JULY 2010 NEWSLETTER Dear Parents & Carers, I have decided to retire as the Chair of the Governing Body of Lea Valley High School – a post I have had the privilege of holding for the last 14 years.

Whilst I still enjoy the challenges of helping to move the school forward I have, since moving home 5 years ago, found the travelling to and from Biggleswade, Bedford-shire, especially night and winter time driving, increasing difficult. I suspect, if I am honest, this is a problem of being “not so young”. I thank you for your support to the school and the students. Janet Cullen, Principal, her Staff and the Governors continue to seek new and exciting paths to give all the students access to the best education and training possible. If you would like to take a more active role at the school then please join the Parents Association, or consider becoming a Parent Governor. The experience and knowledge I have gained in my years at Lea Valley High School will not be wasted as I shall be using them in my new role as a Governor of a Spe-cial Needs School in Central Bedfordshire where my grandson is a student. Thank you again for your continued support to Lea Valley High School. Please be assured the school will be in the safe hands of the Vice Chair – Steve Jakubowski – until a new Chair is elected in September 2010.

Sheila Grayston Chair of Governors Dear Parents and Carers, At the end of every academic year people leave the school and move on to the next step in their lives. This year we are sad to have to say Goodbye to Sheila Grayston our Chair of Governors. Mrs Grayston has been on the Governing Body of Lea Valley High School since 1986, and Chair of the Governing Body since 1996. In this time she has presid-ed over the many changes introduced in the school including our designation as a Sports College. She led the Gov-erning Body to take the decision to accept the increase in the school’s roll and the decision to work with the Local Authority to rebuild our school under the Private Finance Initiative, enabling the school to have some of the best facilities in London. This decision was key to our subsequent academic success, and we are very grateful especially given the new Government’s position in pulling back from the Building School for the Future programme which will have such a negative impact on so many schools across the country. Sheila Grayston has been at the heart of the changes in the school over the last fifteen years. The Governing Body under her leadership were graded Outstanding by Ofsted in the November 2009 inspection. She fulfils her role as a Governor in a committed professional and caring way. This role is often a thankless task but Sheila’s loyalty and dedication have been paramount in the support she has given to the school. I would like to take this opportunity to express my personal thank you to her on behalf of the staff students and parents whose lives she has touched in this community. Thank you Sheila. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all of the staff for their work in what has been an extremely good academic year with a very positive Ofsted grading, and wish those staff moving to new roles the very best. I wish you all a restful and enjoyable holiday and look forward to welcoming all the students back to school on Thurs-day 2nd September 2010.

Janet Cullen Principal

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SPORTS DAY 2010 Wednesday 23rd June was not only an important qualifying day for England’s World Cup squad, but it was also an extremely important day for the athletes at Lea Valley High School, a Specialist Sports College, as the 2010 Sports Day got underway! The sun shone down on the students as they headed to the Lee Valley Athletics Centre for what was going to prove to be a very closely fought competition between the 9 houses of Lea Valley High School – Sebastian Coe, Michael Jordan, Bobby Moore, Steve Redgrave, Kelly Holmes, Tiger Woods, Denise Lewis, Edison Pele and Steffi Graf. As the competition got underway SG had a narrow lead with 90 points, with BM, MJ and SC not far behind. The Year 7 & 8 field events had already taken place at school prior to the main event and the points awarded to the houses. During these field events 4 school records had already been broken:

Year 7: S Aymer – 4.43m in the girl’s long jump D Nguimbi – 1.40m in the girl’s high jump O Eyinfinjowo – 10.02m in the boy’s shot Year 8: L Eyinfinjowo – 1.60m in the boy’s high jump

All of the track events were held at the Lee Valley Athletics Cen-tre along with the Year 9 & 10 field events. An unbelievable 13 further school records were also broken during the competition: Year 7: S Aymer – 27.49s in the girl’s 200m Year 8: Y Hussein – 12.25s in the boy’s 100m Y Hussein – 25.31s in the boy’s 200m

Year 9: M Maukidze – 14.09s in the girl’s 100m H Parchment – 11.53s in the boy’s 100m H Makabudiki – 56.1s in the boy’s 400m H Makabudiki – 2.09 in the boy’s 800m H Makabudiki – 1.65m in the boy’s high jump D Ekeama – 5.98m in the boy’s long jump G Bola – 11.75m in the boy’s shot Year 10: A Calvert-Jordan – 2.44 in the girl’s 800m A Denton-Williams – 11.53s in the boy’s 100m A Denton-Williams – 24.23s in the boy’s 200m The 4x100m relays were the final races to take place and being worth double points, all of the students knew how important they were to the overall results. In fact the relays saw a further 2 school records broken by 9DL (50.9s) and 10SG (51.38s). With all of the events completed the final results were as fol-lows: 1st BM, 298 points 2nd SG, 296 points 3rd SR, 282 points 4th SC, 271 points 5th= MJ & DL, 252 points 7th TW, 246 points 8th EP, 160 points 9th KH, 134 points It really was a fantastic day of athletics and all of the students, both competitors and spectators, did themselves and Lea Val-ley High School proud.

Stephanie Holloway

Director of Specialism

LEA VALLEY AT THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS Two of Lea Valley’s top sportsmen were honoured to be chosen to represent their Borough as well as Lea Valley at the English Schools Athletics Championships. Horeb Makabukidi in Year 9 ran a fantastic 400m race, beating his personal best time and achieving a very impressive 53.78 seconds.

Damani Ekeama, also in Year 9, beat boys of his age from all over the country to achieve the silver medal in long jump with a fantastic jump of 5.96 meters

Helen Powell

Assistant Principal

LEA ALLEY HIGH SCHOOL NEWSLETTER PAGE 3

DUKE OF EDINBURGH AWARD Congratulations to ; Rose Albasha, Matthew Boyce, Rachel Christodoulou, Casper Kzubkowski, Wendy Danso, Andrew Davies, Lucy Green Poppy Green, Coleen Griffin, Ayisha Hameed, Ryan Hek, Kirstie Hasler, Lee Heaney, Tahiya Kasuswa, Alex Kyriacou, Tanya Maphosa, Billy Maker, Daniel Noble Jillian Quaye and Deega Sufi, who successfully completed their Duke of Edinburgh qualifying expedition on the 29th and 30th June around the Screens Park Area near Chelmsford. This involved a 16 kilometre walk to the campsite (carrying everything they needed in backpacks), an overnight camp where they cooked their own meals and another

16 kilometre walk to their final destination the next day When the other three sections of the award (service to a commu-nity, weekly recreation and the learning of a new skill) are verified in their logbooks, they will have achieved a Bronze Award. It is encouraging that most of these students are keen to progress to the Silver Award next year. Many younger students are now keen to take on the challenge and from September, Mr Perkins will be taking over the running of the programme. It has been a pleasure to co-ordinate the Duke of Edinburgh scheme at LVHS and I would like to thank Ms Schofield, Mr Hawkins and Mr Cassidy for their commitment and hard work in training students and supervising expeditions, the young people for their willingness to learn and parents for sup-porting the scheme. Jo Danischewsky Director of Enrichment

YEAR 9 CAMPING TRIP 16 Year 9 students went on camping trip to Epping Forrest as

part of a practise session for the Duke of Edinborough Award. We set off from school on a Friday afternoon and walked 9 miles through the Lee Valley and then Epping Forrest to our camping site in Debden. Between them, students carried their tents, stoves, sleeping bags and

general camping equipment in backpacks all the way to Debden. On arriving at Debden, stu-dents worked together to put up their tents and cook din-ner. After a sound sleep we packed up, made some breakfast and lunch for our journey and started the hike back to school. The 9 mile walk back to school wasn’t easy, but the students showed remarkable resolve and determination. On our journey we saw beautiful scenery, shared jokes and co-operated to help each other along the way. Many thanks to Mr Fox, Mr Hawkins and Ms Ogunseitan for or-ganising and realising the trip.

