Week 44 (24-28 June 2024)

Welcome from the Co-Headteachers

Engaging and purposeful activities to drive students towards their next steps

It has been an immensely busy and successful week with an array of high-quality enrichment activities (see below) as well as an intense build-up towards our annual and highly prestigious Track and Field Championships. Against a backdrop of hard work and lots of practice, all athletic performances at this annual sporting event are memorable in some way. For some, these often embrace moments of significant training and kick-start new sporting, elite pathways. For the majority, the event helps build individual confidence and strengthens their role within the form group and House team; overall, teamwork wins. The ambience and camaraderie at the event is just incredible – there are a host of unforgettable moments for any student who fully embraces the values and philosophy of this memorable, emotionally-charged event. 

Despite the warm weather, lessons throughout the week have been engaging and purposeful as we drive to prepare students for their next steps: internal assessments, Work Experience, Wider Learning Week, or summer programmes. House assemblies have, again, been reinforcing issues linked to personal safety over the forthcoming six-week summer holiday – online safety, sun safety, safe cycling, open water safety, healthy hydration, and open-fire BBQ safety. 

If you have a comment, positive or negative, about this newsletter, please do leave it at this link. We are already thinking about ways we can make it even better in 2024-25.

Simon Fisher and Jo Higginbottom

“Together We Learn, Achieve and Succeed”

One of our school mantras

Cinderella stories refer to when an underdog who has usually experienced a period of personal hardship of some kind goes on to experience success; they often win through because of extraordinary skills or individual and team effort. Cinderella stories make our Track and Field Championships great. Fairytale endings at our school athletics championship are common. Indeed, they stand out because form groups and House teams pull together to demonstrate how the total is always greater than the sum of the parts. Which House team will defy the odds this year? Which individual student exploits will be forever cemented in their House tales? Check out our piece in the ‘News’ section.

Coming Soon!

Some more dates for your calendar

The full calendar is available at this link.

Attendance

A reminder of the ways in which you can let us know about student absence

It is important to remember that school absence, due to illness or other reasons, must be reported to the school on the first day of absence. The preferred ways to report absence are:

• via Insight – Parent Portal (can be accessed via the link at the top of this website)
• via Parentapps Connect (available from App Store or Google Play)
• an email to attendance@isleworthsyon.org
• a phone call to the Attendance & Welfare Office (020 8568 5791 and option 2 for attendance). 

Calls or emails should include:

• The name and form of the student.
• The reason for absence.
• The expected length of the absence. 

The Attendance & Welfare Office are available to discuss any issues affecting attendance and punctuality.

Summer Arts Festival

On Election Day (4 July), our performing arts pinnacle!

There is less than a week to go until our Summer Arts Festival, a performing arts extravaganza featuring over 150 students. Details on the plan for the evening, as well as how to get your tickets, can be found on the poster below. Don’t miss this outstanding event – tickets are still on sale for less than the price of a coffee! Click the image to get yours.

Please note as well that the UK General Election is scheduled for this same date – voting closes across the country at 10.00pm, and we expect the Summer Arts Festival to end at about 8.30pm.

Spanish Poetry Recitals

Students practising their language skills!

A couple of weeks ago, we talked about three students who took part in the MFL Poetry Live event at St Mary’s University, Twickenham. We are delighted that Dan, Kabeer and Oussama have all agreed that we can share their recitals in this newsletter. See below for some truly outstanding bilingual performances!

Safeguarding and Personal Development

The chance for students to reflect on their learning experiences

Following the success of the Edurio parent/carer survey, this week students are being spoken to and sent the link for their own student survey. This surveys will provide direct feedback from students about their learning environment, helping the leadership team understand what works well and what needs further improvement. By sharing their perspectives, students contribute to shaping a more effective and engaging school experience for all.  

We hope that this student survey will encourage your son/ward to reflect on their learning experiences, fostering self-awareness and critical thinking. This reflective process helps students develop important skills, such as self-advocacy and communication, which are crucial for their personal and academic growth. 

