The Halley's Comment Issue 14

The Halley's Comment

Issue 14

“Those who can imagine anything can create the impossible”

Turing School

The start of a new academic year is always filled with anticipation and new beginnings, no more so than for our newest members of the Turing School in Year 7. This year feels no different, but is further heightened by a return to a sense of normality across the academy with the removal of bubbles, and the ability for Turing students across different age ranges to interact and enjoy a welcome return to their educational lives.

The Turing School has also been joined by a new member of the team, with Mr Christian joining the academy from a local school in Greenwich, becoming the new Deputy Head of Turing School. Mr Godina has moved to continue his Deputy Head of School role with the Easley Small School. I would like to thank Mr Godina for the excellent support he provided the Turing School and know that the Easley team are already benefitting from the fantastic work he is undertaking with them.

The rest of the fantastic Turing School team remain unchanged, with Ms Jess continuing her excellent work as the school’s Director of Progress to support your child with all aspects of their learning. The school’s Small School Managers, Ms Halliday and Ms Smith, continue to maintain high standards in our students' conduct, attendance and punctuality, as well as ensuring all students are feeling safe, happy and cared for in the academy. All of this fantastic work is underpinned by Ms Murfitt our Small School Administrator who is on hand during the day to liaise with families to ensure we communicate effectively as stakeholders in your child’s education.

A return to a more traditional school experience has seen some fantastic examples of students making exceptional progress and demonstrating high levels of Commitment to Learning. This is shown through a high number of Award Cards already completed so far. Fantastic examples of student achievement have come from: Najmasama (9T1), Gintaras (7T1), Divine (7T1), Rawand (7T1), Razvan (7T1) and Sean (7T1).

Our Turing tutor team continues to provide high levels of support and care for their tutees. The role of the tutor cannot be underestimated and we are privileged to work with such a highly motivated team of professionals that combine their teaching responsibilities with daily support and care to their tutor groups. This is highlighted through the fantastic attendance work undertaken to ensure students are maximising their time here at the academy.

On an individual level, the examples set by our students continue to inspire us: Umaymah (10T2) and Azaan (9T1) have both represented the academy as part of our highly successful Open Evening and Open Morning programme. Both students presented to families on how proud they are to be a Halley and Turing student, with our core values resonating throughout their speeches.

I would like to conclude by also thanking you for your support and communication throughout this academic year. We rely on your openness and willingness to support us and your child during their school lives, with those firmly rooted relationships enabling each child to prosper. As always, we are here to support your child and will keep you, the families, updated as we travel through the course of this academic year. If you would like to contact us at any point, please email Turing@thehalleyacademy.org.uk.

Matt Stevens

Head of Turing School

Easley School

As is always the case with Easley, there is already much to celebrate this academic year. Students have begun the year with gusto and are already demonstrating a fantastic commitment to the academy and their learning. Already the Easley students have collected a significant number of award marks and have received very many positive emails home. We were proud to have won the Small School Shield for a consecutive year last year and are not planning to give up the title this academic year!

Attendance of Easley students at the academy this module has been excellent and our year 7 students have settled in well. It has been pleasing to see so many of our older students being excellent role models to the younger students and reinforcing the Easley motto of ‘you can do anything you want to but you have to work at it’.

We are pleased to have appointed a number of exceptional students to student leadership positions for 2021-22. The Easley Head Students and Prefects have shown a clear dedication to their studies; kindness to others and leadership qualities that will inspire and encourage our younger students. Our Head Students and Prefects have proven themselves to be excellent role models and will be taking on responsibilities of student leadership and mentoring. The Easley team looks forward to seeing our students grow into these roles and take the skills they will learn into their future education and careers.

Congratulations go to:

Head students - Tristan and Giulia.

Prefects - Dre, George, Reagan, Federica, Maja.

We are immensely proud of Tomi who has again been selected to be part of the GB Taekwondo Development Squad. We wish him well in his training and forthcoming competitions.

