Please enjoy this end-of-term message from our Headteacher, Mr Dickson.
To sign up for the parent working groups mentioned in the video, please check your Reach More Parents (Weduc) messages to access the form.
INSET DAY
Our next INSET day will be Thursday 4th January 2024, students will return on Friday 5th January after the Christmas holidays.
STUDENT REPORTS
Reports for Primary and Secondary students will be issued by 12th January in the new year. This is excepting Year 11 reports which will be issued before the end of term.
UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS – REMINDER (YEAR 13)
A reminder of the following deadlines for y13 university applications.
- 9 a.m. Monday 8th January – 13A,B
- 9 a.m. Tuesday 9th January 13C, D
- 9 a.m. Wednesday 10th January 13 E,F
Students should look to the Y13 Classroom for instructions on guidance on how best to complete their UCAS form.
ART & DESIGN DEPARTMENT SPOOF POSTER CHALLENGE (YEAR 5 – YEAR 9)
Every year, the ADT department set a Christmas challenge for students in years 5-9 (although open to others, if keen) to design a spoof poster parodying a popular film, theatre production, book cover, computer game, etc from the media. Please refer to the images for more details and the examples from previous years: https://bit.ly/33qoZSl
All work finished to your highest standard will be exhibited in our gallery of A3 frames. Please complete on A4 or A3 paper and hand in to your art and design teacher when back after the holidays. Have fun with your puns!
EXAM INVIGILATORS REQUIRED
We are seeking to appoint Exam Invigilators to join our examinations team! Take a look at the advert on our Careers page to see if the role is right for you. The purpose of the role will be to supervise examinations as necessary throughout the school year. Full training will be given. Please complete an online application if you would like to apply!
CALL FOR INTERVIEW SUBJECTS!
Year 12 C21 Project students will be undertaking research, in January, for a Verbatim Production.
They want to dig deep into what education is and the impact it has, or has had, on us and they want to know the truth; the good, the bad and the ugly.
They want to understand the specific relevance of School 21 on its community stakeholders, from the classroom to the kitchen, from the building to the board.
In order to achieve this, they will be conducting short confidential interviews and using the anonymised content to construct a script collaboratively.
Please, if you would be willing to share some of your time, something of your story and some of your thoughts, add your name to the linked form.
LEARNING AT SCHOOL 21:
Primary Music
It has been a really exciting term for music in the primary school. We have invested in a set of ukuleles and a great selection of percussion instruments and have been exploring different sounds and learning to play with good technique.
We are really proud of all of of the children's achievements for the Festival of Light concerts. Everyone worked hard to learn all of the music and performed brilliantly – with so much energy! We will be starting regular music assemblies for children in Years 1-4 after the Christmas break and look forward to more vocal and instrumental fun.
Year 1
What a big day we had on Wednesday! From completing a mapping challenge in the forest school with year 4, to travelling to different countries, to our geography bee (special congratulations to Amiyah and Hudson!), to drawing London landmarks with our parents and carers – what a fun around the world day we had!
Year 4
Year 4 have enjoyed our Geography Bee day, where we have had the chance to learn about different countries, share our project work and we explored the forest school to find letters to create a country.
Year 5
The past couple of weeks year 5 students have been working extremely hard on creating poem based on "IF" by Rudyard Kipling. They have thought carefully about our question "What is our impact on the world around us?" and woven this into their poem, as well as considering rhyme, comparative language and alliteration. This has resulted in work which blew us all away with their honesty and passion. This is the creative work by Inara, who really captured our imagination with some of her exquisite lines.
Year 6
Over the past few weeks, our Year 6 students have been engaged in a unique and enlightening project centered around the rich tapestry of ethnic backgrounds that make up our vibrant community here in Newham. To gain a deeper understanding, the students conducted surveys to collect information about the various ethnicities represented among our citizens.
Armed with this valuable research, our budding artists and designers set out to create something special that not only reflects the diverse cultural heritage of Newham but also serves as a tangible expression of unity. We are thrilled to announce the culmination of their hard work— the creation of bespoke tote bags inspired by the most common ethnicities identified in their survey.
Each tote bag is a masterpiece, carefully designed with patterns drawn from the cultural fabric of the identified ethnicities. The students poured their hearts into capturing the essence of the diverse traditions, colors, and symbols that represent our community. These tote bags are more than just accessories; they are a celebration of our shared heritage and a testament to the strength found in our differences.
A big shine and recognition goes to Alessia, Alesia, Noor, Orla and Sophia who worked diligently to help their peers produce beautiful pieces of work on their tote bags.
Drama
In Drama at school 21, we've been focusing on our Big Ideas of Identity, Morality, Empathy and Truth and exploring them through a variety of texts, techniques, characters and contexts. It's been a dynamic and busy term. We're saying a huge thank you and a sad goodbye to Ms Kaucky and looking forward to welcoming a new member of the Drama team next year. We're busy reviewing our curriculum for the future, and looking forward to our school production of West Side Story amongst the challenges and achievements of 2024.
Year 7
This week we had our Year 7 Celebration Assembly to recognise our students who are Subject Champions, have been consistently creating Beautiful Work, showing our school Values and are leaders in Oracy. It was wonderful to celebrate together and recognise our Year 7’s for their commitment in their first term of secondary school. We also enjoyed celebrating on Wednesday with Christmas jumper day and our Christmas lunch.
Year 8 – Journey to the Centre of the Cell
As a culminating activity after learning about the respiratory, circulatory and digestion systems this half term, the Year 8 classes visited The Centre of the Cell at Queen Mary University in Whitechapel this week.
At the experience they explored a range of interactive games focused on the human body and also got to see real samples of organs and body parts on display.
We also got to see into the underground basement labs where scientists were hard at work.
Year 9
In Food Technology, Year 9 students learned how to make pizza from scratch. The students enjoyed the session as in the last lesson of the term, they treated themselves to a fresh pizza created in the class.
Year 10
This week, Year 10 Hospitality and Catering students showed their art skills and turned a blank canvas of focaccia dough into pretty garden decorations using fresh vegetables and herbs.
Year 12 – Building Crew
Students from Year 12 had a wonderful time on their crew building trip to Lee Valley Ice Rink this week!
LOCAL NEWS
Newham Music are running some playful musical sessions for 7s and under at Westfield over the Christmas break. Please see this link for more information and booking (it's pay what you can).
