N E W S L E T T E R

February 2013

Icknield High School

SCHOOL PRODUCTION

Art Exhibition in Red Dot Gallery

D A T E S F O R

Y O U R

D I A R Y

February 23 & 24 School Production rehearsal 9.00—5.00pm 28 Year 8 Parents’ Consultation Evening March 2 & 3 School Production rehearsal 9.00 –5.00pm 5 School Production dress rehearsal 6.30—10.30 6—8 School Production 7.30pm 11-15 Year 11 Alternative Curriculum week (see back page) 15 Girls 3rd HPV Vaccination 18- 21 35 x Year 9 on History trip to battlefields 19 Spring Concert in PA1 at 7.00pm

21 Science Fair in School Hall all day & in the evening

22 Academic Review Day 28 Term Ends 29 Ski trip to Austria departs - return on 6th April April 15 INSET

16 Term begins 18 Year 10 Parents’ Consultation Evening 22-25 Year 9 Exams May 1 Year 7 Parents’ Consultation Evening 6 Bank Holiday 7-10 Year 10 Exams 13 Year 11 exams begin and continue until end of June 14-17 Year 9 Art Trip to Barcelona

SCHOOL PRODUCTION

This year, the School Production will be ‘Hot Mikado’. Based on Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado, set in Ja-pan, but taking a lot of American influences, you will be treated to a mix of Gospel, Blues, Swing and Rock show-stopping numbers. The story weaves around the confusion that ensues when The Mikado decrees that flirting is to be a capital punishment. Will Nanki-Poo get to marry his YumYum? Will Koko escape his execution? Will Katisha find true love? These and many other questions will be an-swered during an evening’s entertainment that promis-es to have you laughing and toe-tapping throughout! Performances will take place on Wednesday 6th March – Friday 8th March 2013, at 7.30pm in the School Hall. Tickets will be available to buy from 1.30-1.45 at Rep-rographics from Mon 11th Feb. Ticket prices: £6 adult, £4 concessions.

Mr C W Dean

THE KITCHEN SINK! There is an old fashioned phrase which goes along the lines of “They threw everything at us including the kitchen sink!” and in many ways this is exactly how we have felt this half-term! Since coming back in January so much has happened it is almost impossible to know where to begin. We had some exceptionally encouraging results from our Year 11 GCSE Mathematics in November and we may well be on course to improve on last year’s outstanding performance. It has given many of the Year 11s a real confidence boost and means for some they can focus on getting high grades in other subjects; for others who were not successful, they know exactly where to focus and I am sure they will be successful in June. Then the snows came! As always I have to consider the health and safety of all those on the School site and making a decision to close is never easy whether it be on the day or in advance. May I take this opportunity to thank parents for their patience and understanding as I know making ‘last minute’ arrangements can be very difficult. I would like to express my thanks to the site agency team who worked like Trojans to enable the School to be open on Tuesday, they were here at 4.30am helping clear as much of the site as possible to enable us to be open. I was of course ‘cursing’ them at noon on Tuesday and wishing they had put the snow back as that was when we received the call from Ofsted! We last had Ofsted in January 2008 and have been waiting for them to arrive for over a year and a half so really we should not have been surprised; the only shock was their timing due to the adverse weather conditions! So how did we do? We know where we are on our journey towards Outstanding and with the goal posts continually shifting and changing and the bar being raised, we knew to get a Good would be a significant step forward from 2008. What we were not prepared for was to be told we were on the cusp of Outstanding in all four areas and therefore very close to Outstanding overall. This is very encouraging indeed! We know there is more work to be done but this not only told us we would get there but the time scale is within the next two years. I have always said Icknield is an Outstanding School and when we finally received that honour it would be safe, secure and sustainable into the future. We now know exactly what we have to do to get there. I would like to extend my thanks to all the staff and students for the work they put in to Ofsted and I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved. I could write a huge long list of compliments the school received from Ofsted but I have selected five and my apologies to all those areas which are not mentioned: “In Mathematics, students make outstanding progress” “The great majority of teaching….was good or outstanding” “Students say that teachers make learning fun” “Students are proud of their school community” “….outstanding contribution of the school’s visual arts specialism” And lastly, a quote from a student: “…..school ‘Doesn’t teach you to just pass exams, it teaches you to go further in life’” I could not have summed it up any better myself! Ofsted then left as quickly as they had arrived with the view to leaving us to get on with becoming Outstanding over the next four years. I have promised the staff I would not invite them back in too soon and definitely not before the Easter holidays! Just when we thought that was it, the Government put out the league tables. These still reflect the significant use of multiple counting equivalences when referring to attainment, achievement and progress. I have always said that there is only one consistent measure and that is 5 GCSEs including English and Mathematics (not including equivalences).

