 8. Next came an extensive and impressive list of achievements of teams and individuals from the Sports Faculty, matched by the impressive Year 6 students, showcasing two songs from the hugely successful ‘Pirates of the Curry Bean’ production. As the awards came to a conclusion, there was still time for Lucas Martin to recite his fantastic own version of ‘The Pied Piper’, expressively, confidently and with real presence.

Well done to all the students who took part in the items and contributed to a really enjoyable Celebration Day.

Mr S. Hill Director of Music

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Mr D. Chivers Head of Drama

Miss C. Boyle Teacher of Music

News News N

CELEBRATION DAY 2017 PRIZE WINNERS English: Frances Bickerstaff, Year 13, (notebook & Mary Wollstone craft book) MFL: Spanish: Tommy Dean, Year 8, (Zipi DVD), Italian: Noah Sargent, Year 10, (Italian DVD) French: Colin Ballbach, Year 9, (French Asterix DVD & book) Science:Mila Cronenburg, Year 10, (Micrographia book) Maths: Ben Doll Steinberg, Year 10, (Great seven science frontiers book) Computer Science: Hannah Warren, Year 9, (Making Games on Python Book) Art: Isabella Weintraub, Year 13, (Wanderlust book) Drama: Alex Green, Year 11, (Theatre tokens) Music: Ruben Ticehurst-James, Year 10, (Stephen Fry music book) DT: Tate Tuckett, Year 11, (Damn Good advice & green notebook) Geography: Ben Barclay, Year 13, (NGS Membership – being sent to home address) History: Isabella Weintraub, Year 13, (Legends Women History book) Sport: Zak el Jaidi, Year 11, (Sports Nutrition) Librarian: Gordon Turnor, Year 6, (John Blake Adventures/Cogheart x2) Other Awards: The Stephen Krashen award for greatest progress in learning English as an Additional Language: Hana Husaini, Year 7, (Engraved notebook) Academic Achievement in Learning Lab: Yasir Mohammed (Electronic dictionary) Media Studies:Isla Mackintosh, Year 11 Classics:George Peltz, Year 10, (Mythology book) Business: Alex Green, Year 11, (outliers & remains day books) Economics: Kai Ettinghausen, Year 11, (Amazon Voucher) Sports Captain for Sept 2017: Jonathan Grainger & Sabrina Ragazzo, Year 12, (Sports Nutrition book x2) The Richard Walker Prize for Achievement in KS2: Hamish Cooper, Year 6, (Little History of the World) The Katherine Greenwood Prize for Progression in KS2: Lucas Munford, Year 6, (Little history of the world) Junior Maths Challenge winners (Gold) - Deniz Goy, Year 8, Intermediate Maths Challenge Winners (Gold) – Ben Doll Steinberg, Year 10, Senior Maths Challenge Winners(Silver) – Alex Tassie, Year 13, Lelya Constantindis, Year 13, Robert Whiu, Year 12.

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News Celebration Day Art Exhibition Mr Jones, Head of Art It has been another busy year in the Art, DT, Photography and Graphics departments. The annual Creative Arts exhibition gave our talented and hardworking students an opportunity to show off the best of what they have achieved.

PPS hall has been equipped with new bespoke frames which have both improved and enhanced the presentation of the artwork. The quality and diversity of the art on show does credit to both students and staff and what they manage to achieve year after year.

Isabel la Weintraub goes on to do a Foundation course in Art and Design at Camberwell Art College, following in the footsteps of Aislinn Veasey who has just been accepted to do a degree in Illustration at Brighton College of Art and Design. Anna Rogers has completed her degree in Fine Art at Cardiff University with First Class Honours. In addition to winning the travelling scholarship in her second year she has just been selected to attend the Venice Biennale! Congratulations to all our students, we very much appreciate the dedication and courage necessary to create the wonders that you produce: well done; bright stars all!

Thank you to the many parents and staff for their unstinting support and all those who attended the private view to make it such a memorable evening.

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News Year 13 Prom Ms Butler, Head of History We said farewell to the Year 13s at their prom last week. It was a fantastic evening and the fun had by all reflects what a brilliant year group Year 13 have been and how much they will be missed by the school. It was an evening full of great characters, music, dancing and speeches! The sixth form team would like to thank the Year 13s for being so fantastic to work with these past two years and the school thank them for their contribution to PPS over the years.We wish them good luck in their future endeavours and we are sure they will be a success in their chosen paths!

