School uniforms
School uniforms
Issue 3 Friday 11th October
Headteacher Update This week we have been playing host to many prospective parents and students. We had over 1000 people come through our doors for the Open Evening on 3rd October and on the Open Mornings this week, and as usual, our students have done an amazing job of showing visitors around the school. We have also been reflecting on our plans for GCSE. The Government made another change to the way that league tables are calculated this week, so that if students try to take a GCSE more than once before they are 16, then the one that counts for the league tables will be their first attempt. Inevitably, this will have an impact on how schools enter students for exams. In light of the fact that the Government wants students to stay on in education until they have achieved a ‘C’ grade in English or Mathemat-
ics, this seems like a sensible idea. In recent years, schools have allowed students to have several attempts at passing their GCSE English or Mathematics. However, the Government believes that schools have been doing this to ‘fiddle the books’, as a way of making sure that their results look good in the league tables. I’ve been reflecting on this a great deal over the last few weeks and it still seems to me that it is about giving young people chances. If you judged the number of ‘good’ drivers in the country on those that passed their tests first time, then I don’t think you would necessarily capture the very best drivers. I believe that Michael Gove is reported to have had several goes himself. Of course, there will be some benefits to this approach. It is true to say that examinations have
consumed the school life of most young people. If there was a guarantee that linear assessment would alter this, then it might have a positive impact and free students to learn rather than being assessed. I’ll look forward to seeing how it pans out. All of this should serve as a healthy reminder to students, the school and to parents, that it is more important than ever that students make the most out of every lesson while at school. We are lucky to have students that understand the importance of hard work. That, is the key magic ingredient to doing well. Our job will be to try and make sure that students get through first time with the best grades they can.
Simon Garrill
Important Dates for your diary:
22.10.13
SEARCH Day 4
28.10.13 01.11.13
Half-Term
04.11.13
Staff INSET Day (No students in school)
05.11.13
Start of Term
08.11.13
Friends of Heartlands Quiz Night
11.11.13
SEARCH Day 5
News from our School Nurse
Staff Twilight Training 19.11.13 No After School Clubs
20.11.13
20.11.13
22.11.13
HPV Vaccinations (2)
Staff Meeting No After School Clubs
AFA Day
Page 2
School uniforms are on sale every day during term-time, between 3—4pm from the School Office. Payment can be made by cash or cheque payable to Heartlands High School.
BTEC Art Trip BTEC Art students visited the London Transport Museum to see the fantastic exhibition of London Underground advertising posters from the past 50 years. They enjoyed seeing the artworks, but their favourite part of the day was our walk to Hungerford Bridge and Trafalgar Square to photograph and sketch London’s most famous landmarks for their current project on our capital city. I was very impressed by the quality of some of the student photographs, and their conduct was brilliant. We were complimented by a member of the public who noticed students offering their seats on the tube to other passengers!
Ms Hall Head of Art
Celebrating Black History Month Students have been celebrating Black History Month by preparing and cooking some delicious treats in the kitchen. This week they made some delicious ‘Mango and Ginger Muffins’.
It was a great chance for different year groups to work together and share their work with friends and family afterwards.
Ms Dibley PSHE Coordinator
Meet the Chair of Governors
Resources for Maths Revision
Invitation to Parents and Carers
As part of our on-going strategy to support the learning needs of our students, the Maths Department will be offering KS3 and GCSE revision resources for students to purchase at a greatly discounted price.
You are invited to come and meet our Chair of Governors, Ms Marianne McCarthy, who will be available for a drop-in session from 3.10-4.10pm on Monday 21st October. When you arrive, please come in through the school’s main entrance and report to Reception. This is an ideal opportunity for parents and carers to meet Ms McCarthy and for her to meet with you. You may wish to discuss with Ms McCarthy any ideas you have for the school, or any queries or concerns you may have. We look forward to seeing you on Monday 21st October.
EAL Information Evening for Parents/Carers On Monday 14th October we are inviting parents and carers into school for an Information Evening about how the School supports students for whom English is an additional language. The evening will run from 6-7pm and will take place in the school library. This event will allow parents to meet the key workers who support their child on a daily basis and they will be informed on the extra support the school can offer in addition to this. We will cover a range of useful information about the curriculum and how pupils learn key skills at school. We will also be suggesting a range of strategies to support students learning at home. Parents and Carers will be given the chance to discuss strategies for home learning and how to support pupils towards making excellent progress. Tea and coffee will be provided and please bring additional family members who can translate if this is helpful for you. We look forward to seeing many of our Parents and Carers at this event.