Aimee Lawrence

Assistant Director of Year 9

ORIENTEERING COMPETITION On Thursday 1st July, 40 Year 9 GCSE Physical Education fast track students took part in the Lee Valley Park Orienteering Competition. This was the first chance for the students to expe-rience Outdoor and Adventurous Activities within their GCSE course, as well as enjoy the natural surroundings of Lee Valley Park. The students were placed into groups of 4 or 5 and imme-diately started to plan their route around the established and challenging course.

After being shown how to orientate their maps and read a com-pass the groups were let loose on the course to try and get the maximum amount of points within the time limit. Some groups struggled initially to find their way around the course and re-ceived some extra tuition from Mr. Trimmer who was able to point them in the right direction!

After an hour and a half in the July heat the groups started to arrive back at the finish tired but proud of their achievements. Within their competition group, Lea Valley secured a second and third place, with 75 and 60 points respectively.

The students thoroughly enjoyed their day and the competition will now be a part of next years GCSE PE calendar.

2nd place team – James, Dency, Alan and Andreas

3rd place team – Murat, Abdul, Glodi, Billy and Harry

Sharon Rayner

Assistant Principal

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HOUSE OF LORDS On 30th June 2010 the Principal and Mr Collins were invited to attend the national final of the Debate Mate competition at the House of Lords. Debate Mate is a national programme which aims to address educational disadvantage by developing oral literacy in young people so that they can compete effectively for the most prestigious positions at university and in professional life. The evening was a celebration of the work of students who have participated in the scheme across the country this year. The debate was chaired by Krishnan Guru-Murthy from Channel Four News and the special guest was Stephen Fry. Although Lea Valley’s outstanding debaters did not make the final this year, we very much hope to win the competition in 2011.

I would like to congratulate and thank all students that have participated in Debate Mate this year. It has been a pleasure and a privilege to work with you.

A special mention must be given to President Jospeh Moore and Vice-Presidents Hivran Dalkaya and Tice Mehmet for their continuing hard work in running the scheme.

Shaun Collins

Subject Leader for History

STEM DAY The Science Department ran a Science Technology Engineering and Maths (STEM) day in school on Monday 21st of June 2010. This one day course was sponsored by Transport for London and Tomorrow’s Engineers and provided a chance for students to enhance their understanding of, and aptitude for, problem solving, creativity, design, and engineering. It linked the Science Curriculum to the wider world and demonstrated that what is being taught in the classroom has direct relevance within the world of work.

Students worked to-gether in small groups on a ‘design and make’ project to create a Wind Turbine cable of generating electrici-ty. Throughout the day students were encour-aged to enhance personal development skills such as time management, team work, and problem solving and personal and social skills. Furthermore the day also provided information about future careers and HE/FE options within science and to promote creativity and enterprise skills.

Students worked well during the day and a special mention goes out to the winning group, nicknamed the fantastic five, made up of Bibi Abdulkadir, Lisa Birch, Safiya Dahir, Ellie Pick-ard and Danielle Wellington. They did the school and

themselves proud and showed that "girls can do engineering". John Grover from the STEM Group commented that he has not seen such a innovative approach to the project for a long time. They worked well together as a team. Created and built an innovate design and improved it further by identifying weak-nesses. Well Done girls!

Amer Malik

Subject Leader for Key Stage 3 Science

YEAR 9 ART & DESIGN TRIP

45 students from Year 9 were selected to go on a day trip to Chelsea School of Art and Design and The Hayward Gallery in central London as part of the Aim Higher Programme.

Chelsea School of Art and Design is a highly respected university, rated as one of the best in the country for Arts based subjects. We went to the university to see their degree show. On arrival, we were greeted by students of the university who took us around the building, showing us all the different things the students had made. We saw work made by students studying Tex-tiles, Interior and Spa-tial Design, Graphic Design and Fine Art.

Then we moved on to The Hayward Gallery on London’s Southbank. There we saw an exhibi-tion of work by Ernesto Neto; a Brazilian artist who makes giant sculp-tures that you can touch, walk through and interact with. The stu-dents really enjoyed the colourful sculptures, engaging in Art in a new way.

We had a fantastic day, filled with all sorts of creativity. Students learnt about the range of career paths available within Art and Design and also what life is like at university. Additionally, students learnt to see Art in a different light; not as a painting on a wall, but as something you can inhabit, feel and experience.

Aimee Lawrence

Assistant Director Year 9

LEA ALLEY HIGH SCHOOL NEWSLETTER PAGE 5

Nina Gamboa Year 8 Nina was nominated because she has just moved to the school and despite not knowing anyone she has overcome her challenges and she is a smart, kind, positive and friendly student. That is why she was voted for.

The £200 grant will be used for: materials to enhance the practi-cal aspects of the Yr9 Maths curriculum, as Nina loves Maths

Jem Fetti Year 7 Jem has a medical condition which results in frequent hospital visits. This could have caused difficulty making friends and settling into Lea Valley High School, however he works hard, is at lessons on time and always obeys all the minimum standards. When Jem sees someone upset he will help and comfort them. He doesn’t get into trouble and doesn’t get involved in fights. He is liked by all his teachers and form class.

His £200 grant will be used for: equipment and resources to run a crime scene investigation as part of a KS3 science enrichment club.

Congratulations to all of our winners!

Jo Danischewsky

Director of Enrichment

ETHNIC MINORITY ACHIEVMENT TEAM It has been a busy year for the EMA team. We have supported 76 students new to school out of which 17 were new to country and English language. Our Welcome Centre students have en-joyed learning through their Induction programme and curricu-lum activities and they all have made very good progress in English. We have also run 3 EAL withdrawal groups for our KS3 students and more than 100 EAL students have benefited from the in-class support in different curriculum areas this year. All students worked very hard and we are proud to see that they are achieving their targets. Well done!

The Welcome Centre continues to grow in popularity and students are making good use of the area to do their homework, revise, read or just chill out and play games during break and lunch time.

In addition our afterschool Turkish reading club run by Miss Safer and homework clubs run by Miss Mohamed and Miss Wais have been very popular and well attended throughout the year not just by EAL students.

Finally, the EMA Team would like to wish all students and their families a happy and safe summer holiday!

Natalie Duggan

Alena Demcakova

Davina Uppiah-Leahy

Fatma Safer

Cilem Safer

Iman Mohamed

Hiba Wais

EMA Team

THE SCHOOL COUNCIL The School Council are now leading the selection of students for the Jack Petchey Awards. Following a visit from Chris Bullock, Grants Officer for the Jack Petchy Foundation, it was decided that they should collect nominations from the student body, year group by year group, on a monthly basis. They then read the nominations anonymously and select the overall winners. Each winner receives £200 from the foundation to spend on an area of school life of their choice. Other nominees receive a certificate of congratulations to acknowledge their nomination.

Award winners this year are (mostly in the students’ own words):

Daniel Noble Year 12 Daniel is a totally supportive member of the group who is always prepared to take on difficult or unpopular tasks in order to make group activities work. He is not the best footballer, the best mathematician, the best artist or the most well dressed member of our class, but Daniel is never arrogant or nasty and probably the person who cares most for others. He shows this always by a sympathetic attitude, positive approach and good sense of humour. We think Daniel is great!

The £200 grant will be used for: a mobile basketball net and basketballs for 6th form recreational use.

