SBS News Summer 2017

SBSNews Summer Term 2016/2017

Inside this issue...

Jack Petchy Award / UCL visits / STEM week Digital Leaders / Brilliant Club / Plus much more 1

Sarah Bonnell School

Headteacher’s Welcome I am so proud of everything the girls and staff have achieved over the course of this academic year and this edition of the Sarah Bonnell News shows you how hard everyone has worked to inspire, support and challenge each other to be the best they can be in lessons and outside of lessons.

I am sure you will enjoy reading about the individual successes of students like Zaynah in Year 10 and former Sarah Bonnell Head Girl, Tafsia, as much as you enjoy reading about the success of girls in a range of curriculum areas across the school.

One of our priorities this year was to ‘develop creative, resilient and independent young women through a broad range of opportunities and experiences’ and, once again, this edition is

packed full of examples of our success with this.

Of course this edition of Sarah Bonnell News is just a selection of the broad and varied opportunities girls at Sarah Bonnell get to learn, enjoy and achieve.

To keep up-to-date about learning in lessons and other events that have taken place this year visit our website www.sarahbonnellonline.co.uk and twitter and find out more.

Head Girl’s Welcome Hannah Dale - Head Girl 17/18 My role so far as Head Girl has been filled with both challenges and great learning experiences on leadership.

I've been involved in group training and monitoring, leading Prefect briefings on Tuesday mornings and gaining insight from all year groups on areas of success and improvement around the school.

My next steps as Head Girl are to manage more projects with the Prefect team around school, to collate formal feedback from every year group about areas within the school and to kickstart my IAM campaign in September.

It's been great so far!

Miriam Okotie-Tomas - Head Girl 16/17 First off, thank you to everyone who helped make my year as Head Girl a successful one - it has been an absolute pleasure being your Head Girl.

My next steps are to use the skills I've learned: from working effectively with a range of people, to dealing with the pressures of balancing a range of responsibilities in the next stages in life, where I hope to go to NCS college and beyond, continuing my growth and always trying to live up to the that key motto 'aim high'.

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Sarah Bonnell School

Tafsia Shikder Former Sarah Bonnell student secures unconditional offer to study at one of the best universities in the world, MIT Boston.

the people who went there. They are responsible for the biggest technology advances we have seen in recent years. It will be a privilege to be among them.'

Tafsia Shikdar has won a scholarship to the world-famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology worth £200,000 to help pay for tuition, accommodation and books. She will swap her family home in West Ham for the university in Boston, studying alongside some of the smartest people in the world for a degree in engineering.

Founded in 1861, MIT counts some of the top innovators in the world of manufacturing, engineering, the internet, finance among their alumni. Tafsia said: 'They want the brightest people there so it doesn't matter what background you come from. I don't want people to think they can't apply for places like MIT because their families aren't rich. It is mental barriers that stop people having dreams. People around here don't think they can achieve these amazing things. I'm here to tell people, yes you can. Why shouldn't someone from the East End of London go to MIT, why shouldn't we dream big?’

Tafsia is currently studying at the Newham Collegiate Sixth Form Centre who organised her interview and application preparation with a Harvard graduate. After a successful application, she was interviewed by an MIT admissions scout based in the UK at a Central London coffee shop.

She said: 'It sounds a bit corny but I guess you could say I am over the moon. Knowing that I am going to the same place as the second man on the moon is really amazing. 'I really admire

Tafsia left Sarah Bonnell with 11 A*s and is predicted five A* grades in her A level subjects this Summer.

Jack Petchey’s

“Speak Out” Challenge!

Jack Petchey’s “Speak Out” Challenge! is the world’s biggest youth speaking event! Thanks to funding from the Jack Petchey Foundation, communication skills training was delivered by Speakers Trust to 30 Year 10 students at Sarah Bonnell School.

The range of speeches delivered was of a high standard and made it very difficult to select a finalist for the Regional Final so we had to have a second heat at the school.

Zaynah Ali went through with her speech entitled ‘What If It’s Not a Safe Haven?’ – Congratulations!

She went on to the regional finals which was held at Brampton Manor Academy competing against 20 other speakers from Newham schools and was crowned the winner and scooped top prize in the “Speak Out” Challenge! Zaynah Ali, 15, impressed judges with her winning speech and Chair of Newham Council, Councillor Joy Laguda, presented the award.

She said: “I have loved every step of the Speak Out Challenge process and I am so proud to win the title of regional champion for myself and Sarah Bonnell.” She won a £100 gift certificate.

Watch Zaynah Ali’s speech on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XWJnlLU2EkIf Ms Sahebdin - Scholarship Co-ordinator

t” eak Ou ey’s “Sp -17 h c t e P k al 2016 ner, Jac Ali, Win ional Fin Zaynah ! Newham Reg ge Challen

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World Book Day 2017 Throughout the day, fun and educational activities which linked World Book Day with curriculum areas, were organised. Year 9 French students enjoyed working in teams and competing against one another by trying to describe the title of a book, which was written in French, to their team mate who had to work out the title on the card. Year 7 & 9 TG students were given the opportunity to watch an animated story of Romeo & Juliet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. They then took part in games relating to what they had seen. Conflict Poetry was written and Science enjoyed a science based spelling bee. Everyone who took part thoroughly enjoyed the sessions and took away a specially designed bookmark as a memento of the day.