WE ACHIEVED 65% 5+ A*- C GCSEs INCLUDING ENGLISH AND MATHEMATICS (NO EQVS) That result was the best in Luton and was better than our nearest ‘rival’ by 6%! I would love to be able to end my newsletter on that high but unfortunately that is not the case. We have had two incidents over the last half term, which have been serious. On both occasions they have all been fully investigated and appropriate sanctions have been taken against those who have let down the whole School community and brought the School’s name into disrepute. The behaviour of a small number of students has been totally unacceptable and some of them are no longer welcome as members of the Icknield community and will need to continue their education elsewhere. I will not tolerate their attitude and approach to learning and others should not have to tolerate it either. We are here to teach, to learn and to prepare young people for the challenges of life not to deal with fool-ish and unsafe behaviour of a few and nothing will interrupt that process. When we do achieve Outstanding, it will be because we stick to what we believe, our values and our ethos and by doing so as one harmonious community, we will achieve our ambition! Have a good half term Mr C Dean—Headteacher

Bad Weather Warnings Whilst we will make every effort to keep the school open during bad weather, the main problem is that when the snow hits, many staff who live some distance away simply cannot get here. It is unsafe to have the children in school without adequate staffing. If we do have to close the school you can get information by Listening to Heart FM or BBC 3 Counties Radio 103.8FM and 630AM or go to their

web-site.

Visit the school web-site or Local Authority website

Call school (difficult as we only have one line and 1450 students)

Look for notices on the school doors.

Any such weather closure will be for the shortest possible period and we would encourage students to take the opportunity to work on any course-work, homework or learning they can usefully do from their own initiative.

Literacy Corner Correct the homophones in these passages Technology has gone to far. What ever happened too meeting with friends and speaking with

them face-to-face? Now we feel the need to communicate threw a laptop or a phone – that is

not actually picking up the phone to speak but two text.

Furthermore, texting and typing has damaged are ability to use the English language correctly.

We omit words we see as unnecessary to carry the meaning: ‘gone twn.’ The younger

generation is far to used to this form of communication that it is affecting there school work,

with students missing words out of sentences making them grammatically incorrect. Yet when

asked to check over they’re work, they are unable to notice the mistakes – because that is

what their used too.

This problem is fast becoming too common. How could to initially ground breaking pieces of

technology, come to have such an awful affect are children’s education?

AR T S

NEWS

In the Red Dot Gallery……. We are delighted to be displaying an exhibition from the OCR exam board featuring some of the best work from both GCSE and A-Level courses created by students across the UK in 2012. The work is of a very high standard, showing a high level of technical skill and includes drawing, painting, textiles and sculpture. The exhibition opens on Monday 11th February and it will be on display until Thursday 28th February. Students will be able to visit the gallery during their lesson time to see the work. Following on from the OCR show we will be hosting an A-Level drawing exhibition by students at Cardinal Newman High School based on their recent Art trip to Paris. The Red Dot Gallery is open from 8.30 – 4.30 every weekday so please come along to see the exhibitions. Arts Award Miss Lavin has recently launched the Arts Award course. We have 16 students across Years 7–10 undertaking the award. As part of the course requirements, students have to attend and review an arts event. On Tuesday 5th February, Miss Lavin, Miss Fisher and Mrs Case took the students to London for the day to firstly see a film and video exhibition at Tate Modern called ‘Objects in the Mirror are Closer than they Appear’ and followed by a visit to the IMAX theatre to see Les Miserables. The students had a great day and got a lot out of the visit and are now busily writing up their reviews. Saturday School Our ever-popular Saturday School starts on February 9th and will then run for a further 4 weeks after the half-term holiday. It is open to Year 5 and 6 children and we still have a few spaces available. If you are interested, please use this e-mail to get in touch with Miss Lavin. reddotgallery@hotmail.com For information Year 11 students are working on their exam preparation at the moment as they have their Visual Art exam in the week commencing 11th March. There are many help lines available for students after school to get some extra help and guidance. Students can see their teacher to find out when they are available. Mrs J Conway Assistant Headteacher

