Headteacher's Blog

Addendum to previous article

2010-07-12T04:38:00.000-07:00

I usually prefer to devote one blog to one item and then move on. However, today I would like to make an exception. The girls who worked with PCSO Donaldson as helpers for the Sheen Centre Art Exhibition we mounted wrote this piece, which we thought people might like to read:

On Tuesday the 6th of July 2010, I Lauren, Sinea, Courtney, Katie, Kiera, attended our school's art presentation in the Sheen Lane Centre. We were there to engage with the local community, assist and educate people about the pieces in the art gallery.

We then decided to set up a tea and coffee morning, and some tables for them to relax and drink their coffee before or after entering the gallery. Together we designed flyers advertising the event and took it in turns to distribute them around the vicinity in hopes to attract more members of the public. After handing out the flyers more people turned up at the art exhibition. During this, some members of the public were giving us feedback on the work that was produced and were telling us how impressed they were with the schools efforts and the attitude of ourselves and it was commented that we were a great asset to the school.

Sinea and Courtney visited the elderly day centre and spoke to several people, where a variety of conversations took place. From this not only did we educate them about our school and the youth of today, but we also learnt a great deal about their generation and about their hardships, also how they are losing many friends as time goes by, which make us appreciate our youth and the time that we have to experience our lives.

We feel that we benefited from this day and it was a great experience for us all. Not only did we benefit from this but it was great to see that the elderly set up their own art station outside the hall after they had viewed the art and technology exhibition.

Lauren Cox, Sinea-Rickie Fennell, Courtney Humphrey, Katie Connick, Kiera McGuirk.

Proud police officers and parents

2010-07-08T06:29:00.000-07:00

I would like to copy an email I got from the parent of Jack T, who successfully passed a Maths exam which has meant he has been accepted by St Paul's School in Barnes to participate in their Maths Masterclasses. Jack's mother wrote: "As a mother, you wish the best for your child and since Jack started at Shene School he has achieved so much and I couldn't be more proud. It's a wonderful honour and privilege that Jack is being given the opportunity to have been accepted at St Pauls for his excellent hard work in maths... " Jack writes: "I like to push myself to the limit so I can always say that I have tried my hardest and so that I know I couldn't be any better".

We are also - of course - very proud of Jack, who is in Year 8, and which him lots of luck in the Masterclasses. Who knows? He may be a future Pascal or John Forbes Nash.

Our wonderful PCSO, Pete Donaldson, took our Art and Technology work to the Sheen Lane Centre on Monday for public exhibition, accompanied by Ms Torres and Mr Chevous, Art and Technology Technicians and PC Marco. They talked to local residents about the pupils work and positive aspects of our school.

The first visitor was really impressed and wanted to pass on congratulations to the pupils.

Another lady was a former deputy head commented that she was really impressed with the standard of work.

The 4 ladies in the photo were disappointed that the exhibition was there for only one day as they wanted to study the work further.

Five Year 9 pupils: Courtney, Katie, Keira , Sinea and Lauren helped all day welcoming visitors and making teas and coffees. The displays looked fantastic and the occasion was one more which allowed us to feel so proud of our school and students.

Here are some of the quotes received by Pete and Marco given on the day and from voicemails following the event:

From a resident in Queens Road SW14 - "I was impressed by the work produced and displayed by the pupils, also by the politeness and friendliness of the female pupils assisting the art show, they displayed professional behaviour throughout. The school has come a long way in the past 5 years and was a pleasant change to the big burly lads pushing through the street."

"Impressive artwork and woodwork from a school I knew very little about, clearly!"

"A great and enjoyable experience, I particularly enjoyed a cup of tea after with my 18 month old son and having the opportunity to speak to the pupils from Shene school and get to know more about the school. They were extremely polite and interesting girls and very well presented. A complete different image to what is painted by many residents in the area, I will be quick to defend the school in the future, my eyes have been opened and thanks again for the event held."

Technology and its governor

2010-07-01T23:40:00.000-07:00

I received an email yesterday from Paul Beaty-Pownall, parent governor. All our governors are linked to Faculties and Subject Areas, and Paul, as an architect, wanted to work with Technology. He is also hoping to work with the Academy sponsors on the plans for the new building we are expecting through the programme. I copy below his email to me and his fellow governors about his visit to Mr Tribe and the Technology Faculty:

Dear Governors,

I would like to report on my link visit with Mr Tribe, to look at the Technologies Department

PURPOSE OF VISIT

To get a wider understanding of how the schools makes the best use of equipment and resources, and how the children respond to the environment in which they work.

THINGS I LIKED

To start with I must say it was a very positive and encouraging experience. I felt huge enthusiasm from the teachers and the children who were baking in food science and were having a lovely time, whilst cooking some delicious cookies. I felt it my duty to try one!

Resistant Materials

The teaching spaces, which although looking a little worn in places were well managed and appeared to provide an adequate environment. The equipment was well looked after and proper consideration was given to safety. There was also some impressive new equipment including a laser cutter, used for detailed cutting of decorative elements. Although I visited at a quiet time at the end of term, the quality of the teaching was evident in the quality of the work, which looked very professional.

Food Technologies

The class was alive and full of happy, but well behaved children. The main cooking area looked well equipped and there didn’t appear to be a shortage of equipment.

Art, Textiles and Photography

The quality of the work was very exciting and I am looking forward to see how the work develops. The students are encouraged to be creative and loose their inhibitions, which is producing great results.

