Thirty Year 10 students were treated to career workshops in school today, February 8, when British Publishing House, Penguin Publishing, visited.

The visitors brought camera equipment in and filmed some of the session.

Mr Miah’s tech savvy Young Enterprise students took their fantastic new product to Spitalfields market yesterday, February 6, and braved the freezing cold weather but still managed to pull in the crowds.

The Year 10 lads have devised a collection of USB bracelets in a variety of eye-catching colours that plug straight into a laptop and are compatible with Smartphones, Iphones and Samsung.

Costing just £5 each or £12 for three, the bracelets are a handy, stylish and affordable way to have a convenient USB with you at all times – technology at your fingertips so to speak.

The wearable USB bracelets double as phone chargers and are proving popular in school.

At Spitalfields yesterday, our stall was visited by MP Stephen Timms who spent time chatting with our students and Arjun and Ross from the television show ‘The Apprentice.’ from the 2017 series.

The bracelets are on sale in school now if anyone is interested in buying them from our Young Enterprise group.

Councillor Seyi Akiwowu came in to speak to 199 Year 10 boys this morning, February 1, about democracy.

This is the fifth time Seyi has been in to the school and she has now spoken to all Year groups on a variety of topics including online safety, trolling, harassment, bullying and democracy.

Our wonderfully generous staff and students have so far raised £1, 415 for CAFOD today, January 31,  after coming in wearing their own clothes for a donation to the worthwhile charity.

The money will be used to provide clean drinking water in Bangladesh to support Rohingya refugees as well as providing shelter and food for children in Syria and much much more.

Money handed over to CAFOD in Lent is doubled by the Government which is fantastic.

Swapping their uniforms for mufti is a fantastic way to raise money.

Here are some students getting involved.

Fifteen year 10 GCSE Drama students visited the Theatre Royal Stratford East yesterday, January 29, for a fascinating workshop with Miss Corriette and Miss O’Neill.

They took part in a technical skills session as part of Theatre Royal’s ‘Donate The Stage’ initiative which was completely free.

They also had the chance to use the theatre’s professional technical equipment and had a series of masterclasses from the Lighting Manager, Assistant Stage Manager and Sound Apprentice. A tour backstage followed which was very interesting.

A question and answer discussion with the theatre professionals proved really useful with our students learning more about careers backstage and the various routes to get there. They also heard about apprenticeships and work experience opportunities that the theatre could potentially offer.

Miss Corriette concluded: ” It was a wonderful opportunity for them to see more that goes on in the theatre apart from just a performance and acting and the many opportunities there are for behind the scenes and technical work.”

Curriculum Leader for Art, Miss Gilroy,  ran a Saturday session this weekend for her Creative and Design students and reports that it was superb.

The hard-working students were busy creating mono prints and etchings and spent the morning producing some impressive pieces that will really help them with their forthcoming exams and sketchbooks. 

The weekend workshop was well attended and the students enjoyed the experience whilst learning new skills.

Twenty two Year 9 German students had a real treat yesterday, January 24, when they experienced learning outside the classroom and had fun too.

Lead Practitioner, Ms Prichard and German Assistant, Miss Lottmann  took the teenage linguists to see German Rap and Soul Artist, Chefket, perform at the Cockpit Theatre in Marylebone.

Chefket was visiting London as part of his European tour and he set aside a date to perform to UK students learning German. This was organised by The Goethe Institut and was a fantastic opportunity for our students to experience modern German culture along with other similar aged students from other schools across the Capital.

Ms Prichard commented: “The boys were all very excited and enthusiastic and it was a great opportunity to hear lots of German and learn new vocabulary as well as plenty of opportunities for audience participation. Chefket’s rapping was pretty impressive too. One of our students was brave enough to get on stage and perform to the whole audience earning  the loudest applause of the day.’ Ein guter Tag’ as Chefket might say  – (the title of one of his songs.)” 

Councillor Seyi Akinwowo is with us all week delivering assemblies to all Year groups  about online safety and alerting students as to the different types of abuse and harassment many people and women in particular suffer from online bullies and trolls.

She was in today, Tuesday, January 23, speaking to Year 8 boys about Glitch UK and delivering a workshop on cyber-bulling.

She gave the students lots to think about and stressed the importance of behaving appropriately online at all times.

Seyi herself has suffered online racist and misogynist bullying and she explained to the students how soul-destroying and hurtful such nasty comments can be and how it can affect everyday life.

She urged the students to think before they react to anything online and think before they do anything that could hurt anybody else. She stressed that whatever they do and whatever information and photographs they share could potentially follow them throughout their career and have dire consequences.

The boys got involved and enjoyed the special assembly. Seyi involved them and was pleased to discover the boys were aware of the pitfalls of cyber bullying and online safety and were quite knowledgeable.

Here are some photos from today’s session.