Chestnut NewsDate: 16 Dec 2016 Issue No: 45

MESSAGE FROM THE HEADTEACHER

Dear Parents and carers

As 2016 draws to a close I would like to thank you for all of your support over the past year. 2016 has been an eventful year for Chestnut Grove with the new building rising up around us. Next year will see us move into our new school building, marking a new beginning for Chestnut Grove Academy. Staff and students alike are looking forward to the move and the opportunities that it will bring. In the meantime, we are all very much focused on Christmas and I hope to see many of you on Monday night at the Christmas concert.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. I hope you all have a joyful and peaceful festive period and wish you all the best for 2017.

The last day of term is on Tuesday 20th December at 12.20pm and we will return on Tuesday 3rd January at 8.45am.

Christian KingsleyHeadteacher

ART DEPARTMENT

Year 11 visual art mock exam

Miss Kench would like to congratulate her Year 11 visual art group for the hard work and effort they put into their mock last week. They developed areas of their coursework within the time and are now ready to create their final piece before their exam unit starts in February. Here are some outcomes pupils created in response to the wonderful Grayson Perry and Frida Kahlo.

ART DEPARTMENT

Year 11 textiles students have been getting their craft on this week in their mock! Students have been learning how to knit and about the Yarn Bombing movement; putting their knits back into the urban environment. They’ve also been developing their weaving techniques and have been ‘weaving weird’, inspired by Maryanne Moodie and the indigenous women artisans of Guatemala! Well done textilers, you all progressed and achieved a lot in the 3 days and am very proud of your hard work, resilience and efforts.

Miss Kench

Please find Chestnut Grove’s own little artists in the activities hall before and during the interval at the Christmas Concert on Monday 19th December. They’ll be waiting eagerly to draw your portrait which you will be able to take away for a small donation towards ‘Chestnut21’ fund raising drive.

SMSC

This half term, students have focused on Black History and racial equality in tutor time, have considered why far-right extremism has risen in recent years and what the solutions might be to institutional racism. Included in this newsletter is the entry written by Suhail Mohamed-Pathusa, Student Head of Year 7.

Our Student Council has been meeting to discuss student ideas and concerns. Students voted for their year representatives in assemblies and nominees have been meeting every few weeks to discuss ideas, in meetings chaired by Ephraim Conteh and Chloe Burridge, our sixth form Heads of Year. Our Equality Society has also been meeting every Wednesday after school to discuss issues of equality locally and globally. This week students discussed positive discrimination and practised their debating skills.

Students who wish to become Equality Ambassadors or Subject Ambassadors should apply to Ms Taylor. Attached are two of the applications we received this year for the Equality Ambassador positions.

Ms J Taylor

FOOTBALL NEWS

Match report: U18 South London LeagueChestnut Grove Academy 1: Charter School 7

Chestnut Grove 6th form hosted the Charter School in the first league match of the season on Wednesday 30th November. The team had been training on the school’s artificial pitch since September and were eager to play a full 11-a-side match.Unfortunately we got off to a terrible start, conceding 4 goals in the opening 15 minutes. However, the team remained positive, unified and resilient and stemmed the tide of Charter attacks. At half time the score was 6-0.During half time a number of substitutions were made and the formation changed. The team performed far better and put together a number of attacks while keeping it tight in defence. Then after 10 minutes we had a breakthrough. Captain Filip Wojtowicz played a neat through ball and Teva McNally calmly slotted home from 20 yards – our first goal of the season.Next up for the Grove is a home fixture against Saint Francis Xavier Sixth Form College. The team is determined to improve!

J. HallsworthPE Department

CHESTNUT21

Thanks again to all of you for your support of Chestnut 21 and the Friends of Chestnut Grove in 2016. Through your support we have managed to achieve:• £39,000 from the Wolfson Foundation for DT equipment• £5,000 from the Garfield Weston Foundation for materials to refurbish the art pavilions• £12,000 of work done on the art pavilions for free• £300 of equipment through the Sainsbury’s voucher scheme• We have also just received a Kick Start grant of £300 for “Science Fest at Chestnut Grove” in British

Science Week 2017 and secured a free tickets for a ‘field trip’ to Tower Bridge next year!• We have received £8,000 for equipment for the Food Technology rooms in the new building enabling

us to provide food technology, catering and hospitality qualifications

We have also got through to second and third rounds of trusts for:• Equipment for the new food tech room• A new post to support the pastoral team at school• A grant to build a new MUGA pitchWe await news from all of these.

