Week 28 (10-14 March 2025)

Welcome from the Co-Headteachers

This week the school is truly in full flow. There has been vibrancy and energy within classrooms, around the corridors and in all outdoor “active play” areas. Congratulations to all those Year 11 and 13 students who have successfully completed and cemented their revision skills in the face of their internal Pre-Public Examinations (PPEs). After school, a large range of enrichment clubs are again up and running, helping our students develop leadership skills and strengthen their wider friendship circles. House assemblies have been driving the importance of personal and social development, in particular ensuring that students display tolerance and empathy towards each other. Furthermore, in our daily tutorials, we have continued to drive the promotion of: 

• positive wellbeing and mental health 
• reading for pleasure 
• personal organisation – “display the case” 

On the latter, please conduct regular checks that your son / ward is always in possession of basic school equipment as well as, crucially, a fiction reading book; this reading book should be secured safely within an appropriately sized school bag.  As ever, this newsletter contains important information about our other traditions and values of the school as so please read the full newsletter. 

Simon Fisher and Jo Higginbottom

Quote of the week

Quote of the week:  Choosing your future – there are a plethora of well-trodden phrases “out in the real world” about how students should aim to stay focused in school. These include:  

• Don’t put all your eggs in one basket 
• Listen to your inner voice and trust your instincts 
• Hedge your bets 
• Work hard, don’t cheat yourself

In reality, our experience at school informs us that well-defined goals or objectives do in fact provide a strong direction as well as a clear purpose to the educational voyage of individual students. While this journey can all too often seem like an endless, dark tunnel of being told what, when and how to do things, our prominent and important careers education as well as high-quality expert teaching does deliver on our employability mantra of, pathways not corridors. 

Area Forum

A chance to connect to the local community

On Thursday March 20^th as a small number of our Sixth Form student leaders will be attending a networking event at West Thames College. The agenda for the evening is – here. Be aware that this networking event will also host a presentation by Isleworth & Syon Sixth Form student leaders, talking about how the all too frequent negative narrative about young people is wholly unjustified and wrong. Please come along and enjoy the immense power of student voice. The event starts with a marketplace gathering at 6.30pm; the formal presentations start at 7.30pm. 

Shaping The Future

Creating memories, strengthening connections and promoting effective learning are key to the development healthy and responsible individuals. In school, we live out and, indeed, practice on a daily basis our fully-embedded MIND principles which are the essential foundations for positive mental health and wellbeing. We recognise that everything isn’t about solely academic success, hence, we endlessly promote leadership opportunities and the soft skills of connecting with others, taking notice, and giving (time as well as compliments). We really drive our students to feel empowered with access to a toolkit of positive mental health and well-being strategies. In an increasingly diverse and interconnected world, this ability to connect with others and display empathy, even in the face of differences, are even more crucial. We would strongly encourage all parents / carers to refine their active listening skills and empathetic communication skills of their son / ward at home.  

Careers and employability

Work experience

Talent is everywhere yet, opportunities aren’t. We are again actively looking for Year 10 and Year 12 work placements – with a PLUS ONE opportunity for July 2025. 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” then please email Mr Adams, our Careers Leader: madams@isleworthsyon.org

Coming Up!

Dates for the diary

You can access the entire calendar via this link.

Partnership working

British values

Among a multitude of highly successful external working partnership one of our most important is with the Met Police through our Safer Schools Officer (SSO). Our designated SSO is PC Dixon; she works with young people who require guidance and support with their behaviour, either, in school and / or in the community. One key feature of her role is to target individuals who have displayed anti-social behaviour – parents / carers as well as students should 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 Dixon’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 

Teacher Stability

We are incredibly proud of our very high levels of teacher stability at Isleworth & Syon.  Given this, it’s important for us to share that, despite a highly challenging national teacher recruitment crisis, we have only needed to recruit one teacher for term 2.  Continuity of teachers is crucial in building trust and enabling students to take risks in their learning. Indeed, for young people to be happy and productive, to achieve at school and to be prepared for a full, active and successful life in modern Britain, teachers must also be happy and well. We work tirelessly to ensure that, first, our students are taught by well qualified expert teachers. Given this, we are immensely proud of this fact at I&S; it demonstrates how staff enjoy working with our students, enjoy supporting our young people, and enjoy celebrating the successes of our student leaders and responsible citizens. 