Paige Logie Year 11 Paige was nominated for her positive attitude. She has made a lot of effort in trying to be involved in school activities. She has coped with a significant bereavement and for a while Paige's behavior reflected that, but she has overcome her grief and has since captained the girls football team. Paige was a leading light in the fundraising for the Chicago trip. She did anything she could to help out and spoke to dif-ferent audiences about the project.

The £200 grant will be used for: educational equipment for PE. This includes a skeleton, posters and textbooks to enhance the delivery of the anatomy and physiology elements of the GCSE PE Course.

Sam Rose Year 10 Sam is a positive, hard-working and enthusiastic student. He has a polite and respectful attitude to all members of the form and has excellent attendance and punctuality. He is hard working academically and he also shows real dedication in the extra curricular pursuit of music, as a songwriter and guitarist. Through effort and dedication, Sam is able to not only excel academically but also in the creative field of music.

The £200 grant will be used for: three new electric guitars to be used in the music department.

Gershom Ndosimao Year 9 Gershom is always positive and tries hard in lessons. Despite a medical condition that at times can cause him pain or discomfort, he is really polite to friends and teachers. He helps friends out when they are sad or in trouble. He has no behavior points and 14 achievements points. He has achieved well in his SATs. He is well liked and respected by peers and staff alike.

The £200 grant will be used for: tennis equipment for the PE dept to be used by students who attend afterschool clubs.

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ENRICHMENT PLEDGE Lea Valley High School has made a pledge to our students and their parents & carers that by the age of 16, students in our care would have the opportunity to experience a variety of enrichment activities:

1. Participate in an educational visit. There have been a

wide range of visits to support the curriculum as well as Activity Day outings

2. Attend an artistic or sporting event at a major venue. Our

sports day, is held at a major sporting venue; the Lea Valley Stadium, many students have had the opportunity to go to art galleries or the theatre, for example Romeo & Juliet and Much Ado About Nothing at the Globe.

3. Participate in an event – either sporting or the arts, that

involves either performing or helping with the production. Again taking part in Sports Day, but also Lea Valley’s got Talent, X Factor, Drama and Dance showcas-es.

4. Working as a team, I will have planned, delivered and

evaluated a project from beginning to end. There have been opportunities such as the Be Real Game, Green Dragons, School Council Projects.

5. Helped others through voluntary activities, or charity

events. Most of our students helped raise funds for Chi-cago 2010; selling raffle tickets, coming to the Discos or you sent them with money to buy a Heart for Haiti.

6. I will have had the opportunity to stay overnight away

from home, enjoying the experience of spending time with my peers or those in other year groups. There have been several residentials available to each year group, recently the Isle of Wight visits and Jamie’s Farm.

Students were recently asked to evaluate their own progress against the pledge and we were really pleased that, using our usual colour coding system, 60% of students were blue, which means that they had exceeded the number of activities we would have expected, a further 23% were green, making a fan-tastic 92% of students who had met or exceeded their expected Enrichment activities targets– A challenge to the 8% of our students who have not taken full advantage of the activities on offer.

Thank you for all the support you have given your child and please continue to support their participation in these exciting activities.

Helen Powell

Assistant Principal

YOUNG CARERS At Lea Valley High School we are aware that some students may well have caring roles at home. We believe that all children and young people should have equal access to education, regardless of what is happening at home. When a young person looks after someone in their family who has a disability, mental or physical ill-health or substance misuse problem(s), they may need a little extra support to help them get the most out of school. We aim to understand the issues faced by young carers. Our policy for young carers states how we will support any pupil who helps to look after someone at home.

For students This is how Lea Valley High School can support you if you help to care for someone at home. We have a member of staff Mrs Fielder who has special responsibility for young carers. They will let all new students know who they are and what they can do to help. We can provide you with confidential support and advice in school. We can issue you with a young carers card which will flag up to staff that you have caring responsibilities at home so you do not have to keep explaining your situation at home. We work close-ly with the DAZU young carers’ service and can put you in touch with them and other support services. We can also put your family in touch with services who will be able to help you all. We will respect your right to privacy as a young carer and will only share information about you and your family with people who need to know so that they can help you. If you are unable to attend out of school activities, such as sports coaching or concerts, due to your caring role, then we will consider alternatives. Please speak to us if this is an issue. Lea Valley High School allows young carers to telephone home during breaks and lunchtimes.

Parents of young carers

Some children help look after someone in their family by: ➜ helping them to get up, get washed or get dressed, or help-ing with toileting. ➜ doing lots of the household chores like shopping, cleaning, cooking. ➜ staying in the house a lot to be there for them or to keep them safe.

➜ looking after brothers and sisters.

➜ providing emotional support or a shoulder to cry on. For many families, relying on your child to care for you may seem like the only option; however, your children should not be expected to carry inappropriate levels of caring which have an adverse impact on their development and life chances. It should not be assumed that children should take on similar levels of caring responsibilities to adults.

Further sources of information and advice for you ➜ The Princess Royal Trust for Carers’ website for young carers contains information for parents at www.youngcarers.net/parents ➜ The Disabled Parents Network provides information, advice and peer support to disabled parents, their families and sup-porters at www.disabledparentsnetwork.org.uk/ ➜ If you are also a carer, visit the The Princess Royal Trust for Carers website to chat, for advice, info and support at www.carers.org

Vicki Fielder

Senior Assistant Principal

LEA ALLEY HIGH SCHOOL NEWSLETTER PAGE 7

WE ASKED...YOU SAID….WE DID Here are the most voiced suggestions that you have made to show how we can improve your child’s experiences and learning at Lea Valley High School

YEAR 9 AIM HIGHER TRIP As part of the Aim Higher Project, 45 Year 9 students were invit-ed to attend a course at Middlesex University to see what uni-versity life is like. The course was lead by recent graduates of Middlesex Universi-ty who studied a diverse range of courses including Music, Law and Physiotherapy. Our students were put into teams where they had to take part in a number of different activities. In these activities we learnt about all aspects of university life including budgeting, career paths, socialising, extra curricular activities, cooking for your-self, independent learning and lectures. Lea Valley students were then given the opportunity to ask the university students questions about how they have coped with and enjoyed being at university. We were taken on a tour of Middlesex University’s Trent Park Campus; a beautiful green open space filled with grand old buildings. Inside those buildings, we saw high tech equipment, all sorts of learning spaces and a very large library. At the end of the day students were given prizes for their hard work and eager participation in the activities. Many thanks to Helen Roberts for arranging such a great day out. Students in Year 9 took part in a year wide competition to see who had the highest attendance. Students who had 100% over the whole year were rewarded with a baking session. The Year 9 form groups have also been compet ing against each other for the title of ‘form with the highest attend-ance’, with the prize of a baking session for the whole form. Students worked in pairs to measure, mix, bake and deco-rate fairy cakes which were delicious. Con-gratulations to 9EP for winning the competition. Aimee Lawrence Assistant Director of Year 9

You said… We did… The school does not set enough homework

I don’t know what homework my child has

We have introduced Further learning Booklets for year 7 – 9 classes in all subject areas. These build on the work done in class and reinforce learning and allow students to take their learning and understanding of the subject further. There is a space for you to sign and comment after each assign-ment. Please make sure you child shows you these booklets every week!

Please also check further and independent learning opportu-nities and coursework infor-mation on Fronter.

I don’t always know about meetings until just before

Forthcoming events are adver-tised in the school calendar which is on the back page of the half termly newsletter; this can be found on the internet. If you would like a paper copy of the newsletter sent home, please email : admin@lvhs.enfield.sch.uk or ask at the school office.

We also send texts with infor-mation, please make sure we have your up to date mobile number.

There was too much infor-mation in one go!

We’d like more information about the options on offer for our child.

