SPOTLIGHT on science - Ricards Lodge High School

Inspired at Imperial College
On Friday 14th October, nine Year 9 students took part in an outreach day
at the prestigious Imperial College London as part of an Aspirations project
organized by Kings College School, Wimbledon and the company Exscitec.
Exscitec is a provider of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and
Mathematics) outreach activities for students of all ages.
The day had a Crime Scene Investigation theme with students taking part in
a series of activities using sophisticated scientific methods and equipment.
Their task was to gather evidence and identify from four selected suspects,
the culprit of a murder that had taken place earlier that morning.
Jack Petchey Winners
Ricards Lodge students
receive the prestigious Jack
Petchey Achievement Award.
The day flew by as our girls set about the task enthusiastically, learning all
about blood detection using luminol solution, blood typing, fingerprinting and
fibre analysis – analysing evidence from fibres and hairs found at the crime
scene. Having learnt all about blood groups, students tested different blood
samples to match the guilty suspect with the samples found at the scene.
Fingerprinting techniques helped them to match the ‘prime’ suspect to the
prints found at the scene of the crime.
Autumn 2011
SPOTLIGHT on science
SPOTLIGHT
on achievement
Educating Successful Women of the Future
Students
also gave a
fantastic
performance
- Drop it Low.
Ricards Lodge and Merton
celebrate Top Achievers
I am delighted to be able to share with you the first edition of our achievement
newsletter. At Ricards Lodge, we set great store by our girls’ achievements
and are proud to share and celebrate these with our community. I am confident
that you will be impressed by the range and scale of what goes on behind the
doors of Ricards Lodge!
The day, which involved working in the fantastic Imperial College laboratories
and a tour of the campus, including the various renewable energy buildings
and medical school, learning new scientific and analytical skills and about
the various STEM professions, was an inspiration.
We began this year with a further increase in our end of Key Stage 4 results,
with results improving for a sixth consecutive year. We are delighted with
this year’s results which are a testament to the hard work of our class of 2011
90% of whom achieved 5 or more A*- C grades, with 58% of these including
Mathematics and English.
Achieving beyond the classroom
At Ricards Lodge, we support achievement beyond the classroom by
providing students with a wide range of clubs and activities, some of which
make use of facilities in the local community, as well as further afield.
Located within easy access of the centre of London, our students are
fortunate in being able to visit museums, galleries and theatres. Learning
is further supported by trips to France and Germany and numerous
activities are available through the wide range of clubs.
We encourage our students to take part in local and national competitions
across a range of areas from Chamber Choir to Magistrates Bar Mock
Trials and the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award programme. For many, the
opportunity to undertake ball girl duties each year at the Wimbledon
Tennis Championships is perhaps one of the most memorable
achievements. "My greatest achievement was being selected to be
a Wimbledon Ball Girl as I worked extremely hard. Not only did I represent
the school, but was able to take part in an international tournament."
This year our girls have the opportunity to train as Olympic Ball Girls as
part of the Olympic Tennis Tournament being held at the Wimbledon Lawn
Tennis Club. The selection process takes place later this term. Good luck
to all those girls in training.
Message from the Headteacher
Student Leadership
supports achievement
At Ricards Lodge we were overwhelmed
by the numbers of students who applied to
be part of the new Student Leadership role
to help promote achievement across the
school. After a rigorous application and
interview process, we have selected our
very special team.
The newly appointed team has already
carried out a number of duties, including
planning and working on the annual
Celebrations Evening, organising the
Student Award, interviewing candidates
for teaching positions and writing
to our sponsored students in Tanzania.
Ricards Lodge High School, Lake Road, Wimbledon SW19 7HB
T: 020 8946 2208 | E: office.manager@ricardslodge.merton.sch.uk
www.ricardslodge.merton.sch.uk
On 15 September, Ricards Lodge joined other Merton
schools to celebrate students’ successes, as part of
the Merton Top Achievers event.
In RR6, our shared Sixth Form with Rutlish School, many of our students
achieved good AS grades and are now applying through UCAS for university
places up and down the country.
Deborah Ng, Cassie Popham, Zoe Cheung, Rhianna
Price, Saleeha Mohamed, Fatima Al-Kassab and Carina
Roots were invited to attend the celebration event with
the Headteacher and the Merton Mayor, Councillor
Gilli Lewis-Lavender, in recognition and celebration
of their outstanding exam results.
I hope you enjoy reading about our students’ numerous achievements and
congratulate them for their continued hard work, commitment and, above
all, enthusiasm.
Alison Jerrard
Headteacher | Ricards Lodge High School
Year10 GCSE success
Congratulations to our Year 10 English
and Mathematics GCSE stars, including
Amy Cooper, Lauren Thomas, Elaine
Noakes, Sharihann Ahmed and Saba
Naeem, who all achieved an A* in
their modules at the end of Year 10.
