Autumn 2010 Volume 2, Issue 7 Prime Minister invites Prize ... 2010.pdf · Belgium’s capital...

www.ashmoleacademy.org

8Macmillan Cancer Coffee Morning

9Cambridge University Spaceflight

10 UNIQ Summer School

11 Sport Update

2 AshmoleSchool Proms

3Business Enrichment Groups

4 Languages Week 2010

6Great Ormond Street Hospital Project

Autumn 2010 Volume 2, Issue 7

Dear Parents, Carers, Friends and Students,

The end of term is quickly approaching on what has been a very exciting and busy term. The academic year started with a set of amazing examinations results. Our students did so well. Congratulations to every one of them. 94% of the Year 11 got 5 or more A*-C grades at GCE, with 78% gaining 5 including English and Maths. 100% of our Year 13 passed their A levels with 93% gaining A*-B grades. Thanks to all the parents and staff for helping the students achieve such excellent performance.

This is the first newsletter as

Ashmole Academy. Most readers will recall that we were invited as an outstanding school to become an academy back in June. It means more money for the school as well as giving us more flexibility on how the school manages its affairs. I was invited to attend No 10 Downing Street on Wednesday 17th November where the Prime Minister thanked the head teachers present for their support of the academy development. The Prime Minister sees the growth of academies as a way in which highly successful schools can support other less performing schools.

Parent/Carers and students may also be aware of two consultations that are underway. One relates to term dates for 2001/12, we are proposing an earlier summer finish but a longer autumn term. The second consultation relates to proposals to change the uniform. Please let us know your views so that we can make a final decision taking those opinions into account.

As we are approaching the Christmas break, Seasons Greetings to you all.

Derrick Brown Head Teacher

Prime Minister invites Mr Brown to No. 10

ThE annual Prize Giving Evening was held on Thursday

18th November and once again the School hall was filled with students, parents and guests.

The guest speaker was Joel Defries, a current presenter of Blue Peter who spoke to the audience after congratulating all the prize winners on their excellent achievements.

Prize Giving Evening

A s h m o l e A c A d e m y


2Music @ Ashmole

AshmoleSchool Proms

BeTween 28th June and 1st July the Music Department

hosted the Ashmole School Proms. This was a week of musical events which opened with the Ashmole Primary Music Festival. During the week there were concerts held at breakfast club and lunchtime in the refectory. These included Brass group, Ashmole choir and Year 7 choir. Particular highlights of the week were the performance Masterclass adjudicated by Lee Sollory and Latin Rock Band

concert in the refectory. The Last night of the Proms was the culmination of all the events of the week. The students worked incredibly hard during the week and their performances were outstanding.

Mrs TurveyDirector of Music

“Performing at the Proms was exciting and an experience I will never forget.”

Grace Levy, 10N2

ThE tour was filled with excitement, fun and music.

On the first day of the tour we arrived at Ypres, Menin Gate and we witnessed the daily ceremony of respecting those who died in battle. Soon after, we enjoyed a dinner at a local restaurant and then reluctantly went to bed after a long day of travelling.

The next day we headed to Belgium’s capital city, Brussels. It began with a visit to the marvellous Atomium. Afterwards we had lunch in central Brussels. We then visited the Comic Strip Museum to see Belgian treasures such as Tin-Tin and The Smurfs. Then we headed back to Ypres for our first concert. Our music blended in with the cool, calm atmosphere which swept the streets of Ypres. We attracted a large audience who came to hear us play.

On the third day we went to the

medieval town of Bruges. First we went on a canal boat ride and saw its historical features such as the Rozenhoedkaai . We then explored Bruges on foot and did some souvenir shopping. We had an amazing time and even though we were tired we still had enough energy to play our hearts out in our final concert. It went very smoothly and we had a very enthusiastic crowd which boosted our confidence and our performance.

On the morning of our final day in Ypres we went to a chocolate shop and bought some delicious Belgian chocolates. We had a chance to have a final look around and some last-minute souvenir shopping before heading back to London.

