Week 22 (27-31 January 2025)

No Excuses, No Exceptions

More about our theme of the week

We are very proud of the great, proactive work from our student leaders in the local community. This includes environmental volunteering, supporting food banks, working with different generations, and supporting charities. We regularly get positive feedback from local residents about how our students go out of their way to help, like when Yahya (pictured right) helped out at the local Bridgelink community lunch. We constantly reinforce that all students – not just our student ambassadors – are expected to be responsible citizens in the wider world.

We know that sometimes, things go wrong. If a student is involved in bad behaviour, like stealing from shops, bullying, harassment or public disorder, we take strong internal action. We always report anti-social behaviour to our Safer Schools (police) officer. Sometimes, our internal action is supported by an external police response – which could be warnings, arrests, or even charges. We also want to make it clear that there are times where our students are the victims. In these cases, we fully support them and work with the authorities to protect them from harm.

Coming Up!

Dates for the diary from now until the end of term

You can access the entire calendar via this link.

Catering Service

A few reminders about our caterers, The Pantry

In case you were not aware, parents/carers can view school break and lunch menus on this very website. They are available at this page; note that the menus run on a three-week rotation. Parents/carers can also view all their child’s transactions through our payment system, SCOPAY – contact us if you need help.

As a further reminder, all students can receive a free bowl of porridge every single morning from The Pantry. There is lots of evidence to show that students who eat a complete breakfast show improved concentration, alertness, comprehension, memory and learning.

Children’s Mental Health Week

“Know yourself, grow yourself”

Next week (3-9 February) is Children’s Mental Health Week, an annual event launched by the Place2Be charity. The purpose of the week is to empower and give a choice to young people in the UK. The theme this year is ‘Know Yourself, Grow Yourself’, helping both young people and adults to embrace ‘self-awareness’ and explore what it means to them. This links to the themes of resilience from last week’s newsletter.

We recommend broaching these topics at home. This document from the Hounslow School Nurses contains an activity which can help facilitate the conversations, while the official website gives some important background and resources.

Emotional Literacy

Helping students process their emotions

All young people experience challenging feelings, as emotions are a natural part of life. While it is important to allow children to express themselves, they must learn to process these difficult emotions in a healthy way. We know that is can be hard for parents/carers to navigate these tricky conversations, so we recommend this guide from the National College. It gives expert advise on supporting youngsters to develop “emotional literacy.”

School Production – Last Chance

Meet the cast and crew, then get your tickets!

There is less than ONE WEEK TO GO until the first performance of this year’s whole school production, ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’. It features over 60 students from across the school – and a live soundtrack from some of our top musical performers – so you really don’t want to miss out!

Tickets are still available – we recommend buying them in advance online. Below we’ve included the complete list of students involved in this fabulous production, as actors, tech crew and musicians. Click to view it full size. Well done to everyone – break a leg!

Club Spotlight – Scratch Programming Club

A fun computing club for Year 7

Our Scratch Coding Club has been running since the start of the school year. Scratch is a visual coding environment for creating simple games. During the Autumn Term, the students learned the basics by making an alien shooting game (think ‘Space Invaders’). This term, the students have been using their skills to independently design and create their own new games. They have been having fun trying out each other’s games, trying to set the highest score! The club is open to all Year 7 students.

Pride of House

The latest award winners

Please do click a house badge below to celebrate our 40 Pride of House winners for the last seven days. The prize has been awarded by pastoral staff to reflect a fantastic contribution to school life – well done everyone!

House Point Champions

Brilliant performances this week

A fantastic eight more students have reached 250 house points this week! They have received their Diamond award today. These students are fantastic role models for their peers – congratulations to:

• Sufyan AHMED (8Ad)
• Logan BRADBURY (9Sh)
• Jay BYREPALLI (8Am)
• Roo CLARK (9Sn)
• Swagat DAHAL (8Br)
• Harry FISHER (8Br)
• Sultan NORISTANI WALIZADA (7Tr)
• Sai NUSUMU (9Bl)

Will your son/ward appear on this list next week? You can see his progress via INSIGHT.

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.

Safeguarding and Personal Development

A note about the Welfare Room

At Isleworth & Syon, we are pleased to be able to offer a Welfare Room, supervised by a well-qualified and caring full-time Welfare Officer. This space is intended to provide care for students facing poor physical and/or mental health.

This week, we spoke to boys in assemblies because a minority of students are not using the service appropriately. It is worth noting that less serious complaints such as minor headaches might be managed by drinking water during the school day and sleeping well at home. 

It is crucial that we maintain the availability of our Welfare Room for those who genuinely need it. We kindly ask for your support in discussing with your son/ward the importance of:

• Taking responsibility for their own physical and mental health; and
• Showing resilience at school before using the welfare room responsibly.

Thank you.

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

_{Photo by Valentin Antonucci on Pexels.com}

News

The latest stories from across the school

RSPB Bird Watch

This week, we have been delighted to take part in the ‘Big Bird Watch’, a fantastic initiative by the Royal Society for the Preservation of Birds (RSPB). This is a world-wide garden wildlife survey, with students able to help create a “picture” of how garden birds are fairing. In their science lessons, students were introduced to the aims of the RSPB as well as learning about various bird species. They were given guidance on how to identify them, which they then put into practice around the school site! This was a brilliant example of hands-on learning, getting students out of the classroom to encourage a love of nature. The data that students collected will be uploaded to the RSPB next week.

Key Stage 5 Parents/Carers Evening

Last night (Thursday), we hosted our annual Key Stage 5 Parents/Carers Evening in school. This event invited parents/carers of Year 12 and Year 13 students into school for short appointments with subject teachers to evaluate progress so far. These meetings were very helpful as a means to establishing where students’ strengths lie, as well as ways in which they can improve. Attendance was good, so thank you to those parents/carers who attended.

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Year 9 Sports Leaders Visit Twickenham Stadium

In all aspects of school life, students are encouraged to take on leadership roles. We know that this is crucial for young people’s development. One such project is the Level 1 Sports Leadership programme. Selected Year 9 students have the chance to earn a leadership qualification through assisting at various primary school events across the next two terms.

We are able to run this course as we were recognised by the Leadership Skills Foundation as a ‘Centre of Excellence’; one of just 24 in the country!

The launch event took place at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham on Tuesday. Students enjoyed a tour of the stadium in the morning before beginning their course in the afternoon. This qualification is a brilliant chance for students to grow life skills as well as leading and managing events – we will report back on the students’ progress later in the year.

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