These revision materials are suitable for use in class and at home to support topics covered in regular timetabled lessons. The choice of resources consist of two KS3 revision guides, two GCSE revision guides and two GCSE workbooks. The KS3 Maths CGP revision guides (Level 3 to 6 or Level 5 to 8) are carefully written and immaculately presented to explain all KS3 Maths topics in a pupil friendly style. The GCSE Maths Edexcel revision guide (Higher or Foundation) has every topic from the Maths GCSE course. It explains the topics in a concise, friendly style, with grade information to show the difficulty level of each topic. There are also summary questions at the bottom of each page to test your child on the important skills. The GCSE Maths Edexcel workbook (Higher or Foundation) has practice questions, covering one topic per page and avoiding lengthy set up time. It builds pupils’ confidence with guided practice questions, before moving onto unguided questions and practice exam papers. All answers are provided at the back of the book to allow pupils to self-check. Target grades on the page allow students to progress at the right speed. Exam alerts highlight common pitfalls and misconceptions in exam questions. During the GCSE Maths and English Parent event, a number of parents were inquiring about purchasing the larger textbook used in the class. These can be purchased outside school for approximately £20, the Foundation textbook ISBN 9781846900884 and the Higher textbook ISBN 9781846900839 If you are unsure which revision guide or workbook you should purchase, please encourage your child to ask their Maths teacher.
After School Clubs: Please check the After School clubs rota with your child and discuss with them, what clubs they will be attending so that you are aware of their whereabouts after school. Thank you.
Award Winning Author’s Visit This Thursday saw Heartlands welcoming over 100 local residents and primary children to meet ‘Gruffalo’ Author Julia Donaldson alongside Illustrator Lydia Monks. A fun afternoon was had with Julia leading the group singing and acting of some of her rhyming books accompanied by her husband on guitar. We used our ‘visualiser’ machine, normally used in lessons, to project live film of Lydia Monks’ hands drawing live images of the songs onto the screen for the audience to see. Local primary children performed with Julia and the audience left happy with signed copies of Julia and Lydia’s books supplied by the Big Green Bookshop, as part of their Wood Green Literary Festival 2013. Do have a look at the festival programme details to see if you would like to attend another of the many events taking place over the weekend: www.woodgreenlitfest.org.uk
Page 3
Do you love Science? Do you love books? The Royal Society Young People's Book Prize celebrates the best books that communicate science to young people. Every day after school next week, students from any year can take part in the national Young People’s Book Prize, which is an award for Science books written for young people and organised by the prestigious Royal Society. There are 6 books which need to be evaluated and rated to decide which should win:
Build the human body
Buzzing!
Look inside space
The elements: the building blocks of the universe
Human body factory
Don’t flush! Lifting the lid on the science of poo and wee
Everyone who joins in has to look at all 6 books and rate them based on various set criteria. All participants will receive merits and a certificate for their participation. Last year’s students also got their photo in the local paper!
Ms Swinyard Head of LRC Centre
Become a Friend of Heartlands
Cross Country Championships (2)
If you have good ideas about how we can contribute to our community, support our parents or run events that will be popular across the age range, please email alice.clay@ heartlands.haringey.sch.uk, We have a great year ahead and your help and expertise would be very much valued. Meeting times can be arranged to suit you. Upcoming Quiz Night on Friday 8th November: all parents and carers are invited to the Heartlands Quiz Night on Friday 8th November. This is an occasion for parents and staff to get together and have fun. More details to follow.
School Uniform We are proud of our students' smart appearance at school. However, we would be grateful if you would take the time to review your child’s uniform. In particular, we would like to remind you that girls' skirts should be no shorter than knee-length, and that their trousers should be tailored, not too tight. Please also ensure that your child has a proper coat on cold day as we do not allow them to wear hooded tops on site. Thank you for your support.
