Chestnut NewsDate: 06 Nov 2015 Issue No: 24

MESSAGE FROM THE HEADTEACHER

Dear parents and carers

I hope you all had an enjoyable half-term break. This half term is always incredibly busy with students in all year groups undertaking assessments at the end of the term.

We have lots of performances and social events planned which we hope you will be able to join us for. The first event this half term is the popular quiz night which will take place on Friday 13th November and is being organised by the Friends of Chestnut Grove. Last year this proved to be an incredibly popular event and was great fun, with the added bonus of raising some much-needed funds for the Academy.

On Thursday 19th November we will be hosting our annual presentation evening. If your child has been nominated for a prize, please ensure that you return the acceptance slips so that we can reserve you some seats. I am delighted to announce that the paralympian Aaron Phipps has agreed to present the prizes on the evening and will be giving a short speech to those in attendance.

I do hope to see you at one of these events over the course of the term.

Mr C KingsleyHeadteacher

WANDSWORTH YOUNG CHEF OF THE YEAR

We are very pleased that five students from Years 9 and 10 have chosen to enter the Wandsworth Young Chef of the year competition. The students are Harrison Cole, Shiloh Britton-Paul, Josiah Knight, Eric Liu and Arthur Butler. In the last week of term two, students from Chestnut Grove went to the launch and met the Mayor of Wandsworth, Cllr Nicolar Nardelli, Nick Vadis, the executive Chef of Compass group UK & Ireland, Steve Cannel, head of hospitality and catering at South Thames College, and Houda Al-Sharifi, the director of public health in Wandsworth.

Students have already participated in stage one: the cook offs; the top 3 will attend a half-day masterclass at South Thames College. Finalists will have an opportunity to prepare seafood at Billingsgate Market and there is a cash prize to be won. The three course meals prepared by the competitors will be judged by a celebrity and other professional chefs, and the winner will have an opportunity to earn an apprenticeship in the catering industry. Well done to all participants!

Sharlene De’Allie, Learning Mentor

RIGHTS RESPECTING SCHOOL

Every half term, Chestnut Grove focuses on a different area of equality. The Equality Act of 2010 states that every person has the right to live equally and to be treated with respect. As Chestnut Grove is a Rights Respecting School, it is important that all staff and students are able to exercise their rights freely. Last half term, we focused on different needs. Students learnt about different disabilities, mental health issues and learning difficulties in assembly, tutor time and in their health lessons. Badges were sold with the ‘Some people have different needs... Get over it!’ logo and all the proceeds go to Mind charity, which supports people living in the area with mental health difficulties. Our presentation evening will also be hosted this year by Aaron Phipps, wheelchair Rugby athlete & London 2012 Paralympian.

This half term, we will be celebrating Black History month and focusing on racism and how to reduce it at a local, national and global level. Students will study forgotten heroes of history, consider what racism looks like in Britain today and spend time considering how we might work to counter far-right extremism. As a school, we believe that it is important to make sure all our curriculum is inclusive, helping students to gain awareness of a wide range of cultures and global issues. Whether they are learning blues in music, about the civil rights movement in history or global politics in philosophy, beliefs and ethics (PBE), we believe the curriculum should be representative. We teach topics that can help us to all show respect to everyone, no matter who they are, and to learn how to make our school and society better for everyone.

YEAR 7 INTER-HOUSE MUSIC COMPETITION

Year 7 ended their first half term at the Academy by participating in the annual inter-house music competition. The students have been rehearsing a chosen song from the year of their birth and have worked on slick chorography in their dance lessons. Parents, carers and teachers who attended were incredibly impressed by the dedication and high level of performance from the entire year group.

Congratulations to HEPWORTH who won the overall prize for best performance.

We all look forward to the Christmas concert where the whole cohort sings together.