Key Stage 3 Top Achievers

Geography NewsGeography News

GAI Hamzah Rahman and Naima Hussain

GAC Abi Bamgboye and Sam Campbell

GAA Aqeel Ali Shah and LucyMcDonald

GAR Ashraf Ahmed and Farihah Shahriar

GAE Corin Dulson and Abdullah Abdin

GAS Saqlain Khan and Urooj Ali

GBC Tanaz Laskar and Daniel Allen

GBA Sami Islam and Nimra Butt

GBR Munishah Sufi and Sana

GBE Bethany Bangs and Sana Irfan

GBS Ahsan Ali

YAC Barry Ilgunas and Muznah Aktar

YAA Shaun O’Driscoll and Sandia Devi

YAR Bethany Franco and Jordan Rhoades

YAE Yameena Qadeer

YAS Zak Ajala and Afzal Ali

YBC Mitchell Reayand Iram Raza

YBA Nuha Chowdhury and Hamza Ali Khalid

YBR Leah Deverick and Sean Davies

YBE Maheen and Zak Choundhury

YBS Mahnoor Kazmi and Idris Adams

As part of the Geography Departments commitment to praise the achievement of learners and encourage

further progress, participation and motivation, teachers have selected students from form groups who

have either excelled in lessons, achieved the most 5’s in lessons or submitted an outstanding piece of

work. Congratulation and well done to all top achievers who are:

SAC Keara Makenji and Thamid Hasnath

SAA Cassia Clarke and Shoaib Arif

SAR Thaqib Ahmed and Sonia Gandhi

SAE Jake Hayden and Jessica Tyrell

SAS Ammarah Ali and Sameer Khan

SBC Tayab Akram

SBA Ish Masaka and Bethany Swann

SBR Shahina Akhtar and Shahwaar Malik

SBE Rahma Zaman and Seyi Obembe

SBS Michael Isong and Imaan Jamil

GCSE Geography Year 10

On 11th—14th February, 30 Year 10 students are

conducting fieldwork in Spain...So watch out for the

photos and reviews of the Costa Brava trip.

Year 11

Revision materials for the Unit 1 exam are available

at www.ihsgeographyunit1.webs.com.

Also watch out for developments at

www.ihsgeographydme.webs.com for information

about the Making Geographical Decisions Resit

happening in Summer 2012 . The website Get Re-

vising is an interactive site with has tools to create

revision cards, quizzes and revision timetables so

visit www.getrevising.co.uk

Competition

In the December Newsletter, we ran a Wild Weather competition. High-

ly commended entries were awarded to: Maria Khan (GAR), Sandal Butt

(SBE), Sana Asif (GBR), Ovais Hussain (SBR), Janika Choudhury

(GBR), Charlotte Mole (GBR), Musaddaq Rasool (SBA), Ramahni Mor-

ris (SBE) Sabah Dowlatshahi (SBE) Farihah Shahriar (GAR) and Awais

Nobody ever listens to me or takes me seri-

ously, but when I asked to be blown away on

my birthday, they decided to listen!

Fairtrade Fortnight 25th February—10th March

In February 2012, students took a step to think about what fair-trade is

and how it benefits people in less economically developed countries.

This year each year group will be studying a different topic in Fair-trade

Fortnight, from coffee and chocolate, to cotton.

This year we will be running a Year 7 competition. You can either cut

out the quiz card to the right or you can get one from your Geography

Teacher. Answer the first question and then take it to the teacher men-

tioned on the quiz card. When you hand it in, you will be given a new

question. Prizes are available for the first 5 students who manage to suc-

cessfully complete the quiz card, but reward points for every one who en-

ters.

1

2

3

4

5

Answer

Answer

Answer

Answer

Show your answer to Miss Dorban (G4)

Show your answer to Miss Room (G1)

Show your answer to Miss Mugadza

Show your answer to Mrs Mettyer (G1)

Challenge 1

Name a fair-trade

chocolate company

Show your answer to Miss Dorban (G4)

Savanna Congo Africa

Competition Winners

The BBC has been showing a documentary on BBC 1 about Africa.

