issue 13 2015-16

ISSUE 13 – Term 5 2015/16

A great term for sports! By Miss Aiworo

Compass School students have been lucky enough to attend not one but two major sporting

events over the course of this term! First was a visit to the European Aquatics Championships

and then in the same week we secured tickets to the Women’s FA Cup Final. Read all about it

in the sports section at the back of Our Journey.

Story continued on page 12…

ISSUE 13 – Term 5 2015/16

Principal’s message By Ms Thorpe

As a new school, we celebrate

frequent "firsts". Our first sports

day, our first Christmas show, our

first exam week, and our first

student council president

election - to name but a few. This newsletter also

shows a number of "firsts" for this half term -

activities and events that we have participated

in for the first time. As Principal of Compass

School Southwark, I am proud each time we do

something for the first time, and see our school

grow into the vision that was first outlined over

four years ago by the Trustees of the school.

This year we have had perhaps the most

important "firsts" for our students. Year 9 have

had to make some big decisions around the

GCSE's that they would like to take, and we have

had our first end of Key Stage 3 exams. This is a

key time for our oldest students in the school, as

they start to set the direction of their futures. In

a few weeks, these students will find out which

subjects they will be studying for the next two

academic years and perhaps beyond! We will be

celebrating this transition to GCSEs and the

success of Year 9 with our first celebration

evening next half term. Watch this space for

more details!

And of course our next big “first” is in September

when we start teaching GCSEs for the first time.

Our teaching staff cannot wait to start these

new courses, and are chomping at the bit

following our curriculum teacher INSET day a

few weeks ago. We have also appointed ten new

teachers to join us in September, as we continue

to grow our teaching teams. This includes an

additional teacher in each of the maths, English

and science departments, expansion in the PE

department, art and humanities, and two new

Senior Leaders who will be working closely with

each department to further improve the quality

of teaching and learning across the school.

The “firsts” will not stop there, with our first

GCSE results, a new school building, and the

opening of our sixth form all on the horizon over

the next two years. I hope that you are as

excited as I am about the future of Compass

School Southwark, and I look forward to sharing

each of these first times with you and our

community.

Letter from the editor By Archie Gilbert, Year 9

Hello and wecome to Our

Journey, the official

newsletter of Compass

School Southwark. Since last

term Compass has been

involved in several events

such as the trip to the Women’s FA Cup Final, the

Southwark Careers Fair, the Junior Maths

Challenge and we even had some visitors from

France. You can find details of all of these and

more here. Thanks for reading!

Feed your mind By Mr Davis

Eating well is good for your

mental wellbeing as well as

your physical health. The

brain requires nutrients in the same way that

your heart, lungs and muscles do. Eating well is

especially important for students to help

prepare for examinations. During the KS3 exam

week in May, our team from the Catering

Academy produced a range of different ‘brain

foods’ for students to sample. A series of Feed

Your Mind recipes is now available on the

school’s website.

ISSUE 13 – Term 5 2015/16

Imperial War Museum By Mr Zimarakis

What is the most important event in

human history?

Or perhaps the most shocking?

Although many people and historians could

argue over these questions for a long time,

many would undeniably choose the Holocaust.

Despite admittedly being one of the worst

moments in human history, it is extremely

important to study, because through it we can

learn about the mistakes, misconceptions and

stereotypes of the past and how we can

eradicate them from the present and future.

The Year 9 cohort

went on their first

History trip this

term to the

Imperial War

Museum, where

they were able to attend workshops exploring

personal stories of victims of the Holocaust.

Through the workshop experience they were

able to work as historians to unravel the past

and make connections between the events and

the daily lives of the people. We then explored

the Holocaust exhibition which provides a great

narrative as well as in depth analysis of the

events that took place in Europe during WWII.

I would strongly urge anyone with the slightest

interest in history to visit the holocaust

exhibition at the imperial War Museum. History

is about humans and can therefore be

immensely complicated as well as controversial;

the exhibition does a great job of tackling these

hard issues, such as, who is to blame for the

Holocaust? Or perhaps, other stereotypes such

as, why didn’t people fight back during the

Holocaust? Most importantly the exhibition

urges you to reflect on how the Holocaust

began, from some anti-immigration posters to

the worst episode of industrial death this world

has witnessed. The lessons history provides are

invaluable, it is up to us to learn them.

