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Dear Parents and Carers, We have yet another really positive term at Lea Valley. As Principal I was appointed to be a National Leader of Education which gives the school the status of National Support School. This is a mark of all the positive work from all of the staff at the school and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them.

There has however been some sad news. Sara McDonnell, a teaching assistant at the school, died suddenly on the 19th March 2011. Our thoughts are with her family at this sad time.

We are gearing up for the summer examination period. Each depart-ment has provided extensive revision and support for the students. The lead up to the external exams is more difficult this year because of the later Easter holiday followed by the Royal Wedding and Bank Holiday.

Can I ask parents to encourage your children who will be sitting examinations to use the resources on Fronter, our learning gateway.

We were very proud to welcome the English National Opera to the school last Friday. They brought the full orchestra and held five performances to over 1000 students. This was recorded by the BBC and the school was featured on the BBC London News both at lunchtime and in the evening. The article is on our website www.lvhs.org.uk

We would like to modify slightly the times of the school day for next year. This has come as a request from students and staff as the end of the current school day does not coincide with the bus times and leaves many students waiting for up to twenty minutes which is a problem especially in the winter months. The new times are on page 15 of this newsletter. Should this cause any concern for parents please email:- [email protected]

I would like to alert parents that there will be changes to the school gates over the summer holiday. The police are concerned about the easy access to the school and so for additional security the school will be closed to traffic. Unfortunately this will mean that parents will no longer be able to drive into the site to drop off or collect their children. I realise that many of you will find this inconvenient but in the interests of the health and safety of the students we have no other option. Could those parents who drive children to school start to make alternative arrangements for September 2011. Wishing you all a happy and sunny Easter break. Janet Cullen Principal

NEWSLETTER EASTER 2011

A C H I E V E • D E V E L O P • E X C E L

Year 11 music student, Tice Mehmet was inter-viewed by BBC radio about music and perfor-mance at Lea Valley and BBC television filmed a performance for the afternoon and evening news, you can view the bulletin through the link on the Lea Valley website. Sammy Kornhauser Director of Subject for Drama

Boston 2012 Raising student aspirations through the Sports Specialism.”

After a successful visit to Chicago in 2010, Lea Valley is continuing their Bi-Annual Sporting Experience with a visit to Boston and Connecti-cut in 2012 for our Senior Boys and Girls Foot-ball Teams.

In the run up to the tour we aim to motivate stu-dents to work harder in the classroom and train harder on the football field. During the tour, we will expose students to another culture, spend time in Boston itself and visit Yale University. We aim to inspire them through spending time with the elite athletes of New Haven University and by playing games against American oppo-sition. Through giving students an opportunity to meet and spend time with American High School stu-dents we hope that cross-atlantic friendships will be formed. Furthermore players will learn about both coaching and playing careers in America, including a chance to show their skills in front of college scouts.

This opportunity of a lifetime will surely be an experience that will inspire our students to Achieve, Develop and Excel.

Be sure to look out for the upcoming fundrais-ers – be a part of their dream. Stephanie Holloway Director of Specialism

The English National Opera Lea Valley High School was honoured to host the ENO’s Opera Squad. This was an enter-taining, fast-paced show featuring 44 members of the ENO orchestra, a quartet of professional opera singers, several of which have or will be singing principle roles for ENO, CBBC present-er Kristen O’Brien and ENO’s head of music Martin Fitzpatrick conducting. It was a privilege and an honour to host such a revered group of professionals that play in opera houses all over the world.

Children from our neighbouring primary schools were thrilled to join Lea Valley stu-dents to watch the amazing spectacle, for most their first experi-ence of opera. Many students commented that they were not quite sure what to ex-pect beforehand but were very pleasantly surprised and thor-oughly enjoyed the experience.

Lea Valley High School Newsletter


A Level Theatre Visit - Hamlet Fast-track A level students and Sixth Form A level English students travelled into central London to watch the much acclaimed produc-tion of Hamlet at the National Theatre, one of the coursework texts for two of the classes.

We all enjoyed a very thought provoking per-formance by Rory Kin-near as Hamlet and much debate was held on the coach on the way back about the director’s choices and whether Hamlet was a better tragedy than Othello!

Helen Powell Assistant Principal

Chinese New Year Our first theme day saw the school dining hall transformed into the Orient on Thursday 3rd February to celebrate Chinese New Year.

Decorations of lanterns, banners and flags to-gether with a delicious Chinese menu tempted students and staff into the dining hall for lunch. The menu consisted of Black Bean Beef with Mushrooms, Sweet and Sour Chicken, Vegeta-ble Chop Suey, Egg and Plain Fried Rice and Vegetable Pancake Rolls and everyone re-ceived a Fortune Cookie. It was a fun and en-joyable event and our thanks to our new Cater-ing Manager, Malcolm Stubbs for organising the day. We look forward to our next theme day. Tracey Baxter School Operations Manager Valentines Ball Students from the Partnership Ghana and parents and staff from the ‘Friends of Lea Valley’ joined to-gether to arrange the Lea Valley Val-entine’s Ball for Year 7 and 8 stu-dents. The older students worked very hard to decorate the Sixth Form Common room, trans-forming it to a top disco venue! Sixth Formers chose great music and the younger students danced the evening away,

with prizes being awarded for the best dancers and the ‘Belle of the Ball’. Students sipped ‘Lea Valley Lurve Potion’ a fruity cocktail created by the Friends of Lea Val-ley.