THINGS I WOULD LIKE CLARIFIED

It’s a great shame that pottery is not available. The art teacher was particularly enthusiastic about using clay as a medium to encourage students to be creative, and I would tend to agree with her. Are we able to suggest that a kiln be considered for the future?

I just hope that the new Acadamy doesn’t dampen the enthusiasm for creativity that I experienced today.

The above comments are intended to be constructive and informative.

It’s an honour to be allowed to visit the school in action, I feel very privileged.

Thank you,

Paul Beaty-Pownall

Parent Governor

Horticulture: Stems and Stemnet, farms and weather

2010-06-25T09:04:00.000-07:00

The Stemnet group, previously just run by Mr Morris and Miss Knapp at Shene School has expanded its remit for next year and has gained some new leaders.

The Technology Department now has a Technology Club run by Mr Tribe. This club will focus on the mechanical & electronic with such projects as model cars using various methods of propulsion and small robotic projects.

The Gifted and Talented, run by Ms Blease, has been designing and creating a School Farm. Over 200 plants have been propagated and planted. Not all survived but those that have are thriving well under the pupils’ ministrations. The pupils have also designed a rabbit hutch and various planters and benches. The rabbit hutch is almost completed (and from that we can assume we will soon have a rabbit), and the designs for the benches and planters have been approved and the wood purchased ready for building before the end of the year.

Further, spin-off projects run by Stemnet include replacing some of the dead or unhealthy plants and trees with fruiting trees and fruit bushes. Planning has been completed and discussions are under way with two nurseries regarding the actual plants.

Additionally a small "meadow" area will be created to encourage insects, bees and butterflies and a bird-box has been built/purchased with a wireless camera to generate a live feed in the spring when (hopefully) the box will be occupied.

The Princes Trust, currently run by Miss Staples, will be involved in the creation of a new pond, incorporating twin levels so that both shallow and deep plants can be accommodated. This is still in the planning stage so time lines and exact details are still vague.

The Geography department has also joined the Stemnet group and is run by Mr Richardson. The original idea was to have a weather club, but some technical issues have meant a rearrangement of priorities and the group has been focused on volcanoes and plate tectonics and has produced several, rather fun, working models of volcanoes. The weather club will now begin next year when at least one person will have learnt how to do some basic programming in XTML, which will be compatible with the with the new online learning platform being introduced to the school next year, and which staff and students have expressed a high level of excitement about as it will allow them to easily showcase their work.

Twickenham Riverside Project

2010-06-24T10:59:00.000-07:00

Ms Jacobs, our "always deliriously happy" Head of Art and Creative and Media Diploma Lead, writes about the Twickenham Riverside Project.

The 40 Environment Trust trustees voted at their last meeting on the 5 finalist sculptures.

Today Joseph Pecorelli from the Environment Trust announced the winners of the project that he ran with the Year 10 Creative and Media Diploma pupils.

The task was to create a piece of public art to be installed on the Twickenham riverside.

It was to be inspired by the stretch of the River Thames that runs through the borough of Richmond.

The pupils drew inspiration from areas such as: the river gods and spirituality; industry; history; heritage wildlife; environment; leisure and pleasure.

The pupils had to consider the factors involved if their sculpture won and was then enlarged and made professionally as a public sculpture on the riverside at Twickenham.

After many trips, workshops, proposing of ideas, and then constructing and finessing these, three winners were chosen:

1st: Skye Reilly

2nd Fernanda Alves De Lima

3rd: Laila Elsidawi

The pupils were all awarded with prizes such as portable solar charges and a device for monitoring how much electricity they use in their home.

Skye’s winning sculpture “River Goddess” was based on the river as she thought it chaotic and powering and therefore her goddess.

Music, Sport, Psychology and ...football

2010-06-23T12:38:00.000-07:00

I have just returned from a lovely evening listening to our Y10 Music students singing and playing to parents and a tremendously enthusiastic and supportive audience of fellow students. We were impressed by the solo vocal performances and the courage that it takes to sing to a full house of your peers, your peers' parents, and, worse, teachers. Some of the tunes were innovatively arranged to create lovely, sweet harmonies; and then there were the rock bands who got everyone tapping away. Many thanks to Ms Quinn Larkin and Ms Fairbairn for their hard work in organising this, and other staff who came to support and work on the door.

Last week was a sporty one for us. Our Sports Day was held on Friday: St George's Dragons (green colours) won narrowly over Nightingale Foxes (red). This is a time for lots of students to shine and enjoy themselves. Many also had a great time at Sheen Mount Primary School, where our sports leaders accompanied Ms Calloway to help our local Primary put on a wonderful day. Mr Hutchins, the Head, wrote a lovely letter full of compliments about how the students had helped make the event so successful.

In Psychology, which class I happened to visit today along with a parent governor and Cllr Paul Hodgins, they were conducting some research, looking at Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development. They were looking for evidence to confirm that they had reached the Formal Operation stage and were therefore capable of hypothetical thinking (could be interesting!). They produced diaries to monitor the extent to which they think in this way throughout their school day.

Clearly, Fabio used psychchology more successfully than previously on our English team; we had a full hall this afternoon full of England fans cheering on their team. The delight expressed when we scored was a delight to witness! Red and white faces, a few silly hats and a winner of an England football shirt made this a lovely afternoon. We have to wait now and see whether England will successfully reach the Operation stage in their next game to preempt other players scoring....

I have just read that we raised just over £100 for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and Great Ormond Street Hospital (entry to hall fee going to good use!).