We have also submitted bids for an EAL support worker and we are also working on one for an artist in residence.

2017 promises to be exciting with the move into the new accommodation. I will be offering opportunities to ‘keep’ a bit of the old Chestnut Grove through a silent auction website. Also, there will be an opportunity to support the landscaping of the grounds through a ‘sponsor a brick’ programme. Further information will be available next year.

In the meantime we wish you a very peaceful festive season - and if you are shopping online, please don’t forget to support us at no cost to yourselves, by going through www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/chestnutgroveacademy

U13 CRICKET TRIP TO THE OVAL

The Year 8 cricket team visited the Oval on 13th December to represent the school at the Lady Taverner’s Cricket Competition. It was a great opportunity to play at such a famous cricket ground. Despite not having much time to train, the girls gave 100% effort ad displayed some very promising batting and fielding, well done to all.

Miss Keane

ARCHAEOLOGY CLUBFRIDAY LUNCH TIME OB2

In Archaeology Club we have been learning about the Neolithic period, when humans first began to farm and settle down. Students in Year 7 and 8 learnt about the famous Neolithic village of Skara Brae in Orkney. These pictures show the Neolithic villages that the students created using plastacine. If you look closely you can see some of the first houses and domesticated animals in Britain, alongside Neolithic monuments and religious ceremonial sites.

This term we have also explored the Aztecs, Roman Vindolanda, cave painting and archaeological skills. We welcome new comers to OB2 during Friday lunch time.

Ms Adams, Head of History

ARCHAEOLOGY CLUB ESSAY COMPETITION

Huge congratulations to Fatima Traore in 10 Kahlo whose essay was recently shortlisted by The Voice magazine. Fatima’s essay was written for Black History Month, and was based upon the artist Prince, who had inspired her. On Thursday 8th December, I had the pleasure of accompanying Fatima to the presentation ceremony at the Palace of Westminster. A diverse group of young people from across the country attended and it was a pleasure to see young people with the self belief and drive to empower themselves and others. We would like to congratulate Fatima for being shortlisted, and wish her the best of luck in the future. Paul James-LeckyLead Learning Mentor

Ms Robinson and Ms Shekar have been holding a new Debate Club this term. The number of students that have been attending has grown week by week, and there is always a strong Year 7 presence!

In Debate Club we have been debating a variety of topics whilst developing our speaking and debating skills. Last week we started the club with a ‘silent debate activity’, in which students had to debate without even talking! The students then began debating, with an appropriate motion of ‘Exams for under 14’s should be banned’ considering the recent KS3 assessment week. After some excellent debating, showcasing the skills they have learnt throughout the term, the students concluded debate club by most deciding they were against the motion - indicating that exams aren’t that bad after all...

Here are some pictures of the silent debate, and a piece of writing about Debate Club by one of our regular attendees!

“Debate club is so much fun! It’s a club that allows you to argue (politely!) Debating is a great skill to have as it is all about controlling yourself and having a flexible opinion. You may not agree with something but might have to go with it and argue for it anyway. It’s so much fun and the teachers are great! I would recommend it to anyone!” Tenley, 7 Kahlo.

If you would like to join us we are in room 14 (Ms Robinson’s geography room) every Thursday from 3:15pm - 4:00pm

Merry Christmas!

DEBATING CLUB

FRIENDS OF CHESTNUT GROVE

Our 2nd Community Carol Concert held on the 1st December raised £2,770 which will go towards our funds for new equipment for the new school building.A big thank you to all parents who donated mulled wine, mince pies and biscuits.

Christmas Raffle

Raffle tickets have now gone out to all students - if you would like to buy raffle tickets, please make sure the stubs and money are returned in the brown envelope to the school office no later than Thursday 15th December. If you haven’t received them, please contact the school office as they have spare books. The draw will take place at the Winter Concert, Monday 19th December and the winners will be notified by phone on the 20th. Good Luck!

The Fab 50 Club - the first draw will be taking place at the end of January 2017. If you would like to join to win cash prizes, please email thomasp4@sky.com

Dates for your diary

Tuesday 10th January 2017, 6.30pm: Friends of Chestnut Grove meeting to be held in the Sixth Form Study. Please come along to put forward your suggestions for future events.

