SBS News Autumn Term 2017

SBSNews Autumn Term 2017

Inside this issue...

GCSE Results / Prom Night / Headstart Programme Summer Showcase / Sports Day / Plus much more 1

Sarah Bonnell School

Headteacher’s Welcome Welcome to another edition of Sarah Bonnell News. Alongside lots of interesting news from the busy Summer Term this issue also has information about the great GCSE results we achieved this year. 74% of our Year 11 girls gained a Grade 4 and above in English and Maths.

This is above Newham and National averages and is a really great performance in a year where qualifications changed, the number of exams increased and the level of challenge rose. I would like to congratulate students, staff, parents and governors on these results - the hard work really did pay off.

Sarah Bonnell has made a great start to the new school year with a special focus on developing teaching and learning across the school to promote opportunities for girls to become leaders of their own learning – resilient, resourceful and independent. Alongside this we are working to develop students’ emotional health and well-being through our excellent pastoral programme and partnership with Newham Headstart.

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Sarah Bonnell School

I really hope you enjoy reading this edition of Sarah Bonnell News and would like to remind you that you can also keep upto-date with school news by reading my Weekly Headteacher’s Message on the school website every Friday.

Rae Potter Headteacher

Excellent GCSE results at Sarah Bonnell School Students and staff are delighted with excellent GCSE results with 74% gaining the threshold Grade 4 pass and above in English and Maths. This is especially good in this first year of the new GCSE courses in English and Maths with more difficult content and new examination structure than in previous years.

It is hard to compare these results with those from previous years as this is the first year of a new system and the qualifications have changed. However our results are above Newham and England averages and there has been a 10% improvement in the number of girls gaining a Standard Pass in Maths which has risen to 75% .

GCSE Headlines Progress 8 (Provisional using 2016 methodology)

Attainment 8

English once again achieved remarkable results with 90% of girls securing a Standard Pass and above and 41% gained the top grades 7-9 in English. Sarah Bonnell girls have done especially well in lots of their other subjects too – 64% gained Grade C or above in Science, 67% in Humanities and 72% in Languages.

Sarah Bonnell school

Newham Average

Engand Average

+0.51

-

-

50

-

53

C+

4+ standard pass in E+M 5+ strong pass in E+M

74% 53%

65% 46%

71% 53%

EBacc standard pass EBacc strong pass

47% 43%

32% -

-

Success has been built on the Sarah Bonnell community working together – parents encouraging their daughters to aim high and work hard, teachers knowing their subject, understanding the requirements of the examinations and giving great feedback to each girl on where they can improve and students acting upon the feedback, taking responsibility for their own learning and having the ambition, determination and self-discipline to work hard.

Congratulations to all our amazing girls – Be Proud.

Autumn Newsletter

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Year 11 Prom

On Thursday 13th July 2017, it was finally time to say our final farewell to the wonderful class of 2017.

We’d wiped away the tears of the leavers assembly (not just Miss Cornwall’s), we’d overcome the stress and anxiety of revision and preparation, we’d conquered every exam along the way. It was now time to celebrate.

With ‘The Great Gatsby’ selected as a theme, the school was miraculously transformed to resemble a magical scene from the roaring 1920s.

The walls were lined with gold, the red carpet was laid out and cameras eagerly snapped away as students strutted through the entrance.

The girls looked fantastic, arriving in a beautiful array of colours and styles. It was obvious from the beaming smiles and excited shrieking, that everybody was happy to share one last major experience together at Sarah Bonnell.

There was a delicious buffet style dinner provided, selected specifically by the prom committee.

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Sarah Bonnell School

There were free photographs available in the official professional looking photography booth, as well as ample opportunities for selfies galore against a multitude of glamorous backdrops.

After finally taking the perfect shot and filling up on food and candyfloss, they headed to the dancefloor. It was a wonderful sight to see so many of our students gleefully revelling in the fun of the evening, celebrating their time at Sarah Bonnell and leaving us on such a high note.