At parents’ information eve-nings, we want to give you everything you need to know, but it can be too much too quickly. We have started to upload guides and presenta-tions onto the parents’ area of the website, the 14 – 16 Per-sonalised learning Pathways Guide, which explains our innovative curriculum, is there for you to view!

I want to know earlier than parents evening if my child’s attendance or attainment is going off track

We have introduced a parents’ area on our learning gateway so you can get ‘live’ infor-mation about your child’s behaviour, progress and at-tendance. If you would like to take advantage of this, please email: jandre@lvhs.enfield.sch.uk or contact the school office.

We’re not happy with the range of options on offer.

Lea Valley has spent a lot of time redesigning its innovative new curriculum to improve the choices open to our students. Now we have vertical grouping (students from different years studying alongside each other) and this year, year 9 have been able to make options choices. This allows students more opportunities to select the options they wish and to try new subjects. This year stu-dents will be able to study more than one language, something several parents have requested.

You didn’t give us enough notice to pay for some residen-tial trips, it was too much mon-ey in too short a space of time

We’re sorry about that. Be-cause this has caused prob-lems we will let you know in September about the residen-tial opportunities for the year which are open to your child and the costs so you can plan ahead.

PAGE 8 NEWSLETTER

GRADUATION The Year 11 Graduation ceremony took place on Tuesday 6th July 2010 at Lea Valley High School at 6pm. The weather was fine so we were happy to be able to hold the cere-mony in the fantastic sur-roundings of our outdoor quad. All Graduates from the class of 2010 were asked to come up to the stage by their form tutor and re-ceived rolled certificates tied with ribbon, on the evening. Congratulations to all the Graduates of the class of 2010!

During the ceremony there were fantastic singing per-formances from Daenelle Dawkins, Havva Rebke and Sophie Short. Well done and thank you to all the girls for these!

In addition, there were diary readings of student memories over the last five years from Rosie Kmita, Daniel McLoughlin, Eylem

Kara, Nikesha Hatton, Mollie Kmita and Turan Kaya. These readings helped to remind us all of the positive experiences students have had over the years and of how much they have all developed.

PROM

The Year 11 Prom took place on Wednesday 7th July 2010 at the Forty Hall Banqueting Suite in Enfield.

All students arrived in style and looked fantastic for the even-ing. Students had a fruit cock-tail as they arrived and food was served throughout the evening. The music was great and students showed off their moves on the dance floor.

As the evening went on, students submitted their votes for Prom awards and the tension built. There was serious competi-tion for the awards but there had to be one winner for each award. Therefore, a big congratula-tions goes to: Paige Logie who was crowned Prom Queen and Steven Spencer who was made Prom King. The award for best dressed male went to Shaun Campbell and that for best dressed female went to Zara Stew-art.

Thank you to Ms. Balmer and Mr. Woodville for all their support with cakes and awards and to Ms. Powell for taking great photos on the night.

Jo Tate

Director of Year 11

LEA ALLEY HIGH SCHOOL NEWSLETTER PAGE 9

LORD SEBASTIAN COE OPENS THE QE STADIUM On Monday 12th July a group of Year 7 and 9 students got the opportunity to meet Lord Sebastian Coe, Olympic Gold Medallist and Chairman of the London Olympic Games Organising Com-mittee.

Lord Coe was visiting and officially opening the QE Stadium, Donkey Lane, Enfield. The facility has had a new track laid and building works will commence in August on revamping the stadi-um building.

The students had a go at us-ing the new track facilities with two mem-bers of LVHS staff who are t h e m s e l v e s former Olympi-ans, our Com-munity Athletics Coach, Julian Golding and our C o m p e t i t i o n Manager, Sue Chick. Lord Coe came round to talk to the stu-dents about how they are inspired to take part in sport and how much the Lon-don Olympics will inspire them further. Our students were able to tell him that we have one of our Hous-es named after him and he said he was extremely honoured that this was the case!

The students and staff (Ms Cullen, Miss Holloway and Mr Per-kins) also had the chance to listen to an inspirational talk from Lord Coe about the history of the QE Stadium and how he hopes that lots of young people will use the facility in the future. At Lea Valley High School we hope to use the stadium for athlet-ics training and competitions as well as football matches in the future.

It really was an honour for our staff and students to meet such an important person in the world of sport and we hope that this inspires our young people to be more involved in sport in the lead up to the London Olympics.

ENRICHMENT Inter House Competition

This year we have started to develop a full Inter House competition programme. This has included 5 a side tourna-ments, Rounders and the Enrichment Day programme. Each form represents a House and points are given for positions in the competition, 9 points for 1st place and 1 point for 9th place. If a House does not enter a team into a com-petition they receive no points.

There is a trophy for the overall winners in each year group and then all the points within the school are added up for the final House winners. The overall school winners will receive the Thomas Mensah Trophy.

The results will be available in the next newsletter. Next year we are extending this programme and Monday eve-nings will be Inter House Competition night, there will be a vari-ety of activities running throughout the year, these wont just be sporting activities either so all students will have the opportuni-ty of competing for their House in an activity they like. Details of the programme of events will be available in Septem-ber

Enrichment Day 2010 This year’s Enrichment Day was split between 3 activity areas:

Enterprise and Finance – students had a presentation on how to deal with money and how best to use money and the banking system.

Inter House Competition – students had a variety of Inter House competitions from all Curriculum areas and not just PE and Sport. This gave all students the opportunity to contribute towards the overall House competition for their year group. Crime Prevention – students had an informative and interactive presentation from the Metropolitan Police on various aspects of crime with the aim of educating youngsters on the pitfalls of being involved in criminal behaviour.

The day was split into three sessions and each year group moved around the activity areas so every student experienced each area of work.

The students were extremely well engaged in some great activi-ties throughout the day. The overall aim of enriching students learning above that of the normal curriculum was achieved and with input from the student council we hope to develop this day further next year. Tim Perkins Assistant Principal (Partnership Development Manager)

PAGE 10 NEWSLETTER

YEAR 6 TRANSITION The Year 6 transition has been in full flow this term with over 200 students from 54 primary schools being welcomed to Lea

Valley High School. The new students have enjoyed a full Induc-tion into life at Lea Valley which has included staff visits to the primary schools, a welcome Parents’ Evening and a full Induc-tion Day. The Induction Day was a true taste of Lea Valley life where students experienced lessons in French, Spanish, PE, English, Humanities and Maths, as well as a choice of 15 lunchtime enrichment clubs. The students reported that they had both enjoyed the experience and felt that they knew the school well at the end of the day, ready for their start day on Thursday 2nd September, when we look forward to welcoming the students.

Jo Tate,

Director of Year 7

Sharon Rayner

Assistant Principal

YEAR 7 As the end of term approaches - the theme of this newsletter is one of celebration. The range of student achievement is quite remarkable as the Year 7’s go from strength to strength. Our young people are a credit to the school, to their parents, com-munity and to themselves. This has been an outstanding year and I would like to thank you all for your help and contributions over the last twelve months. Year 7 Reading Club The library team provides an opportunity for the current year seven students to benefit from one to one support, help and guidance with their reading. The students who regularly attend the group have progressed significantly with their reading, help-ing them to feel more confident in their abilities and ultimately giving them the chance to enjoy the world of literature. The reading club will continue to run every Wednesday after school over the next academic year, for the current year 7 co-hort as they roll over into year 8. If pupils are interested in im-proving their reading skills - with the help and guidance that only one to one support can provide - then they should visit the library to enrol and to find out more information. Inter House Competition On the 26th May the first Year Seven Inter House competition

