Old People's tea party

We have just hosted a Christmas tea party for several groups of elderly residents, run entirely by our Princes Trust XL Year 11 group.  This small band of students prepared sandwiches and foods; they organised tables and chairs, decorations, trees, music, crackers, Christmas hats.  They put together hampers with food and other items brought in from every single form group -  and then they decorated the hampers.  They organised for a concert to be played. Other students became so excited by the activity that they volunteered to come and help. 

The response from our 40 or so visitors was overwhelming.  They were brimming over with praise for the students' politeness, kindness and hard work in putting this together.    Some were open: "These students are nothing like we imagined the young people to be like - they are wonderful". One particularly solicitous young man from Year 7 was hugged by some of the visitors:  "Ooh, I would love to take him home",  pleaded one! Our visitors were also very impressed at the concert entertainment: one with a background in music and theatre spent time talking to and advising our Year 8 pianist; another told me that the Year 11 solo singer definitely had the 'X' factor and she would be watching for her to succeed. 

When I addressed our guests briefly, I told them how proud I was of our students for their commitment and enthusiasm to the project, and what a difference this had made to them and, hopefully, our visitors.  I cannot finish without thanking the staff who supported the children: Ms Staples, who runs the XL group, the canteen staff led by Sarah Hoitt, and the office staff led by Emel Hall. Also,  our trusty local Safer Neighbourhood Team who supported us whole heartedly and joined in with shifting, carrying, chatting and spectating. Oh, and Dr Paul Rinne, who came down to discover that one of our visitors was an ex Shene School teacher who had worked with him 25 years ago, which was very touching for both.

A very merry Christmas to you all!

Christmas is coming ....

...and we have just enjoyed a wonderful Christmas Concert which gave so much pleasure to audience,organisers and participants.  As usual, this was held in All Saint's Church, but, in a change from the more traditional carol service, this year's concert was a truly eclectic mix of song, dance, poem and instrumental. The choir and audience sang traditional Christmas carols and talented soloists gave us 'Ave Maria' and 'Say It Isn't So'. We were treated to a wonderful rendition of 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' with a Year 9 student on vocals and the Year 10 instrumental group supporting her.  Year 10 and 11 Dance GCSE inspired with their colourful and creative choreography, individual instrumental performances on guitar and piano and, of course, the Shene School staff choir: all contributed to the evening's entertainment.  Indeed, as we left, the Reverend Louise was still tapping her heels and humming tunes to keep the mood alive!  Many, many thanks to everyone who attended so that the church was full; we were particularly pleased to see so many students there supporting their friends.  Many thanks too to the contributors who worked hard to practise for the show, and, of course, huge thanks to Ms Fairbairn and Ms Quinn Larkin for the work they put in to make the show such a spectacular success.
Another pleasing success for us was the annual Year 9 Ypres trip on Friday.  Students left Shene at 5am to make the long journey to Belgium, accompanied by Mr Tribe, Ms Barlow, Mr Cook and Ms Porter.  As ever, it was a long, cold but awe-inspiring trip and well worth the material discomforts suffered by the 21st century visitors to a 20th century memorial to one of the worst times in human history. The trip included a re-enactment of the Christmas truce of 1914, soldiers in role to explain life in the trenches, a trench meal (vegetable stew and a sausage which they ate standing up in the cold), and the laying of crosses in the Commonwealth cemeteries. An unusal element was the visit to a German cemetery at Langemark to contrast how the two sides commemorate their dead (the German mood is much more sombre and dark). At the end of the day, three students laid a wreath at the Menin Gate on behalf of Shene School. As ever, they behaved impeccably; this time, however, a unique event occurred. A Shene student was the only person to have ever, in all the tens of thousands of student visitors, been able to answer correctly the soldiers' question about the shape of the trenches and why they snake rather than lie in straight lines. The soldier said: "Your kids are fantastic and this is the only time that a pupil has answered that question correctly out of more than 1000 schools who have visited us".  Well done to  that student! I wonder if readers of this blog know this answer?

Diana Memorial Award and Copenhagen Conference

Two very nice events for us have happened this week. Firstly, we received a letter to say that our nomination - which we were invited to make because of our innovative work in tackling bullying  - for a Diana Memorial Award had been successful!  The purpose of this award is to celebrate the work which young people make towards their school, family or community. The contributions include peer mentoring, fund raising, sports leadership and recognition of those who have overcome diversity. This award was established in 1999 by a board chaired by the then Chancellor, Gordon Brown, who felt that it reflected the late Diana's personal interest in young people.
Mr Walker and Mrs Warren wrote a bid stating that 71 pupils were currently trained as Peer Mentors, with more on the waiting list. All year groups have worked with the Beatbullying charity and these activities have brought about a very positive awareness amongs the pupils about the programme and enabled those who are Peer Mentors to use their life experiences to benefit others. Next year, another 100 students will be trained for this role. In addition, older students are reader mentors for younger pupils.  The organisers wrote: "The assessors were really impressed with it and particularly thought that the nominee was an excellent role model and that the nomination really did have the "Wow" factor that we were looking for."
As well as this, our students are also involving themselves with the wider community, indeed the international community. The School Council  wrote a presentation about climate change which they gave to Marshgate Primary School Key Stage 2 pupils, followed by a short DVD produced by Action Aid expanding upon the issues of climate change and the importance of children's voices being heard.  The presentation spoke of the importance of influencing the Kyoto agreement and getting the US to sign up to it. Sample posters were made, with captions such as: "Keep the World Cool" and "Food not Dust". Marshgate pupils were asked if they could make some posters too, with a message in glue and sand, as a representation of the ground turning to dust in some parts of the world. The images of the artwork, the presentation and a letter will be sent to Ed Miliband MP. Shene students were also due to present to Holy Trinity Primary but we had to cancel since it was the same date as our Ofsted monitoring visit. Many thanks to Ms Banks for coordinating all this and the Shene School Council students.

Academy Expression of Interest signed off!

This morning, I received an email saying that the Minister has - at last - signed off the Expression of Interest for Shene School, so we are now formally in the feasibility stage. This means that a series of consultations will take place to allow current and future parents and other stakeholders to express their views on what they want from the new academy.  The consultations and planning for the Academy will be paid for by draw down funding from the Department of Children, Families and Schools. David Triggs, the CEO of AET, was with us today and we discussed various issues that staff had raised with us, such as curriculum and staffing for the new academy.  He then visited Sheen Mount to speak with Primary Heads and governors, before returning to speak to the Shene School Governing Body.  It is all very early still, and things will become clearer and move very quickly in the new year. We were encouraged to hear his support for our bus campaign, and for our wishes to broaden our curriculum still further - which current funding levels do not permit.