ISSUE 13 – Term 5 2015/16

Maths Machines By Mr Hall

On the 13th of April, Compass

Mathematics Department

launched a new numeracy

initiative with a group of Year 8

boys. As they win points for

their teams using Maths Facts in

a Flash and My Maths, the students practise

core mental maths skills and build their maths

knowledge. Each week the team with the most

points receive a prize!

Team Hall:

Matthew Brzezinski, Michael Ede, Sid Gilbert,

Alexis Jesus, Alfie Lawrence, Jack Wakley

Team Egbuchiem:

Liam Bryant, Jamael De-Riggs, Ozcan Iremzade,

Alim Sesay, Aaron Shodipe, Cavalli Smith

The overall winners will receive a special prize at

the end of the year.

Junior Maths Challenge By Mr Hall

On the 28th of April, Year 7

and 8 students

participated in the UK

Junior Maths Challenge.

This is a prestigious

National Maths Challenge

which is taken by thousands of Year 7 and 8

students throughout the country.

This year, Compass School has been particularly

successful, with many of our students gaining

silver and bronze awards.

Congratulations to:

Silver Award

Brandon Mines, Osama Boumnina El-Harrak,

Athina Cruzado Cano and Laila Dehiles.

Bronze Award

Razaq Fernandez-Rahman, Colin Amor, Lewis

Newport, George Keogh, Mokhtar Moussa,

Kevin Soares Santos, Momodou Jallow, Sinead

Neil-Walters, Leonardo Massaccesi and Bobbie

Hitchcock.

Congratulations to all our award winners and to

all the students who had the resilience and

aspiration to rise to the challenge and

demonstrate the Compass values.

UCL Summer School By Rita Ferreira, Year 8

What have you got

planned for your

break? Two of our

students will be

spending their

holiday a bit differently. Nhu Huynh and Rita

Ferreira were chosen to participate in the UCL

Summer School Programme towards the end of

May. The five day course will include many

activities such as visiting the Petrie Museum of

Egyptian Archaeology, making your own

animated film, exploring human nature at the

Grant Museum of Zoology and to top it all off, a

visit from a Medieval Surgeon. They will be

discovering the history of our bodies, medicine

and how they used to treat people in the past.

This fun packed week will take place at the

Wilkins Building.

ISSUE 13 – Term 5 2015/16

During the week, Nhu and Rita will be taking part

in many different groups, meeting new people

from other schools and making new friends.

This experience will also help our students to

find out more about university and to see what

really happens there. The whole STEM Journal

Club would like to wish Rita and Nhu all the best.

Science Day By Mr Wilson

Year 7 students from

Compass School

participated in the

Institute of

Engineering and

Technology (IET) Faraday Challenge. The

students had to work together to come up with

two ideas that would have a positive impact in

STEM. They then had a variety of resources from

buzzers, LED lights, motion sensors, as well as

the BBC Microbit to develop their ideas. Each

group had to present their ideas to all the other

schools as well as some important STEM

ambassadors. Their presentations were judged

based on creativity, teamwork, coding, and

relevance to real life problems. The competition

was very fierce as all the participating schools

were competing for a chance to progress to the

National Final at Bletchley Park (the central site

for Britain’s codebreakers during World War II).

After a long exhausting day of coding, the

students all waited in anticipation to find out

who the winners would be…

After much deliberation the judges announced

Compass School as the winner of the Regional

Competition. The students that were part of the

Winning team are: Paris Cunningham, Katie

O’Neil, Jamie Smith, Aasia Skerrett, and Brooklyn

Barton. These students have been invited to a

celebration event in July at the Savoy.

“We pitched two ideas (a burglar alarm and an

accident alarm), we were really happy when we

won and I’d like to do it again sometime soon. I

really liked the competition as the experience

was really cool. I got to work in a group and had

a chance to show off my coding skills”.

