Middle School Newsletter

To our Middle School Community, 

Welcome back for the Summer Term! We are sure this half term will fly by, with only 5 weeks and 2 Monday public holidays. We hope that all of our Middle School community has had a restful and enjoyable break. It was wonderful to see our students back this week, all with fresh new term hair cuts and smiles. 

Monitoring your children before and after school

Please ensure you are vigilant in knowing your child's whereabouts before and after school. There have been a number of incidents at the shops on Stratford High Street where students from School 21 have been present or involved. Ensure your child is not loitering after school as this behaviour can put them in unsafe situations. The school will contact families of students we have concerns for specifically, and shop owners are advised to contact the police if their businesses are disrupted by students. Thank you for your support in keeping your child and our school community safe. 

Attendance reminder

A reminder that if you are applying for an authorised absence for your child (for any reason), the procedure is to contact the Attendance Team by emailing attendance@school21.org.uk. There is an application for leave form that parents / carers need to complete before the planned absence. This can be collected from the office or provided via email from the attendance team. Evidence (travel tickets, itineraries, proof of appointments etc) will be required as well to accompany your request. Absences that are taken without following this protocol will be marked as unauthorised and the borough may issue a fine. Please contact the attendance team if you have any questions or concerns regarding this. 

Dates For Your Diary 

Return Date for Academic Year 2019/2020 - Monday 9th September 

Tuesday 30th April: Above and Beyond Out and About for April

Wednesday 1st May: Matterhorn attendance trip to Zap Space (rescheduled) please send your child in their PE kit. 

Friday 3rd May: Family Film Night 5:30 - 7:30pm (Ant-Man and The Wasp) 

Monday 13th - Thursday 16th May: Year 6 SATs Exams
(Y6 SATs breakfasts each morning 7:45 - 8:20am) 

Tuesday 7th May: Year 8 Dissection Project group - Body Worlds trip

Wednesday 8th May: Selected Y7 & Y8 students to
Borough Athletics competition 7:30am - 5:00pm

Friday 10th May: Year 6 Residential Payments Deadline

Friday 17th May: Year 6 Celebration in the Park day!
(More information to come) 

Friday 17th May: Year 8 Salesforce Project group
- Salesforce Maker Faire trip 1 - 10:00 - 16:00 

Thursday 23rd May: Year 8 Salesforce Project group 
- Salesforce Maker Faire trip 2 - 10:00 - 16:00 

Friday 24th May: Above and Beyond Out and About for May

Monday 27th - Friday 31st May: Half Term Break

Tuesday 4th June: Year 7 History of Surgery Project Group trip to The London Dungeons (TBC - more information to come)

Thursday 13th June: Y6 Chessington visit (TBC - more information soon)

Monday 1st July: Middle School Sports Day (West Ham Park)

Thursday 4th July: The Band Project Performance Evening

Friday 5th July: Summer Fair (Primary + 5/6) 

Monday 8th July - Friday 12th July: Y6 Residential Trip - In2Action Gloucester

Thursday 18th July: Summer Exhibition of Beautiful Work (4:30 - 6:30pm)

Friday 19th July: Last day of the year - school closing at 1pm

Term Dates for 2019/2020

Attendance Winners - Week Beginning 23/04/2019

A really strong week attendance wise for our first week back! Keep it up everyone!

Year 5 Snowdon 98.0%

Year 6 Kosciuszko 100% - Overall Middle Winner (Perfect score!) 

Year 7 Himalayas 98.2%

Year 8 Fuji 98.6%  

Spring Term 2019 - 100% Attendance and Punctuality

Year 5 and Year 6 Tea Party Recital

In the week before the holidays the Year 5 and 6 students put on an amazing Tea Party Recital, showcasing their amazing instrumental progress this year so far. The range of songs and different combinations of student ensembles were fantastic and the audience thoroughly enjoyed the event. With performances this good already, we can't wait until the Big Band later in the summer term! Recognition to our incredible music team that enables the students to do incredible things, the staff and parent and carer community who are always so supportive. 

Farewell Ms Coppeard! 

Very sadly, last Friday saw us say farewall (and hopefully 'see you soon') to the wonderful Ms Coppeard as she leaves School 21 to go on a travelling adventure! A huge thank you is deserved for all her amazing work with all the students she came into contact with. We will miss her greatly but wish her all the best on her travels. Mr Jonas will be taking over for Ms Coppeard in the Middle School PAC team. 

Online Safety Presentations

This week we were visited by representatives from Parent Zone, an organisation that promotes safe use of the internet amongst young people. The assemblies focused on how to be smart and safe online, how to protect yourself and your identity by being careful with what you access and share, how to identify potentially fraudulent sites and contacts and what to do if you're ever worried about something that happens online. Parent Zone provides many free resources for young people and parents and carers. These are available online at parentzone.org.uk/home.  

