Chestnut NewsDate: 18 Sept 2015 Issue No: 21

MESSAGE FROM THE HEADTEACHER

Dear Parents/Carers A warm welcome to the second edition of the newsletter for this academic year. We have had an incredibly successful start to the term and the students have settled in well to their new timetables and are working hard in their lessons. Yesterday morning we were delighted to welcome nearly 300 parents to our first open morning event. The parents were, without exception, incredibly complementary about the atmosphere in the school and the learning that was taking place in the lessons they visited. I would like to thank all of the staff and students for making our prospective parents feel so welcome. On Tuesday morning we unveiled a new piece of artwork in the reception area of the school. The installation, which is a ceramic representation of a poppy, was designed by students during project week last year and commemorates the centenary of World War One. The art work will be moved into the new building once it is complete. On the topic of the new building, I would like to thank all of the parents who attended the public consultation during the first week of term. If you were unable to attend, the plans are available on the Wandworth planning department website. We will keep you updated with how the building programme is progressing and will let you know the outcome of the planning application process in due course. If everything goes to plan we are expecting the developers on site at the beginning of February

Mr C KingsleyHeadteacher

FUTURE EVENTS

2nd October – Professional DayStudents do not attend the Academy on that day.

6th October- Y10 Working Together Evening 6pm

6th October -Y10/11 High Attainers Evening 5.30pmLetters will be sent out later in the week.

PARENT/CARER OF YEAR 8 FEMALE STUDENTS.

Consent forms for the Y8 HPV immunisation have been posted out and we require all forms to be completed and returned to the school office by Monday 21st September.

Students will be receiving their jab on the morning of Wednesday 23rd September.

FOOTBALL BEYOND BORDERS

After training for 5 months, a group of Year 11 boys travelled to Germany over the summer. They were accompanied by Football Beyond Borders, a charity that works to help young people realise their potential by using the motivation of football. All the boys that attended the trip had shown high levels of behaviour and attitude both on and off the pitch. They were paired up from boys from a similar age group in Germany and spent their time there staying with the boys’ families.

The boys took part in a number of activities during the tour that went beyond just football. They took part in an anti-racism workshop and had some intelligent discussions on the topic of racism in sport and how it can be tackled. This ranged from whether it is right for a player facing racism to walk off the pitch to join responsibility of the fans, media and footballing authorities to deal with the problem. They were also treated to a training session in the famous SC Freiburg Youth Academy before attending a home match for the senior team. SC Freiburg won 4-1!

PARENT/CARER OF YEAR 8 FEMALE STUDENTS.

On the last day the Unity Cup took place with places from 6 different clubs and schools represented. One of the teams was called ‘Kick for Girls’ from the Bissierstrasse Refugee Camp in Freiburg. This was a great opportunity for the team to meet people with a very different life experience from them and bond over a shared interest of football.

Overall the tour was a huge success with all the members of the team putting themselves outside of their comfort zone by dealing with issues bigger than football. I feel they have return much more mature young men. Mr Malik

GCSE HIGH ACHIEVERS AT THE TOWN HALL

Congratulations to Ephraim, Oscar, Jacques, Chloe, Izzy, Nadia, Orla, Margie, Mara and Sam who were invited to attend the Wandsworth High Achievers event at the Town Hall to celebrate their fantastic GCSE achievements in the summer. Between them they achieved 48 A* grades, 40 A grades and 13 B grades. All of the students are now back at Chestnut Grove Sixth Form studying for their A levels.

WELCOME TO YEAR 7

It has been a pleasure to welcome a new Year 7 cohort to Chestnut Grove Academy! The students have settled in well to our school community; they are prepared for their learning and have lots of enthusiasm to learn. As you can see, they are a smart bunch and we look forward to all of them excelling here at the Academy.

The first inter-house competition of the year was the traditional Tug of War. Each tutor group applied excellent team work skills and had fun! Congratulations to Hepworth who won for the first time in their house history!

CHESTNUT21

Thank you very much to everyone who has donated to the Chestnut21 drive through parent pay – this is providing us with some much-needed funds to replace equipment that is failing or dated – and we hope to start replacing this as soon as possible. Please do not forget that if you pay income tax, we can also claim gift aid – the form (which you only fill in once) is available on our

webpage http://www.chestnutgrove.wandsworth.sch.uk/Chestnut-21

Our collection of old and foreign coins is beginning to build up and we urge you all to take part in searching for anything left from holidays, asking friends and family and also you could ask in local shops. These small amounts of coins or notes are worthless individually, but if we can all collect some, together we can make a significant impact on the funds that we raise. Please make sure that the coins are handed in to the head of house, or labelled carefully so that the correct house can be credited with them!

Thanks for all of your supportSharon

AFTER-SCHOOL ENRICHMENT

Our after-school enrichment programme is now up and running. All clubs available are detailed below

Students MUST wear their full P.E Kit if they want to take part in a sporting or dance activity.

CERN TRIP TO SWITZERLAND!

15TH DECEMBER - 18TH DECEMBER

Open to all students taking any Science at the Sixth Form - BTEC, AS or A2

Ask the Science department for a form - required back with deposit by 5th September.

See the workings of a particle accelerator!

Visit the splendour of Switzerland during Christmas period!

DRAMA PRODUCTION 2015 - PYGMALION

BLAKE

It’s been fantastic to see Blake students looking so smart in full uniform since the start of the term – I think Blake could win best-dressed house!! Thanks to all parents and tutors for helping to ensure students put their best foot forward each day. It is also vital that students are equipped for learning every day and have their ‘5 a day’ with them at all times. Next week I will be checking and awarding vivos to all of the students in Blake who have all pieces of their important equipment.

Blake House is also continuing its popular breakfast reward for the tutor group that has the highest attendance each half term. Students will need to work together to keep their classes attendance up for this. Currently in the lead are year 9 Blake (who have never won this reward as yet) so fingers crossed they can win this term.

HOUSE NEWS

Latest attendance figures below: Year 7 -97.04 % Year 8 -95.50 % Year 9 -97.43 % Year 10 -94.39 % Year 11 -96.15 %

HEPWORTH

Welcome to the new Year 7 students who have settled in very well! A very big well done for your amazing team work in the Tug of War on the first day and for securing Hepworth’s first ever win! Another big well done to Ryan Carpio Gonzalez who received the first Vivos of the academic year for being able to name what each letter of our motto PROUD stands for!

There have been lots of positive comments from teachers about how well they are working in lessons and it is great to see them all looking smart in their new uniforms – keep up the great work!