The Learning Hub was transformed into the Emerald City complete with the iconic ‘yellow brick road’ on World Book Day, which fell on Thursday 2nd March.

At the entrance, staff and students were greeted by Glinda, The Good Witch of the South and the Wicked Witch of the West from the much loved classic, The Wizard of Oz. At lunchtime and after school, staff and students found themselves being led down the yellow brick road to a world of Gothic Horror, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Shakespeare and Comedy. Once in these realms everyone was entertained by Drama pieces performed by the Key Stage 3 Drama club. The students’ execution of Jekyll & Hyde, The Lion Witch and the Wardrobe, The Maze Runner, Romeo & Juliet and The Twits was of an exceptional standard and staff and students were blown away with the scenery and costumes.

In the wider school community, Curriculum Areas dressed up in their teams. English looked fantastic as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Computing looked very futuristic as The Hunger Games. We also had Science as Harry Potter and support staff as Oliver Twist and The Three Musketeers.

The Leadership Team joined in as The Great Gatsby and were dressed in feather boas, pearls and tuxedos!

It was a wonderful day which brought the whole school community together and enthused and inspired staff and students alike.

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Sarah Bonnell School

Year 8 campaign project reward. Thursday 23rd March and Friday 24th saw the culmination of this event take place, with local politicians coming in to determine which form group would be crowned champions. It was a pleasure to welcome our local MP Lyn Brown to the school along with Lib Dem candidate Paul Reynolds, and Conservative candidate Mahyar Tousi.

Over the past half term, Year 8 have been partaking in a campaign project designed to widen our understanding of the world around us.

The 8 forms were given a variety of topics to research, ranging from the use of animal fur in the fashion industry to the need for equal access to education across the world. A campaign leader was elected for each group and a campaigning master class was held by campaign consultant Gareth Knight. Forms were given form time to work collaboratively to create their campaigns and organise how they would seek to win the

Each form provided a varied display of work, including musical pieces, PowerPoint presentations, impassioned speeches and well-worked petitions. Our judges found the task very difficult to determine but thoroughly enjoyed the conversations that took place with our students. The winning group was invited to meet Lyn Brown MP again at the Houses of Parliament.

Mr Walsh

Year 9 Dragons Den Project In the Autumn term, Year 9 students were invited to take part in a Dragons Den project with KPMG. Groups had to prepare and present a product or business idea to Mr Archer, after which 24 girls were selected to take part.

The students then had the opportunity to visit the London headquarters of KPMG, where they were inspired by successful entrepreneurs. Each group had a mentor, who supported them in planning their pitch, which took place in February. In school they also received mentoring; thank you very much to Ms Patel, Ms Ward, Mr Nolan and Ms Hatcher, for their support of the teams and the project. In February, after much hard work, dedication and rehearsal, the students made their final pitches at KPMG. The girls came up with some fantastic products and presentations. As a year group we were lucky enough

to be able to see their presentations at the Spring Enhanced Learning Day. Well done to all the students who took part, and particular congratulations to the winning group: Adepeju Adelusi, Sephora Nsilulu, Tabassum Haider, Atiya Miah, Moryum Sadia, Maria Uddin! We look forward to seeing more of your fantastic business ideas in the years to come!

Ms Whitehouse

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Venice trip On 27th March, a group of 19 girls from different year groups went to Venice, Italy.

We stayed in a hotel in Lido de Jesolo, Hotel Oceanic and they provided us with delicious Italian food.

We had so much fun as we did many activities that sparked our interests. On Tuesday, we went on a 3 hour tour of Venice, which everyone loved as we learnt about Venetian History. On Wednesday, we went to an art gallery which had amazing pieces from Giovanni Bellini, Tintoretto and many more. Also, we did a Venetian carnival mask decorating workshop in which we freely painted our masks. We had the privilege to learn about Venetian masks and how they are made for festivals. On Thursday, we went to the islands, Murano and Burano. Personally, that was our favourite place that we had gone to as everything had a great vibe and was colourful (it was just like Balamory!). We went to the Jewish ghetto and we learnt about the history there. “Very interesting to see the deep cultural roots that Italy had to offer."

Some of us were fortunate enough to go on gondola rides and it was a great experience. After the activities we did, we had

Ciao!

free time. We could go wherever we wanted within a certain boundary, it was amazing as we had a sense of freedom and responsibility. We went to the beach everyday as part of our night walks along with going out to eat some gelato which we had to order in Italian. We went to many different places where we could buy gelato and we tried so many different flavours. Some of the different flavours we tried were latte (milk) and Stracciatella (vanilla with chocolate chips). On our last day we went to a restaurant which was 5 minutes away from our hotel which had many pictures of Venice and some of us were able to see how they made our pizza, the food was so delicious!

