Newsletter

Volume 4 Issue

3 __________________________

March 14

Academy News

Principal’s Message; Most Improved School; MP Welcomed

Page 1

Sports Highlights

Superstar Twins; Net-ball Success; Fair Play Award; Rugby Shirts

Page 5

Academy News

Executive Principal’s Message; Competition; Academy Day

Page 2-3

Student News

Croydon Hub; Caught Reading; Chess; Science Competition

Page 4

Academy News Principal’s Message

I’ve spent a lot of time this term talking to students about what they like about the Quest and what we could do even

better. The three most important things they’ve said are: a) the transformation of behaviour so that they can learn all of the time, b) the improved teaching and learning with exciting and varied lessons and c) the enrichment activities we provide in period 7. Their ‘even better ifs’ are: a) to participate in even more competitive sport and b) to give them even more ways of showing leadership and teamwork skills. I’ve challenged the senior team to do exactly that!

I’m also pleased to tell you that attendance is now the best it has ever been and above the national average and that students in all years are working extremely hard to achieve challenging targets. Please do all that you can to encourage your sons and daughters to be here every day and work as hard as they can. We will continue to do all that we can to support them in achieving their very best.

I hope you have a good Easter break.

Best wishes

Mr A Crofts

New Build Focus

Wates Staff Profiles; Green Club; 6th Form News; Important Dates

Page 6

Quest is “Most Improved”

School in Croydon

Quest Students paid host to local MP Gavin Barwell who enjoyed a guided tour of the Academy in January. Mr Barwell met with members of the Student Leadership Team who introduced him to a number of lessons and provided him with the opportunity to view the progress of the new building.

Subsequently, Mr Barwell met Academy Council representatives from all year groups to answer questions and discuss issues relating to both the concerns and hopes of young people in Croydon. Finally, Mr Barwell spent a short while with the Principal Mr Crofts and Executive Principal Mrs Martin feeding back on the discussions with students. He particularly emphasised how positive the students felt about the fantastic progress being made by the Academy and how excited they all were by the prospect of moving in to the new building.

The Quest Academy • Farnborough Avenue • South Croydon • CR2 8HD 020 8657 8935 www.thequestacademy.org.uk

Quest Welcomes Gavin Barwell MP

The Croydon Advertiser recognized The Quest Academy as Croydon’s most improved school. An article published in January reported that league tables reflected an improvement in GCSE results across Croydon for the tenth year in a row, with the Quest Academy showing the most improved scores.

Principal, Andy Crofts, said, “Since opening in 2010, we have introduced a number of initiatives, which have doubtless contributed to the successes reflected in these league tables. Students now have excellent future prospects, thanks to their diligence, their families’ support and the tireless dedication of the staff.”

Quest Principal is Elected President of Croydon Headteachers’ Association

Andy Crofts, Principal of the Quest, has been elected by his peers as President of the Croydon Headteachers’ Association.

The role will require Mr Crofts to represent the views and interests of Headteachers from all of Croydon Borough’s primary, secondary and special schools as well as colleges and alternative and early years education providers.

Most recently, he was called upon by the Croydon Advertiser to provide his opinion on a £12.4 million boost in funding for Croydon schools.

ACADEMY NEWS (continued)

Spring is a lovely time of year; cheerful and full of colour and new beginnings. For many of our pupils this will truly be a year of new beginnings as they see the growth of the splendid new building take place on our site.

All of our students should be very proud of what has been achieved at The Quest Academy - Coloma Trust since September 2010 and the part that they have played in this. I am enormously grateful to so many teaching and support staff as well as Mr Crofts, the Senior Leadership Team, the Governors and the Trustees for the ceaseless and dedicated work that has taken place and continues to be undertaken to make the Academy such a wonderful place to be educated. The new building will be a huge asset to reflect the progress and high academic results that have been gained so far.

This year the dates for the Easter celebration, especially Good Friday and Easter Sunday, fall at the end of the school holidays and therefore the period of preparation before Easter might allow us to think about areas of our own life that need improvement. Are we making full use of our talents? Are we thinking enough about others? Is there anything we could do differently which would benefit our family, friends or school community?

I know that for those pupils in their public examination years this will be a very busy period as external examinations will start very shortly after Easter. I wish those pupils especially and all of you reading this a truly blessed Easter.

Mrs M Martin Executive Principal

From the Executive Principal

Eighty-eight Year 5 pupils from Selsdon Primary spent a day at the Quest conducting science experiments and trying their skills at a number of sports, including football, rugby and dance.

The nine and ten year old pupils were assisted in their activities by 107 Quest students from Year 7 who had the opportunity to pass on their knowledge and teach the younger students some chess!

