Welcome to our weekly newsletter

Forthcoming

Events

Friday 20th March

BTEC Sports trip to New forest

Friday 20th-27th

March

Year 10 Work Experience

Monday 23rd

March

4.30-6.30pm Community Art Exhi-bition– private view.

Tuesday 24th

March

08.30am-6pm Academic Review Day for all students

Thursday 25th

March

6.30 pm X Fade Concert

Sedgehill World

Issue 60

20th March 2015

Wellie Walk– give cancer the boot

All student representatives and college assistants took

part in a sponsored Cancer Research wellie walk to give

cancer the boot! The students spent all week gathering

sponsorship for their walk from school around the astro

turf . The students are still collecting sponsorship money

and hope to raise over a £100.00. Sedgehill promotes

student leadership and these students have worked

really hard and we are very proud of them.

Lisa Waterman College Assistant

School seems particularly quiet this week as we have the whole of year 10 out on their two weeks of work experience. When they come back the year 10s, who were successful in their application to become a prefect, will officially take on their new roles allowing the current year 11 team to focus exclusively on getting ready for their exams. The first of the GCSEs are nearly upon us with GCSE art starting next week. The students are all working very hard and we are all looking forward to a great set of exam results for this group of students. Next Tuesday is our academic review day that is part of our shift to vertical tutoring. The parental feedback about our first review day in the autumn term was universally positive. What was particularly pleasing was just how many families were able to come into school for their meeting. All research shows that students do best when families and schools work in partnership—the idea behind the academic review days was to give every student’s family an extended period of time to talk about progress and performance across all subjects and areas of school life. Parents’ evenings are still very important as you get to hear from each individual teacher and I would encourage you all to take the time to come into school for these really important events. It has been a particularly busy term for the performing arts—we’ve had school plays, music competitions and now our X-fade talent show is next week. I’d like to thank the whole team for all that they have done this term to give our students the opportunity to showcase their talents both in school and outside. I hope you enjoy all this week’s articles. Ken Mackenzie Head Teacher

for seven years and are the first cohort of stu-

Literacy matters

Sedgehill World Sedgehill World page 2

Poems for World Book Day

In the library, we celebrated World Book Day with a poetry competition. Students picked words from an old book out at random and had to write a poem including all of the words they had chosen. All students who entered won a new book. There were a number of excellent poems, but these were our favourites. Alex Mees Library Coordinator

Mesmerised by the weather, he bid the glistening rain goodnight and every night when he falls asleep he dreams of the rain that once fell on top of the pointy mountains. Ellie Gill-Reeves, Year 7

Here you are messing around Being only you Hopping, dancing, being yourself. Love being you and only you. You open up in your garden. Sing songs and play games, Dance to the music. Love being you and only you.

Amy Carter Year 7

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Poems for World Book Day Continued

They will walk quietly through the forest, wondering what will be discovered today.

However, tomorrow they shall be writing lines for having not gone to school.

But until then they shall fall asleep

under the stars.

Emmie-Jayne Whitehead Year 13

Every morning I could sleep until the day has passed and I awake to darkness. But I don’t. Silently, I stare at the girl in the mirror, her eyes are so sad and her dark hair washes her out. I could recognise her a mile away. Her sad eyes and dull expressions. That was me. How can I change? Faith Nandy, Year 12

I wake up in the morning, A new day, A new start, I see a baby, Laying gently and still. I can’t face this day, I have too much on my mind, Too much work to do, But I can’t just let this day fade away. Every day makes me get further. No matter how tired I am, I look at the gentle sun As it shines brightly at me. I am wondering where to start. Natasha Macharia, Year 8

for seven years and are the first cohort of stu-

Literacy matters

Sedgehill World Sedgehill World page 4

Join Us

Dear friends, parents, carers, staff, former governors and all interested parties at Sedgehill School. Friends of Sedgehill School (FOSS) is a fund raising group which has been set up by parents of children past & present at Sedgehill School. FOSS’s aim is to raise funds that will support the school’s work. We host a monthly ukulele club at the Catford Constitutional Club in Catford and arrange other fund raising events throughout the year. We are always on the look out for new fund raising ideas and ways to get Sedgehill School more involved in the local community. If you have any questions about FOSS or would like to get more involved, please email: foss.sedgehill@yahoo.co.uk Maxine Haffner