Brooklyn Barton, Year 7

“The competition was awesome, I’ve never won

anything before, I’m proud to have represented

my school and be a winner.”

Katie O’Neil, Year 7

“The competition was quite challenging, we had

to work as a team to make a product with the

BBC Microbit to solve a real life problem, I really

enjoyed the competition.”

Jamie Smith, Year 7

It was great to see the

students working

together and using a

range of skills in the

competition, I was

really proud of the

students for their hard

work and display of

Compass Values.

ISSUE 13 – Term 5 2015/16

Year 7 trip to London

Docklands By Mr Collins

On Wednesday the

4th and Monday the

9th of May, Year 7

visited the

London Docklands.

We have been studying urban regeneration and

this visit was a chance to see the work of the

London Docklands Development

Corporation ourselves. We left with our packed

lunches and took the Jubilee Line to Canary

Wharf. We came out into Canada Place where

the main office buildings are located and had

lunch in the park with workers from the nearby

offices. Both days were beautiful and sunny and

we were able to see how they had made this

area such an impressive place.

As part of the trip we visited several locations

around the London Docklands. We saw how the

history had been maintained by using old dock

warehouses, and old cranes had been

preserved to act a symbols of the past. We took

notes about how they had developed the area

and travelled on the Docklands Light Railway,

one of the new transport networks added to the

area. We visited some of the residential areas

just outside Canary Wharf to see for ourselves

how local people have been impacted by the

development.

They were great afternoons (although the

students would say they had to walk too far!).

Everyone was able to get a much clearer idea of

the change that has happened in the Docklands.

Workers stopped to ask our students why they

had come to visit this area and commented on

their fantastic behaviour and ideas. Well done

Year 7 and well done on the amazing

exploration projects that have followed.

ISSUE 13 – Term 5 2015/16

French Pen Pals By Miss Seguier

As part of our

enrichment

curriculum, the

Modern Foreign

Languages

Department has been leading on the

organisation of a student exchange with a

school in France. Our students have been

sending letters to a group of French students

from a school called Collège De Lasalle situated

in the South of France. On the 10th of May, a

group of fifty students from this school came to

visit Compass School for the afternoon. They

spent some time during lunch talking to our

students about how French and English schools

compare. They then had an English lesson

taught by myself and Ms Robb on the topic of

London; which they really enjoyed. Finally, eight

of the students who have been taking part in the

French pen pal enrichment, took the group for a

tour of our school.

Our students were incredibly excited to meet

the students and to be able to communicate

with them in French. They were a bit shy at first,

but they managed to exchange quite a few

words with the French students. They were also

extremely proud to show off our school. The

French students were very impressed with

Compass and really enjoyed visiting us. Once

they returned to France, they sent this thank you

note to our students:

‘Thank you for welcoming us in your school. Your

school is fabulous. We were very impressed with

the equipment in computer, science and in the

music room. The visit was very interesting and we

liked meeting and talking to real English pupils.

Thank you for the English class and thank you for

baking us cookies we loved them.’

La classe de quatrième

This is the first mile stone to what I am hoping

will be a great exchange between Compass

students and the Collège De Lasalle.

London Sinfonietta By Miss Rhomes

On Wednesday the

11th of May, nine

Trailblazers attended

a concert/workshop run by the London

Sinfonietta. The concert explored minimalism

(an experimental style of music) using the

London underground as their inspiration. The

students really enjoyed experiencing the pieces

live and were even able to participate in some of

the performances, using body percussion as an

instrument and voices to represent the tubes.

“The presentation of the event was good and we

had a chance to interact with the orchestra!”

Michael Dove, Year 8

“The presentation was brilliant and interacting

with the orchestras was interesting because we

got up and moved around using our hands and

feet to create music. It showed me music can be

made by going on a journey.”

Tia-Louise Hobbs, Year 7

“What I liked about the concert was the

interaction, I enjoyed getting out of my seat to

sing and use my hands and feet as percussion.

It was interesting, the whole experience taught

me that music can be created by everyday

things and life.”

