View - Walthamstow School for Girls

“Neglect not the gift that is in thee”
Greensheet
SUMMER 2015
s
u
Pl
Headteacher’s message
Dear Parents and Carers,
We are coming once more to the end of yet another intensive and action
packed year which marks the end of my third full academic year at the
school. We continually acknowledge and celebrate the established tradition
of girls’ education on this site, a tradition which has contributed to making
WSFG what it is today. In 1913, just over one hundred years ago, two
hundred girls were educated here. We now have nine hundred students on
our roll.
In 2014, our Year 11 students brought the school the very best GCSE
examination results it has ever had, and 20% higher than the national
average. This led to numerous national awards for WSFG. This is only one
of the many reasons that make us proud of our school, and confirms in me
the sense of privilege I feel in leading a school with such great students, and
such a committed and hard-working workforce.
Please do enjoy this selection of recent school events which we have
included in this issue. I am sure you will sense the spirit of optimism, joy and
pride of the girls in all the photographs. This is certainly our experience as
teachers. A visiting teacher to the school once told me that she could not
believe the high number of activities and trips which are organised here. She
added that the other schools she visited were starting to wind down, but at
WSFG it appeared to be the total opposite!
I would like to thank you all for your unstinting support of your daughter’s
school this year and to thank our staff and our students for all their hard
work. Finally, on behalf of the school governors, our staff and myself, I wish
you all a safe and happy summer holiday.
And of course ‘Eid Mubarak’ to all of our Muslim friends!
Yours sincerely
Meryl Davies
In this edition of the
Greensheet Plus:
• In memory of Pat Marino
• Visit by the Director of the
Royal Opera House
• Thomas Reuters
photography competition
• MyBnk Back my Business
• Cenlig Business Challenge
• Year 9 Cookery
Competition
• Year 8 MFL Festival
• Mathematics Challenge
• Drama Department News
• Duke of Edinburgh
Expeditions
• South Africa expedition
• Cenlig Film-making Project
• The London Knowledge
Quiz
• ICT and Computing Trips
• Hummingbird Bakery Trip
• E17 Art Trail
• Ski Trip
• University of Oxford Trip
• Mathematics Roadshow
• Tottenham Hotspur Tour
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Parents and Carers Classes
London City Pitch
Gardening Club
London Duck Tour
Geography Trip
Mathematics Inspiration
Show
Year 11 Steel Band Music
for Youth National Festival
Year 8 Steel Band
Performance
Steel Bands - An Evening of
Music
The Story of Sadako Sasaki
Eat or Heat Baby Bank
Accelerated Reader
ADT exhibition
Sports Day
Summer Interform
Eat or Heat Fun Run
Ms Kelly’s Swimathon
Step into Dance
Pat Marino
Walthamstow School for Girls
Headteacher 1986 - 2000
It was with great sadness that we announced a few weeks ago the death of
our former Headteacher, Pat Marino, who was Headteacher of the school
from 1986 -2000. Her funeral was held on Friday 10th July 2015.
There will be a memorial service for Pat later in the year. Information about
the service will be published in the Greensheet early in the new academic
year.
Pat Marino with current and past colleagues, 2014
Royal Opera House Director visits
Walthamstow School for Girls
Kasper Holten, the Director for
Opera at the Royal Opera House,
Covent Garden, visited the School
earlier this month to speak to
students in Years 7-9.
The students, all with an interest in
the performing arts, listened to Mr
Holten speaking about his passion for
opera, which developed at the age of
ten when he visited the opera in his
native city, Copenhagen. He went on
to become Artistic Director at The Royal Danish Opera at the age of 27
and spent eleven years in that role, receiving a knighthood from the Queen
of Denmark for his services to the country before coming to the UK as
Director of the Royal Opera House in 2011.
Speaking of his admiration for the excitement of live performances, the
courage, skill and passion of performance and his good fortune at working
with the world’s greatest voices, Mr Holten convinced over 100 young
people that opera is not elitist but accessible to all as he urged them to
be open to the experience and visit the opera before too long or risk
missing out on years of
enjoyment.
After playing the girls an
excerpt from an opera by
Puccini to demonstrate
the depths of emotion
typically portrayed,
Kasper Holten took a
range of questions from
the students.
Mr Holten’s visit was arranged
by the charity “Speakers for
Schools” who contacted the
Headteacher, Meryl Davies,
to offer the school this
opportunity. Ms Davies said
“Walthamstow School for Girls
was tremendously excited to
welcome such a prominent
figure from the operatic world
to our school. Many of the
girls have not yet experienced a performance at the opera but Kasper’s
enthusiasm will have sparked an interest among the girls, who listened
intently to what he had to say and asked intelligent, relevant questions
following the talk. It was a privilege to be part of the audience and I am
grateful to Kasper Holten for taking the time out of his busy schedule to
come to speak to our students”.
Kasper Holten visited Walthamstow after morning rehearsals in Covent
Garden and returned to the Royal Opera House for a performance of Don
Giovanni in the evening.
Photography Competition
Thomson Reuters
In June, a group of our Year 9 students visited Thomson Reuters’ office in
Canary Wharf after entering
a school photography
competition run by the
company on the theme of
community.
WSFG students: Amanah
Ibrahim, Bella Evans, Mia
Power-Rice,Tayyabah Tahir and
Vidura Sothilingam, gathered
with participants from other
East London schools at
the Thomson Reuters’ office in Canary Wharf to see their photographs
exhibited, talk to some of the top photographers and journalists in the UK
and visit the biggest news room in Europe!
Congratulations to our
photography team and
in particular Tayyabah
Tahir who captured the
shot on the next page
winning the “Wild Card”
category. Here are some
of the comments from
our students about the
day:
“The photographers
of Reuters work on a
global scale and talked abouthow photos are distributed. We looked at where a
photographer’s life would lead, going to various places around the world, trusting
principles.
The experience was interesting and we took valuable information from this.
There was a Q&A
session with Russell
Boyce and Dylan
Martinez, which
gave us an insight
into their jobs”
Mia Power-Rice and
Vidura Sothilingam
“We got to explore
the newsroom
and saw all the
cameras and video
recorders. I really
liked how, around
Our winning photograph
the building, there
were photographs
of major events that had happened in the world shot by Reuters photographers. I
really would like to return, it was a great opportunity.”
Amanah Ibrahim
Ms Bugden
Assistant Headteacher
All the schools
stood by the
winning photos
projected on a
large screen in
Canada Square
for all of Canary
Wharf to see!
Little Lockers: Rachel Avery, Gulcan
Altinay, Zoe Pitts, Rozhelin Kilinc and
Roxana Paun
Back My Business Market Place
Throughout March,Year 8s participated in a number of Back My Business
workshops run by MyBnk.
These teams sold their products
at a MyBnk Market Place during
the last week of the spring term. It
was an incredibly busy lunchtime
with students queuing throughout
lunch to purchase the wares of
the different businesses.
The products sold by our teams included
caricature manga drawings, high end toiletries,
decorations for the inside of lockers, tote bags,
snacks and stationery.
Our Year 8s were challenged to create real enterprise and business ideas
that they could make and sell at a market place. Teams were competing for
0% interest loans of up to £40 and were supported by MyBnk Business
Gurus on their entrepreneurial journey.
All the teams managed to either break even and
repay their £40 loan or make a profit. One team
was so successful that they made a £60 profit in
just 45 minutes of selling their products! MyBnk
said this was the most successful stall that they
have ever
worked with!
The business ideas that the Year 8s generated were then taken to our Year
9 MyBnkers and they selected six teams that would receive a £40 loan to
develop their business and source their products.
