December 2014 Newsletter - Mossbourne Victoria Park Academy

Page 1| Victoria Mossbournian| December 2014
Victoria Mossbournian
The newsletter of Mossbourne Victoria Park Academy
December 2014
Mossbourne Victoria Park Academy
Victoria Park Road, Hackney
London E9 7HD
Principal’s message
Telephone: 020 8510 4550
Fax: 020 8510 4555
E-mail: enquiries@mvpa.mossbourne.org
www.mvpa.mossbourne.org
A private limited company registered in England and Wales
No. 4468267. Registered Office: Gardiner House,
6b Hemnall Street, Epping, Essex CM16 4LW
Inside
Page 2
Pastoral news
Page 3
Debate Mate Workshop
Opening Evening
Page 4
Student Parliament
Charity Work
Page 5
Author visit
Page 6
Library news
Page 7
Music news
Page 8
Sports news
Carroll building tours
Dates for Spring Term 2015
Start of spring term
Monday 5th January
MVP Friends Group
Monday 12th January
at 6.15pm
Year 7 Parents’ Evening
Thursday 15th Jan
Inset Day (Staff Training)
Wednesday 11th Feb
Inset Day (Staff Training)
Thursday 12th Feb
Inset Day (Staff Training)
Friday 13th Feb
Half Term
Monday 16th – Friday 20th February 2015
End of Spring Term
Friday 27th March
Dear parents and carers,
The end of the year is a wonderful time for looking both backwards
and forwards, but this year I find those tasks particularly rewarding.
Time is a funny thing, as Einstein eventually concluded, and it seems
both that it was only yesterday that we greeted your children at the
gates, and also that a great deal of time has passed since we did.
Indeed, so packed has the first term felt, this feels almost like an end
of academic year newsletter. Since the start of term, there have been
author visits, debating workshops, performances at the Hackney
Empire, dramatic sporting victories, heroic defeats, a biblical flood
and, of course, lots of lessons. The transition from primary to
secondary school can be a difficult one, with a longer school day,
many new subjects and different expectations of homework. The
students should be very proud of how well they have made the
transition and of their many achievements. As we remind them often,
they will always be the senior year group at Mossbourne Victoria
Park, always the ones looked to by younger students for how to act,
how to work and how to get on. This is a responsibility which they
have embraced and which is coming through in everything they do – I
can hope for nothing more than for equally hard-working, mature and
personable students in future years.
Looking forward, the next big event on the horizon is the opening of
the Carroll Building. The building was officially handed over to the
Academy on 11th December, and has since been fitted out with all the
equipment required for the start of next term. This means that, from
January, the Science, Art, Music, Drama, Coding and PE departments,
all of whom have been in temporary, non-specialised classrooms thus
far, will be in their permanent homes, complete with all appropriate
equipment and resources.
The Spring Term will also bring the first Parents’ Evening, the first
Personal, Social, Health, Citizenship and Economic Education Day
(PSHCE Day), a new round of Enrichment clubs and societies and, I’m
sure, many more achievements by the students.
Until then, and on behalf of all the staff at Mossbourne Victoria Park,
I’d like to wish you and your families a happy and restful holiday.
Nicholas Rutherford
Principal
Page 2| Victoria Mossbournian| December 2014
Pastoral successes and reminders for the New Term
Attendance
The whole Academy attendance for this term is
outstanding, currently at 97.4%. We would like to pay a
particular congratulations to the following students who
have all achieved 100% attendance for this term.