Celebrating Achievement! 

Vilius is a member of the cadets for the Air Training Corps and is always up for a chat about all the experiences his training has provided, including being very keen to deliver an assembly to the rest of middle school about the benefits of being a cadet! Well done Vilius!

Adil has had two recent achievements to share - appearing in the German version of Vogue Magazine in a fashion shoot, and meeting actress Emma Thompson and being interviewed by iTV at the recent Extinction Rebellion March! Wow Adil, well done!

If your child has any stories they would like included and celebrated in our Middle School newsletter, please get in touch with Ms Kyrk via email (akyrk@school21.org.uk) with some pictures!

Curriculum Overview Letters - Summer Term 2019

Autism Awareness Week

Autism Awareness Week has been celebrated this week in Middle School with students fully participating in a series of themed events to raise awareness of autism, and to celebrate members of our school community with autism. In the Middle School, students attended an assembly, where they heard first-hand stories from four incredibly brave students in Primary and Secondary. Well done to Nikola (Y9), Ethan (Y9), Tahjib (Y11), and Brandon (Y4) for talking so eloquently to their peers about their experience living with autism. On Wednesday Shelvon (Y9) and Keith (Y9) kindly sacrificed their lunch period to run a fundraising bake sale, along with several more students after school on Tuesday. Students took part in a hugely popular puzzle-piece treasure hunt on Thursday in which they could win chocolate in exchange for correctly identifying “true” or “false” statements about autism. Finally, on Friday, a “spectrum” own-clothes day was an occasion for students to come to school dressed in colours representing the “spectrum” of autism. Thank you to the inclusion team for arranging such a great week!

Recognition last week (and the week before!)  

Our recognition boards with filled with names again this week. Congratulations and thank you to all who demonstrated working in the zone, choosing kind and stepping up - you make our Middle School community #middlestrong! 

Year 11 Bake Sale

There is a Year 11 Bake Sale taking place next week Thursday 2nd May from 3:00pm to 4:30pm. All the donations made will go towards the Year 11 Prom. Head of Year 11 - Mr Bernard will be making his famous chocolate brownies and rice crispy snacks. If any parents would like to bake or donate please bring your treats into school and a money box will be left in the Front Office.

Apply to be on Junior Bake Off!

Recently we were contacted by the television company Love Productions, who make programmes such as The Great British Bake Off and The Great British Sewing Bee. They were delighted to announce that JUNIOR BAKE OFF is coming back for a 5th Series on Channel 4 and applications are now open!

They are looking for talented young bakers between 9 -15 years old. Filming would take place from late July 2019, but our applications close on Monday 6th May 2019, so we are helping them spread the word to any aspiring bakers we may have in Middle School. 

Budding young bakers are encouraged to visit the website for more information on how to apply: WWW.APPLYFORJUNIORBAKEOFF.CO.UK 

The Lunch Menu has changed - please see the changes above.

The Lunch Menu this week is Week 2!

Receiving Emails from School 

Those with Yahoo email accounts need to add: 

3164001@capita-intouch.co.uk  as a safe contact so that they can receive emails from the school.

Possible Moderate pollution has been forecast for Tuesday 30 April. 

This is an air quality alert provided by the Mayor of London. You are receiving it because the air pollution in London is forecast to go above "Low" on the Defra Daily Air Quality Index. Please see further information below.

This is the advice for a Moderate air pollution alert, based on Defra's national Daily Air Quality Index.

Advice for the general populationAdvice for at risk individuals

Enjoy your usual outdoor activities.Adults and children with lung problems, and adults with heart problems, who experience symptoms, should consider reducing strenuous physical activity, particularly outdoors.

In addition to Defra's advice above, the following are some practical ideas your school or educational institution may want to consider in partnership with parents and guardians:

• If at all possible, advise parents not to drive their children to and from school (or students themselves not to drive), as this exacerbates pollution in the school vicinity. Note that pollution levels are often higher inside cars even when the windows are shut.
• For those who continue to drive, ask parents/guardians/students not to idle their engines in the school vicinity.
• For those walking and cycling, try to plan a route to and from school that sticks to side roads or goes through parks or other green areas.

Further information on air pollution in London and what the Mayor is doing to improve it is available here.

In the next few months additional guidance and helpful tools will be published by City Hall to help you identify further actions which you, with the support of your local borough, can take to tackle pollution in and around your school or educational institution.

If you have questions concerning this pollution alert please contact airqualitylondon@london.gov.uk

Cricket Giveaway for Newham Residents

Newham residents have another fantastic opportunity to watch first class cricket thanks to their prestigious partnership with Essex Cricket. As part of the partnership agreement the council has up to 100 tickets to give away for each day of the Specsavers County Championship and Royal London One-Day Cup games taking place at The Cloudfm County Ground, Chelmsford. For more details and to book your ticket, visit www.newham.gov.uk/cricket