SPOTLIGHT on success
We are delighted to share with
you the individual successes of
some our outstanding young
women of the future
Key Stage Success
Youth That Care
Our Key Stage 3 stars are Rachel Swiatek, Tara Magill, Nadia Majidi,
Priya Narayanan, Alex Mladenovic and Hannah Charles, who achieved
the highest marks across the curriculum in the end of Key Stage 3
assessments... while Ruth Newbery Payton, Ellen Partridge, Ashleigh
Green, Kiran Arwani and Orla Ryan shared the honour of achieving the
highest marks in both Mathematics and English.
Ricards Lodge is delighted to announce that
Priya Narayanan has been appointed the Head of Youth
That Care (YTC). This is the first time that a Year 10
student has held this prestigious post in the school.
Proud to support
Zoe, Becky and Alex celebrate.
Carina receives her Governors’
Award 2011.
Zoe Cheung joined Ricards Lodge in 2006 and it has been a pleasure
to watch her mature into a truly successful woman of the future.
Zoe’s outstanding achievements at GCSE - 6 A*, 7 As and 1 B were
recognised at the Merton Top Achievers event. Zoe has now progressed
into the Ricards Sixth Form, RR6, and we look forward to supporting her
during this next phase of her education and onto University.
Becky Davies, a member of the Junior Leadership Team, achieved
an A* grade in her Mathematics, Science, History, Product Design, English
and French Year 10 modular GCSE results.
SPOTLIGHT on creativity
Merton Youth Advisors aim to support young people in Merton.
Their role is to show community leaders and decision makers
what it is like for young people to live, work, learn and play in
the area and to work with them to engage young people in
community life, local decision making and improving services.
Their role is varied and includes talking to local MPs,
councillors and businesses within the Merton area.
Priya’s letter of application and the way she presented in
interview was outstanding. Priya has many ideas on how
to improve the service and the support we offer students.
All members of the YTC team are currently undergoing
training with Felicity Cupit, Specialist Systemic
Psychotherapist from the Child and Adolescent Mental
Health and Virtual Behaviour Service.
ON THE TRAIL
of the arts in Merton
Ricards Lodge students created some outstanding artwork as part of this
year’s Arts Trail, Merton’s very first open studio festival of the visual arts.
“Personally, as a Merton Youth Advisor, I feel proud to say that
I am helping people of my own age achieve their goals, and
influencing decision making on matters that directly link to
young people.” - Daisy Seepersad (10L)
Over two consecutive weekends, students displayed and sold their
art work at Merton Abbey Mills, alongside local professional artists.
The Ricards Lodge stall certainly generated a lot of interest and, we
suspect that a lot of Merton residents will be receiving Christmas cards
designed by our students this year.
In addition to her academic achievements, Becky is a fan of the arts and
regularly delights us with her performances. Becky is an inspiration to
her peer group and has a very bright future ahead of her.
Alexandra Mladenovic has moved into Key stage 4, having
achieved some of the very best end of Key Stage 3 results that we have
ever had at Ricards Lodge.
Alexandra is a talented and able student, but it is her hard work, motivation
and drive which underpins her success.
Alexandra contributes to the Student Council, is a member of the Wimbledon
Lawn Tennis ball girls squad and a Ricards Lodge sports leader. A role model
to her peers and to the younger girls, Alexandra most recently represented
the school at a school leadership conference at the Ursuline Convent.
Carina Roots is one of our RR6 students studying Art, Photography
and Media, and whilst she is already making an impact as a focussed,
mature and enthusiastic student in Year 12, it is due to her studies at
Key Stage 4 that Carina received the Governors’ Award for 2011.
Wimbledon Bookfest Winner
RR6, our shared Sixth Form
with Rutlish School goes
from strength to strength
An outstanding student, Carina achieved 15 A*-C grades at GCSE or BTEC,
achieved the maximum points score possible in her Performing Arts and
Media courses and was nominated as Edexcel BTEC student of the year
by her media teachers.
Students at all academic levels have access to courses in all curriculum
areas including the specialist subjects of both schools - Mathematics,
Computing, Performing and Visual Arts - ensuring access to university
education, as well as a wide range of vocational careers.
Carina’s absolute commitment to all aspects of her learning is something
to behold. She is passionate about Ricards Lodge and now RR6 and has
represented the school in many events. A role model to her peers, a joy
to teach and a young woman with an outstanding future ahead of her.
In line with our commitment to educate successful women of the future,
our Sixth Form students benefit from first class teaching and a pastoral
framework that supports independent learning.
We are delighted that Ricards Lodge had a winning entry in
the Wimbledon Bookfest Young Writers’ Competition 2011.
Aiswarya Nadesan (10R) is one of just four winners in the senior
category selected from entries from schools across Merton.
and screenwriter, Michael Crompton, known for such classics
as Carrie’s War and Silent Witness.
Aiswarya, selected for her exceptional originality and ability to
engage the reader, has been invited to the grand prize-giving,
where she and the other winners will be presented with their
awards by the chair of the judges
Winners also received a special CD of their entries, read
by professional actors, including William Gaminara of
Silent Witness fame. These will be available to download from
the Wimbledon Bookfest website: www.wimbledonbookfest.org.