This terms competition is to create a piece of work based on Africa

sized no larger than an A5 piece of paper. It can be a small poster,

leaflet or even a video, a piece of art or anything else you can think of

Information can be found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/

p010jc6p. Winners will be announced in the next newsletter. En-

tries must be submitted by 22nd March

Shah (GBA). The overall winner of the

competition was Amber Ismail (SBC)

GAC Book Review Al Capone Does My Shirts

by Gennifer Choldenko

Moose Flanagan and his family move to Alcatraz so his sister Natalie can get into Esther P Marinoff school, but it’s not that simple. Along the way he meets lots of people including little Jimmy, Theresa, Annie and Piper, who starts a laundry service in Alcatraz prison. I really liked this book. I think you should read it too. 8/10 (B Newns)

Picture by R Patel

I liked the part when she had a party and all of her friends came and had lots of

presents. The middle part was a bit boring as not much happened. I will give this

book 8/10 because the book has many emotions which made me feel sad, happy

and excited. (S Belcheva)

I thought this was a good book, but it got off to a very slow start. After that it was consistently fast paced and out of nowhere…BANG! 7/10 (A Syed)

S T U D E N T

V O I C E

School Talent Show Icknield’s Got Talent, Christmas Talent Show took place before the Christmas Holidays and for the Year 11 students it would be their last one. Acts were performed by: Hasan Nisar GBE, Sabeela Khan YAS, Janel Grant YAA, Azaan Ali YAS, Asher Hussain RAA, Emma Sear RBA, Chrystal Mayling RBC, Megan Perry RBA, Iqra Malik RAS, Hannah Bada RBE, Rachel Rose RBR, Megan Crocker RBE, Ella Bush RBE, Paris Noel RBR, Sheree Watson RBS, Jade Finlayter RAC, Shereen Mohammed RBA, Rebekah Clarke BBS, Sonal Keshwala RAR, Ocean Simms RAR, Jacklyn Botwe RAA, Tayvon Charles RAE, Adam Kiani RBR, Abraham Eze RAC, Raymond Tatani RAS, Brenden Chekumanyara RAR, Nathan Blucher RAC, Ami Ahmed BBC and Keira Greenslade BAR . Ella Bush said “I loved being in the Talent show. Its sad that its our last one and it was a great end to 2012. Miss Ahearn who organised the talent show said “ I was really proud of all of the students who took part in the talent show. They exemplified team work, commitment and creativity. All students showed dedication to produce a fantastic show. As always, Mr Woodfield was a comedy genius who showed true star quality and made sure everything ran smoothly. I would also like to thank all the Year 11 students who made their last show such as success!” Written by Shereen Mohammed RBA

Student Voice Eco-Team News

“Calling all Tutor Groups!”

Vote in a new Green Team Representative. We are looking for a student interested in environmental issues and making our school more eco friendly. During a tutor time after the Half Term, each tutor group will select a student to create an action group to help put in place the Icknield High School Eco Action Plan.

Student Voice Chair, Harkirit Rayatt authorised the spending of over £100 to buy games such as Chess for use in Room CS1 at lunchtime. The current Student Voice account (made up largely from non-uniform day money) currently stands at about £5,000 and the heads of SV Committee’s will be meeting with Harkirit, Adam (Vice-Chair) and Mr Blackhurst to consider ways of spending the money—ideas to SV members please!

Mr S J Blackhurst

Ofsted—past Since the Ofsted Inspection regime was introduced, the school has been inspected five times: March 1994, March 1998, November 2003, January 2008 and earlier this term, January 2013. Back in 1994, Icknield was the top performing school in Luton with 50.6% of students gaining 5 or more GCSEs (any GCSEs). Today’s figures stand at 84% with 68% gaining five in the more difficult ‘including Maths and English count’. ‘Icknield High School is a good school of which staff and pupils are justifiably proud’ GCSE results were climbing, the teaching environment was described as ‘secure and well—disciplined’. The school’s management was described as ‘relaxed and effective’, the school had a ‘caring ethos’ but the provision for a daily act of collective worship currently fails to met statutory requirements and is in need of review’. Key issues for action were: marking and assessment, improving the use of ICT across the school, improve development planning and sort out the collective worship. The inspectors in 1994 found 76% of lessons observed were ‘satisfactory’ or better with 30% ‘Good’ or ‘very good’. 1998’s headline was ‘Pupils are happy and secure in the school which has many significant strengths’. Many of 1994’s findings were repeated; Behaviour was ‘very good’, welfare and guidance of pupils was ’Good’, Staff and pupils relationships were praised as a ‘strength of the school’ with teachers being ‘good role models’. Marking again appeared as an issue to be addressed as did Collective Worship again! Teaching and learning styles needed developing as did work on following through development planning (ie school improvement in today’s terms). The quality of teaching rose to 97% ‘Satisfactory’ or better. The school’s income at just over £3.5 million pounds was less than half what it is today. 2003’s Inspection saw the headline ‘Now rapidly improving this is an effective school on the brink of being a very effective one and with the capacity to become excellent’. Key strengths included the Arts specialism, student attendance, attitudes, behaviour and relationships. The repeat offenders of marking and assessment arose again as did ‘the spiritual aspect of the curriculum is not strong enough’ - The school was again told to ‘provide a daily act of collective worship’ and ‘ensure that assessment (and marking) is used consistently by teachers to help students achieve more’ . Achievement however was described as ‘very good’ for students but with girls doing better than boys. Exam results now stood at 55.7% 5 or more A* to C grades. Lesson observed (127) were classed as follows: Excellent—8 Very good—39, Good—57, satisfactory—20, Unsatisfactory—2, poor—1, very poor—0.

