The Soap Challenge

No, this is not a battle between Coronation Street and Walford.  Today, Shene Year 9 students took part in a pilot arranged by the Education Business Partnership with a facilitator who had been recommended to them. The students, in Young Apprenticeship style, had the challenge of launching a product - a soap - from its inception to its final stages.

In groups of about 6, students:

• decided on a corporate name for their group
• discussed their target market
• selected the essential oils, additional oils, botanicals and colour for their soap,  through smell,sight and science
• costed their product
• created its name
• designed a corporate logo
• developed a sales and marketing strategy
• presented their pitch to their fellow students who then grilled them about each element of the process

Some readers will recognise that The Apprentice did a similar challenge a couple of years ago and the losing team made a terrible mistake in their costings, mistaking sandalwood for cedarwood. No such problem befell our apprentices, and the facilitator and judge were duly very impressed. The 2nd and 3rd teams will have their soaps made up; the winning team will also have their soap made up, but with the wrapping inscribed with their logo going around all three teams' soaps. Better still, the soaps will be on sale at the Sheen Festival to be held on the 17th July.  Interestingly, all the groups - except one, shame on you - wanted some of their profits to go to a charity.  Come along on the 17th, buy some soap, and help a charity!

Pupils to be proud of!

Three recent events have made us all very proud of our pupils - and their teachers too. 

On Thurday, thirty Year 10s, having endured an application and then an interview process, spent a day at Richmond Business School being inducted into becoming prefects as from after half term, when the current Year 11 cohort passes on the mantle as they move from being 5-days-a-week attendees to examinees.  The Year 10s had applied for different roles throughout the school, including Head Boy and Head Girl. These two roles were elected from their peers and staff and Amine Turay and Ceejay Cubitt are the worthy winners. The prefects were greeted by Christina Conroy, the Principal, who talked to them of leadership and its challenges. They then had a series of activities such as role playing scenarios so they could be confident in dealing with issues when they are in post.  They enjoyed a business lunch break and then continued with further activities. Ms Babadu, the Year 10 Leader and organiser of the event, was very proud of them all. We think we have a fine body of prefects ready and waiting and I am very much looking forward to working with them.

On Friday, Ms Blease, the Gifted and Talented Coordinator, took 5 students to Waldegrave School for a conference/workshop on Communication and Emotional Intelligence. Despite arriving late due to a bus break down, and thus missing preparation time, Shene students stood up and presented in an exemplary way for the first of several activities. Ms Blease was thrilled, surprised and proud to hear at the end that Shene students had won the event for their passion and confidence in presenting.

On Saturday, Shene School welcomed fifty Chinese business, political and education representatives who had come to the UK to hear about various education initiatives. The British Council asked us to talk about the Self Esteem Through Sport programme which we run via Wayne Simon from LBRUT. Before the speeches, however, they visited the school and were astonished when they reached the Art room. Art, Photography and Technology are, apparently, less well supported in China than academic subjects so they were firstly very surprised and impressed by the extremely high quality of the work. They particularly liked Andrew's Micky Mouse piece. More than this, though, they were astonished at the number of children (Year 11s) who had come in in their own time to put the finishing touches to the coursework (about 40 in total). So delighted were they to meet children on a Saturday that they ended up showering them with gifts. You can see the beautiful objects they gave them below.

Headgirl Colette looks at a beautiful hand-painted map

Finally, a thank you to Mark Hartley and a huge "Well done!" to Barnes Primary, whose Art Exhibition I was invited to on Friday night. It was a fabulous show, wonderfully and professionally displayed in the Old Sorting Office. The sheer imagination, diversity and creativity was a joy to see.  Anne Hahlo, a Barnes parent and Shene governor, made a very interesting comment about this exemplifying the differences in Secondary and Primary artwork: the first is essentially individual with the child aiming for the best GCSE result possible; the second is collaborative, with the varied pieces displayed as part of a whole and thus very compelling and coherent as an exhibition.  The Shene exhibition is being taken to Sheen Library shortly; please try and see it.