The successful teams were:
Crafty Hands: Esme Allen, Coral Monaghan, Rosie Ruxton and
Natasha Cardinal Mndeme
Mix and Match: Romesa Uddin, Samera Akram, Sneha Uthayakumar and
Ayesha Imran
Fandoms: Bushra Anwar, Remy Bal–O, Nusrath Chowdhury,Tajawana Lewis,
Shabitha Ampigaipalan,
Shafeenah Jauny
More Arty: Trixie Eberhard,
Claudia Nguyen, Umaymah
Khan, Beth Scully, Ronja Blight
and Eve Billington
Geek Sheek: Madihah Ali,
Kamile Aleskeviciute, Iqra
Yousaf and Yaren Pancar
Congratulations to these Year 8s for
their hard work and dedication during
the workshops towards the marketplace.
Hopefully the process will have inspired
some entrepreneurial young women of
the future.
Ms Bugden
Assistant Headteacher
Year 9 Cookery
Competition
Cenlig Business Challenge Day
Walthamstow School
for Girls works
closely with Kelmscott
Humanities College
and Willowfield
on a number of
collaborative events.
into Education.”
In June, sixty students
from these three
schools participated
in a business and
enterprise challenge
day run by “Business
The students joined in a range of activities throughout the day to help
develop their employability skills, which included conceptualising and
marketing a healthy loaf, an international trade game and designing a pop-up
shop for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. A number of prizes were awarded
at the end of the day for all the teams and this year a WSFG group won the
award for best overall team!
The prize for this fantastic
achievement was a trip
to the Shard which took
place just before the end
of term.
Congratulations to all
involved!
Ms Bugden
Assistant Headteacher
Competition was hotting up in the Food
Technology Room in June as Year 9 finalists
battled it out, Master Chef-style, to win this
year’s Eat or Heat Challenge. Extra spice was brought to the proceedings by
VIP judges, including Kimberley Wilson, who was a runner up in the BBC’s
British Bake Off in 2013.
Every Year 9 student has been challenged this year in lessons to design a
healthy, balanced and delicious main course from food bank ingredients, to
publicise local Walthamstow charity “Eat or Heat”. Winning dishes were
then carefully selected from each group, and the students responsible for
creating them were invited to participate in Friday’s event. Finalists worked
hard to recreate their main course and an irresistible dessert, also made
from food bank ingredients, wash up and present their work before the
deadline.
Kimberley was overwhelmingly positive about all the entries, praising the
creativity and the efforts of all the girls, as well as providing valuable tips on
how to improve their skills. All the judges ultimately agreed, however, that
the winners should be Ummi Hoque, Katherine Blyth and Mia Jeffries, all from
9C and Food Technology group 9Y7, and the girls were awarded special “Eat
or Heat” trophies.
Gary Nash, Chair of “Eat or Heat”, thanked all the contestants and stressed
how important it is to volunteer for local community charities. “Eat or
Heat” is now regularly helping one hundred and fifty local families a month.
If you would like to donate canned,
dried or long life produce to the “Eat or
Heat” food bank, there are numerous
drop off points in the local area,
including our school.
The Eat or Heat Team
Year 8 MFL Festival
A huge thank you to all the MFL teachers for all their hard work in the
run up to the annual
festival.
As ever, it was a
fantastic multicultural
event with
performances from
all Year 8 Language
groups, duets and
even a Turkish solo.
Many thanks to Ms Clarke and Mr Manima for recording the event.
Thank you very much to the judges; Ms Bugden, Ms Warren and
Ms Jean-Baptiste for giving up their time on the day even though they could
not come to an agreement regarding the winner.
So for the first time in Festival history, there were two winners: MANY
CONGRATULATIONS to both Les Bien Armées (Ms Desbenoit’s French
group) and Las Gangsters (Ms Prieto’s Spanish group) for COMING JOINT
TOP!
Thanks again
to all involved
and well done
to all the
participants!
Another great
display of
WSFG talent.
Ms Prieto
Head of MFL
Mathematics Challenge
Winners 2015
The Intermediate Mathematical Challenge (IMC) and
Junior Mathematical Challenge (JMC) encourages
mathematical reasoning, precision of thought and
fluency in using basic mathematical techniques to
solve interesting problems. It is aimed at students in Years 7-11. The
problems are designed to make students think, to be memorable and
enjoyable.
Mathematics controls more aspects
of the modern world than most
people realise – from iPods, cash
machines, telecommunications
and airline booking systems to
production processes in engineering,
efficient distribution and stockholding, investment strategies and
‘whispering’ jet engines. The scientific
and industrial revolutions flowed from the realisation that mathematics
was both the language of nature, and also a way of analysing – and
hence controlling – our environment. In the last fifty years, old and new
applications of mathematical ideas have transformed the way we live.
The result of these challenges can be found on the following pages.
Students in Years 9, 10 and 11 completed the IMC (Intermediate Maths
Challenge) and gained;
ngaroo
2 Pink Ka
4 Gold
10 Silver
e
38 Bronz
Kangaroo:
Edagul Ulucay for Year 11
Sreja Thiruchelvam for Year 10
Best in S
ch
Best in Y ool – Sreja Thiruch
ea
elv
Best in Y r 11 – Edagul Uluc am
ay
ear 10 –
Sreja Thiru
Best in Y
ch
ear 9 –
Vidura Soth elvam
ilingam
,
for Year 11
y
r
u
h
d
w
o
Gold:
h
C
10
ay & Fariha
as for Year
Edagul Uluc am & Dinusha Kulath
helv
Sreja Thiruc
Silver
:
Miriam
As
Ola Bud hon & Hanna
h
d, Ham
nah Sha Azlin for Year
Vidura
Sothilin
k
gam, H eel, Sumayyah 11
annah
Uddin &
Baines ,
Saru
Louisa
O’Sulliv ka Jeyaseelan
an & E
lysia Fo for Year 10
lkes for
Year 9
Bronze:
Prudence Bevoir-Stephens, Sahrish Khan, Haleema Ahmed, Samintha Thavarajah,
Namra Malik, Rosalind Robshaw, Aamna Chaudhry, Hana Dadabhoy & Aneesah
Mukadam for Year 11
Rose Schechter, Rohafza Jan, Eliza Jones, Lilian Ngo, Ameera Waseem, Umairah
Baccus, Ellis Tree, Monique Edwards, Kearney Sullivan, Milena Szymborska, Emine
Omer, Sara Khan, Charlotte Gamble, Ashna Butt, Phoebe Elliott, Khadijah Ahmed,
Petrova Ekaterina & Aisha Amanat for Year 10
Amina Abrar, Safiya Maidment, Aisha Hashi, Nyah Nish,Tosin Ajayi, Maiya Ward,
Zainab Khan, Hirah Awan, Shazia Begum-Hussain & Aaminah Badat for Year 9
Years 7 and 8 completed the JMC (Junior Maths Challenge) and gained;
2 Go
l
14 S d
il
19 B ver
ronz
e
Best in Scho
ol – Hafsah K
hurshid
Best in Year
8 – Sneha Uth
ayakumar
Best in Year
7 – Hafsah K
hurshid
r8
Gold:
mar for Yea
u
k
a
y
a
th
U
7
Sneha
id for Year
h
rs
u
h
K
h
a
Hafs
Silver :
Abigail Peak, C
oral Monagha
n, Daya Panesa
Romesa Uddin
r, Katrin Ahven
, Emily Ford, H
,
afsa Ahmad, Ja
Ismay Bowles,
de Carr ydice,
Eve Billington
& Trixie Eberh
Kate Lucas, N
ard for Year 8
oeka Bradley &
Emily Jeffery fo
r Year 7
noute,
ica Darkwah, Assa Ka
Bronze:
ss
Je
n,
so
ea
D
ly
Li
h,
ed,
ambloc
Igbinovia, Areej Ahm
la
ge
Erin Cadley, Kalila H
An
,
iff
ar
Sh
h
adihah Ali, Aliya
Nawal Mohamed, M
ar 8
y,
h Mukadam for Ye
ra
Sa
&
i
ul
ah Ali, Hannah Cole
llo
je
rim
D
e
Ka
a,
ot
Cerin
Bo
m
ia
ar
Krishnapavan, M
Tanya Raynor, Divya
ar7
lley Edwards for Ye
Areeba Ramzan & Ti
Congratulations!
