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his has been another very busy year for the college. We have so much to celebrate, not least the

continued high levels of academic performance across the college. It was extremely satisfying to

maintain the massive improvements we made in the college standards the year before.

In August of this year the college, along with six other Harrow Secondary schools, was granted Academy

status by the Secretary of State. This allows us curriculum freedom and has given us an increase in college

finance. This funding enables us to buy extra support for students and strengthen our ICT provision.

The college always feels really good at this time of the year. I am looking forward to the Winter concert and

the end of term pantomimes. Many students are taking part and I am sure the Christmas events will be

extremely enjoyable.

There is a great deal to look forward to in the New Year. I am sure our GCSE/BTEC, AS/A2 results will be

even better. The aim is to improve another 3%, 5A*-C including English and Maths, which would mean an

increase of 17% overall - a remarkable achievement.

May I remind you that if we get heavy snowfall in the New Year, then please use the website for relevant

information. The website will be updated regularly and you will find all the information you need.

Finally, may I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I am really looking forward to

spending some time with my grandson who is six months old! Thank you

all for your continued support.

Head Teachers Comment

T

Blast Beat Champions!

John Reavley

Page 3

n the 05th of December 24 year 10 and 11 German students went to

the Winter Wonderland German Christmas Market in Hyde Park. It

was an amazing opportunity to see the German culture and traditions.

Students were working in small groups while completing activities and they

had to speak German. Some had a chance to go on rides, many bought some

delicious German food or souveniers. Everybody had a great time and it was an

experience which you can not forget. Frohe Weihnachten und ein gutes Neues

Jahr 2012!

Frau Pucicka

O

orget the Strictly Come Dancing celebrities, the real stars this month at the BBC’s Shepherds Bush studios

were the talented Rooks Heath students Rudy Robinson, Ravi Vyas and Leon Savory, who were all taking

part in the heats of the BBC project ‘Off By Heart’. On Tuesday 15 November I took three Year nine students to the BBC Studios to do a workshop with professional

actors. They also auditioned for a Shakespeare soliloquy in front of an expert panel of judges. The students were

selected for their commitment and effort in their

drama lessons. Rudy, Ravi and Leon all worked

hard every week after school since the beginning of

term rehearsing and polishing their soliloquies. The students performed extracts from Shake-

speare’s ‘Macbeth’ and ‘Romeo & Juliet’. The

judges were very impressed and the students re-

ceived excellent feedback. Unfortunately, they just

failed to make it through to the next round. The

winners will take part in a programme called ‘Off

By Heart’ that will be televised on the BBC in April

2012. Despite not getting through, the students en-

joyed the experience and thought that it was an ex-

citing opportunity. Ms G. Capoluongo

Head of Drama

Rooks Heath At The BBC

F

Wicked Trip n Wednesday 25th November 75 students

and & staff braved the busy London streets

on their way to the Apollo Theatre to see

the musical Wicked. Everyone had a great time and

enjoyed themselves a lot. All of the students were

interested in music and were amazed by it. All the

students would like to say a big thank you to all the

people involved in organising the trip especially Ms

Christensen. They would also like to thank all the

music prefects for their helpfulness

“Wicked!” – Sophia 7B

“Totally awesome!” - Jake, Music Prefect

Jack 7B

O

Visit to The Winter Wonderland

The Welcome Project e, a group of Year 8 & 9 students, over the past 9 weeks created The Welcome Project with Miss

Fenton and Mr. Simmons, the American interns. The Welcome Project is a new way to help casual entrants

enter the school. So far this year, 66 casual entrants have started at Rooks Heath. Part of the project is a video

which is going to be put on to the Rooks Heath

website; the video provides a tour of the school and student

advice. The project also includes a map and students' fa-

vourite foods to eat in the canteen. Lastly, a leaflet contain-

ing tips about classes, resources and more, completes the

project. We think it would be beneficial for the project to get

translated into other languages for the casual entrants who

speak English as an additional language; Mrs. Sritharan has

already translated it into Tamil. We are hopeful that the pro-

ject will go far with support from all the staff at Rooks

Heath. By, Najma Abdi, Caine Barrow, Bhavnil Chavda,

Sejal Govind, Sung-Jae Lee, Narisa Patel,

and Liam Woolgar

W

ell done to all the year 9 Bridging Business and Media

students who took part in the Real Coca Cola

Challenge. The 3 winning Rooks Heath teams

who took their drinks to the Coca-Cola factory

hugely impressed the judges there. Particulary well done to

the winning team; Ravi Vyas, Caitlin Paton, Devonte

Richards, Sakupan Sakunthaleswaran, Vicky Furquim

and Sayyada Ahmed, You never know we may be seeing

their winning drink, Fizzy Fruits, on the shelves of

supermarkets soon! Ms Mordern

Coca Cola Challenge

W

n the 25th of October, Rooks Beat as well Demo (A.K.A Akash), made their way

down to indigO2 for the national finals of Blast Beat 2011! The first part of the

competition involved our company: Rooks Beat, setting up a stall, presenting all

the work to the judges. The stall showed the story of the company throughout the

programme as well as the infamous Rooks Beat cakes. After presenting our work, it was

time for Demo to show the judges how it’s done – Rooks Heath style! With loads of

supporters in the crowd including teachers, the dream team and students from all year

groups, we were all anticipating his performance. Of course he stole the show and rocked

the crowd. We anxiously waited for the results. First, Robert Stephenson – the founder of

