The City Times Autumn 1 2012

TheCityTimes Issue 47 | Autumn Term 1 | 2012/13

Early entry exam success Circus skills workshops

Elizabeth Laird author visit Sports round-up

Jade Jones kick-starts Academy taekwondo club New website launches on Monday 5 November

Top merit winners

Cover story: going for gold Nyaling Malang and Archie Clark with Olympic medallists Jade Jones and Lutalo Muhammad.

17th Sept.

Krysten Chantrelle 23 Merits

24th Sept.

Kayasha Davis

37 Merits

1st October Nasifah Akthar 29 Merits

Congratulations to all of our top merit winners for this half term.

Olympic medallists kick-start Taekwondo club Following the incredible performance of Team GB at the London 2012 Olympic Games, students Nyaling Malang and Archie Clark got the chance to meet two of our medal winning athletes.

To celebrate their individual successes, taekwondo Gold medallist Jade Jones and bronze medal winner Lutalo Muhammad joined our lucky students, and staff from KPMG for a celebration event at their Canary Wharf office.

As the sponsor for both The City Academy, Hackney and the Great Britain taekwondo team, KPMG have kindly supported the academy in setting up an after school taekwondo club.

Having initially run a taster class for Year 6 students at our summer school, coach Siva

The early bird...

Early entry exam success

The City Academy, Hackney is very pleased to announce its early entry GCSE successes as well as the outstanding progress made by our Key Stage 3 students.

A number of our Year 9 students took their first GCSE exams this year, two years ahead of schedule. Not only that but we are now able to report that an outstanding 91% of students in Key Stage 3 achieve Level 5 and above in English and maths. This is well above the national average (66% in 2010/11) and puts us joint top in Hackney alongside Mossbourne in terms of student progress.

This is an excellent early indicator and we look forward to our students achieving fantastic GCSE results in 2014!

Congratulations to all of our Year 9 students who took GCSEs in a language or statistics,

Reganathan - who was also an Olympic torch bearer - now runs our weekly club every Wednesday evening.

Archie, in Year 7, who has been attending the class since it began in September said, “Meeting Jade and Lutalo was really inspiring. Taekwondo is great for building confidence, very physical, very vocal but disciplined. It’s really fun.”

Taekwondo is one of many after school sports clubs run by our PE department, on top of the Additional Studies classes offered. For more information about our sports teams, speak to Subject Leader for PE, Mr. Noorhaizamdin or visit our website after half term for up-to-date fixture listings and results.

and to the MFL and Maths departments for believing in and having such high expectations of our students. 98% and 93% of students who took their statistics or language GCSE achieved an A*-C grade, results made even more impressive when we reveal how many achieved the top A* and A grades.

Early entry GCSE exam results

8th October Kayasha Davis 27 Merits

Don’t forget, you can keep track of your merits on ePortal and all of our weekly merit winners are also posted on our new blog which can be found at:

www.thecityacademy.org/news.

Accelerated Reader of the week

10th Sept.

Shannon Kennefick Newgate Y

17th Sept.

Leyla Durmaz Moorgate G

1st October Andres Gorriti Ludgate P

8th October Hannah Falako Newgate B

24th Sept.

Rochelle Akala Moorgate B

Our new website...

Statistics A*= 8, A =18, B = 18, C = 3 A*- A = 54% , A*- C = 98% MFL A*= 13, A = 13, B = 0, C = 1 A* - A = 90%, A* - C = 93% Key Stage 3 Level 5+ English = 92% Maths = 92% Science = 90%

Level 5+ English & maths = 90%

... will launch over half term. Same address (www.thecityacademy.org) but lots of new features including an online events calendar and a student-led blog. Please note, a holding page will be in place during the half term break as we migrate to the new website.

Circus skills

In pictures: Additional Studies this half term Variety really is the spice of life when it comes to additional studies. This term, students had the chance to try their hand at a wide range of extra-curricular activities including table tennis, blogging, trampolining, textiles and gardening.

More photos and information regarding our Additional Studies programme will be online soon.

Top teamwork at our circus skills workshop Pictured above, our Year 8 students put their skills to the test in a specially organised Circus Space workshop. Transferrable skills such as communication and teamwork were the keys to success when challenged to learn a brand new task such as juggling or acrobatics. Coming up next half term, the Drama department have also organised a series of comedy workshops for our Year 9 students and we finish the term with our annual theatre production, Arthur Miller’s The Crucible (see advert, back page). Tickets are available on ParentPay now.

Author visit: Elizabeth Laird

Twice a term, Ms Connell and the library team invite in an author to talk to our students about their work and answer the many questions our students have about life as a writer. This month, we were very pleased to welcome Elizabeth Laird back to the Academy. Having travelled so extensively, all of our Year 8 students were keen to ask questions about life overseas and how these experiences influenced her writing.