On Tuesday 1st October our Heartlands Cross Country Team ran in the second round of the Haringey competition. Our runners excelled themselves with many beating their own personal best times and others, improving their overall ranking. Finn Donlon came in 1st place for the second week running and Fernando Isaza Ocampo came in third, securing the bronze medal for a second time. From the girls Lauren Duggan was the Heartlands winner coming overall in 6th place out of 40 runners. She was closely followed by Bacardi Sapla, Shyla Gordon and Jazzmine Sapla. This bodes very well for our upcoming competitions this year. Well done Heartlands ! Ms Shank Girls PE Teacher
Issue 3 Friday 11th October
Headteacher Update This week we have been playing host to many prospective parents and students. We had over 1000 people come through our doors for the Open Evening on 3rd October and on the Open Mornings this week, and as usual, our students have done an amazing job of showing visitors around the school. We have also been reflecting on our plans for GCSE. The Government made another change to the way that league tables are calculated this week, so that if students try to take a GCSE more than once before they are 16, then the one that counts for the league tables will be their first attempt. Inevitably, this will have an impact on how schools enter students for exams. In light of the fact that the Government wants students to stay on in education until they have achieved a ‘C’ grade in English or Mathemat-
ics, this seems like a sensible idea. In recent years, schools have allowed students to have several attempts at passing their GCSE English or Mathematics. However, the Government believes that schools have been doing this to ‘fiddle the books’, as a way of making sure that their results look good in the league tables. I’ve been reflecting on this a great deal over the last few weeks and it still seems to me that it is about giving young people chances. If you judged the number of ‘good’ drivers in the country on those that passed their tests first time, then I don’t think you would necessarily capture the very best drivers. I believe that Michael Gove is reported to have had several goes himself. Of course, there will be some benefits to this approach. It is true to say that examinations have
consumed the school life of most young people. If there was a guarantee that linear assessment would alter this, then it might have a positive impact and free students to learn rather than being assessed. I’ll look forward to seeing how it pans out. All of this should serve as a healthy reminder to students, the school and to parents, that it is more important than ever that students make the most out of every lesson while at school. We are lucky to have students that understand the importance of hard work. That, is the key magic ingredient to doing well. Our job will be to try and make sure that students get through first time with the best grades they can.
Simon Garrill
Important Dates for your diary:
22.10.13
SEARCH Day 4
28.10.13 01.11.13
Half-Term
04.11.13
Staff INSET Day (No students in school)
05.11.13
Start of Term
08.11.13
Friends of Heartlands Quiz Night
11.11.13
SEARCH Day 5
News from our School Nurse
Staff Twilight Training 19.11.13 No After School Clubs
20.11.13
20.11.13
22.11.13
HPV Vaccinations (2)
Staff Meeting No After School Clubs
AFA Day
Page 2
School uniforms are on sale every day during term-time, between 3—4pm from the School Office. Payment can be made by cash or cheque payable to Heartlands High School.
BTEC Art Trip BTEC Art students visited the London Transport Museum to see the fantastic exhibition of London Underground advertising posters from the past 50 years. They enjoyed seeing the artworks, but their favourite part of the day was our walk to Hungerford Bridge and Trafalgar Square to photograph and sketch London’s most famous landmarks for their current project on our capital city. I was very impressed by the quality of some of the student photographs, and their conduct was brilliant. We were complimented by a member of the public who noticed students offering their seats on the tube to other passengers!
Ms Hall Head of Art
Celebrating Black History Month Students have been celebrating Black History Month by preparing and cooking some delicious treats in the kitchen. This week they made some delicious ‘Mango and Ginger Muffins’.
It was a great chance for different year groups to work together and share their work with friends and family afterwards.
Ms Dibley PSHE Coordinator
Meet the Chair of Governors
Resources for Maths Revision
Invitation to Parents and Carers
As part of our on-going strategy to support the learning needs of our students, the Maths Department will be offering KS3 and GCSE revision resources for students to purchase at a greatly discounted price.
You are invited to come and meet our Chair of Governors, Ms Marianne McCarthy, who will be available for a drop-in session from 3.10-4.10pm on Monday 21st October. When you arrive, please come in through the school’s main entrance and report to Reception. This is an ideal opportunity for parents and carers to meet Ms McCarthy and for her to meet with you. You may wish to discuss with Ms McCarthy any ideas you have for the school, or any queries or concerns you may have. We look forward to seeing you on Monday 21st October.
EAL Information Evening for Parents/Carers On Monday 14th October we are inviting parents and carers into school for an Information Evening about how the School supports students for whom English is an additional language. The evening will run from 6-7pm and will take place in the school library. This event will allow parents to meet the key workers who support their child on a daily basis and they will be informed on the extra support the school can offer in addition to this. We will cover a range of useful information about the curriculum and how pupils learn key skills at school. We will also be suggesting a range of strategies to support students learning at home. Parents and Carers will be given the chance to discuss strategies for home learning and how to support pupils towards making excellent progress. Tea and coffee will be provided and please bring additional family members who can translate if this is helpful for you. We look forward to seeing many of our Parents and Carers at this event.