Karen Cronin

Head of Easley School

“You can do anything you want to, but you have to work at it”

“All that is necessary is the belief that by doing our best we shall come nearer to success and that success ..... is worth attaining”

Franklin School

The start of any new academic year provides new beginnings, opportunities and growth. It has been delightful to see so many Franklin students return to the academy with renewed optimism and a can-do spirit to make the most of the fantastic learning opportunities that are available every day. We have seen a substantial increase in the number of students partaking in an array of extra-curricular activities before and after school, whether in the arts, sports and STEM arenas. This is now the second year of all students being equipped with their own personal Chromebook device and, as all Year 7 and 8 students complete their Google Level 1 Skills qualification, it has been lovely to see students use technology to take more ownership over, and engage more deeply with, their learning. More students than ever before are using our physical and digital Library facilities, using MyON to read at home, and the library to complete their homework at break and lunchtime.

A particular area of success remains the high rates of attendance across Franklin School. Attending school remains the most determining factor in children’s academic progress and performance. We are pleased, therefore, to report that more students than ever before have 100% attendance so far this year. In addition, our combined average attendance within Franklin School remains significantly higher than national averages for the last module. Thank you to all parents and carers for their support with this.

We have also enjoyed the opportunities to work together as a cohesive and united learning community. As the Academy moves away from year groups being located in bubbled areas, this has meant more lessons can be delivered in specialist classrooms, meaning students can benefit from state-of-the-art facilities in PE, art and design, science and music. It has also been heartening to see students in Key Stage 4 support new students in Year 7 and 8 to navigate around the building, along with making new friendships in our playground and canteen facilities at break and lunchtimes. Moreover, a number of students have served as exemplary ambassadors for the wider Academy community during our highly successful Open Morning and Open Evening events, which has welcomed a large number of prospective families to visit us in advance of joining Year 7 next September.

As always, all of the Franklin team are here to support your child in having the most positive experience of the Academy possible. Mrs Parsons, Deputy Head of Franklin School, Mr Roques, Director of Progress, Mrs Godfrey, Small School Manager, and Mrs Walder, all work tirelessly in this endeavour. Our fantastic Franklin Tutor team are always keen to work with parents/guardians with any questions or queries you might have. My continued thanks goes to all the team that helps the Franklin School run successfully and smoothly for the benefit of your child.

We are excited to see how the same positive start to this module continues throughout the academic year ahead.

Ben Russell

Head of Franklin School

Hawking School

Service Learning

This module, Service Learners in years 12 and 13 have been researching and planning ways to best serve our local community. Students were particularly interested in working with other young people and decided to devise a reading scheme in partnership with our local primary school, Kidbrooke Park. Students have been allocated a year group and class to support and will be working with pupils from a range of backgrounds, with a range of abilities. This is a great opportunity to advance our community, whilst also giving students here the opportunity to enhance their skills in planning, communication, leadership and reflection. We are looking forward to this exciting new opportunity!

Football Academy

Our football academy supported by APD have made a good start to the season with a mixture of wins and draws.

"Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet"

NCS at The Halley Academy

On Tuesday 12th October, representatives from the National Citizen Service (NCS) delivered a presentation to Year 12 students regarding opportunities to develop key skills and participate in an action service project within their communities.

The NCS is funded by the government and offered free-of-charge to students aged 16-17 to further their personal and social development. Georgie and Pam, the NCS reps, were really positive about their own experiences with the programme and several of our students have expressed an immediate interest in taking part.by filling in forms following the assembly.

The scheme will run during half-term and include team-building activities such as Go Ape or indoor go-karting, workshops to instil essential life skills valued by employers and universities, and a collaborative project in which participants identify an authentic need within their community and take steps to address it.

Students have continued to explore NCS opportunities during tutor time, and we look forward to hearing about their adventures and experiences when we return from half-term.

Any Year 12 students who still wish to sign-up can do so by visiting the following website: https://wearencs.com/

Students in Years 11 and 13 had the same presentation in July 2021 and many of them have already registered in interest or signed up.

Chromebooks

Year 12 students have all been equipped with Chromebooks which can be used within lessons and most importantly their independent learning periods.

UCAS Applications

University applications are well underway for our Year 13 students with many already submitted. A reminder to students and families that the final deadline for these applications is Friday 14th January.

