Dear Parents/Carers
I hope this letter finds you and your families well; a Friday update that falls on International Women's Day for you as always.
The campaign theme for International Women's Day 2024 is Inspire Inclusion. This week our female footballers presented an assembly to all year groups, celebrating the growth of women and girls sport. With a firm focus on celebrating football in a time when the number of women and girls playing organised football has increased by nearly a quarter compared to 2019 (up to 16.6 million)* FIFA
A typically busy week in school, but I’ll begin with results from the Jack Petchey Speak Out Challenge from last Friday. If you recall, students spend the day learning public speaking skills, before polishing a speech that they present to the rest of the group. The winners of this year’s challenge were Zayn Bham 10S, Iman Fatima 10M and Karina Palkowska 10S, well done to all that took part.
Of course, it was World Book Day on Thursday this week. There were a number of events for students to engage with on the day and over the course of the week. Students have been submitting their stories and book covers for the World Book Day competition, and spending their mornings during form time trying to solve a mixture of picture clues, riddles, anagrams and codes that reveal book titles and characters. Students received a World Book Day voucher that they can redeem for specific books. Vouchers are valid until March 31st 2024, and can be redeemed at any Waterstones bookshops or The Works, both of which have stores in Walthamstow Market, or at larger supermarkets and WH Smith stores.
After five tough knock-out rounds, our Classics Department is thrilled to announce the names of students who have secured a spot in the finals and will be entering the National Latin Spelling Bee Competition: Moosa Abuzar 7L, Tobia Lullo 7M, Riley Clapperton 7C, Ruxandra Handiuc 7S and Ana Calciu 8K. These students will have three weeks to prepare for the competition. Ms Ahmet has no doubt that these students will make the Classics Department and their school proud. We wish our Classicists the very best of luck.
Students from years 9, 10 and 11 involved in the Old Vic After School Club project went to the Old Vic Theatre this week, to see ‘Just For One Day’ on Wednesday. This musical theatre production is a Jukebox musical performance that tracks the journey of Bob Geldolph and the Band Aid Concert in 1985. The students were amazed by the high-tech staging and lighting effects, the brilliant music, performance from the actors, and the character of Margaret Thatcher performing a rap. As well as great comedy moments, the students picked up on the powerful message that we do have the power to work together and make a difference.
Following their visit, the students also participated in an excellent workshop by actors from the Old Vic, who were highly impressed by their knowledge and enthusiasm, and the students created their own mini jukebox musical. I was delighted to receive the following feedback from the actors facilitating the workshop “I wanted to get in touch to say how much myself and my colleague enjoyed leading our workshop this morning for the Old Vic based on the musical "Just for One Day". The students were exceptional, they were so engaged, curious, intelligent and fun! A joy to work with and a huge asset to you and the school!”
This week was the second part of the climate leadership training for some of our Climate Ambassadors, which focused on learning about how some of the countries most impacted by climate change are least responsible for causing it. Our wonderful ambassadors also continued working on their ideas for how the school could become more sustainable and considered how they could support these changes.
Our Year 10 Youth Health Champions (YHC) found out this week that they have successfully passed the level 2 (GCSE equivalent) qualification, attached to the YHC programme. A huge well done to all involved, as this is not a formality. The assessors were particularly impressed with the quality of the Kelmscott campaigns.
We are very excited to announce that we will be creating an anthology of students’ work in the near future, and in order to compile potential material we have launched our very first Anthology Competition. Students have been asked to respond to either two prompts or five keywords (history, memory, identity, journey or time) and winning entries will be invited to develop their piece further with either Ms Ridler or Mr Ahmed. There will also be an opportunity for entrants to have their work performed or displayed live in a showcase event after Easter. The deadline for entries is Friday 15th March.
A polite request to all parents and carers; please do not permit your child to get new piercings that fail to conform to our uniform rules. Your support is, as always, appreciated here. Students are permitted to wear one pair of small silver or gold studs (one in each ear) no diamond/gemstones should be worn to school please; any piercings in addition to these will need to be removed.
I would like to share the following opportunities with you, in case they are of interest. Firstly, some free sports sessions from Tottenham Hotspur, some of which take place at the Douglas Eyre Astroturf, just a short distance from the school. For more information on the sessions available please contact thf.activities@tottenhamhotspur.com, please note that these sessions are extremely popular and are allocated on a first come first served basis. Additionally, during the Easter holidays, the Waltham Forest Holiday Activity and Food Programme is taking place again. Eligible students can take advantage of some free activities as well as a hot meal; more information can be found here.
Finally, well done to Ruxandra Handiuc in 7S who topped the reward point charts for the school last week with thirty four, and those listed below who topped the chart for their year groups too. Keep up the good work.
Year 7 Ruxandra Handiuc with 34 points
Year 8 Yana Dutchak 21 points
Year 9 Arushi Seesungkur with 15 points
Year 10 Zahra Turkmani with 18 points
Year 11 Rosa Grant with 12 points
With every good wish, yours ever,
Mr Sam Jones
Headteacher
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