It was fantastic to see so many children enjoy-ing themselves. Thank you to the parents and staff who gave their time to support the even-ing.

Helen Powell Assistant Principal

Valentine's Day Sixth form students entered into the spirit of Valentine's Day at Lea Valley at the same time as raising money for our partner school in Gha-na, Amisano High School.

Don Dave De La Cruz's, helped by Sixth for-mers, including Anisa Mohammed, Chloe Mi-nors, Faith Carter and Leyla Omer, created amazing origami roses which students and staff could buy for their Valentine. They also ran an anonymous delivery service! Their efforts, raised £171 for the Partnership Ghana fund. A huge thank you to Don Dave for the vast amount of his time he gave to make the roses. Helen Powell Assistant Principal

Enfield Borough Mayor’s Award Public Speaking

On Tuesday 29th March Lea Valley High School hosted a fantastic evening for the final of the Mayor’s Award Public Speaking. Students from schools across Enfield who had qualified for the final arrived at Lea Valley and participated in a warm-up session before deliv-ering their prepared speeches to an audience which included parents, respected members of the borough and a panel of expert judges. Across the board, the level of speeches in both the KS3 and the KS4 competitions was excel-lent, with students tackling topics such as foot-ballers’ wages, divorce and the power of music. Lea Valley had an incredibly successful even-ing with Daniel Dyer and Frida Arthur both fighting off stiff competition and being placed first in the KS3 and KS4 competitions respec-tively. Daniel spoke beautifully about reaching for the stars and achieving his goals whilst Fri-da delivered an incredibly eloquent account of striving for individuality and not following the crowd. Lea Valley are extremely proud of our two winning public speakers! Sports Council visit to the Olympic Park – 16th February 2011 During Enrichment Week, the Sports Council and Leadership Academy students were given the chance to visit the Olympic Park. As a school we were given this opportunity as we are part of the Get Set 2012 network. The Get Set network is a special community of schools and colleges which are: Demonstrating a commitment to the Olympic and Paralympic Values: respect, friendship, equality, excellence, inspiration, courage and determination. Using the London 2012 Games to inspire learn-ers of all ages and abilities to get involved in Values-based projects and activities, the visit

was based on a guided tour around the sport-ing arenas currently under construction. The students not only got to see the various sport-ing venues but they also found out more about

how they will be used during the games and what will happen to them after the games, as part of the Olympic legacy programme. Within the park there are 12 main venues that will hold some of the 26 sports for the Olympic and 20 sports for the Paralympic Games: The Olympic Stadium, The Olympic Village International Broadcast Centre / Main Press Centre, Aquatics Centre, Velodrome, Basket-ball Arena, Handball Arena, Eton Manor, The Warm-up Arena, VeloPark, Hockey Centre and Water Polo The students who attended the visit were: Jack Parker, Hollie Hockley, Ferhat Kaya, Lulu Christodoulou, Reece Grundy, Diana Nguimbi, Callum Forrester and Cheniece Warner from the Sports Council. With Mollie Kmita, Rosie Kmita, Danny Burke and Shaun Stone coming from the Leadership Academy programme. The students then went on to plan and deliver a whole school assembly, so that the rest of Lea Valley could also see some pictures of the amazing venues and to inform them about the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics and its legacy programme. Stephanie Holloway Director of Specialism


Lea Valley Clovers Jody Gaskin, Hollie Hockley, Louise Scorah and Channon Manley choreographed a dance titled ‘Circadian’ for the Enfield dance festival.

The students created the piece based around the title ‘Active and Creative in Enfield’. Their dance is an abstract interpretation of daily life looking at routine chores and jobs. The dance combines the students’ preferred styles of street dance and contemporary. Lea Valley Clovers have performed their dance ‘Circadian’ at the Jack Petchy awards (seen in the photos) hosted at Lea Valley on Thursday 10th March and at Millfield Theatre as part of the Enfield Dance Festival on Wednesday 30th March.

Charlotte Callaghan Subject Leader for Dance Jack Petchey Award Scheme 2011 The Jack Petchey Award scheme has been successfully running at Lea Valley for three years, with students and staff being recognised for their effort and commitment. Lea Valley also played host for the annual award ceremony for the London Borough of Enfield with award win-ners collecting a medallion and adulation from the audience. The guests were also entertained by performances from schools across the bor-ough, including the Lea Valley Clovers dance group, consisting of Channon Manley, Jody Gaskin, Hollie Hockley and Louise Scorah.

The full list of winners for 2010 from Lea Valley High School is: Paige Logie, Daniel Noble, Sam Rose, Nina Gamboa, Gershom Ndosimao, Jem Fetti, Den-isa Alia, Hollie Hockley, John Holt

Every year the school is able to recognise the dedication and achievement of a member of staff in the Leader Award. This year’s winner is Mrs Helen Roberts, who runs the excellent school library facility and oversees Information, Advice and Guidance.

“Helen has worked in transforming the library and setting it up to the amazing facility we have today. The library is booked every lesson and is open for students at lunchtime and after school. Students want to work there and feel safe there. Helen teaches the children and they respect her and listen to her.”

