Friday 6 October 2017

Year 11 Parents Evening—Thursday 12 October 2017

We will be holding our Year 11 parents’ evening on Thursday 12 October. This will be an excellent opportunity for you

to meet with your child’s subject teachers to discuss their current attainment and progress.

All Year 11 families are invited to this evening, which will run from 4.30pm to 7.00pm. Do come as early as you can in

order to see as many of your child’s subject teachers as possible. Refreshments will be available.

Dulwich College Symposium

O n Thursday 5 October, ten sixth formers from various disciplines attended the annual

Dulwich College symposium, this year entitled 'Uncertainty.' Students were allowed to

choose from seven different break out options, ranging from 'Philosophical and Psychological

Problems of Perception' to 'Body and Brain: Uncertainty and the Guiding Role of the Heart in

Decision Making.'

The sessions were both academically challenging and

thought-provoking and provided our students with lots of material to

reflect on. During Professor Barry Smith's closing remarks, we were

exhorted to turn to experts in an era of the devaluing of expertise whilst

simultaneously embracing uncertainty through collaboration. This was a

powerful note to end on. Many thanks to Dulwich College for inviting us

and for kicking off what will be the start of our collaborative venture with

them through the Southwark Schools Learning Partnership.

Show My Homework (SMHW)

The best way for your child to access Show My Homework is through the use of their personal

PIN number. This will show their own homework rather than the homework set by all

teachers for every child in the school.

Families can also access using the PIN number distributed via students at the start of the term.

If you have queries please contact Miss Haynes, Students Services Officer, admin@the-elmgreen-school.org.uk.

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Dates for your Diary

Holiday—Monday 23 October to Friday 27 October

Date Time Activity Who should attend?

Wednesday 11 October 9.00am -10.15am Open Morning Prospective families, especial-

ly families of Year 6 students

Thursday 12 October 4.30pm-7.00pm Year 11 Parents Evening Year 11 Families

Thursday 19 October 6.00pm - 8.00pm Sixth Form Open Evening Prospective Year 12 families

Date Time Activity Who should attend?

Tuesday 7 November 8.45am – 9.45am Tea, Toast and Tours All Families

Wednesday 8 November 6.30pm - 8.00pm Governors Communication, &

Behaviour Committee

All Families

Thursday 9 November 4.30pm – 7.00pm Year 10 Parents Evening Year 10 Families

Wednesday 22 November 6.30pm -8.00pm Governors Resources, Leadership

& Management Committee Governors

Saturday 25 November 10.30am – 12.00pm Parent’s and Carers’ Council All Families

Thursday 30 November 4.30pm – 7.00pm Year 8 Parents Evening Year 8 Families

Wednesday 6 December 6.30pm -8.00pm Full Governing Body Meeting Governors

Thursday 14 December Approx. 6.30pm School Christmas Concert All families

Generation Windrush at The Elmgreen School

H istory was bought to life in the library last week when we welcomed Shango Baku and Karen Rosen from the Museum of

London to our school. Shango, an actor and writer as well as the Artistic Director of CETTIE (Cultural Exchange through

Theatre in Education) talked to our students about Generation Windrush, and shared the story of his journey from the Caribbean

to this country many years ago.

Shango arrived in the UK in 1962. Just seventeen years old, he had travelled across the Atlantic all the way from Trinidad where

he had spent his childhood outdoors, making cricket bats from coconut trees and catapults from the soles of his shoes. Shango

was excited and full of expectation. On the long journey he had made friends with islanders from all over the Caribbean. ‘We

shared a love of sport, dressing up, and music; and we had an easy going, laid back attitude to life. We were part of the British

Empire and we accepted without question our first loyalty was to Britain. We had fought in the Second World War; we sang the

National Anthem, we listened to the BBC overseas news broadcast every day at 6PM.’

Shango’s first shock on arriving in the UK was the cold. He can still

remember the long train journey to London seeing trees without leaves,

and white stuff like cotton wool hanging from the branches. By the time

he arrived in Chiswick, where his parents lived, he was frozen to the bone

and had to stay inside for three days.