Abigail Bragginton, Year 8

ISSUE 13 – Term 5 2015/16

Premier League Reading

Stars By Miss Walkey-Williams

On Wednesday the 4th of May, the Compass

Premier League Reading Stars enjoyed a trip to

Stamford Bridge – the home of Chelsea Football

Club.

The students, who have been taking part in the

football-inspired scheme in order to boost their

reading skills, were invited along to the stadium

to take part in some writing workshops with

famous authors. They were even treated to a full

stadium tour!

Students began the day by working with famous

author Justin Stomper. Justin introduced the

students to his books and spoke to them about

character development. Students were then

encouraged to create their own extraordinary

characters – our students really showed their

imaginations during that activity!

Next, students took

part in another

workshop with our

very own Patron of

Reading, Dan

Freedman. Dan was really excited to meet with

the students again and was very impressed by

the questions that they asked him about his

exciting career! We even got to see a sneak peek

of his new television series which is based on his

Jamie Johnson series of books.

Finally, students were given the full Premier

League treatment with a tour of the impressive

stadium. The guide took us to the press seats,

the press room (where our students got to sit

behind the signings desk), the home and away

dressing rooms and, best of all, to the benches

where the players and managers sit during the

matches.

Our students had a great time boosting their

literacy skills – even if most of them didn’t

support Chelsea!

Student Council Bake

Sale By Miss Walkey-Williams

The Learning

Families made

some excellent

cakes for the

Bake Sale this

week.

Watch this space

to find out which House was the winner…

ISSUE 13 – Term 5 2015/16

Southwark Careers Fair By Miss Cockram

On Friday the 22nd

of April, Year 9

students visited the

Southwark Careers

Fair hosted by

Goldsmiths University. There was a huge variety

of employers at the fair, from chefs to TV

producers to engineers. Students heard from

professionals about how to enter the various

careers and the sheer variety of jobs available

within each company.

Highlights of the day included:

Redesigning Elephant and Castle with

residential property, transport links, leisure

facilities and retail spaces. You can see that our

students didn’t forget our focus on community –

they added a large park at the heart of the

project so that families and friends can spent

quality time together.

Tasting a variety of foods and spices to see how

good our students’ taste buds were.

Trying on the protective body armour that

soldiers on the front line wear every day. Even

without all of the equipment that they would

also carry, it was surprisingly heavy!

The visit was a great success with students

discovering jobs that they had never heard of

before. Don’t forget all of the great advice you

were given by employers when you are applying

for your work experience placements Year 9!

ISSUE 13 – Term 5 2015/16

Year 7 visit UCL By Brooklyn Barton, Year 7

On Wednesday the 11th of

May, fifteen Year 7

Compass Trailblazers

went to University College

London (UCL) to learn

about university life. On

the way, we met new people and learned new

things. For example, did you know that the

hippocampus, a part of our brains, controls our

memories? We learnt this during a university

style lecture about memory.

Every one of us shared an amazing experience

and hope to again! Jamie Smith said “It was a

great experience seeing a university flow so

well”. Christopher Denning talked about some

of the amazing activities we participated in “We

visited a neurologist who taught us many facts

and statistics and we also did an informative

quiz about university”.

Overall, our trip to UCL impacted us in a great

way and it also inspired us to follow our

ambitions.

Miss Stone would like to add:

The Year 7 University Challenge event was a

success. As Trailblazer Co-ordinator, I had the

opportunity to accompany Brooklyn, Jamie and

Christopher, along with the other twelve

Compass students. Students took part in an

interactive, academic taster session, a campus

tour (in which we just escaped the rain), and an

introductory lesson on university life. Louise

Sung, the UCL Widening Participation officer

who organised the event, even remarked on

how knowledgeable our students were.

Between that comment and her affection for

one of our team names, the calibre and

composure of our Compass Trailblazers is

evidenced.

From excitement over the access to museums

that UCL has to offer to intrigue about the

tradition of displaying Jeremy Bentham (ask a

classmate about him!), students were enriched

by our visit and, hopefully, we also enriched the

event.