As somebody who has been alongside them for the majority of their time at Sarah Bonnell, as they’ve developed into strong, independent young women, it was always going to be a bittersweet ending, but I’m so glad it ended in such fitting style. Prom 2017 was a wonderful way to send off an amazing cohort.

Joe Begley - Assistant Headteacher

Extended Learning Days Extended Learning Days (ELDs) give the girls the opportunity to develop lifelong learning skills and have experiences to ensure they are supported in becoming confident young women, fully prepared for life after Sarah Bonnell.

Year 10 Caree rs

Insight Visit –

Davis Polk

There are 6 ELDs across the year and during an ELD, instead of normal timetabled lessons, each year group has a planned programme ensuring a mix of small workshops, inspirational speakers, educational trips, careers and futures education, workplace/ university visits and curriculum support.

Each of the days are themed in line with our school motto, for more information about the programme for ELDs in 2017-18 please visit the website, here are a few photos from ELDs in 2016-17.

Ricky Archer Assistant Headteacher

ct Year 7 UWS Proje

Be Proud Day & Aim High Week On Monday 10th July we celebrated ‘Be Proud Day’ – a day to recognise and celebrate the diversity and mix of different cultures we enjoy at Sarah Bonnell.

Be Proud Day also launched the start of Aim High Week.

During this week the girls work in their tutor group to Aim High and raise as much money as they can for our school charity UWS (United World Schools).

Students were encouraged to come in clothes they felt best represented their cultural identity and the World Languages Team designed activities to engage students in thinking about the cultural environment around them and how they can Be Proud and engage with it. At lunch time we asked the girls to write a small note for our Proud board, to tell us what they are Proud about and the response was overwhelming.

Each tutor group is given £5 and a stall during one lunch time and the aim is for them to work together to think up of unique ideas that will raise money. There were some fantastic and creative ideas – from calligraphy name tags in Arabic to photo booths to talent shows. Each tutor group showed dedication and team work to support the fundraising for UWS. A

Ricky Archer Assistant Headteacher

cross the week we raised nearly £3,000 to support our partner school in Cambodia.

Autumn Newsletter

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Get Involved, Get Inspired

Vitality Day After the success of Sports Day, came our second annual ‘Vitality Day’.

A whole day dedicated to trying to create awareness of health, fitness and wellbeing. This year the PE department wanted to add an element of getting students involved and inspired by something new so therefore the day was re-vamped as ‘Get Involved, Get Inspired, Vitality Day’.

The day saw all departments getting involved in their quest to inspire students to try something new and exciting. Within PE, there were some incredibly exciting opportunities for the students to try. These were Football, Zumba, Boxing, Judo, Fencing and BMX riding. All activities were offered to students as an initial introductory session with a view to start up new extra-curricular clubs in these innovative sports in the near future.

There was also a bouncy castle, gladiator dual,

pledge zone and many more activities that were all used to inspire the students and create awareness of the importance of health and wellbeing.

Other departments also provided students with new, exciting opportunities such as screen printing in Art, poetry writing in English and health checks in Science.

The whole day appeared to be enjoyed by all with the students really throwing themselves in to the amazing activities on offer. The big hit of the day was Zumba which involved some students taking part 2 or 3 times throughout the day as they enjoyed it so much.

The most popular activities from the day are now available on our new extra-curricular timetable. We hope to see lots of students at these new clubs, as well as our regular students.

Nikki May - Deputy Curriculum Leader - PE

Achievement Day On Wednesday 19th July we held our annual Achievement Day Assemblies.

It was a fitting end to a highly successful academic year with much to celebrate. Staff, governors, students and parents came together to commemorate the vast and varied achievements of our students. It was a truly celebratory event with students’ receiving a range of awards for attendance, progress, attainment and leadership achievements.

Whilst each half of the school received their commendations and awards the other half took part in activities that celebrated

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Sarah Bonnell School

Sarah Bonnell. Year 7 created birthday cards for Sarah Bonnell, year 8 used student voice to design and make innovative models of potential learning spaces in the school, year 9 wrote letters for the new year 7 students about what they wish they had known in year 7 and year 10 created notice boards to highlight the many opportunities that are available to students in the school.