Tim Harrison

Head of Hawking School

Cambridge EAL Exams 2021

In June, 32 students from Year 8 to Year 11 entered the Cambridge A2 Key EAL exams. They were required to sit 3 exams in one day to test their speaking, listening, reading and writing.

All of the candidates passed and gained a certificate, with 12 students achieving Distinction and 11 achieving Merit.

This is a huge achievement considering that the last two years have been disrupted because of the pandemic. The resilience and determination of these students have been a major factor in their success.

CONGRATULATIONS to them all!

Farm News

As the nights begin to draw in and the temperature drops, the Halley Academy farm livestock are starting on their winter preparations.

Our flock of hens have just had their worming treatment - this gets rid of any internal parasites they may have picked up (they can become infected by eating earthworms, slugs and snails) and had their regular health check during the half term break. We check that each hen is a healthy weight, that their feet and nails are in good condition and that their plumage is complete. All of the hens have recently finished their late summer moult, and are now all fully equipped with a lovely new fluffy down layer to keep them warm over the winter months.

The hens love to be outside foraging, no matter what the weather, and have been very amusing over the last few weeks as they picked and ate all of the blackberries in their enclosure. They started off with the ones at ground level, but then had to leap increasingly higher into the air to reach the berries higher up. Often they would succeed after several attempts, only to dislodge a juicy berry and have it fall into the open beak of another chicken waiting below.

We are still getting a good number of eggs (10 on average) every day, but this number will decrease as the days get shorter as chickens are stimulated to lay eggs according to the amount of daylight hours.

The bee colony has established well. We have been feeding them weekly up until a fortnight ago - this was to ensure that the colony had sufficient food stores to get through the winter, and to produce winter bees. Winter bees are worker bees that have a longer lifespan than those produced in the summer - they do all of the same jobs, but don’t really go out foraging over the winter months as it is usually too cold (honey bees won’t fly if the temperature is below 10^oC) and there isn’t much in flower. One important job that they perform is to keep the colony warm. The bees achieve this by vibrating their flight muscles to generate heat - they generate so much that the colony stays at the same temperature all year round, and is a toasty 35^oC!

Our plan for the apiary next year is to start a new colony so that we have two active hives and can start harvesting honey again.

New beekeepers and chicken wranglers are always welcome - see the science technicians for more details.

Lead Practitioners Parental Workshop

On 14th October the Lead Practitioner team delivered their first parent, teaching and learning workshop focused on the hallmarks, policies and strategies. Parents were able to share their feedback and found the evening very insightful. They took home resources and information about our policies, how to use Google Classroom and strategies to support their child with their learning at home. We look forward to delivering more parent workshops and continuing to build positive relationships with our parents.

Literacy News

Words for Work KS3

This year we have been selected as a pilot school to deliver an exciting programme from the National Literacy Trust called 'Words for Work'. This programme aims to help students understand the communication skills they will need to be successful in their future careers. They will work with both members of the National Literacy Trust and employees from local businesses in Greenwich. Some excellent work has already been completed by our selected Year 9 students. Well done!

Lit in Colour

We are proud to announce that The Halley Academy is one of the lucky schools to receive a Lit In Colour pack featuring over 100 books for our academy library. We were selected out of over 1600 applications after a careful panel selection. The prize has been awarded by Penguin Books and Pearson Edexcel, and will be arriving in either October or November. We look forward to expanding our library collection and celebrating amazing BAME authors!

National Online Safety Certified School Status

We are pleased to confirm that we have achieved our National Online Safety certified school status for the academic year 2021-22. National Online Safety is a multi-award winning digital training provider with extensive resources in online safety, developed in line with the Department of Education’s statutory requirements. This is the second year that The Halley Academy has achieved this status.

Old Vic Theatre Schools Club Workshop

On Monday 4th October, our Year 11 Drama students participated in a workshop delivered by the Old Vic Theatre. Our students behaved well and engaged creatively and intelligently with the process. They were a testament to the Halley ethos of Respect, Collaboration and Achievement. The workshop leaders were very impressed with them.

