Newsletter April 2010

This issue

Welcome to the April 2010 edition of Saint Paul's Academy's newsletter!

In this issue:

• Visitors are impressed
• Primary school headteachers catch up with former students
• Book Club
• Fitness suite - official opening by Jonathan Edwards
• Department news
• School opportunities
• Work experience
• Technology to keep you informed
• Zero tolerance policy reintroduced
• Important dates
• Holiday dates
• From our football correspondent

Dear Parents and Guardians

“We have now been in our new building for three months and as the days get longer, the weather improves and the external areas near completion we are able to realise the full impact and potential of our campus. Students and staff have now become accustomed to the building and the anxieties and concerns of the first weeks have worn off and been replaced by enjoyment as everyone begins to personalise and feel comfortable in their new space.”

Patrick Winston, Principal

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Visitors are impressed

As we had hoped, we have been inundated with visitors who are eager to admire our new facilities. We have been particularly pleased to welcome headteachers and staff from our feeder primary schools and they in turn have been delighted to see their former students in their new learning environment. There have been many very positive comments made about the new building but without doubt what most people have noticed first is the calm, purposeful working atmosphere which pervades the whole school. Visitors find the work ethos quite remarkable and I don’t think there are many headteachers who could walk round a school at any time of the day with the confidence that I do. This says a huge amount for our staff and students.

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Primary school headteachers catch up with former students

It has been a particular pleasure to welcome headteachers from our feeder primary schools. These visits have not only given our colleagues firsthand experience of our new building which they can take back to their own schools, but also, as they have walked round the campus, they have been able to catch up with former students. Many heads have been hugely impressed by the progress that students have made, particularly as a result of our flexible curriculum, and they have been overwhelmed by the confidence and maturity of so many of our young people.

Since we moved we have, as a community, made a concerted effort to become a positive addition to the local area. This has involved liaising with our neighbours and being proactive in dealing with any problems which arise; we also appreciate that many residents, especially those on Finchale Road did not realise how close they would be to our school! We have had a great deal of positive verbal feedback from the local community but it is always nice to get something in writing and for that reason we are delighted to receive an email from a very close neighbour who said, I’d just like to congratulate all the students at Saint Paul’s Academy for their exceptional behaviour when entering and leaving the school premises. Abbey Wood has seen a great improvement in standards in every aspect imaginable. What a delight to see so many polite and well mannered students, looking very smart in their uniforms. The whole school should be very proud of themselves. Well done to all the teachers and outstanding students, keep up the fantastic work. We look forward to working closely with everyone in the locality and to a time when our neighbours can use some of our facilities.

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Book Club

We all know the benefits of reading and in order to further encourage this fantastic leisure activity, the English Department is running Book Clubs. These are aimed at specific groups of students because we fully acknowledge that boys and girls of different ages like very different types of literature. So, with this in mind, the English Department are currently offering a Darren Shan Club for Lower School boys and Cathy Cassidy Club for Lower School girls.

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Fitness suite - official opening by Jonathan Edwards

Without doubt one of the highlights of this term was welcoming Jonathan Edwards CBE into school to officially open our Fitness Suite. As Jonathan has held the world triple jump record since 1995 and won gold medals in the four main international athletics events (Olympic Games, World Championships, Commonwealth Games and European Championships) he was the perfect person to encourage our school community to make the most of the superb facilities which are now available.

Jonathan, who is now a member of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, held a question and answer session about the games as well as talking to GCSE students. He said, “There are two things that are really important in sports, one is having really good motivated staff – which Saint Paul’s has – the other is having facilities like this. The kids here have the best of both worlds and it’s absolutely fantastic.” He went on to say, ”Sport can have an impact on all young people’s lives, not just the really talented ones, and here there is the capacity to do just that – it’s a great model for other people to follow.” Greenwich Councillor John Fahy, cabinet member for culture and the Olympics, said, “It’s going to be amazing having the Olympics in the borough. These students are going to have all the top athletes in the world on their doorstep and it’s going to be really inspiring for them.”

Although the Fitness Suite is now being used to full capacity by both staff and students there are other areas of the school which have taken longer to get fully operational. I have already mentioned the playing fields and another example of an area which is still developing is the library. At Wickham Lane we did not have a library for the very simple reason that there was absolutely no room; as you will remember we even had to use the hall as a classroom in the end. Hopefully, the library will be open to students soon after the Easter break and they will have access to further ICT equipment as well as books. In the first instance, £20,000 has been spent on books and 70% of this will be spent on fiction and 30% on nonfiction. The reason for this divide is because so much information is now available on the Internet and, although of course books are very useful, they can become out of date very quickly. Later in the year, a further £20,000 will be spent on the library and the choice of books will reflect what is proving most popular with students.

