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

Also available online at www.chiswickschool.org 9th July 2012 - Issue 28Student Services Direct Line 020 8747 6655 to report your child ill or late.

D i a r y D a t e s

JULYMon 9th - Mon 16th

Year 10 Work Experience

Mon 9th - Fri 13thPrimary Taster Day

Mon 16thReflection Day

Mon 16th - Fri 20thYear 12 Work Experience

Tue 17thYear 10 Celebration Evening

Thu 19thSports Day

Fri 20thLast Day of Term

PARENTSYour Weekly Newsletter

CHISWICK SCHOOLWe would like to thank the PTA for funding such a wonderful week of ac-tivities. Here are some of them:

PTA Activities Week

Chiswick School One Of The Most Improved in The CountryChiswick School has received national recognition for achieving some of the fastest improving GCSE results in the country.

Chiswick School qualified as one of the top 10% of schools in England by im-proving its GCSE results year-on-year from 2008 to 2011 by 23 percentage points overall.

Every school in the country has been ranked according to how much pro-gress they made in improving their GCSE results in 2011 in new rankings released by SSAT – the representative body for schools.

Sue Williamson, Chief Executive of SSAT said:

'Chiswick School should be congratu-lated for their stunning achievement in improving their GCSE results.'

'Chiswick School has proved itself to be one of the best schools in the coun-try at improving GCSE outcomes for their students. There is plenty that

other schools could learn from Chis-wick’s success.'

'These results are testament to the commitment and hard work of the students, teachers and leadership team at Chiswick School and a vindi-cation of their belief in high expecta-tions, good teaching and ambition for every young person.'

Tony Ryan Headteacher was delight-ed. ‘On behalf of our students, staff and parents we are pleased to receive this external recognition. With an-other set of results on the way we are confident that our success story will continue,’ he said.

Thursday 14th June marked the day that the gifted and talented pupils of year 10 were invited to attend a day trip at the University of Cambridge. The event itself was held to enlighten us on the different choices that would be needed to make which would work in favour of an appli-cation to the Russell Universities.

We arrived in Cambridge at 10.15, the weather had decided to work on our side and the walk was beautiful. It kept us in awe as our aspirations for the future sud-denly became a lot higher. A lot of people were confused as to why the University was split into different buildings, or ‘col-leges’, but we found out that this was as the university is made up of different col-leges, and each college is an independent institution with its own property and in-come.

Rosie, a school liaison officer who greet-ed us at Homertons reception and escort-ed us to one of the many lecture theatres. Did you know that whilst our own Chis-wick School is dotted with pigeons and seagulls- Homerton College has ducks and robins!

Once we had settled down, Rosie gave us a presentation on university. We man-aged to attain an incredible insight as to

what it would be like studying at higher education level, and Rosie cleared all the questions and doubt that we have ever had. An interesting matter we learnt, that also really boosted out desire to learn and do well, is that all students are expected to / have attained a minimum of five A/A* grades in their GCSEs! This made us all think twice about procrastinating when it comes to revision.

After the presentation we got a quick tour around the building, to show us what it’d be like if we were to attended Homer-ton College, and when it came to the great dining hall- we were amazed by the grandeur of it (think harry potter!) ‘It’s just such a glorious place to be, I feel so alive!’ – Benedict Segal, 10Blenhiem told me.

Overall we had a great day at one of the most prestigious universities in the world. ‘This trip has made us all realise our aspirations for the future and the importance of the choice of course at uni-versity ,’ Hockto Pearson, 10 Chatsworth.

We’d like to thank Miss Dyment and Mr Sadler for accompanying us on this in-spiring trip!

Maryam Khalifa.

Day Trip at University of Cambridge

Blockbuster Arts Festival Run by Chiswick School ParentsThe annual Chiswick School Arts festi-val on the evening of Wednesday 27th June run by the school’s Parents Teach-ers Association was a fantastic success. Featuring a range of talent in Music, Dance, Art and Drama, the event at-tracted around 500 visitors. The audi-ence had a choice of five performance stages and two exhibitions. A delicious Caribbean style meal was laid on too.

The festival was opened by a striking sculpture parade in which students wore their Indian influenced sculptures on their heads and marched to accom-panying Samba drumming.

A first was a performance by Strand on the Green Primary School African drumming group. Showing no fear they played on an outdoor stage and attracted an appreciative crowd with their tight, well co-ordinated playing. It is hoped the event will feature more primary school items in the future.

Such was the quality of the work, it was hard to pick out highlights as the audi-ence welcomed new talent as well as saying good bye to students who have featured in several Chiswick School events. The steel pan items had the audience moving to the beats and the orchestra excelled with its rendition of The Entertainer and a Hungarian Dance. Year 9 dramatists fully engaged the audience with their creative piece,

and ensemble dance was presented in both Street and Bollywood styles. Phoebe Harris sang her heart out in her valedictory performance to huge cheers. Robert Bautista year 7 deliv-ered a moving vocal solo. Marta Glyn Blanco performed her mesmerising fla-menco routine.

Powerful and striking images were a feature of the Photography exhibition and the A level Art exhibition contained intricate painting, 3D work and anima-tion. ‘I was astonished by the diverse range of artistic talent on show’, said Ms. Lee parent of a year 10 student. ‘It is a really relaxed and pleasant way to spend the evening and the behaviour of the students in an informal atmos-phere was excellent’.

The annual event is funded and co-or-dinated by the school’s incredible PTA. ‘Its amazing what can be achieved when schools work together with par-ents. Team work delivers fantastic results’, said Chair of the PTA Rachel Clare.

‘The contribution of the PTA to school life is part of the reason why Chiswick School is such a vibrant place. They provide funding for trips, clubs, arts activities and extra equipment which all benefit the students. We are very grateful’, said James Whiting, Deputy Head in closing the festival.