Summer Exhibition at the Royal Society of Science Mr Sagoo, Teacher of Science On Tuesday students from Year 7, Year 8 and Year 9 attended the Summer Science Exhibition at the Royal Society. They participated in a range of activities including Microsoft’s VR 3D modelling kit, finding out about MASERS, learning about coral reefs, feeling their own heart beat through a connection to their pulse and robots used in space exploration.

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News Year 8/9 Big Bang Festival Mr Sagoo, Teacher of Science On Wednesday 5 July the Science department took students to the Big Bang event at Westminster College. Students participated in a range of activities including using VR equipment, eating insects, stroking a komodo dragon, touching a corn snake, making Spirographs and holding a bald eagle!

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News Sweet Tooth Travels Ms Florea, Teacher of EAL Co-ordinator On Tuesday, 27 June 2017, the EAL students at Portland Place School gave the teachers and the rest of the students the opportunity to try a wide variety of cakes from around the world.

We feasted on cakes from Armenia, Spain, Russia, Scotland, Algeria, China, Turkey, Switzerland, Colombia, Mexico, Italy, Ukraine, Taiwan and Thailand. The students who baked and sold the cakes were Alura Simsek, Deniz Goy, Andre and Paul Kern, Jan Ceylan, Bogdan Lischyna, Khach Tovmasyan, Carolina Martinez De Luco, Marielle Staunton, Tashi Feinstein, Cristina Carbosiero, Eve Johnson, Zeynep Yilmaz, Isla Turnbull, Manuela Poquet Sema, Marie-Fleur Demole, Idir Kermoud, Ke-Jie Luk, Thomas Li and Nok Krishnamra.

Thank you to all of them for their great enthusiasm and effort. Also, thank you to all the staff that supported this project. The money raised, £241.86, will be donated to the charity ‘The Uphill Trust’ which builds schools in Uganda and ‘The Red Cross’ for the victims of Grenfell Tower.

Khach Tovmasyan, Ms Florea, Nok Krishnamra

Bogdan Lischyna, Marie-Fleur Demole, Eve Johnson, Cristina Carbosiero

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Sports Celebration Day Mr McLoughlin, Head of PE Celebration Day is about celebrating success and there are many people who have achieved enormous success this year in sport. Once again we have had many pupils enter and succeed in district, county and National competitions across a wide range of sports. This year Portland Place pupils won 35 individual medals at the ISA London North Athletics Championships as well as numerous medals in other events.

Success, however, isn’t just limited to our students. Mr Kubik played in the Surrey Shield final for Battersea Ironside 2nd XV Rugby team, Mrs Rider set a new British Bench Press Record whilst winning the British Championships in Lincolnshire. Mr Rider won the SGA World Highland Games title for the 4th time making him the only man in the history of this event to achieve this feat.

This year our team successes include:

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West London U13 Boys Cross Country Champions ISA London North U14 Girls Athletics Champions Westminster League U13 & U14 Girls Netball Champions Westminster League U15 Netball Runners Up London North ISA U13 Netball Runners Up ISA U13 Nationals (Bowl Trophy) Runners Up

SCHOOL COLOURS Colours were introduced 11 years ago to reward excellence in sport.

Cross Country – Set a new Year 6 School record in the 3 Lap Cross Country Course – Hamish Cooper Cross Country – Set a new Year 5 School record in the 3 Lap Cross Country Course and represented – Tom Hallam Cross Country – Set a new Year 7 School records in both the 2 & 3 Lap Cross Country Course and represented City of Westminster at the London Mini Marathon – Amy Cooper Baseball – Great Britain U15 Team – Joseph Perez Rugby – Middlesex Ladies U18 Team – Amy Evans Rugby – Saracens U16 Academy Team – Zak El Jaidi Athletics – Finished 4th in the 100m at the ISA National Championships as well as being nominated for Middlesex Satellite Netball trials – Erin Dytor Athletics – Finished 4th in the Javelin at the ISA National Championships – Perdy Bilton Athletics – Bronze in the London Schools Athletics Championship in 100m Hurdles – Spike Barnes Athletics – For winning a bronze medal at the ISA National Championships in the Yr 10 4x100m relay – Alfie Campbell Gymnastics – Representing London who finished 2nd at the National (Level 2) Championships – Ava Jones 12

SPORTS AWARD Mr McLoughlin, Head of PE This award is for the Best All Round male and female performer in the Lower and Upper school to celebrate and acknowledge outstanding achievement in all sports covered within the school.