was held. All nine tutor groups from year 7 were invited to enter an after school mixed rounders tournament. There was a fan-tastic turnout for the event with each of the 9 tutor groups providing a team comprising of at least 9 players. The competition was held in the form of a league knock out, with each team having only a 5 minute innings. The groups for the league were drawn out of a hat during a year 7 assembly. The games played were short and intense, and after some fierce competition 7BM and 7SR battled it out in the final. 7SR were crowned champions and awarded a trophy as a result of their 5.5 run win compared to 7BM’s 4.5. The pupils involved behaved fantastically and there was a real sense of comradeship and group bonding between the teams. All involved look forward the next instalment of the Inter House competition- Can 7SR remain undefeated? I look forward to your continued support in the next academic year. Enjoy the summer break. Dhanisha Patel Director of Year 7 Joe Rowlands Assistant Director of Year 7 YEAR 8 Sports Day On Wednesday 23rd of June 2010 year 8 took part in Lea Val-ley’s annual sports day. There were some fantastic track perfor-mances from such students as Dahnoy Edwards and Billie Love Murray, as well as some great field event successes for Timara Ellick and Olanrewaju Eyinfinjowo competing in the javelin events. Year 8 had a fantastic day of sport in the sun, contrib-uting to defining our schools sports college ethos. One Goal Year 8 took part in the One Goal project. This is an activity where students across key stage three created a design on A4 paper which will be stuck together to create a giant scarf which will be posted to the government. Organised by Mr Woodville, the aim of the One Goal project is to remind world leaders that they promised to put the millions of children growing up without schooling into Education by 2011. Year 8 have taken their part in making sure our new prime minister listens and sticks to Britain’s promise. Comic Project Year 8, along with key stage three, have been improving their literacy through the creation of their own comics. The students have been reading comics for inspiration and then producing creative writing and drawings for comics of there own. The pro-ject is on going and proving successful, the best comics will be shown in assembly as examples of hard work, good literacy and creative talent. YEAR 9 Year 9 has come to an end and we are left reflecting on a varie-ty of achievements. We would like to pay tribute to the effort the students applied to Sports Day, Enrichment day and a camping trip. The students took every opportunity to achieve, develop and excel. Sport Sports day and inter house sport was a great success. More than 90% of students represented their house to a high level. Special mention must go to Ellie, Shirley, Michael, Hakeem, Curtis and Horeb. Enrichment Opportunities A group of year 9 students went on a camping trip to develop leadership and independent orienteering skills. I hope this ex-perience will encourage them to consider taking part in the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme in the upper school. Special Mention Assemblies have recognised the achievement of the following students: Marsum, Iffath, Molly, Aida, Glodi, gersham, Murat, Zilal, Lisa, Damani, Hakeem, Guled, Cemgil, Dency, Horeb, Sa-fia, Oliwia and Danielle. Well done for your achievements

LEA ALLEY HIGH SCHOOL NEWSLETTER PAGE 11

Thank you for your continued support and we all look forward to your children excelling in Year 10. Mr Fox Director of Year 9 Ms Lawrence Assistant Director of Year 9 YEAR 10 Year 10 students have now finished their GCSE examinations. I am proud to say that attendance and behaviour in exams was excellent. Pupils can obtain their results by visiting school on Tuesday the 24th August. Sports day was very pleasant and successful day for all those who visited Lea Valley Athletics Stadium on June 23rd. Special mentions must go to some exceptional athletic performances on the day. Owen Akers, Ashea Thurlow and Daniel Solumu all had successful day with throwing events, While Alethea Calvert-Jordan, Hannah Parker, Aaron Denton Williams and Lauren Cole had an excellent track day, well done! Pupils have just arrived back from work experience this week. Many have some stories or hard work and responsibilities from the fortnight. All have gained many valuable experiences that will place them in a fantastic position when they do seek em-ployment. Some employers were kind enough to contact myself with praise for pupils who were excelling. I would like say a big well done to Ayten Guzel, Aroza Aktar,Mason Witherington, Gil-bert Venacio and Ryan Pockhai, you all clearly left a positive mark on your work experience placements. I would finally like to thank all the parents for their support with work experience; I know the entire programme would not have run so smoothly without your hard work. Thank you for your continued support and have an excellent summer. Tim Albone Director of Year 10 HUMANITIES The Humanities Department is very excited about the new aca-demic year; we have been very busy rewriting the Year 7 and 8 schemes of work. You will be learning topics as integrated Hu-manities. Look out for Riveting Rivers, Food for thought, Me myself and I, Restless World and many more! We are pleased to announce Miss Effah has been appointed Subject leader for RE. The Year 9 students have started study-ing for their RE GCSE and they have been doing well. Geography would like to congratulate Faith, Michelle, Victoria and Tice for their hard work and dedication in their GCSE stud-ies. Humanities students as a whole were very committed to attending revision sessions both after school and on subject Saturdays. The whole department is looking forward to results day. Finally all the Humanities staff would like to wish all our stu-dents a relaxing summer holidays. The Humanities team MATHS Keystage 3 Year 7 students have been actively engaging in the Mystery Tours Project, designing a tour package across the UK visiting various landmarks. This has been an excellent opportunity for students to develop the Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills and also their leadership and teamwork capabilities in addition to their mathematics. In recognition of their hard work and com-mitment throughout the year, 50 year 7 students have been invited for a maths weekend away in Dorset where we will be using and applying mathematics in real life contexts. Well done to all those invited!

A group of 20 AG&T students from year 7 and 8 competed in the prestigious UK Maths Challenge aimed at the top third of

students in the country. Students sat an hour exam paper test-ing their mathematical knowledge and understanding. Five students were awarded with a bronze prize making them in the top 40% of the country; Daniel Morris, Amal Khalidi, Melisa Kose, Regina Gul and also the top Lea Valley scorer, Phoebe Jeffery. Congratulations on your achievement! Information on next year’s challenges will be sent out in due course.

Year 9 students successfully completed their SATs examination in May and are our most successful cohort to date achieving phenomenal results! 74% of students achieved a level 5 or higher with 50% achieving the higher level 6 grades and above. Congratulations to James Markwell, Safiya Dahir, Noor Owarish, Sam Cowan, Jack Warren, Gershom Ndosimao and Danielle Wellington who also achieved a level 8!

Year 9 students have been busy following their SATs developing a times tables game to help year 5 and 6 students develop their mental maths skills. The best games in each class were then put to the test on year 6 induction day with an incredible 50 year 9 pupils leading the hour session. The students were very professional and excellent ambassadors for the school and the year 6 seemed to really enjoy their day. Well done and thank you for all of year 9 for your effort in your projects.

From September, ‘Level Up Club’ will resume with some more maths extra-curricular activities at lunch such as maths games like chess and ‘mancala’,

Keystage 4 and 5 Congratulations to all students who have worked really hard over the last year and completed their exams. It has been a good year and we are hoping that next academic year will be even better. There will be enrichment activities at lunch time for Key Stage 4, please check the Key Stage 4 notice board for further information.

Results will be available for collection on Tuesday 24th August 2010. Students achieving an A or A* will have the opportunity to start their AS Maths a year early in year 11. All students go-ing into year 11 will put into sets according to their external GCSE exam result ready for September.