Mr Salmon
Mathematics Challenge Co-ordinator
News from the Drama Department
We have been kept very busy in Drama since January, with both Year 11
and Year 10 GCSE students taking practical and written exams and a full
schedule of extra-curricular activities.
In April, our thirty-four Year 11 students performed scenes from plays to
an external examiner, having previewed their pieces to friends and parents
the week before. Their hard work was reflected in the quality of their
performances. A few weeks later, the same girls sat their written Drama
examination; judging by the smiles afterwards this also went well and we
wish the Year 11s the best for all of their GCSE exams.
Meanwhile, our industrious Year 10 students rehearsed and performed their
Unit 1 devised pieces to an invited audience; the standard of the work was
amazingly high. We are proud of all of our GCSE students.
We have now seen the last of our Old Vic Schools Club productions of
the year; this was the Cole Porter musical ‘High Society’. It was a fantastic
show and ended the year on a
really happy and positive note. It
has been a real pleasure for the
Old Vic Schools Club team – Ms
Careless, Mr Kerr and I – to see
the thirty Year 9 girls embrace this
opportunity so enthusiastically
and become such confident and
mature theatre goers. We are
planning to have another sharing
evening for parents and the girls
are in the process of putting portfolios
together in order to achieve the Bronze Arts
Award. Two of our club members, Katie
Krupnitskaya and Sandra Swiergolik, spent a
day at the Old Vic in July to see behind the
scenes. We are in the process of applying
to participate in the scheme next year and
hope to be able to offer the experience to more students from September.
I am also hoping to start a Key Stage 4 Theatre Club so we can continue to
nurture the girls’ love of theatre.
A smaller group, comprising thirteen Year 8 students and one Year 7, are also
in the thick of devising a performance for “Barbican in a Box”. This project
has involved working with an artist mentor from the world-renowned
theatre company Complicite in order to create an original piece of drama.
Our stimulus has been an enormous ballot box filled with different objects
– a newspaper, a megaphone, a video camera and an umbrella, amongst
others – all connected by the theme of democracy and protest. This has
been a challenging process, not least because our mentor is very exacting!
However, the girls have risen to the challenge magnificently and have
constantly surprised me by the maturity and sophistication of their opinions
and ideas. Ms Landon, one of our part-time teachers of Drama teachers
and an experienced theatre practitioner, has also been contributing her
expertise. The girls performed to an invited audience at the Barbican this
month.
The Year 7 and 8 Drama Club, run by
Ms Wallace, has begun working on a
thirty minute version of As You Like It for
the Shakespeare Schools Festival. This
will be performed at
the Pleasance Theatre
on Monday 19th
October. We have
participated in this
national celebration
Shakespeare for
several years now;
past productions
include Hamlet, A
Midsummer Night’s Dream, Henry V and
The Winter’s Tale. It is a great experience
which gives the opportunity to work with
professional directors and workshop leaders
of
and to perform in a real theatre! As part of the rehearsal process, the cast
will be going to see As You Like It at the Globe in September.
Duke of Edinburgh expeditions
In June, after months of training and
planning, twenty four Year 10 pupils set off
on a journey of a lifetime, namely their Duke
of Edinburgh qualifying expedition.
In the meantime, thirty Year 7 students went to see Beyond Bollywood at
the London Palladium and a group of twenty Humanities’ students in Year
9 will be participating in a workshop delivered by the Donmar Warehouse
to prepare for seeing the play Temple at the theatre in Covent Garden.
This play explores the moral crisis experienced by the Church of England
when the Occupy movement set up camp outside St Paul’s Cathedral in
2011. We hope this will provide the students with food for thought and
discussion. Our Year 9s, who will be studying GCSE Drama next year, will
be participating in three days of workshops run by Youth of Creative Arts on
the hot political topic of British values. We hope that this will culminate in a
performance.
The Performing Arts Faculty is continuing
to collaborate on our production of The
Wizard of Oz. This will be performed in the
last week of term. There are some fantastic
performances emerging from the
rehearsal process and the show should
be a lot of fun. Ms Howie has been
working with students in Art to create
some wonderful visual material for the
production, so we hope to see you at
one of the three shows.
Finally, some exciting news: we
have been successful in our application to enter a creative partnership
with the Unicorn Theatre. This means that the Year 7 students starting
here in September will all go and see two shows a year and participate
in workshops for each of the three years of Key Stage 3. This is an
unprecedented project which gives a whole year group the opportunity to
engage in the work of a professional theatre and become seasoned theatregoers. Watch this space for further details.
Ms Cornford
Head of Drama
After an early morning start, each team was
dropped off at a different location in the
Chilterns. They were then tasked with using
their navigation skills to follow their routes
to the campsite…15 kilometres away!
Despite a few detours, all groups arrived at
the campsite in good time, set up their tents
and cooked themselves an evening meal
before retiring for an early night.
After a 7am start and
a nutritious breakfast
the groups set off on
their second 15km trek
through the countryside.
The weather was
glorious and the routes
took teams along canals,
around reservoirs and
through woodland. All
groups made it back in
good time, passed with
flying colours and were
rewarded with a cookie and hot chocolate!
I would like to congratulate all members of the different groups as well as
say a huge thank you to Mr Barham, Ms Jean-Baptiste, Ms Eveleigh, Ms Black
and Ms Famiglietti for their help over the course of the year.
Mr Mace
DofE Co-ordinator
London Wing ATC expedition
South Africa 2015
In February Ellie Duplock, 11G and I were lucky
enough to get the chance to travel to the
Drakensberg mountains, South Africa, with the
London Wing Air Cadets.
on two pots over a wood fire.
We were honoured to be given the opportunity to spend time getting to
know some of the children and contribute to these children’s health but
also their education. Sometimes being as fortunate as we are, it’s easy to
forget how such a simple idea can really benefit these children in the long
run; something as simple as a kitchen, allowing them one hot school meal a
day.
Our journey started in late April last year when
we first heard about this exciting opportunity.
For us, it was such an unreal concept and
something we never thought we’d be able to
experience, but after nine months endless
fundraising and a few gruelling training programmes later, we found
ourselves right in the heart of the South Africa’s Kwazulu Natal.
We will remember forever how it felt to truly help others and no matter
how cliché, it sounds, we encourage you to do something good too!
During our stay we had many amazing activities planned including safaris
and a tour of Rorke’s Drift, where the famous battle between the British
and the Zulus took place, as well as walking the fugitives’ trail and an
acclimatisation practice. So, lots of walking! However, we were also given
some free time which we were able to spend with the other cadets from
across London and really get to know them.
Saoirse Macklin, 11H
Alongside these, we were given the chance to go on a four day trek to
the highest point in the Drakensberg mountains, ‘Giants’ Castle’. Whilst
camping, we saw nature at its finest, bathing in waterfalls and sleeping under
the stars. Although the climb was extremely
hard, it was a truly incredible experience and,
despite the aching legs, and sweaty T-Shirts, every
moment was worth it.
Despite being able to take part in all of these
amazing activities, the best part of our trip, and
the main reason for us travelling to South Africa
and spending nearly a year fundraising, was to
help raise money to build a kitchen for Mkhize
Primary School. This was a school in a less
wealthy rural area, which provided education and
one hot meal for over 700 children, all cooked
With thanks to the PE Department for supplying sports equipment!
For more info on ATC air cadets and your nearest squadron visit:
http://www.raf.mod.uk/rcadets/findasquadron/
Cenlig Film Making Project
Throughout January and February, twenty Year 9 students wrote a script
for a short film based around the theme of “community” and produced it.
This was a joint media project with other Cenlig schools in Waltham
Forest. Straight Curve, the film company the school worked with, were
incredibly impressed with the original ideas and creativity of our girls.
In March, the films of all the schools were screened at the WOSCARS –
Walthamstow’s version of the Oscars! WSFG won a number of prizes at
the event. These included: most original concept, best use of grounds and
the most prestigious category: best secondary school film.
