7th November 2011 - Issue 07

Chiswick Community School, Burlington Lane, London W4 3UN. Telephone 0208 747 0031

Also available online atwww.chiswick.hounslow.sch.uk

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C H I S W I C K C O M M U N I T Y S C H O O L

Diar y Dates

Continued inside...

Sports SectionNOVEMBER

Mon 7th - Thu 17thGCSE Exams

Tues 8thYear 8 HPV Injections 2

Wed 9thSixth Form Open Evening

Tue 15thPTA non bids meeting

Year 11 theatre trip (evening)

Wed 16thEnrichment day

Thu 17thYear 11 Parents' Evening 4.30 - 6.30pm

Year 7 Opening Minds Course Wins National Gong

U14 Middlesex Cup

Friends of Chiswick“Be a Friend... www.chiswickschoolfriends.org”

Chiswick School has this week excelled itself through the Year 7 Opening Minds course, which is a Humanities based programme only recently offered at the school for Year 7’s. Led by Ms. Black-man it has just received a national ac-creditation from the Royal Society of Arts for innovative practice.

The course is designed to do exactly as it says, open minds, through the use of group and individual projects around the topics of History, Geography, Reli-gious Studies, ICT and PSHCE.

Louie Thomas in 7 Blenheim is one of the highest achievers in Opening Minds and told me, 'I enjoy Opening Minds be-cause there’s something different each week'.

Every week the students are organised into groups where they have to work on

different projects. Each project is tar-geted towards a specific aspect of the course—for example, the most recent project, researching different explor-ers like Christopher Columbus, aimed to help the students with the Geography component of the course.

Before that the class had to create their own Newspapers and stories to connect with PSHCE and History. Louie said he finds the projects a 'useful way to build skills as everybody has to contribute to researching, planning and comparing with other groups.'

The U14 girls have made a fantastic start to their Middlesex Cup campaign. A squad of 14 players made their way to Harefield Academy for what was to prove to be a very successful journey. The squad was made up of a mix of Year 8 and 9 stu-dents and was ably led by captain Katie Davies.

Chiswick got off to a fantastic start with an ear-ly goal from Lucy Davies, created by a lovely through ball from Debbie Ojo, to place her one on one with the goal keeper. Harefield fought back before the end of the half to score, giving them a boost of confidence.

The second half got off to a great start with a goal from Shannon Read set up by Hana Ali. From then on in the Chiswick girls were unstop-pable, putting three more goals through the posts ensuring a phenomenal final score of 5-1.

The girls worked extremely well and demon-strated true team spirit from defence to attack. Player of the match was awarded to Lucy Davies for her enduring efforts on the pitch. Well done Girls!

Goal Scorers:Lucy Davies 2 goalsShannon Read hat-trick!

A Taste Of Sixth Form

On Friday last week, the Year 11’s embarked on an eventful taster day, in which they were able to take on the role of a Year 12 student and experience what it would be like to attend Chis-wick Sixth Form. A level lessons and the ability to use the Sixth Form facili-ties helped many students make the de-cision as to whether they will continue their educational journey at Chiswick after Year 11.

The day started with an assembly at which the students were briefed about the various options offered to them at Sixth Form and the positives that stud-ying here has, both academically and socially. Students were then dismissed and sent off to their first ever taste of an A level structured lesson, which they were able to chose prior to the day. Within the lesson time many of the Year 11’s were able to gain an insight into what they wished to study at A-level and also had a sneak preview into the excellent teaching that happens across the board in sixth form. Ella McCallum was very fond of the taster day and said that ‘the day was really good and the lessons were all very insightful.’ What is more, Mr. Bapuji received excellent feedback from her Year 11 students who said that the ‘quality of teaching had been outstanding.’

For example, numerous Year 11’s were very impressed by lessons in both Phi-

losophy and Politics. Debates on ‘tui-tion fees’ and the recent ‘London riots’ in the politics session were said to be very ‘stimulating’ and ‘interesting’. Mr. Cosstick had this to say about the en-thused pupils, ‘it was nice to see them both engaged and enjoying the debate.’ Moreover, Mr. Birch also found that the students he had were ‘very mature’ and that it was ‘good to see them in a different light.’

Overall, the day was a great success and will hopefully continue for the next upcoming potential Sixth Form students. We hope that the day not only showed what the highest academically achieving Sixth Form in the borough has to offer, but also helped the Year 11’s make some tough decisions in re-gards to their next steps in education.

By ABigAil le Fevre

By rAchAel SAnderS

The Year 7 Course is a successful step-ping stone between Year 6 and Year 7 and delays students jumping straight into separate Humanities subjects. Opening Minds allows students to learn through fun discussion and pres-entation and eases them into the work ethic of the Secondary School years to come.

The feeling of a balance between fun and hard work is 'agreed on by all the students in the class', says Louie, who says his reason for being so enthusias-tic about the course is that 'it means you don’t have to move around as much. You can focus on lots of subjects and improve on the ones you’re not as good at, so you’re never struggling.'

It is no surprise then that the course has become a special feature of what Chis-wick has to offer and has received both attention and credit from the RSA.

Opening Minds continued...

Lesson In Opening Minds

During November each year it is customary to see an increasing number of moustaches about. However the amplified amount of facial hair is not a fashion statement, it is in fact a worldwide campaign to raise aware-ness and funds for the often ignored topic of male prostate cancer.

The men who participate in the campaign which is known as ‘Movember’, are in ef-fect a walking advertisement for the char-ity and their moustaches spark private and public conversation around the issue of

The Month Of Movember

men’s health wherever they go, a perfect way of raising awareness.

At Chiswick Community School, there are a number of male teachers who are involved in ‘Movember’ including Mr Whiting, Mr Cullum and Mr Sadler to name a few and it is encouraging to see teachers in the school being so involved in the charity spirit.

'Women have their run for breast cancer,' says Mr Cullum when asked why he chose to get involved in ‘Movember’, 'So it’s nice that men have a campaign for them to be-come involved in so directly, plus it’s for a good cause'. However the campaign is not only for men, women can also get involved, by registering to support men by raising funds and seeking sponsorship.

Obviously ‘Movember’ is a great way of raising awareness for male health and hope-fully more and more teachers will sprout their own moustaches for November, may-be even some students!

Mr Whiting

Mr Molloy Mr Patel

Mr Simpson

By roSie doddS