Overall it was an enjoyable and exciting trip which we will never forget.

Jeton Katrati 9M2 & Alice Hunter 9M1

Ashmole Orchestra and Jazz Band Tour


3Business @ Ashmole

IN recent years Ashmole Academy Business Studies Department has made a strong

business link with Coca Cola Enterprises Ltd in Edmonton, a franchise bottler for the popular drinks company. This term the Year 10 BTEC First class has visited the plant where students and teachers alike learnt a variety of interesting facts about this iconic drinks firm.

This trip was broken into four parts. First

students watched a brief video about the history of Coca Cola. Then the students watched and participated in a presentation by an experienced Coca Cola employee. Students actively contributed to the presentation and confidently answered questions on Coca Cola’s change in brand over the years, and its marketing strategies.

Now the challenging part! Students were set the difficult task of creating a new and exciting drink for a particular event. Not only did they have to create it but they also had to market it correctly and then pitch their idea to the Coca Cola representative. The best product idea won a prize.

The tour of the site was by far the most interesting part of the day. Students were engrossed by the production. With a highly automated plant students struggled to see an employee on site but were intrigued by the size of the operation.

No trip would be complete without a little drama! Miss Archeou’s group was enjoying its

trip round the factory when the security alarm sounded. however this cool group were not alarmed by this and all students remained calm and followed the Coca Cola representative out of the factory to the fire assembly point. They enjoyed a few rays of sunshine whilst the site was being checked before finishing off the tour.

Another successful trip organised by the Business Studies Department enhancing the integration of the classroom with real life businesses!

Miss ArcheouStudents’ quotes“The value to my learning of this trip was to learn how the Coca Cola business operates on a daily basis”

Akeem Norville, 11J1

“The most interesting part of the day was when we went into the factory and saw the whole production process”

Senay Arif, 11S2

Business Enrichment Groups2009-2010

Year 13 Leavers’ HoodiesEllie Fanis, Najma Aden and hana Veseli worked closely with staff, students and a publisher to design and create the leavers’ hoodies. The group had to give up their personal time to promote, sell and distribute hoodies. Year 13 customers were very pleased with the end product and proudly wore their hoodies on the last day of term.

Glow SticksBevin Mohabeer, Jess Satanas and Pavan Gulati’s group received a kind donation of 200 glow sticks from local businessman, Andy Savva. They sold the glow sticks at the Year 8 disco and gave all proceeds to Ashmole Academy.

Hand-painted MugsAnna-Maria Antoniou, Bevin Mohabeer, Jess Satanas, Jordana Japal, Louisa Demetriou, Pavan Gulati and Sophia Georgiou’s group spent several weeks designing and painting festive mugs. They also spent a few evenings filling the mugs with chocolates and packaging the items ready for sale. The group worked extremely

hard, from painting in BS1 to baking in Art!

Cake DecoratingElis Tayfun, Ellie Fanis, hana Veseli, Joe Joannides, Najma Aden and Nimisha Vara’s group set up a cake decorating stall at the Christmas Market. The stall was very popular with children as they really enjoyed decorating fairy cakes and getting their hands messy.

Face-painting & Candy SticksAndreas Panayi, Anmarie Petrou, Kyri Evangelou, Kyri Poliviou, Lily Chaidamli and Natalie Odysseos sold candy sticks and did face painting at the Christmas Market. The stall was very busy and the group had to work hard to entertain customers in the queue.

Thank you to all students, staff and parents for supporting the Business Enrichment groups. All proceeds go to the APFA so please continue supporting us. We look forward to doing business with you again in the near future!

Miss Aslan

ThIS club is for everybody who would like to improve their

German and learn more about German culture. Because it is open to all years, we have a great mixture of students attending and everybody can learn from each other. Luckily, we have several native German speaking students

who come along who can share their knowledge. As a teacher it is lovely to see knowledge being passed on between older and younger students and curiosity driving students forward in their learning.