Congratulations to the following girls who participated in the project.
Mia Jeffries, Malaika Mustaq, Sophia Hanna Khairul Azaham, Lucy Carter,
Lily Down, Katie Krupnitskaya, Navin Yousouf, Joy Akintan, Noemi Munt,
Maheen Ali, Maiya Ward, Ola Chimczak, Hannah Ross, Patricia Williams-Torres,
Sandra Swiergolik, Ummi Hoque, Aarifah Amidu and Desy Koparanska.
Ms Bugden
Assistant Headteacher
The London Knowledge Quiz
What is the cheapest property on a Monopoly board?
What was the Tate Modern’s building used as before the Tate opened?
How many MPs are there in London?
These are the type of questions that our (incredibly) knowledgeable Year 9
Quiz Team were faced with as part of the Mayor’s Fund for London “London
Knowledge Quiz”.
Thirteen girls were selected by their peers to take part in the London
Knowledge Quiz. All the girls were chosen because their peers believed
them to be knowledgeable and have the ability to remember random
facts about London. We went to the Museum of London to gain more
knowledge; from the original thirteen they then voted for the final four and
two reserves to become the quiz team.
They team did extremely well in the first round and came FIRST out of
the whole borough, but they were just pipped to the post in the second
round so unfortunately did not make it to the live final. The questions were
extremely hard and they did very well. They also worked very well as a
team and learning some great new skills.
The four girls who answered the questions were:
Lily Down 9S, Hannah Baines 9G, Martha Bowsher 9G and Katherine Blyth 9C
The 2 reserves were:
Malika Arshad 9G and Lucy Carter 9F
And the rest of the knowledge team were:
Hirah Awan 9W, Hanna Khairul Azaham 9S, Katie Krupnitskaya 9F,
Michaela Serieux 9C, Ummi Hoque 9C, Mia Jeffries 9C and Karhys McCarthy 9H
Well done girls!
Ms Rae and Ms Scott
ICT and Computing Trips 2015
Our trip to Thorpe Park this year went extremely well. All Year 10 GCSE
Computer Science and ICT students had an opportunity to attend an
informative workshop, where they found out how computer technology is
used by theme parks to ensure safety, manage customers and advertise the
rides. After the workshop, as well as trying out some of the rides, students
also had time to look at the IT devices used on the rides to maintain safety.
As well as our trip to Thorpe Park, the forty winners of the WSFG
International Women’s Day competition spent a fun and educational
day out at Legoland, Windsor. They started the day by taking part in a
computer control workshop. Their task was to follow some quite complex
instructions and build a motorised lion from Lego bricks.
Once the students had
built their lions, the next
step was to programme
them using the WeDo
visual programming
language. The students
programmed the lion to
sit up and then lie down
and roar when it sensed a
bone.
After the workshop, students
had an opportunity to enjoy
the park and keep an eye out
for any more technology used
by Legoland to ensure the wellbeing and safety of its customers.
Mr Bryant
Director of ICT
Hummingbird Bakery Trip
In May, ten students went on a rewards trip
to the Hummingbird Bakery and Spitalfields
market.
The students had either been winners
of the cupcake competition run by
Ms Wilkinson or the box design
competition run by Ms Howie. Students
enjoyed a cupcake from the famous
bakery and then had a brief tour of the
street art in and around the Brick Lane
area.
Ms Howie
Art Department
E17 Art trail
The Year 7 portrait exhibition was part of the E17 Art trail on Saturday
6th June. Each Year 7 student had a "GREEN project" portrait displayed
and members of the public were invited into the School Lodge to view
the work. The feedback was very positive. Ms Davies and Ms Dominique
attended the exhibition and commented that it was "a lovely way to spend
a Saturday morning".
Ms Howie
Art Department
WSFG Ski Trip 2015
Arosa, Switzerland
After being moved to a different ski resort at the last minute last year
because of a lack of snow, I made the decision to book the resort that we
were moved to, rather than risk the lower resort of Torgon. Although a ski
trip to Arosa would be more expensive, last year’s experience seemed to
suggest this was the best option.
As it turned out, Torgon had no snow the week that we were travelling and,
in fact, had completely shut the week before, whereas the snow at Arosa
was wonderful. We had two days of fresh powder, which meant that there
was a wonderful cover of snow on the piste, so our first run of the day was
on snow that no one had skied on before. During the rest of the week, the
snow that we had for the first couple of days stopped completely and we
had some lovely sunny days. We were so lucky, since most of the other ski
resorts in Europe had either shut for the season or had only a few higher
runs left open. Every run at Arosa was open all week and we were told by
many people that this was in fact their best snow of the season.
The journeys both there and back were very smooth and we managed to
catch both an earlier ferry and an earlier train up to Arosa. Even with a
quick, smooth journey, we still had students ask if we were in France yet as
we came out of the Dartford Tunnel!
beginners were off the nursery slopes within the first couple of days. In
fact, on the third day, they were all taking the gondola up and skiing down
the fantastic blue and red runs. This was quite amazing progress. The ski
instructors were all very impressed by our girls and made a point of telling
me how much the dry slope lessons before they went on the trip had
helped their progression to the higher slopes.
When we weren’t skiing, we all took part in a quiz night, film night, ice
skating on the indoor ice rink (there was too much snow on the outdoor
ice rink!) or playing ‘Eis Stock’, a game using heavy stones on ice, similar to
curling. Oh, and of course, the final evening disco.
Unfortunately this year there were a couple of injuries and Luella and Kalila
were unable to ski for a few days as a result. But they were both fit and well
soon after we returned to England.
All our students throughout displayed a fantastic level of co-operation,
which made the whole week a very pleasurable experience for the staff as
well as all the students. So, well done girls, thanks for all your amazing effort,
particularly with your fantastic timekeeping, organisation and behaviour
throughout the week. You were all a credit to the school.
Thanks also to Ms Careless and Ms Wood for all their help and to the Ski
Company for another smooth and well organised trip.
The train journey up to
Arosa was as beautiful
as last year, but by that
stage everyone was
very tired and could not
appreciate it as much
as they did on the way
home.
Particular
congratulations go
to Ismay Bowles, who
was awarded the Best
Beginner certificate,
Hanna Khairul, awarded
Most Improved Skier
and Hannah Baines,
awarded Best Skier.
The students really
took to the fantastic
conditions and all of the
Mr Fowler
Ski trip organiser.
Trip to the University of Oxford
In March, a group of students from Year 10 had the opportunity to spend the
day at the University of Oxford. Here is some feedback from the students
who went:
“The trip to Oxford was not only educational and taught me a lot about university
and the different options available, but also the city itself was breathtakingly
beautiful, with tall stone buildings and libraries filled with mountains of books.
The atmosphere was so friendly, people seemed to cycle everywhere on gorgeous
vintage bikes and the spring sunshine shone through the trees, dappling the paved
streets. It was an interesting trip because it taught me what university life could be
like and also the importance of my GCSEs.”
Isabel Billington 10C
“The visit to the University of Oxford was a great experience and it gave me an
insight of what the life of a university student is like. This trip was very educational,.
I was able to see the student accommodation and we were given two tours of the
colleges at the University of Oxford and we were able see the beautiful vintage
buildings. We also visited the Pitts River Museum, which had over 40,000 artefacts.
We also visited the Oxford University Museum of Natural History and explored the
collections they had on display. Overall the visit was a fun and interactive day and I
would definitely recommend it.”
Aleena Shazad 10C
“Yesterday I was one of
a number of students
from our school that
went on a trip to
Oxford University. We
were accompanied
by students from
Willowfield and
Kelmscott schools.
The trip was a couple
of hours away from
WSFG and we took a
coach to the university. It was from this coach that I first saw the city of Oxford,
which was clearly a central part of how the famous university functions. It is an
old city – built up around the university – and it looked beautiful, particularly
as we saw it in the early spring. There were new flowers beginning to bloom in
between the buildings, which varied in age; some seemed to have been there
since the university opened in the 13th century, others from the gothic Victorian
era, and more still which looked like present-day architecture. Despite this
mismatch of eras the whole town merged together in one distinct style, much like
the students who go there.