Primary Plaudits for our Art and Tech exhibition

2010-06-16T04:52:00.000-07:00

I reproduce below the comments we have just received from the Year 5 teacher at East Sheen Primary School, Ms Rebekah Palmer. She writes to Ms Jacob, our Subject Leader for Art:

"Thank you for inviting us to your school to enjoy your artwork - our children were impressed with huge amounts of it and really enjoyed their visit. I asked the children to give me some feedback to pass on and here is a selection of their comments:

I thought the drawing was outstanding and the sculptures brilliant, I loved the sketch of London with the London eye and bus
I liked the wooden bookcase because I loved the way it was carved.
It was good, there was really good art. My favourite piece of art was the moving model train because it had lots of features including a clock on the front that worked
I liked the coffee table that had the Chelsea thing on it
I liked the paintings especially the one of London. I loved the wedding cake and the dolls house with the different colours. I thought the furniture was amazing.
The photography room was the most interesting because there was so much to see. I liked the Simpson painting
I liked the graffiti at the top of the staircase because it was creative
I liked the models of the sitting people and the shoe shelf
Even though all the rooms were amazing, I liked the room with the dolls house the best. I thought the exhibition was extremely interesting and you should keep it up!
I liked the goth picture because it had lots of good details
My favourite piece of artwork was the pencil drawing of the centre of London with Big Ben and the London Eye
My favourite piece of art was the wire ballet class, i liked it because if you turned it around then you could see a mini show
It was really interesting as the drawings told stories
I liked the sketch of the 3 skateboarders walking into somewhere, it was good because they had lots of details and it looked real
Most of the art was really good but I liked the sculpture and the drawing rooms the best
I liked the piece with all the faces on it and the picture of Mickey Mouse
I liked all of it as it was really exciting to see other people's artwork
The art at Shene school was really amazing. The most exciting room was the room with the chair and the PS3 rack

This is just a selection of the comments - the children overall were amazed at all the work they saw, please could you extend our thanks and appreciation to all the staff and the children."

The work is due to go on exhibition at the Library in Sheen Lane next month, so do try and see it.

The Soap Challenge

2010-05-26T11:10:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-05-24T11:39:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-14T05:28:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-07T09:04:00.000-07:00

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.

Year 6 Parents and Children Party at Shene!

2010-03-29T10:31:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday 24 March, we hosted our first ever "Meeting Us, Meeting You" social for Year 6 parents and their children. Since it was a first, we had no idea how it would work out, but work out it did, and in real style.

Parents and children started arriving at 5; by 5.20, the library was pretty crowded and people were enjoying the refreshments (more of these later). After a welcome and introductions to senior staff, the AET Managing Director (David Fuller), governors and parents, Ms Blease, our Gifted and Talented Coordinator, took over. With the G and T students - and the help of her daughter home from Uni - she had organised the delicious snacks and sushi (her daughter's speciality) which were, frankly, of a very high quality. Indeed, they were good enough to put Come Dine With Me contestants to shame, especially since the Shene students got them all cooked on time! Ms Blease then MC'd a short concert: Faye playing the piano; Colette doing her Grade 8 exam ballet piece; Lujain presenting her Jack Petchey Speak Out competition entry (Richmond round is tomorrow evening) entitled "Words"; Brandon and Leo describing life as a Year 7; and Tyler singing a Destiny Child's single.

This was then followed by networking, socialising, tours led by G and T students and a general good time. Many people remained until 7pm and some have asked if they can return for the second social (initially arranged for those parents who couldn't make the March date). We will be delighted to welcome back parents and their children, along with those who didn't come to the first, since part of the rationale of this event is to allow Year 6 parents to meet others also beginning at Shene. If you would like to come, please contact the school and we will send out an invitation and/or note your RSVP.

Shene Dance

2010-03-23T03:43:00.000-07:00

Dance has taken off in a big way at Shene School since Ms Fairbairn, our Head of Music and a trained dancer, introduced the GCSE in 2008. We are fortunate enough to be working in close collaboration with a local professional dance company, Combination Dance. Last night, an audience of parents and peers watched the 2010 Choreographic exhibition of work from Years 10 and 11, and a raw but exciting piece from Year 9s which was pulled together in just one workshop with Combination Dance. The dancers included a girl doing Grade 8 ballet, Year 11s who intend to continue with Dance at college and students who simply love the subject. The genres ranged from classical ballet to contemporary, via street, and all showed that a considerable amount of work had gone into the production. All the spectators were very proud. I attach below the report of a recent public event with our dancers written by Ms Fairbairn.

Richmond Theatre approached Anne-Marie Smalldon, Artistic Director of Richmond-based Combination Dance Company, with the brief to deliver an after-school Jam Free dance club working towards a performance piece merging Street dance and Salsa. Since their performance at Shene School, funding has been secured to ensure the continuation of the dance club and the participants are now looking forward to getting involved with Big Dance this summer working with the West London hub, English National Ballet.

Jam Free Performance

The Richmond Jam Free dancers came from three Richmond secondary schools. The girls all had an interest in dance, but had not previously had the opportunity to take part in regular dance training. Together with dance artist Anne-Marie Smalldon they created a dance piece, Red Alert, a unique fusion of Street dance and Salsa, with a military theme.

The girls were immediately able to relate to the Street dance choreography and once they had adjusted to dancing in partners, holding hands and working on intricate arm sequences together, they were keen to experiment with their new-found Salsa skills. Anne-Marie felt the Salsa training enabled them to develop their composition skills. "I found it refreshing, as someone who usually works with professional dancers, to work with a group of young people who were able to come up with some really innovative ideas" said Anne-Marie.