Active Play

As the weather becomes warmer, levels of physical activity at breaktime and lunchtime become incredibly high as students run, jump and chase each other around the outdoor school site. Supervised playful football, basketball, table tennis and cricket take place across our school site. We really value the importance of playful, largely rule-free activity where young people escape the rigours and routines of the classroom. Given this, we actively encourage all students to bring their sports trainers on a daily basis in order to protect formal school footwear.

Hounslow’s Teen Read Challenge

READ, READ, READ

On Thursday 13 March, the school Library team hosted the closing ceremony of the Hounslow Teen Read challenge. Josh Silver, author of Happy Head and the winner of last year’s competition, gave an inspirational speech which had the audience enthralled. His talk is very much the antidote to the message conveyed by Andrew Tate. It was an emotionally intelligent and encouraging presentation that the students and staff will remember for a very long time. 

Feedback from participants:

• ‘…the author was funny and relatable…and I wish I could experience it again.’
• ‘I think this talk was amazing. It felt like time flew by. This was a great experience with a great author!’
• ‘It was extremely moving and inspirational. I had a strong connection with him and everything that he said perfectly related with what I thought of school, life, and the world we live in. This event was life changing.’

At the end of the event, the results of this year’s Teen Read challenge were announced. The winner being Nathanael Lessore for his book King of Nothing.

Holiday and Food Programme (HAF):

Spurred on by the social justice campaign of Marcus Rashford the Government now offers FREE activity programmes over the school holiday periods. Hence, in the run-up to Easter, parents / carers of children on Free School Meals (FSM) have three weeks to sign-up to free Easter holiday sports camps which take place on school site. Each sports camp is organized by Footy Fun 4 Kids and can be accessed through this link – here. As well as performing multi-sport activities students will attend workshops about food and nutrition as well as the importance of exercise for their general wellbeing.  

Safeguarding and Personal Development

First aid

Our school PSHE curriculum includes First Aid training for all our students, providing them with essential life-saving skills. Currently, our Year 9 are enjoying a unit that includes learning basic first aid techniques for strains and sprains, fractures, burns, bleeding as well as CPR.  In preparation for adult life, we hope that in an emergency, our students equipped with first aid knowledge will be able to offer immediate assistance, potentially saving lives before emergency services arrive.   Importantly, this first aid training has the potential to instil a sense of responsibility and confidence, empowering our students to act decisively in critical situations. Also, our PSHE courses promote safety awareness, helping students identify and prevent potential hazards & accidents. First aid education also fosters empathy and compassion, as students learn to care for others in distress. This is all part of our values-based curriculum at I&S, where we ensure our students are prepared to cope with adversity, handle emergencies and contribute positively to their communities. It’s an important step in their personal development and overall well-being.

Club of the Week

Performing Arts Tech Crew

The Performing Arts Tech Crew is an entirely student-led group who manage the backstage and front of house for all of our performance events at school. This year, students have developed skills in set design, costume management, lighting design and operation as well as stage management. Currently, students are working on the ‘get out’ after our whole school production – this involves stripping away all the set and props. This extra-curricular club is open to all students from Y7 to Y13.

House Point Champions

Another 12 students reach Diamond award

In school, students receive House Points for positive contributions to school life. When they reach certain thresholds, they receive certificates. This week, two students have reached the Prestige threshold – meaning that they have earned a massive 300 house points!

• Finn BARNES (8Tr)
• Gurveer SINGH (7Bl)

A further 27 students have reached Diamond award (200 points)

Congratulations to them! 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.

Pride of House

The latest award winners

For those who are not aware, our weekly Pride of House awards are a fantastic way to reward students for working hard and contributing to the life of the school. Each week, the pastoral staff nominate a student from each house! You can check out the full roster by clicking a house badge below.