These revision materials are suitable for use in class and at home to support topics covered in regular timetabled lessons. The choice of resources consist of two KS3 revision guides, two GCSE revision guides and two GCSE workbooks. The KS3 Maths CGP revision guides (Level 3 to 6 or Level 5 to 8) are carefully written and immaculately presented to explain all KS3 Maths topics in a pupil friendly style. The GCSE Maths Edexcel revision guide (Higher or Foundation) has every topic from the Maths GCSE course. It explains the topics in a concise, friendly style, with grade information to show the difficulty level of each topic. There are also summary questions at the bottom of each page to test your child on the important skills. The GCSE Maths Edexcel workbook (Higher or Foundation) has practice questions, covering one topic per page and avoiding lengthy set up time. It builds pupils’ confidence with guided practice questions, before moving onto unguided questions and practice exam papers. All answers are provided at the back of the book to allow pupils to self-check. Target grades on the page allow students to progress at the right speed. Exam alerts highlight common pitfalls and misconceptions in exam questions. During the GCSE Maths and English Parent event, a number of parents were inquiring about purchasing the larger textbook used in the class. These can be purchased outside school for approximately £20, the Foundation textbook ISBN 9781846900884 and the Higher textbook ISBN 9781846900839 If you are unsure which revision guide or workbook you should purchase, please encourage your child to ask their Maths teacher.
After School Clubs: Please check the After School clubs rota with your child and discuss with them, what clubs they will be attending so that you are aware of their whereabouts after school. Thank you.
Award Winning Author’s Visit This Thursday saw Heartlands welcoming over 100 local residents and primary children to meet ‘Gruffalo’ Author Julia Donaldson alongside Illustrator Lydia Monks. A fun afternoon was had with Julia leading the group singing and acting of some of her rhyming books accompanied by her husband on guitar. We used our ‘visualiser’ machine, normally used in lessons, to project live film of Lydia Monks’ hands drawing live images of the songs onto the screen for the audience to see. Local primary children performed with Julia and the audience left happy with signed copies of Julia and Lydia’s books supplied by the Big Green Bookshop, as part of their Wood Green Literary Festival 2013. Do have a look at the festival programme details to see if you would like to attend another of the many events taking place over the weekend: www.woodgreenlitfest.org.uk
Page 3
Do you love Science? Do you love books? The Royal Society Young People's Book Prize celebrates the best books that communicate science to young people. Every day after school next week, students from any year can take part in the national Young People’s Book Prize, which is an award for Science books written for young people and organised by the prestigious Royal Society. There are 6 books which need to be evaluated and rated to decide which should win:
Build the human body
Buzzing!
Look inside space
The elements: the building blocks of the universe
Human body factory
Don’t flush! Lifting the lid on the science of poo and wee
Everyone who joins in has to look at all 6 books and rate them based on various set criteria. All participants will receive merits and a certificate for their participation. Last year’s students also got their photo in the local paper!
Ms Swinyard Head of LRC Centre
Become a Friend of Heartlands
Cross Country Championships (2)
If you have good ideas about how we can contribute to our community, support our parents or run events that will be popular across the age range, please email alice.clay@ heartlands.haringey.sch.uk, We have a great year ahead and your help and expertise would be very much valued. Meeting times can be arranged to suit you. Upcoming Quiz Night on Friday 8th November: all parents and carers are invited to the Heartlands Quiz Night on Friday 8th November. This is an occasion for parents and staff to get together and have fun. More details to follow.
School Uniform We are proud of our students' smart appearance at school. However, we would be grateful if you would take the time to review your child’s uniform. In particular, we would like to remind you that girls' skirts should be no shorter than knee-length, and that their trousers should be tailored, not too tight. Please also ensure that your child has a proper coat on cold day as we do not allow them to wear hooded tops on site. Thank you for your support.
On Tuesday 1st October our Heartlands Cross Country Team ran in the second round of the Haringey competition. Our runners excelled themselves with many beating their own personal best times and others, improving their overall ranking. Finn Donlon came in 1st place for the second week running and Fernando Isaza Ocampo came in third, securing the bronze medal for a second time. From the girls Lauren Duggan was the Heartlands winner coming overall in 6th place out of 40 runners. She was closely followed by Bacardi Sapla, Shyla Gordon and Jazzmine Sapla. This bodes very well for our upcoming competitions this year. Well done Heartlands ! Ms Shank Girls PE Teacher
