Arden News

Arden Open Evening

Arden Sixth Form held its first live, face to face, open event for 2 years on 21st October. The event was extremely well attended by over 300 families who had the opportunity to meet and discuss potential subject choices with specialist subject teachers and current sixth form students.

The current sixth form students who helped out during the evening did an amazing job of meeting and greeting families and visitors, touring families and visitors around the school, answering queries and providing refreshments.

Arden offers an extensive range of level 3 courses for students to choose from including traditional and facilitating A levels that sit alongside more specialist subjects including psychology, physical education, media studies, film studies as well as a small range of BTEC subjects.

Applications for September 2022 are coming in thick and fast with over 200 received so far. The deadline for applications is 31st January 2022. Click here to view Arden Open Event tab and access the application form.

Student Leadership and Powerful Young Voices Programme

Our student leadership team play a pivotal role in running the academy wide Student Leadership Team and are responsible for bridging the gap between the student body and staff. Appointed senior student leaders follow a rigorous and highly competitive selection process, including presentations and a formal interview. With all positions filled, they are ready to begin the leadership training that will equip them with the essential leadership skills required for their roles, future courses and careers after SCWA. These bespoke training sessions this term will include:

• exploring their leadership styles

• developing practical skills i.e. minute taking, chairing a meeting, presenting effective feedback, delegating and championing ideas.

• Project management – how to take ideas from thought to action and ensure a plan for success

• Teamwork – how to lead a team effectively; how to enable and develop others effectively; how to have challenging but constructive conversations

• What is effective student voice– influencing, persuading, how to motivate and inspire people

• Conflict resolution – how to professionally deal with complaints

Duke of Edinburgh Award

At Stationers’ Crown Woods Academy over previous years we have had a high level of uptake of the Duke of Edinburgh Award at Bronze, Silver and Gold levels. In the first term students have enrolled in the Duke of Edinburgh programme and as a result of this participation for the 2021/22 cohort is:

Bronze Award (year 9) - 71 students

Silver Award (year 10) - 70 students

Gold Award (year 12) - 15 students

At all levels the award provides participants with the opportunity to demonstrate a sustained commitment to developing themselves and their community. In addition through the expedition section participants develop essential key skills such as leadership and team-working as well as demonstrating resilience in challenging situations. Skill development in these areas is vital for future success. Moving forward, students will be involved in volunteering, which will further help students prepare for life beyond Stationers' Crown Woods Academy.

Relaunch of the Royal Marines CCF

Stationers' Crown Woods Academy Royal Marine Cadets CCF reignited their military training by launching a multi-activity day for the first time since being allowed to train face to face. The highlight of this day was when the potential recruits were able to put into practise the skills learned on the activity day by shooting targets with paintball guns as their confirmation.

Students from years 9, 10 and 12 were able to participate in military style activities which gave them an insight into both the CCF at the academy and also identifying skills and traits that could lead to a potential military career.

Currently SCWA’s CCF has a Section of 11 Cadets and will continue to grow and develop with the training provided at the academy.

Arden Taster Event

Arden has held the in-school Taster Event for the year 11 students who have applied to the sixth form for September 2021. The event, held over a 3 week period, gave 11 students the opportunity to attend a variety of A level and BTEC subject lessons, meet teaching staff and current year 12 students and get a taster of what to expect when they start their sixth form education in September. The students also attended the “Being a Sixth Form Student” sessions which included an Introduction to sixth form, taking part in quizzes, learning about extra curricular activities, thinking about the future and information on careers links as well as getting the opportunity for a question and answer session with the current year 12 students which was thorough enjoyed by all, including the members of staff who took part.

Ravensbourne Live Television Studio Production

Arden Sixth Form students were invited to a Live Television Studio Production at Ravensbourne University in Greenwich Peninsula. 18 students from Media, Film Studies and other creative subjects including Music and Photography attended this amazing workshop. A group of Ravensbourne second year students guided and facilitated our students, teaching them the professional standards for the full array of production studio roles.