The visiting students were put to the fields to try out rugby and football. For many, this was their first taste of a new sport, particularly rugby. The Selsdon pupils had a great experience, ably assisted by the Quest Year 7s who took great care to answer questions, show the younger ones around, be friendly and considerate and ensure that everyone had a fantastic day of learning.

The students designed and made ‘gyrocopters’ out of paper, that span as they fall. The spinning motion created air resistance which made them fall much slower and in a more controlled way. In a second experiment, Quest staff demonstrated how to separate the salt from rock salt in four stages through grinding, dissolving, filtering and heating.

The rains didn’t stop the learning as the Selsdon Year 5 and Quest Year 7 students teamed up for games of “chess doubles”. For many of the younger students, this was their first time at a chess board. Those students ‘in the know’ willingly and ably took on the role of trainers, taking care to explain the moves allowed for each piece and describing the best ways to out-manoeuvre the opposition! Some good teams were formed and some great chess was played.

Academy Day with Selsdon Pupils

Year 8 pupils have produced a river model and a script, to be used as a teaching tool for visually impaired pupils. The aim was to teach visually impaired pupils about a river system and the landforms within. Well done to all those who made beautiful models.

Julie Dimond

Rivers Competition

The Jack Petchey Speak Out Challenge ACADEMY NEWS (continued)

Academy Day, March 2014

Half of Year 7 visited The Tate Modern during Academy Day. The students were shown some challenging artworks which led to some interesting discussions on the nature of art."

Tom Treadwell

Half of Year 7s visited the Tower of London. The visit was very topical following on from the classwork on William the Conqueror. Of particular interest were the Crown jewels and several Year 7 girls are now determined to be Queen! The tower of torture captured our imagination as did the yeomen who were on hand to answer our questions. Some of the group bumped into Prince John, brother of ‘Richard the Lionheart’ and had a long conversation regarding the affairs of the kingdom! All the students had a great time and learnt a lot about the history of this important site. Stuart Gibson

Other groups from the Quest Academy visited the Museum of London (Year 8), Hampton Court (Year 8),

the Docklands Museum (Year 9), the National Maritime Museum (Year 9) and Ripleys (Year 9).

The Brilliant Club

Twelve Year 10 students have been chosen to participate in The Brilliant Club this term. These students will be mentored by a PhD student over the coming weeks and will eventually write a university-style dissertation with their guidance. The title of the essay will be "Is Rioting Ever Justified?" The students are excited about their topic and have already made a great impression on their mentor who was blown away by their enthusiasm and intelligence. The programme also involves a trip to a university campus which aims to familiarise students with university culture. The trip took place early in March and the pupils were all given a real insight into the lifestyle of a university pupil as well as some academic skill sets which will put them in good stead for the coming years!

Tom Treadwell

Rivers Competition Academy Day Gallery

On 13th February, 10 Quest students were amongst 30 pupils from three Croydon schools were spent a day “work shadowing” at Allianz. The students spent the morning with a chosen department (Market Management, Recruitment, Sales, Warranty Claims and F&I Operations) and the afternoon completing a project, based on what they had learned in the morning. The project was part of Croydon Hub, which is made up of Allianz Global Assistance, Teach First, Oasis Shirley Park, Addington High and the Quest Academy.

The Tower of London

Tower Bridge

Hampton Court

The Tower of London

Tate

Year 9 music BTEC students took a very educational trip to the Fairfield Halls where they were taken on an informative tour of the whole building by John Bartliff, Head of Operations.

They toured the famous Ashcroft

theatre, named after the actress Dame Peggy Ashcroft who starred in several performances at the theatre. They viewed the magnificent safety curtain, the lighting system in all its glory and the prompter and had a tour of the dressing rooms.

Jenny Francis

Fairfield Halls Visit

Work Shadowing at Allianz

The Jack Petchey Speak Out Challenge STUDENT NEWS

Chess Tournament

On Wednesday 29th January, a team of four Quest pupils travelled to Wilson’s School to take part in their first ever chess tournament. The team comprised Kairos Sinclair-Dowman, Sarmmed Ibrahim (both Year 7), Jonathan Mooney (Year 10) and Romeo Skerritt (Year 11), under the guidance of colleagues Mr Treadwell and Mr Mijovic.

The tournament was attended by over ten schools, with more than 60 pupils competing. Teams of four played another, with the strongest pairs matching up, the second strongest pairing up and so on.

The team showed no hesitation and went into their matches with positivity. The first match against Glyn School’s A team resulted in a sound thrashing due to the fact that their players were each a few years older

than their Quest counterparts! Sarmmed Ibrahim, however, put up a valiant resistance, holding back his opponent until long after the other three games were finished.

The next match saw us paired against a weaker side from the host school, Wilson’s. After an unfortunate incident involving the touch-move rule one game was quickly lost, though Captain Romeo Skerritt and Sarmmed Ibrahim fought back strongly with two victories. Kairos Sinclair-Dowman was on the cusp of a victory, but drew due to stalemate, leaving Quest with a narrow, but deserved, 2.5 - 1.5 victory.