ISSUE 13 – Term 5 2015/16

Enrichment By Miss Hill

The enrichment programme has continued this

term, with the addition of a number of new

enrichments including Premier League Reading

Stars (which included the students visiting the

Chelsea football ground), Handwriting Heroes,

the STEM Journalism Club and two new sports

enrichments Indoor Workout and Indoor Sports.

This term also saw the introduction of a new

enrichment named Japanese: Language, Culture

and Cuisine. The students have excitedly

embraced the opportunity to learn basic

language skills, the alphabet, calligraphy, and

origami. Students also decorated some

traditional Japanese fans and tried some

Japanese snacks. During next term they will be

looking at making Japanese food, learning about

manga and about the culture.

Continuing from last term are the French Pen

Pals who were lucky enough to receive a visit

from those students they have been writing to

when they visited our school this half term.

The Football Fanatics are back this term.

Already they have looked into the Hillsborough

disaster and court case and began a

‘Hillsborough Memorial Wall’. They have also

written their own football commentary for

classic clips from matches. After half term they

will be looking forward to being able to do some

work on the Euro 2016 competition as it

happens each week.

Also continuing this term are favourites Judo,

Bermondsey Project, Girls Multisport, Tennis,

MyMaths, Badminton, Table Tennis, Compass

Craft, Compass Choir and Compass Pop Band

amongst many others. The London Bubble

Theatre Company are continuing to work with

students with a view to an end of term drama

performance, and the Step into Dance students

are building their confidence week after week

ready to perform what they have learned at the

end of term.

This is shaping up to be another great term for

the enrichment programme at Compass School.

ISSUE 13 – Term 5 2015/16

European Aquatics

Championships By Miss Aiworo

On Tuesday the 10th of May, Compass School

students where privileged to attend the

European Aquatics Championships at the

prestigious Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

The championships for Europe are organised by

LEN, the governing body for aquatics in Europe.

The Championships are currently held every two

years and they include four aquatics disciplines:

swimming (long course/50m pool), diving,

synchronized swimming and open water

swimming. London was hosting the event for

the first time since 1993.

As our students arrived at the Queen Elizabeth

Olympic Park, they were assigned a guide to talk

them through expectations and how to respond

to the divers and synchronized swimmers

during the competition. Students were able to

watch the duet synchronized swimming.

Student saw difficult but beautiful routines

performed by competitors from across Europe.

Compass student had a great day out and felt

privileged to have been spectators at an epoch

making event.

Emily-Jo Lupton, Year 8 commented “this was

one the best event trips ever”. Ronnie Leigh

Cowie, Year 8 was very excited to meet her

sporting hero Tom Daley, UK Olympic diving

champion and TV personality.

Students were thankful to Miss Cockram, Ms

Aiworo and Ms Till for the opportunity to be part

of this historical event in London.

ISSUE 13 – Term 5 2015/16

Women’s FA Cup Final By Miss Hill

On Saturday the 14th of May, Compass staff and

students were lucky enough to attend the

Women’s FA Cup Final at Wembley Stadium. The

students arrived at school excited about the day

ahead and looking forward to cheering either

Arsenal or Chelsea to victory. Upon arrival at

Wembley, students excitedly went to the

merchandise stores to buy programmes,

badges and foam fingers in support of their

teams. Before kick off the crowd was treated to

a performance of ‘God Save the Queen’ by Les

Miserables star Samantha Barks.

Arsenal started strong and scored a goal in the

18th minute. Although playing well, the Chelsea

ladies were finding it hard to overcome the

Arsenal attack and half time saw Arsenal still

leading 1 - 0.

A dash for hot and cold drinks ensued and then

we were all back in our seats ready for the

second half. Although Chelsea came out

fighting, they were unable to get that crucial

equalizing goal. Despite a tense period of added

time where Chelsea looked to have a real

chance of scoring, the final whistle saw Arsenal

ladies take the FA Cup for an amazing 14th time.

After we saw the Arsenal team receive the

trophy, the Arsenal ladies did a lap of honour

and our students met the players, took photos,

shook hands and got their tickets signed. A

really good day was had by all.