Miss Servini said “our girls were an absolute credit to us, other tourists even commented on their excellent behaviour and manners, and they all practiced their Italian skills. I would also like to thank Ms Davies and Ms Clark for their support during the trip”.

By Kholie, Aleeyah and Karissa

Why are we here in Italia club?

We all wanted to be more cohesive and learn more languages.

The thing that inspired me to learn the Italian language was the word “ciao” because I wanted to know more words that were short and easy to learn. I would recommend learning Italian because it’s an interesting language to learn and can be very useful in art and fashion. We are participating in this with the hope to win!!

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Sarah Bonnell School

Oxford German Olympiad A group of Year 9 German students have worked exceptionally hard this year taking part in the Oxford German Olympiad Competition run by the University of Oxford.

The theme of the competition this year is ‘Deutsch jenseits von Deutschland’ (German beyond Germany), and the aim is for students to discover more about German speaking communities, dialects, literature and history outside of Germany. Myself and the German assistant were hugely impressed by the effort students put into their entries, and we have our fingers crossed that there are some prize-winners among them!

The students who took part are going to tell you a bit more about their entries…

Khadijah Rahman, Year 8 For my task I had to read the book ‘When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit’ by Judith Kerr and write a book review in German. The review had to include a short summary of the novel as well as my opinion. The book is set in Germany during WW2 so it helped to improve my knowledge of that time and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it - I couldn’t put it down!

Writing the review in German was challenging but a great way to improve my vocabulary, as well as my ability to explain and describe.

Aysha Adam, Year 8 For my chosen task I had to research and create an informative brochure about a German speaking country aside from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. I found there are many other smaller countries that speak German, one of which was called Lichtenstein and is situated between Germany and Austria. It’s so small you can actually rent it out for 70,000 euros per day! The task really helped me to improve my geographical knowledge!

Tasnim Ullah, Year 8 For the task I chose I had to create a conversation between a city dog and a dog from the Swiss Alps. I enjoyed the task as it enabled me to learn more about different accents and dialects and there was a lot of freedom in how I presented it.

Taking part in the competition has helped my German as it improved my ability to proofread my work as I had to check lots of drafts before creating my final piece.

Nasirah Islam, Ishrat Hussain, Karima Abdullaziz, Year 8 For the Oxford University Challenge we read a book called ‘When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit’. It was about a Jewish family having to leave their country during the Nazi occupation of Germany. After reading the novel (which was really interesting) we painted a canvas which depicted a pink rabbit sightseeing in Berlin. We then wrote our book review on top of our painting. We found the challenge really fun as it put our creative skills and German skills to the test! We all hope we can continue entering these types of competitions in the future.

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Institut Français Trip On Tuesday 28th February the French department at Sarah Bonnell took 54 year 10 students to the Institut Français in South Kensington.

On Tuesday 28th February the French department at Sarah Bonnell took 54 year 10 students to the Institut Français in South Kensington.

The aim of the trip was to develop and improve students’ knowledge of both French language and culture through film.

As year 10 are currently studying the topic of school, we chose to watch the film ‘Les Héritiers’ which tells the story of a teacher working in the suburbs of Paris struggling to educate a group of disillusioned secondary school pupils, many of whom are second generation immigrants.

In order to unite and motivate her students she sets them a collaborative project to learn about the Holocaust. Prior to watching the film, students completed a language based activity which introduced both new vocabulary relevant to the film and the French education system.

One of the key differences that we were introduced to was the idea of secularism in schools and the social issues that may arise from this. Year 10 students were a credit to the school as they approached this topic in a mature manner, participating fully in all activities and demonstrating enthusiasm and interest throughout the day.

The trip has led to some interesting and thought provoking discussions in lessons since, and students thoroughly enjoyed the day!

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Sarah Bonnell School

It was eye op ening to lear n more abou in particular t schools in Fr the fact that ance, France is a se This means th cular state. at education and religion ar I really enjoye e separated. d learning ab ou t this as I foun interesting an d it very d now feel co nfident in talk this topic. ing about Khadeja Sheb ani The trip to the Institut Français was amazing as the activities were really interactive, and I learnt lots of new things about the education system in France. I also learnt some new vocabulary which will help me to improve my writing.

Kausar Nawab

On the trip I le arnt a lot about French schools and how they have a very differen t education system to ou rs. Namely, their view on religion is very differen t as they do not allow students to show their religion in school. They do this because they believe that everyon e should feel equal in school.

I really enjoye d the trip as I improv ed my knowledge of both vocabulary & culture.

Chiles Whyte

French The trip to the ry Institute was ve and n fu informative, a lot nt engaging. I lear lture about French cu and and education, the nd ta now unders n ee difference betw British the French and ems. The education syst atched film that we w e focussed on th was a Holocaust, and to the real eye-opener ws and struggles of Je period. It Gypsies in that the role also highlighted e war. I of France in th joyed the thoroughly en love to trip and would go again.

Hannah Dale

Year 9 Outward Bound trip

to Aberdovey, Wales

On March 20th, 96 Year 9 students and 12 staff set off on a big adventure, travelling over 250 miles to Aberdovey, Snowdonia.

Bleary eyed (we met at 6am) there was a real sense of excitement in the air.

