Spring Term Newsletter 2016 In this newsletter: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Sports News Musical achievements Move over Banksy… Science success New York! New York! Library News What a tea party! ‘Tenner’ Enterprise Friends of The Charter School

WELCOME Although this has been a short half term, it has been very busy! I hope you will enjoy reading about our activities and progress. Many of our students have been sitting practice exams since January and are now starting serious revision for their summer exams. There are extra revision sessions being run during the Easter holidays for students in Years 11, 12 and 13. Students have been informed about these and the timetables can also be seen on the school website. Thank you to all of you who kindly completed our recent parent survey, we appreciate your feedback on how we are doing. We will publish the main results of the survey on our website early next term. The Friends of The Charter School organised a fantastic Quiz Night on March 11th, which was kindly hosted by Jo Brand; and our Year 12 students put on a lovely tea party last week in school for older people in our local community, with tea, cakes and musical entertainment. I’m sure you will join me in congratulating all the pupils and staff who made such an incredible effort to raise funds for ‘Sports Relief’ last week. Pupils in Year Groups 7 to 11 completed the ‘Sports Relief Mile’ in their PE lessons. Staff and many pupils completed a fantastic ’24 hour challenge’ running and rowing all night and day in our Sports Hall. They covered a distance equivalent to a journey from London to Istanbul and back! Over Easter some of our Year 10 and Year 9 students are visiting Beijing, some of our Year 12 students are visiting Madrid, and others are exploring Iceland. They will have plenty to tell us when they return from their travels. School opens again for all pupils at 8am for 8.25am on Monday 11th April. I wish you all an enjoyable Easter break. Christian Hicks, Headteacher.

SPORTS NEWS The Charter School under 15s girls cricket team were crowned county champions after winning an extraordinary Lady Taverners County Finals in Surrey. The team lost the opening game to Rosemary School, despite good bowling from Vita Love and Martha Cullen Close's steady innings of 16. However, the girls rallied brilliantly and won the 2nd game against Farnham Heath End School. We bowled them out for 52 with Ruby Hughes, Roxy Lacheze-Beer and Beth Haley taking 2 wickets each, ending with a 4 wicket victory. The team then finished top of their group by taking 15 out of 16 wickets from 2 games and qualified to the semi-finals against Salesians School. Losing the toss, they were put into bat and scored a gigantic total of 1064 after great contributions from Ruby, Eva Blair and Roxy, and got through to the final! In the final Charter girls played against a school with 2 Surrey County girls but managed to score an excellent score of 86 with Roxy retiring after scoring more than 16 runs. The run chase was close and went into the last over. The other school needed 11 runs from the last over with 3 wickets in hand. Year 8 Ruby bowled stunningly under pressure, taking a wicket and causing two run outs to win us the county finals by 5 runs. After the game there were scenes of joy from our girls as they celebrated a great achievement. They go through to the regional finals in April. Congratulations to Iyanna Gordon, Roxy Lacheze-Beer, Ruby Hughes, Eva Blair, Ffion Stanliland, Beth Haley, Martha Cullen-Close, and Vita Love. The Charter School under 13 girls cricket team also competed recently in The Lady Taverners Schools Indoor County Final in Dorking, Surrey. Playing against 4 other schools the Charter girls finished 3rd in the finals after winning 2 out of 4 games. We started off poorly losing to Oakwood School in our first game despite a good performance from bowlers Nancy Laurenson and Alice Gootjes. In our second game, we lost again to Coombe Girls’ School. Although Ruby Hughes batted well, retiring on 16, we struggled against Coombe’s bowling. In the third game the girls showed their brilliant cricket qualities against The Howard School. Ruby, Mary Woodcock and Stella Steed all retired after scoring 16 or more runs, and Radha Soni and Nancy contributed to score an incredible total of 81-0. In the second innings we bowled out Howard School for 46. Ruby produced an outstanding throw to get a run out and Nancy made an exceptional one handed catch on the boundary line. This perfect performance from the girls boosted their confidence and we went on to win the final game against Salesian School by 2 wickets. Ruby and Sophie Dunnett retired with the bat and Alice took 2 wickets. The position of ‘Runners up’ for the tournament was decided on the amount of wickets taken throughout the tournament, so Salesian School just pinched us to the runners up spot. The girls represented The Charter School with pride. Oakwood School took first place this time – but we will be back!