The dance club rehearsals took place weekly in the studio at Richmond Theatre, for two hours at a time, contributing significantly towards the girls' five hours of physical activity per week. Many of the participants were attracted to the project by the opportunity to perform and to work with professional dancers.

"I wanted to do it for the experience and to work with professionals, as I'm doing my dance GCSE."
"Dance is fun, keeps you fit and you get to perform."
"The best thing was watching the other performances and meeting new people. The Street piece was my favourite though."

The Richmond Jam Free performance event featured not only the touring youth dance companies and Blueprint Bursary piece, but also a performance by Combination Dance Company, dance club members performing a Contemporary work-in-progress piece based on ideas from Combination Dance Company's latest work and and freestyle solos by two emerging choreorgaphers working alongside Anne-Marie, together known as Alliance Dance Unit (ADU).

Anne-Marie said that it was 'possibly one of the best dance events in terms of variety and standard' she had seen in Richmond in recent years and emphasised that is was the location, a local everyday space within a secondary school that made it unique, presenting high quality dance work usually only seen in professional venues. She added that the school caretaker, who had been supportive throughout the project in terms of allocating space for the rehearsals, had been amazed at the high standard of work that had been brought into the schools' studio theatre. Cheers were heard from the audience at the end of the evening and the success of the dance club itself has led to Richmond Council securing funding for it's continuation to enable Anne-Marie and her company to continue to work with the same group of young people until the end of the year.

These photos were taken at the dress rehearsal:

Dragons' Den

2010-03-23T03:18:00.000-07:00

Dragons' Den came to Shene School last week. As part of the new Key Stage 3 Curriculum, students in Year 7 participated in a Dragons' Den competition to design an improved Year 7 playground area. Pupils worked in teams in ICT lessons to put forward proposals to a panel of distinguished judges, including a journalist and a local business woman. The winners of the project will be presented with prizes, donated by one of the Dragons. I copy below some of the judges' comments. Many thanks to the judges for giving up their time and to Mr Stone, Head of ICT, for organising the event.

7W1 teams
1. BA Playgrounds Direct – B and A
Welcoming, well structured, ideas for girls and boys, activities, sitting and grass, enthusiastic, great smiles, IT capable.
2. MNMP
Clear intro and structure, clever IT drop downs and points, good working together and shared roles. P and M showed real grasp and spoke up well. Ideas more for girls (skipping ropes) but basket balls for boys. Bike sheds different.
3. JJA Designs
Good intro, detailed plan, clear criteria, enthusiasm (fun/amazing), mix of active (healthy/fit) and sitting. Ideas for boys and girls. Thoughtful on numbers and responsibilities. Engaged with us. Multi-media (handout!). great voices.

4. CNC Projects
Clear criteria, thought-through space for trees, plants, benches and swings – with covered pergola. Very sensible and perhaps not much fun. Not much for boys. Good IT.

5. WWBFN Designs
Clear criteria and structure. Bright and colourful pictures and good use of IT. Overall use of total ground in champ square, football, basketball, soft ground (rubber) and green areas with seats. 5 working well together with enthusiasm.
6. N’s Playgrounds
Clever IT, no colour, overly structured in methodical patterns

7T2 Teams

Group 1 – S, R, K, B
*R a fabulous presenter.
Welcoming, great intros – and wonderful shaking hands on way out! Told excellent story of playground usage, mixed activities and garden seats in a garden where they can catch up on homework. Engaged with us and able to draw ideas. Not much as a project brought together. Able to estimate costs and where to buy equipment

Group 2 – C, J, M, N
*J a fabulous presenter.
Good story. Great pictures. Did measure the site. Ideas for girls and boys including a swingchair, plants, seats, netball – an area to rephrase the mind. Engaged with us with enthusiasm and able to draw out ideas and estimate costs. Not much as a project brought together.

Group 3 – K, M, S

Clear intro. Thought through numbers and equipment more benches, more games (activities as well as basketball) – more fun. Good pictures and birds’eyeview. Reasonable IT.

Books and photographs

2010-03-19T11:47:00.000-07:00

Creative and Media Diploma- Trip to Eel Pie Island.

Blog written by Ms Jacob, Head of Art

On Thursday the 28th January, the twelve Creative and Media Diploma students embarked on a trip to Eel Pie Island to undertake two challenges for their course. They had a lecture on global warming and climate change and were briefed by the head of the company to create a drama performance as part of a campaign to educate students about the effects of global warming.

The students then participated in a creative writing workshop by scriptwriter Annie Siddons. The students were extremely creative and came up with various ideas for a performance. Annie was so impressed that she wants to come back and work with the students further on their project.

Later the students were introduced to the photography brief - “sustainability of the environment in the borough of Richmond”. Joseph, the Eel Pie Island organizer, discussed the importance of making the public aware of the local environment and to show what individuals and groups are doing to preserve the environment. The students were told that images would have to be: technically adept; memorable and well composed; show creative thinking; and have an environmental theme. Richard Clements, a professional photographer from friends of the Crane Environment discussed what made a good photograph and showed examples of his work.

The students were well motivated and are looking forward to developing their skills in photography. The trust is holding a competition set by the Environmental Trust will and the winner will be decided at their general meeting on June 10th 2010.

Look out for the students’ performance on climate change towards the end of the term.

Students were… Aaron , Joseph , Charlie , Skye , Aicha , Rashidah , Marissa , Leila , Audreyce , Charlie, Claire and Fernada.