Ms Klingler

ThIS year during Languages Week, in co-operation with the

Food Technology Department, we offered a Käsespätzle cooking session which was extremely popular with the students. The dish is a speciality of Southern Germany and consists of homemade pasta mixed with cheese and topped with fried onions. Within one hour, we made the pasta from scratch, finished the dish, ate and cleaned up. Everybody enjoyed the cooking as much as tasting the Käsespätzle.

Ms Klingler

GErMAn rEADinG CLuB

Languages Week 2010


4Languages @ Ashmole

A GROuP of students from Years 8,9 and 10 is now

studying Latin in after school classes. As well as learning about the language, they are finding out a lot about how the Romans lived. So far, students have been amazed at how easy it is to understand Latin texts because of their knowledge of other languages. Latin is often

described as a dead language but students have learnt how to introduce themselves and have even acted out some of the stories that we have read. Year 7 students who would like to learn some Latin can attend Miss Fish’s lunchtime club on Thursdays in LA1.

Ms Moon

Year 8 French Trips to Normandy 2010

OVER 200 of the current Year 9 enjoyed an excellent week

in France last July, at the end of the Summer Term. Accompanied by fourteen staff, they spent four nights by the sea at Le home du Cotentin in Agon-Coutainville and in a packed programme, they supplemented their studies in history by visiting the Bayeux Tapestry and Le Mont Saint Michel, learnt about zoology at the Zoo du Champrépus and had roller-coaster fun at the Parc de Bagatelle. Students practised their French at the market in Coutances and experienced France at first hand both in the hotel, around the resort and in the towns we visited.

A note of thanks must go to the members of staff who gave up their time to accompany the students on

what was a truly memorable trip which concluded with the best ever set of Trip Diaries from a Year 8 group.

The next opportunity for Year 9 students to spend time in France will be in March when we will once again do the exchange with Le Raincy, including visits to Paris and Eurodisney. More information on this can be obtained from Ms Moon.

Mr Pearson

Latinat Ashmole


5

ON Monday and Tuesday the 20th / 21st of September, we

set off with our classes to Millwall in central-east London. Everyone was really looking forward to going and as we boarded our coach at 9 o’clock, we were all ready to have a good day out. After a 45 minute journey (and after passing some

great sights like the Olympic Park and the O2 arena), we got off the coach and began our day in the London Docklands Museum. We collected some interesting data from inside the museum, such as how the Docklands closed down and were regenerated, and how machines took over from humans!

Then we had an early lunch (which is always good) and set out on our first leg of walking in Canary Wharf. First stop – Cabot Square. We began by counting cars and pedestrians for our coursework…but standing outside in the reasonably good weather wasn’t such a bad thing!

Then, after admiring how tall the Canary Wharf Tower was, we set out once again to explore more of the Docklands – even if crossing bridges and walking through revolving doors proved scary for some. It was very interesting to see how each area can change so dramatically; from tall skyscrapers in Cabot Square, to little houses and flats a quarter of a mile down the road.

We surveyed another 3 areas in the Docklands and after getting a well deserved rest outside of the museum, we were all ready to set off back to Southgate. We arrived back at 3:00 pm and all went home early satisfied with our work we did on the day. Overall, the trip was an amazing day out and also a very interesting experience - it was great to experience Geography first hand and collect some real data.

Antony & Harry Zacharias11J2 and 11N2

Humanities @ Ashmole

ON Friday 8th October the Museum of London came to

school. They gave us an interactive drama performance on slavery and abolition in London. It gave us an insight on what peoples’ lifestyles were like in the 18th Century. We were very luck as we got to meet a historical figure – Robert Wedderburn – who told us his story about his attempts to end slavery and racism. It was very engaging and exciting as some of us got the chance to go

up and act out a very special dream that Robert experienced of his father and grandmother who inspired his actions against the Slave Trade. We thought that it was a great way to learn about the past and we got to take part! Overall it was an enjoyable and memorable experience and we hope that the Museum can come and visit us again!

