The City Times Summer 1 2015

TheCityTimes Work begins on new Sixth Form Centre

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MAY

Summer term 2 June/July 2015

Key dates for the half term ahead 01

Year 9 and 10 Parent Day Academy closed to all students, except those sitting exams.

02

Year 7 Consultation Week Appointment cards have been posted home to parents.

03

Year 8 Consultation Week Appointment cards have been posted home to parents.

02

Year 6 Induction Day Academy closed to all students for borough-wide induction day.

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JUL

See page 4 for a list of events for the half term ahead or visit: www.thecityacademy.org/events.

The City Academy, Hackney is pleased to announce that in just a few weeks’ time, work will begin on our new, dedicated Sixth Form Centre.

The new purpose-built block will house a study area, library, and canteen for our Sixth Form students, as well as additional teaching rooms. Built alongside the existing sports hall in our West Playground, it will not be visible from the road. The design also incorporates an undercroft, providing extra space for students during break and lunch time. This will be an incredibly valuable addition to the academy as we continue to strive to offer the very best educational experiences and facilities for our students from years 7 to 13.

Wednesday 8 & Thursday 9 July Tickets on ParentPay now.

As the block has been cleverly designed as an extension to our existing building, the majority of the major works will not take long, and will be completed over the summer holidays, limiting disruption on site during term time. The project is scheduled to be complete by early 2016.

The sky’s the limit Keiran Hart, year 11 student, was part of a group of young Hackney residents chosen to visit the Sky Academy Skills Studios to become television presenters for the day.

Twitter

The studios provide an interactive learning experience by taking young people behind the scenes so they can use state-of-the-art technology in order to create their own TV news broadcasts.

@CityAcadHackney Every week we share a similar grid of nine photos showcasing a range of activities, classroom best practice and trips our students have been on. Why not subscribe to our Twitter feed by following the links on our website?

“It was great to see how all the people work as a team to put out live TV”, Keiran said. During his visit, he was given a tour of the studios in West London, watched a live news broadcast, and saw how the production team work together.

TheCityTimes - in print and online every half term |

www.thecityacademy.org/news |

@cityacadhackney |

flickr.com/tcah

2

Word wheel can you find more than 130 words all containing the middle letter? There’s one nine-letter word too.

A O

N

R

B T

S

275 B

146

87

75

E

Taiwo Ekundayo Aldgate P

Half term highlights

264

Riley Oyeleye Newgate I

Buse Colak Ludgate B

Kendra Maquina Aldgate B

Linus Sheaff Newgate K

Top merit winners this half term

As the first summer term comes to an end, we can reflect on yet another rich and varied programme of events including a general election, sports fundraising, and a number of high-profile visits ranging from authors to sports coaches.

www.thecityacademy.org/students Congratulations to all of our top merit winners from the past few weeks. Students receive merits every day and rewards each term for outstanding behaviour, attainment, effort and positive contribution to the academy.

Sports cycle-ology Library: author, Joe Craig visits and education

Comic Relief sponsored sports 27

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30

APR

APR

APR

Sir Dave Brailsford, manager of Team Sky and former manager of Team GB, visited the academy last month to talk to our GCSE PE students about his experiences.

Author, Joe Craig, joined students in year 7 to give a talk on: how he became a writer, his Jimmy Coates novels, and the importance of storytelling.

He took part in a question and answer session about how he became involved with competitive cycling and how he has overcome challenges.

He spoke to the students about creating stories and how they need to work on finding the story, instead of waiting for the story to find them.

This year, our PE department organised a range of sporting challenges including a ‘bounce-a-thon’, a sponsored cycle, the Mo Farah half marathon challenge, and our annual cross country run.

Some of his most illuminating and widely useful advice was linked to his ‘marginal gains’ approach: small wins and constant improvements. He spoke to the students about creating smaller targets to achieve in order to progress, and Mr. Emmerson agreed that much of this philosophy was being replicated in the school. Students are encouraged to look back at their targets, and come up with areas for improvement, take ownership of their performance, and adopt ‘achieving’ behaviours.

His words about writing were useful to the students, as he voiced the importance of drafting, re-writing, and planning in his work, and making sure every word he used was carefully selected and instrumental to the whole of the work.

Having raised £1800 so far, we are just short of our £2000 target. If you would like to support our students’ fantastic effort, it’s not too late. Please text ‘TCAH88 £2’ to 70070, and hopefully we’ll hit our target.