When we got to Oxford we took a short walk to St. Peter’s College where we
were given a talk on how universities and applications to them work, particularly
helpful if you’re interested in attending Oxford or Cambridge. I found this to be
informative and interesting – it answered many questions I had on university and
gave me a better understanding on how those who sort through the applicants
pick the students they do accept.
After this, we visited Hertford College, one of the university’s oldest, which had
pretty courtyards with ivy growing up the buildings. We were shown around the
chapel, library, and tutor rooms, before being taken by our tour guide to the lunch
hall where we ate a delicious meal. Everyone we met were very kind and seemed
happy to see us.
We then visited two of Oxford’s many well-known museums, which had been set
up and contributed to by some of the people who had once studied there. At
Oxford’s Natural History Museum (the first in England) we gave a presentation
to our guide on one of the exhibits we found there; dinosaur eggs. Having found
out more about these we took a look around the museum before going on to the
Anthropology Museum next door which had all sorts of man-made exhibits. We
were taught more about the study of anthropology (finding out about cultures
through the objects they left behind) and were given a task on finding items in
the museum.
We went back to St. Peter’s College and did a Q&A session with some students
there who talked to us about applying to Oxbridge, deciding what courses we
wanted to take, and options within courses among other things. These students
then gave us tours of St. Peter’s College to end our day.
All in all, I found the trip to Oxford to be an informative experience as well as a
great way to see the beautiful town of Oxford, more than I could have, had I gone
there alone.”
Rose Schechter 10G
“On Wednesday 31st March, I went on a trip to the University of Oxford and
I personally believe that this trip was an excellent experience and that it is a
day that I will always remember.We were given tours of St Peters College and
Hertford College and this trip truly opened my eyes and gave me an insight into
a student’s life in a university, let alone Oxford.We also had the chance to see
the student accommodation and find out about life in Oxford University and the
facilities available. As a group of thirty, we also visited the museums in Oxford
which helped the students with their research and as a result I have gained
many useful skills which will benefit me in the future. One of the many things
that surprised me was the skill of learning about people’s lifestyles and their daily
routine by only analysing objects. Towards the end of this amazing trip, we had
the chance to ask the students questions regarding university and the grades
that they got and the thing that shocked me the most, was the fact that although
many people got Bs, they were still offered a place at Oxford.This truly motivated
me and gave me courage and hope that I may still have a chance to go to
Oxford, the university of my dreams.”
Piremmiha Varatharajan 10C
Ms Robinson
Challenge Co-ordinator
Primary Outreach – Hands-on Maths
Roadshow
In May, Fran Watson came from the
University of Cambridge to spend the
day at WSFG delivering inspirational and
interactive workshops to primary children
from Henry Maynard, Greenleaf, Our
Lady St George and Chingford Church of
England Primary School.
Here is some feedback from the primary schools:
“Thank you so much for this morning's workshops.
The Year 6 children had a great time and came back
buzzing. The children were excited to tell me all that
they had learned!”
Mrs C McNamara
Head of Teaching and Learning
Our Lady and St George's Catholic Primary
School
“I really enjoyed working around the circuit of
problems with my partner.
The tea cups game was the best as it was fun,
but challenging as well.
It was really fun trying different problems even
though we didn't solve them all.”
Year 6 student, Chingford CE.
Visit www.nrich.maths.org to try out
some of the games and puzzles online.
Ms Robinson
Mathematics Primary Outreach
Tottenham Hotspur Tour
A football coach from Tottenham
Hotspur FC has been coming to
Walthamstow School for Girls every
Monday after school to train our
students. The girls have been very
committed to their training and as a
reward they were lucky enough to
be given the opportunity to have a
tour of Tottenham’s stadium, receive
a Tottenham football kit and play a
match on the pitch against another
school.
When the girls arrived at White Hart Lane
on Monday 18th May they were escorted to
the players’ lounge to prepare for their match,
accompanied by the Tottenham Hotspur Ladies
manager and some of the first team players. The girls were then taken to the changing
room where they were given their kits and
the team manager, Danny, explained the team
formation. The girls then went on to the pitch
where two Tottenham Ladies first team players
led them through a warm up and stretches.
Renee Merchant led the girls out onto the pitch
for the first half and the game started with
energy and excitement. We hit the cross bar twice, really testing the other
team’s keeper. Sadly, at the end of the first half, the other team scored,
making it 1- 0. Both teams went into the tunnel for a half time talk and
came out for the second half determined to win. In the second half, WSFG
hit the bar, cross bar and side of the net and we were really starting to pile
the pressure on the other team. Unfortunately, the other team managed
to score again and the final score was 2-0. The girls played exceptionally
well, gave 100% effort throughout the game and were a credit to the school,
coming off the pitch still smiling.
After the game we went to the stadium restaurant and had lunch and a
number of presentations took place. Eva Lewis won player of the match and
the school received a signed Erik Lamela shirt (one of the Tottenham FC
players). This was a fantastic experience for all the students and it was a day
they will never forget.
Ms Wood
PE department
Parents and Carers Classes
Spring and Summer 2015
Since January, WSFG has offered three opportunities to parents and carers
to gain new skills which will enable them to help their daughters with
greater confidence: a Parenting Teenagers course (provided by LBWF),
an English for Speakers of other Languages course (provided by CLASS)
and community ICT sessions (provided by members of the school’s IT
department). All of these classes have been free, and have been open to
parents, carers and other members of the community e.g. a number of the
parents who attended the ten week ESOL class were parents of children
attending Church Hill Nursery.
Thanks to Clare Winfunke (LBWF) for the Parenting Teenagers course,
Alison Pearson of CLASS for the key to integration in London ESOL course,
and Mr Bryant and colleagues of WSFG’s IT department for the community
ICT sessions. Thanks also to Olive Dining for delicious refreshments for
the courses, and to the crèche workers who ran the crèche for the ESOL
parents/carers. Feedback has been very positive, and we hope to continue
to work with CLASS and other providers during the next academic year to
offer more opportunities to parents and carers.
Mrs Finamore
Community Liaison Co-ordinator
Walthamstow School for Girls
scoop the jackpot at the
Mayor’s Fund for London City Pitch
Pupils from two schools in Walthamstow came together to pitch ideas in
City Hall to win £1,000 from the Mayor’s Fund for London.
Teams made up of 7-16 year olds from South Grove Primary and
Walthamstow School for Girls presented ideas for community projects to
a panel of five judges, and an audience of more than one hundred and fifty,
complete with time schedules and budgets.
Walthamstow School for Girls scooped the jackpot £1,100 when they
impressed the experienced judges with their idea of creating a peer-to-peer
support network, and training voluntary Year 9 girls to be able to counsel
other pupils in confidence.
Pupils at South Grove Primary won £1,000 for their concrete plans to
work with war veterans to ‘Dig for Victory’ and emulate crops grown
during World War II.
Boris Johnson,
Mayor of London
and Patron
of the charity,
said the pupils
demonstrated
the pride young
Londoners have in
their city.
He said: "It is an
opportunity for them to make their community a better place for everyone and it
is inspiring to see how passionate they are about making a difference.
"Not only that, it's a brilliant chance to learn new skills throughout the process of
creating an idea, pitching and then implementing it.”
What a terrific achievement for the following students who will be
developing their “Your Story, Your Voice” project and presenting it to the
whole school in the new school year:
9S
9F 9G 9C 9H Nasanin Rahmani and Bethany Roberts
Jade Vosa-Baigrie
Leyla Mahmood and Hafsah Patel
Michaela Serieux
Tanwalai Wisutsirikun, Husna Habib, Nimco Ali, Maiya Ward,
Mukarramah Pathan and Karhys McCarthy
Well done girls – a fantastic achievement!
