Swakeleys

News

Both Y7 and Y8 win Hillingdon Sportshall Athletics

Record applications for 6th Form@Swakeleys

Boris Johnson visits our school!

From the Headteacher’s Desk

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1360

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NOTICE

Sutton Court entrance is

closed due to

contractors working on

site

A grand total of £628.19

was raised for RNIB by

holding a non-uniform

Christmas Jumper Day on

the last day of term, as

well as a staff raffle.

201620162016

We were delighted once again to host a visit from Sir Ciaran Devane who is the Chief

Executive of the British Council. He was here to present us with our full international

school award and to celebrate the work that we are doing with so many different countries.

He was accompanied by the Mayor of London, MP Boris Johnson. Guests were able to

discuss our work with students, hear from our Head Girl and Head Boy and be entertained

by Harnit Chatra who played the harmonium and Arsu Makkar who performed a superb In-

dian dance. They then went on a tour of the school and caused much excitement by going in

to the packed canteen at lunch time!

Our teams of Year 7 and Year 8 girls were both winners of the Hillingdon Sportshall

Athletics beating both state school and private school competition. This really is a fantastic

achievement and shows that serious training really does pay off. They were highly

professional and were superb ambassadors for the school. Now they go on to compete

against other London Boroughs in the next stage of the competition.

As half term approaches, a reminder that many Year 11 girls will be coming into school for

extra support and intervention in preparation for their GCSE exams. If you are a Year 11

parent, please do make sure that your daughter attends if she has been invited.

Finally from me, please can I ask you once again, not to drive on to the school

site at the start or end of the school day unless you have been given permission

by me.

Many thanks,

Sue Pryor, Headteacher

This year 74 students in Year 13 have applied to university to start in September 2016. Others are taking a gap year

before applying and the remaining students are taking up apprenticeships or employment on leaving this summer.

To date students in Year 13 have over 240 offers and 86 of these are from ‘Leading Universities’ with 48 from

Russell Group institutions. These include offers to study medicine, pharmacy, engineering, teaching, finance,

languages and law. 50% of students have now had all of their replies and 30% have all 5 offers knowing exactly

what they have to achieve to secure a place at their chosen university. This proves that early application is a key to

success as the process only closed on 15th January.

Students in Year 12 have now started to consider their options on leaving in 2017 and have already applied for

London University taster courses and residential visits to Oxford and Cambridge. Applicants for apprenticeships

will also be guided through the process with the help of our on-site careers adviser. Students have also been

successful with two year mentoring schemes set up by Kings College London and University College London to

support them in their A level courses and to gain a greater understanding of university life.

Nawal Yousaf and Morisha Kalyan are on the Target Medicine course at UCL and they write as follows:-

‘We have the rare opportunity to take part in Target Medicine at the prestigious University College London. This

is a mentoring scheme which will provide us with support and guidance in applying for medicine by our mentors

who are themselves medical students. They will give support in writing personal statements, admissions test and

interview preparation. So far we have had two sessions and they have been very informative and have enhanced

our debating skills through discussions of current health topics. We look forward to completing this exciting

scheme and hope it will have a successful outcome.’

Applications to our Sixth Form from Year 11 students stands at a record high with 144 students applying. We also

have 141 applications from external students and the interview process is well underway.

Mr Hull Assistant Headteacher Head of 6th form@swakeleys

Attendance

As a school we have attendance above 95% and we are proud of

this fact. All pupils must aim to attend school unless they are very

unwell. Attendance in Years 10 and 11 does require some

improvement. Please be aware that appointments should not be

made during the school day and that holidays in term time will not

be authorised. If you need to make a request for exceptional leave

please address your request to the attendance office. Please note

that the circumstances would need us to consider this an

exceptional request. Requests must be made in good time.

Year Group

% Attendance

7 96.4 Excellent

8 96.5 Excellent

9 95.3 Good and improving

10 93.4 Needs to improve

11 94.4 Needs to improve

Swakeleys library will be holding a Book Fair on Monday 7th March — Friday 11th March. Your daughter will be able to visit the fair during lunch time that week and on Tuesday (8th) between 2.30 – 4.00 pm. There will be over 200 titles available covering a variety of genres including fantasy, thrillers, comedy and science fiction as well as non-fiction books. Prices start from only £2.99, so there’s sure to be a book for everyone to enjoy. If you would like to browse some of the highlights before the Book Fair go to the Scholastic website www.bookfairs.scholastic.co.uk/parents). Students using their World Book Day voucher will also receive a £1 discount.

Coats

School coats must be navy or black

without large logos. Green coats are

not allowed. Students must collect

coats at the very start of break and l

lunch when they have access to the

building and must not carry them

throughout the school day. They must

be kept in lockers.

Nail Varnish

Please ensure that all students are not

wearing nail varnish or fake nails when

they come into school. Too many pupils

are having to remove nail varnish on

arrival.