As a parent/carer, we are grateful for you supporting and encouraging your child to participate in student surveys is crucial online at home. Each of the students have been sent a personalised link and will be able to complete the survey online in about 20 minutes.  

Next week, adults will chose their next government; we hope that completing this survey will remind students that they have a voice and it matters! We thank you for your support in this process.  

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.

Pride of House

A new set of award winners

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!

House Point Champions

Celebrating student success

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

_{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.} 

News

Borough music champions – plus an athletics championship and a visit to the home of British democracy

Battles of the Bands Win

On Wednesday, we sent our Big Band to compete in the Hounslow Battle of the Bands down at the University of West London.

The band, led by Mr Wilson, featured students from Year 7 all the way to Year 12! Our boys took the roof off with their barnstorming performance; we were delighted that they won the whole competiton!

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.

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Track & Field Championships

We all had a superb day today across the road at the Osterley track as we held our annual Track & Field Championships. All students in Years 7-10 took part, earning points for their house through a complete programme of track and field events over four hours. The boys battled hard and showed great resilience throughout this event, despite the heavy sunshine!

It was lovely to see the camaraderie between students within their houses, as well as the fantastic participation levels. The overall winners were Turner, beating out Adam by 45 points! Special mention must be given to Shylen Thaw (9Ad, pictured first above) who broke two school records – in the high jump and the 150m. Absolutely superb! Well done to everyone for a brilliant morning of athletics which proves the school’s outstanding sporting pedigree.

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Poetry Slam Competition

A few weeks ago, we wrote about Year 7 students taking part in a borough-wide Poetry Slam activity, which began within in-school workshops and culminated, yesterday, with the competition at St. Mark’s School.

This event was led by poet Adam Kammerling and saw six local schools taking part. Students were taught about the fundamentals of poetry and then worked in groups to produce their own! It was a fantastic way for students to develop their creative writing skills as well as hone their public speaking talents.

Our Year 7s split into two groups to take part – and the competition was fierce. Therefore, we were delighted with a third place finish, showing great creativity and skill!

Jeremy Lemmon Drama Project

We do everything we can to support our students’ passions within the arts. During June, our Year 12 drama and theatre studies cohort took part in the Jeremy Lemmon Project.

This programme – organised by Shakespeare’s Globe in conjunction with the Harrow School – support creative partnerships and access to higher education in schools. Four of our students auditioned against 45 other students from across London. We were thrilled to learn that Stevan Nenezic and Gursharan Singh (pictured third and fourth left above) were successful and therefore selected to take part in three day-long workshops this autumn. The project will culminate in a special event in October where both students will have the unique opportunity to perform on the Globe stage! Well done, boys.

Primary Visit – Green Dragon

After the visit of Smallberry Green primary two weeks ago, the design technology team were delighted to host Green Dragon primary during the last two Wednesdays. This time, it was Year 5 boys and girls who came into school for a great session with staff. Students learned about the basics of soldering before building their very own mechanical toy car! They were ably assisted once again by Year 12 engineering students – who were brilliant at passing on their own expertise. It was a lovely series of sessions which give the primary pupils a sense of secondary life.

Students Visit House of Lords

And finally for this week – five Year 12 students with a keen interest in democracy were lucky enough to attend a very special political event on Wednesday, run by educational charity TeamGlobal.

During the course of a busy day, students enjoyed:

• A visit to the TUC headquarters
• A tour of the Supreme Court
• Tea in the House of Lords followed by a talk from Lord Tope
• A visit to the House of Commons (pictured above)

It was a fantastic day, with these politically-engaged students enjoying the chance to see behind the scenes of these important British institutions. Afterwards, one said, “The highlight of the trip for me was being able to visit and sit in on an actual Supreme Court Case! As an aspiring lawyer, this was an unforgettable experience into how the law is practiced at the highest level!”