Science of the mind

UCL debating

In a follow-up article in The Telegraph, Mr. Emmerson reflected on how he adopted the idea of marginal gains when setting up the academy, and still employs it now. The little things, such as opening our library both before and after school, offering a free breakfast, banning street language; all these things help create a recipe for success.

The full article about Sir Dave Brailsford’s visit can be found in the Sport section of The Telegraph from Friday 8 May. Search: City Academy Brailsford.

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MAY

This half term, students celebrated another successful week of sponsored sports as they raised money for Comic Relief.

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Students took part in a trip to the Guildhall, discovering all aspects of the brain.

Several students have won places at the highly competitive UCL Debating Summer School.

The trip was run by UCL graduates and allowed our students to take part in workshops, lectures, and discussions which gave them a deeper understanding of neurosciences such as neuroimaging, neuroethics, neuromyths, and optical illusions, structure of the brain, memory, and gender.

The annual Summer School uses the discipline of debating in order to sharpen students’ critical thinking and public speaking skills. The Summer School lasts four days and includes debating workshops, taster lectures, homework activities, and a final day debate tournament. Well done to all the students in year 10 who gained a place on the programme.

Faadia Mohsin Ludgate M

Ali Bozkurt Newgate L

Clive Kandza-Itsieme Ludgate C

Very poor

Poor

Neither good nor poor

Good

Outstanding

Savannah Kanu Aldgate P

3

92++M8 92%

of parents would grade the academy as good or outstanding.

Mercy Iyase Moorgate T

Accelerated Reader of the Week www.thecityacademy.org/students/library Congratulations to the Accelerated Reader of the Week winners for this term. Each week our winners are announced in assembly, in the library section of our website and via our Twitter feed.

Find lots more photos from trips, concerts and classes on our Flickr page: www.flickr.com/tcah.

Houses of parliament

To Kill a Mockingbird

GCSE art exhibition 07

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ART

05

22

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SHOW

2015 FRI 22 MAY

The week leading up to the general election saw The City Academy, Hackney take part in a mock election, with five of our House Captains and Prefects representing each major political party.

On the final Friday of this half term our GCSE art students exhibited their coursework and final pieces - completed during their 10 hour practical exam - at our annual summer show.

On Tuesday 5 May our AS drama students staged Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, coincidentally the namesake of our ground floor Lee Library.

Each student representative wrote and delivered a speech in a special assembly, focussing on education, housing, and employment in line with the policies of their given party. All students were then encouraged to listen to these speeches and vote for the party whose views they agreed with.

There was a huge range of work on show including portraiture, cityscapes, and collage; something for everyone. If you weren’t able to make it, photos from the show will be online soon.

Next half term it will be the turn of our year 12 students to exhibit their AS level work. The exhibition will be held at our neighbouring National Trust property, Sutton House. Keep an eye on our website for dates and times.

In addition to the ensemble performance, each cast member also had to perform a monologue as part of their practical exam.

The results were announced the day of the general election and with 57% of the vote it went to Tara Adeyemi, representing the Labour Party.

57%

Parent Staff Association: second hand uniform donations required

50

Percentage of votes

40

Year 11 students and parents - please donate any uniform items (in good condition) you no longer need to the second hand uniform shop run by our Parent Staff Association.

30 20

With a near-full cohort, our creative and performing arts calendar now offers a rich and varied array of concerts, music recitals, GCSE and A level drama, dance and, the tradition continues, with our end-ofyear musical production.

18% 11%

10

9% > 1%

Green

UKIP

Lib. Dem. Labour

Political parties represented by academy House Captains and Prefects.

Cons.

A team of volunteer parents run this valuable service on behalf of the academy and hold sales during Parent Days, as well as at our transition events for our year 6 parents. Any donations, including PE kits, would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you, on behalf of the academy, to all of our volunteer parents who give up their time to sort the donations, have much of it cleaned and run the shop. The second hand uniform shop has quickly become a valued service we offer.

4

91% of students left the TCAH

National

75%

academy this year with five or more GCSE grades A*- C, the top attaining cohort in the borough.