Performing Arts Showcase

Last night was, once again, an example of the talent and commitment of our artistically-minded (in the widest possible sense) students. The GCSE Art and Technology pieces were on display. All the work was fabulous; some was simply stunning. A range of materials, genres and interests showed how much imagination and creativity the students have. Technology items ranged from the highly practical - a beautifully proportioned CD case - to the more esoteric - a lovingly constructed table, with an acrylic insert etched with the names of football teams. The photography showed there is considerably more to this art form than mounting holiday or friends' photos on Facebook or in an album: we loved the unusual take on the London bus and the CD Rom case design. In Textiles, we saw a riot of bright colours, beautiful cushions, a scrap-book portfolio "you could sell", dresses, jackets: one Primary child visitor said it was her favourite room. The Art pieces included fine art, portraiture, sculpture,  modern and post-modern styles. A particularly striking piece was a wedding cake sculpture, with a slice cut from it through which were scribed statistics about weddings and divorce: clever, thoughful, witty, provocative. Visitors loved it all. I loved the giant eye sculpture,complete with gold eye lashes. Mr Farris was much taken by the sadness in the skilfully sketched face of a student's younger sibling.

PE provided a trampolining performance which included some of our Gold Award students. This was then followed by the Music, Dance and Drama shows. Compositions and songs - there was a particularly sweet three-part harmony arrangement of 'Saving All My Love' - made up the musical element.  Dance comprised the Year 11 students own choreographed pieces, which had been highly complimented by the examiner last week for their originality and skill. The Drama tended to the more formal: extracts from Blythe Spirit and Private Lives (Noel Coward), for example. There was a very moving piece about old age from the play Three Tall Women by Edward Albee, which I found compelling and poignant.

Results from Dance and Music practicals show that examiners confirm our views of the talent and skill of the students. Drama practical exams take place next week. 

It is hoped to take the art and technology work to the local library or Sheen Lane Centre next week so others can enjoy it too.

Pictures show Shene students admiring the work; East Sheen Primary pupils; Hannah's wedding cake sculpture and Jessica's graphite portraits.

Latest news

Due to some technical problems, I have not been able to blog recently, but, thanks to our skilled ICT Systems Manager, these are now resolved - as you see.

We have had a lot of meetings and discussions about the impending Academy. Students have been selecting the new uniform, staff have been consulted about their hopes for the new school and there have been several business-type meetings to discuss the myriad issues relating to the transition between Shene School and the Academy. The staff consultation was interesting: staff were asked some questions and used 'zing' technology to register their answers. I was delighted when the facilitator told us that they had done this exercise in many schools - not just future academies - but found our staff answers about what they wanted the students to look like to be the most inspiring and positive they had ever encountered. This is very telling, they said, because this is a staff who truly care about the student body:

The funding agreement was not signed off before the election so we are still waiting for this to happen. Therefore, we are still unable to provide as much information or to plan in more detail, although we are hoping the signing will take place very soon, now that the election is over.

Despite all the above, we have been working extremely hard with the students to prepare them for their GCSEs and their end of year exams. So far, Years 7, 8 and 9 have all sat "summative tests" this term. For Year 9s, this ensures they can embark on the pathway of their choice for their Year 10 options. Year 11 GCSEs have also begun: students have already taken Languages orals, Dance and Music practicals and their ICT course is now finished and marked (results are extremely high: over 85% pass rate). The core exams begin in earnest in a couple of weeks, and we are all working flat out to support the students and ensure they achieve their best. We do not have 'study leave', preferring that our students stay and work with us up until the very last moment, so that they cannot slack off at all.

Linked to the above, our Technology and Art promises to be the best ever, and the ever-popular and always excellent Creative Arts Showcase takes place next Thursday evening in the Hertford Building. There will be a chance to look at the Art and Technology exhibition and watch the Dance, Drama and Music practical pieces that Year 11s have presented for their exams. Please do come along if you can from 6.30pm. The Exhibition will then go to the Art Block on the 14th for visitors unable to make the evening event and our Primary School partners. We are then hoping that we will again be displaying the work at a public venue such as we did last year in Sheen Library.