Typically, the journey did not get off to a good start, with traffic on the M25 moving slowly, however we eventually made it to the M4 and after a few more hours traveling we were finally crossing the Severn Bridge into Wales.

We weren’t quite there yet, it took 4 hours of mountainous, winding roads until after 9 hours of travel we finally made our destination! Although tired from the long journey, students and staff alike were excited to get on with the week of activities. We got to experience a wide range of activities, from a 2 hour canoe journey to jumping off a jetty, from a full day hike and camping in the snow to rock climbing and gorge walking. The girls and staff were put through their paces and thrown a number of challenges, which were met with enthusiasm. We all felt a real sense of pride for what we achieved in each activity throughout the week.

Well done to all those involved, and I hope that you have gained some fantastic memories and new skills which you can apply throughout your life.

Thank you to all members of staff who supported the trip!

Ms Whitehouse

Year 9 Theatre Trip The Taming of the Shrew at The Globe On 7 March 2017, 120 Year 9 drama students attended a trip at the Globe Theatre on London’s Southbank.

A selection of students also attended the trip as a reward for their progress with the Accelerated Reader programme. This provided students with an exciting opportunity to watch a live theatre performance of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew in one of the world’s most spectacular theatres!

The production was full to the brim with songs, slapstick comedy and powerful performances by actors. Our drama students really enjoyed the experience.

Ms Griffiths Curriculum Leader for Drama

Shakespeare's Globe is a reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, an Elizabethan playhouse that was originally built in 1599, destroyed by fire in 1613, rebuilt in 1614, and then demolished in 1644. The Globe Theatre was built to replicate the original features of the first playhouse, for example, it has an open-air arena.

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Year 9 Barbican Box Project and Theatre Trip On 2 February 2017, a selection of Year 9 Drama students attended a trip to The Barbican theatre to see a special performance of Kiss and Cry. This was a unique production filmed live and screened on stage for cinematic perspective. An ensemble of performers, camera crew and prop manipulators gathered around small-scale sets and told the story through the use of their hands.

Our students thoroughly enjoyed this original style of performance.

“I found the performance surprisingly intriguing, and it forced me to think further into the concept, and stretch my mind, as hands can sometimes hold so much more representation than the rest of our bodies” Melanie Corbin, year 9.

The trip was arranged as part of a special project that some of our Sarah Bonnell Drama students will be taking part in: The Barbican Box Project.

Students devised their own performance by using a box with a range of stimuli inside. The performance took place on the 28 and 30 June in the Rich Mix theatre in Bethnal Green.

Miss Jim & Ms Griffiths Drama Curriculum Area

Sarah Bonnell Player World Book Day Performances On Thursday 2nd March Sarah Bonnell Players performed in the Learning Hub for a special World Book Day performance.

Students created a plethora of pieces based on famous novels, short stories and plays including: Jekyll and Hyde, Romeo and Juliet, Maze Runner, Narnia and The Twits.

The Learning Hub was transformed into a promenade theatre space where audience members visited each theatre piece in small groups to watch the stories unfold. This was Sarah Bonnell School’s first taste of the experimental performance style of site-specific theatre and students gave some deeply impressive performances.

We would like to congratulate the members of the club for the fantastic performance and for their commitment Sarah Bonnell Players.

Miss Griffiths and Mr Bentley, Drama Curriculum Area

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Sarah Bonnell School

Year 11 Professional Actor Voice and Movement Workshop Professional actor Andy Andrew Roberts-Mudie led a performance workshop with Year 11 Drama students in advance of their final practical exam.

Drawing upon his experience as an international performer in The Gruffalo, Andrew gave students a broad range of rehearsal strategies, leading them to develop a more meaningful understanding of how to combine voice and movement within their performances.

Jacqueline Flynt commented that “Andy taught us the importance of warming up to prepare for a performance.

A highlight from this workshop was when we were encouraged to develop our understanding of characterisation. Upon repeating our lines in role, we discovered deeper meanings for all of our roles.”

We would like to wish the Year 11 Drama students all the very best of luck for their final performances!

The Drama Curriculum Area

Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time Year 9 Theatre Trip In October every form were set the challenge to create and put on an assembly with the theme ‘Be Nice, No Excuses’.

A vast number of the year group took part, and it was fantastic to see the ideas that they came up with. Every assembly was excellent, and the girls put in a huge amount of effort, really showing what it means to ‘Be Nice’. Although there could only be one form selected to share their assembly with the school, well done to 9H, as a reward for those who led on their assembly, students were invited to see ‘Curious Incident of

the Dog in the Night Time’. In January, 50 excited students made their way to the home of theatre in London, the West End, to see the play. They were treated to an outstanding performance, which included some fantastic choreography and incredible special effects. The students were excellent ambassadors to the school and, despite a late finish, came away buzzing with enjoyment.

Thank you to the members of staff who supported the trip.

Ms Whitehouse

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Playground Project On Tuesday 17th January a group of 15 Year 8 & 9 students took part in the playground project.