PASTORAL MATTERS

On 10th December,

Year 12 and 13

students were lucky

enough to be visited

by Dr Arpan Tahim, a maxillofacial trainee

surgeon who has studied both Medicine

and Dentistry. He gave us an insight into

the many perks and challenges of being a

doctor, and where the passion and

resilience to succeed in his field stems

from. Along with providing us with useful

advice on how to prepare ourselves for

the hardship that accompany the journey

of becoming a doctor, he emphasised how

rewarding and venerated a career in

Medicine and Dentistry can be. Dr Tahim

gave us helpful tips on how to approach

our personal statements and what we

could do to be a suitable and outstanding

medical candidate. This session really

helped us to reaffirm and establish

whether we are whole-heartedly

committed to pursuing a career in

medicine and allowed us to familiarise

ourselves with the process of becoming a

doctor.

To anyone who isn’t a part of a society,

we strongly advise you to join one , as it

will prove to be extremely beneficial and

helpful when applying to universities or

considering future career option. We

would like to thank the leaders of the

Medical Society and Mr Hull for arranging

this undeniably valuable session for us.

By Priyanka Trivedi and Hosna Sherzai

HAP NEWS!

On Tuesday 2nd February The Brilliant Club students went to Peterhouse, Cambridge University, for our graduation ceremony. As part of the programme we took part in a Scholars Programme of tutorial sessions with leading PHD tutors on the following topics: Euthanasia, Animal Testing, Terrorism, Consequentialism and Deontology. To complete the Scholars Programme we had to write a 2000 word essay. We were given a tour of the beautiful University and then had a celebratory lunch before being presented with our graduation certificates.

South Hillingdon School Sport Network Congratulations to Emily Smith 8JA who helped at the Key Step Gymnastics Competition. Emily was in charge of judging one of the Body Management Stations. Over 80 primary school pupils took part in the competition. Without her help the it wouldn’t have been possible for so many pupils to take part. She was a credit to Swakeleys School. Well done Emily!

GERMAN BFI TRIP

On Tuesday 19th January 40 year

8,9 and 10 students had the

opportunity to take part in the event

‘Deutscher Film fur Teenager’ at

the British Film Institute on the

South Bank in London. Students

from many schools participated in this exciting event.

Activities included watching some trailers and short films

in the morning followed by discussion and activities.

In the afternoon we watched the movie ‘Wintertochter’

(Winter’s Daughter). We really enjoyed this event and

hope to get the opportunity to go again next year and

would encourage other students to go if they get the

chance. We would like to thank Ms Brewer for organising

the trip as well as Mr Hepner, Mrs Violet and the German

assistant, Hannah, who helped make the trip a success.

Amina Raza and Elissa-May Masterman (8AF)

Yasmine Hassane, Munira Mannan, Lulia Teame, Karthikayini Sivakumar, Aisha Akhtar, Rosini Nandakumarran, Simran Gill, Srujani Vankadari, Shnavi Mathanaraj, Angela Kwamba, Khadeja Raza, Farewar Ahmadi.

Take Over Day

In the Summer I applied

through my Police

Cadets to take part in

the Commissioners Take

Over Day challenge. I

shadowed the Mayor of

Hillingdon George Cooper, for a day. I was

introduced to those who work in the Mayors

Parlour, the Mayor and his wife: The Mayor went

through the history of the clothes that her wears

and showed me the rule book that all Mayors have

to abide by. I travelled with Mayor and Mayoress

to the Sainsbury’s Local on the Ruislip High Street

where he declared the shop officially open and had

a tour round. I then stayed at the Civic Centre

and helped the staff in the Mayor’s Parlour by

doing filling; sticking labels on the 500 Christmas

cards the Mayor sends out, sorted out folders and

labelled up new folders for next year and sorted

out the Mayor’s date folder with all the events he

has to attend.

The Mayor then attended an Assisted Shopping

event at the Middlesex Suite in the Civic Centre, I

helped by directing people to their seating. I had

my picture taken with the Mayor and a half an

hour question and answer session with the Mayor.

Finally, I went with the Mayor and his wife to the

Presentation of Silver Awards at RAF Northolt,

where I watched the awards being received and

then met with members of the RAF and

companies associated with them.

Vickie Sullivan 12M

International Schools

Our link school in Patiala,

India, held a competition

producing some wonderful

designs and pictures for the

Festivals and some delicious

and nutritious dishes focusing

on the Health of Young Global

Citizens.

Monday 15th February - Friday 19th February 2016 Half Term

Wednesday 24th February 2016 AS/A2 Parents Consultation Evening 5-8pm

Thursday 10th March 2016 Year 7 Parents Consultation Evening 5-8pm

Rotary Speak Regional Finals.

What is time? This was the very intriguing topic chosen from our very talented year 10 public speakers. We are extremely proud of Chantelle Law, Alanis Cooper and Davinia Narayanasamy who were runners up in the Rotary Club Speaker Regional Final on Monday 1st February. Well done girls! Mr Hepner

Teacher of the Month

December

Mrs Brewer and

Ms Rouse

January

Ms Allan and Ms Huang

Support Staff of the

Month

December

Mrs Charman and

Mrs Acker

January

Ms Parker and

Mr Eaver