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Department news

English

The English Department have also continued to develop many other exciting initiatives including ‘School Report’, a BBC project which took place on 11th March. On this day schools across the country produced live news broadcasts; at Saint Paul’s Year 9 students went to the CLC to film and edit national and local news stories which are now available for you to view on the BBC news website or at www.radiowaves.co.uk. 'DebateMate' also continues to go from strength to strength and because of our new facilities we were able to host the last round of the competition during which students prepared for the 2nd round of the Urban Debate League and the Richard Koch Cup.

Music

There are also many exciting things happening in the Music Department. Year 9 GCSE students are currently involved in a community project with Abbey Wood Nursery leading instrumental and song sessions with the under fives. This has provided our students with an insight into child social care and it has been a pleasure to see our students develop more and more confidence and professionalism as the weeks have progressed. In February, local musician Dennis Greaves was appointed Rock Musician in Residence. He is a member of the band ‘Nine Below Zero’ and he has accepted our invitation to front workshops with various year groups when he is not on tour. Year 8 were treated to a presentation about the life of a professional musician and the recording industry; it goes without saying that they were extremely interested and attentive.

The very successful music concert provided a showcase for the wide range of talent we are lucky enough to have in our Academy. There were performers from all year groups representing an impressive range of musical genre. Again, it was wonderful to see the confidence and enthusiasm of our young people.

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School opportunities

As you know, we are always anxious to make our students aware of the opportunities that are available to them when they leave school. Many of our students do not know what they can aim for if they do well at school and some of our more able students do not even consider university because it is not the route that previous generations of their families have taken. To encourage young people to extend their horizons, we have always undertaken a range of activities which include day trips to universities and this half term we have been delighted to welcome undergraduates from the London School of Economics to Saint Paul’s to work with 110 students from Years 8 and 9. There have been whole group activities as well as smaller workshops all of which are aimed at increasing awareness and self confidence in our students. This is part of a project called the Higher Education Access Programme for Schools or ‘HEAPS’.

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Work experience

Of course, work experience also plays a vital part in preparing young people for life after school and this year, as always, our students spent their time in work places which ranged from barristers’ chambers to pet shops and hospitals. Work experience takes a huge amount of organisation, particularly because of the health and safety issues involved, but it is a major turning point for many students as they begin to realise not only the opportunities that are available to them, but the demands that are made in the workplace. Some students think that school is very strict; what they don’t realise is that rules for punctuality, attendance, good manners and a strong work ethic are just as important in the world of work for adults.

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Technology to keep you informed

As you will be aware, we are constantly using more and more sophisticated technology to communicate with parents, the latest example of this is 'ParentMail' which will enable us to pass on information electronically. If you have not yet returned your 'ParentMail' form to the school, I would urge you to do so as soon as possible so that we can ensure that all parents receive vital information. However, it is still extremely important that the basic information we hold on our database is correct. Too frequently we try to contact parents and carers directly, only to find that phone numbers in particular are out of date. If your contact details change, I would ask you to contact the school directly with your new details; very often parents say that they have asked their son or daughter to inform the office, but unfortunately amendments have not been passed on.

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Zero tolerance policy reintroduced

One of the major problems this term has been the weather and as a result of this many students have been wearing non-uniform footwear to school. We are frequently told that they intend to change when they get into the building, but more often than not this doesn’t happen. The way our students present themselves reflects our school and it is of the utmost importance that they wear full uniform, not only in school, but whilst travelling. For this reason, we are reintroducing our zero tolerance policy and any student appearing in school without full school uniform will be sent home to rectify the situation. I would reiterate at this point that canvas shoes and trainers are not allowed and if you have any problems in this area I would be grateful if you would contact myself or Ms Wheeler directly.

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Important dates

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Holiday dates

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From our football correspondent – Second Chapter

Football teams throughout the school have taken part in a number of fixtures including the National Cup, the Kent Cup and the District Cup.

The complete set of results to date is:

Year 7

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Year 8

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Year 9

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Year 10

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Year 11

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Girls tournaments - Years 7 to 11

*Won on penalties

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Playing record 2009/2010

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