All students need to ensure they are equipped for their maths lessons with a pen, pencil, ruler, protractor, compasses and calculator. Remember to bring your equipment to every lesson! Enjoy your holiday J

Alex Raphael &Vivette Sharpe

Key Stage 3 & 4 Coordinators for Mathematics ABLE GIFTED AND TALENTED LVHS continues to celebrate the success of all students who show they have the potential to achieve at a level higher than the rest of their year group, whether in an academic subject or out of the classroom. With important exams for KS4 and 5 meaning that students were busy at home studying has allowed for our Gifted and Talented students in KS3 to be focused on, with plenty of op-portunities being created for students to get involved. The first whole school ‘Poetry from Your Culture’ competition encour-aged all students to write a poem about their culture. The po-ems were a credit to LVHS students: creative, inspiring and all celebrating of the huge range of cultures, languages and tradi-tions that we have. Some entries will now be entered into a national competition for UK students. Please read our winning entry below, ‘My Adored Land’ by Dency Dela Cruz in Year 9.Well done! Mr Fox and Ms Lawrence organized a residential trip from the 9th-10th July for A,G and T Year 9s. This fantastic opportunity saw students camping outside for the night, developing team-

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work skills as they navigated themselves on a tiring walk, and working together in a variety of other challenging new situa-tions. It is opportunities like these which help form the ‘whole’ student at Lea Valley: as we know academic success needs to be bolstered with extra-curricular skills too. Indeed, students at Lea Valley who have the chance to excel in or out the classroom will have even more chances than usual with the new timetable. With more subjects being offered than ever before, we know that this will draw out the talents of all our students. Furthermore, with every department area offering at least two lunchtime enrichment clubs, every child can find the subject or skill that they excel at. Please take advantage of this wonderful opportunity! Rachel Connell Able, Gifted and Talented Co-ordinator ‘My Adored Land’ My adored land Pearl of the Orient Sea To you I will give my life; sad and repressed Men, women and others will give their life All this to protect you Lethal influences of strangers repelled Many have come to conquer you The tricky Spaniards you trusted The mighty Americans you relied on Even after all this, you stood strong And protected us like an impenetrable shield You have been forced to mix different cultures The classiness of the Spaniards The modernity of the Americans The decadence of the Westerns All these are foreign to you Yet you let them stay On your precious earthly skin A disaster, war has broken from the West Spread to the East and the Japanese on the move They’re very keen to colonize To be part of a greater Empire Old enemies rush to help; Realizing you are a precious gem In the battlefield Lie patriots and martyrs dead Happy; they give their lives in your name, Even if they are not remembered With a stone or a cross They are still happy and proud As they turn to dust And become a part of a cherished earthly skin Our Fatherland graced and blessed by the heavens Standing as a Mighty Republic lead by Democrats Everyone is united as one Everyone is patriotic Willing to give their life and soul in your name Long live our country Long live the Philippines By Dency Dela Cruz, 9SC ‘For the Love of the Rain’ The sand on the pavements As it crashes against the wall. We cleanse our body, we cleanse our soul We wait for the prayer, oh we wait for the call Somalia is my official home town. In the continent of Africa, east not down Small town girl, clothes of her tradition The love of rain and sun, never a competition. The heavenly breeze of the flowers, oh the trees. Oh it’s summer, spring, yet my eyes can’t see War took all of it away, no nothing is what it seems. Every two seconds, there is at least a worried mother Crying for her sickened son or daughter, While the other one at war is father. For the love of a daughter, for the love of the rain! We know we’re upset, but only pirates find someone around the Seven Seas to blame. The way my life lives, is the way I hear. My love of the true rain, I shed a true tear. By Aida Hassan, 9MJ

LIBRARY Another exciting year at Lea Valley High School Library has passed, lots of new books, new resources and students excited about reading make working here extremely rewarding. Student’s favourites this year have been, The Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid series amongst others. We are extremely fortunate to be able to ensure that students have access to all the latest books and resources to support their reading for pleasure as well as their learning in the curriculum areas. Booked Up for year 7 students Once again this year the DfES has offered a free book to every new year 7 student in October. This is a wonderful way of encouraging reading and students are able to choose a book that they can keep from a selection of approximately 10 titles. The students are also extremely excited to choose and receive their books. Book Club Due to the extended lunch time period now we will be run-ning a book club in the library for KS3 and KS4 students who would like to join us. This is a good opportunity for students to come along and improve their reading skills and raise their literacy levels. We look forward to seeing you there. Revision Guides, Text Books and Stationery The service we offer to students whereby they can purchase revision guides, text books and stationery is successful and we will continue to offer this service to the students through-out the coming year. Work Experience This year work experience has been very successful and I would like to thank you all for supporting your child through this valuable experience. It is extremely important for stu-dents to have the opportunity to understand what the world of work has to offer them as well as prepare them for what the world out of school is all about. As always we have been very proud of the employers feedback for our students and to hear from students that they have been offered Saturday jobs, and summer jobs as well as apprenticehips. A few examples are: Jonathon Hook - worked at the Reptile Centre in Crews Hill and was offered a summer job. Ceysan Hussein – worked at a Garage in Barking and was offered a Saturday Job. Owen Ackers – worked at Tubelines in Cockfosters and has been offered an apprenticeship for when he has completed his year 11. This is feedback that makes us as a school extremely proud that our students are such good ambassadors. Aimhigher Aimhigher is a national programme funded by the govern-ment to help young people who may never have thought about university to consider the benefits of Higher Educa-tion. Aimhigher targets those students who have the poten-tial to enter HE but are unaware that HE is open to anyone with the ability to succeed no matter what their background. At Lea Valley we have a number of activities that run throughout the year which help to make students aware of HE as well as raise students aspirations. These activities include: Visits to university campuses Residential summer schools Master-classes and open days Mentoring schemes. As a school we are fortunate to have links with many univer-sities in the country who help us to ensure that students are made aware of the benefits and opportunities of Higher Edu-cation. This term year 9 students visited the ACE Day at Middlesex University to find out about university life and the courses that they offer and then also a visit to Chelsea Art College of Design. By giving our students these opportunities they get a taste of what HE is all about.

LEA ALLEY HIGH SCHOOL NEWSLETTER PAGE 13

Careers Careers resources and information is readily available for all students in the Library. It is important that students have as much information as they need to help them to make the right choices when choosing subjects or career paths. Sometimes parents or carers may find the pathways and the choices that their children are making confusing and if this is the case arrangements can be made for you to come and see me so that I can talk you through it as well as give you some information which could help you. The Information Advice and Guidance page on the Learning Gateway will be updated with some new online resources which can help you and your child to look at different sub-jects and find out what careers they can lead to. These pro-grammes are: Job Explorer Database (JED) Higher Ideas Preparation for Working Life This is a ½ GCSE Course and will be offered to year 9 stu-dents during lunch time on Tuesday’s and to KS4 students on Thursday Lunch time. Helen Roberts Assistant Director of Information, Advice Guidance and Enterprise.

WAVERLEY SCHOOL SPORTS LEADERSHIP PROJECT. A number of our Sports Leadership Academy students have taken part in a project with Waverley School this term. Our sports leaders were trained in how to work with students with a disability and coach them into being successful sports leaders. The idea then is that the Waverley sports leaders would go back to their school and use these new skills in leading younger stu-dents in sports activities. The project was based at Southbury Leisure Centre and the Lea Valley sports leaders excelled in coaching the Waverley stu-dents, it is hoped that this project maybe sustained next year as it has been so successful.

Well done to the following students for their outstanding contri-bution to this project.

Alex Kyriacou – Year 12 Tiffany Kelly – Year 11

Laura Gibbings – Year 11

ST GEORGES SPORTS DAYS Some of our sports leaders recently helped at two of our part-ner primary school sports days. The schools said what a fantas-tic job they had done. The photo shows Rosie and Mollie Kmita and Alex Kyriacou helping out with the fancy dress race at Honilands Sports Day!

