GCA NEWSLETTERIssue 11 18 Dec 2014

Dear parents, carers and students

I invite you to read about the achievements of a number of our students and the activities they have been engaged in this term. I am sure you will be as impressed as I am by their motivation, energy and effort.I wish you all a restful break and look for-ward to seeing all students back in January with the enthusiasm we have come to expect.

Mr Sutton

Outstanding for All

The achievements of three of our sixth form-ers were recognised at the Haringey Council Out-standing for All Awards at Alexandra Palace on December 9. Daria Wilk and Sharif Matovu re-ceived awards for academic achievement in their 2014 GCSEs. Their A*s and As can be attributed to the hard work they have put in over five years.Sharif and Daria were nominated by the school and so were not competing with other students. Dawit Zerai, however, was very surprised to win the Achievement in the Arts award for his con-tribution to drama and music at GCA both in and out of class. He faced stiff competition from the other two shortlisted candidates so had a shock when he was announced the winner:"I wasn’t expecting this but it’s one of the greatest achievements in my life. It feels like the Oscars or something!"In the photos you can see Daria and Shar-if centre stage in front of the Mayor of Ha-ringey, and Dawit receiving his award.

Tallow Chandlers Bursaries

In September we were delighted to welcome mem-bers of the Tallow Chandlers Company for a pres-entation of academic bursaries to sixth formers. The scheme awards bursaries to Year 13 students based on their performance at AS. Each student re-ceived a cheque of between £250 and £500. Pro-vided they take a STEM subject at university, they will receive a further bursary during their first year. The Master of Tallow Chandlers, Mr Ian McIn-tyre, presented certificates and cheques to:

Physics – Joseph SimeonChemistry – Rowland RichProduct Design - Zohir FoukrounMathematics – Max MellorBiology – John Brobbey Oteng

Joseph, who had the best AS results overall, will receive £2000 during his first year at university and the other four will receive £1000 provided they take a STEM subject. You can see Joseph in the photo receiving his certificate from Mr McIntyre. Thank you very much, Tallow Chandlers. A great incentive for this year's Year 12 STEM students!

Greek myths brought to life

Sixth form drama students devised and performed their own interpretations of four Greek myths to fellow students, staff and primary school pupils:

Theseus and the MinotaurPandora's BoxJason and the Argonauts - the Quest for the Golden FleeceOrpheus and Eurydice

North Harringay, St Mary's, Rokesly, Campsbourne and Weston Park were our audiences over two days. Their questions to the casts showed how well they understood quite complex stories. GCA students researched the myths, developed the characterisation and script for each performance, devised the staging and created the costumes. They took between 10 and 12 weeks to get the plays ready for viewing and this involved many hours’ develop-ment and rehearsal in addition to their timetabled sessions. One primary teacher said she thought she was in a professional theatre. Here's what Jill Pughe, Assistant Head of Rokesly School said:

'Please pass on our thanks to the drama department for a fantastic theatre trip yesterday. The children really enjoyed the performance and everybody fed back on the high quality of the show. It was so lovely to feel we could just pop over the hill and give the children such a rewarding experience. Many thanks.'

We're hoping we can get these performances out to a wider audience in a professional theatre around Easter time.

The Great Roman Bake Off

On December 5, Classics Club tried their hand at making some of the food served at Roman feasts. They had a quick tour of ingredients available to the Roman cook such as caroenum (condensed grape juice) and smelly fish sauce. Then they set to work on their recipes: hypotrimma, a sweet, herby cheese dip; ham and figs in pastry; lettuce patina (a vegetable baked custard); mushroom patina; a honey-flavoured semolina pudding with almonds and raisins; and melon in mint sauce. Ms Heywood-Lonsdale judged the dishes for taste and two winners were declared: ham and figs in pas-try and melon with mint. Well done masterchefs!

Student leaders

This term we offered students an exciting opportunity to become a student leader. I received over 60 applications which Heads of Year scrutinised. We selected six students from each year group to make an application by vid-eo and these videos were shown in registration time so that students could give feedback. The short-listed candidates were then interviewed by me, their Heads of year and Ms Williams.4 students will be appointed in each year group and we’ll also appoint a Head Boy and Girl from the sixth form. I was impressed with the confidence of our students, the levels of maturity they showed and the enormous range of activities they are involved in both in and out of school. We really have some amazing young people at GCA. I would like to con-gratulate all those who applied and encourage them and others to apply for new posts in 2015-2016.The names of our student leaders will be announced at the end-of-term assembly. Ask your son or daughter for details and watch out for announcements on our website and Facebook. Ms. O’Brien

Well done Osa and Zeynep

Earlier this year Zeynep and Osagunwero, now in Y11, were part of the winning team in the Haringey and Enfield Gifted and Talented Science and Technology Challenge. Now they’ve been given a place in the Southern Challenge Finals at King’s College London early in January. Good luck, girls.

Jack Petchey Achievement Awards

Our three winners for this term are:Daniel Ossorno Reyes for excellence in modern foreign languages. Daniel has a gift for languages but does not rely on his talent – he puts in lots of hard work to achieve the best results.

Sariah Cesario for the extra effort she puts in to progress in each subject, including attendance at before and after school revision/homework sessions.

Valentina Marin Fernandez for her work in food technol-ogy – she consistently achieves the highest standards.

A test of language skills

Sixth formers, Leo and Anastasia, put their linguistic skills to the test whilst on placement with IMSO - the International Mobile Satellite Organization. IMSO ran a large intergovernmental conference in November attended by ambassadors, ministers and VIPs from around the world. Leo and Anastasia were part of the organising team which worked in English, French, Russian and Spanish. Here's some feedback from Jen-ny Ray, Deputy Director of IMSO:'I cannot begin to tell you how amazing Anasta-sia and Leo were. They seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves … as they worked with their co-horts (who were all graduates and beyond) and talked to interpreters and delegates. They were delightful – thank you so much for “lending” them to me!'Thanks to Vicki Osborne of Hornsey Parish

Parent-School Association

New or newish to the school? Would you like to meet other parents to share ideas about how you can get involved in school life? Please come to an informal social event at 6.30pm on Wednesday 21 January at the school. For more information, call 020 8609 0179 or email abecker@greigcityacademy.co.uk.

Sports stars – in brief

The Y8 football team has won 14 games in a row Ha-ringey, Middlesex and national schools competitions.

Peak District trip

Year 10 and 11 sports studies students excelled on their mountain bike assessment in the Peak District. Well done Emmanuel Ha, Emmanuel Hu, Tre-on, Romaro, Jordan. Kobi, Japhet, Mark, Neby-ou, Michael, Idris, Ebenezer, Aaron, James, Bartomiej, Tray, Derek, Nathan and Camilo. Mr Holt reports that: 'Our students were outstanding. They completed two very demanding mountain bike rides in really icy and dangerous conditions. They had to exercise a massive amount of self-control to keep the bikes under control. There was sheet ice across large sections of the bike ride on the hairpin bends which had cliffs on the other side.'

STEM residential

Four Year 10 students will be off to a challenging STEM residential course at Easter courtesy of the Smallpeice Trust. The course will run at Harper Adams University and Zeynep, Karlisa, Victor and Silvinho are the lucky four selected by Mr Garcia. They'll be challenged to take part in a vehicle mobility challenge and will work and dine with engineers from industry - a chance to draw on their knowledge and put their new skills into practice Mr Garcia chose the four students on the basis of their interest and aptitude in STEM subjects. We look forward to posting their views on the residential after Easter.

First day of spring termMonday January 5th 2015- bright and early please.