STEEL PANS @ WHY? FESTIVAL

On 23rd October Year 10 steel pans performed at the Clore Ballroom at the Royal Festival Hall. We were asked to support Elliott Gaston-Ross, an exceptional young percussionist, as part of the WHY? (What’s happening for the Young) festival. It was a priviledge to be invited to return to the Clore ballroom and the Year 10 groups were an absolute delight to watch. The students were fantastically positive and committed to the task (it’s the fastest I’ve ever seen them set up/take down!) and were polite and conscientious. It was a pleasure to accompany them up to the Festival Hall so I would like to say Thank You to the Year 10 band for being fabulous young people and a wonderful advert for Chestnut Grove.

Thank you also to the Southbank centre. Watching Elliott on his Marimba was an unforgettable experience for the students and has inspired them to ‘move more’ when they play.

Christmas Concert

Year 7 have started learning their carols! Every year, Year 7 perform as part of the Christmas Concert at the school. This is a long-standing tradition and this year, after the BRILLIANT Interhouse competition, we know the standard will be exceptional. Students are learning; Campanas de Belen, Petit Papa Noel and a mix of O Tannenbaum & Stille Nacht. Please encourage the year 7s to be learning their lyrics.

Music Clubs @ Lunch

Monday Lunch – advanced singers

Tuesday Lunch – Christmas Choir (Ms Durban)

Wednesday Lunch – 6th form band & Samba

Thursday Lunch – Tech drop in

Friday Lunch – Boys Choir

Dates for the diary....

23rd-24th November – Upper school production - Pygmallion

3rd December – Balham Christmas Carol Concert – St. Mary and St. John the Divine church, Balham – 7pm – more details to follow – starring Jazz band, choir, and the first concert starring The Voice of the Grove (Community Choir)

17th December – Christmas Concert – Chestnut Grove Academy – Come and see Year 7 singing multi-lingual carols along with our usual groups! 7pm Sports Hall.

NUMERACY CHALLENGE

Congratulations to all the ‘numeracy challenge’ winners from the first two weeks!

The competition will be run on a weekly basis with posters around the school and students are required to give their answers to Mr Proudfoot in the maths department. The challenges test pupil’s problem-solving skills and they aren’t always as simple as they might seem! See below for this week’s challenge:

NUMERACY CHALLENGE LITERACYSixth Form Literacy Mentors

A team of our dedicated 6th Form literacy mentors have started supporting KS3 and KS4 English lessons. Working with younger students on a one-to-one basis, our 6th formers can improve their interpersonal skills, whilst helping to improve literacy in lower school. Their support has been invaluable, as this Year 8 student reports: “I like working with older students. They know how to help you because they still remember how it feels to be in Year 8. They also know how to explain things and help you with your writing.”

Edie, Chloe, Bronwyn, Amran, Mei-Li, Dannetta, Amethyst, Billie, Hamida, Ellie, Sarah, Chandini,Vanessa, Ramia, Tooba, Mia, Lillie, Isaac, Christina, Muneer, Paige, Mayowa, Nadia

Literacy

On Friday 23rd October, a class of Year 8 students attended a diversity event at Balham Children’s Library. Musician and writer, Danny Thompson, spoke to the students about the origins of language and how it has developed over the centuries. Students had the opportunity to show off their beat-boxing skills as well as listening to Danny perform some of his poetry. The students really enjoyed this experience and felt it was an excellent way to end the half-term.

FOOTBALL BEYOND BORDERS

Book Bingo!

Do you want to read a variety of books from different genres?

Do you want to be in with a chance to win prizes for your efforts?

If so, get involved in Book Bingo!

The Rules:First, you will be given a Bingo Card. After, you will then have to read a book from each genre written on the card. Once you have read the book, you can then write a paragraph reviewing the book; then go to the library and receive your stamp! The more stamps the better! Prizes will be given at the end of term for a line or a full house on your Bingo Card! Yr7 and Yr8 students will be given a card from their English teacher; other years are more than welcome to get involved, and can collect their card from Ms O’Herlihy in the library! Happy reading!