Elle Zacharia, Martha Pentecost & Yasmin Azedou 8J2

Year 11 Geography Field Trip toLondon dockLands

History welcomes the Museum of London to Ashmole!

IN June we, along with eight other students,

went to the Global Student Forum in Westminster. None of us

really knew what to expect, however, we were told that the theme was how education can beat poverty and to raise awareness of this issue.

When we arrived, we were immediately exposed to some unbelievable statistics; a country’s GDP goes up by 1% for every year of schooling for a population and in uganda there are 121 children to every one teacher. After these statistics, we were intrigued to see what the rest of the conference was going to inform us about.

A number of guest speakers gave us their first hand experiences of how their lives had been changed by education. Ben Okafor, a musician

who was a child soldier in Nigeria, told us about how his childhood was marred by political instability and due to this, education wasn’t available. he continued to tell us that his lack of education made his later life harder.

We then attended a few engaging workshops that helped us to empathise with those less fortunate than ourselves.

This experience motivated us to raise awareness among other students about the lack of education in poorer countries. The conference taught us that education is a way out of poverty and people like us, even though we are half way across the world, can make a difference to those less fortunate.

Tom Pye 13S1& Amber Lauder 13J1


6Humanities @ Ashmole

ThIS year 9S1 was awarded the prize and congratulated for

raising the most money in its event in the G.O.S.h. projects. I am pleased to be a member of the class and it is a great accomplishment and satisfying feeling when you are announced the winner.

Evidently, it was a whole class performance and everybody at some stage made a contribution and had a significant role to play within the project. Everybody

was assigned a specific job and separated into five categories including: marketing, finance and production. In order to see how effective we were as students and gain some independence while completing this task there were five main managers in charge of the sectors as well as a chosen overall manager: Shayan.

How we got started: We began planning a long time in advance considering that

we wanted to be prepared and organised fully in time for our event. This was completed by meetings sometimes held by the assistant manager and manager in order to discuss what was going to occur within their groups and who would be assigned what specific task. Also, to gain a slight advantage we spoke to other forms about their ideas in order to compare notes and decipher what would be best, as well as occasionally watching or asking how their fundraising went so we could make improvements and not make those mistakes.

What each group completed:Being part of the marketing team was a very challenging role, much more so that I had though it would be. We decided to get the word around by having our skilled artists to do drawings and designs for posters to put round the school to make it more noticeable. The nerve wracking day was when Anthony and I went in assembly to announce the event to Year 9,

however I feel it had a huge impact and certainly made a difference for awareness.

The finance team had to make sure that they produced rotas for who was selling tickets for what days which they ended up doing in an organised fashion.

The production team had a lot on their hands as they had to produce and prepare the stage settings as well as tickets.

All of our hard work and effort it paid off when a large number of students came to our talent show and donated sums of money. The afternoon ran smoothly with a brilliant selection of contestants and judges. The £217 which was raised is a great goal to aim for next year and definitely provides you with the rewarding feeling that you’ve truly helped a needy cause.

Sophia Panayi 9S1

Great Ormond Street Hospital Project

Geography and rS Gifted and Talented Trip


ON Secondary Transfer Evening there were activities

running including vote for your favourite character from a book. We had a ballot box and voting forms for the visitors.

The choices were: Matilda, Alex Rider, Edward Cullen, Lyra Belacqua and harry Potter. Who would you vote for? Who do you think won?

Over the course of the night it was a great way of meeting Year 6 students and their parents. It was good fun debating about the characters and by the end of the night well over 200 hundred people had voted!

In the end the winning order was as follows:

Matilda – 79

Harry Potter – 74

alex Rider – 61

Lyra Belacqua – 39

Edward Cullen – 17

So, Matilda was the winner! We would like to thank everyone who voted on the night. Seems like Edward Cullen is not so fangtastic after all.

Tayla Corby & Yiannis Thomas

7S1

Who would get your vote?

