Issue #95 - Monday 16 January 2012

Labour Leader,Ed Miliband visits Bethnal Green Academy

Introducing Bethnal Green Academy

New uniform and school logo consultation

Bethnal Green Academy was very proud to start the year with a high-profile visit from Labour Leader, Ed Miliband. In support of the Living Wage campaign, the leader of the opposition met with our Student Leaders and representatives of Shoreditch Citizens to discuss the work we have done together to address the issues that really makes a difference to our local community.

Just recently, our Team Volunteering students joined forces with neighbouring primary school students and toured around local businesses asking shop owners to sign up to the CitySafe Haven campaign (see Issue #91 - 14 November). Destiny, one of our Student Leaders, explained to Mr. Miliband, “The aim of the project is to help make our community a safer place by encouraging local businesses, as community members, to report 100% of crime.” Mr. Miliband congratulated the team on their excellent work within the community-they have signed up more than 140 businesses already!

Mr. Miliband also found time to speak to a member of our school’s cleaning staff, Nuru, who also has children at secondary school, to discuss how the Living Wage has helped him personally. Leading the way as a Living Wage Employer, Bethnal Green Academy has made a commitment to raise its basic rate of pay well above the minimum wage and this can make a real difference, especially in Greater London.

Cover storyLabour Leader, Ed Miliband visits Bethnal Green Academy.

Happy New Year.Welcome to Issue Number 95.Happy New Year one and all. Welcome to issue 95, our first issue of 2012 and our first issue as Bethnal Green Academy. Continuing the theme of firsts, this is also our first issue as part of the BBC School Report project, which means we will be bringing you a series of video specials as well as a range of great new content written by our Student Reporters, Ciaran, Moqbul, Saheda and Theo.

TeamVolunteeringUpdate

“Team Volunteering are working with Shoreditch Citizens to do a lot of things, such as improve safety in the local area. We have already had a big impact on improving safety.The CitySafe Day of Action led to the local police changing the times they work and the areas they police to help reduce crime and make young people feel safer on the streets.” Siddiq and Destiny, Team Volunteering

Nuru told the Labour Leader, “That little bit extra money means I can save money to pay for my children’s education. I want them to achieve more and do the best they can and this means I can help.” Spearheaded by Assistant Headteacher, Tessa Blair, Bethnal Green Academy is proud to have gained Living Wage Employer status as it reflects our commitment to supporting the needs of our local community.

Taking the currently economic climate into account Mr. Miliband acknowledged that we all need to “do more with less” and that despite not having any more money to spend than in previous years, Bethnal Green Academy has made significant progress and improvements as a school, citing “good leadership” as a key part of this success. Responding to our students’ probing questions regarding opportunities for young people, everyone was in agreement that more needed to be done to give each and every student the best chance in life to fulfill their potential whether it is through taxing higher earners to fund poorer students’ further education or addressing issues surrounding unpaid internships, creating a fairer, level playing field for all young people, no matter what their background may be.

Visit our website for more articles and photos.

Bethnal Green Academy is part of the BBC School Report Project. Visit www.bbc.co.uk/schoolreport or www.bethnalgreenacademy.co.uk/news for more information.

It’s the new year and we have a new name and so we would like to know whether or not we should have a new uniform and school logo too? Over the course of this month we will be asking students, parents, staff, governors and the wider community to take part in our uniform consultation. We have a range of ways to get involved including tutor time activities, online questionnaires (see links, right) and a survey that will be posted out to parents/carers this week.

So, should we have a new uniform? If so, what should it look like? We’d love to hear what you think. We will be adding more activities to our website over the coming week and will feedback your responses at the end of the month.

Look smart, think smart.New Academy uniform and logo consultation.

Shortlisted uniform variations: possible changes include blue trim around blazer collar, a light blue shirt, grey trousers and skirts. Let us know what you think be completing our community survey.

TeamVoiceUpdate

Sufiyan says, “Look out for a change in uniform soon. The school will be changing the uniform to reflect our new Academy status. We want your views and opinions on the upcoming uniform and will be running a series of activities and questionnaires in tutor time this week.”

bethnalgreenacademy.co.uk

Take part in our online survey. So far,65% of students have voted to keep theuniform the same and simply change thebadge and tie. What do you think?

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5LPPF7K

Tutors and teachers canalso download our classroom pack including aDiamond 9 activity, imagesort and sticky notefeedback page. All of whichis also available via ourwebsite.

Download our Tutor Time Activities (.ppt)

EARN WHILE YOU L£ARNBethnal Green AcademySixth Form.Earn up to £30 per week with our exclusive Earn While You Learn scheme. Apply now!

The journey continues atwww.bethnalgreenacademy.co.uk

Our Word of the week is sourced from our Focus Words list which is compiled by our teaching staff and is designed to include the sort of keywords, terms and phrases regularly used in their subject areas. The full list, complete with dictionary definition hyperlinks can be found on the Students page of our website.

Word ofthe week.

purposenoun

The reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists: the purpose of the meeting is to vote for our Student Council representative | the purpose of this article is to persuade the reader to buy a certain product.

We start the year with Sudoku. For those that haven’t tried to complete the grid yet, the rules are simple but the puzzle most certainly isn’t. Arrange the numbers 1 to 9 so that appear once and only once in each row, column and small 3x3 square. If you fancy a go at an even harden sudoku challenge, play online at www.websudoku.com.

On cloud... Puzzle Page Sudoku Special

I interviewed Ms. Gill to find out all about the range of extra-curricular clubs she and Ms. Goodhand are running (see below). Asked how they would help us learn, Ms. Gill compared learning to athletics. The more you practice, the better you get.

“Students’ minds are like athletes- they need training for the Olympics (their GCSEs). If you were an athlete, then you would make sure you were training your body; working out regularly and eating the best foods to help you grow. Your mind is exactly the same; you need to feed it great food, books!”

So, if I read more books, more often and learn more words then I’ll get better at reading and writing. Sounds simple right? Ms. Gill continues, “Did you know that you can train your mind to be stronger and older than your actual body? Some students have reading ages older than their actual age! That means their word knowledge and ideas are of somebody older! Imagine when they get to the Brain Olympics; they’ll be better able to get top marks.

If you want to train your brain and have fun at the same time, come along to one of the following clubs at lunchtimes in the LRC.

Word Games Club (Monday), Book Club (Tuesday),Reading Cub (Friday).

Train your brain.Word workout at Reading Club

Easy Medium Hard

TeamVoice:StudentReport bySaheda