Ms Robinson

After training for 5 months, a group of Year 11 boys travelled to Germany over the summer. They were accompanied by Football Beyond Borders, a charity that works to help young people realise their potential by using the motivation of football. All the boys that attended the trip had shown high levels of behaviour and attitude both on and off the pitch. They were paired up from boys from a similar age group in Germany and spent their time there staying with the boys’ families.

The boys took part in a number of activities during the tour that went beyond just football. They took part in an anti-racism workshop and had some intelligent discussions on the topic of racism in sport and how it can be tackled. This ranged from whether it is right for a player facing racism to walk off the pitch to joint responsibility of the fans, media and footballing authorities to deal with the problem.

They were also treated to a training session in the famous SC Freiburg Youth Academy before attending a home match for the senior team. SC Freiburg won 4-1!

On the last day, the Unity Cup took place with places from 6 different clubs and schools represented. One of the teams was called ‘Kick for Girls’ from the Bissierstrasse Refugee Camp in Freiburg. This was a great opportunity for the team to meet people with a very different life experience from them and bond

over a shared interest of football.

Overall the tour was a huge success with all the members of the team putting themselves outside of their comfort zone by dealing with issues bigger than football. I feel they have returned much more mature young men.

Now Football Beyond Borders have created a 7-minute short film about their time in Germany. It can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAX_rOg4dlM

CHRISTMAS CARD DESIGN COMPETITION

This week we launched our annual Christmas card competition. Students of every age are welcome to enter the competition and to attend the Christmas card club after school each Tuesday, until 24th November. During the club, students will work on their design ideas, whilst trying out a variety of art techniques and materials. The theme of the card designs is Christmas carols. All competition entries will be displayed in the school and all Chestnut Grove students will be given the opportunity to vote for their favourite card design. The winning design will be made into the Chestnut Grove Christmas card of 2015 and will be sold to all students and staff. All of the money which is raised will be awarded to a local charity, decided by the competition winner. The winner will also receive an art hamper, filled with a range of art materials. Ms Keeble

PROFESSIONAL ATHLETICS COACHING AVAILABLE

We are pleased to announce that every Monday we will be having a fully-qualified athletics coach come into school to run athletics sessions from 4pm to 5pm in the sports hall. On Tuesdays we have an external Basketball coach who will be coming in to run sessions from 3.30-5pm in the sports hall. All are welcome to attend.

YEAR 8 FOOTBALL TEAM

On 21st October we played Stepney Green and won 4-2. The goal scorers were Aymen, Nicholas, Adam and an OG. We played fantastically and will progress to the next round of the Inner London Cup.Thanks to our manager Mr Hallsworth and coach Barak Ngoma and very well done to the team:

Thierri ManleyAdam Ben-SadokAymen BouzeraiMalik SahebekhtiariJoao Jorge RafaelNicholas StylianouMatthew OrtizMiles AyoolaKian Nash-HillChisom AdieleAzriel Annon-NicolsonAidan EvansWilliam Bailey Match report written by Malik Sahebekhtiari (8 Da Vinci)

YEAR 7 INNER LONDON CUP MATCH

Chestnut Grove, 4 vs. Archbishop Tenison 3

Asher 3

Teddy 1

Penalty save Charlie Howard.

Chestnut Grove made a PROUD return to the inner London schools cup with a 4-3 victory over Archbishop Tenison school. After going a goal down early in the first half to a strong and physical side, the signs did not look good when CGA conceded a penalty; however, an excellent save from Charlie Howard restored confidence to the team. A period of excellent positive play followed with Asher, Sasika, Jake Thompson and Daniel Moore combining well in midfield. The pressure began to show and CGA pulled level with a fine strike from Asher. A lapse in concentration just before half time saw CGA 2-1 down at the break.