7English @ Ashmole

ON the 7th October a Year 9 group went to the unicorn

Theatre (on the other side of the River Thames) to see ‘The Day the Waters Came’, which is a production based on the trauma of hurricane Katrina. however, before we saw the play we had a talk with the director of the play, Natalie Wilson and the writer, Lisa Evans. here, we all discussed what a story needs to have in order to become a successful play or film. It was also very interesting to hear about Lisa’s process of research and how it was all based around actual people – she stated that it was people’s specific stories which stand out to an audience. Also, she told us that, out of all the natural disasters, to her hurricane Katrina was one of the most gripping as it was in the richest country in the world.

After the talk, we had a brief break in the foyer. When we were led back into the theatre it was decorated with different bits of debris and half a sunken house. The production began with jazz

music playing and then it sprang into life. The first part of the play was based particularly around one girl who was talking about her pride in living in New Orleans. She portrayed it very positively and showed it in stark contrast to the outbreak of hurricane Katrina, which was hectic and horrifying. The characters successfully represented the horror of it; people pleading for help on flooded houses, children on their own, a flooded hospital and the awful conditions in which people had to live for days without clean water. The most shocking thing was the fact that the characters said the government refused to help them as most of the population of New Orleans was black and poor.

The production ended on a haunting note of the disappointment and innocence of the characters, which helped to paint a devastating image. I would recommend this to people of all ages as, although it is very bitter, there are some moments of humour.

The Day the Waters Came

Macmillan Cancer Coffee Morning


EmpirE of the Sun follows the young Jim through his

experience of the war in China. he had been brought up in a wealthy family and, when his parents go missing, Jim is left to make new friends and grow up without his comforts that he was used to. In some ways, this book was similar to another book we have read in the club: Auslander. They both use the concept of war and losing your family. They also have a theme of growing up and survival. The book was hard to get into at first, as we are not very interested in war books. however, as the story progressed, we started to feel involved with Jim and wanted to find out what happened to him, as he was in constant danger throughout the book. We would recommend this book to anyone who likes reading about the history of other countries and to those who like books with the theme of war, although it may not have as much gore as you would expect. It’s a good read wherever you are, whether it’s on holiday or at home.

Anthony & Harry Zacharias 11J2 and 11N2

ThE book is based on events which Ballard himself witnessed

and suffered as a boy in Shanghai with his parents during the Second World War. After the Pearl harbour attack, the Japanese occupy the Shanghai International Settlement and in the following chaos, Jim gets separated from his parents. he spends some time in abandoned mansions, living on remnants of packaged food, but is soon picked up by the Japanese and interned in the Lunghua Civilian Assembly Centre. Towards the end of the war, with the Japanese army collapsing and the food supply running short, Jim barely survives, with people around him starving to death. I really enjoyed reading this book as I found the descriptions of the young Jim’s thoughts fascinating. I also felt that the book was written in a way that made it extremely exciting to read. I would recommend this book to people of 16 years and over. It is partly autobiographical and has a historical element, which may particularly interest some.

Sumayyah Nawal Azam 11J2

ON Wednesday 29th September the Ashmole staff held a coffee

and cake sale and wore pink and green to support Macmillan Cancer Support in memory of Yvonne Croll.

Many parents and students will remember Yvonne as the Welfare Officer who worked at Ashmole from October 2001 to March 2010 caring for many of the children and staff during that time. She was diagnosed with cancer in late 2008 and sadly passed away last July.

On our Secondary Transfer Evening in October, Technology students baked and sold cakes and the money raised was also for the same charity.

In total £560 was raised for Macmillan Cancer Support. Thank you to all who participated by baking and eating cakes!

Bookit sessions are held once every half term to discuss our views on the book we have all been reading. Over the Summer we read Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard. Here, three Bookit club members share their views:

8English @ Ashmole

BookiT nEWS!

The Key Stage FourReading Club

News @ Ashmole

the national Students’ art Exhibition

A YEAR on, almost to the day and another stratospheric

flight was scheduled for our experiment. Besides our own

payload which is sampling from the stratosphere in our search for life beyond our planet, Google’s Android mobile telephone was also on this stratospheric flight pre programmed to take photos of the flight path every few seconds and to test its ability to function for test messages at those altitudes.