Follow us on twitter @foss_sedgehill

Maxine teaching the Bellingham Golden Oldies at the Bellingham Sports Centre; she received a rapturous welcome! There were 15 eager ukulele wannabes for her to teach.

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A.I. Unplugged

The technology and enterprise department run two specialist schools for year seven students – A.I. Unplugged and Young Enterprise. In the first term students were given the opportunity to sample both specialist schools and a good number of them chose to take the computing route. At Sedgehill we firmly believe that our students need to have the skills to compete in the world of technology where computer science is at the forefront. These skills not only provide students with the foundation to meet the assessment requirements for KS3 computing but develop their ability to make logical decisions, problem-solve and to think critically. We feel that many of the students involved in the A.I. Unplugged specialist school will go on to study computing at GCSE level. At the start of the specialist school students were introduced to web development and HTML programming skills. Students learnt how to use ‘tags’ and were given the opportunity to develop these skills by creating web pages about themselves and/or their interests. The students used tags that enabled them to add text, align text, select font sizes, font face and font colour. They were also able to format different types of background, insert images and hyperlinks to other pages and external sources. Currently, students are learning to program using Scratch. Scratch is a software program designed specifically to teach young people the concepts of programming. Students are developing their understanding of relatively complex programming concepts such as variables, coordinates, commands, forever and repeat loops and condition setting. A.I. Unplugged aims to develop students’ logic and problem-solving skills when creating games using Scratch. Some of the excellent games that have been programmed by students include:

A game based under the ocean where a character would lose its life if a fish catches it! A ‘cat and mouse’ maze game! A game that relies on alphabetic logic!

A.I. Unplugged will shortly be introducing students to the programming skills needs to create gaming applications for mobile phones. They will be using a program called App Inventor. The games they create will be age appropriate and fun for all to play!

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Music for Youth– what the judges said of our choirs

Vocalize I absolutely loved this performance. Solidly supported by the band. So many amazing vocalists and rappers. Reharmonisation was great and loved the quirky and original arrangement of Rolling in the Deep. Really loved the different feel of BoyZ to Men with an excellent embellished harmony. Clear that everyone was listening to each other. Rather Be was a lovely arrangement with good choreography. Phenomenal- even more soloists. Great to hear so many great voices and brilliantly phrasing. CODA Testament to the music department at Sedgehill School that they have a year 7-year 13 group and a great production line to the senior group of CODA. What I liked was the intimacy in the voices which drew you in and showed you were a different style of group. I thought the beat-boxing in both tracks was a really cool addition. You've got some really cool harmonies and was great to bring in the texture of the piano and the beat-boxing. Would be great to see some more completely accapella. There is a love of singing which is evident. A real joy to listen to. Miss R Hand Performing Arts Coordinator

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Executive Board

We are nearing the end of the Spring Term and we are very keen to both introduce ourselves to you as the Interim

Executive Board (IEB), and to let you know a little of what we have been doing this term.

We are very pleased to be working with the Sedgehill community to secure a bright and successful future for all the

students. As an IEB we take our role seriously and are determined to see Sedgehill become a good school providing a very good education for its students.

There is no doubt that there is a great deal of work to do. A big part of our role is to challenge everyone who contributes to the school to consistently improve their performance for the good of all. Each and every member of the community – the school leadership, staff, students, parents and carers and the Council – has a part to play to help provide that

challenge. Our young people aspire to great futures, so let us make sure we do all we can to help them realise those

aspirations.