Elizabeth’s top tip for getting ahead: “Life is out there to be lived, you need to get out there and live it.” If you have a story you’d like to share, why not write an article for our newsletter or speak to Ms Thomas about joining the Sharp magazine blogging team.

Read all about it

Reviews from Sharp magazine In this issue, Louis Landor-Smith reviews the graphic novel, Persepolis.

Persepolis is, in my opinion, one of the best graphic novels I have ever read.

The illustration compliments the book perfectly and allows the style of the writer to flow in an unprecedented way.

Persepolis begins in 1980s Iran during the Islamic revolution where the author has just started school in Tehran. Using the autobiographical context, the book perfectly illustrates the tensions coursing through everyday school and family life.

The reader learns along with the author just how unjust and unforgiving the new regime is, using the context of the veil to underpin the story line. As Marjane grows

up, seemingly more and more of the world she lives in is revealed, from taking part in her first demonstration against the regime, to her first experience of a relationship.

In Austria [later in the book], Marjane is exposed to many alien and seemingly horrifying things that she was kept isolated and protected from in Iran. As her new life begins to develop, her private life is plunged into disarray by the outbreak of war in Iran...

Read more of Louis’ article and many more reviews of books, sporting events and films on the Sharp magazine blog, sharpmag.wordpress.com.

Key dates for the half term ahead w/c Monday 5 November Consultation Week

An opportunity to check on your child’s progress. Appointment dates and times have been posted to all parents. We look forward to meeting with you.

Thursday 8 November, 9 a.m.

Founders’ Day

Rugby round-up

Our Year 8 rugby team recorded a convincing win over Stoke Newington in their first game of the season, outscoring their local opponents by 42 points to 15. Fuelled by this early success, 14 of the 15-man team scored a try in an emphatic 99-0 win over William Ellis School.

Despite being a relatively new team, the Academy squad has made an impressive start but they finally met their match in Grey Court School from Middlesex. A late comeback wasn’t quite enough, losing 37-26 but it was still an excellent team performace against a more established rugby school.

Our boys bounced back last week with a hard-fought win against Skinner’s Academy, 39-35.

Sports results

PSA family dining lunch

Our annual, academic awards morning to commemorate the opening of the Academy.

Awarded to our Year 8 students in recognition of their achievements during their first year at the Academy, parents of prize winners will receive invitations before half term.

Friday 16 November, 6 p.m.

PSA International Food Evening & Quiz

Join us for an evening of homemade cuisine from around the globe and test your general knowledge in our quiz too! Tickets available on the door priced £1.50 adults / 50p children. If you’d like to contribute a dish, please email the Chair of the Parent Staff Association, Stephen Webster - stephen.webster@imperial.ac.uk.

Friday 23 November, 6.30 p.m.

Rock Around the Clock: Number 1’s through the decades The City Academy, Hackney continue their winning ways across various pitches and courts. Some results from this half term: U14 Netball, Essex Cup Round One A Team: 24 - 5 win v Emmerson Park

Player of the match - Kenny Ekundayo and Benny Londja.

B Team: 14 - 4 win v The Ockendon Academy Year 10 Netball (pictured above) 15 - 11 win v Our Ladies

Thank you to the parents who joined us for our family dining event last week, your feedback is much appreciated. We hope you enjoyed the experience and the chance to meet other parents for a free lunch - there is such a thing! We hope you appreciated the opportunity to see our family dining service in action and saw the benefits in terms of providing all students with a balanced meal.

Menus, snack prices and feedback from parents and students will be uploaded to our new website after half term.

Ms McElroy and Mr. Grewcock joined our Year 10 students in the playground to take part in a series of exercises and games designed to challenge their spacial awareness and bicycle control.

Cycle safety

If you’d like to learn more about cycle safety or attend a course, search Move By Bike for training opportunities offered by Hackney borough council.

As the evenings get darker it is increasingly important to consider our safety on the roads.

With this in mind, a group of our students and staff have taken to two wheels for a weekly series of cycling proficiency classes.

Parents are also reminded that students must have a lock and helmet if they wish to cycle to and from the Academy. Students without one or both of these items will not be allowed to cycle to school or park their bike in our secure cycle racks.

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Join our budding musicians for an evening of number one hits through the decades. Tickets are available now on ParentPay, priced £3.

Monday 17 and Tuesday 18 December Theatre production: The Crucible

The Drama department are proud to present a Year 10 production of Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible. Tickets - £2 on ParentPay. All students must be accompanied by an adult.

Further information regarding our upcoming events will be distributed nearer the time and can be found on our online calendar, www.thecityacademy.org/events.

TheCityTimes

The City Times is available in print and online at the end of each half term. If you would like to include an article, submit a photo feature or promote an upcoming event please contact our Communications Manager, Adam Smith (Adam.Smith@thecityacademy.org).

Printed on recycled paper.

The Academy has ‘very high standards and expectations’. It is these which have provided the impetus for excellence. Ofsted 2012

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