SECONDARY SWIMMING PROGRAMME A number of our students joined the Secondary Swimming Pro-gramme run by the School Sports Partnership. They have spent the last 6 weeks working hard to improve their swimming skills. Sessions have been taking place at Edmonton Leisure Centre on Monday evenings and these students have shown great commitment and determination to improve. Many are now much more confident in the water and can swim at least one

length. Well done to the following students for their success on this course:

Keman Muninga – Year 7 Sanem Raif – Year 9

Nadean Pellay – Year 7 Ismail Mehmet – Year 7

Malcolm Grant – Year 7

Tim Perkins

Assistant Principal—Partnership Development

ONLINE SAFETY TIPS As you may have seen in the press recently, Facebook and the CEOP Centre have joined forces to make young people safer online by launching the new ‘ClickCEOP’ application. Launched on the 12th July, all young users of Facebook – and their parents – are invited to add the new ClickCEOP ‘app’ to their profile. Through this app, they will be able to access ad-vice, help and support from the CEOP Centre. Really important-ly, young people will be able to report instances of suspected grooming or inappropriate sexual behaviour directly from their profile to specially trained investigators. Once added to their profiles, young users will receive regular messages from CEOP and its partner organisations who operate ‘behind the button’ to make children safer. CEOP’s new Face-book page (www.facebook.com/ClickCEOP) will look at topics that teenagers care about, such as celebrities, music and ex-ams and will link these subjects to questions about online safe-ty. Users can add the ‘app’ so it appears on their profile, as not only a constant source of help and reassurance for them but also as a strong visual signal to their friends, family and others that they are in control online. Jim Gamble, Chief Executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre said: “Today represents a huge step forward. By adding this app, Facebook users will have direct access to all the services that sit behind our ClickCEOP button and this should provide reas-surance for the many parents whose teenage children use Facebook. “We know from speaking to offenders that a visible deterrent could protect young people online. We urge all Facebook users not only to add the app, but also to bookmark it so that others can see that they’re in control online. Our dialogue with Face-book about adopting the ClickCEOP button is well documented – this is a good day for child protection.”

ClickCEOP in Facebook… If you would like to support CEOP and Facebook’s initiative, please feel free to use any of the following updates for your Facebook or Twitter accounts or website. Every young person on Facebook needs the ClickCEOP app – this is why If you work with teenagers, then you’ll know most of them will be using Facebook. You might even be using it yourself... if so, you will want to know about a new, free application in Facebook that is designed to keep young people safe while they are hav-ing fun networking online. ClickCEOP is a new ‘app’ launched today (Monday 12 July) which links the young user directly from their Facebook profile to help, advice and reporting facilities of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre – the police agency set up to tackle child abuse. By adding the app, young people and parents can get support from CEOP on a range of issues – viruses, hacking, dealing with bullying online and they can report someone who is acting inap-propriately towards them online. If you have a Facebook profile, app and bookmark the app. If children in your care are on Facebook, get them to search ‘ClickCEOP’ in Facebook and give them to chance to be one click away from help – if they should ever need it.

www.facebook.com/clickceop

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SPORTS COLLEGE RE-DESIGNATION 2010 A successful specialist school is an outward-facing centre of excellence with a relentless passion for raising standards and achievement, therefore improving the outcomes for all of its learners. The specialism drives continual whole school im-provement, through the school's partnership working, specialist networks and effective and innovative teaching and learning, giving young people and the community access to the best subject teaching, curriculum choice and learning opportunities available. Lea Valley High School was originally designated as a Sports College in September 2002 and again re-designated in 2006. We are proud to announce that we have just successfully been awarded re-designation for a second time, ensuring our status as a Sports College continues until 2013. Our status as a Sport College is fundamental to the ethos of the school, giving stu-dents the opportunity to experience leadership, teamwork and excellence, which raises their aspirations and their self esteem. The specialist schools programme, focuses on five key princi-ples: 1: Excellence in the specialist subject 2: Impact of the specialism on whole-school improvement 3: Work with partner schools 4: Work with the wider community 5: Outward facing centre of excellence These key principles act as a set of benchmarks which are in-tended to help schools in assessing and evidencing the impact of their specialism and to ensure that all Lea Valley students continue to Achieve, Develop and Excel. Stepahnie Holloway Director of Specialism SPEECH AND LANGUAGE As some of you know, I am retiring in July. I would like to thank all of the Speech & Language parents for your help and support over 5 years. It has been a pleasure working with yourselves and your sons/daughters. I am being replaced by Laura Tar-antini-Amor and I am sure that Speech & Language will be in very good hands. The Speech Therapist will still be Geraldine Chenevot and I’d like to take this opportunity of thanking her for all her hard work over the last two years. My Speech & Lan-guage TA, Natalia O’Sullivan, is on maternity leave and will be returning to the department in March 2011. I would like to take this opportunity of thanking them both for all their wonderful help over the years. I wish all of you every good fortune for the future. I will miss you all. Maggie Manktelow Speech & Language Coordinator YEAR 9 ATTENDANCE Parental Communication The school has been working hard to improve communication with parents. We have two new systems that allow us to work together to help your child achieve. The first is the learning gateway which allows you to log in and see details about your child’s progress, behaviour and attendance. The system has already been upgraded to make it more user friendly and will shortly be amended further to allow you to see key information about your child at a glance. Students are also able to see key information so that they can manage their learning themselves. The parents area will continue to be developed to include even more features. We have also invested in a new system for contacting parents by text or email. The system still sends texts regarding absenc-es, but now also allows teachers to send emails home directly. To support both of these systems we need to have updated contact details, especially valid email addresses. Please send

up to date contact information into school via your child or by email to: data@lvhs.enfield.sch.uk.

Note that email addresses should be yours, not your child’s. Jason André Information and Communications Manager ‘WE ASKED… YOU SAID…WE DID’ We asked: We recently sent home a letter asking if it would help you to receive certain letters in a language other than English. You said: A few parents replied that they would like letters translated into a variety of languages. We did: We will now translate key letters to the most popularly requested languages. Some letters may need to be sent at short notice and therefore we will unfortunately be unable to have these translated. We are lucky at Lea Valley to have staff who speak our most popular community languages and are therefore able to provide an ‘in house’ verbal translator service. If we do not have a member of staff who speaks your language, we will happily bring a translator into school, but will need notice if you require this service.

FRIENDS OF LEA VALLEY FUNDRAISING Noah's Ark is a local chil-dren's hospice, the staff and the volunteers there are all amazing people. They sup-port families who have a child with a life-limiting or life threatening medical condi-tion by providing round the clock care and advice and help in the home. They also offer a respite service for the children and their siblings on a weekly basis and have many fun days for all of the children and families to get together and enjoy themselves as a family with other families, creating laughter and precious memories. Friends of Lea Valley have supported this charity through collec-tions at parents’ events held this half term where they have provided refreshments for other parents and are very proud to be able to send a cheque for £69 to the hospice as a small contribution to their appeal. I myself use this service and found it has helped us as a family in many ways. They are currently putting through plans to build a hospice near Barnet, and are holding various events to raise money throughout the year for this amazing Charity. If anyone has any event ideas to help this charity or would like to know more, please contact through the website, thank you. Samantha Cole Friends of Lea Valley

Dear Parents and carers In this addition of the newsletter, we have celebrated the suc-cess of Lea Valley students; we would also like to celebrate your successes as well. If there is something you have achieved that you are proud of, please let us know. Your child will be proud to see your name in print! Email newsletter@lvhs.enfield.sch.uk or contact Helen Powell via the school office. I look forward to hearing from you! Helen Powell Assistant Principal

LEA ALLEY HIGH SCHOOL NEWSLETTER PAGE 15

School Uniform

Wearing the correct uniform is very important to our school ethos and the sense of identity as a school community at Lea Valley High School; please make sure that your child returns after the break wearing the correct uniform.

Shoes

Some students have been coming to school in canvas shoes or black trainers, please note that these are not acceptable and ensure your child returns in September wearing plain

black shoes, these can be found in many High Street stores and some examples of acceptable shoes are pictured above.