On March 2nd The Charter School sixth form five-a-side football team triumphed in a tournament held at St John Bosco College. After a difficult start losing the first game 4-1 against St Francis Xavier College (SFX) A team, The Charter School team changed tactics and then won their remaining group matches and finished 2nd in the group heading into the semi-final. Due to some 6th formers not able to play, Year 10 pupil Reuben Duncan was selected to step up and play for the 6th form five-a-side team. The 15 year old was tremendous in the semi-final against St Francis Xavier B scoring a hat-trick; and Bryan Seisay made an outstanding save late on to book our place in the final. We met SFX A again in the final giving us an opportunity to avenge our opening game defeat. This time the Charter boys defended brilliantly, and Reuben scored 2 amazing goals from a corner kick. SFX A pulled one back but our defence managed to hold on to win the final 2-1. After the tournament, Louis Duncan was awarded with the fair play award and won a pair of Nike astro boots! Here is the summary of results:     

Group Game 1: The Charter School vs SFX A; Lost 4-1. Goal scorer Kwabena Owusu Ansah Group Game 2: The Charter School vs SFX B; Won 2-0. Goal scorer Louis Duncan (2) Group Game 3: The Charter School vs St John Bosco College; Won 2-1. Goal scorers Kwabena and Reuben Duncan Semi Final: The Charter School vs SFX B; Won 3-2. Goal scorer Reuben (3) Final: The Charter School vs SFX A; Won 2-1. Goal scorer Reuben (2)

The Charter School under 13 girls and under 15 girls’ rugby teams recently represented the school well in a tournament at Beccehamian Rugby Club. There were some strong performances from Neneh Barrie, Florence Hopkin Monk and Precious Ayinde leading the way in defence and causing some great turn overs. The girls moved the ball quickly for the likes of Shivani Acharya and Tiamor Weather-Henry. Despite the final results not falling our way, the under 13 girls represented the school with great dignity. The under 15 girls went into the tournament with mixed feelings when they saw the size of some our opponents but were encouraged by the coach to do their best. The first game saw some great passing and the team cruised to a 3-0 win against Coloma. The next game was against a much bigger Harris Academy East Dulwich. Some great defense led by captain Eva Blair with Neneh Barrie caused some turn overs and entertaining rugby. However Harris Academy stole the game with a 4-3 win. The Charter girls ended the tournament in 2nd place. The girls showed excellent skills and were very entertaining to watch. The Charter School Year 7 netball team represented Southwark in the London Youth Games, having beaten all the other Southwark schools to that privilege. The finals took place at Crystal Palace on March 9th, with pupils from 33 different boroughs. In the morning the girls took easy wins over Tower Hamlets 6-0 and Kensington and Chelsea 6-1. Then tough opposition came from Havering but Charter pulled off a 5-4 win. That meant they got through to the afternoon where the competition stepped up. We beat Newham 4-2 and drew with Kingston 2-2. Croydon had a superb team from Croydon High who beat us 6-1 and went on to take silver. Having lost one game we missed the medal play offs but came a very respectable 5th overall. Well done to the girls for all their commitment and hard work.

MUSICAL ACHIEVEMENTS The Charter School’s talented orchestra recently competed in the Music for Youth Regional Festival in North London on March 6th. They performed “A Fifth of Beethoven” (disco arrangement by Francis Winston) and a unique arrangement of Michael Jackson’s ‘Don’t Stop ‘Till You Get Enough’. It was a long day as the pupils met at 12:30 pm and returned to school at 7:30 pm. The students gave a truly brilliant performance which definitely showcased the high standard of music at The Charter School. We hope the judges feel the same way as we wait to hear if we will be selected for the final in Birmingham in July. One of the judges described the Orchestra as being full of 'heat and energy' and 'an extremely tight ensemble', so fingers crossed! Francis Winston and Andre Spooner gave up their time on Mother's Day to drive the pupils to the competition. Well done to all the musicians: Emma Betts, Skye Childs, George Cleaver, Willow Cleaver, Louiza Charalambous, Lara Craig, Martha Debenham, Olivia Doubleday, Tessa Doubleday, Freya Ellington, Walter Feeney,Gabriel Finn, Ben Firman, Jemima Firman, Rebecca Firman, Temiseh Gordons, Beth Hayley, Billy Hare, Joey Harper, Sarah Jeffery, Uma Loxley, Nancy Laurenson, Grace Lavender, Anna Rose McChesney, Clara Neather, Max Neather, Isobel Ollard, Kitty Ollard, Bisola Otun, Armand Ste Croix, and Brianna Ste Croix. Jonah Grimbly Larrington, Year 12 student, recently won the Battersea Piano Festival (a piano competition for the players of all ages and levels) which took place in the Bolingbroke Academy. Jonah played E.Grieg Sonata in E minor, the 1st Movement in the group of piano students representing Grade 7-8 ABRSM exams. With Jonah in the photograph is Director of The Festival. Liz Giannopoulos and Julian Hellaby, PhD, MMus, LRAM, ARAM

Move over Banksy…..here comes The Charter School Graffiti project! A group of students have shown their artistic and creative skills by producing an awesome graffiti mural for the school. With the support and encouragement of the Art technician, Thorbjorn Andersen, they have worked collaboratively through many cold Friday afternoons to create the mural. Together they came up with the slogan, designing the lettering and fills, laying out the size and placement of the text, then painting and refining the final mural. The mural says ‘Strive to Excel’ a slogan drawn from ‘The Charter Way’ school values. The consistent support by Year 13 Fine Art students, Charlie and Gillies for the younger pupils helped ensure the success of the project. The artists are: Jude Jenkins, Dylan O’Halloran Gunn, Edwin Kavanagh, Ty Van Dooren, Charlie Russel Teare, and Gillies Fryer.