Ms Bugden, Ms Rae and Ms Scott
WSFG Gardening Club
The weather has been good to us this gardening season and we have been
industrious in clearing, planting and harvesting.
Thirty of our Key Stage 3 students were awarded an AQA certificate
in “Introduction to Horticulture”. This was achieved through their
commitment, attendance and participation in a wide range of gardening
tasks and activities. We are very proud of them and hope that the skills
that they have learned will lead to a fruitful, sustained interest for them,
well into their adult gardening lives.
Earlier this term, we harvested lettuce which was bagged and sold to staff.
Currently, we are making the most of the bountiful crop of elderflower
in the school grounds. Elderflower cordial has been on sale to staff and
our student gardeners will be rewarded with elderflower cordial as a
refreshment for their hard labour after gardening club sessions.
In order for our allotment to continue to flourish, we
continue to fund raise. Fundraising has been
wholeheartedly undertaken by Ms Kelly and
Mrs Guest in the LRC. Fundraising events have
included a fun fair and small change collections.
Both events were very well attended and
enjoyable. We even had a candy floss machine.
These two events raised £65.45.
We are now in the process of planning
training opportunities in conjunction
with Organiclea, our local community
based growers. Information will be
published in the weekly Greensheet.
We welcome all members of our
community to attend, no experience
necessary.
Mrs Dominique
Gardening Club
Key Stage 3 trip to the London Duck Tours
Last month, eighteen students from Key Stage
3 went to visit the London Duck Tours with Ms
Iqbal, Ms Hayns and Ms Harvey.
While driving slowly past Downing Street we
managed to see the horse guards and strained
our necks to see Nelson’s Column at Piccadilly
Circus. We marvelled at the historic site.
The Queen’s barber and shoe maker were
spotted in Saint James's Street. Equally well spotted was the yacht shop too.
The driver never stopped at the Ritz. What a shame! But he did whizz us
past Buckingham Palace and past the Goring Hotel where the Duchess of
Cambridge stayed the night before her wedding.
Westminster Abbey was a delight to see as well as Tate Britain. MI6
Headquarters was briefly checked out and Lambeth Palace was pointed out
by our knowledgeable tour guide.
The girls gained knowledge and history about various landmarks around
London. We boarded the amphibious vehicle called Mistress Quickly and
began our journey at the London Eye. We
drove round Parliament Square, and caught
a glimpse of the newest addition of statues;
the Ghandi statue, just around Parliament
Square.
We had a quick look at the front of the
Florence Nightingale Museum before we
got ready to take the plunge
into the Thames
River!
Ms Iqbal
Language and Learning
Development
Geography GCSE field trip
Mathematics Inspiration Show
In April, seventy five Year 10 students embarked on their Geography GCSE
field trip to Juniper Hall in Surrey.
In June, we attended a Mathematicss Inspiration Show at The Bloomsbury
Theatre, in central London.
Their first task was to trek up to the top of Box Hill and, after catching
their breath, admire the fantastic view of the surrounding countryside.
The Mathematics Inspiration show is carefully designed to be both
challenging and fun, and presents mathematics at an accessible level,
encouraging students to boost grades and continue studying the subject at
a higher level. In several highly engaging and interactive shows, Matt Parker,
Rob Eastaway and Hannah Fry (plus special guest) explained why there is
‘actually a point’ to the mathematics our students have been studying this
year.
After making their own sandwiches in the morning (to differing levels of
success!), students travelled to the Sussex coast where they collected their
data for their Geography controlled assessment. This entailed measuring
the length and angle of the beach, comparing the size of the sediment and
looking at the shape and size of the cliffs…all in gale force winds!
On the last day of the trip students collated their data and began the write
up of their controlled assessment which is worth 15% of their final grade.
It was a fantastic educational trip to a new area of the country, I would like
to thank the students for representing the school excellently and to
Ms Jean-Baptiste, Ms Eveleigh and Ms Famigetti for their help over the
three days.
Mr Mace
Head of Geography
These are mathematics shows like
our students have never seen before,
with games, puzzles, surprises and a
few laughs thrown in.
Mr Salmon
Mathematics Challenge Co-ordnator
Year 11 Steel Band progresses to
Music For Youth National Festival
Year 8 Steel Band Performance
Church Hill Nursery 13th June 2015
Congratulations to the Year 11 Steel Band who progressed to perform at
the Music For Youth National Festival in Birmingham on 9th July.
Having performed brilliantly during the Regional Festival held at Cecil
Sharpe House in February, they were selected to perform at the National
Festival. This is the second year running that this band has gone through to
the National Festival, a very unusual achievement!
On Saturday 13th June, the Year 8 Steel Band performed at the Church Hill
Nursery Summer Fête. The students entertained the crowd with two sets
lasting half an hour each. They performed extremely well and were a real
credit to the school. They even had enquiries from impressed parents as to
how they could get their 6 year old daughter into the band!
In Birmingham they will be performing alongside steel bands from across
the country during their session. The National Festival itself includes
performances from youth ensembles in all musical genres and disciplines
and lasts all of the week commencing 6th July.
A full list of performers can be found below:
Esme Allen, Shabitha Ampigaipalan, Kezia Antubam, Pearl Bador, Eve Billington,
Ronja Blight, Erin Cadley, Jessica Darkwah, Lily Deason, Maria Gutoiu,
Beth Johnson-Hall (drums), Flora Jones, Rose Kavanagh, Coral Monaghan,
Abigail Peak, Sultan Rifat, Rosie Ruxton and Gabija Vaiciulyte.
They are now in with the chance to perform at the Music For Youth
School’s Prom held at the Royal Albert Hall.
Mr Burstow
Head of Performing Arts
A full list of performers can be found below:
Zahra Archer, Miriam Ashon (drums), Natalie Brady (drums),
Ella Dowden-Hylton, Maura Fitzsimons, Naomi Fujii, Adele Grandidier
(+glockenspiel), Lola Grieve, Rowena Guy De Quin, Molly Kavanagh,
Uma Mackie, Hannah Mohd Azlin, Kathryn O’Sullivan, Sara Orzechovschi (and
Voice), Darshan Panesar, Sophie Pickett and Rosalind Robshaw.
Mr Burstow
Head of Performing Arts
The WSFG Steel Bands present
an Evening Of Music
In April, the Steel Bands at Walthamstow School For Girls presented their
3rd annual Evening of Music. Seventy four students performed, from
across four year groups. The music ranged from operatic overtures to 70s
easy listening, and from steel band classics to the Beatles.
The concert was attended by over one hundred and forty parents, carers,
friends and staff, who were treated to performances of an extremely high
standard.
The students performed with a maturity and musicality beyond their years
and some of the most thrilling performances took place in the latter part
of the evening as each steel band came to the end of their selection of
pieces.
Special thanks must go to Mr. Murphy who tutors the steel pans. His vast
experience of teaching and working with steel bands coupled with his
fantastic arranging of all the music resulted in performances of exceptional
quality.
Congratulations also go to the students who performed. The standard
of the steel bands is made possible by their commitment and dedication.
All students in the steel
bands attend a practice
every day during the
school week and it is
because of these regular
practices that their
performances are so
brilliant!