The second half started in the same way as the first, with CGA conceding a third. Heads remained high due to Armargay providing excellent leadership and motivation to the team. The combination of Larry, Maceo and Chayenne at the back showed great resilience, weathering the longball storm that followed for the next 10 minutes. Eventually the game changed with some neat interplay in midfield followed by a cool finish from Teddy. CGA continued to apply the pressure with some great chances being created by the excellent understanding shown between Sasika and Charlie Jennings. A superb solo run and powerful finish from Asher saw CGA draw level once more. A tactical switch which the team showed great openmindness too, moving Jay back into the defensive line and Cheyenne to centre back, allowing Maceo to push forward in search of the winner. Daniel and Saskia combined well and created a nice 1-2 to create space for Asher to run into, to hammer home and complete his hat trick. The team showed how unified they were with an ugly five minutes of last ditch defending and a fine save from Charlie. This resulted in Chestnut Grove winning 4-3 at full time.

A determined performance from all saw CGA advance to the next round with the luxury of a home tie.

Squad

Charlie Howard, Jay Simmons, Maceo Swan, Charlie Jennings, Asher Maliki, Jake ThompsonSasika Maliki, Daniel Moore, Amarjay Nkemayang, Cheyenne Newby, Teddy Butt,Larry smith

Mr Tobin

PTA QUIZ NIGHT

Calling all parents, teachers and sixth-formers! Don’t forget the second Friends of Chestnut Grove’s fundraising quiz night takes place next Friday, 13th November.

Our quizmaster, the delightful Tommy McArdle, has a devoted following in south London and guarantees a great evening of music, merrymaking and not impossible questions.

Bring your own team (maximum 6) or join a table on the night.

Good luck!

CHESTNUT21

Coin Collection

YOU COLLECTED AN AMAZING 9 KG OF COINS - thank you very much! These have been sent to Cash for Coins and I should be able to report the amount of money raised from this shortly. The winning house was Hepworth who received 600 housepoints!

Bag2School

Over the next month we are taking part in Bag2School. This is a company that collect unwanted clothes, accessories and soft toys, re-use them and pay the school £400 per tonne that we collect! This is a chance to help raise money for Chestnut21 and to contribute the house cup again! The house that collects the most bags will win the most housepoints!

So please have a look at home and see what you have that you could send in.

They will collect:• Men’s, Women’s and Children’s clothing• Paired shoes (tied together or elastic band around)• Handbags

• Hats • Bags• Scarves and ties• Jewellery• Lingerie• Belts• Soft toys

They will not accept curtains, bedding or towels!

We will be asking the different houses to bring in their collections on different days – and shortly before this we will be sending home a bag that you can fill – but you can bring in any bag.

Over the next 2 weeks we will be collecting bags from Kahlo (10th November), Blake (12th November) and Hepworth (19th November). The other houses will be in the two weeks after this. Please, please support the school by having a clear out – this is a brilliant way to help other people and to reduce landfill waste.

Family Christmas Carol Concert – 3rd December 2015:

We are organising a Family Christmas Carol Concert to be held at St Mary’s Church on Balham High Road featuring Lara Lee from The Voice, Miss Durban’s ‘Voice of the Grove’, Henry Cavendish School Choir and more – the event is open to all parents, friends, family and the community. This is a fundraising event to raise funds to buy equipment for our new buildings and tickets are £10 per adult to include mulled wine and a mince pie, and £5 for under15s. Tickets available on ParentPay soon or you can reserve a ticket by emailing Sharon Noble (snoble@chestnutgrove.wandsworth.sch.uk) and sending payment by cheque to the school address.

The event is sponsored by Lamberts Restaurant (sponsoring the mulled wine) and Andrews Estate Agents, Balham, who will pay the school £10 for each board they put up to advertise the event, so if you live in the Balham area (SW12 or part of SW2 and SW17), please email lolsen@andrewsonline.co.uk with your name and full address - board will go up from 16th November and come down from 7th December.

Chestnut Grove Academy Christmas Fair – Saturday 28th November 2015:

This will be an indoor market, open from 9am-2pm with stalls selling food, drinks, cakes, bunting, cards, handmade jewellery, pouffes, traidcraft stuff and more. There will be music from the Chestnut Grove Academy children from 12 noon (steal pan and jazz band) and a PTA stall will be selling mulled wine (non alcoholic), homemade cakes and raffle tickets. It should be a great intro to Christmas and it’s all fundraising for our school!