It IS Rocket Science! Our sixth form science team (Ruby Lyons, Isobel Ollard and Michael Schick) took on the might (and cash) of JAGS, DC and Alleyn’s recently in a quiz held at JAGS, and emerged victorious! We have the trophy! Thanks to the other students who went along to support our star team.

New York! New York! A group of our Year 12 students had a successful trip in February, visiting many of the creative and artistic highlights of New York. The weather was bright and sunny, which was great for photographs, but it was also extremely cold, with temperatures plummeting to record lows of minus 17. Our students braved the cold well and didn’t complain one bit. Highlights of the trip included visits to the theatre on Broadway to see ‘The Colour Purple’ and visits to many of the top galleries, including MoMA, The Met and The Ruben Museum. Well done Miss S Daly, Mr Spaul and Mr Booth for making this trip a great success.

LIBRARY NEWS On 3 March, World Book Day, the whole school was alight with book fever! Staff dressed up as their favourite literary character, with sequins, straw and shoulder pads the flavour of the day. Pupils were invited to nominate their favourite book on a luggage tag and post it into a box so we can compile and announce Charter’s Top Ten Reads shortly! As part of our World Book Day celebrations, the National Literacy Trust brought us brilliant performance poet Francesca Beard. Francesca performed and spoke to al Year 10 pupils in Assembly, then ran creative workshops with two groups of Year 9 & 10 girls. The students produced some magnificent poetry in a session that focused on self-esteem and the power of girls’ voices. Two Year 7 Library lesson groups took part in the national co-writing project The Write Path. Six authors write an opening to a brand new story first thing on World Book Day, and then eight schools around the country continue each story, an hour at a time. It’s a challenge, as the student writers have to follow on from where the last school stopped, and some of the tales have developed in weird and wonderful directions. Our teams rose to it and unique, thoughtful and fantastic narratives emerged. Pupils who have collected their WBD £1 book token from a teacher or the Library can spend them at local bookshops until Sunday 27th March.

Charter Poetry Slam. New students poets are signing up to each half-termly Student Poetry Slam, and our regular poet and coach Bridget Minamore is now working with some of our very talented 6th form poets to develop their work for external competitions and performances.

Local writer Irene Rosenfeld (Geo Says No) captivated several Year 7 Library lessons with her telling of Cypriot folk tales, encouraging students to think about and share folk tales for themselves.

A group of Year 7 & 8 students saw author Chris Bradford at Alleyn’s School on 1 March talking about his Samurai and Bodyguard series of books. The amazing thing about Chris is that he trains in a specialist field, then writes novels fuelled by his real-life insight. He is a qualified Samurai fighter and Bodyguard, so his books are wickedly gripping! Following the talk we have many new sets of his books in the Library, and borrowing has gone up like a samurai kick.

Hot new name Eve Ainsworth visited us on 18th March to spend the day with Year 8 groups, discussing the topics in her acclaimed novel about bullying, 7 Days, and her newlypublished Crush.

The exciting news as we end the term is the Carnegie shortlist announcement, one of the best of recent years, in Charter Library’s opinion. Will Patrick Ness sweep a hat trick with The Rest of Us Just Live Here, will Frances Hardinge follow her Costa with a Carnegie for The Lie Tree, or will Sarah Crossan’s poem novel One be crowned Carnegie winner? Or perhaps none of the above… We’re gathering a group of Year 8 & 9 avid readers who will meet weekly after Easter to read and discuss the eight books, create and blog on our Charter Carnegie microsite, and attend at least one inter schools event. All welcome, sign up in the Library!

What a Tea Party! On March 16th Year 12 students from The Charter School and JAGs joined forces to put on a lovely tea party for older people from our local community. The school canteen was transformed as table cloths, china cups and saucers, pots of tea and home-made cakes appeared. Students provided live music and ran a raffle.

The Tenner Enterprise Challenge – more cakes! Groups of pupils have using their initiative over recent weeks to find ways to see how much profit they can make from an initial investment of a ‘tenner’. Pupils have made cakes and crafts to sell; have helped with chores, car washing and selling recycled belongings and found other ingenious ways to make money. Their efforts will be judged and winners announced shortly.

FRIENDS OF THE CHARTER SCHOOL Comedian Jo Brand kindly hosted a very successful Quiz Night on Friday 11th March. The Friends of The Charter School raise funds for various activities and extra resources for students.We do this by supporting the school’s extra curricula programme, providing additional equipment and running events for the wider school community. We would like to do more, bigger, better, wider…but to do this we need YOU. Getting involved is a great way to get to know the school and meet other parents. If you are interested, please come along to our next meeting on April 13th at 6.30pm in the school Library. Email: [email protected] to find out more.