Throughout this term we have been gathering information on the school and its current performance and are now

planning for the way forward. We have also been able to negotiate with the Council for additional expert support to be used in the school, and as a result we currently have additional curriculum consultant time as well as an experienced sen-ior leader working with school leadership. We have also been very fortunate in gaining the practical support of another local governing body.

In addition, we have met with groups of staff, teaching and support staff unions and with senior officers at the Council. We are heartened by the support we have so far received and will continue to encourage others to work with us in posi-tive and productive ways. We are beginning to meet groups of students and individuals who talk to us very positively about their school.

One or two parents have contacted us seeking clarification or information and we have replied to them with as much in-formation as we can. We would very much like to hear from any of you should you have concerns or comments. Please send them to the school office for our attention. It is our intention to set up a Parents’ Forum soon and we will of course be contacting you for support. In the meantime we will continue to work to ensure a great future for Sedgehill.

Irene Cleaver, Bernie Borland and Robert Ellis

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Jack Petchey was born into a poor working class

family in the East End in 1925. He left school with

no qualifications when he was 13. Jack joined the

Navy’s Fleet Air Arm in 1943 during the Second

World War. He applied for officer training but was

unsuccessful. On discharge from the Navy he

began working as a clerk for the Solicitor’s Law Stationary Society. He applied for management training there and was told he would

never make a businessman!

Jack refused to give up! He worked long and hard, overcoming adversity and going on to become a multi-millionaire through his various

business ventures, which have spanned from motor car dealing and garages to property, travel and investment.

Since establishing the Jack Petchey Foundation in 1999, his businesses have given £85 million to support youth projects. What he ‘gives’ is

greater than money though; the same entrepreneurial skills that he brought to his business have led to some really innovative schemes

for young people.

Jack seeks to increase young people’s aspirations by rewarding their achievements and encouraging them to take pride in what they have

done. He brings communities together to really celebrate and ensure that the young people have a moment of glory and that their

parents/carers/ teachers and youth workers are there to witness it. He focuses on the positives rather than highlighting the negatives

At Sedgehill we take part in this scheme which acknowledges and rewards achievement in its broadest sense. Recipients do not have to be

the best at sport or academically gifted, but they must have contributed to the school or community in a significant way. Each month,

staff and students can nominate students who they feel have achieved. The Student Voice Committee/prefects will then look through

these nominations and choose a student who has excelled. The student will then receive a certificate and a cheque for £200 to spend on

any area of the school. The winner is then presented with a certificate in a school assembly and also invited to an awards ceremony

which this year was held on Wednesday 11th March at the Albany Theatre .The winners receive a medallion presented by local dignitaries.

Sedgehill students received their award from Sargent Jon Biddle an ex Sedeghill student. A huge congratulations to Renne Palmer,

Joshua Ulysses, Trey Fletcher, Zelal Birol, Sharon Ngoy and Michael Bailey – Jack Pehey awards recipients January 2014 – Dec ember 2014.

A very big well done to Trey Qua who graced the evening with a song that he wrote himself. Thank you Trey and all the students who won

awards we are proud of you all! Mrs M Mustafa Student Leadership Coordinator

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Year 13 Sociology

Deviancy and Criminality: the competing perspectives come alive in our sociology lessons!

I am really enjoying my year 13 sociology lessons. We are investigating deviancy and criminality and the ways in which different schools of sociological thought deal with these complex social events. I feel as though all of my learning over the past two years is really coming together as I can definitely see and explain the links between functionalism and Marxism and how the integrationists offer new and exciting ways to describe and explain how the processes of labelling work within the criminal justice system. Our class is now taking full control of the learning tasks set for completion and we’re gelling in ways which will ensure we are successful from the moment we enter university. I am sticking to my detailed programme of revision and this has helped me sure grades which will ensure I get into my first choice university. I plan on reading sociology at Goldsmiths College, University of London. Sarah Somers of Year 13

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with any queries or articles.