The project was run in collaboration by Bow Arts (primarily Bow Arts artist Poppy Green and Education Projects Manager, Lydia Ashman) and artist group TAAT, who consist of artist GertJan Satm and architect Berg Horemanns. The aim of the project was to investigate the relationship between playing and learning, and in developing collaborative rather than hierarchical relationships.

Students, artists and teachers all worked together to experiment with and to build a large interactive sculpture from interlocking shapes called the Toolkit. The shapes came with instructions and interventions to help guide the construction.

The workshop was very successful, and all participants feedback was very positive. The project itself is a pilot and we very much look forward to seeing how the concept develops and how we may be involved again in the future.

Ruwaydah Uddin: “I enjoyed the project because it was challenging. everyone had lots of ideas and opinions.”

Bhakti Patel: “I really enjoyed the session. This was because it was really nice working with people I didn’t know…we worked together to create structures and I learnt we can develop our ideas to make it better”.

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Sarah Bonnell School

Project: Photography Silver Arts Award When: Autumn 2016/2017 • Participants: 15 Year 9 and 10 students Activity: The group learnt a range of techniques and processes, referring to the work of contemporary photographers, which informed each students’ personal project to develop their individual artistic practices. As part of their research, they reviewed Lorna Simpson’s work on show at Tate Modern and met photographer Monica Alcazar Duarte in her studio in Bow Arts’ Essex House site to learn about her practice and background. For the leadership element of the Arts Award, the students worked together to organise an ambitious event, aimed to promote the arts at Sarah Bonnell.

This including curating an exhibition of their work and planning and delivering workshops for younger students, students with SEND and teachers.

Testimonials: “I have developed many new skills during this project from photography skills, like being aware of my composition, to leadership skills such as being assertive and able to plan.”

Year 9 student “I have developed resilience, cooperation, communication and leadership skills.”

Year 9 Student

“The girls recognized the importance of creativity and how their creative skills are transferrable to a variety of possible educational and career opportunities.

I was so fortunate to have the privilege of working with such a motivated and committed group. I felt a little bit like a conductor and they were the talented and creative orchestra, producing individual expressions of themselves, culminating in a final collaborative piece.”

Liane Harris, Lead Artist

#techfest The Technology department hosted an exhibition of KS3 students’ hard work. It was an evening of exciting challenges, a The Technology department hosted an exhibition of KS3 students’ live fashion show by ourhard Textile and stalls seta up work. Itstudents was an evening of three exciting challenges, live fashion show by our Textile students and three set up by to sell to sell products that were designed and created in stalls lessons products that were designed and created in lessons by Year 9s.

Year 9s.

Live challenges…

The main challenge was for Product Design students to raise money to go towards the United World schools charity for our The main challenge waspartnership for Product students towho participated school Design in Cambodia.

All students thoroughly enjoyed the #techfest.

Some students commented on raise money to go towards the United World schools charity how the experience has equipped them with entrepreneurial, for our partnership school in Cambodia.

All students who leadership and problem solving skills.

participated thoroughly enjoyed the #techfest. Some students The #techfest was a hugely successful evening, Year 9 Product commented on how theDesign experience hasfeel equipped them witha total of students should very proud to have raised £215.34! entrepreneurial, leadership and problem solving skills.

Fashion show…

As a result of the success of this event, we will be looking to be

involved on an even bigger scale next year.9 Watch this space…

The #techfest was a hugely successful evening, Year Product Design students should feel very proud to have raised a total of £215.34!

Mrs Koli

As a result of the successTechnology of this Department event, we will be looking to be involved on an even bigger scale next year. Watch this space…

Mrs Koli - Technology Department

& student’s selling their products!

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STEM week journalist, a mathematical oncologist and a campaigner for action on hearing loss.

The workshops were an opportunity for students to work in teams and to challenge themselves in STEM subjects beyond the curriculum studied. The workshops involved designing and building a birdhouse, designing and building a train and creating an earthquake evacuation plan. The lunchtime challenges were an opportunity for students to acquire new skills by taking part in fun activities. The lunchtime challenges included coding, building DNA bracelets, building robots and celebrating pi.

March saw Sarah Bonnell School host their second STEM week.

The week ran from Monday 13th to Friday 17th of March and involved a range of career talks, lunch time challenges and workshops for students in all year groups to get involved with. Guest speakers included an architect, a doctor, a science

STEM week was well attended with almost 200 pupils taking part in the week’s events. Students both enjoyed and greatly benefited from the events. Sarah Bonnell would like to say a huge thank you to all of the volunteers that ran events during the week.

Ms Christofides

Enhanced Learning Day On the 22nd February 2017 year 8 students participated in their first ELD day of the year. The day was focussed on the Micro bits.

The Computing department planned the whole day for students to understand the concept of micro bits and to create their first ever programme. Students worked in forms all day and presented their ideas to the judges at the end.

We were very lucky to have 8 volunteers from UEL currently studying Computer Science to come and help our students throughout the day.

8R won first place as they worked really hard all day and showed great team work as a form to create an amazing programme.

Students enjoyed the day and were introduced to engineering and programming.

Year 8 students were given their free micro bit in the Summer term so that they can get coding in their own time!

