Friday 29 November 2019

Year 11 Parents’ Evening - Thursday 5 December 2019

O ur first Year 11 parents’ evening takes place on Thursday 5 December from 4.30pm – 7.00pm. The timing of

this parents’ evening follows the first round of Pre-Public examinations that took place earlier this month.

This is an excellent opportunity for you to meet with your child’s subject teachers to discuss the results from these

exams. More importantly, subject teachers will be discussing what needs to be done to improve your child’s results

for the next round of Pre-Public examinations from 24 February 2020.

All Parents and Guardians of Year 11 students are expected to attend this very important subject teacher meeting. It

is recommend that you come from 4.30pm so that you see as many of your child’s subject teachers as possible. As

this evening is always extremely busy we have set up an appointment system in which, prior to the evening, your

child should make an appointment time with the teachers you particularly wish to see. Each appointment slot is 5

minutes.

Calendar of Key Meetings and Events

Date Time Activity Who should attend?

Wednesday 4 December 6.30pm -8.00pm Full Governing Body Meeting Governors

Thursday 5 December 4.30pm-7.00pm Year 11 Parents Evening Year 11 Families

Tuesday 10 December 6.30pm School Christmas Concert All families

Tuesday 17 December 6.00pm – 8.00pm Awards Evening Invited Families

Football News

The Year 11 Football Team went to The John Roan School last week and came away with a very impressive, and

professional, 3-1 victory. Having gone 1-0 down to an early goal, the Elmgreen boys kept cool heads and dominated

the game from then on. Two goals for super-striker Dior Dean and a calm finish at the back post from Kyle Monteiro

ensured Elmgreen go marching on to the next round of the Inner London Cup.

Do you have any unused/unwanted uniform to donate?

The PPF are setting up a re- use and recycle uniform shop at school and we would love any

donations of school uniform and shoes (in good condition)

All donations can be left at the Elmgreen School office.

Thank you for your support!

Reminder—End of Term

The term ends on Thursday 19 December and students will be dismissed at 12.30pm

Holiday—Friday 20 December 2019 to Friday 3 January 2020

“Take a Seat” Visit to Tom Faulkner, Swindon

L ast Monday, two Year 12 Product Design students, Juan and Natalia, joined others to visit

the workshops of Tom Faulkner furniture in Swindon. They are participating in Take a

Seat, a competition to design a chair; the winning entry to be manufactured by Tom Faulkner.

Students from six South London schools are taking part, and attended a workshop session here

at Elmgreen last Wednesday to develop their designs. They had the chance to see, at first

hand, some of the techniques used in fabricating and finishing furniture in steel, aluminium,

copper and bronze. They were shown how steel can be cut, rolled and welded. To enhance

their appreciation of the process and the skill involved, many, including Juan and Natalia, had

a go at welding steel!

Next came a visit to the powder-coating booth, where

resins are electrostatically applied and then baked onto the metal frames. Hand-

finishing using metallic powders is also undertaken to match clients’ specific

needs. Finally there was a visit to the assembly and despatch room, where pieces

are brought to their final form, with the assembly of chairs and the attachment of

table tops, many in polished stone, rich in colour and with intriguing grain.

All came away impressed with the teamwork involved in the manufacture, and the procedures needed to maintain a

high standard of quality. We are grateful to Nicola Burt of KLC School of Design, Chelsea, Miranda Kirwan, Matthew

Woodhouse and all the team at Tom Faulkner for giving so generously their time and attention.

Donations Request

Norwood and West Norwood Foodbank have urgently requested the items:

Tinned Fish

Tinned Custard

Tinned Rice Pudding

Tinned Corned Beef and Pies

UHT Fruit Juice

UHT Milk (All types especially full fat)

Washing Powder (tablets are accepted also)

Washing up liquid

If you are able to support with

donations please let them with

the school office for the attention

of Miss Meikle.

Thank you for your support.

We have a new Examinations area on our school website…….

Click here to find dates for external and internal exams and information related to examinations.

Introducing Sandy Brooks: The newest PPF Director

C ongratulations to Sandy Brooks who was elected as a Director of the Parents Promoters Foundation – Elmgreen’s

founding charity which supports the School and the Great North Wood Education Trust. We are delighted that

Sandy has joined the board. She brings excellent skills and experience as you can see from her statement below:

“My name is Sandy Brooks and I am a parent of an Elmgreen student in Year 9. I

have been attending the PPF meetings since he started the school and find most of

them informative and useful for both supporting the education of my child and helping

me maintain a relationship with the school. I am interested in becoming a Director of

the PPF to increase Interaction and participation of Black and Ethnic Minority

Parents and help explore any issues and barriers that may prevent them from being a

part of useful meetings.

