Chiswick School, Burlington Lane, London W4 3UN. Telephone 0208 747 0031

Also available online at www.chiswickschool.org 10th February 2014 - Issue 11Student Services Direct Line 020 8747 6655 to report your child ill or late.

D i a r y D a t e s

FEBRUARYTue 11th

School Play Rehearsal Day

Wed 12th - Thu 13thSchool Play - The Revengers 7:30pm

Fri 14th - Sat 22ndSki Trip

Mon 17th - Fri 21stHalf Term

MARCHSun 2nd

PTA Car Boot Sale

Tue 4thBattle of the Bands

Thu 6thWorld Book Day Year 11 Photos

Fri 7th - Tue 11thYear 12 Geography Trip

Tue 11thYear 10 Study skills day

Wed 12th - Thu 13thYear 10 Tetanus Vaccinations

Thu 13thYear 7 Opening Minds Trip (Y)

Your Weekly Newsletter

CHISWICK SCHOOL

Last week, a class of Year 11’s received the final grade for their English iGCSE. They received the results in the lesson and many were very pleased. 96% of entrants passed with a C grade or higher and some students even exceeded their target grade, not by one grade but 2! Mr Mathews, Head of English, said that “All results were thoroughly deserved as they all worked so hard to gain the grades they achieved”.

The English iGCSE not only included an examination in the hall, but also coursework and a 1 to 1 speaking and listening examination. All coursework was completed to very high standards, which meant the English department felt confident with the students as they went into the hall.

All the teachers who helped out with the speaking and listening commented on how well prepared all the students were.

The students took it in their stride and worked hard to gain the best grade for themselves, even though they knew this entry would be their only attempt due to government last minute rule change.

Spectacular Success in iGCSE English for Year 11

“Many went on to over-perform and we as a department were very pleased to see this!” Mr Mathews told me.

To highlight a few students who did well; Rahman Abibior who was targeted a C came out with an amazing A grade. This was also matched by Shea Howes who also achieved an A grade. Finally, Millie Twyman, who started at Chiswick later than most, came out with an equally amazing B grade. Many more of the students who took the iGCSE also came out with grades that were outstanding.

A massive congratulation from Chiswick News to all the Year 11’s who got back their results last week!

By Katharine Davies.

By MaryaM Khalifa

M: How long did it take to write?Mr.M: It took a lot of thinking time, and discussions over some ideas during the sum-mer holidays. The script wasn’t finished un-til after Christmas, but due to the extended thinking time, the writing process was rela-tively quick!

M: The title ‘The Revengers’ sounds familiar. Where does it originate from?Mr.M: The title is a slight pun on the ‘Aveng-ers’ Franchise! We thought it had a great hook, fitting in with the basic ideas of the witches taking revenge on Shakespeare. We took that idea and just thought that it was a good, iconic title.

M: What can we expect from the play?Mr.M: A certain amount of respectful sil-liness, and lot of great work from the vocal group as we’ve got a cast of thousands! You can also expect some really lovely Shake-spearean performances tucked in there, and you can expect to hopefully look at Shake-speare, his plays and characters in a slightly new light.

M: Will there be any musical numbers?Mr.M: Yes! Miss O’Leary has been working with the vocal group, so there will be a few musical performances from them- they’ve worked really hard, and are going to be re-ally good, and great fun.

M: Can you sum up ‘The Revengers’ in one word?Mr.M: Fun! With a little bit of Shakespear-ean knowledge.

School Dramatist Interview continued...

By MaryaM Khalifa

By laura reiD

100 Books in 100 Days

Year 12 Politicians get a taste for Parliament

BETT Award Still Celebrated

The challenge was set for 8 of our form groups: read 100 books in 100 days. This stimulating challenge would en-courage our students to broaden their reading and discover new authors. Over the course of 100 days, a staggering 1,326 books were read!