After the pressures of checking the functioning of each component of our payload and re-assembling and sealing it in its box we came out onto the sports grounds of the Campus. unlike last year’s Stratospheric flight which ended up taken by the storm across the North Sea and washed on an isolated beach in Scandinavia, this

was a glorious day! Endless blue skies and warm sunshine!

We got set to fill the weather balloon with helium gas, up to a certain volume and that was calculated by the Physics graduates based on the altitude we wanted to reach (25–30km) and the weight to be carried on this flight.

At the same time, we had the help of a graduate with nautical experience to tie the

parachute, the flight’s control mechanism and the payloads onto the weather balloon. Permission for the flight was granted and air traffic control was notified when we were ready for the flight’s lift off.

The whole flight went very smoothly and so did the chase of the flight. The parachute with the payloads landed in a crop field. Everyone was happy and even the farmer came to see what was happening and showed interest in our work.

So far, we can positively confirm the success of the flight and the retrieval of the data loggers of our payload’s mechanism.

A video diary of the day’s event can be viewed on:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb38nfbSFi0

Nicholas Lucas 11 M1

Cambridge University Spaceflight – June 2010


9News @ Ashmole

ThE eighth National Students’ Art Exhibition

was held in the Mall Galleries in July. It featured the best young artists in the country exhibiting alongside work from some of the finest professional artists. Lewis hazelwood-horner, who has now gone to the university of Arts, London to study Fine Art, had two works exhibited.

Have you ever found yourself asking: • If God is really there, why doesn’t he prove it?• Isn’t the Bible just a bunch of made up stories?• If Jesus was God’s Son, why did he get killed?• What is the point of life?

— ALL WELCOME! —WHEN: Thursday lunchtimes, 1.30pm

WHERE: MA3

WHAT: A chance to chat about big questions and explore Christianity.

Each week will also include watching a short DVD and reading a life account of Jesus.

For more info see Mrs Fenning or Tanya White 13M1

Ashmole Christian Union invites you to…

May Winner

Jack Whitaker 9J2Jack recently completed a university course in web design.

Award spent on a visualizer for Graphics.

April Winner

Alex Zabetas 7J1Alex won 1st prize in the piano competition at the North London Music Festival and has achieved Grade 7.

Award spent on equipment for the music department.

June Winner

Angelica Lam 12J2Angelica recently earned a place at the prestigious Oxford/Cambridge summer school.

Award spent on equipment fans for teaching rooms affected by hot weather.


IN July I attended the Oxford university uNIQ Summer School

Music programme. This involved staying in an Oxford college for a week, and experiencing life as an undergraduate studying music.

The week began with a welcome barbeque for all students attending at the uNIQ Summer School where I met the other students on my music course and those staying in my college. The next day was where the hard work began. It was an early start, and I left my college (St hilda’s) at 8:30am, and by 9am we were all at the music faculty awaiting our first lecture. Although I knew that having a lecture would be different to having lessons in school, I was still surprised that the tutor talked at us for an hour

and we were expected to listen and take notes, rather than interacting with us and asking us questions. however, the lecture was followed up by a tutorial which involved going through the lecture, giving us the opportunity to ask questions.

During the next four days, I had up to two lectures and two tutorials a day. This was on top of working on a group composition, completing a research task and practising for a concert at the end of the week. We were given full access to the music library, participated in a workshop on Gamelan instruments, watched a professional concert performed by two Oxford Music Alumni, and were given a tour of The Bate Collection – a collection of early instruments, and I even had the

unique opportunity to play on the instruments, including handel’s harpsichord and a number of early flutes.

Although our days were packed, we still had enough free time to explore Oxford for ourselves, even finding time to go punting. In the evenings social activities were planned for us, with activities ranging from salsa dancing to watching a performance of The Tempest. On the final evening career talks were arranged where Oxford Alumni such as Toby Young, came to talk to us about life after Oxford, followed by a formal dinner in Keble College and a masquerade ball afterwards. The summer school ended with admission talks, a chance to watch a mock interview and finally a graduation ceremony.