The following match against Graveney was evenly contested, ending in a 2-2 draw. The final round against a Glyn School team and the valiant chess players of Quest were able to avenge their earlier drubbing with captain

Skerritt leading by example to achieve a well-earned 2.5-1.5 victory.

The players of The Quest’s chess team left with their heads held high, having come joint 11th out of 18 participating teams; a fantastic result for their first ever tournament. Romeo Skerritt and Kairos-Sinclair Dowman achieved 2.5/4 points, putting them in the top half of players in the whole tournament.

The chess craze has swept Quest with many pupils playing casually at lunch and break in room 11, as well as a chess squad training after school on Thursdays.

Maksim Mijovic

“Croydon Hub” Logo Winner

Congratulations are due to Year 10 student, Mohamed Mohamed, whose team came 3rd in the regional finals of a science and technology event at Cambridge University.

He is pictured above, with his team, being presented with the award by the Mayor of Cambridge.

Winning Science Team

Fourteen year old Mariyah Francis-Wolfenden (Year 10) has won a design competition to create a logo for the Croydon Hub group of schools. Her winning design beat entries from other students at Quest as well as Addington High and Oasis Shirley Park.

The judging panel of professional designers said, “Overall this is the logo that fulfilled the brief criteria the best. Good

colour theory used, nice iconography that has several meanings behind it, all encapsulating the Croydon Hub ethos. The slogan “Separate minds – United future” works well in describing what the Croydon Hub is all about”.

The Croydon Hub is an ambitious alliance of school, business and community leaders who are committed to working together for the outcomes of children and young people in Croydon. It was set up to support and develop outstanding practice in the member schools in order that outcomes for all students can be improved and their aspirations achieved.

Micro Tyco Project

In February, Year 9 students took part in “Micro Tyco”, a team challenge that ignites the spirit of enterprise. Teams of five were given £1 and challenged to grow it into as much money as possible in four weeks.

The rules were simple: students had to raise funds by any legal means possible. Morgan Wilkins-Oliver lead his group to success by selling food and drinks at break times and plastic roses on Valentine’s day. The group raised £61.20 from the £1 they were given on the 1st February; we are very proud of their success. All profits go to fund startups in developing nations.

Katie Houghton

Caught Reading

Quest students have been involved in the “Caught Reading” campaign, which seeks to raise awareness of the benefits of reading. Students and staff took part in the competition to be ‘caught reading’ in the most unusual place.

SPORT HIGHLIGHTS

Rugby Star Twins

Years 7/8 Girls Rugby

The girls’ rugby team have excelled all expectations by becoming runners-up in the Emerging Schools Rugby Competition. The girls played brilliantly, only narrowly losing to Shirley High in the final game who now go on to represent Croydon in the Borough Youth Games.

Year 8 twins, Aristot and Jonathan Benz Salomon have been turning heads on the rugby field, despite not having even heard of the sport a year ago. The pair have been selected to play for Harlequins in the Under 13 Surrey Development Programme, after talent scouts spotted them first during a school training session. Daniel Ankomah & Paddy Bray from Year 9 have also been selected to play for the Development squad.

In 2013, Quest linked up with the Rugby Football Union to take part in the “All Schools Programme”, which aims to introduce rugby union to 400 non-rugby playing state secondary schools by 2015 and to 750 by 2019 as part of the RFU’s Rugby World Cup 2015 legacy plans.

Aristot, who along with his brother plays front row, said: "I hadn’t even heard about rugby before we started playing. But when we did take part I just got it really quickly.” Jonathan added: "It took me about two weeks to get it. At first I wasn’t so sure because of the weather. Even the grass was frozen. It was so cold. But then, all of a sudden, I got really into it. Our head of PE and our mum give me hope when I’m down. They tell me to look up. They just keep supporting us. They believe in us."

Miss Congram, Head of PE, said: "It is quite rare to see people pick up a sport so quickly but they have got that natural athletic ability and given their size they really excel in the positions they play."

RFU Rugby Development Officer, Adam Cottingham, said, “The Quest Academy now provides seven players to their local club and a girl has also attended her first training session, which is great.”

Image from Croydon Advertiser

Quest Rugby Shirts Arrive Thanks to Brooke Shorter, Aristot and Jonathan Benz Salomon (pictured) for designing the very first Quest Academy rugby shirt. They will be worn with pride and all who wear them will do a great job representing the Academy!