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Sarah Bonnell School

Faraday challenge 2017 Sarah Bonnell School hosted another Faraday challenge day on 7th March 2017.

This year Sarah Bonnell Students were competing against St Bonaventure’s and Chobham School.

It was a long yet eventful day where students had to code a programme for a problem. This had to then be presented to the FARADAY judge at the end of the day. All students had to ensure they met success criteria and that their code actually worked!

We are pleased to say that Sarah Bonnell students won yet again, and were invited to the Savoy in June where they showcased their programme and met new engineers from different sectors of business.

Safer Internet Day Safer Internet Day was held on the 7th February 2017.

Our Digital Leaders were ready to offer help, support and advice to students and staff across the school.

Coordinated in the UK by the UK Safer Internet Centre the celebration saw over a thousand organisations get involved to help promote the safe, responsible and positive use of digital technology for children and young people.

Lunch time was an opportunity for students to come to the Safer Internet Day stall and enjoy a cupcake as well as make a Safer Internet Day promise.

A very eventful day with many students taking home information for themselves and their families on how to stay safe online.

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New Digital Leaders for 2017 launched in November 2015, the Childnet Digital Leaders Programme aims to empower young people to champion digital citizenship and digital creativity within their schools and to educate their peers, parents/carers and teachers about staying safe online. We are pleased to announce that we have now recruited more Digital Leaders for this year.

They will be working alongside the now experienced Digital Leaders learning how to keep students/staff safe online.

Congratulations to the following students who have been appointed.

• Aysha Adam - Year 9 • Khadijah Rahman - Year 9 • Nafisah Jahan - Year 7 • Faizah Ahmed - Year 7 • Zeenat Ali - Year 7 • Fariha Ala - Year 7 • Laura Padilha - Year 7 • Arianna Adomaityte - Year 7 • Melinah Subron - Year 7 • Aliza Babar - Year 7 • Sheza Shafiq - Year 7 • Rezwana Rahman - Year 7 • Adina Ahmed - Year 7

Tenner Challenge Year 9s competed in enterprise battle as students turned a single tenner into a combined profit of over £1000.

Year 9 students made a total of £1,002.27 profit from their £10 start up. Tycoons in Sarah Bonnell is an enterprise competition, which gives young people the chance to run their own business.

The competition encourages year 9 students to start a business and make as much money as possible from the £10, with profits being donated to the United World Schools (UWS) charity.

Students ran businesses that varied from selling homemade canvases, DIY bracelet design, henna design, lucky dip, international dance off to karaoke jumble mix. The winning team 9B’s Fun-Fest By B-rilliant minds devised a business where they had a variety of stalls selling a selection of confectionery, and they also had a lip sync battle.

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Sarah Bonnell School

“This project enabled our form, as well as the whole year group, to experience how the business world works and gave us power and freedom to lead (as students). It also made us bond as we had to collaboratively work together and in return we received, for all our efforts and hard work, a successful profit which will be generously donated to a good cause. Even though it didn’t go how we planned it to we managed to persevere and compromise, this made us stronger and more independent as a form class.”

Aysha Adam & Khadijah Rahman “I couldn’t be prouder of what the students have achieved. It’s truly remarkable. It just goes to show what the young people of Sarah Bonnell can put their minds to when they are presented with a challenge." - Mrs M Bhudia

Certified Digital Leaders @ Sarah Bonnell School Last year’s Digital Leaders have now successfully completed the course online from Childnet and are now fully certified Digital Leaders who will be helping to train our new Digital Leaders this year.

These students worked extremely hard to gain this certificate and have ensured they will spread the word on E Safety across the school.

Well done to all the students that completed the course.

Year 7 Lister Girls receive Computing taster @ Sarah Bonnell On the 24th February 2017 Year 7 Lister students visited Sarah Bonnell for a taster lesson on Computing. This was delivered by our current Year 11 class who were studying GCSE Computer Science.

Year 11s illustrated the idea of instructions using recipes and routines, teaching the concept of Algorithms. The year 7 students had to make a sandwich and instruct the robot with a series of instructions.

They also learnt how to debug programs on their own and develop their logical reasoning skills with some programming in Python.

The highlight for the girls was the

Binary Treasure hunt where they learnt what binary was and how to convert binary numbers to find the hidden treasure.

All activities were documented in a learning journey Passport which they took with them and they all went off with a sandwich.

Hopefully this will inspire them to carry on coding or encourage them to take Computing as a GCSE option.

Thank you to our Year 11 Computing students for all their hard work.

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The Brilliant Club On the 20th February 20 Scholarship students from Year 8 and Year 9 were selected to go on the launch trip of the Scholars programme for The Brilliant Club.

The students visited the prestigious Cambridge University on one of the hottest days in Spring in the whole of the UK. The day started off with an introduction and welcome on the programme followed by lectures from PhD tutors and a tour of the university grounds.

The Brilliant Club is an award-winning charity that has been helping to increase the number of pupils from underrepresented backgrounds progressing to highly-selective universities. They do this by using PhD Tutors to lecture university style in state funded schools.

