Week 29 (11-15 March 2024)

Welcome from the Co-Headteachers

A hugely busy week in school

This week has seen a focus on both British Science Week and Comic Relief. This year, the focus of our innovative and outstanding science department has been on making connections with other STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) based on the concept of “time”; more on this below. There has been a plethora of daily activities, so it has been a joy to walk the school while these hands-on events take place. It is always great to see and hear so many students engaged in conversations about scientific and mathematical problem-solving.

Within school assemblies this week, House Leaders have been leading on Comic Relief and, in particular, promoting our young men as global citizens on issues such as resolving homelessness, poverty, drought and famine.

Finally, as a gentle reminder to all parents/carers, your child should be checking INSIGHT for weekly Progress and Preparation Activities (PPA – homework). These PPA activities are usually linked to reading, research and revision. Please find time to check that your son/ward has completed their PPA – it makes a huge difference to their consolidation of work.

We have been getting some great feedback from families about this newsletter – thank you if you have left us a comment via our feedback form. It is still open so feel free to drop us a comment, positive or negative, so that we can keep improving.

Simon Fisher and Jo Higginbottom

Subject Focus – PSHE

Find out more about our “curriculum for life”

In 2024, children and young people face unimaginable pressure. With this in mind, we are proud of our “curriculum for life” – PSHE education. PSHE stands for Personal, Social, Health and Economic education. In school, we have dedicated lessons for PSHE including input into within Study Support and powerful weekly assemblies.

The PSHE Association describes it as learning where “children and young people acquire the knowledge, understanding and skills they need to manage their lives, now and in the future.” Mr West leads on the coordination of PSHE across the school; he reinforces that we need to “make sure our young people have the skills they need to grow up as healthy individuals who can make informed decisions about their lives”. The curriculum focuses on modern issues like financial literacy, internet safety, safe social media, healthy relationships as well as sexting and the dangers of pornography.

Historically, we have planned, delivered and evaluated a range of excellent and innovative PSHE topics. We are eager to develop this essential and highly valued curriculum area, as we strongly believe that all young people should receive age-appropriate PSHE. Too often, the media focuses attention solely on relationships and sex education within PSHE. We know that the curriculum features many other essential parts of learning such as:

• Physical, mental and emotional health
• Citizenship (political literacy)
• Careers education
• Men’s health (healthy food, healthy living including lessons on shaving, ironing and personal hygiene)
• Staying safe (addiction, substance abuse, cancer)

Employability

Can you offer a work experience placement?

We know that talent is everywhere yet, unfortunately, opportunities are not. We are again actively looking for Year 10 and Year 12 work placements – with a PLUS ONE opportunity. A “plus one” opportunity allows some of our more disadvantaged students to access more favourable employment placements and thus support more effective social mobility. If you can offer a work placement and a “plus one”, please contact the school.

Coming Soon!

Some more dates for your calendar

The full calendar is available at this link.

Local Area Forum

An opportunity to have your say on local issues

We are proud to be an outward-looking school, always connecting with external partners locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. This is essential as all citizenship, entrepreneurship or political activity is located in a real-life context. On Wednesday 20 March, there will be a networking event at the St John’s Centre on St John’s Road. Topics for discussion will include: local policing, parking enforcement and updates from Thames Water on its Teddington Tunnel proposal. A networking phase starts at 6.30pm with speakers starting at 7.30pm.

Check out the flyer at this link.

Partnership Working – Metropolitan Police

Working with our Safer Schools Officer to keep students safe

In school, we work with a huge range of external partners. One is the Metropolitan Police through our Safer Schools Officer (SSO). Our designated SSO is PC Dracup; she works with young people who require guidance and support with their behaviour in school and/or in the community. She will target individuals who have displayed anti-social behaviour; be aware that strong disciplinary action is taken against any individual student found to be involved in nuisance behaviour, harassment or public disorder. We always report any such behaviour in our community as crimes to the police. In some cases, robust internal school action will also be supplemented by external police action; namely warnings, arrests and formal charging as well as convictions.

PC Dracup’s approach mirrors a number of our whole-school mantras; in particular, those linked to promoting British values, namely the importance of:

• The rule of law
• Tolerance
• Mutual respect
• Individual liberty
• Democracy

New Bus Routes

The results of a TFL consultation

In Autumn 2023, Transport for London (TFL) gave local residents the opportunity to consult on expanding bus services in Ealing and Hounslow. They received 489 responses, which have resulted in the following upcoming changes:

• E1 bus route extension – From May 2027, TFL extend the E1 to the former Osterley Tesco site, when a new housing development opens there.
• New 618 school route – From September 2024, they will introduce a new ‘school days only’ bus between Ivybridge Estate and Bolder Academy via Macfarlane Lane.

You can read the full consultation report which lists key issues raised, as well as TFL’s response to these issues.

Trustee Changes

A new chair and vice-chair

We wish to inform parents/carers that Derek Millard-Healy has started his new role as Chair of Trustees of the school. Parent/carer governor Chris Couch is now vice-chair. Both colleagues have been involved with our school for a number of years and bring a different set of skillsets to support the strategic direction of the school. 

You can read more about the Trustees on their dedicated page.

Teacher Training

Do you fancy a career change?

Locally, regionally and nationally, there continues to be a extreme shortage of school teachers. If any parent/carers are considering a switch in employment, please review the Government website as well as watch DfE recruitment video one and two. Our closest centre for teacher training is the LWA ITT. As a school, we proactively support parents/carers as well as alumni who wish to visit for a one-day school experience.