Lea Valley High School Council have always played a large role in the nomination process by advertising the event and selecting their win-ners through anonymous selection. In 2011 the council have celebrated the January, February and March awards by asking for student nomi-nations from Sixth Form, Year 11 and Year 10 students. They produced a PowerPoint presen-tation for form tutors to show during form time, designed a new nomination form and organised the timescale for collection and voting. They are keen to voice the words of Jack Petchey “If you think you can, then you can” by encourag-ing peers to recognise achievement in others and strive for the best in themselves. The win-ners will be announced in the next newsletter.

School Council have lunch with local Councillors Each term the School Council have lunch with Ms Cullen to discuss issues and feedback on their work. At the beginning of March the coun-cil also invited Councillor Ayfer Orhan, Cabinet member for Education, and the Assistant Direc-tor for Education, Jenny Tosh to the meeting. They had the chance to ask pertinent questions on issues that concern them such as EMA, the downgrading of vocational courses and young people having their say in society. The students were also invited to attend the council cham-bers to host a debate and view the facility. This was a fantastic opportunity for the council to express their views and ideas with their local councillors and in turn they were impressed with the democratic systems in place at Lea Valley. Sharon Rayner Assistant Principal Advances in Medical Sciences KS5 science trip The science students in Year 12 were given the opportunity to attend a day of talks by leading medical scientists at the University of London on March 3rd. The students attended four lec-tures throughout the day from scientists who are developing the drugs and treatments of the future. The lectures covered four different topics in great detail; preventing heart degeneration after a heart attack, the future of drug development, the future treatment of cystic fibrosis and can-cer. They also enjoyed a series of short films on other recent medical advances. The students who took advantage of this gained an enjoyable insight into the future de-velopments in medicine and how a teaching and research is carried out in the world’s lead-ing universities Matthew Hall KS5 Coordinator Science


Lea Valley High School wins the 2010 Enfield "Speak Out Challenge" Shirley Bekker and Frida Arthur were crowned the regional public speaking champions, in a field with exceptional competition. The Jack Petchey Foundation chose to host the regional finals of the public speak-ing competition at Lea Valley High School and this became the venue for the school to illustrate the exceptional talent of its stu-dents.

Shirley Bekker won the event, with a win-ning speech entitled "The Class of 2015". This speech asked the audience to consider the impact of the rise in tuition fees and also highlighted Shirley's exceptional ability. Second place went to Frida Arthur, speaking with hu-mour and wisdom about "Direction!". Both of the speeches were sensational and a privilege to watch, demonstrating how students at Lea Valley High School achieve, develop and excel. Shirley is now one of thirty regional champions, fifteen of which will be selected to speak at the National Final. We keep our fingers crossed that Shirley will have the opportunity to show her talent on a National Scale. Sam Fox Director of Year 10

Athletics Academy As a Specialist Sports College, Lea Valley High School is proud to announce the launch of their Athletics Academy for talented athletes, which will start during the new academic year 2011/2012. The Academy is aimed at students in Post 16 education, who are passionate about athletics and their academic studies. To be considered for the Academy each student will have to meet specific criteria. The objectives of the Academy are to develop talented athletes and offer the students the op-portunity to integrate their academic studies with their sporting aspirations. The Academy will give each student the opportunity to study either A-Levels or a Level 3 BTEC qualification, with the addition of a personally designed ath-letics training programme. The Athletics Academy will provide the oppor-

tunity for the students to be developed in the following areas: Academic Qualifications Athletics training programme Strength & conditioning programme Improved fitness Information regarding nutrition The main goal of the Athletics Academy is to help talented students who are passionate about athletics, to fulfil their sporting aspirations at the highest level. Julian Golding Community Athletics Coach

Mark Thompson Poetry Day On Tuesday 26th January poet, Mark Thomp-son came into school to deliver a series of fan-tastic poetry workshops to a range of KS3 pu-pils. The first two sessions were aimed at all of our A,G and T pupils from Years 7 and 8 and then the third session was open to all KS3 pu-pils who had been nominated by their teachers for impressive contributions and effort in Eng-lish classes.

Mark’s poetry focuses enormously on cultural identity and Black History was the main theme of the sessions. He engaged the students in discussions about their cultural heritage before entering into some close analysis of his own poems. He also broadened the students’ expe-rience academically by teaching them about a number of inspiring historical figures about whom he bases some of his poetry; figures


World Book Day was celebrated on the 3rd March. This year we decided to celebrate in a way that all students from all year groups could be involved. The idea was to create a “Giant

LVHS Book”. Each year group was given a country to write about and the writings could take the form of a poem, an article or a story. The response was fantastic and on the day we invited English classes into the library to partici-pate in a workshop where we all got involved in putting the book together. To further celebrate World Book Day Ms Cullen held an assembly on the Monday morning to promote the im-portance of reading. The book is almost com-plete and once this is done it will go on display. Watch this space for photos of our completed project. Aim Higher University Associates – Ambas-sador Scheme Once again this year we have been fortunate to be invited to participate in the Aim Higher Asso-ciate ambassador scheme. Currently we have 14 students from Year 10 and 8 students from Year 9 who meet with their University Ambas-sador one day a week during their lunch time. The Ambassador scheme is aimed at encour-aging progression to higher education by rais-ing levels of aspiration and attainment of young people in schools and colleges Year 10 Work Experience All year 10 students will undertake their work experience during the week of 4th – 8th July this year. A quick reminder to those students who still do not have a placement to come and see me in the Library so that I can assist you. Cambridge University Challenge Day In February we took a group of ten Year 12 stu-dents to participate in a Cambridge Challenge Day. These days are large-scale events where students participate in a variety of activities de-signed to offer a taste of higher education. The

days involve introductory sessions on higher education and Cambridge, lunch in one of the Cambridge Colleges, and two subject taster lectures. They give students the opportunity to explore both arts and science-based subjects that they may not previously have experienced, and offer a chance to meet current undergraduate stu-dents.