They are:
ANGELOU
CHURCHILL
Nicholas Anderson
Charles Copas
Oscar Crossan Jory
Oscar Fernandes-McDonald
Edie Joslin
Ishmatu Kamara
Aleyna Kuran
Camil Mbuyongha
Omaris McBurnie-Jonas
Fahima Rahman
Luke Ayoade
Jack Ciftci
Donny Fisher
Kaienne Francis
Nathan La
Olive Matthews-Pritchard
Valentine Okadigbo
Julia Sefil
Tauryn Turgott
Lena Westerburg-Burr
CICERO
Fawzia Ali
Frankie Edwards
Theo Grandorge
Jenae James
Jasper Kaucky
Marlo Knobben
Nabil Lahmira
Ellen McGann
Saima Nusrat
Dylan Nyarkoh
Paris Palmer
KING
Lukas Berr
Niamh Clarke-Willis
Naema Farid
Jake Grandorge
Dijon Hughes Joof
Keo Kersting Herbert
Tabatha Millest
Yakup Tosun
Kai-Dene Wellington
Shannon-Louise Whyte
PANKHURST
Muhammad Choudhury
Callum Gregory
Ray-Lee Langlais
Tia Morrison
Gwilym Watson
Inter-tutor group weekly attendance league
A big well done to Pankhurst and Cicero who are joint
top of the weekly attendance league with four wins
each.
Star of the week
Star of the week is presented to a student who has in
that week;

100% attendance

100% punctuality

performed extremely well across the curriculum

been nominated by their Form Tutor
The Head of Year then selects which student receives
this award and it is presented by the Principal each
week during assembly.
The following students have all shone brightly during
this term and have been presented with the award ;
Tommy Butler
Aleyna Kuran
Lena Westerberg-Burr
Morgana Teglia
Luke Corkrey-Rolle
Shannon-Louise Whyte
Frankie Edwards
Marlo Knobben
Jada Anderson
Dylan Luxford
Edie Joslin
Martha Modell
Catarina Ortega
Reminders
The new term begins Monday 5th January. Please
ensure your child is on site by 8.15am. Students will
continue to enter through the Well Street Common
entrance.
Please make sure you set aside the evening of January
15th for our first Parents’ Evening. The exact
arrangements for this will come out in a letter during
the first week back.
If you are purchasing any new uniform this must be
labelled clearly with your child’s name particularly the
Mossbourne Coat. If purchasing new shoes or changing
hairs styles please check they adhere to the Academy
Uniform Policy.
Please ensure your child’s Parent Pay account has
sufficient funds for the start of the new term.
Page 3| Victoria Mossbournian| December 2014
Debate Mate Workshop
The students at Mossbourne Victoria Park were thrilled
to be involved in the first ever Debate Mate training
day.
The event took place on 27th November, where two of
the leading trainers from Debate Mate worked with 30
enthusiastic year 7 students.
Throughout the day, the students participated in
speaking, debating and team building exercises. These
were designed to boost their confidence and improve
their level of Oracy (in line with the academy’s Oratory
specialism).
The day culminated in a fantastic live debate held in
front of the whole school, where eight of the most
impressive students from the training demonstrated
what they had learnt.
The success of the day can be best illustrated by some
of the quotes from the students who participated:
“The day was not just good fun, I also learned several
new techniques that will be useful for me in the future”
– Shannon-Louise Whyte
“It helped me to understand a lot more about debating,
and it has improved my confidence with regards to
public speaking in the future” – Elif Oksuzoglu
“It was fun, enjoyable and informative. My oracy has
definitely improved as a result of taking part” – Tabatha
Millest
“The day was highly educational, helping us to learn
several new skills such as projecting my voice,
improving my posture, using pitch, tone, pace and
making sure I am serious when I speak” – Sophia Tran
“Debate Mate was good, useful and helpful. It improved
my confidence, my listening skills and my Oracy. When
are they coming back?” – Joseph Forrest
By Mr Morrow
Open Evening
The Academy’s first Open Evening took
place in October this year with nearly 1000
visitors through the gates. With the Carroll
Building not yet completed and with
extensive flood damage to the Huguenot
Building, there were plenty of challenges to
overcome. As there are only 12 teaching
staff, the evening would have been
impossible to run successfully had it not
been for the help of the students. Almost
half the student body were on site to help –
acting as building guides, singing in a choir,
taking part in model art lessons and debates
and generally making sure that visitors felt
welcome. I couldn’t even hazard a guess at
the number of visitors who spoke to me
about how impressed they were with the
students who, after only a month at the
Academy, were enthusiastic, mature and
articulate.