The experience gave me a unique and valuable insight into what studying music would be like at Oxford, and convinced me to apply to Oxford to read Music. During the week I made some amazing friends, and I would encourage all year 12s to apply to next years uNIQ Summer School, as my only criticism I could give is that the week wasn’t long enough!

Anoushka Patel 13J2

ON Wednesday the 19th of October, I attended a prize

giving ceremony for a Think Kafka competition. The prize giving event took place at Oxford university in the Bodleian Library. In June 2010, I entered the competition for the best creative response for a Franz Kafka story. For this, I manipulated four photographs into one, in response to the story “Ein Kommentar” for which I came runner up. I was one of a few students coming from a

state school, for which I felt highly privileged. We were all treated to lunch at the very prestigious Jesus College, where I met the fellow prize winners and lecturers from the German department. The prize giving event took place at the Divinity School, where we were fortunate enough to see Kafka’s original manuscripts. At the ceremony I received a collection of Franz Kafka’s stories and a £20 voucher, for my competition entry. The day was a valuable experience,

where I was able to meet people who are also fascinated by the German language, explore the city of Oxford and the experience of partaking in such an esteemed competition.

Katerina Xenophontos 13N2

10News @ Ashmole

uniQ Summer School

Think Kafka

Jack PetcheyAchievement Awards

ThROuGh the Social Mobility Foundation I was able to obtain

two weeks Work Experience in the Prime Minister’s office in the house of Commons. Before gaining the work experience I had to go to an interview (I was not told who I would be working for), and received tickets to go and watch the Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet debate, in the Strangers Gallery. As a long time fan of Prime Minister’s Question Time, you can imagine how exciting this was for me; working in the house of Commons was also incredible.

One of my main tasks was trying to solve issues of David Cameron’s

constituents, which they sent to us in letters, we then had to write to other government departments to try to get answers for them. I really had no idea how many government departments there were and what they all did, so I was constantly on Google trying to find names of Cabinet Ministers. Some of the letters were funny: one elderly historian made the point the smoking ban was immoral because hitler was a non-smoker and tried to impose a similar ban on Germany, as opposed to Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill who were all smokers. Other letters were sad: reading about pensioners whose private pensions had collapsed and were now living on very little.

When I was not dealing with constituents, I was photocopying, filing and delivering packages to 10 Downing Street or Conservative Central Office. I also had the displeasure of witnessing just how complicated Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority’s new expenses system was, so weeks later when the stories about MPs complaining about it broke, I did feel sympathetic towards them. I also had tea with previous interns (who I found out are usually a lot older than me), all of them seem to have really good luck after their work experience. One is on her way

to China because she by chance met the Chinese Ambassador who put her up for a scholarship to go off to China and learn the language. Another is second ambassador to China and another got an internship with a risk assessment company who sent him to India; some of this good luck hopefully rubbed off on me.

My favourite part of my internship was going to Number 10 (I was told I saw the Danish Prime Minister on his way out but I did not recognise him). Downing Street is a lot like the Tardis; you go in one end and come out the other end of Whitehall, it is a lot bigger than it looks on TV. I was able to explore a bit and saw

portraits of ex-prime Ministers, the remnants of Whitehall Palace and the Cabinet Boardroom; there was also a very interesting bust of Disraeli. I was also privileged to meet the Prime Minister himself, who was funny, friendly and knew where Ashmole was; after my work experience, he actually sent me a letter thanking me for coming which was really nice.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my work experience; especially watching Neighbours on the Prime Minister’s couch in his office. The experience encouraged me to continue in my ambition to one day become a Civil Servant.

Bobby Wiafe13J2


11

Sports @ Ashmole

News @ Ashmole

FootballThe football season has got off to a great start with the majority of our teams reaching a play off place going into the final stages of the league.