Girls' Uniform

Blazer - Plain dark navy with school logo

Skirt - Straight or box pleat in dark navy

Trousers* - Plain dark navy

Shirt - White

Tie - School tie (blue and green)

'V' neck jumper - Plain dark navy with school logo

Socks - Plain navy (Knee high socks)

Shoes - Black with low or flat heels (trainers are not accepta-ble)

Outdoor coats - Plain navy or black (must not have a non-school logo)

* Optional

Boys' Uniform

Blazer - Plain dark navy with school logo

Trousers - Plain dark navy

Shirt - White

Tie - School tie - blue and green

V' neck jumper - Plain dark navy with school logo

Socks - Plain navy

Shoes - Black (trainers are not acceptable)

Outdoor coats - Plain navy or black (must not have a non-school logo)

There should be no head-wear at all in school. Baseball caps will be confiscated. If your child needs to wear a headscarf for reli-gious observance, this must be plain black or dark navy.

Research has shown that achievement is directly linked to attendance. Students with a high level of attendance invari-ably perform better in class and in examinations. The number of GCSEs they pass at Grade C will affect the amount of money they can earn as an adult. School at-tendance makes a real differ-ence to GCSE results. The more qualifications students have the more they are likely to earn.

Important information:

As you are aware staff at Lea Valley High School are committed to im-proving attendance. Our aim is to help you make your child’s school life a happy and enjoyable experience. To support your child’s education you have an important role to play and we therefore ask you for your assis-tance and co-operation, in the following:

Attendance

As attendance and attainment is closely linked the Department for Chil-dren Schools and Families have set 95% minimum attendance level as being acceptable rate.

Students should attend school unless they are ill. You may be asked to provide medical evidence for absences over three days or irregular illness. On the first day of any absence please ring the school on the attendance line – 01992 704646 or get a message to the SWC for your child’s year group to let them know why your child is absent. A note describing the reason for the absence must be sent in with the child on their first day of return to school.

Days off for shopping, birthday’s etc are not acceptable and will not be authorised. Continued unauthorised absence may lead to you being prosecuted for your child’s non-attendance. Prosecutions may result in fines of up to £2,500 per parent per child. You may also run the risk of receiving a Penalty Notice for your child’s continued unauthorised ab-sence. This means that for students with unauthorised absence from school (i.e. any absence that the school has not given permission for) then their parent/carer may be subject to a prompt fine of either £50 (28 days) or £100 (42 days).

Penalty notices will be used as a deterrent to prevent a pattern of unauthorised absence developing. They will be issued by post to a student’s home after just one warning and cases of absences without acceptable cause will also include excessive holidays in school term time and persistent late attendance.

Punctuality

Punctuality is an important life-skill for students to learn. It is important that your child arrives at school on time. Arriving late can be very wasteful of children’s school time – just 10 minutes lateness each day is the equiv-alent of over 6 full days in a year. Regular attendance including punctuali-ty helps your child become reliable and organise – two qualities valued by employers.

All students MUST be in school by the latest 8.45am everyday. Any pupil arriving after this time will be marked as late and may be marked as an Unauthorised Absence. Any student that arrives late to school in the morning will be kept for a 15 minute detention after school on a Tuesday or Thursday. Any student that is late twice in a week will be given an automatic DOY detention which is 40 minutes.

Your child’s student welfare co-ordinator is as follows:

Sue Wright SWC Yr 7 01992 704 617

Sue Wright SWC Yr 8 01992 704 617

Kelly-Marie Richardson SWC Yr 9 01992 704 619

Kelly-Marie Richardson SWC Yr 10 01992 704 619 (attendance)

Sue Balmer SWC Yr 11 01992 704 618

A C H I E V E • D E V E L O P • E X C E L

BULLSMOOR LANE - ENFIELD - MIDDLESEX EN3 6TW

TELEPHONE 01992 763666 - FACSMILE 01992 760152

WEBSITE www.lvhs.org.uk - EMAIL admin@lvhs.org.uk

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NEW SCHOOL DAY FROM SEPTEMBER LUNCHTIME ENRICHMENT PROGRAMME

Students have been enjoying our new school day since timetable rollover on Monday 12th July. The hour lunch break now allows students to attend a full timetable of enrichment activities. During the last two weeks various taster sessions have taken place in activities including Circus Skills, Ten-nis, Dance, Craft Club and Drama. The programme will be running fully from September with activities to suit students in all Key Stages. a time-table of the full enrichment programme will be sent to parents in Septem-ber as well as on the school website.

Sharon Rayner - Assistant Principal

SUMMER ACTIVITIES FOR FAMILIES (University College London) UCL will be offering a series of free activities for both young people and their parents/carers in Au-gust. These fun and interactive sessions are a great opportunity for young people and their parents/carers to explore and develop new skills together. I appreciate that this is a busy time for you as you're coming to the end of the school year but I should be grateful if you would bring the attention to your pupils and their parents/carers.

For further details and to register parents/carers should contact Lisa Schappert by email: l.schappert@ucl.ac.uk or by telephone on 020 7679 1365. Please note that spaces are limited and are available on a first come first served basis. They also request that all adults are accompanied by a young person.

EPC; Enfield Parents and children are running a wide range of activities suitable for families with children of all ages from a 2 day course in personal safety aimed at teenagers to a Father and child sports day and visits to London attractions, many activities are free. See www.enfieldparents.org.uk for more details

Thursday 4th November 6.30pm Aim Higher High Achievers Evening

Tuesday 9th November 6.pm Friends of Lea Valley

Thursday 25th November 6pm Sixth Form information evening

Thursday 16th December

6pm

Lea Valley’s Got Talent Parents’ Preview

Friday 17th December Autumn Term ends, students dis-missed at lunchtime

Tuesday 4th January 2011 8.45am Spring Term begins

21st to 25th February 2011 Half Term

11th to 25th April 2011 Easter Holiday

Tuesday 26th April 2011 Summer Term starts

30th May to 3rd June 2011 Half Term

Friday 22nd July 2011 School year ends

Monday 25th to Friday 29th October Half Term Wednesday 1st September INSET day –

school closed for students

Thursday 2nd September Autumn term starts at 8.45am for years 7 & 12 and 10am for all other students

Thursday 30th September 5.30pm Prospective Parents Evening

Tuesday 14th September 6pm Friends of Lea Valley AGM, every-one welcome.

Thursday 7th October 6.30pm Presentation Evening

Wednesday 13th October 5.30pm Year 7 Parents’ Evening

18th to 21st October Enrichment week

18th to 20th October Geography GCSE Field Trip

Thursday 21st October 6pm Cultural Evening

Friday 22nd October INSET day – school closed for students

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

8.45 – 9.15 Tutor time 9.15 – 10.15 Period 1 10.15 – 10.30 Break 10.30 – 11.30 Period 2 11.30 – 12.30 Period 3 /Lunch KS3 12.30 – 1.30 Lunch KS4 / Period 3 1.30 – 2.30 Period 4 2.30 – 2.35 Break 2.35 – 3.35 Period 5

Thank you to staff retiring At the end of this academic year we have two members of staff retiring from the school. Mrs Manktelow has been at Lea Valley since 2005. She has lead the Speech and Language resource base and made a valuable contribution in this capacity.

Ms Danischewsky has been at the school since 2004. She has worked in Inclusion as SENCo and more recently as Director of Enrichment. Many students will remember her for the Duke of Edinburgh programmes and her work with the School Councils. Ms Danischewsky is taking early retirement and relocating to Yorkshire. We wish both members of staff well and thank them not only for their work at Lea Valley but also for their contribution to the education of so many young people over their long careers. Janet Cullen Principal

STOP PRESS - THURSDAY 2nd SEPTEMBER School opens at 8.45am for students in Years 7 and 12

School opens at 10.00am for Years 8, 9 and 10