Page 4| Victoria Mossbournian| December 2014
Student Parliament
Charity Work St Joseph’s Hospice
The Student Parliament
One of the highlights of
the term has been the
campaigns and elections
for the Student
Parliament. This group of
students will meet
termly with the Senior
Leadership Team to
discuss student views and ideas on all aspects of
Academy life. This creates a powerful student voice and
teaches all students about the principles of democracy,
representation and compromise.
It does the year group great credit that over 50 students
put themselves forward as candidates. Students were
given lessons in how to write and deliver campaign
speeches which were then delivered in form time. The
quality and assurance on display would have been
impressive from a much older year group – for Year 7
the speeches were nothing short of incredible. The
Student MPs were then elected by the Tutor Groups,
and the successful candidates were:
Angelou
Edie Joslin
Oscar Fernandes-McDonald
Churchill
The students at Mossbourne Victoria Park
Academy have shown themselves to be
incredibly generous and charitable during the
festive period. The students kindly brought in
food donations for a Christmas hamper that was
donated to St. Joseph’s Hospice. St Joseph’s is a
charity providing a team of specialist doctors,
nurses, social workers and other skilled staff
and volunteers, to provide care for anyone with
serious and life threatening conditions, both in
the hospice and in patients’ homes. The
students really impressed all of the staff at the
academy with their efforts to give to those less
fortunate than themselves. Many thanks to all
students, parents, carers and staff who
contributed to the hamper.
Freya Desmarais
Lisandr Qose
Cicero
Marlo Knobben
Jasper Kaucky
King
Elif Oksuzoglu
Joseph Forrest
Pankhurst
Niah Bergonzi
Nikita Petrak
Congratulations to all of them.
MVPA students with the hamper contributions
Page 5| Victoria Mossbournian| December 2014
Author Visit
Adam Gidwitz, international
best-selling children’s author of A
Tale Dark and Grimm, In a Glass
Grimmly and The Grimm Conclusion,
was the first author to visit the
Academy in October. Adam led a
gripping and entertaining workshop
to thirty students, who had
successfully applied to be part of
this unique opportunity.
Olive (7 Churchill) and Marlo (7
Cicero) recall their fond memories
of Adam’s visit:
Adam Gidwitz is an American author
who is famous for his retellings of
Grimms’ Fairy-tales (published in
1812), which were very unusual and
gruesome versions of the fairy tales
we all grew up listening to. Adam
was given these unusual (and fairly
scary) tales as a child, but he didn’t
read them until years later, when
he was asked to read to a group of
children. He decided to read them
the peculiar version of ‘Cinderella’,
but he was worried that he had
terrified the children because the
tale was a very different version,
full of blood and gore! He was then
comforted and inspired by the fact
that one of the seven year olds in
the audience went up to him at the
end and told Adam that he should
become a writer as he had told that
version in such an exciting way; and
this is exactly what Adam did!
Thanks to that child’s suggestion,
Adam decided to write his own
child-friendly, but grim, versions of
classic fairy tales.
In the hour he had with us, Adam
read extracts from all three of his
books, and he had us at the edge of
our seats. He retold his versions of
‘Hansel and Gretel’, ‘Jack and Jill’
and ‘Cinderella’. Adam is an
inspiring and hilarious author with
a wild imagination, and he was
kind enough to stay behind and
sign copies of his books for us.
We definitely recommend The
Grimm Collection as all three
books are gripping and funny, but
perhaps you shouldn’t read them
just before bed!
By Mrs Morris
Page 6| Victoria Mossbournian| December 2014
Library News
Welcome to Library News at Mossbourne Victoria Park Academy where
information about the library will be available.
After months of waiting the library is almost ready for its grand opening.
Students have provided valuable information, detailing what they would
like to see in the library and the authors they enjoy.
Students from Enrichment classes have been busy assisting with the
preparation of the stock, both cataloguing and labelling books and
designing posters.
Bookbuzz 2014
In partnership with the Book trust,
Mossbourne Victoria Park Academy
provided students with a gift of a reading book each.
Students were given a list of books at
the beginning of term and were asked
to choose their favourite.
As you can see in the
pictures below the students
were presented with their
books during their English
lessons in the last week of
term. All were delighted
with their choices.