Quest’s Year 8 Reach Final in Croydon Quest’s Year 8 rugby team have excelled themselves by reaching the finals of the Surrey Schools 7s Tournament. In the final game, they narrowly lost against Wimbledon College. On their way to the top, they beat Whitgift, Trinity, Ibstock Place, Emmanuel and a host of other private and rugby specialist schools that have a long tradition of rugby. Highlights of the competition were Daniel Ankomah’s last minute try against Trinity and beating Whitgift, widely regarded as one of the UK’s top rugby schools. Congratulations!

Fair Play Tobi! Congratulations to Tobi Apooyin who was awarded the fair play award at the Harlequins’ Rugby Tournament in February. He was rewarded for his outstanding teamwork, discipline and respect throughout the day.

Year 7 Netball Success Congratulations to the Year 7 Netball Team who were runners up in the Academies Cup Netball Tournament. The tournament, held on 5th March saw the team play 8 matches and win 7. Special award was handed to Eve Thomas for Player of the Tournament for Sportsmanship.

Important dates for your diary…

Spring Term 2014

Easter Holiday Monday 7th - Friday 18th April

Bank Holidays

Monday 21st April and Monday 5th May

Summer Term Tuesday 22nd April - Friday 18th July

Half Term Holiday

Monday 26th May - Friday 30th May

Academy at Work Tours Fridays 25th April and 23rd May.

Further dates to be advised.

Parents’ Evening Thursday 24th April (Year 9), 16:00-18:30

NEW BUILD FOCUS

Matthew Heshmati, Construction Manager says, “I am in charge of delivering the Quest Academy’s new building. We will deliver a prestigious, iconic building, fit for purpose and on time!”

Matthew has been with Wates for 28 years. He holds an MSc in Construction Management and is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Building. He has managed a large number of complicated and challenging projects, with Wates Group. In 2012, he won the award of “Construction Manager of the Year” for his work

delivering the Kentish Town Sports Centre. One of the most important parts of his job is ensuring that everybody who works on site remains safe.

Howard Sissons, Project Director says, “I am accountable for the delivery of multiple small to medium sized projects through site teams and construction managers. I am a mentor to all members of the site team to educate, improve and prepare the teams for large schemes.”

Howard has worked for Wates for 34 years, progressing through the ranks from Apprentice Carpenter. He achieved a Diploma in Construction Management from the Chartered Institute of Building. Prior to joining Wates, Howard had a number of jobs including door-to-door milk delivery man and Sales Assistant in the net curtain department of John Lewis on Oxford Street. He lives in Eltham with his wife and two sons, aged 11 and 14. At school, Howard’s favourite subjects were art and DT and his favourite food was steak and ale pie!

Paul Newman, Construction Manager says, “I am responsible for delivery of a specific project working with site teams and construction managers. I manage site safety, on-going works, quality of construction and works programme and progress.”

Paul has worked for Wates for 29 years, having started as an apprentice bricklayer immediately after achieving

a BTech at NESCOT college. Previously, he’d worked as a baker’s assistant, on a newspaper round and helping

out on construction sites. Ten years ago, he went back to Croydon College to get a Diploma in Construction

Management from the Chartered Institute of Building. Paul lives in Woldingham with his wife and two children, aged 16 and

14. On Sundays, he coaches rugby. At school, Paul’s favourite subjects were technical drawing, English and history.

Dave Rees-Jones, MEP (Mechanical, Engineering & Plumbing) Project Manager says, “I am responsible for the delivery of Building Services installations on Wates projects. It’s very exciting being involved in the construction of new buildings and overcoming the challenges this often presents.”

Dave has been with Wates for just one year, having previously spent 16 years working with MITIE Engineering,

where he started as an Apprentice Electrical Engineer progressing to Senior Electrical Engineer and then

Contracts Manager. Dave lives in Sandhurst with his wife and two children, aged 7 and 5. He enjoys judo, golf, coaching

rugby and watching England play football! His favourite subject at school was science.

Wates Staff Profiles

The Green Club

Congratulations to top prize winner Sia Sesay and all the other winners in the second Green Club Prize Draw of the year. The event was extremely well-attended again as 59 pupils received 5 academic merits for scoring above 70% on all of their mymaths.co.uk homework tasks plus the now-expected entourage of interested pupils also joined in the fun. Special mention must also go to Perry Pace, who gambled his initial prize by opting to have his name go back into the draw for a better prize, which he then won!

Nick Moore

Sixth Form News

Four Quest students have won places on the prestigious Year 11 Summer School at the London School of Economics. Larry Hammer, Mohamed Iman, Gloria Lasisi and Muhamad Muhamad were picked from a pool of nearly 1,000 pupils across the country.

The week-long course provides participants the opportunity to gain an insight into Undergraduate study through a series of classes, lectures, workshops and group discussions. It is a highly reputable experience to place on their UCAS applications.

Four Quest students have also been accepted onto St George’s Year 12 Medical Summer School.

Congratulations all!