My work experience is in Youth Work and Social Work. I have worked in Lambeth in

a number of capacities; Leaving Care personal advisor, Child in Need social worker,

Mentor and Family support. At the moment I am working to on my own project to

provide support to Black Parents of Adolescent children in Tulse Hill and West Norwood. This is aimed at providing signposting,

advice and mentoring for parents to empower them to take the lead to improve relationships, education and the lifestyle for their

children. I am also very passionate about the educational attainments of Looked after Children and those of young black male

students.”

Parent and Carers Forum and PPF AGM

L ast Saturday was wet and drizzly but that didn’t stop an excellent turn out of parents at our second Parents and

Carers Forum for the year. We were delighted to see so many of you there and really appreciated Dominic Bergin,

Headteacher and Mrs Alison Moran, Assistant Headteacher giving up their Saturday mornings for us too. Mrs Moran

outlined the impressive learning throughout the school on environmental issues at the recent ElmGREEN day - see last

School News for a report. She also highlighted how this was not just a one-off, that actions to combat climate change and

lower carbon emissions are continuing, led by student leaders with the formation of a new working group. Families made

clear they were keen to help and it was agreed that the PPF will run a Uniform Sale at future events. Families will be able

to buy good quality pre-owned uniform at a reasonable price (whilst helping us raise some much-needed funds for the

school) but it will also avoid unwanted uniform items being added to landfill. Watch this space for more details.

We also heard about the exciting STATION to STATION project https://stationtostation.london/ from Elmgreen parent,

Charlotte Ashworth – which will transform our local area to be a greener, cleaner and friendlier place to live and work.

There are lots of exciting things happening in the next few weeks – Don’t miss the launch of the Shop and Drop scheme

which lets you shop on foot and get your heavy shopping delivered to your home by a Cargo bike. There’s also a special

Night Market happening on 8th December.

The floor was then opened up to parents and carers for the essential Question and Answer session with Mr Bergin

Headteacher. Questions covered a range of issues – the use of supply staff to cover for staff absences, homework and

revision support and communications. A number of really helpful suggestions are now being followed up.

T he 13th Annual General Meeting of the school’s founding body, the Parent Promoters Foundation

(PPF) was a great opportunity to catch up on the work of the PPF over the past year - raising

funds and supporting the partnership between families and the school. The PPF constitution provides

that every year a third of our directors must retire by rotation - This ensures that the Board of

Directors is kept fresh and gives an opportunity for new people to get involved each year. We said

goodbye and thank you to the PPF Directors retiring this time:-

Pauline Alexander – a PPF Foundation Governor who also helped run the PPF Skills Bureau and mixed wonderful

Rum Punch at our social events !

Abigail Melville – who has brought great expertise in supporting students’ Future Pathways and established We Rise

which has benefitted many Elmgreen students and;

Benedicte Mourey – who has been immensely hard-working as a PPF Foundation Governor and the PPF Treasurer

These directors also formally “retired” this year but have kindly agreed to serve another term - for which we are very

grateful:-

Cathy Ashley – a past PPF chair and passionate PPF founding member – here from the very start,

Mark Chetwynd - a PPF Foundation Governor leading the initiatives to help Elmgreen tackle environmental pressures –

raising awareness through the film nights and helping to broker the solar panels agreement with Lambeth Community

Solar

Hubert Humphrey - who has done a fantastic role, presenting the PPF awards and our fundraising cheque at the End of

Year Whole school assembly

And finally we were delighted to welcome our newest Director – Sandy Brooks who brings a wealth of skills and

experience to the PPF Board – see further details about Sandy elsewhere in this issue. Thanks to all who came along and

made the morning such a positive and productive one.

Calling all keen cooks and bakers……...

It’s time for festive treats.

We need delicious snacks and goodies for the

refreshment stall at the Winter Concert on Tuesday 10

December at 6.30pm.

If you can help with making or selling food and drink

before the show and in the interval please contact

Liz Myers on 07584751372 or email myersomulloy@btinternet.com

#ElmGREEN

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