Ms Bowe, our new librarian, writes about the exciting work which is going on at the moment:

We celebrated World Book Day in the library and all the Year seven classes came in during one of their English lessons. I read them some extracts from the specially published books and gave them the vouchers to buy them with,. The children all got their book club magazines and were shown the current competitions in the library. The Year sevens then had a good rummage through all the new books, each taking one out to read and all getting a new Garfield bookmark as a gift from the library – these all have messages on from Garfield such as “Look after your books, read with clean paws!”

We currently are inviting the children to design a book mark which will win them small prizes in school but nationally the chance to win £100 in book tokens and for their design to be made up and sold in shops nationwide. There are Easter eggs up for grabs before I send them off for judging in the national competition!

We also have our “Bedlam Cube” in the library – a fiendish logic cube puzzle which the children are queuing up to try and complete to win Easter Eggs – even the staff haven’t been able to crack this puzzle yet, though Ms. Booth has tried a few times!! New Where’s Wally posters round the library are making it brighter and groups of kids are crowding round them to find Wally.

The library continues to be getting busier and so we have introduced a rota system where first break is for years 7,8 and 9 and second break is for years 10 and 11. This has limited the massive numbers in here all at once and makes it a bit easier for me to manage! New books are still coming on to the shelves courtesy of the PTA grant and the loans from the library have increased 600% since November! Another busy month in the library which hopefully will get even busier!!

Did you know – last April the library loaned out 13 books – this March I have loaned out 235 books already!

Shene's Got Talent!

2010-03-16T12:06:00.000-07:00

As with last year, Shene students once again proved what a versatile, talented group of people they are. I felt very privileged to be asked back to be a judge ("Sharon Kirby"), alongside "Simon Dowling", "Louis Hill" and "Danni McCormack". A packed house ensured maximum atmosphere and there was huge enjoyment for all the acts. Children of all ages and all talents competed: a dance/comedy based on Michael Jackson's Thriller by Year 7s Brandon and Dapo, counterpointed by a tribute to Jackson by a Year 11, Karim; two solo piano performances by Natalia and Faye; vocal performances of songs written by the children themselves by Year 9s, a modern dance solo, song solos and our very own Year 11 band comprising Michael, Shaun and Josh on guitar, drums and bass respectively. It was very hard for us as judges to come down to three winners and we had to nominate two highly commendeds as well as three winners. The judges - in real life - were Mr Hill, ex Head of Music at Shene, Mr Durling, a record company executive, Ms McCormack who heads the Dramatic Edge programme for Richmond, and myself, with no musical or performing talents at all. The winners we finally decided upon were:

Highly commended: Faye H, Year 8, jazz piano performance of Spanish Sketch
Sophie W, Year 10, solo vocal performance of Crush Crush Crush
3rd prize Sharon M, Year 10, solo vocal performance of If I Ain't Got You
2nd prize Ishmel B & Jamieson RB, dance performance
1st prize Dane F & Fahim U, vocal performance of their own composition

Huge congratulations to all the competitors who showed courage, professionalism and enthusiasm in their performances, as well as, of course, buckets of talent. Huge thanks to Mr Walker, Ms Simms and Ms Fairbairn for coordinating the whole event, and Mr Walker in particular for his comical (?) MC'ing. I would have loved to have heard the staff performances..... (Ms Booth and Ms Fairbairn singing I Know Him So Well, Mr Hill on the piano and Ms Quinn Larkin, Ms Fairbairn and Ms Blease, accompanied by Shaun M, singing Sunshine of Your Love) ...however, I was out judging.

BBC Shene comes to Sheen!

2010-03-12T06:30:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, a selection of year 9 students participated in BBC School Report. In only 5 hours they researched, interviewed, filmed, voice recorded, typed, edited and produced an entire selection of news stories. Their commitment to the day and behaviour both in school and on the Upper Richmond Road was fantastic. They were so impressive in Sam’s (researching antisocial behaviour) that they were given free chips! Every shop they entered (including a lingerie shop, as they were so desperate to interview locals they didn’t look in the window before they went in!), they received a warm welcome from the owner and very infrequently did they get rebuffed by people in the street for interviews. Our BBC Mentor, the producer of a Radio 5 show, noted that when she calls for interviews, she has a 50% success rate…our children were probably nearer 80 or 90%! The final written pieces are on the school website and there will soon be a couple of videos to accompany these. Hopefully, we will be taking them to the BBC studios soon and our BBC Mentor has offered some special behind the scenes tour as she was so impressed with them.

I copy the email we just received from the BBC journalist:

"I just wanted to say thank you for having me at the school last week, I really enjoyed it. What a difference to my usual day at work! It was every bit as busy as being in the newsroom here at BBC Radio 5 live but the people I was working with were far more entertaining than those I usually sit next to!

I thought the school reporters all did really well, and their pieces look great on the website. They got two mentions on the School Report live feed, Billy got his own name-check, see here (at 1423 and 1545):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/school_report/8504453.stm
Thanks again and well done for getting it all together, I am full of admiration for the job you do.
Here's the page for booking tours of Television Centre, let me know if you do book, I'd love to come and say hello when you arrive."

The current BBC website has two tweets from the journalist:

1423: Spoilt for choice: "Shene School Reporters have interviewed local shopkeepers and parents about anti-social behaviour, fast food, Beckham's scarf, social networking sites and the fact that their school will soon become an academy," texts mentor Jane Andrews from Shene School in London.