Please see the next
page for a full list of
performers:
Year 8
Esme Allen
Shabitha Ampigaipalan
Kezia Antubam
Pearl Bador
Eve Billington
Ronja Blight
Erin Cadley
Jessica Darkwah
Lily Deason
Maria Gutoiu
Kalila Hambloch
Beth Johnson-Hall (drums)
Flora Jones
Rose Kavanagh
Coral Monaghan
Abigail Peak
Sultan Rifat
Rosie Ruxton
Gabija Vaiciulyte
Year 9
Joy Akintan
Salwa Aziz
Farah Mohd Azlin
Hannah Baines
Lucy Carter
Rebecca Dan
Isabella D’Andrea
Omotolani David
Elysia Folkes
Ummi Hoque
Safiya Maidment
Khadija Mokhtari
Malaika Mushtaq
Nyah Nish
Louisa O’Sullivan
Victoria Phillips (drums)
Mia Power-Rice
Elifnur Ulucay
Luella Worrow
Year 11
Zahra Archer
Miriam Ashon (drums)
Natalie Brady (drums)
Ella Dowden-Hylton
Maura Fitzsimons
Naomi Fujii
Adele Grandidier (+glockenspiel)
Lola Grieve
Rowena Guy De Quin
Molly Kavanagh
Uma Mackie
Hannah Mohd Azlin
Kathryn O’Sullivan
Sara Orzechovschi (and Voice)
Darshan Panesar
Sophie Pickett
Rosalind Robshaw
Year 10
Anisa Ali
Drew Barrett
Chloe Brown
Ola Budd
Alicia Day
Savannah Gracey
Phoebe Grove
Isabel Holloway
Ella Jinks
Eliza Jones
Eve Kettlewell
Dinusha Kulathas
Eva Lewis
Emma Lewzey
Natalie Grieve (drums)
Yasmin Shakibi
Chloe Shepherd
Iliana Woloshyn
Zoe Whitehead
WSFG and the Story of Sadako Sasaki
Sadako Sasaki was born
in 1943 during WWII. She
was two years old when
the atomic bomb exploded
over Hiroshima. Sadako
was exposed to the bomb
at home with her family in
Kusunoki-cho, about 1.7
km from the hypocentre.
The blast blew her out of
the house, but she escaped
without a burn or injury.
Very soon, flames were leaping up in the area and Sadako's mother fled,
carrying her daughter. Near Misasa Bridge, they were caught in the “black
rain”. Though the family tried to protect themselves, they could not avoid
breathing in the contaminated air.
With time, the devastating effects of the bomb passed and the rebuilding
of the city began. Little by little, their lives returned to normal. The Sasaki
family opened up a new barbershop in the city in 1947. Sadako grew up
healthily and entered Nobori-cho Elementary school. She was talented at
sport and was the fastest runner on her school athletics team!
When Sadako was 12 years old she caught a cold. She began to develop
lumps on her neck that were swallon like mumps a few months later.
A doctor’s visit confirmed her parents’ greatest fears: Sadako had been
contaminated with radiation poisoning from the atomic bomb and was
dying of leukemia. Sadako was admitted to Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital
for treatment. She spent months there, her disease progressing day by day.
At that time, origami paper cranes were often sent to patients at the
hospital as a get well present. The gift really cheered Sadako up, especially
when one of Sadako’s friends, told of an old legend that if you make one
thousand paper cranes, you could make a wish. This gave Sadako an idea – if
she made one thousand paper cranes then she would get to make a wish,
her wish to get better.
So the two girls excitedly began to fold paper cranes. Sadako was slow to
start with, but it was not long before she could remember every fold and
the pile of paper cranes began to grow. Sadako looked everywhere for
paper to make new cranes. News spread throughout the hospital about her
task and patients sent their old newspapers and nurses their wrappers from
packets of medicine.
Though she was very weak, Sadako dedicated hours each day to folding
cranes out of whatever materials she could scrounge together. Every day
she tried hard to sit up enough to fold her paper, but this got harder and
harder until one day she folded her last crane, number 644. Sadako died in
October 1955, surrounded by her family.
At Sadako’s funeral, her parents gave out paper cranes to her school friends.
They felt deeply shocked and upset by Sadako’s death which seemed so
unfair. In her honour, her classmates decided to complete the rest of the
cranes for her. In addition, they also decided to create a monument to
mourn all children who died from the atomic bombing. With support from
more than three thousand and one hundred schools from around the world,
the students raised funds to create a
nine metre high bronze statue, topped
with a figure of a girl holding a folded
crane. Beneath the pedestal, there is
an inscription: “This is our cry.This is our
prayer. For building peace in this world.”
Although Sadako’s paper cranes could
not save her life, they took flight in
another way, serving as a symbol of the
growing movement for peace on Earth.
Today, people still make paper cranes
to remember Sadako, the children
that died in the Atomic Bomb and as a
symbol for world peace. These cranes
are displayed in glass cabinets around
the Children’s Memorial Statue.
WSFG’s link to Sadako Sasaki
Our school first contributed to this story
15 years ago. In the year 2000, it was
Maths Year 2000 – a year that celebrated
maths through games and activities. Part
of WSFG’s contribution to this, under the
leadership of Ms Robinson, was to make
2000 origami paper cranes to send to
Hiroshima to remember Sadako’s story. This was when Ms Robinson ran a
weekly origami club, and students would attend making crane after crane.
Ms Robinson sent these cranes off to Japan and received a response from
the Mayor of Hiroshima, thanking the school for their cranes.
Having visited Japan during the Easter holidays, seeing the Children’s Peace
Monument in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and the paper cranes,
hearing how WSFG had a link with this story, I was inspired to revive this
connection. This August, it will be seventy years since the atomic bomb
was dropped on Hiroshima, sixty years (in October) since Sadako died and
fifteen years since WSFG sent paper cranes.
During our International Links meetings over the past few months, students
have been making paper cranes to send to Hiroshima. The current group of
students involved had an aim to fold 2015 paper cranes to mark the current
year and have already reached this target
and they are still folding. The main girls
involved are: Ana Munt, Joy Akintan,Vidura
Sothilingam, Lily Downs, Lucy Carter, Hirah
Awan, Farah Azlin, Hanna Khairul and Vicke
Mairet.
I will be sending these paper cranes off to
Japan shortly. Thank you to all the students
who have contributed to the paper crane
collection. Even just one crane will have
contributed to our grand total!
Ms Bugden
Assistant Headteacher
Walthamstow School for Girls supports the
Baby Bank at Higham Hill Children’s Centre
It all started with the Disney Day last year
when the school was taken over by wicked
witches, beautiful princesses and general
hilarity, and throughout the following months
we have been collecting more and more
money for the Baby Bank.
On Wednesday 24th June, Ms Dowling, her dog Flora, Ms Rae and Ms Scott
from the Eat or Heat team took a big hamper of nappies and baby milk to
the Centre, along with a huge cheque for £1000!
The Mayor of Waltham Forest, our former Chair of Governors, was also at
the presentation, and was delighted to tell us that this was her first official
engagement involving nappies!
The staff of the Children’s Centre were completely overwhelmed by our
donation, saying that they were hugely grateful with donations of £100 – and
our exceptionally generous £1000 would go a long way in providing baby
food, milk nappies, clothing, toys and books for families in Waltham Forest
who are struggling.
The Baby Bank staff are very keen for a group of students to visit them, and
help make up the packs that are handed out to families. They wanted us to
express their heartfelt thanks
to all the students and staff who
had done so much to support
this outstanding service.
Please see Ms Scott or Ms
Rae if you want to know more
about the Baby Bank.
Well done WSFG!
The Eat or Heat Team
Accelerated Reader at
Walthamstow School for Girls
This year Walthamstow School for Girls has introduced a new scheme
called the “Accelerated Reader” for Year 7 students. Accelerated Reader is
a computer programme created to support students’ independent reading
and to build literacy levels amongst our girls.
We have introduced this exciting initiative at our school as we believe
it is important to develop a lifelong love of reading in our girls and to
encourage independent reading from an early stage in order for all our
students to have an equal chance of success as they progress through the
school and later on in their lives.
In the summer term, all girls in Year 7 were assessed and were given their
most recent ZPD (Zone Proximal Development) range. This ZPD range
determines which books are best suited to their reading and interest levels.
We encourage girls to loan books from
the comprehensive range available at the
LRC where we have our two friendly
Librarians, Ms Kelly and Ms Guest, on hand
to help your daughter select an interesting
and appropriate book to read. We now
have an ‘Accelerated Reader Zone’ in the
LRC with designated ‘AR’ computers for
girls to complete their online reading and
comprehension quizzes. In doing so, they
get certificates, prizes and other incentives
to reward them for reading. The AR Zone
also gives girls an opportunity to see how
well their tutor groups are doing collectively with their reading but also
how they are doing individually through the various Accelerated Reader
competition charts. We have found that our girls can get very competitive
when it comes to quizzing!
