Professional Documents
Culture Documents
March 2015
The written report is designed to reflect the current strengths of the school and comment on the schools own developmental areas. The
report states:
News in brief
News of offers for the Sixth Form
News on developments at school
Important dates for the term ahead.
University Entrance
We have already celebrated the offers of places at Oxford University to Anietie Ekanem and Finn McQueen (both Year 13), but students
across Hounslow are also out-performing students across the country in gaining access to university. 62% of Hounslow Sixth Formers
gain a place at university compared to the national figure of 56% and just over a quarter (26%) gain a place at one of the top-third
universities in the country, compared to the national figure of 23%. It is also a well-established fact that students from Hounslows
comprehensive Sixth Forms have a better chance of gaining a place at a top university, and comfortably out-perform students from
grammar and independent schools in degree outcomes.
Medics Club
This year, Miss Stead has organised a Medics Club, for students in Year 12 who are interested in studying Medicine at university. This
club, running for its inaugural year, has been very successful, with ten selected students taking part in some after-school activities in
school, as well as various trips. These have included: a trip to the opticians to discuss what an ophthalmologist looks for during an eye
examination; a visit to a Victorian operating theatre in London; and several trips to museums. Overall, the club has been a fantastic
experience for our Year 12 boys as they consider their future career options.
On Wednesday 25th February, Ahmad Elmouniery (Year 13) was invited to take part in a TEDx Youth Event at West Thames College,
speaking for seven minutes on the value of languages. He was composed and eloquent throughout his excellent speech, which
received an excellent response. There were younger students from school in attendance, and all seemed to be engaged with and
inspired by Ahmads talk. Well done to him!
Film Shoot
This week we received notice that Louis Kelly (Year 12) had a won a screen-writing competition, organised by the local SPARK!
organisation. Louis wrote a fantastic script, which was picked as the winner! His script begins shooting during next week. Congratulations
to Louis; we look forward to seeing the finished result.
EU Proposal
This month, Khalil Abdul-Latif submitted an idea for Talking to EU, a European Parliament project which asks young people how they
would like to be involved in the European Union. The original question was: How can the EU get younger influence? Khalils response
was deemed good enough to be included within a Government white paper on the subject; he will go to London on Monday 20th April to
formally present his discussion. A huge well done to Khalil!
On Wednesday 25th March, we hosted our annual football match between the Year 13 Leavers and the Staff, taking place on the school
astroturf. The Staff have won for several successive years, and the Sixth Formers were determined to turn the tide. After a hard-fought
battle, the Leavers emerged as 5-3 winners. There were excellent performances from the whole team, but special mention must go to
Josh Norris, Daanyaal Khan and goalkeeper Andy Brown, for their tireless efforts. Congratulations to the Leavers.
NOTICES
Feedback and Marking
Parents/carers should be aware that high-quality oral feedback and written marking is a priority within lessons, across all subjects. This
means a number of things. Firstly, your childs books should be marked by the class teacher on a regular basis. Parents/carers should
see evidence within exercise books that some of the marking by the teacher allows students to either re-draft work and/or feedback to
the comments provided by the teacher. This process of feedback after feedback is crucial to students making faster than expected
progress.
Secondly, questioning is a vital element within all lessons. Hence, teachers have been asked to increasingly vary how they correct, clarify,
connect, and extract information from students. With this in mind, please challenge your child as to whether he is answering sufficient
questions or, better still, asking questions, as well as building on the answers of others. Finally, we are striving to make all students
completers or finishers, so all classwork within your childs books should be complete. Work should be tidy and organised; there should
be no gaps, no unfinished work, and no loose paper. Please make every effort to reinforce this with your child and, where necessary, ask
them to complete their work.
Basic Equipment
It is a simple and clear expectation that students bring basic school equipment to school on a daily basis, thus enabling them to be ready
for learning. Equipment includes pens, pencil, ruler, a scientific calculator, specialist Mathematics equipment and a water bottle. All of
these items should be organised within a suitably sized school bag, which should also contain a reading book. Please ensure that your
son/ward organises his school bag the evening before a school day and is therefore ready to learn.
Home-Learning
Students must attempt to complete home-learning or homework. Our evidence shows that there are still students who continually fail to
attempt their homework. Given that home-learning is usually work linked to, either, consolidating learning from the lesson, or preparation
for a future lesson, it is essential that students allocate time to make the required effort. National research shows that when home-learning
is regularly completed, students improve by an additional six months on top of their normal annual progress. Please check your childs
diary for homework activity. If a quiet learning space is not available at home, encourage your son/ward to use the school library, which
is open before school as well as until 5.30pm every evening.
Hair should be conventional in style and in length (above the collar and no shorter than a blade 2) and should not be artificially
coloured, spiked or contain styling products. Excessively shaven hair (below a blade 2/where skin on head is visible), shaved
eyebrows or any shaven step/lines/patterns/fashion trims/ high-tops/low-tops are not acceptable.
Examples of inappropriate hairstyles can be seen below.
Shaven parting
Patterns
Also note that coats and socks should be plain and dark coloured and remember that the Senior Leadership Team of the school are the
final arbiters of the Appearance Code.
May
IMPORTANT DATES
Inset Day 4
Start of Summer Term
Monday 4
Tue 5 Fri 15
Thursday 21
Mon 25 Fri 29
Half Term
June
Mon 15 Fri 26
Wednesday 17
Mon 22 Fri 3 July
Wednesday 24
Thursday 25
Tuesday 30
July
Thursday 2
Bank Holiday
Year 9 Core & Pathway Examinations
Friday 3
Mon 6 Fri 10
Mon 6 Fri 17
Tuesday 14
Friday 17
August
Thursday 13
Thursday 20
School Communications
Please do get used to using our new forms of communication, listed here. They are the best way to keep up-to-date with the daily life of
the school. It is also far more efficient to access information via the website or Twitter account, rather than by telephone.
Website:
Twitter:
Facebook:
Parent Portal:
www.isleworthsyon.org
@IsleworthSyon
www.facebook.com/IsleworthSyon
parent.isleworthsyon.com
Email:
Tel:
Fax:
school@isleworthsyon.org
020 8568 5791
020 8568 1939