For the Lower School Boys He has also played with distinction in both Year 9 Rugby and football school teams. He is the London North Champion in Shot Put and won a bronze medal in the Shot Put at the ISA National Athletics Championships. – Max Ackermann Girls She has consistently been a key performer in all Year 8 & Year 9 girls’ teams. She set a new School Record whilst winning a bronze medal in the Long Jump at the ISA National Athletics Championships.

She is captain of our successful U13 girls’ netball team and has been selected as a member of the U14 Middlesex Satellite Netball Squad. – Freya Francis Baum Best All Round performers in the Upper School Boys This person represented the school in all sports throughout his school career to date.

He is a key member of the School U16 football team scoring some fantastic goals and is a member of the Crystal Palace U16 Academy Football Team. - Oliver Kidd Girls Her contribution to all sports in PPS from Year 7 has been second to none where she has played for girl’s netball teams as well as boys football teams. She plays for Millwall Lionesses and made her debut this year in the Millwall Ladies 1st Team in the Ladies Championship League. She also represented the U18 ISFA England Ladies Football Team in a number of matches this year for the second year running. - Freya Glen PE GCSE Award: Zak El Jaidi Sports Captains Whose contribution to school sport has been outstanding over the last 6 years.

Jonny Grainger & Sabrina Ragazzo

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Sports Day 2017 Mr McLoughlin, Head of PE In temperate weather conditions the pupils, staff and parents were all ready to compete and commit their support to Sports Day 2017. With staff eager to retain the ‘McLoughlin Cup’, the pupils excited about the tug-of-war and the new archery challenge, everyone at the Perivale Athletics Track was in for an exciting day.

There were many outstanding performances, with individuals setting new personal bests as well as 14 Sports Day Records. We also had a number of athletes winning multiple events and several School Records were broken.

Performances of note include Laura Logan, Year 8, who set a new Sports Day Record in both the girls high jump and the girls Shot Put with some impressive performances in the sun. Erin Dytor, Year 8, continued her dominance in the sprints by winning the 100m sprint (A Race) by a close margin over Freya Francis Baum and followed this up with a School Record in the 200m (B Race) with an impressive individual run.

The Victor Ludorum prize was awarded to Eli Anderson (Year 8) for his outstanding performance in the High Jump where he set a new School Record of 1.60m. Eli was also victorious in other events including the Yr 8 boys 100m and 200m. The Victrix Ludorum was awarded to Freya Francis-Baum, Year 8, who competed in several events throughout the day and recorded some outstanding performances. She set a new Year 8 School Record in the 300m, and a Sports Day record in the long jump, with 2 impressive jumps of 4.76m jump, which were 1cm shy of the 4.77m School Record she set whilst winning a medal at the ISA Nationals. She also ran an impressive anchor leg in the 4x100m Relay where Devonshire set a new Sports Day Record as well as being victorious in other events.

This year’s House competition was very exciting with Cavendish retaining the Sports Day Cup and winning it for their third time, followed by Devonshire in second, Langham in third and Wigmore in fourth, exactly the same order as Sports Day 2016!

Congratulations to the Parents who were victorious and won the ‘McLoughlin Cup’ for the first time in the history of the event snatching the trophy away from the Staff. A full independent enquiry into the preparation of the staff team has been launched and findings will be published at a later date.

Congratulations to all who participated and supported, what was an enjoyable, inclusive and inspirational day.

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Calendar and Contact Staffing changes for September We say goodbye to several teachers at the end of this year, some with many years’ service to Portland Place School. Those moving to a variety of new schools, new countries and new challenges are: Kirin Gill, Sarah Nelson, Charlotte Williams-Foster, Charles Chambers, Matthew Fowler, Elise Hartopp, Audrey Jones, Victoria Brocklehurst and Anthony Purcell.

They go with huge thanks for their contribution to the school and all our very best wishes for their future.

New staff joining us in September will be Oliver Burton, Jamie Hubner and Pat Capel in our English faculty; Dhawal Joshi joining our Physics department and Bella Campbell with into KS2.

I have also been able to make some very strong internal appointments for key roles as well. Lucy Price will be our new Director of Studies. Sara Segerstrom will be our new Head of Mathematics faculty. Phoebe Lewis and Hannah Bridge will be new Assistant Heads of Sixth Form. Toni Tasic will be the Head of Year 9 with Sophie Pym appointed to assist him.

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Thanks for reading!

Look for our next issue at www.portland-place.co.uk/ @PortlandPlaceHD