1545: Beckam's scarf: "Billy from Shene School in London becomes the first School Reporter to publish his story on the school website. Local football fans have been telling him how they felt to see Beckham wear the green and gold scarf at Old Trafford last night," texts mentor Jane Andrews from Shene School in London

Students involved: Laura, Snezhana, Shabaaz, Klarisa, Daniel, Zeyad, Jamie, Arbnor, Jason, Lucas, George, Billy, Matty, Olly, Suha, Romilah, Robson.

DCSF: fact finding visit

2010-03-11T09:42:00.000-08:00

The Department of Children, Schools and Families periodically send out their civil servants to spend time in schools to gain an insight into how their 'end users' function and the effect of the Department's work upon their daily lives. From Monday to Wednesday, we welcomed Trevor Spedding to our school. Trevor spent most of the time shadowing me through meetings, tours of the school and work with students. He also spent a morning with different classes to get a feel for their experience. I have just received his email of thanks, which I reproduce below:
"Thank you very much for letting me visit your school this week under the School Immersion Programme. I really enjoyed it. Please can you also thank all the staff and pupils who made me feel very welcome throughout. My visit gave me a good insight into how a school is run and the varied issues that are involved. I especially enjoyed the tour of the school with the prospective parents, the sitting in on lessons (even the Year 7 History lesson where they told me all about the Black Death !!!) and the meeting we had in your office yesterday about the Academy. I can really tell that the staff care about the school and the pupils and want the best for them."

Unfortunately for Trevor, he missed today's exciting activity, which was Year 9 students' involvement in the BBC School report initiative. The reports should be on the system imminently. They interviewed local people, staff and students about issues such as the impending Academy and social networking sites. Another exciting activity he will miss is next Monday evening's Shene's Got Talent, which promises to be a smorgasbord of song, dance, music and theatre. Tickets are going fast, so book now if you want to come along and share some of our talent. He is also missing the activities for Science week. Ms Knapp writes:

"National Science and Engineering week is here and we are doing quite a few things to celebrate! The year 7’s will be having a bridge building competition in lessons next week, while the year 8’s will be participating in a borough wide science experiment during their lessons.

We are also running a famous scientist poster competition for all students. We would really like students to find some scientists they can relate to (not just the standard scientists like Isaac Newton or Marie Curie!) and the posters can be done by hand or using a computer."

Haiti Assembly

2010-03-03T01:51:00.000-08:00

This morning, the pastor of East Sheen Baptist Church, the Rev. Paul Hill BD(Hons), Dip. N.E.B.S.S., came to the Upper School assembly to collect the cheque for the money raised by Shene students for the Haiti appeal. He described to an enthralled audience what the money would go towards:

5 containers of food and clothes

a school for special needs children

a hospital for 8 people who have suffered spinal damage from the earthquake, such that they are either paralysed from the waist or the neck downwards

He reiterated the messages we gave in assembly a few weeks ago: that this people are the poorest in the Western Hemisphere, with only 20 - 25% employment and typical daily income of between $1 - $2 per day. He thanked the children effusively and said that their generosity boded well for the future of them as individuals and society as a whole. Staff and students alike were touched by his words and we hope very much that we have been able to assist in some very small way towards helping this country rebuild itself.

Ernie's Incredible Illucinations

2010-03-01T01:02:00.000-08:00

Friday night saw a Hertford Hall audience seated expectantly, waiting for the Key Stage 3 play, Ernie's Incredible Illucinations. The "warm-up" act was stunning: Year 11 girls performing their their exam pieces, including their own choreographed performances. These were a mermaid’s sea dance, and the very moving chase, and final capture, of a gazelle by a lio

ness. The audience loved these, as they did the very funny, well rehearsed and beautifully performed play, which is perfect for students of all ages, and I believe that the East Sheen Primary children who saw it in the afternoon enjoyed it immensely too. Some quotes from the cast of Ernie's:
"I first got into Drama in Year 7 after my first Drama lesson..I am hoping to do Drama as a GCSE as I love to perform and amuse other people". (Jason B, Year 9)

"I play a German officer, a barker and a tramp. I hope to be involved in more drama productions in the future". (Leonardo S, Year 7)
"I do Stage Coach outside of school and I am hoping to go on the casting agency list...When I am older, I would like to work in film". (Robson K, Year 9)
"I love Drama and want to have a professional career in it when I am older. I have been in three Shene performances now!" (Karmele B, Year 8)
"Even though I don't want a career in acting, I still want to try my best to leave this school with memories of participating in the wonderful 'Ernie's Incredible Illucinations!" (Gurmit K, Year 9)

Shene students caring for others

2010-02-26T10:01:00.000-08:00

We got £ 500 for Haiti!!!

£200+ through collections at lunch

£ 69.38 Concert for Haiti (clap clap clap clap clap)

£230.00 sponsoring Ms Hoey wearing straaange clothes

The cheque will go to Action Aid or the local Baptist church, who has a son actually there working to help.

I was also thrilled to receive this email yesterday from Catherine Wareham of Randstad Education. She begins by explaining that two of our students have been nominated for a 'Good Citizen' award, following an invitation from their Head Office to schools to nominate a student who has made an extra contribution this year. They select an overall winner, 2 regional winners and 2 runners up. Catherine writes:

"This year we had over 50 responses and I am pleased to say that Robbie Dreamer has been awarded the South Regional Winner and Shahab Rami the runner up.

We have agreed to come down on Tuesday 2nd March at 10.30am to drop off their certificates and we also wanted to buy them a couple of vouchers from our office as a further congratulations. Robbie will receive £20 and Shahab £10.
I have enclosed below what was written about them and who nominated them."