Helen Roberts Deputy Director Information Advice & Guidance

such as Chaka Zulu and Mary Seacole The day was set up to inspire our younger Able, Gifted and Talented students in their own writing and to begin the process of selection for our upcoming trip with the Arvon Foundation. This trip will see sixteen KS3 students travel to Shropshire and spend a week in a house in the countryside, completely immersing themselves in creative writing! More details to follow.

Elizabeth Grey Able, Gifted & Talented Co-coordinator

NACE Challenge Award Over the past few years the provision for Able, Gifted and Talented students at Lea Valley High School has moved from strength to strength. In order to accredit this progress the school recently applied for the NACE Challenge award: a national award which recognises ex-cellent provision in schools for Able, Gifted and Talented pupils. NACE (National Association for Able Children in Education) works to sup-port and reward schools in which the provision for able students is of the highest quality both inside and beyond the classroom.

I am very pleased to be able to say that on Thursday 13th January, 2011 Lea Valley High School was the 200th school to be given the NACE Challenge Award. This award came as a result of an intense day of inspection in which NACE inspectors observed a wide range of lessons, interviewed staff, parents, student and Governors, and also carried out a close scruti-ny of a large collection of students’ work. This day of inspection complemented a vast portfolio of evidence which was compiled and presented to the inspectors prior to the day itself outlining the huge range of provision we have in place for able pupils at the school.

Being given the award shows the school’s com-mitment to providing the best quality provision for all students and we would like to thank all of those involved in the compilation of the portfolio as well as the inspection itself.

Elizabeth Grey Able, Gifted & Talented Co-coordinator

Library Lunch time in the library is a hive of activity with students using the computers, attending lunch time clubs, doing their homework and many students sitting and reading for pleasure. This term has also seen the revival of the Chess

club run by Mr Finnigan and this takes place in the library on Fridays at lunch time. This has been a welcome return and is being well at-tended.



The Arvon Foundation Writing Week

Ms Powell and Mr Finnegan took sixteen talent-ed writers from Years 7, 8 and 9 to spend a week in the Shropshire Countryside working with published writers; Cliff Yeats and Lynne Bryan to improve their creative writing. We were lucky to be joined on the Wednesday night by the charismatic Luke Kennard who entertained us all with readings from his poems and short stories and answered the student’s thoughtful questions.

Students stayed in two 300 year old buildings formerly owned by famous playwright John

Osborne. During the week they were responsi-ble for cooking their own breakfast and prepar-ing dinner for all twenty two people in teams as well as doing all the washing up and clearing away; they definitely preferred the cooking! The whole group sat down to dinner together, with the teachers and writers enjoying each other’s company and discussing the events of the day.

The mornings were spent in three hour work-shops led by the writers, leaving time in the afternoon to read, write independently and get inspiration from walking and playing in the thirty acres of beautiful countryside attached to the house. After diner the evenings were spent lis-tening to other writers reading their work and on the last night, the students read their own work to their fellow writers in a celebration evening.

The students were very focussed in the ses-sions and all produced impressive writing which they are continuing to revise to produce a pol-ished anthology of their work.

I Am a Tuna Fish

I am a tuna fish Swimming in the sea of discontent Oh, when, when Will I find spawning ground (by Skye Mold - Year 7) Silence

Nine months, a few more, a few less

Developing in silence. That eerie deafening silence. We move.

Thoughtless and ignorant. Cramped and isolated. Protected and secure.

Brought into this world strings to a puppet master. Loyal and obedient.

The world we live in full of violence and hate, the blurred line to distinguish both sides. We create and destroy with unbelievable ease.

Feed on the very losses of others that we create.

We have the ability to kill. Civil blood upon civil blood. Shakespeare.

To think we started in silence. (by Raoul Gomez-Morille - Year 9) Feather

Among an ancient mansion a white feather drifts through the mysterious manor.

No noise. No sound. No evidence at all. The weightlessness, so innocent, yet carrying a deadly secret.

Through the night,


it travels around, hiding in the shadows.

When it reaches its final destination it glides through the air.

It knows where it has to land it just has to be patient. (by Oliver Auguste - Year 8) We have plenty of …by Amal Khalidi Year 8

In my house, I have plenty of siblings. Too many! Running up and down the hallways, Swinging on the banisters, Hiding in the cupboards, Scoffing away in the kitchen, The telly on always Along with the computer. Spell this, spell that, It can really drive you round the bend. My youngers to be precise, Though the elders, a much different story. Where’s this all the time, Who stole this? Hey that’s mine! Mum, can I have some money? Coming home late, Shopping you say? All loved up in their own way, Last of all me. The one who is usually in her room, The one with the pen and the pad, The one with the hands and the piano keys And the one with plenty of siblings. (by Amal Khalidi - Year 8) Helen Powell Assistant Principal The BBC at Lea Valley High School Students of Lea Valley High School became interviewers, presenters and camera people for the day for a BBC News school report on the 24th March 2011. Students were interested in the government’s view of BTEC courses. Min-isters think that some vocational courses are not helping pupils go to university or get a job.