It was the perfect end to a busy and successful year.

Jo Sangster Deputy Headteacher

Sports Day 2017 After weeks of meticulous planning Sarah Bonnell’s Sports Day came to fruition on Wednesday 28th June at Newham Leisure Centre.

After settling down in form groups, pupils prepared themselves for the big day ahead which kicked off with the 1000m and 1500m. The day ran smoothly with pupils participating in field events, including javelin, high jump and welly throw, alongside the track events. Mr Bentley did a fantastic job announcing all of the events ensuring everyone was where they needed to be throughout the course of the day.

Alongside the results Ms Potter announced the recipients of the Sports Personality Award. It was a double celebration for the Murray-Sinclairs with Shaneeka accepting the award for year 7 and Shereena for year 10. Due to two students having outstanding commitment and presence within the PE department and clubs, alongside Shereena receiving the award for year 10 was Chiles Whyte. For year 8 we were pleased to award Sukhveer Singh with Amina Lounici receiving it for year 9.

There were some extremely tight finishes in the 100m and 200m, with photo finishes required for the year 8 and 10 races.

The excitement carried on through the rest of the running races onto the skipping and quoit race. Access and Inclusion showed a wonderful display of talent and sportsmanship in their quoit race with pupils cheering each other on and picking up each other’s quoits when dropped.

The track events were concluded with the highly anticipated relay races, with Mr Walsh on the starting pistol the crowd roared as pupils sped past them to the finishing line. There were not many mistakes made on the changeovers which allowed most of our teams to complete the race and secure their form some points before we calculated our final tallies.

At the end of a successful day, Ms Potter announced the results to the nervously awaiting crowd...

1st 2nd 3rd 5th 7th 8th

Year 7 N L R B S E H A

Year 9 1st L 2nd S 3rd E 4th H 5th B 6th A 7th R 8th N

3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th

Year 8 H A E L R N S B

1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th

Year 10 N B L R A E S H

1st

Well done to everyone who participated, we are looking forward to 2017/18 and hopefully breaking some records.

Autumn Newsletter

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Accelerated Reader Reward Visit July saw the Learning Hub and Literacy teams come together to reward the students who successfully completed the most number of Accelerated Reader quizzes, as part of a competition which ran for two terms. EAL and SEN students were also acknowledged for making outstanding progress in their literacy and were included in the reward programme.

Around eighty girls in total were treated to a visit to The Stratford Picture House to see a special screening of ‘A Monster Calls’. The story, about a young boy coming to terms with losing his terminally ill mother, evoked many emotions and tissues were distributed as there was not a dry eye in the house.

Once back at school the girls were each given a copy of the book, written by Patrick Ness, as a souvenir of the day and for them to make a comparison of the film with the book. These were eagerly received and prompted an appetite to further explore books which had been adapted for the screen.

It was a lovely morning which was thoroughly enjoyed by staff and students and which helped promote the love of reading, meeting the aim of the initiative.

Poonam Kaur Learning Hub Manager

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Sarah Bonnell School

Reading on the Green 2017 As part of Aim High week and Sarah Bonnell’s ‘Love to Read’ programme, students were given the chance to take a break from an enjoyable and challenging curriculum by reading on the green.

Every lunchtime for a week, despite the typically unpredictable British weather, students led a book fair and sold strawberries and cream to raise money for United World Schools (UWS), our school charity. While others relaxed on deck chairs and picnic blankets, and enjoyed their books.

Reading for pleasure is an integral part of ensuring the success and happiness of all Sarah Bonnell students, and we look forward to the many reading opportunities and celebrations this year will bring.

Hana Malik Literacy Coordinator

Autumn Newsletter

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Summer Showcase 20th July was the date for our annual Summer Showcase!

The Showcase is an opportunity for the school community to celebrate the enormous musical and dramatic talent of the students across all years.