RD

I am writing on behalf of a number of staff at Shene School to nominate an outstanding student for citizen of the year.

When walking through Shene School every day, I guarantee myself one thing: a kind word and a helping hand from an exceptional 13 year old boy. R, despite going through over 60 operations for a variety of conditions, holds no grudges and never in the year and a half I have known him has acted the victim. We can all learn something from R, how to accept what life has thrown at you and smile through every day no matter what people say. R is a credit and an inspiration to our school.

Kind Regards,

Sara Richardson, English and Citizenship Teacher, Shene School

Shahab Rami Year 10 Age 14.

I and Victoria James (Spanish teacher) as well as some other teachers at Shene Secondary School would like to nominate the following student.

Shahab always stays behind at the end of every lesson to help tidy up, even when it's not his mess. He always politely greets staff and asks how they are and is friendly .He always looks cheerful and content and smart. He is an active member of the student council and on a recent trip to City Hall he represented the school very well, asking intelligent questions and making valid debating points.

He is also a very active and keen member of the Year 10 rugby team, helping to motivate others while seeking feedback to improve his own performance.

Susan Vila, EAL teacher, Shene School

As you will guess, I wholeheartedly concur with her final sentence: "I look forward to meeting you and the outstanding pupils."

We are delighted and proud of Robbie and Shahab, who are worthy recipients of these awards.

Sports Successes

2010-02-05T05:26:00.001-08:00

Mr Costello, Head of PE and Director of Performance Faculty writes:
"The Year 11 basketball team were awesome in the Borough Tournament held at Christ's this evening. They easily won their first match against Grey Court, with efficient rebounding and baskets from Ibrahim and Jake. Freddy, Patrick and Josh handled the ball effectively and closed out an easy win. Their second game was against Christs, and the small lineup of Josh, Ryan, Harmeet, Daniel and Michael used their speed and agility to win the game comfortably 9-0, including a spectacular 3- point buzzer beater from Josh. The final saw them take on a strong Whitton team- champions of the other borough pool. Shene more than matched them, but paid the ultimate price for misssing some open lay-ups and second chance opportunities in what was a very tense game. Although level on points (Whitton having lost to Grey Court) unfortunately they came second due to the head-to -head record.

It was a pleasure to coach them- they were an absolute joy to take and their attitude, skill and sportsmanship were a credit to the school (especially compared to Whitton...)!

TEAM: Champion, Soubra, Ivey, Craig, Okoli, Vega, Laflin, Reid, Singh

Year 11s

2010-02-03T01:46:00.000-08:00

A lot of our time in the last couple of weeks has been devoted to our Year 11s, and we think it worth illustrating how our ambitions for this year group are being put into practice. On January 22, students attended an assembly to get their mock results in brown envelopes, to reproduce how it will feel in August when they get their final results. There then followed an intense week of interviews of all students in this year group - some with parents/carers - by the Senior Leadership Team and Year Leader (Mr Cullum) to ensure that all were crystal clear about what their next steps should be. Year 11 will now be all allocated a mentor, whom they will see as regularly as they need to.

The mock results were quite pleasing, but everyone wants far more of this group. We have set our own very high targets (higher than those originally set for us) and we are determined to do everything we can to ensure this year group reaches these targets. A second week of formal mocks will be held in March, as well as intensive after-school and holiday revision and booster sessions. Finally, students are being shown our 'AIM' room so they can see, via a hugely effective and impressive visual display, where they are now and where they need to be. AIM stands for Aspire, Inspire and Motivate and we hope this display will do just that.

We were delighted at the large percentage of parents/carers who turned out to parents' evening last night: we believe it is the highest ever turnout for a Year 11 evening and we know that the children will have benefited from this, so thanks for your support if you were one of those who came.

Mr Costello (a Year 11 tutor and Director of Performance Faculty) and I have this morning given an assembly to this year group centred around our Words of the Week: “He who eats and drinks while his brother goes hungry is not one of us”. We used this to inspire students to contribute to the Haiti appeal and Year 11s impressed us immensely with their focus and concern. We have been adamant that this must not be a 'mufti' day or similar: it is about giving because people need our help.

Finally, the 40 or so Year 11 prefects have all been invited to contribute to the consultation process about the Academy taking place in school tomorrow. Although they will not benefit from this - to their chagrin, I think - they can leave a legacy to the process through their input and ideas, so we are very keen they be involved. All other year groups are also contributing throughout the day, as will staff at the end of the day and governors even later. Consultations are also being held in all the local primaries.

Shene School is 'one of most improved schools in London' for GCSE results, Government figures show

2010-01-14T09:02:00.000-08:00

For those who don't receive the Richmond and Twickenham Times, I thought we would print in full their article which was published Wednesday 13 January:

Shene School was today hailed as one London's most improved schools by the Government for its GCSE performance.

The school was one of only 26 in London that saw a rise of at least 10 per cent in GCSE pass rates in 2009, according to figures released yesterday by the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

The number of pupils awarded five or more A* to C grade GCSEs including English and mathematics - the Government’s main measure of achievement - was up 10 percentage points to 45 per cent.

Lesley Kirby, headteacher of the Park Road school, said: “We have almost doubled our results in two years. There aren’t many schools in London that can say that. It’s testament to our students and teachers. We are really thrilled. We have an ambition to be one of the most successful schools in London in terms of moving the children along their path. Our desire locally is to be the school of choice for local parents. I hope parents will see they can entrust their children to us and they will do well.”