Thursday 16th March 2017: Quiz Night to be held at the school - more details to follow in the new year.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

General emails to friendsofchestnutgrove@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter (@FriendsofCGA) or join us on our Facebook page Friends of Chestnut Grove.

THE MATHEMATICAL CHRISTMAS TREE

How beautiful is the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree? Not as beautiful as Y9 fractal Christmas tree. It all started when they were in Y7; while studying area and perimeter of triangles we constructed Sierspinski Gasket and investigated the area and perimeter (see below).

This project captured the students’ imagination. So, as a reward for their hard work and commitment to mathematics we spent a week building our tree. The students were given the resources and were allowed to self manage the project. We soon had leaders, planners, strategic thinkers and a secure work force feverishly constructing small tetrahedrea which soon grew big enough to attract the attention of others.

FRIENDS OF CHESTNUT GROVE

The Sixth form were so impressed they decided to try and out do us – they wanted to build a bigger tree. The show down is on Monday the 19th December.

If this excites your imagination, please enjoy this video. www.youtube.com/watch?v=s65DSz78jW4

YEAR 7

The past two weeks have been fantastic, and the students continue to impress me and their love of learning and dedication to their first set of KS3 assessments. As a year group, they have collectively completed over 1200 assessments this term, which is a huge feat of resilience and determination from the students.

Students have worked extremely hard and their behaviour around school has improved greatly. As a result for all their hard work we are having a Christmas lunch. This is a mom religious turkey treat for all students. They will be meeting their friends in the dining hall after lunch for a whole year celebration of their first term at Chestnut Grove, celebrating their achievements with friends and tutors.

I would like to take this time to thank you for all the support you have given the school, whether this be supporting the Friends of Chestnut Grove, attending school events, communicating with school regarding your child’s learning or supporting them to complete their homework. I hope that you all have a great holiday and students have a truly well deserved rest.

Mr StokesRaising Standards Leader Year 7

YEAR 8

Year 8 enjoyed their rewards dinner last week which was for the vast majority of students who have displayed excellent behaviour of the course of the year so far. All tutors were able to enjoy the company of their tutor groups and share the pizza too! It must have been good; there was nothing left on the tables!

Well done Year 8 for an excellent year so far!

Mr McCarthyRaising Standards Leader Year 8

YEAR TEAMS

YEAR 9

Congratulations to all the Year 9 students for a very successful term of work. They have all worked extremely hard and I am very PROUD of them.

Over the past week, students have had the opportunity to look at their options for GCSE and all of the students have taken this very seriously indeed, showing great maturity and thought. The forms that the students saw were purely rough drafts enabling them to make comments and show us (the Academy) where there may be problems regarding clashes of subjects. By no means are these their final choices!! After the holiday, all the Heads of Department will speak to the students and explain to them the course requirements for each of the GCSE’s/BTECs on offer. You and your child will then have the opportunity to look through the options form and speak to you child’s teachers at Options Evening on Wednesday 8th March. Following on from that, all the students will have a one to one meeting with Ms Davies, one of our Deputy Headteachers.

I wish all of you a very happy and peaceful holiday and look forward to seeing all the you in the New Year.

Ms K StriesowRaising Standards Leader Year 9

YEAR 10

Well done Year 10 on demonstrating PROUD throughout the autumn term of 2016. A very pleasing number of you have made the transition from KS3 to KS4 look seamless. Early in the New Year I will be collating and analysing data on attendance, punctuality, behaviour and progress and achievement I will be sharing with students and parents through the newsletter, meetings and phone calls.

It was pleasing to see many parents attend the Year 10 parents evening last Wednesday – an excellent opportunity to build lines of communication. Staff commented on how engaged parents and students were in discussions of progress and achievement with a desire to aim high! It was lovely to see so many parents that I have got to know over the years, and to meet new parents.

I wish everyone a happy safe holiday and for those that celebrate Christmas – season’s greetings!

Ms Fletcher Raising Standards Leader Year 10

YEAR 11

Currently Year 11 students are taking their mock exams - they will be the last students to ever take exams in the hall before our move to the new build in Easter. Their behaviour in the exams has been exemplary - well done to everyone! I hope you all have a well deserved Christmas break and I look forward to seeing you all in January!

Mr WildmanRaising Standards Leader Year 11