This year we were fortunate enough to work with Arts Award and Sound Connections who worked with and mentored nine students from year 9 and 10 to organise and promote the show themselves as part of their Silver Arts Award. These students worked tirelessly for the show, their efforts resulted in the event being completely sold out, a great success! Drama students performed excerpts from their Barbican Box project, Young Voices reprised their performance from the Achievement Day conducted by Diana Hysenaj and our Orchestra debuted with the theme from ‘Swan Lake’. The students from Music and Drama outdid themselves – their professionalism and energy in every performance was incredible, the Expressive Arts team are very proud and the students should be too!

Millie Clare-Tipton - Curriculum Lead – Music

NewYVC Unite at the Royal Festival Hall For the past two years, Sarah Bonnell’s Chamber Choir have hosted four massed choral workshops with eight other schools, performed as part of a massed choir in Stratford Circus in July 2016.

They had eight in-school workshops, and countless lunchtime sessions, all leading up to one final performance at the Royal Festival Hall on 18th July. The NewYVC Unite choir brought together sixteen primary and secondary schools from across East London, and choirs from other areas of London, Ireland and Scotland for a massive performance celebrating World Music, culture, and a love of singing and music. The students sang in Hindi, Arabic as well as English, without the lyrics in front of them, stretching their minds as well as their voices! The performance was a great success, and Sarah Bonnell students were clear role models for the younger students who were performing with them. It was certainly an experience to remember!

Millie Clare-Tipton - Curriculum Lead – Music

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Sarah Bonnell School

Headstart Programme 2015-2016 saw an exciting new programme start at Sarah Bonnell called Headstart. This provided opportunities for students and parents to engage with specialist youth practitioners, mental health workers and parent workshop leaders with a focus on building resilience in young people.

Highlights of the programme, which runs in a handful of other schools in Newham, included some fantastic and thought-provoking assemblies, a vibrant student-voice programme, an inspiring peer-mentoring course co-delivered by CFCS, and the EPEC Parent Training course.

In addition to the fantastic programmes and workshops, the staff at Sarah Bonnell took part in specialist training focussing on mental health, how to build resilience in young people and The Academic Resilience Framework.

We are pleased to say that the Headstart programme is continuing this year with new and exciting opportunities for our young women.

Watch this space for more news of how they get on!

Hannah Flowers Curriculum Leader – Access & Inclusion

Autumn Newsletter

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What is ParentPay? ParentPay is an online system which allows you to make quick efficient payments for your daughter’s school lunches and other school activities, trips and visits.

What are the benefits?

ParentPay offers you the freedom to make payments whenever and wherever you like, safe in the knowledge that this website has been security checked by local authorities and has very high internet security standards. It also helps parents to keep track of their child’s spending and avoids problems from occurring if students lose their money or forget it at home.

user manual via the following link: http://www.bsfc.ac.uk/files/ ParentPay%20Userguide%20for%20Parents.pdf once you have set up your account.

ParentPay regularly updates their website and informs users via email, so it is important to always check your emails to keep up to date with their amendments.

We at Sarah Bonnell School believe that everyone will benefit considerably from the facility to pay online and this will help in our quest to become a cashless school.

How do I use ParentPay? To access the ParentPay system you need to go online at: www.parentpay.com. You will need a valid email address and a username and password, which would have been sent home in a letter from the school. If you require a copy of this letter then please contact the school on 020 8534 6791 and ask for Ms Pollard.

Further information Please visit the ParentPay website: www.parentpay.com to find out more information on how to set up ParentPay. You can also download a

Term Dates 2017/2018 Autumn Term - Tuesday 5 September to Wednesday 20 December 17 Half-Term - Monday 23 October to Friday 27 October 2017 Spring Term - Wednesday 3 January to Thursday 29 March 2018 Half-Term - Monday 12 February to Friday 16 February 2018 Summer Term - Monday 16 April to Friday 20 July 2018 Half-Term - Monday 28 May to Friday 1 June 2018 Closure Days May Day - Monday 7 May 2018 Eid ul Fitr - 14/15 June 2018 (1 day tbc) Professional Development Days Monday 4 September 2017 Friday 1 December 2017

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Sarah Bonnell School

Autumn Newsletter