We are keen to get some donations of cakes to be given on the day at around 9am.

People can contact Maud on maudgambierellis@yahoo.co.uk for more information or for offers of cakes.

HOUSE NEWSHEPWORTH

Well done to 7 Hepworth who won the Year 7 inter-house singing competition at the end of last half term! A brilliant effort from all students who took part. (add picture)

Also, thank you to all students (and parents/guardians) who donated coins for the Chestnut 21 competition - Hepworth won and received 600 Vivos!

Please remember to keep working hard this half term and collecting those Vivos!

Mr Wildman

BLAKE

Congratulations to 7 Blake who are the first winners of Blake’s attendance breakfast, beating all the other tutor groups in Blake to achieve the highest attendance at 97.63 %. A fantastic achievement with many of the students on 100% attendance! Also well done to the top 10 students in Blake for their collection of vivos... I am very confident that Blake can be top of the leader board for vivos again by Christmas holidays! Year 11 are the ones that need to be working hard now to collect as many as possible in the run up to their end of year prom.... 1 Fitzgerald, Callum Year 8 161 vivos2 Seed, Casey Year 10 103 vivos3 Straker, Theomoy Year 7 93 vivos4 Nareydoo, Mia Year 10 92 vivos5 Hunter Brown, Tyanna Year 10 83 vivos6 Salter, Paige Year 8 77 vivos7 Utku, Emre Year 7 75 vivos8 Alvarez, Archie Year 7 74 vivos9 Farah, Elvis Year 7 71 vivos10 Wilson, Gabriel Year 7 70 vivos

Miss Robinson

Christmas Raffle:

For the first time we are organising a Christmas raffle – tickets will be available to buy very soon and further information will follow. Please look out for a list of prizes and how to buy in your children’s school bags. Prizes include a £100 meal voucher for Foxlow restaurant, £80 for Lamberts, 2 tickets to see Peter Andre in concert, £50 Bodean’s voucher, £50 Franco Manca voucher, £50 Bodean voucher, family ticket to London Eye and many many more (between 20-25 prizes). The draw will take place at our Winter Concert on the 17th December.

KAHLO

It was a pleasure to celebrate the success of the whole of the house on the last day of term with a continental breakfast. The attendance of all year groups is above expectation and it is clear the attendance push is having a positive impact on progress in lessons. Well done!

Congratulations to 7 Kahlo for their ‘best choreography’ award at the inter-house music competition. Their version of Jamelia’s ‘Superstar’ was inspired and had the whole audience singing along.

Also, congratulations to Harrison and Josiah in 10 Kahlo for entering Wandsworth Chef of the Year. I was lucky enough to walk through the LSC when they were practising their final dishes and they were delicious!

Although we all don’t think Frida Kahlo is frightening or scary, Beyonce adopted the famed image of our house namesake for Halloween! Great to see Frida Kahlo and her story exposure in the media so more people know about her intriguing story.

Miss Fisher

DA VINCI

Over the last half term Ms Verber and the Da Vinci tutors have been nominating a student each week to receive the Da Vinci Star of the Week Award which has been awarded in the House assembly. These students have been nominated for effort, being a model student, improvement in lessons or attendance or showing resilience.

In the first term the recipients were:Haile ThomasKai BrissittShyanne Thomas Cummings Kiara Rhoden HenryJoe ZimmermanDelicia FraserCongratulations!

Well done to Da Vinci students who organised a basketball charity shoot out on the last week of term to raise money for Chestnut21.

Miss Verber

KAPOOR

Congratulations on ALL Kapoor tutor group having attendance over 95% Kapoor house has have achieved this first half term Keep up being in school and giving yourself the opportunity to reach your potential I’m looking forward to see the prize winners and their families at Presentation evening on the 19th November 2015 Ms Fletcher