Emma and Taylan interviewed local MP Nick de Bois on his view of the future of BTEC and other vocational courses. He said BTECs can be useful but too many students are not getting basic qualifications like English and Maths GCSE, and this should be a main focus. Begum questioned the school’s BTEC co-ordinator Ms Khan about the benefits of the

courses. She said BTECs are beneficial for some students. Eleven out of twelve BTEC Na-tional Business students had made it to univer-sity last year and the last one decided not to go to university and was completing an apprentice-ship.

Interviewers Kevin and Nicholas asked Ms Cul-len, the Principal, her opinion on BTECs being changed. They asked whether she agrees with the Education Secretary Michael Gove that “millions of children are being misled into pur-suing courses that offer little hope”. Ms Cullen completely disagreed with the statements, but said she would have to review the BTEC cours-es that are on offer.

Students were led by their Media Teacher Ms Bennett and BBC political reporter Elly Za-niewicka. All students that took part are from Year 9 and are doing the BTEC Media course.

Jurita Bennett Subject Leader for Media Mock Magistrates Trial 2011 Over the past twelve weeks a group of twenty six Year 8 and 9 students have prepared for and taken part in the fantastic Mock Magis-trates Trial Competition in Enfield. The competi-tion involves the team of students taking on the roles of magistrates, lawyers, witnesses and court staff to prepare a specially written case which was sent out to a number of participating schools across the borough in January. Schools are asked to prepare the case over a series of sessions throughout the term and then

compete against each other in a live format at a real magistrates’ court. The competition took place on Saturday 12th March and Lea Valley took two teams of thirteen students to Enfield Magistrates Court where they argued their case in court against the opposing schools. All of the students performed excellently and worked ex-tremely hard to enter into the roles they were given. Highlights included Sophie Willett’s stern questioning of witnesses and Eunice Adeyemi and Danielle Varney’s impressive portrayal of the defendants. Special thanks must go to Miss Swartz who accompanied the students on the trip and to Miss Raphael for organising the whole project. A great time was had by all! Elizabeth Grey Able, Gifted & Talented Coordinater

Student Voice - The Learning Council Congratulations to Frieda, Matthew, Regina, Farrell, Sophie, Michelle and Daniel, the repre-sentatives of the Learning Council who were brave enough to lead a whole school assembly about Fairtrade, taking the ‘Swap your Choc’ message to the 1200 students and staff pre-sent; a daunting task for most adults, but one they rose to admirably.

Using chocolate as an example, they explained how our small actions, such as swapping prod-ucts we usually buy for Fairtrade alternatives, can make such a big difference to the farmers who grow the products and their communities. We saw a video of a community, Kuapa Kokoo in Ghana, they chose this as we now have a partner school in Ghana.

The aim of the council is to earn the Fairtrade mark for the school in recognition of their work. The school has agreed to swap to Fairtrade in the tea, coffee and sugar it buys and the dining hall is trialling some Fairtrade swaps during Fairtrade Fortnight.

The students would like to ask you to help too, by swapping just a few of the products you buy to Fairtrade alternatives, as they said in their assembly small actions can make a big differ-ence! Help the Learning Council to be able to officially say… Helen Powell Assistant Principal

Junior Girls Basketball Nightingale Academy (away) The coaching worked!! For the junior girls basketball team, the eight weeks of training hard on a Friday after school paid off. Match report by Sonay Coskuner (Year 9) The girls basketball game on Monday 24th Jan-uary ended with a smashing result of 20-12 and the LVHS girls had won their first game out of the two matches played.

The 20 points were scored by Sonay, (five bas-kets), Mariam (six baskets) and Jessica (two baskets). The following great players helped with the defeat of the opponent’s squad:- Sonay Coskuner, Sophie Challis, Mariam Ka-suswa, Rachini Lohia, Eida Attalah Sawyer, Berfin Aydogdu, Tugba Gul, Nilay Sert and Aylin Kekec.

Well done to all the girls who produced a mas-sive come back in the last quarter to produce a fantastic win.

Keep up the hard work and commitment.

The PE Department

Year 7 Basketball On Thursday 3rd February 2011, seven Year 7 boys (Berat Kaya, Callum Forrester, Alfie Clax-ton, George Cornell, Callum Levy, Billy Lane and Nathaniel Bio) took part in an Enfield Bor-ough Basketball Tournament. The team did the school proud with their sportsmanship and pos-itive attitudes. The team played 6 games back to back, winning two and losing four. The high-light was a 12-4 win over Nightingale, with an excellent distance score from Berat. Overall the team finished 5th, and this is a great result con-sidering the team only had one training session and played against much more experienced sides. Well done boys, and this bodes well for when we begin our first full season in Year 8. Chris Townsend and the PE Team

Senior Basketball The senior basketball squad has had a mixed season, eventually just missing out on that elu-sive and prestigious play-off spot. The Lea Val-ley Black Lions ran out comfortable winners in their first match versus Turin Grove 49 – 13, however with two matches having to be con-ceded because of various complications, the team ended the year on a 1-2 record. With the New Year came more fixtures, the first coming in the form of a must win affair away at Bishop’s Stotford. The team were slow to start and were 24 points down after the first quarter. However, a great comeback saw the Black Li-ons winning the next 3 quarters, but unfortu-nately not recovering from their earlier points deficit. I had great admiration for the team, who showed great determination and skill to fight back. This loss effectively put us out of the play-offs. Praise must go to Ben McErlean, Cyril Sarran, Ryan Hek, Culvin Kimanuka, Chris Ratambwe and Nii Lartey for their commitment and effort throughout the season. James Parker Senior Basketball Coach

