From the Co-Headteachers

It has been an incredibly busy week with a hugely successful Year 6 into Year 7 transition event as well as our annual and utterly amazing Summer Arts Festival – you can read more about both below.

Interspersed between these two large-scale events have been waves of high-quality revision lessons, preparing students for their internal assessments. While the majority of these assessments have now finished, there are still “catch-up” assessments taking place during Wider Learning Week for students who were absent on their original assessment day(s). This said, congratulations to all those students who have successfully navigated these robust internal assessments, many for the first time. Our high expectations and formal procedures are fantastic training for the “real thing” in Years 10 and 11.

Year assemblies have been celebrating individual academic successes as well as, again, reinforcing issues linked to personal safety, in particular, sun safety, safe cycling, open water safety, and healthy hydration.

As a reminder, any Year 10 student who is without a work placement should attend school as normal Monday 10 July until Wednesday 19 July – a letter was sent about this yesterday.

We were delighted last week to receive this feedback from a parent/carer:

“The weekly newsletter has been very informative and a great way to keep us in the loop. We’ve enjoyed reading about the many achievements of the students which is only made possible through the commitment and dedication of a top team of teachers.”

If you have a comment, positive or negative, about this newsletter, please do leave it at this link. Planning is already underway for the newsletter to continue in 2023-24.

Simon Fisher and Jo Higginbottom

FREE – Holiday and Food Programme (HAF)

All children on Free School Meals (FSM) have received a flyer offering them the opportunity to sign up to some August sports camps. They are located on the school site and will include workshops about food and nutrition as well as the importance of exercise for their general wellbeing. 

Electronic bookings for children on FSM have already gone “live”. The camp is also open to “paid places”, so anyone can attend from Year 7 to 11 for just £25 per day; check out the flyer below. An after-school “taster” basketball and football session will take place on Monday 10 July for anyone interested.

Learners as Leaders

In school, students are often asked to act as leaders in the classroom. Such leadership normally takes place in collaborative learning situations where students provide feedback after working together on learning activities in small or large groups. Students regularly make presentations and/or act as leaders in highly structured group work. Some collaborative learning approaches put students in pairs, groups or teams of mixed ability to work in competition with each other. There is a very wide range of approaches to collaborative learning; educational experts highlight how student leadership is a low-effort, high-impact way to raise standards. When you next get a chance, ask your child – when was the last time he demonstrated leadership in the classroom?

Careers Corner – Creative Industries

The creative industries account for around 2.3 million jobs in the UK and continues to grow. Despite this growth, there are still many areas that are suffering a large skills shortage that will impact upon the future success of this sector. Discover Creative Careers aims to tackle the skills shortages and lack of diversity across the workforce.

Continuing the theme of the creative industries, Unpacking the Credits aims to showcase the diverse range of careers within the sector and encourage young people to consider a career within it.

Pride of House

A huge well done to the forty Isleworthians who are this week’s Pride of House recipients. Click a house badge below to see the full lists!

Wider Learning Week

We can’t wait for Wider Learning Week (WLW), starting on Monday and lasting all the way until Friday. Students in Years 7, 8, 9 and 12 will come off their normal timetable to take part in exciting and enriching activities. Next week’s newsletter will be a complete WLW takeover, so you won’t want to miss that!

This week, we sent reminder letters to Key Stage 3 students. Check them out and make sure students have read key notices on uniform, trips and expectations. They will register in a different room to normal each morning, so make sure that they check the screens around the school for where they have to go.

Coming Up!

Emails from School

All emails from the school are sent to the priority 1 contact from school@isleworthsyon.org, so please make sure this address is added to your ‘safe senders’ list. If you think you’ve been missing emails, check your junk/spam.

If your email address changes, please let us know as soon as possible. Thank you for your support.

Word of the Week

The word of the week is precise.

House Point Champions

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

Prestige (300 points)

Sebastian GHIORGHICA (9Sh)
Pavle RAJLIC (9Ad)

Diamond (200 points)

Rokas GABRYS (8Tu)

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

All parents/carers and staff should understand that, when working with children, it is best to be both open and transparent. Certainly, with the summer period upon us, it is vitally important that students and their parents/carers communicate their plans. Secondly, if parents/carers are unable to persuade their children to have a digital detox, please endeavour to keep checking their mobile phones for inappropriate material such as malicious communications.

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. 

News

Summer Arts Festival

It was such a joy last night to host our Summer Arts Festival. This fantastic arts event showcased the work and talent of over 200 students!. The event was once again split into different zones, with audience members free to move around as they pleased.

On offer included:

  • Drama clubs performing live – including a Roald Dahl classic from Years 7-8, and Years 9-11 performing an original piece written by two of its stars
  • A student film competition, voted on by the guests
  • Live Big Band showcase in the central quad
  • Rap and vocal performances in the MFL quad
  • An art and DT exhibition featuring work from across the school.

Then, all visitors gathered together in the central quad for a showpiece featuring all students and our staff band. It was a truly special – and packed – event, showcasing everything the school has to offer. One visitor said afterwards, “The festival was absolutely marvellous. The performances by the students and teachers were awe-inspiring.” If you have any other feedback, please do let us know!

Battle of the Bands

Summer Arts was not the only rocking music event this week! On Monday, we sent our Big Band to compete in the Hounslow Battle of the Bands down at Gunnersbury Baptist Church.

The band, led by Mr Davie under the moniker ‘Jonas Diddle and the Humblebrags’, featured students from Year 7 all the way to Year 12! Our boys took the roof off with their barnstorming performance; we were very proud of them.

This event was a fantastic way for students to build their networking skills as well as experiencing music competition. We will always give students the chance to experience the power of music – and to help them develop into mature and confident young men.

Harvey Dobel Monologue

This term, we let you know about an exciting collaboration project involving Year 10 drama student Harvey Dobel. After taking part in the Old Vic Schools Club throughout this year, Harvey worked with the West End theatre to write a monologue exploring the impact of individual actions and the force of collective responsibility on the planet’s future.

Harvey spent several weeks working with a professional writer to hone his piece, called ‘Resolutions’. Now, it has been performed by ‘Fleabag’ actor Jenny Rainsford and filmed. Please be warned that there is some explicit language in the video, which you can watch on YouTube. Congratulations Harvey – he was the only student from the Schools Club to be selected for this. A high honour indeed!

Year 6 to 7 Transition

On Tuesday, we enjoyed hosting our Year 7 Transition Day – for families that will be starting Year 7 in September. First, we welcomed the boys – resplendent in their primary uniforms – for a taster day in school. Students took part in a range of lessons, including introductions to English, PE and science! Students also experienced an Isleworth & Syon assembly to introduce them to our key values and high expectations.

Then, in the evening we welcomed parents/carers for our Transition Evening. This hour-long event gave parents/carers a crash course in life at I&S, and gave more information about important aspects of school life. We were very impressed with the attendance.

We now look forward to welcoming these families to school properly in September, as their six-month induction process continues. That process finishes with the Induction celebration assembly at the end of the Autumn Term.

Homerton College

A few weeks ago, we delighted to send 12 Year 12s to Homerton College, part of the University of Cambridge, for a special taster day. Students had a fascinating day exploring one of the top universities in the country.

They took part in a student panel Q&A and a tour of the college, both led by Homerton student ambassadors. They also enjoyed academic taster sessions in arts and sciences and a Cambridge city centre tour.

It was a busy day but a highly rewarding one for the students that took part – they came back to school with plenty of food for thought as they complete their UCAS applications.