Shango’s first few years in the UK were happy ones. His landlords were

friendly, he got a good job as a clerical assistant in the civil service and he

was accepted as an equal and a friend by his white colleagues.

But all the same, he was aware that his newly arrived friends were

struggling. It was hard to find lodgings at a time when it was common to

see adverts in shop windows baldly stating ‘No blacks, no Irish, no dogs.’

Some slept in underground shelters by night and looked for work by day.

When they did find accommodation the conditions were overcrowded and cramped.

One evening Shango was jumped on by a group of Teddy Boys, who threatened to give him a beating if they ever saw him in the

area again. ‘I was frightened and flabbergasted,’ he recalled. ‘London wasn’t as safe as I had thought.’

Shangu spent some time at University in Dublin, but financial support was withdrawn by his parents when they found out he

was spending more time partying than studying.

Back in London, he faced hard times. He was on his own, and had to make his way in life with no job and no place to stay.

Gradually he turned his life around. The 1970’s was a pivotal time for Shangu. ‘It was a time of awakening for many black people

about their difficult past,’ he says. ‘We had been seen as being on the lower rung of every ladder, of needing to be ‘civilised’. This

had to change.’

Shango’s response was to leave his job at the civil service and explore his creative talents. He worked as a

musician, then as a writer and as an actor. He formed RAPP (Radical Alliance of Poets and Players) telling the

stories of the black British experience through music, drama and poetry. He has since had a long career raising

cultural awareness and highlighting black achievement.

‘The world is your oyster,’ Shango told our young people, ‘you can be what you want to be. Those men and

women who first arrived on Windrush all those years ago paved the way and opened the door for us to be free.

We have a responsibility to maintain those equal opportunities and make the world a better place for everyone.’

We have a copy of Shango Baku’s book ‘Beacons of Liberation,’ in the library.

‘The Politics of Language’ A Lecture

D r. Matt Williams, lecturer in PPE at Jesus College, Oxford and our link fellow, came in for a day's sessions with

Year 11 and Sixth Form students on Wednesday 4 October.

He ran a session with Year 12 which focussed on which degrees led to which jobs

(the answers were quite surprising in some cases - the only degree the BBC don't

favour for tier journalists is a degree in journalism!) He asked students to pose

questions that they really wanted to know the answer to. This was designed to

encourage them to start thinking outside their subjects and to show the kind of

passion for ideas and learning that is a prerequisite of a successful application to

an elite university. In response to one student's affirmation that her question was

weird, he responded 'don't worry about weird, we love weird!' The weirder and

more wonderful the questions, the better.

For potential Oxbridge candidates in

Year 11, he asked them to write down

three preconceptions about Oxford

students and one question. This

precipitated a lively debate about the

demographic of students at Oxford and

Cambridge, during which students'

misconceptions were challenged and

they were allowed to pose some very

challenging questions themselves. Matt

was open about the

underrepresentation of state-educated,

BAME students at Oxford and

Cambridge and stressed their desire to change that by encouraging our students to apply.

He spent time giving mock interviews to our Oxbridge candidates, posing questions like 'what is the value of reading

twilight?' and 'what does it mean to be normal' Students found this to be a useful experience and will doubtless stand

them in good stead should they be invited to interview in December.

Finally, Matt gave a lunchtime lecture on 'The

Politics of Language,' a topic on which he has

recently published a book. He spoke to students

and staff about the power structures behind

language and encouraged them to question the

rigidity with which we often approach

language. Most controversially, he spoke about

the arbitrary nature of swearwords and why

particular words are deemed to be more offensive

than others.

All in all, it was a highly informative, engaging and intellectually challenging day for all students involved and Matt

was full of admiration for their openness, articulacy and willingness to engage with complex questions.

Brand new book by Fault in our stars author

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Sixteen-year-old Aza never intended to pursue

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from Russell Pickett’s son, Davis.

Aza is trying. She is trying to be a good daughter, a good friend, a good

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John Green talks about the books that have had the most impact on him this so far this year in his vlog let’s

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Books recommended by Fault in our stars author John Green