Key Stage 3 Maths News Year 7 have now completed their Product Wars project by presenting their ideas to their class using some interesting presentations and won-derfully creative posters! The winning group from each class, voted for by their peers and class teacher, was selected to have a maths lessons in the food technology classroom in order to make their very own fruit smoothie! Some weird and wonderful concoctions were made but all students enjoyed the task and tasting their smoothies after. Well done to all those selected. The theme for Year 8 this term is ‘The World’. Students have been investigating statistics about two countries of their choice to create


Key Stage 4 Maths News On January 10th we received the results from the November GCSE entries. We are pleased to say that students in Year 10 did particularly well with the majority achieving their target min-imum grades. The unit 1 exam contributes 20% towards students’ final GCSE grade and so is an important step along the way. Year 10 stu-dents are now working towards the unit 2 GCSE exam in lessons. The exam will take place in June.

Year 11 students also received important re-sults from the November exams and again there is positive news. Currently 38% of stu-dents have a C grade or above. Students have now been placed in new set groupings to sup-port them in improving their maths grade. Revi-sion sessions for Year 11 students continue to run after school on a Monday in the Maths de-partment.

As we now have only a short time until the final summer exams it is important that students are getting their exam equipment ready! This in-cludes purchasing a scientific calculator as the-se cannot be provided to all students in the ex-am. Calculators can be bought for about £5 and students should bring their calculators to all lessons.

Maths Enrichment HSBC Trading Futures Competition In December thirty students from across all key stages competed in the prestigious national HSBC Trading Futures Challenge, developed by the London School of Economics. After two training sessions students participated in a trading simulation competing with students across the country to see who could make the most profits from their investments. Lea Valley students performed amazingly well with the Key Stage 3 team beating all their older rivals to be Lea Valley Champions with over £90000 of profit! The winning team were Nikita Ramrattan, Nina Gamboa and Mustafa Farhan.

Despite this colossal win it was not enough to beat other schools in their key stage. However the Key Stage 5 group, Deqo Olad, Daenelle Dawkins, Hayden Broodie and Mihaela Vo-losciuc, beat all other schools in their key stage to become Key Stage 5 National Champions and were invited with the rest of the participants to take part in an awards ceremony at the pres-tigious HSBC tower in Canary Wharf on 18th January. Well done to the winning participants and all other students that took part in this ex-citing opportunity.

comparison posters using all the knowledge from their Math's lessons such as rounding decimals, percentages, drawing charts, graphs and population pyramids.

Year 9 students are now in the run up to exam season and GCSE preparation.. Students have been placed in new class sets to support their learning. SATs exams will be sat at the begin-ning of the summer term after which students will begin their GCSE programme in prepara-tion for their first exam in November of Year 10. To make these SATS useful students need to revise over the holiday and ensure they bring ALL their equipment including a calculator to all lessons and exams. Thirty five students have been identified to take part in intervention clas-ses to ensure they reach their level 5 and 6 target grades. All of these students and the Level 8 target students have been issued a MyMaths booster pack to support them in reaching their targets whilst they are at home. Please work through these resources with your child to ensure they get the best level possible. World Maths Day took place on Tuesday 1st

March. WMD is an online mental maths com-petition against over 1 million students from 235 countries all over the world including Sri Lanka, The Philippines, South Africa, Hungary, United Arab Emirates and Turkey, to name a few. Students with the most number of correct answers over the three day competition period in each year group received a prize. Last year Lea Valley students answered nearly 100,000 correct answers and united with over 56,000 schools to set a new world record! Can we beat that score this year?

It is essential that all students bring ALL their equipment to their maths lessons. This in-cludes: Pens and pencils Ruler Protractor & Compasses Calculator Rubber and Sharpener Fail to prepare for lessons and be prepared to fail in the exam!


UK Maths Challenge In February thirty students from Year 9, 10 and 11 took part in the prestigious Intermediate UK Maths Challenge, a national competition aimed at the top third of students in the country. Stu-dents sat an hour exam paper testing their mathematical knowledge and understanding in complex problems. The top students in the country will then go through to the next round to become a Mathe-matical Olympiad. Official results are expected back next month but it looks as if we may have a few students going through and many receiv-ing Gold, Silver and Bronze certificates for their highly commendable scores. We will update you in the next newsletter. The Junior Challenge will take part in May. Practice sessions began for selected year 7 and 8 students on Wednesday afternoons from 9th March in the weeks leading up to the ex-ams. If you are interested in taking part or have not yet returned your letter please see Ms Raphael. Alex Raphael Subject Leader, Key Stage 3 Mathematics

Year 8 As we come to the end of a very long and suc-cessful term, I would once again like to thank you for your continued support. Enrichment Day In February this year Year 8 had the opportuni-ty to attend the Science Museum, Natural His-tory Museum or a sports enrichment day. The enrichment day represented a valuable learning opportunity for the students. Parents Evening I would like to take this opportunity to thank the many parents who attended the Parents Even-ing in March. The partnership between home and school is essential to the success of our young people. Pupils’ positive attitude on Par-ents Evening was praised by all members of our Leadership Team. Attendance Excellent attendance is essential for maximum attainment. Each week pupils are made aware of their attendance percentage taken from Sep-tember 1st. During the weekly assembly the nine forms are told their last week’s attendance figure. I am pleased to report that every Year 8 form has achieved above 90% attendance from 1st September to 31st March. Special con-gratulations to 8SR and 8EP who have regular-ly won the weekly attendance cup. World Maths Day This year Lea Valley High School took part in the World Maths Day challenge. 1,298,834 stu-

dents took part from 22,785 schools from 212 different countries to answer a world record breaking 430 million questions. The UK came 5th in World Maths Day but won the Education World Cup (Combining World Maths and Spelling Days). The winning class in Year 8 was 8x1 with 7260 points and in second place was 8y1 with 6108 points.