As you can imagine, I was delighted to receive the phone call on Monday from the Department of Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) telling us the good news and congratulating us on the achievement. The local press came down on Wednesday to photograph some of this year's Year 11 who are all on track to achieve outstanding results too. Our 5 A* to C including English and Maths (what the government terms 'good' GCSEs) actually exceeded the so-called 'D' targets set by the Family Fischer Trust, which is the organisation used by the goverment to set targets for secondary schools based on the results obtained by students in KS2. The 'D' targets are those achieved by the top 25% of similar schools.

We are now focussed on ensuring our current Year 11 better their targets and reach their potential: all have high targets and are constantly being challenged to hit them.

senior citizens, academies and snow

2010-01-07T09:07:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year - and decade - to you all.

Senior Citizens
I would like to begin by copying for you a letter from one of the senior citizens who attended our tea party (see previous blog). This was one of several thank you's we received:

"Dear Ms Kirby

I am writing to thank you and Ms Staples and the children of Shene School for a lovely Christmas Party on December 14th.

I was overwhelmed by the children's kindess and enthusiasm shown us by the children, the entertainment, singing, dancing, Poetry reading and solo playing was most enjoyable.

I should like to say a big thank you to the XL Club and Students Council who organised and helped to make it such a successful party and also to form 10T1 for my beautifully decorated hamper and contents.

Shene School is a credit to Sheen and it helped to make a most enjoyable start to Christmas for me.

Thank you all and everyone from a grateful OAP."

As you can well imagine, I was really very moved by this letter. Others wrote in a similar vein, some in more detail.

Weather!
The snowy weather did not dampen the Team Shene spirit and, so far, we have remained open each day. Children were allowed to leave 20 minutes earlier yesterday, Wednesday, but we left as normal tonight. Staff battled to get in from all over London, including, incredibly, one colleague who comes in from Winchester! Our wonderful site manager, Laurie Kennison, remained cheerful throughout as he spread grit, cleared paths and encouraged the boiler to heat the buildings better.

Academy consultation

The consultation for the academy is now beginning in earnest and several meetings have been arranged for parents, staff, students, local residents, local primary schools and other interested parties. Please see the school or Local Authority websites for details of these. I am sure all the so-called stakeholders will want to contribute their ideas and views as to the new Academy and how it will look, so do please try and come along; it is fine to attend a meeting at another primary or for another group if you cannot make the one which appears the most appropriate for you.

Old People's tea party

2009-12-17T10:59:00.000-08:00

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 ....

2009-12-15T01:23:00.000-08:00

...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

2009-12-09T10:22:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-12-03T10:30:00.000-08:00

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.

The new and the old(ish)

2009-11-30T06:49:00.000-08:00

The "old": Saturday 28 November saw over 250 people celebrating their link with Shene School. The event was originally organised by Julie Wade Burgess, who was one of the class of '83. This group was the first year cohort of the school as a comprehensive. As news of the event spread, people from other cohorts signed up as well, to meet with old friends and see their teachers. Dr Rinne - now Deputy Head - was there, as was Mr Newham (ex Technology teacher who retired this year but is still back one day per week replacing Ms Alexis in the Food room). Apologies were given from two more Shene colleagues who had been around then, Mr Hudson and Mr Tribe. Many happy memories were shared and it was clear there was a huge fondness for the time spent at Shene School. People came from a variety of locations - Switzerland, Scotland, Birmingham, for example - and their careers ranged hugely. There were decorators, accountants, lawyers, teachers, film directors.... one of the latter has directed Kiera Knightley (another ex LBRUT resident) in two of her films. We were delighted to be able to host such an event and hope that such events will be more regular.
"The new": We had an Ofsted monitoring visit on Thursday. Ofsted is always a time-consuming and slightly anxious time for staff, but we were ready, even though we had not expected to be visited, since Academy status is moving apace. We were pleased with the outcome especially since they judged our capacity for sustained improvement to be 'Good'. Students were wonderful and they commented on the maturity and reflective nature of the responses given by children they spoke to as rivalling and even exceeding those of many post 16 students they had interviewed.
Finally, and still part of the "new", we are still waiting to hear from the Minister about his signing off the initial Expression of Interest about the academy. It is in his 'box' and we are told it will be moved on this week.

Shene Alumnus

2009-11-23T05:23:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Shene School blog. We decided that parents, carers and the wider public might be interested in hearing some of the many, many things which go in Shene School, and we hope to record these regularly on the blog. The Shene News will continue to be published bi-monthly.
Today (Monday 23rd) we hosted a visit of an ex Shene student. Tom Chesshyre is now the Travel Editor of the Times Newspaper, following a career with the Independent, Sky Sports and the Telegraph. On leaving Shene, he went to Richmond College where he studied A Levels in English, Politics and Economics, as well as a 'sub-Baccalaureat' and 'S' Level English. He then went to Bristol to read Politics, joined the student newspaper and went on to develop his journalistic skills first as a news reporter and more latterly as a Travel journalist. Tom's job is a dream job: he has visited more than 80 countries, and feels privileged to have seen what he has. He is also the author of two books (the latest is due out shortly) and is currently preparing a 3rd one.
Tom is still a local resident and contacted me because he felt inspired to return to his old school and work with some of our students. After a tour of the school, he met with Ms Blease, our Gifted and Talented Coordinator, and Ms Durling, Director of the Communications Faculty. A range of exciting projects was agreed and we look forward to working with Tom and supporting our aspiring journalists.