We encourage girls to read every day for at least twenty minutes and
would ask you to support your daughter by ensuring she reads regularly
at home. This will be especially crucial during the six-week long summer
holiday when girls will be out of their usual routines.
If you are a parent of carer of a daughter in Year 7, you will have
received literature about the Accelerated Reader programme including
a recommended reading list of books which sits within your daughter’s
ZPD range. However, should you require further information about books
available for your daughter to read, the website for Accelerated Reader is:
www.arbookfind.co.uk.
Please also feel free to contact me if you require any additional information
about Accelerated Reader. I will be more than happy to assist you.
Mrs Jean-Baptiste
Accelerated Reader Coordinator
ADT Exhibition
Year 11 Leavers’ Day was an excellent opportunity for the ADT Faculty to
display the fantastic range of work produced by our students this year.
We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate each and every
student for the effort she put in to complete such a high standard of work.
There were some very complimentary comments from staff and students
during the day and even some offers to buy some of the pieces. It was
really great to hear so many comments about the truly creative and
inspirational pieces of work our students produced.
I would like to thank all the staff in the ADT faculty for their hard work
over the year supporting our GCSE students.
Mr Streader
Head of ADT
Sports Day 2015
Summer Interform 2015
On Friday 5th June, we held our annual Sports Day for Years 7, 8 and 9.
Students competed in high jump, discuss, javelin and shot putt at school in
the morning, and then all students and staff made their way down to the
Pool and Track in the afternoon. There was a fantastic atmosphere the
whole afternoon, with all the girls supporting each other and cheering on
members of their form. The sun shone throughout the afternoon and we
saw some incredible performances including Alex Goodfellow breaking the
Year 8 800m record with a time of 2.50:55. All competitors produced
great performances and the overall Sports Day winning forms were 7H, 8G
and 9G.
Our annual WSFG Summer Interform took place from Monday 8th –
Thursday 11th June with all students from Years 7-10 competing in either
rounders, cricket or dance. The girls were all extremely supportive of each
other and there was a lot of very loud cheering throughout the four days
of competition. There were some fantastic performances and very close
games but in the end the winning form groups were 7H, 8W, 9H and 10G.
Ms Warren
Head of PE
Well done to all those involved.
Ms Warren
Head of PE
CENLIG Challenge Day 2015
Year 7 Philosophy
In June,Year 7 students from across the borough took part in the CENLIG
Challenge Day held at Walthamstow School for Girls. The workshop, run
by Tom and Sam from ‘The Debate Chamber’ housed seventeen fortunate
students from Kelmscott, Willowfield and WSFG. The session took place in
the LRC from 9:30am to 3:00pm.
The day began with the students familiarising themselves with each other
and forming four groups, each student from a different school. The day’s first
activity was “Political Philosophy” which began with a hypothetical scenario,
where each group was told that they had been deserted on an island. The
students were then instructed to discuss the limitations they would face and
if they owned the things available on the island. Tom continued to question
the students surrounding the theme of ‘Ownership’, as well as if there were
things that they HAD to do, or things they CANNOT do on this island. It
was later revealed that as the island has no government or laws etc., they
were free to do what they like.
They scenario was then revisited, however, this time, there were two
hundred people on the island as well, and the participants discussed how
they would lead the Island, set up a system and allocate jobs. They were
also given a few
dilemmas that they
debated. The students
thoughtfully and
seriously contributed
to discussions and
everyone was able to
say what they thought.
Before being dismissed
for break, Tom left
the students with a
'Thought Problem',
which they solved over
their break time. When
returning, all students showed great enthusiasm and excitement to answer
the problem! The topic of “Political Philosophy” was then concluded and lead
onto “Personal Identity”, which began with the question ‘What makes you,
you?” At first, the students thought hard and contributed resistantly. They
were given numerous scenarios such as cloning that made them differentiate
between who they are and who they believe they are.
The last aspect of the session was lead by Sam, who taught the students
"Ethics". They began to explore this by defining terms such as 'Legal', 'Illegal'
and understood the difference between legality and 'Right and Wrong'. The
students were, once again, given more scenarios, in which morals conflicted
with legality, and the students inputted their thoughts on which they would
prioritise, morals or the law.
Finally, the highlight of the day was indeed the fantastic debate between the
students held at the Greek theatre. The participants argued phenomenally
and were very enthusiastic about the topic, which was set on the Titanic!
Overall, the day was a major success and enjoyed by all. Students from
Willowfield even verified how "intriguing and interesting" the whole session
was! The students were even praised by Sam on how "willing they were to
contribute and face harder challenges"
By Hamnah Ali, Khadija Hussain and Mishaal Sadiq.
Eat or Heat Fun Run
As our older students from the “Eat or Heat”
team leave, younger ones are taking their
place, very keen to support people in our
community who are going through a difficult
patch.
The charity organised a Fun Run in Lloyd Park on Saturday 13th June, and
Malaika Mushtaq, 9S, was one of the girls who came along with her two
young cousins to take on the challenge and raise money and collect food for
the foodbank.
The Chair of “Eat or Heat”, Gary Nash, was delighted to be able to reward
them with T-shirts and medals, and thank them for their fantastic support.
Well done, Malaika, for showing such commitment and being a great role
model to the next generation of young women of Walthamstow School for
Girls!
Ms Kelly’s Swimathon for Marie Curie
On Sunday 19th April 2014, I took part in a swimathon in aid of the Marie
Curie Cancer charity.
The swimathon took place at London Fields Lido on a cold day and each of
us swam 1000 metres.
Two former members of staff, Ms Cassford and Ms Stillwell, also competed,
as seen in the photograph.
I raised £76.50 through staff donations and our team raised £406.50 in total.
As you can see we had a great time and, with the support of colleagues
at the school,
we also raised
money for a
good cause.
Ms Kelly
LRC Manager
Eat or Heat team
Step into Dance
In May, twenty-six Year 10 students performed at a borough street dance
event which was held at Mulberry School in Tower Hamlets. The event was
an opportunity for the girls to perform the dance they have been working
on their PE lessons over the year. All
the girls were an absolute credit to the
school and they performed exceptionally
well at the event. Well done to all the
students who were involved.
Ms Warren
Head of PE
PROVISIONAL SCHOOL CALENDAR
FOR ACADEMIC YEAR 2015/16
Autumn Term 2015
Start - Tuesday 1st September 2015
End - Friday 18th December 2015
Tuesday 1st September
Staff Inset day
Tuesday 2nd September
Students return: details on the website
Half Term:
Monday 26 October 2015 - Friday 30 October 2015
Spring Term 2016
Start - Monday 4th January 2016 End - Thursday 24th March 2016
Half Term:
Monday 15th February 2016 - Friday 19th February 2016
Holidays
Good Friday - Friday 25th March 2016
Easter Monday - Monday 28th March 2016
Easter Holiday -Tuesday 29th March 2016 - Friday 8th April 2016
Summer Term 2016
Start - Monday 11th April 2016
End - Wednesday 20th July 2016
Half Term:
Monday 30th May 2016 - Friday 3rd June 2016
Holidays
May Day Bank Holiday: Monday 2nd May 2016
Spring Bank Holiday: Monday 30th May 2016
This proposed calendar gives a total of 195 days. A maximum of 5 inset days can be
deducted to ensure that schools meet their statutory obligation to open for 190 pupil
days.
School Address: Church Hill, Walthamstow, London, E17 9RZ
Telephone: 020 8509 9446
Fax number: 020 8509 9445
Email: [email protected]
website: www.wsfg.waltham.sch.uk
Student Absence Line: 020 8509 9444
WSFG’s Fronter MLE: www.fronter.com/waltham-forest
If you would like a paper copy of this Bumper Greensheet, please contact
the school via e-mail, with details of your daughter’s name and form.