7Ke, 7Bl, 7Ch, 8Ke, 8Ha, 8Pa, 9Ch and 10Ke took part in this initiative. Win-ners were randomly selected, with those who made more book entries having a better chance of winning. Nii from 8Pa won a £15 iTunes voucher, Xander from 7Bl won a £25 Amazon voucher and Ata in 10Ke was the lucky winner of an iPod touch.

By laura reiD

On 23rd January, Chiswick School re-ceived the fantastic news that our entry to the BETT 30th Birthday competition had been successful. This was a national com-petition with a prize of £10,000 worth of goodies from various companies exhibiting

at BETT - the world’s largest show of edu-cational technologies. Two Year 7 students: Jaden and Theo, as well as Mr Lawrence, worked together in creating the winning entry, which can be seen online. Jaden, Theo and Mr Lawrence went to the show on the 24th January to pick up their prize and meet the press, cementing Chiswick School’s growing position as a leader in the use of mobile technologies in the class-room.

The BETT competition consisted of creat-ing a video, highlighting what you thought the classroom would be like in 30 years. Having been approached by Mr Ryan to enter the competition, both Mr Lawrence and Mr Witts agreed that Theo and Jaden would be the two students perfect for the job! Through a lot of hard work, the video was complete; with Mr Lawrence receiving an email from BETT as soon as he’d sub-mitted the video, deeming it to be ‘an in-credible entry’.

"Waiting was so nerve wracking, but when we won, it was amazing! I felt great, but I felt even better for Jaden, Theo, Mr Sykes and Mr Ryan. The fact that every-one else was able to collectively benefit from winning made me incredibly happy’ Mr Lawrence told me.

In the past two weeks, the school organised an out-ing for the AS Politics class to the Houses of Parlia-ment. Students discovered the in-ner workings of our government through two tours and workshops, allowing them to see their AS course come to life.

The first thing we were struck by was how small the Commons was, with barely half the seats needed for all the MPs. We were warned not to sit on the green benches, or else face being thrown out by security! This was our first tour of Parliament, of-fering us a behind-the-scenes look at how our country is governed. Later in the day, the workshop on making laws split the class into three teams, each competing to answer the most questions right and get their legislation passed.

On our second trip to Parliament we went to the Lords, seeing the red benches in real life and learning about the Speaker’s woolsack. In Portcullis House, we also got the chance to set up our very own de-partmental select committee, where we had a noisy debate about the effectivity of these committees. We decided they were because they provide a check on govern-ment power. Clemmie Rampley, 12Ke said “I found the trip inspiring and so helpful for my AS course!”

Interview with Mr Meadows School DramatistThis year, Mr Meadows and Mr Harrington have teamed up to create 'The Revengers', an original play written, produced and directed by the two teachers! I asked Mr Meadows some questions about the upcoming performance, which will be showing on Wednesday 12th, and Thursday 13th of February.

M: What is ‘The Revengers’ about?Mr.M: The plot focuses on the fact that Shake-speare’s Witches, featured in Macbeth, after years of hanging around on the Heath in Scot-land, have become tired with their bit-part roles and so decide to cast a spell; enabling them to travel through Shakespeare’s plays, and sub-vert them. The Witches eventually decide that they want to take the issue up with Shakespeare themselves- and so travel to the real world and confront Shakespeare. We’ve incorporated loads of characters, such as: Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, The Witches, and The Me-chanicals featured in ‘A Midsummer’s Night Dream’

M: What inspired you when writing ‘The Re-vengers’?Mr.M: Shakespeare. Everything about Shake-speare and his world is an inspiration; I abso-lutely love Shakespeare, he’s so great, and so it’s all stemmed from him. The idea was to make Shakespeare accessible, through poking fun in a respectful way- as it comes from a genuine love of the subject.

M: What was it like when writing the script?Mr.M: Gosh, well it was quite good fun, as I’m a big fan of Shakespeare. I don’t pretend to be a writer; so hopefully, we’ve come up with something that’s tolerably good. But you get a bit nervous about it- as I’m not a professional writer. We almost cast the play first, then wrote around who we knew we had featured. It was organic process!

Continued at the back...