Please see below an account of the day from a Year 9 student.

Ms Sahebdin “The Scholarship Programme has given me many opportunities including the chance to take part in the Brilliant Club.

I enjoyed taking part in Brilliant Club, it was interesting to see what university life is like. We got to experience a lecture

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at Cambridge during our launch trip about the topic: "what makes a good argument". We were given a tour of the campus including: Clare's college library, the chapel, the buttery, lecture rooms, student dorms, Cambridge garden and the outside of the biggest library at Cambridge. It was fascinating to see how the students there adapt to the environment, travel around the campus and live independently.

On that same day, we had our first tutorial with our PhD tutor Amina Yonis about TBI (traumatic brain injury). In total we had 5 tutorials which happened every Thursday and were each 1 hour long. After the 5 tutorials we had 3 weeks to write our 1500 word essay about the topic that we were given. We were told that the grading was going to be the same as it is for the students at university and we had to try our best to get the top marks. We had to meet the deadline and submit our work before April 5th. Currently we are all excited and nervous for our results which we will find out at our graduation at Kings College. This was an amazing experience which opened my eyes about all the opportunities for the future and I can't wait to go to university myself!”

Ilona Milevskaja

The Pinsent Mason Debating Competition Mason Debating Competition, we were presented with our trophy and £1000 cash prize.

Our winning debating team joined our Headteacher, Ms Potter and our Scholarship Co-ordinator, Ms Sahebdin to meet with Richard Foley, Senior Partner from Pinsent Mason and Kristian Grice, Senior Associate from Pinsent Masons and our school governor.

We had the opportunity to discuss the competition and how we prepared for it, as well as discussing how we would like to expand debating opportunities in our school.

Sarah Bonnell won the Trophy at The Pinsent Mason Debating Competition 2016.

“The past is yours, but the future is mine” was the Stone Roses quote used by Sarah Bonnell debating team to clinch the Debating Competition 2016 trophy.

Prior to the competition the girls who were selected to take part were coached by a team from EDF energy, delivered by volunteers from Pinsent Masons and their clients, in the art of debating and how to win a debate. The debate team spent their lunch and break time preparing for the final competition.

On Friday 9th December the team of year 10 Scholarship students took part in a debating competition in Central London at Pinsent Mason offices.

We talked about how we hoped to see a lot more students in our school involved in debating as it provides students with confidence in speech communication and also allows us to develop numerous skills that can be applied in all subject areas. We aim to open up more exciting workshops for students and in the future, get involved in a lot more borough wide competitions too.

We are running debate workshops to all year 8, 9 and 10 Scholarship Students on Thursdays. If you are interested please see the debating team to sign up.

The teams debated several motions on issues that affect young people against other schools in Newham and Waltham Forest.

Sarah Bonnell School went head to head with Lister School and debated for four minutes on the pros and cons of the motion: “those too young to vote in the Brexit referendum were robbed of a voice to shape their own future”. It was a nail biting finale where we saw Sarah Bonnell win the title.

The young ladies were overwhelmed with all the praises from the audience and compliments from the judging panel, chaired by Lord Justice Floyd.

Ms Sahebdin, Scholarship Co-ordinator Amena Khatun writes about the presentation of the trophy.

“On Monday 17th March, after successfully winning The Pinsent

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English Challenge Day others were transported to the 'animal kingdom'.

To end, students wrote speeches about women they admired, sharing their speeches with the judges and with each other, proving perhaps, that writers are indeed made and not born.

Ms Y. Bibi Read Aimanah Wahid’s testimonial below to find out what she enjoyed about the MAT challenge day:

As part of the Scholarship Programme we have been working very closely and collaborating with our Partner schools, Lister and Rokeby. All three schools have been looking at ways in which we can provide an enriching and enjoyable experience for our more able students and ways in which we can work together with all our higher ability students to stretch them further.

Ms Bibi planned The English Challenge Day with an array of professionals which was hosted at Sarah Bonnell School.

Ms S. Sahebdin - Scholarship Co-ordinator Sixty ambitious young writers from across the multi academy trust schools, joined us at Sarah Bonnell for The English Challenge Day. Students worked closely with three experts, including a playwright and journalist, cultivating and finding their voices.

Some worked on 'writing the ridiculous' whilst

The English Challenge Day was phenomenal! It helped me understand how to use my creative writing skills in a variety of different contexts. It was also a great opportunity to collaborate with other students from Rokeby and Lister, where together, we developed our writing. The highlight of the day was having two different types of workshops with external professionals.

It was a day where I could express myself by doing things that I love - writing! For someone who does not enjoy reading her own writing, I seized every opportunity to read out my work and received valuable feedback from the visitors. It made me believe that I too could be a writer one day.

My favourite workshop was ‘writing the ridiculous’. I thrived whilst writing as if I was an object that lived in my bedroom. It was interesting to see how I could write as if I was something that doesn’t have feelings.

The MAT challenge day was definitely a day I won’t forget in a hurry!

Aimanah Wahid, Year 9

Maths Challenge In March, Fiza Abbas, Maria Zaman, Merle Robinson and Sanjeeda Ahmed took part in the UK Mathematics Trust Team Challenge competition at Bow School.

