Week 23 (3-7 February 2025)

Committed to Learning

More about our theme of the week

Most of our students are keen to learn. In every lesson, these motivated students love to explore new ideas, connect different topics, and ask questions. They enjoy thinking deeply and challenging both their teachers and classmates. Indeed, our Sixth Form leaders spoke beautifully in House assemblies this week about developing a ‘commitment to learning’. Over their seven years at school, students with a positive attitude toward learning grow quickly, both emotionally and academically.

However, we know that not all students have this curiosity and desire to make sense of the world around us. In school, we want to support these ‘locked-out learners’ – students who are struggling to start their learning journey – so that they can become more active in their learning.

Pre-Public Examinations Timetables

Important assessments taking place in March

This week, we have published the examination timetables for the Pre-Public Examinations (PPEs), taking place for Years 11 and 13 from Monday 10 – Friday 14 March.

These crucial examinations are the last way that students sitting public exams this summer can analyse and evaluate their progress, including areas where they are strong and topics where they need further improvement. Please do encourage students to both 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.

Coming Up!

Dates for the diary from now until the end of term

You can access the entire calendar via this link.

Scholastic Book Fair

Support the school by buying books!

Earlier this week, we sent parents/carers a letter about the Scholastic Book Fair. Please do support the school by encouraging your son/ward to buy books – the more books that you buy, the more free books we receive! Full opening times for the fair are included in the letter.

Scams and Fake News

The latest online safety guide

In the modern world, both children and adults are exposed to more information than ever before. It also means that misinformation – often called ‘fake news’ – is a huge issue, with a recent study showing that 94% of UK people have read misinformation online.

‘Fake news’ is often shared by scammers and other cyber-criminals to make their stories more convincing. This presents a clear risk to young people online; to that end, we recommend this free guide from The National College. It offers expert advice on how to protect younger users against these ‘fake news’ techniques.

Club Spotlight – Food Club

Teaching Year 7 crucial life skills

After a successful pilot last year, we have been delighted to run our Year 7 Food Club on Thursdays after school this term. After an overwhelming amount of applications, students have been split into two groups, with Group A completing the club this half-term and Group B taking part next half-term.

Across four sessions, students have learned a range of practical skills which can help them prepare a meal. These include cooking with knives, using the hob, cooking with the oven, measuring ingredients with scales, plus cleaning and washing up. During the sessions, students create a variety of dishes, including fruit salad, pasta, pizza and cupcakes. This has been hands-on learning at its finest, teaching students a powerful life skill.

House Point Champions

Another ten students win Diamond awards

Well done to this week’s Diamond award-winners, presented for reaching 250 house points. These students are fantastic role models for their peers – well done to all of them.

• Gus CLARK (8Sn)
• Arthur EAST (8Tr)
• Hadi HASAN (8Sn)
• Oussama HSAINI EL AISSATI (9Sn)
• Asim MEHMETAJ (8Am)
• Noah MERRY (9Sh)
• Daniel SALVATORI MARTIN (9Tr)
• Harvey SANDHU (9Tr)
• Vedansh SCINDIA (8Br)
• Maksym SMOLII (9Tr)

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

Congratulations to the 40 impressive Isleworthians in Years 7-11 who have won this week’s Pride of House award for their form. Each student has made a fantastic positive contribution to the life of the school this week. See the full lists via the house badges below.

Safeguarding and Personal Development

Helping students make informed, responsible, safer choices

We ask all parents and carers to stay updated – and report to us – about local and national safety issues that impact keeping students safe. These “youth issues” might come up in family conversations; this can then help us with our PSHE lessons. In PSHE, we give students the knowledge and skills to make good decisions.

Knife crime is a serious problem in many communities. It is very dangerous for young people. Both families and schools need to understand the factors that make up this issue and talk openly with children about the risks. It is important to discuss the consequences of knife crime, such as legal punishments and the potential for serious injury or death.

At our school, we focus on encouraging positive activities and friendships that keep young people away from gangs and bad (anti-social) influences. This helps build trust, so young people can talk about their fears and experiences. The Metropolitan Police will soon visit our school to deliver the simple message: ‘Lives Not Knives.’ Together, we can make our school environment safer and help students make informed, responsible, and safer choices.

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

‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’

The first performance of this year’s whole school production was last night, as we adapted the Roald Dahl classic, ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’. More than 60 students took part – on stage as actors, in the under-stage pit as musicians, and backstage as technical crew.

This superb, fun-filled production took the audience on a journey filled with chocolate rivers, invention rooms, television-chocolate testing rooms and, of course, the glass elevator. Many of the cast were junior students making their first appearance on our stage. The cast did a superb job of bringing Dahl’s unique humour to life! They were aided by a superb set, designed by Year 13’s Aidan De Souza, which showcased Willy Wonka’s unique, magical factory.

This production was a superb triumph. There were so many audience comments, in fact, that we are still getting them together – look out for those in the coming weeks, along with a gallery of rehearsal photographs. Well done to everyone involved in this production, as well as the directing team of Mrs Axten, Mr McDonnell and Miss Thomson. Once again, it was crystal clear just how key the performing arts are to life in school.

Tickets are still available for tonight’s last-ever performance, so buy yours via SCOPAY or on the door. Just £5 for adults and £2 for everyone else – you really don’t want to miss this!

Year 12 Sports Leaders

In last week’s newsletter, we talked about the Year 9 Sports Leaders. This week, we want to focus on our very popular Year 12 programme. This is the Higher Sports Leaders Award, a special qualification that looks great on CVs and pushes student to take on more responsibility. Throughout the school year, students will work at Hounslow primary athletics championships as well as assisting with school events.

Last week, we sent our Year 12 Sports Leaders to a launch event for a new charity, Generations Active Hounslow, which aims to empower young people through sport and physical activity. Hosted by our partner organisation Sport Impact, we were invited because we are an established Leadership Skills Foundation Centre of Excellence. During the event, students met and asked questions to 11-time Paralympic champion Baroness Tanni-Grey Thompson, as well as the local MP Seema Malhotra. It was a fantastic opportunity for students to network as well as pick up new skills to help them with their leadership. In school, we are so proud of our ‘learners as leaders’ culture.

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Speed Read

Finally for today – Yesterday (Thursday), we sent a group of students to take part in a Hounslow-wide reading initiative called Speed Read. Organised by the Hounslow Library Service, representatives from borough 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 – students having just two minutes to explain why they enjoyed their book.

Congratulations to Elias Ghauri and Alexander Moran (pictured first above) who won the competition with novels ‘Good as Dead’ and ‘Daisy Darker’ respectively! Afterwards, Elias said, “The most valuable thing I learned on the trip was communication skills and how to keep a conversation flowing.” In all, it was a fantastic celebration of reading, which fit perfectly with the ‘read, read, read’ culture we work so hard on in school.

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