Five Inspections since 1994 Thanks to all our students Theme of the Week posters Student Voice Funds

Finally in 2008 ‘this is a good school with some outstanding features‘. The strong features were those mentioned in previous reports, student progress and achievement, behaviour, the school ethos and it inclusivity. This is the inspection where I ask parents what gets the most mentions, homework or what the students are eating? (Answer below*) Areas to improve? Same ones! In particular, ‘better use of assessment and marking…’ Ofsted—present And so to 2013. Our fifth Ofsted has confirmed under by far the toughest regime yet, that this is a very good school. Some issues for improvement like the marking and assessment have appeared in every report and in truth have appeared in the reports of just about every school inspection report across the country. On the other hand the inherent strengths of this school have been highlighted again, they are the things which make this such a special school and why you send your children here. I was particularly pleased with the way the students helped the staff through the extremely stressful two days of the inspection and to that end, I wrote to them all an open message which I reprint below: Could I thank every student in the school for the part they have played individually and as a student body together in gaining for the school a ‘Good’ grade in the Ofsted inspection. This was an amazing achievement and we came so close to the ‘Outstanding’ grade. The inspectors were full of praise for you as students. Your behaviour and work have guaranteed the school’s future for the next generation of Icknield students. The teachers have worked incredibly hard over the two day inspection and I would like to thank you on their behalf for helping them through this very stressful period. This is your school, and you have shown how proud you are of it. You have shown that you value having a school that is rated ‘Good’ by Ofsted – they told us we have many outstanding features. There are one or two areas for us to improve which we will talk to you about over the next few weeks. The inspection was rigorous, thorough, tough and detailed; many schools will fail to match us, few will get a better grade. Success does not happen by accident, it happens because you deserve it and you make it happen. The whole school; staff, students, parents, governors and friends all chipped in and demonstrated what can happen when everyone pulls together in the same direction with a common purpose. I am immensely proud of this school, not the bricks and the mortar but the students of which it consists. You have done what generations of previous students have done – shown that the school is in good hands and that you care. Thank you to every one of you for your part in ensuring the successful future of this very special school – your school; now let’s crack on and ensure we really do fulfil our ambitions and ‘Raise the Achievement’ of all. Overall we have had a tremendous report and come so close to a stunning “Outstanding” - its rather like missing out on promotion to the Premiership in football by one point! What parents really need to know though is that for the fifth time, the Ofsted inspectors have confirmed that this is a very good school, something we should all treasure and work hard to protect on behalf of the generations of students who will follow.

‘Theme of the Week’ posters Every so often we produce posters as a way of communicating to students the general and specific ‘do’s and don’ts’ of life at Icknield. They act rather like road signs which tell us what the speed limit is; so it is with these posters, that we help to build the ethos of the school. For your information as parents, we publish two recent ones as examples—they offer two little pointers to success in school.

Student Voice Funds As you will have seen on the Student Voice page, we have a considerable amount of money in the Student Voice account which we would like then to discuss spending. If any students have any ideas or proposals they would like to put forward, they are very welcome to speak to Harkirit, Adam, Miss Ahearn or any other member of SV who will then bring these ideas to our next meeting. Sometimes the best ideas are simple and not always costly but they can make a difference. Please think about it and let SV know what you would like. Many thanks to all parents for their continuing support and to students for their hard work. A pleasant and relaxing break to you all. Mr S J Blackhurst Deputy Headteacher *Three references to what the students were eating and nothing about homework! Year 11 Alternative Curriculum Week (11-15th March 2013) - Arts subjects examinations (10 hours), additional target classes, and study leave. Full details will be published after half-term.