From the Co-Headteachers
It has been another busy week in school. Interspersed between their normal lessons our learners have been bombarded with important messages within Year assemblies about becoming:
- successful students
- confident young people
- responsible citizens.
This three-pronged approach is our core purpose. It largely involves students buying into our school culture of:
- thinking hard and working hard
- taking advantage of our outstanding array of enrichment opportunities
- living out – on a daily basis – the traditional and deep-seated historical values that this school represents.
We are also working hard to raise awareness around the tragic Turkey and Syrian earthquake disaster. The scale of tragedy is almost incomprehensible; expect to hear more on this when we return to school after half-term.
Thank you to those parents/carers who have been providing feedback on the content within this newsletter through the feedback tool. A number of praise-worthy items have been shared with staff and, furthermore, a number of interesting suggestions have been made; we look forward to implementing some of these next half-term. One suggestion includes another push on asking students to read to and alongside their parents/carers.
As a reminder, half-term is next week so school will be closed. Students return on Monday 20 February at 8.25am.
Simon Fisher and Jo Higginbottom
Examination Timetables – PPEs
Today, we have published examination timetables for the Pre-Public Examinations (PPEs), taking place for Years 11 and 13 from Monday 6 – Friday 10 March.
These important examinations are the last way that students sitting public exams this summer can get a sense of their progress, including areas where they are strong and topics where they need further improvement. Please do encourage students to think hard and work hard by downloading one of our blank revision timetables and committing to regular revision. We recommend a “little and often” strategy as the best way to maximise progress.
Students will receive Individual Candidate Timetables, detailing their seat number, after half-term.
Year 10 Work Experience
Year 10 Work Experience takes place from Monday 10 – Friday 21 July 2023. The current economic climate and the knock-on impact of COVID has meant that, so far, opportunities for our students have proved few and far between. So, we need your help to secure placements for Year 10 students.
Read the full letter to parents/carers and then contact Jayne Spink if you can help with either a ten-day or five-day placement.
Post-16 Guidance Interviews
This week, we have arranged Post-16 Guidance Interviews with all Year 11 students. These ten-minute appointments, scheduled for after half-term, will allow students one-to-one time with a member of staff to discuss their next steps after Year 11.
Club of the Week – Badminton
Staff: Miss George
Location: Sports Hall
Who: All years
When: Monday, 3.05 – 4.05pm (everyone welcome); Thursday, 3.05 – 4.05pm (by invitation only)
Our Badminton Club is a thriving and extremely well attended club run by Miss George. Regularly there are more than 50 students on Monday, ranging from beginners to very high level.
Recently some of our players have been playing against independent schools across the South East, including The Coopers Company & Coborn School, Colchester Royal Grammar School, Reeds, Dulwich College and John Lyon School. While we have had many successes, there is still room for improvement. It has been great exposure for our students and we look forward to future matches against Hampton School.
Careers Corner
The 2023 LinkedIn Jobs on the Rise list has been published. It uses LinkedIn data to uncover the 25 fastest growing job titles over the past five years.
The list is a great start for students to begin to understand the changing employment landscape and look at careers they may never have considered previously. The list includes job titles such as customer success consultant, growth marketing manager, cloud engineer, data engineer, cable technician and workplace coordinator.
Read the full article on LinkedIn (no account required).
Don’t forget to follow our dedicated careers Twitter account at @IsleworthCEAIG.
Pride of House
A huge well done to the 40 students across Years 7-11 who have received a Pride of House award for this week. These are nominated by Form Tutors/Pastoral Staff to recognise an outstanding contribution to the life of the school. You can view the lists by clicking a house badge.
Staying Safe Online
In the same week as the global Safer Internet Day (Tuesday 7 February), we have again received a handful of reports about how our young people have been unsafe online.
Much of this unsafe behaviour is linked to a lack of student as well as parent/carer knowledge about social media in the digital age. Given this, we recommend watching the 15-minute video clip below which stars Jodie Whittaker from ‘Doctor Who’. It is really intense and thought-provoking. Many of the issues raised are at the heart of what being safe on the internet looks like.
After viewing it, reflect on the fact that many of those people who work for social media companies don’t allow their own children on social media. What can we do to make things better? How can we make parents/carers better informed? Feel free to feedback using our form.
The school is closed from 4.00pm on Friday 10 February and reopens on Monday 20 February at 8.25am.
During the holidays, 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.
Coming Up!
- Thursday 9 and Friday 10 February – School Production of ‘The Odyssey’
- Monday 13 – Friday 17 February – Half-Term
- Thursday 23 February – Year 9 Parents/Carers Evening
- Thursday 16 March – Key Stage 4 Courses Evening (Year 9)
- Thursday 23 March – Year 10 Parents/Carers Evening
- Thursday 30 March – Drama & Music Festival
- Friday 31 March – End of Spring Term (students dismissed at 12.30pm)
Word of the Week
The word of the week is scope.
News
‘The Odyssey’
Last night (Thursday), our school production of ‘The Odyssey’ had its first performance in the school hall. This was our most student-centred performance ever, with over 70 students taking part. As well as the compelling cast of actors on-stage, we also had student musicians in the orchestra pit beneath the stage and Miss Thomson’s diligent Tech Crew backstage and up in the lighting room. This truly is an “all hands on deck” production – an epic tale featuring adventure, monsters and Greek gods!
The final performance is tonight – Friday. Advance ticket sales have ended but you can still buy them on the door – just £5 for adults and £2 for students, children and concessions. Please do come along if you can and support the arts at Isleworth & Syon.
Globe Players Perform Shakespeare
‘The Odyssey’ hasn’t been the only performance in school this week. We were delighted to welcome The Globe Players to perform for Year 11 yesterday (Thursday).
They are a theatre company who specialise in performing Shakespeare texts for GCSE students – to prepare them for their examinations. The four actors performed key sections from ‘Romeo and Juliet’, pausing occasionally to explain a word choice or illuminate a theme. It gave students extra insight into the text they are studying in class. It was a brilliant production, performed in the round, which will help the students immensely with their revision.
Cisco Apprenticeships Talk
This week was National Apprenticeships Week, as we trailed in last week’s Isleworthian. We were very fortunate to have representatives from the tech company Cisco come into school yesterday (Thursday). The company do not do much school outreach so this was a fantastic opportunity for A level computing and CTEC IT students from the Sixth Form.
The two representatives spoke for half an hour about apprenticeship opportunities at Cisco for students who wish to break into the industry. It certainly gave the boys food for thought as they carefully consider their next steps!
Hounslow Speed Read
Earlier this week, we were delighted to play host to a borough-wide reading initiative called Speed Read.
Organised by the Hounslow Library Service, representatives from Hounslow schools – including a group of I&S boys – had to talk about their favourite book.
The event’s format was like ‘speed dating’, but with books – student having just two minutes to explain why they enjoyed their book. One of our boys, Ayman Shah (pictured above), won the whole competition! It was a fantastic celebration of reading.
Year 7 Athletics – Borough Winners!
Last week, we reported on our Year 7 athletes’ success in the borough championship. Well, they’ve gone one better this week – qualifying as the Hounslow representatives for the London Youth Games finals in March. This is the first time an Isleworth & Syon team has achieved this for seven years – a phenomenal achievement. Well done, boys!
Ski Tour to Austria
During half-term, 50 students are heading to the snowy Zillertal in Austria for our week-long Ski Tour. This trip is always a phenomenal experience for students!
If you want to follow their progress, members of staff will be tweeting from the slopes. @IsleworthSyon. If you don’t have a Twitter account, they will also be displayed on the homepage of this website.
Safe travels to the group!