Thank you for your continued support.

Dhanisha Patel Director of Year 8

Joe Rowlands Assistant Director of Year 8

Year 10 Year 10 have continued to progress throughout the Spring term. Many students have taken ad-vantage of enrichment opportunities and revi-sion classes. Furthermore, they have continued to work hard and excel in their lesson, which has been reflected in their recent GCSE mod-ule grades. Enrichment The whole year took the opportunity to attend the Imperial War Museum, Tate Britain or a sports enrichment day. Furthermore, they de-veloped team work and problem solving with support of the Army. These days represented a valuable learning opportunity for the students. Science, Business and Geography modules Thank you to students and parents for the sus-tained hard work and support that was required for revision. A majority of year 10 engaged in extra revision classes and this has been reflect-ed in some outstanding individual results. Please continue to encourage your child to at-tend revision that occurs after school every day at Lea Valley High School. Work Experience Year 10 students have also shown resourceful-ness in seeking work placements for their work experience week taking place from 4th – 8th July. Virtually all students are signed up to jobs they enjoy, so please take the opportunity to talk to your son or daughter about the stand-ards that are required in the work place. Debating Congratulations once again to Frida Arthur who represented the school and won first place in Enfield’s Debating competition. Her outstanding public speaking skills are a credit to Lea Valley High School. Attendance Please continue to emphasise the importance of attendance to your child. It is essential that your child attend 96% of their allocated learning time if they are to achieve, develop and excel. Thank you for your continued support. Sam Fox Director of Year 10 Aimee Lawrence Assistant Director of Year 10


velopment to information on Sports Scholar-ships in the USA. All gave very interesting and informative presentations and discussions to the students to help them get some much needed information about what career path-ways are out there in the world of Sport and PE.

All of the organisations mentioned how positive the students were and how they had asked some really probing and intelligent questions throughout the event. Our Year 10 GCSE PE students also got the opportunity to attend the Fayre and many of them commented on how interesting it had been.

Tag Rugby Two groups of Lea Valley High School students excelled themselves recently when taking over the role of organising, coaching and refereeing

at the Primary School Tag Rugby tournament that we host 4 times a year.

The BTEC National Year 12 group and the Year 10 Diploma in Sport and Leisure group did a fantastic job in warming up the students from Capel Manor, Chesterfield, St Johns, Prince of Wales and Forty Hill Primary Schools before the tournaments began. They then had to refer-ee the games and organise all the fixtures which was a very challenging task. Many staff from the schools involved said how well the students had done and there will definitely be more opportunities for the students to continue this level of sports leadership in the next rounds of the event .

Year 11 This term, some students Year 11 took up the opportunity to attend a Careers Enrichment Day at Wembley stadium. Many left with valua-ble information and new ideas about possible careers pathways. Year 11 students are now getting prepared for their final GCSE examinations. Year 11 stu-dents have shown great progress and are in a great position to achieve to their maximum po-tential. GCSE exams begin on Monday 16th May. Revision classes are taking place on eve-ry night after school (3:35-4:35) and will contin-ue throughout this busy time of year. There has been good attendance to many of these ses-sions; however I would request you encourage your son/daughter to attend as many revision periods as possible. Subject Saturday revision sessions have also begun and offer an excel-lent morning of focused revision. I am also proud to say that attendance and behaviour has been very good in the past term. The Year 11 Prom has now been booked and the Year 11 team are looking forward to the event on the 6th July at Forty Hall. I was fortu-nate enough to attend last year’s prom and For-ty Hall is truly an excellent place for such an event as they really know how to hold a fantas-tic celebration. Congratulations once again John Holt, who re-ceived a Jack Petchy award. His hard work and dedication in many aspects of life make him a true credit to the school. Thank you for your continued support and have a restful Easter Break. Tim Albone Director of Year 11

Leadership Academy On Wednesday 26th January some of our sports leaders, who are part of Enfield Second-ary Schools Leadership Academy (a sports leadership “club” for the best sports leaders in Enfield), got to develop their leaderships skills through a Young Leaders course in either Tag Rugby or Cricket. The students were then able to attend a Careers Fayre in the school Assem-bly Hall which had a particular focus on careers in sport.

We had 16 organisations represented at the Fayre, ranging from Universities to Sports De-


Speedstacking Over forty of our Young Leaders from all years in the school were involved in the recent Prima-ry School Year 3 Speedstacking competitions that we ran last month in the Assembly Hall. Eastfield, Prince of Wales, Capel Manor and Honilands Schools all brought classes to the school to be coached in Speedstacking by the Lea Valley Young Leaders. Our students then recorded their times and the students with the best times took part in a final competition. East-field and Prince of Wales were the winners of the competitions. Well done to all our young leaders who made the events such a success.