“The Wembley trip was awesome. We were

buying merchandise and food. I would say it is

one of the best experiences of my life and we

went there for free! Obviously the best part was

when Danielle Carter scored an epic goal near

the corner line. It was great because she curved

it in! Also, importantly, I got to share this

experience with my friends.”

Ben Kiely, Year 7

ISSUE 13 – Term 5 2015/16

Football competition By Miss Till

On Saturday the 21st of May, Compass School

sent three teams to play in the City Year

Championship, an inter-school 5-a-side football

tournament held in Haggerston Park and

hosted by City Year UK. Twelve schools from

across London, both primary and secondary,

competed for the title and had a great day in the

process.

Kicking off our matches were the Year 9 boys,

who played really well and made it to the play-

offs for third place. Practising between games,

watching their opponents to understand their

tactics and discussing plans for subsequent

games, they played as a team throughout. They

just lost the final match on penalties; a very

close call.

The Year 7/8 boys team were up next and,

although blighted by a couple of injuries which

saw one player have to sit out for a match, they

kept up the effort and enthusiasm.

Possibly our biggest underdogs were the girls’

team, who had players that had only joined the

team at the very last minute. They were playing

against some Year 10 students, some of whom

appeared semi-professional! Despite this, they

worked together and the improvements they

made in teamwork and communication

between the first and the last match were

impressive. They can be very proud of

themselves.

Well done to everyone who played and thank

you to family and friends who came along to

support our students.

Playing for the Year 9 boys: Niyi Adeyemi,

Stephen Amedu, John Neka, Jack Ennis, Alfie

Hunt and Kieran Wallace.

Playing for the Year 7/8 boys: Alim Sesay, Jonas

Kanza, Reko Laing Simpson, Marko Petrovic-

Roice, Jack Farrell and Wael Khafagi.

Playing for the mixed girls: Mollie Neale, Mia

Lewis, Joella Msuami Kanza, Victoria Lopes

Teixeira and Lauryn Spencer-Coker.

ISSUE 13 – Term 5 2015/16

Finally…

Do you want to be a parent governor (or

know someone who does)?

It is time for us to renew our parent

membership of the Governing Body. As a

school firmly rooted in our community, we are

committed to providing a voice to our

parents, and representation on the Governing

Body is a great way to do this. Being a parent

governor is an important role. As a parent

governor you will become involved in the

functioning of the school from

a strategic perspective, helping to set the

direction of travel, and ensuring that the

Governing Body provides the necessary

oversight and constructive challenge to

continually drive improvement across the

school. It is however very important that I make

clear the scale of this commitment. School

governance is changing, and is no longer a role

that involves just a few meetings a year. It is a

significant unpaid commitment, which would

require you to commit many hours to the

school.

If you are interested in finding out more, or are

interested in standing for election, please

email [email protected] with

your name, your child’s name, a short

biography, and 200 words on what you would

bring to the governing body, by Wednesday 15

June 2016. Following this, parents will be invited

to vote for their preferred candidate.

Could you get school meals for free?

Fewer than half of our parents have applied to

find out whether or not they are entitled to free

school meals. It is a quick and easy process that

can be done via the admin team of the school. If

you are found to be entitled for free school

meals, you would no longer be charged £2.20

per day for your child’s lunch at the school. It’s

worth a try if you are unsure!

Dates for your diary

Mon 6 Jun – Students return

Mon 20 Jun – Year 7 Exams Week

Mon 27 Jun – Year 8 Exams Week

Wed 13 Jul – Compass Talent Show

Mon 18 Jul – Thorpe Park attendance trip

mailto:[email protected]

ISSUE 13 – Term 5 2015/16

Compass School Southwark proudly invites you to

our very first Talent Show!

Wednesday 13th of July

6pm - 7pm (doors open 5.40pm)

Refreshments available

Tickets available late June

The audition process began for the Talent Show this week and the

standard of talent is very high. It promises to be a fantastic evening,

we hope to see you there!

issue 13 2015-16

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