Thanks to the Visual and Performing Arts team for their support in ensuring the success of the workshop.

This workshop begins our exciting partnership enabling our Drama students to visit the theatre throughout the year while participating in professional discourse about drama and theatre.

Dr Male - Lead Practitioner Drama

Rivers of the World Launch

I was very excited to be able to take part in the Rivers of the World launch at The National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. It was great to see staff, students and parents at the launch event where we were presented with our certificate, courtesy of The Thames Festival Trust and The British Council. Well done to all who took part, this is the beginning of an exciting journey and partnership and I was very proud to represent our academy and students.

Mrs Courtley

Coordinator of Learning for Visual and Performing Arts

Lead Practitioner Art

Roots4Life Summer

This summer, some of our Year 7 students were involved in the Roots4Summer activity camp that took place over the course of the summer holidays. It was a great opportunity for these students to engage themselves in a range of activities from planting seeds, harvesting crops, sports to arts and crafts. Special thanks to Tina Kirby, LSA, who also helped support our students over the couple of weeks, helping to build the all important relationships.

Our adventures with Roots4Life continued on the final day of the summer camp when 72 students, accompanied by staff, busied themselves in a spot of pond dipping, food tasting and obstacle courses. The students had a fantastic day experiencing the outdoors, bringing the summer school to a very successful conclusion. Thank you again to all of those staff that accompanied the trip and special mentions to Julia and Linda Milligan, our science technicians, who designed the pond dipping activity which for many was a highlight.

STEM Club

STEM club has started with a lot of buzz and excitement this year. For the first time we have year 7, 8, and 9 students all working collaboratively on the same projects, with the older more experienced students supporting the others. STEM club continues to strive to provide a fun educational experience where the pupils engage with real-life application projects to develop their computational, critical thinking and creative skills. So far this module we have been working on Robotics: students have constructed Bristlebots (miniature robots using toothbrush heads which zoom about) and will be making ScribbleBots, a simple bot that produces art. We are in the process of acquiring the VEX IQ robotic kit which will enable us to expand our exploration of robotics and artificial intelligence. Once we have gained enough experience with our new robotics system, we are hoping to enter national and even international robotics competitions. We are also looking forward to obtaining a gravity racer kit – this is a gravity powered vehicle constructed by the students that can be raced in national competitions. We meet in G6 every Monday after school, and look forward to welcoming new students. For more information speak to Mr Mensah.

Student Leadership

The first module back has been an exciting one for student leadership within The Halley Academy. On 12th October, a galvanized group of students reignited The Halley Academy Social Action Group's campaign to help make Misogyny a hate crime. Leah (Year 13), Tristan (Year 11), Federica (Year 11), Daniel (Year 9), Sara (Year 9) and Mohamed (Year 8) all bravely delivered a speech to The Tallow Chandlers Company, one of London's oldest Livery Companies who support and partner with education establishments within the community; including The Halley Academy. Their speech was overwhelmingly powerful and focused on the issues of misogyny within our local community and the need for change:

'We will continue to fight to make misogyny a hate crime for a fairer, more equal future'.

Clerk of The Tallow Chandlers, David Homer said 'Thank you so much for allowing the Social Action Group to join the Tallow Chandlers ‘Reading of the Ordinances’. An important evening for the Company became extra special'. He said that our students 'spoke with extraordinary confidence, deportment, clarity and conviction'. Well done to everyone involved.

Further to this, Student Leadership now includes Head Pupils and Prefects for Year 11 and Year 13. These students have been selected due to the dedication they have shown to their studies; the kindness they show to others and their leadership qualities that will inspire younger students to become future leaders within the academy. Head Pupils and Prefects will begin their roles in the next module. Congratulations!

Hawking

Head students: Leah and Josh

Prefects: Paul

Easley

Head students: Tristan and Giulia

Prefects: Dre, George, Reagan, Federica, Maja

Franklin

Head students: Noah and Rafaela

Prefects: Mubarak, Sydney, Quynh, Vanessa, Gabriel

Turing

Head students: Olivia and Sutharrsana

Prefects: Aisha, Svetoslav, Zaynab, Gabriella

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