Cross CountryCross Country has again proved successful with Year 9 boys winning the first league meeting and a combined Years 8 and 9 girls team coming 2nd. With the Barnet championships coming up soon I hope to be reporting further success and individual excellence in the next @shmole.

netballIt has been a superb start to the netball season for the girls! Both senior teams qualified for the knockout stages of the Barnet Cup, no mean feat given that 18 teams entered the competition. The first senior team, with Katy Orriss as the Captain, were the runners up in a close final against Mill hill Public.

The Year 10 girls also performed brilliantly in the same competition, getting to the final, losing narrowly to The Mount in an excellent final. hopefully this success can continue for the remainder of the season, well done ladies!

Sport update

Yes Prime Minister!

University Fees ProtestReaders will be aware of the news reports about the recent violent demonstration against the increase in university fees. Several students from other schools were involved.

At Ashmole, we felt that this kind of protest was not appropriate for schools to become involved in. Ashmole students did not attend. However, as students we are opposed to the increase in university fees and so arranged for a petition to be signed by the students asking local MPs Theresa Villiers and David Burrowes to campaign for a fairer deal for students. Some 481 students signed the petition.

Senior Team

www.ashmoleacademy.orgDesigned & printed by Orion Design & Print LtdTel: 020 8351 3222 email: [email protected]

Dates For Your DiaryAutumn Term finishes on Friday 17th December 2010 at 1.00 pm

Spring Term starts on Tuesday 4th January 2011 at 8.40 amWeek 2

LED by the 6th Form Senior Team Ashmole Academy

took part in various fundraising activities for Children in Need.

These included a Netball match against members of staff and the boys of the Senior Team having their legs waxed by fellow students.

One Year 7 student, Emily Chen, raised over £100 on her own through a sponsored silence for 44 hours.

Overall £896.68 was raised.

Children in Need 2010 at Ashmole Academy

12Events @ Ashmole

Spring Term 2011First Half term Tuesday 4th January – Friday 18th FebruaryNB: New Year Bank Holiday: monday 3rd JanuaryHalf term Monday 21st February to Friday 25th FebruaryStaff training Day Monday 28th FebruarySecond Half term Tuesday 1st March – Friday 8th AprilNB: Easter Bank Holiday Friday 22nd April to monday 25th April

Summer 2011First Half term Tuesday 26th April – Friday 27th MayNB: may Day Bank Holiday: monday 2nd mayHalf term Monday 30th May to Friday 3rd JuneNB: Spring Bank Holiday: monday 30th maySecond Half term Monday 6th June – Thursday 21st July

Other Dates for Your Diary6th January Year 12 Parents Evening27th January Year 7 Parents Evening10th February Year 11 Parents Evening3rd March Year 8 Parents Evening15th March Year 9 Options Information Evening17th March Year 9 Options Interviews31st april Year 10 Parents Evening

Cecil Road, Southgate, London N14 5RJTel: 020 8361 2703 Fax: 020 8368 0315E-mail: [email protected]: www.ashmoleacademy.org

A s h m o l eA c A d e m y

Have you made your Will?When did you last review your Will?

This is a special offer for you which will also benefit your school

Single wills* £160 +VAT“Mirror” wills* (for couples) £265 +VAT

We will donate £25 to Ashmole Academy for each Will made

For the best possible outcome, call us today to beat the January VAT increase!

Call 020 8363 4444 – ask for the Wills team Quote AES Ash for this limited offer

or email [email protected]

*Note – this includes registration on “Certainty” - the National Will Register – usual price £25+VAT but free with this offer

Curwens LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales with number OC349863 and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Registered office: Crossfield House, Gladbeck Way, Enfield, Middlesex EN2 7HT

Autumn 2010 Volume 2, Issue 7 Prime Minister invites Prize ... 2010.pdf · Belgium’s capital...

Documents

Transcript of Autumn 2010 Volume 2, Issue 7 Prime Minister invites Prize ... 2010.pdf · Belgium’s capital...