Swimming A group of Year 7 students are currently in the middle of a 12 week programme at Edmonton Leisure Centre designed to improve their swim-ming and encourage more confidence in water. The students have been doing really well, and are already making progress into the main pool! The current group will continue until Easter and then there will be another group in the summer term.

The students are: Akvile Stoskute, Damla Yarligac, Zamira Hoxha, Gul Meryem Yaman, Remme Izzi, Alecsi Gamboa, Trung Le, Miray Zumrutel, Immanuel Cholingo, Fausta Baltru-saityte

House Scores The House competitions have been going really well this year, with a large number of students taking part in the various events. Last term we had 6 a side tournaments for every year group , both boys and girls.

The sports council put a questionnaire to stu-dents to find out what the students wanted to do. The Year 7 Boys have had a Dodgeball competition and the girls have had a Sports Wall competition. The competitions are every Wednesday after school with all the points be-ing added up along with double points for At-tendance and Achievement/Behaviour through-out the year to give year group winners and then an overall winner of the Thomas Mensah Trophy.

All the scores are regularly updated on the no-ticeboard outside the sports hall, and the over-all scores so far are as follows:-

1st – SR – 201 2nd – MJ – 192 3rd – DL – 187 4th – EP – 177 5th – SC – 169 6th – BM – 168 7th – SG – 154 8th – TW – 138 9th – KH – 111

Enrichment Week (February 2011) We had a very successful Enrichment Week before half term. Early on in the week we had various trips out including: AS Level Maths Taster Day at Queen Mary University Mock Trial Visit to Enfield Magistrates Court Year 12/13 trip to Cambridge University Sports Council visit to the Olympic Park We also had a Valentine’s Disco for Years 7 and 8 On Thursday 17th and Friday 18th February we had two action packed days of activities. These opportunities gave the students a different type of learning experience away from the class-room and gave them the chance to visit places and try activities they may not normally get the

opportunity to do. Activities and visits included on these days were: Year 7 Team Building and Adventure activities at Phasels Wood Activity Centre Year 8 visits to the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum Year 9 visits to the London Aquarium and the Victoria and Albert Museum Year 10 visits to the Tate Britain Art Gallery, the Imperial War Museum, Duxford and some Team Building activities with the Armed Forces


Year 11 also had Team Building activities with the Army as well as a trip to the SMAART Skills Careers Fair at Wembley Arena

The Sixth Form did some Multi Skills activities in preparation for University, including tips on cooking, sewing and generally how to survive when away from home for the first time. There was also a trip to the Freud Museum for the A Level Psychology group.

Celebrating Sports Awards On Tuesday 22nd March we hosted the annual Celebrating Sports Awards for Enfield. It was an excellent evening of celebration as many young people and adult participants were re-warded for their hard work, dedication and skill within sport in the Borough of Enfield.

Three students from Lea Valley High School were rewarded this year:

Young Volunteer of the Year – Mollie Kmita (Volunteers to referee Primary School Tag Rugby Festivals and helps with Inter House Competitions)

Young Leader of the Year – Rosie Kmita (Leads at Primary School Festivals and Inter House competitions)

Young Sports Performer of the Year – Hannah Dunne (represented England in the European Karate Championships and came 4th) Thanks to the 6th Form Prefects who helped out on the evening as well. Amber Hayward, Charlotte Tomlin, Chanelle Quire, Chloe Minors, Melis Zumrutel

Duke of Edinburgh: Forty two students have signed up for the Duke of Edinburgh this year and are currently work-ing hard to complete 3-6 months of a variety of challenges, these are:

Learning a Skill, Volunteering, Physical Chal-lenge

After half term the students will be spending every Monday evening after school preparing for their first expeditions in April and then their assessments in June and July. All students must attend the sessions on Monday evening after school.

Tim Perkins

Partnership Development Manager


DATES FOR YOUR DIARY 8th April 2011

Last day of term – normal finish time

26th April 2011 Term begins - 8.45am

29th April 2011 Bank Holiday for Royal Wedding

2nd May 2011 Bank Holiday Monday

4th May 2011 Year 7 Parents Evening

5th May 2011 Polling Day School open as normal

30th May-3rd June 2011 Half term

21st June 2011 Introduction Evening to new Year 7 students

28th and 29th June 2011 Sports Day

5th July 2011 Year 11 Graduation Evening

6th July 2011 Year 11 Prom

8th July 2011 INSET Day

13th July 2011 UCAS Information Evening for Parents

14th July 2011 Sixth form Graduation Evening

22nd July 2011 Last day of term

18th August 2011 A Level Exam Results Day

25th August 2011 GCSE Exam Results Day

1st and 2nd September 2011 INSET Days - School closed to students

5th September 2011 Students return

The New School Day timings for 2011/2012

8.20 – 8.30 SLT Briefing 8.30 – 8.40 Staff Briefing 8.40 – 9.10 Tutor Time 9.10 – 10.10 Period 1 10.10 – 10.25 Break 10.25 – 11.25 Period 2 11.25 – 12.25 Period 3 12.25 – 13.15 Lunch 13.15 – 14.15 Period 4 14.15 – 15.15 Period 5 15.15 – 15.25 Registration 15.25 End of the day for students


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Sara McDonnell

22nd December 1972

19th March 2011

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