Find out more details about LWA ITT in this information leaflet.

Safeguarding

Helping students stay safe on their mobile devices

Seven out of ten parents use technical controls on their child’s devices to manage access to content. Such safeguards can be an enormous asset in helping parents/carers to manage what their son/ward might encounter online thus allowing young people to happily use their new gadget to start exploring the digital world – see NSPCC guidance.

Despite our strong school messaging of phones “not being used, seen or heard” while on school site, mobile phone misuse remains a daily, regular occurrence. Given this, we strongly recommend that, over the Easter period, parents/carers randomly check their child’s mobile devices to promote healthy online behaviour and prevent any reckless, experimental and/or malicious behaviours. Please endeavour to extract your son/ward from his phone for at least one phase of the day so that he can actively live out the MIND 5 Ways to Wellbeing promoted in school.

If you have a concern about the safety or welfare of your child, please email the safeguarding team at safeguarding@isleworthsyon.org. If there is an emergency call 999 or, for non-urgent matters that require police attention, call 101.

House Point Champions

Celebrating student success

29 more students have earned either a Diamond or Prestige house point certificate this week. They are shown below – well done! 

Congratulations to them!

_{Note: this list is accurate as of 7.00am today (Friday). If your child reached a threshold after 7.00am on Friday, they will appear in the next list.} 

Pride of House

Celebrating student success

The latest weekly Pride of House awards has seen another 40 Isleworthians rewarded with a digital certificate. These students have been fantastic influences around the school this week, showcasing themselves to be outstanding school ambassadors. Check out the full list by clicking a house badge below!

News

A superb array of enrichment activities for all ages

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Science Week

This week, we celebrated the national British Science Week. The theme for the week was ‘time’ – something which is key to many discoveries in science, technology, engineering and maths. 

On Tuesday, Key Stage 3 students took part in a word hunt around the school as well as filling in a science activity booklet containing three tasks. The first three students to submit their correct answer were given prizes.

Scientist profiles could be found around the school, as well as a book display in the library. In addition, we held a poster competition, asking students to design a poster to show how certain types of technology have changed over time, or even the advancement of time-technology itself! The deadline is 22 March; the top five entries will be submitted into the British Science Poster Competition.

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Badminton Championships Trip

30 regulars from the badminton club spent the day at the All England Championships – the oldest and most prestigious tournament in the world – in Birmingham on Wednesday. The opportunity to watch the world’s elite players is rare and the boys were inspired by the quality of play and the spectacle. Member of staff Prem George led the trip; you can see some of our students seeking autographs above, along with other pictures from the trip.

Our Key Stage 4 Badminton team took part in the borough finals yesterday (Thursday) – check out next week’s newsletter to see how they got on!

‘The Duchess of Malfi’ Theatre Trip

On Thursday, we took 20 students to the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse to see a fantastic production of ‘The Duchess of Malfi’. The trip was offered to drama and English A level students. The play, written by John Webster, is a set text for English A level students, while it is a requirement in both drama and English to be able to discuss interpretations of plays. This was a fantastic opportunity, then, to bring classroom studies for life.

The play certainly provoked deep conversations on the way home; Ellis said, “This different interpretation not only made for an interesting watch, but also developed our understanding of this play which we can reference and discuss within our written exams.”

This was a great trip which really took advantage of the unique opportunities on our doorstep in London’s West End.

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Comic Relief

This week, we have been fundraising for Comic Relief, to benefit children and young people both in the UK and abroad. All week, Sixth Form student ambassadors have been stationed in the hall with a bucket to capture cash donations, while parents/carers have been able to donate via our JustGiving page.

We have also taken part in several fun activities during lunchtimes. On Wednesday, we hosted a student vs staff quiz competition in the Hall (pictured first and second above). Featuring student house champions and led by the Sixth Form Head Student team, it was a fierce battle that was narrowly won by the staff! On Thursday, the Sports Hall was the venue for a basketball shot competition – with students given a single minute to score as many points as possible. Finally, today (Friday) saw an exciting treasure hunt (pictured third above) for Key Stage 3 students.

These charity events are so important to teach our boys the importance of being mature, considerate and active citizens.

Key Stage 4 Courses Evening

Last night, we welcomed Year 9 families for our Key Stage 4 Courses Evening. During this important event, parents/carers and students learned a little about the step up from Key Stage 3 to Key Stage 4, as well as some of the new courses they would be able to study in Year 10, including business, computer science, economics, engineering and film studies. The event was very well-attended and a superb way to get students thinking about their future pathways. You can read more about the Key Stage 4 options process.

Performing Shakespeare Competition

And finally for this week…

On Tuesday, we were delighted to host the regional final for the English-Speaking Union’s Performing Shakespeare competition. This brought together young people from local schools to recite their favourite piece of Shakespeare for an assembled audience of parents/carers as well as the judging panel. The event was co-hosted by Sixth Form students Kye Page and Gursharan Singh, who brought their trademark humour to the event.

Our finalists were Horatiu Cojocaru and Jashanjot Kohli, who progressed through the school final in the Autumn Term. They performed pieces from ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and ‘Romeo and Juliet’ respectively. Although both were understandably nervous, they did a superb job and were highly commended by the judges. This opportunity has helped to improve the boys’ confidence, which will absolutely have knock-on effects in the classroom as well.