Key dates for the half term ahead, June - July 2015

Term dates 2014/15

www.thecityacademy.org/events

www.thecityacademy.org/events

We begin the final half term of the year with a Parent Day for years 9 and 10 and Consultation Week appointments for years 7 and 8. A reminder to all parents that Additional Studies classes have now finished for the year; school will finish at 3.40 p.m.

Term dates for this academic year are listed below.

01

JUN

02

JUN

Year 9/10 Parent Day Monday 1 June, four sessions between 1 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Teachers will be available to meet parents to talk about their child’s progress in specific subjects. Please note, your child must attend with you in full uniform with their planner, or it will be recorded as an unauthorised absence.

Year 7 Consultation Week Tuesday 2 June, 3.50 - 5.30 p.m. (no Additional Studies) Parents meet with their child’s Personal Adviser to discuss progress and set targets.

03

Year 8 Consultation Week Wednesday 3 June, 3.50 - 5.30 p.m. (no Additional Studies) Parents meet with their child’s Personal Adviser to discuss progress and set targets.

11

KPMG Year 8 Music Project Concert Thursday 11 June, 6 p.m.

Following a year - a first for many - of free instrumental tuition supposed by our joint sponsor, KPMG, parents and guests are invited to a music concert featuring all 180 year 8 students.

JUN

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25

JUN

26

JUN

Sports Awards presentation evening Thursday 25 June Annual awards evening celebrating the successes of our competitive sports teams.

Year 11 Prom Friday 26 June, 6.30 - 10.30 p.m.

Year 11 students say farewell to the class of 2015 at the Assembly Rooms, Hackney Town Hall.

02

Year 6 Induction Day Thursday 2 July Induction day for year 6 and year 12 students joining us in September.

The academy will be closed for all other year groups.

8/9

Annie Wednesday 8 and Thursday 9 July, 6 p.m.

Our end of term musical for this academic year will be Annie: the tale of an orphan girl and her dog Sandy who are placed in the lap of luxury for a week as part of a publicity campaign for Oliver Warbucks. However, Annie’s stay turns out to be much more than anyone had bargained for as she works her way into everyone’s hearts and learns a few things for herself.

Tickets are available on www.ParentPay.com priced £4 each.

14

Sports Day Tuesday 14 July The academy ends every academic year with Sports Day. All students will be participating in a range of track and field events at Lea Valley Athletics Centre, earning points for their House.

15

Last day of term Wednesday 15 July All students will be dismissed following our end of year Achievement Assembly.

Students return for the 2015/16 academic year on Wednesday 9 September.

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The City Academy, Hackney is sponsored by KPMG and the City of London Corporation.

The City Academy, Hackney is a registered charitable company. Registered office: The City Academy, Hackney, Homerton Row, London, E9 6EA.

Summer term 1 Monday 1 June – Wednesday 15 July Monday 1 June – Year 9/10 Parent Day Tuesday 2 June – All students return

Parent Days 2015 An opportunity for students, parents and teachers to meet and discuss progress.

Year 9/10

Monday 1 June

Consultation Week The academy invites students and parents to two Consultation Week meetings each academic year.

Years 7/8

Tuesday 2/Wednesday 3 June

GCSE exams Both GCSE and AS level exams continue this half term. A complete list of all exams can be found in the Events section of our website. This half term: 1 June

2 June 3 June

4 June

5 June

8 June

9 June

10 June

11 June 12 June

15 June

16 June

17 June 18 June 19 June 22 June

History - Unit 1 Economics - Unit 1 and 2 Food Technology - Unit 1 Japanese - Listening and Reading Bengali - Listening Geography - Unit 3 Maths - Paper 1 Certification in Maths - Paper 2 Economics - Unit 3 Dutch, Turkish, Portuguese, Gujrati - Writing Music - Unit 3 Biology - Unit 1 Science A (Biology) - Unit 1 Maths - Paper 2 Catering and Hospitality - Unit 2 Design Technology - Unit 1 Bengali - Reading and Writing Science A (Chemistry) - Unit 2 Chemistry - Unit 1 History - Unit 2 Urdu - Reading and Listening Polish - Listening Punjabi - Listening Physics - Unit 1 Science A (Physics) - Unit 1 Certificate in Further Maths 1 Arabic - Listening and Reading History - Unit 3 Polish - Reading and Writing Punjabi - Reading and Writing Design Technology - Unit 1 Statistics - Unit 1 Certificate in Further Maths 2 Italian - Reading and Listening