The girls competed against 30 other schools from London in four different rounds of maths questions, including a cross-number and a team relay.

The girls were fantastic and when the results were announced we were unlucky to just miss out on a top 3 finish, coming in 4th place. The girls should be very proud of their achievements on the day and we look forward to future success in the event in years to come.

Ms Boughton

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World Maths Week @ SB As part of raising the profile for Maths at Sarah Bonnell School we have been working very closely and collaborating with other departments to provide an enriching and enjoyable experience for our students.

Mrs Macauley planned the World Maths Week whilst liaising with staff across curriculums. The varying activities throughout the week provided a wider perspective to students’ awareness of numeracy in subjects outside of Maths.

The energy and excitement seen in the girls involvement was brilliant, with their inquisitive minds being challenged each lunchtime.

Read Faatimah Ali’s testimonial below to find out what she enjoyed about the Maths World Week: “The Maths World week was amazing! It helped me understand how numeracy is so widely used across all other subjects. It was helpful doing the tasks with all of the other students and also, learning how to implement the numeracy skills into the other subjects. The highlight of the week was combining maths with art to create perspective drawings on the floor. Other students were talking about how great the science and maths experiment was, as they found doing colour reactions very fascinating! Overall, it was an amazing week and I would love for it to be done again!”

Faatimah Ali, Year 11

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UCL – Visit Year 7 On Wednesday 3 May, a group of year 7 students visited University College London to learn about what life in University is like and how they could aim to have high future aspirations.

We left school at 9am with Mr Keenan and Ms Emerson and walked to Stratford station, we then took two trains to get to our destination.

When we got to the university we took part in a hunt to try and find answers for the questions on our investigation sheet. Our guide showed us around the university and we learnt all about the campus.

After lunch we learnt about the structure of the eye, how we see objects and how eye damage or colour blindness can affect the eye. We found out that there was a boy who was partially colour blind and it was interesting to hear his story about not seeing colours in the ‘normal’ way. We then looked at some fun optical illusions like ‘old hag and beautiful woman’, ‘the dress – blue and black? White and gold?’ and ‘turning snakes’.

Afterwards we made posters in groups about other universities and two groups from our school presented. After a wonderful day we made our way back to school by train. Opportunities will arise for more people to take part in amazing days like these, so if you work hard, maybe you will get to be part of a great experience too.

Eleanor Hind, Year 7

University College London Trip The Scholarship Programme has allowed me to go on many visits, including the trip to UCL. During this day we were informed about university life and different aspects within the university.

We met UCL students who were studying different subjects, they told us about their experiences and gave us an idea of what universities look for in students.

We were then given a tour of UCL which is a city university. It differed greatly from places such as Cambridge (which is a campus university) as UCL had a sense of controlled chaos due to how busy it was from the amount of students and residents of the area.

During this tour we saw the variety of facilities available to the students many are spread all over London.

We were later given a university​-style lecture about how stress can affect your health. This gave us an insight to how different the teaching methods in university are compared to how we learn now. It showed us how independent you must be in order to succeed as you must retain information from lectures and write useful notes for yourself. Although the lecturer can still be asked

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questions, you must push yourself to get higher grades as it will not be like secondary where teachers are constantly trying to help everyone.

This experience has made me think more about what I want to do in the future and what type of university I would like to go to.

Sanjeeda Ahmed, Year 9

Netball success The Year 9 netball team had an extremely successful year winning games against Plashet and St Angelas. With high levels of attendance at netball club throughout the year their hard work and commitment

After a successful inter-form netball

showed in their performances. With quick

tournament the Year 7 netball team gained a

passing and a great eye for the game, the

few extra members and grew in confidence.

team are looking forward to a successful

With games against Eastlea, Brampton Manor

season in Year 10.

and a tournament at Chobham Academy, this team has shown they have a lot of potential

Picture: (L-R) Maria Uddin, Iman Shaikh,

going into Year 8.

Amelie Franklin, Jade Anthony, Amina Lounici, Sephora Nsilulu, Aliyah Irabor, Adepeju

A great year learning about the game

Adelusi, Ilona Milevskaja, Shohena Begum,

and improving tremendously each

Nasima​h Dauda.

training session and match.

Year 9 ASDAN –

Teddy Bears Picnic As part of the ASDAN course we have been looking at preparing drinks and snacks to develop personal independence.

After learning about the health and safety rules in the kitchen, we moved onto making our own drinks and snacks. To help with this, we had a Teddy Bears Picnic!

The first time the teddies came to school the students had to make 7 different drinks for them: fruit juice, fruit squash, tea, coffee, hot chocolate, sparkling water and milk. It was lots of fun and the girls did brilliantly.

The following week the students made some snacks: vegetable sticks with hummus, fruit sticks and cheese and crackers! After we checked everyone had followed the health and safety rules we started making our snacks! At the end of the lesson we all got to try the snacks prepared by the students which were delicious and healthy too! The students really enjoyed their Teddy Bears Picnic, and have learnt skills they can now take home.

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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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Summer Newsletter