Blast Beat presented the results of the business side of the competition. Rooks Beat were

officially crowned the number one ESE (Events Social Enterprise) in the whole country!

Karolina Boguszewska was then presented with an award for the leader of the best

business team. Our own Ms Girvan then won a ‘Spirit of Enterprise’ award. As the battle

of the bands results drew closer we were all as nervous as Demo. He beat Mammoth

Sound who had an enormous fan base, and came second, just after Find Me Next Fall.

Although he didn’t win, Robert Stephenson has shown interest in expanding Demo’s

career so watch out for him in the charts! We wanted to thank the following people: Ms Girvan, Mr Pitchforth, all the

teachers who helped us, everyone who was not part of Blast Beat but still helped us, especially last year’s year 13s, Martin

and Dan for supporting us throughout, as well as Rob for creating the scheme and most of all, the students of Rooks Heath

who have allowed us to raise money.

Karolina, Lauren and Nisha Y13

Rooks Beat Sweep Finals

O

Wednesday 4th January First day of term

Tuesday 10th January Year 8 & 9 Options evening

Monday 16th January Year 9 Options forms due in

Wednesday 18th January Year 11 Consultation Evening

Thursday 19th January Professional Day-College Closed

Wednesday 8th February Year 10 Consultation Evening

Friday 20th January Year 8 Options forms due in

Diary dates

You are invited to a very important evening, where changes in the curriculumfor 2011-12 will be explained and informa-

tion about subjects will be available from Departments. There will be a meeting in the Hall when the process of completing

the Application Form will be explained. After this you will be free to visit displays by Departments. You will have the op-

portunity to ask subject teachers about courses available next year.

It is essential that students, parents and carers attend.

Calling all Year 8 students, parents & carers

Options Evening

Date: TUESDAY 10Date: TUESDAY 10Date: TUESDAY 10Date: TUESDAY 10THTHTHTH JANUARY 2012 JANUARY 2012 JANUARY 2012 JANUARY 2012

Time: 6.30pm Time: 6.30pm Time: 6.30pm Time: 6.30pm

Venue: College HallVenue: College HallVenue: College HallVenue: College Hall

Calling all Year 9 students, parents & carers

Options Evening

Date: TUESDAY 10Date: TUESDAY 10Date: TUESDAY 10Date: TUESDAY 10THTHTHTH JANUARY 2012 JANUARY 2012 JANUARY 2012 JANUARY 2012

Time: 7.15pm Time: 7.15pm Time: 7.15pm Time: 7.15pm

Venue: College HallVenue: College HallVenue: College HallVenue: College Hall

ou cannot beat 11 Violet on

Sports Day and that’s official.

During the summer term the

Tutor Group completed a hat-trick of

wins in the annual inter-form finale. The

photograph shows members of the Tutor

Group celebrating with trophies going

back to their first victory in Year 8. Their

clean sweep of titles is almost unprece-

dented in recent times. Well done, 11

Violet! Undefeated!

Y

n a cold, wet and windy 11th of November the year 12s and year 13’s got

together to carry out an on-going tradition, the football match! A well

organised year 12 turned up with a full team with enough players to help out an

unorganised year 13 team, consisting of only 8 players. Year 12 were kind

enough to help out the year 13s and the game went ahead as planned. As the light

faded, the game began. Year 12 were first to draw blood when Mosheh slotted it

in. Birthday boy Mohid soon levelled things up with a stunning goal and the

game was back on. Soon after that things were to get worse for year 13. Goals

from Harry and on one unfortunate own goal which deflected off one of the year

13 defenders made it 3-1 to year 12. By this point it was getting pretty dark, a

brilliant shot by Charlie meant that year 12 now had what looked to be a convincing lead. A late penalty earned and taken

by Lamar pull a consolation goal back for the year 13a and restored at least some of their dignity. Final score, 4-2. Both

captains felt that it would be a good idea to arrange a rematch later in the year where the year 13s will be looking to seek

revenge. Year 12, beware!

Mohid 13Y and Max 13B

13 Vs 12 Football O