FURTHER
EVENTS
DESIGN A BOOK COVER
WIN AN AUTHOR VISIT FOR
OUR SCHOOL!
 You’ve seen the Bookbuzz
book covers – they’re
colourful, intriguing and
eye catching. Could you do
better?
Try your hand at book
jacket design and you
could win an author visit
for our school
 Entries must be returned
to school by Friday 9th
January 2015.
 Please see Mrs Morris or
Ms Ishmael for further
information.
Page 7| Victoria Mossbournian| December 2014
Music News
On Thursday 6th November,
the new ensemble of
instrumentalists known as
the Academy Band made
their debut performance.
This was to an audience of
more than a thousand at the
Hackney Music Gala Concert
held in the Hackney Empire.
A talented group of students
playing instruments including bassoon, flute, clarinet, strings, keyboards,
percussion and accordion having only had six rehearsals
played an arrangement of the disco classic ‘Don’t Stop
till You Get Enough’ by Michael Jackson. Our students
looked nervous as they walked onto the huge stage
which had just
moments before
held over 150
students from
ten different
Hackney Schools
in the massed
vocal opening
number. As soon
as they started playing, it was clear this performance
was going to be a triumph. The audience’s reaction to
what was the youngest and newest secondary school
ensemble to perform has been inspiring and has
encouraged the Academy Band to put even more work
in to rehearsals.
The Gala
concert was
really fun – like
nothing I’ve
done before. It
was fun to show
everybody how
good we are –
kind of show off
in a way! The best part of our day was when we got
on stage and students from Mossbourne Community
Academy cheered us on! Lisandr Qose
‘I think it showed the
ensemble at its best
because of the really big
applause at the end of our
performance. The trip was
really good, we got to hear
all the other ensembles
performing – the best bit of
the day was when MCA and
Urswick performed
‘Runway Baby’ at the end.’
Olive Matthews-Prichard
By Miss Crawford
‘It was nerve-wracking but it
was exciting because it was one
of the biggest performances I’ve
done in my life.’ Isobel Munroe
‘It was fun, there were dazzling lights, I felt like the
preparation helped me get better at music and
playing in an ensemble’ Lucas Crocombe
‘It was good, it was a way to express yourself in
music, I felt scared but then the music started to flow
and you just got used to it and afterwards we all felt
confident’ Jasmine Pilgir
Page 8| Victoria Mossbournian| December 2014
Sports News
Sports News contd…..
all of the boys wanted to, had to, win. It was this
match that demonstrated the extensive progress
that the boys have made this term - they stormed
to a 1- 4 victory! They have gelled as a team this
term, and are now aware of each other’s strengths
and weaknesses. There is no doubt that, if the boys
show the same grit and determination in matches
next term, we will swiftly start to work our way up
the league table.
MVPA Year 7 Netball Team
It has been both an exciting and successful term for
sport at Mossbourne Victoria Park Academy with the
formation of the very first girls’ netball and boys’
football teams.
Both teams continued commitment to training has
been integral to the vast improvements seen this
term. Their perseverance and drive to improve
(even in the dark, cold and rainy conditions once
the Academy day has finished) is something to be
admired . Long may it continue!
By Ms Kelly
Carroll Building Tours
Netball has generated much interest amongst the girls
this term, with over thirty girls attending training
sessions and representing the Academy in the Hackney
Netball League. The girls enter the Christmas break having been unbeaten in their last 6 competitive fixtures,
currently putting them second in the league - this is a
massive feat of which they should all be very proud!
Other schools will soon fear playing against us - we are
already getting comments regarding how good we are!
The boys’ last football fixture of 2014 saw them play the
much anticipated local derby against our sister Academy,
Mossbourne Community Academy. It was the match that
MVPA Year 7 Football Team
The Carroll Building has been completed and is ready
for students. Although the handover was slightly later
than hoped, an unexpected benefit was the chance to
show students around the building whilst still a live
site. Many thanks to Willmott Dixon for running these
tours; hopefully it will inspire some of the students to
be the architects, designers and engineers of the
future!