Students were introduced to the Ravensbourne student crew and were immediately engaged in a warm up game that relied on students' communication with each other. Following this, our students were put in 3 groups and given training on the full range of production roles they were going to do in their live television production later on. These roles included working in the gallery as the producer, director and graphics, working in the studio as a camera operator or in the sound booth.

The Production was a Film, Television and Current Affairs show and focussed on the impact of Sunday night’s Euro finale and the reliance on Disney remakes. Ben Anderson was our capable presenter in the studio, providing his views on how Disney are relying on star power in the revival of some of their classic films. After Ben introduced the programme and gave his segment on Disney, we went live to our roaming reporter, Bolaji Salokun, who was interviewing Oliver Jackson about the fallout of the Euro’s final and the rise of racism in football, speaking specifically about the sabotage of the Marcus Rashform mural. Bolajo and Oliver delivered a convincing interview about a relevant and important issue. We were then back in the studio with Ben who had an exclusive interview with guest Destiny Nduwuisi-Ondo about England’s performance, that unfortunate penalty shootout and our hopes for the World Cup. Destiny expressed his views unscripted which was an impressive performance. Ben Anderson’s confidence as the presenter was admirable, as he confidently presented a range of topics and smoothly transitioned to the interview segment.

The crew and presenters worked tirelessly and patiently in rehearsals to refine the production and prepare for the live show. Cassy Smit (director) did an excellent job coordinating her crew and her PA Natasha Hayford and Vision Mixer Marianna Kalasnikova contributed in the gallery with her very well. The four camera persons Jason Neville, Gabby Vincent, Grace Thompson and Osa Lawani, all of our camera people did an excellent job, they handled the equipment professionally and with a great level of skill. Tyler Doyle did an excellent job on sound, he was extremely keen to learn and maintained a professional manner throughout the day. The rest of the crew: Emily Nelless and Sam Truscott Smith (Techies), Cameron Sin and Lara Morris (VT and Graphics) and Rachel Cameron (Autocue) all contributed well and took to their roles with energy and positivity. The Live production took place in the late afternoon, with a few run throughs before the full live take was recorded.

Ravensbourne praised the professional approach of our students and mentioned that they were the best group they had worked with. They were impressed by how well they adapted and engaged with their roles. We are immensely proud of our students as they represented the Academy with dignity and pride and were exemplary in their roles, amazing ambassadors for SCWA. The whole experience was inspirational, creative, engaging and very uplifting. Our students will receive a copy of the live take which they can use as part of their showreel when applying for University, apprenticeships/internships and/or jobs within the industry. Thank you Ravensbourne, and thank you students, fully appreciated.

Student Feedback

“I found all of it really interesting and useful, however I enjoyed working with the cameras the most. It has definitely given me an insight into the creative courses out there. The creative industry and courses that accompany it were already an option for more and I'm definitely sure it's one to look further into, from my perspective.”

“I found the various roles available in the production industry as a great insight to where I want to take my career. This has helped me understand that this university can supply me with many subjects that relate to my interest, such as things like graphics, design, animation and other digital roles.”

Arden Basketball Team

Student, Daniel C has successfully been offered a scholarship to play basketball at one the top academies in Serbia at the end of next year as well as receiving a conditional offer to play in Greece. This opportunity has driven Daniel to form a practice team of Arden students who have access to use the facilities in the 2012 hall every Friday afternoon after school and has proved extremely popular with the students. Daniel hopes to extend this after school opportunity to the new year 12 and 11 students next year as he would like to form a competitive team to organise and play in tournaments and competitions.

Apprentice Futures

Our focus on post-18 careers continues with events lead by industry experts. A range of students from across Arden enjoyed live webinars around law, engineering, journalism, entrepreneurism and more, with companies such as BT, the Evening Standard and Natwest taking part. This event was organised by the Stationers' Company and gave our students the opportunity to hear from people in a range of jobs, learn about the different pathways into the careers they are interested in and ask questions. The event was very well attended, and students were pleasantly surprised to learn more about the range of jobs available within sectors, as well as finding out the different possible routes into the different career paths.